Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mobile Communication with Virtual Network Address Translation

Virtual Network Address Translation (VNAT) is a novel architecture that allows transparent migration of end-to-end live network connections associated with various computation units. Such computation units can be either a single process, or a group of processes, or an entire host. VNAT virtualizes network connections perceived by transport protocols so that identification of network connections is decoupled from stationary hosts. Such virtual connections are then remapped into physical connections to be carried on the physical network using network address translation. VNAT requires no modification to existing applications, operating systems, or protocol stacks. Furthermore, it is fully compatible with the existing communication infrastructure; virtual and normal connections can coexist without interfering each other. VNAT functions entirely within end systems and requires no third party services. We have implemented a VNAT prototype with the Linux 2.4 kernel and demonstrated its functionality on a wide range of popular real-world network applications. Our performance results show that VNAT has essentially no network performance overhead except when connections are migrated, in which case the overhead of our Linux prototype is less than 7 percent over a stock RedHat Linux system.
In vitro activity of ciprofloxacin, a new carboxyquinoline antimicrobial agent

The in vitro activity of ciprofloxacin (Bay o 9867), a new carboxyquinoline antimicrobial agent, was compared with those of norfloxacin, nalidixic acid, and several other oral and parenteral antimicrobial agents. Ciprofloxacin was substantially more active than nalidixic acid or cinoxacin against all gram-negative bacteria tested. Virtually all strains of Enterobacteriaceae were inhibited by the new drug at concentrations of less than or equal to 0.125 micrograms/ml. Ciprofloxacin was more active than norfloxacin against Klebsiella sp. , Enterobacter sp. , and Serratia marcescens, and it was the most active agent against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MIC90, 0.5 micrograms/ml). The new drug also demonstrated significant activity against gram-positive cocci, inhibiting all strains of staphylococci at concentrations of less than or equal to 1.0 microgram/ml. Ciprofloxacin was bactericidal at concentrations near the MIC against most isolates tested. Although stepwise increases in resistance were seen with Escherichia coli and P. aeruginosa during serial passage on plates containing incremental concentrations of the drug, significant resistance did not emerge during incubation of strains in broth containing concentrations of ciprofloxacin above the MBC.
H∞ control of Takagi-Sugeno systems with multiple time-delays

This paper investigates the design of H∞ static output-feedback controllers for Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy systems with time delays. Based on a fuzzy Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, a sufficient stability condition in terms of Bilinear Matrix Inequalities is derived for the stabilization of these systems, guaranteeing an H∞ performance. To solve the nonconvexity involved in this condition, a cone complementarity formulation based on an LMI-based algorithm is used. A numerical example is given to illustrate the proposed approach.
Determinants for Aurora-A Activation and Aurora-B Discrimination by TPX2

The mitotic kinases Aurora-A and Aurora-B have similar amino-acid sequences but are differently localised and regulated during cell division. The basis for their interactions with different and specific regulators is unclear. Surprisingly, our recent structural studies indicate that TPX2 regulates Aurora-A activity by binding at a site that is conserved almost completely on Aurora-B. Here we investigate molecular determinants of TPX2-Aurora-A recognition. Using structure-based mutagenesis, we show that a single amino-acid difference on the surface of the kinase catalytic domain is key to the precision with which TPX2 discriminates between Aurora-A and Aurora-B. The conservation at this amino-acid position suggests that this discriminatory mechanism is likely to be conserved in higher eukaryotes.
Air pollution ultrafine particles: toxicity beyond the lung.

