Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed path selection (DPS) a traffic engineering protocol for IP-networks

The path selection strategy of an autonomous system (AS) has got a strong impact on the latency of packets travelling through the AS and the throughput of the underlying network. In theoretical analysis it has been shown for a simple load balancing approach that it can achieve a near optimal packet throughput even in the case of a dynamically changing network and for adversarial packet injections. Similar results have not been shown for any other protocol. The drawbacks of this load balancing approach are that it requires a large amount of information that has to be spread among the network, that it does not detect the drop out of nodes, and that it requires a complex buffer management. In this paper we examine the new routing protocol DPS (distributed path selection) that is based on this simple load balancing approach. DPS overcomes its restrictions by the use of new protocol enhancements and is able to transfer the optimal properties of the load balancing approach into a routing protocol. Comparing DPS with OSPF and RIP by simulation, we show that DPS is able to significantly improve the properties of the path system by considering the network topology as well as the traffic pattern while calculating the path system in a reasonable amount of time.
Integrating Mindfulness‐Based Stress Reduction

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programs may mitigate the effects of stress and disease. This integrative review identified 21 clinical studies on MBSR interventions. Although preliminary findings suggest health enhancement from MBSR, controlled, randomized studies, the operationalization of constructs, and qualitative research are needed.
Psychosocial work environment and sickness absence among British civil servants: the Whitehall II study.

OBJECTIVES This study sought to examine the association between the psychosocial work environment and subsequent rates of sickness absence. METHODS The analyses were based on a cohort of male and female British civil servants (n=9072). Rates of short spells (<or=7 days) and long spells (>7 days) of sickness absence were calculated for different aspects of the psychosocial work environment, as measured by self-reports and personnel managers' ratings (external assessments). RESULTS Low levels of work demands, control, and support were associated with higher rates of short and long spells of absence in men and, to a lesser extent, in women. The differences were similar for the self-reports and external assessments. After adjustment for grade of employment, the differences were diminished but generally remained significant for short spells. The combination of high demands and low control was only associated with higher rates of short spells in the lower grades. CONCLUSIONS The psychosocial work environment predicts rates of sickness absence. Increased levels of control and support at work could have beneficial effects in terms of both improving the health and well-being of employees and increasing productivity.
FINANCIAL DEREGULATION IN MALAYSIAN BANKING / LA LIBERALISATION FINANCIERE DANS LE SYSTEME BANCAIRE DE LA MALAYSIA

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent and impact of deregulation in the Malaysian Banking System. In particular, the focus is on the extent to which the deregulation process has contributed to competition, stability and financial fragility, and the reallocation of portfolios and liquidity in the banking system. The results indicate that: first, an increase in the degree of competition and a reduction in liquidity and a better reallocation and bank's portfolios. Second, financial fragility and poor assets quality, together with bad management have forced the Central Bank to take further steps to maintain public confidence and slowed recovery. Third, interest rates are expected to be able to interact closely with economic activity and inflation. LA LIBERALISATION FINANCIERS DANS LE SYSTEME BANCAIRE DE LA MALAYSIA Resume Le but de cet article est revaluation de la portee et de I'effet du deregulation du systeme banquaire Malaisien. II s'agit particulierement de determiner dans quelle mesure le processus de deregulation a contribue a la concurrence, la stabilite etla fragilite financiere et a la redistribution des portefeuilles et de la liquidite du systeme bancaire. Les resultats indiquent, d'abord, une augmentation du degres de concurrence, une diminution de liquidite et une amelioration dans la distribution des portefeuilles bancaires. En plus, la fragilite financiere et la qualite inferieure des actifs en meme temps que la mauvaise direction ont oblige la banque centrale a faire des demarches supplementaires pour maintenir la confiance publique. Ainsi on a vu un ralentissement du redressement economique. Finalement, on attend une interaction marquee entre les taux d'interet, I'activite economique et I'inflation.
Optimizing Wide Area Measurement System architectures with advancements in Phasor Data Concentrators (PDCs)

