Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adaptive Methods for the Transmission of Video Streams in Wireless Networks Deliverable 2 . 2 Feedback Algorithms for the Increase of the Objective Quality

Nowadays the need for adaptive delivery of media streams over the Internet is of high importance because of the unpredictable nature of the heterogeneous environments. Compressed video streams exhibit large variations in their data rates something which makes their management in a packet-based best-effort network like IP extremely difficult. The problem is extenuated when we consider mobile users connecting with wireless terminals due to the erroneous and time variant conditions of the wireless links. Thus, applications of real-time video streaming in heterogeneous networks and computing environments like the Internet need to implement highly scalable and adaptive techniques in terms of content encoding and transmission rates. Taking all these into consideration it is apparent that designing adaptive mechanisms for Internet video transmission poses many challenges. Under these circumstances a combination of Content Adaptation Techniques and Network Adaptation Techniques is an imperative need. In this deliverable we propose two novel feedback algorithms for the increase of the objective quality of the transmitted video that involve the aforementioned adaptation techniques. We also propose two new algorithms for the control of the congestion in high speed networks. The performance of these algorithms will be evaluated through simulations in the next deliverable.
YEAR BOOK OF Pediatric Radiology CURRENT PROBLEMS OF PEDIATRIC RADIOLOGY-1999

Ultrasonography appears to be an important tool for the early diagnosis increased renal medullary and cortical echogenicity, but it did not apps specific enough for diagnosis. Four patients with the diagnosis of increased echogenicity of the renal parenchyma in the upper pole were evaluated determine their primary disease. In two patients urinary tract infection w found as a possible cause of the renal parenchyma changes, one of them h lobar nephronia. In the other two there were no real causes for renal disease They had normal variant of renal architecture.
Library for Multi-user Parallel Environments

We have developed a communication library called PM for a workstation cluster using Sun SPARCstation 20/71's on a Myricom Myrinet. PM supports i) network context switching for the multi-user parallel processing environment and ii) FIFO message delivery. The Modi ed ACK/NACK ow control algorithm has been developed to realize these features. We implemented PM using several techniques for the Myrinet network interface such as Immediate Sending and obtained 24 micro seconds of latency and 32 M bytes per second of throughput with Myrinet 2.3.
Usher syndromes due to MYO 7 A , PCDH 15 , USH 2 A or GPR 98 mutations share retinal disease mechanism

Department of Ophthalmology, Scheie Eye Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK, Departments of Ophthalmology and Neurobiology, UCLA School of Medicine, Jules Stein Eye Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA, Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Department of Otolaryngology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA and Usher Syndrome Center, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE, USA
Mesenchymal stromal cells as a choice for spinal cord injury treatment

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a serious clinical problem that affects approximately 17,500 new patients per year in the United States. The main causes of SCI are vehicle collisions, falls, violence (mainly gunshot wounds), and sports/recreational activities. The final severity of the damage results from primary and secondary mechanisms that begin at the time of injury and last for months after trauma. To reduce the extent of damage, several treatments have been proposed. This review summarizes results from several studies that have pointed to cell therapy as the main form of neuroregenerative treatment. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are important candidates for tissue regeneration due to the release of bioactive factors, as well as antiapoptotic effects, scar inhibitors, and angiogenic effects. Studies have shown that MSCs act in various ways on injured tissue, such as immunomodulation of the inflamed environment, release of bioactive factors, restoration of axon myelin, prevention of neuronal apoptosis, and neuroregeneration. Current research using MSCs aims to prevent secondary injury, promote regeneration, and replace destroyed spinal cord tissue. This review presents information about the damage from primary and secondary events after SCI, treatments usually used, and preclinical and clinical results aiming at the cell therapy using MSCs as a tissue regeneration strategy.
Project Report SF2827 Topics in Optimization A Randomized Algorithm for MAX CUT

This report constitutes a close review of Williamson and Goemans’ randomized approximation algorithm for MAX CUT presented in the article Improved approximation algorithms for maximum cut and satisfiability problems using semidefinite programming, J. ACM, 1995 . F or MAX CUT they prove a performance guarantee of 0.87856. Prior to the appearance of their algorithm the best known performance guarantee was 1 . This report has also been greatly inspired by Laurent and Rendl’s review Semidefinite Programming and Integer Programming, Discrete Optimization, 2005.
CS 6780 : Final Project Report Learning Written Gesture Sequences for Robot Control

