Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Generalized Mixed Integer Rounding Valid Inequalities

We present new families of valid inequalities for (mixed) integer programming (MIP) prob- lems. These valid inequalities are based on a generalization of the 2-step mixed integer rounding (MIR), proposed by Dash and Gunluk(2006). We prove that for any positive integer n, n facets of a certain (n + 1)-dimensional mixed integer set can be obtained through a process which in- cludes n consecutive applications of MIR. We then show that for any n, the last of these facets, the n-step MIR facet, can be used to generate a family of valid inequalities for the feasible set of a general (mixed) IP constraint, the n-step MIR inequalities. The Gomory Mixed Integer Cut and the 2-step MIR inequality of Dash and Gunluk(2006) are simply the first two fami- lies corresponding to n = 1,2, respectively. The n-step MIR inequalities are easily produced using closed-form periodic functions, which we refer to as the n-step MIR functions. None of these functions dominates the other on its whole period. Moreover, for any n, the n-step MIR inequalities define new families of two-slope facets for the finite and the infinite group problems.
The biological role of the medial olivocochlear efferents in hearing: separating evolved function from exaptation

Cochlear outer hair cells (OHCs) are remarkable, mechanically-active receptors that determine the exquisite sensitivity and frequency selectivity characteristic of the mammalian auditory system. While there are three to four times as many OHCs compared with inner hair cells, OHCs lack a significant afferent innervation and, instead, receive a rich efferent innervation from medial olivocochlear (MOC) efferent neurons. Activation of the MOC has been shown to exert a considerable suppressive effect over OHC activity. The precise function of these efferent tracts in auditory behavior, however, is the matter of considerable debate. The most frequent functions assigned to the MOC tracts are to protect the cochlea from traumatic damage associated with intense sound and to aid the detection of signals in noise. While considerable evidence shows that interruption of MOC activity exacerbates damage due to high-level sound exposure, the well characterized MOC physiology and evolutionary studies do not support such a role. Instead, a MOC protective effect is well explained as being a byproduct of the suppressive nature of MOC action on OHC mechanical behavior. A role in the enhancement of signals in noise backgrounds, on the other hand, is well supported by (1) an extensive physiological literature (2) examination of naturally occurring environmental acoustic conditions (3) recent data from multiple laboratories showing that the MOC plays a significant role in auditory selective attention by suppressing the response to unattended or ignored stimuli. This presentation will argue that, based on the extant literature combining the suppression of background noise through MOC-mediated rapid adaptation (RA) with the suppression of non-attended signals, in concert with the corticofugal pathways descending from the auditory cortex, the MOC system has one evolved function—to increase the signal-to-noise ratio, aiding in the detection of target signals. By contrast, the MOC system role in reducing noise damage and the effects of aging in the cochlea may well represent an exaptation, or evolutionary “spandrel”.
Direct and indirect selection on flowering time, water-use efficiency (WUE, δ 13C), and WUE plasticity to drought in Arabidopsis thaliana

Flowering time and water-use efficiency (WUE) are two ecological traits that are important for plant drought response. To understand the evolutionary significance of natural genetic variation in flowering time, WUE, and WUE plasticity to drought in Arabidopsis thaliana, we addressed the following questions: (1) How are ecophysiological traits genetically correlated within and between different soil moisture environments? (2) Does terminal drought select for early flowering and drought escape? (3) Is WUE plasticity to drought adaptive and/or costly? We measured a suite of ecophysiological and reproductive traits on 234 spring flowering accessions of A. thaliana grown in well-watered and season-ending soil drying treatments, and quantified patterns of genetic variation, correlation, and selection within each treatment. WUE and flowering time were consistently positively genetically correlated. WUE was correlated with WUE plasticity, but the direction changed between treatments. Selection generally favored early flowering and low WUE, with drought favoring earlier flowering significantly more than well-watered conditions. Selection for lower WUE was marginally stronger under drought. There were no net fitness costs of WUE plasticity. WUE plasticity (per se) was globally neutral, but locally favored under drought. Strong genetic correlation between WUE and flowering time may facilitate the evolution of drought escape, or constrain independent evolution of these traits. Terminal drought favored drought escape in these spring flowering accessions of A. thaliana. WUE plasticity may be favored over completely fixed development in environments with periodic drought.
Serious Game Based on Visual Interactive Simulation for Dynamic Workers Assignment

