Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Outcomes and cost of deep venous thrombosis among patients with cancer.

BACKGROUND Although deep venous thrombosis (DVT) often complicates the clinical course in patients with cancer, few studies of the outcomes of DVT in this population have been published. Furthermore, the cost of DVT is largely undescribed. We herein report the largest study of DVT in this population to date. METHODS We reviewed the medical records of 529 consecutive cancer patients in whom DVT developed from January 1, 1994, through December 31, 1997, and followed up these patients through December 31, 2000, for outcomes. The cost of hospitalization was obtained from our hospital's cost-accounting system and inflated to 2002 US dollars using the Consumer Price Index for Medical Care. Logistic regression was used to identify factors that were associated with a high risk of poor outcomes. RESULTS The most common complication of DVT was bleeding, which occurred in 13% of patients. Pulmonary embolus occurred in 4%. Five patients (1%) died of complications of DVT and 5 (1%) of complications of anticoagulation. Recurrence of DVT was common (17% overall), particularly among those who had inferior vena cava filters (32%; P<.001) or a previous episode of DVT (P =.03). All but 4 patients were hospitalized for initial anticoagulation therapy, for a mean of 11 days. The mean cost of hospitalization was 2002 US $20 065. CONCLUSIONS Among patients with cancer, DVT frequently is associated with serious clinical outcomes. Its treatment is resource intensive and costly. More effective agents and less costly management strategies could have a significant impact on the outcomes and cost of DVT in this population.
Jacobi Fiber Surfaces for Bivariate Reeb Space Computation

This paper presents an efficient algorithm for the computation of the Reeb space of an input bivariate piecewise linear scalar function f defined on a tetrahedral mesh. By extending and generalizing algorithmic concepts from the univariate case to the bivariate one, we report the first practical, output-sensitive algorithm for the exact computation of such a Reeb space. The algorithm starts by identifying the Jacobi set of f, the bivariate analogs of critical points in the univariate case. Next, the Reeb space is computed by segmenting the input mesh along the new notion of Jacobi Fiber Surfaces, the bivariate analog of critical contours in the univariate case. We additionally present a simplification heuristic that enables the progressive coarsening of the Reeb space. Our algorithm is simple to implement and most of its computations can be trivially parallelized. We report performance numbers demonstrating orders of magnitude speedups over previous approaches, enabling for the first time the tractable computation of bivariate Reeb spaces in practice. Moreover, unlike range-based quantization approaches (such as the Joint Contour Net), our algorithm is parameter-free. We demonstrate the utility of our approach by using the Reeb space as a semi-automatic segmentation tool for bivariate data. In particular, we introduce continuous scatterplot peeling, a technique which enables the reduction of the cluttering in the continuous scatterplot, by interactively selecting the features of the Reeb space to project. We provide a VTK-based C++ implementation of our algorithm that can be used for reproduction purposes or for the development of new Reeb space based visualization techniques.
RENalyzer: A tool to facilitate the spatial accuracy assessment of digital cartography

Managing spatial data in paper maps is quite different from managing digital spatial information. Sometimes manual vectorization of scanned maps is the only way to produce digital cartography, especially when the only source of spatial information is a paper map. Digital scanning and manual vectorization are two processes well known for adding error to data and accuracy is a particularly important issue for users of spatial information. The National Ecological Reserve (REN) established in the Portuguese national law protects areas with a diversified bio-physical structure and specific ecological characteristics. This information is often required to manage several human activities, such as mineral extraction, real estate, industry, tourism, etc. REN maps were originally produced in paper and were vectorized to produce digital cartography. The objective of this study is to measure the spatial accuracy and to assure the conformity with the original cartography. The accuracy of the REN digital cartography was assessed through a stratified sampling scheme, as described in Peixoto et al. (2006). The preparation of the digitized maps for the needs and the appliance of the sampling method as well as the data quality control were combined in the RENalyzer application. The application calculates areas of all polygons respective to their attribute classes using object oriented computation methods. As described in the sampling method, all class combinations (overlaying polygons) are considered. These areas and the global area are the base of the global sample size and the sample size per class and class combination. Considering these guidelines the application creates random points in randomly chosen polygons. The data quality control is done by facilitating the map reviewing process. After adding the scanned map and automatically setting map properties, the application zooms to each point and allows a fast and accurate quality control. Errors in digitizing are computed and classified in spatial and thematic errors. The attributes distance to original class and error description are added to the table.
Stackable credentials and career/college pathways in culinary arts at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY

