LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
The Viborg vascular (VIVA) screening trial of 65-74 year old men in the central region of Denmark: study protocol

BACKGROUND
Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) of men aged 65-74 years reduces the AAA-related mortality and is generally considered cost effective. Despite of this only a few national health care services have implemented permanent programs. Around 10% of men in this group have peripheral arterial disease (PAD) defined by an ankle brachial systolic blood pressure index (ABI) below 0.9 resulting in an increased mortality-rate of 25-30%. In addition well-documented health benefits may be achieved through primary prophylaxis by initiating systematic cholesterol-lowering, smoking cessation, low-dose acetylsalicylic acid (aspirins), exercise, a healthy diet and blood-pressure control altogether reducing the increased risks for cardiovascular disease by at least 20-25%. The benefits of combining screening for AAA and PAD seem evident; yet they remain to be established. The objective of this study is to assess the efficacy and the cost-effectiveness of a combined screening program for AAA, PAD and hypertension.


METHODS
The Viborg Vascular (VIVA) screening trial is a randomized, clinically controlled study designed to evaluate the benefits of vascular screening and modern vascular prophylaxis in a population of 50,000 men aged 65-74 years. Enrolment started October 2008 and is expected to stop in October 2010. The primary outcome is all-cause mortality. The secondary outcomes are cardiovascular mortality, AAA-related mortality, hospital services related to cardiovascular conditions, prevalence of AAA, PAD and potentially undiagnosed hypertension, health-related quality of life and cost effectiveness. Data analysis by intention to treat.


RESULTS
Major follow-up will be performed at 3, 5 and 10 years and final study result after 15 years.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00662480.
Human factors in software development: On its underlying theories and the value of learning from related disciplines. A guest editorial introduction to the special issue

Human factors play a very important role in Software Development [1]. According to Avison et al. [2] ‘‘Failure to include human factors may explain some of the dissatisfaction with conventional information systems development methodologies; they do not address real organizations’’ (p95 [2]). Software development has been characterized in essence as a human activity [3] where human factors play a critical role [4]. While the area of Human Factors spans a lot of different and diverse concepts and theories, the human factors aspects most often studied in software engineering research include coordination [5,6], collaboration in the development process [7–9], trust [10], expert recommendation [11], program comprehension [12], knowledge management [13,14] and culture [15]. The growing importance of human factors in software development research is clearly evidenced by the fact that the ICSE 2014 conference a track entirely devoted to Human factors, namely, ‘‘Social Aspects of Software Engineering’’. Furthermore, the 2014 ICSE conference keynote by James Herbsleb [16] presented the theory of socio-technical coordination and represented a call for further development of theories on coordination in Software Engineering (SE). In this editorial we not only reiterate this call, but also suggest SE researchers to draw on reference disciplines such as the field of Information Systems to borrow well-established theories. In the next section we first present empirical evidence on the importance of research involving Human Factors in the field of Software Engineering. We then run a citation analysis exercise to identify the prominent theories related to Human Factors in SD.
Recent studies of the crustal structure in the Gulf of Aden

Abstract Cruise 16 of R.R.S. “Discovery” in 1967 has provided new data on the structure of the Gulf of Aden. The existence has now been demonstrated of a median valley, with associated magnetic anomaly, reaching from the Gulf of Tadjura in the west to the Owen fracture zone in the east. The valley is severely fractured and offset in the central region. New seismic refraction data have shown that throughout the Gulf of Aden, the crustal structure is similar to that found under the oceans and that at the western end, the axial zone is underlain by an anomalously low mantle velocity. A minimum separation of 260 km between the continental blocks of Arabia and Africa is indicated.
An inventory model under two levels of trade credit and limited storage space derived without derivatives

This paper tries to incorporate both Huang s model [Y.F. Huang, Optimal retailer s ordering policies in the EOQ model under trade credit financing, J. Oper. Res. Soc. 54 (2003) 1011–1015] and Teng s model [J.T. Teng, On the economic order quantity under conditions of permissible delay in payments, J. Oper. Res. Soc. 53 (2002) 915–918] by considering the retailer s storage space limited to reflect the real-life situations. That is, we want to investigate the retailer s inventory policy under two levels of trade credit and limited storage space. Furthermore, we adopt Teng s viewpoint [J.T. Teng, On the economic order quantity under conditions of permissible delay in payments, J. Oper. Res. Soc. 53 (2002) 915–918] that the retailer s unit selling price and the purchasing price per unit are not necessarily equal. Then, an algebraic approach is provided and three easy-to-use theorems are developed to efficiently determine the optimal cycle time. Some previously published results of other researchers can be deduced as special cases. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate these theorems and managerial insights are drawn. 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Influence of applied pressure during field-assisted sintering of Ti(C,N)–WC–FeAl based nanocomposite

