Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role of dopaminergic treatment in dopamine receptor down-regulation in advanced Parkinson disease: a positron emission tomographic study.

BACKGROUND In patients with advanced Parkinson disease (PD) who are undergoing long-term treatment with a dopaminergic medication, a down-regulation of striatal dopamine D2 receptor expression has been demonstrated and interpreted as a consequence of either the disease itself or dopaminergic drug administration. OBJECTIVE To compare, using positron emission tomography, the striatal binding of raclopride carbon C 11, a dopamine D2 receptor ligand, in PD patients who completely discontinued dopaminergic therapy (off drug) with that in PD patients who continued receiving dopaminergic therapy (on drug) after undergoing subthalamic nucleus stimulation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The positron emission tomographic data were acquired in off-stimulation and, for 12 hours, off-medication conditions. Five off-drug PD patients, 7 on-drug PD patients, and 8 healthy subjects participated. RESULTS In off-drug PD patients, the putaminal raclopride C 11 binding was 24% higher than in on-drug PD patients. The same tendency was noted for the caudate nucleus, but was not significant (P=.07). Compared with control subjects, the putaminal raclopride C 11 binding was increased by 21% in off-drug and was normal in on-drug PD patients. Compared with controls, the caudate raclopride C 11 binding was reduced by 23% in on-drug and was normal in off-drug PD patients. Further analysis using statistical parametric mapping showed a significant increase of binding bilaterally in the caudate nucleus and putamen in off-drug compared with on-drug PD patients (P=.002 at cluster level). CONCLUSIONS The down-regulation of dopamine D2 receptors probably relates to the long-term and intermittent administration of dopaminergic treatments rather than to disease progression. This phenomenon is reversed by the complete withdrawal of dopaminergic drugs. Furthermore, an up-regulation of putaminal dopamine D2 receptors is demonstrated in late-stage PD after dopaminergic drug withdrawal.
Transport of vitamin B12 in tonB mutants of Escherichia coli

It is known that the tonB mutation in Escherichia coli is responsible for a defect in the transport of iron chelates. These are transported by systems that involve outer membrane components. We found that tonB mutants were also deficient in the secondary, energy-dependent phase of vitamin B12 transport, although the mutants have normal levels of B12 receptors on their cell surface. In addition, tonB mutants derived from vitamin B12 auxotrophs required elevated levels of B12 for normal growth. Maltose uptake, mediated by another transport system involving an outer membrane component, was unaffected by the tonB mutation.
Patient, tumor and therapeutic features related to recurrence of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).

To evaluate the correlations between patient, tumor and therapeutic features and DCIS recurrence after primary treatment, a cohort of 132 cases of DCISs, treated at "Prof. Dr. Ion Chiricuta" Oncology Institute, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, between 1999 and 2010, were studied. Present study showed that age <45 years at diagnosis and presence of the necrosis were significantly correlated with recurrence, meanwhile nuclear grade is significantly correlated with quicker relapse meaning that for high-grade lesions recurrence occurs usually during the first 36 months of follow-up, meanwhile for non-high-grade lesions recurrence usually occurs after 36 months of follow-up. Also, the study showed that a important factor correlated with recurrence (both local and overall) for patients treated with breast conservative surgery (BCS) was the status of the resection margins as well as the association of adjuvant radiotherapy. Overall recurrence rate was 9. (84)% and during a mean follow-up of 62.99 months with limits between 24 (imposed by study) and 153 months, standard deviation 29.28.
Using posterior word probabilities for improved speech recognition

In this paper we present a new scoring scheme for speech recognition. Instead of using the joint probability of a word sequence and a sequence of acoustic observations, we determine the best path through a word graph using posterior word probabilities. These probabilities are computed beforehand with a modified forward-backward algorithm. It is important to note that during the search for the best path no language model is needed because it is already considered in the posterior word probabilities. Subsequent modules can thus process these word graphs very efficiently. Also, confidence measures can be computed from the posterior word probabilities with no additional cost. We present experimental results on five corpora, the Dutch Arise corpus, the German Verbmobil '98 corpus, the English North American Business '94 20 k and 64 k development corpora, and the English Broadcast News '96 corpus. The relative reduction in word error rate ranges between 1.5% and 5.0%.
Collisions for Hash Functions MD4, MD5, HAVAL-128 and RIPEMD

MD5 is the hash function designed by Ron Rivest [9] as a strengthened version of MD4[8]. In 1993 Bert den Boer and Antoon Bosselaers [1] found pseudo-collision for MD5 which is made of the same message with two different sets of initial value. H. Dobbertin[3] found another kind of collision which consists of two different 512-bit messages with a chosen initial value I
On differentially private filtering for event streams

