Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibitory effect of d-glucosamine and other sugar analogs on the viability and transplantability of ascites tumor cells.

Summary d-Glucosamine has been shown to have a powerful cytotoxic effect on various ascites tumor lines, resulting in a decrease in viability and transplantability of the neoplastic cells. The toxic effect of glucosamine was not significantly altered by addition of either glucose or pyruvate. The effects of d-glucosamine and other sugar analogs were evident histologically even before the cells became stainable by trypan blue. d-Galactosamine and d-mannosamine also reduced the viability and transplantability of ascites tumor cells similar to that of d-glucosamine. However, the N-acetylhexosamines caused only a minor decrease in cell viability, and these cells developed tumors when inoculated into mice. d-Mannose was the only neutral sugar showing a cytotoxic effect on ascites tumor cells.
Towards SLA Policy Refinement for QoS Management in Software-Defined Networking

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a dynamic, adaptable, controllable and flexible network architecture. It provides an extensible platform for delivery of network services, capable of responding quickly to service requirement changes. As a result, SDN has become a suitable scenario for the application of techniques and approaches for improved infrastructure management, such as Policy-Based Management (PBM). In PBM, using techniques such as refinement, a high-level policy-e.g., specified as a Service Level Agreement (SLA) - can be translated into a set of corresponding low-level rules, enforceable in various elements of a system. However, when using SLAs, their translation to low-level policies, e.g., for controller configuration, is not straightforward. If this translation is not done properly, the controller may not be able to meet the implicit requirements of the SLA, failing to satisfy the goals described in the high-level policy. This paper proposes a novel approach towards SLA policy refinement for Quality of Service (QoS) management (based on routing) in Software-Defined Networking. It consists of an initial manual process performed by an administrator, followed by an automatic policy refinement process executed by an OpenFlow controller. As a result, our approach is capable of identifying the requirements and resources that need to be configured in accordance with SLA refinement, and can successfully configure and execute reactive dynamic actions for supporting dynamic infrastructure reconfiguration.
Parametric Polynomial-Time Algorithms for Computing Response-Time Bounds for Static-Priority Tasks with Release Jitters

Feasibility analysis algorithms are based on particular metrics such as processor utilization, load factor, processor demand, response-times, etc. The design of efficient algorithms for computing these metrics is a major issue in real-time scheduling theory. In this paper we propose two FPTASs (fully-polynomial time approximation schemes) for checking feasibility of static-priority tasks subjected to release jitters executed upon a uniprocessor platform. We then use these FPTASs for computing two upper bounds of worst-case response-times. Lastly, we show that these bounds do not achieve constant error bounds in comparison with values computed by an exact worst-case response-time analysis (performed in pseudo-polynomial time), and we present numerical experiments.
Peptides Enhance Magnesium Signature in Calcite: Insights into Origins of Vital Effects

Studies relating the magnesium (Mg) content of calcified skeletons to temperature often report unexplained deviations from the signature expected for inorganically grown calcite. These “vital effects” are believed to have biological origins, but mechanistic bases for measured offsets remain unclear. We show that a simple hydrophilic peptide, with the same carboxyl-rich character as that of macromolecules isolated from sites of calcification, increases calcite Mg content by up to 3 mole percent. Comparisons to previous studies correlating Mg content of carbonate minerals with temperature show that the Mg enhancement due to peptides results in offsets equivalent to 7° to 14°C. The insights also provide a physical basis for anecdotal evidence that organic chemistry modulates the mineralization of inorganic carbonates and suggest an approach to tuning impurity levels in controlled materials synthesis.
Robust stabilization of nonminimum-phase systems with uncertainty by sampled-data output feedback

Global robust stabilization by sampled-data output feedback is investigated for a family of uncertain nonlinear systems. The nonlinear system under consideration has an interconnect structure, consisting of a driving system and a possibly unstable zero-dynamics with uncertainty, i.e. the driven system. Under a linear growth condition on the uncertain driven system and a Lipschitz condition on the driving system, we prove that there is a sampled-data, output feedback controller globally robustly stabilizing the uncertain nonminimum-phase system. The sampled-data output feedback compensator is designed by emulated versions of continuous-time observer and state feedback law, i.e., by holding the input/output signals constants over each sampling interval. The sampled-data controller consists of a discrete-time observer and controller whose construction relies only on the the nominal part of the system. Global robust stability of the hybrid closed-loop system is shown by feedback domination, together with the robustness of the nominal closed-loop system.
Stratified Generalized Procrustes Analysis 1

