Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Survey on Research Initiatives for Healthcare Clouds

Cost reduction for hosted and managed services is one of the key promises of Cloud Computing. Healthcare is one such example of managed services that can greatly benefit by a Cloud offering. However, there are many research challenges that need to be addressed before one can deliver a mature service. This chapter provides a summary of research activities in a variety of healthcare-related Cloud initiatives. The authors highlight the key areas of ongoing research and describe others that require attention. The analysis and observations can be useful to healthcare Cloud professionals and can motivate interested researchers to initiate new efforts for better healthcare services deployed on the Cloud.
Assessment of the Lower Limit for Cerebral Perfusion Pressure in Severe Head Injuries by Bedside Monitoring of Regional Energy Metabolism

Background In patients with severe traumatic brain lesions, the lower limit for cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) is controversial. The aim of this prospective study was to assess this limit from bedside measurements of cerebral energy metabolism and to clarify whether the penumbra zone surrounding a focal lesion is more sensitive to a decrease in CPP than less-injured areas. Methods Fifty patients with severe head injury were included after evacuation of an intracranial hematoma and/or focal brain contusion. They were treated according to intensive care routine (Lund concept), including continuous monitoring of intracranial pressure. One microdialysis catheter was inserted in less-injured brain tissue (“better” position), and one or two catheters were inserted into the boundary of injured cerebral cortex (“worse” position). Concentrations of glucose, pyruvate, and lactate were analyzed and displayed bedside and were related to CPP (n = 29,495). Results Mean interstitial glucose concentration was unaffected by the level of the CPP within the studied ranges. Increases in lactate concentration (P = 0.0008) and lactate–pyruvate ratio (P = 0.01) were obtained in the “worse” but not in the “better” position at CPP less than 50 mmHg compared with the same positions at CPP greater than 50 mmHg. Conclusions The study results support the view that CPP may be reduced to 50 mmHg in patients with severe traumatic brain lesions, provided that the physiologic and pharmacologic principles of the Lund concept are recognized. In the individual patient, preservation of normal concentrations of energy metabolites within cerebral areas at risk can be guaranteed by intracerebral microdialysis and bedside biochemical analyses.
Effect of dentin pretreatment with potassium oxalate: A 6‐year follow‐up

Oxalate‐based products are effective against dentine sensitivity and have been studied as an option to improve long‐term adhesive bonding strength. Our aim was to evaluate the effect of potassium oxalate on the microtensile bond strength (µTBS) of the dentin/resin interface after 24 h, 1, and 6 years. Dentin on the occlusal surface of 16 human premolars was exposed and etched with 35% phosphoric acid. The teeth were divided into four groups. Two groups received 3% monohydrated potassium oxalate and the following adhesive systems and composites: Adper Scotchbond Multipurpose + FiltekZ350 (3M/ESPE) and Prime & Bond NT + Esthet‐X (Dentsply). Two control groups did not receive potassium oxalate. Teeth were cut into sticks and kept in distilled water at 37°C for 24 h, 1, and 6 years. The sticks underwent µTBS testing after storage. ANOVA, Tukey's post hoc test, and paired t test were used to compare storage times (α = 0.05). The fracture mode of the specimens was classified under a stereomicroscope (40×). Morphology of the hybrid layer and the fracture pattern were observed with scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). Mean µTBS was high at 24 h and decreased after 1 and 6 years. After 6 years, the mean µTBS values were similar with no statistically significant difference between the groups (p = .121). SEM images showed proper dentin hybridization. Dentin pretreatment with potassium oxalate did not affect hybrid layer formation, but bond strength decreased over time after 24 h. Therefore, the clinical use of potassium oxalate to increase dentin bond durability is not indicated.
Vibration control for flexible mechanical systems with bounded input

