Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Test Adequacy Evaluation for the User-database Interaction: A Specification-Based Approach

Testing a database application is a challenging process where both the database and the user interaction have to be considered in the design of test cases. This paper describes a specification-based approach to guide the design of test inputs (both the test database and the user inputs) for a database application and to automatically evaluate the test adequacy. First, the system specification of the application is modelled: (1) the structure of the database and the user interface are represented in a single model, called Integrated Data Model (IDM), (2) the functional requirements are expressed as a set of business rules, written in terms of the IDM. Then, a MCDC-based criterion is applied over the business rules to automatically derive the situations of interest to be tested (test requirements), which guide the design of the test inputs. Finally, the adequacy of these test inputs is automatically evaluated to determine whether the test requirements are covered. The approach has been applied to the TPC-C benchmark. The results show that it allows designing test cases that are able to detect interesting faults which were located in the procedural code of the implementation.
Evolving role of microparticles in the pathophysiology of endothelial dysfunction.

BACKGROUND Endothelial dysfunction is an early event in the development and progression of a wide range of cardiovascular diseases. Various human studies have identified that measures of endothelial dysfunction may offer prognostic information with respect to vascular events. Microparticles (MPs) are a heterogeneous population of small membrane fragments shed from various cell types. The endothelium is one of the primary targets of circulating MPs, and MPs isolated from blood have been considered biomarkers of vascular injury and inflammation. CONTENT This review summarizes current knowledge of the potential functional role of circulating MPs in promoting endothelial dysfunction. Cells exposed to different stimuli such as shear stress, physiological agonists, proapoptotic stimulation, or damage release MPs, which contribute to endothelial dysfunction and the development of cardiovascular diseases. Numerous studies indicate that MPs may trigger endothelial dysfunction by disrupting production of nitric oxide release from vascular endothelial cells and subsequently modifying vascular tone. Circulating MPs affect both proinflammatory and proatherosclerotic processes in endothelial cells. In addition, MPs can promote coagulation and inflammation or alter angiogenesis and apoptosis in endothelial cells. SUMMARY MPs play an important role in promoting endothelial dysfunction and may prove to be true biomarkers of disease state and progression.
Proliferative Defects and Formation of a Double Cortex in Mice Lacking Mltt4 and Cdh2 in the Dorsal Telencephalon

Radial glial cells (RGCs) in the ventricular neuroepithelium of the dorsal telencephalon are the progenitor cells for neocortical projection neurons and astrocytes. Here we show that the adherens junction proteins afadin and CDH2 are critical for the control of cell proliferation in the dorsal telencephalon and for the formation of its normal laminar structure. Inactivation of afadin or CDH2 in the dorsal telencephalon leads to a phenotype resembling subcortical band heterotopia, also known as “double cortex,” a brain malformation in which heterotopic gray matter is interposed between zones of white matter. Adherens junctions between RGCs are disrupted in the mutants, progenitor cells are widely dispersed throughout the developing neocortex, and their proliferation is dramatically increased. Major subtypes of neocortical projection neurons are generated, but their integration into cell layers is disrupted. Our findings suggest that defects in adherens junctions components in mice massively affects progenitor cell proliferation and leads to a double cortex-like phenotype.
The Period-Luminosity Relation of RR Lyrae Stars in the SDSS Photometric System

We provide the first detailed study of the RR Lyrae period-luminosity (PL) relation in the ugriz bandpasses of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) filter system. We argue that tight, simple PL relations are not present in the SDSS filters, except for the redder bandpasses i and (especially) z. However, for all bandpasses, we show that by incorporating terms involving a (fairly reddening-independent) “pseudocolor” C0 ≡ (u − g)0 − (g − r)0, we can obtain tight (nonlinear) relations. We provide such theoretically calibrated relations in the present paper, which should be useful in deriving precise absolute magnitudes (hence distances) and intrinsic colors (hence reddening values) even to individual field RR Lyrae stars. For applications to cases in which photometry in all five passbands may not be available, we also provide simple (although less precise) average PL relations for the i and z bandpasses, which read as and Similarly, simple period-color relations for (r − i)0, (g − r)0, and (u − z)0 are also provided.
Retrospective analysis of the efficacy of omalizumab in chronic refractory urticaria

