Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cost-Effectiveness of Different Cervical Screening Strategies in Islamic Republic of Iran: A Middle-Income Country with a Low Incidence Rate of Cervical Cancer

Objective Invasive cervical cancer (ICC) is the fourth most common cancer among women worldwide. Cervical screening programs have reduced the incidence and mortality rates of ICC. We studied the cost-effectiveness of different cervical screening strategies in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a Muslim country with a low incidence rate of ICC. Methods We constructed an 11-state Markov model, in which the parameters included regression and progression probabilities, test characteristics, costs, and utilities; these were extracted from primary data and the literature. Our strategies included Pap smear screening and human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing plus Pap smear triaging with different starting ages and screening intervals. Model outcomes included lifetime costs, life years gained, quality-adjusted life years (QALY), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs). One-way sensitivity analysis was performed to examine the stability of the results. Results We found that the prevented mortalities for the 11 strategies compared with no screening varied from 26% to 64%. The most cost-effective strategy was HPV screening, starting at age 35 years and repeated every 10 years. The ICER of this strategy was $8,875 per QALY compared with no screening. We found that screening at 5-year intervals was also cost-effective based on GDP per capita in Iran. Conclusion We recommend organized cervical screening with HPV DNA testing for women in Iran, beginning at age 35 and repeated every 10 or 5 years. The results of this study could be generalized to other countries with low incidence rates of cervical cancer.
On the Complexity of Fragments of Horn Modal Logics

Modal logic is a paradigm for several useful and applicable formal systems in computer science, and, in particular, for temporal logics of various kinds. It generally retains the low complexity of classical propositional logic, but notable exceptions exist that present higher complexity or are even undecidable. In search of computationally well-behaved fragments, clausal forms and other sub-propositional restrictions of temporal and description logics have been recently studied. It is known that the Horn fragments of the modal logics between K and S4 are PSPACE-complete, keeping the same complexity of the the full propositional versions. In this paper, inspired by similar results in the temporal case, we sharpen the above result by showing that if we allow only box modalities in the language the Horn fragments of the modal logics between K and S4 become P-complete. Exploring the innermost reasons for the tractability of sub-Horn modal logics is a necessary condition to understand the behaviour of more expressive temporal and spatial languages under similar restrictions.
A nonlinear adaptive controller for airborne wind energy systems

A nonlinear adaptive path following controller for a kite based airborne wind energy system is presented. For a given desired geometric path, we provide necessary conditions for closed-loop convergence of the kite to a tube centered around the desired path. The proposed controller is adapts for the case of unknown wind vector and kite parameters. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated via numerical simulations for multiple desired shapes of the geometric path and for varying desired tether length references.
Strathprints Institutional Repository an Analysis of Speech Rate Strategies in Aging

Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Abstract Effects of age and speech rate on movement cycle duration were assessed using electromagnetic articulography. In a repetitive task syllables were articulated at eight rates, obtained by metronome and self-pacing. Results indicate that increased speech rate is associated with increasing movement cycle duration stability, while decreased rate leads to a decrease in uniformity of cycle duration, supporting the view that alterations in speech rate are associated with different motor control strategies involving durational manipulations. The relative contribution of closing movement durations increases with decreasing speech rate, and is a more dominant strategy for elderly speakers.
INTRINSIC BRACKETS AND THE L∞-DEFORMATION THEORY OF BIALGEBRAS

We show that there exists a Lie bracket on the cohomology of any type of (bi)algebras over an operad or a prop, induced by an L∞-structure on the defining cochain complex, such that the associated L∞-master equation captures deformations. This in particular implies the existence of a Lie bracket on the Gerstenhaber-Schack cohomology [7] of a bialgebra that extends the classical intrinsic bracket [6] on the Hochschild cohomology, giving an affirmative answer to an old question about the existence of such a bracket. We also explain how the results of [24] provide explicit formulas for this bracket. Conventions We assume a certain familiarity with operads and props, see [18, 19, 20, 21, 27]. The reader who wishes only to know how the intrinsic bracket on the GerstenhaberSchack cohomology looks might proceed directly to Section 6 which is almost independent on the rest of the paper and contains explicit calculations. We also assume some knowledge of the concept of strongly homotopy Lie algebras (also called L∞algebras), see [12, 14]. We will make no distinction between an operad P and the prop P generated by this operad. This means that for us operads are particular cases of props. As usual, bialgebra will mean a Hopf algebra without (co)unit and antipode. To distinguish these bialgebras from other types of “bialgebras” we will sometimes call them also Ass-bialgebras. All algebraic objects will be defined over a fixed field k of characteristic zero although, surprisingly, our constructions related to Ass-bialgebras make sense over the integers. The author was supported by the grant GA ČR 201/02/1390 and by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institutional Research Plan No. AV0Z10190503. The author would like to express his thanks to the Mathematics Department of Bar Ilan University for a very stimulating and pleasant atmosphere. It was during his visit of this department, sponsored by the Israel Academy of Sciences, that the present work started. Also the suggestions and comments of Ezra Getzler, Jim Stasheff, Bruno Vallette and Sasha Voronov regarding the first draft of this paper were extremely helpful. Proposition 16 and most of Section 5 is basically only a propic generalization of the material on pages 21-23 of [28]. My thanks are also due to S. Merkulov and B. Vallette for sharing their on-going work [22] with me. Received February 04, 2009, revised October 11, 2009; published on July 3, 2010. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 16W30, 57T05, 18C10, 18G99
The effect of title term suggestion on e-commerce sites

