Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reliability of surgeon-specific reporting of complications after colectomy.

OBJECTIVE We sought to determine the reliability of surgeon-specific postoperative complication rates after colectomy. BACKGROUND Conventional measures of surgeon-specific performance fail to acknowledge variation attributed to statistical noise, risking unreliable assessment of quality. METHODS We examined all patients who underwent segmental colectomy with anastomosis from 2008 through 2010 participating in the Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative Colectomy Project. Surgeon-specific complication rates were risk-adjusted according to patient characteristics with multiple logistic regression. Hierarchical modeling techniques were used to determine the reliability of surgeon-specific risk-adjusted complication rates. We then adjusted these rates for reliability. To evaluate the extent to which surgeon-level variation was reduced, surgeons were placed into quartiles based on performance and complication rates were compared before and after reliability adjustment. RESULTS A total of 5033 patients (n = 345 surgeons) undergoing partial colectomy reported a risk-adjusted complication rate of 24.5%. Approximately 86% of the variability of complication rates across surgeons was explained by measurement noise, whereas the remaining 14% represented true signal. Risk-adjusted complication rates varied from 0% to 55.1% across quartiles before adjusting for reliability. Reliability adjustment greatly diminished this variation, generating a 1.2-fold difference (21.4%-25.6%). A caseload of 168 colectomies across 3 years was required to achieve a reliability of more than 0.7, which is considered a proficient level. Only 1 surgeon surpassed this volume threshold. CONCLUSIONS The vast majority of surgeons do not perform enough colectomies to generate a reliable surgeon-specific complication rate. Risk-adjusted complication rates should be viewed with caution when evaluating surgeons with low operative volume, as statistical noise is a large determinant in estimating their surgeon-specific complication rates.
The location of defects in structures from measurements of natural frequencies

Abstract A method of non-destructively assessing the integrity of structures using measurements of the structural natural frequencies is described. It is shown how measurements made at a single point in the structure can be used to detect, locate and quantify damage. The scheme presented uses finite-element analysis, since this method may be used on any structure. The principle may, however, be used in conjunction with other mathematical techniques. Only one full analysis is required for each type of structure. Results are presented from tests on an aluminium plate and a cross-ply carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic plate. Excellent agreement is shown between the predicted and actual damage sites and a useful indication of the magnitude of the defect is obtained.
Optimal transmission range for V2I communications on congested highways

In this paper, we analyze the performance of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications on a highway, in which the transmission distance between a road side unit (RSU) and a vehicle rapidly changes due to movement of vehicles. By theoretically analyzing the interference received at an RSU, we derive a closedform expression of a desired performance metric of V2I communications. Furthermore, by considering the trade-off between the interference at an RSU and the transmission range of a running vehicle, we obtain a closed-form optimal transmission-range for V2I communications. We evaluate our analysis results by conducting numerical simulations and show the effectiveness of the optimal transmissionrange.
SORA: A stochastic optimal routing algorithm for wireless sensor networks

Nowadays, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have been widely deployed and applied. Due to energy consumption is one of the critical problems existing in WSNs, many energy-optimization related routing mechanisms are proposed. However, most of existing routing mechanisms rarely focus on both energy consumption and data transmission delay in high-loss WSN environments. Therefore, in this paper, we formulate the routing problem in high-loss WSNs with the considerations of energy efficiency improvement and data transmission delay reduction. Through exploiting the stochastic Lyapunov optimization approaches, the formulated problem is converted to a queue stability problem with virtual queues and is further decomposed into three subproblems, including transmission control, admission control and utility maximization. By solving the three decomposed problems, Stochastic Optimal Routing Algorithm (SORA) is established and proposed. Finally, the performance of SORA is evaluated by comprehensive simulations.
Evolution of muscular fatigue in periscapular and rotator cuff muscles during isokinetic shoulder rotations

