Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Non-Linear Three-Dimensional Finite Element Analysis of a Cementless Hip Endoprosthesis

In this finite element study the stresses between a stem component of a cementless hip endoprosthesis (Young modulus of Co—Cr—Mo) and the human femur were calculated for two different loading types. Linear and non-linear models were used to simulate the interface implant bone. Two models, a stem with a porous coated surface over the entire length and a stem with a porous coated surface in the proximal region were compared regarding the load transmission to the femur. An additional calculation of an ‘isoelastic’ stem (Young modulus of cortical bone) was done to show the influence of the stem stiffness. A porous coated surface over the entire length causes principal shear stresses up to 2.75 MPa in the distal-medial region during level walking. The highest compressive stresses were calculated in the proximal-lateral region as 1.5 MPa in cancellous bone. A more physiological load transmission is obtained by limiting the coated area to the proximal region. All stresses in the two models are lower than experimentally evaluated strengths in the interface between implant and bone. A strong infuence of the Young modulus of the stem material on the interface stresses was found. An ‘isoelastic’ stem causes compressive stresses in the proximal-lateral region whose values exceed the experimental strength of cancellous bone.
Papillary Carcinoma in a Thyroglossal Duct Cyst

Abstract Papillary carcinoma arising in a thyroglossal duct cyst is a rare tumor. We report the case of 64-year-old man treated for thyroglossal duct cyst. Preoperatively, the thyroid gland was normal on physical examination and imaging studies. The Sistrunk procedure was done. The histopathological examination revealed thyroid papillary carcinoma. Postoperatively thyroid hormon was given to suppress serum TSH levels and the patient was followed at regular intervals. During a 5-year follow-up period, no recurrence of the disease occured.
Analytical Modeling of Large-Signal Cyclo-Stationary Low-Frequency Noise With Arbitrary Periodic Input

Low-frequency (LF) noise under cyclo-stationary excitation has received considerable attention recently. Until now, only semiempirical models for cyclo-stationary random telegraph signal (RTS) and flicker noise have been reported in the literature. In this paper, we report, starting from basics, the analytical nonstationary extension of the standard LF noise models. This analytical model is valid for any kind of periodic excitation. After a rigorous analysis, by introducing some suitable approximations, we identify the main reason behind nonstationary behavior. Our analysis clearly shows that, for almost all practical purpose, an averaged time constant and an averaged trap density can model the cyclo-stationarity of RTS and flicker noise, respectively.
Effect of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) on Performance of Small-Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) Using Structural Equations Model (SEM)

In today world, the necessity of continuing activities and maintaining the competitive advantage is attention to customers that due to their direct relationship with organization actions are valuable source for opportunities, threats and operational questions related to the industry. This study aims to investigate the effect of customer relationship management (CRM) on the performance of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). Statistical population of this study is managers active in industrial park in Mashhad. Statistical sample of this research is 105 managers who were selected randomly from among the managers of industrial park located in this city. Library method was used for gathering data. In this research, survey method and questionnaire were used to identify the effect among variables and data analysis was done by AMOS18 and SPSS19 software. Results showed that CRM has significant effect on the performance of enterprises. Technology is a key factor which influences SMEs and leads to superiority on competitors. Besides, for achieving more desired performance, enterprises should pay attention to market and customers.
Unified Matching Grids for Multidomain Multiphysics Simulations

Grid generation for multiple-domain multiple-physics problems in which the single-physics components are applied on disjoint abutting domains is considered. In general, grids that are separately constructed for each domain, as is the case when one uses legacy codes, may have overlaps and gaps and have grid points that do not match along the interface between the domains. Using very simple settings, the possible difficulties that can arise when using nonmatching grids are illustrated. Then, based on centroidal Voronoi tessellation gridding strategies, an algorithm is presented for the unified construction of grids in multiple domains that match perfectly, i.e., have no gaps or overlaps and have only common cell faces where they abut. Grid refinement is effected both to resolve boundaries, including interfaces, and to refine in regions of interest. The use of the matching grid construction algorithm is illustrated through its application to a simple example as well as to ocean-land gridding on the globe.
Performance Comparison of Differential Evolution, Particle Swarm Optimization and Genetic Algorithm in the Design of Circularly Polarized Microstrip Antennas

Performance evaluation of evolutionary optimization techniques is done with respect to the design of circularly polarized microstrip antennas. The optimization techniques include conventional differential evolution, particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithm along with their advanced schemes. The optimization is done for impedance matching over a predefined frequency range, circular polarization, and high gain at a center frequency. The control parameters of all the algorithms are tuned using meta-level particle swarm optimization algorithm. Three cases are considered with three conventional feeding techniques, namely probe feed, transmission line feed, and the cross-aperture coupled feed. A fuzzified cost function is developed for optimization to ensure proper outcome from each optimization algorithm. The antenna parameters obtained from the algorithm producing best results are fabricated and their performances measured.
Clinical and economic impact of the use of etanercept 25 mg once weekly in rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthropathy and ankylosing spondylitis patients