Assigning workers to machines dynamically, so as to achieve production objectives, is known as a difficult problem which must be addressed in several manufacturing systems. In fact, production managers must determine when and where to assign workers, which is a very difficult task because of the complexity induced by the dynamic changes and the stochastic behavior of these systems. The current scientific literature is mainly oriented towards static assignments problems (only few dynamic heuristics are published). We propose a new approach whose aim is to help the managers in improving their knowledge about how to assign workers in real time. It is based on Serious Games built using Visual Interactive Simulation (discrete event). Our experiments show that an appropriate training using the proposed game can improve the users' ability to make good decisions about dynamic workers assignment and that human decisions can become more efficient than existing workers assignment rules found in the literature.
Factors Affecting The Adoption Of Cloud Computing: An Exploratory Study

While it is widely acknowledged that cloud computing has the potential to transform a large part of the IT industry, issues surrounding the adoption of cloud computing have received relatively little attention. Drawing on three case studies of service providers and their customers, this study will contribute to the existing cloud technologies literature that does not address the complex and multifaceted nature of adoption. The findings are analyzed using the adoption of innovation literature as a lens to reveal how technological, organizational and environmental factors impact cloud adoption. Our conclusions reveal that factors impacting cloud adoption tend to be psychological as well as technical, and some recommendations are put forward for future research.
Condom use and abstinence among unmarried young people in Zimbabwe: which strategy whose agenda?

This paper compares the views about abstinence and condom use expressed by young people in Zimbabwe in focus-group discussions with the views underlying national policies and religious and traditional beliefs. Young people’s decisions to adopt one or the other of these risk-reduction strategies may not necessarily indicate genuine individual choices but rather their deference to adults’ interests as they understand those interests. Policymakers and traditional and Christian leaders promote abstinence as the exclusive strategy for all young people whereas nongovernmental organizations and the private sector promote condom use. Evidence from the focus-group discussions indicates that adolescents are aware of this conflict between choice of strategy and sometimes conceal their condom use in order not to disappoint adults. In some cases their moral conflict gives young people limited choices about reproductive behavior. Clear and open policies regarding condom use and abstinence should be promoted as complementary alternatives. Moreover adults should reconsider their moralizing concerning young people’s sexual activity and support real rather than limited choices with regard to adolescents’ reproductive health. In a country where the level of HIV prevalence among sexually active adults is one of highest in the world and where a large proportion of HIV infections is believed to occur during adolescence this message carries an urgency that can no longer be ignored. (authors)
Channel Modeling for Wireless Underground Sensor Networks

Wireless underground sensor networks (WUSNs) consist of wireless devices buried below the ground surface and aboveground sink devices, in which the communication medium is not only air but also soil. In this paper, improved channel models based on time-domain are developed to characterize underground-underground, underground-aboveground and aboveground-underground electromagnetic waves channels, which capture the effects of environment parameters such as soil composition and soil moisture, and system parameters such as the antenna gain, operating frequency, the sensor burial depth. The propagation characteristics are investigated through simulation results of path loss between two nodes. This work will accelerate the design and realization of WUSNs.
Angiotensin II and Its Metabolites Stimulate PAI-1 Protein Release From Human Adipocytes in Primary Culture

