Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
From static distributed systems to dynamic systems

A noteworthy advance in distributed computing is due to the recent development of peer-to-peer systems. These systems are essentially dynamic in the sense that no process can get a global knowledge on the system structure. They mainly allow processes to look up for data that can be dynamically added/suppressed in a permanently evolving set of nodes. Although protocols have been developed for such dynamic systems, to our knowledge, up to date no computation model for dynamic systems has been proposed. Nevertheless, there is a strong demand for the definition of such models as soon as one wants to develop provably correct protocols suited to dynamic systems. This paper proposes a model for (a class of) dynamic systems. That dynamic model is defined by (1) a parameter (an integer denoted a) and (2) two basic communication abstractions (query-response and persistent reliable broadcast). The new parameter is a threshold value introduced to capture the liveness part of the system (it is the counterpart of the minimal number of processes that do not crash in a static system). To show the relevance of the model, the paper adapts an eventual leader protocol designed for the static model, and proves that the resulting protocol is correct within the proposed dynamic model. In that sense, the paper has also a methodological flavor, as it shows that simple modifications to existing protocols can allow them to work in dynamic systems.
Improving Evaluation of English-Czech MT through Paraphrasing

In this paper, we present a method of improving the accuracy of machine translation evaluation of Czech sentences. Given a reference sentence, our algorithm transforms it by targeted paraphrasing into a new synthetic reference sentence that is closer in wording to the machine translation output, but at the same time preserves the meaning of the original reference sentence. Grammatical correctness of the new reference sentence is provided by applying Depfix on newly created paraphrases. Depfix is a system for post-editing English-to-Czech machine translation outputs. We adjusted it to fix the errors in paraphrased sentences. Due to a noisy source of our paraphrases, we experiment with adding word alignment. However, the alignment reduces the number of paraphrases found and the best results were achieved by a simple greedy method with only one-word paraphrases thanks to their intensive filtering. BLEU scores computed using these new reference sentences show significantly higher correlation with human judgment than scores computed on the original reference sentences.
Epstein–Barr virus infection and nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is associated with multiple types of human cancer, including lymphoid and epithelial cancers. The closest association with EBV infection is seen in undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), which is endemic in the southern Chinese population. A strong association between NPC risk and the HLA locus at chromosome 6p has been identified, indicating a link between the presentation of EBV antigens to host immune cells and NPC risk. EBV infection in NPC is clonal in origin, strongly suggesting that NPC develops from the clonal expansion of a single EBV-infected cell. In epithelial cells, the default program of EBV infection is lytic replication. However, latent infection is the predominant mode of EBV infection in NPC. The establishment of latent EBV infection in pre-invasive nasopharyngeal epithelium is believed to be an early stage of NPC pathogenesis. Recent genomic study of NPC has identified multiple somatic mutations in the upstream negative regulators of NF-κB signalling. Dysregulated NF-κB signalling may contribute to the establishment of latent EBV infection in NPC. Stable EBV infection and the expression of latent EBV genes are postulated to drive the transformation of pre-invasive nasopharyngeal epithelial cells to cancer cells through multiple pathways. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Human oncogenic viruses’.
Symbiosis, dysbiosis, and rebiosis—The value of metaproteomics in human microbiome monitoring

As just one species in the larger ecosystem, the health and disease status of human beings is highly dependent on other biological species in their environment, both inside and outside of the human body. Since proteins are the major functional building blocks of the biological world, most homeostasis regulations are realized at the protein level. Diagnosis‐oriented monitoring of cross‐species proteostasis will constitute a solid basis for next‐generation preventive medicine. After a brief review of the history and state‐of‐the‐art of metaproteomics in the field of environmental health research, focus of this perspective article will be put on the role of cross‐species joint efforts in symbiosis, dysbiosis, and rebiosis of the human gut during human development, pathogenesis, and aging. The distinctive merit of metaproteomics on health state monitoring will be given special attention. Questions to be addressed include: How this microbial ecosystems in and around humans beings coevolve and stabilize during human development and aging? How the grade of microbial virulence is controlled at the community level? What happens upon temporary or ultimate homeostasis breakdown? How metaproteomics will affect next‐generation diagnostics and preventive medicine? As an increasing amount of data becomes available, researchers need to become ever more hypothesis‐oriented, so as not to be lost in sea of data, but instead efficiently extract the insights from “Big data. ” Future directions of metaproteomic research and its integration with other “omics” will be suggested, including the sophisticated use of systems biological approaches such as predictive modeling and simulations, in order to truly serve next‐generation medicine.
Syllable frequency effects on phonological short-term memory tasks

