Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adapting the I-PASS Handoff Program for Emergency Department Inter-Shift Handoffs

Introduction Academic emergency department (ED) handoffs are high-risk transfer of care events. Emergency medicine residents are inadequately trained to handle these vital transitions. We aimed to explore what modifications the I-PASS (illness severity, patient summary, action list, situation awareness and contingency plans, and synthesis by receiver) handoff system requires to be effectively modified for use in ED inter-shift handoffs. Methods This mixed-method needs assessment conducted at an academic ED explored the suitability of the I-PASS system for ED handoffs. We conducted a literature review, focus groups, and then a survey. We sought to identify the distinctive elements of ED handoffs and discern how these could be incorporated into the I-PASS system. Results Focus group participants agreed the patient summary should be adapted to include anticipated disposition of patient. Participants generally endorsed the order and content of the other elements of the I-PASS tool. The survey yielded several wording changes to reflect contextual differences. Themes from all qualitative sources converged to suggest changes for brevity and clarity. Most participants agreed that the I-PASS tool would be well suited to the ED setting. Conclusion With modifications for context, brevity, and clarity, the I-PASS system may be well suited for application to the ED setting. This study provides qualitative data in support of using the I-PASS tool and concrete suggestions for how to modify the I-PASS tool for the ED. Implementation and outcome research is needed to investigate if the I-PASS tool is feasible and improves patient outcomes in the ED environment.
SafeBots: a paradigm for software security controls

We propose a security paradigm in which software security controls are implemented as ubiquitous, communicating, dynamically confederating agents that monitor and control communications among the components of preexisting applications. These agents remember events, communicate with other agents, draw inferences, and plan actions to achieve security goals. Key features of this paradigm are: (1) linguistic mechanisms for specifying agents, security models, and communications, (2) compilation mechanisms that automatically create and install agents as wrappers around existing application components, (3) algorithmic definitions of how agents communicate to increase the security of systems, and (4) a library of agent code fragments, used by the compilation mechanism, to build actual agents. By automating the generation and administration of security agents, we expect to m‘ake it cost-effective to install enough redundant agents so that subversion of system software or of some agents can be detected and responded to effectively.
Visual Positioning Using Four-Point Planar Patterns

The existence of multi-resolutions for the perspective-n-point (PnP) problem makes the position-based visual control based on PnP positioning method difficult for practical applications. In this paper, two simple four-point patterns are designed to ensure unique solution for the PnP problem. One is a triangle planar pattern, which consists of three points and their centroid. Another is quadrangle planar pattern. A recursive least square algorithm with a forgetting factor is introduced to improve the solution accuracy. The positioning accuracy based on PnP positioning method is investigated for the two patterns. The method presented in this paper has the advantages of minimum set of known points providing unique solution and linear pose estimation. Experiments are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed patterns and method.
High-pressure die-cast (HPDC) aluminium alloys for automotive applications

Abstract: This chapter aims to trace a short history of the logical steps which led to the development of new aluminium materials for automotive applications. The main focus is on high-pressure die-cast (HPDC) aluminium alloys and the driving factors leading to the current use of premium casting alloys. The chemical composition, mechanical properties and specific features of silafont®-36, Magsimal®-59 and Castasil®-37 are described, with guidelines provided for their processing and casting. Data from practical experiences are reported, answering the most common questions on primary low-iron ductile alloys. Finally, examples of the applications of these materials are briefly described, underlining the innovative aspect of each component.
Trajectory Estimation and Control of Vehicle using Neuro-Fuzzy Technique

Summary Nonlinear system identification is becoming an important tool which can be used to improve control performance. This paper describes the application of adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model for controlling a car. The vehicle must follow a predefined path by supervised learning. Backpropagation gradient descent method was performed to train the ANFIS system. The performance of the ANFIS model was evaluated in terms of training performance and classification accuracies and the results confirmed that the proposed ANFIS model has potential in controlling the non linear system.
Reflection and Transmission of Beams at a Dielectric Interface

When complex values are assigned to the source coordinates in the expressions for the fields radiated by a line or point source in a homogeneous medium, the resulting fields have the form of a two- or three-dimensional Gaussian beam. This fact may be utilized to develop results for beam propagation and scattering in inhomogeneous regions from corresponding results for point or line source fields. After justifying the analytic continuation procedure to derive rigorous integral solutions for the (two-dimensional) beam fields reflected by and transmitted through a plane dielectric interface, asymptotic results are obtained by the saddle point method; it is found that the analytic continuation to complex source coordinates can be performed directly on the asymptotic expressions for reflected, refracted and lateral wave constituents of ordinary line source fields. Interpretation of the reflected fields reveals that they incorporate directly the lateral beam shift, a phenomenon usually regarded as a diffraction.
The unexpected influence of physician attributes on clinical decisions: results of an experiment.

