LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Sustained responses and loss of HBsAg in HBeAg-negative patients with chronic hepatitis B who stop long-term treatment with adefovir.

BACKGROUND & AIMS
Little is known about the biochemical and virological effects of stopping long-term nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy for hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB).


METHODS
We performed a cohort observational study, following 33 HBeAg-negative patients with CHB, undetectable serum HBV DNA, and normal levels of aminotransferases after long-term (4 or 5 years) treatment with adefovir dipivoxil (ADV). All patients were followed for 5.5 years; follow-up visits included measurements of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), and HBV DNA monthly for the first 6 months and every 3-6 months thereafter. Various factors were measured at baseline, the end of treatment (EOT), and following treatment to identify those associated with clearance of HBsAg.


RESULTS
During the first few months of the postdiscontinuation period, all patients experienced virological and 25 (76%) had biochemical relapse. During the follow-up period, 18 patients (55%) who had discontinued antiviral therapy achieved sustained response (HBV DNA level <2000 IU/L, persistently normal level of ALT). Among these, 13 (72%) cleared HBsAg. Fifteen patients (45%) with virological and/or biochemical relapse were re-treated with oral antiviral agents (11 during the first 18 months and 4 after the third year), without evidence of liver decompensation; only 1 lost HBsAg (6%). Higher pretreatment and EOT levels of ALT, no previous treatment with interferon, and lower level of HBsAg at the EOT were significantly associated with HBsAg clearance based on multivariate analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
In HBeAg-negative patients with CHB, it is safe and effective to discontinue ADV therapy after 4 or 5 years; 55% of patients have sustained responses, and 39% of patients lose HBsAg.
Improvement of Surface Flashover Performance in Vacuum of A-B-A Insulator by Adopting ZnO Varistor Ceramics as Layer A

In this paper, a new insulation system of ZnO varistor ceramic-Al2O3 ceramic-ZnO varistor ceramic insulators (defined as A-B-A insulators) is proposed to improve surface flashover performance in vacuum so that it is possible to reduce the electric field at the vacuum-insulator-cathode triple junction (CTJ) by changing the conductivity and permittivity of the ZnO varistor ceramic layer of the A-B-A insulators. Then, the influences of the conductivity and permittivity of ZnO varistor ceramics on the dc and impulse surface flashover voltage in vacuum were experimentally investigated, respectively. It was found that the dc surface flashover voltage of the samples increases greatly with a decrease of the dc conductivity of the ZnO varistor ceramic layer and is improved by 81% compared with the Al2O3 ceramic sample. It is attributed to the decrease of the electric field at the vacuum-layer A-CTJ caused by the conductivity of layer A larger than that of layer B and, furthermore, by the nonlinear current-voltage characteristics of layer A, i.e., ZnO varistor ceramics. Additionally, the impulse surface flashover voltage first increases and then decreases with a decrease of the permittivity of the ZnO varistor ceramic layer and is increased by 136%. It is explained by the decrease of the electric field at the triple junction by the permittivity of layer A larger than that of layer B and, furthermore, by the nonlinear current-voltage characteristics of layer A. These results demonstrate the insulation system of the ZnO varistor ceramic-Al2O3 ceramic-ZnO varistor ceramic insulators as an effective way to improve surface flashover performance in vacuum.
RetroVisor : Nested Virtualization for Multi IaaS VM Availability

Nested virtualization [1] provides an extra layer of virtualization to enhance security with fairly reasonable performance impact. Usercentric vision of cloud computing gives a high-level of control on the whole infrastructure [2], such as untrusted dom0 [3, 4]. This paper introduces RetroVisor, a security architecture to seamlessly run a virtual machine (VM) on multiple hypervisors simultaneously. We argue that this approach delivers high-availability and provides strong guarantees on multi IaaS infrastructures. The user can perform detection and remediation against potential hypervisors weaknesses, unexpected behaviors and exploits.
A Distributed Deep Representation Learning Model for Big Image Data Classification

