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Prioritizing test cases with string distances | Test case prioritisation aims at finding an ordering which enhances a certain property of an ordered test suite. Traditional techniques rely on the availability of code or a specification of the program under test. We propose to use string distances on the text of test cases for their comparison and elaborate a prioritisation algorithm. Such a prioritisation does not require code or a specification and can be useful for initial testing and in cases when code is difficult to instrument. In this paper, we also report on experiments performed on the “Siemens Test Suite”, where the proposed prioritisation technique was compared with random permutations and four classical string distance metrics were evaluated. The obtained results, confirmed by a statistical analysis, indicate that prioritisation based on string distances is more efficient in finding defects than random ordering of the test suite: the test suites prioritized using string distances are more efficient in detecting the strongest mutants, and, on average, have a better APFD than randomly ordered test suites. The results suggest that string distances can be used for prioritisation purposes, and Manhattan distance could be the best choice. |
Darwin or Lamarck? Future Challenges in Evolutionary Algorithms for Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining | Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) are a fascinating branch of computational intelligence with much potential for use in many application areas. The fundamental principle of EAs is to use ideas inspired by the biological mechanisms observed in nature, such as selection and genetic changes, to find the best solution for a given optimization problem. Generally, EAs use iterative processes, by growing a population of solutions selected in a guided random search and using parallel processing, in order to achieve a desired result. Such population based approaches, for example particle swarm and ant colony optimization (inspired from biology), are among the most popular metaheuristic methods being used in machine learning, along with others such as the simulated annealing (inspired from thermodynamics). In this paper, we provide a short survey on the state-of-the-art of EAs, beginning with some background on the theory of evolution and contrasting the original ideas of Darwin and Lamarck; we then continue with a discussion on the analogy between biological and computational sciences, and briefly describe some fundamentals of EAs, including the Genetic Algorithms, Genetic Programming, Evolution Strategies, Swarm Intelligence Algorithms (i.e., Particle Swarm Optimization, Ant Colony Optimization, Bacteria Foraging Algorithms, Bees Algorithm, Invasive Weed Optimization), Memetic Search, Differential Evolution Search, Artificial Immune Systems, Gravitational Search Algorithm, Intelligent Water Drops Algorithm. We conclude with a short description of the usefulness of EAs for Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining tasks and present some open problems and challenges to further stimulate research. |
Automatic data-driven real-time segmentation and recognition of surgical workflow | With the intention of extending the perception and action of surgical staff inside the operating room, the medical community has expressed a growing interest towards context-aware systems. Requiring an accurate identification of the surgical workflow, such systems make use of data from a diverse set of available sensors. In this paper, we propose a fully data-driven and real-time method for segmentation and recognition of surgical phases using a combination of video data and instrument usage signals, exploiting no prior knowledge. We also introduce new validation metrics for assessment of workflow detection. The segmentation and recognition are based on a four-stage process. Firstly, during the learning time, a Surgical Process Model is automatically constructed from data annotations to guide the following process. Secondly, data samples are described using a combination of low-level visual cues and instrument information. Then, in the third stage, these descriptions are employed to train a set of AdaBoost classifiers capable of distinguishing one surgical phase from others. Finally, AdaBoost responses are used as input to a Hidden semi-Markov Model in order to obtain a final decision. On the MICCAI EndoVis challenge laparoscopic dataset we achieved a precision and a recall of 91 % in classification of 7 phases. Compared to the analysis based on one data type only, a combination of visual features and instrument signals allows better segmentation, reduction of the detection delay and discovery of the correct phase order. |
Text messaging as a tool for behavior change in disease prevention and management. | Mobile phone text messaging is a potentially powerful tool for behavior change because it is widely available, inexpensive, and instant. This systematic review provides an overview of behavior change interventions for disease management and prevention delivered through text messaging. Evidence on behavior change and clinical outcomes was compiled from randomized or quasi-experimental controlled trials of text message interventions published in peer-reviewed journals by June 2009. Only those interventions using text message as the primary mode of communication were included. Study quality was assessed by using a standardized measure. Seventeen articles representing 12 studies (5 disease prevention and 7 disease management) were included. Intervention length ranged from 3 months to 12 months, none had long-term follow-up, and message frequency varied. Of 9 sufficiently powered studies, 8 found evidence to support text messaging as a tool for behavior change. Effects exist across age, minority status, and nationality. Nine countries are represented in this review, but it is problematic that only one is a developing country, given potential benefits of such a widely accessible, relatively inexpensive tool for health behavior change. Methodological issues and gaps in the literature are highlighted, and recommendations for future studies are provided. |
Technical accuracy of optical and the electromagnetic tracking systems | Thousands of operations are annually guided with computer assisted surgery (CAS) technologies. As the use of these devices is rapidly increasing, the reliability of the devices becomes ever more critical. The problem of accuracy assessment of the devices has thus become relevant. During the past five years, over 200 hazardous situations have been documented in the MAUDE database during operations using these devices in the field of neurosurgery alone. Had the accuracy of these devices been periodically assessed pre-operatively, many of them might have been prevented. The technical accuracy of a commercial navigator enabling the use of both optical (OTS) and electromagnetic (EMTS) tracking systems was assessed in the hospital setting using accuracy assessment tools and methods developed by the authors of this paper. The technical accuracy was obtained by comparing the positions of the navigated tool tip with the phantom accuracy assessment points. Each assessment contained a total of 51 points and a region of surgical interest (ROSI) volume of 120x120x100 mm roughly mimicking the size of the human head. The error analysis provided a comprehensive understanding of the trend of accuracy of the surgical navigator modalities. This study showed that the technical accuracies of OTS and EMTS over the pre-determined ROSI were nearly equal. However, the placement of the particular modality hardware needs to be optimized for the surgical procedure. New applications of EMTS, which does not require rigid immobilization of the surgical area, are suggested. |
Metabolic syndrome in HIV-infected patients receiving antiretroviral therapy in Latin America. | OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the prevalence of and the associated factors for metabolic syndrome (MS) among Latin American HIV-infected patients receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) using baseline data from the RAPID II study.
METHODS
A longitudinal study to evaluate the metabolic profile, cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and associated treatment practices to reduce this risk has been conducted in seven Latin American countries (the RAPID II study). Adult HIV patients with at least six months of RT were enrolled. MS was defined following ATP-III criteria. Demographic and anthropometric data, serum biochemical and clinical parameters were compared in patients with and without MS using bivariate and multivariate analysis.
RESULTS
A total of 4,010 patients were enrolled, 2,963 (74%) were males. Mean age (SD) was 41.9 (10.0) years. The prevalence of MS was 20.2%. Females had higher prevalence of MS than males (22.7% vs. 19.4%, p = 0.02). MS was driven by high triglycerides, low HDL-cholesterol and high blood pressure (HBP). Patients with MS had higher 10 year CVD risk: 22.2% vs. 7.4%, p < 0.001. Age (OR: 1.05 per year), female gender (OR: 1.29), family history of CVD (OR: 1.28), CD4 cell count (OR: 1.09 per 100 cell increase), and protease inhibitor based-ART (OR: 1.33) correlated with MS in the multivariate analysis.
CONCLUSIONS
Prevalence of MS in this setting was similar to that reported from developed countries. MS was driven by high triglycerides, low-HDL and HBP, and it was associated with higher risk of CVD. Traditional risk factors, female gender, immune reconstitution, and protease inhibitor based-ART correlated with MS. |
The burden of headache in Russia: validation of the diagnostic questionnaire in a population-based sample. | BACKGROUND
We report validation of the Russian-language version of the Lifting The Burden headache screening and diagnostic questionnaire in a population-based sample of 501 individuals in four cities (Smolensk, Tchelyabinsk, Nishny Novgorod and Tver) and three rural areas (Tula, Tver and Gornyi) of Russia.
METHODS
The structured questionnaire, based on ICHD-II criteria, was applied face to face by trained non-medical interviewers calling at randomly selected households. Response rates were about 73% in cities and 80% in rural areas.
RESULTS
Of those responding, 301 reported headache in the previous year; of the total sample, 143 people with and 47 without headache according to the questionnaire were re-interviewed by telephone by one of the two neurologists unaware of the questionnaire diagnoses. Migraine (MIG), either definite (dMIG) or probable (pMIG), was diagnosed by the questionnaire in 72 cases, and tension-type headache (TTH), either definite (dTTH) or probable (pTTH), in 66 cases; the five others with headache were unclassifiable by questionnaire. Physicians diagnosed dMIG or pMIG in 65 cases, dTTH or pTTH in 89 cases and no headache in 31 cases; in five cases, headache was unclassifiable. The questionnaire had sensitivities and specificities of 77% and 82% for MIG (κ=0.58) and of 64% and 91% for TTH (κ=0.56).
CONCLUSIONS
We concluded that the questionnaire can be utilized in a population-based countrywide survey of the burden attributable to primary headache disorders in Russia. |
Queenship and the Currency of Arts Patronage as Propaganda at the Early Stuart Court | Hitchmough explores the built heritage of royal palaces as emotional and intellectual gateways to the narratives that help us understand the present through an analysis of the past. From the contemporary installation of Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London to Inigo Jones’s designs for the Banqueting House at Whitehall, this chapter examines the ways in which contemporary design can allude to complex political and historical loyalties. It focuses on interactions between queenship and visual culture and the agency that Queen Anna of Denmark exercised through her patronage of Inigo Jones and Ben Jonson. Hitchmough considers the Banqueting House as visual propaganda, relating its Neo-Palladian design to the Queen’s masque performances and, ultimately, to the staging of Charles I’s execution. |
Intrinsic functional network architecture of human semantic processing: Modules and hubs | Semantic processing entails the activation of widely distributed brain areas across the temporal, parietal, and frontal lobes. To understand the functional structure of this semantic system, we examined its intrinsic functional connectivity pattern using a database of 146 participants. Focusing on areas consistently activated during semantic processing generated from a meta-analysis of 120 neuroimaging studies (Binder et al., 2009), we found that these regions were organized into three stable modules corresponding to the default mode network (Module DMN), the left perisylvian network (Module PSN), and the left frontoparietal network (Module FPN). These three dissociable modules were integrated by multiple connector hubs-the left angular gyrus (AG) and the left superior/middle frontal gyrus linking all three modules, the left anterior temporal lobe linking Modules DMN and PSN, the left posterior portion of dorsal intraparietal sulcus (IPS) linking Modules DMN and FPN, and the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (MTG) linking Modules PSN and FPN. Provincial hubs, which converge local information within each system, were also identified: the bilateral posterior cingulate cortices/precuneus, the bilateral border area of the posterior AG and the superior lateral occipital gyrus for Module DMN; the left supramarginal gyrus, the middle part of the left MTG and the left orbital inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) for Module FPN; and the left triangular IFG and the left IPS for Module FPN. A neuro-functional model for semantic processing was derived based on these findings, incorporating the interactions of memory, language, and control. |
Population aging and the transmission of monetary policy to consumption | Previous work has documented that housing and refinancing decisions play an important role in shaping the aggregate and cross-sectional consumption elasticities to interest rate shocks. New home purchases and refinances can then affect durable and non-durable consumption through the associated fluctuations in disposable income and the complementarity between housing and consumption. In this paper, we examine the transmission of monetary policy through housing debt. Specifically, we use detailed micro data to study the mortgage channel that links monetary policy with household borrowing and consumption expenditure. Specifically, we quantify the heterogeneity across borrowers and state-dependency in the pass-through of interest rate shocks to consumption over the Federal Reserve Bank’s interest rate cycle. |
Roles of Moringa oleifera Leaf Extract in Improving the Impact of High Dietary Intake of Monosodium Glutamate-Induced Liver Toxicity, Oxidative Stress, Genotoxicity, DNA Damage, and PCNA Alterations in Male Rats | It is common for food to be made more palatable through the use of the flavour enhancer monosodium glutamate, also known as vetsin powder. The purpose of the study described in this paper was to explore how vetsin-induced hepatic toxicity, DNA fragmentation, damage, and oxidative stress modifications could be mitigated with moringa leaf extract (MLE). To that end, 40 male rats were separated into four groups: normal control, positive control or MLE, vetsin, and vetsin combined with MLE. Results indicated that, compared to the control group, the levels of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), liver malondialdehyde (MDA), DNA damage, injury, PCNA, and P53 expressions were significantly enhanced by the administration of vetsin (P < 0.05). However, the vetsin group had significantly reduced levels of albumin, globulin, total protein, liver glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase enzyme (SOD), catalase, and glutathione S-transferase (GST) enzyme activities (P < 0.05) by comparison to control. Meanwhile, modifications in liver functions, oxidative stress, DNA damage, liver injury, and PCNA expression were alleviated when vetsin was administered alongside MLE. The authors conclude that vetsin may have many side effects and that MLE can ameliorate biochemical changes, oxidative stress, hepatic injury, PCNA, and P53 alterations induced by vetsin administration. |
Remarks on the compactified six-dimensional model of a particle | Non-homogeneous gauge ground state solutions in a six-dimensional gauge model in the presence of non-zero extended fermionic charge density fluctuations are reviewed and fully reinterpreted. |
HAMA: An Efficient Matrix Computation with the MapReduce Framework | Various scientific computations have become so complex, and thus computation tools play an important role. In this paper, we explore the state-of-the-art framework providing high-level matrix computation primitives with MapReduce through the case study approach, and demonstrate these primitives with different computation engines to show the performance and scalability. We believe the opportunity for using MapReduce in scientific computation is even more promising than the success to date in the parallel systems literature. |
Hepatoblastoma presenting as precocious puberty: a case report. | Hepatoblastoma (HB), a primary liver tumor in childhood, is often accompanied by alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) secretion, and sometimes by β-human chorionic gonadotropin hormone (β-hCG) secretion, and this can cause peripheral precocious puberty (PPP). We describe a case of PPP associated with HB. Laboratory tests showed an increase in AFP, β-hCG and testosterone values, and suppression of follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone levels. After chemotherapy and surgery, AFP, β-hCG and testosterone levels normalized and signs of virilization did not progress further. The child did not show evidence for tumor recurrence after 16 months of follow-up. New therapeutic approaches and early diagnosis may ensure a better prognosis of virilizing HB, than reported in the past. Assessment of PPP should always take into account the possibility of a tumoral source. |
Modeling and evaluating information propagation in a microblogging social network | Microblogging platforms, such as Twitter and Plurk, allow users to express feelings, discuss ideas, and share interesting things with their friends or even strangers with similar interests. With the popularity of microblogs, there are growing data and opportunities in understanding information propagation behaviors in online social networks. Though some influence models had been proposed based on certain assumptions, most of them are based on the simulation approach (not data driven). This paper aims at designing a framework to model, measure, evaluate, and visualize influence propagation in a microblogging social network. Considering how information contents are spread in a social network, we devise two influence propagation models from the views of messages posted and responded. Based on the proposed models, we are able to measure the influence capability of an individual with respect to a user-given topic. Our design of influence measures consider (a) the number of people influenced, (b) the speed of propagation, and (c) the geographic distance of the propagation. To test the effectiveness of our influence model, we further propose a novel evaluation framework that predicts the propagation links and influential nodes in a real-world microblogging social network. Finally, we develop an online visualization system allowing users to explore the information propagation with the functions of displaying propagation structures, influence scores of individuals, timelines, and the geographical information for any user-query terms. |
Relevance and lexical pragmatics * | The goal of lexical pragmatics is to explain how linguistically specified (‘literal’) word meanings are modified in use. While lexical-pragmatic processes such as narrowing, broadening and metaphorical extension are generally studied in isolation from each other, relevance theorists (Carston 2002, Wilson & Sperber 2002) have been arguing for a unified approach. I will continue this work by underlining some of the problems with more standard treatments, and show how a variety of lexicalpragmatic processes may be analysed as special cases of a general pragmatic adjustment process which applies spontaneously, automatically and unconsciously to fine-tune the interpretation of virtually every word. |
Escolha da carreira e processo de construção da identidade profissional docente | The objective of the study was to analyse the factors bearing down most strongly upon somebody choosing the teaching profession, as well as the influence of these elements in the formation of a teacher's professional identity. A descriptive method was used with a quantitative approach based on a closedended questionnaire. The sample was composed of 964 subjects and the questionnaire data analysis was performed by the Sphinx® software. The results showed a strong influence of social ideals in the concepts elaborated by the subjects when describing the teaching profession and these social ideals also influenced their choice of the profession (concepts of education linked to social redemption; an idealized vision of the practice of teaching). Also, it points out the conflicts and complexity experienced by the students, given the need to feel ready to meet the demands and requirements of the school, in the social context, and in the context of the labour market. |