Objective: To determine the clinical and economic impact of etanercept 25 mg/week (ETN25) on rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthropathy (PA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients in sustained clinical remission. Methods: Observational, retrospective cohort of patients treated with etanercept 50 mg/week (ETN50) who achieved and maintained clinical remission (Disease Activity Score 28 < 2.6 or BASDAI < 2) over a period of 1 year and had slow worsening of structural changes were enrolled in an off-label program (January 2006 to June 2013) to switch from ETN50 to ETN25. Economic impact was assessed using Enbrel® official prices for Spain. Results: From 1 January 2006 to 1 June 2013, 98 RA, 40 PA and 47 AS patients were treated with ETN50; 39 (24%) patients (20 women; age = 53 ± 7 years; 24 RA, 7 PA, 8 AS) received ETN25 for at least 0.5 years (2.6 ± 2.0 years; range = 0.5 – 7.3 years). As of 1 June 2013, 29 (74%) patients continued on ETN25. RA patients: 17 patients continued on ETN25, 5 patients discontinued use due to reactivation of RA (4 switched back to ETN50 and 1 switched to adalimumab; all regained clinical remission) and 2 patients discontinued use due to adverse reactions. PA patients: four patients continued on ETN25, two patients discontinued use due to reactivation of PA (switched back to ETN50, regaining clinical remission) and one patient discontinued use due to adverse reaction. All AS patients continued on ETN25. The total savings associated with ETN25 over the 7-year observation period were €622,073, resulting in the ability to treat 52 additional patients with ETN50 for one year without increasing total ETN costs. Conclusion: ETN25 produces cost savings while maintaining clinical response in a high proportion of patients after at least one year under clinical remission with ETN50. At a time when the cost of therapy is an unavoidable component of healthcare treatment decisions, ETN25 could be a cost-effective option for selective RA, PA and AS patients.
The impact of children on a parent's risk of suicide following death of a spouse, Belgium 1991–96

Since Durkheim's work on suicide, the family has widely been seen as providing partial protection against the development of tendencies to suicide. This study assesses the impact of parenthood (both number of children and age of youngest child) on suicide following the death of a spouse. Using data for Belgium in the 5 years following the 1991 census, the study adopts a nested case–control design with information on 3,800 suicides and 75,673 matched controls. The analysis takes into account several social–economic variables. The findings show that the impact of children on the elevated suicide levels found among widows and widowers relative to the still married can be positive or negative, and differs by both age and sex of the parent, age of the child or children, and time since bereavement.
Guidelines on the diagnosis and management of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

The purpose of this guideline is to provide a rational approach to the diagnosis and management of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). This guideline has been compiled by the Guidelines Working Group of the UK CLL Forum on behalf of the British Committee for Standards in Haematology (BCSH). Recommendations are based on a review of the literature using Medline/Pubmed searches under the heading, CLL, up to October 2003 and data presented at the American Society of Hematology in 2003 and at the 10th International Workshop on CLL in 2003. The results of meta-analyses and phase 3 studies that have been published or presented in abstract form are included. Treatment recommendations were influenced by current and proposed clinical trials in the UK and by guidance from The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). A draft guideline was reviewed by members of the UK CLL Forum, patient representatives, members of the BCSH and a panel of approximately 60 UK haematologists. Their comments were incorporated where appropriate. To ensure widespread dissemination, the guideline is available on the BCSH website. Criteria for levels of evidence and grades of recommendation are shown in Table I. The guideline will be reviewed and updated in 2005, and a full guideline revision is planned for 2007.
Rapid canine distalization through segmental alveolar distraction osteogenesis.

OBJECTIVE The objectives of this study were to achieve rapid canine distalization by segmental alveolar distraction method in first premolar extraction cases, to examine the changes in the periodontal tissues surrounding canines, to evaluate the displacement of the canine and first molar teeth, to assess the effects of the procedure on the pulpal vitality of the canines, and to determine the amount of root resorption in retracted canines. MATERIALS AND METHODS The sample of the study consisted of 20 teeth in eight patients (four females and four males, mean age 18.5 years). Pre- and posttreatment dental casts, panoramic radiographs, and standard periapical radiographs were taken from all patients. An electrical vitality test was applied before and after the distraction procedure and during the follow-up period (6 months after the completion of the procedure). In addition, six periodontal indices were used to examine the health of the periodontal tissues. RESULTS The distraction procedure was completed in 12 to 28 days (mean 14.65 +/- 3.49). The anchorage loss ranged from 0 to 3 mm (mean 1.2 +/- 0.83). The distal displacement of the canines ranged from 3 to 8 mm (mean 5.35 +/- 1.22). The canines showed a mean of 9.1 degrees distal tipping, whereas there was no statistically significant change in the axial inclinations of first molars after distraction. CONCLUSION We believe that rapid canine distalization by segmental distraction osteogenesis will become a routine protocol and a popular method among orthodontic applications.
More-electric aircraft electrical power system accelerated functional modeling

