Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An exact method for solving the bi-objective Minimum Diameter-Cost Spanning Tree Problem

In this work, we propose a procedure to compute Pareto-optimal fronts for the bi-objective Minimum Diameter-Cost Spanning Tree problem (bi-MDCST). The bi-MDCST aims at finding spanning trees with minimum total cost and minimum diameter. Strategic decision problems for high-speed trains infrastructure, as well as tactical and operational optimization problems for network design and transportation can be modeled as bi-MDCST. The proposed exact procedure makes use of components from the multi-objective exact method Parallel Partitioning Method, and Pareto-optimal fronts have been computed for two benchmark instances from the literature. To the best of our knowledge, there are no works dedicated to providing Pareto-optimal fronts for the bi-MDCST.
A focus on the future of intensive sheep farming

Some of the problems for the New Zealand sheep industry over the next decade are outlined, as are the changes necessary to overcome them. The future for the next generation of intensive sheep farmers should be promising if they can co-operate to realise the potential of genetics for flock improvement, be adaptable, overcome the problems of drench resistance and chemical and drug residues, increase profitability. and grasp the fact that sheep farming may not mean land ownership, There will always be a sheep industry, but not necessarily as we know it now.
Traumatic brain injury: oxidative stress and neuroprotection.

SIGNIFICANCE A vast amount of circumstantial evidence implicates high energy oxidants and oxidative stress as mediators of secondary damage associated with traumatic brain injury. The excessive production of reactive oxygen species due to excitotoxicity and exhaustion of the endogenous antioxidant system induces peroxidation of cellular and vascular structures, protein oxidation, cleavage of DNA, and inhibition of the mitochondrial electron transport chain. RECENT ADVANCES Different integrated responses exist in the brain to detect oxidative stress, which is controlled by several genes termed vitagens. Vitagens encode for cytoprotective heat shock proteins, and thioredoxin and sirtuins. CRITICAL ISSUES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS This article discusses selected aspects of secondary brain injury after trauma and outlines key mechanisms associated with toxicity, oxidative stress, inflammation, and necrosis. Finally, this review discusses the role of different oxidants and presents potential clinically relevant molecular targets that could be harnessed to treat secondary injury associated with brain trauma.
Contrasting effects of climate and population density over time and life stages in a long‐lived seabird

Summary Although population responses to environmental variability have been extensively studied for many organisms, few studies have considered early‐life stages owing to the inherent difficulties in tracking the fate of young individuals. However, young individuals are expected to be more sensitive to environmental stochasticity owing to their inexperience and lower competitive abilities. Thus, they are keys to understand demographic responses of an age‐structured population to environmental variability. In this study, we used capture–recapture modelling, based on a 49 year‐long individual‐based longitudinal monitoring dataset, to investigate climatic and population density effects on immature demographic parameters in a long‐lived seabird, the wandering albatross. We provide evidence that climate and population size affected both survival and recruitment age of young individuals although in different ways according to the trait. We found that early‐life survival was mainly affected by population density, whereas recruitment age variation appeared to be better explained by climatic conditions, with a surprising long‐term effect of climate. While population size explained 60% of the variation in juvenile survival, the average Southern Annular Mode over the five previous years explained 52% of variation in recruitment age. In addition, although early‐life survival was consistently negatively affected by population size, the relationship between recruitment age and population size shifted from negative to positive over time from the 1970s to 2000s, showing that density dependence mechanisms can temporarily disappear. Finally, we found that similar climatic conditions may affect individual performances in opposite ways according to the life stage of individuals. This result underlines the critical need to assess age‐specific functional responses to environmental variability to allow accurate demographic predictions. By revealing the poorly known demographic process of younger age classes, the results of this study improve our understanding of population dynamics of long‐lived marine species. A lay summary is available for this article.
Analysis of Failure Rate by Column Distribution in Magnetically Aligned Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive

Characteristics of z-axis interconnects using magnetically aligned anisotropic conductive adhesives (ACAs) are analyzed for their applicability for small pad sizes. In order to evaluate the performance of ACAs, a statistical estimation of the failure rate of interconnects was carried out using top-view images of assembled samples. Through a column mapping process, the failure rate is calculated as a function of pad size. The calculated and measured results indicate that the location of the formed columns is the predominant effect determining interconnect failure. The developed failure estimation approach is effective in demonstrating the effects of scaling to smaller particles in ACAs.
Clinician executives: a new breed of leader.

In order to excel in management, these clinicians have had to develop broad skill sets that are not part of the traditional clinical curriculum: finance, human resources, organizational development, project and change management, corporate governance and more. Such an exhaustive professional development regimen takes time, effort and perseverance – yet once these skills are honed, the clinician executive can be an extremely effective CEO or COO. I believe, in fact, that this new breed of clinician executive is the best fit for the current healthcare paradigm.
[The establishment of an animal model of gut-brain interaction in irritable bowel syndrome for the evaluation of visceral sensation, motility and psychological behavior.].

