LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Outsourcing via Service Competition

We consider a single buyer who wishes to outsource a fixed demand for a manufactured good or service at a fixed price to a set of potential suppliers. W e examine the value of competition as a mechanism f or the buyer to elicit service quality from the suppli ers. We compare two approaches the buyer could use to orchestrate this competition: (1) a Supplier-Alloca tion (SA) approach, which allocates a proportion of demand to each supplier with the proportion allocat ed to a supplier increasing in the quality of servi ce the supplier promises to offer, and (2) a Supplier-Sele ction (SS) approach, which allocates all demand to one supplier with the probability that a particular sup plier is selected increasing in the quality of serv ice to which the supplier commits. In both cases, supplier s incur a cost whenever they receive a positive por tion of demand, with this cost increasing in the quality of service they offer and the demand they receive. Th analysis reveals that ( a) a buyer could indeed orchestrate a competition am ong potential suppliers to promote service quality, ( b) under identical allocation functions, the existen c of a demand-independent service cost gives a distinct advantage to SS type competitions, in terms of higher service quality fo r the buyer and higher expected profit for the supplier, (c) the relative advantage of SS versus SA depends on the magnitude of demand-independent versus demand-d epen ent service costs, ( d) in the presence of a demand-independent service cost, a buyer should lim it the number of competing suppliers under SA competition but impose no such limits under SS comp etition, and ( e) a buyer can induce suppliers to provide higher service levels by selecting an appro riate allocation function. We illustrate the impac t of these results through three example applications.
Altered functional connectivity density in major depressive disorder at rest

Major depressive disorder is characterized by abnormal brain connectivity at rest. Currently, most studies investigating resting-state activity rely on a priori restrictions on specific networks or seed regions, which may bias observations. We hence sought to elicit functional alterations in a hypothesis-free approach. We applied functional connectivity density (FCD) to identify abnormal connectivity for each voxel in the whole brain separately. Comparing resting-state fMRI in 21 MDD patients and 23 matched healthy controls, we identified atypical connections for regions exhibiting abnormal FCD and compared our results to those of an independent component analysis (ICA) on networks previously investigated in MDD. Patients showed reduced FCD in mid-cingulate cortex (MCC) and increased FCD in occipital cortex (OCC). These changes in global FCD were driven by abnormal local connectivity changes and reduced functional connectivity (FC) toward the left amygdala for MCC, and increased FC toward the right supplementary motor area for OCC. The altered connectivity was not reflected in ICA comparison of the salience and visual networks. Abnormal FC in MDD is present in cingulate and OCC in terms of global FCD. This converges with previous structural and metabolic findings; however, these particular changes in connectivity would not have been identified using canonical seed regions or networks. This implies the importance of FC measures in the investigation of brain pathophysiology in depression.
The role of computer games in measuring spirometry in healthy and "asthmatic" preschool children.

STUDY OBJECTIVES
To explore the role of respiratory interactive computer games in teaching spirometry to preschool children, and to examine whether the spirometry data achieved are compatible with acceptable criteria for adults and with published data for healthy preschool children, and whether spirometry at this age can assess airway obstruction.


DESIGN
Feasibility study.


SETTINGS
Community kindergartens around Israel and a tertiary pediatric pulmonary clinic.


PARTICIPANTS
Healthy and asthmatic preschool children (age range, 2.0 to 6.5 years).


INTERVENTION
Multi-target interactive spirometry games including three targets: full inspiration before expiration, instant forced expiration, and long expiration to residual volume.


MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS
One hundred nine healthy and 157 asthmatic children succeeded in performing adequate spirometry using a multi-target interactive spirometry game. American Thoracic Society (ATS)/European Respiratory Society spirometry criteria for adults for the start of the test, and repeatability were met. Expiration time increased with age (1.3 +/- 0.3 s at 3 years to 1.9 +/- 0.3 s at 6 years [+/- SD], p < 0.05). FVC and flow rates increased with age, while FEV1/FVC decreased. Healthy children had FVC and FEV1 values similar to those of previous preschool studies, but flows were significantly higher (> 1.5 SD for forced expiratory flow at 50% of vital capacity [FEF50] and forced expiratory flow at 75% of vital capacity [FEF75], p < 0.005). The descending part of the flow/volume curve was convex in 2.5- to 3.5-year-old patients, resembling that of infants, while in 5- to 6-year-old patients, there was linear decay. Asthma severity by Global Initiative for Asthma guidelines correlated with longer expiration time (1.7 +/- 0.4 s; p < 0.03) and lower FEF50 (32 to 63%; p < 0.001) compared to healthy children. Bronchodilators improved FEV1 by 10 to 13% and FEF50 by 38 to 56% of baseline.


CONCLUSIONS
Interactive respiratory games can facilitate spirometry in very young children, yielding results that conform to most of the ATS criteria established for adults and published data for healthy preschool children. Spirometric indexes correlated with degree of asthma severity.
Going serverless

Serverless computing lets businesses and application developers focus on the program they need to run, without worrying about the machine on which it runs, or the resources it requires.
Utopia, Ltd.: Ideologies of Social Dreaming in England, 1870-1900

This book uncovers the historical preconditions for the explosive revival of utopian literature at the nineteenth-century fin de siecle, and excavates its ...
Clinical Experiences of Fetal Ovarian Cyst: Diagnosis and Consequence

Ovarian cysts are the most frequent, prenatally diagnosed intra-abdominal cysts. Fetal ovarian cyst often presents complication such as torsion and seems to be an indication for surgical intervention. In this study, we reviewed pre- and post-natal medical records and ultrasonography of 17 fetuses that were diagnosed with ovarian cysts. In a total of 17 cases, postnatal surgery was performed in 7 infants. Of these cases, four cases of ovarian cyst torsion were confirmed. In the remaining 10 fetuses, one case regressed completely during pregnancy, and the other nine cases including two complex cysts resolve spontaneously after birth. Postnatal symptomatic cysts or cysts with a diameter greater than 5 cm that do not regress or enlarge should be treated, but uncomplicated asymptomatic cysts less than 5 cm in diameter should only be observed and reassessed by serial ultrasonography. If they regress spontaneously, no surgical intervention is necessary independent of their sonographic findings.
Continuing to Confront COPD International Physician Survey: physician knowledge and application of COPD management guidelines in 12 countries

AIM
Utilizing data from the Continuing to Confront COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) International Physician Survey, this study aimed to describe physicians' knowledge and application of the GOLD (Global initiative for chronic Obstructive Lung Disease) Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management and Prevention of COPD diagnosis and treatment recommendations and compare performance between primary care physicians (PCPs) and respiratory specialists.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
Physicians from 12 countries were sampled from in-country professional databases; 1,307 physicians (PCP to respiratory specialist ratio three to one) who regularly consult with COPD, emphysema, or chronic bronchitis patients were interviewed online, by telephone or face to face. Physicians were questioned about COPD risk factors, prognosis, diagnosis, and treatment, including knowledge and application of the GOLD global strategy using patient scenarios.


RESULTS
Physicians reported using spirometry routinely (PCPs 82%, respiratory specialists 100%; P<0.001) to diagnose COPD and frequently included validated patient-reported outcome measures (PCPs 67%, respiratory specialists 81%; P<0.001). Respiratory specialists were more likely than PCPs to report awareness of the GOLD global strategy (93% versus 58%, P<0.001); however, when presented with patient scenarios, they did not always perform better than PCPs with regard to recommending GOLD-concordant treatment options. The proportion of PCPs and respiratory specialists providing first- or second-choice treatment options concordant with GOLD strategy for a GOLD B-type patient was 38% versus 67%, respectively. For GOLD C and D-type patients, the concordant proportions for PCPs and respiratory specialists were 40% versus 38%, and 57% versus 58%, respectively.


