LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Development and validation of a risk calculator predicting postoperative respiratory failure.

BACKGROUND
Postoperative respiratory failure (PRF) (requiring mechanical ventilation > 48 h after surgery or unplanned intubation within 30 days of surgery) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study was to identify preoperative factors associated with an increased risk of PRF and subsequently develop and validate a risk calculator.


METHODS
The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), a multicenter, prospective data set (2007-2008), was used. The 2007 data set (n = 211,410) served as the training set and the 2008 data set (n = 257,385) as the validation set.


RESULTS
In the training set, 6,531 patients (3.1%) developed PRF. Patients who developed PRF had a significantly higher 30-day mortality (25.62% vs 0.98%, P < .0001). On multivariate logistic regression analysis, five preoperative predictors of PRF were identified: type of surgery, emergency case, dependent functional status, preoperative sepsis, and higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class. The risk model based on the training data set was subsequently validated on the validation data set. The model performance was very similar between the training and the validation data sets (c-statistic, 0.894 and 0.897, respectively). The high c-statistics (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve) indicate excellent predictive performance. The risk model was used to develop an interactive risk calculator.


CONCLUSIONS
Preoperative variables associated with increased risk of PRF include type of surgery, emergency case, dependent functional status, sepsis, and higher ASA class. The validated risk calculator provides a risk estimate of PRF and is anticipated to aid in surgical decision making and informed patient consent.
FUEL ETHANOL: BACKGROUND AND PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES

Ethanol plays a key role in policy discussions about energy, agriculture, taxes, and the environment. In the United States it is mostly made from corn; in other countries it is often made from cane sugar. Fuel ethanol is generally blended in gasoline to reduce emissions, increase octane, and extend gasoline stocks. Recent high oil and gasoline prices have led to increased interest in alternatives to petroleum fuels for transportation. Further, concerns over climate change have raised interest in developing fuels with lower fuel-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions. Supporters of ethanol argue that its use can lead to lower emissions of toxic and ozone-forming pollutants, and greenhouse gases, especially if higher-level blends are used. They further argue that ethanol use displaces petroleum imports, thus promoting energy security. Ethanol's detractors argue that various federal and state policies supporting ethanol distort the market and amount to corporate welfare for corn growers and ethanol producers. Further, they argue that the energy and chemical inputs needed to turn corn into ethanol actually increase emissions and energy consumption, although most recent studies have found modest energy and emissions benefits from ethanol use relative to gasoline. The market for fuel ethanol is heavily dependent on federal incentives and regulations. Ethanol production is encouraged by a federal tax credit of 51 cents per gallon. This incentive allows ethanol — which has historically been more expensive than conventional gasoline — to compete with gasoline and other blending components. In addition to the above tax credit, small ethanol producers qualify for an additional production credit. It has been argued that the fuel ethanol industry could scarcely survive without these incentives. In addition to the above tax incentives, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-58) established a renewable fuels standard (RFS). This standard requires the use of 4.0 billion gallons of renewable fuels in 2006, increasing each year to 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. Most of this requirement will likely be met with ethanol. In the United States, approximately 3.4 billion gallons of ethanol were consumed in 2004. Thus, the RFS will likely lead to a doubling of the U.S. ethanol market by 2012. Some analysts believe that this program could have serious effects on gasoline suppliers, leading to somewhat higher fuel prices. Thus, the Environmental Protection Agency's implementation of the program will likely be of continuing concern to Congress. Other issues of Congressional interest include support for purer blends of ethanol …
A comparison of the change in clinical severity scale score and a retrospective physician assessment of neurological outcome in individuals with leprosy associated nerve function impairment after treatment with corticosteroids.

OBJECTIVES
To determine whether the measured change in score of a validated clinical severity scale reflected physician assessed improvement in individuals who had received corticosteroid therapy for leprosy associated nerve damage.


DESIGN
Patients with nerve function impairment who participated in a randomised controlled trial of corticosteroids were classified into two groups using a retrospectively determined physician assessment of improvement. One group consisted of patients who had recovered or improved the other of patients who were unchanged or had deteriorated. The change in the clinical severity scale scores of these two groups was compared.


RESULTS
The change in the clinical severity scale scores of the 34 eligible individuals in the two groups were significantly different (P = 0.003). Individuals in the group who recovered or improved had a greater change in severity score than those whose nerve function was unchanged or deteriorated.


