Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Crescendo in Depolarization and Repolarization Heterogeneity Heralds Development of Ventricular Tachycardia in Hospitalized Patients With Decompensated Heart Failure

Background— A critical need exists for reliable warning markers of in-hospital life-threatening arrhythmias. We used a new quantitative method to track interlead heterogeneity of depolarization and repolarization to detect premonitory changes before ventricular tachycardia (VT) in hospitalized patients with acute decompensated heart failure. Methods and Results— Ambulatory ECGs (leads V1, V5, and aVF) recorded before initiation of drug therapy from patients enrolled in the PRECEDENT (Prospective Randomized Evaluation of Cardiac Ectopy with Dobutamine or Nesiritide Therapy) trial were analyzed. R-wave heterogeneity (RWH) and T-wave heterogeneity (TWH) were assessed by second central moment analysis and T-wave alternans (TWA) by modified moving average analysis. Of 44 patients studied, 22 had experienced episodes of VT (≥4 beats at heart rates >100 beats/min) following ≥120 minutes of stable sinus rhythm, and 22 were age- and sex-matched patients without VT. TWA increased from 18.6±2.1 &mgr;V (baseline, mean±SEM) to 27.9±4.6 &mgr;V in lead V5 at 15 to 30 minutes before VT (P<0.05) and remained elevated until the arrhythmia occurred. TWA results in leads V1 and aVF were similar. RWH and TWH were elevated from 164.1±33.1 and 134.5±20.6 &mgr;V (baseline) to 299.8±54.5 and 239.2±37.0 &mgr;V at 30 to 45 minutes before VT (P<0.05), respectively, preceding the crescendo in TWA by 15 minutes. Matched patients without VT did not display elevated RWH (185.5±29.4 &mgr;V) or TWH (157.1±27.2 &mgr;V) during the 24-hour period. Conclusions— This investigation is the first clinical demonstration of the potential utility of tracking depolarization and repolarization heterogeneity to detect crescendos in electrical instability that could forewarn of impending nonsustained VT. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00270400.
Bmc Medical Informatics and Decision Making Sentence Retrieval for Abstracts of Randomized Controlled Trials

Background: The practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM) requires clinicians to integrate their expertise with the latest scientific research. But this is becoming increasingly difficult with the growing numbers of published articles. There is a clear need for better tools to improve clinician's ability to search the primary literature. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are the most reliable source of evidence documenting the efficacy of treatment options. This paper describes the retrieval of key sentences from abstracts of RCTs as a step towards helping users find relevant facts about the experimental design of clinical studies.
A social work study on juvenile delinquency

Article history: Received August 19, 2011 Received in Revised form November, 11, 2011 Accepted 12 November 2011 Available online 18 November 2011 We present an empirical study to study the effects of different factors on juvenile delinquency. The investigation distributes 100 questionnaires among people who are involved with crime and analyzes their feedbacks. There are five hypotheses in our survey and we look to see whether family conditions, religion, economical conditions, media and physical and psychological characteristics play important role on juvenile delinquency in Iranian society. The results shows that while family conditions, physical and psychological characteristics play important role on juvenile delinquency, other factors do not statistically have any impact on juvenile delinquency. The study suggests that a better family condition could help reduce juvenile delinquency and people could guide their children through better consultations.
Encore! Oral therapy for type 1 Gaucher disease.

In this issue of Blood, Cox et al show that 157 adult patients with type 1 (nonneuronopathic) Gaucher disease (GD), whose initial signs and symptoms improved with biweekly IV infusions of pharmacologic recombinant glucocerebrosidase (enzyme replacement therapy [ERT]), remained stable for up to 4 years after switching to eliglustat tartrate, an oral inhibitor of glucocerebroside synthase (substrate reduction therapy [SRT]). 1 The study also demonstrated sustained normal values for validated patient-reported outcomes, including the Fatigue Severity Scale, the Brief Pain Inventory, and the 36-item short-form health-related quality of life instrument. This is important because wide discrepancies between GD response outcomes that are significant for patients and those most valued by physicians have been described.2
A digital hardware pulse-mode neuron with piecewise linear activation function

This paper proposes a new type of digital pulse-mode neuron that employs piecewise-linear function as its activation function. The neuron is implemented on field programmable gate array (FPGA) and tested by experiments. As well as theoretical analysis, the experimental results show that the piecewise-linear function of the proposed neuron is programmable and robust against the change in the number of input signals. To demonstrate the effect of piecewise-linear activation function, pulse-mode multilayer neural network with on-chip learning is implemented on FPGA with the proposed neuron, and its learning performance is verified by experiments. By approximating the sigmoid function by the piecewise-linear function, the convergence rate of the learning and generalization capability are improved.
Successful reintroduction of statin therapy after myositis: was there another cause?

