Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk of Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis Associated With Gastric Acid Suppression

AbstractThe primary objective of this study was to determine the association between the use of gastric acid suppressants (GAS) and the risk of developing spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) in patients with advanced liver cirrhosis (LC). A case–control study nested within a cohort of 480,000 representatives of Taiwan National Health Insurance beneficiaries was carried out. A case was matched with 100 controls on age, gender, and index date of SBP diagnosis. GAS use was identified from the 1-year period before the index date. Conditional logistic regression analysis was used to adjust for various unbalanced covariates between users and nonusers of GAS.A total of 947 cases of SBP were identified among the 86,418 patients with advanced LC. A significant increased risk of developing SBP was found to be associated with current (within 30 days), and recent (within 30–90 day) use of 2 different classes of GAS: proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and histamine 2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs). The confounder adjusted rate ratio (aRR) for the current use of PPIs was 2.77 (95%CI: 1.90–4.04) and H2RAs was 2.62 (95%CI: 2.00–3.42). The risk of SBP attenuated for the recent use of PPIs (aRR: 2.20, 95%CI: 1.60–3.02) or H2RAs (aRR: 1.72, 95%CI: 1.25–2.37). In addition, sensitivity analysis using hospitalized SBP as the primary outcome showed a similar risk for the current use of PPIs (aRR, 3.24; 95%CI: 2.08–5.05) and H2RAs (aRR 2.43; 95%CI 1.71–3.46). Furthermore, higher cumulative days of gastric acid suppression were associated with a higher risk of SBP (trend P < 0.0001). To conclude, exposure to GAS was associated with an increased risk of SBP in patients with advanced LC. The association was more pronounced in current PPI users compared with nonusers.
Visual Thesaurus for Color Image Retrieval using Self-Organizing Maps

The technique of searching in content-based image retrieval has been actively studied in recent years. However, this technique cannot give user an overview of the database. In this paper, we propose a browsing technique using Kohonen’s Self-Organizing Map to retrieve general color image database effectively. Both chromatic and textural feature of images are analyzed to represent the content of images.
Optimal Time Utility Based Scheduling Policy Design for Cyber-Physical Systems

Classical scheduling abstractions such as deadlines and priorities do not readily capture the complex timing semantics found in many real-time cyber-physical systems. Time utility functions provide a necessarily richer description of timing semantics, but designing utility-aware scheduling policies using them is an open research problem. In particular, optimal utility accrual scheduling design is needed for real-time cyber-physical domains. In this paper we design optimal utility accrual scheduling policies for cyber-physical systems with periodic, non-preemptable tasks that run with stochastic duration. These policies are derived by solving a Markov Decision Process formulation of the scheduling problem. We use this formulation to demonstrate that our technique improves on existing heuristic utility accrual scheduling policies. Type of Report: Other Department of Computer Science & Engineering Washington University in St. Louis Campus Box 1045 St. Louis, MO 63130 ph: (314) 935-6160 Optimal Time Utility Based Scheduling Policy Design for Cyber-Physical Systems Terry Tidwell, Robert Glaubius, Christopher D. Gill and William D. Smart Department of Computer Science and Engineering Washington University in St. Louis Email: {ttidwell,rlg1,cdgill,wds}@cse.wustl. edu Abstract—Classical scheduling abstractions such as deadlines and priorities do not readily capture the complex timing semantics found in many real-time cyber-physical systems. Time utility functions provide a necessarily richer description of timing semantics, but designing utility-aware scheduling policies using them is an open research problem. In particular, optimal utility accrual scheduling design is needed for real-time cyber-physical domains. In this paper we design optimal utility accrual scheduling policies for cyber-physical systems with periodic, non-preemptable tasks that run with stochastic duration. These policies are derived by solving a Markov Decision Process formulation of the scheduling problem. We use this formulation to demonstrate that our technique improves on existing heuristic utility accrual scheduling policies.Classical scheduling abstractions such as deadlines and priorities do not readily capture the complex timing semantics found in many real-time cyber-physical systems. Time utility functions provide a necessarily richer description of timing semantics, but designing utility-aware scheduling policies using them is an open research problem. In particular, optimal utility accrual scheduling design is needed for real-time cyber-physical domains. In this paper we design optimal utility accrual scheduling policies for cyber-physical systems with periodic, non-preemptable tasks that run with stochastic duration. These policies are derived by solving a Markov Decision Process formulation of the scheduling problem. We use this formulation to demonstrate that our technique improves on existing heuristic utility accrual scheduling policies.
Investigating the meaning of ‘good’ or ‘very good’ patient evaluations of care in English general practice: a mixed methods study

