Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Capacity Scaling of General Cognitive Networks

There has been recent interest within the networking research community to understand how performance scales in cognitive networks with overlapping n primary nodes and m secondary nodes. Two important metrics, i.e., throughput and delay, are studied in this paper. We first propose a simple and extendable decision model, i.e., the hybrid protocol model, for the secondary nodes to exploit spatial gap among primary transmissions for frequency reuse. Then, a framework for general cognitive networks is established based on the hybrid protocol model to analyze the occurrence of transmission opportunities for secondary nodes. We show that if the primary network operates in a generalized TDMA fashion, or employs a routing scheme such that traffic flows choose relays independently, then the hybrid protocol model suffices to guide the secondary network to achieve the same throughput and delay scaling as a standalone network without harming the performance of the primary network, as long as the secondary transmission range is smaller than the primary range in order. Our approach is general in the sense that we only make a few weak assumptions on both networks, and therefore it obtains a wide variety of results. We show secondary networks can obtain the same order of throughput and delay as standalone networks when primary networks are classic static networks, networks with random walk mobility, hybrid networks, multicast networks, CSMA networks, networks with general mobility, or clustered networks. Our work presents a relatively complete picture of the performance scaling of cognitive networks and provides fundamental insight on the design of them.
Kynurenine and depressive symptoms in a poststroke population

Background and purpose Depression is a commonly occurring and persistent sequel of stroke affecting approximately 29% of patients. An immunological hypothesis has been put forward, and synthesis of kynurenine from tryptophan has been proposed to link inflammatory activity with neurotoxicity and neurotransmitter dysfunction. This study assessed the relationship between peripheral blood kynurenine and poststroke depressive symptoms. Patients and methods This was a multisite cross-sectional observational cohort study of patients with ischemic stroke. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) scale and divided into high, medium, and low depressive symptom tertiles. Concentrations of kynurenine and tryptophan were assayed from fasting serum samples, and the kynurenine/tryptophan ratio was compared between tertiles. Serum cytokine concentrations were assayed in a subgroup of patients, and the ratio of proinflammatory (IL-6, IL-18, IFNγ, TNF, IL-1β) to anti-inflammatory (IL-10) cytokines compared. NLM identifier NCT00254020. Results In these patients (n=86, 52.3% male, mean age 71.7±14.2 years), there were no differences in kynurenine/tryptophan ratios between CES-D scale tertiles (F2,76=0.04, P=0.96) controlling for relevant covariates. For cytokines (n=53), serum IL-1β concentrations (F2,52=3.55, P=0.037) and serum ratios of IL-18/IL-10 (F2,52=3.30, P=0.046), IFNγ/IL-10 (F2,52=4.02, P=0.025), and IL-1β/IL-10 (F2,52=4.34, P=0.019) were elevated in the middle CES-D tertile. Post hoc analyses suggested that serum ratios of IL-18/IL-10 (ρ=0.28, P=0.04), and IL-1β/IL-10 (ρ=0.43, P=0.001), as well as IL-1β (ρ=0.29, P=0.04), were significantly associated with fatigue. Conclusion Peripheral kynurenine/tryptophan ratios were not associated with depressive symptoms in a poststroke population. However, in exploratory analyses a proinflammatory bias was identified specifically in patients with mild depressive symptoms and associated with poststroke fatigue, suggesting an avenue for future research.
Ultrasound Detection of Scatterer Concentration by Weighted Entropy

Ultrasound backscattering signals depend on the microstructures of tissues. Some studies have applied Shannon entropy to analyze the uncertainty of raw radiofrequency (RF) data. However, we found that the sensitivity of entropy in detecting various scatterer concentrations is limited; thus, we propose a weighted entropy as a new information entropy-based approach to enhance the performance of scatterer characterization. A standard simulation model of ultrasound backscattering was used to generate backscattered RF signals with different number densities of scatterers. The RF signals were used to estimate the weighted entropy according to the proposed algorithmic scheme. The weighted entropy increased from 0.08 to 0.23 (representing a dynamic range of 0.15) when the number density of scatterers increased from 2 to 32 scatterers/mm2. In the same range of scatterer concentration, the conventional entropy increased from 0.16 to 0.19 (a dynamic range of 0.03). The results indicated that the weighted entropy enables achieving a more sensitive detection of the variation of scatterer concentrations by ultrasound.
Probabilistic polling for multi-hop energy harvesting wireless sensor networks

