Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Numerical assessment of the performance of a scalp‐implantable antenna: Effects of head anatomy and dielectric parameters

We numerically assess the effects of head properties (anatomy and dielectric parameters) on the performance of a scalp‐implantable antenna for telemetry in the Medical Implant Communications Service band (402.0–405.0 MHz). Safety issues and performance (resonance, radiation) are analyzed for an experimentally validated implantable antenna (volume of 203.6 mm3), considering five head models (3‐ and 5‐layer spherical, 6‐, 10‐, and 13‐tissue anatomical) and seven scenarios (variations ± 20% in the reference permittivity and conductivity values). Simulations are carried out at 403.5 MHz using the finite‐difference time‐domain method. Anatomy of the head model around the implantation site is found to mainly affect antenna performance, whereas overall tissue anatomy and dielectric parameters are less significant. Compared to the reference dielectric parameter scenario within the 3‐layer spherical head, maximum variations of −19.9%, +3.7%, −55.1%, and −39.2% are computed in the maximum allowable net input power imposed by the IEEE Std C95.1‐1999 and Std C95.1‐2005 safety guidelines, return loss, and maximum far‐field gain, respectively. Compliance with the recent IEEE Std C95.1‐2005 is found to be almost insensitive to head properties, in contrast with IEEE Std C95.1‐1999. Taking tissue property uncertainties into account is highlighted as crucial for implantable antenna design and performance assessment. Bioelectromagnetics 34:167–179, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Trends and predictors of prehospital delay in patients undergoing primary coronary intervention

Objective Delay in seeking medical care following symptom onset in patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is related to increased morbidity and mortality. Actual trends of prehospital delays in patients hospitalized with STEMI have not been well characterized. We evaluated trends in the length of time that had elapsed from symptom onset to hospital presentation among STEMI patients admitted to our hospital. Patients and methods We retrospectively studied 2203 consecutive patients hospitalized for acute STEMI who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) between January 2008 and December 2016. Information on the delay in time from symptom onset to presentation at hospital was extracted from the patients’ medical records. Results Over the 9-year study period, the median duration of prehospital delay for patients undergoing primary PCI showed significant variations, being maximal between the years 2013 and 2014 (150 vs. 90 min, respectively, P<0.001). A significant increase was found in the proportion of patients with prehospital delay less than 2 h, being maximal between the years 2011 and 2013 (64 vs. 47%, P=0.001). An opposite trend was found for decrease in patients with prehospital delay more than 6 h, being maximal between 2008 and 2015 (32 vs. 23%, P=0.001). Multivariate logistic regression model showed that older age, diabetes, female sex, and first STEMI were associated independently with prehospital delay more than 2 h. Conclusion Prehospital delay periods for patients undergoing primary PCI showed variations over time. More efforts are needed to educate at-risk populations about seeking early medical assistance.
Cost-utility analysis of radical nephrectomy versus partial nephrectomy in the management of small renal masses: Adjusting for the burden of ensuing chronic kidney disease.

OBJECTIVES We compare the cost-utility of laparoscopic radical nephrectomy (LRN), laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) and open partial nephrectomy (OPN) in the management of small renal masses (SRMs) when the impact of ensuing chronic kidney disease (CKD) disease is considered. METHODS We designed a Markov decision analysis model with a 10-year time horizon. Estimates of costs, utilities, complication rates and probabilities of developing CKD were derived from the literature. The base case patient was assumed to be a 65-year-old patient with a <4-cm unilateral renal mass, a normal contralateral kidney and a normal preoperative serum creatinine. Univariate and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted to address the uncertainty associated with the study parameters. RESULTS OPN was the least costly strategy at $25 941 USD and generated 7.161 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) over 10 years. LPN yielded 0.098 additional QALYs at an additional cost of $888 for an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $9057 per QALY, well below a commonly cited willingness-to-pay threshold of $50 000 per QALY. LRN was more costly and yielded fewer QALYs than OPN and LPN. Sensitivity analyses demonstrated our model to be robust to changes to key parameters. Age had no effect on preferred strategy. CONCLUSIONS Partial nephrectomy (PN) is the preferred treatment strategy for SRMs. In centres where LPN is not available, OPN remains considerably more cost-effective than LRN. Furthermore, our study demonstrates that there is no age at which PN is not preferred to LRN. Our study provides additional evidence to advocate PN for the management of all amenable SRMs.
A Simplified Iterative Water-Filling Algorithm for Per-User Power Allocation in Multiuser MMSE-Precoded MIMO Systems