Evaluating the Effect of Proximity to Hog Farms on Residential Property Values : A GIS-Based Hedonic Price Model Approach | The decline of small-scale farms and the dramatic increase in the size of corporate animal operations in recent years has sparked controversy over the impacts of confined animal feeding operations on surrounding residential communities. This study examines the applicability of geographic information systems (GIS)-based hedonic price modeling for evaluating impacts to residential property values from feeding operations, particularly hog operations. Residential property attributes were derived and compiled in a GIS. These attributes were used to construct a hedonic model to examine the relationship between distance to hog farms and property sales prices. Results indicate a negative and significant impact on property value from hog operations. A comparison of the results from this study with those of several other GIS-based hedonic models indicates that GIS-based hedonic price modeling is a promising method for assessing property value damages associated with animal operations, for evaluating potential impacts when siting new operations, and for developing setback guidelines. Introduction The corporatization of livestock production during the 1990s has led to rapid growth of large-scale confined-animal feeding operations (CAFOs), especially in the pork industry. The result has been a decrease in the total number of hog farms in the United States and a tremendous increase in the size of individual operations. This trend has sparked a controversy about the relative benefits and costs of large-scale industrial hog farms. A major concern for local communities is the impact of nearby CAFOs on surrounding residents. These impacts might include offensive odors (Swine Odor Task Force 1995; Chapin et al. 1998; Tyndall and Colletti 2000), physical and mental health problems (Schiffman et al. 1995; Thu et al. 1997; Wing and Wolf 1999), and degraded water quality (Hallberg et al. 1992; Hallberg 1996; Jackson 1996). The costs of such negative impacts on surrounding communities are not reflected in market prices for pork. One possible approach to account for externalities associated with CAFOs is through evaluation of property values of residential parcels surrounding the operations. In this paper we describe the use of GIS techniques to derive additional parcel attribute data for constructing a hedonic price model of the impact of proximity to hog farms on residential property values. We include a brief discussion of model construction and potential applications. A more detailed discussion of the econometric techniques and analysis can be found in Ansine (2000). Hedonic Price Models The goal of this study was to evaluate the influence of proximity to swine facilities on the selling price of residential properties. Previous studies have used the hedonic pricing method (HPM) to approach the impact of CAFOs on property values (AbelesAllison and Connor 1990; Taff et al. 1996; Palmquist et al. 1997; Mubarak et al. 1999; Bruton 2001; Herriges et al. 2003). A hedonic model attempts to explain the selling price of a house in terms of its physical attributes and its surrounding environment. If successful, it can reveal whether an environmental characteristic (such as proximity to a CAFO) has a significant effect on price, and how much the house’s value is affected by a marginal increase or decrease in this environmental attribute. The hedonic price model can be expressed as |
An analysis of open information extraction based on semantic role labeling | Open Information Extraction extracts relations from text without requiring a pre-specified domain or vocabulary. While existing techniques have used only shallow syntactic features, we investigate the use of semantic role labeling techniques for the task of Open IE. Semantic role labeling (SRL) and Open IE, although developed mostly in isolation, are quite related. We compare SRL-based open extractors, which perform computationally expensive, deep syntactic analysis, with TextRunner, an open extractor, which uses shallow syntactic analysis but is able to analyze many more sentences in a fixed amount of time and thus exploit corpus-level statistics. Our evaluation answers questions regarding these systems, including, can SRL extractors, which are trained on PropBank, cope with heterogeneous text found on the Web? Which extractor attains better precision, recall, f-measure, or running time? How does extractor performance vary for binary, n-ary and nested relations? How much do we gain by running multiple extractors? How do we select the optimal extractor given amount of data, available time, types of extractions desired? |
Health Effects Related to Wind Turbine Noise Exposure: A Systematic Review | BACKGROUND
Wind turbine noise exposure and suspected health-related effects thereof have attracted substantial attention. Various symptoms such as sleep-related problems, headache, tinnitus and vertigo have been described by subjects suspected of having been exposed to wind turbine noise.
OBJECTIVE
This review was conducted systematically with the purpose of identifying any reported associations between wind turbine noise exposure and suspected health-related effects.
DATA SOURCES
A search of the scientific literature concerning the health-related effects of wind turbine noise was conducted on PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar and various other Internet sources.
STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
All studies investigating suspected health-related outcomes associated with wind turbine noise exposure were included.
RESULTS
Wind turbines emit noise, including low-frequency noise, which decreases incrementally with increases in distance from the wind turbines. Likewise, evidence of a dose-response relationship between wind turbine noise linked to noise annoyance, sleep disturbance and possibly even psychological distress was present in the literature. Currently, there is no further existing statistically-significant evidence indicating any association between wind turbine noise exposure and tinnitus, hearing loss, vertigo or headache.
LIMITATIONS
Selection bias and information bias of differing magnitudes were found to be present in all current studies investigating wind turbine noise exposure and adverse health effects. Only articles published in English, German or Scandinavian languages were reviewed.
CONCLUSIONS
Exposure to wind turbines does seem to increase the risk of annoyance and self-reported sleep disturbance in a dose-response relationship. There appears, though, to be a tolerable level of around LAeq of 35 dB. Of the many other claimed health effects of wind turbine noise exposure reported in the literature, however, no conclusive evidence could be found. Future studies should focus on investigations aimed at objectively demonstrating whether or not measureable health-related outcomes can be proven to fluctuate depending on exposure to wind turbines. |
Steady-state quantile parameter estimation: An empirical comparison of stochastic kriging and quantile regression | The time required to execute simulation models of modern production systems remains high even with todays computing power, particularly when what-if analyses need to be performed to investigate the impact of controllable system input variables on an output performance measure. Compared to mean and variance which are frequently used in practice, quantiles provide a more complete picture of the performance of the underlying system. Nevertheless, quantiles are more difficult to estimate efficiently through stochastic simulation. Stochastic kriging (SK) and quantile regression (QR) are two promising metamodeling tools for addressing this challenge. Both approximate the functional relationship between the quantile parameter of a random output (e.g., cycle time) and multiple input variables (e.g., start rate, unloading times). In this paper, we compare performances of SK and QR on steady-state quantile parameter estimation. Results are presented from simulations of an M/M/1 queue and a more realistic model of a semiconductor manufacturing system. |
It is time for action: improving hand hygiene in hospitals. | As delivery of medical care moves increasingly to outpatient settings, patients who require hospitalization have more acute illness and heightened susceptibility to nosocomial infections. Such infections result in substantial morbidity and are estimated to cause or contribute to 80 000 deaths annually in the United States (1). Many nosocomial infections are caused by pathogens transmitted from one patient to another by way of health care workers who have not washed their hands between patients (2, 3). Although Semmelweis (4) demonstrated 150 years ago that mortality related to hospital-acquired infections could be reduced when health care personnel washed their hands with an antiseptic solution between patient contacts, compliance of health care workers with recommended handwashing practices remains unacceptably low, often in the range of 30% to 50% (5-8). Even the current spread of multidrug-resistant pathogens in hospitals has not compelled health care workers to wash their hands as frequently as recommended (8). Why is compliance with recommended handwashing practices so poor? Many factors are involved, including lack of awareness among personnel about the situations that call for handwashing, personal and organizational attitudes toward handwashing, and various logistical barriers (6, 9, 10). Many health care workers do not wash their hands after low-risk patient contacts (5, 7), probably because they are not aware that their hands may become contaminated while measuring the patient's blood pressure or pulse, touching intact areas of the patient's skin, or lifting the patient (2). For reasons that are not clear, handwashing frequency varies by type of health care worker and by clinical service, and personnel who are required to wear only gloves when caring for patients do not wash their hands as often as those who are required to wear both a gown and gloves [8, 11]. When health care workers were asked which factors deter them from washing their hands as recommended, they cited 1) skin irritation and dryness caused by frequent handwashing and 2) being too busy (9, 10). Inconvenient location of sinks is considered a less important deterrent. In this issue, Pittet and colleagues (12) report the results of a large, well-designed observational study of factors affecting compliance of health care workers with recommended handwashing policies. Several aspects of their study are particularly noteworthy. More than 2800 opportunities for handwashing were observed on multiple wards during all shifts and on all days of the week, and multiple variables that might influence handwashing were recorded during each observation period. Multivariate analysis was performed to establish the independent contribution of variables to compliance with handwashing. The investigators found that the average level of compliance with recommended handwashing practices was 48%, which is within the range of compliance noted in previous observational studies (5-8). Compliance was higher among nurses than among physicians and other health personnel and varied by ward locationfindings that confirm previous observations (5-7). Several new findings of particular concern include the fact that handwashing compliance was worse before high-risk procedures were performed; in intensive care units, where highly susceptible patients are located; and with increasing intensity of patient care, that is, when nurses were expected to wash their hands the most frequently (12). Although nurses have often reported that being too busy is a major deterrent to handwashing (9, 10), Pittet and colleagues are the first to document that a high workload is associated with poor compliance with handwashing. Low compliance during care of patients in intensive care units may help explain why the spread of resistant pathogens, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant enterococci, has continued to increase in many hospitals despite appropriate written infection control policies. In addition to washing their hands less frequently than they should, health care workers often wash their hands for an average of only 8.5 to 9.5 seconds (7, 13). Although a minimum of 10 seconds is recommended, data on the efficacy of soap and water handwashing often are based on protocols that require 30 seconds of handwashing. Because washing the hands with plain soap and water for less than 10 to 15 seconds has limited efficacy (14, 15), this aspect of handwashing compliance also requires renewed attention. The report by Pittet and colleagues (12) provides new insights into our understanding of current handwashing practices and should serve as a stimulus for hospitals to develop new strategies for improving hand hygiene practices. The term hand hygiene is used here to connote cleansing of hands, either by washing them with unmedicated or medicated soap and water or by performing antisepsis with a waterless antiseptic agent. A multidisciplinary approach that addresses both logistical barriers and behavioral issues that adversely influence handwashing is necessary (16, 17). One of the major barriers is that frequent handwashing with unmedicated or medicated soap and water often causes skin irritation and dryness, which deter personnel from washing their hands as frequently as recommended (9, 10). Potential solutions to this problem include having personnel apply skin protectants to their hands or providing personnel with hand hygiene products that minimize skin irritation and dryness (9). For example, several studies suggest that alcohol-based hand rinses and gels containing emollients may cause less dermatitis than handwashing with soap and water (15; Boyce JM. Unpublished data). Such preparations are very efficacious in removing bacterial flora from the hands of personnel and have been adopted for hand antisepsis by health personnel in several European countries (15, 18). Reducing the time required for handwashing may make it feasible for caregivers with high workloads to wash their hands more frequently. Because finding a sink and washing the hands with soap and water require more time than using a waterless antiseptic agent that is available at each patient's bedside (19), placement of an alcoholic rinse or gel (or similar product) near each patient's bed and at other locations on hospital wards should be evaluated to determine whether this strategy results in improved hand hygiene (12). Further controlled studies are also needed to determine whether frequent use of alcohol-based hand rinses and gels by personnel will lead to improved control of nosocomial infections. Hospital administrators should strive to create an organizational atmosphere in which adherence to recommended hand hygiene practices is considered an integral part of providing high-quality care. For such an approach to be successful, hospitals must provide visible support and sufficient resources for new programs. Hospitals need to develop and implement innovative educational and motivational programs tailored to specific groups of health personnel. The strategies that are most appropriate for nurses, for example, may not achieve the same degree of success with physicians or with other health personnel (16). Convincing department heads or other opinion leaders to wash or disinfect their hands as recommended may be important in modifying physician behavior (16). Monitoring compliance of health care workers and providing them with frequent feedback on their performance has led to improved handwashing practices in short-term studies (20). Hospitals should make this strategy a high priority (17). Newer and more efficient methods for monitoring hand hygiene practices, such as the mechanical or electronic methods used by some restaurants and fast-food establishments, should be evaluated in hospital settings. Finally, recording adherence to recommended hand hygiene practices by individual health care workers and including this record as part of an annual personnel evaluation or medical staff reappointment process should be evaluated in clinical studies as another potential strategy for improving hand hygiene among caregivers. Careful handwashing or antisepsis between care of patients remains one of the most important measures for preventing the spread of pathogens in hospitals. After tolerating poor handwashing compliance for 150 years, it is time for hospitals and health care professionals to get serious about improving hand hygiene in hospitals. |
Outdoor air pollution and asthma | Traffic and power generation are the main sources of urban air pollution. The idea that outdoor air pollution can cause exacerbations of pre-existing asthma is supported by an evidence base that has been accumulating for several decades, with several studies suggesting a contribution to new-onset asthma as well. In this Series paper, we discuss the effects of particulate matter (PM), gaseous pollutants (ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and sulphur dioxide), and mixed traffic-related air pollution. We focus on clinical studies, both epidemiological and experimental, published in the previous 5 years. From a mechanistic perspective, air pollutants probably cause oxidative injury to the airways, leading to inflammation, remodelling, and increased risk of sensitisation. Although several pollutants have been linked to new-onset asthma, the strength of the evidence is variable. We also discuss clinical implications, policy issues, and research gaps relevant to air pollution and asthma. |
Limiting efficiency of silicon solar cells | The detailed balance method for calculating the radiative recombination limit to the performance of solar cells has been extended to include free carrier absorption and Auger recombination in addition to radiative losses. This method has been applied to crystalline silicon solar cells where the limiting efficiency is found to be 29.8 percent under AM1.5, based on the measured optical absorption spectrum and published values of the Auger and free carrier absorption coefficients. The silicon is assumed to be textured for maximum benefit from light-trapping effects. |
Dynamic Expression of Cadherins Regulates Vocal Development in a Songbird | BACKGROUND
Since, similarly to humans, songbirds learn their vocalization through imitation during their juvenile stage, they have often been used as model animals to study the mechanisms of human verbal learning. Numerous anatomical and physiological studies have suggested that songbirds have a neural network called 'song system' specialized for vocal learning and production in their brain. However, it still remains unknown what molecular mechanisms regulate their vocal development. It has been suggested that type-II cadherins are involved in synapse formation and function. Previously, we found that type-II cadherin expressions are switched in the robust nucleus of arcopallium from cadherin-7-positive to cadherin-6B-positive during the phase from sensory to sensorimotor learning stage in a songbird, the Bengalese finch. Furthermore, in vitro analysis using cultured rat hippocampal neurons revealed that cadherin-6B enhanced and cadherin-7 suppressed the frequency of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents via regulating dendritic spine morphology.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
To explore the role of cadherins in vocal development, we performed an in vivo behavioral analysis of cadherin function with lentiviral vectors. Overexpression of cadherin-7 in the juvenile and the adult stages resulted in severe defects in vocal production. In both cases, harmonic sounds typically seen in the adult Bengalese finch songs were particularly affected.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE
Our results suggest that cadherins control vocal production, particularly harmonic sounds, probably by modulating neuronal morphology of the RA nucleus. It appears that the switching of cadherin expressions from sensory to sensorimotor learning stage enhances vocal production ability to make various types of vocalization that is essential for sensorimotor learning in a trial and error manner. |
Purposeful and timely nursing rounds: a best practice implementation project. | BACKGROUND
Purposeful and timely rounding is a best practice intervention to routinely meet patient care needs, ensure patient safety, decrease the occurrence of patient preventable events, and proactively address problems before they occur. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) endorsed hourly rounding as the best way to reduce call lights and fall injuries, and increase both quality of care and patient satisfaction. Nurse knowledge regarding purposeful rounding and infrastructure supporting timeliness are essential components for consistency with this patient centred practice.
