Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Noninvasive ventilation in acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema.

BACKGROUND Noninvasive ventilation (continuous positive airway pressure [CPAP] or noninvasive intermittent positive-pressure ventilation [NIPPV]) appears to be of benefit in the immediate treatment of patients with acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema and may reduce mortality. We conducted a study to determine whether noninvasive ventilation reduces mortality and whether there are important differences in outcome associated with the method of treatment (CPAP or NIPPV). METHODS In a multicenter, open, prospective, randomized, controlled trial, patients were assigned to standard oxygen therapy, CPAP (5 to 15 cm of water), or NIPPV (inspiratory pressure, 8 to 20 cm of water; expiratory pressure, 4 to 10 cm of water). The primary end point for the comparison between noninvasive ventilation and standard oxygen therapy was death within 7 days after the initiation of treatment, and the primary end point for the comparison between NIPPV and CPAP was death or intubation within 7 days. RESULTS A total of 1069 patients (mean [+/-SD] age, 77.7+/-9.7 years; female sex, 56.9%) were assigned to standard oxygen therapy (367 patients), CPAP (346 patients), or NIPPV (356 patients). There was no significant difference in 7-day mortality between patients receiving standard oxygen therapy (9.8%) and those undergoing noninvasive ventilation (9.5%, P=0.87). There was no significant difference in the combined end point of death or intubation within 7 days between the two groups of patients undergoing noninvasive ventilation (11.7% for CPAP and 11.1% for NIPPV, P=0.81). As compared with standard oxygen therapy, noninvasive ventilation was associated with greater mean improvements at 1 hour after the beginning of treatment in patient-reported dyspnea (treatment difference, 0.7 on a visual-analogue scale ranging from 1 to 10; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.2 to 1.3; P=0.008), heart rate (treatment difference, 4 beats per minute; 95% CI, 1 to 6; P=0.004), acidosis (treatment difference, pH 0.03; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.04; P<0.001), and hypercapnia (treatment difference, 0.7 kPa [5.2 mm Hg]; 95% CI, 0.4 to 0.9; P<0.001). There were no treatment-related adverse events. CONCLUSIONS In patients with acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema, noninvasive ventilation induces a more rapid improvement in respiratory distress and metabolic disturbance than does standard oxygen therapy but has no effect on short-term mortality. (Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN07448447.)
A Phase Space Path Integral for ( 2 + 1 )-Dimensional Gravity

I investigate the relationship between the phase space path integral in (2+1)-dimensional gravity and the canonical quantization of the corresponding reduced phase space in the York time slicing. I demonstrate the equivalence of these two approaches, and discuss some subtleties in the definition of the path integral necessary to prove this equivalence. email: carlip@dirac.ucdavis. edu Over the past several years, (2+1)-dimensional general relativity has become a popular model in which to explore the conceptual foundations of quantum gravity [1]. But although a few papers have been written about path integral methods [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9], the primary focus of research has been on various forms of canonical quantization. The purpose of this paper is to briefly describe a phase space path integral, both to display its equivalence to canonical quantization on a reduced phase space and to underline the assumptions needed to demonstrate this equivalence. In one sense, the results of this paper are obvious: there exist fairly general formal proofs of the equivalence of phase space path integration and reduced phase quantization [10,11,12]. Indeed, the path integral for general relativity may be defined by the requirement that it give the correct reduction to the physical phase space [13,14,15]. But these proofs involve subtle assumptions about measures, gauge-fixing procedures, and ranges of integration [16], and they are particularly tricky when one deals with general relativity, a theory in which the Hamiltonian constraint plays a rather peculiar role [17]. It is therefore useful to explore a simple model in which all of the details can be made explicit. In this paper I concentrate on (2+1)-dimensional gravity on a manifold with the topology IR×Σ, where Σ is a closed orientable surface of genus g>0. The Hamiltonian reduction of this model in the York time slicing has been completely analyzed by Moncrief [18,19]. Thanks to the finite number of physical degrees of freedom of (2+1)dimensional general relativity, a simple and complete description of the reduced phase space is possible. It should be apparent, however, that much of the analysis presented here also applies, at least formally, to 3+1 dimensions as well. The canonical action for (2+1)-dimensional gravity is Igrav = ∫
Senile EBV+ B-Cell Lymphoproliferative Disorders: A Clinicopathologic Study of 22 Patients

