Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Formally testing the protocol performances

The validation of systems and specifically the conformance testing of communicating protocols is a crucial step to their development. Many approaches have been developed for a while, among which, the formal ones have proved their efficiency to test these protocols. These approaches are divided in two main sets: active and passive testing techniques. While they both have their own advantages and drawbacks, passive testing techniques are the only ones that can be applied when the controllability of the system interfaces is unavailable or when the implementation under test cannot be stimulated in runtime. In this paper, we present a logic-based passive testing approach to test in a formal way the conformance and the protocol performance requirements provided by the protocol standard or experts. We aim at formally specifying time related protocol properties in order to check them on real execution traces. Based on a new algorithm, a prototype is here developed and experienced. In order to evaluate and assess our technique, we present experiments through a set of IMS/SIP properties (regarding the conformance and the protocol performance) and execution traces. We finally discuss the results by providing relevant verdicts.
A β-adrenergic antagonist reduces traumatic memories and PTSD symptoms in female but not in male patients after cardiac surgery

Background Epinephrine enhances emotional memory whereas β-adrenoceptor antagonists (β-blockers, BBs) impair it. However, the effects of BB administration on memory are sex dependent. Therefore, we predicted differential effects of epinephrine and the BB metoprolol given to male and female patients after cardiac surgery (CS) on traumatic memories and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Method We performed a prospective observational study and determined the number of standardized traumatic memories (NTRM) and PTSD symptom intensity in cardiac surgical patients at 1 day before surgery, and at 1 week and 6 months after the procedure. PTSD symptoms and NTRM were quantified using validated questionnaires. Metoprolol could be administered any time post-operatively. Results Baseline NTRM was not significantly different between male (n=95) and female patients (n=33). One week after CS, the NTRM in male patients was significantly higher. Metoprolol had no significant effect in either sex. At 6 months, females with metoprolol (n=18) showed a significantly lower NTRM and significantly lower PTSD symptom scores than females without BBs (n=15, p=0.02). By contrast, the totally administered dosage of epinephrine correlated with NTRM in males (r=0.33, p<0.01) but not in females (r=0.21, p=0.29). Conclusions β-Adrenergic stimulation with epinephrine enhances memory for adverse experiences in males but not in females whereas β-blockade selectively reduces memory for post-operative adverse events and PTSD symptoms in females.
Google's web page ranking applied to different topological web graph structures

This research is part of the ongoing study to better understand web page ranking on the web. It looks at a web page as a graph structure or a web graph, and tries to classify different web graphs in the new coordinate space: (out‐degree, in‐degree). The out‐degree coordinate od is defined as the number of outgoing web pages from a given web page. The in‐degree id coordinate is the number of web pages that point to a given web page. In this new coordinate space a metric is built to classify how close or far different web graphs are. Google's web ranking algorithm (Brin & Page, 1998) on ranking web pages is applied in this new coordinate space. The results of the algorithm has been modified to fit different topological web graph structures. Also the algorithm was not successful in the case of general web graphs and new ranking web algorithms have to be considered. This study does not look at enhancing web ranking by adding any contextual information. It only considers web links as a source to web page ranking. The author believes that understanding the underlying web page as a graph will help design better ranking web algorithms, enhance retrieval and web performance, and recommends using graphs as a part of visual aid for browsing engine designers.
2015 American Thyroid Association Management Guidelines for Adult Patients with Thyroid Nodules and Differentiated Thyroid Cancer: The American Thyroid Association Guidelines Task Force on Thyroid Nodules and Differentiated Thyroid Cancer.

BACKGROUND Thyroid nodules are a common clinical problem, and differentiated thyroid cancer is becoming increasingly prevalent. Since the American Thyroid Association's (ATA's) guidelines for the management of these disorders were revised in 2009, significant scientific advances have occurred in the field. The aim of these guidelines is to inform clinicians, patients, researchers, and health policy makers on published evidence relating to the diagnosis and management of thyroid nodules and differentiated thyroid cancer. METHODS The specific clinical questions addressed in these guidelines were based on prior versions of the guidelines, stakeholder input, and input of task force members. Task force panel members were educated on knowledge synthesis methods, including electronic database searching, review and selection of relevant citations, and critical appraisal of selected studies. Published English language articles on adults were eligible for inclusion. The American College of Physicians Guideline Grading System was used for critical appraisal of evidence and grading strength of recommendations for therapeutic interventions. We developed a similarly formatted system to appraise the quality of such studies and resultant recommendations. The guideline panel had complete editorial independence from the ATA. Competing interests of guideline task force members were regularly updated, managed, and communicated to the ATA and task force members. RESULTS The revised guidelines for the management of thyroid nodules include recommendations regarding initial evaluation, clinical and ultrasound criteria for fine-needle aspiration biopsy, interpretation of fine-needle aspiration biopsy results, use of molecular markers, and management of benign thyroid nodules. Recommendations regarding the initial management of thyroid cancer include those relating to screening for thyroid cancer, staging and risk assessment, surgical management, radioiodine remnant ablation and therapy, and thyrotropin suppression therapy using levothyroxine. Recommendations related to long-term management of differentiated thyroid cancer include those related to surveillance for recurrent disease using imaging and serum thyroglobulin, thyroid hormone therapy, management of recurrent and metastatic disease, consideration for clinical trials and targeted therapy, as well as directions for future research. CONCLUSIONS We have developed evidence-based recommendations to inform clinical decision-making in the management of thyroid nodules and differentiated thyroid cancer. They represent, in our opinion, contemporary optimal care for patients with these disorders.
School‐Based Asthma Disease Management