This paper describes an effective and efficient image classification framework nominated distributed deep representation learning model (DDRL). The aim is to strike the balance between the computational intensive deep learning approaches (tuned parameters) which are intended for distributed computing, and the approaches that focused on the designed parameters but often limited by sequential computing and cannot scale up. In the evaluation of our approach, it is shown that DDRL is able to achieve state-of-art classification accuracy efficiently on both medium and large datasets. The result implies that our approach is more efficient than the conventional deep learning approaches, and can be applied to big data that is too complex for parameter designing focused approaches. More specifically, DDRL contains two main components, i.e., feature extraction and selection. A hierarchical distributed deep representation learning algorithm is designed to extract image statistics and a nonlinear mapping algorithm is used to map the inherent statistics into abstract features. Both algorithms are carefully designed to avoid millions of parameters tuning. This leads to a more compact solution for image classification of big data. We note that the proposed approach is designed to be friendly with parallel computing. It is generic and easy to be deployed to different distributed computing resources. In the experiments, the large∗Corresponding author. Tel.:+86 13981763623; Fax: +86-28-61831655. Email address: ledong@uestc.edu.cn (Le Dong) Preprint submitted to Pattern Recognition July 5, 2016 scale image datasets are classified with a DDRM implementation on Hadoop MapReduce, which shows high scalability and resilience.
Genetic analysis and QTL mapping of early root bulking in an F1 population of non-inbred parents in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz)

The genetic basis of early bulking in cassava was studied in a replicated, multi-locational trial using 144 F1 progeny derived from an intra-specific cross between two non-inbred parents. A second, sequential harvest experiment examined the relative importance of eight yield-related traits on early bulking and their QTLs during the crop growth cycle. Our objectives were to identify traits, and genes controlling them, strongly associated with early yield as a first step to marker-assisted improvement of the trait. Multiple linear regression analysis and stepwise regression of early yield on eight yield-related traits revealed harvest index, dry foliage weight and root diameter as the most important factors associated with early yield. A total of 18 QTLs controlling early yield were identified in the first and second experiments and 27 QTLs, 2 for dry foliage weight, 8 for harvest index and 17 for root diameter, in the second experiment. The individual effects of alleles at these QTLs identified ranged from 7% to 33% of the phenotypic variance explained. Seven of 18 QTLs found for early yield (39%) coincided with QTLs associated with one or more traits with significant influence on early yield. The results show that sink and source capacities are very important in determining early yield. The identification of a number of QTLs with positive effect for increased early yield provides an opportunity for marker-assisted selection and improvement of early bulking potential in cassava.
Modeling nonlinear road traffic networks for junction control

The paper introduces a method of mathematical modeling of high scale road traffic networks, where a new special hypermatrix structure is intended to be used. The structure describes the inner–inner, inner–outer and outer–outer relations, and laws of a network area. The research examines the nonlinear equation system. The analysed model can be applied to the testing and planning of large-scale road traffic networks and the regulation of traffic systems. The elaborated model is in state space form, where the states are vehicle densities on a particular lane and the dynamics are described by a nonlinear state constrained positive system. This model can be used directly for simulation and analysis and as a starting point for investigating various control strategies. The stability of the traffic over the network can be analyzed by constructing a linear Lyapunov function and the associated theory. The model points out that in intersection control one must take the traffic density values of both the input and the output sections into account. Generally, the control of any domain has to take the density of input and output sections into consideration.
The triumph of pragmatism over dogmatism or death of the Shibboleths

Managerial thinking has been subject to dogma for a very long time, whether in socialist or capitalist economies. Based on a group of research papers discussed at a conference in Barcelona, the author develops the argument that pragmatism is replacing dogmatism, almost universally. He illustrates his theme with examples from the discussion.
Characteristics of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in neonates: a nationwide survey in Japan.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the etiology, prognosis, and appropriate treatment of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) in neonates.


