Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An E®ort Estimation Taxonomy for Agile Software Development

In Agile Software Development (ASD) e®ort estimation plays an important role during release and iteration planning. The state of the art and practice on e®ort estimation in ASD have been recently identi¯ed. However, this knowledge has not yet been organized. The aim of this study is twofold: (1) To organize the knowledge on e®ort estimation in ASD and (2) to use this organized knowledge to support practice and the future research on e®ort estimation in ASD. We applied a taxonomy design method to organize the identi¯ed knowledge as a taxonomy of e®ort estimation in ASD. The proposed taxonomy o®ers a faceted classi¯cation scheme to characterize estimation activities of agile projects. Our agile estimation taxonomy consists of four dimensions: estimation context, estimation technique, e®ort predictors and e®ort estimate. Each dimension in turn has several facets. We applied the taxonomy to characterize estimation activities of 10 agile projects identi¯ed from the literature to assess whether all important estimation-related aspects are reported. The results showed that studies do not report complete information related to estimation. The taxonomy was also used to characterize the estimation activities of four agile teams from three di®erent software companies. The practitioners involved in the investigation found the taxonomy useful in characterizing and documenting the estimation sessions.
The Design and Implementation of a Customizable Fault Tolerance Framework

While there have been significant advances in fault tolerance research, the effort has focused on the design of individual fault-tolerant systems or methodologies. Recently, some research has been initiated to develop techniques that can provide a spectrum of fault tolerance capabilities. In this paper, we present the design of a fault tolerance framework that can support a wide range of applications with various fault tolerance requirements, various criticality levels, and various system models. The framework is designed to be parameterizable so that the user can configure it to obtain the desired features. Also, the framework is designed to be an off-the-shelf component such that application programs can be integrated within it easily to obtain the fault-tolerant version of the application system. A specialized N-modular redundancy (SNMR) scheme has been developed to serve as the primary approach for achieving efficient and cost-effective fault tolerance for the framework. In most cases, the SNMR scheme yields better performance and lower cost in providing fault tolerance as compared with conventional NMR schemes. It also enhances the scalability and customizability of the general replication method. This paper discusses the main issues in the design and implementation of the SNMR framework, including the major concept of the SNMR framework, various SNMR algorithms that tolerate various types of faults, an object-oriented overall system design and the interface protocol class hierarchy. The interface protocol class hierarchy provides a nice paradigm for the implementation of customizable, highly reusable, and easily extensible SNMR framework.
The Shuffling Buffer

The complexity of randomized incremental algorithms is analyzed with the assumption of a random order of the input. To guarantee this hypothesis, the n data have to be known in advance in order to be mixed what contradicts with the on-line nature of the algorithm. We present the shuffling buffer technique to introduce sufficient randomness to guarantee an improvement on the worst case complexity by knowing only k data in advance. Typically, an algorithm with O(n2) worst-case complexity and O(n) or O(nlog n) randomized complexity has an complexity for the shuffling buffer. We illustrate this with binary search trees, the number of Delaunay triangles or the number of trapezoids in a trapezoidal map created during an incremental construction.
The ray casting engine and ray representations: a technical summary

Solid modeling is computationally intensive. Thus far its use in industry has been limited mainly to simple parts and simple applications, and this is not likely to change much until 'massive' computing power can be made available at an affordable cost. The RayCasting Engine is one specialized source of 'massive' computing power for solid modeling, and it is but the simplest member of a potentially large family of 'classification computers'. The RayCasting Engine (RCE) is a highly parallel, custom-VLSI computer that classifies grids of parallel lines against solids represented in CSG. The sets of parallel 'in' segments that the RCE produces are called ray representations (ray-reps); they can be thought of as sampled boundary representations. Ray-reps are obviously useful for graphics and mass-property calculation. Less obviously, they are surprisingly versatile if one exploits special properties – for example, boolean combination of solids by interval operations on ray-reps – and the fact that ray-reps are cheap to compute. Overall, the combination of a 'new' representation scheme (ray-reps) and a fast custom processor (the RCE) is changing our approach to solid modeling. We are now seeking 'brute force' solutions to problems, and are finding that some previously intractable problems – for example, spatial sweeping and offsetting – are effectively computable and easy to program. This paper summarizes the genesis and principles of the RCE, some important properties of ray representations, and some exemplary applications of the (ray-rep, RCE) combination.
Ongoing Provision of Individual Clinician Performance Data Improves Practice Behavior