ABSTRACT To this day, how shoulder muscles react to a strong fatigue stimulus during dynamic shoulder rotations remains unknown. The aims of this study were to assess the effect of repeated maximal internal-external isokinetic shoulder rotations on shoulder strength and muscle activity. Twenty-four individuals completed a 50-repetition fatiguing isokinetic protocol while electromyography was recorded on eleven muscles of the shoulder girdle. Time-frequency transformation and an ANOVA model using statistical parametric mapping methods were used to analyze shifts in instantaneous median frequency (MDF) between each 10-repetition Blocks. Peak torques decreased in both internal and external rotation (P < 0.01) by 24.8% on average which indicated the presence of fatigue. Significant decrease in MDF (P < 0.01) was observed for pectoralis, middle deltoid, upper, middle and lower trapezius, infraspinatus and subscapularis muscles. The observed fatigue to the periscapular and rotator cuff muscles suggests that shoulder stability could be compromised during repeated shoulder rotations, which could underlie the increased risk of scapular dyskinesis and shoulder impingement during fatiguing tasks. The present study provides a deeper understanding on the manifestations of fatigue within muscles of the shoulder girdle and the results could be applied toward improvements in athlete shoulder injury prevention and rehabilitation programs.
Elastic-Plastic Bending Deformation of Adhesively Bonded Sheet Metals in Tensile Lap Shear Tests with Special Reference to Effect of Tensile Speed

In order to investigate the effect of tensile shear-induced bending deformation of sheet metals in adhesively bonded single-lap joint on the shear strength of adhesive, in the present work, tensile lap shear experiments on an aluminium sheet joint bonded with the acrylic adhesive were performed at room temperature. Since this type of adhesive has strong rate sensitivity in flow stress, bending deformation becomes larger with increasing tensile speeds. For the prediction of bending deformation, a numerical analysis of elastic-plastic bending deformation of single-lap sheet metals is presented. From the experimental data and the corresponding numerical results, the effect of tensile speed on the bending deformation is discussed. To reduce the bending deformation, a new experimental technique of reinforcement of an adherend sheet with a high-rigidity plate is proposed.
Formulizing the Fuzzy Rule for Takagi-Sugeno Model in Network Traffic Control

RESEARCH ARTICLE Formulizing the Fuzzy Rule for Takagi-Sugeno Model in Network Traffic Control Mohammad Alhihi and Mohammad Reza Khosravi Department of Communications and Electronic Engineering, Philadelphia University, Amman, Jordan Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz, Iran; Computer Engineering Department, School of Engineering, Persian Gulf University, Bushehr, Iran
Metformin and β‐cell function in insulin‐treated patients with type 2 diabetes: A randomized placebo‐controlled 4.3‐year trial

In this trial, 390 insulin‐treated patients with type 2 diabetes were randomized to either placebo or metformin. Fasting levels of glucose, insulin and C peptide were determined at baseline, after 4 months and yearly thereafter for 4 years to assess fasting estimates of beta cell function. The primary endpoint was the fasting C peptide‐to‐glucose ratio (FCPGR) and secondary measures were the disposition index (DI) and the fasting C peptide (FCP). We analysed the results with a general linear mixed model. Baseline FCPGR was 5.27 (95% CI, 4.83 – 5.71). Compared to placebo, FCPGR increased in the metformin group with 1.48 (95% CI, 1.09 – 1.87, P < 0.001). The DI showed comparable results with a treatment effect of 1.50 (95% CI, 1.17 – 1.83; P < 0.001). FCP also increased in the metformin group but did not reach statistical significance vs placebo (0.034 nmol, 95% CI, −0.005 – 0.072; P = 0.085). Treatment with metformin vs placebo, added to insulin in patients with type 2 diabetes, improves long‐term estimates of beta cell function in the fasting state.
Robustness of power-law behavior in cascading line failure models

