Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hemostatic Therapy Using Tranexamic Acid and Coagulation Factor Concentrates in a Model of Traumatic Liver Injury

BACKGROUND:The potential clinical benefits of targeted therapy with coagulation factor concentrates (e.g., fibrinogen) and antifibrinolytic agents (e.g., tranexamic acid [TXA]) for the treatment of trauma-induced coagulopathy are increasingly recognized. We hypothesized that human fibrinogen concentrate (FC) and prothrombin complex concentrate (PCC), administered as combined therapy with TXA, would provide additive effects for reducing blood loss in an animal trauma model. METHODS:Thirty-six pigs were subjected to 2 consecutive blunt liver injuries, resulting in severe hemorrhagic shock and coagulopathy. Intervention comprised saline (control group); TXA (15 mg kg−1, TXA group); TXA and FC (90 mg kg−1, TXA–FC); or TXA, FC, and PCC (20 U kg−1, TXA–FC–PCC). Blood loss, thromboelastometry (ROTEM), measures of thrombin generation, platelet activation, and global coagulation variables were monitored for 4 hours. Tissue sections were examined to determine the occurrence of thromboembolic events. RESULTS:Total blood loss was similar in the TXA–FC and TXA–FC–PCC groups (mean ± SD: 1012 ± 86 mL and 1037 ± 118 mL, respectively; P = 1.000). These values were both lower (P < 0.001) than the TXA group (1579 ± 306 mL). Blood loss in all 3 intervention groups was lower (P < 0.001) than in the control group (2376 ± 478 mL). After trauma and resuscitation, but before study intervention, plasma fibrinogen levels were severely depleted (median for the whole study population: 66 mg dL−1; interquartile range: 51–108 mg dL−1) and clot strength was decreased (EXTEM whole-blood maximum clot firmness [MCF]: 53 ± 5 mm). Compared with controls, TXA inhibited fibrinolysis and stabilized MCF and clotting time. The addition of FC restored and stabilized hemostasis to a greater extent than TXA alone; the addition of PCC had no statistically significant impact on blood loss, clot strength (MCF), or clotting time, but it increased thrombin generation. There were no significant differences among the study groups regarding platelet activation. No thrombi or microthrombi were observed in any group at necropsy. CONCLUSIONS:The early use of TXA and FC reduced blood loss and improved coagulation measurements in a porcine model of blunt liver injury and hemorrhagic shock. FC, administered in addition to TXA, was highly effective in reducing blood loss. The lack of statistically significant reduction in blood loss when PCC was added to TXA and FC may be attributable to the absence of thrombin generation impairment in this model.
Swarm Intelligence Based Dynamic Control Channel Assignment in Cogmesh

In this paper we address the control channel assignment problem in a cognitive radio based wireless network, namely the CogMesh. Such a network is featured by the dynamic spectrum sharing of the secondary users coexisting with the primary users. The opportunistic nature of the spectrum utilization among the secondary users makes a global control channel infeasible. The self-coordination of the network, hence, becomes a challenge task. Considering the fact that common channels may temporarily exist among a local group of secondary users, we propose an adaptive approach that selects local common control channels independently by each secondary user according to the qualities of the detected spectrum holes and the choices of its neighbors. To achieve this, a swarm intelligence-based algorithm is used to facilitate the common control channel selection. The idea is to use HELLO messages periodically broadcasted by neighbors as the pheromone to rank the common channels so as to expedite the channel selection process. The algorithm is completely distributed and therefore scalable. Moreover, it is simple, flexible, adaptive, and well balanced on the exploitation and exploration of the radio resources. The behaviors and performance of the proposed algorithm are verified by simulation.
Long Time Numerical Simulations for Phase-Field Problems Using p-Adaptive Spectral Deferred Correction Methods

A high-order and energy stable scheme is developed to simulate phase-field models by combining the semi-implicit spectral deferred correction (SDC) method and the energy stable convex splitting technique. The convex splitting scheme we use here is a linear unconditionally stable method but is only of first-order accuracy, so the SDC method can be used to iteratively improve the rate of convergence. However, it is found that the accuracy improvement may affect the overall energy stability which is intrinsic to the phase-field models. To compromise the accuracy and stability, a local $p$-adaptive strategy is proposed to enhance the accuracy by sacrificing some local energy stability in an acceptable level. The proposed strategy is found very useful for producing accurate numerical solutions at small time (dynamics) as well as long time (steady state) with reasonably large time stepsizes. Numerical experiments are carried out to demonstrate the high effectiveness of the proposed numerical strategy.
Availability , Cost and Affordability of Antimalarial Medicines in India !