The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025-729X 3 May 2004 180 9 472-473 ©The Medical Journal of Australia 2004 www.mja. com.au Lessons from Practice STATIN-RELATED MUSCLE COMPLAINTS include myalgia, myositis and rhabdomyolysis.1 Hypothyroidism itself can cause musculoskeletal symptoms, including myalgia, Hoffmann’s syndrome (muscle stiffness, weakness and increased muscle mass, frequently with elevated creatine kinase [CK] level), Kocher–Debré–Sémélaigne syndrome (diffuse muscular hypertrophy and weakness in congenital hypothyroidism), a polymyositis-like syndrome (with proximal muscle weakness and markedly elevated CK level), and rhabdomyolysis.2 The coexistence of hypothyroidism and statin use may increase the risk of myopathy.3 Statin-induced myopathies tend to resolve within a few days to 1 month after ceasing statin use.4 Persistent elevation of CK level after stopping statin therapy has been reported, prompting further investigation and leading to the discovery of coexisting hypothyroidism. Thyroxine replacement therapy was reported as normalising CK and total cholesterol levels in these patients. However, to the best of our knowledge, ours is the first report of a patient with treated hypothyroidism in whom statin therapy was safely reintroduced after the resolution of myositis. While the exact aetiology of the myositis in our patient can not be proven, it seems most probable that it was precipitated by a combination of hypothyroidism and statin use. Full-dose statin therapy did not cause a recurrence of myositis once the hypothyoidism had been treated, implicating hypothyroidism as a contributing factor. However, it is uncertain whether the hypothyroidism would have resulted in myositis without coexisting statin therapy. The patient has mild asymptomatic elevation of CK level while taking simvastatin and with adequate thyroxine replacement. Such asymptomatic CK elevation is frequently seen in subjects during statin trials with both placebo and statin therapy, and continued treatment while asymptomatic and with CK levels up to 10 times the upper limit of normal has to date proven to be safe.6 As hypothyroidism can cause hyperlipidaemia, we suggest that thyroid function should be checked before commencing statin therapy, particularly if there are any clinical features to suggest its presence. We also suggest that patients who develop symptoms or signs suggestive of myopathy while taking statin therapy should be tested for hypothyroidism. As in our patient, it may be safe to cautiously reintroduce Successful reintroduction of statin therapy after myositis: was there another cause?
Effects of Ambient Pressure on the Structural and Magnetic Properties of Bismuth Ferrite Nanoparticles Prepared by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD)

Nanoparticles of bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) were fabricated by high-pressure pulsed laser deposition method (PLD) on Pt-coated Si substrates. Effects of the ambient oxygen pressure during deposition (from 1 Torr to 15 Torr) were studied with respect to the microstructures and magnetic properties of the samples. It was found that as the pressure is higher than 5 Torr isolated nanoparticles are formed and the size of these nanoparticles decreases with the deposition pressure. All the nanoparticles exhibit ferromagnetic behavior and the magnetic coercive filed decreases with the particle size.
Special Issues in the Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD in Adolescents

Abstract Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common disorder among adolescents but can be a challenge to diagnose in this population for several reasons. Obvious symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity are displayed less frequently than in younger children. Direct observation by potential raters is more limited because adolescents spend less time with parents and usually have multiple teachers throughout the day. Also, adolescents often suffer from psychiatric comorbidities, which affect the presentation of ADHD and can confound the diagnosis. Similarly, impaired social skills and academic performance may result from this disorder or for other reasons. These difficulties underscore the importance of a careful and comprehensive assessment that includes parent-, teacher-, and self-reported measures of functioning in several environments, including school, home, and work. Because ADHD is chronic and usually impairing in several domains (eg, social skills, academic performance, family relations, emotional health, driving), adequate treatment is essential. However, there are relatively few treatment studies in adolescents. Stimulant agents are well established as first-line medication treatment for both school-aged children and adults. Existing data support that this is also the case with adolescents. Specifically, both an extended-release formulation of methylphenidate, osmotic-release oral system (OROS® MPH; CONCERTA®) and a mixed amphetamine salts extended-release (MAS XR; Adderall® XR) have demonstrated efficacy and safety in reducing the core symptoms of ADHD in well-designed, multisite, placebo-controlled, double-blind trials. Additional research is needed to further refine diagnostic and assessment tools in the adolescent population.
Quantitative evaluation of face detection and tracking algorithms for head pose estimation in mobile platforms

