Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of smoking cessation after diagnosis of early stage lung cancer on prognosis: systematic review of observational studies with meta-analysis

Objective To systematically review the evidence that smoking cessation after diagnosis of a primary lung tumour affects prognosis. Design Systematic review with meta-analysis. Data sources CINAHL (from 1981), Embase (from 1980), Medline (from 1966), Web of Science (from 1966), CENTRAL (from 1977) to December 2008, and reference lists of included studies. Study selection Randomised controlled trials or observational longitudinal studies that measured the effect of quitting smoking after diagnosis of lung cancer on prognostic outcomes, regardless of stage at presentation or tumour histology, were included. Data extraction Two researchers independently identified studies for inclusion and extracted data. Estimates were combined by using a random effects model, and the I2 statistic was used to examine heterogeneity. Life tables were used to model five year survival for early stage non-small cell lung cancer and limited stage small cell lung cancer, using death rates for continuing smokers and quitters obtained from this review. Results In 9/10 included studies, most patients studied were diagnosed as having an early stage lung tumour. Continued smoking was associated with a significantly increased risk of all cause mortality (hazard ratio 2.94, 95% confidence interval 1.15 to 7.54) and recurrence (1.86, 1.01 to 3.41) in early stage non-small cell lung cancer and of all cause mortality (1.86, 1.33 to 2.59), development of a second primary tumour (4.31, 1.09 to 16.98), and recurrence (1.26, 1.06 to 1.50) in limited stage small cell lung cancer. No study contained data on the effect of quitting smoking on cancer specific mortality or on development of a second primary tumour in non-small cell lung cancer. Life table modelling on the basis of these data estimated 33% five year survival in 65 year old patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer who continued to smoke compared with 70% in those who quit smoking. In limited stage small cell lung cancer, an estimated 29% of continuing smokers would survive for five years compared with 63% of quitters on the basis of the data from this review. Conclusions This review provides preliminary evidence that smoking cessation after diagnosis of early stage lung cancer improves prognostic outcomes. From life table modelling, the estimated number of deaths prevented is larger than would be expected from reduction of cardiorespiratory deaths after smoking cessation, so most of the mortality gain is likely to be due to reduced cancer progression. These findings indicate that offering smoking cessation treatment to patients presenting with early stage lung cancer may be beneficial.
Diagnostic du Système de Management Intégré Qualité, Sécurité, Environnement des PME/PMI Marocaines

Cet article presente les resultats d'un diagnostic realise aupres de vingt entreprises marocaines qui operent dans des secteurs et des activites differents afin d'evaluer les niveaux de performance des systemes qualite, securite et environnement. Pour mener un tel diagnostic, nous nous sommes bases sur un questionnaire a choix multiples s'articulant autour de plusieurs axes de progres. Les questions de chaque axe ont ete hierarchisees en trois categories : strategiques, tactiques et operationnelles afin d'evaluer les performances des systemes QSE par niveaux decisionnels et d'une maniere precise et objective.
Routing algorithm based on SPSO

To solve the overlap problem in node selection process in order to fill the existing routing algorithms deficiencies, This paper designs a traditional Gossiping routing algorithm based on SPSO. At the same time, the paper gives the content and design steps of this algorithm. The simulation results show that the algorithm can effectively solve the problem of node selection.
Non-invasive evaluation of atherosclerosis with contrast enhanced 16 slice spiral computed tomography: results of ex vivo investigations

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of 16 slice computed tomography (CT) in determining plaque morphology and composition in an experimental setting. The results were compared with histopathological analysis as the reference standard. Methods: Nine human popliteal arteries derived from amputations because of atherosclerotic disease were investigated with multislice spiral CT (MSCT). Atherosclerotic lesions were morphologically classified (completely or partially occlusive, concentric, eccentric), and tissue densities were determined within these plaques. In addition, vessel dimensions were quantitatively measured. Results: The results were compared with histological analysis. The concordance index κ for morphological classification was 0.88. Plaque density (n = 51 lesions) was significantly different (p < 0.0001) between lipid rich, fibrotic, and calcified lesions (Stary stage III: n = 2, 58 (8) Hounsfield units (HU); Stary V: n = 11, 50 (21) HU; Stary VI: n = 14, 96 (42) HU; Stary VII: n = 6, 858 (263) HU; Stary VIII: n = 18, 126 (99) HU). The concordance index κ for the classification of plaques based on density was 0.51. Vessel dimensions had a good correlation (r = 0.98). Conclusions: 16 slice CT was found to be a reliable non-invasive imaging technique for assessing atherosclerotic plaque morphology and composition. Although calcified lesions can be differentiated from non-calcified lesions, the diagnostic accuracy in further subclassifying non-calcified plaques as lipid rich and fibrotic is low, even under experimental conditions.
Developing an ENABLED adaptive architecture to enhance Internet accessibility for visually impaired people

