Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ileus Management International (IMAGINE): protocol for a multicentre, observational study of ileus after colorectal surgery

The management of postoperative ileus following colorectal surgery remains controversial. It is the commonest complication after elective colorectal resection and is associated with an increased incidence of postoperative adverse events. The prevention and management of postoperative ileus remains unstandardized. This study aims to describe an international profile of gastrointestinal recovery after colorectal surgery and will assess the role of non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs, when used as postoperative analgesia, in expediting the return of gastrointestinal function.
Combined Cytogenotoxic Effects of Bee Venom and Bleomycin on Rat Lymphocytes: An In Vitro Study

This study was carried out to determine the cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of bee venom (BV) and/or the chemotherapeutic agent bleomycin (BLM) on healthy isolated rat lymphocytes utilizing morphometric and molecular techniques. Using the Ficoll-Histopaque density gradient centrifugation technique, lymphocytes were isolated, divided into groups, and subjected to BV and/or BLM at incubation medium concentrations of 10 or 20 μg/mL respectively for 24 and 72 hrs. An MTT assay and fluorescent microscopy examinations were used to assess the cytotoxic effects. To determine the predominant type of BV and/or BLM-induced cell death, LDH release assay was employed beside quantitative expression analyses of the apoptosis-related genes (Caspase-3 and Bcl-2). The genotoxic effects of the tested compounds were evaluated via DNA fragmentation assay. The results of these assays demonstrated that BV potentiates BLM-induced cytotoxicity through increased LDH release and diminished cell viability. Nevertheless, BV significantly inhibited the BLM-induced DNA damage. The results verify that BV significantly attenuates the genotoxic effects of BLM on noncancerous isolated rat lymphocytes but does not diminish BLM cytotoxicity.
Research toward a Partially-Automated, and Crime Specific Digital Triage Process Model

The digital forensic process as traditionally laid out begins with the collection, duplication, and authentication of every piece of digital media prior to examination. These first three phases of the digital forensic process are by far the most costly. However, complete forensic duplication is standard practice among digital forensic laboratories. The time it takes to complete these stages is quickly becoming a serious problem. Digital forensic laboratories do not have the resources and time to keep up with the growing demand for digital forensic examinations with the current methodologies. One solution to this problem is the use of pre-examination techniques commonly referred to as digital triage. Pre-examination techniques can assist the examiner with intelligence that can be used to prioritize and lead the examination process. This work discusses a proposed model for digital triage that is currently under development at Mississippi State University.
Time, hedonic migration, and household production.

"A hedonic migration model is developed where regional amenities are viewed as influencing household production within the framework of the new demand theory. The inputs to household production are goods, time and housing. It is shown that economic growth in the economy as a whole will increase the relative attractiveness of regions that are relatively time-saving, in the sense that they have a lower time elasticity of household production. Hence, migration will flow into time saving regions and housing costs in those regions will rise as real GDP grows. " The implied geographical focus is on the United States.
‘Whiter than White’: Race and Otherness in Turkish and Greek National Identities

Abstract Despite the fact that living together in the same geographical space has created many similarities for Turkey and Greece over the centuries, both sides are keen to identify, even exaggerate, the differences between them and other ‘inferiors’. This article looks at the role of cultural and ‘scientific’ racism(s) in the formation of Turkish and Greek national identities. Both Turkish and Greek identities have been built on European-ness at the same time as Greekness and Turkishness. Therefore, the national identities in Turkey and Greece are defined within the context of mainstream Eurocentrism, and in that sense the same White European race-ism is shared as the essential aspect of Greek and Turkish national characteristics.
Design Tools for Dynamic, Data-Driven, Stream Mining Systems

Abstract : The proliferation of sensing devices and cost- and energy-efficient embedded processors has contributed to an increasing interest in adaptive stream mining (ASM) systems. In this class of signal processing systems, knowledge is extracted from data streams in real-time as the data arrives, rather than in a store-now, process later fashion. The evolution of machine learning methods in many application areas has contributed to demands for efficient and accurate information extraction from streams of data arriving at distributed, mobile, and heterogeneous processing nodes. To enhance accuracy, and meet the stringent constraints in which they must be deployed, it is important for ASM systems to be effective in adapting knowledge extraction approaches and processing configurations based on data characteristics and operational conditions. In this thesis, we address these challenges in design and implementation of ASM systems. We develop systematic methods and supporting design tools for ASM systems that integrate (1) foundations of dataflow modeling for high level signal processing system design, and (2) the paradigm on Dynamic Data-Driven Application Systems (DDDAS). More specifically, the contributions of this thesis can be broadly categorized in to three major directions 1. We develop a new design framework that systematically applies dataflow methodologies for high level signal processing system design, and adaptive stream mining based on dynamic topologies of classifiers. In particular, we introduce a new design environment, called the lightweight dataflow for dynamic data driven application systems environment (LiD4E). LiD4E provides formal semantics, rooted in dataflow principles, for design and implementation of a broad class of stream mining topologies. Using this novel application of dataflow methods, LiD4E facilitates the efficient and reliable mapping and adaptation of classifier topologies into implementations on embedded platfoms.
Drug Use Among Homicide Victims: Changing Patterns