CONCLUSION
The scale for measuring the severity of leprosy Type 1 reactions (T1Rs) and/or nerve function impairment reflects the clinical improvement of individuals with leprosy associated nerve damage.
A natural head pose and eye gaze dataset

We present a new dataset, ideal for Head Pose and Eye Gaze Estimation algorithm testings. Our dataset was recorded using a monocular system, and no information regarding camera or environment parameters is offered, making the dataset ideal to be tested with algorithms that do not utilize such information and do not require any specific equipment in terms of hardware.
Interactive Visualization Tools for Exploring the Semantic Graph of Large Knowledge Spaces

While the amount of available information on the Web is increasing rapidly, the problem of managing it becomes more difficult. We present two applications, Thinkbase and Thinkpedia, which aim to make Web content more accessible and usable by utilizing visualizations of the semantic graph as a means to navigate and explore large knowledge repositories. Both of our applications implement a similar concept: They extract semantically enriched contents from a large knowledge spaces (Freebase and Wikipedia respectively), create an interactive graph-based representation out of it, and combine them into one interface together with the original text based content. We describe the design and implementation of our applications, and provide a discussion based on an informal evaluation. Author
Recent Advances in Underlay Heterogeneous Networks: Interference Control, Resource Allocation, and Self-Organization

By deploying additional low power nodes (LPNs) within the coverage area of traditional high power nodes (HPNs) and bringing them closer to users, underlay heterogeneous networks (HetNets) can significantly boost the overall spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE) through a full spatial resource reuse. Considering that the severe intra-tier interference among dense LPNs and inter-tier interference between LPNs and HPNs are challenging the successful rollout and commercial operations of underlay HetNets, a great emphasis is given towards advanced techniques that take interference control, radio resource allocation, and self-organization into account to enhance both SE and EE in this paper. The interference control techniques presented in this paper are classified as the spatial interference coordination at the transmitter and the interference cancelation at the receiver. For the radio resource allocation, the multi-dimensional optimization, cross-layer optimization, and cooperative radio resource management are comprehensively summarized. The self-configuration, self-optimization, and self-healing techniques for the self-organized underlay HetNets are surveyed. Furthermore, this paper outlines the potential open issues for underlay HetNets to improve SE and EE when combining with energy harvesting and cloud computing.
An Analysis of the Cryptocurrency Industry

INTRODUCTION The cryptocurrency market has evolved erratically and at unprecedented speed over the course of its short lifespan. Since the release of the pioneer anarchic cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, to the public in January 2009, more than 550 cryptocurrencies have been developed, the majority with only a modicum of success [1]. Research on the industry is still scarce. The majority of it is singularly focused on Bitcoin rather than a more diverse spread of cryptocurrencies and is steadily being outpaced by fluid industry developments, including new coins, technological progression, and increasing government regulation of the markets. Though the fluidity of the industry does, admittedly, present a challenge to research, a thorough evaluation of the cryptocurrency industry writ large is necessary. This paper seeks to provide a concise yet comprehensive analysis of the cryptocurrency industry with particular analysis of Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Particular attention will be given to examining theoretical economic differences between existing coins. Section 1 of this paper provides an overview of the industry. Section 1.1 provides a brief history of digital currencies, which segues into a discussion of Bitcoin in section 1.2. Section 2 of this paper provides an in-depth analysis of coin economics, partitioning the major currencies by their network security protocol mechanisms, and discussing the long-term theoretical implications that these classes entail. Section 2.1 will discuss network security protocol. The mechanisms will be discussed in the order that follows. Section 2.2 will discuss the proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism used in the Bitcoin protocol and various altcoins. Section 2.3 will discuss the proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol scheme first introduced by Peercoin in 2011, which relies on a less energy intensive security mechanism than PoW. Section 2.4 will discuss a hybrid PoW/PoS mechanism. Section 2.5 will discuss the Byzantine Consensus mechanism. Section 2.6 presents the results of a systematic review of 21 cryptocurrencies. Section 3 provides an overview of factors affecting industry growth, focusing heavily on the regulatory environment in section 3.1. Section 3.2 discusses public perception and acceptance of cryptocurrency as a payment system in the current retail environment. Section 4 concludes the analysis. A note on sources: Because the cryptocurrency industry is still young and factors that impact it are changing on a daily basis, few comprehensive or fully updated academic sources exist on the topic. While academic work was of course consulted for this project, the majority of the information that informs this paper was derived from …
Design and analysis of low noise amplifier using cadence

Low Noise Amplifier also known as LNA is one of the most significant component for application in wireless communication system. It is a very important part in RF receiver because it can reduce noise of gain by the amplifier when the noise of the amplifier is received directly. The low noise amplifier has been designed to get the better performance by follow the requirement in this new era consists of high gain, low noise figure, lower power consumption, small chip area, low cost and good input and output matching. In this research, a LNA schematic consists of three stages which are common gate amplifier, common drain amplifier and active inductor is designed to mitigate this constraint. Common gate and common drain are used for input and output stages in every LNA. Both are also used for excellent input and output matching and have a potential to get a lower noise whereas for active inductor, it is used to obtain the lower power consumption and to reduce the chip size in layout design. The results show that the proposed LNA is able to achieve the best performance with a simulated gain of 14.7dB, extremely lower power consumption of 0.8mW, noise figure of 7dB and small chip area 0.26mm2. Consequently, this modified LNA is appropriate for low-voltage applications especially in wireless communication system.
Development and Validation of the Transgender Attitudes and Beliefs Scale.

