Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhanced Random Access and Beam Training for Millimeter Wave Wireless Local Networks With High User Density

As the low frequency band has become more and more crowded, millimeter-wave (mmWave) has attracted significant attention. The IEEE has released the 802.11ad standard to satisfy the demand of ultra-high-speed communication. It adopts beamforming technology that can generate directional beams to compensate for high path loss. In the association beamforming training (A-BFT) phase of BF training, a station (STA) randomly selects an A-BFT slot to contend for training opportunity. Due to the limited number of A-BFT slots, the A-BFT phase suffers high probability of collisions in dense user scenarios, resulting in inefficient training performance. Based on the evaluation of the IEEE 802.11ad standard and 802.11ay draft in dense user scenarios of mmWave wireless networks, we propose an enhanced A-BFT beam training and random access mechanism, including the separated A-BFT (SA-BFT) and secondary backoff A-BFT (SBA-BFT). The SA-BFT can provide more A-BFT slots and divide the A-BFT slots into two regions by defining a new E-A-BFT Length field compared with the legacy 802.11ad A-BFT, thereby maintaining compatibility when 802.11ay devices are mixed with 802.11ad devices. It can also greatly reduce the collision probability in dense user scenarios. The SBA-BFT performs secondary backoff with very small overhead of transmission opportunities within one A-BFT slot, which not only further reduces collision probability, but also improves the A-BFT slots utilization. Furthermore, we propose a 3-D Markov model to analyze the performance of the SBA-BFT. The analytical and simulation results show that both the SA-BFT and the SBA-BFT can significantly improve BF training efficiency, which is beneficial to the optimization design of dense user wireless networks based on the IEEE 802.11ay standard and mmWave technology.
Experiences of patients with intellectual disabilities and carers in GP health information exchanges: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND Accurate health information exchange (HIE) is pivotal for good quality of care. However, patients with intellectual disabilities (ID) face challenges in processing and exchanging health information around GP consultations. Knowledge of HIE barriers and facilitators, including the roles of carers, may help to improve GP care for people with ID. OBJECTIVE To gain more insight into HIE barriers and facilitators for ID patients in GP care. METHODS A qualitative study exploring GP consultation experiences of people with ID (n = 35), professional carers (n = 20) and relatives (n = 15). Transcripts from interviews and focus groups were analyzed using a framework analysis approach. RESULTS Analyses resulted in four themes: (i) Recognizing patient health needs; (ii) Impaired doctor-patient communication; (iii) Carers' mediating roles during consultations; and (iv) Patients' autonomy and self-determination. Barriers related to communication skills, lack of time, continuity of carers and physicians, information alignment between relative or professional carer and the GP, and information transfer and recording within the patient network. Facilitating factors related mainly to carer interventions, personal connections with patients and GP communication with patients and carers outside the consultation. CONCLUSION There is considerable HIE potential in patients themselves, as well as in their network, although many barriers have to be overcome to profit from this. GP practices are recommended to adjust consultations and communication practices and to facilitate deployment of the patient's network, while still considering patient autonomy.
Treatment results of adjuvant pelvic radiotherapy after radical hysterectomy for low-risk Stage IB1–IIA cervical cancer

Objective The aim of the present retrospective analysis was to determine the effectiveness of pelvic radiotherapy (RT) as postoperative adjuvant therapy for low-risk cervical cancer. Methods Between June 2003 and April 2011, the clinical data of 225 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) Stage IB1-IIA cervical cancer patients with low-risk factors were retrospectively reviewed, to analyze the relationship between adjuvant pelvic RT after radical hysterectomy and tumor recurrence or the patients' survival. Results The 5-year overall survival (OS) of 225 patients was 91.2% and 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) was 84.5%. The 5-year DFS and local regional disease-free survival was significantly better for patients in the RT group compared with that in the non-RT group (5-year DFS, 91.2% vs. 77.1%, P = 0.006; 5-year local regional disease-free survival 94.6% vs. 79.0%, P = 0.001). There were no statistically significant differences in the 5-year OS (92.9% vs. 89.4%, P = 0.371) and distant metastasis-free survival (96.4% vs. 96.5%, P = 0.887) between the two groups. Grade 3-4 treatment-related acute and late toxicities were not significantly different between the two groups. Subgroup analysis shows the 5-year DFS of RT alone, chemotherapy (CT) alone, non-RT/CT, RT and CT was, respectively, 90.5%, 62.9%, 81.4%, 92.5% separately (P = 0.002). The 5-year OS was not significantly different (91.6% vs. 78.2% vs. 92.9% vs. 96.9%, P = 0.887) between the four groups. Performing univariate analysis, postoperative CT was the only significant risk factor for DFS. Conclusions Our results indicate that postoperative adjuvant pelvic RT has a tendency to improve DFS especially local regional disease-free survival for FIGO Stage IB1-IIA cervical cancer patients with low-risk factors, without increased Grade 3-4 treatment-related acute and late toxicities, but non-standard CT is harmful to the prognosis (DFS) of these patients.
Query Answering with Inconsistent Existential Rules under Stable Model Semantics

