Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
HSWL: an efficient hash-based static wear leveling algorithm

NAND Flash based SSDs(Solid-State Drives) have been developed rapidly because of apparent advantages over HDDs(Hard Disk Drives), such as consuming less power and are more resistant to harsh environment. Algorithms referred to as wear leveling for enhancing the endurance and reliability of flash memory are studied in this paper. A creative static wear leveling algorithm named as HSWL is proposed. Hot blocks and cold blocks are divided according to their degree of hotness recorded in a hash table, and data swapping operations are applied thereafter. By conducting a series of experiments, it can be seen that excellent performance has been achieved with conserved resource.
Social Security Reform and Temptation

This paper analyzes a fully funded social security system under the assumption that agents face temptation issues. Agents are required to save through individually managed Personal Security Accounts without, and with mandatory annuitization. When the analysis is restricted to CRRA preferences our results are congruent with the literature indicating that the complete elimination of social security is the reform scenario that maximizes welfare improvement. However, when self control preferences are introduced, and as the intensity of self control becomes progressively more severe the "social security elimination" scenario loses ground very rapidly. In fact, in the case of very severe temptation the elimination of social security becomes the least desirable alternative. Under the light of the above findings, any reform proposal regarding the social security system should consider departures from standard preferences to preference specifications suitable for dealing with preference reversals.
Categorization of clinical isolates of Helicobacter pylori on the basis of restriction digest analyses of polymerase chain reaction-amplified ureC genes

Restriction endonuclease analyses of a 1.1-kb polymerase chain reaction-amplified portion of the ureC gene from Helicobacter pylori were used to group or to differentiate 21 clinical isolates. Isolates were placed into 4 groups after HindIII digestion alone, and placement was expanded into 15 groups after isolates were digested with AluI and PvuI.
Teacher Preparation and Performance in North Carolina Public Schools

This policy brief examines the distribution, effectiveness, and persistence of individuals entering the teaching profession with different forms of preparation. In comparison to teachers prepared by the University of North Carolina system, we find that: (1) North Carolina Independent College and University prepared teachers are less effective in middle grades mathematics and 5th and 8th grade science; (2) Out-of-state prepared teachers are less effective in elementary and high school grades and exhibit high rates of attrition; (3) Alternative entry teachers are less effective at the high school level, receive lower teacher evaluation ratings from their principal, and attrite at high rates; and (4) Teach For America Corps Members are more effective in secondary grades and STEM tested subjects and receive higher evaluation ratings from their principal but persist at very low rates. From these findings we conclude that:
Advances in the clinical applications of exhaled nitric oxide measurements

This article focuses on recent data which highlight the clinical settings in which exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) is potentially helpful, or not, as a clinical tool. It is becoming clearer that, selectively applied, FENO measurements can provide reliable clinical guidance, particularly when values are low. Such values are associated with high negative predictive values (>90%). Increased FENO levels are associated with much more modest positive predictive values (75%–85%) and these are less reliable. These general principles apply when diagnosing steroid responsiveness in relation to asthma, chronic cough, and COPD. Although randomised trials do not support routine use of exhaled NO measurements in uncomplicated bronchial asthma, there is evidence that in patients with difficult asthma, or asthma associated with pregnancy, FENO enhances overall management, and the decision to commence or increase inhaled steroid therapy (yes/no) may be made more accurately. Exhaled NO is potentially relevant in the assessment of occupational asthma (serial measurements) and also in diagnosing bronchiolitis obliterans in lung transplant patients.
Quality of Life in Psoriasis

Psoriasis has a profound impact on patients’ everyday life. The burden of the disease ex‐ tends beyond physical manifestations and includes significant physical, social and psycho‐ logical impairment. Numerous studies have demonstrated the significant negative impact of psoriasis on quality of life (QoL) [1-5]. Furthermore, as a chronic disease, psoriasis affects the QoL of both patients and their close relatives in a cumulative way [6]. The family mem‐ bers of patients with psoriasis experience a wide range of detrimental effects on their lives with regards to psychological social and lifestyle modifications, interpersonal relationships, financial issues, family activities, sleep and issues related to the practical care of the patients.
Solder Ball Attachment Assessment of Reballed Plastic Ball Grid Array Packages

