Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Conceptual Framework for Improving Critical Care Patient Flow and Bed Use.

RATIONALE High demand for intensive care unit (ICU) services and limited bed availability have prompted hospitals to address capacity planning challenges. Simulation modeling can examine ICU bed assignment policies, accounting for patient acuity, to reduce ICU admission delays. OBJECTIVES To provide a framework for data-driven modeling of ICU patient flow, identify key measurable outcomes, and present illustrative analysis demonstrating the impact of various bed allocation scenarios on outcomes. METHODS A description of key inputs for constructing a queuing model was outlined, and an illustrative simulation model was developed to reflect current triage protocol within the medical ICU and step-down unit (SDU) at a single tertiary-care hospital. Patient acuity, arrival rate, and unit length of stay, consisting of a "service time" and "time to transfer," were estimated from 12 months of retrospective data (n = 2,710 adult patients) for 36 ICU and 15 SDU staffed beds. Patient priority was based on acuity and whether the patient originated in the emergency department. The model simulated the following hypothetical scenarios: (1) varied ICU/SDU sizes, (2) reserved ICU beds as a triage strategy, (3) lower targets for time to transfer out of the ICU, and (4) ICU expansion by up to four beds. Outcomes included ICU admission wait times and unit occupancy. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS With current bed allocation, simulated wait time averaged 1.13 (SD, 1.39) hours. Reallocating all SDU beds as ICU decreased overall wait times by 7.2% to 1.06 (SD, 1.39) hours and increased bed occupancy from 80 to 84%. Reserving the last available bed for acute patients reduced wait times for acute patients from 0.84 (SD, 1.12) to 0.31 (SD, 0.30) hours, but tripled subacute patients' wait times from 1.39 (SD, 1.81) to 4.27 (SD, 5.44) hours. Setting transfer times to wards for all ICU/SDU patients to 1 hour decreased wait times for incoming ICU patients, comparable to building one to two additional ICU beds. CONCLUSIONS Hospital queuing and simulation modeling with empiric data inputs can evaluate how changes in ICU bed assignment could impact unit occupancy levels and patient wait times. Trade-offs associated with dedicating resources for acute patients versus expanding capacity for all patients can be examined.
Outpatient care utilization in urban Kerala, India.

CONTEXT Kerala is characterized by a high density of public and private health infrastructure. While less inequality in access has been reported in this Indian state, few studies have looked at problems found within cities. Escalation of costs of private services and reduced public investments could generate some inequalities in access for the poor. OBJECTIVE To assess factors associated with utilization and source of outpatient care in urban Kerala, and to discuss policy implications with regards to access to care. METHODS A multilevel analysis of individual and urban characteristics associated with utilization and source of outpatient care was conducted using data from a 1995-96 survey by the National Sample Survey Organisation on health care in urban Kerala. RESULTS There is a high level of utilization (83.6%) of allopathic medical services. Controlling for illness severity and age, utilization thereof was lower for the very poor (OR 0.13 [0.03; 0.49]), inhabitants of medium towns (OR 0.20 [0.05; 0.70]), and inhabitants of cities with a lower proportion of permanent material (pucca) houses (0.21 [0.06; 0.72]). Among all users, 77% resorted to a private source of care. Utilization of a private provider was less likely for the very poor (OR 0.13 [0.03; 0.51]) and individuals from casual worker households (OR 0.54 [0.30; 0.97]), while it was more likely for inhabitants of cities from both low public bed density districts (OR 4.08 [1.05; 15.95]) and high private bed density districts (OR 5.83 [2.34; 14.53]). Problems of quality and accessibility of the public sector were invoked to justify utilization of private clinics. A marked heterogeneity in utilization of outpatient care was found between cities of various sizes and characteristics. CONCLUSION This study confirms high utilization of private outpatient care in Kerala and suggests problems of access for the poorest. Even in a context of high public availability and considering the health transition factor, relying on the development of the private sector to respond to increasing health care needs could create inequalities in access. Investing in the public urban primary care system and ensuring access to quality health care for the poorest is warranted.
The Prognostic Impact of Early Change in 18F-FDG PET SUV After Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients with Locally Advanced Breast Cancer

