Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic testing in cardiovascular diseases

Purpose of review The review is designed to outline the major developments in genetic testing in the cardiovascular arena in the past year or so. This is an exciting time in genetic testing as whole exome and whole genome approaches finally reach the clinic. These new approaches offer insight into disease causation in families in which this might previously have been inaccessible, and also bring a wide range of interpretative challenges. Recent findings Among the most significant recent findings has been the extent of physiologic rare coding variation in the human genome. New disease genes have been identified through whole exome studies in neonatal arrhythmia, congenital heart disease and coronary artery disease that were simply inaccessible with other techniques. This has not only shed light on the challenges of genetic testing at this scale, but has also sharply defined the limits of prior gene-panel focused testing. As novel therapies targeting specific genetic subsets of disease become available, genetic testing will become a part of routine clinical care. Summary The pace of change in sequencing technologies has begun to transform clinical medicine, and cardiovascular disease is no exception. The complexity of such studies emphasizes the importance of real-time communication between the genetics laboratory and genetically informed clinicians. New efforts in data and knowledge management will be central to the continued advancement of genetic testing.
The Relationships among Critical success factors of Knowledge Management , Innovation and Organizational Performance : A Conceptual Framework

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships among Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of Knowledge Management (KM), innovation and Organizational Performance (OP). From the point-of-view of this study, the major idea is regarding that the successful implementation of KM has a direct effect on OP improvement and indirect effect through innovation. The intensive review of previous study is explored a serious gap in the literature of relationships among CSFs of KM, innovation and OP. Subsequently, this study will try to fill the gap from the perspective of Resource-Based View (RBV) and KnowledgeBased View (KBV). This study is proposed a conceptual framework. The proposed conceptual framework is considered a contribution towards the enrichment of the relevant literature. Moreover, this study as a stepping stone for further research on finding importance CSFs of KM towards enhance innovation and improve OP. Keywords-critical success factors of knowledge management; innovation; organizational performance.
The future of primary care medicine.

During the early and mid-1990s, a consensus emerged among physicians and health care policymakers that the United States would have a substantial surplus of physicians by the end of the decade. Most people who held this view also believed that the surplus would be limited to non–primary care physicians and that, by contrast, the supply of physicians planning to practice primary care medicine would be barely adequate. This view was supported by the decrease in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the number of graduating medical students who chose residency training in specialties that could lead to careers in .
A sociological ethnographic study of clinical governance implementation in one NHS Hospital Trust

Purpose – This study aims to give an account of how stakeholders in one NHS Hospital Trust responded to the clinical governance initiative, the effects on quality improvement and the practical accomplishment of legitimacy.Design/methodology/approach – Sociological new institutionalism theory was utilised to explain the political and ceremonial conformity that marked the clinical governance process. A case study was employed using ethnographic methods. The qualitative data were obtained by documentary analysis, observation of meetings and ward activity and 28 semi‐structured interviews. A grounded theory approach was adopted in the analysis of the interviews.Findings – Errors and inconsistencies were found in Trust documentation and reporting systems were poor. In practice clinical governance was inadequately understood and the corporate goals not shared. Nevertheless, during the same period the Trust obtained recognition for having appropriate structures and systems in place resulting in external legitima.
Carotid stent delivery in an XMR suite: immediate assessment of the physiologic impact of extracranial revascularization.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Patients undergoing stent placement as treatment for severe stenosis of the internal carotid artery (ICA) were assessed with MR imaging in a combined MR-radiographic (XMR) angiography suite. MR imaging was performed before and immediately following conventional radiography-guided stent placement. Changes in MR imaging measurable properties, including flow and perfusion, resulting from stent placement were evaluated. PATIENTS AND TECHNIQUES MR imaging analysis was performed for 12 patients with >70% stenosis of the ICA before and after conventional radiography-guided deployment of a carotid stent. MR imaging acquisitions included angiography, quantitative flow analysis, perfusion, diffusion, and turbo-fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR). These acquisitions were all performed immediately before and following stent placement by using conventional techniques. RESULTS MR angiography proved sufficient for identifying the target lesion and permitting targeted flow analysis. MR flow analysis demonstrated a marked increase in flow in the treated carotid artery (+2.2 +/- 1.2 mL/s) and little change in other extracranial arteries. MR perfusion imaging showed no significant differences in relative cerebral blood volume between hemispheres before or after treatment, but there was a modest decrease in mean transit time and time to peak evident in the treated hemisphere after stent placement. Diffusion imaging did not demonstrate any ischemic foci resulting from carotid stent treatment. Hyperintensity of the CSF was noted on turbo-FLAIR acquisitions in the ipsilateral hemisphere following stent placement in 75% of patients. CONCLUSION MR imaging reliably reflects the state of the carotid artery and provides a means of monitoring and quantifying the effects of revascularization.
TESTS OF THREE SEISMIC RETROFIT TECHNIQUES FOR RIVETED STIFFENED SEAT ANGLE CONNECTIONS