Rigorous privacy mechanisms that can cope with dynamic data are required to encourage a wider adoption of large-scale monitoring and decision systems relying on end user information. A promising approach to develop these mechanisms is to specify quantitative privacy requirements at design time rather than as an afterthought, and to rely on signal processing techniques to achieve satisfying trade-offs between privacy and performance specifications. This paper discusses, from the signal processing point of view, an event stream analysis problem introduced in the database and cryptography literature. A discrete-valued input signal describes the occurrence of events contributed by end users, and a system is supposed to provide some output signal based on this information, while preserving the privacy of the participants. The notion of privacy adopted here is that of event-level differential privacy, which provides strong privacy guarantees and has important operational advantages. Several mechanisms are described to provide differentially private output signals while minimizing the impact on performance. These mechanisms demonstrate the benefits of leveraging system theoretic techniques to provide privacy guarantees for dynamic systems.
Expanding Persuasion Research: Using More Personally Relevant Issues and Exploring Relevance Perceived from Message Content.

A study explored the impact on junior high school females of "don't smoke" public service announcements (PSAs) created by two groups of high school females. The study extended the research on relevance and persuasion by utilizing intimate issues, and by exploring the potential for increasing message relevance by using persuasive messages created by peer member focus groups. Four female smokers and four female non-smokers were recruited from a northern California suburban public high school. The two groups (working separately) decided on a scenario and a script to be videotaped for their respective PSAs. To measure responses to the PSAs, 217 eighth-grade students from a junior high school completed a questionnaire. Results indicated that: (1) female smokers rated the smokers group PSA to be more relevant and to be of greater perceived effectiveness than the nonsmokers group PSA; (2) female adolescents who have experimented with cigarette smoking did not perceive more relevance in the smokers group PSA than in the PSA created by the nonsmokers; however, (3) females who have experimented with smoking found the smokers group PSA to be significantly more effective than the nonsmokers group PSA. Findings suggest the contributions that can be made by those who are usually on the receiving end of pedagogy should be recognized and affirmed, and that further research is needed to distinguish between issue relevance and message relevance. (Eight tables of data are included; 31 references are attached.) (RS) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ***********************************************************************
Application-Aware Acceleration for Wireless Data Networks: Design Elements and Prototype Implementation

A tremendous amount of research has been done toward improving transport-layer performance over wireless data networks. The improved transport layer protocols are typically application-unaware. In this paper, we argue that the behavior of applications can and does dominate the actual performance experienced. More importantly, we show that for practical applications, application behavior all but completely negates any improvement achievable through better transport layer protocols. In this context, we motivate an application-aware, but application transparent, solution suite called A3 (application-aware acceleration) that uses a set of design principles realized in an application-specific fashion to overcome the typical behavioral problems of applications. We demonstrate the performance of A3 through both emulations using realistic application traffic traces and implementations using the NetFilter utility.
A Review on Advancements beyond Conventional Transistor Technology

As continuous geometric scaling of conventional metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors(MOSFETs) are facing many fundamental challenges, therefore, new alternatives has to be introduced to provide high performance integrated chips. This paper gives insight on various recent innovations in device engineering for microelectronics and nanoelectronics. The recent developments are mainly based on new materials and new structures which include strained Si, high-K/metal gate, SOI technology, multiple gates. In the proposed paper concepts beyond CMOS, carbon nanotube FET (CNTFET) and tunnel FET (TFET) are examined which brings a revolutionary change to semiconductor industry.
Flatness-based deadbeat control revisited: Robust and high-performance design for electrical drives

The present contribution introduces an extension of deadbeat control applied to flat nonlinear systems in order to make it more robust while not compromising its performance. Conventional deadbeat control is shown to be based on feedback linearization and highly sensitive to uncertainties. So far, the only remedies are to tune the deadbeat controller and the according disturbance estimator more slowly. It is shown that by using feedforward linearization instead, the parametric sensitivity is considerably reduced. A generalized controller, a mix between feedback and feedforward linearization, is proposed. The result is a deadbeat controller with both high dynamic performance and high robustness. The experimental results on an induction machine demonstrate very fast reference tracking, high robustness to typical parameter uncertainties and active compensation of time-varying disturbances.
Broadband Multibeam Antenna Arrays Fed by Frequency-Dependent Butler Matrices

