Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rate Balancing Based Linear Transceiver Design for Multiuser MIMO System with Multiple Linear Transmit Covariance Constraints

We solve the rate balancing problem in the downlink for a multiuser multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) system with multiple linear transmit covariance constraints. In particular, we adopt a linear transceiver structure to maximize the worst-case rate of the user while satisfying multiple linear transmit covariance constraints. The original rate balancing problem in the downlink is more complicated due to the coupled structure of the transmit filters. Hence, this optimization problem is solved in an alternating manner by switching between the virtual uplink and the downlink and exploiting the stream-wise mean square error (MSE) duality. An iterative algorithm has been proposed based on stream-wise MSE duality to obtain transceiver filters. In each iteration, the virtual uplink receiver filter design is formulated into a quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) by incorporating the multiple linear constraints, where the downlink receiver filters are obtained by minimizing each layer MSE. A geometric programming (GP) is solved to obtain the power allocation in the virtual uplink where the product of layer MSEs of each user is balanced with total transmit power constraint. Simulation results have been provided to validate the performance of the proposed algorithm.
Bilateral decompressive surgery in lumbar spinal stenosis associated with spondylolisthesis: unilateral approach and use of a microscope and tubular retractor system.

OBJECT The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility and efficacy of treating spondylolisthesis-related spinal stenosis via unilateral approach bilateral decompression in which METRx-MD instrumentation is placed. METHODS Eight consecutive patients with spinal stenosis underwent bilateral decompressions via a unilateral approach in which METRx-MD instrumentation was placed. The procedures were performed on an outpatient basis after induction of general anesthesia. The patients underwent preoperative and 3-month postoperative plain radiography in which flexion-extension x-ray films were obtained. Preoperative and postoperative magnetic resonance imaging was also performed. All radiographs and neuroimages were read by a single radiologist blinded to the clinical results. Eight vertebral levels in the eight patients were surgically decompressed (in one patient an additional level of nonspondylolisthesis-related stenosis was decompressed). The mean operative time was 92 minutes and the mean blood loss was 33 ml/level. Preoperatively stenosis was severe in five patients, moderate/severe in two, and moderate in one; postoperatively stenosis was absent in five, mild in two, and mild/moderate in one. Motion was detected on flexion-extension radiographs in three patients, but on early (3-month) postoperative radiographs there was no evidence of progression. CONCLUSIONS By following the authors' procedure, minimally invasive bilateral decompression of acquired spinal stenosis associated with spondylolisthesis can be successfully performed on an outpatient basis, with reasonable operative times, minimal blood loss, and acceptable morbidity.
The complete chloroplast genome sequence of American bird pepper (Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum)

Abstract The complete chloroplast genome sequence of American bird pepper (Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum) is reported and characterized in this study. The genome size is 156,612 bp, containing a pair of inverted repeats (IRs) of 25,776 bp separated by a large single-copy region of 87,213 bp and a small single-copy region of 17,851 bp. The chloroplast genome harbors 130 known genes, including 89 protein-coding genes, 8 ribosomal RNA genes, and 37 tRNA genes. A total of 18 of these genes are duplicated in the inverted repeat regions, 16 genes contain 1 intron, and 2 genes and one ycf have 2 introns.
Multi-agent System with Multiple Group Modelling for Bird Flocking on GPU