In recent years, issues surrounding transgender have garnered media and legal attention, contributing to rapidly shifting views on gender in the U.S. Yet, there is a paucity of data-driven studies on the public's views of transgender identity. This study reports the development and validation of the Transgender Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (TABS). After constructing an initial 96-item pool from consulting experts and existing scales, Phase 1 of the study was launched, involving an exploratory factor analysis of 48 items. The initial factor analysis with 295 participants revealed three factors across 33 items-16 items on interpersonal comfort, 11 on sex/gender beliefs, and 6 on human value. The internal consistency of each factor was high-α = .97 for Factor 1, α = .95 for Factor 2, and α = .94 for Factor 3. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in the second phase with an independent sample consisting of 238 participants. The Attitudes Toward Transgender Individual Scale and the Genderism and Transphobia Scale were also included to test for convergent validity, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the short form of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale were utilized to test discriminant validity. Both of the data collection phases employed MTurk, a form of online sampling with increased diversity compared to college student samples and more generalizability to the general U.S.


POPULATION
TABS represents an addition to the literature in its ability to capture a more nuanced conceptualization of transgender attitude not found in previous scales.
An energy-efficient SDN based sleep scheduling algorithm for WSNs

Energy efficiency in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has always been a hot issue and has been studied for many years. Sleep Scheduling (SS) mechanism is an efficient method to manage energy of each node and is capable to prolong the lifetime of the entire network. In this paper a Software-defined Network (SDN) based Sleep Scheduling algorithm SDN-ECCKN is proposed to manage the energy of the network. EC-CKN is adopted as the fundamental algorithm when implementing our algorithm. In the proposed SDN-ECCKN algorithm, every computation is completed in the controller rather than the sensors themselves and there is no broadcasting between each two nodes, which are the main features of the traditional EC-CKN technique. The results of our SDN-ECCKN show its advantages in energy management, such as network lifetime, the number of live nodes and the number of solo nodes in the network. & 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Single-sided AC magnetic fields for induction heating

We present simulations and demonstrate experimentally a new concept in winding a planar induction heater. The winding results in minimal ac magnetic field below the plane of the heater, while concentrating the flux above. Ferrites and other types of magnetic shielding are typically not required. The concept of a one-sided ac field can generalized to other geometries as well.
Comparative antioxidant activity of tocotrienols and the novel chromanyl-polyisoprenyl molecule FeAox-6 in isolated membranes and intact cells

Oxidative stress plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of several chronic diseases and antioxidants may represent potential tools for the prevention of these diseases. Here, we investigated the antioxidant efficiency of different tocotrienol isoforms (é-, δ-, γ-tocotrienols), and that of FeAox-6, a novel synthetic compound which combines, by a stable covalent bond, the chroman head of vitamin E and a polyisoprenyl sequence of four conjugated double bonds into a single molecule. The antioxidant efficiency was evaluated as the ability of the compounds to inhibit lipid peroxidation, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, heat shock protein (hsp) expression in rat liver microsomal membranes as well as in RAT-1 immortalized fibroblasts challenged with different free radical sources, including 2,2′-azobis(2-amidinopropane) (AAPH), tert-butyl hydroperoxide (tert-BOOH) and H2O2. Our results show that individual tocotrienols display different antioxidant potencies. Irrespective of the prooxidant used, the order of effectiveness was:δ-tocotrienol > γ-tocotrienol = é-tocotrienol in both isolated membranes and intact cells. This is presumably due to the decreased methylation of δ-tocotrienol chromane ring, which allows the molecule to be more easily incorporated into cell membranes. Moreover, we found that FeAox-6 showed an antioxidant potency greater than that of δ-tocotrienol. Such an efficiency seems to depend on the concomitant presence of a chromane ring and a phytyl chain in the molecule, which because of four conjugated double bonds, may induce a greater mobility and a more uniform distribution within cell membrane. In view of these results, FeAox-6 represents a new potential preventive agent in chronic diseases in which oxidative stress plays a pathogenic role.
A new structure of LLC with primary current driven synchronous rectifier