This paper gives an overview of the current status of Internet accessibility and offers a brief review of the existing technologies that address accessibility problems faced by visually impaired people. It then describes an adaptive architecture which is able to integrate diverse assistive technologies so as to allow visually impaired people to access various types of graphical web content. This system is also capable of adapting to user’s profile and preferences in order to provide the most adequate interface to the user.
Insulin resistance in HIV-infected youth is associated with decreased mitochondrial respiration

Objective: To identify relationships between insulin resistance (IR) and mitochondrial respiration in perinatally HIV-infected youth. Design: Case–control study. Methods: Mitochondrial respiration was assessed in perinatally HIV-infected youth in Tanner stages 2–5, 25 youth with IR (IR+) and 50 without IR (IR−) who were enrolled in the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study. IR was defined as a homeostatic model of assessment for IR value at least 4.0. A novel, high-throughput oximetry method was used to evaluate cellular respiration in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Unadjusted and adjusted differences in mitochondrial respiration markers between IR+ and IR− were evaluated, as were correlations between mitochondrial respiration markers and biochemical measurements. Results: IR+ and IR− youth were similar on age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Mean age was 16.5 and 15.6 years in IR+ and IR−, respectively. The IR+ group had significantly higher mean BMI and metabolic analytes (fasting glucose, insulin, cholesterol, triglycerides, and venous lactate and pyruvate) compared with the IR−. Mitochondrial respiration markers were, on average, lower in the IR+ compared with IR−, including basal respiration (417.5 vs. 597.5 pmol, P = 0.074), ATP production (11 513 vs. 15 202 pmol, P = 0.078), proton leak (584.6 vs. 790.0 pmol, P = 0.033), maximal respiration (1815 vs. 2399 pmol, P = 0.025), and spare respiration capacity (1162 vs. 2017 pmol, P = 0.032). Nonmitochondrial respiration did not differ by IR status. The results did not change when adjusted for age. Conclusion: HIV-infected youth with IR have lower mitochondrial respiration markers when compared to youth without IR. Disordered mitochondrial respiration may be a potential mechanism for IR in this population.
Motion Estimation Optimization for H.264/AVC Using Source Image Edge Features

The H.264/AVC coding standard processes variable block size motion-compensated prediction with multiple reference frames to achieve a pronounced improvement in compression efficiency. Accordingly, the computation of motion estimation increases in proportion to the product of the number of reference frame and the number of intermode. The mathematical analysis in this paper illustrates that the motion-compensated prediction errors are mainly determined by the detailed textures in the source image. The image block being rich in textures contains numerous high-frequency signals, which make variable block size and multiple reference frame techniques essential. On the basis of rate-distortion theory, in this paper, the spatial homogeneity of an image block is made as a relative concept with respect to the current quantization step. For the homogenous block, its futile reference frames and intermodes can be eliminated efficiently. It is further revealed that the sum of absolute differences value of an image block is mainly determined by the sum of its edge gradient amplitude and the current quantization step. Consequently, the image content-based early termination algorithm is proposed, and it outperforms the original method adopted by JVT reference software. Moreover, the dynamic search range algorithm based on the edge gradient amplitude of source image block is analyzed. One eminent advantage of the proposed edge-based algorithms is their efficiency to the macroblock-pipelining architecture, and another desirable feature is their orthogonality to fast block-matching algorithms. Experimental results show that when these algorithms are integrated with hybrid unsymmetrical-cross multi-hexagongrid search, an averaged 31.4-60.0% motion estimation time can be saved, whereas the averaging BDPSNR loss is 0.0497 dB for all tested sequences.
Influence of counterbalance valve parameters on stability of the crane lifting system

In this paper, a model of the large crane lifting system has been developed in the AMESim environment. The comparison between the simulation results and the experimental data shows good agreement in both time and frequency domains, indicating the correctness of the model. Furthermore, the causes of pressure pulsations of the lifting system are described by means of dynamic simulation and experimental research. The analysis result indicates that the pressure pulsation of the lifting system is closely related to dynamic characteristic of the counterbalance valve, and stability of the system can be improved by means of the flow area of counterbalance valve with linear small gradient.
Influence of genotype and nutrition on survival and metabolism of starving yeast

