Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Energy Harvesting in Wireless Communications Networks

In this paper, the fundamental limits of simultaneous information and energy transmission in the two-user Gaussian interference channel (G-IC) without feedback are fully characterized. More specifically, an achievable and converse region in terms of information and energy transmission rates (in bits per channel use and energy-units per channel use, respectively) are presented. The achievable region is obtained using a combination of rate splitting, power-splitting, common randomness and superposition coding. Finally, the converse region is obtained using some of the existing outer bounds for the information transmission rates, as well as a new outer bound for the energy transmission rate.
Replication‐deficient vaccinia virus gene therapy vector: evaluation of exogenous gene expression mediated by PUV‐inactivated virus in glioma cells

Mild psoralen and UV (PUV) treatments inactivate viral DNA replication, but the virus retains its ability to infect cells. Thus, PUV treatment of vaccinia virus (VV) vectors may increase the safety of gene delivery and extend the duration of gene expression. Although the first studies on PUV‐inactivated VV (PUV‐VV) for the delivery of suicide or cytokine genes to cancer cells were promising, the efficiency and kinetics of exogenous gene expression have not been fully evaluated. Furthermore, these studies should be extended to other gene therapy strategies, e.g. tumor suppressor genes.
TR-2003009: A Hierarchical Projection Pursuit Clustering Algorithm

We define a cluster to be characterized by regions of high density separated by regions that are sparse. Given a collection of observations X = {xi}, xi ∈ Rd, |X| = N , we would like to find clusters in data sets in which d and possibly N are large, in which there is no known parametric distribution and in which clusters may take on arbitrary shapes. By observing the downward closure property of density, the search for interesting structure in a high dimensional space can be reduced to a search for structure in lower dimensional subspaces. We present a parameter free Hierarchical Projection Pursuit Clustering (HPPC) algorithm that repeatedly bi-partitions interesting lower dimensional projections of a high dimensional dataset. We describe a projection search procedure for use with relatively high dimensional data and a projection pursuit index function based on the Kittler and Illingworth optimal threshold technique. The output of the algorithm is a decision tree whose nodes store a projection and threshold and whose leaves represent the clusters (classes). We present several methods for cluster validation that are used to evaluate the algorithm. Experiments with various real and synthetic datasets show the effectiveness of the approach. Portions of this work were funded by a New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research grant and by Syllogy Software in cooperation with the Institute for Software Design and Development of the City University of New York
Realized climatic niche of North American plant taxa lagged behind climate during the end of the Pleistocene.

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Predicting species responses to climate change has become a dynamic field in global change research. A crucial question in this debate is whether-or-not species have been and will be able to respond quickly enough to keep up with changing climatic conditions. METHODS Focusing on fossil pollen records and paleoclimatic simulations, this work assesses the change in realized climatic niches (climatic temporal trajectories) of 20 plant taxa over the last 16000 yr, and whether this tracking has been the same for different climatic niche dimensions. KEY RESULTS Climatic factors showed a consistent trend toward warmer temperatures and higher precipitation. Although the response types varied across taxa, species' realized climatic niches lagged in response to changes in climatic conditions. Temperature niches responded to late Pleistocene (16000-11000 yr ago) climate change, but did so at slower rates than changes in climatic conditions during the same period. In contrast, precipitation niches were relatively stable from 16000 to 11000 yr ago, but still lagged behind changes in climatic conditions. Changes in temperature and precipitation niches eventually stabilized during the Holocene (11000-1000 yr ago). CONCLUSIONS These results underscore how the climatic niche realized at any one moment represents a subset of the climate conditions in which a taxon can persist, particularly during times of fast climatic change. Variability in the rates of temporal trajectories across evaluated climatic variables showed taxa specific responses to changes in climatic conditions over time and emphasizes the need to incorporate variation, intensity, and duration of lag effects in assessments of the possible effects of climatic change.
An Analytical 3D Ray-Launching Method Using Arbitrary Polygonal Shapes for Wireless Propagation Prediction

An analytical 3D ray-launching method using arbitrary polygonal shapes for wireless propagation prediction is introduced within this document. The algorithm is significantly advanced compared to other ray-launching techniques, since the actual ray-casting methodology is based on vertices of the geographical data and not on a brute-force manner which most often leads into irrelevant directions in space. As a valu-able feature, the herein presented approach does not rely on any kind of spatial resolution. It is neither limited to certain discrete angle increments like conventional ray-launching, nor is it suffering from low resolutions or the need for sub-sampling like conventional ray-tracing.
Prognostic Assessment of Infective Endocarditis Using Echocardiography: What Is New?

