Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rate-Distortion Curve Evaluation for Cross-Layer Optimization in Multimedia Transmission

Robust streaming of video over wireless networks poses many challenges, as coping with bandwidth variations,data losses, and heterogeneity of the receivers. Rate-distortion(RD) optimization studies are aimed at increasing the reliability of received bitstreams, by selecting the opportunistic system parameters based on the channel conditions and the RD curve. One of the main challenges in the RD optimization is the evaluation of a RD curve. In this work we address the RD curve evaluation issue in cross-layer distortion optimization systems. The tradeoff between approximation in the evaluation and complexity in the computation is investigated. We propose an on-line method able to considerably improve the overall system performance, at the cost of an acceptable increase of the simulation complexity.
How geek kids get geek jobs : a cross-generational inquiry into digital play and young adults' careers in IT

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Formal Description of Components in Operating Systems

The contemporary development of hardware components is a prerequisite for increasing the concentration of computing power. System software is developing at a much slower pace. To use available resources efficiently modeling is required. Formalization of elements, present in the material, provides the basis for modeling. Examples are presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the concept.
Management of Cardiorenal Metabolic Syndrome in Diabetes Mellitus: A Phytotherapeutic Perspective

Cardiorenal syndrome (CRS) is a complex disease in which the heart and kidney are simultaneously affected and their deleterious declining functions are reinforced in a feedback cycle, with an accelerated progression. Although the coexistence of kidney and heart failure in the same individual carries an extremely bad prognosis, the exact cause of deterioration and the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the initiation and maintenance of the interaction are complex, multifactorial in nature, and poorly understood. Current therapy includes diuretics, natriuretic hormones, aquaretics (arginine vasopressin antagonists), vasodilators, and inotropes. However, large numbers of patients still develop intractable disease. Moreover, the development of resistance to many standard therapies, such as diuretics and inotropes, has led to an increasing movement toward utilization and development of novel therapies. Herbal and traditional natural medicines may complement or provide an alternative to prevent or delay the progression of CRS. This review provides an analysis of the possible mechanisms and the therapeutic potential of phytotherapeutic medicines for the amelioration of the progression of CRS.
Baby Boom or Bust? the New Media Effect on Political Participation

ABSTRACT A considerable number of studies have investigated the influence of new media on political attitudes and behaviors. However, much of this research focuses on young people, ignoring other age cohorts, particularly Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964). To fill this gap, this research examines the influence of attention to specific forms of traditional and online media on Baby Boomers’ online and offline political participation during the fall 2012 U.S. presidential campaign. Drawing on a Baby Boomer survey panel, responses were collected during the 2012 general election to analyze the empirical relationship between attention to traditional and online media sources and political participation. Data analyses reveal that Boomers’ attention to traditional media sources, particularly television, did not increase their offline and online political participation. Instead, various forms of offline and online participation were consistently heightened by Boomers’ attention to presidential candidate websites. In addition, attention to Facebook for campaign information was positively linked to online engagement. Boomers’ attention to blogs, Twitter, and YouTube were associated with only certain types of online and offline activities.
A cardiac telerehabilitation application for mobile devices

This paper presents a personal system and software architecture dedicated for cardiac telerehabilitation. The key idea of the hardware configuration and the software implementation is the integration of a mobile device and an ECG recorder with the application of wireless technologies: Bluetooth, GPS and GPRS. The main goal of the system is the reliable detection of the QRS complex providing a cardiovascular activity information to a cardiac telerehabilitation program. The prototype of the system allows the physician to construct a multistage training program, which can be divided into few levels. At each stage the supervising physician can customize parameters as: duration, speed, maximal and minimal heart rate. Additionally, a simple threshold-based alarm system has been implemented. The application of such monitors can reduce the costs and make the rehabilitation efficient, easier and allow an ubiquitous access.
Cardiovascular disease risk factors in 5-year-old urban South African children--the Birth to Ten Study.

