Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hearing Outcomes of Atresia Surgery Versus Osseointegrated Bone Conduction Device in Patients With Congenital Aural Atresia: A Systematic Review

Objective To perform a systematic review, comparing hearing outcomes of atresiaplasty versus osseointegrated bone conduction device (OBCD) in congenital aural atresia (CAA) patients. Data Sources Approximately 107 studies, published from 1975 to 2012, evaluating hearing outcomes after atresiaplasty and/or OBCD in CAA patients were identified through a PubMed search. Study Selection Articles that evaluated external auditory canal stenosis alone, did not report speech reception threshold (SRT), pure tone average (PTA), hearing gain, or air-bone gap (ABG) or had less than 5 patients were excluded. For authors or institutions with multiple reports, the largest or most recent study was included. Forty-one articles satisfied our inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data Extraction The number and percentage of ears with a postoperative SRT, PTA, ABG less than 30 dB, and/or average hearing gain were extracted. The total number of ears and the timing of the postoperative audiogram were also noted. Data Synthesis Of the atresiaplasty ears, 73.8% (95% CI, 62.2%–85.4%), had a SRT less than 30 dB (338 ears), 60.3% (95% CI, 45.8%–74.8%) had a PTA less than 30 dB (390 ears), and 68.9% (95% CI, 59.4%–78.3%) had an ABG less than 30 dB (852 ears). The average hearing gain was 24.1 dB (95% CI, 21.62–26.51) for 516 ears. Hearing outcomes deteriorated with time. Of OBCD patients, 95.9% (95% CI, 91.5%–100.0%) had a PTA less than 30 dB (77 ears), and 98.2% (95% CI, 94.5%–100.0%) had an ABG less than 30 dB (47 ears); the average hearing gain was 38.0 dB (95% CI, 33.14–45.22) in 100 ears. Conclusion The OBCD has better hearing outcomes compared with atresiaplasty in patients with CAA.
Types of hysterectomy. Comparison of characteristics, hospital costs, utilization and outcomes.

OBJECTIVE To compare hospital costs, patient characteristics and outcomes of 3 hysterectomy techniques--abdominal, vaginal and laparoscopically assisted vaginal (LAVH). STUDY DESIGN A cross-sectional analysis was performed using patients discharged from Florida hospitals in 2000 with hysterectomy as the primary procedure. To avoid differences due to unrelated complications, records indicating cancer or other major non-hysterectomy-related procedure were excluded from the analysis. A total of 23,191 records were used to compare the 3 techniques on hospital costs and length of stay, controlling for patient differences in complicating diagnoses and related procedures. RESULTS Consistent with previous studies, patients undergoing LAVH had higher hospital costs, shorter lengths of stay and no difference in surgical complications from either vaginal or total abdominal hysterectomy, even after controlling for patient comorbidities. Other factors affecting hospital costs and length of stay were patient race, type of insurance, hospital ownership and location. CONCLUSION LAVH is still more expensive than vaginal and total abdominal hysterectomy but offers a speedier recovery, with no measurable difference in the rate of complications. Further research is warranted to ascertain differences in readmission rates across the techniques and to investigate the process used to select which hysterectomy technique is used for a given patient.
Advancing human pose and gesture recognition

This thesis presents new methods in two closely related areas of computer vision: human pose estimation, and gesture recognition in videos. In human pose estimation, we show that random forests can be used to estimate human pose in monocular videos. To this end, we propose a co-segmentation algorithm for segmenting humans out of videos, and an evaluator that predicts whether the estimated poses are correct or not. We further extend this pose estimator to new domains (with a transfer learning approach), and enhance its predictions by predicting the joint positions sequentially (rather than independently) in an image, and using temporal information in the videos (rather than predicting the poses from a single frame). Finally, we go beyond random forests, and show that convolutional neural networks can be used to estimate human pose even more accurately and efficiently. We propose two new convolutional neural network architectures, and show how optical flow can be employed in convolutional nets to further improve the predictions. In gesture recognition, we explore the idea of using weak supervision to learn gestures. We show that we can learn sign language automatically from signed TV broadcasts with subtitles by letting algorithms 'watch' the TV broadcasts and 'match' the signs with the subtitles. We further show that if even a small amount of strong supervision is available (as there is for sign language, in the form of sign language video dictionaries), this strong supervision can be combined with weak supervision to learn even better models.
Predicting aspiration in patients with ischemic stroke: comparison of clinical signs and aerodynamic measures of voluntary cough.

