LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
5 Assessing the Poverty Impact of an Assigned Program

Some public programs are assigned more-or-less exclusively to certain observational units. These may be people, households, villages or larger geographic areas. The key thing is that some units get the program and some do not. This chapter reviews tools that can help assess the impacts of such a program, judged against its agreed objectives. The following are examples of the types of programs that can be assessed with the tools discussed in this chapter: • A social fund asks for proposals from community organizations, with preference for proposals from poor areas. Some areas do not apply, and some do, but are rejected. • A workfare program entails extra earnings for participating workers, and gains to the residents of the areas in which the work is done. Others receive nothing. • Infrastructure projects (road or water connections, for example) are targeted to areas that are both poor and poorly endowed in that infrastructure. Other areas do not participate. Notice that in each of these examples, there may be some indirect (or “second-round”) impacts on non-participants. A workfare program may lead to higher earnings for non-participants. Or a road improvement project in one area might improve accessibility elsewhere. Depending on how important these indirect effects are thought to be in the specific application, the “program” may need to be redefined to embrace the spillover effects. Or one might need to combine the type of evaluation discussed here with other tools, such as a model of the labor market to pick up other benefits. The following discussion will assume that the program is already in place, which makes this a case of ex-post impact assessment. That includes the evaluation of a pilot project, as an input to the exante assessment of whether the project should be scaled up. However, doing ex-post evaluations does not mean that the evaluation should start after the program finishes, or even after it begins. Indeed, the best ex-post evaluations are designed ex-ante — often side-by-side with the program itself. This can
High-Speed Parallel Architectures for Linear Feedback Shift Registers

Linear feedback shift register (LFSR) is an important component of the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) operations and BCH encoders. The contribution of this paper is two fold. First, this paper presents a mathematical proof of existence of a linear transformation to transform LFSR circuits into equivalent state space formulations. This transformation achieves a full speed-up compared to the serial architecture at the cost of an increase in hardware overhead. This method applies to all generator polynomials used in CRC operations and BCH encoders. Second, a new formulation is proposed to modify the LFSR into the form of an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter. We propose a novel high speed parallel LFSR architecture based on parallel IIR filter design, pipelining and retiming algorithms. The advantage of the proposed approach over the previous architectures is that it has both feedforward and feedback paths. We further propose to apply combined parallel and pipelining techniques to eliminate the fanout effect in long generator polynomials. The proposed scheme can be applied to any generator polynomial, i.e., any LFSR in general. The proposed parallel architecture achieves better area-time product compared to the previous designs.
Maximum power point tracking in grid connected PV system using a novel fuzzy logic controller

This paper presents modeling and simulation of a grid connected photovoltaic (PV) system with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) using a novel fuzzy logic controller (FLC). The system composed of a PV array, boost converter with MPPT and a three phase inverter connected to utility grid. The MPPT is based on fuzzy logic to control IGBT switch of the boost converter. The performance of the proposed FLC for MPPT is evaluated by simulation and the results show that the FLC is faster and more stable in finding the maximum power point than the conventional perturbation and observation method. The performance of the PV system subjected to load variation and islanding is also investigated.
An Adaptive Vehicle Route Management Solution Enabled by Wireless Vehicular Networks

In order to accommodate the constantly growing number of vehicles on the road with which infrastructure provision is failing to cope, new means of optimizing the available road space are required. This paper presents a novel adaptive vehicle routing algorithm for TraffCon - an innovative Traffic Management System enabled by wireless vehicular networks. The algorithm combats the vehicular traffic congestion problem by seeking to optimize the usage of existing road capacity, while also minimising vehicle fuel consumption and emissions. Results demonstrate that the algorithm significantly increases road utilisation, reduces congestion, average journey times and fuel consumption in comparison with existing approaches.
Minimal residual disease-based augmented therapy in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a report from the Japanese Childhood Cancer and Leukemia Study Group.