Recent evidence suggests that phonological short-term memory (STM) tasks are influenced by both lexical and sublexical factors inherent in the selection and construction of the stimuli to be recalled. This study examined whether long-term memory (LTM) influences STM at a sublexical level by investigating whether the frequency with which one-syllable nonwords occur in polysyllabic words influences recall accuracy on two phonological STM tasks, nonword repetition and serial recall. The results showed that recall accuracy increases when the stimuli to be recalled consist of one-syllable nonwords that occur often in polysyllabic English words. This result is consistent with the notion that LTM facilitates phonological STM at both a lexical and sublexical level. Implications for models of verbal STM are discussed.
The breakdown of fractal heart rate dynamics predicts prolonged postoperative myocardial ischemia.

UNLABELLED Patients with myocardial ischemia after noncardiac surgery have a three- to ninefold increased risk of adverse cardiac events. In this study we tested the hypothesis that altered preoperative heart rate variability (HRV) predicts postoperative prolonged myocardial ischemia (>10 min) in elderly surgical patients. Thirty-two patients, age 60 yr or older, admitted to hospital for surgical repair of a traumatic hip fracture with preoperative night and daytime Holter recordings were included. Holter monitoring was initiated at arrival at hospital and continued until the third postoperative morning. Conventional HRV measures along with analysis of short-term fractal scaling exponent (alpha(1)) of RR intervals were assessed for night (from 2 AM to 5 AM) and day (7 AM to 12 AM) periods in each patient. Preoperative alpha(1) was significantly lower (i.e., increased randomness in HRV) during the nighttime compared with daytime (mean +/- SEM; 0.92 +/- 0.08 versus 1.03 +/- 0.06; P = 0.002) in patients with postoperative myocardial ischemia. Patients without ischemia had no such difference. In stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis, increased preoperative night-day difference of alpha(1) was the only independent predictor of postoperative prolonged ischemia. The odds ratio for an increase of 0.16 U in night-day difference of alpha(1) (corresponding to interquartile range) was 7.7 (95% confidence interval, 1.9-51.4; P = 0.0018). Breakdown of fractal-like heart rate dynamics is predictive for postoperative prolonged myocardial ischemia in elderly patients having emergency surgery for traumatic hip fracture. IMPLICATIONS Night and daytime Holter recordings before surgical repair of traumatic hip fracture were analyzed with linear and nonlinear heart rate variability methods. Preoperatively increased randomness in heart rate variability was predictive for postoperative, silent prolonged myocardial ischemia. Prolonged myocardial ischemia increases the risk for adverse cardiac events.
5-Fluorouracil prodrug: role of anabolic and catabolic pathway modulation in therapy of colorectal cancer.

