LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Early Estimates of Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness — United States, January 2015

In the United States, annual vaccination against seasonal influenza is recommended for all persons aged ≥6 months. Each season since 2004-05, CDC has estimated the effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccine in preventing medically attended acute respiratory illness (ARI) associated with laboratory-confirmed influenza. This season, early estimates of influenza vaccine effectiveness are possible because of widespread, early circulation of influenza viruses. By January 3, 2015, 46 states were experiencing widespread flu activity, with predominance of influenza A (H3N2) viruses. This report presents an initial estimate of seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness at preventing laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infection associated with medically attended ARI based on data from 2,321 children and adults enrolled in the U.S. Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Network (Flu VE) during November 10, 2014-January 2, 2015. During this period, overall vaccine effectiveness (VE) (adjusted for study site, age, sex, race/ethnicity, self-rated health, and days from illness onset to enrollment) against laboratory-confirmed influenza associated with medically attended ARI was 23% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 8%-36%). Most influenza infections were due to A (H3N2) viruses. This interim VE estimate is relatively low compared with previous seasons when circulating viruses and vaccine viruses were well-matched and likely reflects the fact that more than two-thirds of circulating A (H3N2) viruses are antigenically and genetically different (drifted) from the A (H3N2) vaccine component of 2014-15 Northern Hemisphere seasonal influenza vaccines. These early, low VE estimates underscore the need for ongoing influenza prevention and treatment measures. CDC continues to recommend influenza vaccination because the vaccine can still prevent some infections with the currently circulating A (H3N2) viruses as well as other viruses that might circulate later in the season, including influenza B viruses. Even when VE is reduced, vaccination still prevents some illness and serious influenza-related complications, including thousands of hospitalizations and deaths. Persons aged ≥6 months who have not yet been vaccinated this season should be vaccinated, including persons who might already have been ill with influenza this season.
Microkernels Meet Recursive Virtual Machines

This paper describes a novel approach to providingmodular and extensible operating system functionality and encapsulated environments based on a synthesis of microkernel and virtual machine concepts. We have developed a software-based virtualizable architecture called Fluke that allows recursive virtual machines (virtual machines running on other virtual machines) to be implemented efficiently by a microkernel running on generic hardware. A complete virtual machine interface is provided at each level; efficiency derives from needing to implement only new functionality at each level. This infrastructure allows common OS functionality, such as process management, demand paging, fault tolerance, and debugging support, to be provided by cleanly modularized, independent, stackable virtual machine monitors, implemented as user processes. It can also provide uncommon or unique OS features, including the above features specialized for particular applications’ needs, virtual machines transparently distributed cross-node, or security monitors that allow arbitrary untrusted binaries to be executed safely. Our prototype implementation of this model indicates that it is practical to modularize operating systems this way. Some types of virtual machine layers impose almost no overhead at all, while others impose some overhead (typically 0–35%), but only on certain classes of applications.
The Optimal Radio Propagation Model in VANET

There are many parameters that affect the performance of Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) applications and protocols. To test the new applications and protocols on a real setup is very difficult and very costly. Most researchers use simulation tools to study and analyze VANETs. The simulators usually use simple radio propagation models that did not take into account all the obstacles in the environment. In this paper we analyze different radio propagation models that have been introduced in the most popular network simulator (ns2) and predict the radio propagation model that best characterize the vehicular environment.
Cryoballoon ablation in young patients with lone paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES
Long-term efficacy following cryoballoon ablation of lone paroxysmal atrial fibrillation remains unknown. We describe long-term follow-up results of the single cryoballoon ablation procedure.


METHODS
Pulmonary vein isolation was performed in 103 patients (72 male; median age 52 years) with symptomatic lone paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. The end-point of this observational cohort study was first electrocardiogram-documented recurrence of arrhythmia (atrial fibrillation, atrial tachycardia, or atrial flutter) during the 5-year follow-up, in the absence of anti-arrhythmic treatment.


