Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Framework for Electronic Voting in Nigeria

It is generally considered that a key component of electronic government in the future will be electronic voting, as a means of facilitating the participation of citizens in elections and public debates. The Nigerian 2015 general elections witnessed the use of electronic voters’ register, permanent voters’ card (PVC) and smart card readers for authentication of voters but actual ballot casting was still by manual means under a scheme called Re-Modified Open-Secret Ballot System (REMOBS). This paper proposed a framework for an electronic voting system that can be adopted for voting in Nigeria. The framework is capable of handling electronic ballots with multiple scopes at the same time, for example presidential, gubernatorial, legislative and so on. The framework caters for integrity of an election process through essential requirements of privacy, authenticity, accuracy, security, democracy and verifiability. The functional requirement in the design of the proposed framework requires well-secured identification and authentication processes for voters through the use of biometrics. Actual ballot casting is through direct recording electronics (DRE) voting machines connected together and with a central server over a private network.
Information integration in health care organizations: The case of a European health system

Background: Information system integration is an important dimension of a company's information system maturity and plays a relevant role in meeting information needs and accountability targets. However, no generalizable evidence exists about whether and how the main integrating technologies influence information system integration in health care organizations. Purpose: This study examined how integrating technologies are adopted in public health care organizations and chief information officers' (CIOs) perceptions about their influence on information system integration. Methodology: We used primary data on integrating technologies' adoption and CIOs' perception regarding information system integration in public health care organizations. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multinomial logistic regression were used to examine the relationship between CIOs' perception about information system integration and the adopted technologies. Results: Data from 90 health care organizations were available for analyses. Integrating technologies are relatively diffused in public health care organizations, and CIOs seem to shape information system toward integrated architectures. There is a significant positive (although modest, .3) correlation between the number of integrating technologies adopted and the CIO's satisfaction with them. However, regression analysis suggests that organizations covering a broader spectrum of these technologies are less likely to have their CIO reporting main problems concerning integration in the administrative area of the information system compared with the clinical area and where the two areas overlap. Practice Implications: Integrating technologies are associated with less perceived problems in the information system administrative area rather than in other areas. Because CIOs play the role of information resource allocators, by influencing information system toward integrated architecture, health care organization leaders should foster cooperation between CIOs and medical staff to enhance information system integration.
Are beta2‐agonists responsible for increased mortality in heart failure?

Previous large‐scale, retrospective studies have shown increased mortality in heart failure (HF) patients using β2‐agonists (B2As). We further examined the relationship between B2A use and mortality in a well‐characterized population by adjusting for natriuretic peptide levels as a measure of HF severity.
Robust Survey Aggregation with Student-t Distribution and Sparse Representation

Most existing survey aggregation methods assume that the sample data follow Gaussian distribution. However, these methods are sensitive to outliers, due to the thin-tailed property of Gaussian distribution. To address this issue, we propose a robust survey aggregation method based on Student-t distribution and sparse representation. Specifically, we assume that the samples follow Student-t distribution, instead of the common Gaussian distribution. Due to the Student-t distribution, our method is robust to outliers, which can be explained from both Bayesian point of view and non-Bayesian point of view. In addition, inspired by James-Stain estimator (JS) and Compressive Averaging (CAvg), we propose to sparsely represent the global mean vector by an adaptive basis comprising both dataspecific basis and combined generic basis. Theoretically, we prove that JS and CAvg are special cases of our method. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed method achieves significant improvement over the state-of-the-art methods on both synthetic and real datasets.
Effect of ibuprofen on fever and metabolic changes induced by continuous infusion of leukocytic pyrogen (interleukin 1) or endotoxin

Many of the metabolic sequelae to infection and inflammation, such as fever, trace mineral redistribution, skeletal muscle catabolism, and the acute-phase protein response, are mediated by leukocytic pyrogen (interleukin 1). In the anterior hypothalamus and in skeletal muscles leukocytic pyrogen appears to induce the synthesis of prostaglandin E2 which mediates fever and skeletal protein catabolism. It is unclear whether any additional metabolic responses to leukocytic pyrogen result from prostaglandin production. This study was undertaken to investigate the ability of ibuprofen, a specific cyclooxygenase inhibitor, to alter protein and trace metal responses to leukocytic pyrogen or endotoxin when given in quantities sufficient to block the febrile response. In guinea pigs given continuous infusions of leukocytic pyrogen or endotoxin, a 0.6 to 0.8 degrees C fever was observed within 4 h, and zinc and iron concentrations in serum fell by 63 to 78% (P less than 0.01). Rates of whole body amino acid appearance, oxidation, and incorporation into protein were all significantly increased by leukocytic pyrogen and endotoxin treatment, (P less than 0.05) as were the fractional hepatic and seromucoid protein synthesis rates in leukocytic pyrogen-treated animals (P less than 0.01). Muscle protein synthesis was unchanged. Although pretreatment with infusions of ibuprofen completely ablated the febrile response to leukocytic pyrogen and endotoxin, decreases in zinc and iron concentrations in serum and leukocytosis were unaffected. Overall increases in whole body amino acid kinetics induced by leukocytic pyrogen or endotoxin were only minimally affected by ibuprofen. We concluded that treatment with prostaglandin synthesis inhibitor ibuprofen did not affect whole body trace metal, hematological, or hepatic acute-phase-induced responses to leukocytic pyrogen or endotoxin, either because these responses are prostanoid independent or because they are only partially mediated by eicosanoid products.
Biosynthesis of tripyrrole and β‐lactam secondary metabolites in Serratia: integration of quorum sensing with multiple new regulatory components in the control of prodigiosin and carbapenem antibiotic production