BACKGROUND A birth cohort study, the Birth to Ten (BTT) study, commenced in the greater Johannesburg/Soweto metropole in South Africa in 1990. The overall BTT project collected antenatal, birth and early development information on these children as well as information that could help identify factors related to the emergence of risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in children. OBJECTIVE To determine CVD risk profiles and their determinants in 5-year-old children living in an urban environment in South Africa. METHODS Demographic and birth characteristics were collected on a sample of 964 5-year-olds whose parents agreed for blood samples to be taken from their children. The children's height and weight were measured using standardised procedures; blood pressure (BP) was measured with a Dinamap Vital Signs Monitor, and a non-fasting blood sample was drawn for lipid determinations. Information on exposure to tobacco smoke and additional health-related data were obtained by interview. RESULTS No differences were found between the birth weight and gestational age of the 5-year-old CVD participants and the remainder of the children studied at birth. The systolic BP was significantly different between ethnic groups, with the BP of the black children significantly higher than that of the Indian and white children, while the diastolic BP of black children was also the highest. White children had the highest mean total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC) levels, significantly higher than those in the black community. The coloured children's TC level was also significantly lower than that of the whites, while the LDLC level of the Indian children was significantly higher than that of the blacks. Overall, 64% of the children were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), with the white group having the lowest rate (45% exposed to ETS). The coloured children were most frequently exposed to ETS, with 40.6% having primary caregivers who smoked; of these children 42% lived in homes with two or more smokers. CONCLUSIONS Tobacco control legislation will protect South Africans against tobacco sales promotions. This will be the first step towards increasing the priority of chronic disease prevention, health promotion and appropriate care for chronic diseases and their risk factors on the South African health policy agenda. The groups of children that were studied carried differing but significant levels of CVD risk. This suggests that the promotion of a healthy lifestyle should start in childhood, and should target the risk factors found in each group.
Unhealthy effects of atmospheric temperature and pressure on the occurrence of myocardial infarction and coronary deaths. A 10-year survey: the Lille-World Health Organization MONICA project (Monitoring trends and determinants in cardiovascular disease).

BACKGROUND Associations between an increase in coronary heart disease occurrence and low atmospheric temperatures have been reported from mortality data and hospital admission registries. However, concomitant increases in noncardiovascular case fatality rates and selection bias of hospital cases may weaken this observation. In this study, we addressed the question of the relationships between fatal and nonfatal coronary diseases and meteorological variables in 10-year data (1985 to 1994) collected in a morbidity registry (Lille-WHO MONICA Project) monitoring 257 000 men from 25 to 64 years of age. METHODS AND RESULTS The impacts of atmospheric temperature (in Celsius) and pressure (in millibars) on daily rates of myocardial infarction (MI) and coronary deaths were studied. Percentages of variation of event rates according to meteorological variations were derived from the relative risks estimated with a Poisson regression model. During the 10-year longitudinal survey, 3616 events occurred. Rates of events decreased linearly with increasing atmospheric temperature. For atmospheric pressure, we detected a V-shaped relationship, with a minimum of daily event rates at 1016 mbar. A 10 degrees C decrease was associated with a 13% increase in event rates (P<0.0001); a 10-mbar decrease <1016 mbar and a 10-mbar increase >1016 mbar were associated with a 12% increase (P=0.001) and an 11% increase (P=0. 01) in event rates, respectively. These effects were independent and influenced both coronary morbidity and mortality rates, with stronger effects in older age groups and for recurrent events. CONCLUSIONS This longitudinal study is the first to estimate the attributable effect of meteorological variables on MI morbidity in population and strongly argues for a systematic fight against cold in cardiovascular disease prevention, particularly in older ages and after a first MI.
Distributed graph coloring in a few rounds

