Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of Comorbidity with Anastomotic Leak, 30-day Mortality, and Length of Stay in Elective Surgery for Colonic Cancer: A Nationwide Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Comorbidity has a negative influence on the long-term prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer, whereas its impact on the postoperative course is less clear. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of comorbidity on anastomotic leak and short-term outcomes after resection for colonic cancer. DESIGN: This is a retrospective nationwide cohort study SETTING: Data were obtained from the Danish Colorectal Cancer Group and the National Patient Registry. PATIENTS: Patients with colonic cancer undergoing elective resection between 2001 and 2008 were selected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was the ability of comorbidity to predict anastomotic leak. Secondary outcomes were 30-day mortality and length of stay. Comorbidity was assessed by the Charlson Comorbidity Index. Multivariable logistic regression and receiver operating characteristics curves were used to adjust for confounding. RESULTS: The rate of anastomotic leak was 535/8597 (6.2%). The mean (95% CI) Charlson score was 0.83 (0.72–0.94) and 0.63 (0.61–0.66) for patients with and without anastomotic leak, p < 0.001. The Charlson score, as assessed in the multivariable analysis (adjusted OR, 1.07; 95% CI, 0.99–1.15; p = 0.077) and by receiver operating characteristics curves (area under the curve = 0.548), failed to predict anastomotic leak. Thirty-day mortality was 425/8587 (4.9%). In patients with anastomotic leakage, a Charlson score of ≥2 was associated with increased mortality in comparison with a Charlson score of <2 (adjusted HR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.00–2.51; p = 0.047). Mean length of stay was 8.7 days (95% CI, 8.4–9.2 days) for patients without an anastomotic leak in comparison with 23.3 days (95% CI, 21.5–25.1 days) for patients with anastomotic leak and 25.5 days (95% CI, 21.7–29.3 days) in patients with anastomotic leak and a Charlson score of >2, p < 0.001. LIMITATIONS: This study is limited by the accuracy of the coding used to generate the Charlson Comorbidity Index and the retrospective study design. CONCLUSION: Comorbidity failed to predict anastomotic leak, but it was associated with an inferior short-term outcome in patients with this surgical complication.
Pulmonary Vein Isolation Alone Versus Additional Linear Ablation in Patients With Persistent Atrial Fibrillation Converted to Paroxysmal Type With Antiarrhythmic Drug Therapy: A Multicenter, Prospective, Randomized Study

Background— Atrial fibrillation (AF) type can vary depending on condition and timing, and some patients who initially present with persistent AF may be changed to paroxysmal AF after antiarrhythmic drug medication and cardioversion. We investigated whether circumferential pulmonary vein isolation (CPVI) alone is an effective rhythm control strategy in patients with persistent AF to paroxysmal AF. Methods and Results— We enrolled 113 patients with persistent AF to paroxysmal AF (male 75%, 60.4±10.1 years old) who underwent catheter ablation for nonvalvular AF at 3 tertiary hospitals. The participants were randomly assigned to 2 groups: CPVI alone (n=59) or CPVI plus linear ablation (CPVI+Line; posterior box+anterior line, n=54). Compared with the CPVI+Line, CPVI alone required shorter procedure (187.2±58.0 versus 211.2±63.9 min; P=0.043) and ablation times (4922.1±1110.5 versus 6205.7±1425.2 s; P<0.001) without difference in procedure-related major complication (3% versus 2%; P=0.611). Antiarrhythmic drug utility rates after ablation were not different between the 2 groups (22% versus 30%; P=0.356). Overall, AF-free survival (log-rank; P=0.206) and AF and antiarrhythmic drug–free survival (log-rank; P=0.321) were not different between groups. Conclusions— CPVI alone is an effective rhythm control strategy with a shorter procedure time in persistent AF patients converted to paroxysmal AF compared with CPVI with linear ablation. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: https://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT02176616.
An Adaptive Memetic Algorithm With Rank-Based Mutation for Artificial Neural Network Architecture Optimization