In this paper, we deal with a per-user power allocation problem in multiuser multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) systems based on minimum mean square error (MMSE) preceding. The MMSE- precoding technique provides a reasonable performance due to minimization of a composite interference-plus-noise power through allowing inter-user interference as well as the higher capacity with multiuser spatial multiplexing. The technique also has a reasonable computational complexity with linear transmit processing. The problem of optimizing per-user power allocation under inter-stream interference is not convex. Hence, we invoke some iterative approaches. In this paper, we propose a simplified iterative water-filling (SIWF) algorithm for per-user optimum power allocation in multiuser MMSE-precoded MIMO systems, in order to maximize the downlink sum capacity. This technique can reduce greatly the computational complexity for the iterative water-filling process through accelerating the iteration process, as compared with the existing modified iterative water-filling (MIWF) algorithm (Wei Yu, 2007), without any performance loss. In the proposed algorithm, both the taxation and interference terms are updated at every iteration of the inner loop of iterative water-filling. In addition, per-user power levels at every iteration for the inner loop are normalized so that the total transmit power constraint could be satisfied, prior to the next iteration. From computer simulations and complexity analyses, we show that the proposed algorithm has much lower complexity but the same capacity, as compared with the original MIWF algorithm.
Perceived Experiences of Induction and Mentor Programs by New Teachers Working in High-Poverty Schools: An Exploration of Views and Teaching Practices

NELSON, BRANDY RENE. Perceived Experiences of Induction and Mentor Programs by New Teachers Working in High-Poverty Schools: An Exploration of Views and Teaching Practices (Under the direction of Dr. Peter Hessling and Dr. Lance Fusarelli). The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine new teacher perceptions regarding their induction and mentor programs, paying particular attention to how the instructional supports and psychological supports in their induction and mentor programs shaped their current views about teaching in a high-poverty school and their instructional practices. Data were collected from focus group interviews, individual interviews, fieldnotes, and documents. Analysis of the data followed qualitative study procedures. This study resulted in four findings: (1) a lack of teachers, mentors, and high quality, aligned professional development at the school site created a perception that there is not a clear articulated plan for support and development of new teachers; (2) the informal mentoring structure has made a notable impact on teacher satisfaction, retention, current views, and current teaching practices; (3) teachers advocated for the prioritization of psychological support throughout the first three years of teaching through their induction and mentor programs; and (4) teachers in the study believe five mindsets (belief in students, care for students, teacher efficacy, humility about your experience, and a desire to serve as a role model for students) are necessary in order to be an effective teacher in a high-poverty school. These beliefs were developed through informal mentoring, personal experience, and personal backgrounds. The findings from this study have implications for state departments of education and school districts. © Copyright 2016 by Brandy Rene Nelson All Rights Reserved Perceived Experiences of Induction and Mentor Programs by New Teachers Working in High-Poverty Schools: An Exploration of Views and Teaching Practices by Brandy Rene Nelson A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education Educational Administration and Supervision Raleigh, North Carolina 2016
Pricing of Rainfall Derivatives by Modelling Multivariate Monsoon Rainfall Distribution using Gaussian and t Copulas

