Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-agent optimization in the presence of Byzantine adversaries: Fundamental limits

We study multi-agent optimization problem in the presence of Byzantine adversaries, where each agent i has a local cost function hi(x), and some unknown subset of agents suffer Byzantine faults. The goal is to optimize a global objective that properly aggregates the local cost functions. Ideally, we would like to optimize 1 over |N| ΣiϵN hi(x), where N is the set of non-faulty agents. However, we show that this ideal goal is unachievable. Therefore, we define a relaxed version of the problem, named Byzantine multi-agent optimization, for which the goal is to generate an output that is an optimum of a global cost function formed as a convex combination of local cost functions kept by the non-faulty agents. More precisely, there must exist nonnegative weights αi for i ϵ N such that ΣiϵN αi = 1, and the output is an optimum of ΣiϵN αihi(x). In this paper, we focus on the impact of Byzantine attacks on the maximal achievable number of nonzero weights. To characterize the fundamental limits, we assume that the argument of each local cost function is a (real-valued) scalar, the network is fully-connected, and there is no restriction on the information exchange among agents. We show that the number of nonzero weights (αi's) that can be guaranteed is at most |N| - f, where f is the maximum number of Byzantine faulty agents. Additionally, we present algorithms that achieve this upper bound. By exploiting Byzantine broadcast for information exchange between agents, our proposed algorithms essentially solve a centralized problem where there are n functions among which up to f functions are injected by the system adversary.
Treating multiple sclerosis with monoclonal antibodies

Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are potent new tools for a molecular targeted approach to modify the course of multiple sclerosis (MS). Besides natalizumab, which was approved in 2006, three other mAbs (alemtuzumab, rituximab and daclizumab) were successfully tested in Phase II MS trials. In this review, introductory notes on the development and systematic nomenclature of therapeutic mAbs in general, set the stage for a detailed discussion of the four mAbs mentioned. We summarize non-MS indications, expression and function of target antigens, scientific rationales for MS therapy, putative modes of action and pharmacological aspects. Particularly, we provide a critical discussion of clinical MS trials, including protocols and interim analyses of trials currently underway. The natalizumab section pays special attention to the clinical handling of safety issues and the diagnostic use of neutralizing antibodies. We finally develop a scenario for how each of the four mAbs might evolve into the market of MS therapeutics within the coming years.
Interference control in adolescents with Mild-to-Borderline Intellectual Disabilities and/or behavior disorders

The aim of this study was to investigate interference control in adolescents with Mild to Borderline Intellectual Disability (MBID) by addressing two key questions. First, as MBID is often associated with comorbid behavior disorders (BD), we investigated whether MBID and BD both affect interference control. Second, we studied whether interference control deficits are associated to problems in everyday executive functioning. Four groups of adolescents with and without MBID and/or BD performed the Eriksen flanker task, requiring participants to respond to a central target while ignoring interfering flanking stimuli. Their teachers rated behavior on the Behavior Rating Inventory Executive Function (BRIEF). We found pronounced effects of MBID but not BD on flanker interference control. In contrast, we observed pronounced effects of BD, but not MBID, on the BRIEF. In addition, flanker interference scores and BRIEF scores did not correlate. These results are taken to suggest that adolescents with MBID are characterized by deficits in interference control that do not become manifest in ratings of everyday executive functioning. In contrast, adolescents with BD are not characterized by deficits in interference control but do show elevated ratings of deficits in everyday executive function.
Struktur, Elemente und Bausteine von IT-Strategien in der öffentlichen Verwaltung

Ausgel? st durch die steigende Relevanz von IT gewinnt die Entwicklung von IT-Strategien zunehmend an Bedeutung. Gleichzeitig gibt es aufgrund der Neuheit dieses Themas kaum Orientierungshilfen bez? glich Struktur, Elementen und Bausteinen bei IT-Strategien. Daher untersuchen wir in diesem Beitrag, welche Elemente in der Literatur als zentrale Bausteine von IT-Strategien beschrieben werden, welche sich in IT-Strategien der ? ffentlichen Verwaltungen wieder finden und welche Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede identifiziert werden k? nnen. Eine Literaturrecherche ergibt einen ? berblick ? ber den Prozess der IT-Strategiebildung, relevante IT-Strategieelemente und ihre Funktionen. Die Dokumentenanalyse von IT-Strategien ? ffentlicher Verwaltungen im deutschsprachigen Raum erm? glicht einen Vergleich der verwendeten Strategieelemente und der Dokumentenstruktur.
Modeling and worker motivation in JIT production systems

