Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Facilitated Management of Suspected Deep Vein Thrombosis by Emergency Department-Based Paramedics

Objectives: To describe an evidence-based algorithm formulated to overcome crowding in the emergency department (ED), whereby patients referred for suspected deep vein thrombosis (DVT) undergo investigation and initial treatment by an advanced care paramedic (ACP) without having to wait for an ED bed. Methods: Seventy-three patients referred to the ED for suspected DVT by their family physician were met in the waiting room by an ACP, who calculated the clinical probability of DVT using Wells’ criteria and ordered tests and treatment according to a standard algorithm. Each case was reviewed by an emergency medicine physician at the time of discharge. Length of ED stay, tests performed, and outcome were compared with patients with similar signs and symptoms who presented before introduction of the process. Patients who consented were followed at 3 months. The satisfaction of patients, ACPs and emergency medicine physicians was evaluated. Results: Mean ED length of stay when the work-up included a D-dimer test decreased from 379.31 min. before, to 284.74 min. after introduction of the process, with no difference in the percentage of DVTpositive ultrasound scans (14.0% vs. 13.9%). Of the 52 patients who consented to follow-up, data was collected on 36. Eight (22.2%) were prescribed anticoagulation drugs and 26 (72.2%) rated the process as efficient. Thirty-two (88.9%) were very satisfied or satisfied with the process. A telephone survey of 30 family practitioners showed that 70% had used the process. Their average satisfaction rating on a 10-point scale was 8.99 (range 8.75-10). Of the 23 emergency medicine physicians surveyed, 22 (96%) had used the pathway and 21 (95%) felt it was worthwhile, as did 8 of the 9 ACPs (89%) interviewed. Conclusions: DVT investigation and management can safely be conducted by ACPs, resulting in decreased length of ED stay for patients and satisfaction of patients, ACPs, and family and emergency medicine physicians.
Analytical transformed harmonic oscillator basis for continuum discretized coupled channels calculations

This work was partially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia and by the European regional development fund (FEDER) under Project Nos. FIS2008-04189 and FPA2006-13807-c02-01 and by the Spanish Consolider- Ingenio 2010 Programme CPAN (CSD2007-00042). A.M.M. and F.P.B. acknowledge financial support from the Junta de Andalucia.
Fung’s Model Constants for Intracranial Blood Vessel of Human Using Biaxial Tensile Test Results

Mechanical properties of cerebral arteries are, due to their relationship with cerebrovascular diseases, of clinical worth. To acquire these properties, eight samples were obtained from middle cerebral arteries of human cadavers, whose death were not due to injuries or diseases of cerebral vessels, and tested within twelve hours after resection, by a precise biaxial tensile test device specially developed for the present study considering the dimensions, sensitivity and anisotropic nature of samples. The resulting stressstretch curve was plotted and subsequently fitted to a hyperelastic three-parameter Fung model. It was found that the arteries were noticeably stiffer in circumferential than in axial direction. It was also demonstrated that the use of multi-parameter hyperelastic constitutive models is useful for mathematical description of behavior of cerebral vessel tissue. The reported material properties are a proper reference for numerical modeling of cerebral arteries and computational analysis of healthy or diseased intracranial arteries. Keywords—Anisotropic Tissue, Cerebral Blood Vessels, Fung Model, Nonlinear Material, Plain Stress.
Costos de establecimiento de un sistema silvopastoril de sauco (Sambucus nigra) y Kikuyo (Penisetum clandestinum) en Roncesvalles (Tolima)