Following p.o. administration to rats bearing advanced colorectal carcinoma, Ftorafur (FT) is converted to 5-fluorouracil (FUra) by microsomal P450 in the liver. To optimize the therapeutic selectivity of the FUra generated from FT, three approaches were utilized: (a) inhibition of FUra degradation to dihydrofluorouracil by uracil as an alternative substrate for uracil reductase in the molar ratio of 4 uracil:1 FT (UFT); (b) modulation of drug inhibition of thymidylate synthase by leucovorin (LV); and (c) by increasing the level of FUra incorporation into cellular RNA by N-(phosphonacetyl)-L-aspartate (PALA), an inhibitor of aspartate transcarbomylase. The maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of FT and UFT, administered 3 times a day for 28 days, was 150 mg/kg/day and 60 mg/kg/day, respectively. The MTDs were not significantly modified by LV (150 or 600 mg/kg/day), administered by the p.o. route with the drugs, or by PALA (100 mg/kg) administered weekly by the i.v. route. The dose-limiting toxicity of FT alone and in combination with the modulators was stomatitis. The severe alopecia observed with FT alone was reduced significantly by uracil. At the MTD, the antitumor activity of UFT was superior to those of FT and FUra alone and in combination with LV and/or PALA. The 3-month sustained complete tumor regression for UFT, FT, and FUra was 38%, 0%, and 13% (for the weekly schedule), respectively. Although uracil, LV, and PALA individually increased the antitumor activity of FT at its MTD, the combination of the three modulators produced the highest therapeutic efficacy in rats bearing advanced colorectal carcinoma, in which 100% of the treated animals achieved complete and sustained tumor regression. The therapeutic efficacy observed with FT modulation could not be achieved with FUra administered by different schedules, each at its MTD alone or in combination with either LV or PALA. In brief, modulation of FT produced greater therapeutic efficacy and selectivity than FUra. Furthermore, the combined use of modulators capable of inhibiting the degradation pathway of FUra and potentiating the effects of the anabolic metabolites action appears to offer the greatest therapeutic potential.
Multiscale Bone Remodeling Prediction for Fully Porous-Coated (FPC) Dental Implant Supported Prosthesis

This paper aims at providing a preliminary understanding in biomechanics with respect to the effect of FPC dental implants on bone remodelling. 2D multi-scale finite element models are created for a typical dental implantation setting. Under a certain mastication force (<200N), a global response from a macro-scale model (without considering coated surface morphology details) is first obtained and then it is transferred to the micro-scale models (with coated surface morphology details and various particle sizes) for micro-scale analysis. A strain energy density (SED) obtained from 2D micro-scale Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is used as a mechanical stimulus to determine the bone remodeling in term of the change in apparent bone densities for cancellous and cortical bones. The change in bone densities is examined as a result of bone remodelling activities over a period of 48 months.
Magnetization Reversal of Disorder-Induced Ferromagnetic Regions in Fe60Al40 Thin Films

Magnetization processes were investigated by employing magnetometry and magnetic domain imaging using magnetooptical longitudinal and polar effects in Fe60Al40 films of 40 nm thickness. The films were initially chemically ordered and weakly ferromagnetic, and a large increase in the saturation magnetization was achieved through chemical disorder induced by Ne+-ion irradiation. Various sample geometries were investigated: 1) continuous film; 2) homogenously irradiated wire; and 3) magnetic stripe-patterned wire. Magnetization reversal and magnetic domains formed under the influence of the above sample geometries are reported.
Effect of Surface Active Ions on the Rate of Water Evaporation

Current understanding of the vapor−liquid exchange kinetics of liquid water is incomplete, leading to uncertainties in modeling the climatic effects of clouds and aerosol. Initial studies of atmospherically relevant solutes (ammonium sulfate, sodium chloride) indicate that their effect on the evaporation kinetics of water is minimal, but all those constituent ions are also expected to be depleted in concentration at the air−water interface. We present measurements of the evaporation kinetics of water from 4 M sodium perchlorate solution, which is expected to have an enhanced concentration of perchlorate in the surface layer, using Raman thermometry of liquid microdroplets in a free evaporation regime. We determine the evaporation coefficient γe to be 0.47 ± 0.02, ca. 25% smaller than our measured value for pure water (0.62 ± 0.09). This change, while small, indicates that direct interactions between perchlorate ions and evaporating water molecules are affecting the evaporation mechanism and kinetics and s.
Conceptual Content Modeling and Management The Rationale of an Asset Language

