Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recommender Systems to Address New User Cold-Start Problem with User Side Information

Due to exponential growth of Internet, users are facing the problem of Information overloading. Recommender Systems (RS) serve as an indispensible tool to solve information overloading problem. Due to their great commercial value, recommender systems have also been successfully deployed in industry, such as product recommendation at Amazon, music recommendation at iTunes, movie recommendation at Netflix, etc. Collaborative Filtering (CF) is one of the popular approaches for Recommender systems based on user-item rating matrix. The main challenges faced by CF are Sparsity, Cold-Start and Scalability. In this paper we proposed a new approach to use user’s side information in addition to user-item rating matrix to address new user cold-start problem. User’s side information is obtained from Social Networks, which are the most active source of information now a day. First CF method is used to form user clusters based on the similarity of users. User’s side information is obtained from Social networks and the same is used to form a Social matrix. Finally combine user history with social matrix to provide recommendations to new users. The experimental results proved that the performance of RS is improved over traditional CF systems.
Development of dynamic sub-grid models for variational multiscale methods

A dynamic Variational Multiscale Method (Hughes et al. 1998) is developed by leveraging the Germano procedure from classical Large-eddy Simulations (LES). The similarity between the classical and variational approaches is analyzed in the context of incompressible flow. This analysis leads to a consistent modeling approach for both incompressible and compressible flows, the latter being demonstrated in a priori testing for low-speed attached and separated boundary layers. Similar to the classical LES procedure from which it is derived, the variational dynamic procedure does not guarantee a positive semi-definite coefficient in the general case. However, reproducing the behavior of the classical LES dynamic approach is seen as a necessary first step to develop a VMM that automatically adjusts to the local resolution and flow physics.
Dorsal Horn Neurons Firing at High Frequency, But Not Primary Afferents, Release Opioid Peptides that Produce μ-Opioid Receptor Internalization in the Rat Spinal Cord

To determine what neural pathways trigger opioid release in the dorsal horn, we stimulated the dorsal root, the dorsal horn, or the dorsolateral funiculus (DLF) in spinal cord slices while superfusing them with peptidase inhibitors to prevent opioid degradation. Internalization of μ-opioid receptors (MOR) and neurokinin 1 receptors (NK1R) was measured to assess opioid and neurokinin release, respectively. Dorsal root stimulation at low, high, or mixed frequencies produced abundant NK1R internalization but no MOR internalization, indicating that primary afferents do not release opioids. Moreover, capsaicin and NMDA also failed to produce MOR internalization. In contrast, dorsal horn stimulation elicited MOR internalization that increased with the frequency, being negligible at <10 Hz and maximal at 500 Hz. The internalization was abolished by the MOR antagonist d-Phe-Cys-Tyr-d-Trp-Arg-Thr-Pen-Thr-NH2 (CTAP), in the presence of low Ca2+ and by the Na+ channel blocker lidocaine, confirming that it was caused by opioid release and neuronal firing. DLF stimulation in “oblique” slices (encompassing the DLF and the dorsal horn of T11-L4) produced MOR internalization, but only in areas near the stimulation site. Moreover, cutting oblique slices across the dorsal horn (but not across the DLF) eliminated MOR internalization in areas distal to the cut, indicating that it was produced by signals traveling in the dorsal horn and not via the DLF. These findings demonstrate that some dorsal horn neurons release opioids when they fire at high frequencies, perhaps by integrating signals from the rostral ventromedial medulla, primary afferents, and other areas of the spinal cord.
[Roles of vascular endothelial growth factor and platelet-derived growth factor in lymphangiogenesis in epithelial ovarian carcinoma.].