BACKGROUND
The majority of minimal residual disease (MRD)-positive patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have poor outcomes. The ALL2000 study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of augmented chemotherapy based on MRD-restratification in childhood ALL.


PROCEDURE
Between 2000 and 2004, 305 eligible patients with precursor B or T-cell ALL were enrolled in the ALL2000 study. The ALL941-based therapy protocol utilized PCR MRD assays using Immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor gene rearrangements. They were initially stratified into three risk-groups according to leukocyte count and age, and MRD levels were measured at weeks 5 (TP1) and 12 (TP2) for a second stratification. From week 14, patients with MRD levels ≥ 10(-3) received an increase in therapy (one risk group higher), while the remainder continued to receive the initial risk-adapted therapy.


RESULTS
The overall 5-year event-free survival (EFS) rate for ALL2000 was 79.7 ± 2.4%. MRD stratification was feasible for 234 of 301 patients (77%) who achieved complete remission. The EFS rate of the MRD stratifiable (MRD) group was 82.5 ± 2.6%, considerably superior to the 74.7 ± 5.7% of MRD non-stratifiable (Non-MRD) group (P = 0.084) and the 74.4 ± 2.1% for ALL 941 (P = 0.012). MRD-positive patients at TP2 showed inferior outcomes as compared with MRD-negative cases, but the difference did not reach a statistically significant level in any risk groups or immunophenotypes.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that augmented therapy for MRD-positive patients at TP2 contributed to better outcomes of the ALL2000 study.
The effectiveness of a non-pharmacological intervention for weight gain management in severe mental disorders: results from a national multicentric study.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effectiveness of a non-pharmacological intervention for weight gain management in severe mental disorders.


METHOD
An open, multicentre interventional study was conducted in 93 mental health services. Patients concerned with weight gain were included in this study and received a 12-week 1-hour group intervention focused on nutrition counseling, lifestyle, physical activity and self-esteem. Weight, waist circumference and blood pressure were measured before and after the intervention.


RESULTS
1,071 patients were enrolled in the study, and 73.9% completed the 12-week intervention. Significant weight loss (Mean difference: 0.41, CI 95%: 0.18 to 0.64, p = 0.001) and a significant BMI reduction (Mean difference: 0.13, CI 95%: 0.04 to 0.22, p = 0.006) were observed. During the intervention 37 (4.4%) patients lost > 7% of their initial weight, 780 (92.5%) maintained their weight, and 26 (3.1%) of the patients had a meaningful weight gain (> 7%). There was a significant increase in the proportion of patients undertaking physical activity after the intervention (70.8%, p < 0.001).


CONCLUSION
In this 3-month open study we found a small weight and waist reduction, and increased physical activity practice, suggesting a trend towards anthropometric profile improvement. However, further randomized-controlled trials are necessary to evaluate the efficacy and clinical relevance of this psychosocial intervention for weight gain.
AN EXHAUSTIVE STUDY ON ASSOCIATION RULE MINING

Association Rule Mining is a data mining method that enables to find out frequent item set, interesting pattern, interesting correlation among set of items in a transactional database or data repositories. This paper establishes the preparatory of basic concept about Association Rule Mining. Broadly, Association Rule Mining can be classified into Apriori, Partitioning, and Frequent Pattern Tree Algorithms. This study is to show the Benefits and Limitations. Keywords— Data Mining, Association rule, Apriori, FP Tree, and Partitioning
The impact of intensified exercise training on insulin resistance and fitness in overweight and obese women with and without polycystic ovary syndrome.

OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate mechanisms of insulin resistance (IR) in overweight and obese women with and without polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and explore relationships between IR, fitness and body mass index (BMI) at baseline and following exercise intervention.


DESIGN
  Prospective controlled intensified exercise intervention study.


PATIENTS
  A total of 20 overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m(2) ) and obese (>30 kg/m(2) ), reproductive-aged PCOS women and 13 non-PCOS overweight, healthy controls of comparable BMI and age were studied at baseline. Measures were repeated in 13 PCOS and eight control women following three 1-h exercise sessions per week over 12 weeks.