This paper deals with generalized procrustes analysis. This is the problem of registering a set of shape data by finding a reference shape and global rigid transformations given point correspondences. The transformed shape data must align with the reference shape as best possible. This is a difficult problem. The classical approach computes alternatively the reference shape, usually as the average of the transformed shapes, and each transformation in turn. We propose a stratified approach inspired by recent results obtained in Structurefrom-Motion. Our stratified approach offers a statistically grounded framework for obtaining both the transformations and the reference shape at once in two steps. First, we compute a reference shape and affine transformations. Second, we upgrade these transformations to the sought after similarity or euclidean transformations. In practice each of these two steps involves solving a non-convex optimization problem. We provide convex approximations and closed-form solutions. As opposed to the classical alternation approach, our stratified approach processes data in batch. It gracefully deals with missing data. We provide results on synthetic and real data sets. Compared to the alternation schema, our algorithm obtains lower error in both affine and euclidean cases, especially for shapes with high deformations.
Less increase of copeptin and MR-proADM due to intervention with selenium and coenzyme Q10 combined: Results from a 4-year prospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial among elderly Swedish citizens.

Intervention with selenium and coenzyme Q10 have recently been found to reduce mortality and increase cardiac function. The mechanisms behind these effects are unclear. As selenium and coenzyme Q10 is involved in the anti-oxidative defence, the present study aimed to evaluate effects of selenium and coenzyme Q10 on copeptin and adrenomedullin as oxidative stress biomarkers. Therefore 437 elderly individuals were included and given intervention for 4 years. Clinical examination and blood samples were undertaken at start and after 18 and 48 months. Evaluations of copeptin and MR-proADM changes were performed using repeated measures of variance. Cardiovascular mortality was evaluated using a 10-year-period of follow-up, and presented in Kaplan-Meier plots. A significant increase in copeptin level could be seen in the placebo group during the intervention period (from 9.4 pmol/L to 15.3 pmol/L), compared to the active treatment group. The difference between the groups was confirmed in the repeated measurement of variance analyses (P = 0.031) with less copeptin increase in the active treatment group. Furthermore, active treatment appeared to protect against cardiovascular death both in those with high and with low copeptin levels at inclusion. Less increase of MR-proADM could also be seen during the intervention in the active treatment group compared to controls (P = 0.026). Both in those having an MR-proADM level above or below median level, significantly less cardiovascular mortality could be seen in the active treatment group (P = 0.0001, and P = 0.04 respectively). In conclusion supplementation with selenium and coenzyme Q10 during four years resulted in less concentration of both copeptin and MR-proADM. A cardioprotective effect of the supplementation was registered, irrespective of the initial levels of these biomarkers, and this protection was recognized also after 10 years of observation.
Effect of the shape of dispersed particles on the thermal and mechanical properties of biomass polymer blends composed of poly(L‐lactide) and poly(butylene succinate)

The structure and properties of binary blends composed of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and fibrous poly(butylene succinate) (PBS), which were prepared by an uniaxial stretching operation in the molten state, were studied and compared with those of blends having spherical particles of PBS in a continuous PLA phase. We found from electron microscope observation that PBS nanofibers with a large aspect ratio were generated in the stretched samples. Enlargement of the surface area of the PBS particles, which showed nucleating ability for PLA, led to a high degree of crystallization and enhanced the cold crystallization in the heating process. Moreover, the PBS fibers in the stretched samples had a dominant effect on the mechanical properties in the point range between the glass-transition temperature of PLA and the melting temperature of PBS. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010
The Relationship Between Admission Hemoglobin Level and Outcome After Hip Fracture

Objective: To determine the effect of admission hemoglobin level on patient outcome after hip fracture. Study Design: Prospective, consecutive. Patients: From July 1991 to June 1997, 395 communitydwelling patients sixty‐five years of age or older who had sustained an operatively treated femoral neck or intertrochanteric fracture were prospectively followed up. Main Outcome Measurements: Postoperative complications, in‐hospital mortality rate, hospital length of stay, hospital discharge status, place of residence at one year, and mortality and recovery of ambulatory ability and activities of daily living status at three, six, and twelve months. Results: Women with admission hemoglobin levels below 12.0 grams per deciliter and men with admission hemoglobin levels below 13.0 grams per deciliter were classified as anemic. One hundred eighty patients (45.6 percent) were considered anemic on admission. Patients who were anemic were more likely to have an American Society of Anesthesiologists rating of III or IV and have sustained an intertrochanteric fracture. Hospital length of stay and mortality rate at six and twelve months were significantly higher for patients who were anemic on admission. There were no differences in the incidence of postoperative complications, hospital discharge status, place of residence at one year, in‐hospital mortality rate, and three‐month mortality rate between patients who were and were not anemic on admission. In addition, there were no differences in the recovery of ambulatory ability and of basic and instrumental activities of daily living status at three, six, and twelve months between the two patient groups. Conclusions: Patients at risk for poor outcomes after hip fracture can be identified by assessing hemoglobin levels at hospital admission.
Groundtruthing (Not Only) Music Notation with MUSICMarker: A Practical Overview