OBJECTIVE To assess roles of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) in the mechanisms of lymphangiogenesis in epithelial ovarian carcinoma. METHODS (1) Expression of Prox1, a newly described lymphatic endothelial cell nucleus marker, VEGF-A, VEGF-C, VEGF-D and PDGF-A, PDGF-B, PDGF-C, PDGF-D were detected by RT-PCR in SKOV3 cell line and in 90 ovarian tissue samples, included 15 benign tumors, 10 borderline tumors, 45 malignant tumors and 20 normal ovarian samples. (2) Expression levels of Prox1, VEGF-A, -C, -D and PDGF-A, -B, -C, -D were detected in 90 ovarian tissue sample mentioned above by real-time quantitative PCR (RTQ-PCR). RESULTS (1) Prox1 was expressed in ovarian samples mentioned above, while not detected in SKOV3 cell. VEGF-A, -C, -D and PDGF-A, -B, -C, -D were found in SKOV3 cell and various ovarian tissues. (2) Expression levels of Prox1 (2.2 +/- 1.3, P < 0.01), VEGF-A (3.5 +/- 1.5, P < 0.01), VEGF-C (19 +/- 14, P < 0.01), VEGF-D (3.0 +/- 1.8, P < 0.01) and PDGF-A (3.3 +/- 3.3, P < 0.05), PDGF-C (6.9 +/- 4.6, P < 0.01) in malignant group were found to be significantly higher than those in borderline group and benign group. (3) The expression levels of Prox1, VEGF-A and PDGF-A were significantly greater in samples from the patients with lymph node metastasis (Prox1: 3.0 +/- 1.4, VEGF-A: 4.1 +/- 1.7, PDGF-A: 4.9 +/- 4.1), peritoneum metastasis (Prox1: 2.8 +/- 0.9, VEGF-A: 4.0 +/- 1.8, PDGF-A: 4.5 +/- 4.0) and in stage III - IV (Prox1: 2.6 +/- 1.3, VEGF-A: 4.0 +/- 1.4, PDGF-A: 4.1 +/- 3.7) than those without lymph node metastasis, without peritoneum metastasis and in stage I - II. There was a significant increased in the degree of VEGF-C and VEGF-D expression in positive lymph node metastasis group (VEGF-C: 24 +/- 13, VEGF-D: 3.9 +/- 2.0) compared with negative group (P < 0.05). (4) There were significant positive correlations between the expression levels of Prox1 and VEGF-D (r = 0.62, P < 0.01), PDGF-C (r = 0.91, P < 0.01) or PDGF-D (r = 0.61, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS VEGF-A, VEGF-C and PDGF-A may promote lymphatic metastasis in epithelial ovarian carcinoma through else mechanisms other than lymphangiogenesis. VEGF-D may facilitate lymphangiogenesis and lymph node metastasis in epithelial ovarian cancer. There is no significant correlation between the expression of PDGF-B and lymphangiogenesis and lymph node metastasis. PCGF-C and PDGF-D may motivate lymphangiogenesis, but could not participate in lymph node metastasis in ovarian carcinoma.
N2O source partitioning in soils using (15)N site preference values corrected for the N2O reduction effect.

RATIONALE The aim of this study was to determine the impact of isotope fractionation associated with N2O reduction during soil denitrification on N2O site preference (SP) values and hence quantify the potential bias on SP-based N2O source partitioning. METHODS The N2O SP values (n = 431) were derived from six soil incubation studies in N2-free atmosphere, and determined by isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). The N2 and N2O concentrations were measured directly by gas chromatography. Net isotope effects (NIE) during N2O reduction to N2 were compensated for using three different approaches: a closed-system model, an open-system model and a dynamic apparent NIE function. The resulting SP values were used for N2O source partitioning based on a two end-member isotopic mass balance. RESULTS The average SP0 value, i.e. the average SP values of N2O prior to N2O reduction, was recalculated with the closed-system model, resulting in -2.6 ‰ (±9.5), while the open-system model and the dynamic apparent NIE model gave average SP0 values of 2.9 ‰ (±6.3) and 1.7 ‰ (±6.3), respectively. The average source contribution of N2O from nitrification/fungal denitrification was 18.7% (±21.0) according to the closed-system model, while the open-system model and the dynamic apparent NIE function resulted in values of 31.0% (±14.0) and 28.3% (±14.0), respectively. CONCLUSIONS Using a closed-system model with a fixed SP isotope effect may significantly overestimate the N2O reduction effect on SP values, especially when N2O reduction rates are high. This is probably due to soil inhomogeneity and can be compensated for by the application of a dynamic apparent NIE function, which takes the variable reduction rates in soil micropores into account.
Distributing Network Loads in Tree-based Content Distribution System

