LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Late quaternary fluvial sedimentation in the voidomatis basin, Epirus, Northwest Greece

Detailed morphoand lithostratigraphic investigations, allied with radiometric dating, in the Voidomatis basin, Epirus, northwest Greece, have identified four Quaternary terraced alluvial tills that range from middle Pleistocene to historic in age. Major periods of alluviation during the late Quatemary were associated with valley glaciation (ca. 26,000-20,000 yr B.P.) and subsequent deglaciation (ca. 20,00~15,000 yr B.P.) in the Pindus Mountains during Late Wiirmian times, and more recently linked to overgrazing sometime before the 1 lth century AD. The late Quaternary alluvial stratigraphy of the Voidomatis River is more complex than the “Older Fill” and “Younger Fill” model outlined previously, and it is suggested that these terms should no longer form the basis for defining alluvial stratigraphic units in the Mediterranean Basin.
Intraoperative monitoring of the facial nerve.

OBJECTIVE
Intraoperative facial nerve monitoring (FNM) was used to assess the anatomical and physiological integrity of the facial nerve during neurotological, otological, and parotid surgeries. Why monitor the facial nerve? There are several reasons to perform FNM. First of all, it alerts the surgeon when something potentially harmful was carried out to the nerve. When the regional anatomy is confusing, it allows positive identification of the nerve. Finally, the integrity of the facial nerve is assessed at the end of the procedure.


METHODS
Eighty seven patients who underwent intraoperative monitoring of facial nerve between 1991 and 1996 at the King Fahad National Guard Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were studied. The device used was the nerve integrity monitor manufactured by Xomed. The device works when a physiologically intact facial nerve is stimulated, the muscles that are innervated by this nerve will contract.


RESULTS
In otologic surgery, FNM signals the unintentional mechanical stimulation of the facial nerve during surgery, it predicts the dehiscence in the bony covering of the nerve and it allows mapping the nerve through soft tissue and bone. Facial nerve injury is the most devastating complication of otologic surgery particularly when anatomy is distorted by previous surgery, granulation tissue or cholesteatoma distorts anatomy, and in rare instances by an anolomous course. However, it is unlikely to be injured when it has been identified. The surgical treatment of recurrent parotid tumor can be challenging. The main aim of surgery is complete removal of tumor and preservation of facial nerve.


CONCLUSION
Facial nerve monitoring assists early nerve identification and decreases the nerve trauma. However, as an adjunct, it has proved extremely beneficial. In this paper, the facial nerve was monitored intraoperatively in 87 cases with different pathologies. It is certainly helpful in revision mastoid surgery and in removal of recurrent parotid tumor. Intraoperative monitoring of the facial nerve plays an important role in identification and preservation of the facial nerve during otological and parotid surgeries.
EXPRESSING AND COMMUNICATING UNCERTAINTY IN RELATION TO QUANTITATIVE RISK ANALYSIS

A quantitative risk analysis (QRA) should provide a broad, informative and balanced picture of risk, in order to support decisions. To achieve this, a proper treatment of uncertainty is a prerequisite. Most approaches to treatment of uncertainty in QRA seem to be based on the thinking that uncertainty relates to the calculated probabilities and expected values. This causes difficulties when it comes to communicating what the analysis results mean, and could easily lead to weakened conclusions if large uncertainties are involved. An alternative approach is to hold uncertainty, not probability, as a main component of risk, and regard probabilities purely as epistemic-based expressions of uncertainty. In the paper the latter view is taken, and we describe what should be the main components of a risk description when following this approach. We also indicate how this approach relates to decision-making. An important issue addressed is how to communicate the shortcomings and limitations of probabilities and expected values. Sensitivity analysis plays a key role in this regard. Examples are included to illustrate ideas and findings.
Incidence and virulence characteristics of Aeromonas spp. in fish

AIM
This study was conducted to evaluate the presence of Aeromonas spp. in raw and ready-to-eat (RTE) fish commonly consumed in Assiut city, Egypt, and to determine virulence factors due to they play a key role in their pathogenicity.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 125 samples of raw and RTE fish samples were taken from different fish markets and fish restaurants in Assiut Governorate and screened for the presence of Aeromonas spp. by enrichment on tryptic soy broth then incubated at 30°C for 24 h. Plating unto the sterile Petri dishes containing Aeromonas agar base to which Aeromonas selective supplement was added. The plates were incubated at 37°C for 24 h. Presumptive Aeromonas colonies were biochemically confirmed and analyzed for pathogenicity by hemolysin production, protease, and lipase detection.


