LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Improved route planning and scheduling of waste collection and transport

The collection of waste is a highly visible and important municipal service that involves large expenditures. Waste collection problems are, however, one of the most difficult operational problems to solve. This paper describes the optimization of vehicle routes and schedules for collecting municipal solid waste in Eastern Finland. The solutions are generated by a recently developed guided variable neighborhood thresholding metaheuristic that is adapted to solve real-life waste collection problems. Several implementation approaches to speed up the method and cut down the memory usage are discussed. A case study on the waste collection in two regions of Eastern Finland demonstrates that significant cost reductions can be obtained compared with the current practice. q 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd. T 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93
APhase IbStudyof theEffectsofBlackRaspberriesonRectal Polyps in Patients with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis

Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is characterized by the early onset of colonic polyposis and a high risk for colorectal cancer. FAP is treated by colectomy followed by lifelong removal of rectal polyps. This study determined whether black raspberries (BRBs) might regress rectal polyps in patients with FAP. Fourteen patients with FAP were treated with BRBs daily for 9 months. Seven patients received BRB powder orally plus two BRB suppositories inserted into the rectum at bedtime. The other 7 received an oral placebo plus the suppositories. Rectal polyp counts and polyp sizes were obtained at time zero and after 9 months of BRB treatment. Polyps and adjacent normal tissue were collected at both time points. The burden (P 1⁄4 0.036) but not number (P1⁄4 0.069) of rectal polyps was significantly decreased. No benefit was noted with the addition of oral BRBs. Three patients were nonresponders. BRBs significantly decreased cellular proliferation, DNA methylation methyl transferase 1 protein expression, and p16 promoter methylation, but not promoter methylation of the Wnt pathway antagonists, SFRP2 and WIF1, in rectal polyps (adenomas) from responders but not from nonresponders. The MBD-seq assay revealed more demethylated transcription start sites (TSS), including those for miRNAs, in BRB-treated adenomas from the responders. In conclusion, BRB suppositories seem sufficient for regressing rectal polyps in patients with FAP. Cancer Prev Res; 7(7); 666–74. 2014 AACR.
Municipal landfill leachates: a significant source for new and emerging pollutants.

Landfills have historically remained the most common methods of organized waste disposal and still remain so in many regions of the world. Thus, they may contain wastes resulting from several decades of disposal and decomposition with subsequent release of organic compounds that may have environmental, wildlife and human health consequences. Products containing different types of additives with unique beneficial improvement properties are in daily use. However, when these products are decomposed, additives are release into the environment, some of which have been shown to have negative environmental impacts, resulting in the ban or at least restricted application of some chemicals. New and emerging compounds are continuously discovered in the environment. Herein, we report qualitative and quantitative data on the occurrence of new and emerging compounds with increasing environmental and public health concern in water- and particle phase of landfill leachates. Under normal environmental conditions, several of these chemicals are persistent high-volume products. Identified chemicals in the leachates at nanogram (ng) or microgram (microg) per liter levels include - chlorinated alkylphosphates such as tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCPP), N-butyl benzensulfonamide (NBBS), the insect repellent diethyl toluamide (DEET) and personal care products such as the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen and polycyclic musk compounds. Among new and emerging contaminants, perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) were measured in the water phase at concentrations up to 6231 ng/L. Compared with the other chemicals, PFCs were primarily distributed in water phase. An effective removal method for PFCs and other polar and persistent compounds from landfill leachates has been a major challenge, since commonly used treatment technologies are based on aeration and sedimentation. Thus, the present study has shown that municipal landfill leachates may represent a significant source of concern for legacy, new and emerging chemicals in groundwater.
On the passions and errors of the soul

"This translation of the two treatises of Galen, On the passions of the soul, and On the errors of the soul, is based ... on the text of Wilko de Boer, which appears in the fifth volume of the Corpus Medicorum Graecorum."
Health financing policies in Sub-Saharan Africa: government ownership or donors’ influence? A scoping review of policymaking processes

Background
The rise on the international scene of advocacy for universal health coverage (UHC) was accompanied by the promotion of a variety of health financing policies. Major donors presented health insurance, user fee exemption, and results-based financing policies as relevant instruments for achieving UHC in Sub-Saharan Africa. The "donor-driven" push for policies aiming at UHC raises concerns about governments' effective buy-in of such policies. Because the latter has implications on the success of such policies, we searched for evidence of government ownership of the policymaking process.


Methods
We conducted a scoping review of the English and French literature from January 2001 to December 2015 on government ownership of decision-making on policies aiming at UHC in Sub-Saharan Africa. Thirty-five (35) results were retrieved. We extracted, synthesized and analyzed data in order to provide insights on ownership at five stages of the policymaking process: emergence, formulation, funding, implementation, and evaluation.