Los sistemas silvopastoriles se presentan como una excelente oportunidad para mejorar la nutricion de los bovinos, la calidad de los suelos y aminorar el impacto ambiental. El municipio de Roncesvalles en el departamento del Tolima es de gran influencia ganadera, por lo cual se requieren especies arbustivas forrajeras de tropico alto. Por esta razon se implemento un diseno intensivo, con Sambucusnigra, Alnusacuminata y Penisetumclandestinum. El costo de establecimiento de una hectarea del sistema silvopastoril es de $3.322. 500 millones con una produccion de 2574 Kg/MS/Ha, donde el 45% corresponde a la mano de obra. El costo de establecimiento de una hectarea de Pennisetumclandestinum en monocultivo es de $1.526. 000 con una produccion de 3545 kg/MS/Ha. El porcentaje de sobrevivencia de los Alisos fue de 99.35% mientras que el de los Saucos fue de 98.6%. Si bien los costos de establecimiento del sistema son mayores, son importantes los beneficios obtenidos en el largo plazo.
Annual incidence and clinical characteristics of type 2 diabetes in children as detected by urine glucose screening in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

OBJECTIVE This study investigates the annual incidence and clinical characteristics of type 2 diabetes among school-aged children as detected by urine glucose screening from 1974 to 2002 in the Tokyo metropolitan area. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In total, 8,812,356 school children were examined for glucosuria. Morning urine was used for the analysis. When the urine was positive for glucose, an oral glucose tolerance test was carried out to confirm diabetes. RESULTS In all, 232 students were identified to have type 2 diabetes. The overall annual incidence of type 2 diabetes was 2.63/100,000. The annual incidence after 1981 was significantly higher than that before 1980 (1.73 vs. 2.76/100,000, P < 0.0001). The annual incidence was significantly higher for junior high school students compared with primary school students (0.78 vs. 6.43/100,000, P < 0.0001). The overall male-to-female ratio of students with type 2 diabetes was 1.0:1.19 (P = 0.296), but it was 1.0:1.56 (P = 0.278) for primary school students. Overall, 83.4% of children with diabetes were obese (> or = 20% overweight). However, nonobese girls (<20% overweight) with diabetes accounted for 23.0% of the patients, whereas markedly obese boys (> or = 40% overweight) accounted for 61.5% of the patients. The frequency of a family history of type 2 diabetes in second- and first-degree relatives was 56.5%. CONCLUSIONS We confirmed that the incidence of young people with type 2 diabetes increased after 1981 in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The increase in the frequency of this disorder seemed to be strongly related to an increasing prevalence of obesity. Age and genetic susceptibility may be associated with the occurrence of type 2 diabetes.
Rapid construction of deleted DNA fragments for use as internal standards in competitive PCR.

Department of Neurology and Geriatrics Research Education and Clinical Center, Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105 Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) can be used to amplify mRNA to determine expression of rare messages from small numbers of cells. Quantitative analysis of these messages can be achieved by a modification known as the competitive polymerase chain reaction (cPCR), ~l-s~ in which an internal standard is coamplified with the sample and the relative amount of each product is determined. Because the efficiency of amplification of the standard is identical to that of the sample template, cPCR circumvents the problems associated with tube-to-tube or sample-to-sample variability of the PCR reaction, 11~ thereby providing a means to estimate the level of mRNA accurately. Different types of internal standards may be created for cPCR; these include templates different in length from the target sequence, ~'6-8~ templates mutated to either create or delete a restriction site, Is'4~ and templates derived from other genes that fortuitously use the same primers but whose internal sequence remains unknown. ~2~ Although each of these techniques provides certain advantages, the steps of mutagenesis and cloning needed to construct these internal standards are often t ime-consuming. We describe here a rapid and simple method that uses PCR to generate deletion constructs that can be used as internal standards to measure the level of a specific mRNA by cPCR. The basis of this method is PCR amplification of part of the target gene sequence with the same 3' primer but a recombinant S' primer to produce a shortened template that can be amplified by the original primer pair and is then used as an internal standard for cPCR. We demonstrate the use of this method to produce a competitive internal standard for the ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) gene that is 100 bp shorter than the native sequence, and the use of this standard to quantitate the amount of CNTF mRNA in rat sciatic nerve.
Fibrous capsule formation of the peritoneal catheter tip in ventriculoperitoneal shunt: Two case reports