Most E-Commerce websites rely on title keyword search to accurately retrieve the items for sale in a particular category. We have found that the titles of many items on eBay are shortened or not very specific, which leads to ineffective results when searched. One possible solution is to recommend the sellers relevant and informative terms for title expansion without any change of search function. The related technique has been explored in previous work such as query expansion and keyword suggestion. In this paper, we study the effect of term suggestion on title-based search. A frequently used approach, co-occurrence, is tested on a dataset collected from eBay website (www.ebay.com). Besides, for suggestion algorithm, we take into account three particular features in our application scenario, including concept term, description relevance and chance-to-be viewed. Although the experiments are conducted on eBay data, we believe that considering E-Commerce particularities will help us to customize the suggestion according to the requirements of web commerce.
An amplifier-shared inverter-based MASH structure ΔΣ modulator for smart sensor interfaces

A 0.9 V feed forward, op-amp shared MASH structure delta sigma modulator for low power sensor interface applications in 0.18 μm CMOS process is presented in this paper. A modified feed forward op-amp shared structure is implemented to reduce the integrators output swings. Due to opamp sharing, the power hungry adder, which constitutes a first challenge in conventional feed forward structures when used in lower-power applications, is eliminated. Moreover, the signal transfer function is modified to be equal to unity in each stage, addressing the second challenge in the conventional feed forward architecture. To reduce the power consumption of the modulator, a fully-differential inverter-based operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) is adopted. Flicker noise is alleviated with the adoption of a chopper stabilization technique. The proposed modulator is sampled at 5.12 MHz for a bandwidth of 20 kHz (OSR of 128). Post-layout simulations show that the modulator achieves 91 dB/89 dB SNR/SNDR respectively while consuming only 65 μW of power.
Hyperfibrinolysis after parapelvic cyst surgery: A case report

The present study describes the diagnosis and treatment of hyperfibrinolysis following surgery in a 25-year-old female patient. An examination revealed that the left kidney had been affected by severe hydronephrosis for two weeks prior to hospitalization. The diagnosis of a parapelvic cyst was obtained by preoperative intravenous pyelogram (IVP), computed tomography (CT) and upper left urinary tract retrograde pyelography. Unroofing of the left parapelvic cyst was performed by open surgery. The patient exhibited symptoms of shock 48 h later, and her hemoglobin (Hb) levels dropped to only 62.2 g/l. To treat this, 400 ml erythrocyte suspension transfusion was administered 3 times every other day. The patient’s Hb levels remained between 50 and 60 g/l. The D-dimer assay index rose from 0.3 to 16 mg/l and the fibrin degradation product (FDP) levels progressively increased following the hemorrhage, while the platelet count, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and fibrinogen (Fg) index were all within normal levels. p-Aminomethylbenzoic acid (PAMBA; 0.5 g) was administered to the patient every day, and as a consequence the Hb levels rose steadily from the next day onwards. After a one week course of PAMBA treatment, the patient’s condition became stable. Blood coagulation and fibrinolytic function measurements were all within the normal ranges in the three months following the surgery. Delayed hemorrhage following surgery should be considered as a possible cause of hyperfibrinolysis. Monitoring FDP and D-dimer levels may aid a rapid and clear diagnosis. Anti-fibrinolytic therapy, such as PAMBA treatment, is safe and effective for use against the type of hemorrhage caused by hyperfibrinolysis.
The control of firing pattern in nigral dopamine neurons: burst firing