RESULTS
Acute complete pulmonary vein isolation was achieved in 86% of the patients with a single cryoballoon. The 6-month, 1-year, and 5-year success rate after a single procedure was 94%, 91%, and 77%, respectively. Arrhythmia recurrence was observed in 24 cases at a median of 14.8 months [range, 8.0-16.8 months]. Thirteen symptomatic patients were well controlled on beta-blockers only. Seven symptomatic patients had anti-arrhythmic treatment (class IC in 5 patients; dronedarone in 2 patients) introduced during the blanking period. Two of them had early arrhythmia recurrence within the blanking period only; they were arrhythmia-free in further follow-up on dronedarone. The rate of complications was relatively low and included a 4.8% incidence of transient phrenic nerve palsy.


CONCLUSIONS
A single cryoballoon ablation procedure for lone paroxysmal atrial fibrillation resulted in high rates of acute, medium-term, and long-term efficacy. The rate of complications is relatively low and includes a 4.8% incidence of transient phrenic nerve palsy.
The evolution Equation of Cosmological density perturbation in Einstein-Cartan gravity

The evolution equation of linear cosmic density perturbations in the realm of Einstein-Cartan theory of gravity is obtained.The de Sitter metric fluctuation is computed in terms of the spin-torsion background density.
Provisions for flexibility in the Linköping office information system (LOIS)

The Linköping Office Information System (LOIS) is an integrated system of facilities for text preparation, data base management, communication by computer, and miscellaneous other services. It is an experimental research system, which is used by researchers and secretaries in our own research group.
Parameter optimization of the stator winding process for process capability improvement

A stator mainly consists of stator core and windings. These important components are used to generate the magnetic field for rotating the motor. In stator assembly process, the nonconforming products occurred were mostly due to the stator winding machine, especially when the Direct Current Resistance (DCR) value of each stator was concerned. A preliminary study was carried out to investigate the primary causes. The results showed that the appropriate setting values of the starting and ending positions of winding on the X-axis and the copper wire tension were still unknown. Design of experiment technique was applied to figure out the combination of these parameters that jointly optimize the DCR. Then, these levels were implemented in the winding process and data were collected to evaluate the process capability. The results showed that Cp and Cpk indices had been increased from 1.07 and 0.88 to 1.94, and 1.92, respectively.
Early identification of uncontrolled hemorrhage after trauma: current status and future direction.

D uring the last decade, advanced trauma care surgical and transfusion teams have achieved remarkable gains in the rapid identification and effective response to potentially lethal hemorrhage, and these improvements are now demonstrable in improved survival and decreased blood product use. However, uncontrolled hemorrhage remains the most common cause of potentially preventable death after both civilian and military trauma, and of those who survive to reach advanced care, half will die in the first 2 hours after admission. Changes in the types and proportions of blood product requirements are also driving changes in blood banking procedures for product testing, release, and delivery. It is likely that the next evolution in improved survival from traumatic injury will occur in the realm of en route care through the introduction of advanced capabilities at the point of injury and during aeromedical transport. However, the ability to move a rapid, accurate, and practical diagnostic capability into the field medical response and the aviation transport process remains an unrealized goal in modern trauma care. In this review, using large-scale transfusion requirements (so-called massive transfusion [MT]) as a surrogate marker for uncontrolled hemorrhage, we will examine the history and current status of efforts to rapidly identify bleeding casualties and predict the need for immediate hemorrhage control procedures and transfusion.
A 5.2 pJ/pulse impulse radio pulse generator in 90 nm CMOS

A low-power impulse radio (IR) ultra wideband (UWB) pulse generator (PG) is presented. It uses digital gate-delay for timing achieving good power efficiency and acceptable spectral filling. The circuit is scalable in both bandwidth and center frequency. Both energy consumption and chip area are reduced compared to most conventional higher order Gaussian PGs. The PG is realized in a TSMC 90 nm CMOS process. Measurements show the energy consumption from a 1.2 V to be 5.2 pJ/pulse for a 200 MHz pulse repetition frequency (PRF). The core area is 0.0015 mm2 (38 µm×40 µm). Lastly, a dynamic pre-charge (DPC) scheme is proposed to eliminate the standby current and make the PG favourable for low-data-rate applications.
Nonexercise stress transthoracic echocardiography: transesophageal atrial pacing versus dobutamine stress.