STUDY DESIGN
We collected information on neonates in whom HLH was diagnosed between 1997 and 2007 from participating members of the Japanese Society of Pediatric Hematology.


RESULTS
HLH was diagnosed in 20 patients within 4 weeks after birth. Of the diagnostic criteria for HLH-2004, the incidence of fever was quite low in preterm infants, and hypertriglyceridemia and neutropenia were uncommon. Familial HLH (n = 6) or severe combined immunodeficiency-associated HLH (n = 1) was diagnosed in 7 patients, and 2 of them have survived. Herpes simplex virus-associated HLH was diagnosed in 6 patients, and 2 of them have survived. The overall survival rate for the 20 patients was 40%.


CONCLUSIONS
HLH is rare in neonates and has a poor prognosis. Early diagnosis and immediate treatment are required when considering the possibility of herpes simplex virus-associated or familial HLH.
Carotid artery atherosclerosis among 65-year-old Swedish men - a population-based screening study.

OBJECTIVE
There are limited contemporary epidemiological data on the prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis in the general population. The aim was to determine the prevalence of and risk factors associated with carotid artery atherosclerosis among 65-year-old men.


METHODS
This was a population-based screening study. All 65-year-old men in the County of Uppsala, Sweden, who attended screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) 2007-2009, were invited for duplex scanning of the carotid arteries.


RESULTS
Of 4801 men invited, 4657 (97%) accepted. Carotid plaques (>2 × 6 mm) were observed in 1169 (25%) men, 94 (2.0%) had carotid stenoses (50-99%), and 15 (0.3%) had occluded carotid arteries. In a multivariate logistic regression model, smoking (OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.5-1.9), hypertension (1.5, 95% CI 1.3-1.7), diabetes mellitus (1.2, 95% CI 1.0-1.5), and coronary artery disease (1.5, 95% CI 1.3-1.8) were associated with prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis (plaque and/or stenosis). The use of antiplatelet agents and statins in participants with a carotid plaque was 20% and 29%, respectively. The corresponding figures in participants with a stenosis were 42% and 41%.


CONCLUSIONS
This study offers contemporary data on the prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis in a population-based cohort of 65-year-old men. Most of those at risk had no other clinical manifestation of atherosclerosis, and therefore had no secondary prevention.
Recursive X-Y cut using bounding boxes of connected components

A top-down page segmentation technique known as the recursive X-Y cut decomposes a document image recursively into a set of rectanguzar blocks. This paper proposes that the recursive X-Y cut be implemented using bounding bozes of connected components of black pixels instead of using image pizels. The advantage is that great improvement can be achieved in computation. In fact, once bounding boxes of connected components are obtained, the recursive X-Y cut is completed within an order of a second on Spare-10 workutations for letter-sized document images scanned at 300 dpi resolution. keywords: page segmentation, recursive X-Y cut, projection profile, connected components
Time spent in outdoor activities in relation to myopia prevention and control: a meta‐analysis and systematic review

