Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lightweight monadic regions

We present Haskell libraries that statically ensure the safe use of resources such as file handles. We statically prevent accessing an already closed handle or forgetting to close it. The libraries can be trivially extended to other resources such as database connections and graphic contexts. Because file handles and similar resources are scarce, we want to not just assure their safe use but further deallocate them soon after they are no longer needed. Relying on Fluet and Morrisett's [4] calculus of nested regions, we contribute a novel, improved, and extended implementation of the calculus in Haskell, with file handles as resources. Our library supports region polymorphism and implicit region subtyping, along with higher-order functions, mutable state, recursion, and run-time exceptions. A program may allocate arbitrarily many resources and dispose of them in any order, not necessarily LIFO. Region annotations are part of an expression's inferred type. Our new Haskell encoding of monadic regions as monad transformers needs no witness terms. It assures timely deallocation even when resources have markedly different lifetimes and the identity of the longest-living resource is determined only dynamically. For contrast, we also implement a Haskell library for manual resource management, where deallocation is explicit and safety is assured by a form of linear types. We implement the linear typing in Haskell with the help of phantom types and a parameterized monad to statically track the type-state of resources.
Efficient and Available In-Memory KV-Store with Hybrid Erasure Coding and Replication

In-memory key/value store (KV-store) is a key building block for many systems like databases and large websites. Two key requirements for such systems are efficiency and availability, which demand a KV-store to continuously handle millions of requests per second. A common approach to availability is using replication, such as primary-backup (PBR), which, however, requires M+1 times memory to tolerate M failures. This renders scarce memory unable to handle useful user jobs. This article makes the first case of building highly available in-memory KV-store by integrating erasure coding to achieve memory efficiency, while not notably degrading performance. A main challenge is that an in-memory KV-store has much scattered metadata. A single KV put may cause excessive coding operations and parity updates due to excessive small updates to metadata. Our approach, namely Cocytus, addresses this challenge by using a hybrid scheme that leverages PBR for small-sized and scattered data (e.g., metadata and key), while only applying erasure coding to relatively large data (e.g., value). To mitigate well-known issues like lengthy recovery of erasure coding, Cocytus uses an online recovery scheme by leveraging the replicated metadata information to continuously serve KV requests. To further demonstrate the usefulness of Cocytus, we have built a transaction layer by using Cocytus as a fast and reliable storage layer to store database records and transaction logs. We have integrated the design of Cocytus to Memcached and extend it to support in-memory transactions. Evaluation using YCSB with different KV configurations shows that Cocytus incurs low overhead for latency and throughput, can tolerate node failures with fast online recovery, while saving 33% to 46% memory compared to PBR when tolerating two failures. A further evaluation using the SmallBank OLTP benchmark shows that in-memory transactions can run atop Cocytus with high throughput, low latency, and low abort rate and recover fast from consecutive failures.
Association between race and follow‐up diagnostic care after a positive prostate cancer screening test in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian cancer screening trial

Follow‐through of a positive screening test is necessary to reap the potential benefits of cancer screening. Racial variation in follow‐through diagnostic care may underlie a proportion of the known disparity in prostate cancer mortality. The authors used data from the screening arm of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) cancer screening trial to determine whether race is associated with the use of follow‐up diagnostic testing after a positive initial screening evaluation.
Physical Model of the String-Fret Interaction

In this paper, a model for the interaction of the strings with the frets in a guitar or other fretted string instruments is introduced. In the two-polarization representation of the string oscillations it is observed that the string interacts with the fret in different ways. While the vertical oscillation is governed by perfect or imperfect clamping of the string on the fret, the horizontal oscillation is subject to friction of the string over the surface of the fret. The proposed model allows, in particular, for the accurate evaluation of the elongation of the string in the two modes, which gives rise to audible dynamic detuning. The realization of this model into a structurally passive system for use in digital waveguide synthesis is detailed. By changing the friction parameters, the model can be employed in fretless instruments too, where the string directly interacts with the neck surface.
Volumetric analysis of the germinal matrix and lateral ventricles performed using MR images of postmortem fetuses.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The volumetric changes of the ventricular system and germinal matrix are important to understand brain maturation and the mechanism of subependymal hemorrhage. Our purpose was to show the 3D configuration of the brain, germinal matrix, and lateral ventricles and to discuss the volumetric changes of each structure with maturation by using high-resolution MR imaging. METHODS Three-dimensional MR images of 13 formalin-fixed fetal brains ranging from 7 to 28 weeks' gestational age (GA) were obtained on a 4.7-T unit. Each 3D configuration of the brain surface, germinal matrix, and ventricles was rendered from the cross-sectional imaging data sets and its volume measured. RESULTS The germinal matrix was detected on MR images at 9 weeks' GA. Its volume exponentially increased by 23 weeks' GA (maximum, 2346 mm3) and then sharply decreased at 28 weeks' GA. The volume of the lateral ventricles increased gradually and reached 2646 mm3 peak volume at 23 weeks' GA. Between 11 and 23 weeks' GA, total brain and germinal matrix volumes were exponentially increasing, but the volume ratio of germinal matrix to brain was stable at about 5%. On the other hand, the volume ratio of lateral ventricles to brain was large between 10 and 13 weeks' GA. This period corresponded to the lateral ventricle showing a "vesicular" aspect with a thin mantle, and the developing mantle thickness of the hemisphere resulted in the decreasing ratio. CONCLUSION Volumetric information concerning the germinal matrix and lateral ventricles may be useful in the accurate interpretation of clinical echograms and MR images of the fetal brain in utero.
Ceftazidime versus imipenem-cilastatin as initial monotherapy for febrile neutropenic patients

