Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Loss-Based Utility Function for Predicting IPTV Quality of Experience over an Overlay Network

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) over broadband networks offers more services and flexibility, such as time-shifted TV and video-on-demand (VoD), than the traditional broadcast TV. Unfortunately, IP offers best effort service and Quality of Service (QoS) is not guaranteed. In order to provide QoS guarantees over the Internet, overlay networks are used. Impairments happening at the network layer such as delays and packet losses significantly affect the quality of the IPTV stream. Hence, a reliable mechanism to monitor the Quality of Experience (QoE) of IPTV users is essential to an IPTV service provider in order to avoid customer churn. It is essential that an IPTV provider be able to monitor the QoE with minimal overhead. Therefore, we propose a utility based QoE monitoring approach based on statistical losses at the application layer. This paper also presents mathematical proofs and simulation results that confirm the suitability and effectiveness of our proposed method.
The Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy GABAA Receptor α1 Subunit Mutation A322D Produces Asymmetrical, Subunit Position-Dependent Reduction of Heterozygous Receptor Currents and α1 Subunit Protein Expression

Individuals with autosomal dominant juvenile myoclonic epilepsy are heterozygous for a GABAA receptor α1 subunit mutation (α1A322D). GABAA receptor αβγ subunits are arranged around the pore in a β-α-β-α-γ sequence (counterclockwise from the synaptic cleft). Therefore, each α1 subunit has different adjacent subunits, and heterozygous expression of α1(A322D), β, and γ subunits could produce receptors with four different subunit arrangements: β-α1-β-α1-γ (wild type); β-α1(A322D)-β-α1-γ (Hetβαβ); β-α1-β-α1(A322D)-γ (Hetβαγ);β-α1(A322D)-β-α1(A322D)-γ (homozygous). Expression of a 1:1 mixture of wild-type andα1(A322D) subunits with β2S and γ2S subunits (heterozygous transfection) produced smaller currents than wild type and much larger currents than homozygous mutant transfections. Western blot and biotinylation assays demonstrated that the amount of total and surface α1 subunit from heterozygous transfections was also intermediate between those of wild-type and homozygous mutant transfections. α1(A322D) mutations were then made in covalently tethered triplet (γ2S-β2S-α1) and tandem (β2S-α1) concatamers to target selectively α1(A322D) to each of the asymmetric α1 subunits. Coexpression of mutant and wild-type concatamers resulted in expression of either Hetβαβ or Hetβαγ receptors. Hetβαβ currents were smaller than wild type and much larger than Hetβαγ and homozygous currents. Furthermore, Hetβαβ transfections contained less β-α concatamer than wild type but more than both Hetβαγ and homozygous mutant transfections. Thus, whole-cell currents and protein expression of heterozygous α1(A322D)β2Sγ2S receptors depended on the position of the mutant α1 subunit, and GABAA receptor currents in heterozygous individuals likely result primarily from wild-type and Hetβαβ receptors with little contribution from Hetβαγ and homozygous receptors.
Anti-gp41 Antibodies Cloned from HIV-Infected Patients with Broadly Neutralizing Serologic Activity

ABSTRACT Most HIV-infected individuals develop antibodies to the gp120 and gp41 components of the viral spike; however, only a fraction of these individuals mount a broadly neutralizing serum response against HIV. We have cloned anti-HIV antibodies from the memory B-cell compartment of six individuals with variable viral loads and high titers of broadly neutralizing antibodies. Here, we report on the features of the anti-gp41 response in these patients. Competition experiments with previously characterized antibodies targeting defined epitopes on the gp41 ectodomain showed antibodies directed against the “immunodominant region” (cluster I), the carboxy-terminal heptad repeat (cluster II), and the membrane-proximal external region (cluster IV). On the other hand, antibodies directed against the amino-terminal part of the molecule, including the fusion peptide, polar region, and the N-terminal heptad repeat, were not detected. When all patients' data were combined, unique B-cell clones targeting cluster I, II, and IV accounted for 32%, 49%, and 53% of all anti-gp41-reactive B cells, respectively; therefore, no single region was truly immunodominant. Finally, although we found no new neutralizing epitopes or HIV-1-neutralizing activity by any of the gp41 antibodies at concentrations of up to 50 μg/ml, high concentrations of 7 out of 15 anti-cluster I antibodies neutralized tier 2 viruses.
Urban context aware human mobility model based on temporal correlation

