Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reduktion der Strahlenexposition bei PET-Untersuchungen durch Datenakquisition im 3D-Modus

Zusammenfassung Ziel: Moderne Volumen-PET-Systeme bieten die Möglichkeit, auf die abschirmende Wirkung von Septen zwischen den einzelnen Detektorringen (2D-Modus) zu verzichten, so daß auch koinzidente Ereignisse zwischen Detektoren auf weiter entfernt liegenden Ringen erfaßt werden können (3D-Modus). Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war es, das Zählratenverhalten eines PET-Scanners der neuesten Generation im 2D- und im 3D-Modus anhand von Phantommessungen zu untersuchen und die sich daraus ergebenden Konsequenzen für die Strahlenhygiene bei PETUntersuchungen mit 2-[F-18]-Fluor-2-Desoxyglukose (F-18-FDG) zu diskutieren. Methoden: Alle Messungen wurden am Ganzkörper-PET-System ECAT EXACT HR+ durchgeführt. Für die 2D-Messungen wurde ein Kollimator aus dünnen Wolframlamellen in das Gesichtsfeld eingebracht. Das Zählratenverhalten des Scanners wurde dem NEMA-Protokoll folgend über einen weiten Bereich von F-18-Aktivitätskonzentrationen untersucht. Darüber hinaus wurden PET-Aufnahmen des EEC-Ganzkörperphantoms mit verschiedenen Einsätzen im 2D- und im 3D-Modus jeweils über 15 min akquiriert, wobei die F-18-Aktivitätskonzentrationen bei der 3D-Messung halb so hoch waren wie bei der 2D-Messung. Ergebnisse: Für das zylinderförmige NEMA-Phantom (Ø = 19,4 cm, Länge = 19,0 cm) ergab sich im 3D-Modus eine im Vergleich zur 2D-Akquisition etwa fünffach höhere Systemsensitivität (27,7 statt 5,7 cps/Bq/ml). Die Auswertung der rekonstruierten Aktivitätsverteilungen des EECPhantoms ergab, daß die Qualität der aus dem 3D-Projektionsdatensatz berechneten PET-Aufnahmen besser war als die der korrespondierenden 2D-Aufnahmen, obwohl die Aktivitätskonzentrationen nur halb so hoch waren. Schlußfolgerungen: Durch die Datenakquisition im 3DModus kann die zu applizierende Aktivitätsmenge bei gleichzeitiger Verbesserung der Bildqualität erheblich reduziert werden. Für Patientenuntersuchungen mit F-18-FDG im Ganzkörperbereich reicht es unserer Erfahrung nach aus, eine Aktivität zwischen 150 und 200 MBq zu applizieren. Dies entspricht einer effektiven Äquivalentdosis von 3 beziehungsweise 4 mSv.
Automatic segmentation and recognition system for handwritten dates on cheques

This thesis presents the first automatic date processing system developed on a Canadian real-life standard cheque database. This system can process unconstrained handwritten dates written in English or in French, and it can also be applied to the recognition of any handwritten dates with similar format on many other kinds of documents. A knowledge-based module has been proposed for the date segmentation and a new cursive month word recognition system has also been implemented based on a combination of classifiers. The interaction between the segmentation and recognition stages has been properly established by using a multi-hypotheses generation and evaluation module. In addition, a verification module with two levels is designed in the postprocessing stage to correct some errors and reject invalid results, which further improves the reliability of the system. The segmentation of the date zone can be implemented in the knowledge-based segmentation module, the multi-hypotheses generation and evaluation module, or the verification module. An effective neural network ensemble system is proposed in this knowledge extraction stage to differentiate handwritten alphabetic words from numeric strings (A/N). We investigate the use of effective features extensively, and propose several new methods in the design of neural networks, creation of neural network ensembles, and combination methods for the ensembles created. For date recognition, the new cursive month word recognizer is implemented by combining a Hidden Markov Model classifier (HMM) with two Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) classifiers. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
What good are bugs?: insects in the web of life / Gilbert Walbauer