OBJECTIVES
To compare transesophageal atrial pacing stress echocardiography with dobutamine stress echocardiography for feasibility, safety, duration, patient acceptance and concordance in inducing wall motion abnormalities.


BACKGROUND
Transesophageal atrial pacing is an effective method of increasing heart rate and has been used in the assessment of coronary artery disease.


METHODS
Both tests were performed in sequence on the same patients in random order. Transesophageal atrial pacing stress echocardiography began at a heart rate of 10 beats/min above the baseline value and was increased by 20 beats/min every two min until 85% of the age-predicted maximum heart rate or another end point was reached. Dobutamine echocardiography was performed using three-min stages and a maximum dose of 40 microg/kg per min. Atropine (total dose < or =2 mg) was administered at the start of the 40 microg/kg per min stage if needed to augment heart rate or during pacing if Wenckebach heart block occurred.


RESULTS
Transesophageal atrial pacing stress echocardiography was feasible in 100 of 104 patients (96%); the duration (8.6+/-3.6 min) was significantly shorter than that of dobutamine stress echocardiography (15.1+/-3.9 min) (p = 0.0001). With transesophageal atrial pacing stress echocardiography, the recovery period was shorter, symptoms and dysrhythmias were fewer, hypertension and hypotension were less common and target heart rate was more frequently achieved. No complications occurred with either test. Patient acceptance was satisfactory. Agreement between results of both tests was good for segmental wall motion scoring with a 16-segment model, scores 1 to 5 (kappa: rest, 0.79; peak, 0.57) and test interpretation (normal, ischemia, infarction or resting wall motion abnormality with ischemia) (kappa: 0.77).


CONCLUSIONS
Transesophageal atrial pacing stress echocardiography is a feasible, well-tolerated alternative to dobutamine stress echocardiography. It can be performed rapidly and shows good agreement with dobutamine stress echocardiography in the induction of myocardial ischemia.
Epidemiology of hepatitis C virus infection among people receiving opioid substitution therapy (ECHO): study protocol

BACKGROUND
Hepatitis C virus infection is highly prevalent among people who inject drugs. Opioid substitution therapy, the standard treatment for opioid dependence, provides an excellent opportunity for the treatment of hepatitis C virus infection due to the close and regular contact between patients and clinicians. However, there is little research on the impact of opioid substitution therapy on the prevalence of the hepatitis C virus at a national level. This paper describes the protocol for the Epidemiology of Hepatitis C Virus Infection among People Receiving Opioid Substitution Therapy (ECHO) study. The aim of this study is to estimate the national prevalence and incidence of hepatitis C virus infection among people receiving opioid substitution therapy in Germany and to describe factors associated with hepatitis C treatment uptake and seroconversion.


METHODS/DESIGN
An observational, longitudinal, multicentre study is being conducted between 2014 and 2016 in a representative sample of approximately 2500 people receiving opioid substitution therapy from about 100 clinicians providing opioid substitution therapy in Germany. Data will be collected during routine patient care and by means of patient and clinician questionnaires at baseline and 12-month follow-up. Stratified sampling will be performed to obtain a representative sample of clinicians providing opioid substitution therapy. The strata will be constructed based on the distribution of the total sample of clinicians providing opioid substitution therapy in Germany according to German Federal State and the number of patients per clinician.


