Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Culture of antibiotic use in Kosovo - an interview study with patients and health professionals

Background: Kosovo is a new state and has a high consumption of antibiotics in relation to other European countries. Existing quantitative studies have shown that practices exist that is not optimal when it comes to antibiotic use in Kosovo, this includes citizens’ use of antibiotics, pharmacy practices of selling antibiotics without prescriptions and physicians’ prescribing behaviours. To address these problems, there is a need for a deeper understanding of why antibiotics are handled in a suboptimal way. Objective: The objective was to explore antibiotic users’, community pharmacists’ and prescribers’ attitudes towards, experiences of, and knowledge about antibiotics in Kosovo. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients who recently received an antibiotic prescription for an upper respiratory tract infection (URTI), patients who recently received antibiotics for a URTI without a prescription, community pharmacists, and physicians. Interviews were recorded, translated into English, and analysed using deductive content analysis. Results: In total, 16 interviews were conducted in the period from 2015-2016. Five themes were identified: Obtaining antibiotics, Choice of antibiotics, Patient information, Patients’ knowledge and views on when to use antibiotics, and Professionals’ knowledge and attitudes towards antimicrobial resistance. Antibiotics were sometimes obtained without a prescription, also by patients who currently had received one. The specific antibiotic could be chosen by a physician, a pharmacist or the patient him/herself. Former experience was one reason given by patients for their choice. Patients’ knowledge on antibiotics was mixed, however health professionals were knowledgeable about e.g. antimicrobial resistance. Conclusions: There is currently a culture of antibiotic use in Kosovo, including attitudes and behaviours, and hence also experiences, which is possibly underlying the high consumption of antibiotics in the country. The culture is reproduced by patients, pharmacists and physicians. There is, however, an awareness of the current problematic situation among practitioners and policy makers; and as Kosovo is a new country, opportunities to effectively tackle antimicrobial resistance exist.
Detecting Dynamics of Hot Topics with Alluvial Diagrams: A Timeline Visualization

Abstract Purpose In this paper, we combined the method of co-word analysis and alluvial diagram to detect hot topics and illustrate their dynamics. Design/methodology/approach Articles in the field of scientometrics were chosen as research cases in this study. A time-sliced co-word network was generated and then clustered. Afterwards, we generated an alluvial diagram to show dynamic changes of hot topics, including their merges and splits over time. Findings After analyzing the dynamic changes in the field of scientometrics from 2011 to 2015, we found that two clusters being merged did not mean that the old topics had disappeared and a totally new one had emerged. The topics were possibly still active the following year, but the newer topics had drawn more attention. The changes of hot topics reflected the shift in researchers’ interests. Research topics in scientometrics were constantly subdivided and re-merged. For example, a cluster involving “industry” was divided into several topics as research progressed. Research limitations When examining longer time periods, we encounter the problem of dealing with bigger data sets. Analyzing data year by year would be tedious, but if we combine, e.g. two years into one time slice, important details would be missed. Practical implications This method can be applied to any research field to illustrate the dynamics of hot topics. It can indicate the promising directions for researchers and provide guidance to decision makers. Originality/value The use of alluvial diagrams is a distinctive and meaningful approach to detecting hot topics and especially to illustrating their dynamics.
Potential Benefits of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Clinically Node-Positive Luminal Subtype− Breast Cancer

