Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk factors of severe hypoglycemia requiring medical assistance and neurological sequelae in patients with diabetes

AbstractHypoglycemia commonly occurs in patients who are being treated for diabetes. In some cases, these patients suffer from severe hypoglycemia that requires medical assistance and which can unfortunately result in long-term disabilities. Therefore, we investigated risk factors associated with severe hypoglycemia requiring medical assistance (HMA) and the resulting neurological sequelae in patients with diabetes. This investigation was a case–control study that assessed 129 patients with diabetes and documented hypoglycemia from a single tertiary hospital between February 2013 and May 2015. They were treated with oral hypoglycemic agents alone (54%) or with insulin with/without oral hypoglycemic agents (46%). If a patient with diabetes visited the emergency department due to hypoglycemia, this was defined as HMA. The control group was composed of patients with documented, nonsevere hypoglycemia who visited the outpatient clinic during the same period. The degree of neurological disability in the HMA patients was measured using the modified Rankin Scale. A multivariate analysis revealed that independent risk factors of HMA were associated with a lack of the self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) and previous episodes of severe hypoglycemia. In the HMA group, 15 patients (22%) had neurological sequelae at the time of discharge. Patients with neurological sequelae were older than those without sequelae (74.3 years vs 65.8 years, P = 0.006) and had increased psychological evidence of disorders such as insomnia, dementia, and depression (40% vs 11%, P = 0.017). Patients with sequelae were also more likely to live in rural areas (47% vs 19%, P = 0.04) and to have a longer time from last seen normal till glucose administration (5.2 hours vs 1.6 hours, P = 0.027). In the present study, absence of SMBG and previous severe hypoglycemic episodes were independent risk factors of HMA and patients with an older age, a psychological disorder, a rural residence, and a prolonged duration of hypoglycemia had higher risks of neurological sequelae. Therefore, the present findings suggest that physicians should aim to prevent hypoglycemia in patients with a history of hypoglycemia and provide education for these patients regarding regular SMBG.
The Year in Cardiology 2015: Heart Failure

A number of studies conducted both in heart failure with reduced and with preserved ejection fraction were presented and published in 2015. Most of them were neutral and did not demonstrate any benefit on outcomes of the drugs/procedures tested. Nevertheless, they bring important new information on the search for new drugs or procedures in the management of heart failure. Sleep-disordered breathing is common in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction. Two different types of abnormality have been described: obstructive sleep apnoea and central sleep apnoea. The prevalence of central sleep apnoea, which may manifest as Cheynes–Stokes respiration, increases with the severity of heart failure and this condition is associated with poor outcomes. The purpose of SERVE-HF was to assess the effects of adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV) that delivers servo-controlled inspiratory pressure support on top of expiratory positive airway pressure in patients with moderate to severe heart failure and an ejection of <45% who had predominantly central sleep apnoea.1 In this trial, 1325 patients were enrolled and randomized to ASV (666) or to control therapy (659). Patients were predominantly in New York Heart Association Class III and were well treated by recommended therapies. The incidence of the primary endpoint made of the composite of death of any cause, lifesaving cardiovascular intervention, or unplanned hospitalization for heart failure did not differ significantly between the two groups (HR = 1.13; 95% CI, 0.97–1.31; P = 0.10). The surprise was the observation of a significant increase of all-cause mortality (HR = 1.28; 95% CI, 1.06–1.55; P = 0.01) and of cardiovascular mortality (HR = 1.34; 95% CI, 1.09–1.65; P = 0.006) in the ASV group. The findings …
Design of Analog Integrated Circuits by Using Genetic Algorithm

This paper applies the Artificial Intelligence technique called Genetic Algorithm (GA) to perform analog integrated circuits design, synthesis and optimization in order to reduce the development time and increase precision of this kind of circuits. In this work an accurate method to determine the device sizes in an analog integrated circuit on the basis of genetic algorithm is presented. To evaluate algorithm, an example in both time and frequency domains for a two-stage CMOS Operational Transconductance Amplifier (OTA) is presented in 0.18 µm process. The simulation results confirm the efficiency of GA in determining the device sizes in an analog circuit.
A Web-based Learner-Controlled Adaptive Group Formation Technique

This paper presents the learner-controlled adaptive group formation technique offered by the web-based adaptive educational hypermedia system MATHEMA. More specifically, this paper describes why we take into consideration the group effectiveness, concerning the concrete-abstract dimension of learners' learning style, in forming learner groups and how the adaptive group formation algorithm generates a priority list of possible matching candidate collaborators for a certain student, taking into account the abstract or concrete dimension of his/her learning style and his/her possible candidate collaborators' learning style and knowledge level on the current learning goal as well. Moreover, the paper describes how the algorithm supports the learners in selecting the most suitable collaborator, and how it automatically links them up via a chat tool with the aim of negotiating a collaboration agreement. An evaluation of the adaptive group formation of our system indicated that it is usable and useful enough tool for collaborative learning.
Beliefs and Practices Concerning Academic Writing among Postgraduate Language-Teacher Trainees

