LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
An Objective-Based Framework for Motion Planning under Sensing and Control Uncertainties

The authors consider the problem of determining robot motion plans under sensing and control uncertainties. Traditional approaches are often based on methodology known as preimage planning, which involves worst-case analysis. The authors have developed a general framework for determining feedback strategies by blending ideas from stochastic optimal control and dynamic game theory with traditional preimage planning concepts. This generalizes classical preimages to performance preimages and preimage planning for designing motion strategies with information feedback. For a given problem, one can define a performance criterion that evaluates any executed trajectory of the robot. The authors present methods for selecting a motion strategy that optimizes this criterion under either nondeterministic uncertainty (resulting in worst-case analysis) or probabilistic uncertainty (resulting in expected-case analysis). The authors present dynamic programming-based algorithms that numerically compute performance preimages and optimal strategies; several computed examples of forward projections, performance preimages, and optimal strategies are presented.
Disposable circumcision suture device: clinical effect and patient satisfaction

In our experience patients undergoing circumcision are mostly concerned about pain and penile appearances. We conducted a prospective randomized trial to assess the benefits of a new disposable circumcision suture device (DCSD). A total of 942 patients were equally divided into three groups (conventional circumcision, Shang ring and disposable suture device group). Patients in the DCSD group were anesthetized with compound 5% lidocaine cream, the others with a 2% lidocaine penile block. Operation time, intra-operative blood loss, incision healing time, intra-operative and post-operative pain, the penile appearance and overall satisfaction degree were measured. Operation time and intra-operative blood loss were significantly lower in the Shang ring and suture device groups compared to the conventional group (P < 0.001). Intra-operative pain was less in the suture device group compared with the other two groups (P < 0.001); whereas post-operative pain was higher in the conventional group compared to the other two groups (P < 0.001). Patients in the suture device (80.57%) and Shang ring (73.57%) groups were more satisfied with penile appearances compared with the conventional circumcision group (20.06%, P < 0.05). Patients in suture device group also healed markedly faster than the conventional group (P < 0.01). The overall satisfaction rate was better in the suture device group (78.66%) compared with the conventional (47.13%) and Shang ring (50.00%) groups (P < 0.05). The combination of DCSD and lidocaine cream resulted in shorter operation and incision healing times, reduced intra-operative and post-operative pain and improved patient satisfaction with the cosmetic appearances.
High preoperative plasma neopterin predicts delirium after cardiac surgery in older adults.

OBJECTIVES
To examine the association between plasma levels of pterins and amino acids and postoperative delirium.


DESIGN
Prospective cohort study.


SETTING
Cardiothoracic service in an university hospital in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.


PARTICIPANTS
One hundred twenty-five individuals aged 70 and older undergoing elective cardiac surgery.


MEASUREMENTS
Plasma pterins and amino acids were measured pre- and postoperatively. Using multiple logistic regression analyses, the associations between pterins and amino acid levels and postoperative delirium were examined in relation to age, sex, comorbidity, cognitive functioning (Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score), and cardiac risk factors.


RESULTS
Delirium incidence in the main study group was 31.3%. The preoperative measures associated with delirium were neopterin (odds ratio (OR) = 1.05, P = .009); MMSE score less than 28 (OR = 4.39, P = .001); European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation score greater than 6 (OR = 2.84, P = .03); and combined coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and aortic, mitral, or tricuspid valve surgery (OR = 4.32, P = .01). Postoperative measures associated with delirium were neopterin (OR = 3.84, P = .02), homovanillic acid (HVA, OR = 1.01, P = .04), and preoperative MMSE score less than 28 (OR = 3.32, P = .008).


CONCLUSION
Preoperatively high neopterin levels predicted delirium after cardiac surgery in older adults, in addition to the well-known risk factors of poor cognitive function, high cardio-surgical risk, and combined CABG and valve surgery. Postoperative neopterin and HVA levels were also found to be associated with delirium, together with preoperative cognitive functioning. Plasma neopterin may be a candidate biomarker for delirium after cardiac surgery in these older adults.
Matching large ontologies: A divide-and-conquer approach

Ontologies proliferate with the progress of the Semantic Web. Ontology matching is an important way of establishing interoperability between (Semantic) Web applications that use different but related ontologies. Due to their sizes and monolithic nature, large ontologies regarding real world domains bring a new challenge to the state of the art ontology matching technology. In this paper, we propose a divide-and-conquer approach to matching large ontologies. We develop a structure-based partitioning algorithm, which partitions entities of each ontology into a set of small clusters and constructs blocks by assigning RDF Sentences to those clusters. Then, the blocks from different ontologies are matched based on precalculated anchors, and the block mappings holding high similarities are selected. Finally, two powerful matchers, V-DOC and GMO, are employed to discover alignments in the block mappings. Comprehensive evaluation on both synthetic and real world data sets demonstrates that our approach both solves the scalability problem and achieves good precision and recall with significant reduction of execution time. 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Causal mediation analyses for randomized trials