Serratia sp. ATCC 39006 (39006) uses a complex hierarchical regulatory network allowing multiple inputs to be assessed before genes involved in secondary metabolite biosynthesis are expressed. This taxonomically ill‐defined Serratia sp. produces a carbapenem antibiotic (Car; a β‐lactam) and a red pigmented antibiotic, prodigiosin (Pig; a tripyrrole), which are controlled by the smaIR quorum sensing (QS) locus. SmaR is a repressor of Pig and Car when levels of N‐acyl‐ l‐homoserine lactones, produced by SmaI, are low. In this study, we demonstrate direct DNA binding of purified SmaR to the promoter of the Car biosynthetic genes and abolition of this binding by the QS ligand. We have also identified multiple new secondary metabolite regulators. QS controls production of secondary metabolites, at least in part, by modulating transcription of three genes encoding regulatory proteins, including a putative response regulator of the GacAS two‐component signalling system family, a novel putative adenylate cyclase and Rap (regulator of antibiotic and pigment). Mutations in another gene encoding a novel predicted global regulator, pigP, are highly pleiotropic; PigP has a significant ‘master’ regulatory role in 39006 where it controls the transcription of six other regulators. The PigP protein and its homologues define a new family of regulators and are predicted to bind DNA via a helix‐turn‐helix domain. There are regulatory overlaps between the QS and PigP regulons that enable the information from different physiological cues to be funnelled into the control of secondary metabolite production.
Controller blending - a geometric approach

In order to design efficient algorithms that work on the set of controllers that fulfill a given property, e.g., stability or a norm bound, it is important to have an operation that preserves that property, i.e., a suitable blending method. While available approaches use the Youla parameters in order to define this operation for stability in a trivial way, they do not provide a general answer to the problem. This paper places the controller blending problem in a more general setting by pointing to the basic global geometric structures that are related to feedback stability or suboptimal ℋ∞ design. A detailed analysis is given for feedback stability: an operation is given under which well-posedness is a group while stability is a semigroup. Moreover, an operation is given that makes controllers with strongly stable property a group.
Mammography is an Objective Diagnostic Method

Six hundred mammograms from 307 consecutive symptomatic patients with a firm retrospective diagnosis were evaluated blindly and independently by two observers. Each observer identified 43 of 47 tumors (91 per cent) with predictive values of 0.63 and 0.68, respectively, for the positive statement, and 0.98 for the negative statement. The overall interobserver agreement with respect to malignancy was 94 per cent (Kappa 0.84) and concerning the diagnosis of simple cysts 91 per cent (Kappa 0.60). The frequency of subclinical cancer demonstrated by mammography in this material was higher than the prevalence of mammary carcinoma found by screening of risk group populations. Thus, mammography remains an objective and reproducible diagnostic method with distinct complementary value to clinical examination. By utilizing certain mammographic criteria for benign lesions it may be possible to reduce the number of biopsies presently performed on the basis of unspecific palpatory findings.
Evaluation of eye drop administration technique in patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension

Abstract Objective: To evaluate eye drop administration by patients at multiple visits in the setting of a randomized controlled trial. Study design and methods: Patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension were randomized to 12 weeks of treatment with topical ocular hypotensive medication in a multicenter, investigator-masked trial. At baseline, patients were given a questionnaire for self-assessment of difficulty with drop administration. At baseline and 12 weeks, patients demonstrated drop instillation using a bottle of artificial tears. Main outcome measures: Patient self-assessment of difficulty with drop administration and observed patient difficulty with drop administration, defined as bottle touching eye/adnexa, drop missing the ocular surface, or administering more than 1 drop. Results: Of 164 enrolled patients, 50% had previously been treated with ocular hypotensive medication for ≥3 years. Only 11.4% of patients reported difficulty with eye drop administration at study entry. At baseline, 18.2% of patients touched their eye/adnexa with the bottle and 10.3% missed the eye. At 12 weeks, 18.5% and 8.6% of patients, respectively, had similar difficulties. Overall, difficulty with drop instillation was observed in 42.1% of patients. Difficulty at both visits was seen in 35.3% of patients who reported difficulty at entry and in 17.2% of patients who denied difficulty. The relative risk of demonstrating difficulty at either visit was 2.0 times greater for patients who self-reported difficulty at study entry (P = 0.004). The relative risk of demonstrating difficulty at week 12 was 3.8 times greater for patients with observed difficulty at baseline (P < 0.001). Limitations of the study design included self-administration of drops to the eye of the patient’s choice and observation in an office setting. Conclusions: Patients with experience instilling topical glaucoma medications continue to have difficulties with eye drop administration, including patients who do not self-report difficulty. The risk of difficulty with eye drop administration is increased in patients who self-report difficulty and in patients who have been previously observed to have difficulty. Clinical trial registry number: NCT01253902.
Predicting Outcomes in Critically ill Patients with Acute Kidney Injury Undergoing Intermittent Hemodialysis - A Retrospective Cohort Analysis

Purpose Despite advances in the management of critically ill patients with acute kidney injury (AKI), the prognosis is poor. The evidence base on risk factors for poor outcomes in these patients is scarce. Our aim was to identify predictors of outcome in AKI patients undergoing intermittent hemodialysis (IHD). Methods We retrospectively analyzed patient records from consecutive, critically ill patients with AKI treated with IHD in one teaching secondary care hospital from 2002 to 2006. We used multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis to identify predictors of mortality, hemodynamical instability during hemodialysis and failing renal recovery. Results Totally, we included 39 patients with a mean APACHE II score of 20.1 (SD 7.5) who had an average of 5.1 ± 4.8 hemodialysis sessions. All-cause mortality was 35.9% (14/39 patients). In multivariate analysis, pre-existing cardiac co-morbidity (HR 1.92 [0.58–6.47]), metabolic acidosis (2.40 [0-74-7.74]) and presence of ARDS (1.83 [0.52–6.46]) were the strongest predictors. 7 patients (18%) sustained new hemodynamic instability during hemodialysis, for which ARDS (6.42 [0.64–64.03]) was a strong predictor. Among survivors, 20 patients (80%) had partial or complete renal recovery. Preexisting renal insufficiency (3.13 [0.34–29.13]) and high net ultrafiltration quantities (3.30 [0.40–26.90]) were the strongest predictors for failing renal recovery. As a consequence of the small samples size none of the associations was statistically significant. Conclusions Presence of ARDS and high net ultrafiltration rates seem to represent key factors affecting prognosis in patients with AKI undergoing IHD. Targeting these risk factors may improve the poor prognosis of these patients.
Comparison of Custom and Prefabricated Orthoses in the Initial Treatment of Proximal Plantar Fasciitis

Fifteen centers for orthopaedic treatment of the foot and ankle participated in a prospective randomized trial to compare several nonoperative treatments for proximal plantar fasciitis (heel pain syndrome). Included were 236 patients (160 women and 76 men) who were 16 years of age or older. Most reported duration of symptoms of 6 months or less. Patients with systemic disease, significant musculoskeletal complaints, sciatica, or local nerve entrapment were excluded. We randomized patients prospectively into five different treatment groups. All groups performed Achilles tendon- and plantar fascia-stretching in a similar manner. One group was treated with stretching only. The other four groups stretched and used one of four different shoe inserts, including a silicone heel pad, a felt pad, a rubber heel cup, or a custom-made polypropylene orthotic device. Patients were reevaluated after 8 weeks of treatment. The percentages improved in each group were: (1) silicone insert, 95%; (2) rubber insert, 88%; (3) felt insert, 81%; (4)stretching only, 72%; and (5) custom orthosis, 68%. Combining all the patients who used a prefabricated insert, we found that their improvement rates were higher than those assigned to stretching only (P = 0.022) and those who stretched and used a custom orthosis (P = 0.0074). We conclude that, when used in conjunction with a stretching program, a prefabricated shoe insert is more likely to produce improvement in symp-toms as part of the initial treatment of proximal plantar fasciitis than a custom polypropylene orthotic device.
Emerging drugs for hyperlipidemia