Face detection, face tracking and head pose estimation are commonly utilized in many computer vision applications related to face recognition, expression analysis, augmented reality and human computer interaction. Many different types of face detection and face tracking algorithms have been proposed by different research groups and based on the target platforms and applications, these algorithms have their own strengths and limitations. Yet a comprehensive intra and inter approach evaluation against a single data set is not available in the literature. In this paper, we present a comprehensive evaluation carried out on a set of selected face detection and tracking algorithms with respect to their accuracy, performance and robustness on both PC and mobile platforms.
Electricity markets with flexible consumption as nonatomic congestion games

This article studies nonatomic congestion games with symmetric players sending flow in arcs linking a unique source and destination. These games can represent systems where electricity retailers controlling flexible consumption minimize their energy costs. We focus on games with affine cost functions and define laminar Nash equilibrium where the constraints on the minimum and maximal flow that a player must send in a given arc are not binding. We show that the flow sent by a player at a laminar Nash equilibrium does not depend on the demand of other players. In laminar flow, we bound the price of anarchy and the ratio between the maximum and the minimum arc cost. Finally, we propose a simple method based on the property of a laminar Nash equilibrium to compute the price of flexibility to which energy flexibility should be remunerated in electric power systems.
Programming computers embedded in the physical world

During the next decade, emerging technologies will help populating the physical space with ubiquitous networks of embedded systems (NES). Programming NES requires new abstractions and computing models since the current programming, models are not designed for the scale and volatility encountered in these networks. This paper presents Spatial Programming (SP), a novel programming model for NES. The key idea in SP is to offer network-transparent access to data and services distributed on nodes spread across the physical space. SP programs access network resources using a high level abstraction, termed spatial reference, which addresses the nodes using their spatial and content properties. An underlying system takes care of mapping spatial references onto target nodes in the network. Our preliminary experience in developing SP applications suggests that SP can be a viable solution for distributed computing over NES.
Failure of Adaptive Self-Organized Criticality during Epileptic Seizure Attacks

Critical dynamics are assumed to be an attractive mode for normal brain functioning as information processing and computational capabilities are found to be optimal in the critical state. Recent experimental observations of neuronal activity patterns following power-law distributions, a hallmark of systems at a critical state, have led to the hypothesis that human brain dynamics could be poised at a phase transition between ordered and disordered activity. A so far unresolved question concerns the medical significance of critical brain activity and how it relates to pathological conditions. Using data from invasive electroencephalogram recordings from humans we show that during epileptic seizure attacks neuronal activity patterns deviate from the normally observed power-law distribution characterizing critical dynamics. The comparison of these observations to results from a computational model exhibiting self-organized criticality (SOC) based on adaptive networks allows further insights into the underlying dynamics. Together these results suggest that brain dynamics deviates from criticality during seizures caused by the failure of adaptive SOC.
A Dataset of Naturally Occurring, Whole-Body Background Activity to Reduce Gesture Conflicts

In real settings, natural body movements can be erroneously recognized by whole-body input systems as explicit input actions. We call body activity not intended as input actions "background activity. " We argue that understanding background activity is crucial to the success of always-available whole-body input in the real world. To operationalize this argument, we contribute a reusable study methodology and software tools to generate standardized background activity datasets composed of data from multiple Kinect cameras, a Vicon tracker, and two high-definition video cameras. Using our methodology, we create an example background activity dataset for a television-oriented living room setting. We use this dataset to demonstrate how it can be used to redesign a gestural interaction vocabulary to minimize conflicts with the real world. The software tools and initial living room dataset are publicly available (this http URL).
Supply Chain Partner Relationships Classification: an Empirical Study on LEG Model

Based on the relevant literature and research theory, this paper discusses supply chain partner relationship classification evaluation model. As an object of study, Chinese typical manufacturing enterprises were surveyed through the design questionnaire to understand the present situation of supply chain partner relationships among them. With using of cluster analysis, supply chain partner relationships are classified to explore the regulation and trend for Chinese manufacturing enterprises’ supply chain partnerships.
Situational method engineering for informational system project approaches

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of Situational Method Engineering, which is a type of method engineering. Situational Method Engineering aims at harmonisation of methods by providing rules to configure project-specific methods out of fragments from existing standard methods. It stems from the need for controlled flexibility, which is a compromise between the ad-hoc tuning of methods and the application of rigid, standard methods. Method fragments are stored in a method base, which constitutes the central repository of a Computer Aided Method Engineering (CAME) tool. The CAME tool is used to manipulate method fragments in order to configure project-specific methods. We present a model of the method base, as well as operations on method fragments and examples of required consistency rules for a configured method. Moreover, we discuss the spectrum of approaches to Situational Method Engineering. The paper is concluded with a description of the CAME tool under development. Keyword Codes: D.2. 0; H.1. 0; K.6. 3
Linking preterm birth and air pollution in Harris County, Texas