The development of future more-electric aircraft (MEA) is a major trend in modern aircraft electric power system (EPS) engineering that results in a significantly increased number of onboard loads driven by power-electronics. Development of appropriate EPS architectures, ensuring the power system integrity, stability and assessment of overall system quality and performance under possible normal and abnormal scenarios requires extensive simulation activity. The increased use of power electronics can make the simulation of the large-scale EPS impractical due to enormous computation time or even numerical non-convergence due to the model complexity. Hence, there is a strong demand for accurate but time-efficient modeling techniques for MEA EPS simulations. The paper reports the development of a functional models library capable of significant improvement in simulation time whilst maintaining good accuracy up to a specified frequency range. The application of the library is demonstrated on the example study of the performance of a twin-generator example EPS under both normal and faulty regimes.
Enzyme variation in Trypanosoma brucei spp. I. Evidence for the sub-speciation of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense

Summary Three groups of stocks of Trypanosoma brucei ssp, defined by the criteria of host, human serum resistance and place of isolation as T. b. gambiense, T. b. brucei (Nigeria) and T. b. brucei/rhodesiense (non-gambiense, Uganda) were screened for electrophoretic variation at 20 enzyme loci. One enzyme (Peptidase C) was found to differentiate all T. b. gambiense stocks from the other T. brucei stocks and, taken together with specific variants of 5 other enzymes, could be used to unambiguously define T. b. gambiense stocks. Using a population genetics approach, the frequencies of the different variants in the three groups of stocks were estimated and from them the average similarity and difference between groups were measured using the statistics of genetic identity (I) and genetic distance (D). These results show firstly, that T. b. gambiense is more different from the other two groups than they are from each other and, secondly, that the values of I and D obtained are consistent with T. b. gambiense constituting a sub- or sibling species of T. brucei. Three domestic animal isolates from Zaire and Cameroun were also screened for enzyme variation and two of these identified as T. b. gambiense, thereby establishing the existence of an animal reservoir host. In parallel, these stocks were tested for human serum resistance resulting in the same identification. Studies of the antigen repertoires and antigen gene structure were carried out by other workers on all the T. b. gambiense stocks reported here and the same conclusions reached as to the identification and ability to discriminate this subspecies from other groups of T. brucei stocks. The results presented here are discussed in relation to other published data on enzyme variation in T. brucei.
Optical Projection Tomography as a Tool for 3D Microscopy and Gene Expression Studies

Current techniques for three-dimensional (3D) optical microscopy (deconvolution, confocal microscopy, and optical coherence tomography) generate 3D data by “optically sectioning” the specimen. This places severe constraints on the maximum thickness of a specimen that can be imaged. We have developed a microscopy technique that uses optical projection tomography (OPT) to produce high-resolution 3D images of both fluorescent and nonfluorescent biological specimens with a thickness of up to 15 millimeters. OPT microscopy allows the rapid mapping of the tissue distribution of RNA and protein expression in intact embryos or organ systems and can therefore be instrumental in studies of developmental biology or gene function.
Fuzzy reconstruction of cluster-based missing features method for robust speech recognition

Despite one decade of the missing feature theory application in the domain of Robust Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), this field is still an active area for researchers. In this report using fuzzy concepts, we will present a method for modifying the cluster-based reconstruction of unreliable components of the noisy speech spectrogram. In this simple but effective method using a fuzzy membership function the feature vector component reliability is fuzzified. In the next stage this new parameter is applied as a weighting parameter for summing new reconstructed components and their old noisy values. Experiments were done on the FarsDat database using two recognition models, a Neural Network (NN) and a Hidden Markova Model (HMM). The improvements in the recognition results using this new reconstruction method in low SNRs for the frame-based neural network was approximately 5% and for the phoneme-based HMM was between one and two percent.
Diagnostic accuracy of fetal scalp lactate for intrapartum acidosis compared with scalp pH.

