Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do Outcomes for Patients With Heart Failure Vary by Emergency Department Volume?

Background—Heart failure is a common Emergency Department (ED) presentation but whether ED volume influences patient outcomes is unknown. Methods and Results—Retrospective cohort of all adults presenting to 93 EDs between 1999 and 2009 with a most responsible diagnosis of heart failure (n=44 925 ED visits; mean age, 76.4 years). Cases seen in low-volume EDs had less comorbidities and were less likely to be hospitalized (54.5%) than those seen in medium (61.8%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.16, [95% confidence interval {CI} 1.10–1.23]) or high-volume EDs (73.6%; aOR, 1.95 [95% CI, 1.83–2.07]). Of patients treated and released, low-volume ED cases exhibited higher risk of death/hospitalization/ED visit in the subsequent 7 (22.0%) and 30 days (44.9%) than medium (16.3%; aOR, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.73–0.90], and 35.3%; aOR, 0.79 [95% CI, 0.73–0.86]) or high-volume ED cases (13.0%; aOR, 0.69 [95% CI, 0.61–0.78], and 30.2%; aOR, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.61–0.74]). Of patients hospitalized at the time of their index ED visit, low-volume ED cases exhibited a higher risk of 30-day death/all-cause readmission (24.3%) than those seen in medium (21.9%; aOR, 0.83 [95% CI, 0.76–0.91]) or high-volume EDs (18.1%; aOR, 0.77 [95% CI, 0.70–0.85]). Conclusions—Low-volume EDs were more likely to discharge patients with heart failure home, but low-volume ED cases exhibited worse outcomes (driven largely by readmissions or repeat ED visits). Interventions to improve management of acute heart failure are required at low-volume sites.
Approaches to the study of neural coding of sound source location and sound envelope in real environments

The major functions of the auditory system are recognition (what is the sound) and localization (where is the sound). Although each of these has received considerable attention, rarely are they studied in combination. Furthermore, the stimuli used in the bulk of studies did not represent sound location in real environments and ignored the effects of reverberation. Another ignored dimension is the distance of a sound source. Finally, there is a scarcity of studies conducted in unanesthetized animals. We illustrate a set of efficient methods that overcome these shortcomings. We use the virtual auditory space method (VAS) to efficiently present sounds at different azimuths, different distances and in different environments. Additionally, this method allows for efficient switching between binaural and monaural stimulation and alteration of acoustic cues singly or in combination to elucidate neural mechanisms underlying localization and recognition. Such procedures cannot be performed with real sound field stimulation. Our research is designed to address the following questions: Are IC neurons specialized to process what and where auditory information? How does reverberation and distance of the sound source affect this processing? How do IC neurons represent sound source distance? Are neural mechanisms underlying envelope processing binaural or monaural?
Nonlinear Coupling for Improved Stochastic Network Model: A Study of Schnakenberg Model

Langevin equation is widely used to study the stochastic effects in molecular networks, as it often approximates well the underlying chemical master equation. However, frequently it is not clear when such an approximation is applicable and when it breaks down. Here we study the simple Schnakenberg model consisting of two molecular species whose concentrations vary and three reversible reactions. To reduce residual errors from the conventional formulation of the Langevin equation, we propose to explicitly model the effective coupling between macroscopic concentrations of different molecular species. Our preliminary results show that this formulation is effective in correcting residual errors from the original uncoupled Langevin equation and can approximate the underlying chemical master equation very accurately.
Systematic screening and expression analysis of the head organizer genes in Xenopus embryos.