UNLABELLED This experiment was designed to determine: (1) whether patient attributes (specifically a patient's age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status) independently influence clinical decision-making; and (2) whether physician characteristics alone (such as their gender, age, race, and medical specialty), or in combination with patient attributes, influence medical decision-making. METHODS An experiment was conducted in which 16 (= 2(4)) videotapes portraying patient-physician encounters for two medical conditions (polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and depression) were randomly assigned to physicians for viewing. Each video presented a combination of four patient attributes (65 years or 80 years of age; male or female; black or white; blue or white collar occupation). Steps were taken to enhance external validity. One hundred twenty-eight eligible physicians were sampled from the northeastern United States, with numbers balanced across 16 (= 2(4)) strata generated from the following characteristics (male or female; < 15 or > or = 15 years since graduation; black or white; internists or family practitioners). The outcomes studied were: 1) the most likely diagnosis; 2) level of certainty adhering to that diagnosis; and 3) the number of tests that would be ordered. RESULTS Patient attributes (namely age, race, gender, and socioeconomic status) had no influence on the three outcomes studied (the most likely diagnosis, the level of certainty, and test ordering behavior). This was consistent across the two medical conditions portrayed (PMR and depression). In contrast, characteristics of physicians (namely their medical specialty, race, and age) interactively influenced medical decision-making. CONCLUSION Epidemiologically important patient attributes (which Bayesian decision theorists hold should be influential) had no effect on medical decision-making for the two conditions, while clinically extraneous physician characteristics (which should not be influential) had a statistically significant effect. The validity of idealized theoretical approaches to medical decision making and the usefulness of further observational approaches are discussed.
Encryption for Peer-to-Peer Social Networks

To address privacy concerns over online social networking services, several distributed alternatives have been proposed. These peer-to-peer (P2P) online social networks do not rely on centralized storage of user data. Instead, data can be stored not only on a computer of a profile owner but almost anywhere (friends' computers, random peers from the social network, third-party external storage, etc.). Since the external storage is often untrusted or only semi-trusted, encryption plays a fundamental role in security of P2P social networks. Encryption, however, also adds some overhead in both the time and space domains. To be scalable, a system that relies heavily on encryption should use as efficient algorithms as possible. It also needs to provide the functionality of changing access rights at reasonable cost, and, crucially, the system should preserve privacy properties itself. That is, beyond user data confidentiality, it has to protect against information leakage about users' access rights and traffic analysis. In this paper we explore the requirements of encryption for P2P social networks in detail and propose a list of criteria for evaluation. We then compare a set of approaches from the literature according to these criteria. We find that none of the current P2P architectures for social networks manages to achieve secure, efficient, 24/7 access control enforcement and data storage. They either rely on trust, require constantly running servers for each user, use expensive encryption, or fail to protect privacy of access information. In the search for a solution that better fulfills the criteria, we found that some broadcast encryption (BE) schemes exhibit several desirable properties. We thus propose to use BE schemes with high performance encryption/decryption regardless of the number of identities/groups for an efficient encryption-based access control in the P2P environment. We define relevant properties for the BE schemes to be used in the P2P social network scenario and describe advantages that such schemes have compared to encryption techniques used in existing P2P architectures.
The interpolation of cadmium in soils of an urbanized territory of the steppe Dnieper region using geoinformation modeling methods

We collected data on the content of gross and mobile forms of cadmium in the genetic horizons of the main types of soils of the steppe Dnieper region in anthropogenically contaminated landscapes (for instance, the city of Kamianske). The content and distribution of gross and mobile forms of cadmium are shown laterally and radially. The highest concentration of cadmium content is noted for profiles 1 to 6, in particular for a root-saturated ground horizon (up to 50 cm). For soil horizons located at a depth of 50–150 cm, there is a slight excess (4–6 mg/kg) of the mean (2–4 mg/kg) for all urban systems. Minimal concentrations of gross forms of cadmium are observed along the soil profile of 25–29 (up to 1 mg/kg), but anomalous excesses are noted at intersections of major highways, which is characteristic for all arranged profiles. The distribution of mobile forms of cadmium for each araigned profile usually duplicates the situation of distribution of gross forms of heavy metal content. The ArcGIS Spatial Analyst's software capabilities in assessing the ecological status of the Kamianske soil according to the content of cadmium are demonstrated in the study. The results of interpolation of cadmium concentration (gross and mobile forms) on the territory of the city for the corresponding soil horizons are given. According to the conducted simulation, it has been established that the soils of almost the entire eastern part of the city (east of the soil profile of 1 to 6) are characterized by the content of the gross form of cadmium in the range of 3 to 4 mg/kg, except for the wooded ravine Vodyana, within the territorial boundaries of which the values of 2 to 3 mg/kg are forecast, as well as in the soils of the southern and central parts of the city. The interpolation of the results of measurements of cadmium content indicates that the abnormal zone is gradually decreasing by area, however, it maintains the maximum values for the city's territory.
Key Role of Teichoic Acid Net Charge inStaphylococcus aureus Colonization of Artificial Surfaces