Macrocosm Helping Plants 1. Pollinating 2. Dispersing Seeds 3. Supplying Food 4. Providing Defense Helping Animals 5. Giving Sustenance 6. Giving Protection Limiting Population Growth 7. Controlling Plant Populations 8. Controlling Insect Populations 9. Controlling Vertebrate Populations Cleaning Up 10. Recycling Dead Animals 11. Recycling Dung 12. Recycling Dead Plants Microcosm Selected Readings Acknowledgments Index
Graphical representation of key iterations during the design process

A new design approach is proposed, which places the iterative nature of design at the heart of its structure. Design is modelled as a cyclical process, in which solution refinement is driven by information gathering and evaluation activities. This is intended to focus the attention of the designer on the quality and extent of the information that the design is derived from, as well as on the quality of the solution as it emerges. The application of this method, and the insight gained from it, is described using a case study example. A method of recording and then mapping the relationships between the key activities within this case study is then presented. This mapping allows a design activity, and the solutions emerging from it, to be analysed in the context of the understanding from which these solutions originated.
Patient Safety: Achieving a New Standard for Care

Americans should be able to count on receiving health care that is safe. To achieve this, a new health care delivery system is needed a " a system that both prevents errors from occurring, and learns from them when they do occur. The development of such a system requires a commitment by all stakeholders to a culture of safety and to the development of improved information systems for the delivery of health care. This national health information infrastructure is needed to provide immediate access to complete patient information and decision-support tools for clinicians and their patients. In addition, this infrastructure must capture patient safety information as a by-product of care and use this information to design even safer delivery systems. Health data standards are both a critical and time-sensitive building block of the national health information infrastructure. Building on the Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm, Patient Safety puts forward a road map for the development and adoption of key health care data standards to support both information exchange and the reporting and analysis of patient safety data.
th EURO Working Group on Transportation Meeting , EWGT 2017 , 4-6 September 2017 , Budapest , Hungary Identifying Irregularity Sources by Automated Location Vehicle Data

Irregularity is unavoidable in high frequency transit services due to the stochastic environment where bus services are operated. Therefore, identifying irregularity sources provides an opportunity to maintain planned headways. Previous research examined the irregularity sources by using scheduled and actual arrival (or departure) times at bus stops. However, as far as the authors’ know, no studies analyzed the irregularity sources by comparing arrivals and departures headways between two consecutive bus stops. This analysis is relevant when buses run with short headways and it is difficult to maintain the planned timetable. This gap is addressed by an offline framework which characterizes the regularity over all bus stops and time periods and discloses systematic irregularity sources from collected Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) data by inferring information on headways only. Moreover, this framework selects preventive strategies, accordingly. This framework is tested on the real case study of a bus route, using about 15,000 AVL data records provided by the bus operator, CTM in Cagliari (Italy), whose vehicles are all equipped with AVL technologies. The experimentation shows that transit managers could adopt this framework for accurate regularity analysis and service revision. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 20th EURO Working Group on Transportation Meeting.
A FORMULA FOR PREDICTING READABILITY

EVERAL months ago the editor of the Wall Street Journal ran a full-page advertisement in one of the leading literary magazines, announcing two honors recently awarded to it. One of these honors was a statement made by Robert P. Gunning that the Wall Street Journal had "the most readable front page in the country. " How did Mr. Gunning come to this conclusion? Did he actually sample a cross section of the readers, have them read the front pages of leading newspapers, and then compare their ability to read and understand the various front pages? No. He used an accepted short cut. He predicted the reading difficulty of the various front pages by using a readability formula and found that the Wall Street Journal was the "most readable. "
THE CASE FOR HARDWARE OVERPROVISIONED SUPERCOMPUTERS

Power management is one of the most critical challenges on the path to exascale supercomputing. High Performance Computing (HPC) centers today are designed to be worst-case power provisioned, leading to two main problems: limited application performance and under-utilization of procured power. In this dissertation we introduce hardware overprovisioning : a novel, flexible design methodology for future HPC systems that addresses the aforementioned problems and leads to significant improvements in application and system performance under a power constraint. We first establish that choosing the right configuration based on application characteristics when using hardware overprovisioning can improve application performance under a power constraint by up to 62%. We conduct a detailed analysis of the infrastructure costs associated with hardware overprovisioning and show that it is an economically viable supercomputing design approach. We then develop RMAP (Resource MAnager for Power), a power-aware, low-overhead, scalable resource manager for future hardware overprovisioned HPC systems. RMAP addresses the issue of under-utilized power by using power-aware backfilling and improves job turnaround times by up to 31%. This dissertation opens up several new avenues for research in power-constrained supercomputing as we venture toward exascale, and we conclude by enumerating these.
Dioxine-achtige toxiciteit in baggerslib van het Zeehavenkanaal, Delfzijl: Toxiciteit Identificatie en Evaluatie (TIE) met DR-CALUX