Omalizumab has been shown to be effective in chronic urticaria (CU) patients in numerous reports. However, it remains unknown whether there are specific phenotypes of CU that are more responsive to omalizumab therapy. We sought to identify CU phenotypes responsive to treatment with omalizumab by characterizing patients and their response patterns. A retrospective chart review analysis of refractory CU patients unresponsive to high-dose H1-blockers and immunomodulators and subsequently treated with omalizumab at the University of Wisconsin Allergy Clinic was performed with particular focus on their autoimmune characteristics, response to therapy, and dosing parameters. We analyzed 19 refractory CU patients (16 patients failed or had toxic side effects to immunomodulators) treated with omalizumab with an overall response rate of 89% (17/19). Of these 19 patients, 9 patients (47%) had a complete response, 8 patients (42%) had a partial response, and 2 patients (11%) had no response. In comparing the response patterns to omalizumab, we found no statistically significant differences among "autoimmune positive" versus "autoimmune negative" patients. No statistically significant differences in responses were observed when comparing demographic parameters including age, gender, IgE levels, or dosing regimen. Our study shows that omalizumab has robust efficacy in refractory CU patients regardless of their autoimmune status, age, gender, IgE levels, or dosing protocol.
Modifiable worker risk factors contributing to workplace absence: a stakeholder-centred best-evidence synthesis of systematic reviews.

BACKGROUND A challenge facing stakeholders is the identification and translation of relevant high quality research to inform policy and practice. This study engaged academic and community stakeholders in conducting a best evidence-synthesis to identify modifiable risk and protective worker factors across health conditions impacting work-related absence. OBJECTIVES To identify modifiable worker disability risk and protective factors across common health conditions impacting work-related absence. METHODS We searched Medline, Embase, CINHAL, The Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, BusinessSourceComplete, and ABI/Inform from 2000 to 2011. Quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods systematic reviews of work-focused population were considered for inclusion. Two or more reviewers independently reviewed articles for inclusion and methodological screening. RESULTS The search strategy, expert input and grey literature identified 2,467 unique records. One hundred and forty-two full text articles underwent comprehensive review. Twenty-four systematic reviews met eligibility criteria. Modifiable worker factors found to have consistent evidence across two or more health conditions included emotional distress, negative enduring psychology/personality factors, negative health and disability perception, decreased physical activity, lack of family support, poor general health, increased functional disability, increased pain, increased fatigue and lack of motivation to return to work. CONCLUSIONS Systematic reviews are limited by availability of high quality studies, lack of consistency of methodological screening and reporting, and variability of outcome measures used.
Mycoplasma pneumoniae Infection in Children Is a Risk Factor for Developing Allergic Diseases

Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) infection is the dominant cause of pneumonia in children. We sought to determine the relationship between MP infection and secondary allergic disease and to clarify the associated mechanisms of inflammatory response. A prospective study was performed among 1330 patients diagnosed with pneumonia to investigate the patient immune status by determining the correlation between MP infection, immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels, and a spectrum of associated serum cytokines. Serum IgE, IL-4, IL-6, and IL-10 levels for MPP patients in the acute phase were obviously higher than those in the recovery phase (P < 0.01). MPP patients with allergic conditions had increased serum IgE levels and increased IL-4/INF-γ ratio, and IgE and Eosinophil Cationic Protein were further elevated in patients who eventually developed secondary asthma changes. Patients with severe pneumonia and high clinical pulmonary infection scores presented higher levels of IL-4 and IL-5 in serum than those with low scores (P < 0.01). The proportion of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells that secreted IL-4 was significantly increased in MPP patients with elevated IgE. Our data demonstrate a significant correlation between MP infection and IgE levels, which is associated with a Th1/Th2 cytokine imbalance.
The paparazzi problem

