Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of POSSUM for Patients Undergoing Pancreatoduodenectomy

ABSTRACT Background: The POSSUM score is a predictive scoring system for postoperative morbidity. Although numerous studies have validated its application in major abdominal surgery, few have exclusively considered pancreatic resections, which have unique complications that are costly and problematic. We examined whether POSSUM could accurately reflect the clinical outcomes in pancreatic resection. Methods: A total of 694 consecutive resections of the pancreatic head were performed between 1993 and 2010 at the Department of General, Thoracic, and Vascular Surgery at the University Hospital Dresden. The POSSUM score calculated for each case was compared with the observed morbidity. Relevance and predictive performance of the score were assessed; in particular, because of the poor calibration of the POSSUM predictions on the Dresden data, a new score was created that was externally validated on patient cohorts from two different centers for pancreatic surgery. Results: The goodness-of-fit analysis revealed that the POSSUM score was not well calibrated because the POSSUM-predicted morbidity rate was 58.9% on average whereas the observed morbidity rate was 43.4%. Discrepancies occurred particularly among the predicted high-risk patients, for whom the score actually overestimated the morbidity risk. Therefore, we adapted the score and complemented it with additional prognostic parameters. The new score was validated in a patient cohort from two other German centers and fitted better to the data. Conclusion: The new score, named PS-POSSUM (POSSUM in pancreatic surgery), fits the data better. However, the prediction ability remains rather poor. PS-POSSUM may still be helpful, as it draws attention to additional risk and protective factors in addition to those in the original POSSUM score.
Optimal energy management for grid connected microgrid by using dynamic programming method

This paper presents a method to build the optimal energy management for grid connected microgrid which comprises the PV system and battery energy storage system (BESS). The objective is to minimize the cash flow of the system as well as to the maximum of net power import from the main grid. The constraints are given by the power balance between the production and consumption, and the capacity of each DER. The decision variables are the scheduling of DER power, the cash flow and the maximum of the net power import. Simulations are carried out in order to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed method.
Experimental demonstration of a dual-channel E-band communication link using commercial impulse radios with orbital angular momentum multiplexing

In this paper, we use commercial impulse radios and spiral phase plates to generate two different orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams from 71 GHz to 76 GHz. In addition, we have experimentally demonstrated that those two different OAM beams can be multiplexed and demultiplexed over the same frequency radio channel at 2 meters range. At the same time, those two channels can work independently with channel crosstalk less than −15 dB and bit-error-rate (BER) less than 9.65 × 10−10.
Povrchové vlastnosti a taxonomie pivovarských kvasinek Surface Characteristics and Taxonomy of Brewing Yeasts

Průmyslova i domaci výroba piva se opira o cilene využivani kvasinek, převažně rodu Saccharomyces. Jako pivovarske kvasinky jsou oznacovany kulturni kvasinky, ktere se použivaji k produkci spodně ci svrchně kvasených piv. Zakladnim rysem standardnich produkcnich kvasinek jsou dobře definovane vlastnosti, ktere by se měly měnit pouze minimalně, a to i při opakovanem nasazeni. Rozliseni kvasinek na spodně a svrchně kvasici je založeno zejmena na jejich flokulacnich vlastnostech. Jako spodni kvasinky jsou oznacovani zastupci druhu S. pastorianus, kteři se použivaji k výrobě piva typu ležak. Při použiti spodnich kvasinek probiha hlavni kvaseni v teplotnim rozmezi 7–15 °C. V konecne fazi kvaseni se kvasinky shlukuji ve vlocky a sedimentuji na dně kvasne nadoby. Svrchni kvasinky, S. cerevisiae, jsou naopak po shluknuti vynaseny na hladinu, kde tvoři hustou „pěnu“. Teplotni rozmezi hlavniho kvaseni se pohybuje v sirokem rozmezi teplot okolo 18–22 °C, jde o výrobu piva typu Ale, Porter, psenicneho piva, atd. (Basařova et al., 2010). Mezi dalsi odlisnosti mezi spodnimi a svrchnimi kvasinkami patři např. drobne rozdily v geneticke informaci, různe chemicke složeni buněcne stěny, vyssi maximalni teplota růstu u svrchnich kvasinek, produkce různeho spektra senzoricky aktivnich latek (vedlejsich produktů metabolizmu), atd. Povrchove vlastnosti a taxonomie pivovarských kvasinek
Proceedings of the Seventeenth Americas Conference on Information Systems, Detroit, Michigan August 4th-7th 2011 1 A Service Value Approach to the Micro-Organizational Networks of E-prescribing