Content distribution to a large number of concurrent clients stresses both server and network. While the server limitation can be circumvented by deploying server clusters, the network limitation is far less easy to cope with, due to the difficulty in measuring and balancing network load. In this paper, we use two useful network load metrics, the worst link stress (WLS) and the degree of interference (DOI), and formulate the problem as partitioning the clients into disjoint subsets subject to the server capacity constraint so that the WLS and the DOI are reduced for each session and also well balanced across the sessions. We present a network load-aware partition algorithm, which is practicable and effective in achieving the design goals. Through experiments on PlanetLab, we show that the proposed scheme has the remarkable advantages over existing schemes in reducing and balancing the network load. We expect the algorithm and performance metrics can be easily applied to various Internet applications, such as media streaming, multicast group member selection.
Application Interference in Multi-Core Architectures: Analysis and Effects

Clouds are an irreplaceable part of many business applications. They provide tremendous flexibility and gave birth for many related technologies – Software as a Service (SaaS) and the like. One of the biggest powers of clouds is load redistribution for scaling up and down on demand. This helps dealing with varying loads, increasing resource utilization and cutting down electricity bills while maintaining reasonable performance isolation. The last one is of our particular interest. Most cloud systems are accounted and billed not by useful throughput, but by resource usage. For example, a cloud provider may charge according to cumulative CPU time and/or average memory footprint. But this does not guarantee that the application realized its full performance potential because CPU and memory are shared resources. As a result, if there are many other applications it could experience frequent execution stalls due to contention on memory bus or cache pressure. The problem is more and more pronounced because modern hardware rapidly increases in density leading to more applications are co-located. The performance degradation caused by co-location of applications is called application interference. In this work we study in-depth reasons of interference as well as ways to mitigate it. The first part of the work is devoted to interference analysis and introduces a simple yet powerful empirical model of CPU performance that takes interference into account. The model is based on empirical observations and build up from extrapolation of a two-task (trivial) case. In the following part we present a method of ranking of virtual machines according to their average interference. The method is based on analysis of performance counters. We first launch a set of very diverse benchmark programs (to be representative for wide range of programs) one-by-one together with all sorts of performance counters. This gives us their “ideal” (isolated) performances. Then we run them in pairs to see the level of interference they create to each other. Once this is done, for each benchmark we calculate average interference. Finally we calculate the correlation between the average interference and performance counters. The counters with the biggest correlation are to be used as interference estimators. The final part deals with measuring interference in production environment with affordable overhead. The technique is based on short (in the order of milliseconds) freezes of virtual machines to see how they affect other VMs (hence the name of method – Freeze’nSense). By comparing the performance of the VM when other VMs active and when they frozen it is possible to conclude how much it looses in speed because of sharing hardware with other applications.
Hypothermia for neonatal hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE To establish the evidence of therapeutic hypothermia for newborns with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy(HIE). DATA SOURCES Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Oxford Database of Perinatal Trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and previous reviews. STUDY SELECTION Randomized controlled trials that compared therapeutic hypothermia to normothermia for newborns with HIE. INTERVENTION Therapeutic hypothermia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Death or major neurodevelopmental disability at 18 months. RESULTS Seven trials including 1214 newborns were identified. Therapeutic hypothermia resulted in a reduction in the risk of death or major neurodevelopmental disability(risk ratio [RR], 0.76; 95% CI, 0.69-0.84) and increase in the rate of survival with normal neurological function (1.63; 1.36-1.95) at age 18 months. Hypothermia reduced the risk of death or major neurodevelopmental disability at age 18 months in newborns with moderate HIE (RR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.56-0.81) and in newborns with severe HIE (0.83; 0.74-0.92). Both total body cooling and selective head cooling resulted in reduction in the risk of death or major neurodevelopmental disability(RR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.66-0.85 and 0.77; 0.65-0.93,respectively). CONCLUSION Hypothermia improves survival and neurodevelopment in newborns with moderate to severe HIE.Total body cooling and selective head cooling are effective methods in treating newborns with HIE. Clinicians should consider offering therapeutic hypothermia as part of routine clinical care to these newborns.
Urinary tract infection in diabetes