DISCUSSION
Opioid substitution therapy may be an important strategy to prevent the spread of hepatitis C virus in opioid dependent populations, but its effectiveness may be diminished by our limited understanding of factors associated with treatment uptake and seroconversion. The present study will provide important information for developing strategies to address hepatitis C virus-related disease burden in people receiving opioid substitution therapy.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02395198.
Elites' conceptualization of issues of social cohesion

University of Minnesota M.A. thesis. August 2010. Advisor: Professor Joan DeJaeghere. Major: Educational policy and administration. iv, 80 pages, appendices A-B.
Traceability in a food supply chain: Safety and quality perspectives

The food industry is becoming more customer-oriented and needs faster response times to deal with food scandals and incidents. Good traceability systems help to minimize the production and distribution of unsafe or poor quality products, thereby minimizing the potential for bad publicity, liability, and recalls. The current food labelling system cannot guarantee that the food is authentic, good quality and safe. Therefore, traceability is applied as a tool to assist in the assurance of food safety and quality as well as to achieve consumer confidence. This paper presents comprehensive information about traceability with regards to safety and quality in the food supply chain. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A Hybrid Real-Time Scheduling Approach on Multi-Core Architectures

This paper proposes a hybrid scheduling approach for real-time system on homogeneous multi-core architecture. To make the best of the available parallelism in these systems, first an application is partitioned into some parallel tasks as much as possible. Then the parallel tasks are dispatched to different cores, so as to execute in parallel. In each core, real-time tasks can run concurrently with nonreal-time tasks. The hybrid scheduling approach uses a twolevel scheduling scheme. At the top level, a sporadic server is assigned to each scheduling policy. Each sporadic server is used to schedule the dispatched tasks according to its scheduling policy. At the bottom level, a rate-monotonic OS scheduler is adopted to maintain and schedule the top level sporadic servers. The schedulability test is also considered in this paper. The experimental results show that the hybrid scheme is an efficient scheduling scheme.
MATHEMATICS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT WITH ICT: TOWARDS AN INTERNATIONAL GEOGEBRA INSTITUTE

Research indicates that despite the numerous benefits of using ICT in mathematics education, the process of embedding ICT in classrooms is a slow and complex process. Most teachers need more than just being provided with technology if the benefits of ICT are to be substantially realised. GeoGebra is free open-source dynamic software for mathematics teaching and learning that offers geometry and algebra features in a fully connected software environment. In this paper, we outline the emergence of the GeoGebra software as well as ideas and plans for establishing an International GeoGebra Institute to provide training and support for teachers and to coordinate research in relation to GeoGebra.
The child as active participant in sexual abuse

This article reviews the spectrum of positions with regard to sexual activity in the home involving adults and children. It explores the motivational aspects that promote incestuous behavior and particularly highlights the enticing rewards available to children to engage in sexual behavior with adults. Treatment implications are suggested that avoid parental blaming and direct treatment for children, except when children specifically reach out for help. Parent education and marital therapy are recommended as treatments of choice.
Bowenoid papulosis and invasive Bowen's disease: a multidisciplinary approach.

Elena Campione1, Chiara Centonze2, Laura Diluvio1, Augusto Orlandi3, Cesidio Cipriani4, Alessandro Di Stefani3, Emilio Piccione2, Sergio Chimenti1 and Luca Bianchi1 Departments of 1Dermatology, 2Gynaecology and 3Anatomic Pathology, University of Rome, Tor Vergata, Viale Oxford, 81, IT-00133 Rome, and 4Department of Nuclear Medicine, S. Eugenio Hospital, Rome, Italy. E-mail: campioneelena@hotmail.com Accepted Nov 7, 2011; Epub ahead of print Jun 21, 2012
A Multiagent Reinforcement Learning Algorithm with Non-linear Dynamics