Complete toxicology screens were performed on Bexar County homicide victims in four recent representative years (1985, 1986, 1990, and 1991). A high positivity rate for drugs and/or alcohol, ranging from 66 to 73%, was found for each year. Alcohol was present in more than half of the cases, ranging from 54.2 to 60.3%. Detection of cocaine or cocaine metabolites increased drastically during this study period, from 1.6% of cases in 1985 to 18.7% in 1991. Heroin metabolites, indicative of recent heroin use, were detected in only 2–5% of the cases in each of the years studied. Drugs other than alcohol, cocaine, or heroin were detected in 7–25% of the cases.
Substantial Variation in the Extent of Mitochondrial Genome Fragmentation among Blood-Sucking Lice of Mammals

Blood-sucking lice of humans have extensively fragmented mitochondrial (mt) genomes. Human head louse and body louse have their 37 mt genes on 20 minichromosomes. In human pubic louse, the 34 mt genes known are on 14 minichromosomes. To understand the process of mt genome fragmentation in the blood-sucking lice of mammals, we sequenced the mt genomes of the domestic pig louse, Haematopinus suis, and the wild pig louse, H. apri, which diverged from human lice approximately 65 Ma. The 37 mt genes of the pig lice are on nine circular minichromosomes; each minichromosome is 3–4 kb in size. The pig lice have four genes per minichromosome on average, in contrast to two genes per minichromosome in the human lice. One minichromosome of the pig lice has eight genes and is the most gene-rich minichromosome found in the sucking lice. Our results indicate substantial variation in the rate and extent of mt genome fragmentation among different lineages of the sucking lice.
Mobile phone text messages for improving adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART): a protocol for an individual patient data meta-analysis of randomised trials

Introduction Mobile phone text messaging is emerging as an important tool in the care of people living with HIV; however, reports diverge on its efficacy in improving adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART), and little is known about which patient groups may benefit most from phone-based adherence interventions. We will conduct an individual patient data meta-analysis to investigate the overall and subgroup effects of text messaging in three recently published text-messaging randomised controlled trials. Methods and analysis Data from two Kenyan and one Cameroonian trial will be verified, reformatted and merged. We will determine pooled effect sizes for text messaging versus standard care for improving adherence to ART using individual patient random-effects meta-analysis. We will test for the interaction effects of age, gender, level of education and duration on ART. Sensitivity analyses will be conducted with regard to thresholds for adherence, methods of handling missing data and fixed-effects meta-analysis. Only anonymised data will be collected from the individual studies. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval was obtained for the individual studies. The results of this paper will be disseminated as peer-reviewed publications, at conferences and as part of a doctoral thesis. This individual patient data meta-analysis may provide important insights into the effects of text messaging on ART adherence in different subpopulations, with important implications for programme implementation involving such interventions and future research.
Het Job-demands resources model: Een motivationele analyse vanuit de Zelf-Determinatie Theorie

In het proefschrift dat hier wordt besproken (Van den Broeck, 2010). staat de motivatie van werknemers centraal. Motivatie wordt hierbij benaderd vanuit twee recente perspectieven: het Job Demands-Resources model (JD-R model) en de ZelfDeterminatie Theorie (ZDT). Meer specifiek licht deze bijdrage toe hoe de studies uit het proefschrift – vanuit de ZDT – het JD-R model op consistente wijze aanvullen door (1) een onderscheid te maken tussen stressoren en uitdagingen, (2) motivatie te definiëren als het onderliggende mechanisme voor alle relaties in het JD-R model tussen werkkenmerken en welzijn, en (3) motivatie als persoonlijke hulpbron naar voren te schuiven die werknemers beschermt tegen de negatieve impact van de werkomgeving, en hen ondersteunt om het beste uit stimulerende werkaspecten te halen. Samengevat plaatst dit proefschrift, vanuit een positief mensbeeld, motivatie dus in de kern van een verruimd JD-R model. Het biedt daardoor concrete handvatten voor verder onderzoek en de praktijk
Investigation and modeling of magnetization transfer effects in two‐dimensional multislice turbo spin echo sequences with low constant or variable flip angles at 3 T