Abstract—Plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1 is the main inhibitor of the fibrinolytic system and was recently shown to be produced by adipose cells. Obesity is associated with an increased production and release of PAI-1 protein. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of angiotensin (Ang) II and its degradation products for PAI-1 release from human adipose cells. For this purpose, we used the model of in vitro differentiated human adipocytes in primary culture. Exposure of human adipocytes to Ang II resulted in a dose- and time-dependent stimulation of PAI-1 release into the culture medium. The maximum effect of Ang II was found at a concentration of 10−5 mol/L for 48 hours, increasing PAI-1 release by 276±53% compared with control cultures (P <0.05). This stimulation was preceded by an increase in specific PAI-1 mRNA copies by 65±12% (P <0.05), with a maximum after 6 hours. Incubation of adipocytes with 10−5 mol/L Ang III and Ang IV, respectively, also resulted in a stimulation of PAI-1 release into the medium by 195±60% (P <0.05) and 142±24% (P <0.05), respectively, compared with control cultures. Addition of the angiotensin-receptor subtype 1 (AT1) blocker candesartan abolished the stimulatory action of Ang II and its metabolites, indicating that this effect is mediated by AT1. Addition of the AT1 blocker alone to unstimulated cultures reduced PAI-1 release by 41%±25% (P <0.05), suggesting that endogenous Ang II synthesis contributes to PAI-1 secretion from adipose tissue in an autocrine/paracrine manner. In conclusion, Ang II and its metabolites promote PAI-1 production and release by human fat cells and may contribute to the impairment of the fibrinolytic system typical for obesity. AT1 receptor blockade reduces basal and abolishes Ang II-stimulated PAI-1 release from human adipocytes.
A Prediction Model of the Capillary Pressure J-Function

The capillary pressure J-function is a dimensionless measure of the capillary pressure of a fluid in a porous medium. The function was derived based on a capillary bundle model. However, the dependence of the J-function on the saturation Sw is not well understood. A prediction model for it is presented based on capillary pressure model, and the J-function prediction model is a power function instead of an exponential or polynomial function. Relative permeability is calculated with the J-function prediction model, resulting in an easier calculation and results that are more representative.
Lower bounds on the curvature of the Isgur-Wise function

Using the operator product expansion, we obtain new sum rules in the heavy quark limit of QCD, in addition to those previously formulated. Key elements in their derivation are the consideration of the nonforward amplitude, plus the systematic use of boundary conditions that ensure that only a finite number of ${j}^{P}$ intermediate states (with their tower of radial excitations) contribute. A study of these sum rules shows that it is possible to bound the curvature ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{2}={\ensuremath{\xi}}^{\ensuremath{''}}(1)$ of the elastic Isgur-Wise function $\ensuremath{\xi}(w)$ in terms of its slope ${\ensuremath{\rho}}^{2}=\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\xi}}^{\ensuremath{'}}(1). $ In addition to the bound ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{2}g~\frac{5}{4}{\ensuremath{\rho}}^{2},$ previously demonstrated, we find the better bound ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{2}g~\frac{1}{5}[4{\ensuremath{\rho}}^{2}+3({\ensuremath{\rho}}^{2}{)}^{2}]. $ We show that the quadratic term $\frac{3}{5}({\ensuremath{\rho}}^{2}{)}^{2}$ has a transparent physical interpretation, as it is leading in a nonrelativistic expansion in the mass of the light quark. At the lowest possible value for the slope ${\ensuremath{\rho}}^{2}=\frac{3}{4},$ both bounds imply the same bound for the curvature ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{2}g~\frac{15}{16}. $ We point out that these results are consistent with the dispersive bounds and, furthermore, that they strongly reduce the allowed region by the latter for $\ensuremath{\xi}(w). $
A New Endoluminal, Flow-Disrupting Device for Treatment of Saccular Aneurysms