BACKGROUND Ultrafine particles or nanoparticles (UFPs or PM0.1) are the fraction of ambient particulates with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 0.1 microm. Currently UFPs are emerging as the most abundant particulate pollutants in urban and industrial areas, as their exposures have increased dramatically because of anthropogenic sources such as internal combustion engines, power plants, incinerators and many other sources of thermo-degradation. Ultrafine particles have been less studied than PM2.5 and PM10 particulates, mass concentrations of particles smaller than 2.5 and 10 microm, respectively. OBJECTIVE, EVIDENCE AND INFORMATION SOURCES: We examined the current scientific literature about the health effects of ultrafine particles exposure. STATE OF THE ART UFPs are able to inhibit phagocytosis, and to stimulate inflammatory responses, damaging epithelial cells and potentially gaining access to the interstitium. They could be responsible for consistent reductions in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) in patients with asthma. Chronic exposure to UFPs can produce deleterious effects on the lung, also causing oxidative stress and enhancing pro-inflammatory effects in airways of COPD patients. Cardiovascular detrimental consequences due to UFPs exposure have observed in epidemiological studies, and could likely be explained by translocation of UFPs from the respiratory epithelium towards circulation and subsequent toxicity to vascular endothelium; alteration of blood coagulation; triggering of autonomic nervous system reflexes eventually altering the cardiac frequency and function. Once deposited deeply into the lung, UFPs--in contrast to larger-sized particles--appear to access to the blood circulation by different transfer routes and mechanisms, resulting in distribution throughout the body, including the brain, with potential neurotoxic consequences. PERSPECTIVES AND CONCLUSIONS UFPs represent an area of toxicology of emerging concern. A new concept of environmental medicine would help in understanding not only the environmental mechanisms of disease, but also in developing specific preventive or therapeutic strategies for minimizing the dangerous influence of pollution on health.
DGCC: A New Dependency Graph based Concurrency Control Protocol for Multicore Database Systems

Multicore CPUs and large memories are increasingly becoming the norm in modern computer systems. However, current database management systems (DBMSs) are generally ineffective in exploiting the parallelism of such systems. In particular, contention can lead to a dramatic fall in performance. In this paper, we propose a new concurrency control protocol called DGCC (Dependency Graph based Concurrency Control) that separates concurrency control from execution. DGCC builds dependency graphs for batched transactions before executing them. Using these graphs, contentions within the same batch of transactions are resolved before execution. As a result, the execution of the transactions does not need to deal with contention while maintaining full equivalence to that of serialized execution. This better exploits multicore hardware and achieves higher level of parallelism. To facilitate DGCC, we have also proposed a system architecture that does not have certain centralized control components yielding better scalability, as well as supports a more efficient recovery mechanism. Our extensive experimental study shows that DGCC achieves up to four times higher throughput compared to that of state-of-the-art concurrency control protocols for high contention workloads.
Improving Intranet knowledge transfer through Resident Engineers

Purpose – This research paper aims to explore how intranet mechanisms for knowledge transfer in a multinational automotive company can be improved with the inclusion of a human interface, specifically a resident engineer. A resident engineer is an assembly line employee who spends the majority of their time in the Advanced Engineering Center, which aims to improve knowledge transfer through face‐to‐face interaction.Design/methodology/approach – A multinational automotive company was selected for the study. Six years of data containing all product modifications were analyzed.Findings – The paper concludes that electronic knowledge transfer can be significantly improved when resident engineers physically interact with the Advanced Engineering Center. Intranet knowledge transfer alone cannot overcome the considerable handicap involved in knowledge assimilation.Practical implications – For companies with Advanced Engineering Centers located far from assembly‐line plants, the creation of specific human mechani.
Increasing Diversity with Feedback: Balanced Space-Time Block Coding

We propose a novel coding scheme, which guarantees full diversity for any number of transmit antennas, provided that few bits of feedback from the receiver to the transmitter are available. This coding scheme is arranged as an extension of orthogonal space-time block coding and preserves its linear decoding complexity. Moreover, it is full rate when the underlying coding method is the Alamouti's scheme. It is shown by computer simulations that the new approach provides SNR improvement, and it is more resilient to feedback errors compared to the antenna selection technique on the basis of same number of feedback bits.
Recombinant murine granulocyte colony-stimulating factor protects against acute disseminated Candida albicans infection in nonneutropenic mice.