Birds flocking is an interesting natural phenomenon to study as proven by numerous papers in this field. In this paper, we present a GPGPU model for birds flocking simulation using NVIDIA's CUDA framework. This technology has been widely adopted in computational science and have dramatically increased computation performances. Using the autonomous agent approach with multi-agents and multiple groups for birds flocking modeling, we present the ACIADDRI model both aggregate motion of a large number of birds in virtual environment and other species or predators avoidance in the plane as well. From these experiments we gained significant performance improvements in the terms of speedup. In conclusion, the work shows that the use of the CUDA technology can be effective to cut computational costs also in multi-agent modeling.
Radiological cervical spine involvement in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a cross sectional study.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the frequency and the severity of radiological cervical spine involvement in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS We investigated 165 consecutive unselected patients with RA who fulfilled the revised American College of Rheumatology criteria for RA. All patients had a complete physical and laboratory evaluation. Patients had a radiological evaluation that included hand and wrist radiographs, as well as cervical spine radiographs in anteroposterior, lateral, and lateral in full flexion views. Hand radiographs were evaluated according to the Larsen criteria, while cervical radiographs were evaluated according to Winfield classification. RESULTS There were 143 women and 22 men, with a mean age of 59.6 +/- 12.5 and disease duration 12.3 +/- 13.9 years. Positive rheumatoid factor was found in 63.6% of patients. One hundred forty-six patients presented radiological findings related to cervical spine involvement: atlantoaxial subluxations were found in 20.6% and erosions of the odontoid process in 2.4%; none presented vertical subluxation. Subaxial subluxations were found in 43.6%, disc space narrowing at C2-C3, C3-C4, C4-C5 levels in 66.1%, and vertebral plate sclerosis and erosions in 43.6%. CONCLUSION Cervical spine radiological involvement is a frequent finding in our patients with RA, but the severity of the disease is rather mild, possibly related to the ethnic background.
Effect of Perfusion with Water on Demineralization of Human Dentin in vitro

Dentinal fluid rarely features in caries studies of dentin. The mutual effects of in vitro perfusion and dentin demineralization were investigated. The correlation between the remaining dentin thickness and demineralization was also analyzed. Buccal cervical dentin windows in human tooth segments were demineralized either with or without perfusion with water at 3.14 kPa. Transverse microradiography revealed that dentin perfusion reduced the amount of mineral loss from the lesions by 22vol%; the reduction in lesion depth was 8%. Perfusion rate, which was measured throughout the demineralization process by means of a fluid transport model, did not change significantly. Lesions formed closer to the pulp exhibited increased mineral loss and lesion depth. In conclusion, dentinal fluid flow offers some protection against demineralization. For a better approximation of clinical reality, therefore, in vitro studies on dentinal caries should consider the effect of dentinal fluid flow.
Lifted Variable Elimination: Decoupling the Operators from the Constraint Language

Lifted probabilistic inference algorithms exploit regularities in the structure of graphical models to perform inference more efficiently. More specifically, they identify groups of interchangeable variables and perform inference once per group, as opposed to once per variable. The groups are defined by means of constraints, so the flexibility of the grouping is determined by the expressivity of the constraint language. Existing approaches for exact lifted inference use specific languages for (in)equality constraints, which often have limited expressivity. In this article, we decouple lifted inference from the constraint language. We define operators for lifted inference in terms of relational algebra operators, so that they operate on the semantic level (the constraints' extension) rather than on the syntactic level, making them language-independent. As a result, lifted inference can be performed using more powerful constraint languages, which provide more opportunities for lifting. We empirically demonstrate that this can improve inference efficiency by orders of magnitude, allowing exact inference where until now only approximate inference was feasible.
Expression of gonococcal protein II in Escherichia coli by translational fusion

Aprotein II (P.II) gene from Neisseria gonorrhoeae was cloned in Escherichia coli and characterized by DNA sequence analysis. As with other reported P.II sequences, this gene contains an ATG initiation codon which is out of frame with respect to the remainder of the P.II amino acid sequence. A translational fusion was constructed in E. coli which linked the P.II sequence to the signal peptide of β‐lactamase. This P.II fusion differs from the gonococcal protein only in the first seven residues at the N terminus. In E. coli, the P.II fusion product exhibits properties analogous to those of P.II in N. gonorrhoeae. The P.II fusion product is a major component of the E. coli outer membrane and it is exposed on the cell surface. The P.II fusion protein also exhibits the heat‐modifiable phenotype of gonococcal P.II.
Suppression of IgE antibody production in SJL mice. III. Characterization of a suppressor substance extracted from normal SJL spleen cells

