Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Costs associated with delirium in mechanically ventilated patients*

ObjectiveTo determine the costs associated with delirium in mechanically ventilated medical intensive care unit patients. DesignProspective cohort study. SettingA tertiary care academic hospital. PatientsPatients were 275 consecutive mechanically ventilated medical intensive care unit patients. InterventionsWe prospectively examined patients for delirium using the Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit. Measurements and Main ResultsDelirium was categorized as “ever vs. never” and by a cumulative delirium severity index. Costs were determined from individual ledger-level patient charges using cost-center-specific cost-to-charge ratios and were reported in year 2001 U.S. dollars. Fifty-one of 275 patients (18.5%) had persistent coma and died in the hospital and were excluded from further analysis. Of the remaining 224 patients, delirium developed in 183 (81.7%) and lasted a median of 2.1 (interquartile range, 1–3) days. Baseline demographics were similar between those with and without delirium. Intensive care unit costs (median, interquartile range) were significantly higher for those with at least one episode of delirium ($22,346, $15,083–$35,521) vs. those with no delirium ($13,332, $8,837–$21,471, p < .001). Total hospital costs were also higher in those who developed delirium ($41,836, $22,782–$68,134 vs. $27,106, $13,875–$37,419, p = .002). Higher severity and duration of delirium were associated with incrementally greater costs (all p < .001). After adjustment for age, comorbidity, severity of illness, degree of organ dysfunction, nosocomial infection, hospital mortality, and other potential confounders, delirium was associated with 39% higher intensive care unit (95% confidence interval, 12–72%) and 31% higher hospital (95% confidence interval, 1–70%) costs. ConclusionsDelirium is a common clinical event in mechanically ventilated medical intensive care unit patients and is associated with significantly higher intensive care unit and hospital costs. Future efforts to prevent or treat intensive care unit delirium have the potential to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs of care.
Towards the development of smart parking system using mobile and web technologies

As an important component of traffic system, parking management system is playing an important role and affecting people's daily life. By detecting and processing the information from parking lots, smart parking system allows drivers to obtain real-time parking information and alleviates parking contentions. The use of intelligent systems have become the most prevalent among the world contribute to the implementation of daily business in a more efficient and flexible reveal. In this research study we show the importance of using smart parking systems. Our design goals of the smart parking systems include: simplify the operations of parking systems, improve drivers' satisfaction, increase parking revenue, and alleviate traffic congestion. Through analysis, design, implementation and testing phases, we introduce the proposed reservation-based parking system prototype that has the potential to achieve the above goals. We used Cronbach's alpha to measure the validity and stability of the study questionnaire items. We also used the Spearman Correlation analysis for determining the impact factors such as: city, age, gender, car type, job, educational level, monthly salary and credit card type, in using intelligent systems via mobile or computer application, for smart parking reservation.
Sparse Reconfigurable Adaptive Filter with an Upgraded Connection Constraint Algorithm

A sparse reconfigurable adaptive filter (SRAF) based on a photonic switch determines the appropriate time delays and weight values for an optical switch implementation of tapped-delay-line (TDL) systems. It is well known that the choice of switch delays is significantly important for efficiently implementing the SRAF. If the same values exist as calculating the sum of weight magnitudes for implementing the connection constraint required by the SRAF, conventional connection algorithm based on sequentially selection the maximum elements might not work perfectly. In an effort to increase the effectiveness of system identification, an upgraded connection algorithm used progressive calculation to obtain the better solution is considered in this paper. The performance of the proposed connection constraint algorithm is illustrated by computer simulation for a system identification application.
Opening minds: Cultural change with the introduction of open-source collaboration methods

As open-source software becomes accepted worldwide, open-source collaboration and development methods are also gaining greater momentum. Collaboration based on the open-source paradigm is increasingly being used to improve multisite development and teamwork inside companies. Drawing on experience in projects for improving multisite collaboration, this paper explains how we evaluate communication and collaboration problems, assess obstacles to change, and facilitate the change by introducing employees to the benefits of the collaborative model over traditional development projects in a workshop setting. This method has proven to be a valuable “mind-opener” and helps identify specific obstacles that need to be addressed as part of the introduction of open-source development and collaboration methods. The paper concludes with lessons learned for facilitating the introduction of these methods in an organization.
Investigating User Needs for Bio-sensing and Affective Wearables

Bio-sensing wearables are currently advancing to provide users with a lot of information about their physiological and affective states. However, relatively little is known about users' interest in acquiring, sharing and receiving this information and through which channels and modalities. To close this gap, we report on the results of an online survey (N=109) exploring principle aspects of the design space of wearables such as data types, contexts, feedback modalities and sharing behaviors. Results show that users are interested in obtaining physiological, emotional and cognitive data through modalities beyond traditional touchscreen output. Valence of the information, whether positive or negative affects the sharing behaviors.
Multi-attribute approach to sustainable supply chain management under uncertainty