Multiple mobile robots, or robot collectives, have been proposed as solutions to various tasks in which distributed sensing and action are required. Here we consider applying a collective of robots to the paparazzi problem - the problem of providing sensor coverage of a target robot. We demonstrate how the computational task of the collective can be formulated as a global energy minimization task over the entire collective, and show how individual members of the collective can solve the task in a distributed fashion so that the entire collective meets its goal. This result is then extended to consider unbounded communication delays between members and complete failure of individual members of the collective.
Intrathecal Lamotrigine Attenuates Mechanical Allodynia and Suppresses Microglial and Astrocytic Activation in a Rat Model of Spinal Nerve Ligation

Purpose Lamotrigine, a novel anticonvulsant, is a sodium channel blocker that is efficacious in certain forms of neuropathic pain. Recently, microglial and astrocytic activation has been implicated in the development of nerve injury-induced neuropathic pain. We have assessed the effects of continuous intrathecal administration of lamotrigine on the development of neuropathic pain and glial activation induced by L5/6 spinal-nerve ligation in rats. Materials and Methods Following left L5/6 spinal nerve ligation (SNL), Sprague-Dawley male rats were intrathecally administered lamotrigine (24, 72, or 240 µg/day) or saline continuously for 7 days. Mechanical allodynia of the left hind paw to von Frey filament stimuli was determined before surgery (baseline) and once daily for 7 days postoperatively. On day 7, spinal activation of microglia and astrocytes was evaluated immunohistochemically, using antibodies to the microglial marker OX-42 and the astrocyte marker glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Results Spinal-nerve ligation induced mechanical allodynia in saline-treated rats, with OX-42 and GFAP immunoreactivity being significantly increased on the ipsilateral side of the spinal cord. Continuously administered intrathecal lamotrigine (240 µg/day) prevented the development of mechanical allodynia, and lower dose of lamotrigine (72 µg/day) ameliorated allodynia. Intrathecal lamotrigine (72 and 240 µg/day) inhibited nerve ligation-induced microglial and astrocytic activation, as evidenced by reduced numbers of cells positive for OX-42 and GFAP. Conclusion Continuously administered intrathecal lamotrigine blocked the development of mechanical allodynia induced by SNL with suppression of microglial and astrocytic activation. Continuous intrathecal administration of lamotrigine may be a promising therapeutic intervention to prevent neuropathy.
Support vector machines for multi-class pattern recognition

The solution of binary classi(cid:12)cation problems using support vector machines (SVMs) is well developed, but multi-class problems with more than two classes have typically been solved by combining independently produced binary classi(cid:12)ers. We propose a formulation of the SVM that enables a multi-class pattern recognition problem to be solved in a single optimisation. We also propose a similar generalization of linear programming machines. We report experiments using bench-mark datasets in which these two methods achieve a reduction in the number of support vectors and kernel calculations needed
Effect of Salt on Isoprostanes in Salt-Sensitive Essential Hypertension

