Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Many to Many Multicast Routing With Temporal Quality of Service Guarantees

In this paper, we address the problems of constructing both source-based and core-based many-to-many multicast trees for applications with delay and/or delay jitter constraints. We use the source-destination delay bound and the interdestination delay fitter bound as the QoS requirement and formulate the delay and delay jitter constrained many-to-many multicast tree (D/sup 2/M/sup 3/T) problems. For the source-based, many-to-many multicast paradigm, we extend an existing scheme that builds a one-to-many, QoS-compliant multicast tree and devise a solution scheme that first finds a feasible multicast tree for each source node in the multicast group and then a minimum cover of these multicast trees such that there exists at least one feasible multicast tree in the minimum cover for each source node. For the core-based, many-to-many multicast paradigm, we first derive a necessary and sufficient condition for a core-based multicast tree to be feasible and then devise a solution scheme based on the condition derived. We validate and evaluate both proposed schemes via simulations.
Performance Analysis of MIMO Transmission Scheme Using Single Leaky Coaxial Cable

This letter studies the performance of a multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) transmission method using a single leaky coaxial cable (LCX) where two signals are fed at the dual ports of the LCX simultaneously. The performance of this scheme is evaluated in terms of channel matrix rank, channel correlation, and channel capacity. First, a keyhole effect in the slots of LCX is studied analytically, and a closed-form expression of the channel correlation is presented. Then, we concentrate on the influence of the slot period on the correlation, which provides a reference for the LCX design. Finally, both the channel correlation and the channel capacity are simulated by the Monte-Carlo method to verify the theoretical derivation. The results indicate that a 2 × 2 MIMO system using a single LCX has a good performance and also show the relationship between the slot period and the correlation.
Geographic Diversification and Banks’ Funding Costs

We assess the impact of geographic diversification on a bank’s costs of interest-bearing liabilities. We employ a new identification strategy and discover that geographic expansion across U.S. states lowered funding costs. Consistent with expansion facilitating risk diversification, we find that (1) funding costs fall more when banks expand into states whose economies are less correlated with the banks’ state and (2) geographic diversification reduces the costs of uninsured, but not insured, deposits. Consistent with expansion intensifying agency frictions, which puts upward pressures on funding costs, we discover that geographic diversification reduces the costs of interest-bearing liabilities more in better-monitored and better-run banks. This paper was accepted by Tomasz Piskorski, finance.
Use of body fluid of adult female Ascaris suum as an antigen in the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for diagnosis of swine ascariosis

Abstract The Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect Ascaris suum antibodies in swine sera with adult body fluid (ABF) as an antigen. The assay was standardized with respect to the antigen concentration and serum and conjugate dilutions. Cross reaction was found between the antigen and the sera from the swine infected with Metastrongylus apri. The ELISA was more sensitive than the complement fixation test. Five protein peaks were obtained from ABF by gel filtration on Sephacryle S-300. Fraction I was the most specific. A 105 kDa protein in the fraction reacted with swine lgG in the serum of infected animals in Western blot analysis.
Prediction of iron losses using the modified Steinmetz equation under the sinusoidal waveform

This study aimed to explore the methods of estimating iron loss and establish the available and standard measurement processes. The result of the experiment could be applied on analyzing the hysteresis loss and the eddy current loss generated from the silicon steel sheets under the sinusoidal voltage. At first, this paper introduces Steinmetz model used to estimate the silicon steel sheets and the iron loss, and then we refer to the silicon steel sheets with different thicknesses and grades for comparison and analyzing in the measuring experiment due to the inability of the distinguishing hysteresis loss and the eddy current loss in normal silicon steel sheet measurements. Two iron loss estimating modes were established for estimating the individual loss of the silicon steel sheets operation under the sinusoidal voltage.
CORRELATION BETWEEN HAND PREFERENCE AND DISTANCE OF FOCUSING POINTS OF TWO EYES IN THE HORIZONTAL PLANE

Relationships among hand preference, ocular dominance, and the degree of ocular shifting were studied in 78 right-handed and 16 left-handed subjects. Ocular dominance was assessed with the Miles test. The shifting degree of eye was assessed using a modified Miles test. The shifting distance of the right-eye was marginally greater, although significant, in the left-handers as compared to the right-handers. The shifting distance of the left-eye was greater in the right-handers than in the left-handers. The distance of focusing points of two eyes in the horizontal plane was greater in the right-handers than in the left-handers. In the total sample, there was a significant negative Pearson correlation between hand-preference and the shifting distance of the right-eye, and there was a positive correlation between hand-preference and the shifting distance of the left-eye. In addition, there was a significant positive correlation between hand preference and the distance of focusing points of two eyes. These results suggest that hand preference may be related to the degree of ocular asymmetry.
When Doctors Struggle: Current Stressors and Evaluation Recommendations for Physicians Contemplating Suicide