ABSTRACT Discussions of workforce development emphasize stackable training, and assume linear advancement and alignment, through college and career paths. Stackable credentials have become a best practice for community colleges across the United States as they struggle to advance the college completion agenda and ensure that students graduate with the skills needed to find gainful employment. This study examined the concept of stackability in culinary arts at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York. It compared employment and education opportunities for students enrolled in short-term training to those of students enrolled in an associate degree program. Its goal was to explore gaps between employer demand for trained workers and long-term investments in education. The study also aimed to suggest ways in which we can meaningfully support students in their pursuit of degrees, even as they seek employment in a high-growth sector for which education, experience, and job titles are often an imprecise match.
Adaptive containment control of coupled linear systems with parameter uncertainties

This paper studies the containment control problem of uncertain multi-agent systems with multiple dynamic leaders by using an adaptive approach. It is assumed that leaders' states are predesigned to be bounded with unknown reference inputs. A new adaptive protocol, based only on the relative states of neighbors, is designed to make the states of the followers converge to the convex hull formed by the multiple leaders. By utilizing tools from non-smooth analysis and matrix theory, it is proved that the followers can asymptotically move into the convex hull if there exists at least one leader that has a directed path to each follower. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.
Does expressing disapproval influence future cooperation? An experimental study

We report on an experiment designed to explore whether a written expression of disapproval affects future levels of cooperation. In between two identical public goods games, participants play a mini dictator game that, depending on the treatment, either gives or does not give the recipient the opportunity to text the dictator. The recipients of an unfair offer contribute significantly less in the second public goods game. Yet, the contribution reductions are significantly smaller in the treatments allowing for recipient communication. To control for belief-based explanations of these findings, we run treatments where we elicit beliefs about the others' contributions. It turns out that the reductions in contributions, but not the reductions in beliefs, of the unfairly treated recipients are notably smaller when messaging is possible. This tends to suggest that allowing for communication opportunities helps to curtail selfishness.
MEASURING BRAND PERSONALITY - CONSTRUCT VALIDITY OF A SHORT VERSION OF A BRAND PERSONALITY SCALE

Brand personality has gained a lot of attention in marketing research and brand management. For measuring these „human characteristics associated with a brand“ (Aaker, 1997, p. 347), several empirically validated questionnaires have been developed. Due to the high number of items of brand personality scales, their use in studies evaluating many diff erent brands and additional constructs is limited. Therefore the question arises, how brand personality could be measured reliably and validly using short questionnaire versions. This paper evaluates construct validity of a short questionnaire version based on a German brand personality scale (Mader, 2005) comparing the short version with the original version in an online study with 298 students at Pforzheim University. Brand personality had to be rated for two German brands of the food retailing market. Results indicate high construct validity of the short scale, though the original version shows slightly higher stability when it comes to the underlying dimensionality of the scale and the prediction of the overall attitude towards the brands based on the different personality facets. Implications for further research and a more extensive validation including additional aspects of validity and reliability are discussed.
Leukocyte Trafficking in Transplantation Tolerance: Home Sweet Home

Efficient leukocyte trafficking through blood, secondary lymphoid organs, lymphatics, and tissue is critical during the development of the immune response to transplant antigens. Understanding trafficking and migration is important for determining the anatomic domains in which lymphocytes interact with alloantigen presenting cells during the establishment of tolerance. Leukocyte trafficking into the lymph nodes is a process generally known as lymph node homing, and is an important event that determines the outcome of the immune response. However, identifying the precise lymphoid organs where T lymphocytes interact with alloantigen-presenting dendritic cells (DC) under systemic immunosuppression is also necessary for manipulating the immune response towards the development of tolerance. This review summarizes recent findings with regard to leukocyte trafficking to distinct anatomic sites that are responsible for the induction and maintenance of tolerance, and compare these findings to studies that analyze leukocyte migration during priming and rejection in organ transplantation.
Prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus and its association with hepatitis B, C, and D virus infections among incarcerated male substance abusers in Taiwan

Taiwan has been facing a rising epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection since 2004. Injection drug users comprised 38.5% of accumulated HIV cases by 2007. This cross‐sectional study investigated the seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis D virus (HDV), and HIV infection in 753 male substance users who were detained in a detoxification center in Taoyuan, Taiwan. The subjects were enrolled into the study consecutively between February and October, 2005. The seroprevalence rates of HIV antibodies, HCV antibodies, and HBV surface antigens among all subjects, and HDV antibodies among HBV carriers were 6.9% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.19–8.95), 30.5% (95% CI: 27.23–33.93), 16.9% (95% CI: 14.24–19.71) and 13.7% (95% CI: 8.19–21.04), respectively. Subjects in the heroin injection group had significantly higher rates of HIV infection, HCV infection and HDV superinfection (25.5%, 89.6%, and 38.7%) than those in the heroin non‐injection group (0.9%, 24.5%, and 6.25%), the methamphetamine group (0.3%, 8.1%, and 6.7%), and the club drug group (1%, 3%, and 0%; P < 0.001). The odds of HCV, HIV, or HDV infection were 74.7, 63.8, and 11.1 higher, respectively, for heroin injection drug users than for non‐injection drug users (P < 0.0001). Compared to HIV‐negative individuals, the odds of being a heroin injector and the odds of HCV co‐infections were 64‐fold and 149‐fold higher, respectively, in HIV‐positive individuals. The impact of HBV, HCV, and HDV infection on the HIV epidemic in Taiwan should be monitored closely. J. Med. Virol. 81:973–978, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Successful Psychopathy