Outdoor time is considered to reduce the risk of developing myopia. The purpose is to evaluate the evidence for association between time outdoors and (1) risk of onset of myopia (incident/prevalent myopia); (2) risk of a myopic shift in refractive error and c) risk of progression in myopes only. A systematic review followed by a meta-analysis and a dose-response analysis of relevant evidence from literature was conducted. PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library were searched for relevant papers. Of the 51 articles with relevant data, 25 were included in the meta-analysis and dose-response analysis. Twenty-three of the 25 articles involved children. Risk ratio (RR) for binary variables and weighted mean difference (WMD) for continuous variables were conducted. Mantel-Haenszel random-effects model was used to pool the data for meta-analysis. Statistical heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 test with I2  ≥ 50% considered to indicate high heterogeneity. Additionally, subgroup analyses (based on participant's age, prevalence of myopia and study type) and sensitivity analyses were conducted. A significant protective effect of outdoor time was found for incident myopia (clinical trials: risk ratio (RR) = 0.536, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.338 to 0.850; longitudinal cohort studies: RR = 0.574, 95% CI = 0.395 to 0.834) and prevalent myopia (cross-sectional studies: OR = 0.964, 95% CI = 0.945 to 0.982). With dose-response analysis, an inverse nonlinear relationship was found with increased time outdoors reducing the risk of incident myopia. Also, pooled results from clinical trials indicated that when outdoor time was used as an intervention, there was a reduced myopic shift of -0.30 D (in both myopes and nonmyopes) compared with the control group (WMD = -0.30, 95% CI = -0.18 to -0.41) after 3 years of follow-up. However, when only myopes were considered, dose-response analysis did not find a relationship between time outdoors and myopic progression (R2  = 0.00064). Increased time outdoors is effective in preventing the onset of myopia as well as in slowing the myopic shift in refractive error. But paradoxically, outdoor time was not effective in slowing progression in eyes that were already myopic. Further studies evaluating effect of outdoor in various doses and objective measurements of time outdoors may help improve our understanding of the role played by outdoors in onset and management of myopia.
Antimicrobial polymers as synthetic mimics of host-defense peptides.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria 'superbugs' are an emerging threat to public health due to the decrease in effective antibiotics as well as the slowed pace of development of new antibiotics to replace those that become ineffective. The need for new antimicrobial agents is a well-documented issue relating to world health. Tremendous efforts have been given to developing compounds that not only show high efficacy, but also those that are less susceptible to resistance development in the bacteria. However, the development of newer, stronger antibiotics which can overcome these acquired resistances is still a scientific challenge because a new mode of antimicrobial action is likely required. To that end, amphiphilic, cationic polymers have emerged as a promising candidate for further development as an antimicrobial agent with decreased potential for resistance development. These polymers are designed to mimic naturally occurring host-defense antimicrobial peptides which act on bacterial cell walls or membranes. Antimicrobial-peptide mimetic polymers display antibacterial activity against a broad spectrum of bacteria including drug-resistant strains and are less susceptible to resistance development in bacteria. These polymers also showed selective activity to bacteria over mammalian cells. Antimicrobial polymers provide a new molecular framework for chemical modification and adaptation to tune their biological functions. The peptide-mimetic design of antimicrobial polymers will be versatile, generating a new generation of antibiotics toward implementation of polymers in biomedical applications.
Incremental reconstruction of sharp edges on mesh surfaces

Limited by the regular grids in computing, many modelling approaches (e.g. field-based methods) sample 3D shape insensitive to sharp features therefore exhibit aliasing errors, by which a lot of sharp edges and corners are lost on the reconstructed surface. An incremental approach for recovering sharp edges on an insensitive sampled triangular mesh is presented in this paper, so that shape approximation errors are greatly reduced. Either chamfered or blended sharp edges on an input triangular mesh could be successfully reconstructed by the signals inherent in the mesh. As a non-iterative method, our approach could be finished in a very short time comparing to those diffusion-based sharp-feature reproducers. The region embedding sharp features is first identified through normal variations. The positions of vertices in the sharp-feature embedded region are then predicted progressively from outer to the inner of sharp regions so that sharp edges could be recovered in the sense of region shrinking. q 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Choosing knowledge management strategies by using a combined ANP and DEMATEL approach

Numerous companies are expecting their knowledge management (KM) to be performed effectively in order to leverage and transform the knowledge into competitive advantages. However, here raises a critical issue of how companies can better evaluate and select a favorable KM strategy prior to a successful KM implementation. The KM strategy selection is a kind of multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem, which requires considering a large number of complex factors as multiple evaluation criteria. A robust MCDM method should consider the interactions among criteria. The analytic network process (ANP) is a relatively new MCDM method which can deal with all kinds of interactions systematically. Moreover, the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) not only can convert the relations between cause and effect of criteria into a visual structural model, but also can be used as a way to handle the inner dependences within a set of criteria. Hence, this paper proposes an effective solution based on a combined ANP and DEMATEL approach to help companies that need to evaluate and select KM strategies. Additionally, an empirical study is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed method. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Which extended paramedic skills are making an impact in emergency care and can be related to the UK paramedic system? A systematic review of the literature