Typical riveted stiffened seat angle connections taken from an 83 years old building were tested to investigate the actual hysteretic behavior and potential moment resistance of these connections and to determine how they could be efficiently retrofitted with a minimum amount of structural modifications. In that building, columns had been embedded in low-strength concrete, as typically done at the turn of the century as a fireproofing measure. Connections were tested with and without that concrete fireproofing. This study shows that, in their as-is condition, these existing connections can develop a considerable moment resistance, but their pinched hysteretic curves indicate they have a relatively low energy dissipation capability. Connections embedment into the concrete of the columns was found to be of little benefit, contrary to what has been alleged by other researchers. Three retrofitting schemes are proposed to improve the connection’s hysteretic behavior. These are steel fuse-plates, ductile knee-braces and a “selective welding” approach. The steel-band and fuse-plates retrofit scheme permits to enhance connection strength and ductility, without requiring removal of the column concrete cover. The two other strategies require removal of the column concrete fireproofing in the vicinity of the connections. The effectiveness of those retrofit techniques was experimentally demonstrated. 4 Associate Professor, Ottawa-Carleton Earthquake Engineering Research Centre, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1N 6N5, Tel. : (613) 562-5800 Ext. 6127, Fax. : (613) 562-5173, Email:bruneau@genie.uottawa. ca 5 Project Engineer, Harmer Podolack Engineering, Nepean, Ontario, Canada. 6 Ph.D. Candidate, Ottawa-Carleton Earthquake Engineering Research Centre, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, KlN 6N5. 1 Topic Index Author Index Main Menu 6th U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering
The evolution of genomic imprinting.

We explore three possible pathways for the evolution of genomic imprinting. (1) Imprinting may be advantageous in itself when imprinted and unimprinted alleles of a locus confer different phenotypes. If a segment of DNA is imprinted in the gametes of one sex but not in those of the other, it might lead to effects correlated with sexual dimorphism. More fundamentally, in certain organisms, sex determination might have evolved because of imprinting. When imprinting leads to chromosome elimination or inactivation and occurs in some embryos but not in others, two classes of embryos, differing in the number of functional gene copies, would result. A model for sex determination based on inequality in the actual or effective copy-number of particular noncoding, regulatory sequences of DNA has been proposed (Chandra, Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 82. 1165-1169 and 6947-6949, 1985). Maternal control of offspring sex is another possible consequence of imprinting; this would indicate a potential role for imprinting in sex ratio evolution. (2) Genes responsible for imprinting may have pleiotropic effects and they may have been selected for reasons other than their imprinting ability. Lack of evidence precludes further consideration of this possibility. (3) Imprinting could have co-evolved with other traits. For instance, gamete-specific imprinting could lead to a lowered fitness of androgenetic or gynogenetic diploids relative to the fitness of 'normal' diploids. This in turn would reinforce the evolution of anisogamy. The reversibility of imprinting raises the possibility of occasional incomplete or improper erasure. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The visual motion of curves and surfaces

For smooth curved surfaces the dominant image feature is the apparent contour, or outline. This is the projection of the contour generator, the locus of points on the surface which separate visible and occluded parts. The contour generator is dependent of the local surface geometry and the viewpoint. Each viewpoint will generate a different contour generator. This paper addresses the problem of recovering the three–dimensional shape and motion of curves and surfaces from image sequences of apparent contours. For known viewer motion the visible surfaces can then be reconstructed by exploiting a spatio–temporal parametrization of the apparent contours and contour generators under viewer motion. A natural parametrization exploits the contour generators and the epipolar geometry between successive viewpoints. The epipolar parametrization leads to simplified expressions for the recovery of depth and surface curvatures from image velocities and accelerations and known viewer motion. The parametrization is, however, degenerate when the apparent contour is singular since the ray is tangent to the contour generator and at frontier points when the epipolar plane is a tangent plane to the surface. At these isolated points the epipolar parametrization can no longer be used to recover the local surface geometry. This paper reviews the epipolar parametrization and shows how the degenerate cases can be used to recover surface geometry and unknown viewer motion from apparent contours of curved surfaces. Practical implementations are outlined.
Reduction of high fetal loss rate by anticoagulant treatment during pregnancy in antithrombin, protein C or protein S deficient women

