Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Delay Bounds of Peer-to-Peer Video Streaming ∗

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems exploit the uploading bandwidth of individual peers to distribute content at low server cost. While the P2P bandwidth sharing design is very efficient for bandwidth sensitive applications, it imposes a fundamental performance constraint for delay sensitive applications: the uploading bandwidth of a peer cannot be utilized to upload a piece of content until it completes the download of that content. This constraint sets up a limit on how fast a p iece of content can be disseminated to all peers in a P2P system. In this paper, we theoretically study the impact of this inherent delay constraint and derive the minimum delay bounds for P2P live streaming systems. We show that the bandwidth heterogeneity among peers can be exploited to significantly improve the delay performance of all peers. We further propose a simple snow-ball streaming algorithm to approach the minimum delay bound in P2P live video streaming. Our analysis and simulation suggest that the proposed algorithm has better delay performance and more robust than existing tree-based streaming solutions. Insights brought forth by our study can be used to guide the design of new P2P systems with shorter streaming delays.
Approximation Schemes for the Restricted Shortest Path Problem

This note contains two fully polynomial approximation schemes for the shortest path problem with an additional constraint. The main difficulty in constructing such algorithms arises since no trivial lower and upper bounds on the solution value, whose ratio is polynomially bounded, are known. In spite of this difficulty, one of the algorithms presented here is strongly polynomial. Applications to other problems are also discussed.
Observer-based control for stochastic multi-agent systems with time-delay

This paper deals with the problem of observer-based control for stochastic multi-agent systems with time-delay. The aim is to design a controller such that the system asymptotically reaches global consensus in mean square. By constructing an appropriate Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and using an effective decoupling method, a sufficient condition in the form of LMIs for ensuring the existence of the desired controller is given. A numerical example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the result obtained.
User Contribution in Innovation Processes - Reflections from a Living Lab Perspective

This paper discusses user contribution in innovation processes from a Living Lab perspective. In this paper we focus on methods and techniques for user contribution in innovation processes by discussing experiences based on 100 activities conducted within four different research projects. The purpose of this paper is to discuss our experiences of methods and techniques for user contribution in innovation processes, in relation to Living Lab, as well as to: a) phase in the innovation process, b) kind of user contribution and c) type of users. Our contribution is threefold, we have: (1) theoretically modified the CIC model to better suit a Living Lab milieu, (2) empirically discussed methods and techniques for user contribution in relation to the modified model, as well as to Living Labs and (3) identified several issues regarding different kinds of user contribution and types of users that need to be considered in Living Labs.
Negative Effects of a Nonhost Proteinase Inhibitor of ~19.8 kDa from Madhuca indica Seeds on Developmental Physiology of Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner)

An affinity purified trypsin inhibitor from the seed flour extracts of Madhuca indica (MiTI) on denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed that MiTI consisted of a single polypeptide chain with molecular mass of ~19.8 kDa. MiTI inhibited the total proteolytic and trypsin-like activities of the midgut proteinases of Helicoverpa armigera larvae by 87.51% and 76.12%, respectively, at concentration of 5 µg/mL with an IC50 of 1.75 µg/mL against trypsin like midgut proteinases. The enzyme kinetic studies demonstrated that MiTI is a competitive inhibitor with a K i value of 4.1 × 10−10 M for Helicoverpa trypsin like midgut proteinases. In vivo experiments with different concentrations of MiTI in artificial diet (0.5, 1.0, and 1.5% w/w) showed an effective downfall in the larval body weight and an increase in larval mortality. The concentration of MiTI in the artificial diet to cause 50% mortality (LD50) of larvae was 1.5% w/w and that to cause reduction in mass of larvae by 50% (ED50) was 1.0% w/w. Nutritional indices observations suggest the toxic and adverse effects of MiTI on the growth and development of H. armigera larvae. The results suggest a strong bioinsecticidal potential of affinity purified MiTI which can be exploited in insect pest management of crop plants.
Effect of the efflux pump inhibitor Phe-Arg-beta-naphthylamide on the MIC values of the quinolones, tetracycline and chloramphenicol, in Escherichia coli isolates of different origin.