In the context of randomized intervention trials, we describe causal methods for analyzing how post-randomization factors constitute the process through which randomized baseline interventions act on outcomes. Traditionally, such mediation analyses have been undertaken with great caution, because they assume that the mediating factor is also randomly assigned to individuals in addition to the randomized baseline intervention (i.e., sequential ignorability). Because the mediating factors are typically not randomized, such analyses are unprotected from unmeasured confounders that may lead to biased inference. We review several causal approaches that attempt to reduce such bias without assuming that the mediating factor is randomized. However, these causal approaches require certain interaction assumptions that may be assessed if there is enough treatment heterogeneity with respect to the mediator. We describe available estimation procedures in the context of several examples from the literature and provide resources for software code.
Do Free Trade Agreements Actually Increase Members' International Trade?

For more than forty years, the gravity equation has been a workhorse for cross-country empirical analyses of international trade flows and, in particular, the effects of free trade agreements (FTAs) on trade flows. However, the gravity equation is subject to the same econometric critique as earlier crossindustry studies of U.S. tariff and nontariff barriers and U.S. multilateral imports: Trade policy is not an exogenous variable. The authors address econometrically the endogeneity of FTAs using instrumentalvariable (IV) techniques, control-function (CF) techniques, and panel-data techniques; IV and CF approaches do not adjust for endogeneity well, but a panel-data approach does. Accounting econometrically for the FTA variable’s endogeneity yields striking empirical results: The effect of FTAs on trade flows is quintupled. JEL classification: F10, F13
Analysis of the Integration of the Physician Rostering Problem and the Surgery Scheduling Problem

In this paper, we present the Integrated Physician and Surgery Scheduling Problem (IPSSP) as a new approach for solving operating room scheduling problems where staff rosters for the physicians are integrated in the optimization. A mixed integer linear programming formulation is created based on the most frequently observed objective and restrictions of the surgery scheduling and the physician rostering problem in the literature. We analyze schedules by relaxing both surgery and physician related constraints. We then measure the implications of setting these physician preferences on the surgery schedule. Our experiments show two main interesting insights for physician roster schedulers as well as operating theatre scheduling managers.
Discovery of drug mode of action and drug repositioning from transcriptional responses.

A bottleneck in drug discovery is the identification of the molecular targets of a compound (mode of action, MoA) and of its off-target effects. Previous approaches to elucidate drug MoA include analysis of chemical structures, transcriptional responses following treatment, and text mining. Methods based on transcriptional responses require the least amount of information and can be quickly applied to new compounds. Available methods are inefficient and are not able to support network pharmacology. We developed an automatic and robust approach that exploits similarity in gene expression profiles following drug treatment, across multiple cell lines and dosages, to predict similarities in drug effect and MoA. We constructed a "drug network" of 1,302 nodes (drugs) and 41,047 edges (indicating similarities between pair of drugs). We applied network theory, partitioning drugs into groups of densely interconnected nodes (i.e., communities). These communities are significantly enriched for compounds with similar MoA, or acting on the same pathway, and can be used to identify the compound-targeted biological pathways. New compounds can be integrated into the network to predict their therapeutic and off-target effects. Using this network, we correctly predicted the MoA for nine anticancer compounds, and we were able to discover an unreported effect for a well-known drug. We verified an unexpected similarity between cyclin-dependent kinase 2 inhibitors and Topoisomerase inhibitors. We discovered that Fasudil (a Rho-kinase inhibitor) might be "repositioned" as an enhancer of cellular autophagy, potentially applicable to several neurodegenerative disorders. Our approach was implemented in a tool (Mode of Action by NeTwoRk Analysis, MANTRA, http://mantra.tigem.it).
Catheter-based renal denervation for treatment of patients with treatment-resistant hypertension: 36 month results from the SYMPLICITY HTN-2 randomized clinical trial.

AIM
The aim of this study was to determine long-term results of renal artery denervation for treatment of treatment-resistant hypertension in the SYMPLICITY HTN-2 study.


METHODS
SYMPLICITY HTN-2 randomized 106 subjects with treatment-resistant hypertension to renal denervation or medical therapy alone. At 6 months, 37 control subjects crossed over to renal denervation. Office blood pressure measurements, antihypertensive medication use, and safety events were followed every 6 months through 3 years.