Starvation of yeast cultures limited by auxotrophic requirements results in glucose wasting and failure to achieve prompt cell-cycle arrest when compared with starvation for basic natural nutrients like phosphate or sulfate. We measured the survival of yeast auxotrophs upon starvation for different nutrients and found substantial differences: When deprived of leucine or uracil, viability declined exponentially with a half-life of <2 days, whereas when the same strains were deprived of phosphate or sulfate, the half-life was ≈10 days. The survival rates of nongrowing auxotrophs deprived of uracil or leucine depended on the carbon source available during starvation, but were independent of the carbon source during prior growth. We performed an enrichment procedure for mutants that suppress lethality during auxotrophy starvation. We repeatedly found loss-of-function mutations in a number of functionally related genes. Mutations in PPM1, which methylates protein phosphatase 2A, and target of rapamycin (TOR1) were characterized further. Deletion of PPM1 almost completely suppressed the rapid lethality and substantially suppressed glucose wasting during starvation for leucine or uracil. Suppression by a deletion of TOR1 was less complete. We suggest that, similar to the Warburg effect observed in tumor cells, starving yeast auxotrophs wastes glucose as a consequence of the failure of conserved growth control pathways. Furthermore, we suggest that our results on condition-dependent chronological lifespan have important implications for the interpretation and design of studies on chronological aging.
Lexicalizing linked data for a human friendly web

The consumption of Linked Data has dramatically increased with the increasing momentum towards semantic web. Linked data is essentially a very simplistic format for representation of knowledge in that all the knowledge is represented as triples which can be linked using one or more components from the triple. To date, most of the efforts has been towards either creating linked data by mining the web or making it available for users as a source of knowledgebase for knowledge engineering applications. In recent times there has been a growing need for these applications to interact with users in a natural language which required the transformation of the linked data knowledge into a natural language. The aim of the RealText project described in this paper, is to build a scalable framework to transform Linked Data into natural language by generating lexicalization patterns for triples. A lexicalization pattern is a syntactical pattern that will transform a given triple into a syntactically correct natural language sentence. Using DBpedia as the Linked Data resource, we have generated 283 accurate lexicalization patterns for a sample set of 25 ontology classes. We performed human evaluation on a test sub-sample with an inter-rater agreement of 0.86 and 0.80 for readability and accuracy respectively. This results showed that the lexicalization patterns generated language that are accurate, readable and emanates qualities of a human produced language.
A Collaborative Case Study System for Distance Learning

Distance Learning from Case Studies involves enabling collaboration between two or more learners at a distance on a case study activity. In this paper we present an empirical qualitative study that simulates a learning scenario in which a pair of subjects at a distance are provided with a collaborative learning environment and required to collaborate in order to solve a case study. The results of this empirical qualitative study have implications that informed the design of a system: LeCS (Learning from Case Studies). LeCS is a web-based collaborative case study system that can be applied to any domain in which the learning from case studies method is used. It provides a set of tools for geographically dispersed students working collaboratively on the case study solution. In addition, it accomplishes functions regarding the learning process that together give real-time support to the distant learners during the development of the case study solution. The paper gives a general description of LeCS: its user interface, implementation, and agent-based architecture. Moreover, it describes how LeCS addresses the recommendations derived from the empirical study.
Distributed decode-forward for multicast

A new coding scheme for multicasting a message over a general relay network is presented that extends both network coding for graphical networks by Ahlswede, Cai, Li, and Yeung, and partial decode-forward for relay channels by Cover and El Gamal. For the N-node Gaussian multicast network, the scheme achieves within 0.5N bits from the capacity, improving upon the best known capacity gap results. The key idea is to use multicoding at the source as in Marton coding for broadcast channels. Instead of recovering a specific part of the message as in the original partial decode-forward scheme, a relay in the proposed distributed decode-forward scheme recovers an auxiliary index that implicitly carries some information about the message and forwards it in block Markov coding. This scheme can be adapted to broadcasting multiple messages over a general relay network, extending and refining a recent result by Kannan, Raja, and Viswanath.
Approche psychosociale du risque de malnutrition dans la démence : intrication des facteurs de vulnérabilité des personnes âgées vivant à domicile et de leur proche aidant

Ce travail a pour objectif d’etudier, selon une approche psychosociale, les facteurs de vulnerabilite associes au risque de malnutrition au sein du binome personne âgee demente/aidant familial. Cette etude transversale a ete realisee dans le cadre d’une intervention psychosociale effectuee a domicile et proposee par un Centre Local d’Information et de Coordination (CLIC) en milieu rural. Les caracteristiques socio-demographiques et des mesures sur la sante psychologique et physique ont ete recueillies aupres d’un echantillon compose de 56 binomes. Nos resultats montrent que le risque de malnutrition des personnes âgees dementes serait plus particulierement explique par leur dependance dans les activites de base de la vie quotidienne et par le propre risque de malnutrition des aidants familiaux. Ce dernier serait lui-meme explique par la depression, leur niveau de dependance, et la severite de l’apathie de leur proche dement. Apres avoir defini des profils nutritionnels de binomes et les facteurs de vulnerabilite qui y sont associes, la description de leur vecu et de leurs interactions autour de l’alimentation permet de mieux comprendre les problematiques psychologiques en jeu. Ces resultats sont discutes en fonction de la dimension psychosociale de l’alimentation, entre dependance comme facteur de vulnerabilite et interdependance comme fonction d’affirmation et de maintien du lien au sein du binome. Finalement, ces elements de reponses ainsi que les limites identifiees nous amenent a proposer des perspectives de recherche et de prise en charge
High-frequency high-Q micro-mechanical resonators in thick epipoly technology with post-process gap adjustment

