Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electronic medical record systems, data quality and loss to follow-up: survey of antiretroviral therapy programmes in resource-limited settings.

OBJECTIVE To describe the electronic medical databases used in antiretroviral therapy (ART) programmes in lower-income countries and assess the measures such programmes employ to maintain and improve data quality and reduce the loss of patients to follow-up. METHODS In 15 countries of Africa, South America and Asia, a survey was conducted from December 2006 to February 2007 on the use of electronic medical record systems in ART programmes. Patients enrolled in the sites at the time of the survey but not seen during the previous 12 months were considered lost to follow-up. The quality of the data was assessed by computing the percentage of missing key variables (age, sex, clinical stage of HIV infection, CD4+ lymphocyte count and year of ART initiation). Associations between site characteristics (such as number of staff members dedicated to data management), measures to reduce loss to follow-up (such as the presence of staff dedicated to tracing patients) and data quality and loss to follow-up were analysed using multivariate logit models. FINDINGS Twenty-one sites that together provided ART to 50 060 patients were included (median number of patients per site: 1000; interquartile range, IQR: 72-19 320). Eighteen sites (86%) used an electronic database for medical record-keeping; 15 (83%) such sites relied on software intended for personal or small business use. The median percentage of missing data for key variables per site was 10.9% (IQR: 2.0-18.9%) and declined with training in data management (odds ratio, OR: 0.58; 95% confidence interval, CI: 0.37-0.90) and weekly hours spent by a clerk on the database per 100 patients on ART (OR: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.90-0.99). About 10 weekly hours per 100 patients on ART were required to reduce missing data for key variables to below 10%. The median percentage of patients lost to follow-up 1 year after starting ART was 8.5% (IQR: 4.2-19.7%). Strategies to reduce loss to follow-up included outreach teams, community-based organizations and checking death registry data. Implementation of all three strategies substantially reduced losses to follow-up (OR: 0.17; 95% CI: 0.15-0.20). CONCLUSION The quality of the data collected and the retention of patients in ART treatment programmes are unsatisfactory for many sites involved in the scale-up of ART in resource-limited settings, mainly because of insufficient staff trained to manage data and trace patients lost to follow-up.
CodeBlue: An Ad Hoc Sensor Network Infrastructure for Emergency Medical Care

Sensor devices integrating embedded processors, low-power, lowbandwidth radios, and a modest amount of storage have the potential to enhance emergency medical care. Wearable vital sign sensors can track patient status and location, while simultaneously operating as active tags. We introduce CodeBlue, a wireless infrastructure intended for deployment in emergency medical care, integrating low-power, wireless vital sign sensors, PDAs, and PC-class systems. CodeBlue will enhance first responders’ ability to assess patients on scene, ensure seamless transfer of data among caregivers, and facilitate efficient allocation of hospital resources. Intended to scale to very dense networks with thousands of devices and extremely volatile network conditions, this infrastructure will support reliable, ad hoc data delivery, a flexible naming and discovery scheme, and a decentralized security model. This paper introduces our architecture and highlights research challenges being addressed by the CodeBlue
Clinical comparison of progressive aphasia associated with Alzheimer versus FTD-spectrum pathology

Objective Recent post-mortem studies indicate that 30–40% of patients with clinically diagnosed progressive aphasia (PA) have Alzheimer's disease pathology, while the remainder have pathology in the FTD spectrum. This study aimed to compare the clinical features of patients from these two groups. Materials and methods A retrospective chart review was conducted on 33 pathologically verified PA patients: n=13 AD and n=20 FTD-spectrum pathology. Demographics, global cognitive function, non-verbal memory, neuropsychiatric symptoms and structural imaging were compared between the two pathology-confirmed groups. Results The median survival was 6.3 years in the FTD group versus 8.1 years in the AD group, in spite of the fact that onset for AD was on average 2.0 years older than FTD. Features highly specific in predicting FTD-spectrum pathology were age of onset before 60 years, preference for sweet food, disinhibition and focal knife-edge frontotemporal atrophy, although the sensitivity for each of these was remarkably low (highest sensitivity was 45% for disinhibition). Some clinical features hypothesised to distinguish AD from FTD-spectrum pathology, such as global functional impairment within 2 years of onset and poor non-verbal memory ability, were not useful in separating the two groups. Conclusions If present, certain clinical and imaging features can help to identify PA with FTD-spectrum pathology, notably the presence of the neuropsychiatric features seen with behavioural presentations of FTD and knife-edge atrophy on structural imaging. The profile of non-linguistic cognitive deficits does not appear to be discriminatory, though prospective studies are needed to evaluate this issue further.
Automatic Face Image Quality Prediction