A novel concept of multibeam antenna arrays operating in an octave frequency band has been presented. To achieve multiple beams in such a wide bandwidth N-element antenna arrays are fed by frequency-dependent Butler matrices which smoothly change their properties across the bandwidth. The proposed Butler matrices are designed in such a way that for the selected inputs their amplitude and differential phase characteristics feature the ones obtained for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N \times N$ </tex-math></inline-formula> Butler matrices at <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, whereas at <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2f_{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> they feature the properties of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N/2 \times N/2$ </tex-math></inline-formula> Butler matrices. The proposed concept has been verified by measurements of a multibeam antenna array operating in 1.75–3.5 GHz frequency range and extended showing the possibility of designing antenna arrays with higher number of beams.
Cloud gaming onward: research opportunities and outlook

Cloud gaming has become increasingly more popular in the academia and the industry, evident by the large numbers of related research papers and startup companies. Some public cloud gaming services have attracted hundreds of thousands subscribers, demonstrating the initial success of cloud gaming services. Pushing the cloud gaming services forward, however, faces various challenges, which open up many research opportunities. In this paper, we share our views on the future cloud gaming research, and point out several research problems spanning over a wide spectrum of different directions: including distributed systems, video codecs, virtualization, human-computer interaction, quality of experience, resource allocation, and dynamic adaptation. Solving these research problems will allow service providers to offer high-quality cloud gaming services yet remain profitable, which in turn results in even more successful cloud gaming eco-environment. In addition, we believe there will be many more novel ideas to capitalize the abundant and elastic cloud resources for better gaming experience, and we will see these ideas and associated challenges in the years to come.
Macrotransposition and Other Complex Chromosomal Restructuring in Maize by Closely Linked Transposons in Direct Orientation[W]

Several observations indicate that compatible ends of separate, yet closely linked, transposable elements (TEs) can interact in alternative transposition reactions. First, pairs of TEs cause chromosome breaks with frequencies inversely related to the intertransposon distance. Second, some combinations of two TEs produce complex rearrangements that often include DNA adjacent to one or both elements. In pairs of TEs in direct orientation, alternative reactions involving the external ends of the two TEs should lead to the transposition of a macrotransposon consisting of both elements plus the intervening chromosomal segment. Such macrotransposons have been hypothesized previously based on deletions, but no macrotransposon insertions have been recovered. To detect macrotransposition, we have analyzed heritable chromosomal rearrangements produced by a chromosome-breaking pair of Ac and Ds elements situated 6.5 kb apart in direct orientation in a part of the maize (Zea mays) genome dispensable for viability. Here, we show that the postulated macrotransposon can excise and reinsert elsewhere in the genome. In addition, this transposon pair produces other complex rearrangements, including deletions, inversions, and reshuffling of the intertransposon segment. Thus, closely linked TE pairs, a common transposition outcome in some superfamilies, are adept at restructuring chromosomes and may have been instrumental in reshaping plant genomes.
Scalable scheduling of energy control systems

Peak power consumption is a universal problem across energy control systems in electrical grids, buildings, and industrial automation where the uncoordinated operation of multiple controllers result in temporally correlated electricity demand surges (or peaks). While there exist several diferent approaches to balance power consumption by load shifting and load shedding, they operate on coarse grained time scales and do not help in de-correlating energy sinks. The Energy System Scheduling Problem is particularly hard due to its binary control variables. Its complexity grows exponentially with the scale of the system, making it impossible to handle systems with more than a few variables. We developed a scalable approach for fine-grained scheduling of energy control systems that novelly combines techniques from control theory and computer science. The original system with binary control variables are approximated by an averaged system whose inputs are the utilization values of the binary inputs within a given period. The error between the two systems can be bounded, which allows us to derive a safety constraint for the averaged system so that the original system's safety is guaranteed. To further reduce the complexity of the scheduling problem, we abstract the averaged system by a simple single-state single-input dynamical system whose control input is the upper-bound of the total demand of the system. This model abstraction is achieved by extending the concept of simulation relations between transition systems to allow for input constraints between the systems. We developed conditions to test for simulation relations as well as algorithms to compute such a model abstraction. As a consequence, we only need to solve a small linear program to compute an optimal bound of the total demand. The total demand is then broken down, by solving a linear program much smaller than the original program, to individual utilization values of the subsystems, whose actual schedule is then obtained by a low-level scheduling algorithm. Numerical simulations in Matlab show the e ectiveness and scalability of our approach.
Influenza Virus: Immunity and Vaccination Strategies. Comparison of the Immune Response to Inactivated and Live, Attenuated Influenza Vaccines