The effect of recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rG-CSF) on acute disseminated Candida albicans infection in nonneutropenic mice was investigated. Mice treated with a single dose of rG-CSF showed a significantly reduced mortality (28% vs. 90%; P < .001). The outgrowth of C. albicans from the kidneys, spleens, and livers of rG-CSF-treated mice was significantly reduced (log cfu/g of kidney, 5.54 vs. 7.13; P < .001), as were circulating tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-1beta. After rG-CSF, the kidneys showed fewer infectious infiltrates, enhanced granulocyte influx, and almost complete absence of hyphal outgrowth. During peritoneal C. albicans infection, rG-CSF enhanced influx of granulocytes to the site of infection, and exudate granulocytes showed increased oxygen radical production. These results indicate that rG-CSF enhances host resistance to disseminated candidiasis in nonneutropenic mice through activation of granulocytes and their recruitment to the site of infection.
Two Years' Experience with an Enhanced Chemiluminescent Assay for Neonatal Blood Spot TSH

We have developed a blood spot assay for thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) based on the Amerlite TSH-30 serum assay for use in the Welsh neonatal hypothyroid screening programme. A total of 67 656 infants were screened in 1994 and 1995, and 28 cases of primary hypothyroidism were detected, giving a prevalence of one in 2416. The method is sensitive and rapid, results being available within 3 h of receipt of samples. The assay enables much faster detection of primary hypothyroidism than was previously possible, and therefore contributes to earlier treatment of affected infants.
The Modern Educational Course on Agile Software Development

The article presents new educational course dedicated to Agile Software Development. The course consists of theoretical and practical parts. Theoretical part gives an overview of classical agile methodologies, widely accepted by industry practices and some important programming principles and patterns. The second part of the course includes several labs, aimed for practical usage of agile development principles and patterns. Major feature of the course is its practical orientation and focus on agile ideas accepted by the industry.
Therapeutic potential of new second generation antipsychotics for major depressive disorder

Importance of the field: Although a range of antidepressant medications are available, a substantial number of patients either do not respond adequately to these or are unable to tolerate their adverse effects. A treatment strategy that has gathered substantial empirical support is the use of second generation antipsychotic agents (SGAs) in combination with antidepressants for treatment-resistant nonpsychotic depression (TRD) or major depressive disorder (MDD) inadequately responsive to antidepressants. Aripiprazole, olanzapine and quetiapine each have indications that involve MDD. Growing evidence indicates that quetiapine, evaluated as the extended release formulation, is efficacious as monotherapy for nonpsychotic MDD. Areas covered in this review: The pharmacological rationale for using SGAs in MDD, randomized, placebo-controlled data on individual SGAs in treatment of MDD and the emerging role of SGAs in the management of MDD. What the reader will gain: A balanced overview of the evidence supporting the use of newer SGAs in MDD. Take home message: SGAs will have an increasingly important role in treatment of MDD, especially as augmentation agents. Further research is needed to clarify their efficacy and safety profiles, especially compared with other strategies for TRD.
Sparse representation and recovery of a class of signals using information theoretic measures

In this paper, we discuss a novel scheme for arriving at a sparse representation and recovery of a class of signals using information theoretic measures. Constituent components containing distinct features of any signal, belonging to a specific class, are separated and represented sparsely in an appropriate fixed basis. The morphological correlation between each of the constituent components and a subset of basis leads to sparse representation of the signal in that basis. The basis is selected using entropy minimization based method which is known to result in coefficient concentration. Simulation studies on speech signals show that in the presence of input noise, the proposed method outperforms conventional methods.
Responses of lactating dairy cows to protected fats or whole cottonseed in low or high forage diets.