Magnetization transfer effects represent a major source of contrast in multislice turbo spin echo sequences (TSE)/fast spin echo sequences. Generally, low refocusing flip angles have become common in such MRI sequences, especially to mitigate specific absorption rate problems. Since the strength of magnetization transfer effects is related to the radiofrequency power and therefore specific absorption rate applied, magnetization transfer induced signal attenuations are investigated for a variety of TSE sequences with low constant and variable flip angles. Noticeable differences between the sequences have been observed. In particular, fewer signal attenuations are observed for TSE with low flip angles such as hyperecho‐TSE and smooth transitions between pseudo steady states–TSE, leading to contrast that is less dependent on the number of slices. It is shown that the strength of the magnetization transfer‐induced signal attenuations can be understood and described by a physical framework, which is based on the mean square flip angle of a given TSE sequence. Magn Reson Med, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Reduction of blocking effects in image coding with a lapped orthogonal transform

A new derivation for the lapped orthogonal transform (LOT) is presented. It has basis functions that overlap adjacent blocks and decay smoothly to zero, and so it can reduce the blocking effect to very low levels, without any data overhead. It is shown that a quasioptimal LOT can be computed with an algorithm based on the discrete cosine transform (DCT), with only 30% more computation than the DCT. Unlike earlier approaches to the reduction of blocking effects, there is no penalty in coding gain for the LOT, which actually increases the coding gain by 0.25 dB for a first-order Markov process with rho =0.95. <<ETX>>
Expert massage motion control by multi-fingered robot hand

This paper presents a massage motion control system comprised of position control and force control in a multi-fingered robot hand. By making use of an algorithm which converted the desired fingertip trajectory into the desired angle of links in each finger by means of inverse kinematics, the finger position control from the initial position of the multi-fingered robot hand to a target position of the objects for massage was achieved. Its controller was used until the robot hand contacted the objects for massage. After contact was made, the fingertip position control was switched to a force control position needed to apply pressure for the massage. The fingertip forces exerted by an expert human therapist was measured using sheet distribution pressure sensors, and the data obtained was recorded in a computer. After the measurements were taken, the human expert's fingertip force was reproduced by the robot hand. The fingertip force of the robot hand was controlled using feedback obtained with a 6-axis force sensor. To make the force of each fingertip of the four-fingered robot hand track to the fingertip force exerted by the expert human massage therapist, PI servo compensation and a Jacobian matrix were really applied for the human's shoulder. Through simulation and experiments, the usefulness of the proposed control systems was demonstrated.
Named Entity Recognition using Hidden Markov Model (HMM)

Named Entity Recognition (NER)is the subtask of Natural Language Processing (NLP)which is the branch of artificial intelligence. It has many applications mainly inmachine translation, text to speech synthesis, natural language understanding, Information Extraction,Information retrieval, question answeringetc. The aim of NER is to classify words into some predefined categories like location name, person name, organization name, date, time etc. In this paper we describe the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) based approach of machine learning in detail to identify the named entities. The main idea behind the use of HMM model for buildingNER system is that it is language independent and we can apply this system for any language domain. In our NER system the states are not fixed means it is of dynamic in nature one can use it according to their interest. The corpus used by our NER system is also not domain specific.
Assessment of the storz video Macintosh laryngoscope for use in difficult airways: A human simulator study.

OBJECTIVES Video laryngoscopy has been shown to improve glottic exposure when compared to direct laryngoscopy in operating room studies. However, its utility in the hands of emergency physicians (EPs) remains undefined. A simulated difficult airway was used to determine if intubation by EPs using a video Macintosh system resulted in an improved glottic view, was easier, was faster, or was more successful than conventional direct laryngoscopy. METHODS Emergency medicine (EM) residents and attending physicians at two academic institutions performed endotracheal intubation in one normal and two identical difficult airway scenarios. With the difficult scenarios, the participants used video laryngoscopy during the second case. Intubations were performed on a medium-fidelity human simulator. The difficult scenario was created by limiting cervical spine mobility and inducing trismus. The primary outcome was the proportion of direct versus video intubations with a grade I or II Cormack-Lehane glottic view. Ease of intubation (self-reported via 10-cm visual analog scale [VAS]), time to intubation, and success rate were also recorded. Descriptive statistics as well as medians with interquartile ranges (IQRs) are reported where appropriate. The Wilcoxon matched pairs signed-rank test was used for comparison testing of nonparametric data. RESULTS Participants (n = 39) were residents (59%) and faculty. All had human intubation experience; 51% reported more than 100 prior intubations. On difficult laryngoscopy, a Cormack-Lehane grade I or II view was obtained in 20 (51%) direct laryngoscopies versus 38 (97%) of the video-assisted laryngoscopies (p < 0.01). The median VAS score for difficult airways was 50 mm (IQR = 28–73 mm) for direct versus 18 mm (IQR = 9–50 mm) for video (p < 0.01). The median time to intubation in difficult airways was 25 seconds (IQR = 16–44 seconds) for direct versus 20 seconds (IQR = 12–35 seconds) for video laryngoscopy (p < 0.01). All intubations were successful without need for an invasive airway. CONCLUSIONS In this simulation, video laryngoscopy was associated with improved glottic exposure, was perceived as easier, and was slightly faster than conventional direct laryngoscopy in a simulated difficult airway. Absence of secretions and blood limits the generalizability of our findings; human studies are needed.
Real option valuation of a decremental regulation service provided by electricity storage