Purpose Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is less effective for luminal breast cancer because luminal breast cancer has a lower rate of pathological complete response (pCR) after NAC than human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-type and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). We investigated the efficacy of NAC and the predictive factors of a better response in luminal breast cancer. Methods Between 2010 and 2016, we retrieved data of 244 patients with clinically node-positive breast cancer who were treated with NAC followed by surgery from a prospectively collected database. We classified breast cancer into luminal HER2− and non-luminal HER2− breast cancer (luminal HER2+, HER2+, and TNBC types). We analyzed each subtype with respect to surgical outcomes, response to NAC, and determined variables associated with surgical outcomes and response in patients with luminal HER2− breast cancer. Results The total, breast, and axillary pCR rates were significantly lower in 114 patients with luminal HER2− breast cancer than in those with other subtypes (7.9%, 12.3%, and 22.8%, respectively). However, breast-conserving surgery (BCS) conversion and tumor response rates did not significantly differ between patients with luminal HER2− and those with non-luminal HER2− breast cancer (p = 0.836 and p = 0.180, respectively). In the multivariate analysis, high tumor response rate (≥ 46.4%) was significantly associated with an increased BCS conversion rate. In the subgroup analysis of luminal HER2− breast cancer, the multivariate analysis showed that higher Ki67 expression and axilla pCR and BCS conversion rates were significantly associated with tumor response to NAC. Conclusion Despite the low pCR rate, the tumor response and BCS conversion rates after NAC of luminal HER2− breast cancer were similar to those of other subtypes. NAC has the potential benefit of reducing the size of breast cancer, thereby increasing the BCS conversion rate in luminal HER2− breast cancer.
Inferential iterative learning control : internal stability and performance aspects

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Cerebrovascular accidents differ between patients with atrial flutter and patients with atrial fibrillation

Introduction Few studies have explored the potential impact of atrial flutter (AFl) on ischaemic stroke (IS) outcome. The aim of the present study was to compare the clinical course of IS in patients with AFl and patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Material and methods A retrospective analysis of patients consecutively admitted to a tertiary care centre between 2013 and 2015 due to IS or transient ischaemic attack with permanent AFl or permanent or persistent AF was performed. Results The study groups consisted of 528 patients, including 490 (92.8%) patients with AF and 38 (7.2%) patients with AFl. The mean age and prestroke CHA2DS2-VASc scores were similar between the patients with AFl and those with AF. Most IS cases in the AF group were classified as cardioembolic strokes (74.9% vs. 39.5% in AFl, p < 0.01), and lacunar strokes were the most common in the AFl group (47.4% vs. 14.3% in AF, p < 0.01). The multivariable analysis revealed that the presence of AF (OR = 8.6, 95% CI: 1.2–57, p = 0.02), lacunar stroke (OR = 0.1, 95% CI: 0.03–0.31, p < 0.001), baseline Rankin scale score (OR = 16.6, 95% CI: 9.8–28), lack of prestroke therapeutic anticoagulation (OR = 6.1, 95% CI: 1.1–33), diabetes (OR = 2.9, 95% CI: 1.3–6.5, p < 0.01), chronic heart failure (OR = 14.2, 95% CI: 5.8–34, p < 0.001), and current smoking (OR = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.39–0.99, p < 0.01) were significantly associated with the stroke outcome. Conclusions Disabling or fatal IS was observed less often in patients with AFl than in patients with AF. This finding can possibly be explained by the more frequent occurrence of lacunar strokes in the AFl group compared with that in the AF group.
Reactive stepping strategies following lateral surface translations in individuals with a unilateral lower limb amputation

Following a loss of balance, individuals may utilize specific stepping strategies to prevent themselves from falling. The stepping strategies that are used by lower limb amputees, which likely consist of unique properties because of the limitations when using a prosthesis, have not been thoroughly identified. Therefore, this study examined the lateral reactive stepping strategies used eight amputees and ten nonamputees. They experienced four support-surface translations in both the leftward and rightward direction. Results indicated that amputees use unique reactive stepping strategies, particularly with the unloaded leg and when the direction of the perturbation causes unloading of the prosthesis. Amputee stepping strategies were characterized by fewer steps, lower quality of balance recovery, and wider variety compared to non-amputees. This study's findings highlight the reliance on the hip strategy in amputee reactive balance, and future studies should explore how amputees use their hip and trunk while executing reactive stepping strategies.
Design of an Energy Efficient 4-2 Compressor