CONCLUSION
This survey of physicians in 12 countries practicing in the primary care and respiratory specialty settings showed high awareness of COPD-management guidelines. Frequent use of guideline-recommended COPD diagnostic practices was reported; however, gaps in the application of COPD-treatment recommendations were observed, warranting further evaluation to understand potential barriers to adopt guideline recommendations.
Managing technology

When research and development managers form a project group they should try to make it cohesive. Not just because its members will enjoy life more (they will), but because, as Robert T. Keller has found, they are more likely to do high-quality work on schedule and within budget. (Academy of Management Journal, December, 1986, p. 715).
Beneficial effects of tea catechins on diet-induced obesity: stimulation of lipid catabolism in the liver

OBJECTIVE: Obesity has increased at an alarming rate in recent years and is now a worldwide health problem. We investigated the effects of long-term feeding with tea catechins, which are naturally occurring polyphenolic compounds widely consumed in Asian countries, on the development of obesity in C57BL/6J mice.DESIGN: We measured body weight, adipose tissue mass and liver fat content in mice fed diets containing either low-fat (5% triglyceride (TG)), high-fat (30% TG), or high-fat supplemented with 0.1–0.5% (w/w) tea catechins for 11 months. The β-oxidation activities and related mRNA levels were measured after 1 month of feeding.RESULTS: Supplementation with tea catechins resulted in a significant reduction of high-fat diet-induced body weight gain, visceral and liver fat accumulation, and the development of hyperinsulinemia and hyperleptinemia. Feeding with tea catechins for 1 month significantly increased acyl-CoA oxidase and medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase mRNA expression as well as β-oxidation activity in the liver.CONCLUSION: The stimulation of hepatic lipid metabolism might be a factor responsible for the anti-obesity effects of tea catechins. The present results suggest that long-term consumption of tea catechins is beneficial for the suppression of diet-induced obesity, and it may reduce the risk of associated diseases including diabetes and coronary heart disease.
Bacterial hand contamination among Tanzanian mothers varies temporally and following household activities.

OBJECTIVE
To characterize mechanisms of hand contamination with faecal indicator bacteria and to assess the presence of selected pathogens on mothers' hands in Tanzania.


METHODS
A household observational study combined with repeated microbiological hand rinse sampling was conducted among 119 mothers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. All hand rinse samples were analysed for enterococci and Escherichia coli, and selected samples were analysed for genetic markers of Bacteroidales, enterovirus and pathogenic E. coli.


RESULTS
Using the toilet, cleaning up a child's faeces, sweeping, cleaning dishes, preparing food and bathing were all found to increase faecal indicator bacterial levels on hands. Geometric mean increases in colony forming units per two hands ranged from 50 (cleaning dishes) to 6310 (food preparation). Multivariate modelling of hand faecal indicator bacteria as a function of activities recently performed shows that food handling, exiting the household premises and longer time since last handwashing with soap are positively associated with bacterial levels on hands, while bathing is negatively associated. Genetic markers of Bacteroidales, enterovirus and pathogenic E. coli were each detected on a subset of mothers' hands.


CONCLUSIONS
Escherichia coli and enterococci on hands can be significantly increased by various household activities, including those involving the use of soap and water. Thus, faecal indicator bacteria should be considered highly variable when used as indicators of handwashing behaviour. This work corroborates hands as important vectors of disease among Tanzanian mothers and highlights the difficulty of good personal hygiene in an environment characterized by the lack of networked sanitation and water supply services.
A Hybrid SLAM and Object Recognition System for Pepper Robot

