Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Outage balancing in multiuser MISO networks: Network duality and algorithms

This paper studies joint beamforming and power control in a multiuser MISO interference network with statistical channel information. Such information consists of the slow-varying covariance matrices in the beamforming network, and can be employed to reduce instantaneous feedback needs. With the outage event induced by the utilization of statistical channel information, we optimize signal transmission strategies to minimize the maximum outage probability under weighted sum power constraint to achieve outage balancing in the interference network. Under the condition of fixed beamformer, we use nonlinear Perron-Frobenius theory to present a decentralized algorithm with provable geometrically fast convergence rate to compute the optimal power. Since the joint beamformer and power optimization problem is non-convex, we examine its certainty-equivalent margin counterpart. By leveraging nonlinear Perron-Frobenius theory and the established network duality, we present a near-optimal decentralized algorithm to jointly optimize the beamformer and power. The algorithm converges quickly and the convergence rate of the algorithm is proven to be geometrical.
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neuron requirements for puberty, ovulation and fertility

The absolute requirement for reproduction implies that hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis, controlling fertility, is an evolutionary robust mechanism. The gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons of the hypothalamus represent the key cell type within the body dictating fertility. However, the level of functional redundancy within the GnRH neuron populations is unknown. As a result of a fortuitous transgene insertion event, GNR23 mice exhibit a marked allele-dependent reduction in GnRH neuron number within their brain. Wild-type mice have ~600 GnRH neurons compared with ~200 (34%) and ~70 (12%) in GNR23+/- and GNR23-/- mice, respectively. Using these mice we have examined the minimal GnRH neuron requirements for fertility. Male GNR23-/- mice exhibited normal fertility. In contrast, female GNR23-/- mice were markedly sub-fertile, failing to produce normal litters, estrous cycles or ovulate. The failure of ovulation resulted from an inability of the few existing GnRH neurons to generate the luteinizing hormone surge. This was not the case, however, for the first cycle at puberty that appeared normal. Together, these observations demonstrate that 12% of the GnRH neuron population is sufficient for pulsatile gonadotropin secretion and puberty onset, whereas between 12 and 34% are required for cyclical control in adult female mice. This indicates that substantial redundancy exists within the GnRH neuronal population and suggests that the great majority of GnRH neurons must be dysfunctional before fertility is affected. It is well established that gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons are the critical output cells of the neuronal network controlling fertility in all mammalian species (1, 2).
Mitigating Climate Change in US Cities: Opportunities and obstacles

This study examines opportunities for and obstacles to the mitigation of climate change in US cities using the example of the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) campaign sponsored by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. The CCP experience suggests a number of ways in which municipal governments can control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but also highlights several obstacles that make it difficult for local officials to do so. First, climate change is generally framed as a global issue. The CCP experience suggests that climate change is most likely to be reframed as a local issue when the preferred policy response (controlling GHG emissions) can be linked to issues (e.g. air quality) already on the local agenda. Secondly, even when local governments recognise that they should do something to control GHG emissions, institutional barriers make it difficult for municipalities to move from political rhetoric to policy action. Finally, it is questionable whether local initiatives can make meaningful contributions to climate change mitigation in the absence of policy changes at the state and national levels. Este estudio examina oportunidades y obstaculos para la mitigación del cambio climático en las ciudades de Los Estados Unidos usando el ejemplo de "Ciudades para la Protección del Clima" (CCP), campaña patrocinada por el Consejo Intenacional para Iniciativas Ambientales Locales (ICLEI). La experiencia del CCP sugiere un numero de formas en que los gobiernos municipales pueden controlar las emisiones de gas efecto invernadero (GEI) pero tambien resalta varios obstaculos que hacen esto difícil para los funcionarios locales. Primero, el cambio climático es generalmente enmarcado como un asunto global. La experiencia del CCP sugiere que el cambio climático es mas probable que sea renmarcado como un asunto local cuando la respuesta de politica preferida (controlar emisiones de GEI) puede ser relacionada con asuntos que ya estan en la agenda local (ej. calidad del aire). Segundo, aún cuando los gobiernos locales reconozcan que ellos deben hacer algo para controlar las emisiones de GEI, las barreras institucionales hacen difícil que las municipalidades se muevan de retórica politíca a una acción política. Finalmene, es cuestionable si las iniciativas locales puedan hacer contribuciones significativas a la mitigación del cambio climático en ausencia de cambios de política en el estado y a nivel nacional.
European AIDS Clinical Society Second Standard of Care Meeting, Brussels 16‐17 November 2016: a summary