We describe here a systematic screen of an anterior endomesoderm (AEM) cDNA library to isolate novel genes which are expressed in the head organizer region. After removing clones which hybridized to labeled cDNA probes synthesized with total RNA from a trunk region of tailbud embryos, the 5' ends of 1039 randomly picked cDNA clones were sequenced to make expressed sequence tags (ESTs), which formed 754 tentative unique clusters. Those clusters were compared against public databases and classified according to similarities found to other genes and gene products. Of them, 151 clusters were identified as known Xenopus genes, including eight organizer-specific ones (5.3%). Gene expression pattern screening was performed for 198 unique clones, which were selected because they either have no known function or are predicted to be developmental regulators in other species. The screen revealed nine possible organizer-specific clones (4.5%), four of which appeared to be expressed in the head organizer region. Detailed expression analysis from gastrula to neurula stages showed that these four genes named crescent, P7E4 (homologous to human hypothetical genes), P8F7 (an unclassified gene), and P17F11 (homologous to human and Arabidopsis hypothetical genes) demarcate spatiotemporally distinct subregions of the AEM corresponding to the head organizer region. These results indicate that our screening strategy is effective in isolating novel region-specific genes.
The influence of human capital and proactive personality on career success with career motivation as mediation and career management support as moderation in private lecturers

This quantitative study investigates the complex relationship between proactive personality, human resources and career success, which is mediated by career motivation and added moderating variables by career management support to the relationship between career motivation and career success among lecturers in Indonesia. This research is an explanatory quantitative research that examines and analyses the influence of variables in the research hypothesis using the basis of career construction theory (CCT). The sample is 400 private lecturers LLDIKTI 1 – LLDIKTI 16, Indonesia. The survey method is used to collect sample data and uses the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analysis technique with PLS software. This research confirms the suitability of the test instrument and model, accepting the eight hypotheses, with the influence of human capital being more dominant than proactive personality and career motivation. Career support management acts as a moderator variable which shows that management support increases individual career success. The implication is that universities must pay attention to human resources and proactive personalities to increase career success supported by career management. The success of a lecturer's career supports the success of the university.
Discovering Landmark Preferences and Movement Patterns from Photo Postings

This article presents a geovisual analytics approach to discovering people's preferences for landmarks and movement patterns from photos posted on the Flickr website. The approach combines an exploratory spatio‐temporal analysis of geographic coordinates and dates representing locations and time of taking photos with basic thematic information available through the Google Maps Web mapping service, and interpretation of the analyzed area. The article describes data aggregation and filtering techniques to reduce the size of the dataset and focuses on information addressing research questions. The results of analysis for the Seattle metropolitan area help to distinguish between sites that are occasionally popular among the photographers and can be considered as potential attractions from sites that are regularly visited and already known as city landmarks. The analysis of photographers' movements across the metropolitan area shows that most photographers' itineraries are short and highly localized.
Dual bronchodilation with QVA149 versus single bronchodilator therapy: the SHINE study

We investigated the efficacy and safety of dual bronchodilation with QVA149 versus its monocomponents indacaterol and glycopyrronium, tiotropium and placebo in patients with moderate-to-severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This was a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo- and active-controlled, 26-week trial. Patients (n = 2144) were randomised (2:2:2:2:1) to receive once-daily QVA149 (indacaterol 110 &mgr;g/glycopyrronium 50 &mgr;g), indacaterol 150 &mgr;g, glycopyrronium 50 &mgr;g, open-label tiotropium 18 &mgr;g or placebo. The primary end-point was trough forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) at week 26 for QVA149 versus its monocomponents. Secondary end-points included dyspnoea, health status, rescue medication use and safety. Trough FEV1 at week 26 was significantly improved (p<0.001) with QVA149 compared with indacaterol and glycopyrronium (least squares mean (LSM) differences 0.07 L and 0.09 L, respectively), tiotropium and placebo (LSM differences 0.08 L and 0.20 L, respectively); these beneficial effects were sustained throughout the 26-week study. QVA149 significantly improved dyspnoea and health status versus placebo (p<0.001 and p = 0.002, respectively) and tiotropium (p = 0.007 and p = 0.009, respectively) at week 26. All treatments were well tolerated. Dual bronchodilation with once-daily QVA149 demonstrated superior and clinically meaningful outcomes versus placebo and superiority versus treatment with a single bronchodilator, with a safety and tolerability profile similar to placebo, supporting the concept of fixed-dose long-acting muscarinic antagonist/long-acting &bgr;2-agonist combinations for the treatment of COPD. Dual indacaterol/glycopyrronium therapy was safe and more efficacious than monotherapy in moderate-to-severe COPD http://ow.ly/p3H5E
Improved Decimal Floating-Point Logarithmic Converter Based on Selection by Rounding

