Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictors of Ethical Approval and Informed Consent in Orthodontic RCTs

Objectives Determine the number of orthodontic randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in four key orthodontic journals from 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2010, whether details about ethical approval (EA) and/or informed consent (IC) were reported and identify predictors for reporting EA and IC in orthodontic RCTs. Design Retrospective observational study. Setting American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics (AJODO), Angle Orthodontist (AO), European Journal of Orthodontics (EJO) and Journal of Orthodontics (JO) from 2001 to 2010. Interventions AJODO, AO, EJO and JO were handsearched to identify all RCTs published from 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2010. Main outcome measure The RCTs were assessed to identify: inclusion of details about EA and IC, publication journal, number of authors, number and location of centres involved, perceived statistician involvement, publication year and inclusion of random* in either the title, abstract or body of the text. Results 218 RCTs were published. 109 (48·6%) had reported both EA and IC, 59 (27·1%) neither and 53 (12·9%) either EA or IC. Factors associated with an RCT reporting obtaining EA and IC: number of authors (P<0·001), random* in title (P<0·001), random* in abstract but not title (P<0·001), location of origin (P = 0·001), publication year (P = 0·003), journal of publication (P = 0·004) and number of centres (P = 0·008). Logistic regression suggested the most significant indicators of reporting EA and IC were: publication in the JO (P = 0·018), >6 authors (P<0·001), random* in the abstract but not title (P = 0·004) and publication after 2004 (P = 0·001). Conclusions RCTs were most likely to have reported EA and IC when published in the JO, after 2004 while having more than six authors and random* in the abstract but not title.
Prognosis of untreated hepatocellular carcinoma

The prognosis of untreated patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is heterogeneous, and survival data were mainly obtained from control arms of randomized studies. Clinical practice data on this topic are urgently needed, so as to help plan studies and counsel patients. We assessed the prognosis of 600 untreated patients with HCC managed by the Italian Liver Cancer Group. Prognosis was evaluated by subdividing patients according to the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) classification. We also assessed the main demographic, clinical, and oncological determinants of survival in the subgroup of patients with advanced HCC (BCLC C). Advanced (BCLC C: n = 138; 23.0%) and end‐stage HCC (BCLC D; n = 210; 35.0%) represented the majority of patients. Overall median survival was 9 months, and the principal cause of death was tumor progression (n = 279; 46.5%). Patients' median survival progressively and significantly decreased as BCLC stage worsened (BCLC 0: 38 months; BCLC A: 25 months; BCLC B: 10 months; BCLC C: 7 months; BCLC D: 6 months; P < 0.0001). Female gender (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.55; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.33‐0.90; P = 0.018), ascites (HR = 1.81; 95% CI = 1.21‐2.71; P = 0.004), and multinodular (>3) HCC (HR = 1.79; 95% CI = 1.21‐2.63; P = 0.003) were independent predictors of survival in patients with advanced HCC (BCLC C). Conclusion: BCLC adequately predicts the prognosis of untreated HCC patients. In untreated patients with advanced HCC, female gender, clinical decompensation of cirrhosis, and multinodular tumor are independent prognostic predictors and should be taken into account for patient stratification in future therapeutic studies. (Hepatology 2015;61:184–190)
Merits and Demerits of Existing Energy Efficient Data Gathering Techniques for Wireless Sensor Networks

ss sensor networks (WSN) are self organized, low cost and low power utilizing network which senses, calculates and communicates the data. The data collection at sensor nodes consumes a lot of energy and sensor nodes have limited energy. Hence most of the data-gathering schemes aim to prolong the lifetime of WSNs by saving power consumption and optimized data transmission. This paper makes an extensive survey of various data gathering techniques in the WSN. The survey is done by dividing the data gathering techniques as static and mobile based on the mobility of the nodes. The data gathering techniques are analyzed in terms of energy conservation, reliability, network life time, cost, data latency and various other parameters. We present a comparison of those existing data gathering techniques along with their advantages and issues.
Study of heart rate as the main stress indicator in aircraft pilots

Heart rate is a parameter describing activity of human heart and its psycho-physiological character based on sympathovagal balance of autonomic nervous system, which could be instrumental for indicating stress in aircraft pilots. The assessment focuses on transition from the airplane's analog presentation of flight data to digital visualization (glass cockpit). The main objective was to examine heart rate of pilots according to the change of flight data imaging during proposed training program, using flight simulator (TRD40 type) and aircraft (DA40 type). Another aim is to interpret stress during different flight tasks and define its influence on pilots' performance. A group of ten healthy pilots with the same level of experience participated in a seven week training program. A custom designed system consisting of non-complex units was used for measuring procedures during every recorded flight. Heart rate was recorded using a commercial chest belt made by Garmin®. Spectral analysis of the measured signal has provided the status of sympathovagal balance based on Lomb normalized periodogram. Variation of mental stress according to the values of low to high frequency ratio LF/HF was proven according to the course of training. Results show that the transit from analog to digital visual presentation of avionic data induces stress among pilots and heart rate could be an appropriate parameter defining the actual stress condition.
Instanton sheaves on complex projective spaces