Abstract Ti(C,N)–WC–FeAl based nanocomposites are processed by field-assisted sintering at 1500 °C. The phase and microstructural evolution during the process under the influence of different applied pressures of 30, 50 and 100 MPa are studied using x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Lattice parameters of (Ti,W)(C,N) solid solution and binder phases after sintering are found to vary with applied pressure. The nanocomposite grains are observed to possess a core-rim microstructure. Microstructural variations in terms of type, size and fraction of “core-rim” structure as a function of applied pressure are investigated. The hardness and indentation fracture toughness values are in the range of 17.6–18.4 GPa and 5.9–6.8 MPa√m, respectively. These values are comparable with those reported for Ti(C,N)-based composites with metal binder.
Implementing Efficient, Portable Computations for Machine Learning

Implementing E cient, Portable Computations for Machine Learning
Reliability and validity of a parent questionnaire on childhood motor skills.

OBJECTIVE
As the consequences of clumsiness in children become better understood, the need for valid measurement tools is apparent. Parent report has the potential for providing historical knowledge of the child's motor skills, as well as perceptions of their children's motor difficulties. The objective was to develop a parent questionnaire to identify motor difficulties in children.


METHOD
A sample of 306 children participated in the development of a 17-item parent questionnaire, called the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ). Internal consistency, concurrent and construct validity were examined.


RESULTS
The DCDQ proved capable of distinguishing children who had motor problems (as measured by standardized tests) from children without motor problems. Correlations with standardized tests were significant. Two other studies confirmed the construct validity of the DCDQ. Factor analysis revealed four distinct factors, useful in defining the nature of the difficulties.


CONCLUSION
The DCDQ is a succinct and useful measure for use by occupational therapists.
Fundamental limits on adversarial robustness

The goal of this paper is to analyze an intriguing phenomenon recently discovered in deep networks, that is their instability to adversarial perturbations (Szegedy et al., 2014). We provide a theoretical framework for analyzing the robustness of classifiers to adversarial perturbations, and establish fundamental limits on the robustness of some classifiers in terms of a distinguishability measure between the classes. Our result implies that in tasks involving small distinguishability, no classifier in the considered set will be robust to adversarial perturbations, even if a good accuracy is achieved. Moreover, we show the existence of a clear distinction between the robustness of a classifier to random noise and its robustness to adversarial perturbations. Specifically, in high dimensions, the former is shown to be much larger than the latter for linear classifiers. This result gives a theoretical explanation for the discrepancy between the two robustness properties, which was empirically observed in (Szegedy et al., 2014) in the context of neural networks. Our theoretical framework shows that the adversarial instability is a phenomenon that goes beyond deep networks, and affects all classifiers. Unlike the initial belief that adversarial examples are caused by the high non-linearity of neural networks, our results suggest instead that this phenomenon is due to the low flexibility of classifiers, compared to the difficulty of the classification task, which is captured by the distinguishability measure. We believe these results ICML 2015 Workshop on Deep Learning, Lille, France. Copyright 2015 by the author(s). contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon of adversarial instability to reach the goal of designing robust classifiers.
中国科技论文在线 Modeling , Analysis and Simulation of a Buck Converter Under Cascade Control

Brief author introduction:Zengshi Chen earned his Ph.D. degree in systems and controls at The Ohio State University in 2006. He is an automation research scientist in the automation division of Lufkin Industries, Inc. His research interests include variable structure systems, sliding mode control, nonlinear control and their applications to power converters, inverters and renewable energy machines. E-mail: chenzengshi@gmail.com Abstract: In this paper, a cascade controller is designed and analyzed for a buck converter. The fast inner current loop uses sliding mode control (SMC). The slow outer voltage loop uses the proportional-integral (PI) control. Stability analysis and selection of PI gains are based on the closed-loop error dynamics. The closed-loop system is proven to have a minimum phase structure. The voltage transients due to step changes of input voltage and load resistance are predictable. The controller is validated by a simulation circuit with non-ideal circuit factors. The simulation results show that the reference output voltage is well tracked under system uncertainties or disturbances, confirming the validity of the proposed controller.
Realtime Procedural Terrain Generation

The main goal of this paper is to provide an overview of a variety of methods for synthesis of eroded terrain for use in computer games, VR worlds and the like. Traditionally, such software uses either predefined terrains or runtime generated data based on simple fractal noise techniques. In recent years, the advances in processing power of average home computers have made it possible to simulate erosion processes near-realtime by putting emphasis on speed at the expense of physical correctness. This paper presents a fast method to synthesize natural looking fractal terrain and then proceeds to evaluate and suggest optimizations for two of the most commonly used erosion algorithms [1, 2]. With some criteria for applicability in computer games in mind, a new and much faster algorithm is then proposed. Finally, a few issues regarding terrain modifications for maximum playability are discussed. Figure 1: A rendered view of a synthesized, eroded terrain created with the techniques discussed in this paper. Definitions
High prevalence of masked uncontrolled hypertension in people with treated hypertension.