This paper presents high-Q high-frequency lateral-mode clamped-clamped beam micro-resonators driven by parallel-plate electrostatic transducers fabricated in a thick epipoly micromachining technology. An innovative approach is employed to reduce an intrinsically high transducer gap value of more then 3.0 /spl mu/m (determined by the need of 15 /spl mu/m thickness structural layer etching) down to 0.2-0.4 /spl mu/m after the fabrication. This is achieved by employing an electrostatic motor that approaches actuating and sensing electrodes close to the resonator. The electrode motor is driven with 30 V DC voltage, without any DC current consumption. Two resonators having a resonance frequency of 10 MHz have been fabricated with gap values of respectively 0.2 and 0.4 /spl mu/m. A comparative analysis of performances of the two resonators is given in the paper.
Tree-based context clustering using speech recognition features for acoustic model training of speech synthesis

Tree based context clustering processes reduce the sizes of acoustic models of Hidden Markov Model (HMM) speech synthesis systems as well as eliminate problems arising from unseen sound units. Representations of speech units in speech synthesis systems are often LPC or MCEP features whose characteristics promote speech reconstruction rather than discrimination among different sound units. In this paper, MFCC features, successfully utilized in speech recognition, were selected as features for generating context clustering trees applied to LPC/MCEP-based speech synthesis. On average, the collective size of acoustic models was 29% smaller than ones of typical cases while spectral features generated from a speech synthesis system using each type of clustering trees did not significantly deviate from features extracted from actual spoken utterances. Applying MFCC-based clustering tree did not significantly affect the resulting pitch and duration models of the system. We concluded that MFCC-based clustering tree can reduce the overall size of acoustic models while synthetic sound quality is maintained.
Application of Localized Similarity for Web Documents

In this paper we present a novel approach to automatic creation of anchor texts for hyperlinks in a document pointing to similar documents. Methods used in this approach rank parts of a document based on the similarity to a presumably related document. Ranks are then used to automatically construct the best anchor text for a link inside original document to the compared document. A number of different methods from information retrieval and natural language processing are adapted for this task. Automatically constructed anchor texts are manually evaluated in terms of relatedness to linked documents and compared to baseline consisting of originally inserted anchor texts. Additionally we use crowdsourcing for evaluation of original anchors and automatically constructed anchors. Results show that our best adapted methods rival the precision of the baseline method.
How do Companies Invest in Corporate Social Responsibility? An Ordonomic Contribution for Empirical CSR Research

This paper takes both a conceptual and an empirical approach to answer the question as to how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be connected to the company’s role as an agent of social value creation when it operates within an imperfect institutional framework of market competition. To develop a functional design for an empirical study, we draw on the concept of ordonomics, which provides a heuristics for responsible business activities in society. Drawing on ordonomics, we devise three questions: Referring to action responsibility we ask in which CSR activities companies do invest in their day-to-day business. Referring to governance responsibility we ask as to how companies realize win-win solutions through strategic commitments. In addition, with regard to discourse responsibility we ask in which stakeholder dialogues companies engage in order to discuss and find functional rules for organizing win-win solutions. In our empirical study, we reveal insights into the micro-level analysis of the CSP-CFP link and generate several new questions to be the subject of future research.
Use of social networking sites: Facebook group as a learning management system

Social networking sites (SNSs) are becoming popular day by day in academia as well as in business organizations around the world. Facebook as the largest and fastest networking sites, is one of the important SNSs that can play an important role in different academic disciplines. The aim of this study is to investigate the use of SNSs by the undergraduate students of International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM). The specific objectives are: (i) to explore the frequency of using SNSs by the undergraduates; (ii) to identify the purpose of using SNSs; (iii) to examine the perceptions of undergraduates for using SNSs as an academic tool; and (iv) finally, to propose Facebook group as a learning management system (LMS) of IIUM. A structured survey questionnaire was distributed among 500 undergraduate students of IIUM and 351 responses were received. The results report that Facebook and Google+ are preferred SNSs. Sharing information with friends, getting connected with people for different level, making new friends, and passing time are the main reasons for using SNSs. This study also proposes a six-step procedure for using Facebook group as a LMS. https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel. 2015.07. 015