Thirteen treatments to compare effects of dietary fat on milk yield and composition were control, 15% whole cottonseed, and 2 and 4% Ca-tallowate factorially distributed in low forage (35% corn silage DM) with 14 or 18% CP and high forage (66% corn silage) diets with an additional diet of 8% Ca-tallowate. Different treatments were fed to 36 cows in each of three 28-d periods. Feeding 2 and 4% Ca-tallowate improved milk yield with high forage, although DM intake was slightly depressed; compared with 4% Ca-tallowate, DM intake and milk yield were depressed by 8% Ca-tallowate. Across all diets, whole cottonseed depressed DM intake and milk yield more than when nearly equal fat came from Ca-tallowate (4%). Calcium-tallowate depressed milk fat percentage linearly. Milk fat from cows fed whole cottonseed or Ca-tallowate contained unsaturated fatty acids (mostly C18:1) and lesser quantities of short-chain fatty acids. In a subsequent experiment, Ca-tallowate depressed milk fat percentage, whereas Megalac (calcium salts of fatty acids from palm oil) did not. In a field study, one trial with 210 cows in midlactation showed no effect on milk yield and composition from . 54 kg of Megalac/d for 60 d, nor was there any effect detected with 121 cows in early lactation from feeding of . 45 kg of Megalac/d for 90 d.
Private and Public EFL Teachers' Level of Burnout and its Relationship with their Emotional Intelligence: A Comparative Study

The study aimed to investigate EFL teachers’ level of burnout and its relationship with their emotional intelligence in both Iranian Public Schools (IPS) and Private Language Institutes (PLI) contexts. To this end, quantitative method of gathering data was used. 100 EFL teachers teaching at IPS and PLI contexts participated in this study. They were asked to complete Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey and Revised Emotional Intelligence Scale. Data were analyzed using Correlation, Multiple Regression, and T-tests. The results of the study indicated a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and burnout among EFL teachers teaching at both IPS and PLI contexts. However, the results of multiple regression analyses indicated different patterns of relationships among the subscales of the two questionnaires for IPS and PLI teachers. The result of the T-tests also showed that the level of burnout among IPS teachers was higher than that of PLI teachers. The overall results of the study were discussed and the theoretical implications for further studies and the practical recommendations for EFL teacher education programs were made.
Factor structure of the happiness-increasing strategies scales (H-ISS): activities and coping strategies in relation to positive and negative affect

Background. Previous research (Tkach & Lyubomirsky, 2006) shows that there are eight general happiness-increasing strategies: social affiliation, partying, mental control, goal pursuit, passive leisure, active leisure, religion, and direct attempts. The present study investigates the factor structure of the happiness-increasing strategies scales (H-ISS) and their relationship to positive and negative affect. Method. The present study used participants’ (N = 1,050 and age mean = 34.21 sd = 12.73) responses to the H-ISS in structural equation modeling analyses. Affect was measured using the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule. Results. After small modifications we obtained a good model that contains the original eight factors/scales. Moreover, we found that women tend to use social affiliation, mental control, passive leisure, religion, and direct attempts more than men, while men preferred to engage in partying and clubbing more than women. The H-ISS explained significantly the variance of positive affect (R2 = .41) and the variance of negative affect (R2 = .27). Conclusions. Our study is an addition to previous research showing that the factor structure of the happiness-increasing strategies is valid and reliable. However, due to the model fitting issues that arise in the present study, we give some suggestions for improving the instrument.
Asymptotic distribution of the number of isolated nodes in wireless ad hoc networks with Bernoulli nodes

Nodes in wireless ad hoc networks may become inactive or unavailable due to, for example, internal breakdown or being in the sleeping state. The inactive nodes cannot take part in routing/relaying and thus may effect the connectivity. A wireless ad hoc network containing inactive nodes is then said to be connected if each inactive node is adjacent to at least one active node and all active nodes form a connected network. This paper is the first installment of our probabilistic study of the connectivity of wireless ad hoc networks containing inactive nodes. We assume that the wireless ad hoc network consists of n nodes, which are distributed independently and uniformly in a unit-area disk and are active (or available) independently with probability p for some constant 0 < p /spl les/ 1. We show that if all nodes have a maximum transmission radius r/sub n/ = /spl radic/(ln n+c//spl pi/pn) for some constant c, then the total number of isolated nodes is asymptotically Poisson with mean e/sup -c/ and the total number of isolated active nodes is also asymptotically Poisson with mean pe/sup -c/.
Ovarian actions of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF alpha): pleiotropic effects of TNF alpha on differentiated functions of untransformed swine granulosa cells.

