LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
A copula-based joint deficit index for droughts

In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: s u m m a r y Current drought information is based on indices that do not capture the joint behaviors of hydrologic variables. To address this limitation, the potential of copulas in characterizing droughts from multiple variables is explored in this study. Starting from the standardized index (SI) algorithm, a modified index accounting for seasonality is proposed for precipitation and streamflow marginals. Utilizing Indiana stations with long-term observations (a minimum of 80 years for precipitation and 50 years for streamflow), the dependence structures of precipitation and streamflow marginals with various window sizes from 1-to 12-months are constructed from empirical copulas. A joint deficit index (JDI) is defined by using the distribution function of copulas. This index provides a probability-based description of the overall drought status. Not only is the proposed JDI able to reflect both emerging and prolonged droughts in a timely manner, it also allows a month-by-month drought assessment such that the required amount of precipitation for achieving normal conditions in future can be computed. The use of JDI is generalizable to other hydrologic variables as evidenced by similar drought severities gleaned from JDIs constructed separately from precipitation and streamflow data. JDI further allows the construction of an inter-variable drought index, where the entire dependence structure of precipitation and streamflow marginals is preserved. Introduction Drought, as a prolonged status of water deficit, has been a challenging topic in water resources management. It is perceived as one of the most expensive and least understood natural disasters. In monetary terms, a typical drought costs American farmers and businesses $6–8 billion each year (WGA, 2004), more than damages incurred from floods and hurricanes. The consequences tend to be more severe in areas such as the mid-western part of the United States, where agriculture is the major economic driver. Unfortunately , though there is a strong need to develop an algorithm for characterizing and predicting droughts, it cannot be achieved easily either through physical or statistical analyses. The main obstacles are identification of complex drought-causing mechanisms, and lack of a precise (universal) scientific definition for droughts. When a drought event occurs, moisture deficits are observed in many hydrologic variables, such as precipitation, …
Tracking Pedestrians Under Occlusion Using Multiple Cameras

This paper presents a integrated solution to track multiple non-rigid objects (pedestrians) in a multiple cameras system with ground-plane trajectory prediction and occlusion modelling. The resulting system is able to maintain the tracking of pedestrians before, during and after occlusion. Pedestrians are detected and segmented using a dynamic background model combined with motion detection and brightness and color distortion analysis. Two levels of tracking have been implemented: the image level tracking and the ground-plane level tracking. Several target cues are used to disambiguate between possible candidates of correspondence in the tracking process: spacial and temporal estimation, color and object height. A simple and robust solution for image occlusion monitoring and grouping management is described. Experiments in tracking multiple pedestrians in a dual camera setup with common field of view are presented.
Richardson Extrapolation Techniques for the Pricing of American-style Options

Richardson Extrapolation Techniques for the Pricing of American-style Options In this paper we re-examine the American-style option pricing formula of Geske and Johnson (1984) and extend the analysis by deriving a modified formula that can overcome the possibility of non-uniform convergence encountered in the original GeskeJohnson methodology. Furthermore, we propose a numerical method, the RepeatedRichardson extrapolation, which allows us to estimate the interval of true option values and to determine the number of options needed for an approximation to achieve a given desired accuracy. Using simulation results, our modified Geske-Johnson formula is shown to be more accurate than the original Geske-Johnson formula. This paper also illustrates that the Repeated-Richardson extrapolation approach can estimate the interval of true American option values extremely well. Finally, we investigate the possibility of combining the Binomial Black-Scholes method proposed by Broadie and Detemple (1996) with the Repeated-Richardson extrapolation technique. JEL Classification: G13
2011 ISSVD Terminology and classification of vulvar dermatological disorders: an approach to clinical diagnosis.

OBJECTIVE
The study aimed to formulate an easy clinical approach that may be used by clinicians of all backgrounds to diagnose vulvar dermatological disorders.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
The International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease appointed a committee with multinational members from the fields of dermatology, gynecology, and pathology and charged the committee to formulate a clinically based terminology and classification of vulvar dermatological disorders. The committee carried out its work by way of multiple rounds of e-mails extending over almost 2 year's time.


RESULTS
The committee was able to formulate a consensus report containing terminology, classification, and a step-wise approach to clinical diagnosis of vulvar dermatological disorders. This report was presented and approved by the International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease at the XXI International Congress held in Paris, France, on September 3 to 8, 2011.


