Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stable-Label Intravenous Glucose Tolerance Test Minimal Model

The minimal model approach to estimating insulin sensitivity (SI) and glucose effectiveness in promoting its own disposition at basal insulin (SG) is a powerful tool that has been underutilized given its potential applications. In part, this has been due to its inability to separate insulin and glucose effects on peripheral uptake from their effects on hepatic glucose inflow. Prior enhancements, with radiotracer labeling of the dosage, permit this separation but are unsuitable for use in pregnancy and childhood. In this study, we labeled the intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) dosage with [6,6-2H2]glucose, [2-2H]glucose, or both stable isotopically labeled glucose tracers and modeled glucose kinetics in six postabsorptive, nonobese adults. As previously found with the radiotracer model, the tracer-estimated derived from the stable-label IVGTT was greater than SI in each case except one, and the tracer-estimated was less than SG in each instance. More importantly, however, the stable-label IVGTT estimated each parameter with an average precision of ± 5% (range 3–9%) compared to average precisions of ±74% (range 7–309%) for SGand ±22% (range 3–72%) for SI. In addition, because of the different metabolic fates of the two deuterated tracers, there were minor differences in basal insulin-derived measures of glucose effectiveness, but these differences were negligible for parameters describing insulin-stimulated processes. In conclusion, the stable-label IVGTT is a simple, highly precise means of assessing insulin sensitivity and glucose effectiveness at basal insulin that can be used to measure these parameters in individuals of all ages, including children and pregnant women.
Network delay-aware energy management for mobile systems

Smartphones and tablets have occupied the every facet of our daily life in recent years. According to a recent survey, users spend over 3 hours a day on their mobile devices. In addition, 76% and 75% of smartphone users perform web browsing and social networking at least once a day, respectively. To fully enjoy their benefits, those mobile systems require a long battery life. However, network errors such as packet losses decrease the battery life more quickly. We analyzed the reason for this through measurements using real smartphones and mobile full system simulation. We found that the smartphones maintain high performance level on packet losses without doing useful work. To address this problem, we propose a method for reducing energy consumption by lowering down performance level with a Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling mechanism when long network delay is expected due to packet losses. Experimental results show that the total energy consumption is reduced by 8.4% without performance loss.
Cross-platform mobile development: a study on apps with animations

The paper presents a comparison between different frameworks for cross-platform mobile development, MoSync, Titanium, jQuery Mobile and Phonegap, with particular attention to development of applications with animations. We define a set of criteria for the evaluation and we develop the same game as case study app, with the aim to provide an unbias judgement. Our analysis recommends Titanium as the best framework to develop mobile applications with animations.
Polymorphisms in miRNA processing genes and their role in osteosarcoma risk

The possible associations between genetic variants and osteosarcoma risk have been analyzed without conclusive results. Those studies were focused mainly on genes of biologically plausible pathways. However, recently, another pathway has acquired relevance in cellular transformation and tumorigenesis, the microRNA (miRNA) processing pathway. Dysregulation of the expression levels of genes in this pathway has been described in cancer. Consequently, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes that codify for proteins involved in the miRNA processing pathway may affect miRNAs, and therefore their target genes, which might be associated with cancer development and progression. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether SNPs in miRNA processing genes confer predisposition to osteosarcoma.
Downstream Development of the Gulf Stream from 68° to 55°W

Abstract Two CTD sections across the Gulf Stream at 68° and 55°W were acquired in late March of 1988 within 11 days of one another as part of an effort to look at downstream changes in the current. Using complementary current meter measurements, sections of total barotropic and geostrophic baroclinic velocity are constructed and used to calculate transport in potential density classes. Potential vorticity sections are presented for both locations, including the effects of planetary, stretching, and relative vorticity. The data are also used to examine the core properties of recently formed 18°Water at the two sections. It is found that: 1) water parcels in the exposed surface layers experience downstream density and potential vorticity changes consistent with surface forcing; 2) thermocline Gulf Stream transport is conserved downstream and below the exposed layers is conserved within individual density classes; 3) subthermocline Gulf Stream transport increases modestly at levels above the sill depth of th.
Using critical junctures and environmentally-dependent information for management of tightly-coupled cooperation in heterogeneous robot teams