In this work, we introduce an algorithm for learning written multi-stroke gesture sequences, with motivation towards natural robot control. We briefly survey the current research in the field of gesture recognition and describe the overall approach we have taken. We describe the feature sets used and discuss several supervised learning techniques for the classification problem. We ultimately use a probabilistic multiclass classifier to label multi-stroke gestures, single strokes, and stroke transitions, which achieved average accuracies of 97.5%, 83.4% and 75.4%, respectively. Using combinations of these probabilistic classifiers, we introduce a heuristic tree search algorithm for reconstructing multi-stroke gesture sequences. For sequences of up to ten strokes, our algorithm achieved greater than 88% average accuracy, which is comparable to existing literature.
CAFFEINE SUPPLEMENTATION ON HEAVY METAL SALTS INDUCED BIOCHEMICAL ALTERATIONS IN THE GILLS AND FOOT OF FRESHWATER BIVALVE, LAMELLIDENS MARGINALIS

The present study was carried out to study the preventive role of caffeine (1, 3, 7-Trimethylxanthine) on arsenic induced alterations in the protein contents of an experimental freshwater bivalve, Lamellidens marginalis. The effect on bivalve was studied under five groups. A group bivalves were kept as control, B of bivalves were exposed to chronic dose (LC50/10) of arsenic trioxide (0.236ppm) C group of bivalves were exposed to chronic dose (LC50/10) of arsenic trioxide with caffeine (5 mg/L.) up to 9 days. Protein contents in selected tissues from each group were estimated after 3, 6 and 9days. After 9 days bivalves from group B were divided into two groups D and E. D group of bivalves pre exposed to chronic dose (LC50/10) of arsenic trioxide were allowed to cure in normal water. E group of bivalves pre exposed to chronic dose (LC50/10) of arsenic trioxide were exposed to caffeine (5 mg/L) for recovery up to18 days. From D and E groups of bivalves, Protein contents in selected tissues were estimated after 12, 15 and 18 days. The protein content was decreased due to arsenic and increased to caffeine in presence of arsenic. During recovery protein content increased and the increased was higher with caffeine. The rapid recovery by caffeine shows that preventive role towards arsenic.
Spruce Needle Polyprenols Protect Against Atorvastatin-Induced Muscle Weakness and do not Influence Central Nervous System Functions in Rats

Abstract Polyprenols (PPs) have been identified in almost all living organisms. The richest source of PPs is the needles of conifer trees. Endogenously, PPs, similarly to cholesterol, are synthesised in human and animal cells via the mevalonate pathway. Previous studies have demonstrated the anti-oxidant properties of PPs. To our knowledge, no studies have been published on the influence of PPs on muscle strength. We hypothesised that administration of PPs could prevent changes in muscle functioning caused by statins (weakness, etc.). In the present study, atorvastatin (80 mg/kg) was used as a model compound. PPs at doses 1, 10 and 20 mg/kg were administered. Both drugs were given per os for 16 days. The influence of atorvastatin, PPs and their combination on behaviour, muscle strength, plasma cholesterol and creatine kinase activity was assessed in female Wistar rats. Our data demonstrated that atorvastatin considerably impaired muscle strength, whereas PPs protected that effect. Neither PPs, nor atorvastatin influenced plasma cholesterol levels, whereas PPs at dose 20 mg/kg elevated creatine kinase activity by about 25%. PPs at the tested doses did not alter behaviour, indicating safety of central nervous system functions. The obtained data suggest usefulness of PPs as a complement in statin therapy to reduce muscle-related side effects.
Physiological, Biochemical and Reproductive Studies on Valeriana wallichii, a Critically Endangered Medicinal Plant of the Himalayan Region Grown under In-Situ and Ex-Situ Conditions

Valeriana wallichii, a perennial herb belonging to family Valerianaceae, is an important medicinal herb of the Himalayan region. The incessant exploitation of nature for meeting the demands of the pharmaceutical industry has put unbearable pressure on its natural habitats. A study on its physiological, biochemical, growth and reproductive attributes was planned. Physiological study revealed that ex-situ (outside their natural habitat) populations faced severe stress as compared to in-situ (natural habitat) plants. The difference in the performance of these habitat plants was related to superoxide and H2O2 in the leaves. Photosynthetic attributes were increased in in-situ populations. Proline content and its biosynthetic enzymes ornithine aminotransferase, and pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase showed an increase in ex-situ plants; proline oxidase decreased. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, shikimic acid dehydrogenese, phenylalanine lyase, and flavonoids content showed an increment in ex-situ plants. Antioxidants enzyme superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase and reduced glutathione showed an increment in ex-situ conditions. Growth and reproductive attributes were more in ex-situ plants. The observations made are suggestive that a comprehensive conservation programme involving in-situ as well as ex-situ strategies will be effective for the conservation and long term survival of the species.
News-Driven Expectations and Volatility Clustering