Influenza virus is a globally important respiratory pathogen which causes a high degree of morbidity and mortality annually. The virus is continuously undergoing antigenic change and thus bypasses the host's acquired immunity to influenza. Despite the improvement in antiviral therapy during the last decade, vaccination is still the most effective method of prophylaxis. Vaccination induces a good degree of protection (60–90% efficacy) and is well tolerated by the recipient. For those at risk of complications from influenza, annual vaccination is recommended due to the antigenic changes in circulating strains. However, there is still room for improvement in vaccine efficacy, long‐lasting effect, ease of administration and compliance rates. The mucosal tissues of the respiratory tract are the main portal entry of influenza, and the mucosal immune system provides the first line of defence against infection. Secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) and IgM are the major neutralizing antibodies directed against mucosal pathogens. These antibodies work to prevent pathogen entry and can function intracellularly to inhibit replication of virus. This review describes influenza virus infection, epidemiology, clinical presentation and immune system response, particularly as it pertains to mucosal immunity and vaccine use. Specifically, this review provides an update of the current status on influenza vaccination and concentrates on the two main types of influenza vaccines currently in use, namely the cold‐adapted vaccine (CAV) given intranasally/orally, and the inactivated vaccine (IV) delivered subcutanously or intramuscularly. The commercially available trivalent IV (TIV) elicits good serum antibody responses but induces poorly mucosal IgA antibody and cell‐mediated immunity. In contrast, the CAV may elicit a long‐lasting, broader immune (humoral and cellular) response, which more closely resembles natural immunity. The immune response induced by these two vaccines will be compared in this review.
Automatic generation of reduced CPG control networks for locomotion of arbitrary modular robot structures

The design of efficient locomotion controllers for arbitrary structures of reconfigurable modular robots is challenging because the morphology of the structure can change dynamically during the completion of a task. In this paper, we propose a new method to automatically generate reduced Central Pattern Generator (CPG) networks for locomotion control based on the detection of bio-inspired sub-structures, like body and limbs, and articulation joints inside the robotic structure. We demonstrate how that information, coupled with the potential symmetries in the structure, can be used to speed up the optimization of the gaits and investigate its impact on the solution quality (i.e. the velocity of the robotic structure and the potential internal collisions between robotic modules). We tested our approach on three simulated structures and observed that the reduced network topologies in the first iterations of the optimization process performed significantly better than the fully open ones.
Assessing sleepiness in the rat: a multiple sleep latencies test compared to polysomnographic measures of sleepiness

Sleepiness following 6 h of sleep deprivation (SD) was evaluated with a rat multiple sleep latencies test (rMSLT), and the findings were compared to conventional polysomnographic measures of sleepiness. The 6 h of SD was produced by automated activity wheels, and was terminated at either the end of the light period or at the beginning of the dark period. The rMSLT consisted of 5 min wakefulness induced by sensory stimulation followed by 25 min of freedom to sleep. This procedure was repeated every 30 min for 3 h and was designed to minimize the amount of sleep lost due to the testing procedure. In separate rats, 6 h SD was followed by undisturbed recovery, allowing evaluation of conventional polysomnographic measures of sleepiness. Sleep onset latencies were reduced following SD, with recovery in the light (baseline = 8 min, 3 s versus post‐SD = 1 min, 17 s) and dark period (baseline = 14 min, 17 s versus 7 min, 7 s). Sleep onset latencies were not altered by varying the duration criterion for the first sleep bout (i.e., sleep bout length criteria of 10, 20, 30, or 60 s were compared). Polysomnographic variables (non‐rapid eye movement sleep episode duration, delta power, and number of awakenings) also provided reliable indirect measures of sleepiness, regardless of whether the recovery sleep occurred in the light or dark period. Evaluation of effect size indicated that the rMSLT was a strong measure of sleepiness, and was influenced by homeostatic, circadian, and illumination factors. The rMSLT provided a simple, objective, robust and direct measure of sleepiness that was as effective as conventional polysomnographic measures of sleepiness.
Synthesis of strategies from interaction traces

We describe how to take a set of interaction traces produced by different pairs of players in a two-player repeated game, and combine them into a composite strategy. We provide an algorithm that, in polynomial time, can generate the best such composite strategy. We describe how to incorporate the composite strategy into an existing agent, as an enhancement of the agent's original strategy. We provide experimental results using interaction traces from 126 agents (most of them written by students as class projects) for the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, Iterated Chicken Game, and Iterated Battle of the Sexes. We compared each agent with the enhanced version of that agent produced by our algorithm. The enhancements improved the agents' scores by about 5% in the IPD, 11% in the ICG, and 26% in the IBS, and improved their rank by about 12% in the IPD, 38% in the ICG, and 33% in the IBS.