Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of Medicare Diagnosis and Procedure Codes to Improve Detection of Surgical Site Infections following Hip Arthroplasty, Knee Arthroplasty, and Vascular Surgery

Objective. To evaluate the use of routinely collected electronic health data in Medicare claims to identify surgical site infections (SSIs) following hip arthroplasty, knee arthroplasty, and vascular surgery. Design. Retrospective cohort study. Setting. Four academic hospitals that perform prospective SSI surveillance. Methods. We developed lists of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, and Current Procedural Terminology diagnosis and procedure codes to identify potential SSIs. We then screened for these codes in Medicare claims submitted by each hospital on patients older than 65 years of age who had undergone 1 of the study procedures during 2007. Each site reviewed medical records of patients identified by either claims codes or traditional infection control surveillance to confirm SSI using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/ National Healthcare Safety Network criteria. We assessed the performance of both methods against all chart-confirmed SSIs identified by either method. Results. Claims-based surveillance detected 1.8–4.7-fold more SSIs than traditional surveillance, including detection of all previously identified cases. For hip and vascular surgery, there was a 5-fold and 1.6-fold increase in detection of deep and organ/space infections, respectively, with no increased detection of deep and organ/space infections following knee surgery. Use of claims to trigger chart review led to confirmation of SSI in 1 out of 3 charts for hip arthroplasty, 1 out of 5 charts for knee arthroplasty, and 1 out of 2 charts for vascular surgery. Conclusion. Claims-based SSI surveillance markedly increased the number of SSIs detected following hip arthroplasty, knee arthroplasty, and vascular surgery. It deserves consideration as a more effective approach to target chart reviews for identifying SSIs. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2012;33(1):40-49
Changing strategies for organ transplantation in atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome: A tertiary case series

We present three cases of organ transplantation for atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome secondary to complement factor H mutation: one isolated renal transplant; one previously reported isolated liver transplant; and one combined liver and kidney transplant. All three patients were treated prior to the licensing of eculizumab for this condition, and all have had favourable outcomes with maintenance of graft function for years following transplantation. We discuss the evolution of transplantation therapy for aHUS over the last two decades. Transplantation decision‐making in aHUS has evolved over this time with expanding knowledge of pathophysiology and genetics, alongside refined plasma exchange and anticoagulation protocols and improved centre experience. Our cases demonstrate how individual patient factors within this heterogeneous condition also underlie transplantation decisions and outcomes. Whilst our cases demonstrate that transplantation in aHUS can be a successful long‐term treatment providing good quality of life, worldwide experience has proven that most curative treatment for aHUS strategies represents significant risks. Whether new pharmacotherapies such as eculizumab will alter this risk is yet to be determined.
Performance analysis of OFDM-Based denoise-and-forward full-duplex PLNC with imperfect CSI

In this paper, we propose a full-duplex physical-layer network coding (FD-PLNC) scheme for reciprocal asymmetric frequency-selective multipath channels using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and denoise and forward (DNF) relaying. We consider a network scenario of two-way relay channels (FD-TWRCS) with two source nodes, A and B, intending to exchange information with the aid of a relay node R. All nodes operate in full-duplex mode and are equipped with two antennas dedicated for transmission and reception, respectively. Moreover, the proposed FD-PLNC system is combined with an active self-interference cancellation scheme in order to minimize the effect of self-interference and its performance is investigated in the presence of channel estimation errors. Semi-analytical bit error rate performance (BER) expressions as a function of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) are derived to describe the end-to-end performance. Simulation based performance results show a close match with the derived semi-analytical solutions demonstrating the feasibility of FD-PLNC using the active self-interference cancellation scheme. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the proposed FD-PLNC scheme can increase the throughput of the conventional TWRC network by a factor of 4 and the throughput of the half-duplex physical-layer network coding (HD-PLNC) by a factor of 2.
Success and Failure of Local E-Government Projects: Lessons Learned from Egypt

This chapter examines the information systems success model in the Egyptian context. Much of the existing literature on information system success focuses primarily on the private sector. There are fewer studies that examine success in the context of the development of e-government. This study focuses specifically on local e-government development of projects in Egypt. A survey is administered in three local governments on actual users of information systems. The results of this study confirm much of the existing research on information system success, but highlight the importance of net benefit as a success factor which examines the organizational and managerial context of e-government development. The importance of this research indicates that managerial functions matter for the success of e-government projects. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The advancement of e-government projects is critical for the development of countries in Africa (Heeks, 2002a). This chapter examines the success and failure of e-government projects in Egyptian local governments. This chapter applies the Delone and Mclean (1992; 2003) model of information system success to the Egyptian context, something that has not been done in prior research. This chapter examines both the reasons for success and failure of e-government projects and applies an information systems framework using survey data of actual users of a local e-government investment project. E-Government in Africa shows significant promise according to the United Nations e-government surveys. Despite the fact that Africa falls below the world average in terms of rankings, there has been significant improvement in the region, with Northern African countries leading the continent. The top ranked countries in Africa were Tunisia, Mauritius, and Egypt (United Nations, 2010). The World Bank has recognized the importance of e-government for Africa and called for an eTransformation, or using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to promote the lives and well-being of citizens (World Bank, 2010).
Effectiveness and Safety of Ginger in the Treatment of Pregnancy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting

OBJECTIVE: Conventional antiemetics are burdened with the potential of teratogenic effects during the critical embryogenic period of pregnancy. Thus, a safe and effective medication would be a welcome addition to the therapeutic repertoire. This systematic review was aimed at assessing the evidence for or against the efficacy and safety of ginger (Zingiber officinale) therapy for nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. DATA SOURCES: Systematic literature searches were conducted in 3 computerized databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library), and the reference lists of all papers located were checked for further relevant publications. METHODS OF STUDY SELECTION: For the evaluation of efficacy, only double-blind, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included. All retrieved clinical data, including uncontrolled trials, case reports, observational studies, and RCTs, were included in the review of safety. TABULATION, INTEGRATION, AND RESULTS: Six double-blind RCTs with a total of 675 participants and a prospective observational cohort study (n = 187) met all inclusion criteria. The methodological quality of 4 of 5 RCTs was high. Four of the 6 RCTs (n = 246) showed superiority of ginger over placebo; the other 2 RCTs (n = 429) indicated that ginger was as effective as the reference drug (vitamin B6) in relieving the severity of nausea and vomiting episodes. The observational study retrieved and RCTs (including follow-up periods) showed the absence of significant side effects or adverse effects on pregnancy outcomes. There were no spontaneous or case reports of adverse events during ginger treatment in pregnancy. CONCLUSION: Ginger may be an effective treatment for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy. However, more observational studies, with a larger sample size, are needed to confirm the encouraging preliminary data on ginger safety LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: I
The Emergence of Translational Epidemiology: From Scientific Discovery to Population Health Impact

Recent emphasis on translational research (TR) is highlighting the role of epidemiology in translating scientific discoveries into population health impact. The authors present applications of epidemiology in TR through 4 phases designated T1–T4, illustrated by examples from human genomics. In T1, epidemiology explores the role of a basic scientific discovery (e.g., a disease risk factor or biomarker) in developing a “candidate application” for use in practice (e.g., a test used to guide interventions). In T2, epidemiology can help to evaluate the efficacy of a candidate application by using observational studies and randomized controlled trials. In T3, epidemiology can help to assess facilitators and barriers for uptake and implementation of candidate applications in practice. In T4, epidemiology can help to assess the impact of using candidate applications on population health outcomes. Epidemiology also has a leading role in knowledge synthesis, especially using quantitative methods (e.g., meta-analysis). To explore the emergence of TR in epidemiology, the authors compared articles published in selected issues of the Journal in 1999 and 2009. The proportion of articles identified as translational doubled from 16% (11/69) in 1999 to 33% (22/66) in 2009 (P = 0.02). Epidemiology is increasingly recognized as an important component of TR. By quantifying and integrating knowledge across disciplines, epidemiology provides crucial methods and tools for TR.
4D-Particle Filter Localization for a Simulated UAV

Particle filters are a mathematical method that can be used to build a belief about the location of a robot in an environment that has a few known features, called landmarks. Each particle is a virtual copy of the robot, representing a possible robot’s location, that moves in the environment as the robot does, and with an associated probability, representing the likelihood of each location. Through cycles of move robot-update particles, sense-get likelihood and resample, the probability distribution changes to reflect the current belief. The environment is divided in cells and the probability of being in each cell is the sum of the particles in that cell. The orientation is the weighted mean of the orientations of the particles in a cell. The demo uses the simulator built for the AIRobots EU project.
Guided Deep Reinforcement Learning for Robot Swarms Guided Deep Reinforcement Learning

In this thesis, we provide the framework of multi-agent guided deterministic policy gradient for reinforcement learning in cooperative multi-agent systems. The multi-agent scenario is formulated as a decentralized partially observable Markov decision process with continuous state and action spaces and homogeneous agents. After deriving the theory of multi-agent deterministic policy gradient, we show two possible algorithmic implementations: the multi-agent guided deep deterministic policy gradient algorithm and the multiagent recurrent deterministic policy gradient algorithm. For the implementation of the first algorithm we use feed-forward neural networks to approximate both the Q-function and the policy, in the second one we use recurrent neural networks to model the policy. The algorithms are tested in a simulated robot swarm environment. The agents are modeled to move and communicate inspired by the abilities of Kilobots, a small-scale swarm robotics platform. The performance of the algorithms is evaluated on the task of cooperative localization. Experimental results indicate that system performance increases with the number of agents involved during learning.
Zonal Winds in the Central Equatorial Pacific and El Ni�o