OBJECTIVES
The project aimed to improve patient satisfaction and safety through implementation of purposeful and timely nursing rounds. Goals for patient satisfaction scores and fall volume were set. Specific objectives were to determine current compliance with evidence-based criteria related to rounding times and protocols, improve best practice knowledge among staff nurses, and increase compliance with these criteria.
METHODS
For the objectives of this project the Joanna Briggs Institute's Practical Application of Clinical Evidence System and Getting Research into Practice audit tool were used. Direct observation of staff nurses on a medical surgical unit in the United States was employed to assess timeliness and utilization of a protocol when rounding. Interventions were developed in response to baseline audit results. A follow-up audit was conducted to determine compliance with the same criteria. For the project aims, pre- and post-intervention unit-level data related to nursing-sensitive elements of patient satisfaction and safety were compared.
RESULTS
Rounding frequency at specified intervals during awake and sleeping hours nearly doubled. Use of a rounding protocol increased substantially to 64% compliance from zero. Three elements of patient satisfaction had substantive rate increases but the hospital's goals were not reached. Nurse communication and pain management scores increased modestly (5% and 11%, respectively). Responsiveness of hospital staff increased moderately (15%) with a significant sub-element increase in toileting (41%). Patient falls decreased by 50%.
CONCLUSIONS
Nurses have the ability to improve patient satisfaction and patient safety outcomes by utilizing nursing round interventions which serve to improve patient communication and staff responsiveness. Having a supportive infrastructure and an organized approach, encompassing all levels of staff, to meet patient needs during their hospital stay was a key factor for success. Hard-wiring of new practices related to workflow takes time as staff embrace change and understand how best practice interventions significantly improve patient outcomes. |
Improving Performances of MSER Features in Matching and Retrieval Tasks | MSER features are redefined to improve their performances in matching and retrieval tasks. The proposed SIMSER features (i.e. scale-insensitive MSERs) are the extremal regions which are maximally stable not only under the threshold changes (like MSERs) but, additionally, under image rescaling (smoothing). Theoretical advantages of such a modification are discussed. It is also preliminarily verified experimentally that such a modification preserves the fundamental properties of MSERs, i.e. the average numbers of features, repeatability, and computational complexity (which is only multiplicatively increased by the number of scales used), while performances (measured by typical CBVIR metrics) can be significantly improved. In particular, results on benchmark datasets indicate significant increments in recall values, both for descriptor-based matching and word-based matching. In general, SIMSERs seem particularly suitable for a usage with large visual vocabularies, e.g. they can be prospectively applied to improve quality of BoW pre-retrieval operations in large-scale databases. |
An integrated trust and reputation model for open multi-agent systems | Trust and reputation are central to effective interactions in open multi-agent systems (MAS) in which agents, that are owned by a variety of stakeholders, continuously enter and leave the system. This openness means existing trust and reputation models cannot readily be used since their performance suffers when there are various (unforseen) changes in the environment. To this end, this paper presents FIRE, a trust and reputation model that integrates a number of information sources to produce a comprehensive assessment of an agent’s likely performance in open systems. Specifically, FIRE incorporates interaction trust, role-based trust, witness reputation, and certified reputation to provide trust metrics in most circumstances. FIRE is empirically evaluated and is shown to help agents gain better utility (by effectively selecting appropriate interaction partners) than our benchmarks in a variety of agent populations. It is also shown that FIRE is able to effectively respond to changes that occur in an agent’s environment. |
Warburg revisited: imaging tumour blood flow and metabolism | In the 1930s, Otto Warburg reported that anaerobic metabolism of glucose is a fundamental property of all tumours, even in the presence of an adequate oxygen supply. He also demonstrated a relationship between the degree of anaerobic metabolism and tumour growth rate. Today, this phenomenon forms the basis of tumour imaging with fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). More recently, Folkman has demonstrated that malignant growth and survival are also dependent on tumour vascularity which is increasingly evaluated in vivo using techniques such as contrast enhanced computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Although it is reasonable to hypothesise that the metabolic requirements of tumours are mirrored by alterations in tumour haemodynamics, the relationship between tumour blood flow and metabolism is in fact complex. A well-developed tumour vascular supply is required to ensure a sufficient delivery of glucose and oxygen to support the metabolism essential for tumour growth. However, an inadequate vascularisation of tumour will result in hypoxia, a factor that is known to stimulate anaerobic metabolism of glucose. Thus, the balance between tumour blood flow and metabolism will be an important indicator of the biological status of a tumour and hence the tumour's likely progression and response to treatment. This article reviews the molecular biology of tumour vascularisation and metabolism, relating these processes to currently available imaging techniques while summarising the imaging studies that have compared tumour blood flow and metabolism. The potential for vascular metabolic imaging to assess tumour aggression and sub-classify treatment response is highlighted. |
Comparison of digital rectal examination and serum prostate specific antigen in the early detection of prostate carcinoma : results of a multicenter clinical trial of 6 , 630 men | 1 Catalona WJ, Richie JP, Ahmann FR, Hudson MA, Scardino PT, Flanigan RC, et al. Comparison of digital rectal examination and serum prostate specific antigen in the early detection of prostate carcinoma: results of a multicenter clinical trial of 6,630 men. J Urol 1994;151:1283-90. 2 Brewster SF, Kemple T, MacIver AG, Astley JP, Gingell JC. The Bristol prostate cancer pilot screening study-a 3 year follow up. Br J Urol 1994;74:556-8. 3 Rosen MA. Impact of prostate-specific antigen screening on the natural history of prostate cancer. Urology 1995;46:757-68. 4 McNeal JE, Bostwick DG, Kindrachuk RA, Redwine EA, Freiha FS, Stamey TA. Patterns of progression in prostate cancer. Lancet 1986;i:60-3. 5 Stricker HJ, Ruddock U, Wan J, Belville WD. Detection of non-palpable prostate cancer. A mathematical and laboratory model. BrJr Urol 1993;71: 43-6. 6 Haggman M, Nybacka 0, Nordin B, Busch C. Standardization of in vitro mapping with multiple core biopsies of total prostatectomy specimens: localization and prediction of tumour volume and grade. Br J Urol 1994;74:617-25. 7 Humphrey PA, Keetch DW, Smith DS, Shepherd DL, Catalona WJ. Prospective characterization of pathological features of prostatic carcinomas detected via serum prostate specific antigen based screening. 7 Urol 1996;155:816-20. 8 Lerner SE, Seay TM, Blute ML, Bergstralph EJ, Barrett D, Zincke H. Prostate specific antigen detected prostate cancer (clinical stage TI c): an interim analysis. J Urol 1996;155:821-6. 9 Epstein JI, Walsh PC, Carmichael M, Brendler CB. Pathologic and clinical findings to predict tumour extent of non-palpable (stage TIc) prostate cancer.JAMA 1994;271:368-74. 10 Bostwick DG. Prospective origins of prostate carcinoma. Cancer 1996;78: 330-55. 11 Jones EC, Young RH. The differential diagnosis of prostatic carcinoma. Am _ Clin Pathol 1994;101:48-68. 12 Epstein JI. The diagnosis and reporting of adenocarcinoma of the prostate in core needle biopsy specimens. Cancer 1996;78:350-5. 13 Simpson JG, Lessells AM, Burnett RA, Howatson SR, Lang S, Lee FD, et al. Observer variability in the histopathological assessment of prostatic needle biopsies [abstract]. Pathology International 1996;46(suppl 1):A8 10. 14 Bostwick DG, Qian J, Bergstralph E, Dundore P, Dugan J, Myers RP, Oesterling JE. Prediction of capsular perforation and seminal vesicle invasion in prostate cancer. J Urol 1996;155:1361-7. 15 Peller PA, Young DC, Marmaduke DP, Marsh WL, Badalament RA. Sextant prostate biopsies. Cancer 1995;75:530-38. 16 Terris MK, Haney DJ, Johnstone IM, McNeal JE, Stamey TA. Prediction of prostate cancer volume using prostate specific antigen levels, transrectal ultrasound and systematic sextant biopsies. Urology 1995;45:75-80. 17 Cupp MR, Bostwick DG, Myers RP, Oesterling JE. The volume of prostate cancer in the biopsy specimen cannot reliably predict the quantity of cancer in the radical prostatectomy specimen on an individual basis. J Urol 1995;153:1543-8. 18 Bostwick DG. Gleason grading of prostatic needle biopsies. Am Jf Surg Pathol 1994;18:796-803. 19 von Eschenbach AC, Brawer MK, di Sant 'Agnese PA, Humphrey PA, Mahran H, Murphy GP, et al. Exploration of new pathologic factors in terms of potential for prognostic significance and future applications. Cancer 1996;78:372-5. 20 Katz AE, De Vries GM, Olsson CA, Benson MC, Swanton P, Ikeguchi EF, Buttyan R. Molecular staging of genitourinary malignancies. Urology 1996; 47:948-58. 21 Smith MR, Biggar S, Hussain M. Prostate-specific antigen messenger RNA is expressed in non-prostatic cells: implications for detection of micrometastases. Cancer Res 1995;55:2640-4. |
Midgar: Detection of people through computer vision in the Internet of Things scenarios to improve the security in Smart Cities, Smart Towns, and Smart Homes | Could we use Computer Vision in the Internet of Things for using pictures as sensors? This is the principal hypothesis that we want to resolve. Currently, in order to create safety areas, cities, or homes, people use IP cameras. Nevertheless, this system needs people who watch the camera images, watch the recording after something occurred, or watch when the camera notifies them of any movement. These are the disadvantages. Furthermore, there are many Smart Cities and Smart Homes around the world. This is why we thought of using the idea of the Internet of Things to add a way of automating the use of IP cameras. In our case, we propose the analysis of pictures through Computer Vision to detect people in the analysed pictures. With this analysis, we are able to obtain if these pictures contain people and handle the pictures as if they were sensors with two possible states. Notwithstanding, Computer Vision is a very complicated field. This is why we needed a second hypothesis: Could we work with Computer Vision in the Internet of Things with a good accuracy to automate or semi-automate this kind of events? The demonstration of these hypotheses required a testing over our Computer Vision module to check the possibilities that we have to use this module in a possible real environment with a good accuracy. Our proposal, as a possible solution, is the analysis of entire sequence instead of isolated pictures for using pictures as sensors in the Internet of Things. Smart Cities; Smart Towns; Smart Homes; Internet of Things; Smart Objects; Computer Vision; Surveillance; Security; |
A time window neural network based framework for Remaining Useful Life estimation | This paper develops a framework for determining the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of aero-engines. The framework includes the following modular components: creating a moving time window, a suitable feature extraction method and a multi-layer neural network as the main machine learning algorithm. The proposed framework is evaluated on the publicly available C-MAPSS dataset. The prognostic accuracy of the proposed algorithm is also compared against other state-of-the-art methods available in the literature and it has been shown that the proposed framework has the best overall performance. |
Is Seeing Belie ving ? How Recommender Interfaces Aff ect Users ’ Opinions | ABSTRA CT Recommender systemsusepeople’ s opinionsaboutitemsin an information domainto help peoplechooseother items. Thesesystemshave succeededin domainsas diverse as movies, news articles,Web pages,andwines. The psychological literatureonconformitysuggeststhatin thecourseof helpingpeoplemake choices,thesesystemsprobablyaffect users’opinionsof the items. If opinionsare influencedby recommendations, they might be lessvaluablefor making recommendations for otherusers.Further, manipulatorswho seekto makethesystemgenerateartificially highor low recommendationsmight benefitif their efforts influenceusers to changethe opinionsthey contribute to the recommender . Westudytwo aspectsof recommender systeminterfacesthat may affect users’opinions: the rating scaleandthe display of predictionsat thetime usersrateitems.We find thatusers rate fairly consistentlyacrossrating scales. Userscan be manipulated,though,tendingto rate toward the prediction thesystemshows, whetherthepredictionis accurateor not. However, userscan detectsystemsthat manipulatepredictions. We discusshow designersof recommendersystems might reactto thesefindings. |
Analysis of circulating tumor DNA to monitor metastatic breast cancer. | BACKGROUND
The management of metastatic breast cancer requires monitoring of the tumor burden to determine the response to treatment, and improved biomarkers are needed. Biomarkers such as cancer antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3) and circulating tumor cells have been widely studied. However, circulating cell-free DNA carrying tumor-specific alterations (circulating tumor DNA) has not been extensively investigated or compared with other circulating biomarkers in breast cancer.