This paper considers the question of how many colors a distributed graph coloring algorithm would need to use if it had only <i>k</i> rounds available, for any positive integer <i>k</i>. In our main result, we present an algorithm that runs in <i>O</i>(<i>k</i>) rounds for any <i>k</i> bounded below by ©(log log <i>n</i>) and bounded above by <i>O</i>(√log <i>n</i>), and uses <i>O</i>(<i>a</i> Å <i>n</i><sup>1/<i>k</i></sup>) colors to color a graph with arboricity <i>a</i>. This result is optimal since the palette size matches the lower bound of Barenboim and Elkin (<i>PODC</i> 2008). This result is achieved via the use of several new results developed in this paper on coloring graphs whose edges have been acyclically oriented. For example, suppose that <i>G</i> is an <i>n</i>-vertex, acyclically oriented graph with maximum out-degree Δ<sub><i>o</i></sub>. We present an algorithm that, for any <i>k</i> ≥ 2 loglog <i>n</i>, runs in <i>O</i>(<i>k</i>) rounds on <i>G</i> to produce an (i) <i>O</i>(Δ<sub><i>o</i></sub>)-coloring when Δ<sub><i>o</i></sub> Δ ©(max<i>kn</i><sup>2/<i>k</i></sup><sup>2</sup>log<sup>1+1/<i>k</i></sup> <i>n</i>, 2<sup><i>k</i></sup>) and an (ii) <i>O</i>(Δ<sub><i>o</i></sub> Å <i>n</i><sup>2/<i>k</i><sup>2</sup></sup>)-coloring when Δ<sub><i>o</i></sub> ∈ Ω(max<i>k</i> log<sup>1+1/<i>k</i></sup> <i>n</i>, 2<sup><i>k</i></sup>). These results are useful in any setting where it is possible to efficiently compute acyclic orientations of a graph with Δ<sub><i>o</i></sub> << Δ. We derive non-trivial bounds on the palette size even when <i>k</i> < 2 loglog <i>n</i>. Our main technical contributions can be summarized as: (i) developing a <i>k</i>-round version of the algorithm of Kothapalli et al. (<i>IPDPS 2006</i>) which computes an <i>O</i>(? )-coloring of a graph in <i>O</i>(√log <i>n</i>) rounds, and (ii) developing an oriented version of the Brooks-Vizing coloring result of Grable and Panconesi (<i>SODA 1998</i>).
A Framework for Physical Growth and Child Development

It is widely recognized that there is a continuum of physical growth and social-emotional and cognitive development across the life course, from the preconception health status of the mother through adulthood. This paper lays out a core economic model that illustrates the interrelationship of investments over the life cycle. It then shows how this framework can be used to the relative cost-effectiveness analysis and benefit-cost analysis of interventions during early childhood development with both physical growth and cognition as key outcomes.
The impact of childhood language difficulties on healthcare costs from 4 to 13 years: Australian longitudinal study

Abstract Purpose: This study investigated the relationship between children’s language difficulties and health care costs using the 2004–2012 Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Method: Language difficulties were defined as scores ≤1.25SD below the standardised mean on measures of directly assessed receptive vocabulary (4–9 years) and teacher-reported language and literacy (10–13 years). Participant data were individually linked to administrative data, which were sourced from Australia’s universal subsidised healthcare scheme (Medicare). Result: It was found that healthcare costs over each 2-year age band were higher for children with language difficulties than without in the 4–5-year-age bracket (mean difference = AU$357, 95%CI $59, $659), in the 6–7-year-age bracket (mean difference = AU$602, 95%CI $136, $1068) and in the 10–11-year-age bracket (mean difference = AU$504, 95%CI $153, $854). Out-of-pocket costs, that is the portion of healthcare costs paid for by the family, were also higher for children with than without language difficulties in the 4–5-year-age bracket (mean difference = AU$123, 95%CI $46, $199), in the 6–7-year-age bracket (mean difference = AU$176, 95%CI $74,278) and in the 10–11-year-age bracket (mean difference = AU$79, 95%CI $6, $152). Medical services accounted for 97% of total healthcare cost differences. Conclusion: Overall the findings from this study suggest that language difficulties are associated with increased healthcare costs at key developmental milestones, notably early childhood and as a child approaches the teenage years.
House Prices, Credit Growth, and Excess Volatility: Implications for Monetary and Macroprudential Policy