The aim of this paper is to develop a boundary control for attenuating the vibration of a flexible beam and string system in the presence of input restriction. To this end, a boundary control is developed to attenuate the vibration and mitigate the effect of the restricted input employing smooth hyperbolic tangent function. Under the proposed control, the stability of the controlled system is achieved through rigorous analysis without resorting to discretization of the system infinite-dimensional model, and the controlled system is ensured to be asymptotically stable. Finally, the simulations verify the results.
A 10-b 500MS/s CMOS cascaded folding A/D converter with a hybrid calibration and a prevision error correction logic

In this paper, a 10-b 500MS/s A/D converter (ADC) with a hybrid calibration and a new error correction logic is discussed. The proposed ADC employs a single-channel cascaded folding-interpolating architecture whose folding rate (FR) is 25 and interpolation rate (IR) is 8. In order to overcome the disadvantage of offset error, at the open-loop amplifier, a hybrid self-calibration circuit is proposed. Further, a novel prevision digital error correction logic (DCL) for folding ADC is also described. The ADC prototype using 130nm 1P6M CMOS has a DNL of ±0.8LSB and an INL of ±1.0LSB. The measured SNDR is 52.34-dB and SFDR is 62.04-dBc when the input frequency is 78.15MHz at 500MS/s conversion rate. The SNDR of the ADC is 7-dB higher than the same circuit without the proposed calibration. The effective chip area is 1.55mm and the power dissipates 300mW including peripheral circuits at 1.2/1.5V power supply.
Identification of a Human Papillomavirus Type 16-Specific Epitope on the C-Terminal Arm of the Major Capsid Protein L1

ABSTRACT To characterize epitopes on human papillomavirus (HPV) virus-like particles (VLPs), a panel of mutated HPV-16 VLPs was created. Each mutated VLP had residues substituted from HPV-31 or HPV-52 L1 sequences to the HPV-16 L1 backbone. Mutations were created on the HPV-31 and −52 L1 proteins to determine if HPV-16 type-specific recognition could be transferred. Correct folding of the mutated proteins was verified by resistance to trypsin digestion and by binding to one or more conformation-dependent monoclonal antibodies. Several of the antibodies tested were found to bind to regions already identified as being important for HPV VLP recognition (loops DE, EF, FG, and HI). Sequences at both ends of the long FG loop (amino acids 260 to 290) were required for both H16.V5 and H16.E70 reactivity. A new antibody-binding site was discovered on the C-terminal arm of L1 between positions 427 and 445. Recognition of these residues by the H16.U4 antibody suggests that this region is surface exposed and supports a recently proposed molecular model of HPV VLPs.
Prevalence of Malaria Infection and Risk Factors Associated with Anaemia among Pregnant Women in Semiurban Community of Hazaribag, Jharkhand, India

The escalating burden, pathogenesis, and clinical sequel of malaria during pregnancy have combinatorial adverse impact on both mother and foetus that further perplexed the situation of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. This prompted us to evaluate the status of population at risk of MIP in Hazaribag, Jharkhand, India. Cross-sectional study was conducted over a year at Sadar Hospital, Hazaribag. Malaria was screened using blood smear and/or RDT. Anaemia was defined as haemoglobin concentration. Pretested questionnaires were used to gather sociodemographic, clinical, and obstetrical data. The prevalence of MIP was 5.4% and 4.3% at ANC and DU, and 13.2% malaria was in women without pregnancy. Interestingly, majority were asymptomatically infected with P. vivax (over 85%) at ANC and DU. Peripheral parasitemia was significantly associated with fever within past week, rural origin of subjects, and first/second pregnancies in multivariate analysis, with the highest risk factor associated with fever followed by rural residence. Strikingly in cohort, anaemia was prevalent in 86% at ANC as compared to 72% at DU, whereas severe anaemia was 13.6% and 7.8% at ANC and DU. Even more anaemia prevalence was observed in MIP group (88% and 89% at ANC and DU), whereas severe anaemia was 23% and 21%, respectively. In view of observed impact of anaemia, parasitemia and asymptomatic infection of P. vivax during pregnancy and delivery suggest prompt diagnosis regardless of symptoms and comprehensive drug regime should be offered to pregnant women in association with existing measures in clinical spectrum of MIP, delivery, and its outcome.
Location of Things: Geospatial Tagging for IoT Using Time-of-Arrival