Results
The majority of articles (24/35) showed mixed results (i.e. ownership was identified at one or more levels of policymaking process but not all) in terms of government ownership. Authors of only five papers provided evidence of ownership at all reviewed policymaking stages. When results demonstrated some lack of government ownership at any of the five stages, we noticed that donors did not necessarily play a role: other actors' involvement was contributing to undermining government-owned decision-making, such as the private sector. We also found evidence that both government ownership and donors' influence can successfully coexist.


Discussion
Future research should look beyond indicators of government ownership, by analyzing historical factors behind the imbalance of power between the different actors during policy negotiations. There is a need to investigate how some national actors become policy champions and thereby influence policy formulation. In order to effectively achieve government ownership of financing policies aiming at UHC, we recommend strengthening the State's coordination and domestic funding mobilization roles, together with securing a higher involvement of governmental (both political and technical) actors by donors.
Phthalate exposure and precocious puberty in females.

OBJECTIVE
To determine whether phthalate exposure is associated with precocious puberty in girls.


STUDY DESIGN
This was a multicenter cross-sectional study in which 28 girls with central precocious puberty (CPP) and 28 age- and race-matched prepubertal females were enrolled. Nine phthalate metabolites and creatinine were measured in spot urine samples from these 56 children.


RESULTS
Levels of 8 of the 9 phthalate metabolites were above the limit of detection (LOD) in all 56 subjects. Mono (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP) was below the LOD in 25/56 samples (14 subjects with precocious puberty and 11 controls). No significant differences between the children with CPP and the controls in either absolute or creatinine-normalized concentrations of any of the 9 phthalate metabolites were measured.


CONCLUSIONS
Although phthalates may be associated with certain other toxicities in humans, our study suggests that their exposure is not associated with precocious puberty in female children.
Dynamic language modeling for broadcast news

This paper describes some recent experiments on unsupervised language model adaptation for transcription of broadcast news data. In previous work, a framework for automatically selecting adaptation data using information retrieval techniques was proposed. This work extends the method and presents experimental results with unsupervised language model adaptation. Three primary aspects are considered: (1) the performance of 5 widely used LM adaptation methods using the same adaptation data is compared; (2) the influence of the temporal distance between the training and test data epoch on the adaptation efficiency is assessed; and (3) show-based language model adaptation is compared with story-based language model adaptation. Experiments have been carried out for broadcast news transcription in English and Mandarin Chinese. A relative word error rate reduction of 4.7% was obtained in English and a 5.6% relative character error rate reduction in Mandarin with story-based MDI adaptation.
Validity of a modified shuttle test in adult cystic fibrosis.

BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to provide some evidence of the validity of a modified shuttle test (MST) by comparing performance on the MST with peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak) measured during a treadmill test in a group of adult patients with cystic fibrosis.


METHOD
Twenty patients with stable cystic fibrosis performed a ramped maximal treadmill test (STEEP protocol) and the MST using a randomised balanced design.


RESULTS
The relationship between the distance achieved on the MST and VO2peak was strong (r = 0.95, p<0.01) with 90% of the variance in VO2peak explained by the variance in MST distance. The relationship was represented by the regression equation (with 95% confidence intervals) VO2peak = 6.83 (2.85 to 10.80) + 0.028 (0.019 to 0.024) x MST distance.


CONCLUSION
This study provides evidence of the construct validity of the MST as an objective measure of exercise capacity in adults with cystic fibrosis.
Model reduction for controller design for infinite-dimensional systems: theory and an example

This paper presents a model reduction technique for infinite-dimensional systems called LQG-balancing. Theoretical results on the existence and uniqueness of LQG-balanced realizations are given as well as error bounds for truncated LQG-balanced realizations. We illustrate the theory by studying model reduction for an Euler-Bernoulli beam.
Lambda flow in heavy-ion collisions: The role of final-state interactions.

Lambda flow in Ni+Ni collisions at SIS energies is studied in the relativistic transport model (RVUU 1.0). It is found that for primordial lambdas the flow is considerably weaker than proton flow. The inclusion of final-state interactions, especially the propagation of lambdas in the mean-field potential, brings the lambda flow close to that of protons. An accurate determination of the lambda flow in heavy-ion experiments is shown to be very useful for studying lambda properties in dense matter. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}
On the power of quantum fingerprinting