This paper presents the algorithm and architecture of the decimal floating-point (DFP) logarithmic converter, based on the digit-recurrence algorithm with selection by rounding. The proposed approach can compute faithful DFP logarithm results for any one of the three DFP formats specified in the IEEE 754-2008 standard. In order to optimize the latency for the proposed design, we mainly integrate the following novel features: 1) using the redundant carry-save representation of the data path; 2) reducing the number of iterations by determining the number of initial iteration; and 3) retiming and balancing the delay of the proposed architecture. The proposed architecture is synthesized with STM 90-nm standard cell library and the results show that the critical path delay and the number of clock cycles of the proposed Decimal64 logarithmic converter are 1.55 ns (34.4 FO4) and 19, respectively, and the total hardware complexity is 43,572 NAND2 gates. The delay estimation results of the proposed architecture show that its latency is close to that of the binary radix-16 logarithmic converter, and that it has a significant decrease on latency compared with a recently published high performance CORDIC implementation.
IEEE 802.11 based vehicular communication simulation design for NS-2

DSRC is a promising IEEE 802.11 based wireless technology that enables advanced active vehicle safety, among other applications. NS-2 is a common and familiar communication simulation tool for researchers. The current NS-2 distribution package, however, is not completely ready to accommodate the requirements of IEEE 802.11 (i.e. DSRC) based vehicular communication research. In this paper, we present an overview on the pre-existing wireless simulation architecture design in the NS-2 distribution code. We then describe our improvements to the IEEE 802.11 PHY and MAC modules in NS-2. The resulting simulator is a more accurate simulation tool for DSRC in particular and IEEE 802.11 based wireless communication research in general.
A Wireless Actuator-Sensor Neural Network for Evacuation Routing

A wireless sensor-actuator network is formed by nodes capable of sensing and acting upon its environment. Typical challenges in designing such networks include distributed signal processing, synchronisation and communication, as well as deployment of network nodes and scalable architectures for these networks. In this paper, we look at the application of neural networks to individual nodes in a wireless network, which result in a wireless sensor-actuator neural network model. We explain how the combination of sensor network and neural network technology can describe a system which maintains desired characteristics such as scalability and adaptability. We show further that such model can be successfully applied to an evacuation routing scenario.
Measurement of changes in atmospheric Ar/N2 ratio using a rapid-switching, single-capillary mass spectrometer system

The atmospheric Ar/N2 ratio is expected to undergo very slight variations due to exchanges of Ar and N2 across the air—sea interface, driven by ocean solubility changes. Observations of these variations may provide useful constraints on large-scale fluxes of heat across the air—sea interface. A mass spectrometer system is described that incorporates a magnet with a wide exit face, allowing a large mass spread, and incorporates an inlet with rapid (5 s) switching of sources gases through a single capillary, thus achieving high precision in the comparison of sample and reference gases. The system allows simultaneous measurement of Ar/N2, O2/N2 and CO2/N2 ratios. The system achieves a short-term precision in Ar/N2 of 10 per meg for a 10 s integration, which can be averaged to achieve an internal precision of a few per meg in the comparison of reference gases. Results for Ar/N2 are reported from flasks samples collected from nine stations in a north-to-south global network over about a 1 yr period. The imprecision on an individual flask, as estimated from replicate agreement, is ±11 per meg. This imprecision is dominated by real variability between samples at the time of analysis. Seasonal cycles are marginally resolved at the extra-tropical stations with amplitudes of 5 to 15 per meg. Annual-mean values are constant between stations to within ±5 per meg. The results are compared with a numerical simulation of the cycles and gradients in Ar/N2 based on the TM2 tracer transport model in combination with air—sea Ar and N2 fluxes derived from climatological air—sea heat fluxes. The possibility is suggested that Ar/N2 ratios may be detectably enriched near the ground by gravimetric or thermal fractionation under conditions of strong surface inversions.
The Production of IFN-γ by IL-12/IL-18-Activated Macrophages Requires STAT4 Signaling and Is Inhibited by IL-41