Large scale deployment of Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS) is underway at several major power utilities around the globe. This is influencing several activities and discussions at international standard associations (IEEE/IEC) and meetings (NASPI/CIGRE/PSRC) to devise the effective but optimum WAMS architecture. This paper presents some of the recent advancements in Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC) technology to achieve fit-to-purpose WAMS architecture. The presented guidelines can be used to reduce the network bandwidth requirements as well as PDC latency. In addition, this paper also discusses various desired features to handle communication network contingencies, e.g. GPS fail, loss of PMU communication, PMU streams with different data rates and different latency; lost synchrophasor data; diagnostics and their notification at upstream devices, etc.
Monolithically Peltier-cooled laser diodes

A new method of cooling a GaAs/GaAlAs laser in an optical integrated circuit or on a discrete chip, by adding an integral thermoelectric (Peltier) cooling and heat spreading device to the laser, is presented. This cooling both reduces and stabilizes the laser junction temperature to minimize such deleterious effects as wavelength drift due to heating. A unified description of the electrical and thermal properties of a monolithic semiconductor mesa structure is given, Here it is shown that an improvement in thermal characteristics is obtained by depositing a relatively thick metallic layer, and by using this layer as a part of an active Peltier structure. Experimental results reveal a 14-percent increase in emitted power (external quantum efficiency) due to passive heat spreading and a further 8-percent if its Peltier cooler is operated. Fabrication techniques used to obtain devices exhibiting the above performance characteristics are given.
Moving Home: Examining the Independent Effects of Individual- and Neighborhood-Level Residential Mobility on Recidivism in High-Risk Parolees

A number of studies have shown that the residential mobility of an offender postrelease can significantly influence recidivism. Research has also shown how the mobility of neighborhoods into which offenders are released is an important contextual factor that predicts recidivism. Within the social disorganization framework, this study combines these lines of research by examining the effect of both individual- and neighborhood-level residential mobility on recidivism for a cohort of high-risk prisoners released on parole in New Zealand. Using multilevel analysis techniques, we found that neither immediate individual-level residential mobility nor neighborhood-level mobility was associated with recidivism after controlling for various multilevel predictors. A number of individual- and neighborhood-level variables were predictive of recidivism, including the number of parole conditions placed on the released offender, and the percent foreign born in their neighborhood. These results are discussed within the context of an increasingly eclectic and diverse country.
Baseline Intraocular Pressure Is Associated With Subjective Sensitivity to Physical Exertion in Young Males

ABSTRACT Purpose: The purposes of this study were to (a) investigate the effect of physical effort (cycling for 60 min at 60 ± 5% of individually computed reserve heart-rate capacity), combined with 2 different levels of cognitive demand (2-back, oddball), on intraocular pressure (IOP) and subjective judgments of perceived exertion (ratings of perceived exertion [RPE]), affect (Affective Valence subscale of the Self-Assessment Manikin [SAM]), and mental workload (National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index [NASA-TLX]); and (b) ascertain whether baseline IOP, measured before exercise, is associated with individual differences in subjective assessments of effort and affective response during exercise. Method: Seventeen participants (Mage = 23.28 ± 2.37 years) performed 2 physical/cognitive dual tasks, matched in physical demand but with different mental requirements (2-back, oddball). We assessed IOP before exercise, after 2 min of active recovery, and after 15 min of passive recovery, and we also collected RPE and SAM measures during the sessions (28 measurement points). We used NASA-TLX and cognitive performance as checks of the mental manipulation. Results: (a) Intraocular pressure increased after concomitant physical/mental effort, with the effect reaching statistical significance after the 2-back task (p = .002, d = 0.35) but not after the oddball condition (p = .092, d = 0.29). (b) Baseline IOP was associated with subjective sensitivity to effort and showed statistical significance for the oddball condition (p = .03, ƞp2 = .622) but not for the 2-back task (F < 1). Conclusions: Results suggest a relationship between IOP and physical/cognitive effort, which could have implications for the management of glaucoma. Additionally, a rapid measure of IOP could be used as a marker of individual effort sensitivity in applied settings.
Improving the Performance of an SVM-Based Method for Predicting Protein-Protein Interactions