ABSTRACT Inspired by reliability issues in electric transmission networks, we use a probabilistic approach to study the occurrence of large failures in a stylized cascading line failure model. Such models capture the phenomenon where an initial line failure potentially triggers massive knock-on effects. Under certain critical conditions, the probability that the number of line failures exceeds a large threshold obeys a power-law distribution, a distinctive property observed in empiric blackout data. In this paper, we examine the robustness of the power-law behavior by exploring under which conditions this behavior prevails.
Integrated microarray analysis provided novel insights to the pathogenesis of glaucoma

Glaucoma is characterized as a visual field defect, which is the second most common cause of blindness. The present study performed an integrated analysis of microarray studies of glaucoma derived from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Following the identification of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in glaucoma compared with normal control (NC) tissues, the functional annotation, glaucoma-specific protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and transcriptional regulatory network constructions were performed. The acute intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation rat models were established and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was performed for DEGs expression confirmation. Three datasets were downloaded from GEO. A total of 97 DEGs, 82 upregulated and 15 downregulated were identified in glaucoma compared with NC groups with false discovery rate <0.05. Response to virus and immune response were two significantly enriched GO terms in glaucoma. Valine, leucine and isoleucine degradation was a significantly enriched pathway of DEGs in glaucoma. According to the PPI network, HDAC1, HBN, UBR4 and PDK1 were hub proteins in glaucoma. FOXD3, HNF-4 and AP-1 were the three transcription factors (TFs) derived from top 10 TFs which covered the majority of downstream DEGs in glaucoma. Based on the RT-qPCR results, the expression levels of 3 DEGs, raftlin, lipid raft linker 1 (RFTN1), PBX homeobox 1 (PBX1), HDAC1 were significantly upregulated and the expression of GEM was significantly downregulated in acute IOP elevation rat model at the first and fifth day. These four DEGs had the same expression pattern with our integrated analysis. Therefore, the current study concluded that 6 DEGs, including HEPH, SELENBP1, RFTN1, ID1, HDAC-1 and PBX1 and three TFs, including FOXD3, HNF-4 and AP-1 may be involved with the pathogenesis of glaucoma. The findings of the current study may improve diagnosis and drug design for glaucoma.
Positive allosteric modulation of GABAA receptors attenuates high blood pressure in Schlager hypertensive mice

Objective: Blood pressure high Schlager (BPH/2J) mice have neurogenic hypertension associated with differences in hypothalamic GABAA receptors compared with their normotensive counterparts (BPN/3J). Allopregnanolone is an endogenous neurosteroid reduced in chronic stress, and when administered, decreases anxiety by positive allosteric modulation of GABAA receptors. Methods: To determine if allopregnanolone could be a viable therapeutic for neurogenic hypertension, male BPH/2J (n = 6–7) and BPN/3J (n = 8–9) mice were equipped with radiotelemetry probes to compare cardiovascular variables before and after implantation of subcutaneous minipumps delivering allopregnanolone (5 mg/kg per day), or its vehicle, for a period of 2 weeks. In addition to baseline recordings, the response to stress and ganglionic blockade with pentolinium was recorded, before and 7–14 days after minipump implantation. Following treatment, brains were processed for c-Fos immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: Administration of allopregnanolone selectively reduced mean arterial pressure (−8.0 ± 2.7 mmHg; P = 0.02) and the depressor response to pentolinium (−15.3 ± 3.2 mmHg; P = 0.001) in BPH/2J mice, with minimal effects observed in BPN/3J mice. Following allopregnanolone treatment, the diminished expression of GABAA &dgr;, &agr;4 and &bgr;2 subunits in the hypothalamus (−1.6 to 4.8-fold; Pstrain < 0.05) was abolished. Furthermore, in BPH/2J mice, allopregnanolone treatment reduced the pressor response to dirty cage switch stress (−26.7 ± 4.5%; P < 0.001) and abolished the elevated c-Fos expression in pre-sympathetic nuclei. Conclusion: The selective antihypertensive and stress inhibitory effects of allopregnanolone in BPH/2J mice suggest that allosteric modulation of GABAA receptors, in amygdalo-hypothalamic pathways, may contribute to the development of hypertension in this model and may offer a potential new therapeutic avenue.
Lubricating Performance of Mixtures of Bio-Diesel and Mineral Diesel Investigated in a Model Tribometer With Radioactive Isotopes