BACKGROUND
Increasing demand on the UK emergency services is creating interest in reviewing the structure and content of ambulance services. Only 10% of emergency calls have been seen to be life-threatening and, thus, paramedics, as many patients' first contact with the health service, have the potential to use their skills to reduce the demand on Emergency Departments. This systematic literature review aimed to identify evidence of paramedics trained with extra skills and the impact of this on patient care and interrelating services such as General Practices or Emergency Departments.


METHODS
International literature from Medline, Embase, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), ProQuest, Scopus and grey literature from 1990 were included. Articles about any prehospital emergency care provider trained with extra skill(s) beyond their baseline competencies and evaluated in practice were included. Specific procedures for certain conditions and the extensively evaluated UK Emergency Care Practitioner role were excluded.


RESULTS
8724 articles were identified, of which 19 met the inclusion criteria. 14 articles considered paramedic patient assessment and management skills, two articles considered paramedic safeguarding skills, two health education and learning sharing and one health information. There is valuable evidence for paramedic assessing and managing patients autonomously to reduce Emergency Department conveyance which is acceptable to patients and carers. Evidence for other paramedic skills is less robust, reflecting a difficulty with rigorous research in prehospital emergency care.


CONCLUSIONS
This review identifies many viable extra skills for paramedics but the evidence is not strong enough to guide policy. The findings should be used to guide future research, particularly into paramedic care for elderly people.
Pad++: A Zooming Graphical Interface for Exploring Alternate Interface Physics

We describe the current status of Pad++, a zooming graphical interface that we are exploring as an alternative to traditional window and icon-based approaches to interface design. We discuss the motivation for Pad++, describe the implementation, and present prototype applications. In addition, we introduce an informational physics strategy for interface design and briefly compare it with metaphor-based design strategies.
Approximate Stream Analytics in Apache Flink and Apache Spark Streaming

Approximate computing aims for efficient execution of workflows where an approximate output is sufficient instead of the exact output. The idea behind approximate computing is to compute over a representative sample instead of the entire input dataset. Thus, approximate computing — based on the chosen sample size — can make a systematic trade-off between the output accuracy and computation efficiency. Unfortunately, the state-of-the-art systems for approximate computing primarily target batch analytics, where the input data remains unchanged during the course of sampling. Thus, they are not well-suited for stream analytics. This motivated the design of StreamApprox— a stream analytics system for approximate computing. To realize this idea, we designed an online stratified reservoir sampling algorithm to produce approximate outputwith rigorous error bounds. Importantly, our proposed algorithm is generic and can be applied to two prominent types of stream processing systems: (1) batched stream processing such asApache Spark Streaming, and (2) pipelined stream processing such as Apache Flink. To showcase the effectiveness of our algorithm,we implemented StreamApprox as a fully functional prototype based on Apache Spark Streaming and Apache Flink. We evaluated StreamApprox using a set of microbenchmarks and real-world case studies. Our results show that Sparkand Flink-based StreamApprox systems achieve a speedup of 1.15×—3× compared to the respective native Spark Streaming and Flink executions, with varying sampling fraction of 80% to 10%. Furthermore, we have also implemented an improved baseline in addition to the native execution baseline — a Spark-based approximate computing system leveraging the existing sampling modules in Apache Spark. Compared to the improved baseline, our results show that StreamApprox achieves a speedup 1.1×—2.4× while maintaining the same accuracy level. This technical report is an extended version of our conference publication [39].