This paper addresses the challenge of forming appropriate heterogeneous robot teams to solve tightly-coupled, potentially multi-robot tasks, in which the robot capabilities may vary over the environment in which the task is being performed. Rather than making use of a permanent tightly-coupled robot team for performing the task, our approach aims to recognize when tight coupling is needed, and then only form tight cooperative teams at those times. This results in important cost savings, since coordination is only used when the independent operation of the team members would put mission success at risk. Our approach is to define a new semantic information type, called environmentally dependent information, which allows us to capture certain environmentally-dependent perceptual constraints on vehicle capabilities. We define locations at which the robot team must transition between tight and weak cooperation as critical junctures. Note that these critical juncture points are a function of the robot team capabilities and the environmental characteristics, and are not due to a change in the task itself.We calculate critical juncture points by making use of our prior ASyMTRe approach, which can automatically configure heterogeneous robot team solutions to enable sharing of sensory capabilities across robots. We demonstrate these concepts in experiments involving a human-controlled blimp and an autonomous ground robot in a target localization task.
Evolving Architectural Patterns For Web Applications

Web application architectural component relationships have evolved over the last decade or so to the point where they have become well established both as common design patterns and embedded in software frameworks. However with the increasing adoption of Web 2.0 technologies and Ajax based web applications, new patterns are starting to emerge. These patterns have yet to become well established in the literature, though a number of new frameworks are beginning to appear. In this paper we review the core patterns of traditional web application architectures, as described in the literature. We then move on to collect some new patterns that have begun to emerge and integrate them into a larger architectural view of how contemporary web applications are evolving. Where it is necessary to illustrate these patterns within a specific web technology, we use components from the Java Enterprise Edition.
Adjust To Target In Type 2 Diabetes: Comparison Of A Simple Algorithm To Carbohydrate Counting For Adjustment Of Mealtime Insulin Glulisine

Objective: Carbohydrate counting is an effective approach to mealtime insulin adjustment in type 1 diabetes, but has not been rigorously assessed in type 2 diabetes. Research and Design Methods: This 24-week, multicenter, randomized, controlled study compared two algorithms for adjusting mealtime (glulisine) insulin along with a standard algorithm for adjusting background (glargine) insulin in 273 intent-to-treat patients with type 2 diabetes. Glulisine and glargine were adjusted weekly in both groups based on previous week’s self monitored blood glucose (SMBG) results. The Simple Algorithm group was provided set doses of glulisine to take before each meal. The Carbohydrate Counting group was provided an insulin to carbohydrate ratio to use for each meal and adjusted their glulisine dose based on amount of carbohydrate consumed. Results: A1C levels at week 24 were 6.70% (Simple Algorithm) and 6.54% (Carb Count). The respective mean A1C changes from baseline to 24 weeks were –1.46% and –1.59% ( P =.24). A1C <7.0% was achieved by 73.2% (Simple Algorithm) and 69.2% (Carb Count) ( P =.70); respective values for A1C <6.5% were 44.3% and 49.5% ( P= .28). The total daily dose of insulin was lower and there was a trend toward less weight gain in Carb Count patients. Severe hypoglycemia rates were low and equal in the two groups. Conclusions: Weekly basal:bolus insulin adjustments based on premeal and bedtime glucose patterns resulted in significant reductions in A1C. Having two effective approaches to delivering and adjusting rapid-acting mealtime insulin may increase physicians’ and patients’ willingness to advance therapy to a basal:bolus insulin regimen.
Quality-Control Algorithm for Adaptive Streaming Services Over Wireless Channels

Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) is a recent MPEG standard for IP video delivery whose aim is the convergence of existing adaptive-streaming proprietary solutions. However, it does not impose any adaptation logic for selecting the quality of the media segments requested by the client, which is crucial to cope effectively with bandwidth fluctuations, notably in wireless channels. We therefore propose a solution to this control problem through Stochastic Dynamic Programming (SDP). This approach requires a probabilistic characterization of the system, as well as the definition of a cost function that the control strategy aims to minimize. This cost function is designed taking into account factors that may influence the quality perceived by the users. Unlike previous works, which compute control policies online by learning from experience, our algorithm solves the control problem offline, leading promptly to better results. In addition, we compared our algorithm to others during a streaming simulation and we analyzed the objective results by means of a Quality of Experience (QoE) oriented metric. Moreover, we conducted subjective tests to complete the evaluation of the performance of our algorithm. The results show that our proposal outperforms the other approaches in terms of both the QoE-oriented metric and the subjective evaluation.
Evolution and biodiversity of Antarctic organisms: a molecular perspective

The Antarctic biota is highly endemic, and the diversity and abundance of taxonomic groups differ from elsewhere in the world. Such characteristics have resulted from evolution in isolation in an increasingly extreme environment over the last 100 Myr. Studies on Antarctic species represent some of the best examples of natural selection at the molecular, structural and physiological levels. Analyses of molecular genetics data are consistent with the diversity and distribution of marine and terrestrial taxa having been strongly influenced by geological and climatic cooling events over the last 70 Myr. Such events have resulted in vicariance driven by continental drift and thermal isolation of the Antarctic, and in pulses of species range contraction into refugia and subsequent expansion and secondary contact of genetically distinct populations or sister species during cycles of glaciation. Limited habitat availability has played a major role in structuring populations of species both in the past and in the present day. For these reasons, despite the apparent simplicity or homogeneity of Antarctic terrestrial and marine environments, populations of species are often geographically structured into genetically distinct lineages. In some cases, genetic studies have revealed that species defined by morphological characters are complexes of cryptic or sibling species. Climate change will cause changes in the distribution of many Antarctic and sub-Antarctic species through affecting population-level processes such as life history and dispersal.
Università Degli Studi Di Napoli " Federico Ii " 2-visibly Pushdown Automata 2-visibly Pushdown Automata

Visibly Pushdown Automata (VPA) are a special case of pushdown machines where the stack operations are driven by the input. In this paper, we consider VPA with two stacks, namely 2-VPA. These automata introduce a useful model to effectively describe concurrent pushdown systems using a simple communication mechanism between stacks. We show that 2-VPA are strictly more expressive than VPA. Indeed, 2-VPA accept some context-sensitive languages that are not context-free and some context-free languages that are not accepted by any VPA. Nevertheless, the class of languages accepted by 2-VPA is closed under all boolean operations and determinizable in ExpTime, but does not preserve decidability of emptiness problem. By adding an ordering constraint on stacks (2-OVPA), decidability of emptiness can be recovered (preserving desirable closure properties) and solved in PTime. Using these properties along with the automata-theoretic approach, we prove that the model checking problem over 2-OVPA models against 2-OVPA specifications is ExpTime-complete.
A Numerical Simulation of Wind Stress and Topographic Effects on the Kuroshio Current Path near Taiwan

Abstract A semispectral primitive equation model is used to study the effects of wind stress and bottom topography on the meandering of a jet over the continental margin. The jet is specified initially as a geostrophic current (similar to the Kuroshio Current) supported by the temperature field. The intrusion of water from the meandering jet over the continental margin is not only dominated by topographic effects but also enhanced by northerly winds. The latter induces an onshore Ekman transport, which causes surface water in the meandering jet to intrude onto the continental margin. Lighter water is then carried downward to the deeper ocean through the hydrostatic and topographic boundary layers. Some subsurface water in the meandering jet also intrudes onto the continental slope and shelf and then rejoins the main stream. Under the influence of southerly wind, surface water in the meandering jet migrates offshore toward the deeper ocean in the Ekman layer, while subsurface water in the meandering jet in.
Novel Lineage of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Hong Kong