Classical inconsistency-tolerant query answering relies on selecting maximal components of an ABox/database which are consistent with the ontology. However, some rules in ontologies might be unreliable if they are extracted from ontology learning or written by unskillful knowledge engineers. In this paper we present a framework of handling inconsistent existential rules under stable model semantics, which is defined by a notion called rule repairs to select maximal components of the existential rules. Surprisingly, for R-acyclic existential rules with R-stratified or guarded existential rules with stratified negations, both the data complexity and combined complexity of query answering under the rule repair semantics remain the same as that under the conventional query answering semantics. This leads us to propose several approaches to handle the rule repair semantics by calling answer set programming solvers. An experimental evaluation shows that these approaches have good scalability of query answering under rule repairs on realistic cases.
Electrotransfer of Different Control Plasmids Elicits Different Antitumor Effectiveness in B16.F10 Melanoma

Several studies have shown that different control plasmids may cause antitumor action in different murine tumor models after gene electrotransfer (GET). Due to the differences in GET protocols, plasmid vectors, and experimental models, the observed antitumor effects were incomparable. Therefore, the current study was conducted comparing antitumor effectiveness of three different control plasmids using the same GET parameters. We followed cytotoxicity in vitro and the antitumor effect in vivo after GET of control plasmids pControl, pENTR/U6 scr and pVAX1 in B16.F10 murine melanoma cells and tumors. Types of cell death and upregulation of selected cytosolic DNA sensors and cytokines were determined. GET of all three plasmids caused significant growth delay in melanoma tumors; nevertheless, the effect of pVAX1 was significantly greater than pControl. While DNA sensors in vivo were not upregulated significantly, cytokines IFN β and TNF α were upregulated after GET of pVAX1. In vitro, the mRNAs of some cytosolic DNA sensors were overexpressed after GET; however, with no significant difference among the three plasmids. In summary, although differences in antitumor effects were observed among control plasmids in vivo, no differences in cellular responses to plasmid GET were detected in tumor cells in vitro. Thus, the tumor microenvironment as well as some plasmid properties are most probably responsible for the antitumor effectiveness.
G protein, phosphorylated-GATA4 and VEGF expression in the hearts of transgenic mice overexpressing β1- and β2-adrenergic receptors

β1- and β2-adrenergic receptors (ARs) regulate cardiac contractility, calcium handling and protein phosphorylation. The present study aimed to examine the expression levels of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) and several G proteins, and the phosphorylation of transcription factor GATA binding protein 4 (GATA4), by western blot analysis, using isolated hearts from 6 month-old transgenic (TG) mice that overexpress β1AR or β2AR. Cardiac contractility/relaxation and heart rate was increased in both β1AR TG and β2AR TG mouse hearts compared with wild type; however, no significant differences were observed between the β1- and β2AR TG mouse hearts. Protein expression levels of inhibitory guanine nucleotide-binding protein (Gi) 2, Gi3 and G-protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 were upregulated in both TG mice, although the upregulation of Gi2 was more prominent in the β2AR TG mice. VEGF-A expression levels were also increased in both TG mice, and were highest in the β1AR TG mice. In addition, the levels of phosphorylated-GATA4 expression were increased in β1- and β2AR TG mice. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that cardiac contractility/relaxation and heart rate is increased in β1AR TG and β2AR TG mice, and indicated that this increase may be related to the overexpression of G proteins and G-protein-associated proteins.
Improvement in Obstructive Sleep Apnea With Weight Loss is Dependent on Body Position During Sleep

Study Objectives Weight loss fails to resolve obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in most patients; however, it is unknown as to whether weight loss differentially affects OSA in the supine compared with nonsupine sleeping positions. We aimed to determine if weight loss in obese patients with OSA results in a greater reduction in the nonsupine apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) compared with the supine AHI, thus converting participants into supine-predominant OSA. Methods Post hoc analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial assessing the effect of weight loss (bariatric surgery vs. medical weight loss) on OSA in 60 participants with obesity (body mass index: >35 and <55) with recently diagnosed (<6 months) OSA and AHI of ≥ 20 events/hour. Patients were randomized to very low calorie diet with regular review (n = 30) or to laproscopic adjustable gastric banding (n = 30) with follow-up sleep study at 2 years. Results Eight of 37 (22%) patients demonstrated a normal nonsupine AHI (<5 events/hour) on follow-up compared to 0/37 (0%) patients at baseline (p = .003). These patients were younger (40.0 ± 9.6 years vs. 48.4 ± 6.5 years, p = .007) and lost significantly more weight (percentage weight change -23.0 [-21.0 to -31.6]% vs. -6.9 [1.9 to -17.4], p = .001). The percentage change in nonsupine AHI was greater than the percentage change in supine AHI (-54.0 [-15.4 to -87.9]% vs -33.1 [-1.8 to -69.1]%, p = .05). However, the change in absolute nonsupine AHI was not related to change in absolute supine AHI (p = .23). Conclusions Following weight loss, a significant proportion (22%) of patients with obesity have normalization of the nonsupine AHI. For these patients, supine sleep avoidance may cure their OSA.
Constructive quantization: Approximation by empirical measures