In this paper, we propose a medium access control protocol (EH-MAC) for multi-hop energy harvesting wireless sensor networks (EH-WSNs). In EH-WSNs, the main goal is to match energy consumption with the energy harvesting rate which is different from minimizing energy consumption in battery-operated WSNs. Unlike most existing MAC protocols that are designed to extend network lifetime, EH-MAC is designed to achieve high throughput given the varying amount of ambient energy that can be harvested from the environment at different locations and times. EH-MAC is based on asynchronous, receiver-initiated polling; however, unlike traditional random backoff mechanisms, it uses probabilistic polling to reduce data packet collisions. EH-MAC also dynamically adjusts the number of polling packets to minimize interference. Performance results show that EH-MAC increases network capacity and data throughput over other MAC protocols for EH-WSNs.
Ultrasound Screening for Deep Venous Thrombosis Detection: A Prospective Evaluation of 200 Plastic Surgery Outpatients

Background: Our understanding of the pathophysiology of venous thromboembolism is largely based on the experience of orthopedic patients undergoing total joint replacement. Little is known regarding the natural history of venous thromboembolism in plastic surgery outpatients. Today, ultrasound screening, including compression and Doppler color flow imaging, represents the standard for detecting deep venous thromboses. Methods: Ultrasound screening was offered to 200 consecutive plastic surgery outpatients undergoing 205 operations. Patients were scanned before surgery, on the day after surgery, and approximately 1 week after surgery. No patient declined to participate (inclusion rate, 100%). Spontaneous breathing, Avoid gas, Face up, Extremities mobile anesthesia was used, with no chemoprophylaxis. Patient surveys were administered. Results: Six hundred ultrasound screening tests were performed. All scans performed the day after surgery were negative. Only one examination was positive, 8 days after a lipoabdominoplasty. Subsequent scans revealed complete resolution of the thrombosis with anticoagulation. Ninety percent of surveyed patients would choose to have ultrasound screening in the future. Conclusions: The natural history of thromboembolism in plastic surgery outpatients differs from orthopedic patients. The risk of a deep venous thrombosis in a patient treated with Spontaneous breathing, Avoid gas, Face up, Extremities mobile anesthesia is approximately 0.5%. Thromboses are unlikely to develop intraoperatively. In the single affected patient, the thrombosis was located distally, in a location that is less prone to embolism and highly susceptible to anticoagulation. Ultrasound screening is an effective and highly feasible method to identify affected patients for treatment.
A full-rate complex orthogonal space-time block coding scheme for multiple antennas

In this paper, a full-rate complex orthogonal space-time block (STB) coding scheme for multiple antennas in time division duplex (TDD) mode is proposed. Meanwhile, we employ turbo code as channel coding to improve the performance of proposed STB code further by utilizing its soft decision information from multiple iterations decoding, random interleaver and good ability to combat the burst error of fading channel. Compared with full-diversity multiple antennas STB code schemes, the proposed code scheme can implement full rate, partial diversity and a smaller complexity. On the condition of same system throughput and concatenation of turbo code, the code has lower bit error rate (BER) than those low-rate and full-diversity codes.
Embryonic nodal flow and the dynamics of nodal vesicular parcels