RESULTS
Follow-up was available at 36 months in 40 of 52 subjects in the initial renal denervation group and at 30 months in 30 of 37 subjects who crossed over and received renal denervation at 6 months. Baseline blood pressure was 184 ± 19/99 ± 16 mmHg in all treated subjects. At 30-month post-procedure, systolic blood pressure decreased 34 mmHg (95% CI: -40, -27, P < 0.01) and diastolic blood pressure decreased 13 mmHg (95% CI: -16, -10, P < 0.01). The systolic and diastolic blood pressure reduction at 36 months for the initial renal denervation group was -33 mmHg (95% CI: -40, -25, P < 0.01) and -14 mmHg (95% CI: -17, -10, P < 0.01), respectively. Procedural complications included one haematoma, and one renal artery dissection before energy delivery that was treated successfully. Later complications included two cases of acute renal failure, which fully resolved, 15 hypertensive events requiring hospitalization, and three deaths.


CONCLUSION
Renal denervation resulted in sustained lowering of blood pressure at 3 years in a selected population of subjects with severe, treatment-resistant hypertension without serious safety concerns.


CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION
NCT00888433.
Thermal analysis of both ventilated and full disc brake rotors with frictional heat generation

In automotive engineering, the safety aspect has been considered as a number one priority in development of a new vehicle. Each single system has been studied and developed in order to meet safety requirements. Instead of having air bags, good suspension systems, good handling and safe cornering, one of the most critical systems in a vehicle is the brake system. The objective of this work is to investigate and analyze the temperature distribution of rotor disc during braking operation using ANSYS Multiphysics. The work uses the finite element analysis techniques to predict the temperature distribution on the full and ventilated brake discs and to identify the critical temperature of the rotor. The analysis also gives us the heat flux distribution for the two discs. c © 2014 University of West Bohemia. All rights reserved.
Neural BTF Compression and Interpolation

The Bidirectional Texture Function (BTF) is a data-driven solution to render materials with complex appearance. A typical capture contains tens of thousands of images of a material sample under varying viewing and lighting conditions. While capable of faithfully recording complex light interactions in the material, the main drawback is the massive memory requirement, both for storing and rendering, making effective compression of BTF data a critical component in practical applications. Common compression schemes used in practice are based on matrix factorization techniques, which preserve the discrete format of the original dataset. While this approach generalizes well to different materials, rendering with the compressed dataset still relies on interpolating between the closest samples. Depending on the material and the angular resolution of the BTF, this can lead to blurring and ghosting artefacts. An alternative approach uses analytic model fitting to approximate the BTF data, using continuous functions that naturally interpolate well, but whose expressive range is often not wide enough to faithfully recreate materials with complex non-local lighting effects (subsurface scattering, inter-reflections, shadowing and masking...). In light of these observations, we propose a neural network-based BTF representation inspired by autoencoders: our encoder compresses each texel to a small set of latent coefficients, while our decoder additionally takes in a light and view direction and outputs a single RGB vector at a time. This allows us to continuously query reflectance values in the light and view hemispheres, eliminating the need for linear interpolation between discrete samples. We train our architecture on fabric BTFs with a challenging appearance and compare to standard PCA as a baseline. We achieve competitive compression ratios and high-quality interpolation/extrapolation without blurring or ghosting artifacts. CCS Concepts • Computing methodologies → Reflectance modeling; Image-based rendering; Neural networks; Image compression; c © 2019 The Author(s) Computer Graphics Forum c © 2019 The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. G. Rainer & W. Jakob & A. Ghosh & T. Weyrich / Neural BTF Compression and Interpolation
A new Arctic Chlorella species for biodiesel production.

Microalgae are a potential resource for biodiesel production. A green alga, Chlorella sp., was isolated from Arctic sea ice, which was named ArM0029B. These algae displayed faster growth at a wide temperature range of 4-32°C compared to Chlorella vulgaris. ArM0029B also accumulated high levels of total fatty acids under nitrogen starvation conditions, reaching 39% of dry cell weight, with the proportion of oleic acid (18:1) and linoleic acid (18:2) reaching 54% of total fatty acids. Taken together, these results indicate that the newly identified Chlorella species, ArM0029B, is a promising candidate for biodiesel production.
Interpretive accounts and fairy tales: a critical polemic against the empiricist bias in interpretive IS research