Purpose of review The aim of this article is to review recent publications relevant to understanding the interaction of urinary tract infection and diabetes mellitus, including epidemiology, pathogenesis, microbiology, and treatment. Recent findings The largest number of identified reports described aspects of epidemiology, including defining the incidence and outcomes of urinary infection in patients with diabetes. In several reports, mortality and risk of hospitalization for urinary infection were not increased with diabetes, although length of hospitalization may be prolonged. Other reports quantify the increased incidence of cystitis or pyelonephritis in persons with diabetes, but remain subject to potential biases which could overestimate the occurrence in diabetic relative to non-diabetic populations. Several reports suggest that resistant bacteria are more frequently isolated from diabetic outpatients with urinary infection, but it is not clear how this is directly attributable to diabetes. There are no recent clinical trials which enhance our understanding of optimal treatment of symptomatic urinary infection, although several review articles acknowledge the appropriateness of the non-treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in diabetic women. Summary Recent reports exploring diabetes and urinary tract infection provide some insights, particularly for risks of infection and outcomes, but there are no recent large advances in the knowledge base. Questions related to incidence, optimal treatment, and role of metabolic control still need to be addressed to expand the knowledge base and enhance management of this common problem. Abbreviation ESBL: extended spectrum beta lactamase.
University of Wisconsin solution versus Stanford cardioplegic solution and the development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy.

BACKGROUND University of Wisconsin (intracellular) solution has been shown to offer some distinct benefits of myocardial preservation over Stanford (extracellular) solution, including a more rapid functional recovery, improved adenosine triphosphate preservation, and a tendency for less postoperative inotropic agents. However intracellular solutions with high potassium content have been reported to cause a functional if not structural endothelial injury in laboratory experiments. METHODS Because of this information we retrospectively viewed our follow-up angiographic data for the development of the cardiac allograft vasculopathy in a consecutive series of 195 heart transplant recipients. These patients were treated in identical fashion, with the same immunosuppression regimen, except for the type of cardioplegia used--Stanford solution (group I n = 95) and University of Wisconsin solution (group II n = 100). RESULTS With a mean follow-up of 24 months after transplantation, a significant difference was seen in the development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy in group II (22%) versus group I (14%, p < 0.03). Although significant differences were observed with univariate analysis with respect to donor age and ischemic time favoring group I and with multivariate statistical analysis with respect to overall rejections favoring group II, the only significant variable for the difference in the development of allograft vasculopathy was University of Wisconsin cardioplegic solution (p < 0.003). A subgroup of 30 patients previously randomized for a functional study comparing the two cardioplegic agents showed a tendency for statistical significance with a freedom from allograft vasculopathy of 93% in group I, as compared with 83% in group II, after 13 months follow-up (p = 0.09). The overall probability of being free of vasculopathy at 24 months was 86% for group I and 70% for group II. CONCLUSIONS The data support the conclusion that University of Wisconsin intracellular solution is associated with an increased incidence of vasculopathy versus Stanford solution and warrants investigation for modification of this preservation agent in heart transplantation.
Effect of Phosphate Concentration on Production of Tetrodotoxin by Alteromonas tetraodonis

Tetrodotoxin production by Alteromonas tetraodonis occurred during the stationary phase of growth and was regulated by phosphate concentration; toxin production was repressed if phosphate was added at the onset of stationary phase and was over 100-fold greater in phosphate-limited cultures than in cultures in which phosphate was not limiting.
Antidermatophytic activity of Solanum indicum L. from North East India

Chloroform, Methanol and Water extract of Solanum indicum Linn. , a widely used food and medicinal plant of Assam, India was investigated for its in vitro antifungal activity against five different dermatophytic fungi viz., Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Trichophyton rubrum, Trichophyton tonsurans, Microsporum gypseum and Microsporum fulvum. Agar well diffusion method was used to determine the inhibition zone of the different extracts of the plant. The minimum inhibitory concentration of the extracts was determined by broth dilution method. When compared, the Chloroform extract of the plant was found to be highly active against all the tested fungi followed by the methanol extract. The water extract was found completely inactive against T. mentagrophytes and T. rubrum while it showed very low activity against M. gypseum, T. tonsurans and M. fulvum at the tested concentration. The results suggest that the leaves of S. indicum may possess some non polar antifungal compounds that can be used for treating dermatophytosis.
Protein binding characteristics and pharmacokinetics of ceftriaxone in intensive care unit patients.