MEASUREMENTS
  Insulin resistance was measured by glucose infusion rate on euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp, and fitness was assessed by VO(2max) .


RESULTS
  At baseline, PCOS women were 46% more insulin resistant than controls (175·6 vs 257·2 mg/m(2) /min, P < 0·05) with IR independently associated with VO(2max) and BMI in the PCOS group only (P < 0·01). Postexercise IR improved across both groups (P < 0·01). In PCOS women, IR improved by 16% (P < 0·05) but was not restored to the same level as controls (P < 0·05). Improvement in IR and in VO(2max) was related to the PCOS group (r(2)  = 0·85, P < 0·05), yet change in IR and in fitness was not related. No associations were found in controls.


CONCLUSIONS
  While intensified exercise improves IR in PCOS women, a higher IR persisted following exercise in PCOS women, and a clear relationship between improved IR and improved fitness was not found. Therefore, other mechanisms of, and therapies for, IR must be explored in PCOS as IR remains higher than observed in non-PCOS controls.
Effectiveness of discharge-coordinator intervention in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: study protocol of a randomized controlled clinical trial.

BACKGROUND
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) follows a slowly progressive natural course that can be accelerated by acute exacerbations, which frequently trigger admissions to hospital. Specific healthcare professional profiles such as that of discharge coordinator have been successful in reducing numbers of hospitalizations and need for medical care in patients with various chronic diseases, but data for COPD are sparse and inconclusive. This study was conceived to test whether coordinated discharge and post-discharge care could reduce re-hospitalizations and use of resources in patients with COPD.


METHODS/DESIGN
This ongoing single-center randomized controlled clinical trial, which began in November 2009, is enrolling COPD patients in Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) stages II IV, hospitalized because of acute exacerbation. Patients are randomized in a 1:1 fashion to the intervention group, which has care organized by a discharge coordinator, and a control group receiving the usual care. The primary endpoint of the study is the number of patients hospitalized because of worsening of COPD. Data are collected at baseline, at the time of hospital discharge, and at the following time-points after discharge: 48 hours, 7 10 days, 30 days, 90 days, and 180 days.


DISCUSSION
In COPD patients requiring hospital admission, coordinated discharge appears a feasible option for improving patient and healthcare system-related outcomes. This study will provide evidence on the effectiveness of a discharge coordinator in patients hospitalized because of acute exacerbation of COPD and may give relevant guidance for implementation in clinical practice.


CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER
NCT01225627.
Design of closed-loop input shaping controllers

Input Shaping/Time Delay Prefilter are techniques for robust vibration control of slewing flexible structures. These are open-loop schemes and cannot handle uncertain initial conditions and effects of disturbances. In this paper, we develop a technique for the design of closed loop input shapers and illustrate it on a simple benchmark problem. Range of uncertainties over which the system remains stable is determined and is used as a design tool. It should be noted that the structure of the controller is similar to the Internal Model Control (IMC).
Validation of an asthma symptom diary for interventional studies.

OBJECTIVE
The Pediatric Asthma Diary was developed and validated to assess efficacy of interventions in children with asthma.


DESIGN, PATIENTS, AND SETTING
Diary validation was performed in a three week, prospective study of 106 children aged 6-14 years with asthma. Children were classified at baseline as either stable (requiring no additional asthma treatment) or new onset/worse (requiring either addition of or increase in anti-inflammatory treatment).


RESULTS
A daytime symptom scale and "day without asthma" were defined from diary questions. Both measures demonstrated significant validity and responsiveness to anti-inflammatory treatment. The stable group experienced a higher percentage of days without asthma during week 1 compared with the new onset/worse group (39.6% v 11.6%, respectively). The new onset/worse patients experienced significant improvement in days without asthma (24.5%) compared with stable patients (6.4%).