The ban of lead in consumer-based electronics by many countries has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the availability of electronic components with tin-lead terminations. With the uncertainty associated with lead-free reliability and the issues associated with mixing lead-free solder with tin-lead solder, medical, defense, and aerospace equipment manufacturers are examining and in some cases implementing reprocessing practices to convert lead-free terminations to tin-lead. For area array packages, the practice is referred to as reballing. While reballing has been used for part reclamation, very little information is available on the reliability of reballed parts. This paper presents lead-free ball grid array (BGA) packages subjected to two ball removal and two ball reattachment techniques. Solder attach strength was used as a metric to examine the reballing process. Both the ball shear test and the cold bump pull (CBP) test were used to test solder strength. The impact of isothermal aging was also examined. The solder strength of reballed BGAs remained at the same level when different reballing methods were used and under different aging conditions. The lead-free non-reballed BGAs had higher solder strength and wider strength distribution than reballed tin-lead BGAs. The pull strength increased as the pull speed increased in the CBP test.
UV Light Inactivation of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in Milk as Assessed by FASTPlaqueTB Phage Assay and Culture

ABSTRACT UV light inactivation of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in Middlebrook 7H9 broth and whole and semiskim milk was investigated using a laboratory-scale UV machine that incorporated static mixers within UV-penetrable pipes. UV treatment proved to be less effective in killing M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis suspended in milk (0.5- to 1.0-log10 reduction per 1,000 mJ/ml) than that suspended in Middlebrook 7H9 broth (2.5- to 3.3-log10 reduction per 1,000 mJ/ml). The FASTPlaqueTB phage assay provided more rapid enumeration of surviving M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis (within 24 h) than culture on Herrold's egg yolk medium (6 to 8 weeks). Despite the fact that plaque counts were consistently 1 to 2 log10 lower than colony counts throughout the study, UV inactivation rates for M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis derived using the phage assay and culture results were not significantly different (P = 0.077).
Inhibitory action of BHA on carcinogenesis in F1 and F2 descendants of mice exposed to DMBA during pregnancy

Administration of 500 μg of DMBA to female mice during late pregnancy results in the occurrence of tumors in F1 and F2 generation individuals. F1 progeny had a higher percentage of tumor‐bearing individuals than the F2 progeny. All the five litters of F1 females displayed tumor risk but the risk declined progressively in successive litters. Perinatal administration of BHA to the pregnant mice (P generation) receiving 500 μg of DMBA would result in significant reduction in tumor risk among the individuals of F1 generation (p < 0.01) and F2 generation (p < 0.05).
Glycemic Levels in Critically Ill Patients: Are Normoglycemia and Low Variability Associated with Improved Outcomes?