The performance of mobile networks is significantly influenced by the mobility patterns of wireless device holders. Human mobility models, which yields synthetic trajectories with essential mobility patterns of crowd, are important for the research and development of mobile networks. However, traditional models are often perceived as not realistic for depicting urban context (such as urban hotspots and direction of crowd flow). This paper proposes a temporal correlation based model that produce large-scale of synthetic trajectories on the basis of a short period of time real human traces. The trajectories generated by our model not only maintain the inherent statistical features of human mobility, but also “learn” the urban context from real traces. For simulating crowd mobility in a city, our model first extract the statistical features and urban context features from the the real traces, then regenerate synthetic trajectories on the basis of temporal correlation of human mobility. We validate our model and findings through three open datasets: taxicabs' traces in San Francisco, public bicycles' traces in Washington D.C. and New York City.
Diabetic Kidney Disease

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the most common cause of ESRD in USA as well as in the world. The incidence and the prevalence of DKD have been increasing regardless of current intervention. The pathology of DKD is characterized by accumulation of extracellular matrix in GBM and mesangial area. The pathogenesis of DKD is multi-factorial including genetic, metabolic, and hemodynamic changes, which lead to activation of oxidative stress, inflammation, and fibrosis pathways in the diabetic kidney. Clinically, patients with DKD presents with glomerular hyperfiltration at early stage, then microalbuminuria, macroalbuminuria, and ESRD. However, the disease progression varies greatly among individual patients. Treatment of DKD is limited to hyperglycemic and blood pressure control and use of RAS blockade. Several new drugs such as SGLT2 inhibitors have been on phase 3 clinical trials but research is required to develop more effective drugs to treat DKD.
Reactive Oxygen Species, Apoptosis, and Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Hearing Loss

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production is involved in several apoptotic and necrotic cell death pathways in auditory tissues. These pathways are the major causes of most types of sensorineural hearing loss, including age-related hearing loss, hereditary hearing loss, ototoxic drug-induced hearing loss, and noise-induced hearing loss. ROS production can be triggered by dysfunctional mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and increases or decreases in ROS-related enzymes. Although apoptotic cell death pathways are mostly activated by ROS production, there are other pathways involved in hearing loss that do not depend on ROS production. Further studies of other pathways, such as endoplasmic reticulum stress and necrotic cell death, are required.
Gender Differences in Entrepreneurial Orientation

The following paper aims to analyze gender differences in entrepreneurial orientation. Based on the model of entrepreneurship orientation for the intrapreneurship, we have analyzed the proactivity, creativity, innovation and risk propensity as variables that capture the profile of the individual entrepreneur in the pre-stage company. To perform the analysis we have ed a sample of students the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos who attended extracurricular seminars on “Entrepreneurship and Leadership”. The study of gender difference has been made by a study of mean differences and a classification study by the method of discriminant analysis. The results not only indicate that there are significant differences in entrepreneurial behavior due to gender differences, but also the study of the group classification confirms the existence of distinct groups associated with gender. Specifically, the feminine gender is more risk averse and is considered less innovative. However, regarding proactivity, the feminine gender is associated more to attributes relating to responsibility, discipline and independence, and the masculine to initiative and leadership positions.
Response to Rawnsley’s Column: A Theoretician’s Perspective