SUV, which is an indicator of the degree of glucose uptake in 18F-FDG PET, can be applied as a prognostic factor in various malignant tumors. We investigated the prognostic impact of early changes in 18F-FDG PET uptake in patients with locally advanced breast cancer who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Methods: We retrospectively identified 87 patients who were treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery for locally advanced breast cancer. All patients underwent 18F-FDG PET at baseline and after 3 cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and the SUVmax of the primary tumor was assessed in each scan. Pathologic slides were retrospectively reviewed, and the residual cancer burden (RCB) index was calculated to estimate pathologic response. RCB-0 indicates no residual disease; patients with residual disease were categorized as RCB-1 (minimal residual disease), RCB-2 (moderate residual disease), or RCB-3 (extensive residual disease). Results: There was a negative correlation between reduction in SUVmax and RCB index (r = −0.408; P < 0.001). On multivariate analysis, ΔSUVmax was a significant independent prognostic factor for recurrence-free and overall survival, and the respective adjusted hazard ratios were 0.97 (95% confidence interval, 0.95–0.99; P = 0.001) and 0.97 (95% confidence interval, 0.95–0.99; P = 0.015). When patients were categorized into groups according to pathologic response (RCB index ≤ 1 vs. ≥ 2) and metabolic response (ΔSUVmax ≤ 66.4% vs. > 66.4%), metabolic responders had significantly better recurrence-free and overall survival than metabolic nonresponders among poor-pathologic-response patients. In contrast, among metabolic responders, there was no survival difference according to pathologic response. Conclusion: The early change in 18F-FDG PET SUVmax after third-cycle neoadjuvant chemotherapy is an independent and good prognostic marker beyond pathologic response in patients with locally advanced breast cancer. We suggest that in these patients, the use of ΔSUVmax should be considered not only for the assessment of tumor response but for the prediction of posttreatment outcome.
The IgH 3’ regulatory region and c-myc-induced B-cell lymphomagenesis

Deregulation and mutations of c-myc have been reported in multiple mature B-cell malignancies such as Burkitt lymphoma, myeloma and plasma cell lymphoma. After translocation into the immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) locus, c-myc is constitutively expressed under the control of active IgH cis-regulatory enhancers. Those located in the IgH 3 regulatory region (3RR) are master control elements of transcription. Over the past decade numerous convincing demonstrations of 3RRs contribution to mature c-myc-induced lymphomagenesis have been made using transgenic models with various types of IgH-c-myc translocations and transgenes. This review highlights how IgH 3RR physiological functions play a critical role in c-myc deregulation during lymphomagenesis.
JND-Based Perceptual Video Coding for 4:4:4 Screen Content Data in HEVC

The JCT - VC standardized Screen Content Coding (SCC) extension in the HEVC HM RExt + SCM reference codec offers an impressive coding efficiency performance when compared with HM RExt alone; however, it is not significantly perceptually optimized. For instance, it does not include advanced HVS-based perceptual coding methods, such as Just Noticeable Distortion (JND)-based spatiotemporal masking schemes. In this paper, we propose a novel JND-based perceptual video coding technique for HM RExt + SCM. The proposed method is designed to further improve the compression performance of HM RExt + SCM when applied to YCbCr 4:4:4 SC video data. In the proposed technique, luminance masking and chrominance masking are exploited to perceptually adjust the Quantization Step Size (QStep) at the Coding Block (CB) level. Compared with HM RExt 16.10 + SCM 8.0, the proposed method considerably reduces bitrates (Kbps), with a maximum reduction of 48.3%. In addition to this, the subjective evaluations reveal that SC-PAQ achieves visually lossless coding at very low bitrates.
Secure querying of outsourced medical images

