LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Al합금에 MO-PACVD법으로 증착시킨 Ti(CN) 코팅 층의 물성에 관한 연구

【A Ti(CN) layer was formed on aluminum alloy by using diethylamino titanium, hydrogen and nitrogen with the pulsed DC PACVD process. Effect of process parameters such as precursor evaporation temperature, duty ratio, frequency, voltage, $H_2$ / $N_2$ gas ratio on the properties of Ti(CN) layer were investigated. The layer thus obtained had high hardness and low friction coefficient. Detailed results on the hardness, surface morphology, XRD, WDS analysis, wear test and scratch test of this layer are presented.】
Xylose metabolism in the fungus Rhizopus oryzae: effect of growth and respiration on l(+)-lactic acid production

The fungus Rhizopus oryzae converts both glucose and xylose under aerobic conditions into chirally pure l(+)-lactic acid with by-products such as xylitol, glycerol, ethanol, carbon dioxide and fungal biomass. In this paper, we demonstrate that the production of lactic acid by R. oryzae CBS 112.07 only occurs under growing conditions. Deprivation of nutrients such as nitrogen, essential for fungal biomass formation, resulted in a cessation of lactic acid production. Complete xylose utilisation required a significantly lower C/N ratio (61/1) compared to glucose (201/1), caused by higher fungal biomass yields that were obtained with xylose as substrate. Decreasing the oxygen transfer rate resulted in decline of xylose consumption rates, whereas the conversion of glucose by R. oryzae was less affected. Both results were linked to the fact that R. oryzae CBS 112.07 utilises xylose via the two-step reduction/oxidation route. The consequences of these effects for R. oryzae as a potential lactic acid producer are discussed.
Changes in Psychosocial Functioning 1 Year After Mastectomy Alone, Delayed Breast Reconstruction, or Immediate Breast Reconstruction

In this study, we report on the changes in psychosocial functioning over 1 year following breast cancer surgery in 3 groups of women, including those with mastectomy alone, those with mastectomy and immediate reconstruction, and those with delayed reconstruction. Women with breast cancer at 2 teaching hospitals in Ontario who were undergoing mastectomy alone, mastectomy with immediate reconstruction, or delayed reconstruction were asked to complete a battery of psychosocial questionnaires at their preoperative appointment and 1 year following surgery. A total of 190 women consented to participate in the study and completed the presurgical questionnaires. There were no presurgical differences between the 3 groups in quality of life, anxiety, depression, or sexual functioning. However, women who were undergoing delayed breast reconstruction (i.e., already had a mastectomy) had higher levels of body stigma (P = 0.01), body concerns (P = 0.002), and transparency (P = 0.002) than women who were undergoing mastectomy alone or mastectomy with immediate reconstruction. Of these women, 158 (83.2%) completed the 1-year follow-up. There were no significant differences in any of the psychosocial functioning scores between the 3 groups. Contrary to the assumed psychological benefits of breast reconstruction, psychological distress was evident among women regardless of reconstruction or timing of reconstruction. Further, psychosocial functioning (including quality of life, sexual functioning, cancer-related distress, body image, depression, and anxiety) was not different at 1-year postsurgery between women with mastectomy alone, mastectomy with immediate reconstruction, and delayed reconstruction. These results suggest that women need psychosocial support after breast cancer diagnosis, even if they have breast reconstruction.
Deep Reinforcement Learning for Simulated Autonomous Vehicle Control

We investigate the use of Deep Q-Learning to control a simulated car via reinforcement learning. We start by implementing the approach of [5] ourselves, and then experimenting with various possible alterations to improve performance on our selected task. In particular, we experiment with various reward functions to induce specific driving behavior, double Q-learning, gradient update rules, and other hyperparameters. We find we are successfully able to train an agent to control the simulated car in JavaScript Racer [3] in some respects. Our agent successfully learned the turning operation, progressively gaining the ability to navigate larger sections of the simulated raceway without crashing. In obstacle avoidance, however, our agent faced challenges which we suspect are due to insufficient training time.
Machine Learning for Digital Document Processing: from Layout Analysis to Metadata Extraction