We study a class of torsion-free sheaves on complex projective spaces which generalize the much studied mathematical instanton bundles. Instanton sheaves can be obtained as cohomologies of linear monads and are shown to be semistable if its rank is not too large, while semistable torsion-free sheaves satisfying certain cohomological conditions are instanton. We also study a few examples of moduli spaces of instanton sheaves.
Utterances Assessment in Chat Conversations

With the continuous evolution of collaborative environments, the needs of automatic analyses and assessment of participants in instant messenger conferences (chat) have become essential. For these aims, on one hand, a series of factors based on natural language processing (including lexical analysis and Latent Semantic Analysis) and data-mining have been taken into consideration. On the other hand, in order to thoroughly assess participants, measures as Page's essay grading, readability and social networks analysis metrics were computed. The weights of each factor in the overall grading system are optimized using a genetic algorithm whose entries are provided by a perceptron in order to ensure numerical stability. A gold standard has been used for evaluating the system's performance.
Semantic Segmentation with Same Topic Constraints

A popular approach to semantic segmentation problems is to construct a pair wise Conditional Markov Random Field (CRF) over image pixels where the pair wise term encodes a preference for smoothness within pixel neighborhoods. Recently, researchers have considered higher-order models that encode local region or soft non-local constraints (e.g., label consistency or co-occurrence statistics). These new models with higher-order terms have significantly pushed the state-of-the-art for semantic segmentation problems. In this study, we consider a novel non- local constraint that enforces consistent pixel labels among those image regions having the same topic. These topics are discovered by Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis model (PLSA). We encode this constraint as a robust Pn higher-order potential among all the image regions of the same topic in a unified CRF model. We experimentally demonstrate quantitative and qualitative improvements over a refined baseline unary and pair wise CRF models.
Interval versus continuous training in individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease- a systematic review

Background In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), interval exercise has gained recent attention as a possible means of achieving greater physiological training effects compared with continuous exercise. The primary aim of this systematic review was to compare the effects of interval versus continuous training on peak oxygen uptake, peak power, 6 minute walk test (6MWT) distance and health-related quality of life in individuals with COPD. Methods Randomised controlled trials comparing the effects of interval versus continuous training in patients with COPD were identified after searches of six databases and reference lists of appropriate studies in May 2009. Two reviewers independently assessed study quality. Weighted mean differences (WMD) with 95% CIs were calculated using a random effects model for measures of exercise capacity and health-related quality of life. Results: Eight randomised controlled trials, with a total of 388 patients with COPD, met the inclusion criteria. No significant differences were found for peak power (WMD 1 W, 95% CI −1 to 3) or peak oxygen uptake (WMD −0.04 l/min, 95% CI −0.13 to 0.05) between interval and continuous training. The WMD for the Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire dyspnoea score was −0.2 units (95% CI −0.5 to 0.0). There was no difference in 6MWT distance between groups (WMD 4 m, 95% CI −15 to 23). Conclusions Interval and continuous training modalities did not differ in their effect on measures of exercise capacity or health-related quality of life. Interval training may be considered as an alternative to continuous training in patients with varying degrees of COPD severity.
End-to-end utilization control in distributed real-time systems

An increasing number of distributed real-time systems face the critical challenge of providing end-to-end quality of service (QoS) guarantees in open and unpredictable environments. In particular, such systems often need to guarantee the CPU utilization on multiple processors in order to achieve overload protection and meet end-to-end deadlines while task execution times are unpredictable. While the recently developed feedback control real-time scheduling algorithms have shown promise, they cannot handle the common end-to-end task model in distributed systems where each task is comprised of a chain of subtasks distributed on multiple processors. We present the end-to-end utilization control (EUCON) algorithm that features a distributed feedback loop that dynamically enforces desired CPU utilization bounds on multiple processors based on online performance measurements EUCON is based on a model predictive control approach that models the utilization control problem on a distributed platform as a multivariable constrained optimization problem. A multiinput-multioutput model predictive controller is designed based on a difference equation model that describes the dynamic behavior of distributed real-time systems. Both control theoretic analysis and simulations demonstrate that EUCON can provide robust utilization guarantees even when task execution times deviate from the estimation or vary significantly at run-time.
Synergism in Degradation and Utilization of Intact Forage Cellulose, Hemicellulose, and Pectin by Three Pure Cultures of Ruminal Bacteria

