LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Complex life cycles and density dependence: assessing the contribution of egg mortality to amphibian declines

In the last decade there has been increasing evidence of amphibian declines from relatively pristine areas. Some declines are hypothesized to be the result of egg mortality caused by factors such as elevated solar UV-B irradiation, chemical pollutants, pathogenic fungi, and climate change. However, the population-level consequences of egg mortality have not been examined explicitly, and may be complicated by density dependence in intervening life-history stages. Here we develop a demographic model for two amphibians with contrasting life-history strategies, Bufo boreas and Ambystoma macrodactylum. We then use the complementary approaches of elasticity and limitation to examine the relationships among stage-specific survival rates, larval-stage density dependence and amphibian population dynamics. Elasticity analyses showed that for a range of density dependence scenarios both species were more sensitive to changes in post-embryonic survival parameters, particularly juvenile survival, than to egg survival, suggesting that mortality of later stages may play an important role in driving declines. Limitation analyses revealed that larval density dependence can dramatically alter the consequences of early mortality, reducing or even reversing the expected population-level effects of egg mortality. Thus, greater focus on later life stages and density dependence is called for to accurately assess how stressors are likely to affect amphibian populations of conservation concern.
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES IN RELATION TO FINANCIAL SUCCESS OF THE ENTERPRISE

ŠVÁROVÁ MONIKA, VRCHOTA JAROSLAV: Strategic management in micro, small and medium-sized businesses in relation to fi nancial success of the enterprise. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 2013, LXI, No. 7, pp. 2859–2866 Small and medium sized enterprises play an essential role in the economy of the Czech Republic as a report of development of small and medium-sized enterprises and its support from 2010 announces. They are the source of development of towns, regions and the state itself. Small and medium-sized enterprises represent 99.84 % of the whole business subjects. Statistic data underline this positionthey indicate that small and medium-sized enterprises employ 2/3 employees. Therefore, occupying small and medium-sized enterprises are to be taken as priority. Strategic management on the level of small and medium-sized enterprises is, as number of authors write, diverse. Small enterprises including micro have less access to capital, they have no money for employing specialists in the fi eld, and they solve administration primarily. The aim of this follow-up GAJU project contribution concerned on process analysis of small and medium-sized enterprises is to summarize the gained results from the view of comparison of the level of strategic management in small and medium-sized enterprises. Nowadays, numbers of enterprises are thinking about whether they are able to remain in the market as an established company, they explore the possibility of improving its position. There is a question for small and medium-sized enterprises managementcan strategic management be used as an instrument for increasing competitiveness? The results show that SMEs with a clearly defi ned strategy show better results of fi nancial health (IN99 and ROA) than companies without a defi ned strategy. In terms of business focus, we were able to demonstrate positive relationship between strategy and fi nance only for companies in the construction industry, on the signifi cance level of 0.05. Compared to manufacturers and service-providing companies where this relation is not statistically signifi cant. strategic management, strategy, IN99, ROA
Towards Quantitative Spatial Models of Seabed Sediment Composition

There is a need for fit-for-purpose maps for accurately depicting the types of seabed substrate and habitat and the properties of the seabed for the benefits of research, resource management, conservation and spatial planning. The aim of this study is to determine whether it is possible to predict substrate composition across a large area of seabed using legacy grain-size data and environmental predictors. The study area includes the North Sea up to approximately 58.44°N and the United Kingdom's parts of the English Channel and the Celtic Seas. The analysis combines outputs from hydrodynamic models as well as optical remote sensing data from satellite platforms and bathymetric variables, which are mainly derived from acoustic remote sensing. We build a statistical regression model to make quantitative predictions of sediment composition (fractions of mud, sand and gravel) using the random forest algorithm. The compositional data is analysed on the additive log-ratio scale. An independent test set indicates that approximately 66% and 71% of the variability of the two log-ratio variables are explained by the predictive models. A EUNIS substrate model, derived from the predicted sediment composition, achieved an overall accuracy of 83% and a kappa coefficient of 0.60. We demonstrate that it is feasible to spatially predict the seabed sediment composition across a large area of continental shelf in a repeatable and validated way. We also highlight the potential for further improvements to the method.
Internationally Common Features of Public Old-Age Pensions, and Their Implications for Models of the Public Sector