Face image quality can be defined as a measure of the utility of a face image to automatic face recognition. In this work, we propose (and compare) two methods for automatic face image quality based on target face quality values from (i) human assessments of face image quality (matcher-independent), and (ii) quality values computed from similarity scores (matcher-dependent). A support vector regression model trained on face features extracted using a deep convolutional neural network (ConvNet) is used to predict the quality of a face image. The proposed methods are evaluated on two unconstrained face image databases, LFW and IJB-A, which both contain facial variations with multiple quality factors. Evaluation of the proposed automatic face image quality measures shows we are able to reduce the FNMR at 1% FMR by at least 13% for two face matchers (a COTS matcher and a ConvNet matcher) by using the proposed face quality to select subsets of face images and video frames for matching templates (i.e., multiple faces per subject) in the IJB-A protocol. To our knowledge, this is the first work to utilize human assessments of face image quality in designing a predictor of unconstrained face quality that is shown to be effective in cross-database evaluation.
Impact of cow strain and concentrate supplementation on grazing behaviour, milk yield and metabolic state of dairy cows in an organic pasture-based feeding system

As ruminants are able to digest fibre efficiently and assuming that competition for feed v. food use would intensify in the future, cereals and other field crops should primarily be destined to cover the dietary needs of humans and monogastric animals such as poultry and pigs. Farming systems with a reduced or absent concentrate supplementation, as postulated by organic agriculture associations, require adapted dairy cows. The aim of this experiment was to examine the impact of concentrate supplementation on milk production, grazing and rumination behaviour, feed intake, physical activity and blood traits with two Holstein-Friesian cow strains and to conclude the consequences for sustainable and organic farming. The experiment was a cross-over study and took place on an organic farm in Switzerland. In all, 12 Swiss Holstein-Friesian (HCH) cows and 12 New Zealand Holstein-Friesian (HNZ) cows, which were paired according to lactation number, days in milk and age for primiparous cows, were used. All cows grazed full time and were supplemented either with 6 kg/day of a commercial, organic cereal-grain mix or received no supplement. After an adaptation period of 21 days, a measurement period of 7 days followed, where milk yield and composition, pasture dry matter intake estimated with the n-alkane double-indicator technique, physical activity based on pedometer measurements, grazing behaviour recorded by automatic jaw movement recorder and blood samples were investigated. Non-supplemented cows had a lower milk yield and supplemented HCH cows produced more milk than supplemented HNZ cows. Grazing time and physical activity were greater for non-supplemented cows. Supplementation had no effect on rumination behaviour, but HNZ cows spent longer ruminating compared with HCH cows. Pasture dry matter intake decreased with the concentrate supplementation. Results of blood analysis did not indicate a strong negative energy balance for either non-supplemented or supplemented cows. Minor differences between cow strains in this short-term study indicated that both cow strains are equally suited for an organic pasture-based production system with no concentrate supplementation. Many factors such as milk yield potential, animal welfare and health, efficiency, grazing behaviour and social aspects influence the decision to supplement grazing dairy cows with concentrates.
Functional recovery after ischemic stroke—A matter of age