– The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and provide a comprehensive and quantitative method to assess performance. , – The study applied interval-valued triangular fuzzy numbers associated with grey relational analysis to improve the insufficient information and overcome the incomplete system under uncertainty. , – The findings support the argument that the triple bottom line is insufficient to cover the entire concept of SSCM; in particular, the aspects of operations, stakeholders and resilience have not been addressed in previous studies. , – The results reveal that the triple bottom line concept is insufficient to illustrate the principles of SSCM and to provide an extensive basis for theory development. The aspects and criteria considered in the study only relate to the studied company and may need to be reviewed when applied to other industries. , – The methodology and findings of the study demonstrate the core applications of criteria ranking and identify priority areas that utilize less investment but that may maintain the studied company’s current performance. Suggestions for the prioritization of criteria to enhance SSCM performance are provided. , – The present study provides three valuable contributions. First, it adopts collaboration theory to furnish a theoretical foundation for SSCM. Second, the proposed hybrid method is able to overcome uncertainty and subsequently evaluate SSCM while utilizing incomplete and imprecise information. Third, the evaluation provides significant results for consideration in decision making by the studied company.
Psychological Distress and Substance Use Among Community-Recruited Women Currently Victimized by Intimate Partners

Latent class analysis was used to examine patterns of victimization among a community sample of 212 women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). Results identified three classes of women characterized by victimization history (recent IPV, childhood victimization); classes were further differentiated by IPV-related posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, other indicators of psychological distress, and substance use. Differentiating levels of victimization and their associated patterns of psychosocial functioning can be used to develop intervention strategies targeting the needs of different subgroups of women so that mental health and substance use problems can be reduced or prevented altogether. Implications for treatment and future research are presented here.
Effective Governance of It: Design Objectives, Roles, and Relationships

Abstract This article describes the key roles and relationships in a best-practice IT governance design, including the roles and responsibilities of an IT governance council, the CIO, IT customer services, the IT project office, and several non-IT roles. the author argues that organizational readiness and stakeholder participation are critical success factors for a new IT governance implementation.
Synthesis and Characterization of Pt-Ag Alloy Nanocages with Enhanced Activity and Durability toward Oxygen Reduction.

Engineering the elemental composition of metal nanocrystals offers an effective strategy for the development of catalysts or electrocatalysts with greatly enhanced activity. Herein, we report the synthesis of Pt-Ag alloy nanocages with an outer edge length of 18 nm and a wall thickness of about 3 nm. Such nanocages with a composition of Pt19Ag81 could be readily prepared in one step through the galvanic replacement reaction between Ag nanocubes and a Pt(II) precursor. After 10 000 cycles of potential cycling in the range of 0.60-1.0 V as in an accelerated durability test, the composition of the nanocages changed to Pt56Ag44, together with a specific activity of 1.23 mA cm-2 toward oxygen reduction, which was 3.3 times that of a state-of-the-art commercial Pt/C catalyst (0.37 mA cm-2) prior to durability testing. Density functional theory calculations attributed the increased activity to the stabilization of the transition state for breaking the O-O bond in molecular oxygen. Even after 30 000 cycles of potential cycling, the mass activity of the nanocages only dropped from 0.64 to 0.33 A mg-1Pt, which was still about two times that of the pristine Pt/C catalyst (0.19 A mg-1Pt).
A secure M+1/sup st/ price auction scheme based on RSAP

The Internet is a prime vehicle for supporting electronic auction, a primitive pricing mechanism for setting price. But up to now, the study of efficient and secure M+1/sup st/ price auction is still very weak. Aiming at this drawback, this paper presented a new solution for M+1/sup st/ price auction in the case of protecting bidders. Employing the method of binary search, this scheme resolves the winners and the winning price synchronously and rapidly. If necessary, all auctioneers can collaborate with each other to open the winners' bidding prices without leaking any privacy of losers. Comparison in terms of communication cost between our proposed scheme and others was given at the end of the paper. The result shows that our solution consumes less bandwidth in communication.
Permanent synchronous motor predictive deadbeat current control-robustness investigation

This paper investigates the robustness of predictive deadbeat current control applied to a surface permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) due to model parameter uncertainty. This kind of control is considered as model based control and it is very sensitive to model parameter mismatch. Two different methods to improve control robustness are presented and compared.
QIRANA Demonstration: Real time Scalable Query Pricing