Background: Critically ill patients often experience high levels of insulin resistance and stress-induced hyperglycemia, which may negatively impact outcomes. In 2001, Van den Berghe and coauthors used intensive insulin therapy (IIT) to control blood glucose (BG) to normal levels and reported a reduction in intensive care unit (ICU) mortality from 8% to 4.6%. Many studies tried to replicate these results, with some showing reduced mortality, others failing to match these results, and many seeing no clinically significant difference. The interpretation of results is important when drawing conclusions about the benefits and risks of IIT. There is the potential for negative results to be falsely negative due to unintended patient crossover or cohort overlap. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the amount of time each critically ill patient experiences good glucose control and hospital mortality. Methods: This study uses BG data from 784 patients admitted to the Christchurch Hospital ICU between January 2003 and May 2007. For each of the 5 days of analysis, all patients with BG data were pooled together in a single cohort before being stratified into two subcohorts based on glycemic performance, determined by cumulative time in band (cTIB). The cTIB metric is calculated per patient/per day and defined here as the percentage of time the patient's BG levels have been cumulatively in a specific band (72–126 mg/dl) up to and including the considered day. Subcohort A had patients with cTIB ≥ threshold and subcohort B had patients with cTIB < threshold. Three cTIB thresholds were tested: 0.3 (30%), 0.5 (50%), and 0.7 (70%). The odds of living (OL) were then calculated for each subcohort and day, forming the basis of comparison between the subcohorts. A second analysis was run using only the 310 patients with BG data for 5 days or more to assess the impact of patient dropout. Results: Results show that, across all three cTIB threshold levels (0.3, 0.5, and 0.7) and all 5 days of analysis, patients with a cTIB ≥ threshold have a higher OL than patients with a cTIB < threshold. A cTIB threshold of 0.7 showed the strongest separation between the subcohorts, and on day 5, the OL for subcohort A was 4.4 versus 1.6 for subcohort B. The second analysis showed that patient dropout had little effect on the overall trends. Using a cTIB threshold of 0.7, the OL for subcohort A was 0.8 higher than the OL for subcohort B on day 1, which steadily increased over the 5 days of analysis. Conclusions: Results show that OL are higher for patients with cTIB ≥ 0.3–0.7 than patients with cTIB < 0.3–0.7, irrespective of how cTIB was achieved. A cTIB threshold of 0.5 was found to be a minimum acceptable threshold based on outcome. If cTIB is used in similar BG studies in the future, cTIB ≥ 0.7 may be a good target for glycemic control to ensure outcomes and to separate patients with good BG control from patients with poor control.
Sensitivity and specificity of various diagnostic tests in the detection of Helicobacter pylori.

OBJECTIVE This study was conducted to detect the sensitivity and specificity of various diagnostic tests on biopsy specimens obtained from patients undergoing elective endoscopy, by culture, histopathology (special stain), urease (biochemical test) and the presence of specific antibodies by serology for the detection of Helicobacter pylori. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY This study was conducted in Civil Hospital, Karachi, in collaboration with Dr. Essa Laboratories and IIDRL (Immunology and Infectious Disease Research Laboratory), Karachi University, from June 99-to July 2000. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Biopsy material was taken from 50 patients referred for elective endoscopy with symptoms of various upper gastrointestinal diseases. Non-endoscopic methods serology and endoscopic biopsy specimens using urease test, by culture and histopathology using special stain, detected presence of H. pylori. Sensitivity and specificity was calculated using the standard formula, only those cases were taken as true positive which were positive by either culture test and/or special stain. Those cases giving positive results only by serology or urease test not supported by either of the direct tests were taken as false positive RESULTS The percentage of positive cases detected was 81% by serology, 80% by histopathology, 9% by culture and 56% by urease test. Sensitivity and specificity was by serology 84% and 60%, histopathology (special stain) 83% and 100%, culture 64% and 100% and by urease test 67% and 85% respectively. CONCLUSION H. pylori infection can be detected by a variety of methods. The simplest and least expensive method is serology. Positive serology does not distinguish between active and chronic infection and is less specific as compared to other methods. Histopathology (special stain) allows simultaneous evaluation of tissue injury and has a high degree of sensitivity and specificity. Culture can be used to detect antibiotic resistant organisms.
Sample size calculations I

A randomised, double blind, placebo controlled trial investigated whether fluvastatin reduced major adverse cardiac events in patients who had undergone successful percutaneous coronary intervention (with or without stenting). The primary outcome was the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events—defined as cardiac death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, or a reintervention procedure—within three years.1 To calculate the sample size needed to compare fluvastatin with placebo, it was assumed that the proportion of patients having major adverse cardiac events at three years without treatment would be 25%. For fluvastatin to be considered clinically superior to placebo, it would be necessary to demonstrate a relative improvement of 25%, with only 18.75% of patients having major adverse cardiac events at three years. To do so, a total sample size of 1828 patients (914 in each treatment arm) would be required to achieve 90% power using a two sided hypothesis test and critical level of significance of 0.05. A total of 1677 patients were subsequently recruited to the trial. Which of the following, if any, are true?
CD20+ B Cell Depletion Alters T Cell Homing