Value realization in service networks, such as healthcare, is receiving increasing attention as governments battle rising costs. But before value realization can be understood, there needs to be a conceptualization of the network so that specific valuecreating services and exchanges can be identified. The service value network (SVN) model of Basole and Rouse (2008) has been adapted to explore the network of micro-organizations commonly found in e-prescribing. While the SVN identifies linkages, it does not address the nature of service exchanges that take place. Interpretive synthesis is used to piece together an understanding of each exchange. Once insights into these exchanges exist, they may be helpful to understand some of the adoption challenges that have been encountered (e.g., more callbacks – not less) that relate to value creation.
In Situ Ruminal Crude Protein and Starch Degradability of Some Grains and By-Product Feeds in Turkey

The objective of this study was to evaluate in situ ruminal crude protein and starch degradabilities of some grains and byproduct feeds in sheep. Ingredients evaluated were corn (C), wheat (W), hazelnut meal (HM), corn gluten feed (CGF), and sunflower meal (SFM). Three ruminally cannulated 3 years of age male Merino sheep with an average initial body weight of 50±5 kg, 3 years of age, were housed in 1.22 x 1.70 m. Each sheep was fed with 1.0 kg/day alfalfa hay and 0.6 kg/day mixed concentrates containing 29% C, 22% W, 20% SFM and 29% soybean meal on dry matter (DM) basis and 25.0 g CaCO3, 1.0 g vitamin-mineral premix and 10.0 g NaCL. The bags were placed into the ventral rumen after morning feeding in quadruplicate at each time point in each sheep for 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24, and 48 h. The crude protein (CP) of HM was 21.6 and 27.87 percentage units higher than for CP of SFM and CGF, respectively. Ruminal effective degradability of crude protein calculated as a percentage of nutrients were 88.3%, 85.2%, 78.3%, 60.6% and 55.9% for W, CGF, HM, SFM and C, respectively and of starch were 92.8%, 67.9% and 61.6% for W, C and CGF, respectively. This study provides estimates of kinetics of ruminal degradation of feeds for using the accuracy of formulation of sheep diets.
Impact of a Diabetes Risk Score on Lifestyle Education and Patient Adherence (IDEA) in Prediabetes: A Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND To evaluate whether knowledge of a personalized Diabetes Risk Score (DRS) improved performance in a 12-week lifestyle change program for prediabetes. METHODS Randomized subjects at four clinics provided samples for a DRS at baseline, 12, and 24 weeks. The intervention group received scores at each point, whereas the control group only received this information at 12 and 24 weeks. Outcomes included attendance and changes in weight, abdominal circumference, blood pressure, fasting glucose, hemoglobin A1c, cholesterol, and risk score. RESULTS Baseline characteristics were similar in the groups (n = 192) and within risk-stratified subgroups. At 12 weeks, there were no differences in outcomes, with mean weight loss of 4.61 kg in the intervention group and 4.43 kg in the control group (p = 0.79). Both groups were given 12-week risk scores, with previously unseen baseline scores for the control group. The control group continued to lose additional weight (1.21 kg) by 24 weeks, whereas the intervention group regained previously lost weight (0.33 kg) (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS The knowledge of a single baseline personalized DRS did not affect performance in a lifestyle modification program. However, the knowledge of an improvement in risk score, and the timing of this information, may impact further adherence.
Negation in Mehri, stages of Jespersen's cycle