Marilyn Rawnsley’s analysis of the dimensions of scholarship vis-a-vis the advancement of nursing science and her several proposals offer more ideas for contemplation than I can respond to in this space. I will attempt to address the core ideas in her article and invite readers to respond with additional musings sparked by this thought-provoking piece. My remarks are couched in the perspective of a dedicated theoretician (that is, one who works with theory but is not a theorist) who labors in the realm of nursing theory based on the conviction that this is the best contribution to the betterment of humankind that I as an individual can make in my lifetime.
A Pattern-Based Approach for Sarcasm Detection on Twitter

Sarcasm is a sophisticated form of irony widely used in social networks and microblogging websites. It is usually used to convey implicit information within the message a person transmits. Sarcasm might be used for different purposes, such as criticism or mockery. However, it is hard even for humans to recognize. Therefore, recognizing sarcastic statements can be very useful to improve automatic sentiment analysis of data collected from microblogging websites or social networks. Sentiment Analysis refers to the identification and aggregation of attitudes and opinions expressed by Internet users toward a specific topic. In this paper, we propose a pattern-based approach to detect sarcasm on Twitter. We propose four sets of features that cover the different types of sarcasm we defined. We use those to classify tweets as sarcastic and non-sarcastic. Our proposed approach reaches an accuracy of 83.1% with a precision equal to 91.1%. We also study the importance of each of the proposed sets of features and evaluate its added value to the classification. In particular, we emphasize the importance of pattern-based features for the detection of sarcastic statements.
Bioenergetics, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, and Oxidative Stress in the Pathophysiology of Septic Encephalopathy

ABSTRACT Sepsis is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in intensive care units. Acute and long-term brain dysfunctions have been demonstrated both in experimental models and septic patients. Sepsis-associated encephalopathy is an early and frequent manifestation but is underdiagnosed, because of the absence of specific biomarkers and of confounding factors such as sedatives used in the intensive care unit. Sepsis-associated encephalopathy may have acute and long-term consequences including development of autonomic dysfunction, delirium, and cognitive impairment. The mechanisms of sepsis-associated encephalopathy involve mitochondrial and vascular dysfunctions, oxidative stress, neurotransmission disturbances, inflammation, and cell death. Here we review specific evidence that links bioenergetics, mitochondrial dysfunction, and oxidative stress in the setting of brain dysfunctions associated to sepsis.
Evaluation of the tissue reaction to a new bilayered collagen matrix in vivo and its translation to the clinic

This study evaluates a new collagen matrix that is designed with a bilayered structure in order to promote guided tissue regeneration and integration within the host tissue. This material induced a mild tissue reaction when assessed in a murine model and was well integrated within the host tissue, persisting in the implantation bed throughout the in vivo study. A more porous layer was rapidly infiltrated by host mesenchymal cells, while a layer designed to be a barrier allowed cell attachment and host tissue integration, but at the same time remained impermeable to invading cells for the first 30 days of the study. The tissue reaction was favorable, and unlike a typical foreign body response, did not include the presence of multinucleated giant cells, lymphocytes, or granulation tissue. In the context of translation, we show preliminary results from the clinical use of this biomaterial applied to soft tissue regeneration in the treatment of gingival tissue recession and exposed roots of human teeth. Such a condition would greatly benefit from guided tissue regeneration strategies. Our findings demonstrate that this material successfully promoted the ingrowth of gingival tissue and reversed gingival tissue recession. Of particular importance is the fact that the histological evidence from these human studies corroborates our findings in the murine model, with the barrier layer preventing unspecific tissue ingrowth, as the scaffold becomes infiltrated by mesenchymal cells from adjacent tissue into the porous layer. Also in the clinical situation no multinucleated giant cells, no granulation tissue and no evidence of a marked inflammatory response were observed. In conclusion, this bilayered matrix elicits a favorable tissue reaction, demonstrates potential as a barrier for preferential tissue ingrowth, and achieves a desirable therapeutic result when applied in humans for soft tissue regeneration.
Host genetic factors in American cutaneous leishmaniasis: a critical appraisal of studies conducted in an endemic area of Brazil