Dataset creation for graphics recognition, especially for hand-drawn inputs, is often an expensive and time-consuming undertaking. The MUSCIMarker tool used for creating the MUSCIMA++ dataset for Optical Music Recognition (OMR) led to efficient use of annotation resources, and it provides enough flexibility to be applicable to creating datasets for other graphics recognition tasks where the ground truth can be represented similarly. First, we describe the MUSCIMA++ ground truth to define the range of tasks for which using MUSCIMarker to annotate ground truth is applicable. We then describe the MUSCIMarker tool itself, discuss its strong and weak points, and share practical experience with the tool from creating the MUSCIMA++ dataset.
The Information Bottleneck Revisited or How to Choose a Good Distortion Measure

It is well-known that the information bottleneck method and rate distortion theory are related. Here it is described how the information bottleneck can be considered as rate distortion theory for a family of probability measures where information divergence is used as distortion measure. It is shown that the information bottleneck method has some properties that are not shared with rate distortion theory based on any other divergence measure. In this sense the information bottleneck method is unique.
Zero knowledge one time digital signature scheme

In many applications, when communicating with a host, we may or may not be concerned about the privacy of the data but are mainly concerned about the integrity of data being transmitted. This paper presents a simple algorithm based on zero knowledge proof by which the receiver can confirm the integrity of data without the sender having to send the digital signature of the message directly. Also, if the same document is sent across by the same user multiple times, this scheme results in different digital signature each time thus making it a practical one-time signature scheme.
Using semantic knowledge of transactions to increase concurrency

When the only information available about transactions is syntactic information, serializability is the main correctness criterion for concurrency control. Serializability requires that the execution of each transaction must appear to every other transaction as a single atomic step (i.e., the execution of the transaction cannot be interrupted by other transactions). Many researchers, however, have realized that this requirement is unnecessarily strong for many applications and can significantly increase transaction response time. To overcome this problem, a new approach for controlling concurrency that exploits the semantic information available about transactions to allow controlled nonserializable interleavings has recently been proposed. This approach is useful when the cost of producing only serializable interleavings is unacceptably high. The main drawback of the approach is the extra overhead incurred by utilizing the semantic information. We examine this new approach in this paper and discuss its strengths and weaknesses. We introduce a new formalization for the concurrency control problem when semantic information is available about the transactions. This semantic information takes the form of transaction types, transaction steps, and transaction break-points. We define a new class of “safe” schedules called relatively consistent (RC) schedules. This class contains serializable as well as nonserializable schedules. We prove that the execution of an RC schedule cannot violate consistency and propose a new concurrency control mechanism that produces only RC schedules. Our mechanism assumes fewer restrictions on the interleavings among transactions than previously introduced semantic-based mechanisms.
Insertion of a homing endonuclease creates a genes-in-pieces ribonucleotide reductase that retains function

In bacterial and phage genomes, coding regions are sometimes interrupted by self-splicing introns or inteins, which can encode mobility-promoting homing endonucleases. Homing endonuclease genes are also found free-standing (not intron- or intein-encoded) in phage genomes where they are inserted in intergenic regions. One example is the HNH family endonuclease, mobE, inserted between the large (nrdA) and small (nrdB) subunit genes of aerobic ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) of T-even phages T4, RB2, RB3, RB15, and LZ7. Here, we describe an insertion of mobE into the nrdA gene of Aeromonas hydrophila phage Aeh1. The insertion creates a unique genes-in-pieces arrangement, where nrdA is split into two independent genes, nrdA-a and nrdA-b, each encoding cysteine residues that correspond to the active-site residues of uninterrupted NrdA proteins. Remarkably, the mobE insertion does not inactivate NrdA function, although the insertion is not a self-splicing intron or intein. We copurified the NrdA-a, NrdA-b, and NrdB proteins as complex from Aeh1-infected cells and also showed that a reconstituted complex has RNR activity. Class I RNR activity in phage Aeh1 is thus assembled from separate proteins that interact to form a composite active site, demonstrating that the mobE insertion is phenotypically neutral in that its presence as an intervening sequence does not disrupt the function of the surrounding gene.
A review and synthesis of user modelling in intelligent systems