LLC resonant converter has become an excellent candidate for front-end dc-dc converter because of its high efficiency and capability of optimizing the converter for normal operation condition over a wide input voltage and load range. However, lack of suitable driving scheme for the synchronous rectifier (SR) limits the efficiency improvement of LLC in the wide input voltage condition. Although corporations like International Rectifier (IR) and STMicroelectronics (ST) have offered some so-called idea SR driver like IR1167, the 500 kHz switching frequency restriction and the cost pressure of IR1167 limit its application. In this paper, a new structure for LLC converter which enables self-driven for its synchronous rectification is proposed. A 400 kHz, 1 kW LLC resonant converter with wide input voltage range (300 V to 400 V) and 12 V output is designed and simulated to verify the function of the proposed circuit.
High Nature Value Farmland in Europe - An Estimate of the Distribution Patterns on the Basis of Land Cover and Biodiversity Data

Europe's agricultural landscapes provide highly varied living conditions for many plants and animals. In the early nineties the general characteristics of low-input farming systems were described in terms of biodiversity and management practices and introduced the term high nature value farmland. Typical high nature value farmland areas are the extensively grazed uplands in the UK, alpine meadows and pasture, steppic areas in eastern and southern Europe and dehesas and montados in Spain and Portugal. The more intensively farmed areas in lowland western Europe can also host concentrations of species of particular conservation interest, such as migratory waterfowl. The need for measures to prevent the loss of high nature value farmland is widely acknowledged. Conservation of biodiversity on agricultural land is an explicit objective of the pan-European Biodiversity and Landscape Strategy, the Bern Convention, the European Landscape Convention, and, at EU level, the Habitats and Birds Directives and the Rural Development Policy (Community Strategic Guidelines for Rural Development Programming Period 2007-2013). In their 6th Environment Action Programme, the EU committed itself to halting biodiversity decline by 2010. Conserving High Nature Value farmland is key to achieving this 2010 biodiversity target. Pan-European data on distribution and conservation status of HNV farmland, however, were largely lacking. In their 2003 "Kyiv" declaration, the European Environment Ministers have therefore set the goal to fill this data gap and take adequate conservation measures. In support of this policy process, EEA and UNEP published a Joint Message (EEA 2004), presenting a preliminary map of HNV farmland and analysing the targeting of agricultural policy instruments. The Joint Message used the concept as developed by Andersen et al. (2003) that describes HNV farmland as: "Those areas in Europe where agriculture is a major (usually the dominant) land use and where that agriculture supports, or is associated with, either a high species and habitat diversity or the presence of species of European conservation concern, or both". The aim of estimating HNV farmland distribution at European level according to a standardised method is primarily to gain insight in the current status, as well as enabling analysis of European trends and targeting of relevant policy instruments. In order to increase accuracy, JRC and the EEA have been preparing the first EU27 map of High Nature Value farmland, on the basis of new land cover data, refined and regionally differentiated selection criteria, and additional biodiversity datasets.
Association between thimerosal-containing vaccine and autism.

CONTEXT
Mercuric compounds are nephrotoxic and neurotoxic at high doses. Thimerosal, a preservative used widely in vaccine formulations, contains ethylmercury. Thus it has been suggested that childhood vaccination with thimerosal-containing vaccine could be causally related to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether vaccination with a thimerosal-containing vaccine is associated with development of autism.


DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Population-based cohort study of all children born in Denmark from January 1, 1990, until December 31, 1996 (N = 467 450) comparing children vaccinated with a thimerosal-containing vaccine with children vaccinated with a thimerosal-free formulation of the same vaccine.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Rate ratio (RR) for autism and other autistic-spectrum disorders, including trend with dose of ethylmercury.


RESULTS
During 2 986 654 person-years, we identified 440 autism cases and 787 cases of other autistic-spectrum disorders. The risk of autism and other autistic-spectrum disorders did not differ significantly between children vaccinated with thimerosal-containing vaccine and children vaccinated with thimerosal-free vaccine (RR, 0.85 [95% confidence interval [CI], 0.60-1.20] for autism; RR, 1.12 [95% CI, 0.88-1.43] for other autistic-spectrum disorders). Furthermore, we found no evidence of a dose-response association (increase in RR per 25 microg of ethylmercury, 0.98 [95% CI, 0.90-1.06] for autism and 1.03 [95% CI, 0.98-1.09] for other autistic-spectrum disorders).


CONCLUSION
The results do not support a causal relationship between childhood vaccination with thimerosal-containing vaccines and development of autistic-spectrum disorders.