The controversy over beneficial versus harmful effects of salt on cardiovascular outcomes may be caused by different effects of salt on intermediate phenotypes of hypertension not characterized in epidemiological studies. Hence, we investigated acute effects of salt on oxidative stress in hypertensive subjects classified as salt sensitive (SS, n=14) or salt resistant (SR, n=13) by an inpatient protocol of salt loading (460 mmol NaCl) and salt depletion (10 mmol NaCl and furosemide). Oxidative stress was assessed by measuring the plasma isoprostane 8-iso-PGF2α. SS had lower plasma renin activity, higher aldosterone/renin ratios, and exaggerated endothelin and catecholamine responses to salt depletion compared with SR. Baseline lipid-bound isoprostanes (749±70 pmol/L) were 83% of the total and were slightly but not significantly higher in SS than SR. Baseline free isoprostanes did not differ between groups. After salt loading, lipid-bound isoprostanes were higher in SS (945±106) than SR (579±57; P<0.01). Salt depletion significantly decreased them in SS (−174±84) and increased them in SR (+129±58), equalizing their levels (771±61 versus 708±91; P value not significant). Free isoprostanes were decreased by salt depletion only if data in all of the patients were analyzed together. Total isoprostanes followed the pattern of the lipid-bound fraction. Correlations between salt depletion-induced changes in lipid-bound isoprostanes, plasma renin activity (r=0.45; P<0.02), and aldosterone/renin ratios (r=−0.41; P<0.04) suggested that the more SS the patient, the greater the reduction of oxidative stress by salt depletion. Our research is the first to show that salt affects oxidative stress acutely in humans, particularly in SS hypertension, which may explain the controversial results of epidemiological studies on salt and morbidity and may have implications for therapy.
Semi Supervised Learning in Wild Faces and Videos

We propose an approach for improving unconstrained face recognition based on leveraging weakly labeled web videos. It is easy to obtain videos that are likely to contain a face of interest from sites such as YouTube through issuing queries with a person’s name; however, many examples of faces not belonging to the person of interest will be present. We propose a new technique capable of learning using weakly or noisly labeled faces obtained in this setting. In particular, we present a novel method for semi-supervised learning using noisy labels which incorporates a margin or null category like property within a fully probabilistic framework. We outline general properties of the approach, showing how the choice of an exponential hyperprior results in an L1 penality which leads to sparse models capable of explicitly accounting for label uncertainty producing state of the art performance. We then illustrate how the margin approach provides robustness and significant performance gains when faces within YouTube search results are combined with the unconstrained face images from the Labeled Faces in the wild dataset.
Estimation of Propagation Delay considering Short-Circuit Current for Static CMOS Gates

We present a formula of propagation delay for static CMOS logic gates considering short-circuit current and current flowing through gate capacitance and using the nth power law MOSFET model which considers velocity saturation effects. The short circuit current is represented by a piecewise linear function, which enables detailed analysis of the transient behaviour of a CMOS inverter. We found that the error of our formulas for a CMOS inverter is less than 8% from circuit simulation in most cases of our experiments. We also applied these formulas to logic gates made up of series-parallel connected MOSFETs by replacing the series-connected MOSFETs with an equivalent MOSFET. The influence of short-circuit power on delay, which is explicitly modeled in our formula, is numerically demonstrated such that the influence becomes large with slow input transition and small output load capacitance.
Model based open looped position control of PAM actuator

The Pneumatic Artificial Muscle (PAM) has great potential in industrial, robotic and prosthesis applications because of the extreme power to weight ratio, high strength and scalability for different purposes. However it is hard to control without precise modeling because of its high nonlinearity. In this paper we present our more accurate transfer function in comparison with other approaches. Finally we present the design and experimental testing of an open looped position controller for PAM actuator using the inverse of the transfer function.
Membrane transporters for the special amino acid glutamine: structure/function relationships and relevance to human health