This paper reports on the initial stages of a larger study on plurilingual rhetorical communicative competences. Experiential evidence indicated a mismatch between the academic writing competences desired from and those displayed by the participants—adult bilingual (L1 Spanish, L+ English) English-language teacher trainees in a postgraduate program at Colombian university. We examined participants’ beliefs and practices concerning academic writing to identify the sources of their challenges and develop the evidential basis for identifying appropriate remedial strategies. This was a mixed methods study, in which we analyzed data from semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and student artifacts through the grounded theory approach and descriptive statistics. The results suggest that participants’ challenges with rhetorical aspects of academic writing stem from a lack of training. However, participants were relatively successful with aspects of writing in which they had been trained: discrete language skills and purely descriptive prose. We conclude their academic writing difficulties are fundamentally non-linguistic and hypothesize they would face similar academic writing challenges even if writing in their L1. There is an urgent need to address these challenges, not only because rhetorical competences are increasingly important in a knowledge-driven society but also because teachers need to be able to train their own students in such competences.
Head pointing and speech control as a hands-free interface to desktop computing

A significant number of users are not able to use today's WIMP-style (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointers) Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). This may be for different reasons including hands-busy situations (e.g., a mechanic at work), paralysis, or bad neural control of body movements. To overcome these difficulties in the practical use of existing software applications, solutions have to consider both technical and commercial aspects. The system introduced by this work addresses both goals, i.e., develops and customises existing technical solutions and keeps an eye on the end-user's costs.
Extracting Structured Medication Event Information from Discharge Summaries

We present a method that extracts medication information from discharge summaries. The program relies on parsing rules written as a set of regular expressions and on a user-configurable drug lexicon. Our evaluation shows a precision of 94% and recall of 83% in the extraction of medication information. We use a broader definition of medication information than previous studies, including drug names appearing with and without dosage information, misspelled drug names, and contextual information.
Meaningful Type Names as a Basis for Object Lifetime Prediction

Object lifetime prediction can identify short-lived and lo nglived objects at or before their heap-allocation point. Thi s prediction is an increasingly important technique to enable optimization of runtime decisions for high-performan ce garbage collection. This paper shows that extracting infor mation from object type names can give a reliable and efficient way to make such object lifetime predictions. We use this approach to optimize a generational garbage collector in the Jikes RVM system.
Organizational Influences on Interdisciplinary Interactions during Research and Design of Large-Scale Complex Engineered Systems

The design of large-scale complex engineered systems (LaCES) such as aircraft is inherently interdisciplinary where multiple engineering disciplines, drawing from a team of hundreds to thousands of engineers and scientists, are woven together throughout the research, development, and systems engineering processes to realize one system. Though research and development (R&D) is typically focused in single disciplines, the interdependencies involved in LaCES require interdisciplinary R&D efforts. This study investigates the interdisciplinary interactions that take place during the R&D and early conceptual design phases in the design of LaCES. Our theoretical framework is informed by both engineering practices and social science research on complex organizations. This paper provides a preliminary perspective on some of the organizational influences on interdisciplinary interactions based on organization theory (specifically sensemaking), data from a survey of LaCES experts, and the authors’ experience in research and design. The analysis reveals couplings between the engineered system and the organization that creates it. Survey respondents noted the importance of interdisciplinary interactions and their significant benefit to the engineered system, such as innovation and problem mitigation. Substantial obstacles to interdisciplinarity are uncovered beyond engineering that include communication and organizational challenges. Addressing these challenges may ultimately foster greater efficiencies in the design and development of LaCES and improved system performance by assisting with the collective integration of interdependent knowledge bases early in the R&D effort. This research suggests that organizational and human dynamics heavily influence and even constrain the engineering effort for large-scale complex systems.
Ja n 20 06 Supersymmetric multi-charge AdS 5 black holes

A new supersymmetric, asymptotically anti-de Sitter, black hole solution of five-dimensional U(1) gauged supergravity is presented. All known examples of such black holes arise as special cases of this solution, which is characterized by three charges and two angular momenta, with one constraint relating these five quantities. Analagous solutions of U(1)n gauged supergravity are also presented.
Collaborative Multi-Robot Monte Carlo Localization in Assistant Robots