BACKGROUND: Clinical practice guidelines summarize evidence from science and attempt to translate those findings into clinical practice. Pervasive and consistent adoption of these guidelines into daily provider practice has proven slow. METHODS: Using postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) prophylaxis guideline compliance as our metric, we compared the effects of continuing medical education (CME) alone (I), CME with a single snapshot of provider compliance (II), and ongoing reporting of provider compliance data without further CME (III). We retrospectively analyzed guideline compliance of 23,279 anesthetics at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Compliance was defined as a patient with 1 risk factor for PONV receiving at least 1 antiemetic, 2 risk factors receiving at least 2 antiemetics, and 3 risk factors receiving at least 3 antiemetics. Drugs of the same class were counted as single antiemetic administration. Propofol-based anesthetic techniques were counted as receiving 1 antiemetic. Patients with 0 risk factors for PONV were not included. We estimated the compliance rates for each of the 4 time periods of the study adjusting for multiple observations on the same clinician. Individual performance feedback was given once at 6 months after intervention I coincident with a refresher presentation on PONV (start of intervention II) and on an ongoing quarterly basis during intervention III. RESULTS: Compliance rates were not significantly influenced with CME (intervention I) compared with baseline behavior (54.5% vs 54.4%, P = 0.9140). Significant improvement occurred during the time period when CME was paired with performance data (intervention II) compared with intervention I (59.2% vs 54.4%, P = 0.0002). Further significant improvement occurred when data alone were presented (intervention III) compared with intervention II (65.1% vs 59.2%, P < 0.0001). For patients with 3 risk factors, we saw significant improvement in compliance rates during intervention III (P = 0.0002). In post hoc analysis of overtreatment, the percentage differences between the baseline and time period III decreased as the number of risk factors increased. CONCLUSIONS: We observed the greatest improvement in guideline compliance with ongoing personal performance feedback. Provider feedback can be an effective tool to modify clinical practice but can have unanticipated consequences.
Chlorine photoelimination from a diplatinum core: circumventing the back reaction.

The d(9). d(9) Pt(2)(I,I)(tfepma)(2)Cl(2) (1) compound (tfepma = ((CF(3)CH(2)O)(2)P)(2)NCH(3)), d(7)-d(9) Pt(2)(I,III)(tfepma)(2)Cl(4) (2) and d(7)-d(7) Pt(2)(III,III)(tfepma)(2)Cl(6) (3), homologous suite of compounds have been prepared. Irradiation of 3 with visible light generates 2 in solution in the presence of 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene with a quantum efficiency of approximately 38%. The evolution of Cl(2) upon solid-state photolysis of 3 represents the first example of the thermodynamically unfavorable halogen elimination without the use of a chemical trap.
Breadth-First Search and the Andrews-Curtis Conjecture

Andrews and Curtis conjectured in 1965 that every balanced presentation of the trivial group can be transformed into a standard presentation by a finite sequence of elementary transformations. Recent computational work by Miasnikov and Myasnikov on this problem has been based on genetic algorithms. We show that a computational attack based on a breadth-first search of the tree of equivalent presentations is also viable, and seems to outperform that based on genetic algorithms. It allows us to extract shorter proofs (in some cases, provably shortest) and to consider the length thirteen case for two generators. We prove that, up to equivalence, there is a unique minimum potential counterexample.
Cardiovascular Biomarkers in ACS: State of the Art 2012

In the setting of an acute coronary syndrome cardiac troponins are well established for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction. In particular, diagnostic protocols using high-sensitivity troponin assays are being recommended for earlier diagnosis of MI by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines on the management of ACS without ST segment elevation. In addition to accurate detection of myocardial necrosis, cardiac troponins give complementary information on short- and long-term prognosis and facilitate the identification of patients who derive benefits from a more aggressive anticoagulation and/or early invasive therapy versus conservative therapy. Other cardiac biomarkers may help to improve earlier diagnosis or improve risk stratification. Their role is currently under investigation. The present state-of-the-art paper gives an overview on the role of cardiac troponins including recent recommendations on the use of high-sensitivity assays from the third version of the Joint ESC/ACCF/AHA/WHF infarct definition “Universal MI definition” and the ESC guidelines. In addition, an overview on the role of novel cardiac biomarkers in earlier diagnosis or risk stratification is provided.
Management of elderly patients with advanced infiltrating and metastatic bladder cancer: an oncogeriatric approach

Bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer in men older than 70 years. Muscle-infiltrating tumors can be cured by radical cystectomy but are associated with poor prognosis. Metastatic disease is not curable. The purpose of this article is to critically review the knowledge available on bladder cancers in elderly patients. We reviewed the recent literature on bladder cancer in the elderly, as well as updated concepts in geriatric oncology. The oncogeriatric setting was specifically explored. There is a large and growing body of research literature on infiltrating bladder cancers. Nevertheless only age and, in some instances, comorbidities are analyzed, whereas the different geriatric domains are generally overlooked. Whereas it is possible to draw conclusions on incidence, medical practice and complications of radical cystectomy in elderly patients, none of these allow a clear decision-making strategy to be defined. In metastatic disease, only a few articles have addressed the question of the specific.
H-Polynomials and rook Polynomials

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First we describe a useful procedure for computing the H-polynomials of reductive monoids. Second we use this procedure to compute the H-polynomial of the monoid of n × n matrices in terms of the q-analogues of the rook polynomials of Garsia and Remmel.
Remediation of Polluted Water Using Natural Zeolitic Aluminosilicates/Lateritic Clay Ceramic Matrix Membrane

Microporous ceramic matrix membranes were prepared with complementary proportions of locally available zeolitic aluminosilicate materials and other abundant lateritic clay minerals. The membranes cast as circular disks (22.78 mm diameter and 2.11 mm thickness) were treated with silver nitrate solution to discourage microbial growth on their surface and then sintered at 900±5∘C for about 20 hours. Antimicrobial microfiltration process showed 87.24% to 100% bacterial rejection depending on the material combination ratio. Elemental characterization of the membrane materials was done using ion beam analysis (IBA) technique of particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE), while the physicochemical behaviour of the ceramic membranes was carried out through the analysis of the filtered water samples using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), total dissolved solids (TDS), microbial, and pH analyses. Compositional characterization of raw materials showed comparatively low contents of impurities, such as Fe and Ca, in the raw materials, but with high SiO2/Al2O3 ratios for the raw material which is important for zeolitic material synthesis. Regularly porous microstructure of mean pore diameter of between 50 nm and 100 nm was observed from the analyzed images obtained from ZEISS Supra 40 scanning electron microscope.
Claims, Barriers, and Satisfaction

This article explores the issue of requests for additional special education services. In their study, the authors identified which parents of children who receive special education services make claims for additional related services; the barriers these parents report facing in obtaining such services; and the connections among claims, barriers, and parents' satisfaction with educational services. The authors provide a differentiated view of how child, family, and service-system factors may play into parents' experiences with special education and make policy recommendations related to this perspective. Analyses of national data on children with disabilities indicated that only a small percentage of parents whose children were receiving special education services had requested additional related services. Among parents who made such requests, the vast majority experienced problems in obtaining these services. Parents who reported problems were much more likely to report being dissatisfied with their children's educational services, which suggests that it is not the experience of asking for services but rather the experience of meeting resistance that predicts how satisfied parents will be with their children's educational services.
Plasma Restoration of Endothelial Glycocalyx in a Rodent Model of Hemorrhagic Shock