Cloud storage services relieve the data owners from the heavy burden of storing and managing a huge amount of data locally. In the cloud, since the data is stored in third party remote servers, the major concern is the security and privacy of the data being outsourced. This paper focuses on search and retrieval of medical image data that is stored in cloud servers. Since searching entire image database is a tedious task, indexes or hashes of the images are to be used for faster retrieval of similar images. To protect potentially sensitive data, any search or retrieval should be done through a privacy preserving operation. This paper addresses the problem of searching outsourced MRI image database using index generated from extracted features and provides privacy preserving searching through the use of a distance preserving encryption technique. The hash generation and encryption algorithms are carefully designed to make the searching effective.
An NK cell line (haNK) expressing high levels of granzyme and engineered to express the high affinity CD16 allele

Natural killer (NK) cells are known to play a role in mediating innate immunity, in enhancing adaptive immune responses, and have been implicated in mediating anti-tumor responses via antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) by reactivity of CD16 with the Fc region of human IgG1 antibodies. The NK-92 cell line, derived from a lymphoma patient, has previously been well characterized and adoptive transfer of irradiated NK-92 cells has demonstrated safety and shown preliminary evidence of clinical benefit in cancer patients. The NK-92 cell line, devoid of CD16, has now been engineered to express the high affinity (ha) CD16 V158 FcγRIIIa receptor, as well as engineered to express IL-2; IL-2 has been shown to replenish the granular stock of NK cells, leading to enhanced perforin- and granzyme-mediated lysis of tumor cells. The studies reported here show high levels of granzyme in haNK cells, and demonstrate the effects of irradiation of haNK cells on multiple phenotypic markers, viability, IL-2 production, and lysis of a spectrum of human tumor cells. Studies also compare endogenous irradiated haNK lysis of tumor cells with that of irradiated haNK-mediated ADCC using cetuximab, trastuzumab and pertuzumab monoclonal antibodies. These studies thus provide the rationale for the potential use of irradiated haNK cells in adoptive transfer studies for a range of human tumor types. Moreover, since only approximately 10% of humans are homozygous for the high affinity V CD16 allele, these studies also provide the rationale for the use of irradiated haNK cells in combination with IgG1 anti-tumor monoclonal antibodies.
Bioinspired multivalent DNA network for capture and release of cells

Capture and isolation of flowing cells and particulates from body fluids has enormous implications in diagnosis, monitoring, and drug testing, yet monovalent adhesion molecules used for this purpose result in inefficient cell capture and difficulty in retrieving the captured cells. Inspired by marine creatures that present long tentacles containing multiple adhesive domains to effectively capture flowing food particulates, we developed a platform approach to capture and isolate cells using a 3D DNA network comprising repeating adhesive aptamer domains that extend over tens of micrometers into the solution. The DNA network was synthesized from a microfluidic surface by rolling circle amplification where critical parameters, including DNA graft density, length, and sequence, could readily be tailored. Using an aptamer that binds to protein tyrosine kinase-7 (PTK7) that is overexpressed on many human cancer cells, we demonstrate that the 3D DNA network significantly enhances the capture efficiency of lymphoblast CCRF-CEM cells over monovalent aptamers and antibodies, yet maintains a high purity of the captured cells. When incorporated in a herringbone microfluidic device, the 3D DNA network not only possessed significantly higher capture efficiency than monovalent aptamers and antibodies, but also outperformed previously reported cell-capture microfluidic devices at high flow rates. This work suggests that 3D DNA networks may have broad implications for detection and isolation of cells and other bioparticles.
The measure of stroke environment (MOSE): development and validation of the MOSE in post-stroke populations with and without aphasia