Low income households, especially in the developing countries such as India could suffer losses due to weather related events such as drought, hurricanes, floods etc. Such losses could cast a household into a chronic poverty cycle - a poverty trap from which the household may find it difficult to re-emerge. Rainfall derivatives are the insurance contracts that compensate a household based on the weather outcome rather than the actual crop yield. Traditional methods for pricing rainfall derivatives include burn analysis, index value simulation and daily rainfall simulation. In this work, we price the rainfall derivatives using a different method that uses the Gaussian and t copulas to capture the dependence between the monthly rainfalls in the monsoon season in India.We find that though the premiums calculated using burn analysis and our proposed method were equal, the standard deviation and Value at Risk “VaR” of the insurance payoffs calculated using both the methods differed. Therefore, in practice, the actuarial pricing of the rainfall insurance contract using burn analysis and our proposed method could be different. Our method could be easily applied to price rainfall derivatives for the regions that exhibit extreme rainfall patterns.
Mechanisms of Immune Injury in Multiple Sclerosis

In this review, we address current concepts regarding the mechanisms of tissue damage that lead to demyelination and oligodendrocyte loss in multiple sclerosis. Particular emphasis has been placed on examining the MS lesion for evidence for pathogenetic processes that have been implicated from various in vivo and in vitro model systems. Central in this analysis has been the evaluation of the various effector cell types and their products. The results strongly support the conclusion that proinflammatory cytokines are major mediators of tissue damage, through the activation of inflammatory cells and resident glial cells. A role for antibody is also discussed, particularly as part of an antibody‐dependent cell‐mediated demyelinating process. Minor populations of lymphocytes may also participate by defining the nature of the immunological microenvironment.
Analysis of Network Latency in Virtualized Environments

Virtualization is central to cloud computing systems. It abstracts computing resources to be shared among multiple virtual machines (VMs) that can be easily managed to run multiple applications and services. To benefit from the advantages of cloud computing, and to cope with increasing traffic demands, telecom operators have adopted cloud computing. Telecom services and applications are, however, characterized by real- time responsiveness, strict end-to-end latency, and high reliability. Due to the inherent overhead of virtualization, the network performance of applications and services can be degraded. To improve the performance of emerging applications and services that demand stringent end-to-end latency, and to understand the network performance bottleneck of virtualization, a comprehensive performance measurement and analysis is required. To this end, we conducted controlled and detailed experiments to understand the impact of virtualization on end-to-end latency and the performance of transport protocols in a virtualized environment. We also provide a packet delay breakdown in the virtualization layer which helps in the optimization of hypervisor components. Our experimental results indicate that the end-to-end latency and packet delay in the virtualization layer are increased with co-located VMs.
Use of clinical decision support systems for kidney-related drug prescribing: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) have the potential to improve kidney-related drug prescribing by supporting the appropriate initiation, modification, monitoring, or discontinuation of drug therapy. STUDY DESIGN Systematic review. We identified studies by searching multiple bibliographic databases (eg, MEDLINE and EMBASE), conference proceedings, and reference lists of all included studies. SETTING & POPULATION CDSSs used in hospital or outpatient settings for acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease, including end-stage renal disease (chronic dialysis patients or transplant recipients). SELECTION CRITERIA FOR STUDIES Studies prospectively using CDSSs to aid in kidney-related drug prescribing. INTERVENTION Computerized or manual CDSSs. OUTCOMES Clinician prescribing and patient-important outcomes as reported by primary study investigators. CDSS characteristics, such as whether the system was computerized, and system setting. RESULTS We identified 32 studies. In 17 studies, CDSSs were computerized, and in 15 studies, they were manual pharmacist-based systems. Systems intervened by prompting for drug dosing adjustments in relation to the level of decreased kidney function (25 studies) or in response to serum drug concentrations or a clinical parameter (7 studies). They were used most in academic hospital settings. For computerized CDSSs, clinician prescribing outcomes (eg, frequency of appropriate dosing) were considered in 11 studies, with all 11 reporting statistically significant improvements. Similarly, manual CDSSs that incorporated clinician prescribing outcomes showed statistically significant improvements in 6 of 8 studies. Patient-important outcomes (eg, adverse drug events) were considered in 7 studies of computerized CDSSs, with statistically significant improvements in 2 studies. For manual CDSSs, 6 studies measured patient-important outcomes and 5 reported statistically significant improvements. Cost-savings also were reported, mostly for manual CDSSs. LIMITATIONS Studies were heterogeneous in design and often limited by the evaluation method used. Benefits of CDSSs may be reported selectively in this literature. CONCLUSION CDSSs are available for many dimensions of kidney-related drug prescribing, and results are promising. Additional high-quality evaluations will guide their optimal use.
Reassessment of the two‐site enzyme immunoassay for human epidermal growth factor (hegf) and measurement of immunoreactive hegf in human sera and urine

