Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cancer mortality in Greece: where are we heading? A 20-year comparative study in four Greek counties.

AIM Comparison of cancer mortality rates in four Greek counties during the decades 1979-1988 and 1989-1998 and drawing out of cause and effect relationships that could lead to organization of prevention programs. METHODS We used the Wilcoxon-White test to statistically compare data between the two decades as well as between the four counties separately. RESULTS We found that the total proportional mortality during the decade 1988-1998 significantly increased, compared to 1979-1988, in all counties we studied. We noted a statistically significant increase of the proportional mortality of organs of the gastrointestinal tract and peritoneum (W = 55, p < 0.001 for both decades), of the respiratory system and intrathoracic organs (W = 71, p = 0.009 for 1979-1988 and W = 55, p < 0.001 for 1988-1998) and the skin and breast (W = 136, p = 0.019 for 1979-1988) in Attiki compared to Thessaloniki. As far as Achaia and Trikala are concerned, we found a minor, though statistically significant increase of the proportional mortality of organs of the gastrointestinal tract and peritoneum (W = 78, p = 0.043), of the respiratory system and intrathoracic organs (W = 77, p = 0.035) and the skin and breast (W = 76, p = 0.029) during the decade 1988-1998. CONCLUSIONS Statistically significant differences were noted concerning the incidence rates between four different counties as well as between two different decades. Although genetic factors might partially explain our results, environmental factors seem to be the main culprits.
TR 15-014 Gathering Bearing Data for Target Localization

We consider the problem of gathering bearing data in order to localize targets. We start with a commonly used notion of uncertainty based on Geometric Dilution of Precision (GDOP) and study the following bi-criteria problem. Given a set of potential target locations and an uncertainty level U , compute an ordered set of measurement locations for a single robot which (i) minimizes the total cost given by the travel time plus the time spent in taking measurements, and (ii) ensures that the uncertainty in estimating the target’s location is at most U regardless of the targets’ locations. We present an approximation algorithm and prove that its cost is at most 28.9 times the optimal cost while guaranteeing that the uncertainty is at most 5.5U . In addition to theoretical analysis, we validate the results in simulation and experiments performed with a directional antenna used for tracking invasive fish.
Community-associated MRSA: a dangerous epidemic.

‘ … the lesson from the CA-MRSA epidemic is that of an increased urge to put more resources into drug and vaccine development. ’ Although a relatively unspectacular, nonmotile coccus, Staphylococcus aureus is a dangerous pathogen and a major public health concern. In addition to being a common food-poisoning agent, it can cause serious skin and soft tissue infections and life-threatening diseases. Furthermore, resistance to multiple antibiotics, most notably to penicillin and methicillin, is common in S. aureus and makes treatment especially difficult. However, the biggest current threat from this human pathogen is the pandemic spread of community-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus (CA-MRSA), a crisis affecting many aspects of our social life and second only to HIV/AIDS in scope and importance. Infections with MRSA have traditionally been limited to healthcare settings and individuals with risk factors for infection. Therefore, it came as quite a shock when MRSA infections unrelated to hospitals were reported in healthy individuals beginning in the late 1990s: first in children, later in professional football players and other sports teams, prisoners and men who have sex with men (MSM). The strains that cause these infections are remarkable because they combine antibiotic resistance with exceptional virulence and transmissibility, a phenomenon unprecedented with S. aureus. Moreover, while most S. aureus infections were previously thought to originate from nasal colonization, transmission of CA-MRSA includes body-tobody and sexual contacts. Within a very short period of time, CA-MRSA have become not only the most frequent causes of soft- and skintissue infections in the community, but are also replacing traditional MRSA strains in hospitals on a large scale.
A Cemented Cup with Acetabular Impaction Bone Grafting is More Cost-Effective than an Uncemented Cup in Patients under 50 Years

Purpose Acetabular deficiencies in young patients can be restored in several ways during total hip arthroplasty. Currently, cementless cups are most frequently used. Impaction bone grafting of acetabular defects is a more biological approach, but is it cost-effective in young patients on the long term? Methods We designed a decision model for a cost-utility analysis of a cemented cup with acetabular impaction bone grafting versus an uncemented cup, in terms of cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) for the young adult with acetabular bone deficiency, in need for a primary total hip arthroplasty. Outcome probabilities and effectiveness were derived from the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre and the Norwegian Hip Register. Multiple sensitivity analyses were used to assess the contribution of the included variables in the model's outcome. Results Cemented cups with impaction bone grafting were more cost-effective compared to the uncemented option in terms of costs per QALY. A scenario suggesting equal primary survival rates of both cemented and uncemented cups still showed an effect gain of the cemented cup with impaction bone grafting, but at higher costs. Conclusions Based on this model, the first choice of treatment of the acetabular bone deficient osteoarthritic hip in a young patient is reconstruction with impaction bone grafting and a cemented cup.
Complex Substation Scene Segmentation Method Based on Optimized Straight Line Detection