Exposure to high levels of air pollution has many known adverse health effects including heart and lung disease. Associations between exposure and increased mortality have also been estimated. The link between exposures to pollutants, such as particulate matter 2.5 micrometers and smaller (PM2.5 ) and ozone, and birth outcomes is not as well established because of the lack of quality data. We develop a model for examining the relationship between exposure to PM2.5 and ozone and the probability of preterm birth. Our focus is on identifying the critical windows of the pregnancy in which increased exposure to these pollutants is particularly harmful. We introduce a continuous exposure model that will help to identify these critical times during pregnancy using geo-coded birth outcome data from the state of Texas (2000-2004) along with two sources of daily pollution data. Other covariates of interest such as parental demographics are controlled for in the analysis as well. Using Bayesian methods, we analyze data from Harris County, Texas from 2000-2004 and obtain posterior summaries of interest. Our model indicates that higher exposure to the PM2.5 pollutant during the middle of the first trimester through the beginning of the second trimester significantly increases the probability of a preterm delivery. Elevated exposure during the first few weeks of pregnancy and early in the second trimester to ozone is also associated with a significant increase in the probability of a preterm delivery. The developing fetus may be more vulnerable during these critical windows of exposure because the air pollution may interfere with the delivery of vital oxygen and nutrients to the fetus. Black mothers and mothers over the age of 40 are identified as being most susceptible to preterm birth, while paternal attributes appear to be less significant.
History of the Risk Concept and Risk Modeling October , 2004

Edhec is one of the top five business schools in France owing to the high quality of its academic staff (90 permanent lecturers from France and abroad) and its privileged relationship with professionals that the school has been developing since its establishment in 1906. Edhec Business School has decided to draw on its extensive knowledge of the professional environment and has therefore concentrated its research on themes that satisfy the needs of professionals. Edhec pursues an active research policy in the field of finance. Its " Risk and Asset Management Research Centre " carries out numerous research programs in the areas of asset allocation and risk management in both the traditional and alternative investment universes.
Magellanic Clouds

Aims. We present a study of the mid-infrared properties and dust content of a sample of 27 H ii " blobs " , a rare class of compact H ii regions in the Magellanic Clouds. A unique feature of this sample is that even though these H ii regions are of high and low excitation they have nearly the same physical sizes ∼1.5–3 pc. Methods. We base our analysis on archival 3 – 8 µm infrared imagery obtained with the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. Results. We find that despite their youth, sub-solar metallicity and varied degrees of excitation, the mid-infrared colors of these regions are similar to those of typical H ii regions. Higher excitation " blobs " (HEBs) display stronger 8 µm emission and redder colors than their low-excitation counterparts (LEBs).
On the Parameter Setting of a Network-Growing Algorithm for Radial Basis Kernel Networks

This paper reveals that the previously proposed network growing algorithm for radial basis kernel networks (a.k.a. 'self-structuring kernel memory networks') essentially depends upon only a single network parameter of the radius unique to all the RBFs. It is also shown that the parameter range is bounded. Both these properties are in practice quite attractive, where an efficient design of a pattern classifier is desired. Simulation studies using four data sets, each extracted from public domain database for pattern classification tasks, confirmed this new findings.
Playing with refactoring: Identifying extract class opportunities through game theory

In software engineering, developers must often find solutions to problems balancing competing goals, e.g., quality versus cost, time to market versus resources, or cohesion versus coupling. Finding a suitable balance between contrasting goals is often complex and recommendation systems are useful to support developers and managers in performing such a complex task. We believe that contrasting goals can be often dealt with game theory techniques. Indeed, game theory is successfully used in other fields, especially in economics, to mathematically propose solutions to strategic situation, in which an individual's success in making choices depends on the choices of others. To demonstrate the applicability of game theory to software engineering and to understand its pros and cons, we propose an approach based on game theory that recommend extract-class refactoring opportunities. A preliminary evaluation inspired by mutation testing demonstrates the applicability and the benefits of the proposed approach.
Explorations and Experiences with Ambient Information Systems

We have developed a series of ambient information systems and used each in our research lab for extended periods of time. The systems use technologies such as RFID, RSS, and Phidgets to help present information on devices ranging from tangible and tactile objects such as children’s toys to peripheral displays running on wall-mounted LCDs. This article describes the motivation, design goals, and implementation issues for four systems: Ambient Trolley, Pirate Island, AuraOrbs, and InfoCanvas. A key capability provided in most of the systems is the consolidation of multiple types of awareness information into one display. We conclude the article with reflections on our experiences and questions about how one would evaluate such systems.