Pure cultures of ruminal bacteria characterized as using only a single forage polysaccharide (Fibrobacter succinogenes A3c, cellulolytic; Bacteroides ruminicola H2b, hemicellulolytic; Lachnospira multiparus D15d, pectinolytic) were inoculated separately and in all possible combinations into fermentation tubes containing orchard grass as the sole substrate. Fermentations were run to completion, and then cultures were analyzed for digestion of cellulose plus degradation and utilization of hemicellulose and pectin. Addition of the noncellulolytic organisms, in any combination, to the cellulolytic organism F. succinogenes had little effect on overall cellulose utilization. F. succinogenes degraded but could not utilize hemicellulose; however, when it was combined with B. ruminicola, total utilization of hemicellulose increased markedly over that by B. ruminicola alone. L. multiparus was inactive in hemicellulose digestion, alone or in any combination. Although unable to degrade and utilize purified pectin, B. ruminicola degraded and utilized considerable quantities of the forage pectin. In contrast, L. multiparus was very active against purified pectin, but had extremely limited ability to degrade and utilize pectin from the intact forage. Both degradation and utilization of forage pectin increased when F. succinogenes was combined with B. ruminicola. Sequential addition of two cultures, allowing one to complete its fermentation before adding the second, was used to study synergism between cultures on forage pectin digestion. In general, synergistic effects did not appear to be related to a particular sequence of utilization. The ability of F. succinogenes to degrade and B. ruminicola to degrade and utilize forage pectin contradicts both previous and present data obtained with purified pectin. Thus, isolation and characterization of ruminal bacteria on purified substrates may be misleading with regard to their role in the overall ruminal fermentation.
Scheduling of Trafic Diversion and Cloud Scrubbing with Uncertainty in Current Inputs

Operating distributed Scrubbing Centers (SCs) to mitigate massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) traic in large-scale networks faces critical challenges. The operator needs to determine the diversion rule installation and elimination in the networks, as well as the scrubbing resource activation and revocation in the SCs, while minimizing the long-term cost and the cumulative decision-switching penalty without knowing the exact amount of the malicious trafic. We model and formulate this problem as an online nonlinear integer program. In contrast to many other online problems where future inputs are unknown but at least current inputs are known, a key new challenge here is that even part of the current inputs are unknownwhen decisions are made. To łlearnž the best decisions online, we transform our problem via a gap-preserving approximation into an online optimization problem with only the known inputs, which is further relaxed and decoupled into a series of one-shot convex programs solvable in individual time slots. To overcome the intractability, we design a progressive rounding algorithm to convert fractional decisions into integral ones without violating the constraints. We characterize the competitive ratio of our approach as a function of the key parameters of our problem. We conduct evaluations using real-world data and conirm our algorithms’ superiority over de facto practices and state-of-the-art methods.
Post register allocation spill code optimization

A highly optimized register allocator should provide an efficient placement of save/restore code for procedures that contain calls. This paper presents a new approach to placing callee-saved save and restore instructions that generalizes Chow's shrink-wrapping technique (Chow, 1988). An efficient, profile-guided, hierarchical spill code placement algorithm is used to analyze the structure of a procedure to calculate the minimum dynamic execution count locations to place callee-saved save and restore code. The algorithm is implemented in the Gnu Compiler Collection and has been tested on the SPEC CPU2000 Integer Benchmark suite. Results show that the technique reduces the number of dynamic load and store instructions by 15% compared to saving and restoring at procedure entry and exit while Chow's shrink-wrapping technique reduces dynamic load and store instructions by only 1% compared to saving and restoring at procedure entry and exit. The dynamic number of callee-saved save and restore instructions inserted with this new approach is never greater than the number produced by Chow's shrink-wrapping technique or the placement at procedure entry and exit.
ENERGY EXPENDITURE AND INFLUENCE OF PHYSIOLOGIC FACTORS DURING MARATHON RUNNING