OBJECTIVE To develop a gut-brain interaction animal model of IBS which combines multiple factors including behavior, visceral sensation and motility. METHODS Setting up a multifactor interactional animal model (chronic acute combining stress model, CACS) based on a chronic unpredictable mild stress model of depression (CUMS) while combined with wrap restraint stress (WRS), changes of some indexes were recorded including motility (granules of defecating, time of defecating), visceral sensitivity (spontaneous contraction of abdominal striated muscles) and behavior/mind (sucrose consumption, body weight). G protein subunits were measured by Western blot in both hippocampus and prefrontal cortex simultaneously. RESULTS (1) Compared with the state before stress given, defecating granules increased, defecating time of glassie from rectum shorten, number of abdominal contraction increased, and sucrose consumption decreased in CACS, however, neither significant change was found on defecating behavior in CUMS nor on sucrose consumption in WRS;(2) Compared with the control group, some G protein submits expression decreased in both CACS and CUMS (P < 0.05), while no significant changes of any G protein subunits were found in WRS. CONCLUSION The CACS animal model was a new, brain-gut interaction model, which can mimic part of human symptoms of IBS very well.
DISTRIBUTION AND TURNOVER OF OCTOPAMINE IN TISSUES

Abstract— Octopamine is a normally occurring amine in several species of animals. Particularly high concentrations are found in the crustacean central nerve cord. In the rat it is specifically localized to sympathetic nerve endings, has a subcellular distribution similar to that of norepinephrine, and is asymmetrically distributed in the CNS. It has a turnover rate in heart about six times that of norepinephrine. The physiological role of octopamine has not been established but it appears likely that it is a cotransmitter together with norepinephrine in the peripheral sympathetic nervous system.
Group II activators of G‐protein signalling and proteins containing a G‐protein regulatory motif

Beyond the core triad of receptor, Gαβγ and effector, there are multiple accessory proteins that provide alternative modes of signal input and regulatory adaptability to G‐protein signalling systems. Such accessory proteins may segregate a signalling complex to microdomains of the cell, regulate the basal activity, efficiency and specificity of signal propagation and/or serve as alternative binding partners for Gα or Gβγ independent of the classical heterotrimeric Gαβγ complex. The latter concept led to the postulate that Gα and Gβγ regulate intracellular events distinct from their role as transducers for cell surface seven‐transmembrane span receptors. One general class of such accessory proteins is defined by AGS proteins or activators of G‐protein signalling that refer to mammalian cDNAs identified in a specific yeast‐based functional screen. The discovery of AGS proteins and related entities revealed a number of unexpected mechanisms for regulation of G‐protein signalling systems and expanded functional roles for this important signalling system.
ISONIAZID-RESISTANT strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Objective: A recent study showed that some isoniazid-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains have a complete deletion of the gene (Kat G) encoding the catalase-peroxidase enzyme. We wished to examine what proportion of clinical isolates of isoniazid-resistant M. tuberculosis exhibit Kat G deletion in our Country. Material and Methods: The relation between Kat G deletion and isoniazid-resistance was examined in 10 isoniazid-resistant and 26 isoniazid-sensitive, for a total of 36 isolates, using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. Results: Kat G deletion was observed in 70% of isoniazid-resistant and 7.7% isoniazid-sensitive isolates (p<0.05, x2). The Kat G deletion ratio in isoniazid-resistant isolates were observed to be higher than in isoniazid-sensitive isolates [odds ratio, 28, (95% CI, 3.87 to 202.26)]. The specificity and sensitivity of the PCR technique, which revealed both Kat G deletion and isoniazidresistance, were 92.3% and 70% , respectively. Conclusion: The deletion of the Kat G gene may play an important role in resistance to isoniazid in most M. tuberculosis isolates in our Country.
Geochemical Dynamics of the Natural-Gas Hydrate System in the Sea of Marmara, Offshore Turkey

Natural-gas hydrate systems are solid-state light-hydrocarbon accumulations which are encountered in the permafrost and the continental margins. They are stable under highpressure and low-temperature conditions and represent the major hydrocarbon volume on earth (Kvenvolden, 1988). Gas hydrates consist of a polycrystalline structure where a light hydrocarbon is trapped within a water lattice. The nature of the hydrocarbons is strongly related to their origin which is either microbial (also called biogenic) or thermogenic. Microbial gas-hydrate systems contain hydrocarbons produced by bacteria and archaea. There are primarily methane with a very small amount of ethane and eventually propane (Max, 2003). Others non-hydrocarbon compounds like hydrogen sulphur and carbon dioxide are also present. In the case of microbial gases, the hydrates are formed at or near the gas production area. Owing to the very high-methane content, these hydrates are commonly called methane-hydrate systems.
Performance evaluation of end-to-end TCP-friendly video transfer in the Internet

