Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Localized Client-Server Load Balancing without Global Information

We consider distributed algorithms for maximizing throughput in a network of clients and servers, modeled as a bipartite graph. We seek algorithms and lower bounds for decentralized algorithms in which each participant has only local knowledge about the state of itself and its neighbors. Our problem is analogous to recent work on oblivious routing [M. Bienkowski, M. Korzeniowski, and H. Racke, Proceedings of the $15$th Annual ACM Symposium on Parallel Algorithms and Architectures, 2003, pp. 24-33, C. Harrelson, K. Hildrum, and S. Rao, Proceedings of the $15$th Annual ACM Symposium on Parallel Algorithms and Architectures, 2003, pp. 34-43, H. Racke, Proceedings of the $43$rd Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, 2002, pp. 43-52] but with the objective of maximizing throughput rather than minimizing congestion. In contrast to that work, we prove a strong lower bound (polynomial in $n$, the size of the graph) on the competitive ratio of any oblivious algorithm. This is accompanied by simple algorithms achieving upper bounds which are tight in terms of $\OPT$, the maximum throughput achievable by an omniscient algorithm, and are also tight in terms of $m$, the number of servers. Finally, we investigate an online version of the problem, in a restricted model which requires that clients, upon becoming active, must remain so for at least $log(n)$ time steps. In contrast to our primarily negative results in the oblivious case, here we present an algorithm which is constant-competitive. Our lower bounds justify the intuition, implicit in earlier work on the subject [B. Awerbuch and Y. Azar, Proceedings of the $35$th Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, 1994, pp. 240-249], that some such restriction (i.e., requiring some stability in the demand pattern over time) is necessary in order to achieve a constant—or even polylogarithmic—competitive ratio.
Trend of psychiatric disorders among out-patients and in-patients of a tertiary care center of India

Background: Pattern of psychiatric disorders found among patients visiting the hospital helps in understanding the epidemiology, heath seeking behavior as well as strategic service planning and development. Methods: A retrospective health record review, of all the patients visiting out-patient care and in-patient care of psychiatry department of a tertiary care hospital in a period of two years, was conducted to assess the prevalence and trend of most common psychiatric disorders among them. Results: Major depressive disorder and Alcohol use disorder were the most common conditions found in out-patient and in-patient settings respectively. Out-patient consultations were consistently increasing whereas in-patient admissions were variable and decreasing with time. Conclusion: Current scenario and trends of psychiatric disorders among this group of patients is in line with epidemiological patterns and reflects a healthy trend of community oriented (out-patient based) care.
On the Optimality of Randomized alpha-beta Search

It was shown that the expected number of leaves evaluated by randomized $\alpha - \beta$ search for evaluating uniform game trees of degree $d$ and height $h$ is $O((B_d)^h)$ where $B_d = d/2+\ln d+O(1)$. It was shown by Saks and Wigderson [Proceedings of 27th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (1986), pp. 29-38] that the optimal branching factor of randomized algorithms for evaluating uniform trees of degree $d$ is $B^{\ast}_d= (d-1+\sqrt{d^2+14d+1}\,)/4= d/2+O(1)$. As $B_d/B^{\ast}_d=1+O(\ln d/d)$, randomized $\alpha$-$\beta$ search is asymptotically optimal for evaluating uniform game trees as the degree of tree increases.
Cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase deficiency: identification and characterization of biallelic mutations and genotype-phenotype correlations in 35 Japanese patients.