Background. Asthma is the most common chronic childhood illness and the leading cause of missed school days. School is a potential location for establishing an asthma education program for children and their parents/caregivers designed to improve disease management. Objective. To determine whether a comprehensive, school‐based asthma management program, in addition to a conventional disease management program, can reduce measures of asthma control, student absenteeism, and caregiver lost workdays. Methods. School nurses recruited parents/caregivers of students with asthma from three urban elementary and middle schools. Children were identified as having asthma by a previous diagnosis from their personal physician. Parents were invited to attend educational sessions about the program. Students received peak flow meters and training in their use and had access to an interactive asthma diary to record symptoms, peak flow, and medicine usage. They received monthly asthma education at school and had access to an online asthma education program and additional handouts. Parents received several educational calls regarding asthma and had a 24‐hour, 7‐days‐a‐week emergency number to call if problems arose. Results. At 6 months, missed school days and unscheduled doctor visits were reduced by two thirds (n = 41; p < 0.01 for each). Caregivers' perception of children's activity level increased by 11% (n = 26; p = 0.037). Daytime and nighttime frequency of symptoms dropped by 62% and 34%, respectively (n = 32; p < 0.007 and p < 0.03 for each). These trends continued at 12 months, although only reduction in frequency of symptoms attained statistical significance. Conclusions. A comprehensive, school‐based asthma management program can successfully improve asthma control and reduce absenteeism in elementary and middle school students and caregiver lost workdays.
Unexpected Coregulator Range for the Global Regulator Lrp of Escherichia coli and Proteus mirabilis

ABSTRACT The Lrp/AsnC family of transcription factors links gene regulation to metabolism in bacteria and archaea. Members of this family, collectively, respond to a wide range of amino acids as coregulators. In Escherichia coli, Lrp regulates over 200 genes directly and is well known to respond to leucine and, to a somewhat lesser extent, alanine. We focused on Lrp from Proteus mirabilis and E. coli, orthologs with 98% identity overall and identical helix-turn-helix motifs, for which a previous study nevertheless found functional differences. Sequence differences between these orthologs, within and adjacent to the amino acid-responsive RAM domain, led us to test for differential sensitivity to coregulatory amino acids. In the course of this investigation, we found, via in vivo reporter fusion assays and in vitro electrophoretic mobility shift experiments, that E. coli Lrp itself responded to a broader range of amino acids than was previously appreciated. In particular, for both the E. coli and P. mirabilis orthologs, Lrp responsiveness to methionine was similar in magnitude to that to leucine. Both Lrp orthologs are also fairly sensitive to Ile, His, and Thr. These observations suggest that Lrp ties gene expression in the Enterobacteriaceae rather extensively to physiological status, as reflected in amino acid pools. These findings also have substantial implications for attempts to model regulatory architecture from transcriptome measurements or to infer such architecture from genome sequences, and they suggest that even well-studied regulators deserve ongoing exploration.
Brain mechanisms for 'having a theory of mind'

It can be argued that human communication works so well largely because we all have a ’theory of mind’. We assume that other peoples’ behaviour, as well as our own, is determined by their mental states. In other words, what people will do can best be predicted from their intentions, their knowledge and their beliefs. Dennett (1987) has referred to this approach for understanding other people as ’having an intentional stance’. The causal role of mental states is most strikingly apparent in the case of false beliefs, since actions based on such beliefs are clearly independent of the real state of the world. For example, Romeo kills himself because he believes, falsely, that Juliet is dead. Errors this extreme may be rare in normal circum-
Locus Solum: From the rules of logic to the logic of rules