METHODS
We compared the radiographic imaging of tumors with the assay of circulating tumor DNA, CA 15-3, and circulating tumor cells in 30 women with metastatic breast cancer who were receiving systemic therapy. We used targeted or whole-genome sequencing to identify somatic genomic alterations and designed personalized assays to quantify circulating tumor DNA in serially collected plasma specimens. CA 15-3 levels and numbers of circulating tumor cells were measured at identical time points.
RESULTS
Circulating tumor DNA was successfully detected in 29 of the 30 women (97%) in whom somatic genomic alterations were identified; CA 15-3 and circulating tumor cells were detected in 21 of 27 women (78%) and 26 of 30 women (87%), respectively. Circulating tumor DNA levels showed a greater dynamic range, and greater correlation with changes in tumor burden, than did CA 15-3 or circulating tumor cells. Among the measures tested, circulating tumor DNA provided the earliest measure of treatment response in 10 of 19 women (53%).
CONCLUSIONS
This proof-of-concept analysis showed that circulating tumor DNA is an informative, inherently specific, and highly sensitive biomarker of metastatic breast cancer. (Funded by Cancer Research UK and others.). |
Twenty Security Considerations for Cloud-Supported Internet of Things | To realize the broad vision of pervasive computing, underpinned by the “Internet of Things” (IoT), it is essential to break down application and technology-based silos and support broad connectivity and data sharing; the cloud being a natural enabler. Work in IoT tends toward the subsystem, often focusing on particular technical concerns or application domains, before offloading data to the cloud. As such, there has been little regard given to the security, privacy, and personal safety risks that arise beyond these subsystems; i.e., from the wide-scale, cross-platform openness that cloud services bring to IoT. In this paper, we focus on security considerations for IoT from the perspectives of cloud tenants, end-users, and cloud providers, in the context of wide-scale IoT proliferation, working across the range of IoT technologies (be they things or entire IoT subsystems). Our contribution is to analyze the current state of cloud-supported IoT to make explicit the security considerations that require further work. |
Ghrelin is not necessary for adequate hormonal counterregulation of insulin-induced hypoglycemia. | Ghrelin is a novel enteric hormone that stimulates growth hormone (GH), ACTH, and epinephrine; augments plasma glucose; and increases food intake by inducing the feeling of hunger. These characteristics make ghrelin a potential counterregulatory hormone. At present, it is not known whether ghrelin increases in response to insulin-induced hypoglycemia. To answer this question, we compared plasma ghrelin concentrations after a short-term insulin infusion that was allowed or not (euglycemic clamp) to cause hypoglycemia (2.7 +/- 0.2 mmol/l at 30 min) in five healthy volunteers. In both studies, plasma ghrelin concentrations decreased (P < 0.01) after insulin infusion (hypoglycemia by 14%, euglycemia by 22%), reached a nadir at 30 min, and returned to baseline at 60 min, without differences between the hypoglycemia and the euglycemia studies. Glucagon, cortisol, and GH increased in response to hypoglycemia despite the decreased ghrelin. There was a strong correlation (R(2) = 0.91, P < 0.002) between the insulin sensitivity of the subjects and the percentage suppression of ghrelin from baseline. These data demonstrate that ghrelin is not required for the hormonal defenses against insulin-induced hypoglycemia and that insulin can suppress ghrelin levels in healthy humans. These results raise the possibility that postprandial hyperinsulinemia is responsible for the reduction of plasma ghrelin that occurs during meal intake. |
Discovery and Interpretation of Embedding Models for Knowledge Representation | Recently representation learning has been receiving much attention from both industrial and academic communities. Thanks to the advent of powerful GPUs and advanced techniques like dropout and rectified linear units, the interest in neural networks has been revived. The current state-of-the-art solution for the applications in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Information Retrieval (IR) is powered by neural network based representation learning models. In this thesis, we focus on the unsupervised representation learning models which are cheap to build (as they rely on unlabeled data) but very effective for many downstream applications. We explore two main challenges in building an unsupervised representation learning model for NLP and IR problems. Context serves as the source of knowledge for estimating the representation of data. For example, in Word2Vec, the context is the set of words surrounding a given word in a sentence. The first challenge we focus is the context insufficiency problem. For instance, consider the models used in practise to generate representations for tweets. We observe that tweets do not exist in isolation, and hence the performance of the models which work only with the content of the tweet (as context) is found to be sub-optimal. To handle this issue, we propose a better model which also captures the interactions between the tweet and its adjacent tweet (as context) in the users’ timeline. Along similar lines, we explore two more use cases where we smartly incorporate novel contexts that captures complex interactions such as scientific author and his/her paper interaction in an author collaboration network (‘Author2Vec’) and sentences interaction in a document (‘Doc2Sent2Vec’), that turned out to be advantageous in computing accurate author and document representations respectively. We conclude that if we smartly leverage the available contexts, the performance of the model improves significantly. Though the representation learning models perform well in practise, little is known about the core properties of the data encoded within the representations. Understanding these core properties would empower us in making generalizable conclusions about the quality of the representations. Hence, the second challenge we focus is the human interpretability problem with these automatically learned representations. For instance, researchers in Twitter analytics are getting interesting results by applying different representation learning models for several valuable tasks such as sentiment analysis, semantic textual similarity computation, microblog retrieval, hashtag identification and so on. In order to understand the core properties encoded in a tweet representation, we evaluate the representations to estimate the extent to which it can model each of those properties such as tweet length, presence of words, hashtags, mentions, capitalization and so on. This is done with the help of multiple classifiers which take vi vii the representation as input. Essentially, each classifier evaluates one of the syntactic or social properties which are arguably salient for a tweet. The result is an application independent, fine-grained analysis of tweet representations generated by different representation learning models. This thesis is one of the initial work to overcome the above-mentioned challenges by proposing novel methods to improve the contexts and interpret the representations. In the growing body of representation learning research, the set of models and framework proposed in this thesis could act as the basic building blocks in the future works attempting to advance the science of building smarter NLP/IR systems. |
Endless Forms The Evolution of Gene Regulation and Morphological Diversity | diversity and the long span of time (.540 million years) “...we are always slow in admitting great changes of since their divergence from a common ancestor. Simiwhich we do not see the steps... The mind cannot possilarly, most protostomes and deuterostomes, with the bly grasp the full meaning of the term of even a million exception of the vertebrates (which possess four or years; it cannot add up and perceive the full effects of more clusters), possess roughly equivalent clusters of many slight variations, accumulated during an almost Hox genes that must date back to at least their last infinite number of generations.” common Precambrian bilaterian ancestor (de Rosa et —C. Darwin, The Origin of Species (1859) al., 1999). Since cnidarians (jellyfish, sea anemones) and |
Treatment of obesity in children and adolescents. How nutrition can work? | Overweight appears when persistent positive energy imbalances occur for long periods of time. Knowledge of dietary risk factors during childhood and adolescence is needed in order to design preventive measures against the increase in the prevalence of obesity and its consequences but is, however, largely missing. Longitudinal studies in children have not found clear causal associations between energy intake or diet composition and overweight development. Research has been ongoing to develop effective intervention studies for obese children but it is not clear which intervention is the most effective in assisting overweight/obese children to improve body composition without affecting growth rates. The objective of this article is to review the available knowledge on dietary risk factors for the development of childhood obesity, to discuss different dietary treatment strategies, and to propose an evidence-based approach to treat obese adolescents. |
The accuracy of cone-beam computed tomography in assessing maxillary molar furcation involvement. | AIM
The aim of this study was to investigate the accuracy of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) in assessing maxillary molar furcation involvement (FI).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Fifteen patients with generalized chronic periodontitis after initial therapy were recruited. CBCT was performed in maxillary molars with probing pocket depths of ≥6 mm and advanced FI, and CBCT images were analysed. Furcation surgery was performed in 20 maxillary molars. Lastly, intra-surgical FI assessments were compared with CBCT-based data.