CONTEXT Cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (POR) deficiency is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by skeletal dysplasia, adrenal dysfunction, disorders of sex development (DSD), and maternal virilization during pregnancy. Although multiple studies have been performed for this condition, several matters remain to be clarified, including the presence of manifesting heterozygosity and the underlying factors for clinical variability. OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to examine such unresolved matters by detailed molecular studies and genotype-phenotype correlations. PATIENTS Thirty-five Japanese patients with POR deficiency participated in the study. RESULTS Mutation analysis revealed homozygosity for R457H in cases 1-14 (group A), compound heterozygosity for R457H and one apparently null mutation in cases 15-28 (group B), and other combinations of mutations in cases 29-35 (group C). In particular, FISH and RT-PCR sequencing analyses revealed an intragenic microdeletion in one apparent R457H homozygote, transcription failure of apparently normal alleles in three R457H heterozygotes, and nonsense mediated mRNA decay in two frameshift mutation-positive cases examined. Genotype-phenotype correlations indicated that skeletal features were definitely more severe, and adrenal dysfunction, 46,XY DSD, and pubertal failure were somewhat more severe in group B than group A, whereas 46,XX DSD and maternal virilization during pregnancy were similar between two groups. Notable findings also included the contrast between infrequent occurrence of 46,XY DSD and invariable occurrence of 46,XX DSD and pubertal growth pattern in group A mimicking that of aromatase deficiency. CONCLUSIONS The results argue against the heterozygote manifestation and suggest that the residual POR activity reflected by the R457H dosage constitutes the underlying factor for clinical variability in some features but not other features, probably due to the simplicity and complexity of POR-dependent metabolic pathways relevant to each phenotype.
Decreased circulating lactoferrin in insulin resistance and altered glucose tolerance as a possible marker of neutrophil dysfunction in type 2 diabetes.

CONTEXT Lactoferrin is an innate immune system protein with multiple beneficial health activities. OBJECTIVE To gain insight in the interaction between innate immune system and metabolic disturbances (obesity and insulin resistance), we investigated the relationship between circulating lactoferrin and chronic inflammation-associated insulin resistance according glucose tolerance status in Caucasian population. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, AND MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Circulating nonstressed lactoferrin (ELISA), metabolic variables, and inflammatory markers were measured in 229 men, 94 with normal (NGT) and 135 with altered glucose tolerance (AGT). Lactoferrin secretion by neutrophil was investigated in whole-blood culture (four young NGT subjects, four older NGT subjects, and four patients with type 2 diabetes) under microbial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) with IL-6 and rosiglitazone treatment. We also tested the lactoferrin action in THP-1 cells under LPS stimulus. RESULTS Circulating lactoferrin was significantly decreased in patients with AGT (431.5 +/- 187.5 vs. 493.5 +/- 238.9 ng/ml, P = 0.02). In addition, circulating lactoferrin was negatively associated with hyperglycemia and obesity measures and positively with insulin sensitivity. Lactoferrin was negatively related to inflammatory markers, especially in AGT subjects. In ex vivo experiments, we found a significant decrease in LPS-induced lactoferrin release from neutrophils in subjects with type 2 diabetes. IL-6 coincubation decreased LPS-induced lactoferrin release in NGT subjects (P < 0.001). Finally, rosiglitazone treatment led to increased lactoferrin secretion (398 +/- 193 vs. 280.1 +/- 104.9 ng/ml, P < 0.0001). Lactoferrin decreased nuclear factor-kappabeta activation and IL-6, IL-8, and macrophage chemoattractant protein-1 expression under LPS challenge. CONCLUSIONS Decreased circulating lactoferrin levels may play a role in chronic low level inflammation-associated insulin resistance.
Overweight and the metabolic syndrome in adult offspring of women with diet-treated gestational diabetes mellitus or type 1 diabetes.

CONTEXT In animal studies, exposure to intrauterine hyperglycemia increases the risk of cardiovascular disease through only partly understood epigenetic mechanisms. Human long-term follow-up studies on the same topic are few. OBJECTIVE The aim was to study the risk of overweight and the metabolic syndrome in adult offspring of women with diet-treated gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) or type 1 diabetes, and additionally to study associations between estimates of maternal hyperglycemia and outcome in the offspring. DESIGN AND SETTING We conducted a follow-up study of 1066 primarily Caucasian women aged 18-27 yr in the Center for Pregnant Women with Diabetes, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. PARTICIPANTS Offspring of women with diet-treated GDM (n = 168) and an unexposed reference group (n = 141) participated, as well as offspring of women with type 1 diabetes (n = 160) and offspring from the background population representing an unexposed reference group (n = 128). The follow-up rate was 56% (597 of 1066). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Women with body mass index of at least 25 kg/m(2) were considered overweight. The metabolic syndrome was determined by the International Diabetes Federation 2006 criteria. RESULTS The risk of overweight was doubled in offspring of women with diet-treated GDM or type 1 diabetes compared with offspring from the background population, whereas the risk of the metabolic syndrome was 4- and 2.5-fold increased, respectively. Offspring risk of the metabolic syndrome increased significantly with increasing maternal fasting blood glucose as well as 2-h blood glucose (during oral glucose tolerance test). CONCLUSIONS Adult offspring of women with diet-treated GDM or type 1 diabetes are risk groups for overweight and the metabolic syndrome. Intrauterine hyperglycemia may in addition to genetics and other factors contribute to the pathogenesis of overweight and the metabolic syndrome.
A 2½-Approximation Algorithm for Shortest Superstring