This paper concerns the modeling of low inventory lines. Currently, most models assume that processing times are independent. We consider the differences in behavior of workers in low- and high-inventory production lines. Using a laboratory experiment we show that workers speed up when they are the cause of idle time on the line. This means that processing time distributions are not independent of the size of the buffer, of the processing speed of co-workers, or of the amount of inventory in the system. We show that the direction of these effects is predictable and that the magnitude is significant. In particular, there is less idle time and higher output than would be predicted using assumptions of independence. In this experiment the effect completel y canceled productivity loss due to blocking and starving. This work is important in understanding both the motivation of workers in low-inventory systems and the implications of models of manufacturing flow lines.
Low Birth Weight in Kansas

Context. Low birth weight (LBW) is associated with infant morbidity and mortality. This is the first study of LBW in Kansas using vital statistics to determine maternal and health care system factors associated with LBW. Outcomes. Low birth weight. Objective. Determine if prenatal care, maternal socio-demographic or medical factors, or insurance status were associated with LBW. Methods. Birth certificate data were merged with Medicaid eligibility data and subjected to logistic regression analysis. Results. Of the 37,081 single vaginal births, LBW rates were 5.5% overall, 10.8% for African Americans, and 5% for White Americans. Lacking private insurance was associated with 34% more LBW infants (AOR 1.34; 95% CI 1.13–1.58), increased comorbidity, and late or less prenatal care. Low birth weight was associated with maternal medical comorbidity and with previous adverse birth outcomes. Conclusions. Insurance status, prenatal care, and maternal health during pregnancy are associated with LBW. Private insurance was consistently associated with more prenatal care and better outcomes. This study has important implications regarding health care reform.
PHENOTYPE MATCHING IN WILD PARSNIP AND PARSNIP WEBWORMS: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES

Abstract According to the geographic mosaic theory of coevolution, selection intensity in interactions varies across a landscape, forming a selection mosaic; interaction traits match at coevolutionary hotspots where selection is reciprocal and mismatch at coldspots where reciprocity is not a factor. Chemical traits play an important role in the interaction between wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) and the parsnip webworm (Depressaria pastinacella). Furanocoumarins, produced as plant defenses, are detoxified by the webworms by cytochrome P450 monooxygenases; significant additive genetic variation exists for both furanocoumarin production in the plant and detoxification in the insect, making these traits available for selection. To test the hypothesis that differences in selection intensity affect the distribution of coevolutionary hotspots and coldspots in this interaction, we examined 20 populations of webworms and wild parsnips in Illinois and Wisconsin that varied in size, extent of infestation, proximity to woods (and potential vertebrate predators), and proximity to a chemically distinct alternate host plant, Heracleum lanatum (cow parsnip). Twelve of 20 populations displayed phenotype matching between plant defense and insect detoxification profiles. Of the eight mismatched populations, a logistic regression model related matching probability to two predictors: the presence of the alternate host and average content of xanthotoxin (one of the five furanocoumarins produced by P. sativa). The odds of mismatching were significantly increased by the presence of the alternate host (odds ratio = 15.4) and by increased xanthotoxin content (odds ratio = 6.053). Parsnips growing near cow parsnip displayed chemical phenotypes that were chemically intermediate between cow parsnip and parsnips growing in isolation. Rapid phenotype matching in this system is likely due in part to differential mortality every season; larvae transferred to a plant 30 m or more from the plant on which they developed tended to experience increased mortality over larvae transferred to another umbel on the same plant on which they had developed, and plant populations that mismatched in 2001 displayed a change in chemical phenotype distribution from the previous year. Trait mixing through gene flow is also a likely factor in determining mismatch frequency. Populations from which webworms were eradicated the previous year were all recolonized; in three of seven of these populations, infestation rates exceeded 90%. Our findings, consistent with the geographic mosaic theory, suggest that the presence of a chemically distinct alternate host plant can affect selection intensity in such a way as to reduce the likelihood of reciprocity in the coevolutionary interaction between wild parsnip and the parsnip webworm.
Automated Fluorescent Genotyping

With the publication of a comprehensive human genetic map consisting of over 5000 microsatellite markers, reagents are in hand to undertake large‐scale genotyping projects. This unit describes the basic methodology, optimization of markers, and allele calling.With the publication of a comprehensive human genetic map consisting of over 5000 microsatellite markers, reagents are in hand.
Thalamic stimulation to improve level of consciousness after seizures: Evaluation of electrophysiology and behavior

Understanding the neural mechanisms that support human consciousness is an important frontier in neuroscience and medicine. We previously developed a rodent model of temporal lobe seizures that recapitulates the human electroencephalography (EEG) signature of ictal and postictal neocortical slow waves associated with behavioral impairments in level of consciousness. The mechanism of slow‐wave production in epilepsy may involve suppression of the subcortical arousal systems including the brainstem and intralaminar thalamic nuclei. We hypothesized that intralaminar thalamic stimulation may lead to electrophysiologic and functional rescue from postictal slow waves and behavioral arrest.
Intra-mode topology control scheduling based on the learning automata