Objective To examine concordance between responses to patient experience survey items evaluating doctors' interpersonal skills, and subsequent patient interview accounts of their experiences of care. Design Mixed methods study integrating data from patient questionnaires completed immediately after a video-recorded face-to-face consultation with a general practitioner (GP) and subsequent interviews with the same patients which included playback of the recording. Setting 12 general practices in rural, urban and inner city locations in six areas in England. Participants 50 patients (66% female, aged 19–96 years) consulting face-to-face with 32 participating GPs. Main outcome measures Positive responses to interpersonal skills items in a postconsultation questionnaire (‘good’ and ‘very good’) were compared with experiences reported during subsequent video elicitation interview (categorised as positive, negative or neutral by independent clinical raters) when reviewing that aspect of care. Results We extracted 230 textual statements from 50 interview transcripts which related to the evaluation of GPs' interpersonal skills. Raters classified 70.9% (n=163) of these statements as positive, 19.6% (n=45) neutral and 9.6% (n=22) negative. Comments made by individual patients during interviews did not always express the same sentiment as their responses to the questionnaire. Where questionnaire responses indicated that interpersonal skills were ‘very good’, 84.6% of interview statements concerning that item were classified as positive. However, where patients rated interpersonal skills as ‘good’, only 41.9% of interview statements were classified as positive, and 18.9% as negative. Conclusions Positive responses on patient experience questionnaires can mask important negative experiences which patients describe in subsequent interviews. The interpretation of absolute patient experience scores in feedback and public reporting should be done with caution, and clinicians should not be complacent following receipt of ‘good’ feedback. Relative scores are more easily interpretable when used to compare the performance of providers.
Automated planning in a service-oriented architecture

Service-oriented computing is a new paradigm to improve the performance of information systems in environments demanding for flexibility and interconnectivity. Additionally, the support of intra- and inter-organizational processes has become crucial for the competitiveness of companies. Recent research approaches propagate to plan processes automatically to improve quality and flexibility. This paper discusses the application of AI planning for service composition in a service-oriented architecture. Three alternative levels of abstraction for service descriptions are defined and their impact on automated planning is investigated in regard to the provider and requestor role of service composers. It is shown that different abstraction levels of service descriptions are necessary to take full advantage of AI planning in a service-oriented architecture.
Fear and Awe: Social Construction of Fear in Detroit

Detroit, or at least the discourse about Detroit, is guided by two prime narratives: hope for change, and fear of crime. After decades of economic decline and racial segregation, the crime rate is amongst the highest of all US cities. However, fear is not a „rational“ result of an abstract crime rate. And neither is it an „emotional cloud“ hovering about the city, distributing evenly the shadow it casts. It is fragmented and uneven, just like the discourses that shape it. This study follows the different lines guiding discourses of fear both within and about Detroit: The idea of ‚wilderness taking back the city‘ and the implications of ‚wilderness‘ in a US context. The symbolic meaning Detroit has for the production of national identity, and the travesty it is said to have become. The fear of the Other, the urban poor, black, violent, drug addicted, irrational, hobbesian, roaming the street of this City abandoned by everybody (everybody but the Other's bodies, that is). Like the fear they produce, explain, and reproduce in the very process of explaining, these narratives are not shared by all. Rather, which narrative has to be used to interpret a specific incident is usually up to fierce debate. What is feared by some may be reassuring to others – or it is not even realized, since the opposite of being scared is not feeling safe, but not to think about one‘s personal safety at all.
Relationship between Abnormal Earnings Persistence, Industry Structure, and Market Share in Brazilian Public Firms

This study analyzes Ohlson's Linear Information Dynamic (LID) and evaluates the effect of other information on the abnormal earnings series. It is tested the hypotheses that industry structure and market share have significant effects on abnormal earnings of the following period, with Ohlson's LID persistence maintained. The results confirm the premise of LID in a sample of Brazilian public firms, considering all the statistical models; the hypothesis regarding market share is rejected as its effect on the degree of abnormal earnings persistence has no informational content, either directly or jointly; finally, the results confirm that different industries differently affect abnormal earnings persistence. In view of these results, the research hypotheses are partially rejected. It is concluded that (i) industry contains other information that can impact abnormal earnings of the following period and (ii) market share (in isolation and together with industry concentration) does not imply differentiated impacts on firms' abnormal earnings of the following period; they do not reflect, therefore, the presence of other information in the Ohlson's Model (1995).
Coexisting and possible primary extra-gastrointestinal stromal tumors of the pancreas and liver: A single case report