RESULTS
The results indicated that raw fish were contaminated with Aeromonas spp. (40% in wild and 36% in cultured Nile tilapia). Regarding RTE, Aeromonas spp. could be isolated with the percentage of 16%, 28% and 20% in fried Bolti, grilled Bolti and fried Bayad, respectively. Out of 35 isolates obtained, 22 were categorized as Aeromonas hydrophila, 12 were classified as Aeromonas sobria and Aeromonas caviae were found in only one isolate. The virulence factors of Aeromonas spp. were detected and the results showed that all isolates produced of hemolysin (91.4%), protease (77.1%), and lipase enzyme (17.1%).


CONCLUSION
This study indicates that the presence of A. hydrophila with virulence potential in fresh and RTE fish may be a major threat to public health.
Obstetric outcome of teenage pregnancies at a tertiary hospital in Enugu, Nigeria.

CONTEXT
Maternal age, parity, and socioeconomic class are important determinants of obstetric outcome of pregnancy. Teenage pregnancy constitutes a high risk pregnancy with complications arising from a combination of physiological, anatomical, and socioeconomic factors.


OBJECTIVE
The objective was to determine the current incidence of all teenage pregnancies and their obstetric outcomes at UNTH, Enugu.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
This was a retrospective review of all teenage pregnancies at University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu over a 6-year period (2000--2005). A total of 74 teenage pregnancies were analyzed and compared with 105 controls (adult mothers).


RESULTS
Records of 74 teenage pregnancies were identified within the study period which constitutes 1.67% of 4422 deliveries within the period. Majority of the teenagers (78.3%) were nulliparous. There was statistically significant differences between the teenage mothers and older mothers in the rate of unemployment (75.7% vs. 24.8%, P = 0.000), booking status (41.9% vs. 100%, P = 0.000) anemia (32.4% vs. 24.8%, P = 0.001), unsure of last menstrual period (32.4% vs. 15.2%, P = 0.007), caesarean section (18.9% vs. 10.5%, P = 0.000), cephalopelvic disproportion as an indication for caesarean section (9.4% vs. 3.8%, P = 0.001), preterm delivery (18.9% vs. 11.4%, P = 0.001), low birth weight (23.0% vs. 10.5%, P = 0.005), episiotomy (61.7% vs. 28.7%, P = 0.001), instrumental delivery (6.8% vs. 2.9% P = 0.001), Apgar score at 1 minute (35.1% vs. 19.1% P = 0.005), and perinatal mortality (16.2% vs. 12.4%). There were no maternal deaths.


CONCLUSION
Pregnant teenagers are at higher risk than their older counterparts. Female socioeducational development and proper use of contraceptive services will help reduce teenage pregnancy rate, while perinatal care will help to minimize it associated hazards.
Accurate anchoring alignment of divergent sequences

MOTIVATION
Obtaining high quality alignments of divergent homologous sequences for cross-species sequence comparison remains a challenge.


RESULTS
We propose a novel pairwise sequence alignment algorithm, ACANA (ACcurate ANchoring Alignment), for aligning biological sequences at both local and global levels. Like many fast heuristic methods, ACANA uses an anchoring strategy. However, unlike others, ACANA uses a Smith-Waterman-like dynamic programming algorithm to recursively identify near-optimal regions as anchors for a global alignment. Performance evaluations using a simulated benchmark dataset and real promoter sequences suggest that ACANA is accurate and consistent, especially for divergent sequences. Specifically, we use a simulated benchmark dataset to show that ACANA has the highest sensitivity to align constrained functional sites compared to BLASTZ, CHAOS and DIALIGN for local alignment and compared to AVID, ClustalW, DIALIGN and LAGAN for global alignment. Applied to 6007 pairs of human-mouse orthologous promoter sequences, ACANA identified the largest number of conserved regions (defined as over 70% identity over 100 bp) compared to AVID, ClustalW, DIALIGN and LAGAN. In addition, the average length of conserved region identified by ACANA was the longest. Thus, we suggest that ACANA is a useful tool for identifying functional elements in cross-species sequence analysis, such as predicting transcription factor binding sites in non-coding DNA.