Hereditary thrombophilia is associated with an increased risk of fetal loss. Assuming that fetal loss is due to placental thrombosis, anticoagulant treatment might improve pregnancy outcome. In an observational family cohort study, we prospectively assessed the effects of anticoagulant drugs on fetal loss rates in women with hereditary deficiencies of antithrombin, protein C or protein S. The cohort contained 376 women (50 probands and 326 deficient or non‐deficient relatives). Probands were consecutive deficient patients with venous tromboembolism. Thromboprophylaxis during pregnancy was recommended in deficient women, irrespective of prior venous thromboembolism, and in non‐deficient women with prior venous thromboembolism. Outcome of first pregnancy was analysed in 55 eligible women. Of 37 deficient women, 26 (70%) received thromboprophylaxis during pregnancy, compared with three of 18 (17%) non‐deficient women. Fetal loss rates were 0% in deficient women with thromboprophylaxis versus 45% in deficient women without (P = 0·001) and 7% in non‐deficient women without thromboprophylaxis (P = 0·37). The adjusted relative risk of fetal loss in women who received thromboprophylaxis versus women who did not was 0·07 (95% confidence interval 0·001–0·7; P = 0·02). Our data suggest that anticoagulant treatment during pregnancy reduces the high fetal loss rate in women with hereditary deficiencies of antithrombin, protein C or protein S.
On the Stability and the Approximation of Branching Distribution Flows, with Applications to Nonlinear Multiple Target Filtering

We analyze the exponential stability properties of a class of measure-valued equations arising in nonlinear multi-target filtering problems. We also prove the uniform convergence properties w.r. t. the time parameter of a rather general class of stochastic filtering algorithms, including sequential Monte Carlo type models and mean field particle interpretation models. We illustrate these results in the context of the Bernoulli and the Probability Hypothesis Density filter, yielding what seems to be the first results of this kind in this subject.
Feature Selection with Linked Data in Social Media

Feature selection is widely used in preparing highdimensional data for eective data mining. Increasingly popular social media data presents new challenges to feature selection. Social media data consists of (1) traditional high-dimensional, attribute-value data such as posts, tweets, comments, and images, and (2) linked data that describes the relationships between social media users as well as who post the posts, etc. The nature of social media also determines that its data is massive, noisy, and incomplete, which exacerbates the already challenging problem of feature selection. In this paper, we illustrate the dierences between attributevalue data and social media data, investigate if linked data can be exploited in a new feature selection framework by taking advantage of social science theories, extensively evaluate the eects of user-user and user-post relationships manifested in linked data on feature selection, and discuss some research issues for future work.
Molecular Dissection of a Bifidobacterial Replicon

ABSTRACT The 2.1-kb cryptic plasmid pCIBAO89 from Bifidobacterium asteroides harbors a 1.4-kb segment which is sufficient for its autonomous replication. The segment is divided into two parts, the presumed replication origin, ori89, and the rep gene encoding the putative 41-kDa Rep89 replication initiation protein. This minimal replication region of pCIBAO89 was functionally dissected by transcriptional analyses as well as by DNA-binding studies, and the information obtained was exploited to create a number of Escherichia coli-Bifidobacterium shuttle vectors capable of transforming various bifidobacteria with an efficiency of up to 106 transformants/μg DNA.
The Oceanic forest.

On the 16th September 1961 Hurricane Debbie struck Ireland, and its tail ploughed into Argyll and the Western Isles the following night. In Ireland sixteen people were killed and much of the productive forest over 40 feet in height went down. At my own home in County Tyrone it was impossible to get out by road until we had been released by explosives and chainsaws.
Recommending similar items in large-scale online marketplaces

We are proposing a new similarity based recommendation system for large-scale dynamic marketplaces. Our solution consists of an offline process, which generates long-term cluster definitions grouping short-lived item listings, and an online system, which utilizes these clusters to first focus on important similarity dimensions and next conducts a trade-off between further similarity and other quality factors such as seller trustworthiness. Our system generates these clusters from several hundred millions of item listings using a large Hadoop map-reduce based system. The clusters are learned using user queries as the main information source and therefore biased towards how users conceptually group items. Our system is deployed on several eBay sites in large-scale and has increased user-engagement and business metrics compared to the previous system. We show that utilizing user queries helps capturing similarity better. We also present experiments demonstrating that adapting the ranking function, which controls the trade-off between similarity and quality, to a specific context improves recommendation performance.
The incidence of work-related illness in the UK health and social work sector: The Health and Occupation Reporting network 2002-2003.