Background and Purpose— We report a preclinical study of a new endoluminal device for aneurysm occlusion to test the hypothesis that the device, even without use of intrasaccular coil placement, could occlude saccular aneurysms without causing substantial parent artery compromise or compromise of adjacent, small branch arteries. Methods— The Pipeline Neuroendovascular Device (Pipeline NED; Chestnut Medical Technologies, Inc) is a braided, tubular, bimetallic endoluminal implant aimed at occlusion of saccular aneurysms through flow disruption along the aneurysm neck. The device was implanted across the necks of 17 elastase-induced aneurysms in the New Zealand white rabbit model and followed for 1 month (n=6), 3 months (n=5), and 6 months (n=6). In each subject, a second device was implanted in the abdominal aorta to cover the origins of lumbar arteries. Aneurysm occlusion rates by angiography (grade 1, complete occlusion; grade 2, near-complete occlusion; and grade 3, incomplete occlusion) were documented. Percent area stenosis of the parent arteries was calculated. Presence of distal emboli in the downstream vessels in the parent artery and branch artery stenosis or occlusion was noted. Results— Grades 1, 2, and 3 occlusion rates were noted in 9 (53%), 6 (35%), and 2 (12%) of 17 aneurysms, respectively, indicating an 88% rate of complete or near complete occlusion. No cases of branch artery occlusion or distal emboli in the downstream vessels of the parent artery, specifically the subclavian artery, were seen. Parent artery compromise from neointimal hyperplasia was minimal in most cases. Conclusions— The Pipeline NED is a trackable, bio- and hemocompatible device able to occlude saccular aneurysms with preservation of the parent artery and small, adjacent branch vessels.
A systematic method to identify genomic islands and its applications in analyzing the genomes of Corynebacterium glutamicum and Vibrio vulnificus CMCP6 chromosome I

MOTIVATION Some genomic islands contain horizontally transferred genes, which play critical roles in altering the genotypes and phenotypes of organisms, and horizontal gene transfer has been recognized as a universal event throughout bacterial evolution. A windowless method to display the distribution of genomic GC content, the cumulative GC profile, is proposed to identify genomic islands in genomes whose complete genome sequences are available. Two new indices are proposed to assess the codon usage bias and amino acid usage bias in genomic islands. RESULTS A 211 kb genomic island (CGGI-1) has been identified in the genome of Corynebacterium glutamicum, and three genomic islands VVGI-1, VVGI-2 and VVGI-3, with lengths 167, 40 and 33 kb, respectively, have been identified in the genome of Vibrio vulnificus CMCP6 chromosome I. The CGGI-1 is flanked by two approximately 500 bp direct repeats, and utilizes a Val-tRNA as the integration site. For the VVGI-1 and VVGI-2, each has an integrase gene at 5' junction. All the identified genomic islands show unusual GC content, codon usage and amino acid usage, compared with the rest of the genomes. In addition, it is found that genomic islands are fairly homogenous in terms of GC content variation. An index, h, to quantify the homogeneity of GC content for genomic islands is proposed, and it is shown that h is less than 0.1 for all the genomic islands analyzed. The cumulative GC profile, as well as various indices to assess the codon usage bias, amino acid usage bias and homogeneity of the genomic islands, will be useful in the analysis of other genomes. AVAILABILITY Programs used in this work and numerical results are available upon request.
A Literature Review on Dedicated Short Range Communication for Intelligent Transport

WAVE/DSRC technology provides various standards for the wireless access in vehicular environment i.e. IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 1609 family. The wireless network is the integration of all type of networks. The vehicular ad hoc network is the sub class of mobile ad hoc network. In vehicular ad hoc network vehicles are serving as nodes and it offers certain intelligent activities. It is an intelligent network of vehicles, called Intelligent transport System. It provides safety, driver assistant services and comfort to the road users. It also includes all type of communication in vehicles between Vehicle to Vehicle and Vehicle to Infrastructure.
Improved design of expanding window fountain codes over BIAWGN channels

