Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Longitudinal cohort study to determine effectiveness of a novel simulated case and feedback system to improve clinical pathway adherence in breast, lung and GI cancers

Objectives This study examined whether a measurement and feedback system led to improvements in adherence to clinical pathways. Design The M-QURE (Moffitt—Quality, Understanding, Research and Evidence) Initiative was introduced in 2012 to enhance and improve adherence to pathways at Moffitt Cancer Center (MCC) in three broad clinical areas: breast, lung and gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. M-QURE used simulated patient vignettes based on MCC's Clinical Pathways to benchmark clinician adherence and monitor change over three rounds of implementation. Setting MCC, located in Tampa, Florida, a National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center. Participants Three non-overlapping cohorts at MCC (one each in breast, lung and GI) totalling 48 providers participated in this study, with each member of the multidisciplinary team (composed of medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgeons and advanced practice providers) invited to participate. Interventions Each participant was asked to complete a set of simulated patient vignettes over three rounds within their own cancer specialty. Participants were required to complete all assigned vignettes over each of the three rounds, or they would be excluded from this study. Primary outcome measure Increased domain and overall provider care adherence to clinical pathways, as scored by blinded physician abstractors. Results We found significant improvements in pathway adherence between the third and first rounds of data collection particularly for workup and treatment of cancer cases. By clinical grouping, breast improved by 13.6% (p<0.001), and lung improved by 12.1% (p<0.001) over baseline, whereas GI showed a decrease of 1.4% (p=0.68). Conclusions Clinical pathway adherence improved in a short timeframe for breast and lung cancers using group-level measurement and individual feedback. This suggests that a measurement and feedback programme may be a useful tool to improve clinical pathway adherence.
Predictability of Sequence Patterns in Discrete Event Systems

Abstract The problem of predicting the occurrences of a pattern in a partially-observed discrete-event system is studied. The system is modeled by a labeled transition system. The pattern is a set of event sequences modeled by a finite-state automaton. The occurrences of the pattern are predictable if it is possible to infer about any occurrence of the pattern before the pattern is completely executed by the system. A novel off-line algorithm to verify the property of predictability is presented. The verification is polynomial in the number of states of the system. An on-line algorithm to track the execution of the pattern during the operation of the system is also presented. This algorithm is based on the use of a diagnoser automaton.
Shared Model for Mixed-initiative Synthesis Tasks

I-X is a research programme intended to create a well-founded approach to allow humans and computer systems to cooperate in the creation or modification of some product such as a design, physical entity or plan – i.e. it supports mixedinitiative synthesis tasks. The I-X mixed-initiative approach involves the use of shared models for task-orientated communication between human and computer agents who are jointly exploring (via some process) a range of alternative options for the synthesis of an artifact such as a design, configuration or plan (termed a process product). The <I-N-C-A> (Issues – Nodes – Constraints – Annotations) ontology is used as a shared model between the human and system agents. It represents a specific artifact as a set of constraints on the space of all possible artifacts in an application domain. It can be used to describe the initial requirements or objectives to be met and the emerging solutions. It can also describe the (perhaps dynamically generated) process(es) or plans involved in mixed-initiative collaboration. This paper gives an overview of <I-N-C-A> as a potential knowledge representation framework or shared model suitable for use in mixed-initiative collaborative task support.
Complete genome of a dengue virus serotype 4 strain from Amazonas, Brazil

Dengue virus (DENV) infections represent a significant concern for public health worldwide, being considered as the most prevalent arthropod-borne virus regarding the number of reported cases. In this study, we report the complete genome sequencing of a DENV serotype 4 isolate, genotype II, obtained in the city of Manaus, directly from the serum sample, applying Ion Torrent sequencing technology. The use of a massive sequencing technology allowed the detection of two variable sites, one in the coding region for the viral envelope protein and the other in the nonstructural 1 coding region within viral populations.
Putting the Content Into Context: Features and Gaps in Image Retrieval