Amidst millions of malarial cases witnessed in India every year, access to quality anti-malarial medications is a problem. The availability, price and affordability of medications are the three important determinants of patients receiving effective healthcare services. The present study was conducted to evaluate the availability, cost and affordability of anti-malarials in India. This prospective, observational study was conducted in Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu, India from August to September 2011. Three types of medication costs were taken into consideration for calculation purposes, the highest and the cheapest branded medication costs in private pharmacy and the Jan-Aushadhi prices. Affordability was calculated for the agriculture workers and wages fixed by government of tamilnadu for different levels of skills categorized, who were consuming the medications at the time. Total six drugs included in the study according to new treatment guidelines of malaria. There was 15.5% to 230% price variation between minimum and maximum costs of branded anti-malarials respectively. For treating Plasmodium Vivax cases of malaria; unskilled and highly skilled workers had to spend a minimum of 0.32 and 0.28 wage days respectively and a maximum of 0.43 and 0.35 wage days respectively in private pharmacies. The ACT therapy required for treating severe malaria cases(Sulfadoxime+Pyrimethamine, Artemether, Arteether, Quinine) were unavailable in Jan-Aushadhi facilities. Challenges in improving access to essential anti-malarials persist mainly due to disparity in the prices of the branded and generic anti-malarials, lack of these medications in Janaushadhi stores which provide them lower cost to poor people and inability of Indians earning low wages to purchase them at high prices from private pharmacies who stockpile them.
3D pedestrian dead reckoning and activity classification using waist-mounted inertial measurement unit

In this paper, an algorithm to estimate the position of a pedestrian in a 3-dimensional space is introduced. The proposed algorithm exploits the data provided by a waist-worn inertial platform and does not rely on the presence of any external infrastructure. Relevant features are extracted from the accelerometer data and are used to detect pedestrian activities such as standing, walking, going upstairs, or going downstairs. The estimate of the position is updated through a step detection procedure, which combines the signals provided by the inertial platform with the information about the pedestrian activity class.
Target-Based Therapeutic Matching in Early-Phase Clinical Trials in Patients with Advanced Colorectal Cancer and PIK3CA Mutations

Target-matched treatment with PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway inhibitors in patients with diverse advanced cancers with PIK3CA mutations have shown promise. Tumors from patients with colorectal cancer were analyzed for PIK3CA, KRAS, and BRAF mutations. PIK3CA-mutated tumors were treated, whenever feasible, with agents targeting the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. Of 194 patients analyzed, 31 (16%) had PIK3CA mutations and 189 (97%) were assessed for KRAS mutations. Patients with PIK3CA mutations had a higher prevalence of simultaneous KRAS mutations than patients with wild-type PIK3CA (71%, 22/31 vs. 43%, 68/158; P = 0.006). Of 31 patients with PIK3CA mutations, 17 (55%) were treated with protocols containing PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway inhibitors [median age, 57 years; median number of prior therapies, 4; mTORC1 inhibitors (11), phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors (5), or an AKT inhibitor (1)]. None (0/17) had a partial or complete response (PR/CR) and only 1 [6%, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.01–0.27] had stable disease 6 months or more, which was not significantly different from a stable disease ≥6 month/PR/CR rate of 16% (11/67; 95% CI, 0.09–0.27) in patients with colorectal cancer without PIK3CA mutations treated with PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway inhibitors (P = 0.44). Median progression-free survival was 1.9 months (95% CI, 1.5–2.3). In conclusion, our data provide preliminary evidence that in heavily pretreated patients with PIK3CA-mutant advanced colorectal cancer, protocols incorporating PI3K/AKT/mTOR inhibitors have minimal activity. PIK3CA mutations are associated with simultaneous KRAS mutations, possibly accounting for therapeutic resistance. Mol Cancer Ther; 12(12); 2857–63. ©2013 AACR.
Signal processing of elastic surface waves for localizing buried land mines

A system that uses elastic surface waves and electromagnetic waves has been developed to detect buried land mines. An algorithm based on local spatial frequency analysis is presented to illustrate the dispersive effect of the land mine on the acoustic waves and to estimate the wave velocity as a function of position and temporal frequency. In addition, an imaging algorithm is presented which calculates the reflected energy and generates a two-dimensional image that localizes the buried mines.
The calculation of web impact factors

This case study reports the investigations into the feasibility and reliability of calculating impact factors for web sites, called Web Impact Factors (Web‐IF). The study analyses a selection of seven small and medium scale national and four large web domains as well as six institutional web sites over a series of snapshots taken of the web during a month. The data isolation and calculation methods are described and the tests discussed. The results thus far demonstrate that Web‐IFs are calculable with high confidence for national and sector domains whilst institutional Web‐IFs should be approached with caution. The data isolation method makes use of sets of inverted but logically identical Boolean set operations and their mean values in order to generate the impact factors associated with internal‐ (self‐) link web pages and external‐link web pages. Their logical sum is assumed to constitute the workable frequency of web pages linking up to the web location in question. The logical operations are necessary to overcome the variations in retrieval outcome produced by the AltaVista search engine.
Comparison of Particle Swarm Optimization algorithms in Wireless Sensor Network node localization