CONCLUSIONS
The Pediatric Asthma Diary daytime symptom scale and day without asthma are acceptable measures for use in asthma intervention studies of children aged 6-14 years.
Machine learning in computational docking

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this paper is to highlight the state-of-the-art machine learning (ML) techniques in computational docking. The use of smart computational methods in the life cycle of drug design is relatively a recent development that has gained much popularity and interest over the last few years. Central to this methodology is the notion of computational docking which is the process of predicting the best pose (orientation + conformation) of a small molecule (drug candidate) when bound to a target larger receptor molecule (protein) in order to form a stable complex molecule. In computational docking, a large number of binding poses are evaluated and ranked using a scoring function. The scoring function is a mathematical predictive model that produces a score that represents the binding free energy, and hence the stability, of the resulting complex molecule. Generally, such a function should produce a set of plausible ligands ranked according to their binding stability along with their binding poses. In more practical terms, an effective scoring function should produce promising drug candidates which can then be synthesized and physically screened using high throughput screening process. Therefore, the key to computer-aided drug design is the design of an efficient highly accurate scoring function (using ML techniques).


METHODS
The methods presented in this paper are specifically based on ML techniques. Despite many traditional techniques have been proposed, the performance was generally poor. Only in the last few years started the application of the ML technology in the design of scoring functions; and the results have been very promising.


MATERIAL
The ML-based techniques are based on various molecular features extracted from the abundance of protein-ligand information in the public molecular databases, e.g., protein data bank bind (PDBbind).


RESULTS
In this paper, we present this paradigm shift elaborating on the main constituent elements of the ML approach to molecular docking along with the state-of-the-art research in this area. For instance, the best random forest (RF)-based scoring function on PDBbind v2007 achieves a Pearson correlation coefficient between the predicted and experimentally determined binding affinities of 0.803 while the best conventional scoring function achieves 0.644. The best RF-based ranking power ranks the ligands correctly based on their experimentally determined binding affinities with accuracy 62.5% and identifies the top binding ligand with accuracy 78.1%.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude with open questions and potential future research directions that can be pursued in smart computational docking; using molecular features of different nature (geometrical, energy terms, pharmacophore), advanced ML techniques (e.g., deep learning), combining more than one ML models.
Earnings Restatements, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Disciplining of Chief Financial Officers

We investigate involuntary chief executive officer (CFO) turnover following earnings restatements, the labor market penalties imposed on former restatement-firm CFOs, and whether these disciplinary consequences have increased following the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). Our results suggest that firms restating earnings have higher rates of involuntary CFO turnover, and that former restatement firm CFOs face stiff labor market penalties. We generally find that the passage of SOX has not increased involuntary CFO turnover rates following restatements. However, we find that labor market penalties for former CFOs of restatement firms are more severe in the post-SOX period, suggesting that SOX has increased ex post settling up costs. Our results suggest that the influence of SOX on the labor market has resulted in CFOs being held more accountable for their actions.
Naproxen With Cyclobenzaprine, Oxycodone/Acetaminophen, or Placebo for Treating Acute Low Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

IMPORTANCE
Low back pain (LBP) is responsible for more than 2.5 million visits to US emergency departments (EDs) annually. These patients are usually treated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, acetaminophen, opioids, or skeletal muscle relaxants, often in combination.


OBJECTIVE
To compare functional outcomes and pain at 1 week and 3 months after an ED visit for acute LBP among patients randomized to a 10-day course of (1) naproxen + placebo; (2) naproxen + cyclobenzaprine; or (3) naproxen + oxycodone/acetaminophen.


DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
This randomized, double-blind, 3-group study was conducted at one urban ED in the Bronx, New York City. Patients who presented with nontraumatic, nonradicular LBP of 2 weeks' duration or less were eligible for enrollment upon ED discharge if they had a score greater than 5 on the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ). The RMDQ is a 24-item questionnaire commonly used to measure LBP and related functional impairment on which 0 indicates no functional impairment and 24 indicates maximum impairment. Beginning in April 2012, a total of 2588 patients were approached for enrollment. Of the 323 deemed eligible for participation, 107 were randomized to receive placebo and 108 each to cyclobenzaprine and to oxycodone/acetaminophen. Follow-up was completed in December 2014.