We develop a new algorithm for geospatial tagging for Internet-of-Things (IoT) type applications, which we denote as location-of-things (LoT). The underlying idea of LoT applications is to use low-cost off-the-shelf two-way time-of-arrival (TW-ToA) ranging devices to perform localization of tags. We first demonstrate how conventional TW-ToA localization algorithms may experience performance degradation in cases where some of the access points (APs) are outside the communication range of the tags. We then show that we can make use of the audibility information (which indicates whether an AP is able or unable to communicate with the tags). By leveraging on this available information, we re-formulate the localization problem as a statistical nonlinear estimation problem. This information, coupled with ranging observations from audible AP leads to a new maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) algorithm for the tag's location. Our approach provides considerable improvement of the localization performance by mitigating the well-known ambiguity problem which arises when only a few AP are audible. In addition, we derive the Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) of the source location estimate under the proposed framework.
Damage control resuscitation: a sensible approach to the exsanguinating surgical patient.

BACKGROUND The current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in the highest rates of combat casualties experienced by the U.S. military since the Vietnam conflict. These casualties suffer wounds that have no common civilian equivalent and more frequently require massive transfusion (greater than 10 units of packed red blood cells [PRBCs] in less than 24 hrs) than civilian injured. DISCUSSION Military surgeons have found that traditional approaches to resuscitation, particularly in terms of the ratio of blood products to each other and the timing of these products, often fail to effectively treat the coagulopathy that is present on arrival in these casualties. This observation has been concurrently noted in the civilian trauma literature. These experiences have ignited interest in an alternative approach to the resuscitation of these most grievously injured patients. This approach includes the use of permissive hypotension; the prevention and aggressive treatment of hypothermia with both passive and active warming measures; the temporization of acidosis with use of exogenous buffer agents; the immediate use of thawed plasma in ratios approaching 1:1 with PRBCs; the early use of platelets, often given well before 10 units of PRBCs have been transfused; the early use of recombinant Factor VIIa; and, in military settings, the use of fresh whole blood as a primary resuscitation fluid. This strategy has been called "damage control resuscitation" to emphasize its pairing with damage control surgical techniques. SUMMARY Review of the published support for this strategy reveals that additional trials are needed to study and optimize these techniques.
Anti‐asthmatic drug prescriptions to an Italian paedriatic population

To estimate the prevalence and evaluate the appropriateness of anti‐asthmatic drug prescriptions in an Italian paediatric population, drug prescriptions involving 24,407 children <18 years old, dispensed during 2003 by the retail pharmacies of the local health unit in Lecco, Italy, were analysed. Children ≥6 years old receiving anti‐asthmatics were categorized into three subgroups based on the number of boxes prescribed: occasional (one box), low (two and three boxes) and high (≥four boxes) users. A logistic regression analysis was performed to estimate the relationship between the drug use patterns and formulations, antibiotic co‐prescriptions, systemic steroid prescriptions and rate of hospitalization. Anti‐asthmatic drugs were prescribed to 6594 (12%) children and adolescents; 58% of whom received only one box of the drug. Prevalence varied according to age, with the highest values at 1 and 4 years (24% and 21% respectively), and decreased to 6% in 17‐year‐old adolescents. Inhaled steroids were the most prescribed drugs (83%). The most common of these was beclomethasone. Occasional, low and high users represented 58%, 29%, and 13%, respectively, of the treated population ≥6 years old. High users were found to be at increased risk of systemic steroid prescriptions (OR 8.6) and hospital admission for asthma (OR 6.8). This study confirms that in Italy the prevalence of anti‐asthmatic prescription is much higher than prevalence of disease, indicating that anti‐asthmatics are over‐prescribed. Moreover, steroids, especially nebulized, are mainly prescribed only once in a year, supporting the idea that are prescribed not for asthma, which as chronic disease requires a chronic therapy. The approach to create subgroups on the basis of number of boxes prescribed seems to be effective in estimating asthma severity and appropriateness of the therapies.
Dose–response relationships between physical activity, walking and health-related quality of life in mid-age and older women