What does the international history of old-age Social Security program design say about the forces creating and sustaining it as a public program? First, because many program features are internationally common, and/or explained by country characteristics, SS may emerge and grow due to systematic political and economic forces. Second, some observations suggest that political forces are important: (a) SS redistributes from young to old, even when the elderly consume as much or more than do the young, and (b) benefits increase with lifetime earnings and are hardly means-tested. On the other hand, it is not simply a matter of the elderly out-voting the young, because: (c) benefit formulas induce retirement, especially in the countries with the largest SS budgets, and (d) similar public pension programs emerge and grow under very different political regimes. We explain how empirical observations, and some currently unanswered empirical questions, relate to various public pension theories.
Multiobjective Intelligent Energy Management for a Microgrid

In this paper, a generalized formulation for intelligent energy management of a microgrid is proposed using artificial intelligence techniques jointly with linear-programming-based multiobjective optimization. The proposed multiobjective intelligent energy management aims to minimize the operation cost and the environmental impact of a microgrid, taking into account its preoperational variables as future availability of renewable energies and load demand (LD). An artificial neural network ensemble is developed to predict 24-h-ahead photovoltaic generation and 1-h-ahead wind power generation and LD. The proposed machine learning is characterized by enhanced learning model and generalization capability. The efficiency of the microgrid operation strongly depends on the battery scheduling process, which cannot be achieved through conventional optimization formulation. In this paper, a fuzzy logic expert system is used for battery scheduling. The proposed approach can handle uncertainties regarding to the fuzzy environment of the overall microgrid operation and the uncertainty related to the forecasted parameters. The results show considerable minimization on operation cost and emission level compared to literature microgrid energy management approaches based on opportunity charging and Heuristic Flowchart (HF) battery management.
Beyond Finite Layer Neural Networks: Bridging Deep Architectures and Numerical Differential Equations

Deep neural networks have become the stateof-the-art models in numerous machine learning tasks. However, general guidance to network architecture design is still missing. In our work, we bridge deep neural network design with numerical differential equations. We show that many effective networks, such as ResNet, PolyNet, FractalNet and RevNet, can be interpreted as different numerical discretizations of differential equations. This finding brings us a brand new perspective on the design of effective deep architectures. We can take advantage of the rich knowledge in numerical analysis to guide us in designing new and potentially more effective deep networks. As an example, we propose a linear multi-step architecture (LM-architecture) which is inspired by the linear multi-step method solving ordinary differential equations. The LMarchitecture is an effective structure that can be used on any ResNet-like networks. In particular, we demonstrate that LM-ResNet and LMResNeXt (i.e. the networks obtained by applying the LM-architecture on ResNet and ResNeXt respectively) can achieve noticeably higher accuracy than ResNet and ResNeXt on both CIFAR and ImageNet with comparable numbers of trainable parameters. In particular, on both CIFAR and ImageNet, LM-ResNet/LM-ResNeXt can significantly compress the original networkSchool of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China MGH/BWH Center for Clinical Data Science, Masschusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School Center for Data Science in Health and Medicine, Peking University Laboratory for Biomedical Image Analysis, Beijing Institute of Big Data Research Beijing International Center for Mathematical Research, Peking University Center for Data Science, Peking University. Correspondence to: Bin Dong <dongbin@math.pku.edu.cn>, Quanzheng Li <Li.Quanzheng@mgh.harvard.edu>. Proceedings of the 35 th International Conference on Machine Learning, Stockholm, Sweden, PMLR 80, 2018. Copyright 2018 by the author(s). s while maintaining a similar performance. This can be explained mathematically using the concept of modified equation from numerical analysis. Last but not least, we also establish a connection between stochastic control and noise injection in the training process which helps to improve generalization of the networks. Furthermore, by relating stochastic training strategy with stochastic dynamic system, we can easily apply stochastic training to the networks with the LM-architecture. As an example, we introduced stochastic depth to LM-ResNet and achieve significant improvement over the original LM-ResNet on CIFAR10.
Efficacy and safety of once-daily darunavir/ritonavir versus lopinavir/ritonavir in treatment-naive HIV-1-infected patients at week 48.