1 Introduction There are three major dialect groups of Mehri: Western Yemeni Mehri (henceforth WYM); Mahriyōt, also known as eastern Yemeni Mehri; and Mehreyyet, also known as Omani Mehri. In this chapter, we argue that negation patterns in Mehri result from grammaticalisation of the anaphoric negator, 1 examine negation patterns in the dialects as reflecting stages in Jespersen's Cycle of negation, and consider the extent to which morpholexical and syntactic factors influence negation patterns.
No Free Shop : Why Target Companies in MBOs and Private Equity Transactions Sometimes Choose Not to Buy ‘ Go-Shop ’ Options

We study the decisions by targets in private equity and MBO transactions whether to actively “shop” executed merger agreements prior to shareholder approval. Targets can negotiate for a 'go-shop' clause, which permits the solicitation of offers from other would-be acquirors during the “go-shop” window and may lower the termination fee paid by the target in the event of a competing bid. The decision to retain the option to shop is predicted by various firm attributes, including larger size and more fragmented ownership. Go-shops are not a free option. We exploit the impact of various characteristics of the firms’ legal advisory team and procedures on the probability of inclusion of a go-shop provision to establish a negative relationship between goshop provisions and initial acquisition premia. Importantly, that loss to shareholder value is not offset by gains associated with new competing offers. We conclude that the increased-use of goshops reflects excessive concerns about litigation risks, possibly resulting from lawyers’ conflicts of interest in advising targets.
Identifying Feasible Design Concepts for Products with Competing Performance Requirements by Metamodeling of Loss-Scaled Principal Components

ABSTRACT Engineering design often involves the determination of design variable settings to optimize competing performance requirements. In the early design stages we propose narrowing down the domain of design solutions using metamodels of principal components of the multiple performance levels that have been scaled by a multivariate quadratic loss function. The multivariate quadratic loss function is often used as the objective function in reaching optimal solutions because it utilizes the correlation structure of the design's performance metrics and penalizes off-target performance in a symmetrical manner. We also compare the computational performance of these loss-scaled principal components when used to solve for the design with minimal expected multivariate quadratic loss under three modeling approaches: response surface methodology, multivariate adaptive regression splines, and spatial point modeling. We demonstrate the technique on the design of the mechanical frame of an electric vehicle with six desired performance levels determined simultaneously by the dimensions of eight mechanical design elements. The method is the focus in this work.
Mutagenesis of the Neisseria gonorrhoeae porin reduces invasion in epithelial cells and enhances phagocyte responsiveness

Porin (PorB), the major outer membrane protein of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, has been implicated in pathogenesis previously. However, the fact that porin deletion mutants are not viable has complicated investigations. Here, we describe a method of manipulating the porin gene site‐specifically. N. gonorrhoeae MS11, which harbours the porB1B (P.1B) porin allele, was used to generate mutants carrying deletions in the surface loops 1 and 5. An 11‐amino‐acid deletion in loop 1 impaired Opa50‐dependent invasion into human Chang epithelial cells, whereas loop 5 deletion exhibited no apparent phenotype. In a second approach, the complete gonococcal porB1B was replaced by the porBNla gene of Neisseria lactamica. Such mutants were unable to induce efficient uptake by epithelial cells but induced an enhanced respiratory response in HL60 phagocytic cells. The increased respiratory burst was accompanied by an enhanced phagocytic uptake of the mutant compared with the wild‐type strain. Our data extend previous evidence for multiple central functions of PorB in the infection process.
Receiver-centric Buffer Blocking-aware Multipath Data Distribution in MPTCP-based Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

One major concern of applying Multipath TCP (MPTCP) to data delivery in heterogeneous wireless networks is that the utilization of asymmetric paths with diverse networking-related parameters may cause severe packet reordering and receive buffer blocking (RB2LOC). Although many efforts are devoting to addressing MPTCP`s packet reordering problems, their sender-controlled solutions do not consider balancing overhead between an MPTCP sender and receiver, and their fully MPTCP mode cannot make MPTCP achieve a desired performance. This paper proposes a novel receiver-centric buffer blocking-aware data scheduling strategy for MPTCP (dubbed MPTCP-rec) necessitating the following aims: (1) alleviating MPTCP`s packet reordering and RB2LOC problems, (2) improving the MPTCP performance, and (3) balancing load between the MPTCP sender and receiver. Simulation results show that the proposed MPTCP-rec solution outperforms the existing MPTCP solutions in terms of data delivery performance in heterogeneous wireless networks.
Privacy-Preserving Content Delivery Networks

