Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Non-degenerative mild cognitive impairment in elderly people and use of anticholinergic drugs: longitudinal cohort study

Abstract Objective To assess the potential of anticholinergic drugs as a cause of non-degenerative mild cognitive impairment in elderly people. Design Longitudinal cohort study. Setting 63 randomly selected general practices in the Montpellier region of southern France. Participants 372 people aged > 60 years without dementia at recruitment. Main outcome measures Anticholinergic burden from drug use, cognitive examination, and neurological assessment. Results 9.2% of subjects continuously used anticholinergic drugs during the year before cognitive assessment. Compared with non-users, they had poorer performance on reaction time, attention, delayed non-verbal memory, narrative recall, visuospatial construction, and language tasks but not on tasks of reasoning, immediate and delayed recall of wordlists, and implicit memory. Eighty per cent of the continuous users were classified as having mild cognitive impairment compared with 35% of non-users, and anticholinergic drug use was a strong predictor of mild cognitive impairment (odds ratio 5.12, P = 0.001). No difference was found between users and non-users in risk of developing dementia at follow-up after eight years. Conclusions Elderly people taking anticholinergic drugs had significant deficits in cognitive functioning and were highly likely to be classified as mildly cognitively impaired, although not at increased risk for dementia. Doctors should assess current use of anticholinergic drugs in elderly people with mild cognitive impairment before considering administration of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.
Similar success rates for single and multiple debridement surgery for acute hip arthroplasty infection

Background — Treatment of an acute total hip arthroplasty (THA) infection aims at control of the infection with retention of the implant by surgical debridement and antibiotic treatment. There is no clear evidence whether a single surgical debridement is sufficient or whether multiple procedures are necessary for optimal treatment. Methods — From a prospective database of patients with acute THA infection, we retrospectively reviewed 68 patients treated in 2 large teaching hospitals. Hospital S used a protocol in which each patient received a single surgical debridement and only additional surgery if infectious symptoms persisted (group S; n = 33). In hospital M, patients always received multiple surgical debridements (group M; n = 35). Both groups received systemic antibiotic treatment. Removal of the implant or persistent infection at follow-up was considered failure of treatment. Mean follow-up of the patients was 5 (2–11) years. Results — Mean time between implantation and debridement was 19 days. 4 patients in group S were considered failure, as opposed to 10 patients in group M (p = 0.09). 9 patients in group S had additional surgery, which resulted in 3 of the 4 failures. At final follow-up, 30 patients in group S and 33 patients in group M had a good clinical result (p = 0.6). Interpretation — In patients with acute THA infection, a single debridement with only additional surgery on indication appears to be at least as successful for retention of the primary implant and control of infection as a strategy with multiple surgical debridements.
Frail HDLs and Stiff Arteries in Type 2 Diabetes in Juveniles

Lowering of LDL cholesterol plasma levels with statins reduces coronary heart disease (CHD) event rates by up to 50% (1), implying a residual cardiovascular risk of the same magnitude despite treatment. Moreover, statins increase the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), especially in patients showing components of the metabolic syndrome (2). Hence, there is considerable need for novel therapeutic regimens improving CHD prevention without increasing the risk of T2DM. HDLs are an interesting target for this objective. Most observational studies and meta-analyses thereof demonstrated the inverse relationship of HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) levels with the CHD risk (3) as well as T2DM and its vascular complications (4,5). HDL particles exert various potentially antiatherogenic (6–8) and antidiabetogenic activities (4). Atherosclerotic lesions were decreased or even reversed in animals by transgenic overexpression or application of exogenous apolipoprotein (apo) A-I, which constitutes the most abundant protein of HDL (6). Animal experiments also provided evidence that HDL improves the function and survival of pancreatic β-cells and glucose uptake into muscle, liver, and adipose tissue (4). In humans, artificially reconstituted HDL particles reduced coronary plaque volume (9,10) and improved glycemia (11). In contrast to these promising results, addition of fenofibrate, niacin, torcetrapib, or dalcetrapib to statins failed to reduce cardiovascular risk beyond that provided by statin treatment alone despite increasing HDL-C (12–15). Moreover, alterations in HDL-C, either associated with mutations in the human genome or provoked in genetic mouse models, did not consistently translate into opposite changes of cardiovascular risk and atherosclerotic plaque load, respectively (16,17). Because of these controversial data, the suitability of HDL as a therapeutic target has been increasingly questioned. However, it is important to emphasize that interventional trials and …
A semantic-web-based decision support system for stakeholders of specific degree programs

