Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DermabondTM Tissue Adhesive Versus Steri-StripsTM in Unilateral Cleft Lip Repair: An Audit of Infection and Hypertrophic Scar Rates

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the infection and hypertrophic scar rates in unilateral cleft lip repairs, having had Steri-Strips or Dermabond tissue glue applied across the repair as the final stage. Design: Retrospective study over 13 years of 307 unilateral cleft lip repairs by a single surgeon. The application of either Steri-Strips from 1992 to 1998 (121 patients) or Dermabond tissue adhesive from 1998 to 2006 (186 patients) was used in the final stage of the repair. Setting: Regional Centre for Cleft Lip and Palate Care, South West of England. Participants: 307 consecutive unilateral cleft lip patients seen from 1992 to 2006. Main Outcome Measures and Results: There were five (4%) infections in the Steri-Strip group. All infections were with Staphylococcus aureus. No infections occurred in the Dermabond group (p < .001). There were 15 (12%) hypertrophic scars in the Steri-Strip group and 33 (18%) hypertrophic scars in the Dermabond group (p = .142). Revision surgery was required in a total of seven (6%) patients in the Steri-Strip group. No revisions were required in the Dermabond group (p. 1). Conclusion: We found a lower infection and revision rate and a similar hypertrophic scar rate when Dermabond was used instead of Steri-Strips in the final stage of unilateral cleft lip repair and suggest this study further supports the use of octyl-2-cyanoacrylate tissue adhesive in unilateral cleft lip repair.
Optimal Adaptive Policies for Markov Decision Processes

In this paper we consider the problem of adaptive control for Markov Decision Processes. We give the explicit form for a class of adaptive policies that possess optimal increase rate properties for the total expected finite horizon reward, under sufficient assumptions of finite state-action spaces and irreducibility of the transition law. A main feature of the proposed policies is that the choice of actions, at each state and time period, is based on indices that are inflations of the right-hand side of the estimated average reward optimality equations.
Sharp Bounds on Laplace-Stieltjes Transforms, with Applications to Various Queueing Problems

Several partial characterizations of positive random variables (e.g., certain moments) are considered. For each characterization, sharp upper and lower bounds on the Laplace-Stieltjes transform of the corresponding distribution function are derived. These bounds are then shown to be applicable to several problems in queueing and traffic theory. The results can prove useful in producing conservative estimates of a system's performance, in judging the information content of a partial characterization and in providing insight into approximations.
Preemptive versus Nonpreemptive Simultaneous Pancreas-Kidney Transplantation: A Single-Center, Long-Term, Follow-up Study

Background. Data regarding the timing—before or after initiation of dialysis—of simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation (SPKT) in type 1 diabetes mellitus patients with end-stage renal failure are sparse. We studied the effect of preemptive transplantation on patient survival, cardiovascular endpoints, and graft survival, as compared with nonpreemptive transplantation. Methods. All 180 SPKT recipients (aged 23–58 years) who received a SPKT in Leiden between December 1986 and May 2004 were included in the analysis. Sixty-five patients (36.1%) were transplanted preemptively. Mean follow-up time was 6.3 years. Results. Up to 8.2 years after transplantation, we found no differences in patient survival. Later on, divergence occurred: 10-year patient survival was 71.3% in the preemptive group versus 63.8% in the dialysis group and 15-year patient survival was 64.8% versus 45.1% in the dialysis group, leading to an adjusted hazard ratio for mortality of 0.50 (95% CI 0.23–1.06, P=0.070). Cause of death was less often of cardiac origin in the preemptive group (adjusted HR 0.16; 95% CI 0.026–0.95, P=0.044). Graft survival did not follow the same trend. No significant differences were found between the two groups considering allograft survival, cerebrovascular accident, or myocardial infarction. The percentage of patients with minor or major amputation(s) after transplantation was slightly lower in the preemptive group (24.6 vs. 32.1%; adjusted HR 0.87; 95% CI 0.42–1.82, P=0.72). Conclusion. Preemptive SPKT offered a patient survival benefit as compared with transplantation performed while already on dialysis and was associated with a lower rate of cardiac deaths.
An Operational Calculus for Matrix-Exponential Distributions, with Applications to a Brownian (q, Q) Inventory Model

A distribution G on [math not displayed] is called matrix-exponential if the density has the form αeTz s where α is a row vector, T a square matrix and s a column vector. Equivalently, the Laplace transform is rational. For such distributions, we develop an operator calculus, where the key step is manipulation of analytic functions f(z) extended to matrix arguments. The technique is illustrated via an inventory model moving according to a reflected Brownian motion with negative drift, such that an order of size Q is placed when the stock process down-crosses some level q. Explicit formulas for the stationary density are found under the assumption that the leadtime Z has a matrix-exponential distribution, and involve expressions of the form f(T) where [math not displayed].
THE PROPHYLACTIC USE OF MEASLES CONVALESCENT SERUM