AVAILABILITY
ACANA software and test sequence data are publicly available at http://BioMedEmpire.org/
An arithmetic proof of John’s ellipsoid theorem

Abstract.Using an idea of Voronoi in the geometric theory of positive definite quadratic forms, we give a transparent proof of John’s characterization of the unique ellipsoid of maximum volume contained in a convex body. The same idea applies to the ‘hard part’ of a generalization of John’s theorem and shows the difficulties of the corresponding ‘easy part’.
A Compact Wideband Slot-Loop Hybrid Antenna With a Monopole Feed

This communication presents a compact monopole-fed slot-loop hybrid antenna for wideband wireless communications. The wideband characteristic is achieved by coupling three different resonant modes of the proposed slot-loop hybrid antenna, namely, a loop mode for the lower band, a slot mode for the middle band and a monopole mode for the higher band. The proposed antenna is built and tested to verify the design strategy. The measured impedance bandwidth (|S11| <; -10B) ranges from 1.82 GHz to 5.68 GHz (102.9%) with stable performance, including bi-directional radiation pattern, vertical polarization and gain. The proposed slot-loop hybrid antenna also shows the merits of compact dimension, low cross-polarization and low cost.
Forest loss and matrix composition are the major drivers shaping dung beetle assemblages in a fragmented rainforest

Identifying the drivers shaping biological assemblages in fragmented tropical landscapes is critical for designing effective conservation strategies. It is still unclear, however, whether tropical biodiversity is more strongly affected by forest loss, by its spatial configuration or by matrix composition across different spatial scales. Assessing the relative influence of forest patch and landscape attributes on dung beetle assemblages in the fragmented Lacandona rainforest, Mexico. Using a multimodel inference approach we tested the relative impact of forest patch size and landscape forest cover (measures of forest amount at the patch and landscape scales, respectively), patch shape and isolation (forest configuration indices at the patch scale), forest fragmentation (forest configuration index at the landscape scale), and matrix composition on the diversity, abundance and biomass of dung beetles. Patch size, landscape forest cover and matrix composition were the best predictors of dung beetle assemblages. Species richness, beetle abundance, and biomass decreased in smaller patches surrounded by a lower percentage of forest cover, and in landscapes dominated by open-area matrices. Community evenness also increased under these conditions due to the loss of rare species. Forest loss at the patch and landscape levels and matrix composition show a larger impact on dung beetles than forest spatial configuration. To preserve dung beetle assemblages, and their key functional roles in the ecosystem, conservation initiatives should prioritize a reduction in deforestation and an increase in the heterogeneity of the matrix surrounding forest remnants.
On the Interpretation of Aristotelian Syllogistic

(theorem 6, ? 4) we show that in Wedberg's system [14] with primitives 'Aab', 'a" (not a), it is possible to find a mapping a -T(a) as above such that 'Aab' is equivalent to '92(a) is contained in 9p(b)' and 9p(a') is equal to p(a)', the complement of p(a) with respect to V. Thus, if we make the preliminary step of identifying elements a, b such that Aab and Aba both hold (i.e. taking equivalence classes with respect to the relation Aab & Aba), we are left with essentially only one kind of interpretation for these systems, namely the 'normal' interpretation by classes. Slupecki [1 1], [12] has proved that Lukasiewicz's system is a complete and decidable theory of the relations of inclusion and intersection of non-null classes, and Wedberg [14] has proved that his system is a complete and decidable theory of the relation of inclusion and the operation of complementation for nonnull, non-universal classes. Using the above-mentioned embedding theorem, we are able to obtain (theorems 9, 6, ?? 5, 4) very simple proofs of these results. For the sake of completeness and simplicity of presentation we deal first with the theory of inclusion and complementation for general (i.e. not necessarily non-null, non-universal) classes. In this way all the results follow with very little further effort from our theorem 1 which says, essentially, that a sufficient (and obviously necessary) condition for a partially ordered set S with a 'complement' operation "' to be embeddable, with preservation of complements, in a Boolean algebra is that, for all a, b of S, a" = a, a ? b .). b' ? a', and a ? a' .D. a ? b.
The Copenhagen Wheel: An innovative electric bicycle system that harnesses the power of real-time information and crowd sourcing