Progress on the question of whether policymakers should respond directly to financial variables requires a realistic economic model that captures the links between asset prices, credit expansion, and real economic activity. Standard DSGE models with fully-rational expectations have difficulty producing large swings in house prices and household debt thatresemble the patterns observed in many developed countries over the past decade. We introduce excess volatility into an otherwise standard DSGE model by allowing a fraction of households to depart from fully-rational expectations. Specifically, we show that theintroduction of simple moving-average forecast rules for a subset of households can significantly magnify the volatility and persistence of house prices and household debt relative to otherwise similar model with fully-rational expectations. We evaluate various policy actions that might be used to dampen the resulting excess volatility, including a direct response to house price growth or credit growth in the central bank's interest rate rule, the imposition of more restrictive loan-to-value ratios, and the use of a modified collateral constraint that takes into account the borrower's loan-to-income ratio. Of these, we find that a loan-to-income constraint is the most effective tool for dampening overall excess volatility in the model economy. We find that while an interest-rate response to house price growth or credit growth can stabilize some economic variables, it can significantly magnify the volatility of others, particularly inflation.
Existence of Separate Domains in Lysin PlyG for Recognizing Bacillus anthracis Spores and Vegetative Cells

ABSTRACT As a potential antimicrobial, the bacteriophage lysin PlyG has been reported to specifically recognize Bacillus anthracis vegetative cells only and to kill B. anthracis vegetative cells and its germinating spores. However, how PlyG interacts with B. anthracis spores remains unclear. Herein, a 60-amino-acid domain in PlyG (residues 106 to 165), located mainly in the previously identified catalytic domain, was found able to specifically recognize B. anthracis spores but not vegetative cells. The exosporium of the spores was found to be the most probable binding target of this domain. This is the first time that a lysin for spore-forming bacteria has been found to have separate domains to recognize spores and vegetative cells, which might help in understanding the coevolution of phages with spore-forming bacteria. Besides providing new biomarkers for developing better assays for identifying B. anthracis spores, the newly found domain may be helpful in developing PlyG as a preventive antibiotic to reduce the threat of anthrax in suspected exposures to B. anthracis spores.
Deterministic Chaos and Fractal Complexity in the Dynamics of Cardiovascular Behavior: Perspectives on a New Frontier

Physiological systems such as the cardiovascular system are capable of five kinds of behavior: equilibrium, periodicity, quasi-periodicity, deterministic chaos and random behavior. Systems adopt one or more these behaviors depending on the function they have evolved to perform. The emerging mathematical concepts of fractal mathematics and chaos theory are extending our ability to study physiological behavior. Fractal geometry is observed in the physical structure of pathways, networks and macroscopic structures such the vasculature and the His-Purkinje network of the heart. Fractal structure is also observed in processes in time, such as heart rate variability. Chaos theory describes the underlying dynamics of the system, and chaotic behavior is also observed at many levels, from effector molecules in the cell to heart function and blood pressure. This review discusses the role of fractal structure and chaos in the cardiovascular system at the level of the heart and blood vessels, and at the cellular level. Key functional consequences of these phenomena are highlighted, and a perspective provided on the possible evolutionary origins of chaotic behavior and fractal structure. The discussion is non-mathematical with an emphasis on the key underlying concepts.
The lives of the others: sexual identity and relationship quality in Australia and the United Kingdom