For the investigation of piston ring and cylinder liner systems, screening tests are usually run with pure engine oil as the only lubricant. Due to the fact that the combustion chamber of a cylinder is filled with a high-pressure gas-fuel-mixture, we assume that the piston ring and cylinder liner contact is lubricated by a mixture of oil and fuel rather than by pure oil. As numerous investigations already deal with the effect of oil on the piston ring and cylinder liner system, we will concentrate in this paper on the effect of diesel, especially the effect of the admixture of bio-diesel, on the wear behavior of such a system. © 2008 ASME
Constrained Efficiency in the Neoclassical Growth Model with Uninsurable Idiosyncractic Shocks

We investigate the welfare properties of the one-sector neoclassic growth model with uninsurable idiosyncratic shocks. We focus on the constrained efficiency notion of the general equilibrium literature, and we demonstrate constrained inefficiency for our model. We provide a characterization of constrained efficiency that uses the first-order condition of a constrained planner's problem that points to the margins of relevance for whether capital is too high or too low : the income composition of the (consumption) poor. We calibrate our benchmark model parameters governing idiosyncratic risks to the U.S. earnings and wealth distribution, and for this distribution the income of the poor is mainly composed of labor earnings. We compute the constrained-efficient allocations -including transition dynamics- for our model economy, and we conclude that the long-run capital stock in a laissez faire world is not only too low, but much too low. We also show that one can find parameterizations with different qualitative features : in one case, the steady-state capital stock is too high, and in another case no steady state exists.
Design and Practical Evaluation of a Family of Lightweight Protocols for Heterogeneous Sensing through BLE Beacons in IoT Telemetry Applications

The Internet of Things (IoT) involves a wide variety of heterogeneous technologies and resource-constrained devices that interact with each other. Due to such constraints, IoT devices usually require lightweight protocols that optimize the use of resources and energy consumption. Among the different commercial IoT devices, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-based beacons, which broadcast periodically certain data packets to notify their presence, have experienced a remarkable growth, specially due to their application in indoor positioning systems. This article proposes a family of protocols named Lightweight Protocol for Sensors (LP4S) that provides fast responses and enables plug-and-play mechanisms that allow IoT telemetry systems to discover new nodes and to describe and auto-register the sensors and actuators connected to a beacon. Thus, three protocols are defined depending on the beacon hardware characteristics: LP4S-6 (for resource-constraint beacons), LP4S-X (for more powerful beacons) and LP4S-J (for beacons able to run complex firmware). In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the designed protocols, the most restrictive (LP4S-6) is tested after implementing it for a telemetry application in a beacon based on Eddystone (Google’s open beacon format). Thus, the beacon specification is extended in order to increase its ability to manage unlimited sensors in a telemetry system without interfering in its normal operation with Eddystone frames. The performed experiments show the feasibility of the proposed solution and its superiority, in terms of latency and energy consumption, with respect to approaches based on Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) when multiple users connect to a mote or in scenarios where latency is not a restriction, but where low-energy consumption is essential.
A mixed analysis comparing nine minimally invasive surgeries for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma patients

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is usually managed by the transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE). However, this technique has been challenged since severe complications have been observed in clinical practices. As a result, clinicians have started to seek other minimally invasive surgeries with equivalent efficacy. The corresponding surgeries were assessed by the five outcomes: complete response (CR), partial response (PR), stable disease (SD), progression disease (PD) and objective response rate (ORR). Direct meta-analysis and network meta-analysis were performed and the results were represented by odds ratios (OR), 95% confidence and credential intervals. Furthermore, the value of surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA)was calculated to provide corresponding rankings.Seventeen studies were incorporated into the network meta-analysis which indicated that TACE + external-beam radiation therapy (EBRT) and drug-eluting beads (DEB) were better than TACE at controllingPD. TACE + EBRT demonstrated their advantages compared to TARE-90Y.However, network meta-analysis comparison showed no significant difference between the corresponding eight treatments with respect to CR, PR, SD and ORR. Moreover, the SUCRA suggested that TACE+EBRT were better than other treatments at treating unresectableHCC.Based on the present results of this network meta-analysis, TACE + EBRT was more effective than the other seven minimally invasive surgeries and therefore it is considered as the optimal treatment for HCC.
MicroRNA-128-3p-mediated depletion of Drosha promotes lung cancer cell migration