Given a set of strings S={s1,s2. ,sn} over a finite alphabet $\Sigma$, a superstring of S is a string that contains each si as a contiguous substring. The shortest superstring (SS) problem is to find a superstring of minimum length. This problem has important applications in computational biology and in data compression (see, respectively, [A. Lesk, ed., Computational Molecular Biology, Sources and Methods for Sequence Analysis, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1988]; [J. Storer, Data Compression: Methods and Theory, Computer Science Press, Rockville, MD, 1988]). SS is MAX SNP-hard [A. Blum et al., Proc. 23rd Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, ACM, New York, 1991, pp. 328--336] so it is unlikely that the length of a shortest superstring can be approximated to within an arbitrary constant. Several heuristics have been suggested and it is conjectured that GREEDY achieves an approximation factor of 2. This, unfortunately, remains an open question. Several linear approximation algorithms for SS have been proposed. The first, by Blum et al. [ Proc. 23rd Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, ACM, New York, 1991, pp. 328--336], guarantees a performance factor of 3. The factor has been successively improved to $2\frac{8}{9}$, $2 \frac{5}{6}$, $2 \frac{50}{63}$, $2 \frac{3}{4}$, $2\frac{2}{3}$, and $2.596$ (see, respectively, [S. Teng and F. Yao, Proc. 34th Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, IEEE Computer Society Press, Piscataway, NJ, 1993, pp. 158--165]; [A. Czumaj et al., Proc. First Scandinavian Workshop on Algorithm Theory, Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci. 824, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1994, pp. 95--106]; [R. Kosaraju, J. Park, and C. Stein, Proc. 35th Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, IEEE Computer Society Press, Piscataway, NJ, 1994, pp. 166--177]; [C. Armen and C. Stein, Proc. 5th Internat. Workshop on Algorithms and Data Structures, Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci. 955, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1995, pp. 494--505]; [C. Armen and C. Stein, Proc. Combinatorial Pattern Matching, Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci. 1075, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1996, pp. 87--101]; and [D. Breslauer, T. Jiang, and Z. Jiang, J. Algorithms, 24 (1997), pp. 340--353]). In this paper we give an algorithm that guarantees a $2\frac{1}{2}$-approximation factor.
e-Leadership in higher education: The fifth "age" of educational technology research

A discussion of the relative lack of research into e-leadership in educational technology in education is followed by an outline of selected prior literature in the field. The paper proposes that, as part of a natural evolution of educational technology research, considerably more attention needs to be focused on research and development in e-leadership. Building on selected prior literature, an updated framework of principles for effective “e-leadership” of educational technology is proposed, with specific reference to higher education, building on selected insights derived from e-leadership literature and on the author's experience of 30 years of professional practice, scholarship and research into educational technologies and leadership in education. The paper proposes the development of a new fifth “age” of educational technology research in which it is argued that more critical, selective, strategic e-leadership approaches to the adoption and use of educational technology need to be progressed through research, development and training as the field matures.
Succinct Representation of Balanced Parentheses and Static Trees

We consider the implementation of abstract data types for the static objects: binary tree, rooted ordered tree, and a balanced sequence of parentheses. Our representations use an amount of space within a lower order term of the information theoretic minimum and support, in constant time, a richer set of navigational operations than has previously been considered in similar work. In the case of binary trees, for instance, we can move from a node to its left or right child or to the parent in constant time while retaining knowledge of the size of the subtree at which we are positioned. The approach is applied to produce a succinct representation of planar graphs in which one can test adjacency in constant time.
Perpetual American Options Under L[e-acute]vy Processes