INTERVENTIONS
All participants were given 20 tablets of naproxen, 500 mg, to be taken twice a day. They were randomized to receive either 60 tablets of placebo; cyclobenzaprine, 5 mg; or oxycodone, 5 mg/acetaminophen, 325 mg. Participants were instructed to take 1 or 2 of these tablets every 8 hours, as needed for LBP. They also received a standardized 10-minute LBP educational session prior to discharge.


MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
The primary outcome was improvement in RMDQ between ED discharge and 1 week later.


RESULTS
Demographic characteristics were comparable among the 3 groups. At baseline, median RMDQ score in the placebo group was 20 (interquartile range [IQR],17-21), in the cyclobenzaprine group 19 (IQR,17-21), and in the oxycodone/acetaminophen group 20 (IQR,17-22). At 1-week follow-up, the mean RMDQ improvement was 9.8 in the placebo group, 10.1 in the cyclobenzaprine group, and 11.1 in the oxycodone/acetaminophen group. Between-group difference in mean RMDQ improvement for cyclobenzaprine vs placebo was 0.3 (98.3% CI, -2.6 to 3.2; P = .77), for oxycodone/acetaminophen vs placebo, 1.3 (98.3% CI, -1.5 to 4.1; P = .28), and for oxycodone/acetaminophen vs cyclobenzaprine, 0.9 (98.3% CI, -2.1 to 3.9; P = .45).


CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Among patients with acute, nontraumatic, nonradicular LBP presenting to the ED, adding cyclobenzaprine or oxycodone/acetaminophen to naproxen alone did not improve functional outcomes or pain at 1-week follow-up. These findings do not support use of these additional medications in this setting.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01587274.
Extending the road beyond CMOS - IEEE Circuits and Devices Magazine

he quickening pace of MOSFET technology scaling, as seen in the new 2001 International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors [1], is accelerating the introduction of many new technologies to extend CMOS into nanoscale MOSFET structures heretofore not thought possible. A cautious optimism is emerging that these new technologies may extend MOSFETs to the 22-nm node (9-nm physical gate length) by 2016 if not by the end of this decade. These new devices likely will feature several new materials cleverly incorporated into new nonbulk MOSFET structures. They will be ultra fast and dense with a voracious appetite for power. Intrinsic device speeds may be more than 1 THz and integration densities will exceed 1 billion transistors per cm. Excessive power consumption, however, will demand judicious use of these high-performance devices only in those critical paths requiring their superior performance. Two or perhaps three other lower performance, more power-efficient MOSFETs will likely be used to perform less performance-critical functions on the chip to manage the total power consumption. Beyond CMOS, several completely new approaches to information-processing and data-storage technologies and architectures are emerging to address the timeframe beyond the current roadmap. Rather than vying to “replace” CMOS, one or more of these embryonic paradigms, when combined with a CMOS platform, could extend microelectronics to new applications domains currently not accessible to CMOS. A successful new information-processing paradigm most likely will require a new platform technology embodying a fabric of interconnected primitive logic cells, perhaps in three dimensions. Further, this new logic paradigm may suggest a new symbiotic information-processing architecture to fully extract the potential offered by the logic fabric. An excellent summary of nanoelectronic devices is contained in the Technology Roadmap for Nanoelectronics, produced by the European Commission’s Information Society Technology Programme (Future and Emerging Technologies)[2]. The goal of this article is to introduce and review many new device technologies and concepts for information and signal processing having potential to extend microelectronics to and beyond the time frame of the new 2001 ITRS. The scope of this article is to “cast a broad net” to gather in one place substantive, alternative concepts for memory, logic, and information-processing architectures that would, if successful, substantially extend the time frame of the ITRS beyond CMOS. As such, this section will provide a window into candidate approaches. Provision of in-depth, critical analysis of each approach will be quite important but is beyond the scope of this article.