CONCLUSIONS
The authors believe that the approach to terminology and classification as well as clinical diagnosis contained in this article allows clinicians to make highly accurate diagnoses of vulvar dermatological disorders within the clinical setting. This, in turn, will reduce the need for referrals and will improve the care for women with most vulvar disorders.
Incorporation of n-3 PUFA and γ-linolenic acid in blood lipids and red blood cell lipids together with their influence on disease activity in patients with chronic inflammatory arthritis - a randomized controlled human intervention trial

Marine n-3 fatty acids and γ-linolenic acid both have anti-inflammatory effects and may be useful to help treat inflammatory diseases. The effects of these alone or combined were examined in patients with arthritis in a randomized controlled trial. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis were randomized into four groups in a double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel designed study. Patients received the respective capsules (1: 3.0 g n-3 LC-PUFA/d; 2: 3.2 g γ-linolenic acid/d; 3: 1.6 g n-3 LC-PUFA + 1.8 g γ-linolenic acid/d; 4: 3.0 g olive oil) for a twelve week period. Clinical status was evaluated and blood samples were taken at the beginning and at the end of the period. Differences before and after intervention were tested with paired t-test or with Wilcoxon test for non-normal data distribution. 60 patients (54 rheumatoid arthritis, 6 psoriatic arthritis) were randomised, 47 finished per protocol. In group 1, the ratio of arachidonic acid (AA)/eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) decreased from 6.5 ± 3.7 to 2.7 ± 2.1 in plasma lipids and from 25.1 ± 10.1 to 7.2 ± 4.7 in erythrocyte membranes (p ≤ 0.001). There was no significant influence on AA/EPA ratio due to interventions in group 2-4. In group 2, the intake of γ-linolenic acid resulted in a strong rise of γ-linolenic acid and dihomo-γ-linolenic acid concentrations in plasma lipids, cholesteryl esters, and erythrocyte membranes. The combination of n-3 LC-PUFA and γ-linolenic acid (group 3) led to an increase of γ-linolenic acid and dihomo-γ-linolenic acid concentrations in plasma lipids, cholesteryl esters, and erythrocyte mem-branes. This increase was only half of that in group 2. Incorporation of eicosanoid precursor FAs was influenced by an intake of n-3 LC-PUFA and γ-linolenic acid suggesting a possible benefit for therapy of chronic inflammatory diseases. ClinicalTrials NCT01179971
Detecting Violations of Sequential Consistency

The performance of a multiprocessor is directly affected by the choice of the memory consistency model supported. Several different consistency models have been proposed in the literature. These range from sequential consistency on one end, allowing limited buffering of memory accesses, to release consistency on the other end, allowing extensive buffering and pipelining. While the relaxed models such as release consistency provide potential for higher performance, they present a more complex programming model than sequential consistency. Previous research has addressed this tradeoff by showing that a release consistent architecture provides sequentially consistent executions for programs that are free of data races. However, the burden of guaranteeing that the program is free of data races remains with the programmer or compiler. This paper presents a new implementation of release consistency. For every execution, the implementation conclusively determineseither that the execution is sequentially consistentor that the program has data races. This is achieved with minor additional hardware while maintaining the higher performance associated with release consistency.
Agriculture and development : A brief review of the literature

After 20 years of neglect by international donors, agriculture is now again in the headlines because high food prices are increasing food insecurity and poverty. In the coming years, it will be essential to increase food productivity and production in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and with smallholders. This, however, requires finding viable solutions to a number of complex technical, institutional, and policy issues, including land markets, research on seeds and inputs, agricultural extension, credit, rural infrastructure, connection to markets, rural non-farm employment, trade policy and food price stabilization. This paper reviews what the economic literature has to say on these topics. It discusses in turn the role played by agriculture in the development process and the interactions between agriculture and other economic sectors, the determinants of the Green Revolution and the foundations of agricultural growth, issues of income diversification by farmers, approaches to rural development, and issues of international trade policy and food security, which have been at the root of the crisis in agricultural commodity volatility in recent years. 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Quantitative proteomic analysis for high-throughput screening of differential glycoproteins in hepatocellular carcinoma serum

OBJECTIVE
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Novel serum biomarkers are required to increase the sensitivity and specificity of serum screening for early HCC diagnosis. This study employed a quantitative proteomic strategy to analyze the differential expression of serum glycoproteins between HCC and normal control serum samples.


METHODS
Lectin affinity chromatography (LAC) was used to enrich glycoproteins from the serum samples. Quantitative mass spectrometric analysis combined with stable isotope dimethyl labeling and 2D liquid chromatography (LC) separations were performed to examine the differential levels of the detected proteins between HCC and control serum samples. Western blot was used to analyze the differential expression levels of the three serum proteins.


RESULTS
A total of 2,280 protein groups were identified in the serum samples from HCC patients by using the 2D LC-MS/MS method. Up to 36 proteins were up-regulated in the HCC serum, whereas 19 proteins were down-regulated. Three differential glycoproteins, namely, fibrinogen gamma chain (FGG), FOS-like antigen 2 (FOSL2), and α-1,6-mannosylglycoprotein 6-β-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase B (MGAT5B) were validated by Western blot. All these three proteins were up-regulated in the HCC serum samples.