This paper proposes a scene segmentation method based on optimized line detection to address the difficulty of segmenting spatially independent equipment in complex substation scenes. The method first employs the RANSAC method to simulate the ground plane and extract the ground point cloud. Then, it projects the 3D point cloud scene onto a 2D plane to obtain a 2D image of the substation. Straight line segments of the power line are extracted from the image using the edge detection algorithm and an improved line detection algorithm. The straight line segments that do not belong to the power line are filtered out using the surrounding features of the 3D point corresponding to the 2D point on the line. The power line's straight line segment is extended using the region-growing algorithm. Finally, the power line clustering is completed using European clustering based on the three-dimensional coordinates of the two ends of the power line, thereby completing the scene segmentation. Experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively segment substation equipment. Compared to traditional segmentation methods, this method has an average power line identification accuracy of 14% higher.
Urokinase Receptor Associates With Myocardin to Control Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells Phenotype in Vascular Disease

Objective— The urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and its specific receptor (uPAR) are a potent multifunctional system involved in vascular remodeling. The goal of the study was to unravel the mechanisms of uPA/uPAR-directed vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) differentiation. Methods and Results— Using cultured human primary VSMCs, we identified a new molecular mechanism controlling phenotypic modulation in vitro and in vivo. We found that the urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) acts together with the transcriptional coactivator myocardin to regulate the VSMC phenotype. uPAR, a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored cell-surface receptor family member, undergoes ligand-induced internalization and nuclear transport in VSMCs. Platelet-derived growth factor receptor &bgr; and SUMOylated RanGAP1 mediate this trafficking. Nuclear uPAR associates with myocardin, which is then recruited from the promoters of serum response factor target genes and undergoes proteasomal degradation. This chain of events initiates the synthetic VSMC phenotype. Using mouse carotid artery ligation model, we show that this mechanism contributes to adverse vascular remodeling after injury in vivo. We then cultured cells on a microstructured biomaterial and found that substrate topography induced uPAR-mediated VSMC differentiation. Conclusion— These findings reveal the transcriptional activity of uPAR, controlling the differentiation of VSMCs in a vascular disease model. They also suggest a new role for uPAR as a therapeutic target and as a marker for VSMC phenotyping on prosthetic biomaterials.
Behaviour abstraction adequacy criteria for API call protocol testing

Code artefacts that have non‐trivial requirements with respect to the ordering in which their methods or procedures ought to be called are common and appear, for instance, in the form of API implementations and objects. Testing such code artefacts to gain confidence that they conform to their intended protocols is an important and challenging problem. This paper proposes conformance testing adequacy criteria based on covering an abstraction of the intended behaviour's semantics. Thus, the criteria are independent of the specification language and structure used to describe the intended protocol and the language used to implement it. As a consequence, the results may be of use to black box conformance testing approaches in general. Experimental results show that the criteria are a good predictor for fault detection for protocol conformance and for classical structural coverage criteria such as statement and branch coverage. They also show that the division of the domain derived from the criterion produces subdomains such that most of its inputs are fault revealing. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Value of Bedside Shift Reporting Enhancing Nurse Surveillance, Accountability, and Patient Safety

A study was undertaken to explore nurses' experiences and perceptions associated with implementation of bedside nurse-to-nurse shift handoff reporting. Interviews were conducted with nurses and analyzed using directed content analysis. Two themes emerged that illustrated the value of bedside shift reporting. These themes included clarifying information and intercepting errors and visualizing patients and prioritizing care. Nurse leaders can leverage study findings in their efforts to embed nurse-to-nurse bedside shift reporting in their respective organizations.
The molecular basis and specificity of integrin-ligand interactions.