We consider perpetual American options, assuming that under a chosen equivalent martingale measure the stock returns follow a Levy process. For put and call options, their analogues for more general payoffs, and a wide class of Levy processes that contains Brownian motion, normal inverse Gaussian processes, hyperbolic processes, truncated Levy processes, and their mixtures, we obtain formulas for the optimal exercise price and the fair price of the option in terms of the factors in the Wiener--Hopf factorization formula, i.e., in terms of the resolvents of the supremum and infimum processes, and derive explicit formulas for these factors. For calls, puts, and some other options, the results are valid for any Levy process. We use Dynkin's formula and the Wiener--Hopf factorization to find the explicit formula for the price of the option for any candidate for the exercise boundary, and by using this explicit representation, we select the optimal solution. We show that in some cases the principle of the smooth fit fails and suggest a generalization of this principle.
Circulating and adipose tissue gene expression of zinc-alpha2-glycoprotein in obesity: its relationship with adipokine and lipolytic gene markers in subcutaneous and visceral fat.

CONTEXT Zinc-alpha2-glycoprotein (ZAG) is a soluble protein similar to the class I major histocompatibility complex heavy chain, which has been implicated in lipid catabolism. We hypothesized that ZAG mRNA expression in adipose tissue may be linked with lipolytic and adipokine gene expression and have a close relationship with clinical phenotype. OBJECTIVES The objective of the study was to analyze ZAG gene expression in human adipose tissue from lean and obese subjects. ZAG circulating plasma levels and its relationship with cardiometabolic risk factors were also studied. DESIGN Seventy-three Caucasian (43 male and 30 female) subjects were included. Plasma and adipose tissue [sc (SAT) and visceral (VAT)] from the same patient were studied. mRNA of PPARgamma, hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), adipose triglyceride lipase, adiponectin, omentin, visfatin, and ZAG were quantified. Plasma concentrations of ZAG were determined with ELISA. RESULTS ZAG plasma levels showed a negative correlation with insulin (r = -0.39; P = 0.008) and the homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance index (r = -0.36; P = 0.016). No differences in ZAG circulating levels according to body mass index classification were observed. ZAG expression in SAT was significantly reduced in overweight and obese individuals compared with lean subjects (P < 0.001 and P = 0.007, respectively). ZAG mRNA expression in both SAT and VAT depots were negatively correlated with many clinical and metabolic cardiovascular risk factors. After multiple linear regression analysis, SAT ZAG was mainly predicted by adiponectin mRNA expression (B = 0.993; P < 0.0001) and plasma triglyceride levels (B = -0.565; P = 0.006). VAT ZAG expression was predicted by adiponectin expression (B = 0.449; P < 0.0001), and HSL VAT expression (B = 0.180; P = 0.023). CONCLUSIONS The present study provides evidence of a role of ZAG gene in adipose tissue metabolism, with a close association with adiponectin gene expression in sc and visceral fat.
Utility of salivary cortisol measurements in Cushing's syndrome and adrenal insufficiency.

CONTEXT The measurement of cortisol in saliva is a simple, reproducible, and reliable test to evaluate the normal and disordered control of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. There are a variety of simple methods to obtain saliva samples without stress, making this a robust test applicable to many different experimental and clinical situations. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION Ovid Medline and PubMed from 1950 to present were searched using the following strategies: [<saliva or salivary>and<cortisol or hydrocortisone>and<Cushing or Cushing's>] and [<saliva or salivary>and<cortisol or hydrocortisone>and<adrenal insufficiency or hypoadrenalism or hypopituitarism or Addison's disease>]. The bibliographies of all relevant citations were evaluated for any additional appropriate citations. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS Measurement of an elevated late-night (2300 to 2400 h) salivary cortisol has a greater than 90% sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of endogenous Cushing's syndrome. Late-night salivary cortisol measurements are also useful to monitor patients for remission and/or recurrence after pituitary surgery for Cushing's disease. Because it is a surrogate for plasma free cortisol, the measurement of salivary cortisol may be useful during an ACTH stimulation test in patients with increased plasma binding protein concentrations due to increased estrogen, or decreased plasma binding protein concentrations during critical illness. Most reference laboratories now offer salivary cortisol testing. CONCLUSIONS It is expected that the use of the measurement of salivary cortisol will become routine in the evaluation of patients with disorders of the HPA axis.
CyGaMEs Selene player log dataset: Gameplay assessment, flow dimensions and non-gameplay assessments