This paper presents an algorithm for collaborative mobile robot localization based on probabilistic methods (Monte Carlo localization) used in assistant robots. When a root detects another in the same environment, a probabilistic method is used to synchronize each robot's belief. As a result, the robots localize themselves faster and maintain higher accuracy. The technique has been implemented and tested using a virtual environment capable to simulate several robots and using two real mobile robots equipped with cameras and laser range-finders for detecting other robots. The result obtained in simulation and with real robots show improvements in localization speed and accuracy when compared to conventional single-robot localization.
Finding Multimodal Solutions Using Restricted Tournament Selection

This paper investigates a new technique for the solving of multimodal problems using genetic algorithms (GAs). The proposed technique, Restricted Tournament Selection, is based on the paradigm of local competition. The paper begins by discussing some of the drawbacks of using current multi-modal techniques. The paper then presents the new technique along with an analysis of a class of sets of solutions it preserves and locates. This presentation researches the new technique's restriction on competition from the viewpoint of calculating probability distributions for its tournaments as well as its various niche takeover times. Empirical observations are then presented as evidence of the technique's abilities in a wide variety of settings. Finally, this paper explores the future trajectory of multimodal GA research. Abstract This paper investigates a new technique for the solving of multimodal problems using genetic algorithms (GAs). The proposed technique, Restricted Tournament Selection, is based on the paradigm of local competition. The paper begins by discussing some of the drawbacks of using current multi-modal techniques. The paper then presents the new technique along with an analysis of a class of sets of solutions it preserves and locates. This presentation researches the new technique's restriction on competition from the viewpoint of calculating probability distributions for its tournaments as well as its various niche takeover times. Empirical observations are then presented as evidence of the technique's abilities in a wide variety of settings. Finally, this paper explores the future trajectory of multimodal GA research.
Citations as a measure of the research outputs of New Zealand's economics departments: The problem of 'long and variable lags'

The paper explores the merits of utilising citation counts to measure research output in economics in the context of a nationwide research evaluation scheme: the New Zealand Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF). Citations were collected for all refereed papers produced by New Zealand's academic economists over the period 2000 to 2008, and used to estimate the time-lags in between publication and the flow of citations; to demonstrate the impact of alternative definitions of 'economics-relevant' journals on citation counts; and to assess the impact of citation measures on departmental and individual performance. We conclude that under certain scenarios around 60 per cent of papers received no citations over the period. Our findings suggest that the time-lags between publication and citation make it difficult to rely on citation counts to produce a meaningful measure of output in a PBRF-like research-evaluation framework, especially one based on the assessment of individual academics.
Learning Outcomes in Scandinavian Education through the Lens of Elliot Eisner

ABSTRACT Discursively learning outcomes have been embedded within an education-policy context characterised by a shift from teaching to learning. In the dominant education policy discourse, learning outcomes have come to play an important role in education whose emphasis is more on product than process, which by its critics have been characterised as scientific management. Calls have been made to reconsider alternative interpretations of learning outcomes and a renewal of older perspectives on learning outcomes such as in Eisner’s works. The article examines the concept of learning outcomes, as interpreted in education policy, and discusses it within Eisner’s framing of teaching and learning. Analysing policy developments and the introduction of learning outcomes in two Scandinavian countries, we ask what is taken for granted in the interpretation of learning outcomes. The analysis contributes to a widened narrative on what education could be about by illuminating alternative ways of interpreting and conceptualising learning outcomes in education.
Fuzzy Ant Colony Paradigm for Virtual Pedestrian Simulation

Pedestrian's studies are applied benefit and deployed in many areas; including public trip planning, and human factors analysis for building evacuation, or other situations where masses of people gather such as sporting events, etc. In this paper we describe a simulation system for virtual pedestrians. We mix the concept of fuzzy ant given by Ant Colony paradigm and associated cellular automaton model. We have adopted a fuzzy model for its particular ability to better represent uncertainty and imprecision about space perception. In our model we use it to represent virtual pedestrian's fuzzy pedestrian's desirability or visibility. A software solution was developed for this purpose. The Simulation results confirm predictions given by the first-order traffic flow theory. The proposed fuzzification is a preliminary step to consider other factors. The given system in its deployment phase will be integrated for pedestrians' accidents analysis in urban transportation networks. The strength of our model takes advantage in using explicit Ant Colony model and on projecting fuzzy theory to apprehend pedestrians' perceptions.
3-Way GUI Test Cases Generation Based on Event-Wise Partitioning

Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) are the most popular Human-Computer-Interfaces in today's software system. GUIs become more and more popular because they can bring the flexibility to users, i.e. the user is not restricted to a fixed ordering of inputs. Exhaustive GUIs testing in terms of covering all potential user interface problems can improve software quality as well as increase confidence to ensure the GUI behaves correctly. However, systematically generating 3-, 4-, 5- and above multi-way test cases remains an open area of research [1]. This work provides a 3-way test case generation technique based on event-wise partitioning. The idea of this technique is very similar to the Category-Partition method, and therefore the complexity and number of the generated test cases can be controlled easily. Experiments in this paper show that the proposed technique is effective in 3-way interaction test case generation.
Classification of Digital Mammograms Using Nearest Neighbor Techniques

The aim of our research is to classify digital mammograms into two classes, abnormal microcalcification and normal. Texture is one of the major mammographic characteristics. The statistical textural of Gray Level Coocurrence Matrix (GLCM) used in characterizing images are contrast, energy and entropy. K-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN) and Fuzzy K-Nearest Neighbor (FK-NN) was proposed for classifying images. The result of K-NN method shows that 77.78% accuracy , 50.00% sensitifity and 100% specifisity. The result of FK-NN method shows that 88.89% accuracy , 100% sensitifity and 80.00% specifisity.
License-exempt LTE systems for secondary spectrum usage: Scenarios and first assessment

This paper investigates the feasibility and broad implications of the use of 3GPP LTE systems in license-exempt situations. License-exempt use can occur in traditional unlicensed bands or in secondary usage of white space spectrum. Various scenarios for license-exempt use are listed with a particular focus on spectrum access as a secondary user. Regulatory requirements devised by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for TV white space usage are described and tabulated. General principles and recommendations for license exempt spectrum usage are proposed with some important scenarios being identified. Additional requirements arise out of the need to share the spectrum with other potential users in a fair manner. System simulation results in an indoor setting are used to estimate spectral efficiencies under such conditions. We conclude that LTE can be used in license-exempt secondary usage scenario with only minor modifications, such as fair sharing procedures, and could benefit from support for higher order modulations.
The differential effects of heat-shocking on the viability of spores from Bacillus anthracis, Bacillus subtilis, and Clostridium sporogenes after treatment with peracetic acid- and glutaraldehyde-based disinfectants

This study investigated (1) the susceptibility of Bacillus anthracis (Ames strain), Bacillus subtilis (ATCC 19659), and Clostridium sporogenes (ATCC 3584) spores to commercially available peracetic acid (PAA)‐ and glutaraldehyde (GA)‐based disinfectants, (2) the effects that heat‐shocking spores after treatment with these disinfectants has on spore recovery, and (3) the timing of heat‐shocking after disinfectant treatment that promotes the optimal recovery of spores deposited on carriers. Suspension tests were used to obtain inactivation kinetics for the disinfectants against three spore types. The effects of heat‐shocking spores after disinfectant treatment were also determined. Generalized linear mixed models were used to estimate 6‐log reduction times for each spore type, disinfectant, and heat treatment combination. Reduction times were compared statistically using the delta method. Carrier tests were performed according to AOAC Official Method 966.04 and a modified version that employed immediate heat‐shocking after disinfectant treatment. Carrier test results were analyzed using Fisher's exact test. PAA‐based disinfectants had significantly shorter 6‐log reduction times than the GA‐based disinfectant. Heat‐shocking B. anthracis spores after PAA treatment resulted in significantly shorter 6‐log reduction times. Conversely, heat‐shocking B. subtilis spores after PAA treatment resulted in significantly longer 6‐log reduction times. Significant interactions were also observed between spore type, disinfectant, and heat treatment combinations. Immediately heat‐shocking spore carriers after disinfectant treatment produced greater spore recovery. Sporicidal activities of disinfectants were not consistent across spore species. The effects of heat‐shocking spores after disinfectant treatment were dependent on both disinfectant and spore species. Caution must be used when extrapolating sporicidal data of disinfectants from one spore species to another. Heat‐shocking provides a more accurate picture of spore survival for only some disinfectant/spore combinations. Collaborative studies should be conducted to further examine a revision of AOAC Official Method 966.04 relative to heat‐shocking.
Evolution of Software-Defined Sensor Networks

After a decade of extensive research on application-specific wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the recent development of information and communication technologies make it practical to realize new WSNs paradigm known as software-defined sensor networks (SDSNs). SDSNs are able to adapt to various application requirements and to fully explore the communication, computation and sensing resources of WSNs. Sensor nodes in SDSNs can be dynamically reprogrammed for different sensing tasks via the over-the-air-programming technique. In this paper, we introduce the concept of SDSNs and outline several pioneering related work and enabling technologies for the realization of SDSNs.