Easterly trade winds from near-equatorial islands in the central Pacific weakened before each El Ni�o between 1950 and 1978, except for the 1963 El Ni�o. The weakening of the easterlies and their later collapse did not occur uniformly over several months, but rather through a series of strong westerly wind bursts lasting 1 to 3 weeks. The bursts may force equatorial Kelvin waves in the ocean that can both initiate and sustain the sea surface warming characteristics of El Ni�o events.
Ex-527 inhibits Sirtuins by exploiting their unique NAD+-dependent deacetylation mechanism

Significance Sirtuin enzymes regulate metabolism and stress responses through deacetylation of specific protein lysine residues. Sirtuins are considered attractive drug targets, but selective inhibitors are rare, and their mechanisms mostly unknown. We report the mechanism of Sirtuin inhibition by Ex-527, a potent Sirt1 inhibitor widely used in physiological studies. A set of Sirtuin/ligand crystal structures, together with activity and binding data, reveals that the compound inhibits by forming a trimeric Sirtuin complex with a NAD+-derived coproduct. Our results yield insights in the unique Sirtuin catalytic mechanism and how it is exploited by Ex-527, and they provide essential information for rational drug development. Sirtuins are protein deacetylases regulating metabolism and stress responses. The seven human Sirtuins (Sirt1–7) are attractive drug targets, but Sirtuin inhibition mechanisms are mostly unidentified. We report the molecular mechanism of Sirtuin inhibition by 6-chloro-2,3,4,9-tetrahydro-1H-carbazole-1-carboxamide (Ex-527). Inhibitor binding to potently inhibited Sirt1 and Thermotoga maritima Sir2 and to moderately inhibited Sirt3 requires NAD+, alone or together with acetylpeptide. Crystal structures of several Sirtuin inhibitor complexes show that Ex-527 occupies the nicotinamide site and a neighboring pocket and contacts the ribose of NAD+ or of the coproduct 2’-O-acetyl-ADP ribose. Complex structures with native alkylimidate and thio-analog support its catalytic relevance and show, together with biochemical assays, that only the coproduct complex is relevant for inhibition by Ex-527, which stabilizes the closed enzyme conformation preventing product release. Ex-527 inhibition thus exploits Sirtuin catalysis, and kinetic isoform differences explain its selectivity. Our results provide insights in Sirtuin catalysis and inhibition with important implications for drug development.
MPC: A Multi-Party Chat Corpus for Modeling Social Phenomena in Discourse

In this paper, we describe our experience with collecting and creating an annotated corpus of multi-party online conversations in a chat-room environment. This effort is part of a larger project to develop computational models of social phenomena such as agenda control, influence, and leadership in on-line interactions. Such models will help capturing the dialogue dynamics that are essential for developing, among others, realistic human-machine dialogue systems, including autonomous virtual chat agents. In this paper we describe data collection method used and the characteristics of the initial dataset of English chat. We have devised a multi-tiered collection process in which the subjects start from simple, free-flowing conversations and progress towards more complex and structured interactions. In this paper, we report on the first two stages of this process, which were recently completed. The third, large-scale collection effort is currently being conducted. All English dialogue has been annotated at four levels: communication links, dialogue acts, local topics and meso-topics. Some details of these annotations will be discussed later in this paper, although a full description is impossible within the scope of this article.
Roles of Dicer-Like Proteins 2 and 4 in Intra- and Intercellular Antiviral Silencing1[OPEN]

DCL4 inhibited intercellular VIGS, whereas DCL2 along with DCL2-processed/dependent siRNAs were involved in non-cell-autonomous VIRS in Nicotiana benthamiana. RNA silencing is an innate antiviral mechanism conserved in organisms across kingdoms. Such a cellular defense involves DICER or DICER-LIKEs (DCLs) that process plant virus RNAs into viral small interfering RNAs (vsiRNAs). Plants encode four DCLs that play diverse roles in cell-autonomous intracellular virus-induced RNA silencing (known as VIGS) against viral invasion. VIGS can spread between cells. However, the genetic basis and involvement of vsiRNAs in non-cell-autonomous intercellular VIGS remains poorly understood. Using GFP as a reporter gene together with a suite of DCL RNAi transgenic lines, here we show that despite the well-established activities of DCLs in intracellular VIGS and vsiRNA biogenesis, DCL4 acts to inhibit intercellular VIGS whereas DCL2 is required (likely along with DCL2-processed/dependent vsiRNAs and their precursor RNAs) for efficient intercellular VIGS trafficking from epidermal to adjacent cells. DCL4 imposed an epistatic effect on DCL2 to impede cell-to-cell spread of VIGS. Our results reveal previously unknown functions for DCL2 and DCL4 that may form a dual defensive frontline for intra- and intercellular silencing to double-protect cells from virus infection in Nicotiana benthamiana.
Performance of MRE-based Vibration Absorbers