Digital management of medical images is becoming increasingly important as the number of images being created in medical settings everyday is growing rapidly. Content-based image retrieval or techniques based on the query-by-example paradigm have been studied extensively in computer vision. However, the global, low level visual features automatically extracted by these algorithms do not always correspond to high level concepts that a user has in his mind for searching. The role of image retrieval in diagnostic medicine can be quite complex, making it difficult for the user to express his/her information needs appropriately. Image retrieval in medicine needs to evolve from purely visual retrieval to a more holistic, case-based approach that incorporates various multimedia data sources. These include multiple images, free text, structured data, as well as external knowledge sources and ontologies.
Hybrid vigor, fetal overgrowth, and viability of mice derived by nuclear cloning and tetraploid embryo complementation

To assess whether heterozygosity of the donor cell genome was a general parameter crucial for long-term survival of cloned animals, we tested the ability of embryonic stem (ES) cells with either an inbred or F1 genetic background to generate cloned mice by nuclear transfer. Most clones derived from five F1 ES cell lines survived to adulthood. In contrast, clones from three inbred ES cell lines invariably died shortly after birth due to respiratory failure. Comparison of mice derived from nuclear cloning, in which a complete blastocyst is derived from a single ES cell, and tetraploid blastocyst complementation, in which only the inner cell mass is formed from a few injected ES cells, allows us to determine which phenotypes depend on the technique or on the characteristics of the ES cell line. Neonatal lethality also has been reported in mice entirely derived from inbred ES cells that had been injected into tetraploid blastocysts (ES cell-tetraploids). Like inbred clones, ES cell-tetraploid pups derived from inbred ES cell lines died shortly after delivery with signs of respiratory distress. In contrast, most ES cell-tetraploid neonates, derived from six F1 ES cell lines, developed into fertile adults. Cloned pups obtained from both inbred and F1 ES cell nuclei frequently displayed increased placental and birth weights whereas ES cell-tetraploid pups were of normal weight. The potency of F1 ES cells to generate live, fertile adults was not lost after either long-term in vitro culture or serial gene targeting events. We conclude that genetic heterozygosity is a crucial parameter for postnatal survival of mice that are entirely derived from ES cells by either nuclear cloning or tetraploid embryo complementation. In addition, our results demonstrate that tetraploid embryo complementation using F1 ES cells represents a simple, efficient procedure for deriving animals with complex genetic alterations without the need for a chimeric intermediate.
Active Oxygen‐mediated Cytotoxic and Antitumor Actions of Streptococcal Cytotoxic Protein

Streptococcal cytotoxic protein (SCP), obtained from the cell‐free extract of Streptococcus pyogenes, inhibited the uptake of [methyl‐3H]thymidine by Ehrlich ascites carcinoma cells depending on the concentration of fetal calf serum (FCS) added to the culture medium. The same results were found using sera from different animals. The inhibitory activity of SCP was completely suppressed by catalase but not by hydroxyl radical scavengers or superoxide dismutase. The antitumor activity of SCP in tumor‐bearing mice was inhibited by administration of catalase together with SCP. SCP enzymatically produced hydrogen peroxide in the presence of FCS as detected by the 2,2′‐azino‐di‐[3‐ethyl‐benzothiazoline‐(6)‐sulfonic acid]/horseradish peroxidase method. The kinetic parameters, Km and Vmax, for hydrogen peroxide production of SCP were 2.13% FCS and 0.53 nmol/min/μg SCP, respectively. These results indicate that SCP is an enzyme which produces hydrogen peroxide and exerts potent cytotoxic and antitumor effects using an active oxygen species, hydrogen peroxide, produced by the enzymatic reaction of SCP with an unknown substrate contained in FCS or sera from various animals and molecular oxygen.
Inhibitory Control as a Mediator of Individual Differences in Rates of False Memories in Children and Adults