Focused views on entities of interest – concrete or abstract ones – are often represented by texts, images, speech or other media. Such media views are communicated through visual or audio channels and stored persistently in appropriate containers. In this paper we extend a computational content-container model into a closely coupled content-concept model intended to capture more of the meaning – and improve the value – of content. Integrated contentconcept views on entities are modeled by the notion of assets, and our asset language aims at two goals derived from extensive experiences with entity modeling: 1. Expressiveness: according to Peirce [29] and others, entity modeling – and, therefore, also asset modeling – has to cover three different perspectives: – an entity’s inherent characteristics (firstness categories); – its relationships to other entities (secondness categories); – the systematics behind the first two perspectives (thirdness categories). 2. Responsiveness: according to Cassirer [8, 47] and others, entity modeling processes, in order to be successful have to be – open, i.e., users of an asset language must be able to adapt their asset models according to the requirements of the entity at hand; – dynamic in the sense that all aspects of an asset model must be subject to inspection and adaptation at any time. Our current experiments with asset languages are motivated by the need for a better understanding and integration of content and concepts about application entities. We conclude by outlining a component-based implementation technology for open and dynamic asset systems.
Gastrointestinal symptoms in cancer patients with advanced disease: new methodologies, insights, and a proposed approach

Purpose of reviewThis review summarizes recent developments in the management of gastrointestinal symptoms experienced by cancer patients and provides a framework for education, assessment and monitoring, and treatment. Recent findingsAlthough many viable treatment options exist, gastrointestinal symptoms – particularly nausea and vomiting, constipation, and diarrhea – continue to challenge both patients and clinicians. Current clinical guidelines now recommend that patients treated with moderate emetic risk chemotherapy regimens be preferentially treated with the 5-hydroxytryptamine type 3 (5-HT3) receptor antagonist, palonosetron, in combination with dexamethasone. A large randomized trial has also recently validated that single-dose fosaprepitant is equivalent to the standard 3-day, aprepitant regimen. New medications, such as skin patch delivery of granisetron for nausea or methylnaltrexone for constipation, show promise in both the management of symptoms and as preventive agents. The integration of complementary and alternative therapies, such as relaxation techniques, ginger, and electroacupuncture may also assist with symptom relief. Accurate assessment is essential, but often problematic, especially as the patient's experience of gastrointestinal distress is often disproportionate with objective measures. New methodologies that harness technology to collect patient-reported outcomes may improve the accuracy of assessment, provide a better picture of the patient's experience of gastrointestinal symptoms, and deliver a means to simultaneously monitor symptoms, educate patients, and collect longitudinal data. SummaryPalliative management of gastrointestinal symptoms in advanced cancer patients requires a multipronged approach that entails effective assessment, judicious use of latest evidence-based approaches, and monitoring that incorporates both clinical measures and patient-reported outcomes. When combined with refinements in the overall clinical approach to symptom management, standardized instruments that streamline data collection and enable data warehousing will support better symptom management.
Influence of Alternative Tubulin Inhibitors on the Potency of a Epirubicin-Immunochemotherapeutic Synthesized with an Ultra Violet Light-Activated Intermediate: Influence of incorporating an internal/integral disulfide bond structure and Alternative Tubulin/Microtubule Inhibitors on the Cytotoxic An