Financial volatility obeys two fascinating empirical regularities that apply to various assets, on various markets, and on various time scales: it is fat-tailed (more precisely power-law distributed) and it tends to be clustered in time. Many interesting models have been proposed to account for these regularities, notably agent-based models, which mimic the two empirical laws through a complex mix of nonlinear mechanisms such as traders switching between trading strategies in highly nonlinear way. This paper explains the two regularities simply in terms of traders’ attitudes towards news, an explanation that follows from the very traditional dichotomy of financial market participants, investors versus speculators, whose behaviors are reduced to their simplest forms. Long-run investors’ valuations of an asset are assumed to follow a news-driven random walk, thus capturing the investors’ persistent, long memory of fundamental news. Short-term speculators’ anticipated returns, on the other hand, are assumed to follow a news-driven autoregressive process, capturing their shorter memory of fundamental news, and, by the same token, the feedback intrinsic to the short-sighted, trend-following (or herding) mindset of speculators. These simple, linear models of traders’ expectations explain the two financial regularities in a generic and robust way. Rational expectations, the dominant model of traders’ expectations, is not assumed here, owing to the famous no-speculation, no-trade results.
S0884291418005034 2928..2934

Synthesis of multi-branched gold nanostructures and their surface-enhanced Raman scattering properties of 4-aminothiophenol Min He, Beibei Cao, Xiangxiang Gao, Bin Liu, Jianhui Yang Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Physico-Inorganic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, People’s Republic of China Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: jianhui@nwu.edu. cn Received: 29 September 2018; accepted: 11 December 2018
Hydrate Formation and Decomposition Regularities in Offshore Gas Reservoir Production Pipelines

In recent years, the exploitation and utilization of offshore oil and gas resources have attracted more attention. In offshore gas reservoir production, wellbore temperature and pressure change continuously when water-bearing natural gas flows upward. The wellbore temperature is also affected by the low-temperature sea water. The combination of temperatures and pressures controlled by the upward flow, and cooling from the surrounding seawater frequently leads to the conditions of temperature and pressure for hydrate formation. This can lead to pipeline blockage and other safety accidents. In this study, we utilize mathematical models of hydrate phase equilibrium, wellbore temperature, wellbore pressure to study hydrate formation and decomposition in offshore gas reservoir production. Numerical solution algorithms are developed and numerical solutions are validated. The sensitivity influence of different parameters on the regions and regularities of hydrate formation and decomposition in wellbores are obtained through numerical simulations. It is found that increased daily gas production, water content, or geothermal gradient in offshore gas reservoir production pipelines results in less hydrate formation in the wellbores. Accordingly, the risk of wellbore blockage decreases and production safety is maintained. Decreased tubing head pressure or seawater depth results in similar effects. The result of this study establishes a set of prediction methods for hydrate formation and decomposition that can be used in the development of guidelines for safe construction design.
A Meta-Analysis of Graduate School Enrollment from Students in the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Program

The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program provides higher education institutions with federal funds to increase the doctoral attainment for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. We conducted a meta-analysis of the impact of the McNair program on graduate program enrollment. After an exhaustive literature search, we found 7 publications containing 13 studies that met the inclusion criteria. From these studies, we found that McNair program students were almost six times as likely to enroll in a graduate program as the comparison group. Nonetheless, there was much unexplained variability in effects across studies.
Interregional Trade and Transport Connectivity: An Analysis of Spatial and Networks Dependence by Using a Spatial Econometric Flow Model at NUTS3 level

Recent research has analyzed whether existing transportation networks affect interregional trade in goods in a spatial econometric model approach (LeSage and Polasek, 2008; Alamá-Sabater et al, 2012). Nonetheless, to our knowledge, previous research within this approach does not deal with highly disaggregated regional trade data by disentangling the role of different types of transportation networks. This paper aims to cover this lack in the existing literature. In order to proxy for the transportation network structure, data for trade flows between Spanish provinces (NUTS3) in the year 2007 are obtained, as well as data about the characteristics of logistics platforms existing in each region. Previously, Alamá-Sabater et al (2012) provided evidence about the role of the location of logistics platforms for satisfying existing demand for transport structure at NUTS2 spatial disaggregation level, as spatial and transportation networks dependence play a significant role on interregional trade flows. However, these authors only focused on the number and area of logistics platforms existing in each region to proxy for the logistics facilities in contiguous regions. The present paper uses a gravity model of trade as a basis to explain trade flows between Spanish intra-national regions in spatial approach terms, incorporating, in addition to the characteristics of each region, information on transportation networks. Additionally, it extends the procedure followed by LeSage and Polasek (2008) and Alamá-Sabater et al (2012) including weighting matrixes based on the logistics performance by typology (i.e. sea ports) to analyze and compare the role of transportation networks on trade of different sectors.
GNSS-RO Refractivity Bias Correction Under Ducting Layer Using Surface-Reflection Signal