Alteration in microRNAs (miRNAs) expression is a frequent finding in human cancers. In particular, widespread miRNAs down-regulation is a hallmark of malignant transformation. In the present report, we showed that the miR-128-3p, which is up-regulated in lung cancer tissues, has Drosha and Dicer, two key enzymes of miRNAs processing, as the main modulation targets leading to the widespread down-regulation of miRNA expression. We observed that the miRNAs downregulation induced by miR-128-3p contributed to the tumorigenic properties of lung cancer cells. In particular, miR-128-3p-mediated miRNAs down-regulation contributed to aberrant SNAIL and ZEB1 expression thereby promoting the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program. Drosha also resulted to be implicated in the control of migratory phenotype as its expression counteracted miR-128-3p functional effects. Our study provides mechanistic insights into the function of miR-128-3p as a key regulator of the malignant phenotype of lung cancer cells. This also enforces the remarkable impact of Drosha and Dicer alteration in cancer, and in particular it highlights a role for Drosha in non-small-cell lung cancer cells migration.
Security protocols in body sensor networks using visible light communications

The fifth generation (5G) wireless system aims to support body sensor networks (BSNs) by increasing the interconnectivity of electronic devices. BSNs in the 5G era will enable many interesting applications, for example, medical services. In these applications, sensor networks collect sensitive information of individual human beings. Thus, security becomes significantly important in BSNs. However, many key distribution protocols are based on pre‐deployed secrets. There are some problems: It is difficult to update pre‐deployed secrets after they are compromised, or users want to re‐deploy a device node. In this paper, we propose several security protocols including two key establishment protocols for BSNs by using visible light communications (VLCs). These protocols have a number of advantages. First, they can be widely applied in current BSNs without extra conditions because VLCs can be supported in most BSNs. Second, these protocols do not need pre‐shared secrets; thus, it is not necessary for users to change pre‐shared secrets if they are compromised. Experiments and analysis further show that (1) VLCs based on on–off keying are preferred; (2) computation and communication burden of these protocols are acceptable; and (3) these protocols bring little burden on users. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Eigenoption Discovery through the Deep Successor Representation

Options in reinforcement learning allow agents to hierarchically decompose a task into subtasks, having the potential to speed up learning and planning. However, autonomously learning effective sets of options is still a major challenge in the field. In this paper we focus on the recently introduced idea of using representation learning methods to guide the option discovery process. Specifically, we look at eigenoptions, options obtained from representations that encode diffusive information flow in the environment. We extend the existing algorithms for eigenoption discovery to settings with stochastic transitions and in which handcrafted features are not available. We propose an algorithm that discovers eigenoptions while learning non-linear state representations from raw pixels. It exploits recent successes in the deep reinforcement learning literature and the equivalence between proto-value functions and the successor representation. We use traditional tabular domains to provide intuition about our approach and Atari 2600 games to demonstrate its potential.
Pump power and birefringence effects in Nd3+ and Pr3+ fiber lasers using intracore Bragg reflectors

The spectra of Nd3+ and Pr3+ doped fiber lasers utilizing two intracore Bragg grating reflectors written at 1084 nm Bragg wavelength have been investigated under 30 MHz resolution. A spectral vernier effect was induced by the subcavities created by reflections from the fiber end faces and from Bragg gratings. We made use of this effect to enhance the sensitivity of the measurement of the fiber temperature rise which arises from absorption of the pump power. Fresnel reflection was also used to reduce the linewidth of the laser emission.