Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adjusting our lens: can developmental differences in diagnostic reasoning be harnessed to improve health professional and trainee assessment?

OBJECTIVES Research in cognition has yielded considerable understanding of the diagnostic reasoning process and its evolution during clinical training. This study sought to determine whether or not this literature could be used to improve the assessment of trainees' diagnostic skill by manipulating testing conditions that encourage different modes of reasoning. METHODS The authors developed an online, vignette-based instrument with two sets of testing instructions. The "first impression" condition encouraged nonanalytic responses while the "directed search" condition prompted structured analytic responses. Subjects encountered six cases under the first impression condition and then six cases under the directed search condition. Each condition had three straightforward (simple) and three ambiguous (complex) cases. Subjects were stratified by clinical experience: novice (third- and fourth-year medical students), intermediate (postgraduate year [PGY] 1 and 2 residents), and experienced (PGY 3 residents and faculty). Two investigators scored the exams independently. Mean diagnostic accuracies were calculated for each group. Differences in diagnostic accuracy and reliability of the examination as a function of the predictor variables were assessed. RESULTS The examination was completed by 115 subjects. Diagnostic accuracy was significantly associated with the independent variables of case complexity, clinical experience, and testing condition. Overall, mean diagnostic accuracy and the extent to which the test consistently discriminated between subjects (i.e., yielded reliable scores) was higher when participants were given directed search instructions than when they were given first impression instructions. In addition, the pattern of reliability was found to depend on experience: simple cases offered the best reliability for discriminating between novices, complex cases offered the best reliability for discriminating between intermediate residents, and neither type of case discriminated well between experienced practitioners. CONCLUSIONS These results yield concrete guidance regarding test construction for the purpose of diagnostic skill assessment. The instruction strategy and complexity of cases selected should depend on the experience level and breadth of experience of the subjects one is attempting to assess.
Osteoarthritis as a public health problem: the impact of developing knee pain on physical function in adults living in the community: (KNEST 3).

OBJECTIVES To determine the effect of newly developed knee pain on general health and physical function of people >or=50 yrs living in the community. METHODS Prospective cohort study of 3907 people aged 50+ registered with three general practices in North Staffordshire, in the UK. The main outcome measures were self-reported knee pain; general health and physical function as measured by the Short Form 36 (SF-36). RESULTS Of those with no knee pain at baseline, 24% (n = 501) reported it at follow-up. There was a steep decline in physical function in this group (mean fall in SF-36 score at follow-up 10.3 points) compared with the 1558 persons who had no knee pain at baseline or follow-up (mean fall 3.3). Those with knee pain at baseline whose pain had resolved at 3-yr follow-up (n = 409) showed only minor improvements in physical functioning scores at follow-up (mean improvement -1.3). CONCLUSIONS The onset of knee pain is associated with a substantial and persistent reduction of physical function in older adults living in the community. Since knee pain is common, and reduced physical function in mid to older ages is a strong predictor of future disability and dependency, effective prevention or early treatment of knee pain at these ages is likely to have a major influence on healthy ageing in the population.
Usability grading of a learner adaptive system

The need for individualised support is important as sizes of classes increase. We present a study of a learner-adaptive system – a system that adapts to improve the learning experience of the user – for spelling in primary school. Together with teachers we have designed and evaluated a specific technique evolution of educational content (first explored by Sklar and Pollack, 2000) that refines spelling exercises based upon the student’s earlier success. The method of triangulation is used to combine qualitative with quantitative measures for determining the usability of the system and evolution of educational content. The usability test derives from Squires and Preece (1999) set of learning with software heuristics – a framework that recognizes the importance of not only design but also learning outcomes. We found evolution of educational content highly usable for spelling training in primary school and as a complement to the conventionally taught curricula. The results showed an increase in spelling ability and demonstrated individualised learning with non-competitive interaction among students. Notably, individualisation occurred in spite of the absence of a student model.
PUTTING THE TOE INTO THE SHARK-INFESTED WATERS OF ELECTRONIC DISTANCE EDUCATION : THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MULTI-CAMPUS UNIT AND LEARNING PACKAGE USING LOTUS LEARNINGSPACE