BACKGROUND Clinical signs often fail to identify stroke patients who are at increased risk of aspiration. We hypothesized that objective measure of voluntary cough would improve the accuracy of the clinical evaluation of swallow to predict those patients who are at risk. METHODS A comprehensive diagnostic evaluation was completed for 96 consecutive stroke patients that included cognitive testing, a bedside clinical swallow examination, aerodynamic and sound pressure level measures of voluntary cough, and "gold standard" instrumental swallowing studies (ie, videofluoroscopic evaluation of swallow [VSE] or fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallow [FEES]). Stroke severity was assessed retrospectively using the Canadian neurologic scale. RESULTS Based on the findings of VSE/FEES, 33 patients (34%) were at high risk of aspiration and (66%) were nonaspirators. Clinical signs (eg, absent swallow, difficulty handling secretions, or reflexive cough after water bolus) had an overall accuracy of 74% with a sensitivity of 58% and a specificity of 83% for the detection of aspiration. Three objective measures of voluntary cough (expulsive phase rise time, volume acceleration, and expulsive phase peak flow) were each associated with an aspiration risk category (areas under the curves were 0.93, 0.92, and 0.86, respectively). Expulsive phase rise time > 55 m/s, volume acceleration < 50 L/s/s, and expulsive phase peak flow < 2.9 L/s had sensitivities of 91%, 91%, and 82%, respectively; and specificities of 81%, 92%, and 83%, respectively for the identification of aspirators. CONCLUSION Objective measures of voluntary cough can identify stroke patients who are at risk for aspiration and may be useful as an adjunct to the standard bedside clinical assessment.
Changes in muscle strength and morphology after muscle unloading in Special Forces missions

The purpose of the present study was to determine the changes in maximal muscle strength, rapid force capacity, jumping performance and muscle morphology following a Special Forces military operation involving 8 days of muscle unloading. Nine male Special Forces soldiers were tested before (pre) and immediately after (post1) an 8‐day simulated special support and reconnaissance (SSR) mission and after 3 h of active recovery (post2). Maximal muscle strength (MVC) and rate of force development (RFD) were measured along with maximal counter movement jump height (JH). Muscle biopsies were obtained from the vastus lateralis at pre and post1. Acute reductions were found in MVC (11%), JH (10%) and RFD (17–22%) after 8 days of muscle unloading (post1) (P≤0.05). Type IIX fiber type area% increased (P≤0.05) at post1 together with a tendency toward increased type IIX fiber type % (P=0.09) and decreased type I fiber type % (P=0.06), suggesting a transition toward a less fatigue‐resistant fiber‐type profile. In conclusion, short‐term unloading during SSR missions led to marked reductions in mechanical muscle function and functional performance, which may be partly explained by the changes in muscle morphology. Future studies should identify intervention strategies to counter‐act the observed impairments.
Corneal Iron Ring Formation Associated With Overnight Orthokeratology

Purpose To describe a case of iron deposition in both eyes after overnight orthokeratology. Methods This is a case report of a 31-year-old man who underwent overnight orthokeratology. The subject was fitted with rigid gas-permeable contact lenses of reverse-geometry design to correct myopia. Results The prefitting manifest refraction was −4.75 −0.25 × 175 in the right eye and −4.50 −0.25 × 175 in the left eye. There was no corneal abnormality until 9 months after treatment, but development of corneal arcuate lines in both eyes was observed at the 1-year follow-up visit. Visual acuity was not affected. The deposition pattern corresponded to the outside border of central flatter zone, as shown on the corneal topography map. Conclusion The current findings suggest that tear pooling between the corneal surface and the back surface of the contact lens plays a role in the development of corneal iron ring after orthokeratology with reverse-geometry contact lenses.
Prognosis and Clinicopathologic Features of Patients With Advanced Stage Isocitrate Dehydrogenase (IDH) Mutant and IDH Wild-Type Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND Conflicting data exist regarding the prognostic impact of the isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutation in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), and limited data exist in patients with advanced-stage disease. Similarly, the clinical phenotype of patients with advanced IDH mutant (IDHm) ICC has not been characterized. In this study, we report the correlation of IDH mutation status with prognosis and clinicopathologic features in patients with advanced ICC. METHODS Patients with histologically confirmed advanced ICC who underwent tumor mutational profiling as a routine part of their care between 2009 and 2014 were evaluated. Clinical and pathological data were collected by retrospective chart review for patients with IDHm versus IDH wild-type (IDHwt) ICC. Pretreatment tumor volume was calculated on computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS Of the 104 patients with ICC who were evaluated, 30 (28.8%) had an IDH mutation (25.0% IDH1, 3.8% IDH2). The median overall survival did not differ significantly between IDHm and IDHwt patients (15.0 vs. 20.1 months, respectively; p = .17). The pretreatment serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) level in IDHm and IDHwt patients was 34.5 and 118.0 U/mL, respectively (p = .04). Age at diagnosis, sex, histologic grade, and pattern of metastasis did not differ significantly by IDH mutation status. CONCLUSION The IDH mutation was not associated with prognosis in patients with advanced ICC. The clinical phenotypes of advanced IDHm and IDHwt ICC were similar, but patients with IDHm ICC had a lower median serum CA19-9 level at presentation. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE Previous studies assessing the prognostic impact of the isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) gene mutation in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) mainly focused on patients with early-stage disease who have undergone resection. These studies offer conflicting results. The target population for clinical trials of IDH inhibitors is patients with unresectable or metastatic disease, and the current study is the first to focus on the prognosis and clinical phenotype of this population and reports on the largest cohort of patients with advanced IDH mutant ICC to date. The finding that the IDH mutation lacks prognostic significance in advanced ICC is preliminary and needs to be confirmed prospectively in a larger study.
Analytical optimization of the net residual dispersion in SPM-limited dispersion-managed systems