One hundred febrile episodes in 89 neutropenic patients after cytotoxic chemotherapy were randomized to be treated with either ceftazidime or imipenem as initial monotherapy. The clinical characteristics of the two groups of patients were comparable. The response of the fever in patients who received imipenem was significantly better than that in those who received ceftazidime (77 versus 56%, respectively; P = 0.04), especially in those with microbiologically documented infection (81 versus 33%, respectively; P = 0.02). The in vitro susceptibilities and the clinical responses suggested that, with the possible exception of Pseudomonas spp. , imipenem was more effective than ceftazidime in treating neutropenic infections caused by both gram-positive and -negative organisms. An additional 23 and 21% of the patients in the ceftazidime and imipenem groups, respectively, responded to the addition of cloxacillin and amikacin following failure of monotherapy. The majority of the treatment failures, relapses, and superinfections were related to resistant infective organisms such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus spp. and Pseudomonas spp. or disseminated fungal infections.
Expanding a Theoretical Framework for English Adjective Order

In her 2003 study “A multifactorial corpus analysis of adjective order in English”, Stefanie Wulff surveys a number of factors that help explain preferred adjective ordering in adjective-adjective-noun constructions, drawing from previous work in fields ranging from phonology to pragmatics. In the present work, I pose an expansion in the criteria for one of these factors, which should yield a more effective utilization in determining adjective order. In addition, I propose that one factor in Wulff 2003 provides support for the expansion proposed here. Following this, I will explain areas for further research which have come to light over the course of this study, but which have not been treated in this paper.
Dendritic Cells Cross-Present Exogenous Fungal Antigens to Stimulate a Protective CD8 T Cell Response in Infection by Histoplasma capsulatum1

The contribution of CD8 T cells in host defense against histoplasmosis is minor in the CD4 T cell-intact mouse, as it has been shown that depleting CD8 T cells only marginally affects fungal clearance. However, it remains to be determined whether the CD8 T cells are protective in a host lacking functional CD4 T cells. In this study, MHC class II-deficient mice infected with Histoplasma capsulatum (Histoplasma) kept the fungus in check for up to 16 wk, indicating that CD8 T cells are able to limit fungal replication. Ex vivo studies showed that CD8 T cells from Histoplasma-infected mice expressed both intracytoplasmic IFN-γ and granzyme B. Furthermore, CD8 T cells exhibited cytotoxic activity against macrophage targets containing Histoplasma. We demonstrated that the macrophage, being the primary host cell as well as the effector cell, can also serve as Ag donor to dendritic cells. Histoplasma-specific CD8 T cells are stimulated by dendritic cells that present exogenous Histoplasma Ags, either through direct ingestion of yeasts or through uptake of apoptotic macrophage-associated fungal Ags, a process known as “cross-presentation. ” Based on these results, we present a model detailing the possible sequence of events leading to a cell-mediated immune response and fungal clearance in Histoplasma-infected hosts.
CLIR Experiments at Maryland for TREC 2002: Evidence Combination for Arabic-English Retrieval

The focus of the experiments reported in this paper was techniques for combining evidence for crosslanguage retrieval, searching Arabic documents using English queries. Evidence from multiple sources of translation knowledge was combined to estimate translation probabilities, and four techniques for estimating query-language term weights from document-language evidence were tried. A new technique that exploits translation probability information was found to outperform a comparable technique in which that information was not used. Comparative results for three variants of Arabic “light” stemming are also presented. A simple variant of an existing stemming algorithm was found to result in significantly better retrieval effectiveness.
Effect of Antenna Correlation and Rician Fading on Capacity and Diversity Gains of Wireless MIMO Channels