Background Although physical activity is associated with health-related quality of life (HRQL), the nature of the dose–response relationship remains unclear. Objectives To examine the concurrent and prospective dose–response relationships between total physical activity (TPA) and (only) walking with HRQL in two age cohorts of women. Methods Participants were 10 698 women born in 1946–1951 and 7646 born in 1921–1926, who completed three mailed surveys for the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. They reported weekly TPA minutes (sum of walking, moderate and vigorous minutes). HRQL was measured with the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form 36 Health Status Survey (SF-36). Linear mixed models, adjusted for socio-demographic and health-related variables, were used to examine associations between TPA level (none, very low, low, intermediate, sufficient, high and very high) and SF-36 scores. For women who reported walking as their only physical activity, associations between walking and SF-36 scores were also examined. Results Curvilinear trends were observed between TPA and walking with SF-36 scores. Concurrently, HRQL scores increased significantly with increasing TPA and walking, in both cohorts, with increases less marked above sufficient activity levels. Prospectively, associations were attenuated although significant and meaningful improvements in physical functioning and vitality were observed across most TPA and walking categories above the low category. Conclusion For women in their 50s–80s without clinical depression, greater amounts of TPA are associated with better current and future HRQL, particularly physical functioning and vitality. Even if walking is their only activity, women, particularly those in their 70s–80s, have better HRQL.
Combining structural subtyping and external dispatch

By-name subtyping (or user-defined subtyping) and structural subtyping each have their own strengths and weaknesses. By-name subtyping allows programmers to explicitly express design intent, and, when types are associated with run time tags, enables run-time "type" tests and external/multimethod dispatch. On the other hand, structural subtyping is flexible and compositional, allowing unanticipated reuse. To date, nearly all object-oriented languages fully support only one subtyping paradigm or the other. I propose a language that combines the key aspects of by-name and structural subtyping in a unified framework. The goal is to provide the flexibility of structural subtyping while still allowing static typechecking of external methods. The work offers a clean foundation for the designof future languages that enjoy the benefits of both by-name and structural subtyping. I also propose a language extension to Java that combines by-name and structural subtyping, and includes parametric polymorphism. The practical utility of this language will be illustrated through case studies that show that code written in the new language is more flexible and easier to modify than the original code.
Evaluation of Objective Uncertainty in the Visual System

The role of sensory systems is to provide an organism with information about its environment. Because sensory information is noisy and insufficient to uniquely determine the environment, natural perceptual systems have to cope with systematic uncertainty. The extent of that uncertainty is often crucial to the organism: for instance, in judging the potential threat in a stimulus. Inducing uncertainty by using visual noise, we had human observers perform a task where they could improve their performance by choosing the less uncertain among pairs of visual stimuli. Results show that observers had access to a reliable measure of visual uncertainty in their decision-making, showing that subjective uncertainty in this case is connected to objective uncertainty. Based on a Bayesian model of the task, we discuss plausible computational schemes for that ability.
Sociology in the Contemporary World of Today and Tomorrow

HE younger generation of students is asking for the answers to many questions. More than this, they want to participate in the realistic search for those answers. Still more, they expect these answers somehow to relate not only to the understanding of human society but to the fullness of life in which security, reality, and participation shall constitute basic achievements. Yet, scarcely less eager for new truth and understanding is the great body of professional folk and leaders of society, themselves in the midst of great confusion. They, too, ask questions and want answers. And right along with them is the great mass of common folk who want to know what all this modern complexity and conflict mean and what is the way out. "Can sociology," they all ask, "help out as it has never done before? " This number of SOCIAL FORCES is partially devoted to the asking and answering of such questiolns, as were the previous two issues with their special contribution to regionalism in the modern world. This introductory paper suggests a number of approaches to the study of the contemporary scene and to the realistic participation in research and social planning which sociology may make in the current era. While these approaches are presented primarily to sociologists and in "theoretical" terms, our conclusions have all grown gradually out of studies of the folk-regional society and the consequent criticisms and revisions which have followed. The main import, therefore, is essentially "practical" and realistic. How important and practical our "theoretical" approach may be is illustrated in the extraordinarily fine examination of more than three hundred "approaches" to world reconstruction, presented by Professor Watkins in this issue of SOCIAL FORCES in his article, "Regionalism and Plans for Post-War Reconstruction: the First Three Years. "
Plasma Parathyroid Hormone and the Risk of Cardiovascular Mortality in the Community