Long the stuff of clinical lore, successful psychopathy has recently become the focus of research. Although numerous authors have conjectured that psychopathic traits are sometimes associated with occupational or interpersonal success, rigorous evidence for this assertion has thus far been minimal. We provide a status report on successful-psychopathy research, address controversies surrounding successful psychopathy, examine evidence for competing models of this construct, and offer desiderata for future research.
Fuzzy machine vision based clip detection

This paper describes the use of an objective fuzzy approach for fast and accurate vision‐based inspection. An inspection problem faced by a Canadian automotive parts manufacturer is being used as a case study. The problem is related to a vision system that is being operated to confirm the placement of metal fastening clips on a structural member that supports a truck dash panel. The manufacturer was interested in identifying the presence or absence of metal clips inserted by a robot arm. It took the manufacturer over 8 months to tune its commercial machine vision system to detect missing clips and yet the accuracy and efficiency of the system are being questioned. Five different universities across Canada have been working in parallel on this problem over a time span of 2 years. To this end, we developed an efficient fuzzy model after trying various statistical approaches. The proposed model properly identifies all the images in a database containing 1910 images. The robustness of the fuzzy model is confirmed by its strong performance on the entire database.
On practical input to state stabilization for nonlinear discrete-time systems: A dynamic programming approach

A novel technique for synthesizing dynamic state feedback controllers that achieve practical input to state stability (PISS) property for nonlinear discrete-time systems is presented. The PISS controller design for the original system is solved via an auxiliary l∞-bounded (LIB) robustness synthesis problem for an auxiliary system. A complete solution for the LIB synthesis problem has been presented recently in the literature. The obtained static state feedback LIB controller for the auxiliary system can be interpreted as a dynamic state feedback PISS controller for the original system. The obtained solution is in terms of a dynamic programming equation (or inequality).
Evolutionary Responses to Environmental Heterogeneity in Central American Echinoid Larvae: Plastic Versus Constant Phenotypes

Abstract Do changes in food resources lead to evolutionary changes in phenotypic plasticity or in different constant phenotypes? I addressed this question by studying plasticity of larval feeding arms for “geminate species pairs” in three echinoid genera. These closely related species were geographically isolated when the Panamanian Isthmus raised 2.8–3.1 million years ago, creating two different food level environments: high but variable food levels in the eastern Pacific versus chronically low food levels in the western Caribbean. I reared larvae of geminate species in different replicated food environments for 10 days postfertilization, collected morphological measurements of individual arm and body lengths, and calculated degrees of plasticity of relative arm length for each species. In contrast to previous studies with temperate echinoids, there was no significant plasticity of arm length in either the Pacific or Caribbean species considered here. Caribbean species, however, had significantly longer relative arm lengths than Pacific species, regardless of food levels. These results suggest that historical changes in food levels have led to the evolution of constant rather than plastic differences between Pacific and Caribbean echinoids. The evolution of plasticity may be limited by the timing of reproduction or by egg size in this system.
RASopathies: Clinical Diagnosis in the First Year of Life

Diagnosis within Noonan syndrome and related disorders (RASopathies) still presents a challenge during the first months of life, since most clinical features used to differentiate these conditions become manifest later in childhood. Here, we retrospectively reviewed the clinical records referred to the first year of life of 57 subjects with molecularly confirmed diagnosis of RASopathy, to define the early clinical features characterizing these disorders and improve our knowledge on natural history. Mildly or markedly expressed facial features were invariably present. Congenital heart defects were the clinical issue leading to medical attention in patients with Noonan syndrome and LEOPARD syndrome. Feeding difficulties and developmental motor delay represented the most recurrent features occurring in subjects with cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome and Costello syndrome. Thin hair was prevalent among SHOC2 and BRAF mutation-positive infants. Café-au-lait spots were found in patients with LS and PTPN11 mutations, while keratosis pilaris was more common in individuals with SOS1, SHOC2 and BRAF mutations. In conclusion, some characteristics can be used as hints for suspecting a RASopathy during the first months of life, and individual RASopathies may be suspected by analysis of specific clinical signs. In the first year of life, these include congenital heart defects, severity of feeding difficulties and delay of developmental milestones, hair and skin anomalies, which may help to distinguish different entities, for their subsequent molecular confirmation and appropriate clinical management.
Friendship and risk for internalizing behavior: understanding the selection and socialization of maladaptive behavior