BACKGROUND
The present primary analysis of AntiRetroviral Therapy with TMC114 ExaMined In naive Subjects (ARTEMIS) compares the efficacy and safety of once-daily darunavir/ritonavir (DRV/r) with that of lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) in treatment-naive patients.


METHODS
Patients with HIV-1 RNA at least 5000 copies/ml were stratified by HIV-1 RNA and CD4 cell count in a phase III, open-label trial, and randomized to receive DRV/r 800/100 mg qd or LPV/r 800/200 mg total daily dose (bid or qd) plus fixed-dose tenofovir and emtricitabine for 192 weeks. The primary objective was to demonstrate non-inferiority of DRV/r as compared with LPV/r in HIV-1 RNA less than 50 copies/ml per-protocol time-to-loss of virologic response at 48 weeks.


RESULTS
Six hundred and eighty-nine patients were randomized and treated; mean baseline HIV-1 RNA: 4.85 log10 copies/ml and median CD4 count: 225 cells/microl. At 48 weeks, 84% of DRV/r and 78% of LPV/r patients achieved HIV-1 RNA less than 50 copies/ml (estimated difference = 5.6 [95% confidence interval -0.1-11]%), demonstrating non-inferiority of DRV/r as compared with LPV/r (P < 0.001; per-protocol time-to-loss of virologic response). Patients with HIV-1 RNA at least 100 000 copies/ml had a significantly higher response rate with DRV/r (79%) versus LPV/r (67%; P < 0.05). Median CD4 cell count increases (non-completer = failure; cells/mul) were 137 for DRV/r and 141 for LPV/r. DRV/r had a lower incidence of possibly treatment-related grade 2-4 gastrointestinal-related adverse events (7 versus 14%) and treatment-related moderate-to-severe diarrhea (4 versus 10%) than LPV/r. Adverse events leading to discontinuation were DRV/r: 3% and LPV/r: 7%.


CONCLUSION
DRV/r 800/100 mg qd was non-inferior to LPV/r 800/200 mg at 48 weeks, with a more favorable safety profile. Significantly higher response rates were observed with DRV/r in patients with HIV-1 RNA at least 100 000 copies/ml. DRV/r 800/100 mg offers a new effective and well tolerated once-daily, first-line treatment option for treatment-naive patients.
The development of a "reduced logMAR" visual acuity chart for use in routine clinical practice.

BACKGROUND/AIMS
The advantages of logMAR acuity data over the Snellen fraction are well known, and yet existing logMAR charts have not been adopted into routine ophthalmic clinical use. As this may be due in part to the time required for a logMAR measurement, this study was performed to determine whether an abbreviated logMAR chart design could combine the advantages of existing charts with a clinically acceptable measurement time.


METHODS
The test-retest variability, agreement (with the gold standard), and time taken for "single letter" (interpolated) acuity measurements taken using three prototype "reduced logMAR" (RLM) charts and the Snellen chart were compared with those of the ETDRS chart which acted as the gold standard. The Snellen chart was also scored with the more familiar "line assignment" method. The subjects undergoing these measurements were drawn from a typical clinical outpatient population exhibiting a range of acuities.


RESULTS
The RLM A prototype chart achieved a test-retest variability of +/-0.24 logMAR compared with +/-0.18 for the ETDRS chart. Test-retest variability for the Snellen chart was +/-0.24 logMAR using clinically prohibitive "single letter" scoring increasing to +/-0.33 with the more usual "line assignment" method. All charts produced acuity data which agreed well with those of the ETDRS chart. "Single letter" acuity measurements using the prototype RLM charts were completed in approximately half the time of those taken using the ETDRS and Snellen charts. The duration of a Snellen "line assignment" measurement was not evaluated.


