Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Erlang Capacity Performance Evaluation of Spectrum Adaptation Strategies in Cognitive Radio Networks

Interruption of ongoing calls of secondary users (SUs) due to the arrival of primary users (PUs) is one of the most relevant factors that degrade both quality of service and system throughput in cognitive radio networks (CRNs). In this paper, the Erlang capacity achieved by different resource management mechanisms previously proposed in the literature to mitigate the effects of call interruptions is evaluated and compared when they are employed separately in cognitive radio networks (CRNs) with heterogeneous traffic. This evaluation is done to identify the most relevant mechanisms to improve the performance of these networks. Also, strategies that jointly employ different resource management techniques and spectrum adaptation to exploit the synergy of the different mechanisms are proposed and evaluated. The aim of the proposed spectrum allocation strategy is to take advantage of the flexibility and delay tolerance features of elastic traffic. Additionally, a mathematical model for the performance analysis of the proposed strategies in CRNs with heterogeneous traffic is developed. Numerical results demonstrate that call buffering and adaptive spectrum mechanisms in heterogeneous traffic CRNs can significantly improve overall system performance by efficiently exploiting the elasticity of delay-tolerant traffic.
Differential aluminum tolerance in soybean: An evaluation of the role of organic acids.

The role of organic acids in aluminum (Al) tolerance has been the object of intensive research. In the present work, we evaluated the roles of organic acid exudation and concentrations at the root tip on Al tolerance of soybean. Exposing soybean seedlings to Al3+ activities up to 4.7 &mgr;M in solution led to different degrees of restriction of primary root elongation. Al tolerance among genotypes was associated with citrate accumulation and excretion into the external media. Citrate and malate efflux increased in all genotypes during the first 6 h of Al exposure, but only citrate efflux in Al-tolerant genotypes was sustained for an extended period. Tolerance to Al was correlated with the concentration of citrate in root tips of 8 genotypes with a range of Al sensitivities (r2=0.75). The fluorescent stain lumogallion indicated that more Al accumulated in root tips of the Al-sensitive genotype Young than the Al-tolerant genotype PI 416937, suggesting that the sustained release of citrate from roots of the tolerant genotype was involved in Al exclusion. The initial stimulation of citrate and malate excretion and accumulation in the tip of all genotypes suggested the involvement of additional tolerance mechanisms. The experiments included an examination of Al effects on lateral root elongation. Extension of lateral roots was more sensitive to Al than that of tap roots, and lateral root tips accumulated more Al and had lower levels of citrate.
Challenges in diagnosing narcolepsy without cataplexy: a consensus statement.

BACKGROUND Diagnosing narcolepsy without cataplexy is often a challenge as the symptoms are nonspecific, current diagnostic tests are limited, and there are no useful biomarkers. In this report, we review the clinical and physiological aspects of narcolepsy without cataplexy, the limitations of available diagnostic procedures, and the differential diagnoses, and we propose an approach for more accurate diagnosis of narcolepsy without cataplexy. METHODS A group of clinician-scientists experienced in narcolepsy reviewed the literature and convened to discuss current diagnostic tools, and to map out directions for research that should lead to a better understanding and more accurate diagnosis of narcolepsy without cataplexy. RECOMMENDATIONS To aid in the identification of narcolepsy without cataplexy, we review key indicators of narcolepsy and present a diagnostic algorithm. A detailed clinical history is mainly helpful to rule out other possible causes of chronic sleepiness. The multiple sleep latency test remains the most important measure, and prior sleep deprivation, shift work, or circadian disorders should be excluded by actigraphy or sleep logs. A short REM sleep latency (≤ 15 minutes) on polysomnography can aid in the diagnosis of narcolepsy without cataplexy, although sensitivity is low. Finally, measurement of hypocretin levels can helpful, as levels are low to intermediate in 10% to 30% of narcolepsy without cataplexy patients.
EVIDENCE‐BASED MEDICINE AND OSTEOPOROSIS: A COMPARISON OF FRACTURE RISK REDUCTION DATA FROM OSTEOPOROSIS RANDOMISED CLINICAL TRIALS