The primary aim of this dissertation is to address an important issue of individual susceptibility to false memories. Specifically, what is the role inhibitory control (IC) in children’s and adult’s propensity to producing false memories? Inhibitory control within the context of the current study is defined on the basis of performance on selective attention tasks. Inhibitory control is discussed within this dissertation as it is reflected in two selective attention tasks, Stroop and Negative Priming. While the false memory effect, as reflected in the Deese/Roediger and McDermott paradigm (Roediger & McDermott, 1995), is one of the most widely studied memory phenomenon, the current study is important as it provides some insights into the relation between attention and memory. An interesting finding in the DRM false memory effect is that participants often report having a clear false memory of having seen or heard the non-presented critical lure item (CL item). Such memory illusions have been informative on how memory works. The current study adds to this body of research by providing converging evidence of how individual differences in the sensitivity to the false memory effect may occur, and how this sensitivity may reflect the same IC mechanisms involved in selective attention tasks. The basic notion examined within this dissertation is that when recognition memory is tested in the DRM paradigm, individuals have to select information that was studied and simultaneously inhibit highly activated yet non-presented information in memory, in order to correctly reject the CL item. If the notion that individual differences in sensitivity to the false memory effect is indeed related to a basic IC mechanism, then a relationship should be found between measures of IC in selective attention tasks and rates of false memories in the DRM test.
Adaptive Online Estimation of Temporal Connectivity in Dynamic Wireless Networks

Most applications involving large-scale wireless networks need to know the connectivity of the network topology. Conventional approaches largely ignore the temporal aspects of node-to-node connectivity, and perform an offline analysis. In this paper, we characterize the temporal connectivity in a mobile wireless network, in a decentralized manner. We present Path Detect, a distributed algorithm that combines local broadcast with distributed consensus to achieve a spatial-temporal view of network connectivity. Additionally, the information gathered by Path Detect allows for the distributed computation of temporal efficiency, a metric that has until now only been computed centrally. Path Detect is adaptive, and can therefore track connectivity changes in real-time. We evaluate Path Detect under diverse test-cases featuring node and wireless link failures, and mobility patterns. Through these evaluations, we show that the comparison of Path Detect against the ground truth observation shows less than 10% relative error in estimation of temporal efficiency for most cases. Additionally, we also present our results of evaluating Path Detect on a real-wold network, showing that it is an attractive choice for real-world implementations.
Increased Expression of the Copper Efflux Transporter ATP7A Mediates Resistance to Cisplatin, Carboplatin, and Oxaliplatin in Ovarian Cancer Cells

Purpose: The goal of this study was to determine the effect of small changes in ATP7A expression on the pharmacodynamics of cisplatin, carboplatin, and oxaliplatin in human ovarian carcinoma cells. Experimental Design: Drug sensitivity and cellular pharmacology parameters were determined in human 2008 ovarian carcinoma cells and a subline transfected with an ATP7A-expression vector ATP7A (2008/MNK). Drug sensitivity was determined by clonogenic assay, platinum (Pt) levels were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy, copper (Cu) accumulation was quantified with 64Cu, and the subcellular distribution of ATP7A was assessed by confocal digital microscopy. Results: The 1.5-fold higher expression of ATP7A in the 2008/MNK cells was sufficient to alter Cu cellular pharmacokinetics but not confer Cu resistance. In contrast, it was sufficient to render the 2008/MNK cells resistant to cisplatin, carboplatin, and oxaliplatin. Resistance was associated with increased rather than decreased whole-cell Pt drug accumulation and increased sequestration of Pt into the vesicular fraction. Cu triggered relocalization of ATP7A away from the perinuclear region, whereas at equitoxic concentrations the Pt drugs did not. Conclusions: A small increase in ATP7A expression produced resistance to all three of the clinically available Pt drugs. Whereas increased expression of ATP7A reduced Cu accumulation, it did not reduce accumulation of the Pt drugs. Under conditions where Cu triggered ATP7A relocalization, the Pt drugs did not. Thus, although ATP7A is an important determinant of sensitivity to the Pt drugs, there are substantial differences between Cu and the Pt drugs with respect to how they interact with ATP7A and the mechanism by which ATP7A protects the cell.
Emotion detection for wheelchair navigation enhancement

