Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Case scheduling for dummies.

In1995,Drs.Frankl in Dexter and John Tinker published a manuscript on decreasing the cost of care in the postanesthesia care unit (1). Over the following 11 yr, Dr. Dexter has published nearly 100 manuscripts on using mathematical and statistical approaches to optimizing the management of operating rooms. In the process, Dr. Dexter and his frequent collaborators, have defined a new intellectual discipline for our specialty: operating room management. In the process, Dr. Dexter no longer performs liver transplants, his clinical specialty for many years, but devotes himself full time to helping hospitals improve the efficiency of their operating rooms as the Director of the Division of Management Consulting in the Departments of Anesthesia and Health Management and Policy at the University of IA. The tools used to optimize operating room management are arcane: stochastic programming, similarity index, structural equation modeling, Monte Carlo simulation, bin packing algorithms, fuzzy constraints, mean variance analysis, data envelopment analysis, and Bayesian prediction bounds. Although the authors of these articles have worked hard to make the material tractable, nevertheless the articles are hard to read. I have heard from my academic colleagues that few understand the work. The only options for a hospital interested in using these advanced methodolo-gies is to hire Dr. Dexter or one of his colleagues to do the analysis or to teach the hospital's financial analysts or management engineers how to do the analysis. A year ago, I challenged Dr. Dexter to write a " how to " guide for hospitals interested in applying advanced operating room management technologies to surgical case scheduling. Could he condense 10 yr of research and 50ϩ published manuscripts into a guide that did not require gray matter transfusions to understand and implement? My model was the surprisingly well written " For Dummies " series of publications.tralian Hospital " appearing in this issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia (2). Constructed around a real-life example of applying operating room management, the manuscript offers definitions and step-by-step instructions on how to go about improving operating room efficiency, using data routinely gathered during health care delivery. Any physician with a basic understanding of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division should find the work tractable. Any hospital or anesthesia group interested in improving operating room efficiency should start with this article as a broad overview of the concepts and methodologies. The tables can serve as models for the hospital's information system reports (i.e., " …
Combined Striatal Binding and Cerebral Influx Analysis of Dynamic 11C-Raclopride PET Improves Early Differentiation Between Multiple-System Atrophy and Parkinson Disease

Striatal dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) PET has been proposed to differentiate between Parkinson disease (PD) and multiple-system atrophy with predominant parkinsonism (MSA-P). However, considerable overlap in striatal D2 binding may exist between PD and MSA-P. It has been shown that imaging of neuronal activity, as determined by metabolism or perfusion, can also help distinguish PD from MSA-P. We investigated whether the differential diagnostic value of 11C-raclopride PET could be improved by dynamic scan analysis combining D2R binding and regional tracer influx. Methods: 11C-raclopride PET was performed in 9 MSA-P patients (mean age ± SD, 56.2 ± 10.2 y; disease duration, 2.9 ± 0.8 y; median Hoehn-Yahr score, 3), 10 PD patients (mean age ± SD, 65.7 ± 8.1 y; disease duration, 3.3 ± 1.5 y; median Hoehn-Yahr score, 1.5), and 10 healthy controls (mean age ± SD, 61.6 ± 6.5 y). Diagnosis was obtained after prolonged follow-up (MSA-P, 5.5 ± 2.0 y; PD, 6.0 ± 2.3 y) using validated clinical criteria. Spatially normalized parametric images of binding potential (BP) and local influx ratio (R1 = K1/K′1) of 11C-raclopride were obtained using a voxelwise reference tissue model with occipital cortex as reference region. Stepwise forward discriminant analysis with cross-validation, with and without the inclusion of regional R1 values, was performed using a predefined volume-of-interest template. Results: Using conventional BP values, we correctly classified 65.5% (all values given with cross-validation) of 29 cases only. The combination of BP and R1 information increased discrimination accuracy to 79.3%. When healthy controls were not included and patients only were considered, BP information alone discriminated PD and MSA-P in 84.2% of cases, but the combination with R1 data increased accuracy to 100%. Conclusion: Discriminant analysis using combined striatal D2R BP and cerebral influx ratio information of a single dynamic 11C-raclopride PET scan distinguishes MSA-P and PD patients with high accuracy and is superior to conventional methods of striatal D2R binding analysis.
Special Education Teachers Integrating Reading with Eighth Grade U.S. History Content

This research replicates an earlier study and extends it by shifting instructional responsibility from researchers to special education teachers, who implemented reading instruction that included multisyllabic word decoding, academic vocabulary, and three comprehension strategies (generating main ideas, comparing and contrasting people and events, and identifying cause and effect relations) with their intact eighth grade history classes, using history text as the reading material. Participants included 73 eighth grade students with disabilities (77 percent with learning disabilities, 72 percent males, and 45 percent English language learners) and four teachers. Compared to students with disabilities in typical special education history classes, students in the treatment outperformed controls on researcher–developed measures of word– and text–level reading comprehension, as well as in the history content that students in both conditions studied. Across reading strategies, implementation of “nearly all lesson components” ranged from 72 percent to 83 percent.
Evolutionary Algorithm for Connection Weights in Artificial Neural Networks