American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) is a vector-transmitted infectious disease with an estimated 1.5 million new cases per year. In Brazil, ACL represents a significant public health problem, with approximately 30,000 new reported cases annually, representing an incidence of 18.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Corte de Pedra is in a region endemic for ACL in the state of Bahia (BA), northeastern Brazil, with 500-1,300 patients treated annually. Over the last decade, population and family-based candidate gene studies were conducted in Corte de Pedra, founded on previous knowledge from studies on mice and humans. Notwithstanding limitations related to sample size and power, these studies contribute important genetic biomarkers that identify novel pathways of disease pathogenesis and possible new therapeutic targets. The present paper is a narrative review about ACL immunogenetics in BA, highlighting in particular the interacting roles of the wound healing gene FLI1 with interleukin-6 and genes SMAD2 and SMAD3 of the transforming growth factor beta signalling pathway. This research highlights the need for well-powered genetic and functional studies on Leishmania braziliensis infection as essential to define and validate the role of host genes in determining resistance/susceptibility regarding this disease.
On subspace clustering with density consciousness

In this paper, a problem, called "the density divergence problem" is explored. This problem is related to the phenomenon that the densities of the clusters vary in different subspace cardinalities. We take the densities into consideration in subspace clustering and explore an algorithm to adaptively determine different density thresholds to discover clusters in different subspace cardinalities.
Murine cytomegalovirus induces a Sjögren's syndrome-like disease in C57Bl/6-lpr/lpr mice.

OBJECTIVE To analyze Fas and tumor necrosis factor receptor I (TNFRI) apoptosis pathways in salivary gland inflammatory disease induced by murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) infection. METHODS Four different strains of mice (C57BI/6 [B6]-+/+, Fas-deficient B6-lpr/lpr, TNFRI-deficient B6-tnfr1(0/0), and B6-tnfr1(0/0)-lpr/lpr mice) were infected intraperitoneally with the Smith strain of MCMV (1 x 10(5) plaque-forming units). Viral load was determined by a plaque assay, inflammation and apoptosis by immunohistochemistry and staining with terminal dUTP nickend labeling, and autoantibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS Infectious MCMV was not detectable by day 100. Although all MCMV-infected mice developed acute sialadenitis by day 28, a chronic (>100 days), severe salivary gland inflammation and anti-Ro and anti-La antibodies developed only in the B6-lpr/lpr mice. Apoptotic cells were detected during the acute, but not the chronic, phase of inflammation. CONCLUSION Both Fas- and TNFRI-mediated apoptosis contribute to the clearance of MCMV-infected cells in the salivary glands. However, because Fas-mediated apoptosis is necessary for the down-modulation of the immune response, a defect in this process can lead to a postinfection, chronic inflammatory response that resembles Sjögren's syndrome.
The interconnections between maternal and newborn health – evidence and implications for policy

Abstract The past decade has witnessed increasing global attention and political support for maternal, newborn and child health. Despite this increased attention, actual progress has been slow and sporadic: coverage of key maternal and newborn health interventions remains low and there are wide disparities in access to care, within and across countries. Strategies for improving maternal and newborn health are closely linked, and can be delivered most effectively through a continuum of care approach. While these interventions are largely known, there is little information on which interventions have a positive health impact for both women and newborns. This supplement identifies the interventions during the preconception, pregnancy, intrapartum and postnatal periods found to have a positive, synergistic effect on maternal and neonatal outcomes. These interventions are then grouped into packages of care for delivery at the community, health center or hospital levels.
Estimation of nonparametric probability density functions with applications to automatic speech recognition