In this paper an energy efficient 4-2 compressor is designed by utilizing only 36 transistors. The architecture of this new compressor consists of 8 transistors (8T) Exclusive-OR-Exclusive-NOR (XOR-XNOR) module and multiplexer based on transmission gate logic. The 8T XOR-XNOR module not only offers high speed, full voltage swing at outputs but also consumes less power. Simulations are done by using Cadence Virtuoso Tool in 180nm CMOS technology. The performance parameters, viz. maximum output delay, average power dissipation and power-delay-product (PDP) are varied from 920.1ps to 211.4ps, 11. 85µW to 123. 4µW and 10.90fJ to 26.09fJ respectively with a variation of supply voltage from 1V to 3V. Further a comparison of the performance parameters of the proposed compressor is performed with a number of the existing 4-2 compressors at 1.8V supply. Simulation results depict that the proposed compressor attains improvement in terms of speed, power and PDP.
Evaluation of body postures of Belgian Malinois dogs during a police dog training in Germany.

Polis kopegi egitimi, yuksek uyarilma ve stres seviyesi iceren kati bir egitimdir. Bu calismada, Belcika Malinois kopeklerinin polis kopegi egitiminde, itaat egzersizleri sirasinda teslimiyetci vucut dili sergileme yonundeki davranissal egilimlerinin incelenmesi amaclanmistir. Ayrica, bu kopeklerde degisik vucut pozisyonlarina neden olan faktorler de degerlendirilmistir. Sonuc olarak itaat egzersizleri sirasinda, 42 kopegin 6’si (%14,3) normal - kendine guvenli vucut pozisyonuna sahip olarak degerlendirilmistir. Bununla birlikte, diger kopekler (% 85,7) teslimiyet davranisina ait en az bir davranis unsurunu sergilemislerdir. Yas ve teslimiyetci vucut dili, cinsiyet ve teslimiyetci vucut dili ve gercek bir sucluyla karsilasmis olma ve teslimiyetci vucut dili arasinda istatistiksel olarak anlamli bir korelasyon bulunmamistir. Bu arastirmadan elde edilen sonuclar Belcika Malinois irkina ait kopeklerin uyarilma ve stres seviyesi yuksek egitim kosullarinda notral davranis veya dikkat davranisindan ziyade teslimiyetci davranis gostermeye daha yatkin olduklarini gostermistir
Acute Surgery vs. Non-union Surgery of Displaced Midshaft Clavicle Fractures: A Case-control Study

Introduction There is a lack of information about the results of surgical treatment and complications in midshaft clavicle fracture non-unions. Our hypothesis was that there is no difference in functional outcomes between the surgical treatment of an acute displaced middle-third clavicle fracture and the surgical treatment of a chronic symptomatic non-union of a displaced middle-third clavicle fracture. Methods This was a case-control study. Fourteen cases were considered with a displaced midshaft clavicle fracture, initially treated non-surgically, but which developed symptomatic non-union and required surgical treatment. The control group was a cohort of 18 patients with a displaced midshaft clavicle fracture, who had surgical treatment in an acute setting (<3 weeks). Our cases had a median follow-up of 77 months and were retrospectively analyzed. All those in the control group had a 12-month prospective follow-up evaluation. The variables measured were Constant score, time to discharge to work, and bone union rate. Results The median Constant score at final follow-up for surgically treated non-unions was 87.5 (control group 84.5, p > 0.05). The median time to complete return to work was 3.2 months in the control group and 9.7 months in the case group (p=0.001). Hundred percent of those patients who were initially treated with surgery had bone union without other treatment. Two out of 14 cases required a second surgery with a plate and bone graft to achieve bone union. Conclusion Symptoms from displaced midshaft clavicular fracture non-unions are due to related pain and dysfunctional deficits that result from displacement and shortening. According to our study, patients with a displaced midshaft clavicle fracture non-union who needed surgery achieved similar functional results as compared to patients treated in an acute setting for a displaced midshaft clavicle fracture. The median time to discharge and return to work was more than doubled in the non-union surgery group.
Approach of Tamper Detection for Sensitive Data based on Negotiable Hash Algorithm