The last decade has seen a deluge in data collection and dissemination across a broad range of areas. This phenomena has led to creation of online data markets where entities engage in sale and purchase of data. In this scenario, the key challenge for the data market platform is to ensure that it allows real time, scalable, arbitrage-free pricing of user queries. At the same time, the platform needs to flexible enough for sellers in order to customize the setup of the data to be sold. In this paper, we describe the demonstration of Qirana, a light weight framework that implements query-based pricing at scale. The framework acts as a layer between the end users (buyers and sellers) and the database. Qirana's demonstration features that we highlight are: (i) allows sellers to choose from a variety of pricing functions based on their requirements and incorporates price points as a guide for query pricing; (ii) helps the seller set parameters by mocking workloads; (iii) buyers engage with the platform by directly asking queries and track their budget per dataset;. We demonstrate the tunable parameters of our framework over a real-world dataset, illustrating the promise of our approach.
Semantic Reasoning in Zero Example Video Event Retrieval

Searching in digital video data for high-level events, such as a parade or a car accident, is challenging when the query is textual and lacks visual example images or videos. Current research in deep neural networks is highly beneficial for the retrieval of high-level events using visual examples, but without examples it is still hard to (1) determine which concepts are useful to pre-train (Vocabulary challenge) and (2) which pre-trained concept detectors are relevant for a certain unseen high-level event (Concept Selection challenge). In our article, we present our Semantic Event Retrieval System which (1) shows the importance of high-level concepts in a vocabulary for the retrieval of complex and generic high-level events and (2) uses a novel concept selection method (i-w2v) based on semantic embeddings. Our experiments on the international TRECVID Multimedia Event Detection benchmark show that a diverse vocabulary including high-level concepts improves performance on the retrieval of high-level events in videos and that our novel method outperforms a knowledge-based concept selection method.
Evaluating Learning Algorithms: A Classification Perspective

The field of machine learning has matured to the point where many sophisticated learning approaches can be applied to practical applications. Thus it is of critical importance that researchers have the proper tools to evaluate learning approaches and understand the underlying issues. This book examines various aspects of the evaluation process with an emphasis on classification algorithms. The authors describe several techniques for classifier performance assessment, error estimation and resampling, obtaining statistical significance as well as selecting appropriate domains for evaluation. They also present a unified evaluation framework and highlight how different components of evaluation are both significantly interrelated and interdependent. The techniques presented in the book are illustrated using R and WEKA facilitating better practical insight as well as implementation.Aimed at researchers in the theory and applications of machine learning, this book offers a solid basis for conducting performance evaluations of algorithms in practical settings.
Monolayer crystallization of flagellar L-P rings by sequential addition and depletion of lipid

The L-P ring complex is thought to be a molecular bushing that supports flagellar motor rotation at about 10,000 revolutions per minute with presumably very little friction. Structural studies of this complex have been limited because only very small amount of samples are available. Therefore devising an efficient method of crystallization was essential. The addition of a phospholipid and its subsequent slow depletion by phospholipase A2 have been used to successfully grow well-ordered monolayer crystals that extend up to about 10 micrometers. The interaction of the L-P ring complex with lipid membranes was also visualized during this process.
Biochemical Markers of Bone Turnover and Prediction of Hip Bone Loss in Older Women: The Study of Osteoporotic Fractures

To examine the ability of commercially available biochemical markers of bone formation and resorption to predict hip bone loss, we prospectively obtained serum and timed 2‐h urine specimens from 295 women age 67 years or older who were not receiving estrogen replacement therapy. Serum was assayed for two markers of bone formation: osteocalcin (OC) and bone‐specific alkaline phosphatase (BALP). Urine specimens were assayed for four markers of bone resorption: N‐telopeptides (NTX), free pyridinolines (Pyr), free deoxypyridinoline (Dpyr), and C‐telopeptides (CTX). Measurements of hip bone mineral density were made at the time the samples were collected and then repeated an average of 3.8 years later. Higher levels of all four resorption markers were, on average, significantly associated with faster rates of bone loss at the total hip, but not at the femoral neck. Women with OC levels above the median had a significantly faster rate of bone loss than women with levels below the median, but there was no significant association between levels of BALP and hip bone loss. The sensitivity and specificity of higher marker levels for predicting rapid hip bone loss was limited, and there was considerable overlap in bone loss rates between women with high and low marker levels. We conclude that higher levels of urine NTX, CTX, Pyr, Dpyr, and serum OC are associated with faster bone loss at the hip in this population of elderly women not receiving estrogen replacement therapy, but these biochemical markers have limited value for predicting rapid hip bone loss in individuals.
Field Optimization of Nonuniform Field Gaps

In order to improve the dielectric strength of gaps of nonuniform field, a field-optimization procedure has been devised with a view to relieving the stress on the most stressed regions of the gap. Up to a certain point, this objective may be obtained by simply improving the shape of the electrodes. An advanced degree of optimization is, obtained by introducing in the gap one or more conductive barriers of a given shape. When conductive barriers are used, the optimum positions and the optimum voltages to be attributed to each barrier are determined in such a way that maximum strength is obtained.
Determination of the singlet oxygen quantum yield of bacteriochlorin a: a comparative study in phosphate buffer and aqueous dispersion of dimiristoyl-l-α-phosphatidylcholine liposomes