Australian Catholic University is located on seven campuses on the eastern seaboard and its academic operations are such that the academic Faculties operate as single units across the university structures. This enables close links to be developed between staff operating in the same academic and interest areas, despite the distances. Another feature of the Faculties is that courses with similar purposes, as in say teacher education, have structures which have been standardised across the University. One effect of this leads to the sharing of resources and the development of efficiencies in course delivery. Lecturers from campuses where one particular core unit in the teacher education course is offered have worked together to develop a distance education package using Lotus LearningSpace. Hunt (1997) has already described the value of using technology to prepare teachers and this paper will report on the presentation and evaluation of a core unit over two semesters on three campuses and the preparation for a full-scale launch in 1999. The paper will report ‘hands on’ experience, the positive outcomes, issues to be addressed and cautionary tales. The need for adequate staff preparation and development as well as appropriate induction procedures for students will be discussed. One of the strengths of the pilot program was that it was multi-modal with face-to-face meetings with students, so that there were appropriate safety nets in place to overcome technical and other problems encountered in the initial presentations. Another strength was that the staff on each campus knew one another and were able to communicate readily by teleconference, videoconference and linking face-toface meetings in association with other University commitments. By the time of the conference in December, student and staff evaluation reports from the pilot program and two semesters of implementation will be available for discussion at the Conference. The ultimate plan is to make the unit available through Lotus LearningSpace for external students to access and for the use in Inservice Programs for teachers in off-campus situations. The first major external test of this program is scheduled for 1999. At that time it is planned that a number of other courses units will be available using the technology and experience gained in the present project.
Interactive Segmentation of the Breast Region from Digitized Mammograms with United Snakes

The segmentation of a digital mammogram into breast region and film background is a necessary prerequisite in the computer-assisted di- agnosis of mammograms. The segmentation method should be ro- bust enough to handle a wide variety of digital mammograms obtained from different image acquisition systems. In addition, the large size of digitized mammograms requires an efficient image processing system. In this paper, a sofware package called United Snakes for interactive medical image segmentation is evaluated for segmenting the breast re- gion from mammograms. The united snakes technique combines the livewire method with a group of most important snake variants united within a general framework. The advantages of the system are general- ity, accuracy, ease of use and robustness. Practical tests showed that the method gives an accurate segmentation result with only few user interactions.
Analysis of a hierarchical cellular system with integrated services model

RSVP (resource reservation protocol) is an attempt to provide a real-time service through the use of virtual circuits in the Internet. It is designed for the integrated services (IntServ) model, and allows Internet real-time applications to reserve resources before they start transmitting data. We consider a cellular system with two-level hierarchy, where RSVP resource reservation is made newly over the two-hop link between the macro-level base station and the mobile host during a handoff. For wireless access networks, we propose a dynamic resource allocation scheme that adapts to variations in handoff attempts, where a macrocell provides bandwidth channels for the GS (guarantee service) handoff flows overflowing from the underlying micro-cells. We derive the average system time of BE (best effort) flows. We also obtain the forced termination probability of GS flow and other performance measures.
Direct Loss Minimization for Training Deep Neural Nets

Supervised training of deep neural nets typically relies on minimizing cross-entropy. However, in many domains, we are interested in performing well on specific application-specific metrics. In this paper we proposed a direct loss minimization approach to train deep neural networks, taking into account the application-specific loss functions. This can be non-trivial, when these functions are non-smooth and non-decomposable. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in the context of maximizing average precision for ranking problems. Towards this goal, we propose a dynamic programming algorithm that can efficiently compute the weight updates. Our approach proves superior to a variety of baselines in the context of action classification and object detection.
Automorphism groups of generalized Reed-Solomon codes

We look at AG codes associated to the projective line, re-examining the problem of determining their automorphism groups (originally investigated by Duer in 1987 using combinatorial techniques) using recent methods from algebraic geometry. We (re)classify those finite groups that can arise as the automorphism group of an AG code for the projective line and give an explicit description of how these groups appear. We also give examples of generalized Reed-Solomon codes with large automorphism groups G, such as G=PSL(2,q), and explicitly describe their G-module structure.
High speed cell patterning by dielectrophoresis and on-chip fabrication of microstructure embedding patterned cells

Constructing different patterns of cells and immobilizing these cells inside certain structures are very important issues for artificial tissue engineering. In this paper, we present methods of forming line pattern of yeast cells by dielectrophoresis (DEP) and immobilizing patterned cells by photo-crosslinkable resin. High speed cell pattering by DEP and on-chip fabrication of microstructure which contains patterned yeast cells is demonstrated. In order to applying DEP force for forming cell pattern, several novel microelectrodes are fabricated by Indium Tin Oxides (ITO) which are coated on the glass. The two kinds of DEP responses of yeast cell (W303) and the precise experimental parameters of them are confirmed. Based on negative DEP phenomenon, cell traps generated by microelectrode are demonstrated. Position control and transportation of yeast cells is performed by using cell traps. Besides, a cell trap matrix is fabricated and high speed cell pattering is performed. The experimental results show that the cell line patterns which contain hundreds of yeast cells can be formed by DEP within 1 second. The on-chip fabrication for arbitrary shapes of microstructures based on Poly Ethylene Glycol Diacrylate (PEG-DA) is reported. With the cell patterning by DEP and immobilizing by on-chip fabrication, microstructure which contains 3 lines of yeast cells is fabricated in the microfluidic channel, inside PEG-DA and NaCl solution.
PhenoGO: Assigning Phenotypic Context to Gene Ontology Annotations with Natural Language Processing