SUMMARY The goal of this study is to investigate the use of emotion as a braking system for wheelchair navigation. In the first part emotion is detected based on ElectroEncephalography (EEG) technology and emotion induction experiments. Using different techniques for features extraction (Welch and Wavelets), selection (Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Genetic Algorithm (GA)) and classification (Support Vector Machine (SVM), Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) and Linear Discriminate Analysis (LDA)), the best combination was assigned to Wavelets-GA-MLP. In the second part, in order to validate the impact of emotion as velocity modulator, a comparison between emotion-based and non emotion-based wheelchair navigation scenarios in a simulated environment was conducted. The assessment was based on four parameters: obstacles hit, navigation path, execution time and outbound points of gaze (POG). While the first two emotion introductions showed better results, this was not the case for the third. These findings can be utilized in order to prescribe a suitable wheelchair according to the subject pathology.
Pleasure and Propriety: Teen Girls and the Practice of Straight Space

Heterosexuality is often perceived by geographers to be a dominant social force in the production of space, yet the ways that heterosexuality achieves this domination have not been scrutinized. In this paper I focus on two straight girls' narratives to explore, first, how they sexualize space and thus make space heterosexual; and, second, how space and spatiality imbue their everyday social and sexual practices and thus exist as a central component of subjectivity. I argue that considering the spatiality of their sexual practices presents a theoretical advantage over current feminist conceptualizations that place girls in gendered relationships in which boys maintain control. Instead, I suggest that a close reading of the pleasures and proprieties of sex and sexuality in these two girls' stories illustrates how the girls become invested with and perform social-sexual norms and meanings through spatialized practices.
Measuring the Problem-Solving Abilities of Accounting and Other Business Students: A Comparison and Evaluation of Three Methods

Abstract The accounting profession requires accounting graduates to operate in a complex and often rapidly changing environment. Consequently, they must develop problem-solving skills to enable them to function in situations that are unfamiliar or ambiguous. We describe a test of three measures of problem-solving ability, including two measures of linguistic performance (Idea Density and Grammatical Complexity) and one of cognitive complexity (Paragraph Completion Test, PCT), used previously in several accounting studies. Subjects were senior undergraduate accounting and business students at a large AACSB-accredited Canadian university. Examination questions taken from different business courses were categorized as either structured or unstructured using the method developed by Shute (1979 Accounting Students and Abstract Reasoning: An Exploratory Study, Sarasota, Florida: American Accounting Association). We confirm that students with a high level of cognitive complexity, as measured by the PCT, performed at a superior level on unstructured questions, as found in previous studies. We find also that Idea Density makes the same differentiation, but Grammatical Complexity does not.
Researching Refugee Youth in the Middle East: Reflections on the Importance of Comparative Research

This paper reflects on the value of comparative anthropological research with refugee youth. It examines a participatory research programme in eight field sites in the Middle East and North Africa. While recognizing the importance of the specific socio-political and cultural context of the different field sites it has been possible to uncover similarities among refugee youth that would have been missed were it not for the exercise in comparison. What emerges from these findings within research contexts which were viewed by some as unique and thus not comparable are thematic similarities. Characteristic of many young people living in situations of prolonged forced migration are issues of multiple and conflicting identities and ambivalence to transgressed places; activism; and engagement in activities independent of existing humanitarian aid structures. Thus it can be seen that comparative studies can draw out the features and qualities which transcend borders local cultures and the humanitarian aid regime to display the traits in common among refugee youth. (authors)
Metaheuristic scheduling of 300-mm lots containing multiple orders