Staphylococcus aureus species have emerged as the most common cause of both native and prosthetic valve infective endocarditis (IE) in industrialized countries.1 In addition, patients with IE caused by S aureus have significantly higher mortality rates than patients with nonstaphylococcal bacterial causes of IE, including Streptococci, the leading cause of IE in past decades when rheumatic heart disease was more prevalent and the onset of IE was more commonly subacute.2,3 Unfortunately, S aureus can cause IE on previously normal native valves, although antecedent valve disease (bicuspid, myxomatous, etc) remains an important risk factor in susceptible patients.4 See Article by Lauridsen et al Investigators participating in the International Collaboration on Endocarditis5 have provided a great deal of observational information on the presenting characteristics, evaluation, management, and early outcomes of patients with IE. Using a merged database comprising >2200 patients with definite IE⇓ from 5 countries, Miro …
Performance Evaluation of 802.11p-Based Ad Hoc Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications for Usual Applications Under Realistic Urban Mobility

In vehicular ad hoc networks, participating vehicles organize themselves in order to support lots of emerging applications. While network infrastructure can be dimensioned correctly in order to provide quality of service support to both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, there are still many issues to achieve the same performance using only ad hoc vehicle-to-vehicle communications. This paper investigates the performance of such communications for complete applications including their specific packet size, packet acknowledgement mechanisms and quality of service requirements. The simulation experiments are performed using Riverbed (OPNET) Modeler on a network topology made of 50 nodes equipped with IEEE 802.11p technology and following realistic trajectories in the streets of Paris at authorized speeds. The results show that almost all application types are well supported, provided that the source and the destination have a direct link. Particularly, it is pointed out that introducing supplementary hops in a communication has more effects on end-to-end delay and loss rate rather than mobility of the nodes. The study also shows that ad hoc reactive routing protocols degrade performance by increasing the delays while proactive ones introduce the same counter performance by increasing the network load with routing traffic. Whatever the routing protocol adopted, the best performance is obtained only while small groups of nodes communicate using at most two-hop routes.
ANÁLISE DA METODOLOGIA DE COLETA DE DADOS ESTATÍSTICOS DE VISITAÇÃO NO PARQUE NACIONAL DO IGUAÇU – CASO PASSE COMUNIDADE

O artigo teve como objetivo analisar a metodologia utilizada para coletar dados estatisticos de visitacao da comunidade em um atrativo natural, o estudo foi desenvolvido atraves de cinco etapas, que consistiram em revisao teorica e documental, obtencao da autorizacao necessaria para a coleta de dados, elaboracao do instrumento de coleta de dados, selecao da amostra, e a analise dos dados. O procedimento realizado no Parque Nacional do Iguacu foi selecionado como amostra, posteriormente o mesmo foi analisado de acordo com a revisao bibliografica acerca da importância da realizacao de pesquisas, e as metodologias e variaveis aplicadas ao turismo, que foram comparadas ao metodo utilizado no atrativo, concluindo que parte das metodologias e variaveis utilizadas em turismo pode ser aplicavel aos atrativos turisticos. Palavras-chave : Metodologia; Estatistica; Atrativo Natural; Comunidade.
Vaccine therapy for ovarian cancer using Herpes Simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV- TK) suicide gene transfer technique: a phase I trial

Summary Genetically altered tumor cells expressing the HSV-TK gene have been used as vaccine therapy for multiple cancers, based on their ability to kill adjacent native cancer cells and activate an antitumor immune response. Our in vitro studies demonstrate that transduction with the HSV-TK system confers ganciclovir (GCV) susceptibility to cultured ovarian cancer cells. A murine tumor model was developed using HSV-TK modified ovarian cancer cells to test efficacy in a preclinical setting. Mice bearing intraperitoneal tumors were injected with gene modified cells and ganciclovir (GCV). The mice were evaluated for survival and immune response by analysis of tumor samples collected post treatment. Murine HSV-TK tumors undergo hemorrhagic tumor necrosis and express a cytokine cascade including TNF-, IL-1, IL-6, IL-2, IFN- and GM-CSF following GCV treatment. Tumor regression occurs much less frequently in immune deficient mice than immune competent mice. These studies led to a Phase I trial of intraperitoneal administration of the vaccine in which 18 patients with recurrent chemotherapy resistant ovarian cancer were enrolled. The mean survival of patients in the Phase I trial was 11.9 months. 4/18 patients had responses based on physical findings or CA-125. One patient died of breast cancer with no evidence of ovarian cancer at 24 months. Toxicities include all patients developing grade I or II temperature elevations without other evidence of infection, seven patients who developed grade I abdominal discomfort or nausea, and one patient with a grade III elevation of kidney function tests. We conclude that the use of an HSVTK modified vaccine is associated with tumor regression in mice, and results in the alteration of the tumor microenvironment, which becomes less immunosuppressive. The use of the vaccine in humans is technically feasible and associated with minimal toxicity. Survival in these heavily pretreated patients is similar to that seen using standard cytotoxic chemotherapy.
Aromatase inhibitors in breast cancer: an update.