The paper describes the first phases of a development and implementation project of a semantic-web-based information system. It shall support standard decision use cases for different stakeholders of specific degree programs in the German-speaking world. The goal is to enhance the provision of information via program websites by standardized semantic annotation based on a domain-specific ontology. Starting with a description of the knowledge domain, the paper discusses different solution approaches and outlines a system design for the chosen approach. The basic technical feasibility of the system is shown in a proof of concept. The paper ends with a short survey of further work, comprising research and development tasks, as well as social and management tasks.
Signature-Based Anomaly intrusion detection using Integrated data mining classifiers

As the influence of Internet and networking technologies as communication medium advance and expand across the globe, cyber attacks also grow accordingly. Anomaly detection systems (ADSs) are employed to scrutinize information such as packet behaviours coming from various locations on network to find those intrusive activities as fast as possible with precision. Unfortunately, besides minimizing false alarms; the performance issues related to heavy computational process has become drawbacks to be resolved in this kind of detection systems. In this work, a novel Signature-Based Anomaly Detection Scheme (SADS) which could be applied to scrutinize packet headers' behaviour patterns more precisely and promptly is proposed. Integratingdata mining classifiers such as Naive Bayes and Random Forest can beutilized to decrease false alarms as well as generate signatures based on detection resultsfor future prediction and reducing processing time. Results from a number of experiments using DARPA 1999 and ISCX 2012 benchmark dataset have validated that SADS own better detection capabilities with lower processing duration as contrast to conventional anomaly-based detection method.
Iliopsoas Syndrome in Dancers

Background: Coxa saltans refers to a constellation of diagnoses that cause snapping of the hip and is a major cause of anterior hip pain in dancers. When the internal type is accompanied by weakness or pain, it is referred to as iliopsoas syndrome. Iliopsoas syndrome is the result of repetitive active hip flexion in abduction and can be confused with other hip pathology, most commonly of labral etiology. Purpose: To report the incidence, clinical findings, treatment protocol, and results of treatment for iliopsoas syndrome in a population of dancers. Study Design: Retrospective case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: A retrospective database review of 653 consecutive patients evaluated for musculoskeletal complaints over a 3-year period was completed. The diagnosis of iliopsoas syndrome was made based on anterior hip or groin pain, weakness with resisted hip flexion in abduction, or symptomatic clicking or snapping with a positive iliopsoas test. Patients identified with iliopsoas syndrome were further stratified according to age at time of onset, insidious versus acute onset, duration of symptoms, side of injury, presence of rest pain, pain with activities of daily living, and associated lower back pain. All patients diagnosed with iliopsoas syndrome underwent physical therapy, including hip flexor stretching and strengthening, pelvic mobilization, and modification of dance technique or exposure as required. Results: A total of 49 dancers were diagnosed and treated for iliopsoas syndrome. Within this injured population of 653 patients, the incidence in female dancers was 9.2%, significantly higher than that in male dancers (3.2%). The mean age at the time of injury was 24.6 years. The incidence of iliopsoas syndrome in dancers younger than 18 years was 12.8%, compared with 7% in dancers older than 18 years. Student dancers had the highest incidence (14%), followed by amateur dancers (7.5%), while professional dancers had the lowest incidence (4.6%). All patients responded to conservative treatment, and no patients required corticosteroid injections or surgical intervention. Conclusion: This is the largest series reported to date of iliopsoas syndrome in the dance population, treated noninvasively. This study supports that conservative treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication, activity modification, and a physical therapy regimen specific to the iliopsoas should be the primary treatment for patients with iliopsoas syndrome. Clinical Relevance: This study supports current literature and conservative treatment of iliopsoas syndrome diagnosis. Furthermore, this study gives specific information regarding incidence of iliopsoas syndrome in dance populations and provides a test for diagnosis and an algorithm for treatment.
An algorithm for reliability analysis of phased-mission systems

The purpose of this paper is to describe an efficient Boolean algebraic algorithm that provides exact solution to the unreliability of a multiphase mission system where the configurations are described through fault trees. The algorithm extends and improves the Boolean method originally proposed by Somani and Trivedi. By using the Boolean algebraic method, we provide an efficient modeling approach which avoids the state space explosion and the mapping problems that are encountered by the Markov chain approach. To calculate the exact solution of the phased-mission system with deterministic phase durations, we introduce the sum of disjoint phase products (SDPP) formula, which is a phased-extension of the sum of disjoint products (SDP) formula. Computationally, the algorithm is quite efficient because it calls an SDP generation algorithm in the early stage of the SDPP computation. In this way, the phase products generated in the early stage of the SDPP formula are guaranteed to be disjoint. Consequently, the number of the intermediate phase products is greatly reduced. In this paper, we also consider the transient analysis of the phased-mission system. Special care is needed to account for the possible latent failures at the mission phase change times. If there are more stringent success criteria just after a mission phase change time, an unreliability jump would occur at that time. Finally, the algorithm has been implemented in the software package sh rpe. With sharpe, the complexities of the phased-mission system is made transparent to the potential users. The user can conveniently specify a phased-mission model at a high level (through fault trees) and analyze the system quantitatively. q 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Intrinsic alignments of galaxies in the MassiveBlack-II simulation: Analysis of two-point statistics