SJL mice were immunized with 1 microng dinitrophenylated keyhole limpet hemocyanin in 1 mg Al(OH)3. The mice were infected 21 days later with 750 third stage larvae of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis. On day 35, 14 days after infection, they were injected with 1 microng DNP-N, brasiliensis extract (Nb) in 1 mg Al(OH)3. In order to obtain high titer and persistent anti-DNP IgE antibody the mice were irradiated (540 R) 1 day after injection of DNP-Nb. Suppression of anti-DNP IgE antibody production was induced by spleen cells from normal SJL mice. Suppression of IgE antibody response is also obtained by an extract from normal SJL spleen cells. The suppressor substance from normal SJL spleen cell extract is a heat-labile protein, and is not absorbed by anti-mouse immunoglobulin. The mol wt of this substance is larger than 300,000 daltons as determined by gel filtration on Sephadex G-200, but after ultracentifugation, the supernate still has suppressive activity on IgE antibody production.
Risk Management of Pension Systems from the Perspective of Loss Aversion

This paper studies pension design from a risk management point of view using a lexicographic loss aversion model. Interest in this model stems from the fact that it explains income expansion paths of equity and total savings particularly well. I find that all income groups are likely to benefit from a PAYGO system, even in the absence of any redistribution. Optimal equity investments are close to zero for the two bottom income quintiles and increase sharply for higher incomes. The results are compared to optimal pension plans under HARA preferences. I find that a PAYGO system has higher value under loss aversion than in the HARA case. Moreover, equity shares correspond more closely to empirical observations.
Mesh simplification using ellipsoidal schema for isotropic quantization of face-normal vectors

In this paper, we present a method for simplification of arbitrary 3D meshes that is based on Isotropic Quantization of face-normal vectors. There are three stages. Firstly, a codebook that contains the unique face-normal vectors of the 3D mesh is generated using our Ellipsoidal Schema. Secondly, the polygons of the mesh are grouped into patches: based on the codebook vectors and the locality information of the polygons. Polygons that have isotropic and geographical similarities are grouped together. And the resulting patch is approximately a flat plane with its corresponding codebook vector as its normal. In the last stage, our mesh simplification technique re-triangulates the patch, in which the algorithm only considers the vertices on the borders of the patch. We demonstrate that our technique yields better results when applied with multiple iterations than when using a single iteration. Thus using patch-wise quantization, our technique is able to simplify 3D meshes.
A Two-Step Named Entity Recognizer for Open-Domain Search Queries

Named entity recognition in queries is the task of identifying sequences of terms in search queries that refer to a unique concept. This problem is catching increasing attention, since the lack of context in short queries makes this task difficult for full-text off-the-shelf named entity recognizers. In this paper, we propose to deal with this problem in a two-step fashion. The first step classifies each query term as token or part of a named entity. The second step takes advantage of these binary labels for categorizing query terms into a pre-defined set of 28 named entity classes. Our results show that our two-step strategy is promising by outperforming a one-step traditional baseline by more than 10%.
Editorial commentary: Is LRRTM1 the gene for handedness?