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are mesenchymal neoplasms of the gastrointestinal tract (GI) that are defined, in part, by the expression of CD117, a c-Kit proto-oncogene protein. GISTs emerge outside of the GI at a very low frequency, typically in a single organ or location. GISTs that occasionally emerge outside of the GI are classified as extra-gastrointestinal stromal tumors (EGIST). The present study reports an extremely rare case of EGIST detected in the pancreas and the liver. The pancreatic and liver tumors were 4.5×2.5 cm and 2.0×1.5 cm in size, respectively. Both tumors consisted of CD117-positive spindle cells with a similar mitotic rate of 1–2 per 50 high power fields. The pancreatic and the hepatic EGISTs were at a low risk of malignancy, and both tumors were proposed to be primary stromal tumors. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of likely primary EGIST identified in the pancreas and liver of the same patient.
Development Tools for Context Aware and Secure Pervasive Computing in Embedded Systems (PECES) Middleware

The main objective of the PECES project is the development of system software to enable the communication among heterogeneous devices across multiple smart spaces, breaking the traditional barrier of “smart islands” where only the services offered in a nearby spatial area can be used easily. PECES development tools help the application developer to build and test the PECES middleware based applications. This paper presents a set of tools, namely Peces Project, Peces Device Definition, Peces Ontology Instantiation, Peces Security Configuration, Peces Service Definition, Peces Role Specification Definition, Peces Hierarchical Role Specification Definition, Peces Event Editor, Peces Event Diagram and Peces Testing which enable application developers to build, model and test the PECES middleware based smart space application using the novel concepts such as role assignment, context ontologies and security.
Mapping daily evapotranspiration at field to continental scales using geostationary and polar orbiting satellite imagery

Abstract. Thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing of land-surface temperature (LST) provides valuable information about the sub-surface moisture status required for estimating evapotranspiration (ET) and detecting the onset and severity of drought. While empirical indices measuring anomalies in LST and vegetation amount (e.g., as quantified by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index; NDVI) have demonstrated utility in monitoring ET and drought conditions over large areas, they may provide ambiguous results when other factors (e.g., air temperature, advection) are affecting plant functioning. A more physically based interpretation of LST and NDVI and their relationship to sub-surface moisture conditions can be obtained with a surface energy balance model driven by TIR remote sensing. The Atmosphere-Land Exchange Inverse (ALEXI) model is a multi-sensor TIR approach to ET mapping, coupling a two-source (soil + canopy) land-surface model with an atmospheric boundary layer model in time-differencing mode to routinely and robustly map daily fluxes at continental scales and 5 to 10-km resolution using thermal band imagery and insolation estimates from geostationary satellites. A related algorithm (DisALEXI) spatially disaggregates ALEXI fluxes down to finer spatial scales using moderate resolution TIR imagery from polar orbiting satellites. An overview of this modeling approach is presented, along with strategies for fusing information from multiple satellite platforms and wavebands to map daily ET down to resolutions on the order of 10 m. The ALEXI/DisALEXI model has potential for global applications by integrating data from multiple geostationary meteorological satellite systems, such as the US Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, the European Meteosat satellites, the Chinese Fen-yung 2B series, and the Japanese Geostationary Meteorological Satellites. Work is underway to further evaluate multi-scale ALEXI implementations over the US, Europe, Africa and other continents with geostationary satellite coverage.
Taxonomy proposal for the description of accidents and incidents in the electrical systems operation

Documenting accidents and incidents in a clear, precise and unambiguous way is essential to ground the error study and to propose preventive measures. Research in the field of Human Error has yielded many taxonomies and categorizations of errors which are used by companies when analyzing and reporting on accidents and incidents. However, there are difficulties regarding the appropriateness of the terms as applied to a company's specific context, since taxonomies tend to be specific. Moreover, the lack of a clear organization and the adoption of concepts which are not universal among users with different background render their taxonomy's use rather difficult. This paper proposes a taxonomy and an associated supporting tool for describing accidents and incidents in the operation of electrical systems. The proposed taxonomy addresses the concepts and the terms related to the causes of error as well as concepts related to the user cognitive processes that led to the error.
Characteristics of San Francisco Bay Cold-Water Swimmers