Received: 29 June 2009 Revised: 9 February 2010 2nd Revision: 8 November 2010 3rd Revision: 21 June 2011 4th Revision: 9 January 2012 5th Revision: 12 November 2012 6th Revision: 17 November 2012 Accepted: 20 November 2012 Abstract In 1995, Geoff Walsham wrote one of the most important and most widely cited papers on interpretivism in information systems (IS). Walsham’s paper, along with his further work, represents a cornerstone of the discourse surrounding interpretive research. It has set the tone for further publications in the area and has more recently been followed up by a detailed practical account of how to undertake interpretive research by the same author. Using Walsham’s position as a starting point, the present paper questions some basic assumptions of interpretivism. Drawing on the philosophical background of interpretivism in hermeneutics and phenomenology, the paper questions the status of empirical research in the interpretivist tradition. Using quality criteria of different research streams related to interpretivism, the paper compares the role of empirical data in different types of research accounts with fairy tales, noting that interpretive IS research shares at least as many quality features with fairy tales as with positivist narratives. The paper concludes by discussing which consequences this position has for interpretive and other research in IS. European Journal of Information Systems advance online publication, 12 February 2013; doi:10.1057/ejis.2012.58
Diffusion-controlled complex superconducting transition in (YBa2Cu3O7-δ)0.9/(La2/3Sr1/3MnO3)0.1 core-shell composites

Abstract The superconductor ( SC )/ferromagnetic ( FM ) systems have shown tremendous attention due to their amazing phenomena at the SC/FM interfaces such as the inverse proximity effect, triplet superconducting pair generation and the non-dissipation spintronics, which exhibit a great potential on scientific development and applications. To explore these unique characteristics, possible unknown effect and seeking for potential capabilities in bulk SC/FM systems, this study focuses on the bulk composites made of the high -T C superconductor YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-δ (YBCO) and the highly spin-polarized La 2/3 Sr 1/3 MnO 3 (LSMO). The (YBCO) 0.9 /(LSMO) 0.1 composites were annealed at short (Comp_2hr) and longer (Comp_18hr) annealing time. We found that the composites form a distinct core-shell structure. The LSMO grains and the outer layer of YBCO interdiffuse into each other and reconstruct in a way to form off-stoichiometric thin shells. Due to the limited interdiffusion speed, a clear white diffusion-limited-boundary separates the shell and core and protects the pure YBCO phase. This core-shell structure modifies the superconducting behavior to appear complex resistivity and magnetization with temperature such as a second transition due to the tunneling of Cooper pairs at low temperature.
Penile lengthening and widening without grafting according to a modified 'sliding' technique.

OBJECTIVE
To present the feasibility and safety of penile length and girth restoration based on a modified 'sliding' technique for patients with severe erectile dysfunction (ED) and significant penile shortening, with or without Peyronie's disease (PD).


PATIENTS AND METHODS
Between January 2013 and January 2014, 143 patients underwent our modified 'sliding' technique for penile length and girth restoration and concomitant penile prosthesis implantation. It is based on three key elements: (i) the sliding manoeuvre for penile length restoration; (ii) potential complementary longitudinal ventral and/or dorsal tunical incisions for girth restoration; and (iii) closure of the newly created rectangular bow-shaped tunical defects with Buck's fascia only.


RESULTS
In all, 143 patients underwent the procedure. The causes of penile shortening and narrowing were: PD in 53.8%; severe ED with unsuccessful intracavernosal injection therapy in 21%; post-radical prostatectomy 14.7%; androgen-deprivation therapy, with or without brachytherapy or external radiotherapy, for prostate cancer in 7%; post-penile fracture in 2.1%; post-redo-hypospadias repair in 0.7%; and post-priapism in 0.7%. In patients with ED and PD, the mean (range) deviation of the penile axis was 45 (0-100)°. The mean (range) subjective penile shortening reported by patients was 3.4 (1-7) cm and shaft constriction was present in 53.8%. Malleable penile prostheses were used in 133 patients and inflatable penile prostheses were inserted in 10 patients. The median (range) follow-up was 9.7 (6-18) months. The mean (range) penile length gain was 3.1 (2-7) cm. No penile prosthesis infection caused device explantation. The average International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) score increased from 24 points at baseline to 60 points at the 6-month follow-up.


CONCLUSION
Penile length and girth restoration based on our modified sliding technique is a safe and effective procedure. The elimination of grafting saves operative time and, consequently, decreases the infection risk and costs associated with surgery.
Researches on underwater transmission characteristics of blue-green laser

Considering the scattering and absorption caused by seawater molecules and suspended particles, the characteristics of blue-green laser in seawater are described. Then a transmission model of blue-green laser in shallow seawater is established and the relations of the attenuation of received power and the requisite transmission power to the transmission distance are summed up. Results of the simulation experiment are obtained and it can provide references for engineering estimation.