In addition to firing in a single spiking mode, dopamine (DA) cells have been observed to fire in a bursting pattern with consecutive spikes in a burst displaying progressively decreasing amplitude and increasing duration. In vivo intracellular recording demonstrated the bursts to typically ride on a depolarizing wave (5 to 15 mV amplitude). Although the burst-firing frequency of DA cells showed little correlation with the base line firing rate, increases in firing rate were usually associated with an increase in burst firing. Increases in burst firing could also be elicited by intracellular calcium injection and could be prevented by intracellular injection of EGTA, suggesting a calcium involvement in bursting. Blockade of potassium conductances with extracellular iontophoresis of barium or intracellular injection of tetraethylammonium bromide could also trigger an increased degree of burst firing in DA cells. These data suggest that the increased calcium influx accompanying an increased firing rate triggers burst firing, possibly by inactivating a potassium conductance. A switch from a single spiking mode to a burst-firing mode may be important in modulating striatal DA release, as shown for burst firing in other preparations.
Contouring medial surface of thin plate structure using local marching cubes

This paper describes an algorithm for contouring a medial surface from CT (computed tomography) data of a thin plate structure. Thin plate structures are common in mechanical structures such as car body shells. When designing the thin plate structures in CAD (computer aided design) and CAE (computer aided engineering) systems, their shapes are usually represented as surface models associated with their thickness values. In this research we are aiming at extracting medial surface models of a thin plate structure from its CT data so as to be used in CAD and CAE systems. However, in such CT data, each voxel in region around the medial surface can not be classified inside or outside, so we can not easily apply iso-surfacing method to contour the medial surface. From the above motives, we first extract medial cells (cubes comprising eight neighboring voxels) from the CT data using a skeletonization method so as to apply marching cubes algorithm to extract the medial surface. It is not, however, guaranteed that the marching cubes algorithm can contour those medial cells (in short, not "marching cubeable"). We developed cell operations which correct topological connectivity so as to guarantee such marching cubeability. We then apply our method to assign virtual signs to the voxels to apply the marching cubes algorithm. And last, we map thicknesses of thin plate structure to the triangle meshes as textures. A prototype system is developed to show some experimental results.
An end-system approach to mobility management for 4G networks and its application to thin-client computing

This paper describes work centred around providing greater autonomy for mobile nodes to roam in Mobile IPv6 wireless networks based on a new handoff mechanism. This technique, called the Client-based Handoff, enables mobile nodes to roam in foreign wireless networks without having to be controlled by the network infrastructure. The mechanism incorporates three algorithms: a router advertisement cache, the invocation of TCP mechanisms and techniques to handle subnetwork outages in order to reduce packet loss and handoff latency. An experimental Mobile IPv6 testbed was developed to evaluate the proposed mechanism and is described in this paper. The testbed supports both horizontal and vertical handoffs. Experimental results are also presented.The outcome of this approach was used to support mobile thin-client computing using a Virtual Network Computer (VNC) environment. Relevant experiments were carried out and the results show a compelling improvement in throughput of up to 50% compared to a VNC environment without the supporting architecture.
Rb is required for progression through myogenic differentiation but not maintenance of terminal differentiation

To investigate the requirement for pRb in myogenic differentiation, a floxed Rb allele was deleted either in proliferating myoblasts or after differentiation. Myf5-Cre mice, lacking pRb in myoblasts, died immediately at birth and exhibited high numbers of apoptotic nuclei and an almost complete absence of myofibers. In contrast, MCK-Cre mice, lacking pRb in differentiated fibers, were viable and exhibited a normal muscle phenotype and ability to regenerate. Induction of differentiation of Rb-deficient primary myoblasts resulted in high rates of apoptosis and a total inability to form multinucleated myotubes. Upon induction of differentiation, Rb-deficient myoblasts up-regulated myogenin, an immediate early marker of differentiation, but failed to down-regulate Pax7 and exhibited growth in low serum conditions. Primary myoblasts in which Rb was deleted after expression of differentiated MCK-Cre formed normal multinucleated myotubes that did not enter S-phase in response to serum stimulation. Therefore, Rb plays a crucial role in the switch from proliferation to differentiation rather than maintenance of the terminally differentiated state.
Measurement : A Necessary Scientific Basis

AbstructSoftware measurement, like measurement in any other discipline, must adhere to the science of measurement if it is to gain widespread acceptance and validity. The observation of some very simple, but fundamental, principles of measurement can have an extremely beneficial effect on the subject. Measurement theory is used to highlight both weaknesses and strengths of software metrics work, including work on metrics validation. We identify a problem with the well-known Weyuker properties, but also show that a criticism of these properties by Cherniavsky and Smith is invalid. We show that the search for general software complexity measures is doomed to failure. However, the theory does help us to define and validate measures of specific complexity attributes. Above all, we are able to view software measurement in a very wide perspective, rationalising and relating its many diverse activities.
STARD 2015 guidelines for reporting diagnostic accuracy studies: explanation and elaboration