Twenty-two Epstein-Barr virus-associated B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders (LPDs) without predisposing immunodeficiencies were evaluated clinically and pathologically. All patients were Japanese and negative for anti-human immunodeficiency virus antibody. They were all more than 60 years old with a median age of 75.5 years. Eighteen (82%) patients showed extranodal involvement. Biopsied specimens contained variable numbers of centroblasts, immunoblasts, and Reed-Sternberg-like giant cells often with necrosis and an angiocentric pattern. The 13 cases showing polymorphous composition and inflammatory background were categorized as polymorphic LPD subtype. The other nine cases contained diffuse proliferative lesions of large lymphoid cells and were categorized as large cell lymphoma subtype. Tumor cells expressed CD20 and/or CD79a, and in situ hybridization showed them to be associated with Epstein-Barr virus. LMP1 was detected in all cases and EBNA2 in seven. Eighteen patients initially received combination chemotherapy, and 12 achieved complete remission. However, six patients were refractory to chemotherapy and four patients with complete remission later relapsed. Eight of the 18 patients who received chemotherapy showed an aggressive disease course within a year after the diagnosis. There was a significant difference in prognosis between the group with polymorphic LPDs and the one with large cell lymphomas (p = 0.003). Although the disease profile of the 22 cases was analogous to that of immunodeficiency-associated B-cell LPDs, none of the patients showed evidence of underlying immunodeficiency-related diseases. These findings suggest that Epstein-Barr virus-associated LPD without immunodeficiency mainly occurs in elderly patients. Further investigations are needed to clarify the pathogenesis of this disease and to determine the optimal treatment strategy.
Skill‐Biased Technological Change and Rising Wage Inequality: Some Problems and Puzzles

The recent rise in wage inequality is usually attributed to skill‐biased technical change (SBTC), associated with new computer technologies. We review the evidence for this hypothesis, focusing on the implications of SBTC for overall wage inequality and for changes in wage differentials between groups. A key problem for the SBTC hypothesis is that wage inequality stabilized in the 1990s despite continuing advances in computer technology; SBTC also fails to explain the evolution of other dimensions of wage inequality, including the gender and racial wage gaps and the age gradient in the return to education.
Gesture recognition using depth images

This work presents an approach for recognizing 3D human gestures by using depth images. The proposed motion trail model (MTM) consists of both motion information and static posture information over the gesture sequence along the xoy-plane. By projecting depth images onto other two planes in 3D space, gestures can be represented with complementary information from additional planes. Accordingly 2D-MTM can be extended into 3D space in addition to the lateral scene parallel to the image plane to generate 3D-MTM. The Histogram of Oriented Gradient (HOG) is then extracted from the proposed 3D-MTM as the feature descriptor. The final recognition of gestures is performed through maximum correlation coefficient. The preliminary results demonstrate the average error rate decreases from 62.80% of baseline method to 21.74% after using the proposed approach on Chalearn gesture dataset.
Cyclostationarity-based Algorithm for Blind Recognition of OFDM and Single Carrier Linear Digital Modulations

The paper studies the cyclostationarity of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with a view to recognizing OFDM against single carrier linear digital (SCLD) modulations. The analytical expressions for the nth-order cyclic cumulants (CCs) and cycle frequencies of an OFDM signal embedded in additive white Gaussian noise and subject to phase, frequency and timing offsets are derived An algorithm based on a second-order CC is proposed to recognize OFDM against SCLD modulations. The recognition algorithm of the authors obviates the need for preprocessing tasks, such as symbol timing estimation, carrier and waveform recovery, and signal and noise power estimation. The results of simulation experiments confirm the theoretical analysis.
Increased concentrations of inflammatory mediators in unstable angina: correlation with serum troponin T