As measles is the most prevalent of the diseases of infancy and early childhood, and also predisposes to a complicating bronchial pneumonia, it is one of the two most fatal of the communicable diseases of early childhood, and its prevention has been eagerly sought by clinical and laboratory investigators. The ideal in their mind is to discover the germ and prepare a vaccine such as we have against diphtheria, tetanus and scarlet fever. Tunnicliff in the United States and Caronia in Italy have reported such discoveries. Their work is now being subjected to crucial tests. Herrmann has proposed a very interesting method of inoculating infants intranasally with the secretion obtained from the nose of an infant during the early stage of the disease. He proposes to do this inoculation during the sixth or seventh months of life before the infants have entirely lost their inherited immunity. This method, in our
Probabilistic Analysis of an Infeasible-Interior-Point Algorithm for Linear Programming

We consider an infeasible-interior-point algorithm, endowed with a finite termination scheme, applied to random linear programs generated according to a model of Todd. Such problems have degenerate optimal solutions, and possess no feasible starting point. We use no information regarding an optimal solution in the initialization of the algorithm. Our main result is that the expected number of iterations before termination with an exact optimal solution is O(n ln(n)).
An Efficient MapReduce Cube Algorithm for Varied DataDistributions

Data cubes allow users to discover insights from their data and are commonly used in data analysis. While very useful, the data cube is expensive to compute, in particular when the input relation is very large. To address this problem, we consider cube computation in MapReduce, the popular paradigm for distributed big data processing, and present an efficient algorithm for computing cubes over large data sets. We show that our new algorithm consistently performs better than the previous solutions. In particular, existing techniques for cube computation in MapReduce suffer from sensitivity to the distribution of the input data and their performance heavily depends on whether or not, and how exactly, the data is skewed. In contrast, the cube algorithm that we present here is resilient and significantly outperforms previous solutions for varying data distributions. At the core of our solution is a dedicated data structure called the Skews and Partitions Sketch (SP-Sketch for short). The SP-Sketch is compact in size and fast to compute, and records all needed information for identifying skews and effectively partitioning the workload between the machines. Our algorithm uses the sketch to speed up computation and minimize communication overhead. Our theoretical analysis and thorough experimental study demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of our solution, including comparisons to state of the art tools for big data processing such as Pig and Hive.
Realtime Data Processing at Facebook

Realtime data processing powers many use cases at Facebook, including realtime reporting of the aggregated, anonymized voice of Facebook users, analytics for mobile applications, and insights for Facebook page administrators. Many companies have developed their own systems; we have a realtime data processing ecosystem at Facebook that handles hundreds of Gigabytes per second across hundreds of data pipelines. Many decisions must be made while designing a realtime stream processing system. In this paper, we identify five important design decisions that affect their ease of use, performance, fault tolerance, scalability, and correctness. We compare the alternative choices for each decision and contrast what we built at Facebook to other published systems. Our main decision was targeting seconds of latency, not milliseconds. Seconds is fast enough for all of the use cases we support and it allows us to use a persistent message bus for data transport. This data transport mechanism then paved the way for fault tolerance, scalability, and multiple options for correctness in our stream processing systems Puma, Swift, and Stylus. We then illustrate how our decisions and systems satisfy our requirements for multiple use cases at Facebook. Finally, we reflect on the lessons we learned as we built and operated these systems.
Can Gene Therapy For Alcoholism Lead to Gastrointestinal Cancer

Alcoholism is defined as physical dependence on alcohol and loss of control over alcohol intake (Retrieved from MayoClinic). This addiction can have severe health, economic, and work-related consequences (Retrieved from MayoClinic). Many factors such as mental health and social relationships have been found to affect the likelihood of an individual becoming alcohol-dependent, and genetics is one of them (Retrieved from MayoClinic). Three decades ago scientists noticed a strange phenomenon in certain Asian populations: after consuming a small amount of alcohol, they begin to experience facial flushing, chest palpitations, and dizziness (Mizoi et al., 1979). Research later revealed a mutation in a specific gene-aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) that leads to the inactive form of the enzyme which causes these symptoms which are collectively known as the alcohol flush reaction (Yoshida et al., 1984). Normal ALDH2 can break down acetaldehyde, the byproduct of ethanol metabolism; however, inactive ALDH2 cannot (Zakhari, 2006). Scientists have now made use of the inactive ALDH2 phenotype to treat alcoholism; that is, they can elicit the alcohol flush reaction in patients so as to discourage them from further drinking. Ocaranza et al. (2008) found that a single administration of an anti-Aldh2 antisense gene can significantly inhibit ethanol intake in alcohol-dependent rats. This gene therapy works by inactivating ALDH2 which consequently elevates acetaldehyde levels (Ocaranza et al., 2008). Though this treatment has been shown to be more effective than disulfiram (Antabuse®), a drug currently on the market, Ocaranza et al. (2008) have yet to look at the consequences of acetaldehyde buildup in the treated rats. It is important to carry out a follow up because acetaldehyde is a known carcinogen that can lead to the formation of cancercausing DNA adducts such as 1,N 2 -propanodeoxyguanosine (Zakhari, 2006). People with the defective ALDH2 phenotype have exhibited higher risks for gastrointestinal cancer than people with the normal phenotype (Yokoyama et al., 1998), thus it is critical to assess the effects of inducing acetaldehyde accumulation by inactivating ALDH2 in rats treated with anti-Aldh2 antisense gene.
Approximations of Dynamic Programs, I