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a distributed system composed of a large number of nodes that allows users to request objects from nearby nodes. CDN not only reduces the end-to-end latency on the user side but also offloads Content Providers (CPs) providing resilience against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. However, by caching objects and processing users' requests, CDN service providers could infer user preferences and the popularity of objects, thus resulting in information leakage. Unfortunately, such information leakage may result in compromising users' privacy and reveal business-specific information to untrusted or potentially malicious CDN providers. State-of-the-art Searchable Encryption (SE) schemescan protect the content of sensitive objects but cannot preventthe CDN providers from inferring users' preferences and thepopularity of objects. ,,,,In this work, we present a privacy-preserving encrypted CDN system not only to hide the content of objects and users' requests, but also to protect users' preferences and the popularity of objects from curious CDN providers. We encrypt the objects and user requests in a way that both the CDNs and CPs can perform the search operations without accessing those objects and requests in cleartext. Our proposed system is based on a scalable key management approach for multi-user access, where no key regeneration and data re-encryption are needed for user revocation.
Apprentissage multisource par programmation logique inductive

Cet article presente l'apprentissage par programmation logique inductive de regles provenant de donnees multisources. Un apprentissage multisource naif consisterait a apprendre globalement sur l'ensemble des donnees et avec un langage d'expression des concepts permettant de couvrir toute la richesse des donnees representees. En alternative a un tel type d'apprentissage nous proposons une methode qui s'appuie sur des apprentissages monosources, ie. effectues sur chacune des sources separement, pour biaiser l'espace de recherche multisource. Le fait de s'appuyer sur les regles monosources permet, en effet, de restreindre le langage des hypotheses ainsi que le nombre de relations possibles entre les objets representes sur les differentes sources. Cette methode est evaluee pour l'apprentissage de regles caracterisant des arythmies cardiaques a partir de plusieurs sources de donnees telles que les differentes voies d'un electrocardiogramme ou la mesure de la pression arterielle. Les resultats montrent que les regles apprises par apprentissage multisource sont au moins aussi bonnes que les regles monosources dans le cas ou les donnees sont redondantes et meilleures dans les cas ou les sources sont complementaires. La technique d'apprentissage biaise permet en outre d'apprendre des regles de maniere beaucoup plus efficace que dans le cas naif en beneficiant d'un biais de langage genere automatiquement.
A physico-chemical study of the cationic surfactants adsorption on montmorillonite

O objetivo deste trabalho e o estudo da adsorcao de brometo de cetiltilmetilamonio (CTA) e de cloreto de cetilpiridinio (CP) em argilas do tipo montorilonita (MMT) ricas em sodio. Um metodo isotacoforetico (ITP) especifico foi desenvolvido visando a determinacao rapida e simultânea dos surfatantes cationicos (CS) adsorvidos. A fim de reduzir os limites de deteccao, o metodo isotacoforetico foi conjugado com a tecnica de eletroforese capilar. Para determinar o arranjo dos surfatantes cationicos (CS) adsorvidos na superficie das argilas foi efetuada a avaliacao do balanco molar entre os surfatantes e os cations metalicos juntamente com as isotermas de adsorcao. A maior adsorcao do CP comparada a do CTA pode ser entendida nao so pela acao das forcas eletrostaticas, mas tambem por outras interacoes, tais como, interacao hidrofobica cauda-cauda e/ou interacoes entre aneis piridinicos formando bicamadas incompletas e/ou monocamadas condensadas, respectivamente. The adsorption of cetyltrimethylammonium (CTA) bromide and cetylpyridinium (CP) chloride on Na + -rich montmorillonite (MMT) was studied. An ad hoc isotachophoretic (ITP) method was developed for the simultaneous and rapid determination of the cationic surfactants (CSs) adsorbed. In order to decrease the detection limits, ITP was on-line coupled with capillary zone electrophoresis. Adsorption data were analysed by their fitting with adsorption isotherms. The adsorption of CP is well described by the Langmuir isotherm. It indicates the monolayer arrangement of CP on the MMT surface. In case of the CTA data, the best fitting LangmuirFreundlich model with the power constant r<1 was found. It can be explained by the CTA interactions because of its intercalation into the MMT interlayer space.
Brittle materials at high-loading rates: an open area of research