OBJECTIVE To measure plasma interferon γ, monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), and interleukin 6 and to assess their correlation with cardiac troponin T in unstable angina. DESIGN Blood sampling in patients undergoing coronary arteriography for known or suspected ischaemic heart disease. PATIENTS 76 patients divided in three groups: 29 with unstable angina (group 1), 28 with stable angina (group 2), and 19 without ischaemic heart disease and with angiographically normal coronary arteries (group 3). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Plasma interleukin 6, interferon γ, MCP-1, and troponin T in the three groups of patients. RESULTS Interleukin 6 was increased in group 1 (median 2.19 (range 0.53–50.84) pg/ml) compared with the control group (1.62 (0.79–3.98) pg/ml) (p < 0.005), whereas interferon γ was higher in group 1 (range 0–5.51 pg/ml) than in the other two groups (range 0–0.74 pg/ml and 0–0.37 pg/ml; p < 0.005 and p < 0.001, respectively). Patients with unstable angina (group 1) and positive troponin T had higher concentrations of interferon γ than those with negative troponin T (0–5.51 pg/mlv 0–0.60 pg/ml, p < 0.001). Plasma MCP-1 was also higher in group 1 (median 267 (range 6–8670) pg/ml) than in the other two groups (134 (19–890) pg/ml and 84.5 (5–325) pg/ml; p < 0.005 and p < 0.001, respectively), and among group 1 patients with a positive troponin T assay than in those with normal troponin T (531 (14.5–8670) pg/mlv 69 (6–3333) pg/ml; p < 0.01). There was no difference in plasma interleukin 6 in group 1 patients between those with and without raised troponin T. CONCLUSIONS The inflammatory cytokines interferon γ and MCP-1 are increased in patients with unstable angina, particularly in those with raised concentrations of troponin T, suggesting that they are probably related to myocardial cell damage or to plaque rupture and thrombus formation.
A computational approach to semantic event detection

We propose a three-level video event detection algorithm and apply it to animal hunt detection in wildlife documentaries. The first level extracts texture, color and motion features, and detects motion blobs. The mid-level employs a neural network to verify whether the motion blobs belong to objects of interest. This level also generates shot summaries in terms of intermediate-level descriptors which combine low-level features from the first level and contain results of mid-level, domain specific inferences made on the basis of shot features. The shot summaries are then used by a domain-specific inference process at the third level to detect the video segments that contain events of interest, e.g., hunts. Event based video indexing, summarization and browsing are among the applications of the proposed approach.
EMPHASIS ON HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN QUALITY IMPROVEMENT - A CASE STUDY OF QUALITY AWARDS' CRITERIA

Quality awards have become quite popular in the recent times and are even regarded as corporate status symbols. Historically it has been recognized that people play a major role in providing quality and unless the people are motivated and committed towards quality, improvements will not occur. This fact has been well taken into account while developing the criteria for the awards. In this paper the role of human resources management in improving the quality is examined by studying the emphasis on human resources with respect to the criteria involved in different quality awards. The objective is to ascertain the importance attached to the human resources management and hence to quantify their contribution towards becoming an award winning company. Different Indian and international awards have been studied in terms of the criteria for deciding the winners and the significance of human resource management is highlighted. It is observed that the human resource aspects account for 10 to 15% of the overall criteria in the award structure with leadership and management of people being the prominent categories being verified while deciding the awards. The award criteria of both the Indian and the international awards confirm to this finding clearly indicating the emphasis on the human resource management.
Patients with acute myeloid leukemia and an activating mutation in FLT3 respond to a small-molecule FLT3 tyrosine kinase inhibitor, PKC412