Dispersion management is an effective technique to suppress the nonlinear impairment in fiber transmission systems, which includes tuning the amounts of precompensation, residual dispersion per span (RDPS), and net residual dispersion (NRD) of the systems. For self-phase modulation (SPM)-limited systems, optimizing the NRD is necessary because it can greatly improve the system performance. In this paper, an analytical method is presented to optimize NRD for SPM-limited dispersion-managed systems. The method is based on the correlation between the nonlinear impairment and the output pulse broadening of SPM-limited systems; therefore, dispersion-managed systems can be optimized through minimizing the output single-pulse broadening. A set of expressions is derived to calculate the output pulse broadening of the SPM-limited dispersion-managed system, from which the analytical result of optimal NRD is obtained. Furthermore, with the expressions of pulse broadening, how the nonlinear impairment depends on the amounts of precompensation and RDPS can be revealed conveniently.
Validation of a Nutrition Risk Screening Tool for Children and Adolescents With Cystic Fibrosis Ages 2–20 Years

Objectives: According to the 2002 Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Foundation nutrition consensus report, children with CF should grow normally. Cross-sectional data from the foundation's patient registry concluded that a body mass index at or greater than the 50th percentile is associated with better lung function. A consistent, evidence-based screening process can identify those individuals with CF having nutrition risk factors associated with a decrease in pulmonary function, target early intervention, and prevent further decline. A tool for screening nutrition risk is described to identify those children with CF who would benefit from more extensive nutrition intervention. Methods: The proposed screening tool is a risk-based classification system with 3 categories: weight gain, height velocity, and body mass index. The CF Foundation recommendations regarding these parameters are incorporated, with risk points assigned when minimum body mass index, weight gain, and/or height gain standards are unmet. Results: An interrater measure of agreement determined a satisfactory level of reliability (κ = 0.85). Patient records (n = 85) were reviewed to determine nutrition status category (no risk or at risk) of this tool compared with the CF Foundation 2002 Nutrition Consensus, yielding sensitivity and specificity at 84% and 75%, respectively. A second comparison was made with combined, independent nutrition risk factors not included in the screening tool. The sensitivity and specificity of the screening tool compared with the combined risk factors were 86% and 78%, respectively. Conclusions: This tool for screening nutrition risk for CF is reliable and valid, with consistent, reproducible results, free from subject or observer bias.
Neonatal Porcine Diarrhoea Aspects on Aetiology and Pathology

Diarrhoea in newborn piglets is an old but still relevant problem in pig production globally. During the last decades, reports from a number of countries describe problems with neonatal porcine diarrhoea (NPD) despite the use of previously effective preventive measures. The aim of this thesis was to investigate and characterise the problem with NPD in Swedish piglet-producing herds. The magnitude of the problem was estimated by a questionnaire study distributed to 170 randomly selected herds. A response rate of 58% was achieved. The total herd-level prevalence of NPD, including herds with sporadic cases, was 79.6%, indicating that NPD is a substantial problem. Ten herds affected by NPD were selected for in-depth studies on the potential causes of the diarrhoea. From each herd, five diarrhoeic and two healthy control piglets were selected. The piglets were blood-sampled for analysis of serum ɣ-globulin, and thereafter euthanized and necropsied. The intestines were sampled for histopathology, virology, and bacteriology. There was no difference in serum ɣ-globulin concentration between diarrhoeic and non-diarrhoeic piglets and pathological lesions in the intestines were generally mild. Porcine enterotoxigenic Escherichia (E.) coli was only found in two piglets. Further, extended virulence gene profiling did not suggest involvement of other diarrhoeagenic pathotypes of E. coli. Clostridium (C.) perfringens type C was not detected, and neither C. perfringens type A nor C. difficile could be related to the diarrhoea. Furthermore, no protozoa such as Cystoisospora suis were observed in the intestinal mucosa. By viral metagenomics analyses of intestinal samples, the only previously well-established porcine enteropathogen found was rotavirus that was present in two herds. Otherwise, the data did not suggest involvement of previously known viruses. The only consistent finding associated with diarrhoea was small intestinal colonisation by Enterococcus (E.) hirae. Enteroadherent E. hirae was detected in 60% of the diarrhoeic piglets from six of the herds and was associated with small intestinal mucosal lesions in more than 50% of the cases (10/18). Thus, our results show that diarrhoea in newborn piglets may have other causes than the wellestablished pathogens previously associated with NPD and a potential involvement of E. hirae is suggested.
Vapor recognition with small arrays of polymer-coated microsensors. A comprehensive analysis.