We address with fluid-dynamical simulations using direct numerical techniques three important and fundamental questions with respect to fluid flow within the mouse node and left–right development. First, we consider the differences between what is experimentally observed when assessing cilium-induced fluid flow in the mouse node in vitro and what is to be expected in vivo. The distinction is that in vivo, the leftward fluid flow across the mouse node takes place within a closed system and is consequently confined, while this is no longer the case on removing the covering membrane and immersing the embryo in a fluid-filled volume to perform in vitro experiments. Although there is a central leftward flow in both instances, we elucidate some important distinctions about the closed in vivo situation. Second, we model the movement of the newly discovered nodal vesicular parcels (NVPs) across the node and demonstrate that the flow should indeed cause them to accumulate on the left side of the node, as required for symmetry breaking. Third, we discuss the rupture of NVPs. Based on the biophysical properties of these vesicles, we argue that the morphogens they contain are likely not delivered to the surrounding cells by their mechanical rupture either by the cilia or the flow, and rupture must instead be induced by an as yet undiscovered biochemical mechanism.
Sphincter of Oddi motility.

After a short introduction (chapter 1), anatomy is described in chapter 2. The sphincter of Oddi (SO) can be divided into the choledochal, pancreatic and ampullar sphincter in addition to the intermediate fibres. In anatomic studies the pancreatic and ampullar sphincters are described in only one third and sixth respectively. This is in disaccordance with manometric studies where SO activity always is registered in the pancreatic sphincter after total biliary sphincterotomy. Chapter 3 discusses whether or not the SO is a true sphincter. Activity simultaneous with the duodenum occurs in the interdigestive phase III, but more often duodenal and SO activity is dissociated. It is concluded that the vast evidence supports the SO as a true sphincter. Chapter 4 concerns methods for investigation of the SO activity. The manometric methods are divided into direct and indirect studies, and advantages and disadvantages are discussed. The direct manometric method employing a perfusion system is highlighted, and interpretation of tracings and artifacts described. In chapter 5 physiological aspects are considered. Slow waves are present in the SO, and the activity related to the migrating motor complexes of the duodenum. Apart from interdigestive variation the food stimulated pattern is mentioned. Nervous and hormonal control as well as the relation to other parts within and outside the pancreatico-biliary system is outlined. The SO receives nervous fibres from both the sympathetic and the parasympathetic system. The alfa- and cholinergic neurons stimulate whereas the beta-neuron inhibits the SO. Furthermore inhibitory non-adrenergic, non-cholinergic neurons are present. Cholecystokinines inhibitory action on the SO are brought about via a stimulation of inhibitory neurones since the peptide has a direct stimulatory action on the SO muscle. The most important reflex regulation of the SO is elicited by gallbladder pressure increase with inhibition of the SO. Probably a similar reflex relationship exists between the common bile duct and the SO. The SO is considered important in the regulation of biliary flow, and probably also pancreatic flow, although the latter is only poorly studied. Furthermore the SO is believed to play a role in the prevention of reflux from the duodenum. In chapter 6 studies in normals, controls and patients with diseases in the biliary and pancreatic system are surveyed. In patients with gallbladder stones no changes in SO activity has been disclosed. In patients with common bile duct stones some have found increased antiperistalsis, others not. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Non-Equilibrium Topographies: Surface Tension Driven Flows Reveal Polymer Properties at the Nanoscale