The Selene: A Lunar Construction GaME instructional video game is a robust research environment (institutional review board approved) for investigating learning, affect, and the CyGaMEs Metaphorics approach to instructional video game design, embedded assessment, and informatics analysis and reporting. CyGaMEs applies analogical reasoning theory to translate fundamental scientific phenomena into embodied, procedural, goal-driven, instructional gameplay and concurrent metrics of learning. Selene also collects integrated measures of affect operationalized as flow dimensions skill and challenge. Selene is a free, online Flash/Flex game available 24/7 to registered players. The player (agemean = 13; N = 3882; nfemale = 1915; nmale = 1908; nSpanish-language version = 157) dataset, collected between April 6, 2010 and May 30, 2014, is anonymized, open and downloadable within Wheeling Jesuit University's data repository. Dataset files contain timestamped, tab-delimited, player log data for gesture-level gameplay; Timed Report progress toward each game/learning goal; flow dimensions; non-gameplay assessments; demographics; paradata; and repository lexicons. Dataset analyses using traditional statistical methods (eg, multilevel modeling, interrupted time-series) study learning trajectories, learning moments, affect (flow dimensions), persistence, gender differences, dashboard effects and the interactions among them. CyGaMEs Selene translates Timed Reports into real-time, online dashboard report visualizations players and their registered educators can understand and use.
Immune actions in the nervous system: A brief review with special emphasis on Aalzheimer's disease

The traditional dogma of brain immunologic privilege remains entrenched in the neurosciences. Thus the new discipline of neuroimmunology has often been understood as the study of effects of the nervous system on the immune system rather than vice versa. New data, however, are beginning to show potentially important interactions of the immune system in brain, especially in neurologic disease. These neuroimmune mechanisms appear to involve classic peripheral immune cells (e.g., T cells) as well as cells idiosyncratic to brain (e.g., glia).
Dubovitskii--Milyutin Approach in Set-Valued Optimization

By exploring the ideas around the Dubovitskii-Milyutin approach, necessary optimality conditions are given for various optimality notions in set-valued optimization. These optimality conditions are given by using the contingent derivative and the generalized contingent epiderivative of the objective set-valued map and the set-valued maps defining the constraints. The notions of subgradients and scalarized subgradients for set-valued maps are proposed and used to state some regularity conditions.
Are the clinical and pathological features of differentiated thyroid carcinoma really changed over the last 35 years? Study on 4187 patients from a single Italian institution to answer this question.

BACKGROUND In the last decades, a marked increased prevalence of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) has been observed worldwide. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changing features of DTC referred to our institution between 1969 and 2004. METHODS Clinical and pathological features and prognostic factors were analyzed in 4187 DTC patients, subdivided into two groups: group 1 (n = 1215) and group 2 (n = 2972) diagnosed before and after 1990, respectively. RESULTS Group 2 showed an increased proportion of micropapillary carcinoma and a concomitant decrease of follicular histotype. Male percentage was greater in group 2, whereas median age at diagnosis was unchanged. DTC of group 2 were more frequently associated with multinodular goiter or autoimmune thyroiditis, but many were unexpected findings. Features of aggressiveness were significantly less frequent in group 2, and the survival rate was greater (98.7 vs. 91.4%, P < 0.0001). Gender, age, histotype, tumor size, extrathyroidal macroinvasion, and lymph node and/or distant metastases were found to be poor prognostic factors in both groups using univariate analysis, but with multivariate analysis, only advanced age (odds ratio = 22.52 for older patients) and advanced stage (odds ratio = 53.54 for more advanced cases) were independently correlated with a lower survival. CONCLUSIONS DTC patients diagnosed after 1990 have smaller tumors with less advanced stage and a better prognosis. The question of whether this is related to the finding of tumors with a low clinical penetrance or to the anticipation of diagnosis remains to be clarified. Despite these significant differences, both advanced stage and older age still represent the most important poor prognostic factors for survival.