Designing a well-generalized architecture for artificial neural networks (ANNs) is an important task. This paper presents an adaptive memetic algorithm with a rank-based mutation, denoted as AMARM, to design ANN architectures. The proposed algorithm introduces an adaptive multi-local search mechanism to simultaneously fine-tune the number of hidden neurons and connection weights. The adaptation of the multi-local search mechanism is achieved by identifying effective local searches based on their search characteristics. Such an algorithm is distinguishable from previous evolutionary algorithm-based methods that incorporate one single local search for evolving ANN architectures. Furthermore, a rank-based mutation strategy is devised for avoiding premature convergence during evolution. The performance of the proposed algorithm has been evaluated on a number of benchmark problems and compared with related work. The results show that the AMARM can be used to design compact ANN architectures with good generalization capability, outperforming related work.
Adjusting for bias and unmeasured confounding in Mendelian randomization studies with binary responses.

BACKGROUND Mendelian randomization uses a carefully selected gene as an instrumental-variable (IV) to test or estimate an association between a phenotype and a disease. Classical IV analysis assumes linear relationships between the variables, but disease status is often binary and modelled by a logistic regression. When the linearity assumption between the variables does not hold the IV estimates will be biased. The extent of this bias in the phenotype-disease log odds ratio of a Mendelian randomization study is investigated. METHODS Three estimators termed direct, standard IV and adjusted IV, of the phenotype-disease log odds ratio are compared through a simulation study which incorporates unmeasured confounding. The simulations are verified using formulae relating marginal and conditional estimates given in the Appendix. RESULTS The simulations show that the direct estimator is biased by unmeasured confounding factors and the standard IV estimator is attenuated towards the null. Under most circumstances the adjusted IV estimator has the smallest bias, although it has inflated type I error when the unmeasured confounders have a large effect. CONCLUSIONS In a Mendelian randomization study with a binary disease outcome the bias associated with estimating the phenotype-disease log odds ratio may be of practical importance and so estimates should be subject to a sensitivity analysis against different amounts of hypothesized confounding.
Incremental DCOP search algorithms for solving dynamic DCOPs

Distributed constraint optimization problems (DCOPs) are wellsuited for modeling multi-agent coordination problems. However, most research has focused on developing algorithms for solving static DCOPs. In this paper, we model dynamic DCOPs as sequences of (static) DCOPs with changes from one DCOP to the next one in the sequence. We introduce the ReuseBounds procedure, which can be used by any-space ADOPT and any-space BnB-ADOPT to nd cost-minimal solutions for all DCOPs in the sequence faster than by solving each DCOP individually. This procedure allows those agents that are guaranteed to remain unaected by a change to reuse their lower and upper bounds from the previous DCOP when solving the next one in the sequence. Our experimental results show that the speedup gained from this procedure increases with the amount of memory the agents have available.
The chemotactic attraction of human fibroblasts to a lymphocyte-derived factor

A quantitative assay that measures fibroblast chemotaxis in vitro is described. Application of this technique has revealed that peripheral blood lymphocytes stimulated by antigen or mitogen in vitro produce a factor that is chemotactic for human dermal fibroblasts. This lymphocyte-derived chemotactic factor for fibroblasts (LDCF-F) is different from the lymphokine that is chemotactic for monocytes or macrophages. Macrophages are required for the generation of LDCF-F by T lymphocytes stimulated by phytohemagglutinin. The fibroblast chemotactic factor is heat stable (56 degrees C for 30 min), trypsin sensitive, and neuraminidase resistant. LDCF-F could function to attact connective tissue fibroblasts to sites at which cell-mediated immune reactions are occurring in vivo.
A photovoltaic three-phase topology to reduce Common Mode Voltage

At the present time most of the photovoltaic (PV) applications require to be integrated to the electrical grid. There are mainly two types of PV systems: with galvanic isolation (transformer) and transformerless. PV systems with low frequency transformer provide galvanic isolation from the grid. However, this transformer increases the losses, size and cost. On the other side, when the transformer is not included, the system can generate strong ground currents which are a function of the stray elements (capacitances). In this sense reducing the Common Mode Voltage (CMV), is an important issue in the design of power electronics converters for transformerless PV applications. In this paper a three-phase transformerless PV inverter with reduce common mode voltage is introduced. CMV is analyzed under different modulation schemes and an analysis of losses using a real model of the IGBT's is included
High treatment failure and default rates for patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, 2000-2003.