The goal of osteoporosis therapy is to prevent fractures, and many therapies are available for this disease. Regarding proven fracture benefit, however, the quality of the randomised clinical trial evidence varies substantially among therapies. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to review the published osteoporosis randomised clinical trial literature and to assess the quality of the evidence. Although more than 35 randomised trials for different therapies were reviewed, only alendronate and vitamin D plus calcium have clearly demonstrated a fracture benefit, with alendronate providing the greatest relative risk reduction. Quality clinical trial fracture data for calcitonin, etidronate, fluoride, hormone replacement therapy, parathyroid hormone, calcitriol (and other vitamin D preparations), vitamin D and calcium monotherapy, and selective oestrogen receptor modulators are either lacking or inconclusive or published only as abstracts.
An in vitro study of microleakage of occlusal composite restorations polymerized by a conventional curing light and a PAC curing light.

With the increase in usage of bonded dentistry procedures, so comes the development of advanced technology to polymerize it. The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the microleakage of sealants and resin restorations utilizing two different curing lights. The conventional Ortholux curing light (OCL) and the Plasma Arc Curing (PAC) light attached to the KCP air abrasion unit of American Dental Technologies were utilized to polymerize sealants and resin restorations on extracted third molars and premolars. Forty-eight caries-free teeth were divided into 4 groups of 12 specimens. Occlusal sealants were polymerized on groups 1 and 3. Class I composite resin restorations were polymerized on groups 2 and 4. The PAC light polymerized group 2 and the OCL was used for groups 3 and 4. Therefore a comparison between the two light sources' polymerization could be measured by evaluating the microleakage of the two sets of specimens. The PAC light polymerized the Z100 adhesive for 5 seconds and the OCL polymerized it for 10 seconds. The Z100 A-1 composite placed in two 1 mm increments was polymerized with the PAC light for 10 seconds and the OCL for 40 seconds. The teeth were thermocycled 200 times between 5 degrees C and 55 degrees C. The teeth, coated with fingernail polish excluding the occlusal surface, were soaked in 5% methylene blue for 4 hours, removed, and rinsed with water. The teeth were invested in clear resin (Castin Craft) and sectioned longitudinally using an Isomet diamond saw. Microleakage was scored "0" if no leakage was present. Scored "1" if the leakage was present to 1/2 the preparation depth. Scored "2" if the leakage was present past the 1/2 way point but not to the pulpal floor of the preparation. A score of "3" was used if the leakage reached the pulpal floor. Unpaired t-Tests were used to statistically analyze the data. A significant difference (p < 0.05) was found between groups 1 and 3. The PAC light used to polymerize the sealants in group 1 produced no microleakage. A significant difference (p < .005) was found between groups 2 and 4. The OCL produced less microleakage (16 and 20 out of 24 sections) than the resin restorations polymerized with the PAC (only 8 of 24 sections with no microleakage. The 10-second cure by the PAC light appears to be insufficient in polymerizing a class I composite resin restoration. Possibly longer exposures with the PAC would produce less microleakage. Further research needs to be performed to evaluate if the PAC light, with an intensity of 1196 mW/cm2, may be producing high levels of strain within the setting composite. This strain may be responsible for the statistically significant increase in microleakage of the restorations polymerized with the PAC light.). It appears the PAC light would be best utilized to cure sealants and/or possibly polymerize orthodontic brackets. The conventional curing light appears to remain the best choice for polymerizing class I composite restorations.
Event-triggered global stabilization of discrete-time linear systems using bounded controls

This paper deals with global stabilization of discrete-time linear systems using event-triggered bounded controls. The system dynamics is decomposed into subsystems with various dynamic characteristics. An event-triggered bounded control law is constructed based on the dynamics of the subsystems and an event-triggering updating strategy is designed for this control law. Global asymptotic stabilization is established under the event-triggered bounded control law. Numerical simulation is given to show the validity of the theoretical results.
Soft-decoding vector quantizer using reliability information from turbo-codes