The objective of this study was to document current risk factors associated with physicians’ suicide ideation among a group of doctors enrolled in a Physician Health Program. A retrospective cohort study was drawn from administrative data. The study compared intake information between doctors who reported recent thoughts of suicide (n = 70) and those who did not (n = 1,572) using adjusted regression analysis. Current stressors included personal, financial, health, and occupational problems; ideation was more likely with multiple stressors. Physicians endorsing suicidal ideation lacked personal supports and scored differently on Short Form-36 measures. Evaluators treating physicians should assess enduring risks and current stressors, particularly multiple stressors, to help detect suicidal patients. Current stressors should not be viewed as transitory and it is critical to bring in collateral information.
Mixed emotional and physical symptoms in general practice: what diagnoses do GPs use to describe them?

Aims: To determine what diagnostic terms are utilized by general practitioners (GPs) when seeing patients with mixed emotional and physical symptoms. Method: Prototype cases of depression, anxiety, hypochondriasis, somatization and undifferentiated somatoform disorders were sourced from the psychiatric literature and the author’s clinical practice. These were presented, in paper form, to a sample of GPs and GP registrars who were asked to provide a written diagnosis. Results: Fifty-two questionnaires were returned (30% response rate). The depression and anxiety cases were identified correctly by most participants. There was moderate identification of the hypochondriasis and somatization disorder cases, and poor identification of the undifferentiated somatoform case. Conclusion: Somatization and undifferentiated somatoform disorders were infrequently recognized as diagnostic categories by the GPs in this study. Future research into the language and diagnostic reasoning utilized by GPs may help develop better diagnostic classification systems for use in primary care in this important area of practice.
Bacillus subtilis PrsA is required in vivo as an extracytoplasmic chaperone for secretion of active enzymes synthesized either with or without pro‐sequences

In prsA (protein secretion) mutants of Bacillus subtilis, decreased levels of exoproteins, including α‐amylase and subtilisins, are found extracellularly. The effect of prsA on subtilisin secretion is elaborated here. Extracytoplasmic folding and secretion of active subtilisin is assisted by the N‐terminal pro‐sequence of its precursor. In this paper we present evidence that the product of the prsA gene is additionally required for these processes in vivo. We examined inducible expression of different subtilisin‐alkaline phosphatase fusion genes in the prsA3 mutant. We found massive degradation of the fusion proteins, and a lack of enzymatic activity in the protein secreted. We suggest that PrsA is a novel chaperone with a predicted extracytoplasmic location, and is important in vivo for the proper conformation of various exoproteins, including those with pro‐sequence (like subtilisin) and those without (like α‐amylase).
HIV Vulnerability of Men Who Have Sex with Men in Developing Countries: Horizons Studies, 2001–2008

While male-to-male sexual behavior has been recognized as a primary risk factor for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), research targeting men who have sex with men (MSM) in less-developed countries has been limited due to high levels of stigma and discrimination. In response, the Population Council's Horizons Program began implementing research activities in Africa and South America beginning in 2001, with the objectives of gathering information on MSM sexual risk behaviors, evaluating HIV-prevention programs, and informing HIV policy makers. The results of this nearly decade-long program are presented in this article as a summary of the Horizons MSM studies in Africa (Senegal and Kenya) and Latin America (Brazil and Paraguay), and include research methodologies, study findings, and interventions evaluated. We also discuss future directions and approaches for HIV research among MSM in developing countries.
Backoff algorithm for time critical sporadic data in industrial wireless sensor networks

In this paper, a dynamic backoff algorithm of IEEE 802.15. 4 networks is proposed for time-critical sporadic data in industrial environment. To guarantee a channel access to real-time sporadic data, a transmission method using the dynamic backoff is applied to wireless control networks. Different initial BE, and CW parameters are used for the dynamic backoff adjustment for sporadic data. The simulation results show an enhancement of the real-time performance of sporadic emergency data.
Phosphorylation of tyrosine 972 of the Helicobacter pylori CagA protein is essential for induction of a scattering phenotype in gastric epithelial cells

Helicobacter pylori colonizes the human stomach and is the causative agent of a variety of gastric diseases. After bacterial attachment, the H. pylori CagA protein is translocated into gastric epithelial cells and tyrosine phosphorylated. This process is associated with characteristic cytoskeletal rearrangements, resulting in a scatter factor‐like (‘hummingbird’) phenotype. In this study, using a cagA mutant complemented with wild‐type cagA and transiently expressing CagA in AGS cells, we have demonstrated that translocated CagA is necessary for rearrangements of the actin cytoskeleton to occur. Anti‐phosphotyrosine immunoblotting studies and treatment of infected cells with phosphotyrosine kinase inhibitors suggested that not only translocation but also phosphorylation of CagA is important in this process. Transient expression of CagA–green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion proteins and two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis of CagA protein species demonstrated tyrosine phosphorylation in the C‐terminus. Site‐directed mutagenesis of CagA revealed that tyrosine residue 972 is essential for induction of the cellular phenotype. We have also demonstrated that translocation and phosphorylation of CagA is necessary but not sufficient for induction of the hummingbird phenotype in AGS cells, indicating the involvement of as yet unidentified bacterial factor(s).
Unrelated donor bone marrow transplantation in children and young adults with acute myeloid leukaemia in remission