The purpose of this work is to use magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) as field-dependent springs within three vibration absorber configurations, and to determine their vibration absorption characteristics. Magnetorheological elastomers are fabricated from silicone gel and iron microparticles, and implemented as tunable springs in three vibration absorber configurations, which excited the MREs in shear, squeeze mode, and compression. Each vibration absorber configuration exploits different magneto-mechanical properties, achieving very different results. The MRE iron concentration is varied to find the largest natural frequency shift for the squeeze-mode absorber due to an applied magnetic field. Absorbers with MREs containing 35% iron by volume exhibits the largest natural frequency shift, 507%. MREs containing 35% iron are placed into shear and longitudinal mode vibration absorber devices, which exhibit 470% and 180% frequency increases, respectively.
LONG-RANGE ELECTRON TRANSFER THROUGH A LIPID MONOLAYER AT THE LIQUID/LIQUID INTERFACE

The electron transfer (ET) rate at the interface between two immiscible electrolyte solutions was probed as a function of the driving force and distance between redox centers by scanning electrochemical microscopy. The adsorption of phospholipids at the interface resulted in a decrease in the rate of interfacial ET between aqueous redox species and the oxidized form of zinc porphyrin in benzene. The fraction of the interfacial area covered with lipid (θ) was evaluated from the measured heterogeneous rate constants (kf). The dependence of θ vs lipid concentration in benzene fit a Langmuir isotherm. For complete monolayers of phospholipids, kf was a function of the number of methylene groups in a hydrocarbon chain. The driving force dependencies of interfacial ET rates (Tafel plots) were measured for several aqueous redox couples. They were linear, with a transfer coefficient of α ≅ 0.5 when the driving force for ET (ΔG°) was not too high, in agreement with Marcus theory, and leveled off to the diffusion-co.
Nasal airflow and brain activity: is there a link?

Abstract Background: Over the past few decades, evidence has emerged suggesting that nasal airflow asymmetry and brain asymmetry are linked. The nose exhibits asymmetrical airflow, with the dominant airflow alternating from one nasal passage to the other over a period of hours. Some authors have suggested a correlation between cerebral hemisphere dominance and nostril dominance. Others have proposed an association between rhythmic fluctuations in nasal airflow and corresponding fluctuations in cerebral hemisphere activity. Based on ancient yoga breathing techniques, newer evidence suggests that altering nasal airflow can influence brain activity, with reports of improved cognitive function caused by unilateral forced nostril breathing. It seems that a nasal airflow stimulus may have an activating effect on the brain, as it has also been shown to trigger seizure activity in epileptic patients. Objectives: This article explores these theories in detail, reviews the evidence, and presents new models linking nasal airflow and brain activity.
Singular structure of magnetic islands resulting from reconnection

Magnetic island equilibria resulting from reconnection in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations are explored in a two-dimensional slab geometry. Magnetic islands are evolved to finite amplitude with a nonzero resistivity. The resistivity and flows are then set to zero and the system is allowed to relax toward equilibrium. A y-type singular current layer in the equilibrium state is identified for all but systems with the smallest values of the tearing mode stability parameter Δ′. It is shown that the length of the equilibrium y line tracks the length of the Sweet–Parker current layer that develops during reconnection. This suggests that the formation of Sweet–Parker current layers during magnetic reconnection in the resistive MHD model is a consequence of the presence of a singularity in post-reconnection state. A threshold in Δ′ for singular behavior is also identified.
Distributed consensus using sampled position data for second-order multi-agent systems with communication delay

This paper investigates the distributed consensus for second-order multi-agent systems via a novel cooperative protocol which involves only sampled position data of each agent. The proposed consensus algorithm consists of two parts: a general part with communication delay and a special part with both communication and forced delays. It is revealed that the forced delay is lower bounded by a threshold and plays an important role for achieving consensus. A necessary and sufficient condition with respect to the sampling period, coupling gains, time delays, and eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix, is established for achieving consensus under an undirected interaction topology. It is found that choosing a relatively small sampling period does not necessarily promote achieving consensus under fixed coupling gains and time delays. Finally, some illustrative examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical findings.