Due to its high vertical resolution and cloud-penetrating capability, GNSS-Radio Occultation (RO) remote sensing technique has been utilized to observe the vertical structure of the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) in recent years. However, the critical refraction, or ducting, caused by large refractivity gradients usually associated with the top of the stratocumulus clouds, can negatively bias the retrieved refractivity and humidity within the PBL. Previous research has shown that combining RO retrievals and the external information, such as collocated precipitable water (PW) estimates, can effectively reduce the negative bias and enhance the retrieval quality. Nevertheless, the requirement of collocated observations from other techniques limits the applicability of this reconstruction method in practice. Here, we describe an alternative approach that uses the coherent grazing signals from the same RO event that are reflected by the Earth’s surface to remove the bias due to ducting. Additional observations are no longer necessary in this approach because the reflected signals provide the extra constraint. A least squares framework is used to select the candidate from a family of solutions wherein reflected bending angle best matches the corresponding observation. This new method was validated by both multiple phase screen (MPS) simulation and the simulated RO bending angle via forward Abel transform, and it was tested with the actual GPS-RO measurements. While, in general, the reflected bending retrieved from the current mission was noisy, the results show that this approach can potentially reduce the negative bias and improve RO observation within the PBL without assistance by the external information, such as PW.
Research on the Construction Mode of Mechanical and Electrical Integration of Intelligent Control System based on Multi-agent Technique

In this paper, we conduct research on the construction mode of mechanical and electrical integration of intelligent control system based on the multi-agent technique. The development of the modern science and technology has greatly promoted the cross of different subjects and infiltration, caused the technological transformation and revolution in the field of engineering. In the field of mechanical engineering, because of rapid development of microelectronics technology and computer technology to the mechanical industry and its mechanical and electrical integration, which is formed by the penetration of the technology of mechanical industry structure, product, organization, function and structure, mode of the production and management system, great changes have taken place in industrial production by the mechanical electrification "ushered in the development of" mechatronics "as the characteristics of the stage. Our research combines the multi-agent technique to propose the new paradigm for mechanical and electrical integration which is
The InVivo Antidiabetic Activity of Nigella sativa Is Mediated through Activation of the AMPK Pathway and IncreasedMuscle Glut 4 Content

The antidiabetic effect of N. sativa seed ethanol extract (NSE) was assessed in Meriones shawi after development of diabetes. Meriones shawi were divided randomly into four groups: normal control, diabetic control, diabetic treated with NSE (2 g eq plant/kg) or with metformin (300 mg/kg) positive control, both administered by daily intragastric gavage for 4 weeks. Glycaemia and body weight were evaluated weekly. At study’s end, an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) was performed to estimate insulin sensitivity. Upon sacrifice, plasma lipid profile, insulin, leptin, and adiponectin levels were assessed. ACC phosphorylation and Glut4 protein content were determined in liver and skeletal muscle. NSE animals showed a progressive normalization of glycaemia, albeit slower than that of metformin controls. Moreover, NSE increased insulinemia and HDLcholesterol, compared to diabetic controls. Leptin and adiponectin were unchanged. NSE treatment decreased OGTT and tended to decrease liver and muscle triglyceride content. NSE stimulated muscle and liver ACC phosphorylation and increased muscle Glut4. These results confirm NSE’s previously reported hypoglycaemic and hypolipidemic activity. More significantly, our data demonstrate that in vivo treatment with NSE exerts an insulin-sensitizing action by enhancing ACC phosphorylation, a major component of the insulin-independent AMPK signaling pathway, and by enhancing muscle Glut4 expression.
Performance Evaluation of Twofish Algorithm on IMAN1 Supercomputer

Now-a-days data is needed to be exchanged through networks in secure manner. Hence for secure communication required cryptography algorithms. Among these algorithms is Twofish cryptographic algorithm. In this paper the Sequential and parallel implementation have been implemented in IMAN1 supercomputer using Message Passing Interface (MPI). The parallel implementation has been evaluated in terms of execution time, speedup, and efficiency. The simulation results show that 256 key lengths in 4 processors get best efficiency up to 37% while 192 and 128 key length achieves up to 33% and 29% in order.