CONCLUSION
A quantitative glycoproteomic method was established and proven useful to determine potential novel biomarkers for HCC.
Painless indirect argon laser in high risk proliferative diabetic retinopathy.

BACKGROUND
Proliferative retinopathy is an important cause of vision loss in diabetic patients. Incomplete panretinal photocoagulation (PRP) can lead to recurrent proliferation of new vessels.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
We retrospectively analysed the outcome of patients with high risk proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) previously treated with slit lamp PRP who underwent indirect fill in argon laser treatment with scleral indentation under anesthesia for persistent neovascular proliferation.


RESULTS
Seventeen eyes of ten patients were included. The mean age at diabetes onset was 17.3 years SD 16.2 (range 2-44). All patients reported long standing poor glycemic control (mean HbA1c: 8.5% SD 1.3 range 5.9-10.2). The area of retinal ischemia decreased significantly from 15±7.5 disk areas (DA) before fill-in laser to 3.2±4.2 DA after fill-in laser (p=0.001). The new vessels also regressed significantly after laser treatment 8.6±6.1 DA before treatment versus 6.5±6.4 DA after laser treatment, (p=0.044). Quiescent PDR was reached in 10 eyes (58.8%) at the last visit.


CONCLUSIONS
Fill-in indirect argon laser under general anesthesia should be considered to achieve further new vessels regression in high risk PDR patients. Scleral indentation and absence of pain may allow for more extensive laser application.
A comparison of a low-dose warfarin induction regimen with the modified Fennerty regimen in elderly inpatients.

OBJECTIVES
To compare a new low-dose warfarin induction regimen with the Fennerty regimen in elderly inpatients.


DESIGN
Age-stratified, randomized prospective study.


SUBJECTS
120 age-stratified elderly inpatients.


INTERVENTIONS
Each patient was randomized to either the new induction regimen or to a modified Fennerty regimen.


MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES
Days to therapeutic International Normalized Ratio (INR >2); days in the therapeutic range (INR 2-3) during induction; number of patients with INR >4.5; ability of day 4 INR to predict day 8 warfarin dose.


RESULTS
The mean time to therapeutic INR was longer for the new induction regimen than modified Fennerty regimen in patients aged 65-75 years [4.6 (mean) +/- 1.6 (SD) days vs 3.8 +/- 0.8 days; P = 0.03] and in patients aged >75 years (4.5 +/- 1.4 days vs 3.5 +/- 0.7 days; P = 0.003). Patients spent more time in the therapeutic INR range with the new induction regimen [3.0 +/- 1.3 days vs 2.7 +/- 1.3 days (P = 0.03) for those aged 65-75 years and 2.9 +/- 1.1 days vs 2.4 +/- 1.3 days (P = 0.04 for those aged >75 years]. Fewer patients using the new regimen had INRs >4.5 in the first 8 days [1 (3%) vs 6 (20%) for 65-75 years (P < 0.05) and 1 (3%) vs 11 (37%) for >75 years (P < 0.01)]. The ability to predict the maintenance dose to within 1 mg was 55% for both regimens.


CONCLUSION
The low-dose regimen has important clinical advantages over the Fennerty regimen for anticoagulating elderly inpatients.
An examination of motivations for using the World Wide Web

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Using data collected from students at a fully networked university community, this study examines patterns of World Wide Web use and how they may relate to gratifications people seek from traditional media. Path analyses show that beliefs about the Web predict gratifications sought, and that the latter predict gratifications obtained, with considerable reliability. More importantly, entertainment, surveillance, and passing time—gratifications typically associated with television and newspaper use—prove to be significant predictors of World Wide Web site visitation. Thus, the data indicate that Internet use may be understood and predicted through the application of traditional gratification typologies. Much of the existing research on the Internet focuses on either the prospects for the success of on-line business applications or on the potential social and political implications of this network of networks. Media scholars have been suggesting for some time that exploration of the social role of the new media should also include inquiry from the uses and gratifications perspective (e. the Web is especially suited to meet. 1 The purpose of the present study is to add to an emerging body of literature that evaluates how well existing media gratifications map onto use of the World Wide Web. The issue here is whether exploration of this new medium can begin with the application of traditional types of gratifications or whether it calls for the conceptual development of an entirely new set of media use orientations. One common problem with research on the World Wide Web is the difficulty inherent in gathering a population sample of frequent users. Any general survey of American adults would identify only a limited number of people who have used the Web at least once and an even smaller number of people who …
The virtual storyteller: Story creation by intelligent agents