CONCLUSION
The RLM A chart offers an acceptable level of test-retest variability when compared with the gold standard ETDRS chart, while reducing the measurement time by half. Also, by allowing a faster, less variable acuity measurement than the Snellen chart, the RLM A chart can bring the benefits of logMAR acuity to routine clinical practice.
Asymptotical Stability of Cohen-Grossberg Neural Networks Involving S-Type Distributed Delays

Abstract In this paper, we have introduced the S-type distributed delays into the Cohen-Grossberg neural networks since this type of delays may arise in practice and is more general than usual type of distributed delays. In order to use the topological degree method in providing the existence of the equilibrium except for zero equilibrium, some new analysis techniques are demonstrated. Moreover by means of simple but efficient Lyapunov functions we have also presented some sufficient conditions to ensure the exponential stability or asymptotically stable of those equilibria. Our results , which are easily checked and are more general than those in the existing articles, have avoided the deficiency as that in the existing Refs.
Does laser injury induce a different neovascularisation pattern from mechanical or ischaemic injuries?

AIM
To analyse the arteriolar pattern of laser induced channels and their surroundings compared with mechanical and ischaemic injury.


METHODS
24 pigs were randomised to a myocardial infarction group, a transmyocardial laser revascularisation group, a needle group, or a control group. In the laser revascularisation and needle groups, five channels were created either with a 1.75 mm probe holmium-YAG laser or a Tru-cut needle of the same size. Animals were killed 28 days later. Morphometric analysis of vascular density was expressed as the mean (SD) number of arteriolar structures/cm(2).


RESULTS
Laser and needle channels were completely invaded by granulation tissue. Their surface areas did not differ significantly: 2.28 (0.7) mm(2) and 2.38 (1.1) mm(2), respectively (p = 0.82). Within both types of channel, arteriolar density was significantly increased in comparison with the myocardial infarction scar: 197 (52)/cm(2) and 190 (64)/cm(2), respectively (p = 0.8) versus 56 (20)/cm(2) (p < 0.001 for both comparisons). The area of 1 mm width immediately adjacent to the laser and needle channels showed a density of 25 (16)/cm(2) and 23 (18)/cm(2), respectively, which is similar to that of normal tissue (28 (10)/cm(2); p = 0.6 and p = 0.4, respectively). The mean arteriolar diameter was similar throughout all the regions analysed.


CONCLUSIONS
Both laser and needle channels produce a similar increase in arteriolar structures, which is limited to the lesion itself. This suggests that laser injury is not more potent as an angiogenic stimulator than mechanical injury, which in turn is superior to infarction.
Opioid dosing trends and mortality in Washington State workers' compensation, 1996-2002.

BACKGROUND
The use of opioids for chronic non-cancer pain has increased in the United States since state laws were relaxed in the late 1990s. These policy changes occurred despite scanty scientific evidence that chronic use of opioids was safe and effective.


METHODS
We examined opiate prescriptions and dosing patterns (from computerized databases, 1996 to 2002), and accidental poisoning deaths attributable to opioid use (from death certificates, 1995 to 2002), in the Washington State workers' compensation system.


RESULTS
Opioid prescriptions increased only modestly between 1996 and 2002. However, prescriptions for the most potent opioids (Schedule II), as a percentage of all scheduled opioid prescriptions (II, III, and IV), increased from 19.3% in 1996 to 37.2% in 2002. Among long-acting opioids, the average daily morphine equivalent dose increased by 50%, to 132 mg/day. Thirty-two deaths were definitely or probably related to accidental overdose of opioids. The majority of deaths involved men (84%) and smokers (69%).