We reassessed the enzyme immunoassay (EIA) system for hEGF previously developed by our laboratory (Clin Chim Acta 156:51–60, 1985), since it appeared that the reported EIA system detected not only hEGF but also pS2 protein owing to minor contamination by pS2 protein in the hEGF sample used for immunization. In this study, we purified the hEGF sample using Benzamidine‐Sepharose 6B column chromatography as a critical step for purification and newly developed an EIA system with specificity for hEGF. We also measured the hEGF level in serum, plasma, and urine from normal subjects by our new EIA system and found that the values measured by the previous system were 1.2–5.8‐fold higher than the new system values. These results suggest that the previous system detected “hEGF” in excess owing to the nonspecificity of the antibody used. We investigated the molecular nature of immunoreactive hEGF detected in serum using our new system and confirmed that considerable amounts of immunoreactive hEGF exist as a high molecular weight form through S‐S linkage with some macromolecule(s) in human blood as reported previously (Biochem Int 12:677–683, 1986). ©1995 wiley‐Liss, inc.
Deep feature learning for pulmonary nodule classification in a lung CT

In this paper, we propose a novel method of identifying pulmonary nodules in a lung CT. Specifically, we devise a deep neural network by which we extract abstract information inherent in raw hand-crafted imaging features. We then combine the deep learned representations with the original raw imaging features into a long feature vector. By taking the combined feature vectors, we train a classifier, preceded by a feature selection via t-test. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we performed experiments on our in-house dataset of 20 subjects; 3,598 pulmonary nodules (malignant: 178, benign: 3,420), which were manually segmented by a radiologist. In our experiments, we achieved the maximal accuracy of 95.5%, sensitivity of 94.4%, and AUC of 0.987, outperforming the competing method.
Premarket Evaluations of the IMDx C. difficile for Abbott m2000 Assay and the BD Max Cdiff Assay

ABSTRACT Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea is a well-recognized complication of antibiotic use. Historically, diagnosing C. difficile has been difficult, as antigen assays are insensitive and culture-based methods require several days to yield results. Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) are quickly becoming the standard of care. We compared the performance of two automated investigational/research use only (IUO/RUO) NAATs for the detection of C. difficile toxin genes, the IMDx C. difficile for Abbott m2000 Assay (IMDx) and the BD Max Cdiff Assay (Max). A prospective analysis of 111 stool specimens received in the laboratory for C. difficile testing by the laboratory's test of record (TOR), the BD GeneOhm Cdiff Assay, and a retrospective analysis of 88 specimens previously determined to be positive for C. difficile were included in the study. One prospective specimen was excluded due to loss to follow-up discrepancy analysis. Of the remaining 198 specimens, 90 were positive by all three methods, 9 were positive by TOR and Max, and 3 were positive by TOR only. One negative specimen was initially inhibitory by Max. The remaining 95 specimens were negative by all methods. Toxigenic C. difficile culture was performed on the 12 discrepant samples. True C. difficile-positive status was defined as either positive by all three amplification assays or positive by toxigenic culture. Based on this definition, the sensitivity and specificity were 96.9% and 95% for Max and 92.8% and 100% for IMDx. In summary, both highly automated systems demonstrated excellent performance, and each has individual benefits, which will ensure that they will both have a niche in clinical laboratories.
Nonlinearity Valuation Adjustment Nonlinear Valuation Under Collateralization, Credit Risk, and Funding Costs