The European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS) organized a second meeting on Standard of Care in Europe on November 16‐17 th, 2016. The aims of the meeting were to discuss and propose actions on three topics, namely: Adherence to guidelines for treatment initiation, treatment monitoring and outcomes, Retention in care and HIV and tuberculosis co‐infection. Several actions need to be implemented in order to further improve quality of care and treatment of HIV in Europe. A common ground for standard of care, based on the EACS Guidelines should be established throughout Europe. EACS plans to interact with policy makers and other stakeholders to insure this common minimal level of standard of care, in particular for initiating of ART, accessibility of drugs and monitoring of ART with viral load. Progress should be made to monitor retention in care, prevent lost to follow and insure return to care. Improving integration of services and accessibility to care play a major role. Integration is also key for optimizing care of HIV‐tuberculosis co‐infection, as well as diagnosis and prevention of tuberculosis in population at risk. The Standard of Care meeting organized every other year by EACS provides a unique opportunity to monitor progresses and pitfalls in HIV patient care throughout Europe. It is also a forum for advocacy towards policy makers and other stakeholders to constantly improve HIV patient global management, aiming to provide the same level of quality on the whole continent.
A Comparison of Financial Recontracting in Workouts and Chapter 11 Reorganizations

This paper investigates the financial recontracting of firms in workouts and Chapter 11 reorganizations. The terms of recontracting include the medium of exchange used to redeem defaulted securities, the writedown of creditors claims, and deviations from absolute priority experienced by different creditor classes as well as equity holders. An examination of the terms of reorganization agreed by creditors shows that deviations in favour of equity holders are small in Chapter 11 reorganizations, averaging 2.3% of the value of the reorganized firms, compared with 9.5% in informal reorganizations. The willingness of creditors to offer more to equity holders suggests that the formal reorganization process is substantially more costly.
Approche pour un meilleur alignement des processus métiers. De la modélisation à l'implémentation

Une entreprise doit etre capable de decrire et de demeurer reactive face a un evenement endogene ou exogene. Une telle flexibilite peut s'obtenir par la gestion des processus d’entreprise. Lors d'une telle demarche, differentes transformations interviennent sur les modeles de processus developpes par l'analyste metier et l’expert en technologies de l'information (TI). Un non-alignement se cree entre ces modeles heterogenes lors de leurs manipulations : il s'agit du "fosse metier-TI" tel que decrit dans la litterature. L'objectif de notre travail est de proposer un cadre methodologique permettant un meilleur pilotage des processus metiers, afin de tendre vers un alignement systematique de leur modelisation a leur implementation au sein du systeme cible. En permettant la restitution integrale d'un modele transforme au sens de l'ingenierie inverse, notre plateforme permet une synchronisation entre modele d’analyse et modele d'implementation.
Toward a Market Segmentation of the Tourism Trade: Expenditure Levels and Consumer Behavior Instability

Abstract This article deals with segmentation in the tourist sector. It first demonstrates the relevance of an expenditure-based segmentation of tourists and highlights the difficulties related to assessing consumers' spending. The concept of instability inherent to the criterion variable is dealt with in the second part. By taking into account the instability of consumer behaviour, the results of the segmentation may be considerably enhanced. An empirical assessment is then carried out on a cross-section of tourists. Two segmentation techniques are used: „AID” and a canonical analysis.
Self‐Knowledge and Self‐Awareness a

University and the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. Pom the University of Pennqlvania, and previously held positions at Harvard, Wisconsin, and Arizona. His chief research interests are in cognition in a personid and social context, and he has special interests in unconscious mental processes, autobiographical memory, and the self: He is editor of Psychological Science, the flagship journal of the American Pqchological Society, and his many awards include the Al? A Distinguished Scientific Award for an early career contribution to pqchology.
Balanced scorecard and controllability at the level of middle managers – the case of unintended breaches

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse how the inherent design of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) violates the controllability principle. The management control literature provides convincing examples of actors who breach controllability without intention. This discussion was extended by the example of the BSC. This paper focusses on the breaches that occur when actors lack the awareness or the skills to re-enforce controllability. Design/methodology/approach – Taking a pragmatic-constructivist position, analytical and empirical evidence was included on controllability to analyse the normative literature on the BSC. Findings – It was found that the BSC causes several unintended breaches of the controllability principle at the level of middle managers, both ex ante (control rationale) and ex post (fairness rationale). These breaches are not only situational or induced by how managers in the field design a BSC. They appear to be inherent in the BSC due to the way Kaplan and Norton have conceptualised it. Practic.
Phosphoproteome profiling reveals critical role of JAK-STAT signaling in maintaining chemoresistance in breast cancer