Objective: To analyze the association between patient age and good functional outcome after ischemic stroke with special focus on young patients who were numerically underrepresented in previous evaluations. Methods: Of 43,163 ischemic stroke patients prospectively enrolled in the Austrian Stroke Unit Registry, 6,084 (14.1%) were ≤55 years old. Functional outcome was available in a representative subsample of 14,256 patients free of prestroke disability, 2,223 of whom were 55 years or younger. Herein we analyzed the effects of age on good functional outcome 3 months after stroke (modified Rankin Scale score ≤2). Results: Good outcome was achieved in 88.2% (unadjusted probability) of young stroke patients (≤55 years). In multivariable analysis, age emerged as a significant predictor of outcome independent of stroke severity, etiology, performance of thrombolysis, sex, risk factors, and stroke complications. When the age stratum 56–65 years was used as a reference, odds ratios (95% confidence interval [95%CI]) of good outcome were 3.4 (1.9–6.4), 2.2 (1.6–3.2), and 1.5 (1.2–1.9) for patients aged 18–35, 36–45, and 46–55 years and 0.70 (0.60–0.81), 0.32 (0.28–0.37), and 0.18 (0.14–0.22) for those aged 66–75, 76–85, and >85 years (p < 0.001). In absolute terms, the regression-adjusted probability of good outcome was highest in the age group 18–35 years and gradually declined by 3.1%–4.2% per decade until age 75 with a steep drop thereafter. Findings applied equally to sexes and patients with and without IV thrombolysis or diabetes. Conclusions: Age emerged as a highly significant inverse predictor of good functional outcome after ischemic stroke independent of stroke severity, characteristics, and complications with the age-outcome association exhibiting a nonlinear scale and extending to young stroke patients. Neurology® 2012;78:279–285
‘RuNet 2020’ - deploying traditional elements of combat power in cyberspace?

In the recently approved Information Security Doctrine (Dec 5, 2016) Russia openly aims “to deploy a national system of managing the Russian segment of the internet”. For some time, we have observed how Russia has been conducting intellectual, legislative and technical measures in order to create a purely domestic network disconnected from the global internet by 2020. In the Russian way of thinking, fully state-controlled and independent RuNet - the Russian segment of the internet - will ensure stronger defence against external attacks. In this paper, we play with the thought that RuNet will be disconnected technically from the global internet by controlling the internet routing architecture inside Russia and that Russia is able to maintain operational capabilities outside of the global internet. Our aim is to discover what Russia's military aim with ‘RuNet 2020’ could be. We argue that the strategy behind ‘RuNet 2020’ can be analysed with conventional military tactics and by the deployment of traditional elements of combat power in the abstract cyberspace. We discuss that the military aim of ‘RuNet 2020’ is not the evident protection improvement, but to improve own relative manoeuvrability. Moreover, ‘RuNet 2020’ could increase relative firepower as well. Consequently, our aim is to show how and why the Russian leadership could rely on ‘RuNet 2020’.
POSSIBLE DISINTEGRATING SHORT-PERIOD SUPER-MERCURY ORBITING KIC 12557548

We report on the discovery of stellar occultations, observed with Kepler, which recur periodically at 15.685 hr intervals, but which vary in depth from a maximum of 1.3% to a minimum that can be less than 0.2%. The star that is apparently being occulted is KIC 12557548, a V = 16 mag K dwarf with Teff, s ≃ 4400 K. The out-of-occultation behavior shows no evidence for ellipsoidal light variations, indicating that the mass of the orbiting object is less than ∼3 MJ (for an orbital period of 15.7 hr). Because the eclipse depths are highly variable, they cannot be due solely to transits of a single planet with a fixed size. We discuss but dismiss a scenario involving a binary giant planet whose mutual orbit plane precesses, bringing one of the planets into and out of a grazing transit. This scenario seems ruled out by the dynamical instability that would result from such a configuration. We also briefly consider an eclipsing binary, possibly containing an accretion disk, that either orbits KIC 12557548 in a hierarchical triple configuration or is nearby on the sky, but we find such a scenario inadequate to reproduce the observations. The much more likely explanation—but one which still requires more quantitative development—involves macroscopic particles escaping the atmosphere of a slowly disintegrating planet not much larger than Mercury in size. The particles could take the form of micron-sized pyroxene or aluminum oxide dust grains. The planetary surface is hot enough to sublimate and create a high-Z atmosphere; this atmosphere may be loaded with dust via cloud condensation or explosive volcanism. Atmospheric gas escapes the planet via a Parker-type thermal wind, dragging dust grains with it. We infer a mass-loss rate from the observations of order 1 M⊕ Gyr−1, with a dust-to-gas ratio possibly of order unity. For our fiducial 0.1 M⊕ planet (twice the mass of Mercury), the evaporation timescale may be ∼0.2 Gyr. Smaller mass planets are disfavored because they evaporate still more quickly, as are larger mass planets because they have surface gravities too strong to sustain outflows with the requisite mass-loss rates. The occultation profile evinces an ingress–egress asymmetry that could reflect a comet-like dust tail trailing the planet; we present simulations of such a tail.
Water balance of field-excavated aestivating Australian desert frogs, the cocoon-forming Neobatrachus aquilonius and the non-cocooning Notaden nichollsi (Amphibia: Myobatrachidae)