The production of singlet oxygen (^1O_2) by bacteriochlorin a (BCA) was studied in phosphate buffer and in dimyristoyl- l -a-phosphatidylcholine (DMPC) unilamellar liposomes. The comparative method used to measure ^1O_2 production was a quantitative analysis of photooxidation reactions leading to the loss of absorbance of the water-soluble specific probe: anthracene-9,10-dipropionic acid. Rose Bengal, whose ^1O_2 quantum yield ( F ^RB) is well known in alcohols and phosphate buffer, was used as the standard for the quantification of the BCA singlet oxygen production. Our results confirm quantitatively that solubilization of BCA in liposomes leads to an increase in ^1O_2 production. Indeed, the quantum yield of ^1O_2 production by BCA ( F ^BCA) is 0.05 in phosphate buffer and 0.33 in DMPC liposomes. Furthermore, the diffusion characteristics of ^1O_2 produced by BCA bound to liposome were also examined using the isotopic lifetime enhancement effect of D_2O. It was shown that ^1O_2 spent at least 70% of its lifetime in the vesicular environment.
A Multi-Source TrAdaBoost Approach for Cross-Company Defect Prediction

Cross-company defect prediction (CCDP) is a practical way that trains a prediction model by exploiting one or multiple projects of a source company and then applies the model to target company. Unfortunately, larger irrelevant crosscompany (CC) data usually makes it difficult to build a prediction model with high performance. On the other hand, brute force leveraging of CC data poorly related to withincompany (WC) data may decrease the prediction model performance. To address such issues, this paper introduces Multi-Source TrAdaBoost algorithm, an effective transfer learning approach to perform CCDP. The core idea of our approach is that: 1) employ limited amount of labeled WC data to weaken the impact of irrelevant CC data; 2) import knowledge not from one but from multiple sources to avoid negative transfer. The experimental results indicate that: 1) our proposed approach achieves the best overall performance among all tested CCDP approaches; 2) only 10% labeled WC data is enough to achieve good performance of CCDP by using our proposed approach. Keywords—software defect prediction;cross-company defect prediction; transfer learning; Multi-Source TrAdaBoost
Characterization of thermo‐solvent stable protease from Halobacillus sp. CJ4 isolated from Chott Eldjerid hypersaline lake in Tunisia

About 110 newly isolated halophilic and halotolerant bacteria were screened for protease production. A moderately halophilic strain (CJ4), isolated from Chott Eldjerid Hypersaline lake in Tunisia, showed the highest activity on agar plate and was then selected. The biochemical and physiological characterization of the isolate along with the 16S rRNA sequence analysis placed it in the genus Halobacillus. Protease production was maximal at 120 g/L NaCl (2 M) and it started from the post‐exponential phase reaching a maximum level at the early decline phase of bacterial growth. Protease activity was optimal at 0.4 M NaCl, pH 9 and 45 °C. It showed an excellent stability over wide ranges of temperatures (30–60 °C), NaCl concentrations (0–5 M), and pH values (5–10), which make it a good candidate for industrial applications at harsh conditions. Crude protease was strongly inhibited by PMSF revealing the dominance of serine proteases. Protease activity exhibited high stability in the presence of several organic solvents and detergent additives. These findings make Halobacillus sp. CJ4 protease with a great interest for many biotechnological applications at high salt or low water content such as peptide synthesis and detergent formulation.
Axotomy of the rat facial nerve leads to increased CR3 complement receptor expression by activated microglial cells

Axotomy of the rat facial nerve leads to mitotic divisions of microglial cells without developing into phagocytes. In order to study the functional characteristics of those activated, i.e., proliferating but nonphagocytic, microglia we investigated the expression of monocyte/macrophage antigens by these cells. Our results show that activated microglia lack monocyte/macrophage antigens recognized by the monoclonal antibodies Ox‐41, ED1, ED2, and Ki‐M2R but express high levels of CR3 complement receptors in situ.
Real-time shot change detection over online MPEG-2 video

The development of technologies and standards intended to enable and organize a variety of innovative services over the infrastructure that supports digital TV requires a parallel evolution of the techniques to manage its main information media: digital video. Particularly, as TV broadcasters confront the provision of dynamic value-added content-based services over the audio-visual information that is being transmitted, they require online annotation of the received digital channels. In order to achieve it, apart from high levels of success in video temporal segmentation-a great resource-consuming task previous to most video annotation techniques-a faster than real-time performance is crucial. This paper describes a software module for video temporal segmentation which is able to detect both abrupt transitions and all types of gradual transitions in real time, with levels of recall and precision not reported up to date for such a large and varied set of video sequences.