Breast cancer is responsible for 25% of cancer cases and 15% of cancer death among women. Treatment is usually prolonged and hampered by the development of chemoresistance. The molecular mechanisms maintaining the chemoresistant phenotype remains, however, largely obscure. As kinase signaling in general is highly drugable, identification of kinases essential for maintaining chemoresistance could prove therapeutically useful. Hence we compared cellular kinase activity in chemotherapy resistant MCF7Res cells to chemotherapy-sensitive MCF cells using a peptide array approach that provides an atlas of cellular kinase activities and consequently, predominant pathways can be identified. We observed that peptides phosphorylated by elements of JAK-STAT signaling pathway and PKC signaling pathways are subject to extensive kinase activity in MCF7Res cells as compared to chemotherapy-sensitive MCF cells; and Western blotting confirmed relatively strong activation of these signaling pathways in chemoresistant cells. Importantly, treatment of cells with Tofacitinib, a FDA-approved JAK inhibitor, converted chemoresistant cells to chemosensitive cells, inducing apoptosis when used in conjunction with doxorubicin. Thus our results reveal that chemoresistance in breast cancer is associated with activation of JAK/STAT signaling and suggest that JAK2 may be useful for combating chemoresistance in breast cancer.
Identification of Candidates for a Subunit Vaccine against Extraintestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT Extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) strains cause a large spectrum of infections. The majority of ExPEC strains are closely related to the B2 or the D phylogenetic group. The aim of our study was to develop a protein-based vaccine against these ExPEC strains. To this end, we identified ExPEC-specific genomic regions, using a comparative genome analysis, between the nonpathogenic E. coli strain K-12 MG1655 and ExPEC strains C5 (meningitis isolate) and CFT073 (urinary tract infection isolate). The analysis of these genomic regions allowed the selection of 40 open reading frames, which are conserved among B2/D clinical isolates and encode proteins with putative outer membrane localization. These genes were cloned, and recombinant proteins were purified and assessed as vaccine candidates. After immunization of BALB/c mice, five proteins induced a significant protective immunity against a lethal challenge with a clinical E. coli strain of the B2 group. In passive immunization assays, antigen-specific antibodies afforded protection to naive mice against a lethal challenge. Three of these antigens were related to iron acquisition metabolism, an important virulence factor of the ExPEC, and two corresponded to new, uncharacterized proteins. Due to the large number of genetic differences that exists between commensal and pathogenic strains of E. coli, our results demonstrate that it is possible to identify targets that elicit protective immune responses specific to those strains. The five protective antigens could constitute the basis for a preventive subunit vaccine against diseases caused by ExPEC strains.
Immunotherapy for Epstein – Barr Virus-Associated Tumors

Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is associated with a number of tumors, including lymphomas in solid organ transplant (SOT) and hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients, patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), Burkitt's lymphoma, as well as a subset of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and Hodgkin's disease (HD). The types of latent EBV infections vary in these tumors, which influences the EBV antigens expressed and ultimately the immunogenicity of tumor cells. Not all EBV associated malignancies are directly related to altered cellular immunity, as is the case with EBV induced lymphoproliferations in immunocompromised patients. Treatment strategies have ranged from restoration of normal cellular immunity, which is generally successful in SOT and HSCT patients, anti-B cell monoclonal antibodies, and conventional chemotherapy and radiation. The fact that these tumors express EBV antigens for which many individuals have high circulating levels of protective cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) has lead to investigation into the applicability of adoptive transfer of EBV specific T cells. Initial success with adoptive immunotherapy for HSCT and SOT patients has lead to current studies examining the feasibility and efficacy of this strategy for other EBV associated tumors, such as NPC and HD. We will review the pathogenesis of these disorders, current therapies, and future investigations aimed at targeting EBV antigen expression on these tumors.
Currently married women with an unmet need for contraception in Eritrea: Profile and determinants

Eritrea’s contraceptive prevalence rate is one of the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa and its fertility has only started to decline. Using data from the 2002 Eritrea Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS), this study examines the determinants of unmet need for family planning that is the discrepancy between fertility goals and actual contraceptive use. More than one-quarter of currently married women are estimated to have an unmet need, and this has remained unchanged since 1995. The most important reason for unmet need is lack of knowledge of methods or of a source of supply. Currently married women with higher parity, and low autonomy, low or medium household economic status, and who know no method of contraception or source of supply are identified as the most likely to have an unmet need. Addressing the unmet need for family planning entails not merely greater knowledge of or access to contraceptive services, but also the enhancement of the status of women.
The Competitive Floor to World Oil Prices