The intrinsic alignment of galaxies with the large-scale density field in an important astrophysical contaminant in upcoming weak lensing surveys. We present detailed measurements of the galaxy intrinsic alignments and associated ellipticity-direction (ED) and projected shape (wg₊) correlation functions for galaxies in the cosmological hydrodynamic MassiveBlack-II (MB-II) simulation. We carefully assess the effects on galaxy shapes, misalignment of the stellar component with the dark matter shape and two-point statistics of iterative weighted (by mass and luminosity) definitions of the (reduced and unreduced) inertia tensor. We find that iterative procedures must be adopted for a reliable measurement of the reduced tensor but that luminosity versus mass weighting has only negligible effects. Both ED and wg₊ correlations increase in amplitude with subhalo mass (in the range of 10¹⁰ – 6.0 X 10¹⁴h⁻¹ M⊙), with a weak redshift dependence (from z = 1 to z = 0.06) at fixed mass. At z ~ 0.3, we predict a wg₊ that is in reasonable agreement with SDSS LRG measurements and that decreases in amplitude by a factor of ~ 5–18 for galaxies in the LSST survey. We also compared the intrinsic alignment of centrals and satellites, with clear detection of satellite radial alignments within themore » host halos. Finally, we show that wg₊ (using subhalos as tracers of density and wδ (using dark matter density) predictions from the simulations agree with that of non-linear alignment models (NLA) at scales where the 2-halo term dominates in the correlations (and tabulate associated NLA fitting parameters). The 1-halo term induces a scale dependent bias at small scales which is not modeled in the NLA model. « less
A Partitioned Frequency Block Algorithm for Blind Separation in Reverberant Environments

In this paper a blind source separation algorithm in reverberant environment is presented. The algorithms working in such adverse environments are usually characterized by a huge computational cost. In order to reduce the computational complexity of this kind of algorithms a partitioned frequency domain approach is proposed. Several experimental results are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Patient-Specific Pluripotent Stem Cells in Neurological Diseases

Many human neurological diseases are not currently curable and result in devastating neurologic sequelae. The increasing availability of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from adult human somatic cells provides new prospects for cellreplacement strategies and disease-related basic research in a broad spectrum of human neurologic diseases. Patient-specific iPSC-based modeling of neurogenetic and neurodegenerative diseases is an emerging efficient tool for in vitro modeling to understand disease and to screen for genes and drugs that modify the disease process. With the exponential increase in iPSC research in recent years, human iPSCs have been successfully derived with different technologies and from various cell types. Although there remain a great deal to learn about patient-specific iPSC safety, the reprogramming mechanisms, better ways to direct a specific reprogramming, ideal cell source for cellular grafts, and the mechanisms by which transplanted stem cells lead to an enhanced functional recovery and structural reorganization, the discovery of the therapeutic potential of iPSCs offers new opportunities for the treatment of incurable neurologic diseases. However, iPSC-based therapeutic strategies need to be thoroughly evaluated in preclinical animal models of neurological diseases before they can be applied in a clinical setting.
Digital Artwork Creation Using Water and Sand on a Two-Dimensional Surface

In this paper, we developed a system which enables users to draw pictures of sand and water on a two-dimensional surface in a virtual environment. By mixing water and sand for artwork creation, we can create different styles of pictures. Our system has three major subsystems: water animation system, sand animation system and rendering system. In the simulation part, we compute the motion of sand and water based on the interactions for water-water, sand-water and sand-sand. In the rendering part, we attempt to balance the rendering quality and the computation cost. We render water using a ray tracing method and the sand is rendered with shadow. Thus, the rendered results of water and sand look like 2.5D. We tested our system and the experimental results showed that the users could create a variety of pictures of sand and water.
Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Analysis a Posteriori Error Estimates for Vertex Centered Finite Volume Approximations of Convection-diffusion-reaction Equations

This paper is devoted to the study of a posteriori error estimates for the scalar nonlinear convection-diffusion-reaction equation ct + ∇ · (uf (c)) − ∇ · (D∇c) + λc = 0. The estimates for the error between the exact solution and an upwind finite volume approximation to the solution are derived in the L 1-norm, independent of the diffusion parameter D. The resulting a posteriori error estimate is used to define an grid adaptive solution algorithm for the finite volume scheme. Finally numerical experiments underline the applicability of the theoretical results.
Canonical formalism for Lagrangians with nonlocality of finite extent