Predicting the interactions between all the possible pairs of proteins in a given organism (making a protein-protein interaction map) is a crucial subject in bioinformatics. Most of the previous methods based on supervised machine learning use datasets containing approximately the same number of interacting pairs of proteins (positives) and non-interacting pairs of proteins (negatives) for training a classifier and are estimated to yield a large number of false positives. Thinking that the negatives used in previous studies cannot adequately represent all the negatives that need to be taken into account, we have developed a method based on multiple Support Vector Machines (SVMs) that uses more negatives than positives for predicting interactions between pairs of yeast proteins and pairs of human proteins. We show that the performance of a single SVM improved as we increased the number of negatives used for training and that, if more than one CPU is available, an approach using multiple SVMs is useful not only for improving the performance of classifiers but also for reducing the time required for training them. Our approach can also be applied to assessing the reliability of high-throughput interactions.
The impact of pruritus on quality of life: the skin equivalent of pain.

OBJECTIVE To compare the impact of chronic pruritus and chronic pain on quality of life (QoL) using directly elicited health utility scores. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Convenience sample of patients attending the Emory Dermatology Clinic, Emory Spine Center, and Emory Center for Pain Management, Atlanta, Georgia. PARTICIPANTS Adult men and women (aged ≥ 18 years) experiencing chronic pain or pruritus for 6 weeks or more. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The mean utility score of patients with chronic pruritus was compared with that of patients with chronic pain. A regression analysis was performed to determine the impact of the primary predictor variable-symptom type-on the primary outcome variable-mean utility score (a metric representing the impact on QoL). RESULTS The study included 73 patients with chronic pruritus and 138 patients with chronic pain. The mean (SD) utility among patients with pruritus was 0.87 (0.27) compared with 0.77 (0.31) for patients with pain (P < .01). After symptom severity, duration, and demographic factors were controlled for, only symptom severity (0.03 [P < .05]) and single marital status (-0.12 [P = .02]), but not symptom type (P = .43), remained significant predictors of the mean symptom utility score. CONCLUSIONS Chronic pruritus has a substantial impact on QoL, one that may be comparable to that of pain. The severity of symptoms and the use of support networks are the main factors that determine the degree to which patients are affected by their symptoms. Addressing support networks in addition to developing new therapies may improve the QoL of itchy patients.
Production of the Bsa Lantibiotic by Community-Acquired Staphylococcus aureus Strains

ABSTRACT Lantibiotics are antimicrobial peptides that have been the focus of much attention in recent years with a view to clinical, veterinary, and food applications. Although many lantibiotics are produced by food-grade bacteria or bacteria generally regarded as safe, some lantibiotics are produced by pathogens and, rather than contributing to food safety and/or health, add to the virulence potential of the producing strains. Indeed, genome sequencing has revealed the presence of genes apparently encoding a lantibiotic, designated Bsa (bacteriocin of Staphylococcus aureus), among clinical isolates of S. aureus and those associated with community-acquired methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) infections in particular. Here, we establish for the first time, through a combination of reverse genetics, mass spectrometry, and mutagenesis, that these genes encode a functional lantibiotic. We also reveal that Bsa is identical to the previously identified bacteriocin staphylococcin Au-26, produced by an S. aureus strain of vaginal origin. Our examination of MRSA isolates that produce the Panton-Valentine leukocidin demonstrates that many community-acquired S. aureus strains, and representatives of ST8 and ST80 in particular, are producers of Bsa. While possession of Bsa immunity genes does not significantly enhance resistance to the related lantibiotic gallidermin, the broad antimicrobial spectrum of Bsa strongly indicates that production of this bacteriocin confers a competitive ecological advantage on community-acquired S. aureus.
The CBCL as a screen for psychiatric comorbidity in paediatric patients with ADHD