Same-sex couples have been the subject of intense media and political discussion in relation to formal rights to marry and raise children. However, we still know comparatively little about the family outcomes of individuals from sexual minorities. We investigate the quality of the intimate relationships of heterosexual, gay/lesbian and bisexual individuals in Australia and the UK. We contribute to previous research by considering bisexual individuals and mixed-orientation couples, and using recent, large and nationally representative crossnational data. We find that relationship quality in same-sex couples is as high as, if not higher than, in heterosexual couples. This suggests that policies to legalise same-sex marriage are well-guided and sexual minority couples are well-placed to raise children in warm and loving environments. Another key finding is that the lowest relationship quality in both Australia and the UK is reported by bisexual individuals, which highlights the need to pay further attention to this subgroup.
Traumatic brain injury results in mast cell increase and changes in regulation of central histamine receptors

Experimental fluid‐percussion models produce brain injury by rapidly injecting saline into the closed cranium of rats. In this study our purpose was to determine how the central histaminergic system, which controls excitability and neurotransmitter release through G‐protein coupled receptors, is affected by the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury. We found that mast cell infiltration, as a result of the trauma, occurred primarily in the injured cortex and did not proceed beyond the fimbria of the hippocampus. In comparing injured animals with controls we found that H3 receptor binding densities are significantly decreased bilaterally in the cortex but are significantly increased bilaterally in the thalamus. H3 receptor binding densities may well be affected by mast cell secretion of mediators (i.e. histamine, heparin, leukotrienes), evidenced by detection of a cosecreted enzyme (mast cell tryptase) in the extracellular region. Moreover, we detected significant decreases in H1 and H3 receptor mRNA as well as Cu/Zn‐dependent superoxide dismutase (SOD) mRNA in the thalamic region closest to the trauma. These significant decreases delineate the extent of cellular damage because of trauma and may underlie sustained cognitive and motor deficits displayed by these animals.
Exceptional Use of Sex Pheromones by Parasitoids of the Genus Cotesia: Males Are Strongly Attracted to Virgin Females, but Are No Longer Attracted to or Even Repelled by Mated Females

Sex pheromones have rarely been studied in parasitoids, and it remains largely unknown how male and female parasitoids locate each other. We investigated possible attraction (and repellency) between the sexes of two braconid wasps belonging to the same genus, the gregarious parasitoid, Cotesia glomerata (L.), and the solitary parasitoid, Cotesia marginiventris (Cresson). Males of both species were strongly attracted to conspecific virgin females. Interestingly, in C. glomerata, the males were repelled by mated females, as well as by males of their own species. This repellency of mated females was only evident hours after mating, implying a change in pheromone composition. Males of C. marginiventris were also no longer attracted, but not repelled, by mated females. Females of both species showed no attraction to the odors of conspecific individuals, male or female, and C. glomerata females even appeared to be repelled by mated males. Moreover, the pheromones were found to be highly specific, as males were not attracted by females of the other species. Males of Cotesia glomerata even avoided the pheromones of female Cotesia marginiventris, indicating the recognition of non-conspecific pheromones. We discuss these unique responses in the context of optimal mate finding strategies in parasitoids.
An evaluation of some statistical methods for analysing numbers of abnormalities found amongst litters in teratology studies.

Skeletal abnormalities in rabbit, rat and mouse foetuses are found to follow closely beta-binomial distributions rather than simple binomial distributions, i.e., foetuses from the same litter are found to have closer chances of being abnormal than foetuses from different litters. Control and treated groups of 12 litters were simulated using beta-binomial distributions and were used to compare the performances of three types of analysis on two-group teratological studies: Student's t test on the litter proportions, transformed or weighted where necessary; the Wilcoxon distribution-free on ranked litter proportions; and likelihood ratio tests assuming a beta-binomial distribution of abnormalities. It was found that the likelihood ratio tests do not have Type I errors equal to the nominal level and are not more powerful than the Student's t test or the Wilcoxon test. The latter two tests produce similar results but the Student's t test is marginally more powerful.