A neural network may be considered as an adaptive system that progressively self-organizes in order to approximate the solution, making the problem solver free from the need to accurately and unambiguously specify the steps towards the solution. Moreover, Evolutionary Artificial Neural Networks (EANNs) have the ability to progressively improve their performance on a given task by executing learning. An evolutionary computation gives adaptability for connection weights using feed forward architecture. In this paper, the use of evolutionary computation for feed-forward neural network learning is discussed. To check the validation of proposed method, XOR benchmark problem has been used. The accuracy of the proposed model is more satisfactory as compared to gradient method.
“ How to Get an Open Shot ” : Analyzing Team Movement in Basketball using Tracking Data

In this paper, we use ball and player tracking data from STATS SportsVU from the 2012-2013 NBA season to analyze offensive and defensive formations of teams. We move beyond current analysis that uses only play-by-play event-driven statistics (i.e., rebounds, shots) and look at the spatiotemporal changes in a team’s formation. A major concern, which also gives a clue to unlocking this problem, is that of permutations caused by the constant movement and interchanging of positions by players. In this paper, we use a method that represents a team via “role” which is immune to the problem of permutations. We demonstrate the utility of our approach by analyzing all the plays that resulted in a 3point shot attempt in the 2012-2013 NBA season. We analyzed close to 20,000 shots and found that when a player is “open” the shooting percentage is around 40%, compared to a “pressured” shot which is close to 32%. There is nothing groundbreaking behind this finding (i.e., putting more defensive pressure on the shooter reduces shooting percentages) but finding how teams get shooters open is. Using our method, we show that the amount of defensive role-swaps are predictive of getting an open-shot and this measure can be used to measure the defensive effectiveness of a team. Additionally, our role representation allows for large-scale retrieval of plays by using the tracking data as the input query rather than a text label this “video Google” approach allows for quick and accurate play retrieval.
Efficacy of a Novel Class of RNA Interference Therapeutic Agents

RNA interference (RNAi) is being widely used in functional gene research and is an important tool for drug discovery. However, canonical double-stranded short interfering RNAs are unstable and induce undesirable adverse effects, and thus there is no currently RNAi-based therapy in the clinic. We have developed a novel class of RNAi agents, and evaluated their effectiveness in vitro and in mouse models of acute lung injury (ALI) and pulmonary fibrosis. The novel class of RNAi agents (nkRNA®, PnkRNA™) were synthesized on solid phase as single-stranded RNAs that, following synthesis, self-anneal into a unique helical structure containing a central stem and two loops. They are resistant to degradation and suppress their target genes. nkRNA and PnkRNA directed against TGF-β1mRNA ameliorate outcomes and induce no off-target effects in three animal models of lung disease. The results of this study support the pathological relevance of TGF-β1 in lung diseases, and suggest the potential usefulness of these novel RNAi agents for therapeutic application.
Fast Order-Preserving Encryption from Uniform Distribution Sampling

Order-preserving encryption (OPE) is a symmetric encryption that ciphertexts preserve numerical ordering of the corresponding plaintexts. It allows various applications to search or sort the order of encrypted data (e.g., range queries in database) efficiently. In this paper, we study OPE for more practical use. We first discuss the elements of previous schemes considered as obstacles in practical applications and propose a new construction by eliminating them (especially probabilistic random variate generation functions such as hypergeometric and binomial distributions). We propose a new OPE whose encryption and decryption are much faster than those of the previous schemes by employing uniform distribution sampling. Furthermore, we provide a batch decryption algorithm to support concurrent decryption of numerical values within the specific range, which is firstly observed in the OPE research literature. It can be very efficiently applied for the encrypted range query processing of database systems. The security of our scheme is proven under the weak variants of notions proposed by Teranishi et al. in Asiacrypt 2014, which yield partial indistinguishability and one-wayness.
Simplified MOS switched capacitor ladder filter structures

A general technique for time-sharing amplifiers to reduce die area in switched capacitor ladder filters is described and illustrated with a fifth-order elliptic low-pass ladder filter requiring only three operational amplifiers. Techniques for synthesizing filters with maximum passband accuracy in the presence of parasitic capacitances are presented, and verified with two versions of the same fifth-order design integrated in a standard NMOS process. Passband accuracies of better than 0.1 dB have been achieved using only 0.3 pF unit-sized capacitors. The dynamic range is 75 dB.
Lorentz invariance and the semiclassical approximation of loop quantum gravity