Sensitive data is a very important to information safety. The real-world sensitive data is often illegally altered because database administrators (DBAs) have special identity and permissions in database system. However, the traditional secure measures, such as user authentication and access control, do not work well for them. For this case, it is necessary to identify effectively whether the sensitive data in database in enterprise trusted domain is illegally altered or not. Therefore, combining active detection at the security server with passive detection at the security client, a detection approach of the tampered sensitive data based on negotiable hash algorithm is proposed in this paper. Experiments show our algorithm can performs well for sensitive data tamper detection, and it is adapt to protect sensitive data in medical database.
RQGPR: Rational Quadratic Gaussian Process Regression for Attack Detection in the SCADA Networks

The constant development and deployment of the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) in the industrial internet of things (IIoT) have enabled vast communication leading to the generation of large volumes of sensor data. This phenomenon has increased SCADA’s susceptibility to vulnerability and attacks which calls for attack detection mechanisms. Existing systems only aim at detection accuracy without considering the effect of false alarm rates in large sensor data. To resolve this issue, we propose a Rational Quadratic Gaussian Process Regression (RQGPR) for the effective reduction of false alarm rate and improved prediction precision. In this algorithm, a Gaussian process regression model is trained with recourse to kernel functions to precisely predict attacks and reduce false alarms. The RQGPR outperforms all other kernels in the reduction of false alarm rates. Through simulations, we show that the proposed model reduces the false alarm rate up to 71.73% higher than other kernels. This result was validated by evaluating the CIRA-CIC-DoHBrw-2020 datasets, which also had a reduction rate of 67.61%. In addition, it also showed superior performance when compared with other state-of-the-art models.
Platelets Are at the Nexus of Vascular Diseases

Platelets are important actors of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Current antiplatelet drugs that inhibit platelet aggregation have been shown to be effective in CVD treatment. However, the management of bleeding complications is still an issue in vascular diseases. While platelets can act individually, they interact with vascular cells and leukocytes at sites of vascular injury and inflammation. The main goal remains to better understand platelet mechanisms in thrombo-inflammatory diseases and provide new lines of safe treatments. Beyond their role in hemostasis and thrombosis, recent studies have reported the role of several aspects of platelet functions in CVD progression. In this review, we will provide a comprehensive overview of platelet mechanisms involved in several vascular diseases.
Data Augmentation to Improve the Performance of Ensemble Learning for System Failure Prediction with Limited Observations

Ensemble learning has been widely used to improve the performance and robustness of machine learning algorithms on time series data. However, in real operational processes where the observed data is limited, it hinders the capability of ensemble learning algorithms. To address the challenge of limited observed data, this paper proposes a novel three-layer ensemble learning framework by use of data augmentation. Firstly, multiple classical time series augmentation methods are applied to increase the size of the data set. Subsequently, after pre-processing, these augmented data is trained by multiple basic learners with K-fold cross-validation as the first layer of the developed ensemble learning framework. The outputs of the first layer are integrated via LASSO to further improve the prediction performance, which serves as the second layer of the developed framework. Finally, the third-layer output is generated by averaging the prediction of the second layer and the output from an improved Long-Short Term Memory model that provides prediction based on the augmented data. A case study on a real wastewater treatment plant is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Sensitivity Analysis-Based Multi-Modal Transportation Network Vulnerability Assessment with Weibit Choice Models