We use network simulator ns2 to evaluate the performance of a TCP-friendly rate-based control protocol for transferring high-quality video in the Internet. Apart from studying the friendliness property of the TCP-friendly protocol, we define and use the rate-uniformness metric to study the degree of mismatch in the video transfer rate. The latter metric suggests the delivered quality of the MPEG2 video traffic at the receiver side. Using these metrics, we evaluate the performance using the best and the worst RED configurations determined in our previous work. We use TFRCP, an equation-based TCP-friendly protocol for transporting the MPEG2 video traffic against the competing TCP Sack sources. Our results shows that under the best RED configuration, the TCP-friendly protocol is capable of preserving the friendliness behavior while delivering high-quality video.
Adolescent diet and metabolic syndrome in young women: results of the Dietary Intervention Study in Children (DISC) follow-up study.

CONTEXT Childhood diet is hypothesized to influence development of chronic disease in adulthood. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to evaluate the long-term effects of a dietary intervention to reduce fat and increase fiber intake during childhood and adolescence on the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in young adult women. DESIGN A follow-up study was conducted in 2006-2008, 9 yr after termination of the Dietary Intervention Study in Children (DISC). SETTING The study took place at six DISC clinical centers in the United States. PARTICIPANTS A total of 230 (76%) DISC female participants who were 25-29 yr old and had not been pregnant or breastfeeding in the previous 3 months participated in the follow-up study. INTERVENTION There was no intervention between the end of the DISC trial and the follow-up visit. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Metabolic syndrome was the primary study endpoint planned before data collection and was hypothesized to be less common in the intervention group participants. RESULTS Metabolic syndrome was uncommon, and its prevalence did not differ by treatment group. However, after adjustment for nondietary variables, mean systolic blood pressures of intervention and control group participants were 107.7 and 110.0 mm Hg, respectively (P = 0.03), whereas mean fasting plasma glucose levels were 87.0 and 89.1 mg/dl, respectively (P = 0.01). Intervention group participants also had lower concentrations of large very-low-density lipoprotein particles, a marker of hepatic insulin resistance, compared with control group participants. Adjustment for current diet did not materially alter results. CONCLUSION Consumption of a diet lower in fat and higher in fiber during childhood and adolescence may benefit glycemic control and blood pressure long term.
Word Recall: Cognitive Performance Within Internet Surveys

Background The use of online surveys for data collection has increased exponentially, yet it is often unclear whether interview-based cognitive assessments (such as face-to-face or telephonic word recall tasks) can be adapted for use in application-based research settings. Objective The objective of the current study was to compare and characterize the results of online word recall tasks to those of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and determine the feasibility and reliability of incorporating word recall tasks into application-based cognitive assessments. Methods The results of the online immediate and delayed word recall assessment, included within the Women’s Health and Valuation (WHV) study, were compared to the results of the immediate and delayed recall tasks of Waves 5-11 (2000-2012) of the HRS. Results Performance on the WHV immediate and delayed tasks demonstrated strong concordance with performance on the HRS tasks (ρc=.79, 95% CI 0.67-0.91), despite significant differences between study populations (P<.001) and study design. Sociodemographic characteristics and self-reported memory demonstrated similar relationships with performance on both the HRS and WHV tasks. Conclusions The key finding of this study is that the HRS word recall tasks performed similarly when used as an online cognitive assessment in the WHV. Online administration of cognitive tests, which has the potential to significantly reduce participant and administrative burden, should be considered in future research studies and health assessments.
Mechanisms of Immunopathology in Murine Models of Central Nervous System Demyelinating Disease1

Many disorders of the CNS, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), are characterized by the loss of the myelin sheath surrounding nerve axons. MS is associated with infiltration of inflammatory cells into the brain and spinal cord, which may be the primary cause of demyelination or which may be induced secondary to axonal damage. Both the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system have been reported to play important roles in myelin destruction. Numerous murine demyelinating models, both virus-induced and/or autoimmune, are available, which reflect the clinical and pathological variability seen in human disease. This review will discuss the immunopathologic mechanisms involved in these demyelinating disease models.
Contributions of the intestinal microbiome in lung immunity