ABSTRACT Staphylococcus aureus is responsible for a large percentage of infections associated with implanted biomedical devices. The molecular basis of primary adhesion to artificial surfaces is not yet understood. Here, we demonstrate that teichoic acids, highly charged cell wall polymers, play a key role in the first step of biofilm formation. An S. aureus mutant bearing a stronger negative surface charge due to the lack ofd-alanine esters in its teichoic acids can no longer colonize polystyrene or glass. The mutation abrogates primary adhesion to plastic while production of the glucosamine-based polymer involved in later steps of biofilm formation is not affected. Our data suggest that repulsive electrostatic forces can lead to reduced staphylococcal biofilm formation, which could have considerable impact on the design of novel implanted materials.
University of Manitoba: Description of the PIE System Used for MUC-6

The PIE (Principar-driven Information Extraction) system takes a different approach to the problem of information extraction from the NUBA system that was used in MUC-5. The NUBA system did not have a parser and relies on an abductive reasoner to construct the semantic relationships between domain specific concepts mentioned in a sentence. The PIE system, on the other hand, relies heavily on a principle-based broad-coverage parser, called PRINCIPAR [2, 6, 8], that we have developed over the past three years. Most of the information extracted are directly "read-off" the parser outputs by a subtree pattern-matcher, bypassing the usual step of constructing semantic representations.
Discussion on the Zorn-Hypothesis on Inter-server Control Flow and Product Form Queueing Networks

The hypothesis: "If a system can be represented by a model without any inter-server control flow, the underlying problem is of type Product Form Queueing Network (PFQN), otherwise of type Non Product Form Queueing Network (NPFQN)" was raised by W. Zorn. This launches a new distinction criterion between Product Form and Non Product Form Queueing Networks on a structural level. In this paper a validation of this hypothesis is discussed with the help of different representative examples.
NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF LAMINAR MIXED CONVECTION IN TROMBE WALL CHANNEL

The two dimensional steady, combined forced and natural convection in vertical channel isinvestigated for laminar regime. To simulate the Trombe wall channel geometry properly, horizontalinlet and exit segments have been added to the vertical channel. The vertical walls of the channel aremaintained at constant but different temperature while horizontal walls are insulated. A finitedifference method using up-wind differencing for the nonlinear convective terms, and centraldifferencing for the second order derivatives, is employed to solve the governing differentialequations for the mass, momentum, and energy balances. The solution is obtained for streamfunction, vorticity and temperature as dependent variables by iterative technique known as successivesubstitution with overrelaxation. The flow and temperature patterns in the channel are obtained forReynolds numbers and Grashof number ranging from 25 to 100 and (100 to 1,000,00,) respectively.A computer program ( Fortran 90 ) is built to calculate the fraction factor and the totalaverage Nusselt number (Nu) also the average heat transfer Q in steady state and for Aspect ratio Ar(10) and Grashof number GR (10 2 − 10 5 ), the fluid Prandtl number is fixed at (Pr=0.733) andReynolds number Re (25-100). The results show reasonable representation to the relation between Nusselt number and frictionfactor with other parameters (Ar, GR and Re). Nu is increased with increasing Re and GR but itdecreases with Ar increase and (Q) is increased with increasing Re ,GR and Ar. At the same time, theproduct friction factor(fRe) increased with (GR) and (Ar)increased and (Re )decrease.Comparison of the result with the previous work shows a good agreement
Impact of Plant Variety Protection on Indian Seed Industry

This paper has examined the pattern of protection of plant varieties and the early impact of plant variety protection (PVP) on Indian seed industry. The results have shown a positive response by all the actors involved in seed provision, viz. public research institutes, private seed companies, and farmers in terms of participation in protection of varieties. To measure the concentration of private seed companies in PVP, Herfindahl–Hirschman Index was used which revealed that concentration has decreased over the years, with participation of more and more seed companies. The PVP applications for crops have also diversified with time, indicating that PVP is important for a large number of crops. The trends in exchange of germplasm, number of varieties released, breeder and quality seeds produced, and number of public-private partnerships, indicate the growth of Indian seed industry and its confidence in the PVP mechanism.
A Graph-Based Classification Method for Hyperspectral Images