Years ago, I suggested that there was no current or impending oil shortage. Growing consumption, static U.S. production, and other reasons offered then and now did not imply that prices would rise. That conclusion only made sense if the pressure on reserves was increasing, a situation that would be signaled by rising costs of maintaining and expanding output. There was and is no sign of this.
Auctionin Entry into Tournaments

A research tournament model with heterogeneous contestants is presented. For a large class of contests the optimal number of competitors is two. This insight makes designing the tournament easier and highlights the importance of selecting highly qualified contestants. While customary uniform‐price and discriminatory‐price auctions are intuitively appealing mechanisms for solving this adverse selection problem, in practice they generally will not be efficient mechanism for selecting contestants. Instead, we propose an alternative auction format that is equally simple to implement and efficiently selects the most qualified contestants to compete, regardless of the form of contestant heterogeneity.
Socio‐cultural, psychosexual and biomedical factors associated with genital symptoms experienced by men in rural India

Biomedical, anthropological and psychiatric frameworks have been used to research different elements of men’s sexual health – sexually transmitted infections, psychosexual concerns and psychological distress – but rarely within the same study. We combined these in a study in rural north India. In Tehri Garhwal and Agra districts, we explored male perceptions of genital and sexual symptoms through focus group discussions and then conducted a clinic‐based survey of 366 symptomatic men who presented at rural private provider clinics. Men’s urine specimens were tested for gonorrhoea and chlamydia infection using polymerase chain reaction techniques. Researchers screened them for probable psychological distress by administering the General Health Questionnaire (12‐ items). Results revealed that local and traditional notions of health influenced men’s symptom perceptions, with semen loss their predominant concern. Dhat, commonly perceived as an involuntary semen loss, corresponded most closely with the symptom of urethral discharge, but was attributed mainly to non‐infectious causes. It could also manifest as a syndrome with physical weakness and mental lethargy. FGD participants lacked correct and complete information on reproductive health. Around 75% of the symptomatic men presented with dhat, but only 5.5% tested positive for gonorrhoea or chlamydia. Application of syndromic sexually transmitted infection (STI) guidelines in these settings could result in over diagnosis and over treatment with antibiotics. In contrast, there was a significant association between dhat and probable psychological distress as detected by the GHQ (Adjusted OR, GHQ case positive: 2.66, 95% CI: 1.51–4.68). Our study confirms the existence of a dhat syndrome in rural India, which is culturally influenced and reflects heightened psychosexual concerns as well as mental distress states. Comprehensive health services for men should include assessments of their psychosexual needs and be supported by reproductive/sexual health education. STI treatment guidelines for urethral symptoms should be revised and be based on epidemiological data.
Redox-Triggered Infection by Disulfide-Shackled Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Pseudovirions

ABSTRACT We previously described a human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) envelope mutant that introduces a disulfide bridge between the gp120 surface proteins and gp41 transmembrane proteins (J. M. Binley, R. W. Sanders, B. Clas, N. Schuelke, A. Master, Y. Guo, F. Kajumo, D. J. Anselma, P. J. Maddon, W. C. Olson, and J. P. Moore, J. Virol.74:627-643, 2000). Here we produced pseudovirions bearing the mutant envelope and a reporter gene to examine the mutant’s infectious properties. These pseudovirions attach to cells expressing CD4 and coreceptor but infect only when triggered with reducing agent, implying that gp120-gp41 dissociation is necessary for infection. Further studies suggested that virus entry was arrested after CD4 and coreceptor engagement. By measuring the activities of various entry inhibitors against the arrested intermediate, we found that gp120-targeting inhibitors typically act prior to virus attachment, whereas gp41 inhibitors are able to act postattachment. Unexpectedly, a significant fraction of antibodies in HIV-1-positive sera neutralized virus postattachment, suggesting that downstream fusion events and structures figure prominently in the host immune response. Overall, this disulfide-shackled virus is a unique tool with potential utility in vaccine design, drug discovery, and elucidation of the HIV-1 entry process.
A Classification Framework for Beacon Applications

Beacons have received considerable attention in recent years, which is partially due to the fact that they serve as a flexible and versatile replacement for RFIDs in many applications. However, beacons are mostly considered from a purely technical perspective. This paper provides a conceptual view on application scenarios for beacons and introduces a novel framework for characterizing these. The framework consists of four dimensions: device movement, action trigger, purpose type, and connectivity requirements. Based on these, three archetypical scenarios are described. Finally, event-condition-action rules and online algorithms are used to formalize the backend of a beacon architecture.