This study proposes a sensitivity analysis-based multi-modal network vulnerability analysis through the variation in utility-based accessibility measures associated with mode and route choice dimensions. The weibit expected travel disutility is used to assess network accessibility, which is the composite travel cost derived from the weibit travel choice model. Benefiting from the properties of weibit model, the proposed accessibility measures can accurately reflect proportional variation in network performance and account for heterogenous network scales. The equilibrium mode and route choice patterns are reproduced via a weibit-based combined modal split and traffic assignment (CMSTA) model while specifically considering the mode similarity and route overlapping in travel choice modeling. The sensitivity analysis of the weibit-based CMSTA model with respect to inputs from both sides of supply and demand is conducted for vulnerability assessment and critical link identification. The sensitivity analysis-based method can reduce the computational burden of repetitively solving the CMSTA model required by commonly used enumeration- or scenario-based approaches. The proposed vulnerability measures and analysis method are demonstrated via numerical experiments on a multi-modal transportation network.
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Nonobese Subjects of African Origin Has Atypical Metabolic Characteristics

Abstract Background Nonobese nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is reported in several populations. However, because persons of African origin display unique fat accumulation, insulin resistance, and lipid profiles, we investigated fatty liver in nonobese persons of African origin. Method We recruited 78 urban Jamaican volunteers. CT was used to estimate liver and abdominal fat and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry to measure body composition. Fasting blood was collected for lipids, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), adiponectin, and fetuin-A. Homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), whole-body insulin sensitivity index (WBISI), insulinogenic index (IGI), and oral disposition index (oDI) were calculated after a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test. Results Fifty-two percent of participants were male; mean (±SD) age was 28.5 ± 7.8 years, and body mass index was 22.4 ± 3.0 kg/m2. Mean liver attenuation (MLA) and liver/spleen (LS) ratio, both inversely correlated to liver fat, were 62.8 ± 4.3 HU and 1.2 ± 0.1, respectively; 3.8% of participants had liver fat >30% (LS ratio < 1). In age, sex, and BMI-adjusted correlations, MLA was negatively associated with weight (r = −0.30; P = 0.009) and height (r = −0.28; P = 0.017) and was associated with fasting glucose (r = 0.23; P = 0.05), fasting insulin (r = 0.42; P ≤ 0.001) and HOMA-IR (r = 0.35; P = 0.004). Serum lipids, ALT, adiponectin, fetuin-A, WBISI, IGI, and oDI were not associated with liver fat. Conclusions In nonobese Afro-Caribbean participants, greater liver fat was associated with weight and height and lower fasting insulin and hyperinsulinemia appears to be influential in the reduction of NAFLD. These findings may be influenced by ethnicity, body size, and method of estimating liver fat.
Combining Algorithms for More General AI

Two decades since the first convolutional neural network [1] was introduced the AI sub-domains of classification, regression and prediction still rely heavily on a few ML architectures despite their flaws of being hungry for data, time, and high-end hardware while still lacking generality[2]. In order to achieve more general intelligence that can perform one-shot learning, create internal representations, and recognize subtle patterns it is necessary to look for new ML system frameworks. Research on the interface between neuroscience and computational statistics/machine learning has suggested that combined algorithms may increase AI robustness in the same way that separate brain regions specialize[3]. In this paper, a combination of two existing algorithms a standard multilayer CNN with image parser[4] and Numenta’s spatial pooler[5] unsupervised learning algorithmis presented to create a system with strong object recognition which also creates internal representations that can be used for predictions and autonomous high level pattern recognition. The system (figure 1) was shown to create detailed and consistent internal representations for images with similar structure but did not recognize high level patterns. Future work in this area should include a front end CNN that captures and encodes highly detailed input information.
Bullet to the left facial region injured the internal maxillary artery saving patient life

Internal maxillary artery injury is life threatening injury. It needs immediate intervention to save victim life. This case is very unusual because the intervention was not definite but was saving the patient life. This went for all most two months. The surgical challenges to have definite treatment for the internal maxillary artery injury needs very well experience Oral and Maxillofacial or head and neck surgeon with very well-trained team. Bullet is distractive mechanism for both hard and soft tissues. *Correspondence to: Hamed H. Al-Bargi, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Unit Alqathi Specialist Hospital in Najran, Saudi Arabia, E-mail: albargihh@hotmail.com