SUMMARY Burrowed aestivating frogs of the cocoon-forming species Neobatrachus aquilonius and the non-cocooning species Notaden nichollsi were excavated in the Gibson Desert of central Australia. Their hydration state (osmotic pressure of the plasma and urine) was compared to the moisture content and water potential of the surrounding soil. The non-cocooning N. nichollsi was consistently found in sand dunes. While this sand had favourable water potential properties for buried frogs, the considerable spatial and temporal variation in sand moisture meant that frogs were not always in positive water balance with respect to the surrounding soil. The cocoon-forming N. aquilonius was excavated from two distinct habitat types, a claypan in which frogs had a well-formed cocoon and a dune swale where frogs did not have a cocoon. Cocoons of excavated frogs ranged in thickness from 19.4 μm to 55.61 μm and consisted of 81-229 layers. Cocooned claypan N. aquilonius were nearing exhaustion of their bladder water reserves and had a urine osmolality approaching that of the plasma. By contrast, non-cocooned N. aquilonius from the dune swale were fully hydrated, although soil moisture levels were not as high as calculated to be necessary to maintain water balance. Both species had similar plasma arginine vasotocin (AVT) concentrations ranging from 9.4 to 164 pg ml-1, except for one cocooned N. aquilonius with a higher concentration of 394 pg ml-1. For both species, AVT showed no relationship with plasma osmolality over the lower range of plasma osmolalities but was appreciably increased at the highest osmolality recorded. This study provides the first evidence that cocoon formation following burrowing is not obligatory in species that are capable of doing so, but that cocoon formation occurs when soil water conditions are more desiccating than for non-cocooned frogs.
Evaluation of Automated Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis for Bacterial Fingerprinting of Rumen Microbiome Compared to Pyrosequencing Technology

The mammalian gut houses a complex microbial community which is believed to play a significant role in host physiology. In recent years, several microbial community analysis methods have been implemented to study the whole gut microbial environment, in contrast to classical microbiological methods focusing on bacteria which can be cultivated. One of these is automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA), an inexpensive and popular way of analyzing bacterial diversity and community fingerprinting in ecological samples. ARISA uses the natural variability in length of the DNA fragment found between the 16S and 23S genes in different bacterial lineages to infer diversity. This method is now being supplanted by affordable next-generation sequencing technologies that can also simultaneously annotate operational taxonomic units for taxonomic identification. We compared ARISA and pyrosequencing of samples from the rumen microbiome of cows, previously sampled at different stages of development and varying in microbial complexity using several ecological parameters. We revealed close agreement between ARISA and pyrosequencing outputs, especially in their ability to discriminate samples from different ecological niches. In contrast, the ARISA method seemed to underestimate sample richness. The good performance of the relatively inexpensive ARISA makes it relevant for straightforward use in bacterial fingerprinting analysis as well as for quick cross-validation of pyrosequencing data.
Lesions of the Basolateral Amygdala Disrupt Selective Aspects of Reinforcer Representation in Rats