Importance of the field: Elevated concentrations of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol are associated with increased risk of coronary atherosclerosis, and morbidity and mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD). Lowering of LDL cholesterol leads to a reduction in cardiovascular morbidity and all-cause mortality in individuals at risk for cardiovascular events and patients with established CHD. The mainstays of lipid lowering therapy today are the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins); however, the residual risk of cardiovascular events amongst individuals treated with statins remains a major healthcare concern. Areas covered in this review: Emerging targets for lipid lowering therapy target pathways that regulate lipoprotein assembly, lipoprotein clearance and pro-atherogenic lipoprotein modification. These emerging drugs have novel mechanisms that include inhibition of lipoprotein assembly (antisense mRNA inhibitors of apolipoprotein B and microsomal transfer protein inhibitors), enhanced lipoprotein clearance (proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9, thyroid hormone analogues), inhibition of pro-atherogenic lipoprotein remodeling (cholesterol ester transfer protein inhibitors (dalcetrapib, anacetrapib) and peroxisome proliferator activator agents (GFT-505, aleglitazar)) and inhibition of lipoprotein modification (heme oxygenase-1 inhibitor (succinobucol), phospholipase A2 inhibitors (varespladib, darapladib)). What the reader will gain: A review of the most recent data on emerging drugs in the treatment of hyperlipidemia. Take home message: With these medications, we will achieve more effective reductions in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality than achieved with current lipid lowering therapies.
Probing the limits to muscle-powered accelerations: lessons from jumping bullfrogs

SUMMARY The function of many muscles during natural movements is to accelerate a mass. We used a simple model containing the essential elements of this functional system to investigate which musculoskeletal features are important for increasing the mechanical work done in a muscle-powered acceleration. The muscle model consisted of a muscle-like actuator with frog hindlimb muscle properties, operating across a lever to accelerate a load. We tested this model in configurations with and without a series elastic element and with and without a variable mechanical advantage. When total muscle shortening was held constant at 30%, the model produced the most work when the muscle operated with a series elastic element and an effective mechanical advantage that increased throughout the contraction (31 J kg-1 muscle vs 26.6 J kg-1 muscle for the non-compliant, constant mechanical advantage configuration). We also compared the model output with the dynamics of jumping bullfrogs, measured by high-speed video analysis, and the length changes of the plantaris muscle, measured by sonomicrometry. This comparison revealed that the length, force and power trajectory of the body of jumping frogs could be accurately replicated by a model of a fully active muscle operating against an inertial load, but only if the model muscle included a series elastic element. Sonomicrometer measurements of the plantaris muscle revealed an unusual, biphasic pattern of shortening, with high muscle velocities early and late in the contraction, separated by a period of slow contraction. The model muscle produced this pattern of shortening only when an elastic element was included. These results demonstrate that an elastic element can increase the work output in a muscle-powered acceleration. Elastic elements uncouple muscle fiber shortening velocity from body movement to allow the muscle fibers to operate at slower shortening velocities and higher force outputs. A variable muscle mechanical advantage improves the effectiveness of elastic energy storage and recovery by providing an inertial catch mechanism. These results can explain the high power outputs observed in jumping frogs. More generally, our model suggests how the function of non-muscular elements of the musculoskeletal system enhances performance in muscle-powered accelerations.
Fluorescent tags to explore cell wall structure and dynamics

Plant cell walls are highly dynamic and heterogeneous structures, which vary between cell types, growth stages but also between microdomains within a single cell wall. In this review, we summarize the imaging techniques using fluorescent tags that are currently being used and which should in the coming years revolutionize our understanding of the dynamics of cell wall architecture and the cellular processes involved in the synthesis of cell wall components.
Self-bonding polymers as surface coatings of restorative resins to prevent staining.

OBJECTIVE Discoloration caused by staining of resin restorations can pose a serious esthetic problem. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a self-bonding polymer (KISSCARE) in reducing extrinsic stains in an in vitro study model. METHODOLOGY Thirty-six specimen disks were prepared using a composite resin (Vitalescence: shade A2 and A4), and divided into three experimental groups with different surface coatings: Group 1--Control (no coating); Group 2--Self-bonding polymer (SBP; KISSCARE Concentrated Gel), and Group 3--Composite Sealer (PermaSeal). These groups were further divided into Brushing and Non-brushing subgroups. The specimens in the Brushing groups were brushed daily with 40 strokes in two directions at a 90-degree angle using a toothbrush. Specimens were immersed in a coffee solution at 37 degrees C in a dark environment for 10 days. The color changes of each group were quantitatively measured using a spectrophotometer. Means and standard deviations were calculated, and data were analyzed using ANOVA/Scheffe post-test. RESULTS The SBP group showed less color change compared to the Control and the Sealer groups (p < 0.05). The Sealer group resulted in greater discoloration compared to the Control and the SBP group (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION Application of self-bonding polymers was an effective method of surface coating in reducing staining of restorative resins, especially in the absence of brushing procedures.
Accurate loop gain prediction for DC-DC converter due to the impact of source/input filter

This paper presents methods to accurately predict loop gains in dc-dc converters when arbitrary impedance is added to the input of a dc-dc converter. A step-by-step procedure is presented to implement the methods, which can also be developed in a CAD tool. Online evaluation is also presented. Experimental data verify the proposed approach.