Uit onderzoek naar de consequenties van een herziening van de normering voor zoute baggerspecie, het invoeren van de Chemie-Toxiciteit-Toets (CCT), is naar voren gekomen dat extracten van baggerspecie uit het Zeehavenkanaal van Delfzijl activiteit laten zien in een biologische test voor dioxine-achtige toxiciteit (DR-CALUX). Onderzocht is welke stoffen verantwoordelijk kunnen zijn voor die activiteit. De belangrijkste bevindingen zijn: 1. In oktober 2002 is het sediment van het Zeehavenkanaal bemonsterd en op dioxine-achtige activiteit onderzoek m.b. v. de SPECIE-01 procedure. De DR-CALUX activiteit bedroeg 43 ± 12 pgTEQ.g^-1. Hiermee voldoet het baggerslib aan de voorlopige CTT-norm van 50 pgTEQ.g^-1. Deze activiteit kon voor ca. 46% worden verklaard door de aanwezigheid van bekende dioxine-achtige stoffen (dioxines, dibenzofuranen en platte PCBs). Van de overige activiteit is de oorzaak onbekend. Het vermoeden bestaat dat deze wordt veroorzaakt door niet-geanalyseerde dioxineachtige stoffen. 2. Een nieuwe analyseprocedure heeft meer dioxine-achtige activiteit in het sediment aangetoond dan volgens de SPECIE-01 procedure is gemeten: ruim 100 x zo veel. Een klein deel van deze (extra) activiteit kon worden verklaard door de aanwezigheid van PAK's. Het overgrote deel van de (extra) activiteit kon niet worden verklaard. 3. Uit onderzoek met een bio-mimetische extractieprocedure bleken de in het sediment aanwezige dioxine-achtige stoffen maar weinig beschikbaar te zijn voor opname door organismen; dit geldt voor beide analyseprocedures. 4. Aanbevolen wordt onderzoek uit te voeren naar de chemische aard van de extra gemeten activiteit en de chemische aard van de stoffen die beschikbaar zijn voor opname door organismen en die een activiteit hebben in de DR-CALUX test. Uitvoering van dit onderzoek kan de aandacht verschuiven naar nieuwe stoffen waarop (nieuw of gewijzigd) brongericht beleid gemaakt en brongericht beheer gevoerd kan worden.
Understanding adolescent students’ use of Facebook and their subjective wellbeing: a gender-based comparison

ABSTRACT Adolescence is marked by many changes, and adolescents seek peer support to compensate for the concomitant psychological and social challenges they face. In this respect, Facebook has become one of the primary tools adolescents use to build and maintain social relationships. The current study examines the determinants of Facebook use and its relationship with adolescents’ subjective wellbeing, stratified by gender. Data were collected from a nationally representative sample of 1,121 adolescent students (aged 12–17 years) consisting of 625 boys and 586 girls. The results indicated that the total number of Facebook friends, the need to belong and the perceived waste of time were correlated with adolescents’ use of Facebook; in turn, Facebook use was positively related to the subjective wellbeing of both male and female students. Gender differences were also observed; the need to belong and the positive relationship between Facebook use and subjective wellbeing were both stronger for male students than female students.
Adaptive finite-time consensus protocols for multi-agent systems by using neural networks