SETTING Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has emerged as a significant public health threat in South Africa. OBJECTIVE To describe treatment outcomes and determine risk factors associated with unfavorable outcomes among MDR-TB patients admitted to the provincial TB referral hospital in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. DESIGN Retrospective observational study of MDR-TB patients admitted from 2000 to 2003. RESULTS Of 1209 MDR-TB patients with documented treatment outcomes, 491 (41%) were cured, 35 (3%) completed treatment, 208 (17%) failed treatment, 223 (18%) died and 252 (21%) defaulted. Of the total number of patients with known human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status, 52% were HIV-infected. Treatment failure, death and default each differed in their risk factors. Greater baseline resistance (aOR 2.3-3.0), prior TB (aOR 1.7), and diagnosis in 2001, 2002 or 2003 (aOR 1.9-2.3) were independent risk factors for treatment failure. HIV co-infection was a risk factor for death (aOR 5.6), and both HIV (aOR 2.0) and male sex (aOR 1.9) were risk factors for treatment default. CONCLUSION MDR-TB treatment outcomes in KwaZulu-Natal were substantially worse than those published from other MDR-TB cohorts. Interventions such as concurrent antiretroviral therapy and decentralized MDR-TB treatment should be considered to improve MDR-TB outcomes in this high HIV prevalence setting.
Evolutionary methods for musical composition

We discuss the use of genetic algorithms (GAs) for the generation of music. We explain the structure of a typical GA, and outline existing work on the use of GAs in computer music. We propose that the addition of domain-specific knowledge can enhance the quality and speed of production of GA results, and describe two systems which exemplify this. However, we conclude that GAs are not ideal for the simulation of human musical thought (notwithstanding their ability to produce good results) because their operation in no way simulates human behaviour.
Reviving the dinosaur: virtual reconstruction and three-dimensional printing of a dinosaur vertebra.

PURPOSE To demonstrate the feasibility of using computed tomography (CT) to confirm the identity of an unprepared fossil and to use the CT dataset to separate the fossilized bone from its surrounding sediment matrix and produce a three-dimensional (3D) print. MATERIALS AND METHODS The examined object was a plaster jacket containing an unprepared fossil. CT was performed with a 320-section multidetector unit. A marching cube-based method was used to transform the voxel CT dataset into triangle-based, editable geometry. Then, a comprehensive postprocessing step was performed to isolate the geometry of the vertebra from its surrounding fossilized matrix. Finally, the resulting polygon mesh describing only the vertebra was used for a physical 3D reconstruction by using a selective laser sintering machine. RESULTS The CT examination provided enough data to assign the fossil to the genus Plateosaurus. In addition, much valuable information about the fossil has been gained-in particular the visualization of multiple fractures and the destruction of the anterior rim of the vertebral body. Finally, the results show that the 3D print generated, including the fractures and the anterior destruction, may be considered an accurate copy of the bone with the unprepared fossil. CONCLUSION The authors demonstrated the feasibility and potential utility of combining CT with 3D printing, providing a nondestructive method to future paleontologists.
Thermomechanical Analysis of Functionally Graded Thermal Barrier Coatings with Different Microstructural Scales

The recently developed two-dimensional version of the higher-order theory for functionally graded materials (denoted as HOTFGM-2D in previous communications) has been used to investigate the effects of microstructural architectures in graded thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) on stress distributions in the presence of a through-thickness temperature gradient. In particular, the response of TBCs with different levels of functionally graded microstructural refinement and different arrangements has been investigated, and the results for the through-thickness stress distributions are compared with those based on the standard micromechanical homogenization scheme. The examples presented illustrate the shortcomings of the standard micromechanics-based approach that is applied to the analysis of functionally graded TBCs, particularly if the presence of creep effects is included in the analysis.
Designing for low-latency direct-touch input