This paper presents the ongoing research and development of ‘The Copenhagen Wheel’ – an innovative electric bicycle system developed by MIT’s SENSEable City Lab for the City of Copenhagen, with support from the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Ducati Energia s.p.a. The aim of this paper is to show that the Copenhagen Wheel not only represents a leap-frog technical solution for the electric bike market – that includes the development of a regenerative braking system and innovative motor control – but also uses real-time sensing and the powers of crowd sourcing to improve the cycling experience; get more people riding bikes; and to aid in the design and development of cities. The initial prototype of The Copenhagen Wheel was presented at the Mayor’s Summit at the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, December 2009. It is currently in its final prototyping phase and will go commercial in 12 months time.
On the development of flywheel storage systems for power system applications: A survey

Energy storage systems cannot be considered energy sources but having the ability of storing and discharging energy. They have a vital rule in the reliability and power quality of power systems. There are several energy storage systems (e.g. compressed air storage, battery, supercapacitors, hydrogen storage and flywheels) which can be selected according to the application requirements. Flywheels are used in electric power systems for frequency support, uninterruptible power supply, voltage sag mitigation, flexible AC transmission and power leveling. The flywheel energy storage system consists of a flywheel, an electric machine and a power conversion system. In this paper, energy storage systems used in power system applications are surveyed focusing on flywheel energy storage systems.
Standard operating procedures for antibiotic therapy and the occurrence of acute kidney injury: a prospective, clinical, non-interventional, observational study

INTRODUCTION
Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs in 7% of hospitalized and 66% of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients. It increases mortality, hospital length of stay, and costs. The aim of this study was to investigate, whether there is an association between adherence to guidelines (standard operating procedures (SOP)) for potentially nephrotoxic antibiotics and the occurrence of AKI.


METHODS
This study was carried out as a prospective, clinical, non-interventional, observational study. Data collection was performed over a total of 170 days in three ICUs at Charité - Universitaetsmedizin Berlin. A total of 675 patients were included; 163 of these had therapy with vancomycin, gentamicin, or tobramycin; were >18 years; and treated in the ICU for >24 hours. Patients with an adherence to SOP >70% were classified into the high adherence group (HAG) and patients with an adherence of <70% into the low adherence group (LAG). AKI was defined according to RIFLE criteria. Adherence to SOPs was evaluated by retrospective expert audit. Development of AKI was compared between groups with exact Chi2-test and multivariate logistic regression analysis (two-sided P <0.05).


RESULTS
LAG consisted of 75 patients (46%) versus 88 HAG patients (54%). AKI occurred significantly more often in LAG with 36% versus 21% in HAG (P = 0.035). Basic characteristics were comparable, except an increased rate of soft tissue infections in LAG. Multivariate analysis revealed an odds ratio of 2.5-fold for LAG to develop AKI compared with HAG (95% confidence interval 1.195 to 5.124, P = 0.039).


CONCLUSION
Low adherence to SOPs for potentially nephrotoxic antibiotics was associated with a higher occurrence of AKI.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN54598675. Registered 17 August 2007.
Choice of treatment modalities was not influenced by pain, severity or co-morbidity in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) are commonly treated by physiotherapists in primary care. The physiotherapists use different treatment modalities. In a previous study, we identified variation in the use of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), low level laser or acupuncture, massage and weight reduction advice for patients with knee OA. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that might explain variation in treatment modalities for patients with knee OA.