I consider Lagrangians which depend nonlocally in time but in such a way that there is no mixing between times differing by more than some finite value {Delta}t. By considering these systems as the limits of ever higher derivative theories, I obtain a canonical formalism in which the coordinates are the dynamical variable from t to t+{Delta}t. A simple formula for the conjugate momenta is derived in the same way. This formalism makes apparent the virulent instability of this entire class of nonlocal Lagrangians. As an example, the formalism is applied to a nonlocal analog of the harmonic oscillator.
Continuous Attractor Nueral Networks

In this chapter a brief review is given of computational systems that are motivated by information processing in the brain, an area that is often called neurocomputing or artificial neural networks. While this is now a well studied and documented area, specific emphasis is given to a subclass of such models, called continuous attractor neural networks, which are beginning to emerge in a wide context of biologically inspired computing. The frequent appearance of such models in biologically motivated studies of brain functions gives some indication that this model might capture important information processing mechanisms used in the brain, either directly or indirectly. Most of this chapter is dedicated to an introduction to this basic model and some extensions that might be important for their application, either as a model of brain processing, or in technical applications. Direct technical applications are only emerging slowly, but some examples of promising directions are highlighted in this
A Knowledge Based System for Analysis of Gated Blood Pool Studies

A system for obtaining a complete diagnostic description of an image sequence taken in nuclear medicine from the human heart has been developed, implemented, and tested. The knowledge about these images is represented in a semantic net, conclusions are drawn by a production rule approach, and scoring of alternative diagnoses is based on fuzzy membership functions. On the low level, image pixels are smoothed and organ contours are extracted; these are the input for the high level processing. Tests with several image sequences gave correct descriptions as compared to the diagnosis of a physician.
Design components: towards software composition at the design level

Component-based software development has proven effective for systems implementation in well-understood application domains, but is still insufficient for the creation of reusable and changeable software architectures. Design patterns address these shortcomings by capturing the expertise that is necessary for reusable design solutions. However, there is so far no methodical approach to providing these conceptual design building blocks in a tangible and composable form. To address this limitation, we introduce the notion of design components, reified design patterns fit for software composition. In this paper, we define design components and explain their constituents and services. Furthermore, we detail the activities of design composition and illustrate them as a process within a four-dimensional design space. Moreover, we describe a prototype of a design composition environment. A case study helps illustrating our approach.
Additivity neglect in probability judgments and the role of numeracy

When people are asked to assign probabilities to a set of outcomes, they often add up to more than 1, or 100%, violating the norms of additivity. The present research investigated the role of numeracy in additivity neglect. Study 1 found that highly numerate participants exhibited less additivity neglect than the less numerate participants. Study 2 sought to replicate the findings from Study 1 while exerting more control over the numeracy test. This however led participants to become less additive. In Study 3 the numeracy test was given before the probability tasks in Condition 1, and after the probability tasks in Condition 2. The results showed that only the more numerate participants benefited from receiving the numeracy test first. Apparently, in order to give additive responses one not only needs a certain level of mathematical skills, one also needs to be reminded of using them. The results are discussed within a framework of class-based and case-based thinking.
A Case Study Using Web Objects and COSMIC for Effort Estimation of Web Applications

Some size measures have been proposed in the literature to be employed in estimating Web application development effort, but to date few empirical studies have been undertaken to validate them and compare their effectiveness. To address this issue we have performed an empirical study by using as size measures COSMIC and Web Objects, with the aim of verifying their effectiveness as indicators of development effort. In particular, we have built two effort estimation models by applying the Ordinary Least-Squares regression and by using a dataset of 15 Web applications developed by an italian software company. The performance of the obtained models have been evaluated by using a dataset of further 4 Web applications developed by the same software company some time after the first 15 Web applications. The results reveal that both Web Objects and COSMIC are good indicators of the development effort.
Migration, sexual behavior, and HIV diffusion in Kenya

There is a well-documented association of migration with AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. The authors use data from the 1993 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey in their examination of whether migrants are more likely than non-migrants to have multiple recent sex partners and to not use condoms with those partners. The data indicate that migration is an extremely important factor in high-risk sexual behavior with its importance varying by gender and direction of movement. Women migrating between rural areas are far more likely to engage in high-risk sex behavior than are rural non-migrants. The authors found no statistically significant pattern for male migrants in rural areas. In urban areas female migrants from other urban areas are less likely to be involved in high-risk sexual activity but men who migrate between urban areas are much more likely to be involved in high-risk sexual activity than are urban non-migrants.