In this thesis, experiments designed to elucidate properties of polymer molecules in confinement are described. Here, confinement means that some dimension of the space in which the polymers are placed in is comparable to the size of the molecules themselves. This smallest dimension is typically a few to ten times the molecular size, which for the polymer molecules described here is normally in the range of tens to hundreds of nanometres. In most cases, the experiments were designed around the concept that nature tends to minimize the surface area of a liquid. The most important results are those concerned with the levelling of a stepped film’s height profile. Films are prepared such that their height profiles are well described by a Heaviside step function and to a good approximation, they are invariant in one dimension. The temporal dependence of the levelling gives rheological information about the molecules making up the stepped films. For the range of heights that is much larger that the typical size of molecules making up the film, we use classical hydrodynamics to model the flows in these stepped films. Having measured the temporal and geometric dependence of the energy dissipation in time, we find that the hydrodynamic models are in excellent agreement. Apart from the liquid state evolution of stepped films this thesis also contains material concerned with non-equilibrium properties of thin polymer films. A common method of preparing films is spin coating. This violent process can leave polymer chains in non-equilibrium configurations. We have made measurements addressing the questions: what are the conformations of as-cast, spin coated polymer chains? Furthermore, if we anneal as-cast films, how long does it take for the polymer chains to relax to an equilibrium? We found that polymer chains are strongly stretched by the spin coating process, and that it takes about one bulk polymer relaxation time to lose memory of the preparation procedures for our films prepared on mica. In related experiments, we confined molecules to films thinner than a typical length scale for the polymers, then made bilayers out of such films. This creates what we refer to as an entropic interface, across which polymer chains suffer a reduction in entropy due to their inability to explore some conformations. We find that this entropic interface heals on a time scale that is much faster than one bulk polymer relaxation time.
Comparing FPGAs to Graphics Accelerators and the Playstation 2 Using a Unified Source Description

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), graphics processing units (GPUs) and Sony's Playstation 2 vector units offer scope for hardware acceleration of applications. We compare the performance of these architectures using a unified description based on A Stream Compiler (ASC) for FPGAs, which has been extended to target GPUs and PS2 vector units. Programming these architectures from a single description enables us to reason about optimizations for the different architectures. Using the ASC description we implement a Monte Carlo simulation, a fast Fourier transform (FFT) and a weighted sum algorithm. Our results show that without much optimization the GPU is suited to the Monte Carlo simulation, while the weighted sum is better suited to PS2 vector units. FPGA implementations benefit particularly from architecture specific optimizations which ASC allows us to easily implement by adding simple annotations to the shared code.
Molecular Insights into Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor Allosteric Modulation s

The metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors are a group of eight family C G protein–coupled receptors that are expressed throughout the central nervous system (CNS) and periphery. Within the CNS the different subtypes are found in neurons, both preand/or postsynaptically, where theymediatemodulatory roles and in glial cells. The mGlu receptor family provides attractive targets for numerous psychiatric and neurologic disorders, with the majority of discovery programs focused on targeting allosteric sites, with allosteric ligands now available for all mGlu receptor subtypes. However, the development of allosteric ligands remains challenging. Biased modulation, probe dependence, and molecular switches all contribute to the complex molecular pharmacology exhibited by mGlu receptor allosteric ligands. In recent years we have made significant progress in our understanding of this molecular complexity coupled with an increased understanding of the structural basis of mGlu allosteric modulation.
Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Patients with “Radioresistant” Brain Metastases

OBJECTIVE Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for the treatment of patients with brain metastases that have been determined to be “radioresistant” on the basis of histological examination. METHODS We reviewed the medical records of 41 consecutive patients who presented with 83 brain metastases from radioresistant primaries and subsequently underwent SRS. All patients were followed until death or for a median of 31 months after SRS. Tumor histologies included renal cell carcinoma (16 patients), melanoma (23 patients), and sarcoma (2 patients). Eighteen patients (44%) had a solitary metastasis, and 23 patients (56%) had multiple metastases. RESULTS The median overall survival time was 14.2 months after SRS. On the basis of univariate analysis, systemic disease status (P = 0.006) and Radiation Therapy Oncology Group recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) class (P = 0.005) were associated with survival. The median survival time was 23.5 months for patients in RPA Class I status and 10.5 months for patients in RPA Class II or III status. There was a trend (P = 0.12) toward improved median survival for patients with renal cell carcinoma (17.8 mo) as compared with patients with melanoma (9.7 mo). Multivariate analysis showed RPA class (P = 0.038) and histological diagnosis of primary tumor (P < 0.001) to be independent predictors for overall survival. In the 35 patients who underwent follow-up imaging, 9 (12%) of 73 tumors recurred locally. In 54% of the patients, distant brain failure (DBF) developed. Whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) improved local control and decreased DBF, according to the univariate and multivariate analyses. Patients who received adjuvant WBRT in addition to SRS had 6-month actuarial local control of 100% as compared with 85% among those who did not receive WBRT (P = 0.018). Patients who received adjuvant WBRT with SRS had a 6-month actuarial DBF rate of 17%, as compared with a rate of 64% among patients who had SRS alone (P = 0.0027). CONCLUSION Well-selected patients with brain metastases from radioresistant primary tumors who undergo SRS survive longer than historical controls. RPA Class I status and primary renal cell carcinoma predict longer survival. Adjuvant WBRT improves local control and decreases DBF but does not affect overall survival. Further studies are needed to determine which patients should receive WBRT.
Predictors of health-related quality of life 3 months after traumatic injury.