RESULTS
Intra-surgical findings confirmed 82.4% of the CBCT data, with a weighted kappa of 0.917. The agreement between both assessments was the highest in buccal furcation entrances, followed by distopalatal and mesiopalatal furcation entrances. Of the four parameters tested of detailed root anatomy and furcation morphology, the mean length of the root trunk and the width of the furcation entrance revealed by CBCT were consistent with their respective intra-surgical values (p > 0.05). Horizontal bone loss and vertical bone loss were underestimated by CBCT relative to their respective intra-surgical classifications (p ≤ 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS
Cone-beam computed tomography images demonstrate a high accuracy in assessing the loss of periodontal tissue of the FI and root morphologies in maxillary molars. |
A survey on attack detection on cloud using supervised learning techniques | Cloud computing has brought a revolution in the field of computing. Apart from the merits of cloud computing, it possesses several demerits also. There are several types of attacks on cloud. All the attacks are focused on a particular layer of cloud architecture. Cloud computing architecture composed of three layers Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and Application as a service (AaaS). If Iaas is vulnerable then all above layers can't be secure. The principal concern of security in Iaas is Virtualization. There are several attacks on virtualization in IaaS layer like attack on VM image sharing. VM isolation violation, insecure VM migration and VM escape. In this paper all such attacks are studied and the solutions are also discussed. |
Rider Haggard on the Imperial Frontier, The Political and Literary Contexts of His African Romances, Gerald Monsman : book review | Evaluating past literary texts under modern critical perspectives is an interesting as well as challenging task. This is particularly true for works of the colonial and imperial periods, which have been interpreted in a variety of ways according to contemporary critical theories. Several 'colonial' or 'imperial' narratives benefit from new ideological trends triggered by cultural studies, experiencing interpretations that are radically different from those traditionally attributed to them. On the other hand, as Paul Gilroy underlines, working on past heredities becomes a crucial moment in the understanding of present socio-political conditions, so that "developing durable and habitable multiculture depends upon working through the legacies of departed empire" (Gilroy 2006, 27). |
Integration of Modular Process Units Into Process Control Systems | The modularization of process plants is regarded as a promising approach to cope with upcoming requirements in the process industry regarding flexibility. Within the Decentralized Intelligence for Modular Assets Project, a concept has been developed to overcome current deficiencies in implementing modular plants and especially their automation. On one hand, the approach considers a clear separation of engineering efforts into plant-independent module engineering and plant-specific integration engineering. On the other hand, the concept provides a method for the fast integration of a module's automation system into a higher level process control system. To do so, each module provides its process functionality in encapsulated services. The core of the integration method is a file-based description of the module including its services, operating screens, and communication variables. The so-called “module-type package” is currently under standardization by different organizations. This paper presents the general approach as well as current results of the standardization efforts. Furthermore, the results are executed on an application demonstrator to allow a practical assessment. Thus, module engineering and integration engineering, as well as corresponding software tools can be demonstrated. |
Antioxidant activity of some Moroccan marine microalgae: Pufa profiles, carotenoids and phenolic content. | In order to promote Moroccan natural resources, this study aims to evaluate the potential of microalgae isolated from Moroccan coastlines, as new source of natural antioxidants. Different extracts (ethanolic, ethanol/water and aqueous) obtained from 9 microalgae strains were screened for their in vitro antioxidant activity using DPPH free radical-scavenging assay. The highest antioxidant potentials were obtained in Dunalliela sp., Tetraselmis sp. and Nannochloropsis gaditana extracts. The obtained results indicate that ethanol extract of all microalgae strains exhibit higher antioxidant activity, when compared to water and ethanol/water extracts. Therefore, total phenolic and carotenoid content measurement were performed in active ethanol extracts. The PUFA profiles of ethanol extracts were also determined by GC/MS analysis. The studied microalgae strains displayed high PUFA content ranging from 12.9 to 76.9 %, total carotenoids content varied from 1.9 and 10.8mg/g of extract and total polyphenol content varied from 8.1 to 32.0mg Gallic acid Equivalent/g of extract weight. The correlation between the antioxidant capacities and the phenolic content and the carotenoids content were found to be insignificant, indicating that these compounds might not be major contributor to the antioxidant activity of these microalgae. The microalgae extracts exerting the high antioxidant activity are potential new source of natural antioxidants. |
Hair fiber characteristics and methods to evaluate hair physical and mechanical properties | The hair thread is a natural fiber formed by keratin, a protein containing high concentration of sulfur coming from the amino acid cystine. The main physical proprieties of the hair depend mostly on its geometry; the physical and mechanical properties of hair involve characteristics to improve: elasticity, smoothness, volume, shine, and softness due to both the significant adherence of the cuticle scales and the movement control (malleability), as well as the easiness of combing, since they reduce the fibers static electricity. The evaluation of these effects on hair may be carried out by several methods, as: optical and electron microscopy, mechanical resistance measuring, shine evaluation and optical coherence tomography (OCT). |
An improved fuzzy clustering method using modified Fukuyama-Sugeno cluster validity index | The objective of clustering algorithms is to group similar patterns in one class and dissimilar patterns in disjoint classes. This article proposes a novel algorithm for fuzzy partitional clustering with an aim to minimize a composite objective function, defined using the Fukuyama-Sugeno cluster validity index. The optimization of this objective function tries to minimize the separation between clusters of a data set and maximize the compactness of a certain cluster. But in certain cases, such as a data set having overlapping clusters, this approach leads to poor clustering results. Thus we introduce a new parameter in the objective function which enables us to yield more accurate clustering results. The algorithm has been validated with some artificial and real world datasets. |
Hymenal characteristics in girls with and without a history of sexual abuse. | This article reviews the recent literature on physical findings related to the hymen in pubertal and prepubertal girls with and without a history of sexual abuse. Characteristics of normal hymenal anatomy, acute traumatic findings, and characteristics of healed trauma are discussed, particularly with regard to changes in the interpretation of these findings that have occurred over time. |
Secure and Lightweight Authentication Protocol for NFC Tag Based Services | Near Field Communication(NFC) technology is one of the most promising technologies in the field of mobile application services recently. The integration of NFC technology and smart mobile device (e.g., smart phones, tablet PC and etc.) stimulates the daily increasing popularity of NFC-based mobile applications which having proliferated in the mobile society. However, this proliferation of NFC-based mobile services in a mobile environment can cause another security threat in the field of mobile application services. Recently, mobile phishing and smishing are one of the most serious security issues in the mobile application services. And, the NFC tag-based mobile services (i.e. NFC tag based services) also have the same problem because an NFC tag have security vulnerabilities. Actually, NFC-enabled device can communicate with NFC tag using specified data format, be called NFC Data Exchange Format(NDEF). The NDEF message is composed one or more NDEF records such as text, URI, Smart post(text and URL) and so on. Therefore, if an attacker overwrite the NDEF message in a tag or replace a NFC tag with hacked tag, they might deliver a mobile malware to an NFC-enabled device. In this paper, a secure and lightweight authentication protocols for NFC tag based services is proposed which effectively achieves security with preventing spoofing, DoS, data modification and phishing attack. And, this authentication protocols are also requires less memory storage and computational power for low-cost NFC tags. |
Urban Air Pollution Monitoring System With Forecasting Models | A system for monitoring and forecasting urban air pollution is presented in this paper. The system uses low-cost air-quality monitoring motes that are equipped with an array of gaseous and meteorological sensors. These motes wirelessly communicate to an intelligent sensing platform that consists of several modules. The modules are responsible for receiving and storing the data, preprocessing and converting the data into useful information, forecasting the pollutants based on historical information, and finally presenting the acquired information through different channels, such as mobile application, Web portal, and short message service. The focus of this paper is on the monitoring system and its forecasting module. Three machine learning (ML) algorithms are investigated to build accurate forecasting models for one-step and multi-step ahead of concentrations of ground-level ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and sulfur dioxide (SO2). These ML algorithms are support vector machines, M5P model trees, and artificial neural networks (ANN). Two types of modeling are pursued: 1) univariate and 2) multivariate. The performance evaluation measures used are prediction trend accuracy and root mean square error (RMSE). The results show that using different features in multivariate modeling with M5P algorithm yields the best forecasting performances. For example, using M5P, RMSE is at its lowest, reaching 31.4, when hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is used to predict SO2. Contrarily, the worst performance, i.e., RMSE of 62.4, for SO2 is when using ANN in univariate modeling. The outcome of this paper can be significantly useful for alarming applications in areas with high air pollution levels. |
Batchawana Bay, Lake Superior: late Quaternary sedimentary fill and paleomagnetic record | The lake-bottom sediments of the shelf area of Batchawana Bay are composed of sands, and the basinal sediments grade from silts to coarse-grained clay basin ward. There is a significant relationship of decreasing mean grain size to increasing water depth for the sediments of the basinal areas. Although the sediments of Batchawana Bay would appear to be formed by the variable mixing of sand and clay, hydraulic action probably removed the clay end member and ultimately deposited it in the lake proper.Grains of magnetic minerals deposited on a lake bottom tend to align in the direction of the Earth's magnetic field at the time of deposition, imparting a remanent magnetic direction to the sediments. The late Holocene sedimentary sequence of Batchawana Bay provides a record of the secular changes of the Earth's magnetic field. "Type" paleodeclination and paleoinclination logs plotted against time can be utilized to date the sedimentary sequence of Batchawana Bay. This paleomagnetic time scale indicates that gl... |
Memory-Efficient Adaptive Optimization for Large-Scale Learning | Adaptive gradient-based optimizers such as AdaGrad and Adam are among the methods of choice in modern machine learning. These methods maintain second-order statistics of each parameter, thus doubling the memory footprint of the optimizer. In behemoth-size applications, this memory overhead restricts the size of the model being used as well as the number of examples in a mini-batch. We describe a novel, simple, and flexible adaptive optimization method with sublinear memory cost that retains the benefits of per-parameter adaptivity while allowing for larger models and mini-batches. We give convergence guarantees for our method and demonstrate its effectiveness in training very large deep models. |
Attitudes toward borderline personality disorder: a survey of 706 mental health clinicians. | OBJECTIVE
We sought to determine attitudes toward patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) among mental health clinicians at nine academic centers in the United States.
METHODS
A self-report questionnaire was distributed to 706 mental health clinicians, including psychiatrists, psychiatry residents, social workers, nurses, and psychologists.
RESULTS
The study showed that most clinicians consider BPD a valid diagnosis, although nearly half reported that they preferred to avoid these patients. The clinician's occupational subgroup was significantly related to attitude. Staff nurses had the lowest self-ratings on overall caring attitudes, while social workers had the highest. Social workers and psychiatrists had the highest ratings on treatment optimism. Social workers and psychologists were most optimistic about psychotherapy effectiveness, while psychiatrists were most optimistic about medication effectiveness. Staff nurses had the lowest self-ratings on empathy toward patients with BPD and treatment optimism.DiscussionNegative attitudes persist among clinicians toward BPD, but differ among occupational subgroups. Overall, caring attitudes, empathy, and treatment optimism were all higher among care providers who had cared for a greater number of BPD patients in the past 12 months.
CONCLUSION
These findings hold important implications for clinician education and coordination of care for patients with BPD. |
Exploring the medication duration based on the effect of traditional Chinese medicine on postoperative stage I-III colorectal patients: a retrospective cohort study | PURPOSE
To clarify the effect of tradional Chinese medicine (TCM) on different stage patients and to explore medication duration based on survival analysis.
RESULTS
523 and 294 patients were respectively in the TCM group and the control group. For all patients, 6-year disease-free survival (DFS) was 57.6% after TCM and 46.6% after non-TCM (p = 0.0006). 6-year DFS for patients with stage I disease in the TCM group was 79.5% compared with 89.1% in the control group (p = 0.65). For patients with stage II disease, 6-year DFS was 63.1% in the TCM group compared with 50.2% in the control group (p = 0.054), and for patients with stage III disease, it was 43.3% in the TCM group compared with 22.0% in the control group (p = 0.0000).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Data for patients with stage I-III disease between 2004 and 2013 were retrieved for this study, who underwent TCM after surgery were in the TCM group and the others were in the control group. Clinic appointments or phone were used to collect data by research assistants. Survival data were collected on Nov 2015 from the database, which is continuously updated by the researchers.
CONCLUSIONS
TCM is associated with significantly improved disease-free survival, in particular for patients with stage III disease. Among of these, TCM is not necessary for patients with stage I disease, and postoperative patients with stage II disease should be recommended to take 2 years of TCM. For patients with stage III disease, adherence to medication of TCM during the 6-year follow-up is worthy of being recommended. |
Low-Cost Dual-Band Circularly Polarized Switched-Beam Array for Global Navigation Satellite System | This paper presents the design and development of a dual-band switched-beam microstrip array for global navigation satellite system (GNSS) applications such as ocean reflectometry and remote sensing. In contrast to the traditional Butler matrix, a simple, low cost, broadband and low insertion loss beam switching feed network is proposed, designed and integrated with a dual band antenna array to achieve continuous beam coverage of ±25° around the boresight at the L1 (1.575 GHz) and L2 (1.227 GHz) bands. To reduce the cost, microstrip lines and PIN diode based switches are employed. The proposed switched-beam network is then integrated with dual-band step-shorted annular ring (S-SAR) antenna elements in order to produce a fully integrated compact-sized switched-beam array. Antenna simulation results show that the switched-beam array achieves a maximum gain of 12 dBic at the L1 band and 10 dBic at the L2 band. In order to validate the concept, a scaled down prototype of the simulated design is fabricated and measured. The prototype operates at twice of the original design frequency, i.e., 3.15 GHz and 2.454 GHz and the measured results confirm that the integrated array achieves beam switching and good performance at both bands. |
Drug-induced adverse events prediction with the LINCS L1000 data | MOTIVATION
Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a central consideration during drug development. Here we present a machine learning classifier to prioritize ADRs for approved drugs and pre-clinical small-molecule compounds by combining chemical structure (CS) and gene expression (GE) features. The GE data is from the Library of Integrated Network-based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) L1000 dataset that measured changes in GE before and after treatment of human cells with over 20 000 small-molecule compounds including most of the FDA-approved drugs. Using various benchmarking methods, we show that the integration of GE data with the CS of the drugs can significantly improve the predictability of ADRs. Moreover, transforming GE features to enrichment vectors of biological terms further improves the predictive capability of the classifiers. The most predictive biological-term features can assist in understanding the drug mechanisms of action. Finally, we applied the classifier to all >20 000 small-molecules profiled, and developed a web portal for browsing and searching predictive small-molecule/ADR connections.
AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION
The interface for the adverse event predictions for the >20 000 LINCS compounds is available at http://maayanlab.net/SEP-L1000/ CONTACT: [email protected]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. |
Computing similarity of coarse and irregular trajectories using space-time prisms | Increasing volumes of trajectory data require analysis methods which go beyond the visual. Methods for computing trajectory analysis typically assume linear interpolation between quasi-regular sampling points. This assumption, however, is often not realistic, and can lead to a meaningless analysis for sparsely and/or irregularly sampled data. We propose to use the space-time prism model instead, allowing to represent the influence of speed on possible trajectories within a volume. We give definitions for the similarity of trajectories in this model and describe algorithms for its computation using the Fréchet and the equal time distance. |
Improving outcomes for diverse populations disproportionately affected by diabetes: final results of Project IMPACT: Diabetes. | OBJECTIVE
To improve key indicators of diabetes care by expanding a proven community-based model of care throughout high-risk areas in the United States.
DESIGN
Observational, multisite, pre-post comparison study.
SETTING
Federally qualified health centers, free clinics, employer worksites, community pharmacies, departments of health, physician offices, and other care facilities in 25 communities in 17 states from June 2011 through January 2013.
PARTICIPANTS
1,836 patients disproportionately affected by diabetes representing diverse ethnicities, insurance statuses, and social and economic backgrounds.
INTERVENTION
Pharmacists were integrated into local, interdisciplinary diabetes care teams and provided customized diabetes education and medication consultations to patients.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Clinical measures included glycosylated hemoglobin (A1C), body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides, and total cholesterol. Process measures included smoking status, eye examination status, foot examination status, and influenza vaccine status.
RESULTS
Pharmacist patient care services for those underserved or disproportionately affected by diabetes resulted in a statistically significant and clinically relevant decrease in mean A1C levels (-0.8%). Other outcome indicators were below target levels at baseline and decreased significantly but not by clinically relevant amounts (LDL-C, -7.1 mg/dL; triglycerides, -23.7 mg/dL, and total cholesterol, -8.8 mg/dL). The mean increase in HDL-C (+0.6 mg/dL) was not statistically significant or clinically relevant. Among evaluable patients who were not at target for process measures at baseline, 51.7% of 453 patients received eye examinations, 72.0% of 271 patients received foot examinations, 41.7% of 307 patients received influenza vaccinations, and 9.3% patients of 270 quit smoking during the project. Of the communities involved in the study, 92% intend to sustain pharmacists' services.
CONCLUSION
Project
IMPACT
Diabetes results show significant improvement in patients' clinical outcomes and demonstrate that all patients, even those with tremendous barriers to appropriate diabetes care, benefit from patient-centered, interdisciplinary health care teams that include pharmacists. |
Text Mining in Biomedical Domain with Emphasis on Document Clustering | OBJECTIVES
With the exponential increase in the number of articles published every year in the biomedical domain, there is a need to build automated systems to extract unknown information from the articles published. Text mining techniques enable the extraction of unknown knowledge from unstructured documents.
METHODS
This paper reviews text mining processes in detail and the software tools available to carry out text mining. It also reviews the roles and applications of text mining in the biomedical domain.
RESULTS
Text mining processes, such as search and retrieval of documents, pre-processing of documents, natural language processing, methods for text clustering, and methods for text classification are described in detail.