In this issue of Laterality we are publishing a paper by Tim Crow and his colleagues which is a critical response to the study that Clyde Francks and 41 colleagues published in July 2007 in Molecular Psychiatry (Francks et al., 2007), and we are also publishing a reply by Francks. The 2007 Francks et al. paper received world-wide publicity, most notably on the BBC website, where it was proclaimed, ‘‘Gene for left-handedness is found’’ (news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6923577.stm). The story was then picked up by a range of international and internet news media (see www.well.ox.ac.uk/ monaco/handedness/handednesspressrelease.shtml). Crow et al. originally submitted their critical comments on the Francks paper to Molecular Psychiatry itself, but the editor rejected the critical comments without external review, although Clyde Francks was asked by the editor to comment on them. The editor of Molecular Psychiatry has commented to us, ‘‘What is missing is the fact that we have a very low acceptance rate, a back log and have been accepting very, very few submissions, including letters and the necessary response. ’’ The commentary by Crow et al., which has been seen by two peerreviewers, is published here essentially unchanged, apart from minor alterations in format, from the version originally submitted to Molecular Psychiatry. We have also provided Francks with the opportunity to reply, and his response is essentially that provided to the editor of Molecular Psychiatry, again only with minor formatting changes. Laterality, along with other journals from the Taylor and Francis group, has recently joined the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE; see www.publicationethics.org.uk), whose members include the editors of 3500 biomedical journals, and whose primary mission ‘‘is to discuss issues related to the integrity of the scientific record’’. A part of the accepted process is the provision for the publication of pieces critical of published research, because of ‘‘the importance of peer review after publication’’ (www.publicationethics.org.uk/reports/2005/code). Molecular Psychiatry is not a member of COPE, and nor is the Nature group of journals of which it is a part (and Nature itself has a particular reputation for almost never publishing comments that are critical of the papers it publishes). LATERALITY, 2009, 14 (1), 1 2
Comparing System Dynamics and Agent-Based Simulation for Tumour Growth and its Interactions with Effector Cells

There is little research concerning comparisons and combination of System Dynamics Simulation (SDS) and Agent Based Simulation (ABS). ABS is a paradigm used in many levels of abstraction, including those levels covered by SDS. We believe that the establishment of frameworks for the choice between these two simulation approaches would contribute to the simulation research. Hence, our work aims for the establishment of directions for the choice between SDS and ABS approaches for immune system-related problems. Previously, we compared the use of ABS and SDS for modelling agents' behaviourin an environment with no movement or interactions between these agents. We concluded that for these types of agents it is preferable to use SDS, as it takes up less computational resources and produces the same results as those obtained by the ABS model. In order to move this research forward, our next research question is: if we introduce interactions between these agents will SDS still be the most appropriate paradigm to be used? To answer this question for immune system simulation problems, we will use, as case studies, models involving interactions between tumour cells and immune effector cells. Experiments show that there are cases where SDS and ABS can not be used interchangeably, and therefore, their comparison is not straightforward.
An Advanced and Effective Literature Search Algorithm Based on Analytic Hierarchy Process

Currently, electronic literature becomes increasing common for its convenient and informative features, however, the sharp increase in the number of literature has brought certain difficulties for the users to manage and access to such literatures. This demand is satisfied to some extent by the literature search engines on some existing well-known websites. But such literature search does not take into account various elements thus the access efficiency is far from the expectation. To address this issue, this paper, combining with the demands of research institutes, teams and other small groups, has developed a literature search algorithm based on AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process). This system fully considers all the aspects of elements and improves the literature search algorithm by applying analytic hierarchy model, thus enables the ranking of literature search results to be much more valuable and beneficial to the users. Research and testing have shown that, compared with Google Scholar, the proposed algorithm in this paper is more accurate, advanced and effective in accessing and managing literatures for the researchers in academic institutes.
3D structure from uncalibrated image sequence

A new approach to recover 3D structure from the aerial uncalibrated image sequence is presented. Unlike previous methods, the method uses a factorization-based algorithm to recover 3D models' initial values and bundle adjustment to get accurate results. The focal lengths can be supposed to be the only unknown intrinsic parameters. The factorization-based method performs a projective reconstruction by using a linear factorization algorithm and upgrades the projective solution to a Euclidean one by enforcing some metric constraints. Bundle adjustment refines a visual reconstruction to produce jointly optimal structure and viewing parameter estimates when we get the ideal initial values from the factorization-based methods. Experiments results on synthetic and real image sequences verified the new approach's precise and efficiency
Monitoring of the responsiveness to noxious stimuli during anaesthesia with propofol and remifentanil by using RIII reflex threshold and bispectral index.