The present study sought to examine the role of friendship in the link between early individual risk and subsequent internalizing behavior. A model indicating friendship characteristics as mediating mechanisms between early individual risk and subsequent internalizing behavioral outcomes was tested using a longitudinal sample of children between the ages of 5 and 10.5 years. Two social behaviors were examined as early (5 year) individual risk factors for subsequent internalizing problems: early withdrawal and aggression. Characteristics for withdrawn and socially skilled behaviors in 2nd grade friends were targeted as mediators in the relation between early risk and subsequent internalizing problems. Finally, gender was examined as a potential moderator for specific mediation pathways. Support for the overall meditational model was not obtained; however, results supported gender as a moderator for boys' withdrawn behaviors and internalizing outcomes, highlighting the importance of gender roles in development. Additionally, findings highlighted several future research goals. The presented work provides a preliminary step in understanding the impact of children's friends on risk for internalizing behaviors. Ultimately, these results may shed light on unanswered questions that may help inform social intervention for children at risk for anxiety and depression.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteremia in immunocompromised children: analysis of factors associated with a poor outcome.

We identified 98 children and adolescents with cancer who were treated for Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteremia over a 27-year period. The most common underlying disease was leukemia (lymphoblastic in 63 cases and myeloblastic in 17); in addition, 12 episodes were associated with solid tumors and 6 with other diagnoses. There were 29.5 episodes of P. aeruginosa bacteremia/1,000 cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, with a mortality of 27%, and 29.8 episodes/1,000 cases of acute myeloblastic leukemia, with a mortality of 24%; patients with solid tumors had an incidence of 5.0/1,000 cases and a mortality of 58% (P = .01 for mortality in leukemia vs. mortality in solid tumors, logistic regression analysis). Mortality was lower among children who developed bacteremia during remission therapy or induction therapy than among children who were being treated for relapse (P = .001). The majority (78%) of the 76 evaluated cases developed during periods when the absolute neutrophil count (ANC) was < 0.1 x 10(9)/L; mortality was higher among patients with such counts than among those with higher ANCs (36% vs. 14%, P = .04). Logistic regression analysis showed that perineal skin lesions were associated with higher mortality than were lesions at other sites of skin involvement (54% vs. 23%, P = .04).
Stabilization of 3D Pavement Images for Pothole Metrology Using the Kalman Filter

Roads are scanned with automated imagers for distresses on a regular basis. Motion of imaging platforms introduces instability in pavement images during image acquisition process, thus, provides less accurate measurements. In this paper, a novel approach is proposed to stabilize 3D pavement images using the Kalman filter with affine transformations as a state space model. The vibration of the imaging platform is taken using a simulated accelerometer and used as a significant feature to measure the effects of instability in pavement images. A Simulink model is presented in this regard to demonstrate the stabilization technique. This paper is an extension of our previous work on metrology and visualization of potholes using Kinect sensor. The effects of vibration for a displacement range of 0.2-1 mm are studied for pure translations in 3D pavement images. The Kalman filter shows a promising future for stabilization of 3D pavement images. Calculations using values from Kalman filter show a reduction in error from 5.35% to 3.76% and from 5.38% to 3.09% for volume and perimeter estimations respectively.
iOS Forensics: How Can We Recover Deleted Image Files with Timestamp in a Forensically Sound Manner?

IOS devices generally allow users to synch their images (pictures) and video files using iTunes between Apple products (e.g. an iPhone and a Mac Book Pro). Recovering deleted images, particularly in a forensically sound manner, from iOS devices can be an expensive and challenging exercise (due to the hierarchical encrypted file system, etc). In this paper, we propose an operational technique that allows digital forensic practitioners to recover deleted image files by referring to iOS journaling file system. Using an iPhone as a case study, we then conduct a forensic analysis to validate our proposed technique.
Optimal Fixed Priority Scheduling with Deferred Pre-emption

The schedulability of systems using fixed priority pre-emptive scheduling can be improved by the use of non-pre-emptive regions at the end of each task's execution, an approach referred to as deferred pre-emption. Choosing the appropriate length for the final non-pre-emptive region of each task is a trade-off between improving the worst-case response time of the task itself and increasing the amount of blocking imposed on higher priority tasks. In this paper we present an optimal algorithm for determining both the priority ordering of tasks and the lengths of their final non-pre-emptive regions. This algorithm is optimal for fixed priority scheduling with deferred pre-emption, in the sense that it is guaranteed to find a schedulable combination of priority ordering and final non-pre-emptive region lengths if such a schedulable combination exists.