The node localization in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) presently plays an important role in the field of applications. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is a typical swarm intelligence method. Researchers propose many PSO variants and try to apply PSO algorithm to the related problems in WSN. This paper focuses on the WSN node localization using PSO algorithm. This paper conducts the experiment simulation, comparison and evaluation work in the node localization using PSO algorithm. The performance of different PSO variants with different population topologies is analyzed. Experiment simulations show that WSN node localization using PSO algorithm can get good performance in ring topology and square topology. In particular, the two newly proposed PSO variants (GDPSO and LDPSO) have good performance on this problem. This paper proposes some useful conclusions, which will provide a valuable reference to WSN engineering field.
The excess cost associated with healthcare-associated bloodstream infections at Auckland City Hospital.

AIM This study was undertaken to determine the cost of healthcare-associated bloodstream infections (HA-BSI) in adult patients admitted to an Auckland City Hospital. METHOD A matched cohort study was performed with a 1:2 or 1:1 match in which all patients admitted between January and June 2005 who had HA-BSI were included. Controls were selected from patients admitted between July 2004 and December 2006. Patients with haemodialysis central line-related HA-BSI were not matched with controls as the admission was related purely to that episode of infection. RESULTS There were 106 episodes of HA-BSI in 99 patients. Fifty-five patients were able to be matched 1:1 or 1:2 with controls, group 1. Nineteen BSI episodes were in patients undergoing renal replacement therapy by haemodialysis and the patients were admitted as a consequence of this episode of infection, group 2. An episode of HA-BSI increased the length of the hospital admission by 9.7 days and 7.9 days in group 1 and group 2, respectively. The excess cost associated with an episode of HA- BSI was $20,394 in group 1 and $11,139 in group 2. CONCLUSION There are substantial costs associated with HA-BSI. A proportion of these infections can be reduced by effective infection control measures.
Amplification-Free Detection of Cryptosporidium parvum Nucleic Acids with the Use of DNA/RNA-Directed Gold Nanoparticle Assemblies

Abstract: This study describes the development and evaluation of an amplification-free molecular assay for detection of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts. The assay employed a pair of oligonucleotide-functionalized gold nanoparticle (AuNP) probes that were complementary to adjacent sequences on C. parvum 18s rRNA. Hybridization of the probes to the target RNA resulted in the assembly of AuNPs into target-linked networks, which were detected both visibly and spectroscopically, by a redshift in the wavelength of light scattered by the gold nanoparticles. The limit of detection was between 4 × 105 and 4 × 106 copies of RNA per microliter reaction mix, when a short synthetic target or full-length in vitro transcribed target was employed. With total nucleic acids purified from C. parvum oocysts spiked into 100-mg stool, as few as 670 oocysts/μl reaction mix were detected. The ability to detect the nucleic acids of C. parvum oocysts in stool, without the need for complex amplification, offers unique advantages for such AuNP aggregation assays to be extended toward use in resource-limited settings where protozoan detection is needed most.
Phasic and sustained brain responses in the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis during threat anticipation

Several lines of evidence suggest that the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) are differentially involved in phasic and sustained fear. Even though, results from neuroimaging studies support this distinction, a specific effect of a temporal dissociation with phasic responses to onset versus sustained responses during prolonged states of threat anticipation has not been shown yet. To explore this issue, we investigated brain activation during anticipation of threat in 38 healthy participants by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants were presented different visual cues indicated the temporally unpredictable occurrence of a subsequent aversive or neutral stimulus. During the onset of aversive versus neutral anticipatory cues, results showed a differential phasic activation of amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). In contrast, activation in the BNST and other brain regions, including insula, dorsolateral PFC, ACC, cuneus, posterior cingulate cortex, and periaqueductal grey was characterized by a sustained response during the threat versus neutral anticipation period. Analyses of functional connectivity showed phasic amygdala response as positively associated with activation, mainly in sensory cortex areas whereas sustained BNST activation was negatively associated with activation in visual cortex and positively correlated with activation in the insula and thalamus. These findings suggest that the amygdala is responsive to the onset of cues signaling the unpredictable occurrence of a potential threat while the BNST in concert with other areas is involved in sustained anxiety. Furthermore, the amygdala and BNST are characterized by distinctive connectivity patterns during threat anticipation. Hum Brain Mapp 37:1091–1102, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Effect of Reinforcement Variables on Inhibition in Children with ADHD