OBJECTIVE To determine the diagnostic accuracy of fetal scalp lactate sampling (FSLS) and to establish an optimal cut-off value for intrapartum acidosis compared with fetal scalp pH. METHODS A 20-month retrospective cohort study was conducted of all neonates delivered in our institution for whom fetal scalp blood sampling (FSBS) was performed, matching their intrapartum gasometry to their cord gasometry at delivery (n=243). The time taken from the performance of scalp blood sampling to arterial umbilical cord gas acquisition was 45 min at most. Five arterial cord gasometry patterns were set for assessing the predictive ability of both techniques. Subsequent obstetric management for a pathological value was analysed considering the use of both techniques. RESULTS The optimal cut-off value for FSLS was 4.8 mmol/L: this value has 100% sensitivity and 63% specificity for umbilical arterial cord gas pH≤7.0 and base deficit (BD)≥12 detection, and 100% sensitivity and 64% specificity for umbilical arterial cord gas pH≤7.10 and BD≥12 detection, with a false negative rate of <1.3%, improving fetal scalp pH performance. FSLS showed the best area under the curve (AUC) of 0.86 and 0.84 for both arterial cord gasometry patterns, respectively. Expedite birth following lactate criteria would have been the same as following pH criteria (92 obstetric interventions) with no cases of missed metabolic acidosis. In the cohort, 19.8% of cases were discordant, but no cases of metabolic acidosis were in this group. CONCLUSIONS FSLS improves the detection of metabolic acidosis via fetal scalp pH with an optimal cut-off value of 4.8 mmol/L. FSLS can be used without increasing obstetrical interventions or missing metabolic acidosis.
Illness presentation in elderly patients.

BACKGROUND Atypical disease presentations, such as delirium, are associated with adverse health outcomes. They are also markers of frailty in elderly people, which is itself associated with adverse hospital outcomes. We investigated the relationship between frailty and atypical disease presentation in predicting adverse hospital outcomes and complications of the hospital course of elderly patients admitted to general medical services. METHODS We conducted a cohort study in a large (800 beds) tertiary care university hospital. The prevalence of atypical disease presentations and the incidence of adverse hospital outcomes (death, nursing home admission, prolonged hospital stay, and failure to regain premorbid functional status) were studied in previously well and previously frail elderly patients. RESULTS Patients were classified as being well or frail on the basis of the premorbid Barthel Index (well, score of > or = 95 [n = 76]; frail, score of < 95 [n = 117]). Frail elderly were older (80 vs 76 years), more often female (62% vs 46%), and less likely to be community dwelling (89% vs 99%). Atypical disease presentation was more common in the frail elderly (59% vs 25%; P < .001). Of those who presented atypically, the frail most often presented with delirium (61%) and the well presented with falls (37%) and delirium (32%). Of the frail elderly with atypical symptoms, 60% had adverse hospital outcomes compared with 32% of the well elderly who presented typically (P < .05). Logistic regression analysis showed that premorbid functional dependence (odds ratio, 2.48; 95% confidence interval, 1.17 to 5.22), atypical disease presentation (odds ratio, 2.37; 95% confidence interval, 1.20 to 4.67), and functional decline at admission (odds ratio, 5.64; 95% confidence interval, 2.37 to 13.44) were all independently predictive of poor hospital outcomes. By contrast, severity of disease, age, and sex did not confer an increased risk of adverse events. CONCLUSIONS Premorbid functional dependency, atypical disease presentation, and functional decline on admission have independent impacts on adverse hospital outcomes. Assessment of each should be incorporated into the routine care of elderly patients.
Validity and reliability of combining three methods to determine ventilatory threshold.

PURPOSE This research was undertaken to validate a combination of methodologies to determine ventilatory threshold (VT). METHODS Three methods were used individually and then combined to determine VT as follows: 1) ventilatory equivalencies, 2) excess CO2 production, and 3) a modified V-slope method. Three groups of participants-endurance athletes (N = 132), healthy, aerobically active adults (N = 31), and healthy, sedentary/low-active adults (N = 22)-were independently evaluated for VT and compared with the criterion standard lactate threshold (LT) defined as the first rise in blood lactate with increasing intensity of exercise. RESULTS VT and LT were significantly correlated using the combined VT method within each study group (r = 0.98, 0.97, and 0.95, respectively; P < 0.001). Mean VO2 values at VT and LT were not significantly different between the three groups (P > 0.20). The combined method improved the determination rate of VT and reduced the standard deviation of the LT - VT difference by 80-170% over the individual methods. During test-retest procedures VO2lt and VO2vt determined by the combined method met criteria demonstrating further reliability. CONCLUSION The combined method to determine VT is valid and reliable across a wide fitness range in healthy individuals and improves the determination rate and accuracy of VT determination over the use of single methods.