BACKGROUND Tamoxifen has been the endocrine treatment of choice for patients with breast cancer. The development of selective aromatase inhibitors has offered an alternative management approach for patients in whom a hormonal approach is indicated. METHODS The authors reviewed reports in which aromatase inhibitors were compared with tamoxifen for the treatment of metastatic disease, as well as information pertinent to their use as adjuvant therapy. RESULTS Both nonsteroidal (anastrozole and letrozole) and steroidal (exemestane) aromatase inhibitors for metastatic disease appear to provide superior efficacy and a better toxicity profile in first- and second-line treatment of metastatic disease than tamoxifen. Early results from the ATAC trial suggest anastrozole is superior to tamoxifen for disease-free survival, particularly in receptor-positive patients, and in reducing the incidence of contralateral breast cancer. CONCLUSIONS Aromatase inhibitors have important roles in optimal management of postmenopausal patients with hormone-responsive metastases in both the adjuvant and advanced-disease settings.
Large granular lymphocytosis during dasatinib therapy

Dasatinib is a second generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) approved for clinical use in patients with imatinib-resistant chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL). Large granular lymphocytes (LGLs) are medium to large cells with eccentric nuclei and abundant cytoplasm with coarse azurophilic granules. LGL lymphocytosis is caused by a proliferation of cytotoxic (CD8+) T cells and/or NK cells. In a proportion of CML and Ph+ ALL patients, there is a significant expansion of LGLs during dasatinib therapy. LGL lymphocytosis is seen in some cases with fevers, colitis, and pleural effusions (PE), suggesting an aberrant immune response mediated by these LGLs. LGLs may participate in the elimination of the residual leukemic cells, and LGL clonal expansion is associated with excellent, long-lasting therapy responses in dasatinib-treated patients. For a more comprehensive analysis, we analyzed the morphologic, phenotypic, clinical, and functional features of the LGL subsets amplified in vivo during dasatinib therapy.
Performance of invariant feature descriptors with adaptive prediction in occlusion handling

Object tracking in computer vision plays an important role for automating the process of video surveillance and robot navigation. The trajectories of every moving object are analyzed to further interpret the events in a scene. Occlusion problem is always the main challenge that interrupts the tracking trajectory and reduces the tracking performance. Thus, this paper aims to investigate an improved performance of invariant feature descriptors in occlusion handling by using adaptive prediction from Kalman filter. The invariant feature descriptors that are extracted from a tracked object are robust against transformation and partial occlusion. These descriptors are combined with Kalman filter prediction to resolve full occlusion in object tracking. Unlike conventional Kalman filter prediction, the error covariance parameters are auto-tuned based on the changing conditions of the feature descriptors in a tracked object. Experiments are conducted to show the response of invariant feature descriptors during partial and full occlusion. The response rate is contributed as the benchmark for parameters tuning in Kalman filter prediction.
Evaluation of Fixed-Step Differential Equations Solution Methods for Fuel Cell Real-Time Simulation

In this paper, the need of having real-time emulators for Fuel Cells systems is described. Euler and Runge-Kutta numerical methods for Real-Time differential equations solution are presented. The performance of these methods is evaluated in the fixed step simulation of the air supply system and stack in Fuel Cell systems, looking for a system that allows to predict and emulate the Fuel Cell behavior. Finally, computational loads of the selected numerical methods are evaluated using different systems: MATLAB Real-Time Windows Target Toolbox, free-cost RTAI-Linux Target, dSpacecopy enterprice PowerPC target and a TMS320C6711 DSP Embedded System.
The effect of "humanised" milks and supplemented breast feeding on the faecal flora of infants.

SUMMARY Faecal specimens from 47 babies were examined each week during the first 6 weeks of life. Thirteen infants received breast milk alone, nine received Cow and Gate Premium milk, 10 received Scientific Milk Adaptation Gold Cap milk, and 15 received breast milk and in the first week of life a supplement of modified cows' milk. An acetate buffer was demonstrated in the faeces of >60% of breast-fed infants during the first 4 weeks of life. No buffer was demonstrated in the faeces of either bottle-fed group over the same period. Only 20% of breast-fed infants receiving a supplement produced an acetate buffer in the 1st week, but this figure increased to 60% by the 4th week. Breast-fed babies produced faeces with a low pH (5·1-5·4), high counts of bifidobacteria and low counts of coliforms, bacteroides and clostridia; with the exception of acetic acid there was a notable absence of most volatile fatty acids from these faeces. Infants fed Premium milk produced faeces with a high pH (5·9-8·0) and a relatively high bifidobacterial count in the 1st week; thereafter no bacterial species predominanted. A wide variety of volatile fatty acids was present in these infants' faeces. Infants fed Gold Cap milk produced faeces with a high pH (6·4-8·2) and a wide variety of volatile fatty acids; the counts of coliform bacilli and putrefactive bacteria were high, whilst counts of bifidobacteria were low. Breast-fed infants who received a supplement in the 1st week produced acid faeces, but the pH was higher than that of infants fed breast milk alone; the bacterial flora was putrefactive for the first 2 weeks but gradually became fermentative, and whilst several volatile fatty acids were detected in the faeces in the 1st week they gradually decreased during the following 5 weeks.
Energy landscape of a small peptide revealed by dihedral angle principal component analysis