BACKGROUND: The use of plasma-based resuscitation for trauma patients in hemorrhagic shock has been associated with a decrease in mortality. Although some have proposed a beneficial effect through replacement of coagulation proteins, the putative mechanisms of protection afforded by plasma are unknown. We have previously shown in a cell culture model that plasma decreases endothelial cell permeability in comparison with crystalloid. The endothelial glycocalyx consists of proteoglycans and glycoproteins attached to a syndecan backbone, which together protect the underlying endothelium. We hypothesize that endothelial cell protection by plasma is due, in part, to its restoration of the endothelial glycocalyx and preservation of syndecan-1 after hemorrhagic shock. METHODS: Rats were subjected to hemorrhagic shock to a mean arterial blood pressure of 30 mm Hg for 90 minutes followed by resuscitation with either lactated Ringer's (LR) solution or fresh plasma to a mean arterial blood pressure of 80 mm Hg and compared with shams or shock alone. After 2 hours, lungs were harvested for syndecan mRNA, immunostained with antisyndecan-1, or stained with hematoxylin and eosin. To specifically examine the effect of plasma on the endothelium, we infused small bowel mesentery with a lanthanum-based solution, identified venules, and visualized the glycocalyx by electron microscopy. All data are presented as mean ± SEM. Results were analyzed by 1-way analysis of variance with Tukey post hoc tests. RESULTS: Electron microscopy revealed degradation of the glycocalyx after hemorrhagic shock, which was partially restored by plasma but not LR. Pulmonary syndecan-1 mRNA expression was higher in animals resuscitated with plasma (2.76 ± 0.03) in comparison with shock alone (1.39 ± 0.22) or LR (0.82 ± 0.03) and correlated with cell surface syndecan-1 immunostaining. Shock also resulted in significant lung injury by histopathology scoring (1.63 ± 0.26), which was mitigated by resuscitation with plasma (0.67 ± 0.17) but not LR (2.0 ± 0.25). CONCLUSION: The protective effects of plasma may be due in part to its ability to restore the endothelial glycocalyx and preserve syndecan-1 after hemorrhagic shock.
Free idempotent generated semigroups over bands and biordered sets with trivial products

For any biordered set of idempotents E there is an initial object IG(E), the free idempotent generated semigroup overE, in the category of semigroups generated by a set of idempotents biorder-isomorphic to E. Recent research on IG(E) has focused on the behavior of the maximal subgroups. Inspired by an example of Brittenham, Margolis and Meakin, several proofs have been offered that any group occurs as a maximal subgroup of some IG(E), the latest being that of Dolinka and Ruskuc, who show that E can be taken to be a band. From a result of Easdown, Sapir and Volkov, periodic elements of any IG(E) lie in subgroups. However, little else is known of the “global” properties of IG(E), other than that it need not be regular, even where E is a semilattice. The aim of this paper is to deepen our understanding of the overall structure of IG(E) in the case where E is a biordered set with trivial products (for example, the biordered set of a poset) or where E is the biordered set of a band B. Since its introduction by Fountain in the late 1970s, the study of abundant and related semigroups has given rise to a deep and fruitful research area. The class of abundant semigroups extends that of regular semigroups in a natural way and itself is contained in the class of weakly abundant semigroups. Our main results show that (1) if E is a biordered set with trivial products then IG(E) is abundant and (if E is finite) has solvable word problem, and (2) for any band B, the semigroup IG(B) is weakly abundant and moreover satisfies a natural condition called the congruence condition. Further, IG(B) is abundant for a normal band B for which IG(B) satisfies a given technical condition, and we give examples of such B. On the other hand, we give an example of a normal band B such that IG(B) is not abundant.
Continuous Noninvasive Hemoglobin Monitoring During Complex Spine Surgery