Background: A fibrous capsule formation of a peritoneal catheter tip has not previously been researched as a complication of ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunts. Case Description: Two adult patients who had undergone a VP shunt for communicative hydrocephalus following subarachnoid hemorrhage caused by a ruptured aneurysm have been identified with malfunction of the VP shunt system by mild disturbance of consciousness and gait disturbance or loss of appetite. Hydrocephalus was diagnosed by computed tomography and the obstruction of the peritoneal catheter was revealed by shuntgraphy. Laparoscopy was performed and the peritoneal catheter tips were obstructed by fibrous white capsules that covered them. One was a thin membranous capsule like a stocking with two small endoluminal granulomas of the peritoneal catheter, and other one was a fibrous glossy white capsule like a sock. These fibrous capsules were excised by laparoscopy forceps without the conversion to a new peritoneal catheter. Following the procedure, the shunt functioned normally. The pathological diagnoses were peritoneum with foreign body reaction or hyalinization of membranous tissue surrounded by fibrous tissue. Conclusion: These fibrous capsules might be formed by the peritoneal reaction to cerebrospinal fluid as a foreign material. As such, a periodic medical check should be scheduled since a fibrous capsule of the peritoneal catheter tip might be formed again.
Shadow removal in remote sensing images using features sample matting

Remote sensing images often suffer from shadow duo to partially or totally occludes direct light from an illumination source. In this paper, we propose a novel shadow removal algorithm. The trimap could be generated automatically by morphological subtraction method according to the result of shadow detection. Then, the weighted color and texture sample selection image matting method is applied in order to obtain the accurate shadow coefficient. The experiment results are illustrated with practical examples and verify the efficacy of this algorithm.
Draft Genome Sequence of Bacillus mesonae FJAT-13985T (=DSM 25968T) for Setting Up Phylogenomics in Genomic Taxonomy of the Bacillus-Like Bacteria

ABSTRACT Bacillus mesonae FJAT-13985T is a Gram-positive, spore-forming, and aerobic bacterium. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of B. mesonae FJAT-13985T with 5,807,726 bp, which will provide useful information for setting up phylogenomics in the genomic taxonomy of the Bacillus-like bacteria, as well as for the functional gene mining and application of B. mesonae FJAT-13985T.
Dendrochronological dating of the Viking Age ship burials at Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune, Norway

Dendrochronology now provides a date, exact nearly to the year, for three Viking Age burial mounds of special importance for chronology in Scandinavia and across early medieval northern Europe. Their dating used to depend on the style of the carved wooden artefacts in the grave goods; now the grave-goods are exactly and independently dated by the tree-rings, those same links will provide dating bridges across the Viking world.
Expression and purification of recombinant HTLV-I/-II linear epitopes antigen and its application for screening of suspected patients

Background and Objectives: The linear epitopes of gp46-I, gp46-II, gp21 and p19 are used in diagnosis of HTLV-I/-II infections. The aims of this study was to obtain high-level expression and purification of recombinant antigen (RA) containing these epitopes. Large-scale preparation of such antigen probably worths for diagnostic purpose. Materials and Methods: The synthetic DNA encoding RA was synthesized and over-expressed as soluble in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cells. Expression and distribution of the His-GST-RA protein were evaluated using SDS-PAGE. The soluble RA was purified utilizing Ni-NTA agarose beads under native conditions and was concentrated by ultra filtration. Using 20 sera specimens from HTLV infected patients, the antigenicity of the purified protein was confirmed in ELISA and western blotting analysis. Results: SDS-PAGE revealed that the purified protein was more than 90% pure. The final yield was approximately 25 mg per liter of culture medium. ELISA results showed that RA could specifically bind to anti-HTLV-I/-II antibodies in infected sera. Conclusion: RA could be a candidate for HTLV-I/-II screening and the strategy presented in this study could be used for easy production of this diagnostic protein.
Study on the performance evaluation of sustainable tourism supply chain based on balanced scorecard

the resources of tourism limit the expansion of tourism industry. Only sustainable development strategy can help it develop healthily. This paper compares the development of tourism industry in China and other countries and discusses strategy of the sustainable tourism supply chain with tourism service agency as the core enterprise. Finally, a framework of performance evaluation indexes of the tourism supply chain is given by using balanced scorecard.
Sports Neuropsychology: Assessment and Management of Traumatic Brain Injury