Humanoid robots are playing increasingly important roles in real-life tasks especially when it comes to indoor applications. Providing robust solutions for the tasks such as indoor environment mapping, self-localisation and object recognition are essential to make the robots to be more autonomous, hence, more human-like. The well-known Aldebaran service robot Pepper is a suitable candidate for achieving these goals. In this paper, a hybrid system combining Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) algorithm with object recognition is developed and tested with Pepper robot in real-world conditions for the first time. The ORB SLAM 2 algorithm was taken as a seminal work in our research. Then, an object recognition technique based on Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) and Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) was combined with SLAM to recognise and localise objects in the mapped indoor environment. The results of our experiments showed the system’s applicability for the Pepper robot in real-world scenarios. Moreover, we made our source code available for the community at https://github.com/ PaolaArdon/Salt-Pepper.
Progression From Perianal High-Grade Anal Intraepithelial Neoplasia to Anal Cancer in HIV-Positive Men Who Have Sex With Men.

BACKGROUND
High-grade intraepithelial neoplasia is known to progress to invasive squamous-cell carcinoma of the anus. There are limited reports on the rate of progression from high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia to anal cancer in HIV-positive men who have sex with men.


OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study was to describe in HIV-positive men who have sex with men with perianal high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia the rate of progression to anal cancer and the factors associated with that progression.


DESIGN
This was a prospective cohort study.


SETTINGS
The study was conducted at an outpatient clinic at a tertiary care center in Toronto.


PATIENTS
Thirty-eight patients with perianal high-grade anal intraepithelial neoplasia were identified among 550 HIV-positive men who have sex with men.


INTERVENTION
All of the patients had high-resolution anoscopy for symptoms, screening, or surveillance with follow-up monitoring/treatment.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
We measured the incidence of anal cancer per 100 person-years of follow-up.


RESULTS
Seven (of 38) patients (18.4%) with perianal high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia developed anal cancer. The rate of progression was 6.9 (95% CI, 2.8-14.2) cases of anal cancer per 100 person-years of follow-up. A diagnosis of AIDS, previously treated anal cancer, and loss of integrity of the lesion were associated with progression. Anal bleeding was more than twice as common in patients who progressed to anal cancer.


LIMITATIONS
There was the potential for selection bias and patients were offered treatment, which may have affected incidence estimates.


CONCLUSIONS
HIV-positive men who have sex with men should be monitored for perianal high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia. Those with high-risk features for the development of anal cancer may need more aggressive therapy.
Extent of pharmacovigilance among resident doctors in Edo and Lagos states of Nigeria.

BACKGROUND
Systematic attention to adverse drug reactions (ADRs) started with the thalidomide disaster in the early 60s of the 20(th) century. In 1968 ten countries supported a spontaneous reporting system for ADR and collaborated with the WHO pilot research project for international drug monitoring. This survey was conducted to determine the level of awareness of resident doctors about ADRs reporting, the extent of their involvement in pharmacovigilance activities and to build a useful data base that will improve the quality of health care in Nigeria.


SETTING
This cross-sectional observational survey was conducted in University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) and Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH), Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Edo and Lagos states, Nigeria, respectively. STUDY DESIGN / METHODS: A cross-sectional observational survey was used in this study. Total population under survey being 971 residents with the sample size of 350 statistically determined.


RESULTS
The survey conducted revealed that 78.1% (258) of the respondents had inadequate knowledge about pharmacovigilance with 71.2% (235) unaware of the yellow forms for ADR reporting distributed by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). The respondents (92.4%) have observed ADRs in the course of their training and practice, yet only 25.5% of cases were reported. The reported cases (7.3%) were to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control. The study showed a statistically significant difference between the institution of respondents, knowledge and experience about pharmacovigilance (p < 0.05).