BACKGROUND: Monitoring hemoglobin levels in the operating room currently requires repeated blood draws, several steps, and a variable time delay to receive results. Consequently, blood transfusion management decisions may be delayed or made before hemoglobin results become available. The ability to measure hemoglobin continuously and noninvasively may enable a more rapid assessment of a patient's condition and more appropriate blood management. A new technology, Pulse CO-Oximetry, provides a continuous, noninvasive estimate of hemoglobin concentration (SpHb) from a sensor placed on the finger. We evaluated the accuracy of SpHb compared with laboratory CO-Oximetry measurements of total hemoglobin (tHb) during complex spine procedures in patients at high risk for blood loss. METHODS: Patients eligible for the study were undergoing complex spine surgery with planned invasive arterial or central venous monitoring and hourly blood draws for hemoglobin measurement. During each surgery, blood samples were obtained hourly (or more often if clinically indicated) and analyzed by the central laboratory with CO-Oximetry, a standard method of hemoglobin measurement in many hospitals. The tHb measurements were compared with SpHb obtained at the time of the blood draw. RESULTS: Twenty-nine patients were included in the study. The tHb values ranged from 6.9 to 13.9 g/dL, and the SpHb values ranged from 6.9 to 13.4 g/dL. A total of 186 data pairs (tHb/SpHb) were analyzed; after removal of SpHb readings with low signal quality, the bias (defined as the difference between SpHb and tHb) and precision (defined as 1 SD of the bias) were −0.1 g/dL ± 1.0 g/dL for the remaining 130 data pairs. Bland-Altman analysis showed good agreement of SpHb to tHb values over the range of values; limits of agreement were −2.0 to 1.8 g/dL. The absolute bias and precision were 0.8 ± 0.6 g/dL. CONCLUSIONS: Continuous, noninvasive hemoglobin measurement via Pulse CO-Oximetry demonstrated clinically acceptable accuracy of hemoglobin measurement within 1.5 g/dL compared with a standard laboratory reference device when used during complex spine surgery. This technology may provide more timely information on hemoglobin status than intermittent blood sample analysis and thus has the potential to improve blood management during surgery.
Theory of Ultrasonic Pulse Measurements of Third‐Order Elastic Constants for Cubic Crystals

The equations of motion for an elastic nonisotropic solid are reduced to a form useful for determination of third‐order elastic constants by means of ultrasonic pulse distortion measurements. Values of the coefficients in the reduced equations of motion are tabulated for two cubic materials. The tables are used to show that for cubic materials one should be able to measure C111, C112, and C166 with reasonable accuracy. An argument is given which shows that the equations of motion for a single plane wave in a cubic crystal depend on the five parameters C111, C112, C166, (2C144+C123), and (½C144+C456) instead of all six third‐order elastic constants.
Vascular access puncture method with guidance by a portable ultrasonographic device

【背景】近年, バスキュラーアクセスの穿刺困難例が増加している. 一方, 患者安全管理面から確実な穿刺への要請が高まりつつある. 従来こうした例では, 別の機会に超音波検査を行い, その記録をもとに穿刺を行わざるを得なかった. 最近携帯型の超音波診断装置を導入し, 穿刺に良好な効果を得ているので, 実際の手技につき, 標準手順とともに報告する. 【方法】超音波診断装置はSonosite 180 Plusを使用. 想定された穿刺部位から約1～2cm先に, 血管の短軸方向, つまり穿刺方向に直角にプローブを置きリアルタイムに観察を行う. 穿刺後, 穿刺針の先端がエコー上確認できたところで外筒を進め, 針を留置する. 【考察】血液透析は, アクセスの穿刺なくしては治療自体開始できない. このため, 良好なアクセスへのカニュレーションが十分な透析量の確保のみならず, 円滑な透析室の運営を行ううえでも, 非常に重要である. 本法は, リアルタイムに穿刺針が観察できるため, 容易に確実な穿刺が可能となる. 本法では血管の短軸方向で観察したが, 長軸方向で観察することも可能である. しかし, 長軸方向では, 観察面から穿刺針が外れると見失ってしまう点, プローブが穿刺の邪魔になる可能性がある点などの欠点が存在する. さらに, 短軸方向での観察では, プローブの左右と実際の穿刺側からみた左右を合わせることにより, 穿刺針の修正も容易である. 以上の点から, 短軸方向での観察は長軸方向での観察よりすぐれていると考える. 表在静脈では適応がやや困難であるが, それ以外のエコーで内腔が確認できる血管には適応が可能である. 【結語】短軸方向のエコーガイド下アクセス穿刺は, 穿刺困難例については, 非常に有用な穿刺補助法である.
Global Rule Induction for Information Extraction

The ability to extract desired pieces of information from natural language texts is an important task with a growing number of potential applications. This paper presents a novel pattern rule induction learning system, GRID, which emphasizes the use of global feature distribution in all of the training instances in order to make better decision on rule induction. GRID uses chunks as contextual units instead of tokens, and incorporates features at lexical, syntactical and semantic levels simultaneously. The features chosen in GRID are general and they were applied successfully to both semi-structured text and free text. Our experimental results on some publicly available webpage corpora and MUC-4 test set indicate that our approach is effective.