AIMS The aim of the present study was to assess the pharmacokinetics of total and unbound ceftriaxone in intensive care unit (ICU) patients and its protein binding characteristics. METHODS Twenty patients (m/f 15/5, age 25-86 years, body weight 60-121 kg, APACHE II 7-40, estimated glomerular filtration rate 19-157 ml min(-1) , albumin 11.7-30.1 g l(-1) , total bilirubin <0.1-36.1 mg dl(-1) ) treated with intravenous ceftriaxone were recruited from two ICUs. Timed plasma samples were obtained using an opportunistic study protocol. Ceftriaxone concentrations were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography; unbound concentrations were determined after ultrafiltration using a new method which maintains physiological pH and temperature. The pharmacokinetics was described by a one-compartment model, the protein-binding characteristics by Michaelis-Menten kinetics. RESULTS For total drug, the volume of distribution was 20.2 l (median; interquartile range 15.6-24.5 l), the half-life 14.5 h (10.0-25.5 h) and the clearance 0.96 l h(-1) (0.55-1.28 l h(-1) ). The clearance of unbound drug was 1.91 l h(-1) (1.46-6.20 l h(-1) ) and linearly correlated with estimated glomerular filtration rate (slope 0.85, y-intercept 0.24 l h(-1) , r(2) = 0.70). The unbound fraction was higher in ICU patients (33.0%; 20.2-44.5%) than reported in healthy volunteers, particularly when renal impairment or severe hyperbilirubinaemia was present. In all patients, unbound concentrations during treatment with ceftriaxone 2 g once daily remained above the EUCAST susceptibility breakpoint (≤1 mg l(-1) ) throughout the whole dosing interval. CONCLUSIONS Protein binding of ceftriaxone is reduced and variable in ICU patients due to hypoalbuminaemia, but also to altered binding characteristics. Despite these changes, the pharmacokinetics of unbound ceftriaxone is governed by renal function. For patients with normal or reduced renal function, standard doses are sufficient.
A new concept in breast investigation: echo-histological acino-ductal analysis or analytic echography.

"Echo-histological acino-ductal analysis of the breast" or "analytic echography" allows a display of lesions based on anatomo-physio-pathology, their micro-sampling by interventional echography for histological evaluation and their direct visual observation by intra-ductal echo-guided endoscopy. This method efficiently complements the other means of investigation by evaluating mammographic densities and palpable masses, and shows maximum diagnostic efficiency by improving and using the 2 most efficient means of diagnosis for malignancies, namely: the immediate detection of cellular abnormalities by more precise sampling; or the display of tumor evolution in a shorter time (3 months), with repeated sampling.
Clinical Use of p53 in Barrett's Esophagus

Barrett's esophagus is an established precursor to esophageal adenocarcinoma. Whereas most patients with Barrett's esophagus do not progress to adenocarcinoma, patients with progression have a poor prognosis. Current management strategies use frequent endoscopic surveillance and multiple nontargeted biopsies. This approach, however, may miss dysplastic areas. Furthermore, given the relatively high prevalence of Barrett's esophagus but low incidence of progression, this invasive and expensive approach has not been shown to be cost-effective. Thus, there is intense interest in using biomarkers to identify patients at increased risk of progressing to adenocarcinoma. This has included examination of mutations in the tumor suppressor gene, p53. In this report, we discuss the biology of p53 and the incidence of p53 mutations in Barrett's esophagus and review relevant studies regarding the ability of p53 to predict neoplastic progression. Additionally, we report our results of the expression of p53 by immunohistochemistry in a group of 18 patients that have undergone endoscopic esophageal mucosal resection for dysplasia. Although the presence of a p53 mutation increases the risk of neoplastic progression, the absence of this mutation does not abrogate the risk. Continuing efforts, therefore, are needed to define and prospectively validate a panel of biomarkers to risk-stratify patients with Barrett's esophagus. Determination of p53 mutational status may ultimately be a component of such a panel. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006;15(7):1243–9)