Diagnostic accuracy studies are, like other clinical studies, at risk of bias due to shortcomings in design and conduct, and the results of a diagnostic accuracy study may not apply to other patient groups and settings. Readers of study reports need to be informed about study design and conduct, in sufficient detail to judge the trustworthiness and applicability of the study findings. The STARD statement (Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies) was developed to improve the completeness and transparency of reports of diagnostic accuracy studies. STARD contains a list of essential items that can be used as a checklist, by authors, reviewers and other readers, to ensure that a report of a diagnostic accuracy study contains the necessary information. STARD was recently updated. All updated STARD materials, including the checklist, are available at http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard. Here, we present the STARD 2015 explanation and elaboration document. Through commented examples of appropriate reporting, we clarify the rationale for each of the 30 items on the STARD 2015 checklist, and describe what is expected from authors in developing sufficiently informative study reports.
A New Flicker Contribution Tracing Method Based on Individual Reactive Current Components of Multiple EAFs at PCC

In this paper, a new flicker contribution tracing method has been proposed to determine the individual flicker contributions of multiple-electric-arc-furnace (EAF) loads to the flicker measured at the point of common coupling (PCC). The proposed method decouples the flicker contribution of the interconnected electricity system from the individual contributions of the loads connected to the measured PCC, using the individual current variations of the loads, and the estimated short-circuit system impedance. It has been shown that the individual flicker contributions of the loads are mainly caused by the variation of their reactive current components. Since the computational complexity of the proposed method is low, it is appropriate for online applications. The algorithm can easily be embedded on a power quality analyzer, which can be employed as a flicker contribution meter. Field data collected at a PCC supplying multi-EAF plants have been used to verify the validity of the proposed method in a successful manner.
Early Outcome of Acute Ischemic Stroke in Hyperlipidemic Patients Under Atorvastatin Versus Simvastatin

Background:Studies designed to evaluate the efficacy of atorvastatin on stroke suggest that, in addition to cholesterol lowering, this drug may play a role in poststroke neuroprotection. The objective of this historical-prospective study was to analyze the efficacy of atorvastatin (40-80 mg) or simvastatin (at an optimal dose) during the first 2 weeks after stroke in hyperlipidemic patients treated with simvastatin before stroke onset. Methods:Medical records of all adult (aged >18 years) patients diagnosed with acute stroke were reviewed. Subjects were categorized on the basis of poststroke treatment exposure: atorvastatin (40 or 80 mg) or simvastatin (at an optimal dose). Each patient was examined using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Blood lipid profile was determined. All tests were performed at baseline and at 4 weeks after stroke. Results:A total of 371 patients (249 male and 122 female) were included. Subjects who received simvastatin were significantly older than those who received either dose of atorvastatin. Baseline differences in functional scores were not detected across treatment groups. Two weeks after stroke, subjects exposed to simvastatin had significantly poorer NIHSS and mRS scores than did subjects exposed to either atorvastatin dose. Atorvastatin 80 mg was associated with significantly better outcome compared with either of the other treatment groups. These differences persisted even after controlling for age and baseline scores. Conclusions:Early outcome measured by NIHSS and mRS was better in acute stroke patients treated with atorvastatin than in those treated with simvastatin. These differences may reflect a neuroprotective effect unique to atorvastatin.
Assessment and Relevance of Carotid Intima-Media Thickness (C-IMT) in Primary and Secondary Cardiovascular Prevention

Interventions aimed to prevent cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are more effective if administered to subjects carefully selected according to their CVD risk. Usually, this risk is evaluated on the basis of the presence and severity of conventional vascular risk factors (VRFs); however, atherosclerosis, the main pathologic substrate of CVD, is not directly revealed by VRFs. The measurement of the arterial wall, using imaging techniques, has increased the early identification of individuals prone to develop atherosclerosis and to quantify its changes over time. B-mode ultrasound is a technique which allows a non-invasive assessment of the arterial wall of peripheral arteries (e.g. extracranial carotid arteries), and provides measures of the intima-media thickness complex (C-IMT) and additional data on the occurrence, localization and morphology of plaques. Being an independent predictor of vascular events, C-IMT has been considered as a tool to optimize the estimation of CVD risk but this application is still a matter of debate. Though the technique is innocuous, relatively inexpensive and repeatable, its use in the clinical practice is limited by the lack of standardized protocols and clear guidelines. This review outlines the rationale for the potential use of C-IMT in the stratification of cardio- and cerebro-vascular risk and discusses several topics related to the measurement of this variable, which are still controversial among experts of the field.