CONCLUSIONS
Text mining techniques can facilitate the mining of vast amounts of knowledge on a given topic from published biomedical research articles and draw meaningful conclusions that are not possible otherwise. |
Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition: a Noise-Assisted Data Analysis Method | A new Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) is presented. This new approach consists of sifting an ensemble of white noise-added signal (data) and treats the mean as the final true result. Finite, not infinitesimal, amplitude white noise is necessary to force the ensemble to exhaust all possible solutions in the sifting process, thus making the different scale signals to collate in the proper intrinsic mode functions (IMF) dictated by the dyadic filter banks. As EEMD is a time–space analysis method, the added white noise is averaged out with sufficient number of trials; the only persistent part that survives the averaging process is the component of the signal (original data), which is then treated as the true and more physical meaningful answer. The effect of the added white noise is to provide a uniform reference frame in the time–frequency space; therefore, the added noise collates the portion of the signal of comparable scale in one IMF. With this ensemble mean, one can separate scales naturally without any a priori subjective criterion selection as in the intermittence test for the original EMD algorithm. This new approach utilizes the full advantage of the statistical characteristics of white noise to perturb the signal in its true solution neighborhood, and to cancel itself out after serving its purpose; therefore, it represents a substantial improvement over the original EMD and is a truly noise-assisted data analysis (NADA) method. |
Automated processing of shoeprint images based on the Fourier transform for use in forensic science | The development of a system for automatically sorting a database of shoeprint images based on the outsole pattern in response to a reference shoeprint image is presented. The database images are sorted so that those from the same pattern group as the reference shoeprint are likely to be at the start of the list. A database of 476 complete shoeprint images belonging to 140 pattern groups was established with each group containing two or more examples. A panel of human observers performed the grouping of the images into pattern categories. Tests of the system using the database showed that the first-ranked database image belongs to the same pattern category as the reference image 65 percent of the time and that a correct match appears within the first 5 percent of the sorted images 87 percent of the time. The system has translational and rotational invariance so that the spatial positioning of the reference shoeprint images does not have to correspond with the spatial positioning of the shoeprint images of the database. The performance of the system for matching partial-prints was also determined. |
Pro-inflammatory effects of e-cigarette vapour condensate on human alveolar macrophages | OBJECTIVE
Vaping may increase the cytotoxic effects of e-cigarette liquid (ECL). We compared the effect of unvaped ECL to e-cigarette vapour condensate (ECVC) on alveolar macrophage (AM) function.
METHODS
AMs were treated with ECVC and nicotine-free ECVC (nfECVC). AM viability, apoptosis, necrosis, cytokine, chemokine and protease release, reactive oxygen species (ROS) release and bacterial phagocytosis were assessed.
RESULTS
Macrophage culture with ECL or ECVC resulted in a dose-dependent reduction in cell viability. ECVC was cytotoxic at lower concentrations than ECL and resulted in increased apoptosis and necrosis. nfECVC resulted in less cytotoxicity and apoptosis. Exposure of AMs to a sub-lethal 0.5% ECVC/nfECVC increased ROS production approximately 50-fold and significantly inhibited phagocytosis. Pan and class one isoform phosphoinositide 3 kinase inhibitors partially inhibited the effects of ECVC/nfECVC on macrophage viability and apoptosis. Secretion of interleukin 6, tumour necrosis factor α, CXCL-8, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 and matrix metalloproteinase 9 was significantly increased following ECVC challenge. Treatment with the anti-oxidant N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) ameliorated the cytotoxic effects of ECVC/nfECVC to levels not significantly different from baseline and restored phagocytic function.
CONCLUSIONS
ECVC is significantly more toxic to AMs than non-vaped ECL. Excessive production of ROS, inflammatory cytokines and chemokines induced by e-cigarette vapour may induce an inflammatory state in AMs within the lung that is partly dependent on nicotine. Inhibition of phagocytosis also suggests users may suffer from impaired bacterial clearance. While further research is needed to fully understand the effects of e-cigarette exposure in humans in vivo, we caution against the widely held opinion that e-cigarettes are safe. |
Use of the SINBAD classification system and score in comparing outcome of foot ulcer management on three continents. | OBJECTIVE
To compare populations with and outcomes of diabetic foot ulcers managed in the U.K., Germany, Tanzania, and Pakistan and to explore the use of a new score of ulcer type in comparing outcomes among different countries.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
Data from a series of 449 patients with diabetic foot ulcers managed in the U.K. were used to evaluate the new simplified system of classification and to derive an aggregate score. The use of the score was then explored using data from series managed in Germany (n = 239), Tanzania (n = 479), and Pakistan (n = 173).
RESULTS
A highly significant difference was found in time to healing between ulcers of increasing score in the U.K. series (Kruskal-Wallis test; P = 0). When data from all centers were examined, a step-up in days to healing was noted for those with scores of >or=3 (out of 6). Examination of baseline variables contributing to outcome revealed the following differences among centers: ischemia, ulcer area, and depth contributing to outcome in the U.K.; ischemia, area, depth, and infection in Germany; depth, infection, and neuropathy in Tanzania; and depth alone in Pakistan.
CONCLUSIONS
Any system of classification designed for general implementation must encompass all the variables that contribute to outcome in different communities. Adoption of a simple score based on these variables, the Site, Ischemia, Neuropathy, Bacterial Infection, and Depth (SINBAD) score, may prove useful in predicting ulcer outcome and enabling comparison among different centers. |
Randomized controlled effectiveness trial of executive function intervention for children on the autism spectrum. | BACKGROUND
Unstuck and On Target (UOT) is an executive function (EF) intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) targeting insistence on sameness, flexibility, goal-setting, and planning through a cognitive-behavioral program of self-regulatory scripts, guided/faded practice, and visual/verbal cueing. UOT is contextually-based because it is implemented in school and at home, the contexts in which a child uses EF skills.
METHODS
To evaluate the effectiveness of UOT compared with a social skills intervention (SS), 3rd-5th graders with ASD (mean IQ = 108; UOT n = 47; SS n = 20) received interventions delivered by school staff in small group sessions. Students were matched for gender, age, race, IQ, ASD symptomotolgy, medication status, and parents' education. Interventions were matched for 'dose' of intervention and training. Measures of pre-post change included classroom observations, parent/teacher report, and direct child measures of problem-solving, EF, and social skills. Schools were randomized and evaluators, but not parents or teachers, were blinded to intervention type.
RESULTS
Interventions were administered with high fidelity. Children in both groups improved with intervention, but mean change scores from pre- to postintervention indicated significantly greater improvements for UOT than SS groups in: problem-solving, flexibility, and planning/organizing. Also, classroom observations revealed that participants in UOT made greater improvements than SS participants in their ability to follow rules, make transitions, and be flexible. Children in both groups made equivalent improvements in social skills.
CONCLUSIONS
These data support the effectiveness of the first contextually-based EF intervention for children with ASD. UOT improved classroom behavior, flexibility, and problem-solving in children with ASD. Individuals with variable background/training in ASD successfully implemented UOT in mainstream educational settings. |
Molecular profiling distinguishes papillary carcinoma from benign thyroid nodules. | Recently we identified a molecular basis for differentiating benign and malignant follicular thyroid tumors. The purpose of these studies was to determine whether molecular analysis can be used to differentiate papillary thyroid carcinomas from benign thyroid nodules. Gene expression patterns of 14 papillary thyroid carcinomas and 21 benign tumors were analyzed by oligonucleotide array analysis. The carcinomas included seven classical papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC) and seven follicular variant of PTC (FVPTC), and the benign tumors included 14 follicular adenomas and seven hyperplastic nodules. A hierarchical clustering analysis was performed to examine the groups for potential differences. The combined PTC and FVPTC groups had a distinct gene expression profile compared with the benign lesions. The sensitivity for a diagnosis of carcinoma was 93%, with a 100% specificity (one FVPTC clustered with the benign nodules). Cancer gene profiles contained both known (Met and galectin-3) and previously unidentified genes. Gene profiling is a reliable means of distinguishing PTC, FVPTC, and benign tumors of the thyroid. These gene profiles may provide insight into the pathogenesis of papillary thyroid carcinoma and may ultimately enhance the preoperative diagnosis of thyroid nodules on a molecular basis. |
False Positives, False Negatives, and False Analyses: a Rejoinder to " Machine Bias: There's Software Used across the Country to Predict Future Criminals. and It's Biased against Blacks. " | Skeem for their thoughtful comments and suggestions. |
Heart rate, pacing, and outcome in the Dual Chamber and VVI Implantable Defibrillator (DAVID) trials. | BACKGROUND
Slower heart rates are believed to confer a better prognosis in heart disease. The Dual Chamber and VVI Implantable Defibrillator (DAVID) Trial found that patients with ventricular dysfunction and isolated sinus bradycardia (rate <60 with normal PR interval) had an unusually low incidence of heart failure (HF) hospitalization and mortality when paced infrequently.
OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study was to prospectively test our hypotheses that a similar benefit from bradycardia would be conferred in DAVID II as in DAVID but that this would be nullified by the faster heart rate achieved during atrial pacing in DAVID II.
METHODS
Effects of atrial versus minimal ventricular pacing on outcome in defibrillator recipients with isolated bradycardia in DAVID II were prospectively evaluated.
RESULTS
Ninety-eight DAVID II patients with isolated bradycardia were similar to 502 patients without it but had less baseline HF. HF medications were used comparably in both groups at baseline and throughout the study. Overall, patients with isolated bradycardia were less likely to die or be hospitalized for HF than others (12.2% vs. 26%; P = .01). There was no evidence that atrial pacing diminished this association. Adjusted for covariates, particularly baseline HF and its treatment, isolated bradycardia patients had substantially reduced risk for HF/death (P = .018) with or without atrial pacing (relative risk 0.47 and 0.71, respectively).
CONCLUSIONS
Isolated bradycardia identifies patients at lower risk for HF and mortality, an association that is not necessarily negated by accelerating heart rate with atrial pacing. This apparent conundrum challenges the use of heart rate as a therapeutic target in patients with ventricular dysfunction.
TRIAL REGISTRATION
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT00187187. |
Noise characterization of multiport amplifiers | This paper addresses the issue of the definition and measurement of the noise figure and parameters to characterize multiport devices, particularly differential amplifiers. A parameterization in terms of the noise matrix appears to be the most practical. The noise figure for a given output port is defined and related to the noise matrix and scattering parameters of the device, as well as the correlations between different input noise waves. The degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio is obtained from a special choice of the input correlation function. Two examples are considered in detail: a three-port differential amplifier and a four-port mixed-mode amplifier, both with reflectionless terminations. The noise figures, effective input temperatures, and gains are related to the results of a series of hot–cold measurements, as in the familiar two-port case. |
Analysis of Bitcoin Pooled Mining Reward Systems | In this paper we describe the various scoring systems used to calculate rewards of participants in Bitcoin pooled mining, explain the problems each were designed to solve and analyze their respective advantages and disadvantages. |
Of extracellular matrix, scaffolds, and signaling: tissue architecture regulates development, homeostasis, and cancer. | The microenvironment influences gene expression so that the behavior of a cell is largely determined by its interactions with the extracellular matrix, neighboring cells, and soluble local and systemic cues. We describe the essential roles of context and organ structure in directing mammary gland development and differentiated function and in determining the response to oncogenic insults, including mutations. We expand on the concept of "dynamic reciprocity" to present an integrated view of development, cancer, and aging and posit that genes are like the keys on a piano: Although they are essential, it is the context that makes the music. |
A Low-Cost and Efficient Permanent-Magnet-Assisted Synchronous Reluctance Motor Drive | In this paper, various key points in the rotor design of a low-cost permanent-magnet-assisted synchronous reluctance motor (PMa-SynRM) are introduced and their effects are studied. Finite-element approach has been utilized to show the effects of these parameters on the developed average electromagnetic torque and total d-q inductances. One of the features considered in the design of this motor is the magnetization of the permanent magnets mounted in the rotor core using the stator windings. This feature will cause a reduction in cost and ease of manufacturing. Effectiveness of the design procedure is validated by presenting simulation and experimental results of a 1.5-kW prototype PMa-SynRM |
Elucidating reaction mechanisms on quantum computers. | With rapid recent advances in quantum technology, we are close to the threshold of quantum devices whose computational powers can exceed those of classical supercomputers. Here, we show that a quantum computer can be used to elucidate reaction mechanisms in complex chemical systems, using the open problem of biological nitrogen fixation in nitrogenase as an example. We discuss how quantum computers can augment classical computer simulations used to probe these reaction mechanisms, to significantly increase their accuracy and enable hitherto intractable simulations. Our resource estimates show that, even when taking into account the substantial overhead of quantum error correction, and the need to compile into discrete gate sets, the necessary computations can be performed in reasonable time on small quantum computers. Our results demonstrate that quantum computers will be able to tackle important problems in chemistry without requiring exorbitant resources. |
A Primer on Memory Consistency and Cache Coherence | Many modern computer systems and most multicore chips (chip multiprocessors) support shared memory in hardware. In a shared memory system, each of the processor cores may read and write to a single shared address space. For a shared memory machine, the memory consistency model defines the architecturally visible behavior of its memory system. Consistency definitions provide rules about loads and stores (or memory reads and writes) and how they act upon memory. As part of supporting a memory consistency model, many machines also provide cache coherence protocols that ensure that multiple cached copies of data are kept up-to-date. The goal of this primer is to provide readers with a basic understanding of consistency and coherence. This understanding includes both the issues that must be solved as well as a variety of solutions. We present both highlevel concepts as well as specific, concrete examples from real-world systems. vi |
A Critical Review on Obstetric Follow-up of Women Affected by Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. | OBJECTIVE
To review the existing recommendations on the prenatal care of women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), based on currently available scientific evidence.