To determine whether spa type of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in pigs belonged to sequence type (ST) 398, we analyzed nasal swabs from pig carcasses at Hong Kong markets in 2008. ST9 belonging to spa type t899 was found for 16/100 samples, which indicates that a distinct lineage has emerged in pigs.
Varicella-Zoster Virus Glycoprotein M Homolog Is Glycosylated, Is Expressed on the Viral Envelope, and Functions in Virus Cell-to-Cell Spread

ABSTRACT Although envelope glycoprotein M (gM) is highly conserved among herpesviruses, the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) gM homolog has never been investigated. Here we characterized the VZV gM homolog and analyzed its function in VZV-infected cells. The VZV gM homolog was expressed on virions as a glycoprotein modified with a complex N-linked oligosaccharide and localized mainly to the Golgi apparatus and the trans-Golgi network in infected cells. To analyze its function, a gM deletion mutant was generated using the bacterial artificial chromosome system in Escherichia coli, and the virus was reconstituted in MRC-5 cells. VZV is highly cell associated, and infection proceeds mostly by cell-to-cell spread. Compared with wild-type VZV, the gM deletion mutant showed a 90% reduction in plaque size and 50% of the cell-to-cell spread in MRC-5 cells. The analysis of infected cells by electron microscopy revealed numerous aberrant vacuoles containing electron-dense materials in cells infected with the deletion mutant virus but not in those infected with wild-type virus. However, enveloped immature particles termed L particles were found at the same level on the surfaces of cells infected with either type of virus, indicating that envelopment without a capsid might not be impaired. These results showed that VZV gM is important for efficient cell-to-cell virus spread in cell culture, although it is not essential for virus growth.
Functional Genomic Analysis of the AUXIN/INDOLE-3-ACETIC ACID Gene Family Members in Arabidopsis thaliana[W]

Auxin regulates various aspects of plant growth and development. The AUXIN/INDOLE-3-ACETIC ACID (Aux/IAA) genes encode short-lived transcriptional repressors that are targeted by the TRANSPORT INHIBITOR RESPONSE1/AUXIN RECEPTOR F-BOX proteins. The Aux/IAA proteins regulate auxin-mediated gene expression by interacting with members of the AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR protein family. Aux/IAA function is poorly understood; herein, we report the identification and characterization of insertion mutants in 12 of the 29 Aux/IAA family members. The mutants show no visible developmental defects compared with the wild type. Double or triple mutants of closely related Aux/IAA genes, such as iaa8-1 iaa9-1 or iaa5-1 iaa6-1 iaa19-1, also exhibit wild-type phenotypes. Global gene expression analysis reveals that the molecular phenotypes of auxin-treated and untreated light-grown seedlings are unaffected in the iaa17-6 and iaa5-1 iaa6-1 iaa19-1 mutants. By contrast, similar analysis with the gain-of-function axr3-1/iaa17-1 mutant seedlings reveals dramatic changes in basal and auxin-induced gene expression compared with the wild type. Expression of several type-A ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATOR genes and a number of genes involved in cell wall biosynthesis and degradation is repressed in axr3-1/iaa17-1. The data suggest extensive functional redundancy among Aux/IAA gene family members and that enhanced stability of the AXR3/IAA17 protein severely alters the molecular phenotype, resulting in developmental defects.
Use of a Genetic Approach To Evaluate the Consequences of Inhibition of Efflux Pumps in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