PURPOSE Examination of predictors of health related quality of life (HRQoL) with a focus on the ability of illness representations to predict HRQoL 3 months after hospital discharge in patients who experienced moderate to severe traumatic injury. DESIGN AND METHOD A prospective predictive study, using a survey design was undertaken to identify predictors of HRQoL. Telephone interviews were conducted 3 months after patients were discharged from the hospital. Demographic and clinical data and two scales: the Chinese Illness Perception Questionnaire Revised (IPQ-R, Trauma) and the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 (SF-36) were used in this study. Simultaneous multiple regressions were used to identify predictors of HRQoL. FINDINGS A total of 114 participants completed the survey. The most frequently reported symptoms were pain, weight loss, strength loss, and fatigue. The illness representations that scored the highest were Illness coherence, Controllability, and Consequences. The average SF-36 physical summary score was lower than the average mental summary score. Role (physical) had the lowest scores on the physical subscale and vitality had the lowest scores on the mental subscale. Significant predictors of the physical summary score were identity, consequences, timeline (acute/chronic), age, and injury severity score (ISS), and for the mental summary score predictors were identity, emotional representations, and timeline. CONCLUSIONS Illness representations can be used to predict HRQoL 3 months after traumatic injury. These findings can help clinicians to understand illness perceptions of patients with traumatic injury, and help provide a foundation for an interventional program to help patients have better HRQoL following traumatic injury. CLINICAL RELEVANCE By understanding patients' illness representations, clinicians could provide information related to postinjury care to facilitate more congruent representations between expectations and real situations. By helping patients understand the important role early interventions might play in their recovery, clinicians might help patients develop more positive cognitive representations.
Effects of exercise interventions on stereotypic behaviours in children with autism spectrum disorder.

PURPOSE The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize evidence from studies examining the effect of exercise interventions on stereotypic behaviours in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). METHODS Only exercise-related physical therapy (PT) interventions were included. A multifaceted search strategy identified studies published between 1980 and 2007. Quality was assessed using the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM) Study Quality Scale, the Clinical Relevance Tool for Case Studies, and the Quality, Rigour or Evaluative Criteria tool. RESULTS Seven studies (1982-2003) met our inclusion criteria; four of these used single-subject research designs, two were group studies, and one was a case study. Ages and behavioural characteristics of the children (N = 25) varied among the studies. Levels of evidence ranged from II to V (of a possible I-V). Study quality scores ranged from 2 to 5 (range: 0 to 7); mean = 3.9, mode = 5. Few studies in this area of PT practice have been published, and those identified scored low levels of rigour on the AACPDM criteria. CONCLUSIONS Research suggests that exercise provides short-term reductions of stereotypic behaviours in children with ASD. Future research with stronger evidence levels, greater rigour, and longer-term outcome assessment is required to determine specific exercise parameters.
Probability ranking principle via optimal expected rank

This paper presents a new perspective of the probability ranking principle (PRP) by defining retrieval effectiveness in terms of our novel expected rank measure of a set of documents for a particular query. This perspective is based on preserving decision preferences, and it imposes weaker conditions on PRP than the utility-theoretic perspective of PRP.