The role of unrelated donor bone marrow transplantation (UD‐BMT) in the management of patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is uncertain. We describe 18 patients with a median age of 13 years (range 4–31) who received an ex vivo T‐cell‐depleted UD‐BMT for AML (13 in second complete remission (CR2) and five in first complete remission (CR1) with high‐risk features). Nine donor recipient pairs were fully matched; eight of these donor–recipient pairs had a single class I HLA mismatch; one patient had both single class I and class II HLA mismatches. Grade II GVHD of the skin occurred in four patients (22%) and limited chronic GVHD in two patients (11%). There have been four deaths: one from relapse and three from infection. With a median follow‐up of 27 months, 14 patients survive and the actuarial event‐free survival at 2 years is 70 ± 20% (95% confidence interval). We conclude that unrelated donor BMT can result in prolonged disease‐free survival in children and young adults with AML.
Adaptive logging for mobile device

Nowadays, due to the increased user requirements of the fast and reliable data management operation for mobile applications, major device vendors use embedded DBMS for their mobile devices such as MP3 players, mobile phones, digital cameras and PDAs. However, database logging is the major bottleneck against the fast response time. There has been a lot of work minimizing logging overhead but no single recovery method provides the best performance to a variety of database workloads. In this paper, we present a novel recovery method called adaptive logging which can switch the logging method from ARIES to shadow paging adaptively at a page level according to the update state of each page on run time. Also, we propose a log compaction method called deferred logging which removes redundant logs by deferring to create log records until the updated data page is flushed or until the transaction commits. Deferred logging is coupled with adaptive logging seamlessly so that it boosts the performance of adaptive logging by reducing the typical overhead of hybrid methods. We have implemented the proposed approaches to our embedded DBMS which was deployed to more than 10 million mobile devices and evaluated them through a real world application on a mobile device. The result shows that our approaches can reduce logging overhead significantly and consequently can improve the response time of both small update transaction and large update transaction effectively.
Scanning force microscopy of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase.sigma54 holoenzyme complexes with DNA in buffer and in air.

Scanning force microscopy (SFM) was used to visualize complexes of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase.sigma54 (RNAP.sigma54) and a 1036 base-pair linear DNA fragment containing the glnA promoter. In order to preserve the native hydration state of the protein-DNA complexes, the samples were injected directly into the SFM fluid cell and imaged in buffer. With this protocol, an apparent bending angle of 26(+/-34) degrees was determined for the specific complexes at the promoter. The bending angle of the unspecifically bound RNAP.sigma54 showed a somewhat broader distribution of 49(+/-48) degrees, indicating the existence of conformational differences as compared to the closed complex. In about two-thirds of the closed complexes, the RNA polymerase holoenzyme was located in a lateral position with respect to the DNA and the bend of the DNA was pointing away from the protein. This conformation was consistent with the finding that for the complexes at the promoter, the apparent contour length was reduced by only about 6 nm in buffer as compared to the free DNA. From these results we conclude that in the closed complex of RNAP. sigma54, the DNA was not wrapped around the polymerase, and we present a model for the trajectory of the DNA with respect to the RNA polymerase. The images acquired in buffer were compared to samples that were washed with water and then dried before imaging. Two artefacts of the washing and drying process were detected. First, extensive washing of the sample reduced the number of the specific complexes bound at the promoter (closed complex of RNAP.sigma54) from about 70% to 30%. This is likely to be a result of sliding of the RNAP.sigma54 holoenzyme along the DNA induced by the washing process. Second, the apparent DNA shortening of the contour length of RNAP.sigma54-DNA complexes at the promoter as compared to the contour length of the free DNA was 22 nm for the dried samples as opposed to only 6 nm for the undried samples imaged in buffer. This suggests an artefact of the drying process.
In vitro study on the effects of iron sucrose, ferric gluconate and iron dextran on redox-active iron and oxidative stress