METHODS
An integrative review was performed by two independent researchers, based on the literature available in the MEDLINE (via PubMed), EMBASE and The Cochrane Library databases, using the medical subject headings (MeSH) terms "systemic lupus erythematosus" AND "high-risk pregnancy" OR "prenatal care." Studies published in English between 2007 and 2017 were included; experimental studies and case reports were excluded. In cases of disagreement regarding the inclusion of studies, a third senior researcher was consulted. Forty titles were initially identified; four duplicates were excluded. After reading the abstracts, 7 were further excluded and 29 were selected for a full-text evaluation.
RESULTS
Systemic lupus erythematosus flares, preeclampsia, gestation loss, preterm birth, fetal growth restriction and neonatal lupus syndromes (mainly congenital heart-block) were the major complications described. The multidisciplinary team should adopt a specific monitoring, with particular therapeutic protocols. There are safe and effective drug options that should be prescribed for a good control of SLE activity.
CONCLUSION
Pregnant women with SLE present an increased risk for maternal complications, pregnancy loss and other adverse outcomes. The disease activity may worsen and, thereby, increase the risk of other maternal-fetal complications. Thus, maintaining an adequate control of disease activity and treating flares quickly should be a central goal during prenatal care. |
Determinants of poverty in Mozambique: 1996-97. | This report presents an analysis of the structural determinants of living standards and poverty in Mozambique, which is based on nationally-representative data from the first national household living standards survey since the end of the civil war: the Mozambique Inquérito Nacional aos Agregados Familiares Sobre As Condições de Vida (MIAF), or National Household Survey on Living Conditions. Poverty in Mozambique is predominantly a rural phenomenon and is pervasive, with over two-thirds of the population falling below the poverty line. The degree of regional variation of poverty within the country is striking. Poverty levels are highest in Sofala, Tete, and Inhambane Provinces, where over 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and lowest in Maputo City (although, with a headcount of 48 percent, poverty is still high in the capital city). The poverty estimates indicate that even though Mozambique is recovering from the emergency situation of the civil war, and becoming more self-reliant for its basic needs, there remains a great deal of structural poverty in the country. Areas that stand out in particular are low levels of human capital, including low educational levels and the poor health of most of the population; low productivity in the agricultural sector, where most Mozambicans are employed; a weak physical infrastructure and poor access to basic services, including potable water, health facilities, transportation, communications, and markets; and high rates of fertility and corresponding high dependency ratios. The policy simulations that illustrate the impact that changes in the levels of determinants of poverty have on poverty levels allow us to identify six possible elements of a prospective poverty alleviation strategy for Mozambique. These include (1) increased investment in education, (2) sustained economic growth, (3) a sectoral pattern of growth favoring faster growth in the industrial and services sectors, (4) measures to raise agricultural productivity, (5) improved rural infrastructure, and (6) reducing fertility and dependency load within households. In conclusion, any meaningful poverty reduction |
Effects of pectoral fins' spanwise flexibility on forward thrust generation | Pectoral fins of manta rays have been a great source of inspiration for propulsive mechanism of underwater vehicles in the last decade. In the existing literature, effects of the chordwise flexibility of these fins on the forward thrust generation has been widely studied, while the study on the spanwise flexibility is considerably lacking. In this paper, we aim to investigate the effects of the fins' spanwise flexibility (quantified by bending stiffness) on the forward thrust generation. An experiment was conducted in a water channel to measure the forward thrust generated by 16 fins under free stream condition (0.5 m/s). The fins' bending stiffness ranged from 0.018 N/mm to 0.499 N/mm. All the fins had the same span length and surface area in order to preserve the hydrodynamic integrity of the experiment. The experimental results showed that for the range of the spanwise flexibility considered in this study, the forward thrust generation increases by decreasing the fins' spanwise flexibility until a certain bending stiffness value. After that the rate of the change in the thrust generation becomes very minor, indicating a plateau region. |
Comparison of NRZ and RZ modulations in laser intersatellite communication systems | Laser intersatellite communication (LIC) is a promising choice for intersatellite communication due to the high data rate that can be achieved with the advantages of light weight, smaller size and lower power consumption. In this paper, we compare the maximum transmission distance with non-return-to-zero (NRZ) and return-to-zero (RZ) modulations for two different LIC scenarios. Simulation results show that for the long-range LIC system with a saturated booster optical amplifier, the RZ modulation scheme can offer a longer transmission distance than the NRZ modulation scheme. For the short-range LIC system without an optical amplifier, the RZ modulation scheme performs almost the same as the NRZ modulation scheme. |
Pendra goes Dutch: lessons for the CE mark in Europe | The development of a truly non-invasive continuous glucose sensor is an elusive goal. We describe the rise and fall of the Pendra device. In 2000 the company Pendragon Medical introduced a truly non-invasive continuous glucose-monitoring device. This system was supposed to work through so-called impedance spectroscopy. Pendra was Conformité Européenne (CE) approved in May 2003. For a short time the Pendra was available on the Dutch direct-to-consumer market. A post-marketing reliability study was performed in six type 1 diabetes patients. Mean absolute difference between Pendra glucose values and values obtained through self-monitoring of blood glucose was 52%; the Pearson’s correlation coefficient was 35.1%; and a Clarke error grid showed 4.3% of the Pendra readings in the potentially dangerous zone E. We argue that the CE certification process for continuous glucose sensors should be made more transparent, and that a consensus on specific requirements for continuous glucose sensors is needed to prevent patient exposure to potentially dangerous situations. |
Generating Event Causality Hypotheses through Semantic Relations | Event causality knowledge is indispensable for intelligent natural language understanding. The problem is that any method for extracting event causalities from text is insufficient; it is likely that some event causalities that we can recognize in this world are not written in a corpus, no matter its size. We propose a method of hypothesizing unseen event causalities from known event causalities extracted from the web by the semantic relations between nouns. For example, our method can hypothesize deploy a security camera→avoid crimes from deploy a mosquito net→avoid malaria through semantic relation A PREVENTS B. Our experiments show that, from 2.4 million event causalities extracted from the web, our method generated more than 300,000 hypotheses, which were not in the input, with 70% precision. We also show that our method outperforms a state-ofthe-art hypothesis generation method. |
Multiplanar MRI–CT fusion neuronavigation-guided serial stereotactic biopsy of human brain tumors: proof of a strong correlation between tumor imaging and histopathology by a new technical approach | Serial stereotactic biopsy is a diagnostic procedure, used when open biopsy or tumor bulk removal seems to be associated with a too high risk of new neurological deficits in tumors of eloquent regions or tumors of deep localizations or in anticipated high surgery related morbidity even in the older patient group. Shortcomings of this method are recognized to be the missed pathohistological information from untargeted areas in heterogeneous tumors. This study shows for the first time a collection of patients with brain tumors with their associated multiplanar MRI–CT fusion imaging during stereotaxis and the histopathological features of serial tumor biopsies along exact trajectorial sites towards the tumor center. Thirteen patients were included. Stereotactic biopsy was performed and neuronavigation was correlated to histopathological features. Reactive tissue, endothelial hyperplasia, and diffusely scattered tumor cells occur outside the contrast-enhancing tumor in glioblastomas. Within the contrast-enhancing area, endothelial hyperplasia and diffuse tumor tissue were seen as compared to endothelial proliferations and the dense tumor as well as necroses in the image-defined center. Serial stereotactic biopsy is a reliable means. Strong correlations with the imaging characteristics of the lesions could be evaluated. |
A case–control study of craniofacial features of children with obstructed sleep apnea | This study aims to analyze differences in the skeletal, dental, and soft tissue components of craniofacial structure predisposing to the pediatric obstructive sleep apnea, by a comparison of the cephalograms between children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and controls. The study enrolled a total of 30 children who were composed of the following two groups: 15 OSA patients and 15 controls. The two groups were strictly matched by age and sex. Lateral head radiographs were obtained and then cephalometric measurements were compared between the two. Fifty-six measurements were determined to study various skeletal, soft tissue, and airway structure. Marked differences were demonstrated in terms of SNB, PG-NB, lower facial height, H-C3Me, and adenoid (A) and tonsil (T/P). The SNB angle (75.82 ± 4.30) in case group was smaller than in the control (78.71 ± 2.61; p = 0.035), the PG/NB value in case group (1.32 ± 0.84 mm) was higher than that in the control (0.62 ± 0.60 mm; p = 0.015). The anterior lower facial height was 65.12 ± 5.91 mm in case group (p = 0.048), while the anterior lower facial height in control was 61.51 ± 3.22 mm. The position of hyoid was lower in case group (5.30 ± 3.67 mm) compared with the control one (2.64 ± 2.58 mm; p = 0.029). Furthermore, the patients with OSA had larger As and T/Ps than the controls. The case group differed from the control group in the length of mandible, anterior lower facial height, position of hyoid and the chin, and the size of the As and T/Ps. |
Dermoscopy in the diagnosis of hair and scalp disorders. | Dermoscopy is a non-invasive, in vivo technique that has been recently utilized for the diagnosis and management of hair and scalp disorders. In the last few years many studies have been published in this field; this review will describe the dermoscopic patterns observed in the most common hair and scalp disorders and discuss their diagnostic relevance. |
Understanding Password Choices: How Frequently Entered Passwords Are Re-used across Websites | From email to online banking, passwords are an essential component of modern internet use. Yet, users do not always have good password security practices, leaving their accounts vulnerable to attack. We conducted a study which combines self-report survey responses with measures of actual online behavior gathered from 134 participants over the course of six weeks. We find that people do tend to re-use each password on 1.7–3.4 different websites, they reuse passwords that are more complex, and mostly they tend to re-use passwords that they have to enter frequently. We also investigated whether self-report measures are accurate indicators of actual behavior, finding that though people understand password security, their self-reported intentions have only a weak correlation with reality. These findings suggest that users manage the challenge of having many passwords by choosing a complex password on a website where they have to enter it frequently in order to memorize that password, and then re-using that strong password across other websites. |
ASSESSMENT OF THE IRRIGATION WATER QUALITY OF RIVER GANGA IN HARIDWAR DISTRICT | This paper is an attempt to analyze the water quality of river Ganga in Haridwar district for irrigation purpose. Water samples were collected from 5 sampling stations. The study area has been divided into three seasons: Winter (November-February), summer (March to June) and rainy (July to October). Water quality variables were measured in the river over a period of two years (Nov.2006 to Oct. 2 008). The samples were analyzed for electrical conductivity (Ec), total dissolved salts (TDS), magnesium content (MC), sodium percent (SP), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), residual sodium carbonate (RSC) and permeability index (PI). Study of all these characteristics indicates that river water in rainy season is not suitable for irrigation purpose because of high values of total dissolved salts, Ec and SP |
Impact of proactive nurse participation in ICU family conferences: a mixed-method study | OBJECTIVES
To investigate family perceptions of having a nurse participating in family conferences and to assess the psychologic well being of the same families after ICU discharge.
DESIGN
Mixed-method design with a qualitative study embedded in a single-center randomized study.
SETTING
Twelve-bed medical-surgical ICU in a 460-bed tertiary hospital.
SUBJECTS
One family member for each consecutive patient who received more than 48 hours of mechanical ventilation in the ICU.
INTERVENTION
Planned proactive participation of a nurse in family conferences led by a physician. In the control group, conferences were led by a physician without a nurse.
MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Of the 172 eligible family members, 100 (60.2%) were randomized; among them, 88 underwent semistructured interviews at ICU discharge and 86 completed the Peritraumatic Dissociative Experiences Questionnaire at ICU discharge and then the Hospital Anxiety Depression Questionnaire and the Impact of Event Scale (for posttraumatic stress-related symptoms) 3 months later. The intervention and control groups were not significantly different regarding the prevalence of posttraumatic stress-related symptoms (52.3 vs 50%, respectively; p = 0.83). Anxiety and depression subscale scores were significantly lower in the intervention group. The qualitative data indicated that the families valued the principle of the conference itself. Perceptions of nurse participation clustered into four main themes: trust that ICU teamwork was effective (50/88; 56.8%), trust that care was centered on the patient (33/88; 37.5%), trust in effective dissemination of information (15/88; 17%), and trust that every effort was made to relieve anxiety in family members (12/88; 13.6%).