In the last years, the spread of computers and the Internet caused a significant amount of documents to be available in digital format. Collecting them in digital repositories raised problems that go beyond simple acquisition issues, and cause the need to organize and classify them in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the retrieval procedure. The success of such a process is tightly related to the ability of understanding the semantics of the document components and content. Since the obvious solution of manually creating and maintaining an updated index is clearly infeasible, due to the huge amount of data under consideration, there is a strong interest in methods that can provide solutions for automatically acquiring such a knowledge. This work presents a framework that intensively exploits intelligent techniques to support different tasks of automatic document processing from acquisition to indexing, from categorization to storing and retrieval. The prototypical version of the system DOMINUS is presented, whose main characteristic is the use of a Machine Learning Server, a suite of different inductive learning methods and systems, among which the more suitable for each specific document processing phase is chosen and applied. The core system is the incremental first-order logic learner INTHELEX. Thanks to incrementality, it can continuously update and refine the learned theories, dynamically extending its knowledge to handle even completely new classes of documents. Since DOMINUS is general and flexible, it can be embedded as a document management engine into many different Digital Library systems. Experiments in a real-world domain scenario, scientific conference management, confirmed the good performance of the proposed prototype.
The role of the basal ganglia in habit formation

Many organisms, especially humans, are characterized by their capacity for intentional, goal-directed actions. However, similar behaviours often proceed automatically, as habitual responses to antecedent stimuli. How are goal-directed actions transformed into habitual responses? Recent work combining modern behavioural assays and neurobiological analysis of the basal ganglia has begun to yield insights into the neural basis of habit formation.
Catchment classification and hydrologic similarity

Hydrology does not yet possess a generally agreed upon catchment classification system. Such a classification framework should provide a mapping of landscape form and hydro-climatic conditions on catchment function (including partition, storage, and release of water), while explicitly accounting for uncertainty and for variability at multiple temporal and spatial scales. This framework would provide an organizing principle, create a common language, guide modeling and measurement efforts, and provide constraints on predictions in ungauged basins, as well as on estimates of environmental change impacts. In this article, we (i) review existing approaches to define hydrologic similarity and to catchment classification; (ii) discuss outstanding components or characteristics that should be included in a classification scheme; and (iii) provide a basic framework for catchment classification as a starting point for further analysis. Possible metrics to describe form, hydro-climate, and function are suggested and discussed. We close the discussion with a list of requirements for the classification framework and open questions that require addressing in order to fully implement it. Open questions include: How can we best represent characteristics of form and hydro-climatic conditions? How does this representation change with spatial and temporal scale? What functions (partition, storage, and release) are relevant at what spatial and temporal scale? At what scale do internal structure and heterogeneity become important and need to be considered?
Corpus domain effects on distributional semantic modeling of medical terms

MOTIVATION
Automatically quantifying semantic similarity and relatedness between clinical terms is an important aspect of text mining from electronic health records, which are increasingly recognized as valuable sources of phenotypic information for clinical genomics and bioinformatics research. A key obstacle to development of semantic relatedness measures is the limited availability of large quantities of clinical text to researchers and developers outside of major medical centers. Text from general English and biomedical literature are freely available; however, their validity as a substitute for clinical domain to represent semantics of clinical terms remains to be demonstrated.


RESULTS
We constructed neural network representations of clinical terms found in a publicly available benchmark dataset manually labeled for semantic similarity and relatedness. Similarity and relatedness measures computed from text corpora in three domains (Clinical Notes, PubMed Central articles and Wikipedia) were compared using the benchmark as reference. We found that measures computed from full text of biomedical articles in PubMed Central repository (rho = 0.62 for similarity and 0.58 for relatedness) are on par with measures computed from clinical reports (rho = 0.60 for similarity and 0.57 for relatedness). We also evaluated the use of neural network based relatedness measures for query expansion in a clinical document retrieval task and a biomedical term word sense disambiguation task. We found that, with some limitations, biomedical articles may be used in lieu of clinical reports to represent the semantics of clinical terms and that distributional semantic methods are useful for clinical and biomedical natural language processing applications.


AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION
The software and reference standards used in this study to evaluate semantic similarity and relatedness measures are publicly available as detailed in the article.


CONTACT
pakh0002@umn.eduSupplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Mathematical relationships between metrics of chemical bioaccumulation in fish.

Five widely used metrics of bioaccumulation in fish are defined and discussed, namely the octanol-water partition coefficient (KOW ), bioconcentration factor (BCF), bioaccumulation factor (BAF), biomagnification factor (BMF), and trophic magnification factor (TMF). Algebraic relationships between these metrics are developed and discussed using conventional expressions for chemical uptake from water and food and first-order losses by respiration, egestion, biotransformation, and growth dilution. Two BCFs may be defined, namely as an equilibrium partition coefficient KFW or as a nonequilibrium BCFK in which egestion losses are included. Bioaccumulation factors are shown to be the product of the BCFK and a novel equilibrium multiplier M containing 2 ratios, namely, the diet-to-water concentration ratio and the ratio of uptake rate constants for respiration and dietary uptake. Biomagnification factors are shown to be proportional to the lipid-normalized ratio of the predator/prey values of BCFK and the ratio of the equilibrium multipliers. Relationships with TMFs are also discussed. The effects of chemical hydrophobicity, biotransformation, and growth are evaluated by applying the relationships to a range of illustrative chemicals of varying KOW in a linear 4-trophic-level food web with typical values for uptake and loss rate constants. The roles of respiratory and dietary intakes are demonstrated, and even slow rates of biotransformation and growth can significantly affect bioaccumulation. The BCFK s and the values of M can be regarded as the fundamental determinants of bioaccumulation and biomagnification in aquatic food webs. Analyzing data from food webs can be enhanced by plotting logarithmic lipid-normalized concentrations or fugacities as a linear function of trophic level to deduce TMFs. Implications for determining bioaccumulation by laboratory tests for regulatory purposes are discussed.
The Effect of Online Violent Video Games on Levels of Aggression