AIM
There are limited data on the quality of treated blood pressure (BP) control during normal daily life, and in particular, the prevalence of 'masked uncontrolled hypertension' (MUCH) in people with treated and seemingly well-controlled BP is unknown. This is important because masked hypertension in 'treatment naïve' patients is associated with a high risk of cardiovascular events. We therefore conducted the first study to define the prevalence and characteristics of MUCH among a large sample of hypertensive patients in routine clinical practice in whom BP was treated and controlled to recommended clinic BP goals.


METHODS AND RESULTS
We analysed data from the Spanish Society of Hypertension ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) Registry and identified patients with treated and controlled BP according to current international guidelines (clinic BP <140/90 mmHg). Masked uncontrolled hypertension was diagnosed in these patients if despite controlled clinic BP, the mean 24-h ABPM average remained elevated (24-h systolic BP ≥130 mmHg and/or 24-h diastolic BP ≥80 mmHg). From 62 788 patients with treated BP in the Spanish registry, we identified 14 840 with treated and controlled clinic BP, of whom 4608 patients (31.1%) had MUCH according to 24-h ABPM criteria (mean age 59.4 years, 59.7% men). The prevalence of MUCH was significantly higher in males, patients with borderline clinic BP (130-9/80-9 mmHg), and patients at high cardiovascular risk (smokers, diabetes, obesity). Masked uncontrolled hypertension was most often because of poor control of nocturnal BP, with the proportion of patients in whom MUCH was solely attributable to an elevated nocturnal BP almost double that solely attributable to daytime BP elevation (24.3 vs. 12.9%, P < 0.001).


CONCLUSION
The prevalence of masked suboptimal BP control in patients with treated and well-controlled clinic BP is high. Clinic BP monitoring alone is thus inadequate to optimize BP control because many patients have an elevated nocturnal BP. These findings suggest that ABPM should become more routine to confirm BP control, especially in higher risk groups and/or those with borderline control of clinic BP.
Bryan Rennie (ed.), Changing Religious Worlds. The Meaning and End of Mircea Eliade

Bryan Rennie (ed.), Changing Religious Worlds. The Meaning and End of Mircea Eliade 
State University of New York Press, Albany, 2001
The coupled method fuzzy-AHP applys to solve multi-criteria decision making problems

-The multi-criteria decision making (MCDM)problems with fuzzy preference information on alternatives are essential problems of the importance of weighting and ranking. In order to solve this problem, Analytical Hierarchy Process(AHP) and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method are coupled to form a new approach named Fuzzy-AHP.This method is different from the traditional FAHP,which used to facilitate the pairwise comparison process and avoid the complex and unreliable process of comparing fuzzy utilities.It utilizes the advantage of AHP on computing index weight and comparing index in the same row than at ranking and the advantage of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method on establishing quantitative indexes membership and qualitative indexes membership and classifying level.Finally, a numerical example is presented to clarify the methodology ,the model evaluation results showed that the proposed system is able to provide very. good solution both in accuracy, and speed for the top managers. Key-Words: MCDM, Fuzzy , AHP, index , weighing, membership degree, matrix
The relationship between total quality management practices and their effects on firm performance

Recent research on total quality management (TQM) has examined the relationships between the practices of quality management and various levels of organizational performance. These studies have produced mixed results, probably because of the nature of the research designs used such as measuring TQM or performance as a single construct. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this study identifies the relationships among TQM practices and examines the direct and indirect effects of these practices on various performance levels. A proposed research model and hypotheses are tested by using cross-sectional mail survey data collected from firms operating in the US. The test of the structural model supports the proposed hypotheses. The implications of the findings for researchers and practitioners are discussed and further research directions are offered. © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
CRAFT Objects from Images