In the simultaneous message model, two parties holding <i>n</i>-bit integers <i>x,y</i> send messages to a third party, the <i>referee</i>, enabling him to compute a boolean function <i>f(x,y)</i>. Buhrman et al [3] proved the remarkable result that, when <i>f</i> is the equality function, the referee can solve this problem by comparing short "quantum fingerprints" sent by the two parties, i.e., there exists a quantum protocol using only <i>O</i>(log <i>n</i>) bits. This is in contrast to the well-known classical case for which Ω(<i>n</i><sup>1/2</sup>) bits are provably necessary for the same problem even with randomization. In this paper we show that short quantum fingerprints can be used to solve the problem for a much larger class of functions. Let <i>R</i><sup><??par line>,<i>pub</i></sup>(<i>f</i>) denote the number of bits needed in the classical case, assuming in addition a common sequence of random bits is known to all parties (the <i>public coin</i> model). We prove that, if <i>R</i><sup><??par line>,<i>pub</i></sup>(<i>f</i>)=<i>O</i>(1), then there exists a quantum protocol for <i>f</i> using only <i>O</i>(log <i>n</i>) bits. As an application we show that <i>O</i>(log <i>n</i>) quantum bits suffice for the bounded Hamming distance function, defined by <i>f(x,y)</i>=1 if and only if <i>x</i> and <i>y</i> have a constant Hamming distance <i>d</i> or less.
Patterns of relapse in extrapulmonary small cell carcinoma: retrospective analysis of outcomes from two cancer centres

OBJECTIVES
We conducted a retrospective review of patients with extrapulmonary small cell carcinomas (EPSCCs) to explore the distribution, treatments, patterns of relapse and outcomes by primary site.


SETTING
We have reviewed the outcomes of one of the largest data sets of consecutive patients with EPSCC identified from two major cancer centres.


PARTICIPANTS
Consecutive patients with a histopathological diagnosis of EPSCC from the two institutions were retrospectively identified.


PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES
Outcomes were evaluated including stage at presentation, treatments given, sites of relapse, time to distant relapse, progression-free survival and overall survival (OS).


RESULTS
From a total 159 patients, 114 received first-line chemotherapy, 80.5% being platinum-based. Response rate was 48%. Commonest primary sites were genitourinary and gynaecological. 44% of patients presented with metastatic disease. 55.9% relapsed with liver the commonest site, whereas only 2.5% developed brain metastases. Median OS was 13.4 months for all patients, 7.6 months and 19.5 months for those with metastatic and non-metastatic disease, respectively. Gynaecological and head and neck patients had significantly better OS compared to gastrointestinal patients.


CONCLUSIONS
EPSCCs demonstrate high response rates to chemotherapy and high rates of distant metastases. Primary sites may influence prognosis, and survival is optimal with a radical strategy. Brain metastases are rare and we therefore do not recommend prophylactic cranial irradiation.
Abnormal Glucose Tolerance Is Associated with a Reduced Myocardial Metabolic Flexibility in Patients with Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is characterized by a metabolic shift from fat to carbohydrates and failure to increase myocardial glucose uptake in response to workload increments. We verified whether this pattern is influenced by an abnormal glucose tolerance (AGT). In 10 patients with DCM, 5 with normal glucose tolerance (DCM-NGT) and 5 with AGT (DCM-AGT), and 5 non-DCM subjects with AGT (N-AGT), we measured coronary blood flow and arteriovenous differences of oxygen and metabolites during Rest, Pacing (at 130 b/min), and Recovery. Myocardial lactate exchange and oleate oxidation were also measured. At Rest, DCM patients showed a reduced nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA) myocardial uptake, while glucose utilization increased only in DCM-AGT. In response to Pacing, glucose uptake promptly rose in N-AGT (from 72 ± 21 to 234 ± 73 nmol/min/g, p < 0.05), did not change in DCM-AGT, and slowly increased in DCM-NGT. DCM-AGT sustained the extra workload by increasing NEFA oxidation (from 1.3 ± 0.2 to 2.9 ± 0.1 μmol/min/gO2 equivalents, p < 0.05), while DCM-NGT showed a delayed increase in glucose uptake. Substrate oxidation rates paralleled the metabolites data. The presence of AGT in patients with DCM exacerbates both the shift from fat to carbohydrates in resting myocardial metabolism and the reduced myocardial metabolic flexibility in response to an increased workload. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrial.gov NCT02440217.
Patterns of Intelligent and Mobile Agents

Patterns of Intelligent and Mobile Agents Elizabeth A.Kendall, P.V. Murali Krishna, Chirag V. Pathak, C:B. Suresh Computer Systems Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute Of Technology City Campus, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, VIC 3001 AUSTRALIA email : kendall@rmit.edu.au 1. ABSTRACT Agent systems must have foundation; one approach that successfully applied to other so&are is patterns. This paper collection of patterns for agents. 2. MOTIVATION Almost all agent development to date has a strong has been kinds of presents a
Determinants of stock market performance in Nigeria: long-run analysis