The use of antenna arrays at both sides of the wireless communication link can result in high channel capacity provided the propagation medium is rich scattering or Rayleigh fading and the antenna arrays at both sides are uncorrelated. However, the presence of LOS component and correlation of real world wireless channel may affect the system performance. In this paper, we investigate the effect of Rician factor (K) and the correlation coefficient (r) on the capacity and diversity of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems. We present the view point that the loss or gain in the capacity or diversity can be considered as an equivalent gain in the SNR.
Adaptative evaluation of image segmentation results

We present in this article a new unsupervised evaluation criterion that enables the quantification of the quality of an image segmentation result according to the type of the original image. We first briefly present a comparative study of existing unsupervised evaluation criteria. Then, we present a method for the determination of the type of the original image: uniform, mixed or textured by using a learning method (support vector machine). In the third part, we present the proposed algorithm for segmentation evaluation and the experimental results on synthetic images from a large database. Last, we conclude and present some perspectives of this work
In-situ speech visualization in real-time interactive installation and performance

Although we can sense someone's vocalizations with our ears, nose, and haptic sense, speech is invisible to us without the help of technical aids. In this paper, we present three interactive artworks which explore the question: "if we could see our speech, what might it look like? " The artworks we present are concerned with the aesthetic implications of making the human voice visible, and were created with a particular emphasis on interaction designs that support the perception of tight spatio-temporal relationships between sound, image, and the body. We coin the term in-situ speech visualization to describe a variety of augmented-reality techniques by which graphic representations of speech can be made to appear coincident with their apparent point of origination.
Why not treatment?–-untreated substance abusers’ accounts of their lifestyles and efforts to change

In this study a sample of non-abstinent untreated amphetamine users’ accounts of lifestyles, living conditions and efforts to change were described and analyzed. The objective was to inductively identify the qualitative characteristics of their potential distance to the treatment system. The analysis focused how self presentations and descriptions of reality were related to views on treatment and lifestyle change. Results showed that respondents distanced themselves from the individuals and practices of several social contexts, which was interpreted as indicating a limbo between substance abuse and conventional life. Yet, to solve acute predicaments the substance abusers were confronted with the demands of the supposedly condemning treatment system. It is suggested in the article that the Swedish treatment system develop further “low threshold” interventions that address life problems as identified by the clients themselves. This should enable less motivated substance abusers to acquire stable living conditions that may facilitate lifestyle change efforts.
Soluble ICAM‐1 serum levels in multiple sclerosis and viral encephalitis

Intercellular adhesion molecule ICAM-1 has a crucial role in the induction of an immune response and is instrumental in migration of T cells into inflamed tissue. We studied soluble ICAM-1 concentrations in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), viral encephalitis, and other immunologic diseases, and compared results with those in other noninflammatory, nondemyelinating neurologic disorders as well as in healthy controls. MS patients with clinically active disease or enhancing lesions on MRI had elevated serum levels of soluble ICAM-1. Concentrations of soluble ICAM-1 were also increased in some patients with viral encephalitis. These findings raise the possibility that circulating ICAM-1 serves as a marker of acute inflammatory events in the brain and add to evidence implicating this adhesion molecule in the pathogenesis of MS.
Superbursts from Strange Stars

Recent models of carbon ignition on accreting neutron stars predict superburst ignition depths that are an order of magnitude larger than those observed. We explore a possible solution to this problem, that the compact stars in low-mass X-ray binaries that have shown superbursts are in fact strange stars with a crust of normal matter. We calculate the properties of superbursts on strange stars and the resulting constraints on the properties of strange quark matter. We show that the observed ignition conditions exclude fast neutrino emission in the quark core, for example, by the direct Urca process, which implies that strange quark matter at stellar densities should be in a color superconducting state. For slow neutrino emission in the quark matter core, we find that reproducing superburst properties requires a definite relation between three poorly constrained properties of strange quark matter: its thermal conductivity (K), its slow neutrino emissivity (ϵν ≃ QνT), and the energy released by converting a nucleon into strange quark matter (QSQM).
The seasonal variation of Achilles tendon ruptures in Vancouver, Canada: a retrospective study

Objective To examine the seasonal distribution of tendon ruptures in a large cohort of patients from Vancouver, Canada. Design Retrospective chart review. Setting Acute Achilles tendon rupture cases that occurred from 1987 to 2010 at an academic hospital in Vancouver, Canada. Information was extracted from an orthopaedic database. Participants No direct contact was made with the participants. The following information was extracted from the OrthoTrauma database: age, sex, date of injury and season (winter, spring, summer and autumn), date of surgery if date of injury was unknown and type of injury (sport related or non-sport related/unspecified). Only acute Achilles tendon rupture cases were included; chronic cases were excluded along with those that were conservatively managed. Primary and secondary outcomes The primary outcome was to determine the seasonal pattern of Achilles tendon rupture. Secondary outcomes, such as differences in gender and mechanism of sport (non-sport vs sport related), were also assessed. Results There were 543 cases in total; 83% of the cases were men (average age 39.3) and 17% were women (average age 37.3). In total, 76% of cases were specified as sport related. The distribution of injuries varied significantly across seasons (χ2, p<0.05), with significantly more cases occurring in spring. The increase in the number of cases in spring was due to sport-related injuries, whereas non-sport-related cases were distributed evenly throughout the year. Conclusions The seasonality of sport-related Achilles tendon ruptures should be considered when developing preventive strategies and when timing their delivery.
The COP9 Signalosome Regulates Skp2 Levels and Proliferation of Human Cells*