This study investigates the adaptive finite-time consensus protocols for a class of second-order multi-agent systems with unknown non-linear dynamics. Mainly due to the presence of more general unknown non-linearities, the finite-time consensus of multi-agent systems is rather difficult to reach. Radial basis function neural networks are used to approximate the unknown functions. Under some appropriate assumptions, distributed consensus protocols and adaptive laws are designed for all agents. It is proved that the position errors and the velocity errors between any two agents converge to a small neighbourhood of the origin in finite time. Finally, an example of finite-time consensus control for multiple robot systems is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Causes of irreversible unilateral or bilateral blindness in the eastern province Saudi population of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Background and objectives: To determine the causes of irreversible unilateral or bilateral blindness in the Saudi population of the eastern province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Methods: This observational, exploratory cross-sectional study evaluated patients with irreversible unilateral or bilateral blindness using a nonprobability sampling technique, which was conducted in a major referral hospital of the eastern province in Dammam city. Saudi patients were enrolled if they had < 0.05 (3/60 Snellen acuity) vision in the better eye after correction bilaterally, or visual field of 10–15° around fixation in the better eye. The same was done in unilaterally blind eye patients. The primary investigator excluded treatable cases of blindness, such as refractive error and cataract and corneal pathology occurring after 5 years of age, in addition to keratoconus, recent vitreous hemorrhage (< 6-month duration), and operable retinal detachment. Results: A convenient sample of one hundred consecutive unilaterally or bilaterally blind patients comprised the study sample. The mean age of the study sample was 54 ± 2.26 years. The male: female ratio was 4:5. The most common cause of blindness in an eye(s) was glaucoma. Seventy-eighty patients had unilateral blindness. Deep amblyopia (11) turned out to be almost the second most common cause of unilateral blindness occurring mainly in the left eye in majority of the patients (10/11). Conclusion: Glaucoma is the most common cause of irreversible blindness in one or both the eyes. Although underestimated (due to old corneal scarring and other causes), amblyopia is likely to be the second most common cause of blindness in an eye in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Deep amblyopia occurred more frequently in the left eye.
Chapter 3. Exercise and airway physiology: interactions with immune and allergic responses

Pulmonary ventilation (V9E) increases during exercise to meet metabolic needs [1]. In particular, V9E increases proportionally to the CO2 produced at muscular level, up to the point where lactic threshold (LT) is achieved. Above LT, V9E increases in excess to the CO2 produced by the working muscles, because additional CO2 is generated from the bicarbonate component of lactate isocapnic buffering. At higher work loads, a further increase in V9E occurs with a decrease in CO2 in order to compensate for metabolic acidosis. In most normal individuals, exercise is terminated well below the maximum ventilation a subject can achieve voluntarily. This may not be the case in pulmonary disorders (either obstructive or restrictive) and in highly trained athletes, who may reach a V9Ew200 L? min at high-intensity exercise. The usual ventilatory response to exercise is for V9E to be dominated by an increase in tidal volume (VT) at low-to-moderate work loads, with respiratory frequency increasing only at high levels of exercise. This pattern, however, may vary among subjects and types of exercise, but it is also affected by lung size [2] or airway calibre or both. This chapter will first examine how changes in airway physiology may affect the pattern of the ventilatory response to exercise and performance. Therefore, the effects of exercise on airway calibre and their relationships to airway inflammation will be reviewed.
Mobile broadband everywhere : the satellite a solution for a rapid and large 3,9G deployment

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of the concept of a complementary Satellite Component to the LTE (3GPP Long-Term Evolution, also known as 3,9G) and/or WiMAX (Worldwide Inter-operability for Microwave Access) terrestrial network that mobile network operators intend to deploy to support a mass market offer of “Internet connectivity while on the move” and to show its benefit in ensuring truly global coverage. In this paper, we show that the cohabitation of the terrestrial network and the satellite at the same frequency on the same global coverage is possible.
Application of neuronavigation in the resection of superficial intracranial tumors with small incision

Objective To evaluate the application of neuronavigation in the resection of small superficial intracranial tumors small incision. Methods Thirty-seven patients with superficial intracranial tumors received the continuous thin-slice MR imaging or CT scans before operation, and the data were transported to the neuronavigation system Vector Vision2 for three-dimensional reconstruction. After the tumors were marked, the best surgical approach and scalp incision were designed according to the above data. Under monitoring of neuronavigation, the tumor was resected with precise location. Thirty patients with tumor in the cerebral hemisphere and underwent conventional craniotomy at the same time were chosen as the control group. Results The tumors of the neuronavigation group were resected completely and accurately. The registration deviation in the 37 cases was 0.5-1.6mm (mean 1.12±0.38mm). For the neuronavigation group and control group, the average incision length was 4.86cm and 13.65cm, the flap size averaged 8.26cm2 and 16.34cm2, and the bleeding volume 64.5ml and 214.1ml respectively. Conclusion Compared with conventional surgery, application of neuronavigation in the surgery of superficial intracranial tumors can get more accurate location, smaller incision, less bleeding and fewer complications, and worth popularizing.
Interventions for treating psoriatic arthritis

OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of salazopyrin, auranofin, etretinate, fumaric acid, IMI gold, azathioprine, efamol marine and methotrexate, in psoriatic arthritis. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched Medline up to February 2000, and Excerpta Medica (June 1974-95). Search terms were psoriasis, arthritis, therapy and/or controlled trial. This was supplemented by manually searching bibliographies of previously published reviews, conference proceedings, contacting drug companies and referring to the Cochrane Clinical Trials Register. All languages were included in the initial search. SELECTION CRITERIA All randomized trials comparing salazopyrin, auranofin, etretinate, fumaric acid, IMI gold, azathioprine, and methotrexate, in psoriatic arthritis. Following a published a priori protocol, the main outcome measures included individual component variables derived from Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trials (OMERACT). These include acute phase reactants, disability, pain, patient global assessment, physician global assessment, swollen joint count, tender joint count and radiographic changes of joints in any trial of one year or longer [Tugwell 1993], and the change in pooled disease index (DI). Only English trials were included in the review. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Data were independently extracted from the published reports by two of the reviewers (MC, GJ). An independent blinded quality assessment was also performed. MAIN RESULTS Twenty randomized trials were identified of which thirteen were included in the quantitative analysis with data from 1022 subjects. Although all agents were better than placebo, parenteral high dose methotrexate (not included), salazopyrin, azathioprine and etretinate were the agents that achieved statistical significance in a global index of disease activity (although it should be noted that only one component variable was available for azathioprine and only one trial was available for etretinate suggesting some caution is necessary in interpreting these results). Analysis of response in individual disease activity markers was more variable with considerable differences between different medications and responses. In all trials the placebo group improved over baseline (pooled improvement 0.39 DI units, 95% CI 0.26-0.54). There was insufficient data to examine toxicity. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS Parenteral high dose methotrexate and salazopyrin are the only two agents with well demonstrated published efficacy in psoriatic arthritis. The magnitude of the effect seen with azathioprine, etretinate, oral low dose methotrexate and perhaps colchicine suggests that they may be effective but that further multicentre clinical trials are required to establish their efficacy. Furthermore, the magnitude of the improvement observed in the placebo group strongly suggests that uncontrolled trials should not be used to guide management decisions in this condition.
Efecto del tratamiento acortado estrictamente supervisado (TAES) sobre la adherencia y la tasa de curación de la tuberculosis pulmonar

Objetivo: evaluar los resultados del tratamiento acortado estrictamente supervisado (TAES) para el control de la tuberculosis pulmonar (TBP), y compararlos con los obtenidos mediante el esquema autoadministrado (TA). Material y metodos: la evaluacion del tratamiento se llevo a cabo a traves de la comparacion de las cohortes de casos de TBP acumulados de 1992 al 2000. El tratamiento de los pacientes y el analisis de los resultados se efectuaron segun los lineamientos del Programa Nacional para el Control de la Tuberculosis. El estudio se desarrollo en una unidad de atencion primaria. Resultados: se incluyo un total de 138 casos de TBP bacilifera. El tratamiento fue mas efectivo en los pacientes TAES (95.5%) que en los pacientes bajo el regimen autoadministrado (76.3%), p<0.05. Asimismo, la eficiencia del tratamiento en los casos que ingresaron por recaida tambien fue mayor en la cohorte-TAES, p<0.05. La tasa de abandono disminuyo del 14 al 0.0% con la estrategia TAES, p=0.01. El 26% de los esquemas TAES fueron supervisados fuera de la unidad de medica. Conclusiones: la implementacion del TAES demostro ser una estrategia flexible y efectiva para el tratamiento de la TBP; garantiza su adherencia, disminuye los abandonos y eleva la tasa de curacion.