This paper is a quantitative study of a reserve contract for real-time balancing of a power system. Under this contract, the owner of a storage device, such as a battery, helps smooth fluctuations in electricity demand and supply by using the device to increase electricity consumption. The battery owner must be able to provide immediate physical cover, and should therefore have sufficient storage available in the battery before entering the contract. Accordingly, the following problem can be formulated for the battery owner: determine the optimal time to enter the contract and, if necessary, the optimal time to discharge electricity before entering the contract. This problem is formulated as one of optimal stopping, and is solved explicitly in terms of the model parameters and instantaneous values of the power system imbalance. The optimal operational strategies thus obtained ensure that the battery owner has positive expected economic profit from the contract. Furthermore, they provide explicit conditions under which the optimal discharge time is consistent with the overall objective of power system balancing. This paper also carries out a preliminary investigation of the ‘lifetime value’ aggregated from an infinite sequence of these balancing reserve contracts. This lifetime value, which can be viewed as a single project valuation of the battery, is shown to be positive and bounded. Therefore, in the long run such reserve contracts can be beneficial to commercial operators of electricity storage, while reducing some of the financial and operational risks in power system balancing. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Energy management: flexibility, risk and optimization’.
The structure of human ubiquitin in 2‐methyl‐2,4‐pentanediol: A new conformational switch

A new crystal structure of human ubiquitin is reported at 1.8 Å resolution. Compared with the other known crystal structure or the solution NMR structure of monomeric human ubiquitin, this new structure is similar in its overall fold but differs with respect to the conformation of the backbone in a surface‐exposed region. The conformation reported here resembles conformations previously seen in complex with deubiquinating enzymes, wherein the Asp52/Gly53 main chain and Glu24 side chain move. This movement exposes the backbone carbonyl of Asp52 to the exterior of the molecule, making it possible to engage in hydrogen‐bond contacts with neighboring molecules, rather than in an internal hydrogen bond with the backbone of Glu24. This particular crystal form of ubiquitin has been used in a large number of solid state NMR studies. The structure described here elucidates the origin of many of the chemical shift differences comparing solution and solid state studies.
Low Phase Noise Bond Wire VCO for DVB-H

A low phase noise VCO with the bond wire inductor for DVB-H is implemented in TSMC CMOS 0.18 mum process. The bond wire VCO exhibits -137 dBc/Hz @ 1MHz with the 5 mA current consumption. To meet the DVB-H phase noise requirement, bond wire modelling is introduced in this paper. Due to the bond wire characteristics, Q value of the VCO inductor is more than 25 at 1 GHz. The proposed bond wire inductor provides additional frequency tuning options after IC fabrication by modifying the length of the bond wire.
Suitability of Different Variants of Polyethylene Glycol Impregnation for the Dimensional Stabilization of Oak Wood

The common method to impregnate wood with polyethylene glycol (PEG) is to store the samples for several weeks in aqueous PEG-solution, allowing for diffusion of PEG into the wood. As this method is poorly suited for industrial application, an alternative approach based on vacuum-pressure treatment is evaluated in the present study. Using European oak wood and three variants of PEG, including silane-functionalized PEG, impregnation experiments at different PEG concentrations were performed. Significant uptake of PEG resulted in clearly altered wood-water relations and improved dimensional stability of oak wood. These results are discussed in terms of stability in humid and aqueous environments, and in terms of effects of the anatomy of oak wood on differences in dimensional stabilization observed along the radial and tangential anatomical directions, respectively. While both of the PEG variants perform better with an anti-shrinkage efficiency of up to 80%, the PEG-silane variant performs less effectively in this respect; however PEG-silane is clearly predominant in case of water extraction.
Anormaly Intrusion Detection Based on SOM

In this paper, we first introduce the principle of SOM algorithm, and then study the real-time intrusion detection system, finding it is not very good in the real-time intrusion detection system. Regarding this problem, this paper presents a real-time intrusion detection model based on SOM algorithm, and takes the system call process as studying object to illustrate the performance of this model. Finally, we compared the detection ability of SOM algorithm with other intrusion detection models by simulation experiment, and the experiment shows that intrusion detection of anomalous based SOM not only meets requirements, but also has a strong nature of real-time, and the nature of real-time of the anomaly intrusion detection model based on SOM is 100 times higher than that of the Forrest and Lee’s method.