The COP9 signalosome (CSN) is a conserved, multisubunit complex first identified as a developmental regulator in plants. Gene inactivation of single CSN subunits results in early embryonic lethality in mice, indicating that the CSN is essential for mammalian development. The pleiotropic function of the CSN may be related to its ability to remove the ubiquitin-like peptide Nedd8 from cullin-RING ubiquitin ligases, such as the SCF complex, and therefore regulate their activity. However, the mechanism of CSN regulatory action on cullins has been debated, since, paradoxically, the CSN has an inhibitory role in vitro, while genetic evidence supports a positive regulatory role in vivo. We have targeted expression of CSN subunits 4 and 5 in human cells by lentivirus-mediated small hairpin RNA delivery. Down-regulation of either subunit resulted in disruption of the CSN complex and in Cullin1 hyperneddylation. Functional consequences of CSN down-regulation were decreased protein levels of Skp2, the substrate recognition subunit of SCFSkp2, and stabilization of a Skp2 target, the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27Kip1. CSN down-regulation caused an impairment in cell proliferation, which could be partially reversed by suppression of p27Kip1. Moreover, restoring Skp2 levels in CSN-deficient cells recovered cell cycle progression, indicating that loss of Skp2 in these cells plays an important role in their proliferation defect. Our data indicate that the CSN is necessary to ensure the assembly of a functional SCFSkp2 complex and therefore contributes to cell cycle regulation of human cells.
Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma

Since the first description of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma in 1983 rapid advances have been made in the understanding of the pathogenesis and underlying molecular events associated with the development of this tumor. Lymphoma arises at extranodal sites in which a pre-existing inflammatory response has provoked the acquisition of organized lymphoid tissue. Specific molecular events have been associated with the development of MALT lymphoma including t(11;18) and alterations in Bcl-10 protein expression, and these appear to be interlinked. In gastric MALT lymphoma Helicobacter pylori is the most common stimulus for the acquisition of lymphoid tissue. Eradication of this organism has been shown to result in regression of the tumor in many cases, but there are a few that will not respond to this approach. Predicting those cases unlikely to respond to H pylori eradication alone has been investigated in a number of ways. An underlying t(11;18) within the tumor cells appears to predict for a lack of response. Clinical measurement of the depth of infiltration of the wall by gastric MALT lymphoma as measured by endoscopic ultrasound has been less clear. More superficial tumors are more likely to respond, but regression has been reported even in cases with local lymph node involvement. For superficial lymphomas at other sites alternatives to radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or surgery have been sought. Local injections of interferon (IF) &agr; have been successful in treating conjunctival lymphoma, and this approach may be of use for other superficial lesions.
Imaging modalities in acute ischemic stroke

As “time is brain”, acute ischemic stroke is considered a medical emergency. With the introduction of thrombolytic therapy and availability of modern neuroimaging modalities, timely diagnosis of an ischemic lesion, exclusion of intracerebral hemorrhage, assessing the degree of brain injury, and evaluation of cerebral vasculature is necessary in acute stroke management. Various neuroimaging techniques have been used in selecting patients and guiding reperfusion therapies in patients with acute ischemic stroke during the initial hours of symptom onset. In this review we will highlight the importance of available imaging modalities used to assess patients with acute ischemic stroke.
Avidity enhancement of L-selectin bonds by flow

L-selectin is a key lectin essential for leukocyte capture and rolling on vessel walls. Functional adhesion of L-selectin requires a minimal threshold of hydrodynamic shear. Using high temporal resolution videomicroscopy, we now report that L-selectin engages its ligands through exceptionally labile adhesive bonds (tethers) even below this shear threshold. These tethers share a lifetime of 4 ms on distinct physiological ligands, two orders of magnitude shorter than the lifetime of the P-selectin–PSGL-1 bond. Below threshold shear, tether duration is not shortened by elevated shear stresses. However, above the shear threshold, selectin tethers undergo 14-fold stabilization by shear-driven leukocyte transport. Notably, the cytoplasmic tail of L-selectin contributes to this stabilization only above the shear threshold. These properties are not shared by P-selectin– or VLA-4–mediated tethers. L-selectin tethers appear adapted to undergo rapid avidity enhancement by cellular transport, a specialized mechanism not used by any other known adhesion receptor.