Software designed for direct-touch interfaces often utilize a metaphor of direct physical manipulation of pseudo "real-world" objects. However, current touch systems typically take 50-200ms to update the display in response to a physi-cal touch action. Utilizing a high performance touch de-monstrator, subjects were able to experience touch latencies ranging from current levels down to about 1ms. Our tests show that users greatly prefer lower latencies, and noticea-ble improvement continued well below 10ms. This level of performance is difficult to achieve in commercial compu-ting systems using current technologies. As an alternative, we propose a hybrid system that provides low-fidelity visu-al feedback immediately, followed by high-fidelity visuals at standard levels of latency.
Disorder effects in diluted magnetic semiconductors

Diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) are promising materials for technological applications as well as interesting from the basic-physics point of view. It has become clear that disorder plays a crucial role in DMS due to the presence of many charged defects and the random positions of impurity spins. In this paper the effect of disorder on transport properties and magnetism in DMS is discussed. It is argued that the impurity positions are correlated due to strong Coulomb interactions between charged defects. These correlations are crucial for the understanding of magnetic properties and the observed metal-insulator transition.
Defaults Assessment of Mortgage Loan with Rough Set and SVM

Credit risk is the primary source of risk to financial institutions. Support vector machine (SVM) is a good classifier to solve binary classification problem. The learning results of SVM possess stronger robustness. We adjust these penalty parameters to achieve better generalization performances with using grid-search method in our application. In this paper the attribute reduction of rough set has been applied as preprocessor so that we can delete redundant attributes, then default prediction model of the housing mortgage loan is established by using SVM. Classification performance is better than some other classification algorithms.
Understanding the security of interoperable medical devices using attack graphs

Medical device interoperability is an increasingly prevalent example of how computing and information technology will revolutionize and streamline medical care. The overarching goal of interoperable medical devices (IMDs) is increased safety, usability, decision support, and a decrease in false alarms and clinician cognitive workload. One aspect that has not been considered thus far is ensuring IMDs do not inadvertently harm patients in the presence of malicious adversaries. Security for medical devices has gained some traction in the recent years following some well-publicized attacks on individual devices, such as pacemakers and insulin pumps. This has resulted in solutions being proposed for securing these devices, usually in stand-alone mode. However, the introduction of interoperability makes medical devices increasingly connected and dependent on each other. Therefore, security attacks on IMDs becomes easier to mount in a stealthy manner with potentially devastating consequences. This work outlines our effort in understanding the threats faced by IMDs, an important first step in eventually designing secure interoperability architectures. In this regard, we present: (1) a detailed attack graph-based analysis of threats on a specific interoperability environment based on providing a patient pain medication (PCA), under various levels of interoperability from simple data aggregation to fully closed-loop control; (2) a description of the mitigation approaches possible for each of class of attack vectors identified; and (3) lessons learned from this experience which can be leveraged for improving existing IMD architectures from a security point-of-view. Our analysis demonstrates that em even if we use provably safe medical systems in an interoperable setting with a safe interoperability engine, the presence of malicious behavior may render the entire setup unsafe for the patients, unless security is explicitly considered}
Unconventional deformation mechanism in nanocrystalline metals?

Abstract In this paper, suggestions from molecular dynamics on the plastic deformation mechanism of nanocrystalline (nc) fcc metals are discussed. Investigation of the local average stress in the grain boundaries during deformation highlights the role of the non-equilibrium grain boundary structure in both inter- and intra-deformation processes. The relevance of the mechanism suggested by computer simulations is discussed in terms of the inherent restrictions of the technique and experimental observations.
Part 1: Evidence-Based Facility Design Using Transforming Care at the Bedside Principles