The time interval between periodical topology control executions is called hello interval. Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge, just few numbers of researches are done on scheduling of topology control algorithms. This paper, presents a learning automata based algorithm (LA-PLAN) to determine an appropriate time interval for topology control. We have implemented the proposed algorithm upon LMST and Kneigh, which are two most well known topology control protocols. Our simulation results show that our proposed algorithm outperforms periodic topology control.
A UGT2B10 Splicing Polymorphism Common in African Populations May Greatly Increase Drug Exposure

RO5263397 [(S)-4-(3-fluoro-2-methyl-phenyl)-4,5-dihydro-oxazol-2-ylamine], a new compound that showed promising results in animal models of schizophrenia, is mainly metabolized in humans by N-glucuronidation. Enzyme studies, using the (then) available commercial uridine 5′-diphosphate-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs), suggested that UGT1A4 is responsible for its conjugation. In the first clinical trial, in which RO5263397 was administered orally to healthy human volunteers, a 136-fold above-average systemic exposure to the parent compound was found in one of the participants. Further administration in this trial identified two more such poor metabolizers, all three of African origin. Additional in vitro studies with recombinant UGTs showed that the contribution of UGT2B10 to RO5263397 glucuronidation is much higher than UGT1A4 at clinically relevant concentrations. DNA sequencing in all of these poor metabolizers identified a previously uncharacterized splice site mutation that prevents assembly of full-length UGT2B10 mRNA and thus functional UGT2B10 protein expression. Further DNA database analyses revealed the UGT2B10 splice site mutation to be highly frequent in individuals of African origin (45%), moderately frequent in Asians (8%) and almost unrepresented in Caucasians (<1%). A prospective study using hepatocytes from 20 individual African donors demonstrated a >100-fold lower intrinsic clearance of RO5263397 in cells homozygous for the splice site variant allele. Our results highlight the need to include UGT2B10 when screening the human UGTs for the enzymes involved in the glucuronidation of a new compound, particularly when there is a possibility of N-glucuronidation. Moreover, this study demonstrates the importance of considering different ethnicities during drug development.
Primary productivity variability on the Atlantic Iberian Margin over the last 70,000 years: evidence from coccolithophores and fossil organic compounds

[1] This study analyzes coccolithophore abundance fluctuations (e.g., Emiliania huxleyi, Gephyrocapsa specimens, and Florisphaera profunda) in core MD01-2444 sediment strata retrieved at the Iberian Margin, northeastern Atlantic Ocean. Coccolithophores are calcareous nannofossils, a major component of the oceanic phytoplankton, which provide information about past ecological and climatological variability. Results are supported by data on fossil organic compounds (sea surface temperatures, alkenones, and n-hexacosan-1-ol index) and geochemical analyses (benthic δ13Ccc and planktonic δ18Occ isotopes). Three scenarios are taken into account for this location at centennial-scale resolution over the last 70,000 years: the Holocene and the stadial and interstadial modes. The different alternatives are described by means of elements such as nutrients; upwelling phenomena; temperatures at surface and subsurface level; or the arrival of surface turbid, fresh, and cold waters due to icebergs, low sea level, increased aridity, and dust. During the Holocene, moderate primary productivity was observed (mainly concentrated in E. huxleyi specimens); surface temperatures were at maxima while the water column was highly ventilated by northern-sourced polar deep waters and warmer subsurface, nutrient-poor subtropical waters. Over most of the last glacial stadials, surface productivity weakened (higher F. profunda and reworked specimen percentages and lower diunsaturated and triunsaturated C37 alkenones); the arrival of cold Arctic surface waters traced by tetraunsaturated C37 peaks and large E. huxleyi, together with powerful ventilated southern-sourced polar deep waters, disturbed, in all likelihood, the delicate vertical equilibrium while preventing significant upwelling mixing. Finally, during the last glacial interstadials (lower F. profunda percentages, nonreworked material, and higher diunsaturated and triunsaturated C37 alkenones) a combined signal is observed: warm surface temperatures were concurrent with generally low oxygenation of the deep-sea floor, moderate arrival of northern-sourced deep waters, and subsurface cold, nutrient-rich, recently upwelled waters, probably of polar origin; these particular conditions may have promoted vertical mixing while enhancing surface primary productivity (mainly of Gephyrocapsa specimens).
Tackling Campylobacter: a Review