Abstract Concerns exist that administration of intravenous (i. v.) iron preparations is associated with oxidative stress. Therefore iron sucrose (CAS 8047-67-4), ferric gluconate (CAS 34098-81-1) and iron dextran (CAS 9004-66-4) were assessed for redox-active iron by a dichlorofluorescein assay and for intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and cytotoxicity in HepG2 cells. Examining each i.v. iron preparation at its maximum concentration achieved following clinically frequently used doses in a 70 kg individual in in vitro experiments, redox-active iron was highest with ferric gluconate, followed by iron dextran and iron sucrose. Interestingly, when the i. v. iron preparations were diluted in human serum instead of buffer, redox-active iron was highest with iron dextran, followed by iron sucrose, and practically disappeared with ferric gluconate. ROS production in HepG2 cells was increased by all i. v. iron preparations. However, in the neutral red cytotoxicity assay all i. v. iron preparations were non-toxic. In conclusion, ferric gluconate showed the highest increase in intracellular ROS-production in HepG2 cells and the highest amount of redox-active iron in buffer in the in vitro assays. In contrast to the other i. v. iron preparations, redox-active iron from ferric gluconate was rendered completely redox-inactive by serum, indicating that redox-active iron in the various preparations has different chemical properties.
The implications of long-term acute care hospital transfer practices for measures of in-hospital mortality and length of stay.

RATIONALE The National Quality Forum recently endorsed in-hospital mortality and intensive care unit length of stay (LOS) as quality indicators for patients in the intensive care unit. These measures may be affected by transferring patients to long-term acute care hospitals (LTACs). OBJECTIVES To quantify the implications of LTAC transfer practices on variation in mortality index and LOS index for patients in academic medical centers. METHODS We used a cross-sectional study design using data reported to the University HealthSystem Consortium from 2008-2009. Data were from patients who were mechanically ventilated for more than 96 hours. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Using linear regression, we measured the association between mortality index and LTAC transfer rate, with the hospital as the unit of analysis. Similar analyses were conducted for LOS index and cost index. A total of 137 hospitals were analyzed, averaging 534 transfers to LTAC per hospital during the study period. Mean±SD in-hospital mortality was 24±6.4%, and observed LOS was 30.4±8.2 days. The mean LTAC transfer rate was 15.7±13.7%. Linear regression demonstrated a significant correlation between transfer rate and mortality index (R2=0.14; P<0.0001) and LOS index (R2=0.43; P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS LTAC hospital transfer rate has a significant impact on reported mortality and LOS indices for patients requiring prolonged acute mechanical ventilation. This is an example of factors unrelated to quality of medical care or illness severity that must be considered when interpreting mortality and LOS as quality indicators.
Shadow Modeling and Detection for Robust Foreground Segmentation in Highway Scenarios

This paper presents a method to automatically model and detect shadows on highway surveillance scenarios. This approach uses a cascade of two classifiers. The first stage of this method uses a weak classifier to ascertain the color information of possibly shadowed pixels which will be used by the second stage of this method (strong classifier). The weak classifier estimates the Color Normalized Cross-Correlation (CNCC) and the color information of the pixels identified as shadow, will be used to build or update multi-layered statistical shadow models of the RGB appearance of shadow. These models will then be used, by the strong classifier, to correctly distinguish shadow. To prevent misclassifications from corrupting the results of both classifiers, spatial dependencies are also taken into account. For this purpose, nonparametric kernel density estimators in a pyramidal decomposition (PKDE), as well as, Markov Random Fields (MRF) were independently employed. This technique is being used in a real outdoor traffic surveillance system in order to minimize the effects of cast vehicle shadows as well as shadows induced by illumination changes. Several results are presented in this paper to prove its effectiveness and the advantages of applying spatial contextualization methods to the weak and strong classifiers.
Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials in Vestibular Migraine

Objective: To investigate whether both cervical and ocular vestibular myogenic potentials (cVEMPs and oVEMPs) to air-conducted sound (ACS) and bone-conducted vibration (BCV) can help to differentiate vestibular migraine (VM) and Menière’s disease (MD). Study Design: Retrospective study. Settings: A tertiary referral center. Subjects and Methods: Twenty-eight patients with VM, 28 patients with definite unilateral MD, and 28 age-matched controls were included. Cervical VEMPs to 500 Hz ACS (cVEMPs-air) and 500 Hz BCV (cVEMPs-bone), oVEMPs to 500 Hz ACS (oVEMPs-air) and 500 Hz BCV (oVEMPs-bone), and caloric tests were performed. Results of these vestibular function tests were compared between the groups. Results: The prevalence of abnormality was significantly higher in VM than in controls only for the caloric test (P < .05). Asymmetry ratios (ARs) for cVEMPs-air and oVEMPs-air were significantly larger in VM than in controls (P < .05). Between VM and MD, the prevalence of abnormality was significantly different only for oVEMPs-air. The ARs for oVEMPs-air and caloric test asymmetries were significantly smaller in VM than in MD (P < .05). Conclusions: Among the vestibular function tests, oVEMPs-air may be most helpful for the differentiation of VM from MD as a group.