Background— Diseases with elevated levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH) such as primary and secondary hyperparathyroidism are associated with increased incidence of cardiovascular disease and death. However, data on the prospective association between circulating PTH levels and cardiovascular mortality in the community are lacking. Methods and Results— The Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men (ULSAM), a community-based cohort of elderly men (mean age, 71 years; n=958), was used to investigate the association between plasma PTH and cardiovascular mortality. During follow-up (median, 9.7 years), 117 participants died of cardiovascular causes. In Cox proportional-hazards models adjusted for established cardiovascular risk factors (age, systolic blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, body mass index, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, antihypertensive treatment, lipid-lowering treatment, and history of cardiovascular disease), higher plasma PTH was associated with higher risk for cardiovascular mortality (hazard ratio for 1-SD increase in PTH, 1.38; 95% confidence interval, 1.18 to 1.60; P<0.001). This association remained essentially unaltered in participants without previous cardiovascular disease and in participants with normal PTH (<6.8 pmol/L) with no other signs of a disturbed mineral metabolism (normal serum calcium, 2.2 to 2.6 mmol/L; normal glomerular filtration rate, >50 mL · min−1 · 1.73 m−2 and without vitamin D deficiency, plasma 25-OH vitamin D >37.5 nmol/L). Interestingly, elevated plasma PTH (>5.27 pmol/L) accounted for 20% (95% confidence interval, 10 to 26) of the population-attributable risk proportion for cardiovascular mortality. Conclusions— Plasma PTH levels predict cardiovascular mortality in the community, even in individuals with PTH within the normal range. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the clinical implications of measuring PTH in cardiovascular risk prediction and to elucidate whether PTH is a modifiable risk factor.
Posterior Probability Reconstruction for Multi-Class Support Vector Machines

Pairwise coupling is a widely used method in multi-class SVM and max wins voting (MWV) strategy can obtain a global classification by considering each partial answer of binary classifier as vote. But MWV strategy has an important drawback, due to the nonsense caused by those meaningless binary classifier. This paper presents a novel approach, which considers the pairwise SVM classification as a decision-making problem and involves posterior probability to solve it. The combination strategy of the probability output among these binary SVM-based classifiers in one-against-one (OVO) decomposition is given. The strategy also considers the different prior probabilities of each binary classifier, which is evaluated by one-against-all (OVA) decomposition. The comparison is done with four benchmark data sets on UCI database and the performance of the proposed reconstruction strategy is validated with experimental results.
Sequential Changepoint Approach for Online Community Detection

We present new algorithms for detecting the emergence of a community in large networks from sequential observations. The networks are modeled using Erdös-Renyi random graphs with edges forming between nodes in the community with higher probability. Based on statistical changepoint detection methodology, we develop three algorithms: the Exhaustive Search (ES), the Mixture, and the Hierarchical Mixture (H-Mix) methods. Performance of these methods is evaluated by the average run length (ARL), which captures the frequency of false alarms, and the detection delay. Numerical comparisons show that the ES method performs the best; however, it is exponentially complex. The Mixture method is polynomially complex by exploiting the fact that the size of the community is typically small in a large network. However, it may react to a group of active edges that do not form a community. This issue is resolved by the H-Mix method, which is based on a dendrogram decomposition of the network. We present an asymptotic analytical expression for ARL of the Mixture method when the threshold is large.