Abstract This paper gives a state-of-the-art overview of the rapidly expanding field of user modelling in artificially intelligent systems. After showing how a user modelling component can improve parts of the processing of, and the interaction with, a large number of systems, the current situation in this field is sketched by means of a number of short descriptions of systems employing user modelling techniques. Next, a synthesis of this review is made by discussing the aspects on which the existing methods differ. It turns out that these aspects can best be approached from two points of view: the technical level and a more abstract, functional level. This dichotomy results in eight dimensions on which to compare the modelling methods. The synthesis is then completed by describing the existing modelling techniques, and classifying the reviewed systems. In the final section, current trends in the field are outlined and prerequisites for acceptance of user modelling on a larger scale are discussed.
Automatic adaptation of filter sequences for cell counting

Manual cell counting in microscopic images is usually tedious, time consuming and prone to human error. Several programs for automatic cell counting have been developed so far, but most of them demand some specific knowledge of image analysis and/or manual fine tuning of various parameters. Even if a set of filters is found and fine tuned to the specific application, small changes to the image attributes might make the automatic counter very unreliable. The goal of this article is to present a new application that overcomes this problem by learning the set of parameters for each application, thus making it more robust to changes in the input images. The users must provide only a small representative subset of images and their manual count, and the program offers a set of automatic counters learned from the given input. The user can check the counters and choose the most suitable one. The resulting application (which we call Learn123) is specifically tailored to the practitioners, i.e. even though the typical workflow is more complex, the application is easy to use for non-technical experts.
Occurrence of Pesticides in Shallow Groundwater of the United States: Initial Results from the National Water-Quality Assessment Program

The first phase of intensive data collection for the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) was completed during 1993−1995 in 20 major hydrologic basins of the United States. Groundwater land-use studies, designed to sample recently recharged groundwater (generally within 10 years) beneath specific land-use and hydrogeologic settings, are a major component of the groundwater quality as sessment for NAWQA. Pesticide results from the 41 land-use studies conducted during 1993−1995 indicate that pesticides were commonly detected in shallow groundwater, having been found at 54.4% of the 1034 sites sampled in agricultural and urban settings across the United States. Pesticide concentrations were generally low, with over 95% of the detections at concentrations less than 1 μg/L. Of the 46 pesticide compounds examined, 39 were detected. The compounds detected most frequently were atrazine (38.2%), deethylatrazine (34.2%), simazine (18.0%), metolachlor (14.6%), and prometon (13.9%). Statistically significant rel.
Elastin at the Hinge Portion of the Eustachian Tube Cartilage in Specimens from Normal Subjects and Those with Cleft Palate

The density of elastin in the intermediate portion between the lateral lamina and the medial lamina of human eustachian tube (ET) cartilage was examined in six normal adults, seven normal children, and six children with cleft palate (CP) in order to obtain information about how the physical properties of the ET cartilage differ as a function of age and presence of CP. Cross sections of the midcartilaginous portions of the ETs that had been stained with Weigert's elastin stain were photographed at uniform magnification, the area for study was projected, and the meshlike area of the ET cartilage that stained elastin-positive was represented on paper by lines. A digitizer was used to measure the total length of all the lines representing elastin in each photomicrograph, and the mean was determined for each of the three groups. The mean density of elastin was significantly greater in normal adults than in normal children (Student's t test, t = 2.781; p< .02). It was also significantly greater in normal children than in CP children (Wilcoxon t = 24.0; p< .05). These results appear to indicate that CP children have poorer elasticity in this area of the ET cartilage, which might cause functional obstruction (floppiness) of the ET in those children.
Eccentric training programmes in the management of lateral elbow tendinopathy

Background. Eccentric training has shown promising results in the management of Achilles and patellar tendinopathy. Recently, studies have investigated eccentric training in the treatment of lateral elbow tendinopathy. Purpose. The purpose of this review was to describe eccentric training programs used to treat LET in order to inform clinicians and identify areas requiring further study. Method. An electronic search of publications indexed in the MEDLINE database was performed in May 2007. Studies comparing eccentric training with at least one other intervention were included. Results. Four studies investigating a total of 248 participants were identified. Three of the four studies reported superior results for eccentric training compared with other interventions, although this included one pilot study and another study that did not include an extended follow-up. There were several differences between the studies, including whether eccentric training was painful or pain-free, the duration of eccentric training (4 – 12 weeks) and whether training was performed in a clinical setting or at home. Conclusion. Eccentric training in the management of LET has demonstrated encouraging results, although the literature is limited and eccentric programs are varied. Future studies should investigate factors that may influence the outcome of eccentric training, including whether training is painful and the duration of eccentric training.