Aims: To examine the informativeness of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) as a screening tool to identify comorbid and non-comorbid cases of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a paediatrically referred population. It was hypothesised that specific scales of the CBCL would help identify specific comorbidities within ADHD cases in the primary care setting. Methods: The sample consisted of children and adolescents 6–17 years old of both genders with ADHD (n = 121). A receiver operating curve (ROC) approach was used to determine which CBCL scales best differentiated between ADHD cases with and without its comorbidities with conduct, anxiety, and mood disorders. Results: ROC analysis showed that the CBCL Delinquent Behavior and Aggressive Behavior scales predicted the structured interview derived diagnoses of conduct and bipolar disorder, the Anxious/Depressed and Aggressive Behavior scales predicted major depression, and the Anxious/Depressed and Attention problems scales predicted anxiety disorders. Conclusions: These results extend to a paediatrically referred population with previously reported findings in psychiatric samples documenting good convergence between structured interview diagnoses and syndrome congruent CBCL scales. These findings support the utility of the CBCL as a screening tool for the identification of psychiatric comorbidity in ADHD youth in the primary care setting.
Does Observation of Others Affect People's Cooperative Behavior? An Experimental Study on Threshold Public Goods Games

This paper investigates whether observation of others affects people's behavior in the context of two threshold public goods games, the no rebate rule game and the utilization rebate rule game. In both rebate rules, subjects can get a benefit from the public good if their group can collect enough contributions to the public good. The difference between the two rules is how the excess amounts of contributions are distributed among people: the excess amounts of contributions are not distributed among people in the no rebate rule, while they are distributed among people equally in the utilization rebate rule. In spite of this difference, the two rules have the same Nash predictions. To see the effect of observation of others’ actions, we ran three observational treatments under the two rebate rules. In one treatment, subjects could convey their individual contribution to other group members if they would like to reveal it. Although adding such a revelation stage does not change the equilibrium prediction, subjects in the utilization rebate rule cooperated significantly more than when they could not reveal their individual contribution to others. However, such positive effect was not clearly found in the no rebate rule. These experimental results show that the effect of observation of others can be different depending on games, even though the theoretical predictions of the games are similar. Also the results imply that the free-rider problem can be solved when people can use a reputation building strategy effectively.
Association between tobacco smoking and response to tumour necrosis factor α inhibitor treatment in psoriatic arthritis: results from the DANBIO registry

Objectives To investigate the association between tobacco smoking and disease activity, treatment adherence and treatment responses among patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) initiating the first tumour necrosis factor α inhibitor therapy (TNFi) in routine care. Methods Observational cohort study based on the Danish nationwide DANBIO registry. Kaplan–Meier plots, logistic and Cox regression analyses by smoking status (current/previous/never smoker) were calculated for treatment adherence, ACR20/50/70-responses and EULAR-good-response. Additional stratified analyses were performed according to gender and TNFi-subtype (adalimumab/etanercept/infliximab). Results Among 1388 PsA patients included in the study, 1148 (83%) had known smoking status (33% current, 41% never and 26% previous smokers). Median follow-up time was 1.22 years (IQR 0.44–2.96). At baseline, current smokers had lower Body Mass Index (27 kg/m2 (23–30)/28 kg/m2 (24–31)) (median (IQR)), shorter disease duration (3 years (1–8)/5 years (2–10)), lower swollen joint count (2 (0–5)/3 (1–6)), higher visual-analogue-scale (VAS) patient global (72 mm (54–87)/68 mm (50–80)), VAS fatigue (72 mm (51–86)/63 mm (40–77)) and Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) score (1.1 (0.7 to 1.5)/1.0 (0.5 to 1.5)) than never smokers (all p<0.05). Current smokers had shorter treatment adherence than never smokers (1.56 years (0.97 to 2.15)/2.43 years (1.88 to 2.97), (median (95% CI)), log rank p=0.02) and poorer 6 months’ EULAR-good-response rates (23%/34%), ACR20 (24%/33%) and ACR50 response rates (17%/24%) (all p<0.05), most pronounced in men. In current smokers, the treatment adherence was poorer for infliximab (HR) 1.62, 95% CI 1.06 to 2.48) and etanercept (HR 1.74, 1.14 to 2.66) compared to never smokers, but not for adalimumab (HR 0.80, 0.52 to 1.23). Conclusion In PsA, smokers had worse baseline patient-reported outcomes, shorter treatment adherence and poorer response to TNFi's compared to non-smokers. This was most pronounced in men and in patients treated with infliximab or etanercept.
A novel active load-pull system with multi-band capabilities