Echemendia RJ, ed. New York, NY 10012, The Guilford Press, 2006, hardcover, 314 pp, illus, ISBN: 879-1-57230-078-7, $45. The goal of neuropsychology is to link science with practice in order to improve the daily function of people with neurocognitive deficits. Over the past 15 years, neuropsychology has expanded into the field of sports as research findings have revealed that many athletes suffer persistent cognitive and emotional symptoms following cerebral concussion, called “post-concussive syndrome. ” This mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) that occurs in sports may or may not be associated with loss of consciousness but can have sequelae such as headache, dizziness, depression, irritability, impaired attention, and slowed mental processing. Although these symptoms usually resolve, in some cases they persist and impair the quality of life for the athlete. Awareness of this “silent epidemic” has grown in recent years, largely due to problems experienced by some high-profile athletes, and now neuropsychologists are becoming an integral member of many sports rehabilitation teams. This book, though not an exhaustive review of the …
Topology Configuration and Multihop Routing Protocol for Bluetooth Low Energy Networks

This paper proposes a new cluster-based on-demand routing protocol to support multihop communication in Bluetooth low energy ad hoc networks. The proposed scheme includes the topology configuration procedure, topology recovery scheme, and on-demand routing protocol. The topology configuration procedure consists of node discovery, piconet configuration, and scatternet formation in a randomly distributed environment. The proposed on-demand routing protocol is designed to minimize the number of route request messages by forwarding them to a master and relay nodes in each cluster during the route request procedure. The performance evaluation shows that our proposed scheme substantially reduces energy consumption, which is the most critical issue on energy constrained networks.
The effect of dialysis modality on phosphate control : haemodialysis compared to haemodiafiltration – The Pan Thames Renal Audit

Background and Objectives. Hyperphosphataemia is a primary risk factor for patients with end-stage kidney failure. Phosphate clearance by traditional thrice-weekly standard haemodialysis is inadequate for patients achieving recommended dietary protein goals. We investigated whether phosphate control was improved by adding convective clearance with haemodiafiltration. Methods. We audited pre-midweek session calcium and phosphate levels in 5366 adult patients, 4515 treated by haemodialysis and 851 by on-line haemodiafiltration. Results. The cohorts were similar for age, sex and dialysis vintage. Serum phosphate was lower in the haemodiafiltration cohort (1.42 ± 0.61mmol/l) compared to the haemodialysis cohort (1.53 ± 0.53mmol/l; P < 0.001), as was the calcium–phosphate product (3.31 ± 1.53 vs 3.5 ± 1.33mmol/l, respectively; P < 0.001) despite a shorter treatment session time (3.68 ± 0.44 vs 3.92 ± 0.49h; P < 0.001). Parathyroid hormone levels were similar. Conclusions. The results of this audit suggest that haemodiafiltration offers improved phosphate control compared to standard intermittent haemodialysis.
Wide area voltage regulation and protection: When their co-ordination is simple

A transmission network voltage protection scheme based on an effective co-ordination with an automatic voltage and reactive power control system is the main paper issue. Evidence is given to the practical feasibility and the simplicity of a wide area voltage protecting solution, very effective to eliminate the risk of voltage instability. The main simplification comes by the already existing and correct subdivision of the networks in to areas given by the operating secondary voltage regulation which fixes the areas of the protection scheme intervention and gives, in real time, their control efforts. On this base, a voltage stability index is proposed to operate the area load shedding according with a given control logic. Simulation results of a dynamic analysis related to the North Italy power system shows the effectiveness of the proposed protection scheme which minimizes the operated load shedding to achieve the continuity and stability of the controlled power system, in front of a ramping load increase.
Detection of Ciprofloxacin-ResistantYersinia pestis by Fluorogenic PCR Using the LightCycler