The standard unit of transfer in new semiconductor wafer fabrication facilities is the front opening unified pod (FOUP). Due to automated material handling system concerns, the number of FOUPs in a wafer fab is kept limited. Moreover, a certain number of new and larger 300-mm wafers will be placed in these FOUPs and this makes grouping orders from multiple customers into a job a necessity. Thereby, efficient utilization of the FOUP capacity while attaining good system performance is a challenge. We previously investigated optimization-based solution approaches for minimizing total weighted completion time and maximizing on-time delivery performance for the single machine multiple orders per job scheduling problem. We present two metaheuristic solution approaches for this scheduling problem under two different typical wafer fab machine environments: single unit processing and single lot processing. Experimental results demonstrate that the metaheuristic approaches can find near-optimal solutions for realistic-sized 300-mm scheduling problems in an acceptable amount of computation time.
Prototype Analysis of OTP Key-Generation Based on Mobile Device Using Voice Characteristics

As the applications of mobile and ubiquitous technologies have become more extensive, the communication security issues of those applications are emerging as the most important concern. Therefore, studies are active in relation with various techniques and system applications for individual security elements. In this paper, we proposed a new technique which uses the voice features in order to generate Mobile One Time Passwords (OTPs) and generated safe and variable and safe passwords for one time use, using voice information of biometrics, which is used for powerful personal authentication. Also, we performed a simulation of homomorphic variability of voice feature points using dendrogram and distribution of voice feature points for the proposed password generation method.
Toward Understanding the Risk of Secondary Airborne Infection: Emission of Respirable Pathogens

Certain respiratory tract infections are transmitted through air. Coughing and sneezing by an infected person can emit pathogen-containing particles with diameters less than 10 μ m that can reach the alveolar region. Based on our analysis of the sparse literature on respiratory aerosols, we estimated that emitted particles quickly decrease in diameter due to water loss to one-half the initial values, and that in one cough the volume in particles with initial diameters less than 20 μ m is 6 × 10− 8 mL. The pathogen emission rate from a source case depends on the frequency of expiratory events, the respirable particle volume, and the pathogen concentration in respiratory fluid. Viable airborne pathogens are removed by exhaust ventilation, particle settling, die-off, and air disinfection methods; each removal mechanism can be assigned a first-order rate constant. The pathogen concentration in well-mixed room air depends on the emission rate, the size distribution of respirable particles carrying pathogens, and the removal rate constants. The particle settling rate and the alveolar deposition fraction depend on particle size. Given these inputs plus a susceptible person's breathing rate and exposure duration to room air, an expected alveolar dose μ is estimated. If the infectious dose is one organism, as appears to be true for tuberculosis, infection risk is estimated by the expression: R = 1 − exp(−μ). Using published tuberculosis data concerning cough frequency, bacilli concentration in respiratory fluid, and die-off rate, we illustrate the model via a plausible scenario for a person visiting the room of a pulmonary tuberculosis case. We suggest that patients termed “superspreaders” or “dangerous disseminators” are those infrequently encountered persons with high values of cough and/or sneeze frequency, elevated pathogen concentration in respiratory fluid, and/or increased respirable aerosol volume per expiratory event such that their pathogen emission rate is much higher than average.
A flexible scheme for the bi-directional logistics

As the reverse logistics and the closed-loop supply chain networks have been adopted by enterprises, the bi-directional logistics have also drawn much attention in the literature in the past two decades. Three current main schemes of the bi-directional logistics had shortages and shortcomings. Therefore, a new scheme named the flexible delivery and pickup problem with time windows is addressed in this study. It conquers those shortages and shortcomings and remains good application properties of the three former schemes. The problem is then formulated into a mixed binary integer programming model. Since it is NP-hard, a coevolutionary genetic algorithm is proposed to get near optimal solutions of the problem. The computational results show that the developed method can provide better solutions in a comparatively shorter time.