Natural language processing (NLP) is a high throughput technology because it can process vast quantities of text within a reasonable time period. It has the potential to substantially facilitate biomedical research by extracting, linking, and organizing massive amounts of information that occur in biomedical journal articles as well as in textual fields of biological databases. Until recently, much of the work in biological NLP and text mining has revolved around recognizing the occurrence of biomolecular entities in articles, and in extracting particular relationships among the entities. Now, researchers have recognized a need to link the extracted information to ontologies or knowledge bases, which is a more difficult task. One such knowledge base is Gene Ontology annotations (GOA), which significantly increases semantic computations over the function, cellular components and processes of genes. For multicellular organisms, these annotations can be refined with phenotypic context, such as the cell type, tissue, and organ because establishing phenotypic contexts in which a gene is expressed is a crucial step for understanding the development and the molecular underpinning of the pathophysiology of diseases. In this paper, we propose a system, PhenoGO, which automatically augments annotations in GOA with additional context. PhenoGO utilizes an existing NLP system, called BioMedLEE, an existing knowledge-based phenotype organizer system (PhenOS) in conjunction with MeSH indexing and established biomedical ontologies. More specifically, PhenoGO adds phenotypic contextual information to existing associations between gene products and GO terms as specified in GOA. The system also maps the context to identifiers that are associated with different biomedical ontologies, including the UMLS, Cell Ontology, Mouse Anatomy, NCBI taxonomy, GO, and Mammalian Phenotype Ontology. In addition, PhenoGO was evaluated for coding of anatomical and cellular information and assigning the coded phenotypes to the correct GOA; results obtained show that PhenoGO has a precision of 91% and recall of 92%, demonstrating that the PhenoGO NLP system can accurately encode a large number of anatomical and cellular ontologies to GO annotations. The PhenoGO Database may be accessed at the following URL: http://www.phenoGO. org
What's in an accent? General spontaneous biases against nonnative accents: An investigation with conceptual and auditory IATs

Nonnative accents are prevalent in our globalized world and constitute highly salient cues in social perception. Whereas previous literature has commonly assumed that they cue specific social group stereotypes, we propose that nonnative accents generally trigger spontaneous negatively biased associations (due to a general nonnative accent category and perceptual influences). Accordingly, Study 1 demonstrates negative biases with conceptual IATs, targeting the general concepts of accent versus native speech, on the dimensions affect, trust, and competence, but not on sociability. Study 2 attests to negative, largely enhanced biases on all dimensions with auditory IATs comprising matched native-nonnative speaker pairs for four accent types. Biases emerged irrespective of the accent types that differed in attractiveness, recognizability of origin, and origin-linked national associations. Study 3 replicates general IAT biases with an affect IAT and a conventional evaluative IAT. These findings corroborate our hypotheses and assist in understanding general negativity toward nonnative accents.
Towards a Global AAA Framework for Internet

A common Authentication, Authorization and Accounting(AAA) framework enables communication between control structures across several interconnected organizations. It is a requirement to allow users mobility or emergence of new distributed services. The path leading to a global framework contains many obstacles, technical and political, that must be overcome to achieve new generation network features such as pervasive computing. While creating a new framework implementation focused on extensibility, we have found some issues in Diameter, the state-of-the-art AAA framework in Internet. This paper summarizes the fundamentals of a AAA architecture, then presents our implementation waaad and our findings on Diameter limitations. It shows that Diameter is suitable for AAA in the future, but some problems must be addressed first. The next phase-in our evaluation of the Diameter framework is the deployment of our implementation in a multi-realm environment, one step closer to a global AAA framework.
Use of Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic Analyses To Optimize Therapy with the Systemic Antifungal Micafungin for Invasive Candidiasis or Candidemia