In this paper a novel active open-loop multi-band load-pull measurement system is presented. The system uses few components where the main parts are an Oscilloscope and an Arbitrary Waveform Generator (AWG). The used AWG is a sophisticated signal generator with two outputs, letting the user take full control over the injected signals in the frequency band 0-4 GHz. This enables new kinds of measurements to be performed, such as multi-band load-pull and in particular inter-modulation product load-pull, which this paper focuses on. The paper describes the measurement setup briefly and the calibration and load-pull algorithms used. As an example to demonstrate the capabilities of the system, a multi-band load-pull is carried out on a GaN HEMT transistor. The frequency bands are 2.14 GHz and 2.65 GHz which create IM3 products at 1.63 GHz and 3.16 GHz. It is shown that the efficiency is affected by the choice of load termination presented at the IM3 frequencies.
IL2 Variant Circumvents ICOS+ Regulatory T-cell Expansion and Promotes NK Cell Activation

IL2 is not commonly used as immunotherapy due to its induction of regulatory T cells and dangerous cytokine storms. The IL2 variant, F42K, promoted the expansion and activation of antitumor NK cells without inducing highly suppressive Tregs. Clinical responses to high-dose IL2 therapy are limited due to selective expansion of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ T-regulatory cells (Treg), especially ICOS+ Tregs, rather than natural killer (NK) cells and effector T cells. These ICOS+ Tregs are highly suppressive and constitutively express high levels of IL2Rα (CD25) and CD39. Here, we characterized the effect of a mutant form of IL2 (F42K), which preferentially binds to the lower affinity IL2Rβγ with reduced binding to CD25, on Tregs, effector NK cells, and T-cell subsets. Unlike wild-type (WT) IL2, F42K did not efficiently induce the expansion of highly suppressive ICOS+ Tregs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy controls and melanoma patients. Instead, it promoted the expansion of CD16+CD56+ NK cells and CD56hiCD16− NK cell subsets in both short- and long-term cultures, with enhanced Bcl-2 expression. Stimulation of PBMCs with F42K induced expression of more NK cell activation molecules, such as NKp30, NKp44, DNAM-1, NKG2D, 4-1BB/CD137, and Tim-3, than WT IL2. F42K induced greater upregulation of TRAIL, and NK-mediated cytolytic activity was increased against both autologous and HLA-mismatched melanoma cells compared with WT IL2. Gene expression analysis revealed distinct gene expression profiles stimulated by F42K, WT IL2, and IL15. F42K therapy in vivo also induced a dramatic reduction in the expansion of ICOS+ Tregs, promoted NK cell expansion, and inhibited melanoma tumor growth more efficiently than WT IL2 and more effectively than anti–CTLA-4. Our findings suggest that F42K could be a potential substitute for WT IL2 as a cytokine therapy for cancer. Cancer Immunol Res; 4(11); 983–94. ©2016 AACR.