Depleting mAbs against the pan B cell marker CD20 are remarkably effective in the treatment of autoimmune-mediated inflammatory disorders, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly defined. The primary objective of this study was to find a mechanistic explanation for the remarkable clinical effect of the anti-CD20 mAbs in a representative nonhuman primate autoimmune-mediated inflammatory disorder model, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in common marmosets, allowing detailed analysis of secondary lymphoid organs (SLO). We observed that the depletion of CD20+ B cells creates a less immunostimulatory environment in the SLO reflected by reduced expression of MHC class II, CD40, CD83, and CD80/CD86. APCs isolated from SLO of B cell–depleted EAE monkeys were also less responsive to mitogenic stimulation. The depleted B cell areas were replenished by T cells, of which the majority expressed CD127 (IL-7R) and CCR7. Such effects were not detected in EAE marmosets treated with mAb against BLyS or APRIL, where B cell depletion via withdrawal of essential survival cytokines was not associated with a marked clinical effect. We propose that at least part of the efficacy of anti-CD20 mAb therapy is attributable to the sustained CCR7 expression on T cells within SLO, limiting their release into the circulation.
Sea Ice Concentration Estimation during Freeze-Up from SAR Imagery Using a Convolutional Neural Network

In this study, a convolutional neural network (CNN) is used to estimate sea ice concentration using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) scenes acquired during freeze-up in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the east coast of Canada. The ice concentration estimates from the CNN are compared to those from a neural network (multi-layer perceptron or MLP) that uses hand-crafted features as input and a single layer of hidden nodes. The CNN is found to be less sensitive to pixel level details than the MLP and produces ice concentration that is less noisy and in closer agreement with that from image analysis charts. This is due to the multi-layer (deep) structure of the CNN, which enables abstract image features to be learned. The CNN ice concentration is also compared with ice concentration estimated from passive microwave brightness temperature data using the ARTIST sea ice (ASI) algorithm. The bias and RMS of the difference between the ice concentration from the CNN and that from image analysis charts is reduced as compared to that from either the MLP or ASI algorithm. Additional results demonstrate the impact of varying the input patch size, varying the number of CNN layers, and including the incidence angle as an additional input.
Positron emission tomography imaging of adenoviral-mediated transgene expression in liver cancer patients.

BACKGROUND & AIMS In gene-therapy protocols, imaging of gene expression is needed to evaluate the transduction efficiency of the vector, its tissue distribution, and the duration of transgene expression and to assess the feasibility of repeated vector administration. METHODS We have used positron emission tomography with a fluorine-18-labeled penciclovir analogue to monitor thymidine kinase gene expression after intratumoral injection of a first-generation recombinant adenovirus in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Patients were enrolled in a pilot clinical trial and treated with escalating doses of the vector. Two days after adenovirus inoculation, transgene expression was evaluated during the first hours after administration of the radiotracer both on the treated lesion and on a whole-body basis. RESULTS Transgene expression in the tumor was dependent on the injected dose of the adenovirus and was detectable in all patients who received > or = 10(12) viral particles. However, when the study was repeated 9 days after vector injection, no expression could be observed. It is interesting to note that no specific expression of the transgene could be detected in distant organs or in the surrounding cirrhotic tissue in any of the cases studied. CONCLUSIONS Our findings show the real possibility of imaging transgene expression in humans by using viral vectors. We show that hepatocarcinoma is a permissive tumor for adenoviral infection and that the nontumoral cirrhotic liver is spared from transduction when the vector is administered by intratumoral injection. These results show that positron emission tomography imaging may help in the design of gene-therapy strategies and in the clinical assessment of new-generation vectors.
Developing a model to estimate the probability of bacteremia in women with community-onset febrile urinary tract infection.