Brittle materials are extensively used in many civil and military applications involving high-strain-rate loadings such as: blasting or percussive drilling of rocks, ballistic impact against ceramic armour or transparent windshields, plastic explosives used to damage or destroy concrete structures, soft or hard impacts against concrete structures and so on. With all of these applications, brittle materials are subjected to intense loadings characterized by medium to extremely high strain rates (few tens to several tens of thousands per second) leading to extreme and/or specific damage modes such as multiple fragmentation, dynamic cracking, pore collapse, shearing, mode II fracturing and/or microplasticity mechanisms in the material. Additionally, brittle materials exhibit complex features such as a strong strain-rate sensitivity and confining pressure sensitivity that justify expending greater research efforts to understand these complex features. Currently, the most popular dynamic testing techniques used for this are based on the use of split Hopkinson pressure bar methodologies and/or plate-impact testing methods. However, these methods do have some critical limitations and drawbacks when used to investigate the behaviour of brittle materials at high loading rates. The present theme issue of Philosophical Transactions A provides an overview of the latest experimental methods and numerical tools that are currently being developed to investigate the behaviour of brittle materials at high loading rates. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Experimental testing and modelling of brittle materials at high strain rates’.
Peptidoglycan and Lipoteichoic Acid Modify Monocyte Phenotype in Human Whole Blood

ABSTRACT We examined the influence of the gram-positive cell wall products peptidoglycan (PepG) and lipoteichoic acid (LTA), compared to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), on the monocyte expression of receptors involved in antigen presentation (HLA-DR, B7.1, and B7.2), cell adhesion (intercellular adhesion molecule-1 [ICAM-1] and lymphocyte function associated antigen-3 [LFA-3]), phagocytosis (FcγRI), and cell activation (CD14). We also evaluated possible influences of the immunosuppressive drugs cyclosporine A, tacrolimus, and sirolimus on the expression of these receptors. Pretreatment of whole blood for 4 h with the immunosuppressive drugs did not influence the expression of the surface receptors in normal or stimulated blood. Stimulation with both PepG and LTA caused significant up-regulation of the surface expression of ICAM-1 and HLA-DR on whole blood monocytes, similar to that obtained with LPS, whereas B7.1, B7.2, LFA-3, and FcγRI were not modulated. PepG and LTA also caused increased expression of CD14, whereas LPS down-regulated this molecule. In contrast, we did not detect any significant influence of any of the bacterial products on the plasma concentration of soluble CD14. We hypothesized that the increased expression of surface CD14 in blood stimulated with PepG would prime for cellular activation by LPS. Indeed, we show that PepG and the partial PepG structure muramyl dipeptide acted in synergy with LPS to cause the release of tumor necrosis factor-α. The results suggest that PepG and LPS provoke partly different responses on monocyte phenotype and that CD14 may play different roles in the innate response to gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.
Accelerating Sparse Matrix Vector Multiplication on Many-Core GPUs

— Many-core GPUs provide high computing ability and substantial bandwidth; however, optimizing irregular applications like SpMV on GPUs becomes a difficult but meaningful task. In this paper, we propose a novel method to improve the performance of SpMV on GPUs. A new storage format called HYB-R is proposed to exploit GPU architecture more efficiently. The COO portion of the matrix is partitioned recursively into a ELL portion and a COO portion in the process of creating HYB-R format to ensure that there are as many non-zeros as possible in ELL format. The method of partitioning the matrix is an important problem for HYB-R kernel, so we also try to tune the parameters to partition the matrix for higher performance. Experimental results show that our method can get better performance than the fastest kernel (HYB) in NVIDIA’s SpMV library with as high as 17% speedup.