During the last decade, a new learning paradigm called Structural Risk Minimization (SRM) derived from Statistical Learning Theory, has become widely studied in machine learning. Machines implementing SRM, e. g. , Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and Kernel Fisher Discriminants (KFDs), have been very successfully used for solving pattern recognition and function regression problems. SRM's ability to simultaneously minimize the risk of error on training data and the complexity of a learning machine results in better generalization capability than plain Empirical Risk Minimization (ERM), especially if the amount of training data is limited. The present work is devoted to applying SRM to the problem of probability density function (PDF) estimation. When modeling sequences of continuous-valued events using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), e. g. , automatic speech recognition (ASR), PDFs are used to model the emission probabilities of the HMMs' states. This thesis investigates and develops methods to e ciently train sparse kernel PDF models by regression of the empirical cumulative distribution function (ECDF). A new method for obtaining a sparse approximation of the orthogonal least-squares regression solution by forward-selection of relevant samples is presented, where a novel memory-e cient thin update of the orthogonal decomposition is used. This method is evaluated on standard benchmark problems of up to ve dimensions, showing superior performance to traditional parametric Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs) and similar performance to the theoretically optimal, non-sparse Parzen windows PDF models. However, it is found that this new method cannot be applied to the problem of estimating PDFs for ASR due to the complexity of the ECDF in high dimensions. Instead, posterior class probabilities calibrated from the outputs of binary discriminants such as SVMs or KFDs are turned into class-conditional PDFs using Bayes' rule. This approach is tested within a monophone HMM ASR system on the Resource Management task, outperforming traditional HMM-GMM systems signi cantly, especially on random limited samples which demonstrates the new models' improved generalization ability on small-sample problems. In order to realize these large-scale experiments, a novel machine learning software library is presented. Primary focus is put on fast computations, simplicity both in terms of expressing algorithms and extending functionality, and exibility in order to properly appreciate algorithms' properties and advantages. The software library follows an object-oriented design and has been implemented in C++. For productivity, the library is equipped with ne-grained tracing, an object-oriented persistence model, transparent error handling and parallelization on distributedmemory computer clusters.
Reminiscences of Work on Capillary Circulation. A Lecture to the Students in the Harvard Medical School, 1946

extremely tender of giving offence to any man. Dr. Arbuthnot was a great wit and humorist, yet he was tender and prudent . One may call attention here to an amusing error in Andrew D. White's story of the controversy. In introducing this entry, in an abbreviated form, from Adams's Diary, the famous historian of science wrote: "Three years later, John Adams, speaking of a conversation with Arbuthnot, a Boston physician, says Now the Doctor in whose house the conversation took place was not "Arbuthnot, a Boston physician," but Dr Savil of Braintree, who lived in one of the two houses owned by the Adamses 8 and whom, as the Diary shows, John Adams was wont to visit. And the "prating" about the iron rods was done by Ben Veasey; of the Doctor, Adams would not have written so slightingly. As to Dr Arbuthnot whom Adams describes as "a great wit and humorist," he was an altogether different personage. He was a physician, certainly, but in London and not in Boston. Yes, he was the Dr Arbuthnot -the friend of Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. Winthrop's Lecture on Earthquakes is one of the many volumes in John Adams's library (now in the Boston Public Library) containing numerous marginal comments. The present writer has collected these notes into a book.
Secure Resolution of End-Host Identifiers for Mobile Clients

Many efforts of the network research community focus on the introduction of a new identifier to relieve the IP address from its dual role of end-host identifier and routable locator. This identifier-locator split introduces a new identifier between human readable domain names and routable IP addresses. Mapping between identifiers and locators requires additional name mapping mechanisms because their relation is not trivial. Despite its popularity and efficiency, the DNS system is not a perfect choice for performing this mapping because identifiers are not hierarchically structured and mappings are frequently updated by users. In this paper we discuss the features needed to resolve flat identifiers to locators in a secure manner. In particular, we focus on the features and the performance that identifier-locator split protocols require from a mapping system. To this end, we consider a mapping system for an identifier-locator split based mobility solution and evaluate its performance.