BACKGROUND
In recent years the video game industry has surpassed both the music and video industries in sales. Currently violent video games are among the most popular video games played by consumers, most specifically First-Person Shooters (FPS). Technological advancements in game play experience including the ability to play online has accounted for this increase in popularity. Previous research, utilising the General Aggression Model (GAM), has identified that violent video games increase levels of aggression. Little is known, however, as to the effect of playing a violent video game online.


METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
Participants (N = 101) were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions; neutral video game--offline, neutral video game--online, violent video game--offline and violent video game--online. Following this they completed questionnaires to assess their attitudes towards the game and engaged in a chilli sauce paradigm to measure behavioural aggression. The results identified that participants who played a violent video game exhibited more aggression than those who played a neutral video game. Furthermore, this main effect was not particularly pronounced when the game was played online.


CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE
These findings suggest that both playing violent video games online and offline compared to playing neutral video games increases aggression.
The origin and distribution of human lice in the world.

Two genera of lice parasitize humans: Pthirus and Pediculus. The latter is of significant public health importance and comprises two ecotypes: the body louse and the head louse. These ecotypes are morphologically and genetically notably similar; the body louse is responsible for three infectious diseases: Louse-borne epidemic typhus, relapsing fever, and trench fever. Mitochondrial DNA studies have shown that there are three obviously divergent clades of head lice (A, B and C), and only one clade of body lice is shared with head lice (clade A). Each clade has a unique geographic distribution. Lice have been parasitizing humans for millions of years and likely dispersed throughout the World with the human migrations out of Africa, so they can be good markers for studying human evolution. Here, we present an overview of the origin of human lice and their role in vector pathogenic bacteria that caused epidemics, and we review the association between lice clades and human migrations.
Kangaroo care is effective in diminishing pain response in preterm neonates.

OBJECTIVE
To test the efficacy of maternal skin-to-skin contact, or kangaroo care (KC), on diminishing the pain response of preterm neonates to heel lancing.


DESIGN
A crossover design was used, in which the neonates served as their own controls. Subjects Preterm neonates (n = 74), between 32 and 36 weeks' postmenstrual age and within 10 days of birth, who were breathing without assistance and who were not receiving sedatives or analgesics in 3 level II to III neonatal intensive care units in Canada.


INTERVENTIONS
In the experimental condition, the neonate was held in KC for 30 minutes before the heel-lancing procedure and remained in KC for the duration of the procedure. In the control condition, the neonate was in the prone position in the isolette. The ordering of conditions was random.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The primary outcome was the Premature Infant Pain Profile, which is composed of 3 facial actions, maximum heart rate, and minimum oxygen saturation changes from baseline in 30-second blocks. Videotapes, taken with the camera positioned on the neonate's face so that an observer could not tell whether the neonate was being held or was in the isolette, were coded by research assistants who were naïve to the purpose of the study. Heart rate and oxygen levels were continuously monitored into a computer for later analysis. A repeated-measures analysis of covariance was used, with order of condition and site as factors and severity of illness as a covariate.


RESULTS
Premature Infant Pain Profile scores across the first 90 seconds from the heel-lancing procedure were significantly (.002<P<.04) lower by 2 points in the KC condition.


CONCLUSIONS
For preterm neonates who are 32 weeks' postmenstrual age or older, KC seems to effectively decrease pain from heel lancing. Further study is needed to determine if younger neonates or those requiring assistance in breathing, or older infants or toddlers, would benefit from KC, or if it would remain effective over several procedures. Given its effectiveness, and that parents of neonates in critical care units want to participate more in comforting their children, KC is a potentially beneficial strategy for promoting family health.
South African research in the context of Africa and globally