BACKGROUND In the United Kingdom, The Health and Occupation Reporting network (THOR) collects incidence data on work-related illness. THOR data show that the health and social work sector generates a high proportion of case reports. This study analyses the most recent data for the health and social work sector, from 2002 to 2003. METHODS Cases returned to the Occupational Physicians Reporting Activity (OPRA) scheme and three other specialist schemes (Surveillance of Occupational Stress and Mental Illness, Musculoskeletal Occupational Surveillance Scheme and occupational skin surveillance) were analysed. Estimates of incidence rates for stress-related illness, musculoskeletal disorders and skin disease were calculated using two denominators. RESULTS In this period, 23% (11,016/47,437) of all estimated cases in THOR were in health and social work sector employees. In OPRA, in the health and social work sector, annual average incidence rates per 100,000 calculated using Labour Force Survey (LFS) data as the denominator were 51.2 for mental illness, 35.9 for musculoskeletal disorders and 10.4 for skin disease; using McDonald's data as the denominator the corresponding rates were 119.5, 83.7 and 24.3. In the specialist THOR schemes, annual average incidence rates per 100,000 using LFS data as the denominator were 18.4 (mental illness), 6.1 (musculoskeletal disorders) and 15.3 (skin disease). CONCLUSIONS Our results highlight the importance of collecting information on incident cases and denominators, to allow calculation of occupational disease rates. The higher incidence of mental illness (compared with musculoskeletal and skin disorders) in this employment sector merits further investigation.
Use of DDGS in Beef Cattle Diets

The U.S. beef cattle industry has been a major consumer of wet and dried corn distiller’s byproducts for decades. As a result, there has been considerable research conducted to evaluate the feeding value of corn distiller’s by-products to cattle. Most of the research is related to feeding distiller’s grains to finishing beef cattle. Several excellent research summaries and feeding recommendations have been published (Erickson et al., 2005; Tjardes and Wright, 2002; Loy et al., 2005a; Loy et al., 2005b; Schingoethe, 2004). Most recently, Klopfenstein et al. (2008) published an excellent literature review including a meta-analysis of 9 experiments where various levels of wet distiller’s grains with solubles were fed to feedlot cattle.
Establishing Hypothesis for Recurrent System Failures from Cluster Log Files

A goal for the analysis of supercomputer logs is to establish causal relationships among events which reflect significant state changes in the system. Establishing these relationships is at the heart of failure diagnosis. In principle, a log analysis tool could automate many of the manual steps systems administrators must currently use to diagnose system failures. However, supercomputer logs are unstructured, incomplete and contain considerable ambiguity so that direct discovery of causal relationships is difficult. This paper describes the second generation FDiag log-based failure diagnostics framework that provides automation of the manual failure diagnosis process and determines with high confidence, the likely cause of the failure, the components involved and the event sequences which contain the times of the causal and terminal events. FDiag extracts relevant events from the system logs, performs correlation analysis on these events and from these correlations determines the components involved and the event sequences. The diagnostics capabilities of FDiag are validated by comparing its assessments on known instances of recurrent failures on the Ranger supercomputer at the University of Texas at Austin. We believe FDiag is the first log analyzer to demonstrate this level of diagnostics capability from the system logs of an open source software stack incorporating Linux and the Lustre file system. FDiag will be put into production use for support of failure diagnosis on Ranger in September, 2011.
Treatment of Frontal Sinus Fracture Using Bioabsorbable Mesh Plates

AbstractAccurate reduction and stable fixation are important in the treatment of frontal sinus fracture. Usually, metal plates and screws were used because of easy handling and delicate fixation. However, palpability and possibility for secondary operation for plate removal were shortcomings. For improving these problems, we used absorbable mesh plate for fixation of reduced frontal bones.In this study, 14 patients with frontal sinus fracture were treated by open reduction and rigid fixation using absorbable mesh plates. Mean follow-up period was 17.6 months. Considering anterior and posterior table involvement, nasofrontal duct injury, and concomitant neurosurgical problems, additional surgical procedures including degloving sinus mucosa, cranialization, and obliteration of nasofrontal duct were also conducted.There was no remarkable early and late postoperative complication. Aesthetic results were also satisfactory. Absorbable mesh plates were easy to mold and convenient for screw fixation. Moreover, there was no necessity of secondary operation for removal of plates.We believe that absorbable mesh plates might be a useful material for fixation instead of metal plates and screws especially in mild to moderate degree of frontal bone fractures.