Leukemic cells from 30% of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have an activating mutation in the FLT3 (fms-like tyrosine kinase) gene, which represents a target for drug therapy. We treated 20 patients, each with mutant FLT3 relapsed/ refractory AML or high-grade myelodysplastic syndrome and not believed to be candidates for chemotherapy, with an FLT3 tyrosine kinase inhibitor, PKC412 (N-benzoylstaurosporine), at a dose of 75 mg 3 times daily by mouth. The drug was generally well tolerated, although 2 patients developed fatal pulmonary events of unclear etiology. The peripheral blast count decreased by 50% in 14 patients (70%). Seven patients (35%) experienced a greater than 2-log reduction in peripheral blast count for at least 4 weeks (median response duration, 13 weeks; range, 9-47 weeks); PKC412 reduced bone marrow blast counts by 50% in 6 patients (2 of these to < 5%). FLT3 autophosphorylation was inhibited in most of the responding patients, indicating in vivo target inhibition at the dose schedule used in this study. PKC412 is an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor with clinical activity in patients with AML whose blasts have an activating mutation of FLT3, suggesting potential use in combination with active agents, such as chemotherapy. (Blood. 2005;105:54-60)
VoIP Based Telehomecare Application Kiosk

Healthcare services and systems throughout the world are in trouble and the proportion of expenditures devoted to healthcare is increasing rapidly. In addition to that, an increasing number of citizens is dissatisfied with the health services they receive and worry about the ability of the system to provide universally accessible care. One possibility to help to solve these problems is the adoption of Telehomecare for different health service scenarios. Telehomecare allows patients to remain at home as caregivers monitor them regularly using easy-to-use Telehomecare equipment. This ensures high-quality care, gives the patient more insight into his/her medical condition and enables caregivers to notice critical conditions and problems early. This paper presents the design and implementation of a modular Telehomecare system based on the Cisco IP Telephony Solution. It supports it’s choices of platform and features by discussing how Telehomecare can help to solve some of the healthcare system issues, by evaluating existing Telehomecare systems and by looking at different Voice-over-IP enabled implementation platforms. The implemented Telehomecare system includes components for regular monitoring, instant communication, emergency situations as well as for supporting healthcare institutions at different administration tasks.
Inter-Carrier Interference Estimation in MIMO OFDM Systems with Arbitrary Pilot Structure

In scenarios with time-varying channels such as intelligent traffic systems or high speed trains, the orthogonality between subcarriers in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is destroyed leading to inter-carrier interference (ICI). In the literature, ICI equalization algorithms have been proposed; however, they assume perfect channel knowledge at sample level. Unfortunately, existing channel estimation algorithms do not provide accurate channel estimates at high Doppler spreads, prohibiting data transmission with high spectral efficiency. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for ICI estimation that can be applied to OFDM systems with an arbitrary pilot structure. Thus, our algorithm can be applied to any already standardized OFDM system. Our ICI estimator models the channel variation by means of a basis expansion model (BEM). The performance of the estimator and of the subsequent equalization is evaluated in an UMTS long term evolution (LTE) link level simulator. In a Rayleigh fading scenario, the proposed algorithm allows a velocity increase of 150 km/h without throughput degradation. The gain in terms of the post-equalization signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) is about 3.7 dB at a user speed of 300 km/h.
Speaker-specific processing and local context information: The case of speaking rate

To deal with variation in the speech signal, listeners rely on local context, such as speaking rate in a carrier sentence directly preceding a target, as well as more global properties of the speech signal, such as speaker-specific pronunciation variants. The present study addressed whether, despite its variability even within one speaker, habitual speaking rate can be tracked as a speaker-specific property and how such speaker-specific tracking of habitual rate would interact with effects of local-rate normalization. In two experiments, listeners were exposed to a 2-min dialogue between a fast and a slow speaker. At test, listeners categorized minimal word pair continua differing in the German /a/-/a:/ duration contrast spoken by the same two speakers. The results showed that listeners responded with /a:/ more often for the fast speaker but only when words were presented in isolation and not when presented with additional local-rate information. That is, despite the general assumption that duration cues and speaking rate are too variable to be used in a speaker-specific fashion, tracking habitual speaking rate may help speech perception. The results are discussed in relation to a belief-updating model of perceptual adaptation and exemplar models.
A prospective, randomized multicenter study comparing conventional laparoscopic cholecystectomy versus minilaparotomy cholecystectomy with ultrasonic dissection as day surgery procedure—1-year outcome