Behavioral inhibition, often cited as a central deficit in children with ADHD, has been shown to change in response to reinforcement. In this preliminary investigation, children with ADHD (n= 20) and matched controls (ages 7 to 12) completed a new version of the stop signal paradigm, the Fire Fighter Game, a measure of inhibition of a prepotent motor response, under three conditions: (1) no reinforcement; (2) immediate reinforcement; and (3) delayed reinforcement. In all conditions, the stop signal reaction time (SSRT) of children with ADHD was consistently longer than controls. Both groups improved significantly with reinforcement, and there was no strong evidence that immediate reinforcement was more effective than delayed reinforcement. However, it appeared that the reason for the changes in SSRT in response to reinforcement differed between the groups. Children in the control group responded faster on go trials, whereas children with ADHD improved their ability to inhibit responding with shorter stop delays. The relevance of these findings is discussed in terms of current theories of ADHD.
Detecting spurious timeouts in wireless cellular networks using DS-Agent

Large and sudden variations in packet transmission delays are often unavoidable in wireless networks. Such large delays, refer to as delay spikes (DSs), are likely to exceed several times the typical network round-trip-time figures, which can cause TCP spurious timeouts. The spurious timeouts lead to unnecessary retransmissions and reduction of the TCP sender's transmission rate, and degradation of TCP throughput. In this paper we propose a new scheme called DS-Agent. The spurious timeout is detected by a DS-Agent and thus TCP sender can response to this spurious timeout accordingly. The simulation results show the better performance of DS-Agent scheme compared with F-RTO and TCP Reno in the presence of DSs which is caused by mobility. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Thermal calculation of systems with distributed heat generation

It is very popular to calculate the thermal characteristics of systems composed of several elements with distributed heat generation by using a lumped-parameter analysis. Such a thermal network of concentrated (lumped) elements is advantageous because of its analogy to electrical networks: the same methods for solving may be used. In spite of being popular, generally this method is not applied correctly for elements with distributed heat generation. In this paper, a correct lumped-parameter method is developed and explained
Phase-aberration correction using signals from point reflectors and diffuse scatterers: basic principles

Methods for correction of phase aberrations induced by near-field variations in the index of refraction are explored. Using signals obtained from a sampled aperture (i.e. transducer array), phase aberrations can be accurately measured with a correlation approach similar to methods used in adaptive optics and radar. However, the method presented here has no need for a beacon or an ideal point reflector to act as a source for estimating phase errors. It uses signals from random collections of scatterers to determine phase aberrations accurately. Because there is no longer a need for a beacon signal, the method is directly applicable not only to medical ultrasound imaging but also to any coherent imaging system with a sampled aperture, such as radar and sonar. <<ETX>>
Reducing risks of tourniquets left on after finger and toe surgery: summary of a safety report from the National Patient Safety Agency

Tourniquets are used in hand and foot surgery because of the need for a bloodless field to allow for careful dissection. They are used in a range of settings, such as operating theatres, emergency departments, community sites (for example, for minor surgery in podiatry clinics). Although rare, complications can lead to serious harm, including, at worst, irreversible ischaemia. Between August 2005 and November 2009, healthcare staff in England and Wales reported 15 serious incidents in which tourniquets had been left on fingers or toes by mistake. Ten patients needed further surgery and two incidents resulted in amputation. At least six of the incidents related to surgical gloves being used as tourniquets. Fourteen litigation claims relating to tourniquets were also reported in this period. A typical incident report reads: “Patient had termination of tip of right ring finger. He attended plastic dressing clinic for routine follow up. When the dressing was removed, his ring finger was necrotic and still had what looked like a glove tourniquet in situ. Explained to patient he will require …
How do green roofs mitigate urban thermal stress under heat waves?

As the climate warms, heat waves (HWs) are projected to be more intense and to last longer, with serious implications for public health. Urban residents face higher health risks because urban heat islands exacerbate HW conditions. One strategy to mitigate negative impacts of urban thermal stress is the installation of green roofs (GRs) given their evaporative cooling effect. However, the effectiveness of GRs and the mechanisms by which they have an effect at the scale of entire cities are still largely unknown. The Greater Beijing Region is modeled for a HW scenario with the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with a state‐of‐the‐art urban canopy model (Princeton Urban Canopy Model) to examine the effectiveness of GRs. The results suggest that GR would decrease near‐surface air temperature (ΔT2max = 2.5 K) and wind speed (ΔUV10max = 1.0 m s−1) but increase atmospheric humidity (ΔQ2max = 1.3 g kg−1). GRs are simulated to lessen the overall thermal stress as indicated by apparent temperature (ΔAT2max = 1.7°C). The modifications by GRs scale almost linearly with the fraction of the surface they cover. Investigation of the surface‐atmosphere interactions indicates that GRs with plentiful soil moisture dissipate more of the surface energy as latent heat flux and subsequently inhibit the development of the daytime planetary boundary layer (PBL). This causes the atmospheric heating through entrainment at the PBL top to be decreased. Additionally, urban GRs modify regional circulation regimes leading to decreased advective heating under HW.