In this paper, we propose an improved design of expanding window fountain (EWF) codes over the binary input additive white Gaussian noise (BIAWGN) channels. The encoding process is modified to get almost regular variable node degree distributions. Compared with the conventional EWF codes, our proposed scheme can lower the error floor. Furthermore, we combine the EWF encoding process with unequal power allo-cation to improve unequal error protection (UEP) performance. Both asymptotic analysis and simulation results show that the proposed scheme can get better UEP performance and design flexibility.
Interactive comment on “ Prediction of extreme floods based on CMIP 5 climate models : a case study in the Beijiang River basin , South China ”

This paper runs through a projection of floods for a basin in China, using downscaled GCM data to force a hydrologic model. The paper would be strengthened by increasing the details in some areas, noted below, and by expanding on the results. As the results section reads now, the contribution of this paper is that there is a lot of variability between the models. Is there is some way to take information between the models to have a more robust understanding of how floods are going to change? Or is the overarching conclusion is that these models are not in enough agreement to say anything?
Exceptional or Expendable? How Economic and Strategic Interests Undermine Democracy, Humanitarianism, and Human Rights in US Economic Aid Allocation

Since its inception, the United States has envisioned itself as an exceptional nation with a moralizing mission. Principles that US policymakers have promoted as central to US foreign policy include (1) democracy or selfdetermination, (2) humanitarianism, and (3) human rights. One realm of foreign policy in which these values are consistently espoused is US foreign aid policy. The values of democracy, humanitarian assistance, and human rights are present in the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) mission statement and are enshrined in the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act and its amendments, which demand that US values, such as humanitarian need and human rights, be taken into account in economic aid allocations. However, foreign aid’s primary purpose has almost always been to protect US material interests. USAID’s mission statement recognizes this fact, openly stating that the goal of aid is to “directly enhance American—and global—security and prosperity,” meaning both national security and economic interests. While it is likely that both US values and US interests play a role in determining aid amounts, these values and interests are intrinsically incompatible when potential aid recipients promote US interests but violate US values. Do the values of democracy, humanitarianism, and human rights, which are all tied to the very identity of the United States, triumph over material concerns, or are these values easily expendable for interests of state? While previous literature has investigated the influence of US values on
Evaluation of Selected Culinary-Medicinal Mushrooms for Antioxidant and ACE Inhibitory Activities

Considering the importance of diet in prevention of oxidative stress-related diseases including hypertension, this study was undertaken to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant and ACE inhibitory activities of selected culinary-medicinal mushrooms extracted by boiling in water for 30 min. Antioxidant capacity was measured using the following assays: DPPH free radical scavenging activity, β-carotene bleaching, inhibition of lipid peroxidation, reducing power ability, and cupric ion reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC). Antioxidant potential of each mushroom species was calculated based on the average percentages relative to quercetin and summarized as Antioxidant Index (AI). Ganoderma lucidum (30.1%), Schizophyllum commune (27.6%), and Hericium erinaceus (17.7%) showed relatively high AI. Total phenolics in these mushrooms varied between 6.19 to 63.51 mg GAE/g extract. In the ACE inhibitory assay, G. lucidum was shown to be the most potent species (IC50 = 50 μg/mL). Based on our findings, culinary-medicinal mushrooms can be considered as potential source of dietary antioxidant and ACE inhibitory agents.
Random Walk Search on Concatenated Hop-Limited Trees Embedded into Unstructured P2Ps

We propose a random-walk-based file search for unstructured P2P networks. In the proposal, each node keeps two pieces of information, one is the hop-limited routing tables, storing the route information to nodes within a small number (say n) hops from each node. The hop-limited routing table is substantially equivalent to the hop-limited shortest path tree, which is made of nodes within limited hop distance from the root. The other is the file list, which is an index over files kept by nodes within n hops from each node. To find a file, a node first checks its file list. If the requested file is found in the list, the node sends a file request message to the file owner, otherwise, it sends a file-search message to a randomly-selected leaf node on the hop-limited shortest path tree rooted at itself. Numerical examples show that our proposal has much smaller search latency and lower file-search failure ratio than the primitive random-walk-based search, while it wastes much less network bandwidth than network-broadcast-based searches.