A general procedure is presented for constructing and analyzing approximations of dynamic programming models. The models considered are the monotone contraction operator models of Denardo Denardo, E. V. 1967. Contraction mappings in the theory underlying dynamic programming. SIAM Rev.9 165--177. , which include Markov decision processes and stochastic games with a criterion of discounted present value over an infinite horizon plus many finite-stage dynamic programs. The approximations are typically achieved by replacing the original state and action spaces by subsets. Tight bounds are obtained for the distances between the optimal return function in the original model and 1 the extension of the optimal return function in the approximate model and 2 the return function associated with the extension of an optimal policy in the approximate model. Conditions are also given under which the sequence of bounds associated with a sequence of approximating models converges to zero.
Shadow of a Doubt: Testing for Divergences between Software Versions

While developers are aware of the importance of comprehensively testing patches, the large effort involved in coming up with relevant test cases means that such testing rarely happens in practice. Furthermore, even when test cases are written to cover the patch, they often exercise the same behaviour in the old and the new version of the code. In this paper, we present a symbolic execution-based technique that is designed to generate test inputs that cover the new program behaviours introduced by a patch. The technique works by executing both the old and the new version in the same symbolic execution instance, with the old version shadowing the new one. During this combined shadow execution, whenever a branch point is reached where the old and the new version diverge, we generate a test case exercising the divergence and comprehensively test the new behaviours of the new version. We evaluate our technique on the Coreutils patches from the CoREBench suite of regression bugs, and show that it is able to generate test inputs that exercise newly added behaviours and expose some of the regression bugs.
Computing Maximal "Polymatroidal" Network Flows

In the “classical” network flow model, flows are constrained by the capacities of individual arcs. In the “polymatroidal” network flow model introduced in this paper, flows are constrained by the capacities of sets of arcs. Yet the essential features of the classical model are retained: the augmenting path theorem, the integral flow theorem and the max-flow min-cut theorem arc all shown to yield to straightforward generalization. We describe a maximal flow algorithm which finds augmenting paths by labeling arcs instead of nodes, as in the case of the classical model. As a counterpart of a known result for the classical model, we prove that the number of augmentations required to achieve a maximal value flow is bounded by the cube of the number of arcs in the network, provided each successive augmentation is made along a shortest augmenting path, with ties between shortest paths broken by lexicography.
Estudio seroepidemiológico de borreliosis de Lyme en la Ciudad de México y el noreste de la República Mexicana

Objective. To detect serological evidence of B burgdorferi infection in individuals from Mexico City and from the Northeast Region of the country. Material and Methods. A representative sample size of serum from Mexico City and the states of the Northeast of Mexico were taken from serum samples corresponding to the 1987-1988 national survey were obtained from the National Serum Bank. Antibodies against B burgdorferi were detected by ELISA and confirmed with Western blot (WB) assays. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results. A total of 2 346 serum samples were tested; 297 (12.6%) were positive for ELISA, and 122 of 297 were confirmed by WB. Seroprevalence was 3.43% in Mexico City and 6.2% in the Northeast region of the country. Tamaulipas was the state with the highest seroprevalence. Conclusions. The prevalence of seropositive cases shows that borrelial infection is present in the northeast of Mexico and Mexico City. Identification of clinical cases and infected tick vectors is necessary to confirm the presence of Lyme disease in Mexico. The English version of this paper is available at: http://www.insp. mx/ salud/index.html
A spotlight on knowledge management in a rehabilitation unit