A 100 ns molecular dynamics simulation of penta‐alanine in explicit water is performed to study the reversible folding and unfolding of the peptide. Employing a standard principal component analysis (PCA) using Cartesian coordinates, the resulting free‐energy landscape is found to have a single minimum, thus suggesting a simple, relatively smooth free‐energy landscape. Introducing a novel PCA based on a transformation of the peptide dihedral angles, it is found, however, that there are numerous free energy minima of comparable energy (≲ 1 kcal/mol), which correspond to well‐defined structures with characteristic hydrogen‐bonding patterns. That is, the true free‐energy landscape is actually quite rugged and its smooth appearance in the Cartesian PCA represents an artifact of the mixing of internal and overall motion. Well‐separated minima corresponding to specific conformational structures are also found in the unfolded part of the free energy landscape, revealing that the unfolded state of penta‐alanine is structured rather than random. Performing a connectivity analysis, it is shown that neighboring states are connected by low barriers of similar height and that each state typically makes transitions to three or four neighbor states. Several principal pathways for helix nucleation are identified and discussed in some detail. Proteins 2005. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Myocardial ischemia/reperfusion causes VDAC phosphorylation which is reduced by cardioprotection with a p38 MAP kinase inhibitor

Myocardial ischemia (MI) and reperfusion (R) results in activation of the p38 MAP kinase pathway. This pathway phosphorylates transcription factors and cytoplasmic proteins leading to expression of adhesion molecules and cytokines, increased neutrophil activation, and finally, myocardial necrosis and apoptosis. We studied the effects of a p38 MAP kinase inhibitor, PD169316, on cardioprotection, protein expression, and tyrosine phosphorylation, in a rabbit model of 1 h of (MI) and 3 h of (R). PD169316 administered just before (R) significantly reduced myocardial neutrophil accumulation, necrosis area (28.4 ± 7.9% vs. 56.4 ± 7.9% necrosis/AAR), and CK release compared to a vehicle treated group (p<0.05). We found several proteins altered in expression following MI + R alone or with p38 inhibition including myofilament proteins, energetics proteins, heat shock proteins, and the mitochondrial porin VDAC‐1. p38 MAPK inhibition significantly reduced the phosphorylation of VDAC‐1 which is a known mitochondrial regulator of cell survival. Thus, p38 MAP kinase inhibition with PD169316 is cardioprotective, reduces neutrophil activation, and controls protein expression and phosphorylation in MI and reperfusion.
Health benefits of a view of nature through the window: a quasi-experimental study of patients in a residential rehabilitation center

Objective: To examine the health benefits of a bedroom window view to natural surroundings for patients undergoing a residential rehabilitation programme. Design: Longitudinal quasi-experiment. Setting: A residential rehabilitation centre. Subjects: Two-hundred and seventy-eight coronary and pulmonary patients provided data at all measurement points during the programme. Intervention: Blind, quasi-random allocation to a private bedroom with a panoramic view to natural surroundings or with a view either partially or entirely blocked by buildings. Main measures: Self-reported physical and mental health (SF-12), subjective well-being, emotional states, use of the private bedroom and leisure activities. Results: For women, a blocked view appeared to negatively influence change in physical health (time × view × gender interaction, F(4,504) = 2.51, P = 0.04), whereas for men, a blocked view appeared to negatively influence change in mental health (time × view × gender interaction, F(4,504) = 5.67, P < 0.01). Pulmonary patients with a panoramic view showed greater improvement in mental health than coronary patients with such a view (time × view × diagnostic group interaction, F(4,504) = 2.76, P = 0.03). Those with a panoramic view to nature more often chose to stay in their bedroom when they wanted to be alone than those with a blocked view (odds ratio (OR) = 2.32, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.08–5.01). Conclusion: An unobstructed bedroom view to natural surroundings appears to have better supported improvement in self-reported physical and mental health during a residential rehabilitation programme, although the degree of change varied with gender and diagnostic group.