BACKGROUND Movement responses are an important indicator of noxious perception in the unconscious state. To allow for a continual monitoring of the responsiveness to noxious stimuli during general anaesthesia, surrogate parameters are needed. Here we compare the performance of the bispectral index (BIS) and the RIII threshold in predicting reactions to noxious stimuli during anaesthesia with propofol and remifentanil. METHODS Twenty male volunteers were included. The first 10 subjects received constant concentrations of propofol while remifentanil concentrations were increased stepwise. The other 10 subjects each received high propofol concentrations combined with different low remifentanil concentrations and also low propofol concentrations combined with different high remifentanil concentrations. In all subjects, the reactions to an 80 mA 30 s tetanic stimulus were tested every 5 min. BIS and RIII threshold were recorded continually in all subjects. RESULTS Nineteen subjects completed the study. The population prediction probability for reactions to the noxious stimuli amounted to 0.86 for the BIS and to 0.84 for the RIII threshold in the first 10 subjects (P>0.05, PKDMACRO). In the other nine subjects, the prediction probabilities amounted to 0.64 for the BIS and to 0.77 for the RIII threshold (P<0.05, PKDMACRO). All population prediction probability values differed significantly from 0.5 (P<0.01, PKDMACRO). CONCLUSIONS RIII threshold and BIS are both influenced dose-dependently by remifentanil at those concentrations that suppress reactions to noxious stimuli. The susceptibility of the parameters to remifentanil concentration seems to be of a similar quality. Under different ratios of propofol and remifentanil concentrations, the RIII threshold correlates with non-responsiveness better than the BIS.
Temperature and toxic Tau in Alzheimer's disease: new insights

Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common dementia in the elderly, is characterized by cognitive impairment and severe autonomic symptoms such as disturbance in core body temperature (Tc), which may be predictors or early events in AD onset. Inclusions of phosphorylated Tau (p-Tau) are a hallmark of AD and other neurodegenerative disorders called “Tauopathies. ” Animal and human studies show that anesthesia augments p-Tau levels through reduction of Tc, with implications for AD. Additionally, hypothermia impairs memory and cognitive function. The molecular networks related to Tc that are associated with AD remain poorly characterized. Under physiological conditions, Tau binds microtubules, promoting their assembly and stability. The dynamically regulated Tau-microtubule interaction plays an important role in structural remodeling of the cytoskeleton, having important functions in neuronal plasticity and memory in the hippocampus. Hypothermia-induced increases in p-Tau levels are significant, with an 80% increase for each degree Celsius below normothermic conditions. Although the effects of temperature on Tau phosphorylation are evident, its effects on p-Tau degradation remain poorly understoodWe review information concerning the mechanisms of Tau regulation of neuron plasticity via its effects on microtubule dynamics, with focus on pathways regulating the abundance of phosphorylated Tau species. We highlight the effects of temperature on molecular mechanisms influencing the development of Tau-related diseases. Specifically, we argue that cold might preferentially affects central nervous system structures that are highly reliant upon plasticity, such as the hippocampus, and that the effect of cold on Tau phosphorylation may constitute a pathology-initiating trigger leading to neurodegeneration.
Novel Designs for Application Specific MEMS Pressure Sensors

In the framework of developing innovative microfabricated pressure sensors, we present here three designs based on different readout principles, each one tailored for a specific application. A touch mode capacitive pressure sensor with high sensitivity (14 pF/bar), low temperature dependence and high capacitive output signal (more than 100 pF) is depicted. An optical pressure sensor intrinsically immune to electromagnetic interference, with large pressure range (0–350 bar) and a sensitivity of 1 pm/bar is presented. Finally, a resonating wireless pressure sensor power source free with a sensitivity of 650 KHz/mmHg is described. These sensors will be related with their applications in harsh environment, distributed systems and medical environment, respectively. For many aspects, commercially available sensors, which in vast majority are piezoresistive, are not suited for the applications proposed.