An academic hospital used Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB) principles as the framework for generating evidence-based recommendations for the design of an expansion of the current hospital. The interdisciplinary team used the table of evidence-based data to advocate for a patient- and family-centered, safe, and positive work environment. A nurse project manager acted as liaison between the TCAB design team, architects, and facilities and design consultants. Part 2 of this series describes project evaluation outcomes.
Design and FDTD analysis of single-band and dual-band antennas for RFID and WiMAX applications

In this paper, inset fed microstrip antennas for single band and dual-band operation are proposed. This design aims to achieve single band operation for RFID at 2.4 GHz as well as dual-band operation at 2.4 GHz for RFID and 3.5GHz for WiMAX applications. Simulation results exhibit a return loss of −27dB for single-band operation (2.4 GHz) while at and −20dB and −12.87dB for 2.4GHz and 3.5GHz (for dual-band) respectively. The Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) technique was used to analyze both antennas showing close agreement with the simulated results.
DEVELOPMENT OF FAST-DISSOLVING TABLETS OF AMLODIPINE BESYLATE BY SOLID DISPERSION TECHNOLOGY USING POLOXAMER 407 AND POLOXAMER 188

Objective: Amlodipine besylate is a calcium channel blocker used in the treatment of hypertension which is practically insoluble in water. The present study aims to design oral fast-release tablets of amlodipine besylate and to optimize the dissolution of the drug by altering the carrier concentration. Materials and Methods: Poloxamer 407 (P407) and poloxamer 188 (P188) were selected as carriers for the preparation of solid dispersion (SD) by the solvent evaporation method with different drug-polymer ratios. The prepared SDs were evaluated for the physical state, drug:carrier interactions by X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and scanning electron microscopy. Results: From the dissolution studies, it is confirmed that all SDs showed increased dissolution rate when compared to pure amlodipine besylate. Among the two polymers used, P407 was found to be better than P188 in enhancing dissolution efficiency. The tablets were prepared using SD of amlodipine besylate containing P407 as a carrier. The results showed that P407 SD-based tablets gave a significantly higher release of amlodipine besylate when compared with control tablets. The infrared spectral studies showed that there was no significant interaction between amlodipine besylate and its formulation with different polymers used in the preparation of SDs. XRD studies revealed that the degree of crystallinity of amlodipine besylate reduced when the concentration of carriers increased, which reveals that the drug is in amorphous nature. Conclusion: The combination of SD technology and using superdisintegrants in the formulation is a promising approach for preparing efficient, fast-dissolving tablet of poorly water-soluble drugs, viz . , amlodipine besylate.
Short rational generating functions for lattice point problems

Abstract. We prove that for any ﬁxed d the generating function of the projectionof the set of integer points in a rational d-dimensional polytope can be computed inpolynomial time. As a corollary, we deduce that various interesting sets of latticepoints, notably integer semigroups and (minimal) Hilbert bases of rational cones,have short rational generating functions provided certain parameters (the dimensionand the number of generators) are ﬁxed. It follows then that many computationalproblems for such sets (for example, ﬁnding the number of positive integers notrepresentable as a non-negative integer combination of given coprime positive integersa 1 ,. ,a d ) admit polynomial time algorithms. We also discuss a related problem ofcomputing the Hilbert series of a ring generated by monomials. 1. Introduction and Main ResultsOur main motivation is the following question which goes back to Frobenius andSylvester. (1.1) The Frobenius Problem. Let a 1 ,. ,a d be positive coprime integers andletS =nµ
Telephone handset identification by feature selection and sparse representations

Speech signals convey information not only for the speakers' identity and the spoken language, but also for the acquisition devices used during their recording. Therefore, it is reasonable to perform acquisition device identification by analyzing the recorded speech signal. To this end, the random spectral features (RSFs) and the labeled spectral features (LSFs) are proposed as intrinsic fingerprints suitable for device identification. The RSFs and the LSFs are extracted by applying unsupervised and supervised feature selection to the mean spectrogram of each speech signal, respectively. State-of-the-art identification accuracy of 97.58% has been obtained by employing LSFs on a set of 8 telephone handsets, from Lincoln-Labs Handset Database (LLHDB).