Most eukaryotic cells have the ability to recognise and react functionally to adhesive extracellular matrices. This is true not only for actively migrating cells that use adhesive contact for traction and guidance, but also for stationary cells that require a platform for support and orientation. Cell-extracellular matrix adhesion has a homeostatic function in promoting tissue regeneration during wound healing, while aberrant adhesion contributes to the aetiology and pathogenesis of a number of major human diseases including arthritis, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Consistent with this multiplicity of function, extracellular matrices exhibit diversity in both composition and three-dimensional structure. The overall phenotypic effects induced by an extracellular matrix are the sum of multiple, specific ligand-receptor recognition events and therefore the relative distribution of receptors and ligands, in terms of both quantity and spatial presentation, needs to be considered. This structural complexity has however hampered progress towards an understanding of adhesive recognition events at the cellular level and, instead, a great deal of research effort has been concentrated on elucidating the mechanisms of adhesion at the molecular level. This has involved identifying both adhesion factors in extracellular matrices and the cell surface receptors recognising them, pinpointing the active sites in both sets of molecules that mediate ligand-receptor binding, and providing a three-dimensional description of the interactions. This commentary reviews the current state of this work.
Lamb Waves in Plates Subjected to Uniaxial Stresses

Authors : Munawwar Mohabuth, Andrei Kotousov, Ching-Tai Ng Abstract : On the basis of the finite deformation theory, the effect of homogeneous stress on the propagation of Lamb waves in an initially isotropic hyperelastic plate is analysed. The equations governing the propagation of small amplitude waves in the prestressed plate are derived using the theory of small deformations superimposed on large deformations. By enforcing traction free boundary conditions at the upper and lower surfaces of the plate, acoustoelastic dispersion equations for Lamb wave propagation are obtained, which are solved numerically. Results are given for an aluminum plate subjected to a range of applied stresses.
Peritumoral decreased uptake area of gadoxetic acid enhanced magnetic resonance imaging and tumor recurrence after surgical resection in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract Recently, it has been suggested that peritumoral decreased uptake area (PDUA) in the hepatobiliary phase (HBP) of gadoxetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA)-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was associated with vascular invasion in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We aimed to investigate correlations between microvascular invasion and PDUA, and elucidate the predictability of PDUA for tumor recurrence after resection. We retrospectively analyzed clinicopathological and radiological data from 126 consecutive patients with single HCC ⩽5 cm without macrovascular invasion who underwent preoperative Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI and surgical resection. The presence of a faint and hypointense area around the tumor in the HBP was defined as PDUA. Among 126 patients with HCCs, microvascular invasion was observed in 29 (23.0%) patients and PDUA was observed in 15 (11.9%) patients. PDUA [odds ratio (OR) 20.06, confidence interval (CI) 4.74–84.96, P < . 001] was an independent risk factor for microvascular invasion. In multivariate survival analysis using Cox regression, PDUA [hazard ratio (HR) 4.51, CI 2.17–9.38, P < . 001], pathologically confirmed satellite nodules (HR 5.18, CI 1.50–17.88, P = .009), and AFP (≥100 ng/mL, HR 2.28, CI 1.04–5.01, P = .040) were independent risk factors for recurrence after resection. Recurrence-free survival in the group with PDUA was significantly lower than that in the group without PDUA according to analysis using the Kaplan–Meier method with the log-rank test (P < .001). PDUA in the HBP of Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI could be a useful preoperative predictor of microvascular invasion and independent prognostic factor after surgical resection in patients with single HCC ⩽5 cm without macrovascular invasion.
Differences in familiarity according to the cognitive reserve of healthy elderly people / Diferencias en familiaridad en función de la reserva cognitiva en ancianos sanos

Abstract This study examines the relationship between cognitive reserve and familiarity processes in recognition memory. We hypothesize that people with high cognitive reserve are able to better compensate in alternative information retrieval processes. Forty-five participants, divided into high and low cognitive reserve groups, conducted a recognition experiment where they were asked to discriminate between studied and non-studied words that varied in perceptual familiarity. The results indicated that participants were able to use perceptual familiarity to improve their level of recognition. More importantly, people with high cognitive reserve used familiarity better than those with low cognitive reserve. The results provide the first empirical evidence indicating that people with high cognitive reserve are more efficient at balancing recollection and familiarity processes, and thus maintain a better performance level than those with low cognitive reserve.
A Study of Elementary Teachers' Abilities, Attitudes, and Beliefs about Problem Solving