INTRODUCTION Among patients with urinary tract infection (UTI), bacteremic cases show higher mortality rates than do nonbacteremic cases. Early identification of bacteremic cases is crucial for severity assessment of patients with febrile UTI. This study aimed to identify predictors associated with bacteremia in women with community-onset febrile UTI and to develop a prediction model to estimate the probability of bacteremic cases. METHODOLOGY This cross-sectional study included women consecutively hospitalized with community-onset febrile UTI at 10 hospitals in Korea. Multiple logistic regression identified predictors associated with bacteremia among candidate variables chosen from univariate analysis. A prediction model was developed using all predictors weighted by their regression coefficients. RESULTS From July to September 2014, 383 women with febrile UTI were included: 115 (30.0%) bacteremic and 268 (70.0%) nonbacteremic cases. A prediction model consisted of diabetes mellitus (1 point), urinary tract obstruction by stone (2), costovertebral angle tenderness (2), a fraction of segmented neutrophils of > 90% (2), thrombocytopenia (2), azotemia (2), and the fulfillment of all criteria for systemic inflammatory response syndrome (2). The c statistic for the model was 0.807 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.757-0.856). At a cutoff value of ≥ 3, the model had a sensitivity of 86.1% (95% CI, 78.1-91.6%) and a specificity of 54.9% (95% CI, 48.7-91.6%). CONCLUSIONS Our model showed a good discriminatory power for early identification of bacteremic cases in women with community-onset febrile UTI. In addition, our model can be used to identify patients at low risk for bacteremia because of its relatively high sensitivity.
Surgical and patient factors involved in postoperative nausea and vomiting.

Seventy-five years ago, Flagg suggested that post-operative vomiting may result from causes other than anaesthetics: «there are at least three kinds of vomiting », the first of which he attributed to anaesthetics such as ether, the second to reflex responses, that is pain or ovarian surgery, and the last to opioids, for example morphine [30]. Before this report, anaesthetics alone were thought to be responsible for most postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV)
Clinical Significance of Enhanced Detection of HBsAg by a Monoclonal Radioimmunoassay

We assessed the significance of the enhanced detection by monoclonal radioimmunoassay (M‐RIA) of HBsAg in serum of patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. In acute HBV infection, the M‐RIA detected HBsAg in the blood for a far longer period of time than previously recognized. In some patients, the “window phase” of HBV infection (defined as the presence of anti‐HBc and the lack of detectable HBsAg and anti‐HBs) was shortened or completely eliminated. Furthermore, 26% of individuals with anti‐HBc as the only serologic marker of recent or past HBV infection were reactive only in the M‐RIA. Analysis of patients tested for HBsAg because of suspected underlying liver disease revealed additional HBsAg‐positive sera, unrecognized by polyvalent RIA, thus adding important information in the immunodiagnosis of HBV infection. The enhanced performance of the monoclonal RIA compared to conventional polyvalent RIA was due in part to the increased sensitivity of the assay and the observation that M‐RIA may detect “hidden” HBV antigens in immune complexes.
Effect of Carboxymethyl Cellulose on the Mechanical and Barrier Properties of Sago Starch Based Films

Using biodegradable films is increasingly growing since they contain natural materials. In this study, sago starch and carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) were used in film preparation. Sago starch films with 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% CMC concentrations were prepared using solvent casting method. The mechanical properties were determined according to standards of American Society for Testing and Materials. In mechanical test of the combined films, increased CMC concentration significantly (P<0.05) increased tensile strength and Young Modulus from 21.04 to 27.74MPa and from 1372.83 to 1842.87kg/m2, respectively, and percent elongation showed significant (P<0.05) reduction from 17.69 to 15.39. Considering biodegradability of the edible films and improvement of their mechanical properties by CMC, they can be utilized in different industries, particularly in food industry, as an edible coating for packaging food and agricultural products. With regard to its properties such as cost saving, biodegradability and mechanical properties when percentage of CMC increased can found a position among food packaging materials.