Object detection is a fundamental problem in image understanding. One popular solution is the R-CNN framework [15] and its fast versions [14, 27]. They decompose the object detection problem into two cascaded easier tasks: 1) generating object proposals from images, 2) classifying proposals into various object categories. Despite that we are handling with two relatively easier tasks, they are not solved perfectly and there's still room for improvement. In this paper, we push the "divide and conquer" solution even further by dividing each task into two sub-tasks. We call the proposed method "CRAFT" (Cascade Regionproposal-network And FasT-rcnn), which tackles each task with a carefully designed network cascade. We show that the cascade structure helps in both tasks: in proposal generation, it provides more compact and better localized object proposals, in object classification, it reduces false positives (mainly between ambiguous categories) by capturing both inter-and intra-category variances. CRAFT achieves consistent and considerable improvement over the state-of the-art on object detection benchmarks like PASCAL VOC 07/12 and ILSVRC.
Two-Dimensional Spatial Positioning as a Means for Reflection in Design

In the realm of computer support for design, developers have focused primarily on power and expressiveness that are important in framing a design solution. They assume that design is a series of calculated steps that lead to a clearly specified goal. The problem with this focus is that the resulting tools hinder the very process that is critical in early phases of a design task; the reflection-in-action process [15]. In the early phases, what is required as the most important ingredient for a design tool is the ability to interact in ways that require as little commitment as possible. This aspect is most evident in domains where two dimensions play a role, such as sketching in architecture. Surprisingly, it is equally true in linear domains such as writing. In this paper, we present our approach of using two-dimensional positioning of objects as a means for reflection in the early phases of a design task. Taking writing as an example, the ART (Amplifying Representational Talkback) system uses two dimensional positioning to support the early stages of the writing task. An eye-tracking user study illustrates important issues in the domain of computer support for design.
Airway and systemic effects of hydrofluoroalkane fluticasone and beclomethasone in patients with asthma.

BACKGROUND
With the transition to hydrofluoroalkane-134a propellants in metered dose inhalers, it is important to consider the efficacy and safety profiles of formulations containing inhaled corticosteroids. We examined the airway and systemic effects of hydrofluoroalkane-134a fluticasone propionate (FLU-HFA) and beclomethasone dipropionate (BEC-HFA) at recommended labelled doses.


METHODS
Twenty mild to moderate asthmatics were randomised in crossover fashion to receive 6 weeks of 500 micro g/day followed by 1000 micro g/day FLU-HFA and BEC-HFA. Measurements were made at baseline after placebo run in and washout, and after each randomised treatment. The primary airway outcome for benefit was the dose of methacholine provoking a fall in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)) of 20% or more (methacholine PD(20)) and for systemic adverse effects was overnight urinary cortisol/creatinine (OUCC).


RESULTS
For mean responses, both doses of BEC-HFA and FLU-HFA produced significant improvements in PD(20) compared with baseline. The improvement was not significantly greater with 1000 micro g/day FLU-HFA versus BEC-HFA, a 1.69 fold difference (95% CI 0.94 to 3.04). Both doses of BEC-HFA but not FLU-HFA caused significant suppression of OUCC compared with baseline, with significantly (p<0.05) lower values at 1000 micro g/day for BEC-HFA versus FLU-HFA (1.97 fold difference (95% CI 1.28 to 3.02)).


CONCLUSION
There was no difference in the airway and systemic effects in patients with mild to moderate asthma between FLU-HFA and BEC-HFA at a dose of 500 micro g/day. At 1000 micro g/day there was increased systemic bioactivity with BEC-HFA compared with FLU-HFA, without any gain in airway efficacy.
Engineering Parallel Algorithms for Community Detection in Massive Networks

The amount of graph-structured data has recently experienced an enormous growth in many applications. To transform such data into useful information, fast analytics algorithms and software tools are necessary. One common graph analytics kernel is disjoint community detection (or graph clustering). Despite extensive research on heuristic solvers for this task, only few parallel codes exist, although parallelism will be necessary to scale to the data volume of real-world applications. We address the deficit in computing capability by a flexible and extensible community detection framework with shared-memory parallelism. Within this framework we design and implement efficient parallel community detection heuristics: A parallel label propagation scheme; the first large-scale parallelization of the well-known Louvain method, as well as an extension of the method adding refinement; and an ensemble scheme combining the above. In extensive experiments driven by the algorithm engineering paradigm, we identify the most successful parameters and combinations of these algorithms. We also compare our implementations with state-of-the-art competitors. The processing rate of our fastest algorithm often reaches 50 M edges/second. We recommend the parallel Louvain method and our variant with refinement as both qualitatively strong and fast. Our methods are suitable for massive data sets with billions of edges. (A preliminary version of this paper appeared in Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP 2013) [35].)