Immunochemotherapeutics, epirubicin-(C3-amide)-SS-[anti-HER2/neu] with an internal disulfide bond, and epirubicin-(C3-amide)-[anti-HER2/neu] were synthesized utilizing succinimidyl 2-[(4,4'-azipentanamido) ethyl]-1,3'-dithioproprionate or succinimidyl 4,4-azipentanoate respectively. Western blot analysis was used to determine the presence of any immunoglobulin fragmentation or IgG-IgG polymerization. Retained HER2/neu binding characteristics of epirubicin-(C3-amide)-[anti-HER2/neu] and epirubicin-(C3-amide)-SS-[anti-HER2/neu] were validated by cell-ELISA using a mammary adenocarcinoma (SKBr-3) population that highly over-expresses trophic HER2/neu receptor complexes. Cytotoxic anti-neoplastic potency of epirubicin-(C3-amide)-[anti-HER2/neu] and epirubicin-(C3-amide)-SS-[anti-HER2/neu] between epirubicin-equivalent concentrations of 10-10 M and 10-6 M was determined by measuring the vitality/proliferation of chemotherapeutic-resistant mammary adenocarcinoma (SKBr-3 cell type). Cytotoxic anti-neoplastic potency of benzimidazoles (albendazole, flubendazole, membendazole) and griseofulvin were assessed between 0-to-2 μg/ml and 0-to-100 μg/ml respectively while mebendazole and griseofulvin were analyzed at fixed concentrations of 0.35 μg/ml and 35 g/ml respectively in dual combination with gradient concentrations of epirubicin-(C3-amide)-[anti-HER2/neu] and epirubicin-(C3-amide)-SS-[anti-HER2/neu]. Cytotoxic anti-neoplastic potency for epirubicin-(C3-amide)-[anti-HER2/neu] and epirubicin-(C3-amide)-SS-[anti-HER2/neu] against chemotherapeutic-resistant mammary adenocarcinoma (SKBr-3) was nearly identical at epirubicin-equivalent concentrations of 10-10 M and 10-6 M. The benzimadazoles also possessed cytotoxic anti-neoplastic activity with flubendazole and albendazole being the most and least potent respectively. Similarly, griseofulvin had cytotoxic anti-neoplastic activity and was more potent than methylselenocysteine. Both mebendazole and griseofulvin when applied in dual combination with either epirubicin-(C3-amide)-[anti-HER2/neu] or epirubicin-(C3-amide)-SS-[anti-HER2/neu] produced enhanced levels of cytotoxic anti-neoplatic potency.
A Layered Environment for Reasoning about Action

An intelligent systems reasons about -- controls, explains, learns about -- its action, thereby improving its efforts to achieve goals and function in its environment. In order to perform effectively, a system must have knowledge of the actions it can perform, the events and states that occur, and the relationships among instances of those actions, events and states. We represent such knowledge in a hiearchy of knowledge abstractions and impose uniform standards of knowledge content and representation on modules within each hierarchical level. We refer to the evolving set of such modules as the BB* environment. To illustrate, we describe selected elements of BB*: * the foundational BB1 architecture * the ACCORD framework for solving arrangement problems by means of an assembly method * two applications of BB1-ACCORD, the PROTEAN system for modeling protein structures and the SIGHTPLAN system for designing construction-site layouts * two hypothetical multifaceted systems that integrate ACCORD, PROTEAN and SIGHTPLAN with other possible BB* frameworks and applications.
Measurement of Ca2+-binding constants of proteins and presentation of the CaLigator software.

The complexity of Ca2+ cell signaling is dependent on a plethoria of Ca2+-binding proteins that respond to signals in different ranges of Ca2+ concentrations. Since the function of these proteins is directly coupled to their Ca2+-binding properties, there is a need for accurately determined equilibrium Ca2+-binding constants. In this work we outline the experimental techniques available to determine Ca2+-binding constants in proteins, derive the models used to describe the binding, and present CaLigator, software for least-square fitting directly to the measured quantity. The use of the software is illustrated for Ca2+-binding data obtained for two deamidated forms of calbindin D(9k), either an isospartate-56 (beta form) or a normal Asp-56 (alpha form). Here, the Ca2+-binding properties of the two isoforms have been studied using the chelator method. The alpha form shows similar Ca2+-binding properties to the wild type while the beta form has lost both cooperativety and affinity.
Robust Near-Isometric Matching via Structured Learning of Graphical Models

Models for near-rigid shape matching are typically based on distance-related features, in order to infer matches that are consistent with the isometric assumption. However, real shapes from image datasets, even when expected to be related by "almost isometric" transformations, are actually subject not only to noise but also, to some limited degree, to variations in appearance and scale. In this paper, we introduce a graphical model that parameterises appearance, distance, and angle features and we learn all of the involved parameters via structured prediction. The outcome is a model for near-rigid shape matching which is robust in the sense that it is able to capture the possibly limited but still important scale and appearance variations. Our experimental results reveal substantial improvements upon recent successful models, while maintaining similar running times.