This study examined energy expenditure and physiologic determinants for marathon performance in recreational runners. Twenty recreational marathon runners participated (10 males aged 41 ± 11.3 years, 10 females aged 42.7 ± 11.7 years). Each subject completed a &OV0622;O2max and a 1-hour treadmill run at recent marathon pace, and body composition was indirectly determined via dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. The male runners exhibited higher &OV0622;O2max (ml·kg−1·min−1) values (52.6 ± 5.5) than their female counterparts (41.9 ± 6.6), although ventilatory threshold (T-vent) values were similar between groups (males: 76.2 ± 6.1% of &OV0622;O2max, females: 75.1 ± 5.1%). The male runners expended more energy (2,792 ± 235 kcal) for their most recent marathon as calculated from the 1-hour treadmill run at marathon pace than the female runners (2,436 ± 297 kcal). Body composition parameters correlated moderately to highly (r ranging from 0.50 to 0.87) with marathon run time. Also, &OV0622;O2max (r = −0.73) and ventilatory threshold (r = −0.73) moderately correlated with marathon run time. As a group, the participants ran near their ventilatory threshold for their most recent marathon (r = 0.74). These results indicate the influence of body size on marathon run performance. In general, the larger male and female runners ran slower and expended more kilocalories than smaller runners. Regardless of marathon finishing time, the runners maintained a pace near their T-vent, and as T-vent or &OV0622;O2max increased, marathon performance time decreased
Organization of somatosensory cortex in three species of marsupials, Dasyurus hallucatus, Dactylopsila trivirgata, and Monodelphis domestica: Neural correlates of morphological specializations

The organization of somatosensory neocortex was investigated in three species of marsupials, the northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus), the striped possum (Dactylopsila trivirgata), and the short‐tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica). In these species, multiunit microelectrode mapping techniques were used to determine the detailed organization of the primary somatosensory area (SI). In the striped possum and quoll, the topography of somatosensory regions rostral (R), and caudal (C) to SI were described as well. Lateral to SI, two fields were identified in the striped possum, the second somatosensory area (SII) and the parietal ventral area (PV); in the quoll, there appeared to be only one additional lateral field which we term SII/PV. Visual and auditory cortices adjacent to somatosensory cortex were also explored, but the details of organization of these regions were not ascertained. In these animals, electrophysiological recording results were related to cortical myeloarchitecture and/or cytochrome oxidase staining. In one additional species, the fat‐tailed dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata), an architectonic analysis alone was carried out, and compared with the cortical architecture and electrophysiological recording results in the other three species. We discuss our results on the internal organization of SI in relation to the morphological specializations that each animal possesses. In addition, we discuss the differences in the organization of SI, and how evolutionary processes and developmental and adult neocortical plasticity may contribute to the observed variations in SI. J. Comp. Neurol. 403:5–32, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
BRL1 and BRL3 are novel brassinosteroid receptors that function in vascular differentiation in Arabidopsis

Plant steroid hormones, brassinosteroids (BRs), are perceived by the plasma membrane-localized leucine-rich-repeat-receptor kinase BRI1. Based on sequence similarity, we have identified three members of the BRI1 family, named BRL1, BRL2 and BRL3. BRL1 and BRL3, but not BRL2, encode functional BR receptors that bind brassinolide, the most active BR, with high affinity. In agreement, only BRL1 and BRL3 can rescue bri1 mutants when expressed under the control of the BRI1 promoter. While BRI1 is ubiquitously expressed in growing cells, the expression of BRL1 and BRL3 is restricted to non-overlapping subsets of vascular cells. Loss-of-function of brl1 causes abnormal phloem:xylem differentiation ratios and enhances the vascular defects of a weak bri1 mutant. bri1 brl1 brl3 triple mutants enhance bri1 dwarfism and also exhibit abnormal vascular differentiation. Thus, Arabidopsis contains a small number of BR receptors that have specific functions in cell growth and vascular differentiation.
Improve Recommendation by Trust Mechanism: From Perspective of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 and collaborative filtering recommendation technologies have been widely exploited to unleash the creation appetency of people for sharing contents with others and receiving customized services in an information overload time. In this paper, by studying the growing process of online communities we propose a trust mechanism as well as related algorithms to improve recommendation, especially for the new user cold start problem. Through the experiments under the scale-free network environment, our work shows a more flexible and natural property to enhances user's acceptance of the Web 2.0 application.
A proxy server structure and its cache consistency mechanism at the network bottleneck

The response time, bandwidth usage and server load are three representative performance metrics that are used for proxy cache consistency mechanisms. However, the primary metric affecting the overall performance can be different depending on the situation. At a network bottleneck, such as the inter-continental backbone, the network bandwidth is limited. Also, the response time is a basic performance metric used for the proxy cache, and an unsatisfactory response time can be a reason why clients hesitate to use the proxy cache, which may potentially increase the network traffic. Hence, we should give higher priority to the response time and the bandwidth usage at the bottleneck, as compared to other metrics. In this paper, we suggest a proxy server structure at the network bottleneck which improves the response time and even results in a small amount of network traffic reduction at the bottleneck. Its cache consistency mechanism is based on periodic polling performed at the polling server located beyond the bottleneck. Our approach may increase the network bandwidth beyond the bottleneck and the load on the originating Web servers. However, the faster response time and the reduced network traffic at the bottleneck can compensate for them.