A STUDY OF ELEMENTARY TEACHERS' ABILITIES, ATTITUDES, AND BELIEFS ABOUT PROBLEM SOLVING DECEMBER 2003 NANCY M. BROWN B.S., AUGUSTA STATE UNIVERSITY M.Ed., AUGUSTA STATE UNIVERSITY Ed.D. , GEORGIA SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY Directed by Professor Cordelia Zinskie Problem solving has been alternately viewed as the justification for the study of mathematics or as the impetus and means for studying mathematics. This study examines characteristics—attitudes toward problem solving, beliefs about problem solving, and abilities to solve problems—of elementary teachers of grades three, four, and five that relate to problem solving. Participants completed a two-part survey to quantify their attitudes and beliefs and a problem-solving activity which quantified their problem-solving abilities. Four participants were subsequently interviewed. Analyses showed that these teachers had generally positive attitudes toward problem solving, generally positive beliefs about problem solving, and generally poor problem-solving abilities. The data showed significant (p < .05) positive correlations between attitude and problem-solving ability and between attitude and beliefs (p < .01). Analyses of variance showed a significant difference (p < .05) in attitude for the three grades. The interview data added to the understanding of teacher attitudes and teacher beliefs and revealed that attitude was also reflected in the way problem solving was treated in their classrooms. Teachers with very positive attitudes involved their students in mathematical problem solving in their classrooms and viewed problem solving as a means for teaching and validating mathematics and regarded computational skills as an important goal but did not view the mastery of computation skills as a necessary prerequisite to problem solving. Teachers whose attitudes were not very positive never used problem-solving activities in their mathematics instruction and believed that mastery of computational skills was a necessary prerequisite for problem solving. Three of the four interviewees limited mathematical problem solving to what is more correctly known as a word problem—a computational exercise given in verbal language. Although certification requirements in Georgia have increased the number of mathematics courses that pre-service teachers must complete in their professional development, this study indicates that these increased requirements may not be enough. Teacher attitudes toward problem solving must also be addressed. Pre-service teacher preparation programs must address prospective teachers' attitudes and focus on teaching these future teachers how to teach mathematics in addition to teaching them mathematics content. In-service elementary mathematics teachers must be involved in staff development based in dialogues about attitudes, pedagogy, and content. Interim and long-term solutions will require courage, dedication, conviction, and diligence.
Querying and Updating Treebanks: A Critical Survey and Requirements Analysis

Language technology makes extensive use of hierarchically annotated text and speech data. These databases are stored in flat files and manipulated using corpus-specific query tools or special-purpose scripts. While the size of these databases and the range of applications has grown rapidly in recent years, neither method for managing the data has led to reusable, scalable software. The formal properties of the query languages are not well understood. Hence established methods for indexing tree data and optimizing tree queries cannot be employed. We analyze a range of existing linguistic query languages, and adduce a set of requirements for a reusable, scalable linguistic query language.
Speech Enhancement by Online Non-negative Spectrogram Decomposition in Non-stationary Noise Environments

Classical single-channel speech enhancement algorithms have two convenient properties: they require pre-learning the noise model but not the speech model, and they work online. However, they often have difficulties in dealing with non-stationary noise sources. Source separation algorithms based on nonnegative spectrogram decompositions are capable of dealing with non-stationary noise, but do not possess the aforementioned properties. In this paper we present a novel algorithm that combines the advantages of both classical algorithms and non-negative spectrogram decomposition algorithms. Experiments show that it significantly outperforms four categories of classical algorithms in non-stationary noise environments.
Assessment of Workplace Diesel Exhaust Exposure and Health Effects

Diesel exhaust can pose a significant health risk on exposure populations and workplace can be a significant source of exposure to diesel exhaust. Because of its complex compositions and the delay of advanced technology in exposure assessment, diesel exhaust exposure assessment at workplace in relation to its health effects is understudied. More efforts are needed to clarify exposure levels that may result in adverse health effects, in particular, chronic health effects.
Reliable Classification using Compact Support Probabilistic PCA

Deep neural networks have proven to be powerful tools for a wide variety of applications. However, they still have problems dealing with data that is far away from the training data, the so-called out-of-distribution (OOD) data. They may give wrong predictions with high confidence for OOD data, thus posing a danger for safety-critical applications. In this paper, we propose to address the problem with a novel Compact Support Probabilistic PCA (CSPPCA) model that represents the data locally using probabilistic PCA and gives a score of zero for data that has a high Mahalanobis distance from the model centers. Our experiments indicate that the proposed method outperforms the current state-of-the-art methods on public datasets, both in terms of area under the ROC curve for OOD detection (AUROC) and speed.