Go back to An-fang, the Peace Square at An-Fang, the Beginning Place at An-Fang, where all things start (…) An-Fang was near a city, the only living city with a pre-atomic name (…) The headquarters of the People Programmer was at An-Fang, and there the mistake happened: A ruby trembled. Two tourmaline nets failed to rectify the laser beam. A diamond noted the error. Both the error and the correction went into the general computer. Cordwainer SmithThe Dead Lady of Clown Town, 1964.
Rig animation with a tangible and modular input device

We propose a novel approach to digital character animation, combining the benefits of tangible input devices and sophisticated rig animation algorithms. A symbiotic software and hardware approach facilitates the animation process for novice and expert users alike. We overcome limitations inherent to all previous tangible devices by allowing users to directly control complex rigs using only a small set (5-10) of physical controls. This avoids oversimplification of the pose space and excessively bulky device configurations. Our algorithm derives a small device configuration from complex character rigs, often containing hundreds of degrees of freedom, and a set of sparse sample poses. Importantly, only the most influential degrees of freedom are controlled directly, yet detailed motion is preserved based on a pose interpolation technique. We designed a modular collection of joints and splitters, which can be assembled to represent a wide variety of skeletons. Each joint piece combines a universal joint and two twisting elements, allowing to accurately sense its configuration. The mechanical design provides a smooth inverse kinematics-like user experience and is not prone to gimbal locking. We integrate our method with the professional 3D software Autodesk Maya® and discuss a variety of results created with characters available online. Comparative user experiments show significant improvements over the closest state-of-the-art in terms of accuracy and time in a keyframe posing task.
Synchronization of Chaotic Fractional-Order WINDMI Systems via Linear State Error Feedback Control

We propose a fractional-order WINDMI system, as a generalization of an integer-order system developed by Sprott (2003). The considered synchronization scheme consists of identical master and slave fractional-order WINDMI systems coupled by linear state error variables. Based on the stability theory of nonlinear fractional-order systems, linear state error feedback control technique is applied to achieve chaos synchronization, and a linear control law is derived analytically to achieve synchronization of the chaotic fractional-order WINDMI system. Numerical simulations validate the main results of this work.
Reasons for Early Abacavir Discontinuation in HIV-Infected Patients

Objective To determine incidence of and reasons for discontinuation of abacavir within the first 6 months of therapy. Methods Retrospective study performed in the cohort of HIV-infected adults who started abacavir in a medical unit between 1997 and December 2000. All adverse drug reactions (ADRs) (especially hypersensitivity) observed in this cohort were reported. The association between drugs and complications were evaluated, using the French method to assess unexpected and toxic drug reactions. According to the variables studied, statistical analysis was performed using the χ2 test, Fisher's exact test, Mann–Whitney, Wilcoxon, or Kruskal–Wallis tests. Results All 331 patients treated with abacavir during this time period were included in this study. Early discontinuation of abacavir was observed in 34.1% of patients, the main reasons being adverse effects (20.8%), virologic failure (3.3%), drug holidays (2.7%), poor adherence (2.7%), and death (1.8%). Adverse effects were mostly represented by hypersensitivity reactions. After retrospective analysis, abacavir was stopped for likely hypersensitivity in 8.5% of patients, for doubtful hypersensitivity in 4.2%, and for other adverse effects in 8.1% of patients. Conclusions This study shows that abacavir is mainly stopped during the first 6 months of therapy for ADRs. The rate of likely hypersensitivity reaction observed in this study (8.5%) is higher than that observed in clinical trials (5%). After retrospective evaluation, the causality assessment of abacavir is not always certain.
The prevalence and natural history of wheezing in early childhood.

The general practice records of 437 children were reviewed at seven years of age. Of 369 children with complete records, 115 (31 per cent) had some record of wheeze. Over half of these had first presented before the age of three years. In terms of consultations for wheezing or lower respiratory tract illness at the ages of five to seven years, the earlier the onset of wheeze the better the prognosis.Comparison of data from parental questionnaires with the general practice records of 174 children suggested that parental recall of early episodes of wheeze is incomplete and biassed by the severity and persistence of the symptoms of the child. Questionnaire surveys may therefore have excluded many mild cases of wheezing in early childhood, thus underestimating the prevalance of wheezing in infancy, and overestimating the proportion of such cases who progress to persistent wheezing in later childhood.
Role of dystroglycan in limiting contraction-induced injury to the sarcomeric cytoskeleton of mature skeletal muscle