The intestine is a critical site of immune cell development that not only controls intestinal immunity but extra‐intestinal immunity as well. Recent findings have highlighted important roles for gut microbiota in shaping lung inflammation. Here, we discuss interactions between the microbiota and immune system including T cells, protective effects of microbiota on lung infections, the role of diet in shaping the composition of gut microbiota and susceptibility to asthma, epidemiologic evidence implicating antibiotic use and microbiota in asthma and clinical trials investigating probiotics as potential treatments for atopy and asthma. The systemic effects of gut microbiota are partially attributed to their generating metabolites including short chain fatty acids, which can suppress lung inflammation through the activation of G protein‐coupled receptors. Thus, studying the interactions between microbiota and immune cells can lead to the identification of therapeutic targets for chronic lower respiratory diseases.
Geographically weighted regression approach for origin-destination flows

Local regression methodology called geographically weighted regression (GWR) is used in a variety of fields to capture spatial variation or spatial nonstationarity of a regression analysis by allowing parameters to vary across space; however, application to spatial interaction model is much more complex. The complexity comes from the fact of measuring distances between flows, whereas each flows contains two regions. Because an origin-destination flow is a pairwise of origin and destination region, the weighting of both origins and destinations is preferable in order to consider geographical neighbors of flows in the GWR framework. In this paper, we propose GWR for an unconstrained gravity model, in which a weighting kernel is a mixture of origin-based and destination-based kernel. Weighting specification for the model is somewhat equivalent to that of geographically and temporally weighted regression, where a spatio-temporal kernel is constructed with a combination of spatial and temporal weight matrix; therefore the estimation procedure would be carried out in a standard manner of GWR. The estimation result using the interprefecture migration flow data of Japan is examined to see the effectiveness of our proposed method.
A Scalable Clustered Camera System for Multiple Object Tracking

Reliable and efficient tracking of objects by multiple cameras is an important and challenging problem, which finds wide-ranging application areas. Most existing systems assume that data from multiple cameras is processed on a single processing unit or by a centralized server. However, these approaches are neither scalable nor fault tolerant. We propose multicamera algorithms that operate on peer-to-peer computing systems. Peer-to-peer vision systems require codesign of image processing and distributed computing algorithms as well as sophisticated communication protocols, which should be carefully designed and verified to avoid deadlocks and other problems. This paper introduces the scalable clustered camera system, which is a peer-to-peer multicamera system for multiple object tracking. Instead of transferring control of tracking jobs from one camera to another, each camera in the presented system performs its own tracking, keeping its own trajectories for each target object, which provides fault tolerance. A fast and robust tracking algorithm is proposed to perform tracking on each camera view, while maintaining consistent labeling. In addition, a novel communication protocol is introduced, which can handle the problems caused by communication delays and different processor loads and speeds, and incorporates variable synchronization capabilities, so as to allow flexibility with accuracy tradeoffs. This protocol was exhaustively verified by using the SPIN verification tool. The success of the proposed system is demonstrated on different scenarios captured by multiple cameras placed in different setups. Also, simulation and verification results for the protocol are presented.
Give them prizes, and they will come: contingency management for treatment of alcohol dependence.

This study evaluated the efficacy of a contingency management (CM) procedure that provided opportunities to win prizes as reinforcers. At intake to outpatient treatment, 42 alcohol-dependent veterans were randomly assigned to receive standard treatment or standard treatment plus CM, in which they earned the chance to win prizes for submitting negative Breathalyzer samples and completing steps toward treatment goals. Eighty-four percent of the CM participants were retained in treatment for an 8-week period compared with 22% of the standard treatment participants (p < .001). By the end of the treatment period, 69% of those receiving CM were still abstinent, but 61% of those receiving standard treatment had used alcohol (p < .05). These results support the efficacy of this CM procedure. Participants earned an average of $200 in prizes. This CM procedure may be suitable for use in standard treatment settings because prizes can be solicited from the community.
The Security Blanket of the Chat World: An Analytic Evaluation and a User Study of Telegram

The computer security community has advocated widespread adoption of secure communication tools to protect personal privacy. Several popular communication tools have adopted end-to-end encryption (e.g., WhatsApp, iMessage), or promoted security features as selling points (e.g., Telegram, Signal). However, previous studies have shown that users may not understand the security features of the tools they are using, and may not be using them correctly. In this paper, we present a study of Telegram using two complementary methods: (1) a labbased user study (11 novices and 11 Telegram users), and (2) a hybrid analytical approach combining cognitive walk-through and heuristic evaluation to analyse Telegram’s user interface. Participants who use Telegram feel secure because they feel they are using a secure tool, but in reality Telegram offers limited security benefits to most of its users. Most participants develop a habit of using the less secure default chat mode at all times. We also uncover several user interface design issues that impact security, including technical jargon, inconsistent use of terminology, and making some security features clear and others not. For instance, use of the end-to-end-encrypted Secret Chat mode requires both the sender and recipient be online at the same time, and Secret Chat does not support group conversations.