Sir, The main mechanisms of quinolone resistance in Escherichia coli include mutations in the gyrA and parC target genes and decreased intracellular accumulation.1 Active efflux pumps are important for intrinsic and acquired antibiotic resistance, and overexpression of efflux pumps affecting quinolones is becoming increasingly common in E. coli. Recently, efflux pump inhibitors have been investigated with a view to improving and potentiating the activity of exported antibiotics.2 Phe-Arg-β-naphthylamide has been described as a broad-spectrum efflux pump inhibitor in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.2 The effect of this inhibitor on fluoroquinolone susceptibilities in Enterobacter aerogenes,3 E. coli,4 P. aeruginosa,2 Acinetobacter baumannii5 and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia5 has also been studied, but not for nalidixic acid and other antimicrobial agents in E. coli. Therefore in this study, we analysed the influence of the Phe-Arg-β-naphthylamide (Sigma) inhibitor on the activity of quinolones, chloramphenicol and tetracycline against a collection of 60 E. coli isolates previously characterized with respect to amino acid changes in both GyrA and ParC proteins.6,7 The collection includes the strain Nor5, an in vitro selected quinolone-resistant mutant, in which the overexpression of MarA, SoxS and AcrA has been shown (J. Vila, B. Peter, J. Sanchez-Cespedes & M. Tario, unpublished data). The remaining 59 isolates were recovered from foods (n = 11), humans (n = 25) and animals (n = 23). Susceptibilities to nalidixic acid, norfloxacin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline and ciprofloxacin were studied by agar dilution in the presence or absence of 20 mg/L of Phe-Arg-β-naphthylamide, in accordance with NCCLS guidelines. All of the 60 E. coli isolates showed an MIC value of >256 mg/L to Phe-Arg-β-naphthylamide. Table 1 shows the effect of 20 mg/L of the inhibitor Phe-Arg-β-naphthylamide on the MIC values of the five tested antibiotics in 60 E. coli isolates with different numbers of amino acid changes in GyrA and T ab le 1 . M IC v al ue s (i n m g/ L ) of th e fi ve te st ed a nt ib io tic s in th e pr es en ce o r ab se nc e of 2 0 m g/ L o f P he -A rg β -n ap ht hy la m id e in a s er ie s of 6 0 E . c ol i i so la te s or ga ni ze d
On the Effect of Localization Errors on Geographic Routing in Sensor Networks

Recently, network localization systems that are based on inter-node ranges have received significant attention. Geographic routing has been considered an application which can utilize the location information from these localization systems. In this paper, we firstly recognize that sensor network localization algorithms generate positioning data with different error patterns compared to those networks where node positions are determined directly from GNSS measurements. Secondly, by simulating practical sensor network scenarios using data from our localization algorithm, we observe that existing geographic routing algorithms in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) adopt very simplistic methods in the treatment of position error, without due consideration of error distribution. Additionally, an insight is given into localization algorithms for WSNs with inhomogeneous error environments. Our observations represent an initial step toward a detailed understanding and design of efficient geographic routing algorithms in location aware WSNs.
switchBox : An R package for k-Top Scoring Pairs ( k TSP ) classifier development

Summary: k-Top scoring pairs (kTSP) is a classification method for prediction from high throughput data based on a set of the paired measurements. Each of the two possible orderings of a pair of measurements (e.g., a reversal in the expression of two genes) is associated with one of two classes. The kTSP prediction rule is the aggregation of voting among such individual two-feature decision rules based on order switching. kTSP, like its predecessor, TSP, is a parameter-free classifier relying only on ranking of a small subset of features, rendering it robust to noise and potentially easy to interpret in biological terms. In contrast to TSP, kTSP has comparable accuracy to standard genomics classification techniques, including Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Prediction Analysis for Microarrays (PAM). Here, we describe “switchBox,” an R package for kTSP-based prediction. Availability: The “switchBox” package is freely available from Bioconductor: http://www.bioconductor. org Contact: bahman@jhu.edu
Exact Inference for Generative Probabilistic Non-Projective Dependency Parsing