A comprehensive analysis of vapor recognition as a function of the number of sensors in a vapor-sensor array is presented. Responses to 16 organic vapors collected from six polymer-coated surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors were used in Monte Carlo simulations coupled with pattern recognition analyses to derive statistical estimates of vapor recognition rates as a function of the number of sensors in the array (< or = 6), the polymer sensor coatings employed, and the number and concentration of vapors being analyzed. Results indicate that as few as two sensors can recognize individual vapors from a set of 16 possibilities with < 6% average recognition error, as long as the vapor concentrations are > 5 x LOD for the array. At lower concentrations, a minimum of three sensors is required, but arrays of 3-6 sensors provide comparable results. Analyses also revealed that individual-vapor recognition hinges more on the similarity of the vapor response patterns than on the total number of possible vapors considered. Vapor mixtures were also analyzed for specific 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-vapor subsets where all possible combinations of vapors within each subset were considered simultaneously. Excellent recognition rates were obtainable for mixtures of up to four vapors using the same number of sensors as vapors in the subset. Lower recognition rates were generally observed for mixtures that included structurally homologous vapors. Acceptable recognition rates could not be obtained for the 5- and 6-vapor subsets examined, due, apparently, to the large number of vapor combinations considered (i.e., 31 and 63, respectively). Importantly, increasing the number of sensors in the array did not improve performance significantly for any of the mixture analyses, suggesting that for SAW sensors and other sensors whose responses rely on equilibrium vapor-polymer partitioning, large arrays are not necessary for accurate vapor recognition and quantification.
Cervical cancer in north-eastern Libya: 2000–2008

Abstract Libya is a country with a low population, listed under the EMRO. Using registers and patient records from a major primary oncology clinic, data was gathered from Libyan cervical cancer patients and various parameters were studied across 9 years. Out of 4,090 female cancer cases during the study period, 1.8% were cervical cancer (n = 74). The average age of presentation was 53 years, with most of the cases (60%, n = 44) being premenopausal. Approximately 65% (n = 48) of cervical cancer patients are diagnosed at later stages (i.e. stages III and IV). The majority of these cases are squamous cell carcinoma (83.8%, n = 62), while 16.2% (n = 12) were found to be adenocarcinoma. Patients with squamous cell carcinoma presented at later stages more often than those with adenocarcinoma. Human papilloma virus was strongly implicated in cervical cancer, with 94% (n = 63) of those who were tested being positive for HPV-16 (82.5%, n = 52) and HPV-18 (12.7%, n = 8). Diagnosis was most frequently made through biopsy (97.3%, n = 72) as opposed to Pap smears (2.7%, n = 2). Most Libyan patients were put through chemotherapy (75%, n = 55) and triple therapy (surgery with combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy) was the most common (38%, n = 28) modality of treatment. Comparisons were made between Libya and other nations, either in the developed world or neighbouring countries. The major problem of cervical cancer in Libya is delayed presentation and hence, all the recommendations focus on increased awareness for the populace, implementation of a national cancer control plan and a national screening programme.
On the stability of multiplicative update algorithms . Application to non-negative matrix factorization . Sur la stabilité des règles de mises à jour multiplicatives . Application à la factorisation en matrices positives

Multiplicative update algorithms have encountered a great success to solve optimization problems with nonnegativity constraints, such as the famous non-negative matrix factorization and its many variants. However, despite several years of research on the topic, the understanding of their convergence properties is still to be improved. In this paper, we show that Lyapunov’s stability theory provides a very enlightening viewpoint on the problem. We prove the exponential or asymptotic stability of the solutions to general optimization problems with non-negative constraints, and finally study the difficult case of non-negative matrix factorization.
An analytical model of metamaterials based on loaded wire dipoles

We present a model of straight wire dipole scatterers loaded by arbitrary lumped loads in the dipole center. These particles can be used as inclusions of custom-design composite materials or electrically controllable metamaterials. The model, together with the Clausius-Mossotti formula and an analytical model for reflection and transmission in dipole arrays, allows to find loads required to realize the desired electromagnetic properties of the composite and estimate its realizability with the use of various bulk loads.