THE QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF RESEARCH publications are used as benchmarks to monitor the performance of South Africa’s national system of innovation. The indicators are pertinent to the policies of the Department of Education, which distributes funds for research at institutions of higher education by measuring the volume of research outputs. In this article, we present a scientometric assessment of research in South Africa in the context of the rest of Africa and in comparison with Brazil and India—two countries with which South Africa aims to develop strong scientific ties. We find that South Africa has published a significant number of papers in all 22 disciplines represented in the ISI’s Essential Science Indicators. The largest numbers of journal articles in a 10-year period (1996–2005) were published in the categories Clinical Medicine, and in Plant and Animal Sciences, with over 7000 papers each. Three groupings, namely, Chemistry, Geosciences, and Environmental/Ecology, form the second cluster of disciplines in terms of the highest number of publications (2966, 2488 and 2386, respectively). In all 22 subject categories, India and Brazil are rated higher than South Africa in terms of number of publications, but South Africa is ranked above these countries in relation to citations per paper in all disciplines. Egypt outranked South Africa in three disciplines in the period 1995–2004, namely, Chemistry, Engineering, and Materials Science, as did Nigeria in Agriculture in 1996–2005. In addition to the three disciplines in the earlier period, Egypt outranked South Africa in 1996–2005 in Physics, Agricultural Sciences, and Pharmacology/ Toxicology. However, South Africa scored higher than both African countries in all disciplines in terms of citations per paper.
Corporate-sponsored foundations and earnings management

In the wake of recent corporate governance scandals, corporate philanthropy has received increased attention. This paper examines whether managers strategically use contributions to meet financial reporting objectives. Specifically, corporate-sponsored private foundations allow firms to maintain stable levels of giving to charitable causes while providing substantial discretion as to the amount of contribution expense recorded on the income statement in any given period. I find that firms with small positive reported earnings changes made large incomeincreasing discretionary foundation funding choices. In particular, this result is associated with firms that have greater equity market incentives to manage earnings. I also find evidence consistent with firms using their foundations to create cookie jar reserves.
Readmissions to medical wards: analysis of demographic and socio-medical factors.

BACKGROUND
Unplanned readmissions affect occupancy rates in medical wards and these have been constantly increasing in Israel. We examined the frequency and risk factors affecting the likelihood of 30-day emergency medical readmissions.


METHODS
We compared the clinical, epidemiological, and socioeconomic characteristics of readmitted patients during 2009 to a control group matched by age, sex, and primary medical diagnosis.


RESULTS
Rate of unplanned readmissions within 30 days was 12.2%. The mean time to readmission was 12.8 days. The mean length of hospital stay at index admission was 4.4 and 3.8 days for the study and control groups, respectively, and 4.99 days in the second admission (study group only). By simple univariate logistic regression, living in a nursing home, chronic kidney disease, ischemic heart disease, previous cerebrovascular accident, number of chronic medications, length of hospital stay at index admission, and hospitalization in the previous year prior to index admission were significantly associated with risk of readmission. In multivariate logistic regression model, only living in a nursing home (OR=2.94, 95%CI=1.15-7.48), presence of chronic kidney disease (OR=1.62, 95%CI=1.06-2.46), length of index admission ≥ 3 days (OR=1.53, 95%CI=1.07-2.2), and hospitalization in the previous year (OR=3.33, 95%CI=2.34-4.74) were found to be significantly associated with likelihood of readmission.


CONCLUSION
Risk factors affecting 30-days readmission at our medical centre are similar to previous observations, and yet, some are perhaps unique to our region.
High-level macro-modeling and estimation techniques for switching activity and power consumption

We present efficient techniques for estimating switching activity and power consumption at the register-transfer level (RTL), using a combination of macro-modeling for datapath blocks, and control logic analysis techniques based on partial delay information. Previous work on estimating switching activity and power at the RTL has ignored the presence of glitches at various datapath and control signals. We demonstrate that glitches can form a significant component of the switching activity at signals in typical RTL circuits. In particular, for control-flow intensive designs, we show that the controller substantially affects the activity and power consumption in the datapath due to the presence of glitches at control signals. Since the final implementation of the controller is not available during high-level design iterations, we develop techniques that estimate glitching activity at control signals using control expressions and partial delay information. For datapath blocks that operate on word-level data, we construct piecewise linear models that capture the variation of output glitching activity and power consumption with various word-level parameters like mean, standard deviation, spatial and temporal correlations, and glitching activity at the block’s inputs. For RTL blocks that operate on bit vectors that need not have an associated word-level value, we present accurate bit-level modeling techniques for glitching activity as well as power consumption. This allows us to perform accurate power estimation for control-flow intensive circuits, where most of the power consumed is dissipated in non-arithmetic components like multiplexers, registers, vector logic operators, etc. Experimental results on several RTL designs demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed estimation techniques. Our RTL power estimator produced estimates that were within 7% of those produced by an in-house power analysis tool on the final gate-level implementation, while being over 50 faster than its gate-level counterpart.