ABSTRACT Echinocandins have become a first-line therapy for invasive candidiasis (IC). Using phase 3 trial data for patients with IC, pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) relationships for efficacy for micafungin were examined. Micafungin exposures were estimated using a population pharmacokinetic model, and univariable and multivariable logistic regressions were used to identify factors associated with outcome, including the micafungin area under the concentration-time curve (AUC)/MIC ratio. Monte Carlo simulation was used to evaluate the probability of achieving AUC/MIC ratios associated with efficacy. Mycological and clinical success rates for evaluable cases were 89.4 and 90.9, respectively. MIC50s and MIC90s for Candida species inhibition were 0.008 and 0.5 mg/liter, respectively. The median AUC/MIC ratio was 15,511 (range, 41.28 to 98,716). Univariable analyses revealed a significant relationship between the AUC/MIC ratio and mycological response, with the worst response being among patients with lower (≤3,000) AUC/MIC ratios (P = 0.005). For patients with Candida parapsilosis, AUC/MIC ratios of ≥285 were predictive of a higher mycological response (P = 0.11). Multivariable logistic regression demonstrated the AUC/MIC ratio, APACHE II score, and history of corticosteroid use to be significant independent predictors of a favorable response. PK-PD target attainment analyses suggested that 76.7% and 100% of patients would achieve an AUC/MIC ratio of ≥3,000 for an MIC of 0.03 mg/liter and an AUC/MIC ratio of ≥285 for an MIC of <0.5 mg/liter, respectively. The identification of a lower AUC/MIC ratio target for C. parapsilosis than other Candida species suggests consideration of species-specific echinocandin susceptibility breakpoints and values that are lower than those currently approved by regulatory agencies.
Progressive Image Coding using Augmented Zerotrees of Wavelet Coefficients

Most state-of-the-art image compression techniques exploit the dependencies between the subbands in a wavelet transformed image. We propose a progressive image coding technique which is based upon the augmented zerotrees of wavelet coefficients. An augmented zerotree can be regarded as a spatial orientation tree with some extended characteristics. Both the coder and decoder require to maintain only one list. The augmented zerotrees are constructed in an efficient recursive manner and the algorithms are provided. A comparison reveals that the coder performance is close to, and sometimes outperforms, other well known coding methods. Suggestions are made for further improvements regarding the speed and compression performance of the coder.
History of the Study of Skeletal Muscle Function with Emphasis on Kinesiological Electromyography

Study of muscles started probably when someone tried to understand how he can move from A to B and executes movements at will. Knowledge was always dependent on the technology available to conduct investigation. Religious belief had a negative impact on muscle study when interfering with dissection of human corpse. During the Italian Renaissance (end of XIV th to beginning of XVI th century), study of muscles was first descriptive, based on dissection. Artists like Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and Michael Angelo (1475-1564) exaggerated the bulk of muscles. Their first concern was the influence of the volume of the superficial muscle on the surface modelling represented in their paintings and sculptures. Leonardo da Vinci multiplied the number of bundles of some muscles. Most of his representations of tendon insertions are imprecise. Leonardo da Vinci applied mechanical principles to rib, elbow kinematics and kinetics of the foot. Vesalius (1514-1574) was a medical doctor and an anatomist. His anatomical plates are remarkable because they respect most of the relationships between muscles. Then Galileo (1564-1642), Borelli (1608- 1679) and Newton (1642-1727) thought that physics and mechanical laws governed motility of animal and human body alike. Incidental discovery of electro stimulation effect on muscle in Galvani's laboratory and electric current concomitant of muscles contraction by Matteucci and Du Bois Reymond were major breakthroughs. Recording of this current was the starting point for ECG, EMG and EEG. ECG entered first in the clinic. EMG and EEG waited for cathode ray oscilloscope. The Voltaic Pile and faradic current opened the door of electrical stimulation to Duchenne de Boulogne (1806-1875). Matteucci's (1811-1868) publications inspired and stimulated Du Bois Reymond. Du Bois Reymond (1818-1889) repeated and completed his experiments on frogs. He designed a very sensitive galvanometer with which he recorded his own global EMG. EMG remained a curiosity of laboratory until Erlander (1874- 1965) and his pupil Gasser (1888-1963) improved the cathode ray oscilloscope for electrophysiological recordings. A combination of orthopaedic surgeons, engineers and physiologists in Berkeley (1945) systematically recorded EMG during gait of normal man. EMG biofeedback and phonomyography have also raised interest by clinicians. Their EMG signals processing in the time domain (full wave rectification miscalled integrated EMG) was later completed in the early '80s by computation of the root mean square on personal computers. Despite all factors minimizing the reliability of analysis based on amplitude of the EMG signals, these methods still represent the clinician's routine tool today. Since 1999, researchers have proven the benefits of muscular intensity analysis, time frequency analysis, mapping of spatio temporal activity. We deplore that the corresponding software is not available for clinicians. Multivariate methods of statistics allow the comparison of EMG patterns under pathological condition and can be helpful in differential diagnosis.
Conference on Mathematical Neuroscience Scientific Committee A. Compte

Acknowledgements. The Conference on Mathematical Neuroscience is supported by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (ref. MTM2005-24568-E), by the European Comission through the project Shaping new Directions in Mathematics for Science and Society (ref. 015661) and by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.