We develop a consistent, arbitrage-free framework for valuing derivative trades with collateral, counterparty credit risk, and funding costs. Credit, debit, liquidity, and funding valuation adjustments (CVA, DVA, LVA, and FVA) are simply introduced as modiﬁcations to the payout cash ﬂows of the trade position. The framework is ﬂexible enough to accommodate actual trading complexities such as asymmetric collateral and funding rates, replacement close-out, and re-hypothecation of posted collateral—all aspects which are often neglected. The generalized valuation equation takes the form of a forward–backward SDE or semi-linear PDE. Neverthe-less, it may be recast as a set of iterative equations which can be efﬁciently solved by our proposed least-squares Monte Carlo algorithm. We implement numerically the case of an equity option and show how its valuation changes when including the above effects. In the paper we also discuss the ﬁnancial impact of the proposed valuation framework and of nonlinearity more generally. This is fourfold: First, the valuation equation is only based on observable market rates, leaving the value of a derivatives transaction invariant to any theoretical risk-free rate. Secondly, the presence of funding costs makes the valuation problem a highly recursive and nonlinear one. Thus, credit and funding risks are non-separable in general, and despite common practice in banks, CVA, DVA, and FVA cannot be treated as purely additive adjustments without running the risk of double counting. To quantify the valuation error that can be attributed to double counting, we introduce a “nonlinearity valuation adjustment” (NVA) and show that its magnitude can be signiﬁcant under asymmetric funding rates and replacement close-out at default. Thirdly, as trading parties cannot observe each others’ liquidity policies nor their respective funding costs, the bilateral nature of a derivative price breaks down. The value of a trade to a counterparty will not be just the opposite of the value seen by the bank. Finally, valuation becomes aggregation-dependent and portfolio values cannot simply be added up. This has operational consequences for banks, calling for a holistic, consistent approach across trading desks and asset classes.
Economic Growth and CO 2 -Emissions: What If Vietnam Followed China’s Development Path?

Vietnam and China both are quickly emerging market economies in Asia. China has had an unprecedented economic growth in Asia for the past 30 years. Also, Vietnam’s GDP is increasing, but more slowly. However, Vietnam is starting to catch up. Against this background, this article assesses the question what the economic and environmental impacts in Vietnam would be, if the country followed China’s development path. Based on econometric analysis, it is shown that currently, Vietnam is lagging behind China in terms of economic growth for 11 years. Although Vietnam and China have a similar primary energy mix in the early 1980s, China is still massively relying on coal, whereas Vietnam starts to develop hydro power in the late 1980s on large scale. Due to a quick growth of per-capita income, per capita emissions in China are already catching up with those of North-European economies such as Denmark, Finland and Germany. The question arises, what if Vietnam followed China’s development path. Using econometric models of GDP and CO2-emissions, two scenarios for Vietnam are analyzed, a scenario following China’s development path and one alternative scenario pursuing the current development patterns until 2050. The results show that the additional impact of following China’s economic development path is minor. Vietnam would only have a 0.5% percentage point per annum higher GDP growth. In other words, Vietnam would grow relatively quickly anyway. However, following China’s development path also in terms of high CO2-emissions per capita, would increase the growth of CO2-emissions in Vietnam by 2.3 percentage points per annum and would lead to an increase of CO2-emissions in 2050 by 2.6 bn. tons compared with the scenario in which Vietnam sticks to its own development patterns. However, in that case, Vietnam also had a 25% lower per capita income compared with the scenario following China’s development path. Here, the people and government in Vietnam have to make a strategic choice.