We describe a generative model for non-projective dependency parsing based on a simplified version of a transition system that has recently appeared in the literature. We then develop a dynamic programming parsing algorithm for our model, and derive an inside-outside algorithm that can be used for unsupervised learning of non-projective dependency trees.
HYPOTENSIVE RESUSCITATION

While the mechanism remains unclear, a growing body of experimental and clinical evidence suggests that aggressive crystalloid resuscitation in near fatal uncontrolled hemorrhage is associated with poor outcome. Limited attempts to restore blood pressure improve cardiac output, tissue perfusion, and survival while attempts to restore normal tension with crystalloid result in increased hemorrhage volume and higher mortality. The current standard of therapy for treatment of hemorrhagic shock includes initial aggressive crystalloid resuscitation. This mini-review summarizes some of the experimental and clinical data suggesting that this approach may not be desirable in the presence of uncontrolled hemorrhage following injury.
Induction of internucleosomal DNA fragmentation by carcinogenic chromate: relationship to DNA damage, genotoxicity, and inhibition of macromolecular synthesis.

Hexavalent chromium (Cr) compounds are respiratory carcinogens in humans and animals. Treatment of Chinese hamster ovary cells with 150 and 300 microM sodium chromate (Na2CrO4) for 2 hr decreased colony-forming efficiency by 46 and 92%, respectively. These treatments induced dose-dependent internucleosomal fragmentation of cellular DNA beyond 24 hr after chromate treatment. This fragmentation pattern is characteristic of apoptosis as a mechanism of cell death. These treatments also induced an immediate inhibition of macromolecular synthesis and delayed progression of cells through S-phase of the cell cycle. Cell growth (as evidenced by DNA synthesis) was inhibited for at least 4 days and transcription remained suppressed for at least 32 hr. Many of the cells that did progress to metaphase exhibited chromosome damage. Chromate caused the dose-dependent formation of DNA single-strand breaks and DNA-protein cross-links, but these were repaired 8 and 24 hr after removal of the treatment, respectively. In contrast, Cr-DNA adducts (up to 1/100 base-pairs) were extremely resistant to repair and were still detectable even 5 days after treatment. Compared with other regions of the genome, DNA-protein cross-links and Cr adducts were preferentially associated with the nuclear matrix DNA of treated cells, which was 4.5-fold enriched in actively transcribed genes. Chromium adducts, formed on DNA in vitro at a similar level to that detected in nuclear matrix DNA, arrested the progression of a DNA polymerase in a sequence-specific manner, possibly through the formation of DNA-DNA cross-links. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) ImagesFigure 2.Figure 3.Figure 7.
LiveTweet: Microblog Retrieval Based on Interestingness and an Adaptation of the Vector Space Model

This paper presents the Institute for Web Science and Technology’s contribution to the TREC2011 Microblog Track. The goal of the Microblog Track is to address the user’s information need in which a user wishes to see not only the most recent but also the most interesting and relevant information to a query in Twitter. In this paper we present the LiveTweet system, submitted by the Institute for Web Science and Technologies (WeST) from the University of Koblenz-Landau. The system addresses two issues of microblog media: sparsity and its effect on document length normalization, as well as the problem of assessing content quality. We provide the following approaches to overcome these issues: ignoring length normalization and using interestingness as a static quality measure to find the most recent and interesting tweets related to a given query topic. The results in similar settings have shown that deliberately ignoring length normalization yields better retrieval results in general and that interestingness improves retrieval for underspecified queries.
Constipation and Colonic Transit Times in Children With Morbid Obesity

Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine the frequency of functional constipation according to the Rome III criteria in children with morbid obesity and to evaluate by measuring colonic transit times (CTTs) whether decreased colonic motility is present in these children. Patients and Methods: Ninety-one children with morbid obesity ages 8 to 18 years, entering a prospective, randomized controlled study evaluating the effect of an outpatient versus inpatient treatment program of obesity, participated. All of the children filled out a standardized questionnaire regarding their bowel habits, and CTTs were measured using radioopaque markers. Food diaries were also recorded to evaluate their diet. Results: A total of 19 children (21%) had functional constipation according to the Rome III criteria, whereas 1 child had functional nonretentive fecal incontinence. Total CTT exceeded 62 hours in only 10.5% of the children with constipation, and among them, 2 had a total CTT of >100 hours. In the nonconstipated group 8.3% had a delayed CTT. Furthermore, no difference was found between the diet of children with or without constipation, specifically not with respect to fiber and fat intake. Conclusions: Our study confirms a high frequency of functional constipation in children with obesity, using the Rome III criteria. However, abnormal colonic motility, as measured by CTT, was delayed in only a minority of patients. No relation was found between constipation in these children and fiber or fat intake.
Constitutive and allergen-induced expression of eotaxin mRNA in the guinea pig lung

Eotaxin is a member of the C-C family of chemokines and is related during antigen challenge in a guinea pig model of allergic airway inflammation (asthma). Consistent with its putative role in eosinophilic inflammation, eotaxin induces the selective infiltration of eosinophils when injected into the lung and skin. Using a guinea pig lung cDNA library, we have cloned full-length eotaxin cDNA. The cDNA encodes a protein of 96 amino acids, including a putative 23-amino acid hydrophobic leader sequence, followed by 73 amino acids composing the mature active eotaxin protein. The protein-coding region of this cDNA is 73, 71, 50, and 48% identical in nucleic acid sequence to those of human macrophage chemoattractant protein (MCP) 3, MCP-1, macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP) 1 alpha, and RANTES, respectively. Analysis of genomic DNA suggested that there is a single eotaxin gene in guinea pig which is apparently conserved in mice. High constitutive levels of eotaxin mRNA expression were observed in the lung, while the intestines, stomach, spleen, liver, heart, thymus, testes, and kidney expressed lower levels. To determine if eotaxin mRNA levels are elevated during allergen-induced eosinophilic airway inflammation, ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized guinea pigs were challenged with aerosolized antigen. Compared with the lungs from saline-challenged animals, eotaxin mRNA levels increased sixfold within 3 h and returned to baseline by 6 h. Thus, eotaxin mRNA levels are increased in response to allergen challenge during the late phase response. The identification of constitutive eotaxin mRNA expression in multiple tissues suggests that in addition to regulating airway eosinophilia, eotaxin is likely to be involved in eosinophil recruitment into other tissues as well as in baseline tissue homing.
Epidemiologic Differences Between Cyclosporiasis and Cryptosporidiosis in Peruvian Children

We compared the epidemiologic characteristics of cyclosporiasis and cryptosporidiosis in data from a cohort study of diarrhea in a periurban community near Lima, Peru. Children had an average of 0.20 episodes of cyclosporiasis/year and 0.22 episodes of cryptosporidiosis/year of follow-up. The incidence of cryptosporidiosis peaked at 0.42 for 1-year-old children and declined to 0.06 episodes/child-year for 5- to 9-year-old children. In contrast, the incidence of cyclosporiasis was fairly constant among 1- to 9-year-old children (0.21 to 0.28 episodes/child-year). Likelihood of diarrhea decreased significantly with each episode of cyclosporiasis; for cryptosporidiosis, this trend was not statistically significant. Both infections were more frequent during the warm season (December to May) than the cooler season (June to November). Cryptosporidiosis was more frequent in children from houses without a latrine or toilet. Cyclosporiasis was associated with ownership of domestic animals, especially birds, guinea pigs, and rabbits.
Eigenvectors for clustering: Unipartite, bipartite, and directed graph cases