The optimum soft-decoding vector quantizer using the reliability information from turbo-codes is derived for combined source-channel coding. The encoder and decoder of the quantizer are optimized iteratively. For a four-dimensional vector quantizer having a rate of 1 bit/sample transmitted through a noisy channel, the soft-decoding channel-optimized quantizer can achieve about 3-3.7 dB performance improvement over conventional source-optimized quantizer.
Arguments against the Long-Term Use of Combined Androgen Blockade

Androgen deprivation therapy is the most effective systemic treatment for advanced prostate cancer. However, as most patients who die from prostate cancer have hormone refractory disease, fine tuning of antiandrogen treatment by combined androgen blockade (CAB) can not be expected to improve survival significantly. Only the South West Oncology Intergroup (SWOG) study 0036 has shown a significant advantage for CAB compared with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH) agonist alone. However, the results of this study should be interpreted with caution as the patients had to self-administer their treatment by daily injection so compliance may not have been optimal. Also, those receiving LH-RH agonist alone were not covered against disease flare. Indeed, no trial using depot LH-RH agonist with or without flutamide has been able to show a survival benefit. When treatment with LH-RH agonist plus antiandrogen was compared with orchiectomy alone, only the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) study 30853 showed a significant difference in favour of CAB. However, in this study an increased proportion of patients receiving CAB may have had a more favourable prognosis. Only one study comparing orchiectomy plus antiandrogen with orchiectomy alone has shown an advantage for CAB therapy, and this was only slight. Therefore, as yet there is no justification for long-term use of CAB. However, short-term antiandrogen treatment must be used to prevent disease flare during initiation of LH-RH agonist treatment.
Quantitative evaluation of the recombinant HIV-1 phenotype to protease inhibitors by a single-step strategy

ObjectiveTo develop and optimize a fast and quantitative recombinant strategy for evaluating the HIV-1 phenotype to protease inhibitors (PI). Design and methodsA non-replicative HIV-1 molecular vector (designated pΔpro Δenv) capable of expressing exogenous HIV-1 protease-encoding sequences was developed in this study. The HIV-1 protease sequences were amplified from either viral isolates or plasma samples (both from 21 HIV-1-infected individuals, 19 of whom were failing different anti-HIV-1 combination treatments) and cloned in the pΔpro Δenv backbone. The HIV-1 recombinant phenotype to PI was determined directly after transfection of viral chimeric clones by measuring protease activity and calculating a percentage sensitivity index (SI%; the ratio between the results from each clone and those from a PI-sensitive reference strain). ResultsThe SI% values obtained from the recombinant clones paralleled the IC50 results of the viral isolates and documented different degrees of resistance and cross-resistance to PI, compatible, with few exceptions, with the respective genotype. Interestingly, an inverse correlation between SI% values and the presence of primary mutations for resistance to PI (P = 0.0038 and P = 0.0414, for indinavir and ritonavir, respectively) and a difference in SI% between samples harbouring an increasing number of mutations (indinavir, P = 0.022; ritonavir, P = 0.0466) were observed. ConclusionThe data substantiate the reliability of the novel strategy for a fast (5 day) quantitative evaluation of HIV-1 phenotype to PI, and indicate that this method may contribute to the understanding of mechanisms of virus resistance to PI.
Vasomotor symptoms and cardiovascular events in postmenopausal women