The amygdala is known to play a role in learning about motivationally significant events. We investigated this role further by examining the effects of excitotoxic lesions of the basolateral amygdala on the ability of rats to use instrumental outcomes to direct responding (the differential outcomes effect) and on the ability of Pavlovian cues to modulate instrumental performance based on shared outcomes (reinforcer–selective Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer). We found that basolateral amygdala (BLA) lesions did not affect the ability of rats to learn a basic instrumental conditional discrimination, but did disrupt the ability of differential outcomes to facilitate acquisition. In Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer, BLA lesions did not disrupt the basic enhancement of instrumental performance but did abolish the reinforcer specificity of that enhancement. These results suggest that the BLA is involved in the representation of the sensory aspects of motivationally significant events.
A Dielectric Resonator Antenna Array Using Dielectric Insular Image Guide

In this communication, a double-sided Taylor-distribution dielectric resonator antenna array using dielectric insular image guide (DIIG) is presented. Analysis of the dielectric insular resonator antenna (DIRA) is performed with the effective dielectric constant (EDC) method, verified using HFSS™ simulations based on the finite element method (FEM). In order to enhance the gain, the DIRA array is made double-sided, i.e., a mirror image of the array is placed on the other side of the DIIG. The Taylor distribution technique is employed here to suppress the sidelobes. Finally, a 10-element linear DIRA array is fabricated and measured, and a high gain of 15.8 dBi at 36 GHz has been achieved.
The Dark Side of Organizational Change: The Moderating Role of Political Behavior and Organizational Cynicism

Workplace aggression is a factor that shapes the interaction between individuals and their work environment and produces many undesirable outcomes, sometimes introducing heavy costs for organizations. Only through a comprehensive understanding of the genesis of workplace aggression is possible to develop strategies and interventions to minimize its nefarious effects. The existent body of knowledge has already identified several individual, situational and contextual antecedents of workplace aggression, although this is a research area where significant gaps occur and many issues were still not addressed [1]. According to Baron and Neuman [2] one of these predictors is organizational change, since certain changes in the work environment (e.g., changes in management) can lead to increased aggression. This paper intends to contribute to workplace aggression research by studying its relationship with organizational change, considering a moderating role of political behaviors and organizational cynicism [e.g. 3, 4]. The literature review suggests that mediators and moderators that intervene in the relationships between workplace aggression and its antecedents are understudied topics. James [5] sustains that organizational politics is related to cynicism and the empirical research of Miranda [6] has identified leadership political behavior as an antecedent of cynicism but these two variables were not yet investigated regarding their relationship with workplace aggression. This investigation was operationalized using several scales including the Organizational Change Questionnaire-climate of change, processes, and readiness [7], a Workplace Aggression Scale [e.g. 8, 9, 10], an Organizational Cynicism Scale [11] and a Political Behavior Questionnaire [12]. Participants representing a wide variety of jobs across many organizations were surveyed. The results of the study and its implications will be presented and discussed. This study contribution is also discussed in what concerns organizational change practices in organizations.
Processing of Metal Microgear Tooth Profile by Finish Blanking and Extrusion Blanking and Evaluation of Cut-surface Shape

Precision blanking processes suppress shear droop, fracture, and burr generation on a cut blank surface. However, as the blank size becomes extremely small, as in a microgear, the technology involved becomes extremely difficult. In the previous report 1) , the authors fabricated microgears by finish blanking and extrusion blanking, evaluated their cut surfaces, and confirmed the effectiveness/advantage of extrusion blanking. However, in the previous study, because of concerns about tool breakage due to punch and die interference, which is a problem of negative clearance processing, the extrusion process comprising two steps was stopped at 90 % of the plate thickness in the first step, and the remaining 10 % that was blanked in the second step became a fractured surface. Therefore, in this experiment, with the aim of preventing such fracture, extrusion processing was additionally carried out to the very limit of 99 % of the plate thickness where the punch and the die were almost in contact, and the plate was severed in the second step. Measurements of the constituent ratio of the whole cut surface, the geometry, and the surface roughness of the cut surface were performed. As a result, the fractured surface could be suppressed, and few burrs were observed.