ABSTRACT Drug efflux pumps in Pseudomonas aeruginosa were evaluated as potential targets for antibacterial therapy. The potential effects of pump inhibition on susceptibility to fluoroquinolone antibiotics were studied with isogenic strains that overexpress or lack individual efflux pumps and that have various combinations of efflux- and target-mediated mutations. Deletions in three efflux pump operons were constructed. As expected, deletion of the MexAB-OprM efflux pump decreased resistance to fluoroquinolones in the wild-type P. aeruginosa (16-fold reduction for levofloxacin [LVX]) or in the strain that overexpressed mexAB-oprM operon (64-fold reduction for LVX). In addition to that, resistance to LVX was significantly reduced even for the strains carrying target mutations (64-fold for strains for which LVX MICs were >4 μg/ml). We also studied the frequencies of emergence of LVX-resistant variants from different deletion mutants and the wild-type strain. Deletion of individual pumps or pairs of the pumps did not significantly affect the frequency of emergence of resistant variants (at 4× the MIC for the wild-type strain) compared to that for the wild type (10−6to 10−7). In the case of the strain with a triple deletion, the frequency of spontaneous mutants was undetectable (<10−11). In summary, inhibition of drug efflux pumps would (i) significantly decrease the level of intrinsic resistance, (ii) reverse acquired resistance, and (iii) result in a decreased frequency of emergence of P. aeruginosa strains highly resistant to fluoroquinolones in clinical settings.
Profit Incentive in Trading Nonexclusive Access on a Secondary Spectrum Market Through Contract Design

In this paper, we formulate a contract design problem where a primary license holder wishes to profit from its excess spectrum capacity by selling it to potential secondary users/buyers. It needs to determine how to optimally price the excess spectrum so as to maximize its profit, knowing that this excess capacity is stochastic in nature, does not come with exclusive access, and cannot provide deterministic service guarantees to a buyer. At the same time, buyers are of different types, characterized by different communication needs, tolerance for the channel uncertainty, and so on, all of which are a buyer's private information. The license holder must then try to design different contracts catered to different types of buyers in order to maximize its profit. We address this problem by adopting as a reference a traditional spectrum market where the buyer can purchase exclusive access with fixed/deterministic guarantees. We fully characterize the optimal solution in the cases where there is a single buyer type, and when multiple types of buyers share the same known channel condition as a result of the primary user activity. In the most general case, we construct an algorithm that generates a set of contracts in a computationally efficient manner and show that this set is optimal when the buyer types satisfy a monotonicity condition.
Criteria for Comparing Object-Oriented Development Methods

object-oriented methods, comparison Recently there has been a profusion of object-oriented analysis and design methods coming from a variety of backgrounds. The aim of this paper is to aid the objective comparison of methods. A set of criteria for making explicit the differences and similarities between methods is proposed. The criteria are presented as a set of questions together with some preceding commentary. There are four main categories of criteria: Concepts, Models, Process and Pragmatics. Concepts deals with what makes a development method object-oriented. The criteria for models consider what abstract system descriptions a method requires and the notations it proposes to capture those descriptions. The process criteria focus on mechanisms for developing the models. The pragmatic criteria concentrate on nontechnical features.
Managing Educational Tourism

Increasingly tourists are seeking learning and educational holidays. This interest has led to the provision of tourism product with some form of learning or education as an integral component, including cultural heritage tourism and ecotourism. The growth of offshore education and lifelong learning has stimulated cross-border movement for language learning, school excursions and university student travel. Reflecting this growth in educational tourism types, the author outlines the main forms of educational tourism, their demand and supply characteristics, their impacts and the management issues associated with them, taking a holistic systems-based perspective. The book argues that without adequate research and appropriate management of educational forms of tourism, the potential regional development impacts and personal learning benefits will not be maximised. The book highlights the need for collaboration and networking between both the tourism and education industries to adequately manage the issues surrounding the growth in educational tourism.
Observations on the type specimen of Entamoeba serpentis (Cunha and Fonseca, 1917.

SYNOPSIS. The type specimen of Entamoeba serpentis Cunha and Fonseca, 1917 was studied. Description of the cysts of this species, hitherto unreported, shows that this species resembles the “histolytica” type, producing 4-nucleate mature cysts; their measurements fall within the size range occupied in part by E. invadens.