Objectives. The purpose of this paper is to present the development and psychometric properties of a new environmental measure that identifies barriers and facilitators in receptivity, physical environment and communication for post-stroke populations, including survivors with aphasia. Methods. The Measure of Stroke Environment (MOSE) was developed using information from semi-structured interviews and three pilot studies. Reliability and validity were assessed in 43 post-stroke participants. Results. The MOSE contains 47 items across 33 questions in three domains (receptivity, physical environment, communication). Internal consistency reliability was high (.83 to .85) across each domain and over the entire assessment (.91). Convergent validity showed moderate correlation with the Stroke Impact Scale (.33 to .37), the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (-.31 to -.46) and the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (.55 to .61). Persons with aphasia had significantly lower scores on the communication domain. Stroke survivors with (26% overall difficulty) and without aphasia (31% overall difficulty) continue to experience difficulty ≥ 2 years post-stroke. Discussion. The MOSE offers a brief, reliable and valid assessment of environmental barriers and facilitators to participation for post-stroke survivors reintegrating into their communities. Stroke survivors with very mild deficits continue to experience barriers from the environment many years post-stroke. These barriers are not typically identified during the rehabilitation process but persist post-reintegration. Conclusion. The MOSE is able to determine how frequently a stroke survivor faces challenges in their environment and how that impacts his or her participation.
Mechanisms of anisotropic friction in nanotwinned Cu revealed by atomistic simulations

The nature of nanocrystalline materials determines that their deformation at the grain level relies on the orientation of individual grains. In this work, we investigate the anisotropic response of nanotwinned Cu to frictional contacts during nanoscratching by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Nanotwinned Cu samples containing embedded twin boundaries parallel, inclined and perpendicular to scratching surfaces are adopted to address the effects of crystallographic orientation and inclination angle of aligned twin boundaries cutting the scratching surface. The transition in deformation mechanisms, the evolution of friction coefficients and the friction-induced microstructural changes are analyzed in detail and are related to the loading conditions and the twinned microstructures of the materials. Furthermore, the effect of twin spacing on the frictional behavior of Cu samples is studied. Our simulation results show that the crystallographic orientation strongly influences the frictional response in different ways for samples with different twin spacing, because the dominant deformation mode varies upon scratching regions of different orientations. A critical inclination angle of 26.6° gives the lowest yield strength and the highest friction coefficient, at which the plasticity is dominated by twin boundary migration and detwinning. It is demonstrated that the anisotropic frictional response of nanotwinned Cu originates from the heterogeneous localized deformation, which is strongly influenced by crystallographic orientation, twin boundary orientation and loading condition.
Optimal die placement for interposer-based 3D ICs

Performance of modern multi-chip modules, increasingly implemented as interposer solutions, is limited by system-level interconnects. We propose an effective method for optimal wirelength-driven die placement of interposer-based 3D ICs. Our key ideas are to leverage the constraint-satisfaction problem (CSP) formalism in combination with a branch-and-bound (B&B) algorithm, and to develop several novel techniques for early identification and pruning of unpromising configurations. Such techniques are crucial for addressing the combinatorial explosion when solving the NP-hard placement problem. Experiments on ISPD08 (modified) and MCNC benchmarks demonstrate that our method outperforms prior art: we can optimally place up to eleven rotatable dies, whereas state-of-the-art tools are limited to six dies.
Information extraction from laser speckle patterns using wavelet entropy techniques

A novel speckle patterns processing method is presented using multi-scale wavelet techniques. Laser speckle patterns generated from the sample contained abundant information. In this paper, we propose a method using wavelet entropy techniques to analyze the speckle patterns and exact the information on the sample surface. In our case, we used this approach to test the solar silicon cell surface profiles based on the sym8 orthogonal wavelet family. According different wavelet entropy values, the micro-structure of different solar silicon cell surfaces were comparative analyzed. Furthermore, we studied the AFM and reflective spectra of the wafer. Results show that the wavelet entropy speckle processing method is effective and accurate. And the experiment proved that this method is a useful tool to investigate the surface profile quality.
The Evolution of Competing Using Analytics