The goal of this paper is to apply graph cut (GC) theory to the classification of hyperspectral remote sensing images. The task is formulated as a labeling problem on Markov random field (MRF) constructed on the image grid, and GC algorithm is employed to solve this task. In general, a large number of user interactive strikes are necessary to obtain satisfactory segmentation results. Due to the spatial variability of spectral signatures, however, hyperspectral remote sensing images often contain many tiny regions. Labeling all these tiny regions usually needs expensive human labor. To overcome this difficulty, a pixelwise fuzzy classification based on support vector machine (SVM) is first applied. As a result, only pixels with high probabilities are preserved as labeled ones. This generates a pseudouser strike map. This map is then employed for GC to evaluate the truthful likelihoods of class labels and propagate them to the MRF. To evaluate the robustness of our method, we have tested our method on both large and small training sets. Additionally, comparisons are made between the results of SVM, SVM with stacking neighboring vectors, SVM with morphological preprocessing, extraction and classification of homogeneous objects, and our method. Comparative experimental results demonstrate the validity of our method.
Serum p-cresyl sulfate predicts cardiovascular disease and mortality in elderly hemodialysis patients

Introduction Previous studies have shown that serum p-cresyl sulfate (PCS) and indoxyl sulfate (IS) were significantly related to clinical outcomes in patients on hemodialysis (HD). However, evidence for the relationship in elderly HD patients remains scarce. We explore whether the two toxins can predict clinical outcomes in elderly HD patients. Material and methods Fifty stable HD patients more than 65 years old were enrolled from a single medical center. Serum total and free PCS, IS levels and biochemistry were measured concurrently. The clinical outcomes including cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality were analyzed after 38-month follow-up. Results Univariate Cox proportional hazard ratio analysis revealed that cardiovascular events were associated with gender (p = 0.02), diabetes (p < 0.01), calcium (p = 0.01), total PCS (p < 0.01), free PCS (p < 0.01) and total IS (p = 0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that diabetes (p = 0.01), total PCS (p = 0.01) and free PCS (p = 0.04) were related to cardiovascular events. For all-cause mortality, only total PCS (p = 0.01) reached significance after adjusting other confounding factors. However, Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that free PCS (p = 0.02) and total PCS (p < 0.01) were significantly associated with cardiovascular events and total PCS (p = 0.048) was related to all-cause mortality during 38-month follow-up. Conclusions Our results indicate that total PCS is a valuable marker in predicting cardiovascular event and all-cause mortality in elderly HD patients.
DEcryption Contract ENforcement Tool (DECENT): A Practical Alternative to Government Decryption Backdoors

A cryptographic contract and enforcement technology would guarantee release of a data decryption key to an authorized party if and only if predetermined contract requirements are satisfied. Threshold secret sharing can be used to eliminate the need for access to the hidden key under normal circumstances. It can also eliminate the liability and burden normally carried by device manufacturers or service providers when they store the decryption keys of their customers. Blockchain technology provides a mechanism for a public audit trail of the creation and release of the hidden key. The use of peer-to-peer mix-net network overlay technology can be added to insure that the blockchain audit trail documents the release of the key even if an all-powerful entity forces actors to act under duress.
RF based enhancement of İÇKON system

Localization plays an important role in many applications. One of the positioning systems developed for indoor environments is İÇKON that can calculate the position of an object at cm accuracy by using pure ultrasonic signals. In this study, the ICKON system is switched to wireless sensor network to reduce setup time, and a mobile application is developed to determine transmitter positions. Switching to wireless infrastructure also provides to use the existing wireless communication infrastructure in indoor environments.
Estimation of Pre- and Postradiotherapy Blood Selenium-Dependent Glutathione Peroxidase Levels in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients

Radiotherapy has been used successfully in the treatment of cancer for many years. It can be used as only treatment or in combination with other treatment modalities. Blood samples were collected of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients attending the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Government Dental College and Hospital, RST Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Nagpur and Department of Radiotherapy and Department of Biochemistry; Government Medical College and Hospital, Nagpur, before and after sixth week of radiation therapy. The effect of radiation on oral squamous cell carcinoma has been studied using activity of glutathione peroxidase enzyme. GPX Enzyme activity was significantly reduced in RBC hemolysate of oral cancer patient showing lack of antioxidant defense. Radiation treatment further inactivates the GPX enzyme, though insignificantly, by lipid peroxidation making system further inefficient.