Objective:Emerging evidence suggests that women with menopausal vasomotor symptoms (VMS) have increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk as measured by surrogate markers. We investigated the relationships between VMS and clinical CVD events and all-cause mortality in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study (WHI-OS). Methods:We compared the risk of incident CVD events and all-cause mortality between four groups of women (total N = 60,027): (1) no VMS at menopause onset and no VMS at WHI-OS enrollment (no VMS [referent group]), (2) VMS at menopause onset but not at WHI-OS enrollment (early VMS), (3) VMS at both menopause onset and WHI-OS enrollment (persistent VMS [early and late]), and (4) VMS at WHI-OS enrollment but not at menopause onset (late VMS). Results:For women with early VMS (n = 24,753), compared with no VMS (n = 18,799), hazard ratios (95% CIs) in fully adjusted models were as follows: major coronary heart disease (CHD), 0.94 (0.84-1.06); stroke, 0.83 (0.72-0.96); total CVD, 0.89 (0.81-0.97); and all-cause mortality, 0.92 (0.85-0.99). For women with persistent VMS (n = 15,084), there was no significant association with clinical events. For women with late VMS (n = 1,391), compared with no VMS, hazard ratios (95% CIs) were as follows: major CHD, 1.32 (1.01-1.71); stroke, 1.14 (0.82-1.59); total CVD, 1.23 (1.00-1.52); and all-cause mortality, 1.29 (1.08-1.54). Conclusions:Early VMS were not associated with increased CVD risk. Rather, early VMS were associated with decreased risk of stroke, total CVD events, and all-cause mortality. Late VMS were associated with increased CHD risk and all-cause mortality. The predictive value of VMS for clinical CVD events may vary with the onset of VMS at different stages of menopause. Further research examining the mechanisms underlying these associations is needed. Future studies will also be necessary to investigate whether VMS that develop for the first time in the later postmenopausal years represent a pathophysiologic process distinct from the classic perimenopausal VMS.
Development of a decision model to identify workers at risk of long-term disability in the construction industry.

OBJECTIVE This study presents a decision model that predicts long-term disability among construction workers. METHODS Risk factors were identified in two cohort studies among construction workers and evaluated in validation samples of smaller cohort studies among Dutch construction workers. The risk estimates (odds ratios) were used in a logistic regression model to calculate the probability of long-term disability in the next 4 years for a particular construction worker, subject to a specific combination of risk factors. The a priori probability was set equal to the overall long-term disability risk among the youngest construction workers (< 30 years) with a relatively short exposure history. RESULTS According to literature findings, the risk estimate for work ability was set with the odds ratio at 2.0 for good work ability, 5.0 for moderate work ability, and 10.0 for bad work ability. Age-dependent risks were set at odds ratios of 1.5, 2.0, and 3.0 for the age groups of 30-34 years, 35-44 years, and 45-54 years, respectively. A sickness absence period of > or = 3 months had an odds ratio of 2.0, and severe musculoskeletal complaints had an odds ratio of 3.0. Since the number of construction workers older than 55 years was rather small and heavily biased by a healthy worker effect, it was decided to limit the applicability of the decision model to workers aged 20-55 years. The decision model used four risk factors and predicted a 40-fold difference in disability risk between construction workers with all four risk factors present (0.79) and those without any risk factor (0.02). CONCLUSIONS The decision model presented the combined effect of different risk factors on the risk of an individual worker becoming disabled within 4 years. Evaluation studies will need to demonstrate whether the application of this decision model is helpful in identifying workers at risk for long-term disability and will facilitate appropriate intervention at the individual level.
Early Identification of Children At Risk for Reading Disabilities

The present study examined the development of phonological and reading skills in 171 students (98 males, 73 females) from the beginning of first grade (Time 1) to the end of second grade (Time 4). Based on their reading and intelligence scores at the end of second grade, these students were placed into nondisabled (ND), reading disabled (RD), or garden-variety poor reading (GV) groups. Although each group made gains in phonological processing, large differences were found between the ND and RD/GV groups. The RD and GV groups performed similarly on many of the tasks. Consistent with the literature, it was found that intelligence does not differentiate between good and poor readers. The most important finding of the present study was that reader-group membership at Time 4 could be very accurately determined from students' Time 1 scores. All of the children in the RD and GV groups were correctly identified, and only 3 of the 148 ND children were misclassified, indicating that children at risk for reading difficulties can be very accurately identified very early in their academic experiences.
The relationship between fuel, biofuel and food prices: Methods and outcomes