This paper presents a concise tutorial on spectral clustering for broad spectrum graphs which include unipartite (undirected) graph, bipartite graph, and directed graph. We show how to transform bipartite graph and directed graph into corresponding unipartite graph, therefore allowing a unified treatment to all cases. In bipartite graph, we show that the relaxed solution to the K-way co-clustering can be found by computing the left and right eigenvectors of the data matrix. This gives a theoretical basis for K-way spectral co-clustering algorithms proposed in the literatures. We also show that solving row and column co-clustering is equivalent to solving row and column clustering separately, thus giving a theoretical support for the claim: “column clustering implies row clustering and vice versa”. And in the last part, we generalize the Ky Fan theorem — which is the central theorem for explaining spectral clustering — to rectangular complex matrix motivated by the results from bipartite graph analysis.
EyeBoard: A fast and accurate eye gaze-based text entry system

Over the last three decades, eye gaze has become an important modality of text entry in large and small display digital devices covering people with disabilities beside the able-bodied. Despite of many tools being developed, issues like dwell time optimization, visual search time and interface area minimization, eye-controlled mouse movement stability etc. are still points of concern in making any gaze typing interface more user friendly, accurate and robust. In this paper, we propose EyeBoard, an gaze-based text entry system which optimizes the constituent virtual keyboard layout with respect to eye gaze movement as well as adjusts dwell time dynamically in accordance with user comfort level. Performance evaluation shows that proposed interface achieves on an average 14% higher text entry rate over the existing interfaces. As designed, the proposed interface can effortlessly be suited in small display devices like Mobile phone, PDA etc. Although the experiments have been conducted with able-bodied users, those can easily be replicated for people having severe motor disabilities.
Microarray Analysis of Human Monocytes Infected with Francisella tularensis Identifies New Targets of Host Response Subversion

Francisella tularensis is a gram-negative facultative bacterium that causes the disease tularemia, even upon exposure to low numbers of bacteria. One critical characteristic of Francisella is its ability to dampen or subvert the host immune response. In order to help understand the mechanisms by which this occurs, we performed Affymetrix microarray analysis on transcripts from blood monocytes infected with the virulent Type A Schu S4 strain. Results showed that expression of several host response genes were reduced such as those associated with interferon signaling, Toll-like receptor signaling, autophagy and phagocytosis. When compared to microarrays from monocytes infected with the less virulent F. tularensis subsp. novicida, we found qualitative differences and also a general pattern of quantitatively reduced pro-inflammatory signaling pathway genes in the Schu S4 strain. Notably, the PI3K/Akt1 pathway appeared specifically down-regulated following Schu S4 infection and a concomitantly lower cytokine response was observed. This study identifies several new factors potentially important in host cell subversion by the virulent Type A F. tularensis that may serve as novel targets for drug discovery.
Glutamine Deamidation Destabilizes Human γD-Crystallin and Lowers the Kinetic Barrier to Unfolding*

Human eye lens transparency requires life long stability and solubility of the crystallin proteins. Aged crystallins have high levels of covalent damage, including glutamine deamidation. Human γD-crystallin (HγD-Crys) is a two-domain β-sheet protein of the lens nucleus. The two domains interact through interdomain side chain contacts, including Gln-54 and Gln-143, which are critical for stability and folding of the N-terminal domain of HγD-Crys. To test the effects of interface deamidation on stability and folding, single and double glutamine to glutamate substitutions were constructed. Equilibrium unfolding/refolding experiments of the proteins were performed in guanidine hydrochloride at pH 7.0, 37 °C, or urea at pH 3.0, 20 °C. Compared with wild type, the deamidation mutants were destabilized at pH 7.0. The proteins populated a partially unfolded intermediate that likely had a structured C-terminal domain and unstructured N-terminal domain. However, at pH 3.0, equilibrium unfolding transitions of wild type and the deamidation mutants were indistinguishable. In contrast, the double alanine mutant Q54A/Q143A was destabilized at both pH 7.0 and 3.0. Thermal stabilities of the deamidation mutants were also reduced at pH 7.0. Similarly, the deamidation mutants lowered the kinetic barrier to unfolding of the N-terminal domain. These data indicate that interface deamidation decreases the thermodynamic stability of HγD-Crys and lowers the kinetic barrier to unfolding due to introduction of a negative charge into the domain interface. Such effects may be significant for cataract formation by inducing protein aggregation or insolubility.