CONCLUSION
There is marked under-reporting of cases and a low level of awareness about pharmacovigilance among resident doctors in Edo and Lagos states. This may be what obtains in other states in Nigeria.
Analysis of dispersion effects and non-thermal equilibrium, non- Darcian, variable porosity incompressible flow through porous media

The present work involves the numerical simulation of forced convective incompressible flow through porous media, and the associated transport processes. A full general model for the momentum equation was employed. The mathematical model for energy transport was based on the two-phase equation model which assumes no local thermal equilibrium between the fluid and the solid phases, The investigation aimed at a comprehensive analysis of the influence of a variety of effects such as the inertial effects, boundary effects, porosity variation effects, thermal dispersion effects, validity of local thermal equilibrium assumption and two dimensionality effects on the transport processes in porous media. The results presented in this work provide detailed yet readily accessible error maps for assessing the importance of various simplifying assumptions which are commonly used by researchers.
Climate Change and Water

Understand the effects of climate change on urban water and wastewater utilities with this collection of international scientific papers. Case studies and practical planning, mitigating and adapting information provided on greenhouse gases, energy use, and water supply and quality issues.

ISBN: 9781843393047 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780401737 (eBook)
Early use of high frequency ventilation in the premature neonate

 This study evaluated whether the early use of high frequency ventilation (HFV) decreased the incidence of oxygen dependency at 36 weeks postconceptual age [chronic lung disease (CLD)] and improved developmental outcome. Neonates of less than 32 weeks gestational age needing ventilatory support for RDS who were admitted to a tertiary academic neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) within 6 h of birth were included in a prospective controlled clinical trial. With randomisation they were given either HFV (n=147) or conventional ventilation (CV) (n=153). As a primary outcome variable, ventilator and/or oxygen dependence at a postconceptual age of 36 weeks (CLD) was measured. Secondary outcome variables were: mortality at discharge, treatment failure, ventilator and/or oxygen dependence at 28–30 days (bronchopulmonary disease [BPD]), duration of ventilation, use of surfactant, days in oxygen and on continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), survival without BPD or CLD, air leak, intracranial haemorrhages (ICH) grades 3 and 4, periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) grades 1 and 2, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), developmental outcome at 7 to 12 months and if necessary at 18–24 months corrected age. The results showed that CLD (16.3 vs. 12.4%), BPD (33.3 vs. 36.6%), early cerebral abnormalities, mortality at discharge (17.2 vs. 13.2%), failure rate (11.6 vs. 6.5%) and motor and mental developmental outcome at a corrected age of 18 to 24 months (p>0.05) did not differ between the two groups. Conclusion: Under the present study design HFV compared with CV did not decrease chronic lung disease and no developmental outcome differences could be found at a corrected age of almost 2 years.
Early mobilisation after total hip or knee arthroplasty: A multicentre prospective observational study

OBJECTIVE
Early mobilisation is recommended following total hip arthroplasty (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA) to prevent venous thromboembolism (VTE). We sought to determine the proportions of patients that first mobilised on post-operative day 0 (POD 0) and factors associated with earlier time to mobilisation.


METHODS
A prospective cohort study was conducted involving patients with hip or knee osteoarthritis who had undergone primary unilateral THA (n = 818) and TKA (n = 989) at 19 Australian hospitals. Patient-related (e.g. age, gender, body mass index), treatment-related (e.g. hospital site, presence of indwelling catheter) and mobilisation-related variables were collected on standardised forms. Time was measured by post-operative days, where POD 0 was defined as the day of surgery ending at midnight. Multivariate Poisson regression analysis identified associations between patient- and treatment-related covariates and time to mobilisation.


RESULTS
Inter-hospital variation was evident, but overall, only 9.4% of THA and 5.6% of TKA patients mobilised on POD 0. For THA patients, earlier time to mobilisation was associated with hospital site and absences of an indwelling catheter and acute complications. For TKA patients, earlier time to mobilisation was associated with hospital site and absence of donor blood transfusion.


CONCLUSIONS
Few THA and TKA patients mobilise POD 0, although some hospitals appear more aggressive with their mobilisation attempts than others. Treatment-related factors, not patient-related, are associated with post-operative day of mobilisation, indicating the potentially pivotal role of service providers in promoting early mobilisation to improve health outcomes and reduce rates of VTE.