This study examines critically the long-run macroeconomic determinants of stock market performance in Nigeria between 1984 and 2007. The properties of the time series variables are examined using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test and most of the incorporated variables in the study was found to have a unit root at level. The Augmented Engle-Granger Cointegration test result revealed that the stock market performance in Nigeria is mainly determined by macroeconomic forces in the long-run. However, the empirical analysis showed that the NSE all share index is more responsive to changes in exchange rate, inflation rate, money supply, and real output. While, the entire incorporated macroeconomic variables were found to have simultaneous and significant impact on the Nigerian capital market performance in the long-run. The study recommended that investors should pay close attention to exchange rate, inflation, money supply, and economic growth rather than treasury bill rate in the long-run in their investment decision.
Wrist Rehabilitation in Chronic Stroke Patients by Means of Adaptive, Progressive Robot-Aided Therapy

Despite distal arm impairment after brain injury is an extremely disabling consequence of neurological damage, most studies on robotic therapy are mainly focused on recovery of proximal upper limb motor functions, routing the major efforts in rehabilitation to shoulder and elbow joints. In the present study we developed a novel therapeutic protocol aimed at restoring wrist functionality in chronic stroke patients. A haptic three DoFs (degrees of freedom) robot has been used to quantify motor impairment and assist wrist and forearm articular movements: flexion/extension (FE), abduction/adduction (AA), pronation/supination (PS). This preliminary study involved nine stroke patients, from a mild to severe level of impairment. Therapy consisted in ten 1-hour sessions over a period of five weeks. The novelty of the approach was the adaptive control scheme which trained wrist movements with slow oscillatory patterns of small amplitude and progressively increasing bias, in order to maximize the recovery of the active range of motion. The primary outcome was a change in the active RoM (range of motion) for each DoF and a change of motor function, as measured by the Fugl-Meyer assessment of arm physical performance after stroke (FMA). The secondary outcome was the score on the Wolf Motor Function Test (WOLF). The FMA score reported a significant improvement (average of 9.33±1.89 points), revealing a reduction of the upper extremity motor impairment over the sessions; moreover, a detailed component analysis of the score hinted at some degree of motor recovery transfer from the distal, trained parts of the arm to the proximal untrained parts. WOLF showed an improvement of 8.31±2.77 points, highlighting an increase in functional capability for the whole arm. The active RoM displayed a remarkable improvement. Moreover, a three-months follow up assessment reported long lasting benefits in both distal and proximal arm functionalities. The experimental results of this preliminary clinical study provide enough empirical evidence for introducing the novel progressive, adaptive, gentle robotic assistance of wrist movements in the clinical practice, consolidating the evaluation of its efficacy by means of a controlled clinical trial.
Character-Level Question Answering with Attention

We show that a character-level encoderdecoder framework can be successfully applied to question answering with a structured knowledge base. We use our model for singlerelation question answering and demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on the SimpleQuestions dataset (Bordes et al., 2015), where we improve state-of-the-art accuracy from 63.9% to 70.9%, without use of ensembles. Importantly, our character-level model has 16x fewer parameters than an equivalent word-level model, can be learned with significantly less data compared to previous work, which relies on data augmentation, and is robust to new entities in testing. 1
A large-scale cluster randomized trial to determine the effects of community-based dietary sodium reduction--the China Rural Health Initiative Sodium Reduction Study.

BACKGROUND
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death and disability in China. High blood pressure caused by excess intake of dietary sodium is widespread and an effective sodium reduction program has potential to improve cardiovascular health.


DESIGN
This study is a large-scale, cluster-randomized, trial done in five Northern Chinese provinces. Two counties have been selected from each province and 12 townships in each county making a total of 120 clusters. Within each township one village has been selected for participation with 1:1 randomization stratified by county. The sodium reduction intervention comprises community health education and a food supply strategy based upon providing access to salt substitute. Subsidization of the price of salt substitute was done in 30 intervention villages selected at random. Control villages continued usual practices. The primary outcome for the study is dietary sodium intake level estimated from assays of 24-hour urine.


TRIAL STATUS
The trial recruited and randomized 120 townships in April 2011. The sodium reduction program was commenced in the 60 intervention villages between May and June of that year with outcome surveys scheduled for October to December 2012. Baseline data collection shows that randomisation achieved good balance across groups.


DISCUSSION
The establishment of the China Rural Health Initiative has enabled the launch of this large-scale trial designed to identify a novel, scalable strategy for reduction of dietary sodium and control of blood pressure. If proved effective, the intervention could plausibly be implemented at low cost in large parts of China and other countries worldwide.
Regional Culture of Vocabulary of the Northest Dialect

Language and culture is closely related to human language is the carrier of social and cultural.As a district common national dialect,it is the carrier of the local culture.Northeastern Northeastern dialect not only reflects the unique geographical location,and also reflects the historical changes in the Northeast and ethnic customs and culture.