Competing using analytics is often heralded as a new concept spurned by advances in high-speed computing, the digital age and the internet. However, evidence for using analytics as the basis for gaining a competitive advantage exists much earlier. In his key paper written in 1953 William Edwards Deming wrote that better quality through the use of statistical techniques can lead to a competitive advantage for firms. He also pointed out that for a more effective use of these techniques, top management should not only become familiar with the results of statistical methods; they should study also the problems of organization by which to achieve a wider and more effective use of these methods. Similarly, quality guru Joseph Juran also a Deming contemporary noted that the Japanese learned to compete on quality which is something the Americans did not understand until it was too late and they lost market share. This paper explores Juran’s and Deming’s thoughts on competing on quality and evaluates its usefulness and lessons to the modern post-industrial world and one in which BIG DATA is being collected and used by many firms across a variety of industries in an effort to develop a competitive advantage from the use of statistical analysis. It also debunks the common misconception that competing on analytics is something new and novel which represents a call to action for managers in analytically challenged companies since they will now be under investing in function that has been around for over half a century.
Longitudinal Patterns of Social Functioning and Conversion to Psychosis in Subjects at Ultra-High Risk

Objective: Impaired social functioning is one of the defining features of patients with schizophrenia and subjects at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis. This prospective study aimed to investigate the course of social dysfunction in UHR subjects and to examine its relationship with later conversion to psychosis. The effect of pharmacotherapy on the course of social dysfunction was also examined. Method: A total of 57 UHR subjects and 58 healthy controls participated in this study. The Social Functioning Scale (SFS) was used to assess social functioning of UHR subjects at baseline and at the 1 year follow up. The changes in social functioning of UHR subjects have been examined to compare the social functioning of those who later converted to psychosis (‘converters’) with those who did not (‘non-converters’). The effect of pharmacotherapy on longitudinal change in social functioning was also evaluated. Results: Subjects at UHR for psychosis showed more impaired social functioning at baseline than did healthy controls. Moreover, the course of social dysfunction of the converter and non-converter groups differed during the 1 year follow up period. The converters showed decreases in SFS average (F (1,32) = 7.85, p = 0.009) and interpersonal behaviour (F (1,32) = 10.43, p = 0.003) scores over time, whereas the non-converters showed increased scores. Additionally, we found that pharmacological treatment was associated with increased prosocial activities score (F (1,32) = 4.66, p = 0.038). Conclusions: We found that the social functioning of converters was impaired before the onset of the psychosis and further declined during the at-risk phase. A series of social functioning indices in the longitudinal course may be helpful in predicting conversion to psychosis in subjects at UHR. Appropriate pharmacotherapy can offer clinical benefits by improving social functioning in UHR individuals.
Accelerated stochastic gradient method for support vector machines classification with additive kernel

Support vector machines (SVMs) have been widely used for classification in machine learning and data mining. However, SVM faces a huge challenge in large scale classification tasks. Recent progresses have enabled additive kernel version of SVM efficiently solves such large scale problems nearly as fast as a linear classifier. This paper proposes a new accelerated mini-batch stochastic gradient descent algorithm for SVM classification with additive kernel (AK-ASGD). On the one hand, the gradient is approximated by the sum of a scalar polynomial function for each feature dimension; on the other hand, Nesterov's acceleration strategy is used. The experimental results on benchmark large scale classification data sets show that our proposed algorithm can achieve higher testing accuracies and has faster convergence rate.
MicroRNAS in endometrial cancer: recent advances and potential clinical applications

Endometrial cancer is a common malignant gynecological tumor, but there are few biomarkers that are useful for early and accurate diagnosis and few treatments other than surgery. However, use of microRNAs (miRNAs) that induces gene downregulation in cells may permit effective and minimally invasive diagnosis and treatment. In endometrial cancer cells, expression levels of miRNAs including miR-185, miR-210 and miR-423 are upregulated and those of miR-let7e, miR-30c and miR-221 are downregulated compared to normal tissues, and these miRNAs are involved in carcinogenesis, invasion and metastasis. miRNAs with expression changes such as miR-181b, miR-324-3p and miR-518b may be used as prognostic biomarkers and transfection of miR-152 may inhibit cancer growth. However, most current studies of miRNAs are at a basic level and further work is needed to establish clinical applications targeting miRNAs.