Abstract Objective. The long-term outcome between laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) and minilaparotomy cholecystectomy (MC) with ultrasonic dissection (UsD) technique has not been compared in randomized trials. Therefore, we investigated the outcome after conventional LC and MC with UsD in 78 patients (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0172340). Material and methods. Initially 88 patients with non-complicated symptomatic gallstone disease were randomized into MC (n = 44) or LC (n = 44) over a period of 2 years (2010–2012) and 78 of them (89%) were reached for a follow-up interview at 12 months after the surgery. Results. Baseline parameters were similar in the two groups, and 1/44 MCs and 2/44 LCs were converted to open laparotomy. The prevalence of chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP) one year after the procedure was quite similar in the two groups: 3/36 (8%) in the MC group and 2/42 (5%) in the LC group (p = 0.502). Residual abdominal symptoms were common, but the proportion was similar in both groups (28% in MC and 33% in LC group, p = 0.665). Both groups were very satisfied with the cosmetic outcome (numeric rating scale, p = 0.470). The Quality of life (QoL) improved 34/36 (94%) in the MC group and 33/42 (79%) in the LC group (p = 0.046) and all patients in both groups were satisfied with the operation overall. Conclusion. Day-case MC and LC patients have a quite similar one-year outcome with no significant difference regarding residual abdominal symptoms, cosmetic satisfaction, QoL or CPSP.
Projection-based statistical analysis of full-chip leakage power with non-log-normal distributions

In this paper we propose a novel projection-based algorithm to estimate the full-chip leakage power with consideration of both inter-die and intra-die process variations. Unlike many traditional approaches that rely on log-normal approximations, the proposed algorithm applies a novel projection method to extract a low-rank quadratic model of the logarithm of the full-chip leakage current and, therefore, is not limited to log-normal distributions. By exploring the underlying sparse structure of the problem, an efficient algorithm is developed to extract the non-log-normal leakage distribution with linear computational complexity in circuit size. In addition, an incremental analysis algorithm is proposed to quickly update the leakage distribution after changes to a circuit are made. Our numerical examples in a commercial 90nm CMOS process demonstrate that the proposed algorithm provides 4timeserror reduction compared with the previously proposed log-normal approximations, while achieving orders of magnitude more efficiency than a Monte Carlo analysis with 104 samples
Disrupted Dentate Granule Cell Chloride Regulation Enhances Synaptic Excitability during Development of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

GABAA receptor-mediated inhibition depends on the maintenance of intracellular Cl− concentration ([Cl−]in) at low levels. In neurons in the developing CNS, [Cl−]in is elevated, EGABA is depolarizing, and GABA consequently is excitatory. Depolarizing GABAergic synaptic responses may be recapitulated in various neuropathological conditions, including epilepsy. In the present study, rat hippocampal dentate granule cells were recorded using gramicidin perforated patch techniques at varying times (1–60 d) after an epileptogenic injury, pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus (STEP). In normal, non-epileptic animals, these strongly inhibited dentate granule cells act as a gate, regulating hippocampal excitation, controlling seizure initiation and/or propagation. For 2 weeks after STEP, we found that EGABA was positively shifted in granule cells. This shift in EGABA altered synaptic integration, increased granule cell excitability, and resulted in compromised “gate” function of the dentate gyrus. EGABA recovered to control values at longer latencies post-STEP (2–8 weeks), when animals had developed epilepsy. During this period of shifted EGABA, expression of the Cl− extruding K+/Cl− cotransporter, KCC2 was decreased. Application of the KCC2 blocker, furosemide, to control neurons mimicked EGABA shifts evident in granule cells post-STEP. Furthermore, post-STEP and furosemide effects interacted occlusively, both on EGABA in granule cells, and on gatekeeper function of the dentate gyrus. This suggests a shared mechanism, reduced KCC2 function. These findings demonstrate that decreased expression of KCC2 persists for weeks after an epileptogenic injury, reducing inhibitory efficacy and enhancing dentate granule cell excitability. This pathophysiological process may constitute a significant mechanism linking injury to the subsequent development of epilepsy.