CONCLUSIONS
The reasons for escalating doses of the most potent opioids are unknown, but it is possible that tolerance or opioid-induced abnormal pain sensitivity may be occurring in some workers who use opioids for chronic pain. Opioid-related deaths in this population may be preventable through use of prudent guidelines regarding opioid use for chronic pain.
A compact soft actuator unit for small scale human friendly robots

This paper presents the development of a new compact soft actuation unit intended to be used in multi degree of freedom and small scale robotic systems such as the child humanoid robot “iCub” [1]. Compared to the other existing series elastic linear or rotary implementations the proposed design shows high integration density and wider passive deflection. The miniaturization of the newly developed high performance unit was achieved with a use of a new rotary spring module based on a novel arrangement of linear springs.
Anger, depression and anxiety associated with endothelial function in childhood and adolescence.

OBJECTIVE
Psychosocial adversity is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adults. The authors assessed associations of reactive hyperaemia peripheral arterial tonometry (RH-PAT), a measure of endothelial function predictive of CVD, with self-assessed psychological health among school children.


METHODS
A total of 248 healthy school children (mean (SD) age 14.0 (1.0); 136 girls and 112 boys) underwent RH-PAT testing. They completed the Beck Youth Inventories (BYI) of emotional and social impairment scales, which is used to screen for depression, anxiety, anger and disruptive behaviour.


RESULTS
No sex differences were observed for the RH-PAT score. Statistically significant differences were observed for the BYI scores; girls had higher scores for depression, anger and anxiety. Among the girls, there were statistically significant associations between lower RH-PAT scores and higher scores for anger (B coefficient=-0.100, p=0.040), depression (-0.108, p=0.009) and anxiety (-0.138, p=0.039) after adjustment for age. Among the boys, disruptive behaviour was associated with higher RH-PAT scores (0.09, p=0.006).


CONCLUSIONS
The girls have higher levels of self-assessed anger; depression and anxiety compared with the boys, and these characteristics are associated with lower RH-PAT scores, indicating attenuated endothelial function. Among the boys, disruptive behaviour was associated with better endothelial function. Although psychological ill-health is associated with impaired endothelial function and CVD among adults, such processes may also be relevant to children. Psychosocial adversity in childhood might be a risk factor for subsequent CVD.
EMI-Resistant CMOS Differential Input Stages

This paper studies and compares the performances of CMOS differential input stages with a high degree of immunity against electromagnetic interferences (EMIs) and introduces a source-buffered differential pair which is very resistant to EMI coupled at its inputs. The EMI behavior of this source-buffered differential-pair topology has been evaluated with a test chip: When injecting an EMI signal of 750 mV rms at the input terminals, the measured maximal EMI-induced input offset voltage corresponds to 116 mV for the source-buffered topology compared with 610 mV for the classic differential pair, which constitutes a major improvement.
Potential responders to FOLFOX therapy for colorectal cancer by Random Forests analysis

Background:Molecular characterisation using gene-expression profiling will undoubtedly improve the prediction of treatment responses, and ultimately, the clinical outcome of cancer patients.Methods:To establish the procedures to identify responders to FOLFOX therapy, 83 colorectal cancer (CRC) patients including 42 responders and 41 non-responders were divided into training (54 patients) and test (29 patients) sets. Using Random Forests (RF) algorithm in the training set, predictor genes for FOLFOX therapy were identified, which were applied to test samples and sensitivity, specificity, and out-of-bag classification accuracy were calculated.Results:In the training set, 22 of 27 responders (81.4% sensitivity) and 23 of 27 non-responders (85.1% specificity) were correctly classified. To improve the prediction model, we removed the outliers determined by RF, and the model could correctly classify 21 of 23 responders (91.3%) and 22 of 23 non-responders (95.6%) in the training set, and 80.0% sensitivity and 92.8% specificity, with an accuracy of 69.2% in 29 independent test samples.Conclusion:Random Forests on gene-expression data for CRC patients was effectively able to stratify responders to FOLFOX therapy with high accuracy, and use of pharmacogenomics in anticancer therapy is the first step in planning personalised therapy.
Reply to 'On a Recent Proposal of Faster than Light Quantum Communication' II

In a recent paper (1) the author proposed the possibility of an experiment to perform faster-than-light communication via the collapse of the quantum wave-function. This was analyzed by Bassi and Ghirardi (2), and it is believed that this analysis itself merits a detailed examination. c