This paper describes one of the case studies in a project that aimed to investigate and document the use of knowledge management tools and techniques using an action research approach in organizations from the public, private and community sectors. The case study involved a rehabilitation unit in the public hospital system. Introduction ‘Knowledge management’ refers to the ways in which organizations acquire knowledge, distribute information, interpret information and remember what they have learned (Huber 1991). Recently, knowledge management has been identified as an important and emerging concept in how organizations cope with a rapidly changing and complex world (Andrews & Delahaye 2000; Chauvel & Despres 2002). Even though knowledge management has been advocated by many commentators, very little research has been conducted to investigate the implementation of knowledge management systems in organizations. There is some evidence in the literature that certain tools and techniques have been found to help in managing organizational knowledge effectively but the processes that underpin knowledge management activities are poorly understood (Andrews & Delahaye 2000). These tools and techniques include: ‘storytelling’ (Denning 2002; Prusak & Cohen 2001); ‘after action review’ (Dixon 2000; Collison & Parcell 2001) ‘community of practice’ (Wenger & Snyder 2000; Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder 2002); ‘knowledge maps’ (Despres & Chauvel 1999); and ‘just do it’ (Davidson & Voss 2002). Previous research in knowledge management has predominantly used survey research. Due to the increased importance of ‘tacit’ learning in knowledge management (Davenport & Prusak 1998; Nonaka & Takeuchi 1995) the authors are of the opinion that action research, due to its participatory and responsive nature, will provide important and richer insights into the implementation of knowledge management in organizations. Thus, this project promises to build theory and develop practice in a relatively new and, as yet, poorly researched area. In practical terms this project hopes to improve the way knowledge is managed within organizations. The key research questions addressed in this study were: (1) How can a work group improve knowledge management in their workplace? (2) How do action research processes assist in developing effective knowledge management practice?
If You Present will you Publish? An Analysis of Abstracts at the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland Conferences 2000–2009

Objective To assess the number of publications in peer-reviewed journals that are generated from the verbal presentations at the annual conference of the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Design A list of the verbal presentations (2000 to 2009) was obtained from the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland website. Using a web-based PubMed search engine, a search was made using title, key words, and main authors. Main Outcome Measure The primary outcome measure was the presentation's publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Secondary measures included specialty of the first author, the journal in which the article was published and its impact factor, and topic of the article. Results Of 318 verbal presentations, 67 (21.07%) went on to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. By topic, 50.7% were surgical and 12% concerned speech. The first author was in the plastic surgical specialty in 29.9% and in either speech-language therapy or orthodontics in 17.9% each of papers. In addition, 50.7% of papers were published in the The Craniofacial–Cleft Palate Journal. The overall 2-year impact factor was 0.941. Mean lead time to publication was 29.02 months (range, 2 to 110 months). Conclusions The publication rate is low in comparison with the rate of 44.5% given for all specialties in a Cochrane review in 2007. This may be related to the specialist nature of the subject matter or to the type of research presented at the conference and the difficulty in carrying out high-quality research on cleft lip and palate due to limited numbers and a long lead time to outcomes.
Equivalent Inventory Metrics: A Behavioral Perspective

We analyze how performance metrics that contain equivalent information affect actual decisions. We consider two such performance metrics from supply chain management, days of supply and inventory turn rate, where one is the inverse of the other. We argue that individuals’ assessment of performance is also affected by the metric as opposed to solely based on the inventory value that actually matters. We perform three laboratory studies and analyze how decisions are affected by the metric used to indicate inventory performance. The first study considers alternative inventory optimizations, out of which one must be selected. The second study analyzes a decision maker who must decide on the effort to invest in optimizing inventory of a specific product. The third study corresponds to the economic order quantity model. Our behavioral models suggest that decisions are affected by the metric that is used to indicate performance, and we find support for the predictions in laboratory experiments with human subject.
Adolescent stalking: offence characteristics and effectiveness of intervention orders

To date, research on stalking has focused almost exclusively on adults. This paper examines the nature of stalking among adolescents to determine the characteristics of stalkers and their victims and the utility of intervention orders for managing this behaviour. Its findings indicate that a majority of perpetrators are male and almost all victims know their stalker, with prior relationships including ex-school peers, family members, ex-intimate partners and former friends. Threats and physical assaults occur in a majority of these cases and the impacts of adolescent stalking mirror those reported by adult victims, with anxiety and fear both commonly occurring. However, unlike adult stalking which is usually motivated by rejection, adolescent stalking most often occurs in the context of bullying. Intervention orders were granted in almost half of the study cases. Where applications where not granted, half the victims discontinued the application prior to hearing, almost one-quarter of victims did not attend the hearing and the remainder of cases were struck out. While intervention orders are commonly used to curtail stalking, their effectiveness is yet to be established. Longitudinal research which follows youth stalking cases is needed to determine the mental health, social and vocational impacts of stalking; reasons for high rates of intervention order discontinuation by victims; rates of recidivism into adulthood and the impact of intervention orders on offenders.