We assess the fuel-food price linkage models of the structural and of the time series nature with the main attention devoted to the time series literature. We document shifting focus from a straightforward vector autoregressive and error-correction analysis of fuel-food commodity price level co-movement towards inclusion of biodiesel and ethanol prices directly into analysis, towards consideration of both price levels and price volatilities, and towards growing sophistication of econometric methodologies and integration of econometrics of price co-movement with theoretical considerations. The key insight of biofuels price transmission literature is that the price transmission is time and market specific, evolving with the development of biofuels policies and technologies. The most prominent relationships are coming from oil to agricultural commodities and then towards biofuels. While here are also studies not finding any strong connection between biofuels and their feedstock, the literature finding biofuels driving the prices of agricultural commodities up is negligible.
Males matter: Increased home range size is associated with the number of resident males after controlling for ecological factors in wild Assamese macaques.

OBJECTIVES There is increasing evidence of male resource defense during intergroup encounters in non-human primates. Only few studies showed a reproductive benefit of having more males in a group, and evidence only comes from territorial species, or from species with relatively small male group sizes where males are less prone to suffer from collective action problems. We investigated the effect of male group size on home range size and female reproductive success in a non-territorial species with male dispersal and large male group sizes. METHODS We studied one wild group of Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis) by following them almost daily (June 2006-September 2012) and collected spatial, behavioral, climate and spatiotemporal data on food plants. RESULTS Among ecological factors, decreasing rainfall and a statistical interaction between food abundance and distribution were positively related to home range size. After controlling for ecological predictors, we found that male group size but not overall group size had a significant positive effect on full and core home range size. A simple correlation analysis suggests that such an increase in home range area, presumably increasing access to food resources, can be associated with increased female fecundity measured as the proportion or the number of females conceiving in a given year. DISCUSSION Within the limitations of this study, the results suggest that male resource defense could be a strategy benefitting both sexes if male reproductive skew was low and many males benefited from increased female fertility.
Investigating factors associated with uptake of HIV voluntary counselling and testing among pregnant women living in North Uganda

Abstract We investigated factors potentially associated with the uptake of HIV voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), which is the first step in acceding to programmes for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV infection. For the period 2001–2003, we estimated the VCT uptake among the 12,252 first-time attendees of the Antenatal Clinic (ANC) at Lacor Hospital (Gulu District, North Uganda). Associations between VCT uptake and socio-demographic characteristics and reproductive history were evaluated using log binomial regression models. VCT uptake was 55.6% for the overall study period; it increased from 51.0% in 2001 to 58.6% in 2002 and 57.7% in 2003 (P <0.001). Having some education [primary versus none, adjusted prevalence proportion ratio (PPR) =1.05, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.00–1.10] and being unmarried (cohabitating, PPR =1.07, 95% CI: 1.03–1.10; single/widowed/divorced, PPR =1.10, 95% CI: 1.03–1.18) were significantly associated with VCT uptake. Associations of borderline significance were found for: recent change of residence, having a partner with a modern occupation, and past use of contraceptives. VCT uptake is still low in this district of North Uganda. Although some socio-demographic factors were found to have been associated with uptake, the associations were weak and not of public-health significance.
Mossy cells of the rat fascia dentata are glutamate‐immunoreactive

The mossy cells represent a prominent cell type of the hilar region. Whereas the morphology of these neurons, their synaptic connections, and physiological characteristics have been described in some detail, information about their neurotransmitter is still lacking. Using immunocytochemistry in combination with Golgi impregnation, the authors demonstrate that identified mossy cells are GABA‐immunonegative but stain for glutamate. These results do not prove that these cells use glutamate as a transmitter, since glutamate is a ubiquitous metabolite. However, together with the lack of GABA staining and a recent report on asymmetric spine synapses formed by identified mossy cell axons, the present results support an excitatory nature of these neurons.