In this article, we study the approximation of a probability measure $\mu$ on $\mathbb{R}^{d}$ by its empirical measure $\hat{\mu}_{N}$ interpreted as a random quantization. As error criterion we consider an averaged $p$-th moment Wasserstein metric. In the case where $2p<d$, we establish refined upper and lower bounds for the error, a high-resolution formula. Moreover, we provide a universal estimate based on moments, a so-called Pierce type estimate. In particular, we show that quantization by empirical measures is of optimal order under weak assumptions.
Auditory and Visual Working Memory Functioning in College Students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and/or Learning Disabilities

Objective We investigated the auditory and visual working memory functioning in college students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities, and clinical controls. We examined the role attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder subtype status played in working memory functioning. The unique influence that both domains of working memory have on reading and math abilities was investigated. Method A sample of 268 individuals seeking postsecondary education comprise four groups of the present study: 110 had an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder diagnosis only, 72 had a learning disability diagnosis only, 35 had comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and learning disability diagnoses, and 60 individuals without either of these disorders comprise a clinical control group. Participants underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation, and licensed psychologists employed a multi-informant, multi-method approach in obtaining diagnoses. Results In the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder only group, there was no difference between auditory and visual working memory functioning, t(100) = -1.57, p = . 12. In the learning disability group, however, auditory working memory functioning was significantly weaker compared with visual working memory, t(71) = -6.19, p < . 001, d = -0.85. Within the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder only group, there were no auditory or visual working memory functioning differences between participants with either a predominantly inattentive type or a combined type diagnosis. Visual working memory did not incrementally contribute to the prediction of academic achievement skills. Conclusion Individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder did not demonstrate significant working memory differences compared with clinical controls. Individuals with a learning disability demonstrated weaker auditory working memory than individuals in either the attention-deficit/hyperactivity or clinical control groups.
Microplastics as an emerging threat to terrestrial ecosystems

Microplastics (plastics <5 mm, including nanoplastics which are <0.1 μm) originate from the fragmentation of large plastic litter or from direct environmental emission. Their potential impacts in terrestrial ecosystems remain largely unexplored despite numerous reported effects on marine organisms. Most plastics arriving in the oceans were produced, used, and often disposed on land. Hence, it is within terrestrial systems that microplastics might first interact with biota eliciting ecologically relevant impacts. This article introduces the pervasive microplastic contamination as a potential agent of global change in terrestrial systems, highlights the physical and chemical nature of the respective observed effects, and discusses the broad toxicity of nanoplastics derived from plastic breakdown. Making relevant links to the fate of microplastics in aquatic continental systems, we here present new insights into the mechanisms of impacts on terrestrial geochemistry, the biophysical environment, and ecotoxicology. Broad changes in continental environments are possible even in particle‐rich habitats such as soils. Furthermore, there is a growing body of evidence indicating that microplastics interact with terrestrial organisms that mediate essential ecosystem services and functions, such as soil dwelling invertebrates, terrestrial fungi, and plant‐pollinators. Therefore, research is needed to clarify the terrestrial fate and effects of microplastics. We suggest that due to the widespread presence, environmental persistence, and various interactions with continental biota, microplastic pollution might represent an emerging global change threat to terrestrial ecosystems.
Attack on a Chaos-Based Random Number Generator Using Anticipating Synchronization

Chaotic systems have been used in random number generation, owing to the property of sensitive dependence on initial conditions and hence the possibility to produce unpredictable signals. Within the types of chaotic systems, those which are defined by only one delay-differential equation are attractive due to their simple model. On the other hand, it is possible to synchronize to the future states of a time-delay chaotic system by anticipating synchronization. Therefore, random number generator (RNG), which employs such a system, might not be immune to the attacks. In this paper, attack on a chaos-based random number generator using anticipating synchronization is investigated. The considered time-delay chaotic system produces binary signals, which can directly be used as a source of RNG. Anticipating synchronization is obtained by incorporating other systems appropriately coupled to the original one. Quantification of synchronization is given by the bit error between the streams produced by the original and coupled systems. It is shown that the bit streams generated by the original system can be anticipated by the coupled systems beforehand.
Effect of a Counseling Session Bolstered by Text Messaging on Self-Selected Health Behaviors in College Students: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial

Background The college experience is often the first time when young adults live independently and make their own lifestyle choices. These choices affect dietary behaviors, exercise habits, techniques to deal with stress, and decisions on sleep time, all of which direct the trajectory of future health. There is a need for effective strategies that will encourage healthy lifestyle choices in young adults attending college. Objective This preliminary randomized controlled trial tested the effect of coaching and text messages (short message service, SMS) on self-selected health behaviors in the domains of diet, exercise, stress, and sleep. A second analysis measured the ripple effect of the intervention on health behaviors not specifically selected as a goal by participants. Methods Full-time students aged 18-30 years were recruited by word of mouth and campuswide advertisements (flyers, posters, mailings, university website) at a small university in western Pennsylvania from January to May 2015. Exclusions included pregnancy, eating disorders, chronic medical diagnoses, and prescription medications other than birth control. Of 60 participants, 30 were randomized to receive a single face-to-face meeting with a health coach to review results of behavioral questionnaires and to set a health behavior goal for the 8-week study period. The face-to-face meeting was followed by SMS text messages designed to encourage achievement of the behavioral goal. A total of 30 control subjects underwent the same health and behavioral assessments at intake and program end but did not receive coaching or SMS text messages. Results The texting app showed that 87.31% (2187/2505) of messages were viewed by intervention participants. Furthermore, 28 of the 30 intervention participants and all 30 control participants provided outcome data. Among intervention participants, 22 of 30 (73%) showed improvement in health behavior goal attainment, with the whole group (n=30) showing a mean improvement of 88% (95% CI 39-136). Mean improvement in any behavioral domains was not seen in the control group. Intervention participants also increased their exercise significantly compared with controls, regardless of their self-selected goal category. The increased exercise was paralleled by significantly lower fasting glucose levels. Conclusions The health coaching session plus tailored SMS text messages improved self-selected health behaviors with a modest ripple effect to include unselected health behaviors. Trial Registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02476604; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02476604 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6qAAryS5t)
Couples Coping With Stress: Between-Person Differences and Within-Person Processes

In intimate relationships, spousal support (or dyadic coping) can directly benefit relationships (i.e., direct effect) and protect the relationship against the negative spillover effects of stress (i.e., buffer effect). As stress-coping theories suggest, both processes can vary between persons as well as within persons. However, empirically, this distinction is not always made explicit, resulting in potentially misleading conclusions about dyadic stress-coping processes. In the current study, we investigated stress and coping processes in couples at both between- and within-person levels. Participants were 84 Chinese dual-earning couples (N = 168 individuals) participated in a 7-day diary study. Between persons, our multilevel analyses replicated well-established buffering effects: The link between average stress and relationship outcomes was reduced if the partner provided more support on average. Within persons, results implied a significant buffer effect only in women; their relationship satisfaction was highest on days when they experienced higher levels of stress and higher levels of partner support. The present findings demonstrate how distinguishing between- and within-person effects can provide a better conceptual understanding of dyadic processes in intimate relationships while examining stress-coping associations in an understudied group.
Clinical outcomes following unilateral adrenalectomy in patients with primary aldosteronism

Background In approximately half of cases of primary aldosteronism (PA), the cause is a surgically-resectable unilateral aldosterone-producing adrenal adenoma. However, long-term data on surgical outcomes are sparse. Aim We report on clinical outcomes post-adrenalectomy in a cohort of patients with PA who underwent surgery. Design Retrospective review of patients treated for PA in a single UK tertiary centre. Methods Of 120 consecutive patients investigated for PA, 52 (30 male, median age 54, range 30-74) underwent unilateral complete adrenalectomy. Blood pressure, number of antihypertensive medications, and serum potassium were recorded before adrenalectomy, and after a median follow-up period of 50 months (range 7-115). Recumbent renin and aldosterone were measured, in the absence of interfering antihypertensive medication, ≥3months after surgery, to determine if PA had been biochemically cured. Results Overall, blood pressure improved from a median (range) 160/95 mmHg (120/80-250/150) pre-operatively to 130/80 mmHg (110/70-160/93), P < 0.0001. 24/52 patients (46.2%) had cured hypertension, with a normal blood pressure post-operatively on no medication. 26/52 (50%) had improved hypertension. 2/52 patients (3.8%) showed no improvement in blood pressure post-operatively. Median (range) serum potassium level increased from 3.2 (2.3-4.7) mmol/l pre-operatively to 4.4 mmol/l (3.3-5.3) post-operatively, P < 0.0001). Median (range) number of antihypertensive medications used fell from 3 (0-6) pre- to 1 post-operatively (range 0-4), P < 0.0001. Conclusions Unilateral adrenalectomy provides excellent long-term improvements in blood pressure control, polypharmacy and hypokalaemia in patients with lateralizing PA. These data may help inform discussions with patients contemplating surgery.