Significance Dystroglycan (DG) is an extracellular matrix receptor that is linked to the cytoskeleton and critical for the development of skeletal muscle. DG deficiency throughout development is associated with multiple pathological features and muscular dystrophy. However, the direct consequence of DG disruption in mature muscle is not known. Here, we investigate muscles of transgenic mice after genetic knockdown of DG at maturity. The results demonstrate early susceptibility to contraction-induced injury accompanied by reduced passive tension and decreased titin immunostaining, rather than increased necrosis, excitation–contraction uncoupling, or sarcolemmal fragility. These results suggest a need for critical rethinking of both current theories regarding contraction-induced injury in muscular dystrophy and therapeutic strategies. Dystroglycan (DG) is a highly expressed extracellular matrix receptor that is linked to the cytoskeleton in skeletal muscle. DG is critical for the function of skeletal muscle, and muscle with primary defects in the expression and/or function of DG throughout development has many pathological features and a severe muscular dystrophy phenotype. In addition, reduction in DG at the sarcolemma is a common feature in muscle biopsies from patients with various types of muscular dystrophy. However, the consequence of disrupting DG in mature muscle is not known. Here, we investigated muscles of transgenic mice several months after genetic knockdown of DG at maturity. In our study, an increase in susceptibility to contraction-induced injury was the first pathological feature observed after the levels of DG at the sarcolemma were reduced. The contraction-induced injury was not accompanied by increased necrosis, excitation–contraction uncoupling, or fragility of the sarcolemma. Rather, disruption of the sarcomeric cytoskeleton was evident as reduced passive tension and decreased titin immunostaining. These results reveal a role for DG in maintaining the stability of the sarcomeric cytoskeleton during contraction and provide mechanistic insight into the cause of the reduction in strength that occurs in muscular dystrophy after lengthening contractions.
Efficiency analysis of capacitive-coupled chassis antenna based on characteristic modes

A simple method is proposed for determining the feeding location of a capacitive-coupled metallic chassis antenna based on its maximal achievable radiation efficiency. This maximal efficiency is acquired from modal radiation efficiencies and excitation percentages of the first few characteristic modes of the chassis. For modal efficiencies, the associated radiated power, conductor loss, and even dielectric loss were calculated respectively based on the modal radiated fields, surface current distribution on the chassis, and electric field distribution in the dielectric substrate, if any, all of which are available from the characteristic mode analysis.
PCR typing of field isolates of Plasmodium falciparum

We report on an analysis of the constraints of PCR typing of field Plasmodium falciparum isolates by using a few highly polymorphic markers, MSA-1, MSA-2, TRAP, and CS. We show that the reactions are specific for the P. falciparum species. The detection threshold (minimum number of parasites required to detect a visible band by ethidium bromide) differed from one marker to the other and, within one locus, from one primer combination to the other. Importantly, the various MSA-1 and MSA-2 reference alleles were amplified with the same efficiency. Amplification from reconstituted allele mixtures indicated that at certain allele ratios, the most abundant allele interfered with the amplification of the less abundant one. An analysis of nine isolates collected from patients with acute malaria in Dielmo, Senegal, during a transmission season when the inoculation rate was one infective bite every second night is presented and discussed. All samples contained more than one parasite type. A significant polymorphism was observed for the four markers. Novel TaqI restriction fragment length polymorphisms were found for the TRAP gene, and TRAP gene typing alone allowed a distinction between the various isolates. MSA-1 and MSA-2 gave multiple band patterns specific for each sample.
Preparation of Hydrochlorothiazide Nanoparticles

Aqueous solubility and permeability through biomembranes are important parameters for drug bioavailability. Nanoparticles can be considered as a useful tool for improving properties of poorly soluble and/or permeable active ingredients. Hydrochlorothiazide (Class IV of BCS) was chosen as a model compound. Antisolvent precipitation – solvent evaporation and emulsion solvent evaporation methods were used as techniques for preparation of twelve samples containing hydrochlorothiazide nanoparticles. Water solutions of the surfactants sodium dodecyl sulfate and Tween 80 were used in mass concentrations of 1, 3 and 5%. Acetone and dichloromethane were used as solvents of model compound. The particle size of the prepared samples was measured by dynamic light scattering. The particle size ranged from 4.2 to 102.2 nm. Tween 80, that yielded nanoparticles <15 nm, was a preferable excipient to sodium dodecyl sulfate.
Implementation of a Communication Training Program Is Associated with Reduction of Antipsychotic Medication Use in Nursing Homes

Setting and participants. Study patients underwent colonoscopy between 1 January 1990 and 21 December 2010 at 17 hospitals in the United Kingdom. Patients were eligible for the study if they had a baseline colonoscopy with a newly diagnosed intermediate-risk adenoma. Intermediate-risk adenomas (as defined by the UK guidelines) included 1 to 2 large adenomas ≥ 10 mm or 3 to 4 small adenomas < 10 mm in size. Patients with a history of prior resections, colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease or a family history of CRC were excluded from the study. Patient, procedural, and polyp characteristics were assessed at baseline.