CONCLUSIONS
Families valued the conferences themselves and valued the proactive participation of a nurse. These positive perceptions were associated with significant anxiety or depression subscale scores but not with changes in posttraumatic stress-related symptoms. |
Managing Multiple Generations in the Workplace. | Today's workplace often includes workers from 4 distinct generations, and each generation brings a unique set of core values and characteristics to an organization. These generational differences can produce benefits, such as improved patient care, as well as challenges, such as conflict among employees. This article reviews current research on generational differences in educational settings and the workplace and discusses the implications of these findings for medical imaging and radiation therapy departments. |
A Deep Learning Based 6 Degree-of-Freedom Localization Method for Endoscopic Capsule Robots | We present a robust deep learning based 6 degrees-of-freedom (DoF) localization system for endoscopic capsule robots. Our system mainly focuses on localization of endoscopic capsule robots inside the GI tract using only visual information captured by a mono camera integrated to the robot. The proposed system is a 23-layer deep convolutional neural network (CNN) that is capable to estimate the pose of the robot in real time using a standard CPU. The dataset for the evaluation of the system was recorded inside a surgical human stomach model with realistic surface texture, softness, and surface liquid properties so that the pre-trained CNN architecture can be transferred confidently into a real endoscopic scenario. An average error of 7.1% and 3.4% for translation and rotation has been obtained, respectively. The results accomplished from the experiments demonstrate that a CNN pre-trained with raw 2D endoscopic images performs accurately inside the GI tract and is robust to various challenges posed by reflection distortions, lens imperfections, vignetting, noise, motion blur, low resolution, and lack of unique landmarks to track. |
Iterative Machine Teaching | In this paper, we consider the problem of machine teaching, the inverse problem of machine learning. Different from traditional machine teaching which views the learners as batch algorithms, we study a new paradigm where the learner uses an iterative algorithm and a teacher can feed examples sequentially and intelligently based on the current performance of the learner. We show that the teaching complexity in the iterative case is very different from that in the batch case. Instead of constructing a minimal training set for learners, our iterative machine teaching focuses on achieving fast convergence in the learner model. Depending on the level of information the teacher has from the learner model, we design teaching algorithms which can provably reduce the number of teaching examples and achieve faster convergence than learning without teachers. We also validate our theoretical findings with extensive experiments on different data distribution and real image datasets. |
Flexible Multimodal Tactile Sensing System for Object Identification | This work presents results towards realizing a flexible multimodal tactile sensing system for object identification. Using polymer substrates and simple fabrication, robust devices are made that can identify objects based on texture, temperature, as well as material properties such as hardness and thermal conductivity. These capabilities are possible using signal processing techniques and physical models along with individual sensing structures inspired by the specialization found in biological skin. These structures are used to sense various object parameters, and array-wide processing to identify texture using a Maximum Likelihood decision rule. 80% texture classification is achieved. In blind object identification tests, over 90% correct identification was achieved by measurement of material properties. |
A Survey on Antispoofing Schemes for Fingerprint Recognition Systems | Several issues related to the vulnerability of fingerprint recognition systems to attacks have been highlighted in the biometrics literature. One such vulnerability involves the use of artificial fingers, where materials such as Play-Doh, silicone, and gelatin are inscribed with fingerprint ridges. Researchers have demonstrated that some commercial fingerprint recognition systems can be deceived when these artificial fingers are placed on the sensor; that is, the system successfully processes the ensuing fingerprint images, thereby allowing an adversary to spoof the fingerprints of another individual. However, at the same time, several countermeasures that discriminate between live fingerprints and spoof artifacts have been proposed. While some of these antispoofing schemes are hardware based, several software-based approaches have been proposed as well. In this article, we review the literature and present the state of the art in fingerprint antispoofing. |
The PH-tree: a space-efficient storage structure and multi-dimensional index | We propose the PATRICIA-hypercube-tree, or PH-tree, a multi-dimensional data storage and indexing structure. It is based on binary PATRICIA-tries combined with hypercubes for efficient data access. Space efficiency is achieved by combining prefix sharing with a space optimised implementation. This leads to storage space requirements that are comparable or below storage of the same data in non-index structures such as arrays of objects. The storage structure also serves as a multi-dimensional index on all dimensions of the stored data. This enables efficient access to stored data via point and range queries. We explain the concept of the PH-tree and demonstrate the performance of a sample implementation on various datasets and compare it to other spatial indices such as the kD-tree. The experiments show that for larger datasets beyond 10^7 entries, the PH-tree increasingly and consistently outperforms other structures in terms of space efficiency, query performance and update performance. |
Towards Deep Learning Models Resistant to Adversarial Attacks | Recent work has demonstrated that neural networks are vulnerable to adversarial examples, i.e., inputs that are almost indistinguishable from natural data and yet classified incorrectly by the network. In fact, some of the latest findings suggest that the existence of adversarial attacks may be an inherent weakness of deep learning models. To address this problem, we study the adversarial robustness of neural networks through the lens of robust optimization. This approach provides us with a broad and unifying view on much of the prior work on this topic. Its principled nature also enables us to identify methods for both training and attacking neural networks that are reliable and, in a certain sense, universal. In particular, they specify a concrete security guarantee that would protect against any adversary. These methods let us train networks with significantly improved resistance to a wide range of adversarial attacks. They also suggest the notion of security against a first-order adversary as a natural and broad security guarantee. We believe that robustness against such well-defined classes of adversaries is an important stepping stone towards fully resistant deep learning models. |
Microcomputed tomography and microfinite element modeling for evaluating polymer scaffolds architecture and their mechanical properties. | Detailed knowledge of the porous architecture of synthetic scaffolds for tissue engineering, their mechanical properties, and their interrelationship was obtained in a nondestructive manner. Image analysis of microcomputed tomography (microCT) sections of different scaffolds was done. The three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the scaffold allows one to quantify scaffold porosity, including pore size, pore distribution, and struts' thickness. The porous morphology and porosity as calculated from microCT by image analysis agrees with that obtained experimentally by scanning electron microscopy and physically measured porosity, respectively. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of the scaffold were evaluated by making use of finite element modeling (FEM) in which the compression stress-strain test is simulated on the 3D structure reconstructed from the microCT sections. Elastic modulus as calculated from FEM is in agreement with those obtained from the stress-strain experimental test. The method was applied on qualitatively different porous structures (interconnected channels and spheres) with different chemical compositions (that lead to different elastic modulus of the base material) suitable for tissue regeneration. The elastic properties of the constructs are explained on the basis of the FEM model that supports the main mechanical conclusion of the experimental results: the elastic modulus does not depend on the geometric characteristics of the pore (pore size, interconnection throat size) but only on the total porosity of the scaffold. |
Pneumatic robotic systems for upper limb rehabilitation | The aim of rehabilitation robotic area is to research on the application of robotic devices to therapeutic procedures. The goal is to achieve the best possible motor, cognitive and functional recovery for people with impairments following various diseases. Pneumatic actuators are attractive for robotic rehabilitation applications because they are lightweight, powerful, and compliant, but their control has historically been difficult, limiting their use. This article first reviews the current state-of-art in rehabilitation robotic devices with pneumatic actuation systems reporting main features and control issues of each therapeutic device. Then, a new pneumatic rehabilitation robot for proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation therapies and for relearning daily living skills: like taking a glass, drinking, and placing object on shelves is described as a case study and compared with the current pneumatic rehabilitation devices. |
Patient expectations and long-term outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis patients: results from the SARA (Silicone Arthroplasty in Rheumatoid Arthritis) study | Little evidence exists to understand the influence of patient expectations on outcomes for silicone metacarpophalangeal arthroplasty (SMPA). The purpose of this paper is to compare long-term treatment outcome experiences regarding hand function/appearance for a surgical and nonsurgical cohort of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and contrast them to expectations at baseline. This sample is part of a larger multicenter prospective cohort study of RA patients enrolled from 2004 to 2008. A total of 169 RA patients with severe deformities at the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joints were recruited in the original study. Expectations for SMPA were collected at enrollment. A follow-up patient-reported questionnaire was completed at long-term follow-up. Baseline expectation questionnaires were collected from 137 patients, and follow-up data from 84 patients (average 6.7 years follow-up). At baseline, a significantly higher percent of patients who chose surgery expected to do “Anything I want” or “More activities than I do now” 1 year from enrollment than those who chose nonsurgical treatment. At follow-up, surgical patients remained more likely to indicate that they were currently able to do “Anything” or “More activities” than nonsurgical patients. A higher percentage of surgical patients were “very satisfied” or “quite satisfied” with their treatment compared to nonsurgical patients. RA subjects who chose SMPA reported greater expectations for surgery prior to surgery and also greater levels of hand function and satisfaction at long-term follow-up. |
Fingerprint Recognition for Person Identification and Verification Based on Minutiae Matching | There are various types of applications for fingerprint recognition which is used for different purposes. Fingerprint is one of the challenging pattern Recognition problem. The Fingerprint Recognition system is divided into four stages. First is Acquisition stage to capture the fingerprint image, The second is Pre-processing stage to enhancement, binarization, thinning fingerprint image. The Third stage is Feature Extraction Stage to extract the feature from the thinning image by use minutiae extractor methods to extract ridge ending and ridge bifurcation from thinning. The fourth stage is matching(Identification, Verification) to match two minutiae points by using minutiae matcher method in which similarity and distance measure are used. The algorithm is tested accurately and reliably by using fingerprint images from different databases. In this paper the fingerprint databases used are FVC2000 and FVC2002 Databases, we see that, the FVC2002 database perform better results compare with FVC2000 database. The recognition system evaluate with two factor FAR and FRR, In this system the result of FAR is 0.0154 and FRR is 0.0137 with Accuracy equal to 98.55%. |
Excessive Long-Time Deflections of Prestressed Box Girders . I : Record-Span Bridge in Palau and Other Paradigms | The segmental prestressed concrete box girder of Koror-Babeldaob (KB) Bridge in Palau, which had a record span of 241 m (791 ft), presents a striking paradigm of serviceability loss because of excessive multidecade deflections. The data required for analysis have recently been released and are here exploited to show how the analysis and design could be improved. Erected segmentally in 1977, this girder developed a midspan deflection of 1.61 m (5.3 ft) compared with the design camber after 18 years, and it collapsed in 1996 as a consequence of remedial prestressing, after a 3-month delay. Compared with three-dimensional analysis, the traditional beam-type analysis of box girder deflections is found to have errors up to 20%, although greater errors are likely for bridges with higher box-width-to-span ratios than the KB Bridge. However, even three-dimensional finite-element analysis with step-by-step time integration cannot explain the observed deflections when the current American Concrete Institute, Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Comité Euro-International du Béton (or Comité EuroInternational du Béton—Fédération internationale de la précontrainte), and Gardner and Lockman prediction models for creep and shrinkage are used. These models give 18-year deflection estimates that are 50–77% lower than measured and yield unrealistic shapes of the deflection history. They also predict the 18-year prestress loss to be 46–56% lower than the measured mean prestress loss, which was 50%. Model B3, which is the only theoretically based model, underestimates the 18-year deflection by 42% and gives a prestress loss of 40% when the default parameter values are used. However, in Model B3, several input parameters are adjustable and if they are adjusted according to the long-time laboratory tests of Brooks, a close fit of all the measurements is obtained. For early deflections and their extrapolation, it is important that Model B3 can capture realistically the differences in the rates of shrinkage and drying creep caused by the differences in the thickness of the walls of the cross section. The differences in temperature and possible cracking of the top slab also need to be taken into account. Other paradigms on which data have recently been released are four bridges in Japan and one in the Czech Republic. Their excessive deflections can also be explained. The detailed method of analysis and the lessons learned are presented in Part II. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X .0000487. © 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers. CE Database subject headings: Creep; Shrinkage; Box girders; Serviceability; Deflection; Span bridges. Author keywords: Prestressed box girder; Bridges; Segmental erection; Shear lag; Design standards; Concrete; Relaxation. |
Universal Planning Networks | A key challenge in complex visuomotor control is learning abstract representations that are effective for specifying goals, planning, and generalization. To this end, we introduce universal planning networks (UPN). UPNs embed differentiable planning within a goal-directed policy. This planning computation unrolls a forward model in a latent space and infers an optimal action plan through gradient descent trajectory optimization. The plan-by-gradient-descent process and its underlying representations are learned end-to-end to directly optimize a supervised imitation learning objective. We find that the representations learned are not only effective for goal-directed visual imitation via gradient-based trajectory optimization, but can also provide a metric for specifying goals using images. The learned representations can be leveraged to specify distance-based rewards to reach new target states for model-free reinforcement learning, resulting in substantially more effective learning when solving new tasks described via imagebased goals. Visit https://sites.google. com/view/upn-public/home for video highlights. |
The affective shift model of work engagement. | On the basis of self-regulation theories, the authors develop an affective shift model of work engagement according to which work engagement emerges from the dynamic interplay of positive and negative affect. The affective shift model posits that negative affect is positively related to work engagement if negative affect is followed by positive affect. The authors applied experience sampling methodology to test the model. Data on affective events, mood, and work engagement was collected twice a day over 9 working days among 55 software developers. In support of the affective shift model, negative mood and negative events experienced in the morning of a working day were positively related to work engagement in the afternoon if positive mood in the time interval between morning and afternoon was high. Individual differences in positive affectivity moderated within-person relationships. The authors discuss how work engagement can be fostered through affect regulation. |
Analyzing topic evolution in bioinformatics: investigation of dynamics of the field with conference data in DBLP | In this paper we analyze topic evolution over time within bioinformatics to uncover the underlying dynamics of that field, focusing on the recent developments in the 2000s. We select 33 bioinformatics related conferences indexed in DBLP from 2000 to 2011. The major reason for choosing DBLP as the data source instead of PubMed is that DBLP retains most bioinformatics related conferences, and to study dynamics of the field, conference papers are more suitable than journal papers. We divide a period of a dozen years into four periods: period 1 (2000–2002), period 2 (2003–2005), period 3 (2006–2008) and period 4 (2009–2011). To conduct topic evolution analysis, we employ three major procedures, and for each procedure, we develop the following novel technique: the Markov Random Field-based topic clustering, automatic cluster labeling, and topic similarity based on Within-Period Cluster Similarity and Between-Period Cluster Similarity. The experimental results show that there are distinct topic transition patterns between different time periods. From period 1 to period 3, new topics seem to have emerged and expanded, whereas from period 3 to period 4, topics are merged and display more rigorous interaction with each other. This trend is confirmed by the collaboration pattern over time. |
Randomised controlled trial comparing laparoscopic and robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. | BACKGROUND
The advantages of robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) over laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP) have rarely been investigated in randomised controlled trials.
OBJECTIVE
To compare RARP and LRP in terms of the functional, perioperative, and oncologic outcomes. The main end point of the study was changes in continence 3 mo after surgery.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
From January 2010 to January 2011, 120 patients with organ-confined prostate cancer were enrolled and randomly assigned (using a randomisation plan) to one of two groups based on surgical approach: the RARP group and the LRP group.
INTERVENTION
All RARP and LRP interventions were performed with the same technique by the same single surgeon.
OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
The demographic, perioperative, and pathologic results, such as the complications and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) measurements, were recorded and compared. Continence was evaluated at the time of catheter removal and 48 h later, and continence and potency were evaluated after 1, 3, 6, and 12 mo. The student t test, Mann-Whitney test, χ(2) test, Pearson χ(2) test, and multiple regression analysis were used for statistics.
RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS
The two groups (RARP: n=60; LRP: n=60) were comparable in terms of demographic data. No differences were recorded in terms of perioperative and pathologic results, complication rate, or PSA measurements. The continence rate was higher in the RARP group at every time point: Continence after 3 mo was 80% in the RARP group and 61.6% in the LRP group (p=0.044), and after 1 yr, the continence rate was 95.0% and 83.3%, respectively (p=0.042). Among preoperative potent patients treated with nerve-sparing techniques, the rate of erection recovery was 80.0% and 54.2%, respectively (p=0.020). The limitations included the small number of patients.
CONCLUSIONS
RARP provided better functional results in terms of the recovery of continence and potency. Further studies are needed to confirm our results. |
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