It is shown that the field equations derived from an effective interaction Hamiltonian for Maxwell and gravitational fields in the semiclassical approximation of loop quantum gravity using rotational invariant states (such as weave states) are Lorentz invariant. To derive this result, which is in agreement with the observational evidence, we use the geometrical properties of the electromagnetic field.
Software and Hardware Design Issues for Low Complexity High Performance Processor Architecture

Queue processor offers an attractive option in the design of general purpose and applications specific systems. This paper presents software and hardware design issues for extracting high instruction level parallelism for the 32-bit QueueCore processor. We propose code generation algorithm for the QueueCore architecture. Compiling for the QueueCore requires a new approach since the concept of registers disappears. The compiler extracts more parallelism than the optimizing compiler for a RISC machine over a set of various numerical benchmark programs. In addition, we are able to generate in average about 23% denser code than two embedded RISC processors.
A Framework for Flexible Packet Processing in Heterogeneous Sensor Networks

Monitoring technologies leveraging on heterogeneous sensor networks are becoming increasingly important in almost every application scenario where pervasive data collection is needed. In current sensor networks deployments, many low-level protocols and functions details dependent on used network technology are explicitly handled at application level, in a cross-layer fashion. This is not a critical issue in homogeneous networks, where services are provided by a unique network platform. However, in applications where several multi-purposes heterogeneous sensor networks coexist and interoperate, managing low-level details at application level can be a complex and time-consuming task, distracting the development of the back-end application logic. In order to overcome these limitations, it is necessary to de-couple low-layer details from application layer in order to achieve lower integration efforts, improve code reusability and gain higher flexibility. This paper describes the design of a framework for sensor network message processing and interpretation, focusing on issues related to the integration between sensor networks gateways (the so-called "Sink nodes") and back- end applications. The proposed solution relies on NetPDL, an application-independent, XML-based packet format description language [4]. The advantages of this approach are highlighted by presenting three use-cases of the proposed solution.
Gen Y: Employee Rewards, Motivation And Workplace Loyalty

Generation Y workforce often linked to job hopping and their loyalty towards their organization has been questioned and attracted many research. The present study investigated motivation and reward relationship with loyalty among generation Y. In this study, we argue the function of motivation and rewards of organization in building loyalty of generation Y employees. Rewards are studied from two types of rewards namely extrinsic and intrinsic in which it effects on employee especially their loyalty is discussed. The function of motivation also discussed particularly the way it directs employee behaviour in achieving organizational goals and improving employees’ loyalty towards the organization. Both motivation and rewards offer benefits possibly gain from working in the organization but the implementation of both variables are differed. While rewards are more related to a system in handling employer-employee relationship and contract, motivation is more incline to managerial practice that requires good leadership quality. Structural equation modelling (SEM) constructed to test the hypotheses with 202 participants from various sectors and level of employment. Result of SEM analysis showed that motivation correlated with rewards and predicted higher loyalty while rewards have no significant relationship with loyalty. The result is consistent with characteristic and traits of generation Y workforce as discussed.
Analysis, Optimization, and Implementation of Low-Interference Wireless Multicarrier Systems

This paper considers pulse-shaping multicarrier (MC) systems that transmit over doubly dispersive fading channels. We provide exact and approximate expressions for the intersymbol and intercarrier interference occurring, in such systems. This analysis reveals that the time and frequency concentration of the transmit and receive pulses is of paramount importance for low interference. We prove the (nonobvious) existence of such jointly concentrated pulse pairs by adapting recent mathematical results on Weyl-Heisenberg frames to the MC context. Furthermore, pulse optimization procedures are proposed that aim at low interference and capitalize on the design freedom existing for redundant MC systems. Finally, we present efficient FFT-based modulator and demodulator implementations. Our numerical results demonstrate that for realistic system and channel parameters, optimized pulse-shaping MC systems can outperform conventional cyclic-prefix OFDM systems
Data Extraction Using Preprocessing Compression Based on LZW to Improve DB Performance

The Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) algorithm has provided attractive data compression for storage medium with limited space. This study is motivated to improve database performance by compressing some of its attributes using LZW compression algorithm. Simulation results show that LZW is useful for practical purposes. Data compression will speed up data transmittal since the amount of memory needed is reduced including the amount of data to be stored. Data compression provides additional level of data integrity and reliability.
Analysis and topology-based traversal of cascaded large scale NATs