Macrophages release IFN-γ on combined stimulation with IL-12 and IL-18, but the signaling requirements of this process and its regulation by other cytokines are unknown. Here, we demonstrate that STAT4 is indispensable for IL-12/IL-18-induced production of IFN-γ by mouse peritoneal macrophages. Type 2 NO synthase (NOS2), which we previously found to be a prerequisite for IL-12-induced IFN-γ production in NK cells, was not required for IFN-γ production by these macrophages. IL-12 alone already induced the expression of IFN-γ mRNA, but nuclear translocation of STAT4, the release of IFN-γ protein, and the subsequent production of NO was strictly dependent on the simultaneous presence of IL-18. NF-κB, which mediates IL-18 effects in T cells, was only weakly activated by IL-12 and/or IL-18 in macrophages. Known inhibitors of macrophage functions (e.g., IL-4 and TGF-β) also suppressed macrophage IFN-γ production and the subsequent production of NOS2-derived NO. The inhibitory effect of IL-4 was paralleled by nuclear translocation of STAT6, which in EMSAs was able to bind to the same DNA oligonucleotide as STAT4. These results further define the production of IFN-γ by macrophages and point to a diversity in the signals required for IFN-γ production by various cell types.
Trusted CVS

The CVS (Concurrent Versions System) software is a popular method for recording modifications to data objects, in addition to concurrent access to data in a multi-user environment. In current implementations, all users have to trust that the CVS server performs all user operations as instructed. In this paper, we develop protocols that allow users to verify that the server has been compromised, and that it has performed exactly the users’ operations on the data. We first show that communication between users is necessary to guarantee that users can detect that the server has been compromised. We then propose efficient protocols that fast enable detection of server integrity under CVS workloads. Our techniques also have applications in the outsourcing model where multiple users own a common database maintained by an untrusted third-party vendor.
A Design-Based Cohesion Metric for Object-Oriented Classes

Class cohesion is an important object-oriented software quality attribute. It indicates how much the members in a class are related. Assessing the class cohesion and improving the class quality accordingly during the object-oriented design phase allows for cheaper management of the later phases. In this paper, the notion of distance between pairs of methods and pairs of attribute types in a class is introduced and used as a basis for introducing a novel class cohesion metric. The metric considers the methodmethod, attribute-attribute, and attribute-method direct interactions. It is shown that the metric gives more sensitive values than other well-known design-based class cohesion metrics. Keywords—Object-oriented software quality, object-oriented design, class cohesion.
Game Colouring Directed Graphs

In this paper, a colouring game and two versions of marking games (the weak and the strong) on digraphs are studied. We introduce the weak game chromatic number $\chi_{\rm wg}(D)$ and the weak game colouring number ${\rm wgcol}(D)$ of digraphs $D$. It is proved that if $D$ is an oriented planar graph, then $\chi_{\rm wg}(D)$ $\le {\rm wgcol}(D) \le 9$, and if $D$ is an oriented outerplanar graph, then $\chi_{\rm wg}(D)$ $\le {\rm wgcol}(D) \le 4$. Then we study the strong game colouring number ${\rm sgcol}\left( D \right)$ (which was first introduced by Andres as game colouring number) of digraphs $D$. It is proved that if $D$ is an oriented planar graph, then ${\rm sgcol}\left( D \right) \le 16$. The asymmetric versions of the colouring and marking games of digraphs are also studied. Upper and lower bounds of related parameters for various classes of digraphs are obtained.
Screening of Pleural Mesotheliomas for DNA-damage Repair Players by Digital Gene Expression Analysis Can Enhance Clinical Management of Patients Receiving Platin-Based Chemotherapy