Objectives: To further quantify the characteristics of cold-water swimmers, and to examine the potential exercise benefits, weight changes, perceptions of cold tolerance, and safety concerns related to swimming recreationally in cold water. Methods: After 3 months (December 21 - March 21) of swimming regularly in cold water in the San Francisco Bay (water temperature range: 9.6° C (49.3° F) to 12.6° C (54.7° F)), 103 subjects (76 men, 27 women) underwent a detailed biophysical analysis (weight, body mass index, and % body fat (circumference method)). Swimmers also completed a questionnaire that included questions related to background, exercise patterns, safety, and cold tolerance. To allow for before-and-after comparisons, a sub-group of 50 subjects had biophysical measurements both before, and again after the 3-month winter swim period. Results: Swimmers were typically in a middle-aged category (mean: 54.3±10.8; range: 24-79, years), employed full-time (69.9%), had a recreational swim background (62.1%), and had body mass index (BMI) (25.9±3.6 kg/m 2 ) and % body fat (23.8±7.5 %) values that were consistent with average American values. The exercise time per week of the subjects (mean: 131.3± 50.8 minutes/week; median: 120 minutes/week) was significantly greater than an intermediate-intensity value of 100 minutes/week based on American College of Sports Medicine /American Heart Association (ACSM/AHA) recommendations (P 0.1 for all before-and-after comparisons). The most frequently reported safety concerns were marine life (47.4%) and cold/hypothermia (46.4%), followed by boats (30.9%), currents (19.6%), cramps/fatigue (15.5%), and other (14.4%). A report of feeling more adversely affected by cold was associated with a lower BMI (Coef. = -2.81; P= 0.002), lower % fat (Coef. = -6.66; P<0.001), and less time in the water per swim (Coef. = -4.23; P= 0.029), while a report of feeling less affected by cold was associated with a higher BMI (Coef. = 2.55; P= 0.001), higher % fat (Coef. = 3.83; P= 0.010), and more time in the water per swim (Coef. = 3.51; P= 0.039). Conclusions: Individuals with a wide variety of ages, body types, and backgrounds are able to swim recreationally in cold water. Such swimmers typically are not obese and exceed the ACSM/AHA recommendations for weekly exercise. Marine life and cold/hypothermia are frequent safety concerns; our results suggest that swimmers who report worse cold tolerance are more likely to be leaner and limit time in the water, while those who report better cold tolerance are more likely to have a higher % body fat and spend more time in the water per swim.
Encouraging public reporting of suspicious behaviour on rail networks

ABSTRACT Ongoing targeting of mass transit networks and the challenges associated with policing these large open systems means that encouraging public vigilance and reporting on railways is a counter-terrorism priority. There is, however, surprisingly little research on motivations and barriers to cooperating with the police in this context. This paper contributes to this under-researched field by presenting the findings of a survey experiment which examined (1) the role of uncertainty as a barrier for reporting suspicious behaviour on rail networks, (2) whether drivers for cooperation established in the context of traditional crime hold for reporting suspicious behaviour at train stations, and (3) whether the UK ‘See it. Say it. Sorted’ campaign is effective in encouraging reporting. Data was collected in the UK and Denmark, national contexts with differing baseline attitudes towards the police and experiences of transit terrorist attacks, to assess the extent to which public vigilance campaigns need to be adapted to address local concerns. Results suggest that future public vigilance campaigns should address differences in lay and official definitions of suspicious behaviour to reduce uncertainty as a barrier to reporting. They also demonstrate that the influence of procedural justice on cooperation via its influence on social identification with the police holds beyond the context of community policing and reporting of traditional crime. However, other drivers are likely to be more important for determining reporting suspicious behaviour on rail networks, including perceived benefits of reporting. Theoretical and practical implications of cross-national differences and similarities in responses are discussed.
Robust Satellite Image Resolution Enhancement using Double Density Dual Tree Complex Wavelet Transform

Image Resolution enhancement (RE) schemes which are based on wavelets have an advantage over conventional methods which suffer from the losing of high frequency contents which causes blurring. The discrete wavelet transform-based (DWT) RE scheme generates artifacts due to a DWT shift-variant property. A wavelet-domain approach based on double density dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DDDT-CWT) is proposed for RE of the satellite images and compared with dual-tree complex wavelet transform(DT-CWT). A satellite image is decomposed by DDDT-CWT to obtain high-frequency subbands. The high frequency subbands and the low-resolution (LR) input image are interpolated and the high frequency subbands are passed through a low pass filter. The filtered high-frequency subbands and the LR input image are combined using inverse DT-CWT to obtain a resolution-enhanced image. Objective and subjective analyses reveal superiority of the proposed technique over the conventional and state-of-the-art RE techniques.
Adoption as a Social Marker: The Diffusion of Products in a Multigroup Environment

Social identities are among the key factors driving social behavior in complex societies. Recent attention to social identity in consumer behavior indicates that individuals avoid products that might signal membership in an outgroup. Yet the population-level consequences of adoption as identity signaling are largely unknown. Whereas previous work has focused on asymmetric attraction and repulsion among groups with different social identities, here we consider the spread of innovations in a structured population in which there are multiple groups who don't want to be mistaken for one another, using both analytical and agent-based modeling. This formal analysis, the first to take the spatial structure of a population into account, allows us to consider empirically important factors, including demographic skew and communication scale, that likely influence overall patterns of adoption. We find that as products become emergent social markers, aversion to outgroup-associated products can decrease overall patterns of adoption and promote the extent to which uptake of a product is locally polarized. When communications are long-range, polarization can become global. This research has particular relevance to widely beneficial but identity-relevant products, such as green technologies, where overall levels of adoption determine the positive benefits that accrue to society at large.