Middleboxes are an essential part of today's networks since they allow to introduce additional functionality without having to change end-hosts. Network Address Translation (NAT) has been the number one choice for coping with the address depletion problem of IPv4. Although NAT introduces many problems for existing applications it can be found in almost every consumer and mobile network. Large Scale NAT (LSN) is the latest trend in middlebox deployment and plays an important role for the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. LSN may consist of a distributed NAT at the provider or it may include multiple layers of NAT. LSN introduces additional problems for customers since many existing NAT traversal techniques cannot be applied. This paper presents an approach for discovering and measuring stateful cascaded NATs on the path between two arbitrary peers in the Internet. An algorithm combining multiple UDP packets, individual timeouts and traceroute measurements is presented and evaluated in a public field test. Finally, we show how NAT traversal for LSN can be improved by parameterizing existing algorithms according to the detected topology.
Constructed Data Pilot-Assisted Channel Estimators for Mobile Environments

Nowadays, more and more communication systems are deployed under mobile environments with very high velocity. This paper focuses on the channel estimation problem in vehicular scenarios, which is very challenging in view of the extremely time-varying characteristics of mobile channels. Specifically, we propose a novel channel estimator named constructed data pilot (CDP) estimator for the current communication standards by fully exploiting the channel correlation characteristics across two concatenated symbols. On the basis of the CDP estimator, we further resort to two efficient techniques to improve its performance over the entire signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) region. For the first technique, the time-variant mobile channel is modeled as a first-order Markov process so that the exact autocorrelation value of the two adjacent symbols can be derived. For the second technique, the SNR is estimated and serves as a priori information. Simulation results reveal that our proposed channel estimators outperform existing alternatives with lower computational complexity.
An Optical Counterpart Candidate for the Isolated Neutron Star RBS 1774

Multiwavelength studies of the seven identified X-ray-dim isolated neutron stars (XDINSs) offer a unique opportunity to investigate their surface thermal and magnetic structure and the matter-radiation interaction in presence of strong gravitational and magnetic fields. As a part of an ongoing campaign aimed at a complete identification and spectral characterization of XDINSs in the optical band, we performed deep imaging with the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the field of the XDINS RBS 1774 (1RXS J214303.7 +065419). The recently upgraded FORS1 instrument mounted on the VLT provided the very first detection of a candidate optical counterpart in the B band. The identification is based on a very good positional coincidence with the X-ray source (chance probability ~2 × 10−3). The source has B = 27.4 ± 0.2 (1 σ confidence level), and the optical flux exceeds the extrapolation of the X-ray blackbody at optical wavelengths by a factor ~35 (±20 at 3 σ confidence level). This is barely compatible with thermal emission from the neutron star surface, unless the source distance is d ≈ 200–300 pc, and the star is an almost aligned rotator or its spin axis is nearly aligned with the line of sight. At the same time, such a large optical excess appears difficult to reconcile with rotation-powered magnetospheric emission, unless the source has an extremely large optical emission efficiency. The implications and possible similarities with the optical spectra of other isolated NSs are discussed.
14-3-3theta Protects against Neurotoxicity in a Cellular Parkinson's Disease Model through Inhibition of the Apoptotic Factor Bax

Disruption of 14-3-3 function by alpha-synuclein has been implicated in Parkinson's disease. As 14-3-3s are important regulators of cell death pathways, disruption of 14-3-3s could result in the release of pro-apoptotic factors, such as Bax. We have previously shown that overexpression of 14-3-3θ reduces cell loss in response to rotenone and MPP+ in dopaminergic cell culture and reduces cell loss in transgenic C. elegans that overexpress alpha-synuclein. In this study, we investigate the mechanism for 14-3-3θ's neuroprotection against rotenone toxicity. While 14-3-3s can inhibit many pro-apoptotic factors, we demonstrate that inhibition of one factor in particular, Bax, is important to 14-3-3s' protection against rotenone toxicity in dopaminergic cells. We found that 14-3-3θ overexpression reduced Bax activation and downstream signaling events, including cytochrome C release and caspase 3 activation. Pharmacological inhibition or shRNA knockdown of Bax provided protection against rotenone, comparable to 14-3-3θ's neuroprotective effects. A 14-3-3θ mutant incapable of binding Bax failed to protect against rotenone. These data suggest that 14-3-3θ's neuroprotective effects against rotenone are at least partially mediated by Bax inhibition and point to a potential therapeutic role of 14-3-3s in Parkinson's disease.
Firth adjustment for Weibull current-status survival analysis

Abstract Analysis of right-censored data is problematic due to infinite maximum likelihood estimates (MLE) and potentially biased estimates, especially for small numbers of events. Analyzing current-status data is especially troublesome because of the extreme loss of precision due to large failure intervals. We extend Firth’s method for regular parametric problems to current-status modeling with the Weibull distribution. Firth advocated a bias reduction method for MLE by systematically correcting the score equation. An advantage is that it is still applicable when the MLE does not exist. We present simulation studies and two illustrative analyses involving RFM mice lung tumor data.