Background: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare, predominantly asbestos-related and biologically highly aggressive tumour leading to a dismal prognosis. Multimodality therapy consisting of platinum-based chemotherapy is the treatment of choice. The reasons for the rather poor efficacy of platinum compounds remain largely unknown. Material and Methods: For this exploratory mRNA study, 24 FFPE tumour specimens were screened by digital gene expression analysis. Based on data from preliminary experiments and recent literature, a total of 366 mRNAs were investigated using a Custom CodeSet from NanoString. All statistical analyses were calculated with the R i386 statistical programming environment. Results: CDC25A and PARP1 gene expression were correlated with lymph node spread, BRCA1 and TP73 expression levels with higher IMIG stage. NTHL1 and XRCC3 expression was associated with TNM stage. CHECK1 as well as XRCC2 expression levels were correlated with tumour progression in the overall cohort of patients. CDKN2A and MLH1 gene expression influenced overall survival in this collective. In the adjuvant treated cohort only, CDKN2A, CHEK1 as well as ERCC1 were significantly associated with overall survival. Furthermore, TP73 expression was associated with progression in this subgroup. Conclusion: DNA-damage response plays a crucial role in response to platin-based chemotherapeutic regimes. In particular, CHEK1, XRCC2 and TP73 are strongly associated with tumour progression. ERCC1, MLH1, CDKN2A and most promising CHEK1 are prognostic markers for OS in MPM. TP73, CDKN2A, CHEK1 and ERCC1 seem to be also predictive markers in adjuvant treated MPMs. After a prospective validation, these markers may improve clinical and pathological practice, finally leading to a patients' benefit by an enhanced clinical management.
Salient Region Detection by UFO: Uniqueness, Focusness and Objectness

The goal of saliency detection is to locate important pixels or regions in an image which attract humans' visual attention the most. This is a fundamental task whose output may serve as the basis for further computer vision tasks like segmentation, resizing, tracking and so forth. In this paper we propose a novel salient region detection algorithm by integrating three important visual cues namely uniqueness, focus ness and objectness (UFO). In particular, uniqueness captures the appearance-derived visual contrast, focus ness reflects the fact that salient regions are often photographed in focus, and objectness helps keep completeness of detected salient regions. While uniqueness has been used for saliency detection for long, it is new to integrate focus ness and objectness for this purpose. In fact, focus ness and objectness both provide important saliency information complementary of uniqueness. In our experiments using public benchmark datasets, we show that, even with a simple pixel level combination of the three components, the proposed approach yields significant improvement compared with previously reported methods.
Effect of Spent Lubricating Oil on Total Antioxidant Power, Total Flavonoid Content and Total Phenolic Content of Sorghum bicolor (L.) Mooch and Soyabean Glycine Max (L.) Merr Seedlings after 14 Days of Germination

Environmental pollution is a growing concern, with its detrimental effects on ecosystems, biodiversity, and human health. Spent lubricating oil (SLO) represents a pervasive environmental pollutant, often finding its way into soil and posing a significant threat to plant life. This study was to investigate effect of the fractions of SLO (water-soluble, WSF; water-insoluble, WISF; and crude whole SLO, cWSLO) and distilled water (DW) respectively. The WSF showed significant (P<0.05) decrease in both species of seedlings (Sorghum 15.34 mg GAE/g ± 2.01 and Soya-bean 16.87 mg GAE/g ± 0.86) from results of TAP when compared to that of DW while the cWSLO was most significantly (P<0.05) decreased. The TPC also revealed significant (P<0.05) decrease from the different fractions when compared to the control (DW) as well as that of the TFC values from the results. The disparities in TPC emphasize the selective influence of different SLO components on the production of phenolic compounds, which could be crucial for plant defense mechanisms against oxidative stress. Thus, the results of the study showed that although the different parameters indicated that SLO can affect the oxidative state of brown sorghum seeds but it can be seen that it may be possible for the plant to utilize some of the water soluble contents of the SLO to aid germination.