ABSTRACT We have developed a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based assay to detect ciprofloxacin resistant (Cpr) mutants of the biothreat agent Yersinia pestis. We selected spontaneous mutants of the attenuated Y. pestisKIM 5 strain that were resistant to a ciprofloxacin (CIP) concentration of at least 1 μg/ml. DNA sequencing ofgyrA encoded by 65 of these mutants revealed that all isolates contained one of four different point mutations within the quinolone resistance-determining region of gyrA. We developed a FRET-based assay that detected all of these mutations by using a single pair of fluorescent probes with sequences complementary to the wild-type Y. pestis gyrA sequence. Melting peak analysis revealed that the probe-PCR product hybrid was less stable when amplification occurred from any of the four mutant templates. This instability resulted in the PCR product obtained from the CprY. pestis strains displaying a 4 to 11°C shift in probe melting temperature. Following optimization of the reaction conditions, we were able to detect approximately 10 pg of purified wild-type template DNA or the presence of approximately 4 CFU of wild-type Y. pestis KIM 5 or Cpr mutants in crude lysates. Taken together, our results demonstrate the utility of FRET-based assays for detection of Cpr mutants ofY. pestis. This method is both sensitive and rapid.
AI-Powered Social Bots

This paper gives an overview of impersonation bots that generate output in one, or possibly, multiple modalities. We also discuss rapidly advancing areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence that could lead to frighteningly powerful new multi-modal social bots. Our main conclusion is that most commonly known bots are one dimensional (i.e., chatterbot), and far from deceiving serious interrogators. However, using recent advances in machine learning, it is possible to unleash incredibly powerful, human-like armies of social bots, in potentially well coordinated campaigns of deception and influence.
Impact of Score Fusion on Voice Biometrics and Presentation Attack Detection in Cross-Database Evaluations

Research in the area of automatic speaker verification (ASV) has been advanced enough for the industry to start using ASV systems in practical applications. However, these systems are highly vulnerable to spoofing or presentation attacks, limiting their wide deployment. Therefore, it is important to develop mechanisms that can detect such attacks, and it is equally important for these mechanisms to be seamlessly integrated into existing ASV systems for practical and attack-resistant solutions. To be practical, however, an attack detection should (i) have high accuracy, (ii) be well-generalized for different attacks, and (iii) be simple and efficient. Several audio-based presentation attack detection (PAD) methods have been proposed recently but their evaluation was usually done on a single, often obscure, database with limited number of attacks. Therefore, in this paper, we conduct an extensive study of eight state-of-the-art PAD methods and evaluate their ability to detect known and unknown attacks (e.g., in a cross-database scenario) using two major publicly available speaker databases with spoofing attacks: AVspoof and ASVspoof. We investigate whether combining several PAD systems via score fusion can improve attack detection accuracy. We also study the impact of fusing PAD systems (via parallel and cascading schemes) with two i-vector and inter-session variability based ASV systems on the overall performance in both bona fide (no attacks) and spoof scenarios. The evaluation results question the efficiency and practicality of the existing PAD systems, especially when comparing results for individual databases and cross-database data. Fusing several PAD systems can lead to a slightly improved performance; however, how to select which systems to fuse remains an open question. Joint ASV-PAD systems show a significantly increased resistance to the attacks at the expense of slightly degraded performance for bona fide scenarios.
Control design in μ-synthesis framework for grid-connected inverters with higher order filters

In this paper, a robust controller is designed based on μ-synthesis method for grid-connected inverters. The performance of the controller is made robust against realistic uncertainties including the time delay and parameter changes, while the resonant oscillations are actively damped. The designed controller only relies on output feedback eliminating the need for extra feedback sensors that are normally used in full or partial state feedback systems. Simulation and experimental results confirm the satisfactory performance and robustness of the designed controller in both cases of a nominal system and a system with parameter variations.