Campylobacteriosis is a zoonosis that can be transmitted directly or indirectly between animals and humans leading to intestinal infections. Eating undercooked chicken, or ready-to-eat foods that have been in contact with raw chicken, is the most common source of the infection (20-30%). There are currently 25 species in the Campylobacter genus; however Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli are the two principal causes of human gastroenteritis worldwide. Though death from campylobacteriosis is rare, risk of complications in risk groups is high namely in the young and elderly, and those with concurrent chronic disease and immunocompromised status. Campylobacteriosis affects the digestive system, causing diarrhoea, abdominal pain, malaise, fever, nausea and vomiting. The costs based on the incidence, prevention and control of campylobacteriosis are high with critical impacts on surveillance programmes and hence the costs and benefits must be carefully considered. Bacteriophages have been discussed worldwide as a therapeutic tool to control and prevent Campylobacter. Another promising strategy is the addition of lactic acid bacteria and/or bacteriocins in the feed to mnimise/control Campylobacter in poultry. Antibiotic treatment is a control strategy but several authors have been describing the occurrence of multidrug resistance profiles among Campylobacter strains. There is now a strong movement against the use of antibiotics in food production. In addition, several “Model Food Codes” (proper sanitation and cooking procedures) are described in order to prevent crosscontamination, which can subsequently decrease the risk of Campylobacter infection.
Global Syllable Vectors for Building TTS Front-End with Deep Learning

Recent vector space representations of words have succeeded in capturing syntactic and semantic regularities. In the context of text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis, a front-end is a key component for extracting multi-level linguistic features from text, where syllable acts as a link between lowand high-level features. This paper describes the use of global syllable vectors as features to build a front-end, particularly evaluated in Chinese. The global syllable vectors directly capture global statistics of syllable-syllable co-occurrences in a large-scale text corpus. They are learned by a global log-bilinear regression model in an unsupervised manner, whilst the front-end is built using deep bidirectional recurrent neural networks in a supervised fashion. Experiments are conducted on large-scale Chinese speech and treebank text corpora, evaluating grapheme to phoneme (G2P) conversion, word segmentation, part of speech (POS) tagging, phrasal chunking, and pause break prediction. Results show that the proposed method is efficient for building a compact and robust front-end with high performance. The global syllable vectors can be acquired relatively cheaply from plain text resources, therefore, they are vital to develop multilingual speech synthesis, especially for under-resourced language modeling.
Foodborne Disease Significance of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Other Enterohemorrhagic E. coli

New safety recommendations for destroying enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) include cooking hamburgers thoroughly, incorporating a procedure that kills EHEC in the manufacture of raw fermented sausage, such as salami, and pasteurizing or using an equivalent processing method for apple cider. Public health problems with EHEC are being recognized throughout the world. The need for consumer education on the safe handling of foods has never been more acute.
Humeral avulsions of the glenohumeral ligament: imaging features and a review of the literature.

OBJECTIVE We describe the radiologic findings of the humeral avulsion of the glenohumeral ligament (HAGL lesion) and its commonly associated injuries. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective review of six cases of HAGL lesion diagnosed at our institution from October 1996 to February 2001 was performed. We reviewed the radiology reports, radiologic examinations, medical records, and operative notes. All patients had undergone radiography, and four patients had undergone MR imaging of the shoulder before diagnostic arthroscopy. RESULTS All the patients were men who ranged in age from 19 to 41 years (mean, 26 years). Four patients (67%) had an anterior shoulder dislocation. Three of the HAGL lesions (50%) were detected on radiologic examinations, either by radiography or MR imaging. One patient had a bony HAGL. All patients had associated injuries. The most common associated abnormalities were osteochondral injury of the humeral head (n = 3), rotator cuff tear (n = 3), Bankart lesion (n = 3), Hill-Sachs lesion (n = 2), avulsion of the middle glenohumeral ligament (n = 1), partial tear of the biceps brachii tendon (n = 1), and comminuted fracture of the clavicle (n = 1). CONCLUSION With an incidence of 7.5% and 9.4% in two large series of patients, the HAGL lesion is an important cause of anterior instability of the glenohumeral joint. The majority (68%) of patients with an HAGL lesion have associated injuries.
Connexins, connexons, and intercellular communication.

Cells in tissues share ions, second messengers, and small metabolites through clusters of intercellular channels called gap junctions. This type of intercellular communication permits coordinated cellular activity. Intercellular channels are formed from two oligomeric integral membrane protein assemblies, called connexons, which span two adjacent cells' plasma membranes and join in a narrow, extracellular "gap. " Connexons are formed from connexins, a highly related multigene family consisting of at least 13 members. Since the cloning of the first connexin in 1986, considerable progress has been made in our understanding of the complex molecular switches that control the formation and permeability of the intercellular channels. Analysis of the mechanisms of channel assembly has revealed the selectivity of inter-connexin interactions and uncovered novel characteristics of the channel permeability and gating behavior. Structure-function studies provide a molecular understanding of the significance of connexin diversity and demonstrate the unique regulation of connexins by tyrosine kinases and oncogenes.