We have examined interactions between tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF alpha), a product of the immune system, and ovarian cells using serum-free monolayer cultures of untransformed swine granulosa cells. Recombinant human TNF alpha, a potent cytoactive product of activated macrophages, bound specifically and with high affinity to intact granulosa cells. Binding sites had an apparent Kd of 0.17 nM (95% confidence interval, 0.065-0.31), and a binding capacity of 80 nmol/micrograms DNA (95% confidence interval, 52-110). The binding capacity of granulosa cells for TNF alpha (but not the binding affinity) was increased approximately 2-fold by treatment with FSH and insulin. The biological effects of TNF alpha on pig granulosa cells were expressed after 48 and 96 h in culture. At the latter time, TNF alpha significantly suppressed insulin- and insulin- plus FSH-stimulated progesterone accumulation, with respective ID50 values of 0.08 +/- 0.008 and 0.06 +/- 0.014 nM, but did not affect basal progesterone accumulation or DNA content. TNF alpha also significantly attenuated the stimulatory effect of combined treatment with FSH and insulin on cAMP generation during 48-96 h of culture. TNF alpha inhibited the stimulatory effects of forskolin, cholera toxin, and the cAMP analog 8-bromo-cAMP on progesterone accumulation, indicating multiple sites of action of this immune modulator. Inhibition of progestin biosynthesis was observed even in the presence of 25-hydroxycholesterol, a soluble oxygenated sterol substrate for the cholesterol side-chain cleavage reaction, and was accompanied by decreased concentrations of specific cellular mRNA encoding cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme. There were no changes in the amounts of a constitutively expressed enzyme, phosphoglyceraldehyde dehydrogenase. Inhibitory actions of TNF alpha were specific to de novo steroid hormone biosynthesis, since nanomolar concentrations of this cytokine stimulated accumulation of prostaglandin E2 and prostaglandin F2 alpha basally and during treatment with FSH, cholera toxin, or 8-bromo-cAMP. In contrast, prostaglandin accumulation was not enhanced by interferon-gamma or interleukin-2. In summary, untransformed porcine granulosa cells exhibit specific, high affinity, low capacity saturable binding sites for TNF alpha, and the number of such binding sites can be regulated by combined treatment with insulin and FSH. Granulosa cells are susceptible to the inhibitory actions of TNF alpha on FSH- and insulin-supported progesterone biosynthesis and cAMP accumulation. One important locus of TNF alpha action is blockade of hormonally stimulated increases in specific mRNA encoding the cholesterol side-chain cleavage cytochrome P450 enzyme. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Hybrid Probabilistic Wind Power Forecasting Using Temporally Local Gaussian Process

The demand for sustainable development has resulted in a rapid growth in wind power worldwide. Although various approaches have been proposed to improve the accuracy and to overcome the uncertainties associated with traditional methods, the stochastic and variable nature of wind still remains the most challenging issue in accurately forecasting wind power. This paper presents a hybrid deterministicprobabilistic method where a temporally local moving window technique is used in Gaussian process (GP) to examine estimated forecasting errors. This temporally local GP employs less measurement data with faster and better predictions of wind power from two wind farms, one in the USA and the other in Ireland. Statistical analysis on the results shows that the method can substantially reduce the forecasting error while it is more likely to generate Gaussian-distributed residuals, particularly for short-term forecast horizons due to its capability to handle the time-varying characteristics of wind power.