Glutamine together with glucose is essential for body's homeostasis. It is the most abundant amino acid and is involved in many biosynthetic, regulatory and energy production processes. Several membrane transporters which differ in transport modes, ensure glutamine homeostasis by coordinating its absorption, reabsorption and delivery to tissues. These transporters belong to different protein families, are redundant and ubiquitous. Their classification, originally based on functional properties, has recently been associated with the SLC nomenclature. Function of glutamine transporters is studied in cells over-expressing the transporters or, more recently in proteoliposomes harboring the proteins extracted from animal tissues or over-expressed in microorganisms. The role of the glutamine transporters is linked to their transport modes and coupling with Na+ and H+. Most transporters share specificity for other neutral or cationic amino acids. Na+-dependent co-transporters efficiently accumulate glutamine while antiporters regulate the pools of glutamine and other amino acids. The most acknowledged glutamine transporters belong to the SLC1, 6, 7, and 38 families. The members involved in the homeostasis are the co-transporters B0AT1 and the SNAT members 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7; the antiporters ASCT2, LAT1 and 2. The last two are associated to the ancillary CD98 protein. Some information on regulation of the glutamine transporters exist, which, however, need to be deepened. No information at all is available on structures, besides some homology models obtained using similar bacterial transporters as templates. Some models of rat and human glutamine transporters highlight very similar structures between the orthologs. Moreover the presence of glycosylation and/or phosphorylation sites located at the extracellular or intracellular faces has been predicted. ASCT2 and LAT1 are over-expressed in several cancers, thus representing potential targets for pharmacological intervention.
Exact inference for categorical data: recent advances and continuing controversies

Methods for exact small‐sample analyses with categorical data have been increasingly well developed in recent years. A variety of exact methods exist, primarily using the approach that eliminates unknown parameters by conditioning on their sufficient statistics. In addition, a variety of algorithms now exist for implementing the methods. This paper briefly summarizes the exact approaches and describes recent developments. Controversy continues about the appropriateness of some exact methods, primarily relating to their conservative nature because of discreteness. This issue is examined for two simple problems in which discreteness can be severe – interval estimation of a proportion and the odds ratio. In general, adjusted exact methods based on the mid‐P‐value seem a reasonable way of reducing the severity of this problem. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Decision-Tree Model for Software Evolution Analysis

A modularization technique, or a refactoring method, benefits a design if the potential changes to the design can be well encapsulated by the technique. In general, questions in software evolution, such as which modularization technique is better and whether it is worthwhile to refactor, should be evaluated against potential changes. In this paper, we present a decision-tree-based framework to generally assess design modularization in terms of its changeability. In this framework, we formalize design evolution questions as decision problems, model software designs and potential changes using augmented constraint networks (ACNs), and represent design modular structure before and after envisioned changes using design structure matrices (DSMs) derived from ACNs. We formalize change impacts using an evolution vector to precisely capture well-known informal design principles. For the purposes of illustration and preliminary evaluation, we use this model to compare the aspectoriented and object-oriented observer pattern in terms of their ability to accommodate envisioned changes. The results confirm previous results, but in formal and quantitative ways. We also show that this approach can be generalized to real designs by applying our approach to the partial refactoring decision-making problem of the Galileo fault tree analysis tool.
Coded random access: applying codes on graphs to design random access protocols

The rise of machine-to-machine communications has rekindled interest in random access protocols as a support for a massive number of uncoordinatedly transmitting devices. The legacy ALOHA approach is developed under a collision model, where slots containing collided packets are considered as waste. However, if the common receiver (e.g. base station) is able to store the collision slots and use them in a transmission recovery process based on successive interference cancellation, the design space for access protocols is radically expanded. We present the paradigm of coded random access, in which the structure of the access protocol can be mapped to a structure of an erasure-correcting code defined on a graph. This opens the possibility to use coding theory and tools for designing efficient random access protocols, offering markedly better performance than ALOHA. Several instances of coded random access protocols are described, as well as a case study on how to upgrade a legacy ALOHA system using the ideas of coded random access.
Multi-objective evolutionary optimization of subsonic airfoils by kriging approximation and evolution control

This work focuses on multi-objective evolutionary optimization by approximation function. It uses the new general concept of evolution control to online enriching the database of correct solutions, which are the basis of the learning procedure for the kriging approximators. Substantially, given an initial very poor model approximation (small size of the database), the database, and consequently the models, is enriched by evaluating part of the individuals of the optimization process. The technique showed being efficient for the considered aerodynamic problem, by requiring few hundreds of true computations when the dimensionality of the problem is 5.