Character-based storyline development, where the story’s characters are fully autonomous agents, gives no guarantees for the emergence of well-structured plots. Storyline development by script, where the characters have no autonomy at all, results in static plots and offers limited interaction possibilities. Therefore, often an intermediate approach is adopted where the characters are given limited autonomy in acting out a global script. We propose an alternative approach that does not make use of pre-defined scripts. Our approach has been implemented in the Virtual Storyteller, an agent framework where co-operating intelligent agents are responsible for the creation of the different story levels (plot, narrative, and presentation).
Issues and progress with protein kinase inhibitors for cancer treatment

Identification of the key roles of protein kinases in cancer has led to extensive efforts to develop kinase inhibitors for the treatment of a wide range of cancers, and more than 30 such agents are now in clinical trials. Here, we consider the crucial issues in the development of kinase inhibitors for cancer, and discuss strategies to address the challenges raised by these issues in the light of preclinical and clinical experiences so far.
Ambient and smartphone sensor assisted ADL recognition in multi-inhabitant smart environments

Activity recognition in smart environments is an evolving research problem due to the advancement and proliferation of sensing, monitoring and actuation technologies to make it possible for large scale and real deployment. While activities in smart home are interleaved, complex and volatile; the number of inhabitants in the environment is also dynamic. A key challenge in designing robust smart home activity recognition approaches is to exploit the users' spatiotemporal behavior and location, focus on the availability of multitude of devices capable of providing different dimensions of information and fulfill the underpinning needs for scaling the system beyond a single user or a home environment. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach for recognizing complex activities of daily living (ADL), that lie in between the two extremes of intensive use of body-worn sensors and the use of ambient sensors. Our approach harnesses the power of simple ambient sensors (e.g., motion sensors) to provide additional 'hidden' context (e.g., room-level location) of an individual, and then combines this context with smartphone-based sensing of micro-level postural/locomotive states. The major novelty is our focus on multi-inhabitant environments, where we show how the use of spatiotemporal constraints along with multitude of data sources can be used to significantly improve the accuracy and computational overhead of traditional activity recognition based approaches such as coupled-hidden Markov models. Experimental results on two separate smart home datasets demonstrate that this approach improves the accuracy of complex ADL classification by over 30 %, compared to pure smartphone-based solutions.
Quality of care for acute asthma in emergency departments in Japan: a multicenter observational study.

BACKGROUND
Little is known about the quality of acute asthma care in emergency departments (EDs) outside of North America.


OBJECTIVE
We evaluated concordance of acute asthma management in Japanese EDs with recommendations in the 2007 National Institutes of Health asthma guidelines and investigated whether guideline concordance was associated with risk of hospital admission.


METHODS
We conducted a multicenter chart review study in 23 EDs across Japan. We identified ED patients aged 18 to 54 years with acute asthma between 2009 and 2011. Concordance with evidence-based guideline recommendations was evaluated by using item-by-item quality measures and composite concordance scores both at patient and ED levels. These scores ranged from 0 to 100.


RESULTS
Among 1380 patients, the median age was 35 years and 11% were hospitalized. Overall guideline concordance score was suboptimal both at the patient level (mean ± SD, 72 ± 14) and ED level (mean ± SD, 72 ± 6). Specifically, asthma care at the patient level was suboptimal in several areas: inhaled anticholinergics in ED (2%), systemic corticosteroid in ED (56%) and at discharge (36%), and peak flow assessment (9%). A multivariable model that adjusted for severity at presentation and several ED characteristics showed that higher guideline concordance was associated with significantly lower risk of hospital admission (odds ratio, 0.70 per 10-unit increase in composite score; 95% CI, 0.62-0.79 per 10-unit increase in composite score).


CONCLUSION
The management of acute asthma in Japanese EDs is suboptimal. Greater concordance with guideline-recommended management might reduce unnecessary hospitalizations. Knowledge translation initiatives are warranted to increase adherence with best practice in acute asthma management.
Force Controllable Hydro-Elastic Actuator

We present a hydro-elastic actuator that has a linear spring intentionally placed in series between the hydraulic piston and actuator output. The spring strain is measured to get an accurate estimate of force. This measurement alone is used in PI feedback to control the force in the actuator. The spring allows for high force fidelity, good force control, minimum impedance, and large dynamic range. A third order linear actuator model is broken into two fundamental cases: fixed load – high force (forward transfer function), and free load – zero force (impedance). These two equations completely describe the linear characteristics of the actuator. This model is presented with dimensional analysis to allow for generalization. A prototype actuator that demonstrates force control and low impedance is also presented. Dynamic analysis of the prototype actuator correlates well with the linear mathematical model. This work done with hydraulics is an extension from previous work done with electro-mechanical actuators. Keywords— Series Elastic Actuator, Force Control, Hydraulic Force Control, Biomimetic Robots