Several multiagent reinforcement learning (MARL) algorithms have been proposed to optimize agents’ decisions. Due to the complexity of the problem, the majority of the previously developed MARL algorithms assumed agents either had some knowledge of the underlying game (such as Nash equilibria) and/or observed other agents actions and the rewards they received. We introduce a new MARL algorithm called the Weighted Policy Learner (WPL), which allows agents to reach a Nash Equilibrium (NE) in benchmark 2-player-2-action games with minimum knowledge. Using WPL, the only feedback an agent needs is its own local reward (the agent does not observe other agents actions or rewards). Furthermore, WPL does not assume that agents know the underlying game or the corresponding Nash Equilibrium a priori. We experimentally show that our algorithm converges in benchmark two-player-two-action games. We also show that our algorithm converges in the challenging Shapley’s game where previous MARL algorithms failed to converge without knowing the underlying game or the NE. Furthermore, we show that WPL outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms in a more realistic setting of 100 agents interacting and learning concurrently. An important aspect of understanding the behavior of a MARL algorithm is analyzing the dynamics of the algorithm: how the policies of multiple learning agents evolve over time as agents interact with one another. Such an analysis not only verifies whether agents using a given MARL algorithm will eventually converge, but also reveals the behavior of the MARL algorithm prior to convergence. We analyze our algorithm in two-player-two-action games and show that symbolically proving WPL’s convergence is difficult, because of the non-linear nature of WPL’s dynamics, unlike previous MARL algorithms that had either linear or piece-wise-linear dynamics. Instead, we numerically solve WPL’s dynamics differential equations and compare the solution to the dynamics of previous MARL algorithms.
Effects of Large Mammalian Herbivores and Ant Symbionts on Condensed Tannins of Acacia drepanolobium in Kenya

Condensed tannins have been considered to be important inducible defenses against mammalian herbivory. We tested for differences in condensed tannin defenses in Acacia drepanolobium in Kenya over two years among different large mammalian herbivore treatments [total exclusion, antelope only, and megaherbivore (elephants and giraffes) + antelope] and with four different ant symbiont species on the trees. We predicted that (1) condensed tannin concentrations would be lowest in the mammal treatment with the lowest level of herbivory (total exclusion), (2) trees occupied by mutualist ants that protect the trees most aggressively would have lower levels of tannins, and (3) if chemical defense production is costly, there would be a trade-off between tannin concentrations, growth, and mechanical defenses. Mean tannin concentrations increased from total exclusion treatments to wildlife-only treatments to megaherbivore + antelope treatments. In 1997, condensed tannin concentrations were significantly lower in trees occupied by the ant Crematogaster nigriceps, the only ant species that actively removed axillary buds. Contrary to our prediction, trees occupied by ant species that protect the trees more aggressively against mammalian herbivores did not have lower overall levels of condensed tannins. There was no consistent evidence of a trade-off between tannin concentrations and growth rate, but there was a positive correlation between mean thorn length and mean tannin concentrations across species of ant inhabitants and across herbivore treatments in 1997. Contrary to our expectation, trees had higher tannin concentrations in the upper parts of the canopy where there is little herbivory by mammals.
Privacy Regulation and Online Advertising

Advertisers use online customer data to target their marketing appeals. This has heightened consumers’ privacy concerns, leading governments to pass laws designed to protect consumer privacy by restricting the use of data and by restricting online tracking techniques used by websites. We use the responses of 3.3 million survey-takers who had been randomly exposed to 9,596 online display (banner) advertising campaigns to explore how strong privacy regulation in the European Union has influenced advertising effectiveness. We find that display advertising became far less effective at changing stated purchase intent after the laws were enacted relative to other countries. The loss in effectiveness was more pronounced for websites that had general content (such as news sites), where non-data-driven targeting is particularly hard to do. The loss of effectiveness was also more pronounced for ads with a smaller page presence and for ads that did not have additional interactive, video, or audio features. ∗Avi Goldfarb is Associate Professor of Marketing, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, 105 St George St., Toronto, ON. Tel. 416-946-8604. Email: agoldfarb@rotman.utoronto.ca. Catherine Tucker is Assistant Professor of Marketing, MIT Sloan School of Business, 1 Amherst St., E40-167, Cambridge, MA. Tel. 617-252-1499. Email: cetucker@mit.edu. We thank Glen Urban and participants at workshops at IDC, MIT, Michigan, Northwestern, UC Berkeley and Wharton for helpful comments.