METHODS
Practising physiotherapists prospectively collected data for one patient with knee osteoarthritis each through 12 treatment sessions.We chose to examine factors that might explain variation in the choice of treatment modalities supported by high or moderate quality evidence, and modalities which were frequently used but which were not supported by evidence from systematic reviews. Experienced clinicians proposed factors that they thought might explain the variation in the choice of these specific treatments. We used these factors in explanatory analyses.


RESULTS
Using TENS, low level laser or acupuncture was significantly associated with having searched databases to help answer clinical questions in the last six months (odds ratio [OR] = 1.93, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.08-3.42). Not having Internet access at work and using more than four treatment modalities were significant determinants for giving massage (OR = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.19-0.68 and OR = 8.92, 95% CI = 4.37-18.21, respectively). Being a female therapist significantly increased the odds for providing weight reduction advice (OR = 3.60, 95% CI = 1.12-11.57). No patient characteristics, such as age, pain or co-morbidity, were significantly associated with variation in practice.


CONCLUSIONS
Factors related to patient characteristics, such as pain severity and co-morbidity, did not seem to explain variation in treatment modalities for patients with knee OA. Variation was associated with the following factors: physiotherapists having Internet access at work, physiotherapists having searched databases for the last six months and the gender of the therapist. There is a need for more studies of determinants for physiotherapy practice.
Peregrine: low-latency queries on Hive warehouse data

How Facebook is analyzing big data.
Validity of the Brazilian version of WHOQOL-BREF in depressed patients using Rasch modelling.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the validity of the Brazilian version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument - Abbreviated version (WHOQOL-BREF) in adults with major depression, using Rasch modelling.


METHODS
Study analyzing data from the baseline sample of the Longitudinal Investigation of Depression Outcomes in Brazil, including a total of 208 patients with major depression recruited in a primary care service in Porto Alegre (Southern Brazil), in 1999. The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale was used to assess intensity of depression; the WHOQOL-BREF to assess generic quality of life; and the Composite International Diagnostic Interview version 2.1 for the diagnosis of depression.


RESULTS
In the Rasch analysis, the four domains of WHOQOL-BREF showed appropriate fit to this model. Some items needed adjustments: four items were rescored (pain, finances, services, and transport); two items (work and activity) were identified as having dependency of responses, and one item was deleted (sleep) due to multidimensionality.


CONCLUSIONS
The validation of the WHOQOL-BREF Brazilian version using Rasch analysis complements previous validation studies, evidencing the robustness of this instrument as a generic cross-cultural quality of life measure.
Inverted papilloma of the sphenoid sinus: risk factors for disease recurrence.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS
Surgical treatment of inverted papilloma (IP) of the sphenoid sinus is complicated by close proximity to vital structures of the skull base. Identifying the site of tumor attachment and achieving complete removal can be challenging compared to IP at other sites. The objective of this study is to illustrate the clinical presentation, management, and risk factors for tumor recurrence for sphenoid IP.


STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective study.


METHODS
A multi-institutional, retrospective review of endoscopic resections of IP based within the sphenoid sinus was performed from 1996 to 2014. Demographic and tumor data, operative notes, complications, and recurrence rates were collected. Statistical analysis was performed to identify risk factors for tumor recurrence.


RESULTS
Forty-eight patients (31 males, 17 females) were identified. Mean age was 57 years, with a median follow-up of 13.6 months (range 6.8-36). Rate of tumor recurrence was 14.6%, with median time to recurrence of 13.1 months. Patients with dysplasia/carcinoma in situ (CIS) had a 3.6 greater rate of recurrence (RR) compared to patients with no dysplasia, approaching significance (RR = 3.6; P = 0.08). Patients with IP attachment sites overlying the optic nerve or carotid artery had a 4.76 greater rate of recurrence compared to other sites (RR = 4.76; P = 0.073).


CONCLUSION
Sphenoid sinus IP is associated with a 14.6% rate of recurrence after surgery. Potential risk factors for tumor recurrence identified in this study include attachment sites over the optic nerve and carotid artery or evidence of dysplasia or CIS. Close follow-up in the postoperative period is essential for these patients to monitor for tumor recurrence.