Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increasing incidence of testicular cancer worldwide: a review.

PURPOSE Testicular cancer (TC) is the most common malignancy in 20 to 34-year-old men. Numerous publications have shown an increase in the incidence of testis cancer in the last 40 years with substantial differences among countries. We evaluated worldwide variations in testicular cancer incidence and compared trends in different regions in the world. MATERIALS AND METHODS We reviewed 441 studies provided by a MEDLINE search using the key words testis/testicular, cancer/tumor and incidence that were published between 1980 and 2002. From these articles we selected only those devoted to testis cancer incidence and of them only the most recent studies from each country or region. Nevertheless, articles using the same data base but providing new and additional information, for example differences among ethnic groups or controversial explanations for trends, were also retained. We selected 30 articles and analyzed their methodological approach and main results. RESULTS Worldwide we observed a clear trend toward an increased TC incidence in the last 30 years in the majority of industrialized countries in North America, Europe and Oceania. Nevertheless, surprising differences in incidence rates were seen between neighboring countries (Finland 2.5/100,000 cases versus Denmark 9.2/100,000) as well as among regions of the same country (2.8 to 7.9/100,000 according to various regional French registers). In addition, substantial differences in the TC incidence and trends were observed among ethnic groups. The increase in the TC incidence was significantly associated with a birth cohort effect in the United States and in European countries. To date except for cryptorchidism no evident TC risk factor has been clearly demonstrated, although the environmental hypothesis with a key role of endocrine disrupters has been put forward by several groups. CONCLUSIONS Such a recent increase in the TC rate in most industrialized countries should lead urologists and andrologists to give more attention to testicular cancer symptoms in adolescents and young adults. In a public health perspective further research using cases collected through national and regional population based registers and case-control studies must be strongly encouraged if we wish to be able to assess future trends in TC incidence rates and also identify risk factors.
Central auditory function in early Alzheimer ’ s disease and in mild cognitive impairment

Objective: to investigate auditory function in subjects with early Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment and with subjective memory complaints, in search of signs of central auditory processing dysfunction even in early stages of cognitive impairment. Design and subjects: a consecutive group of men and women, referred to the Memory Clinic at the Karolinska University Hospital, was approached for inclusion in this prospective study. One hundred and thirty-six subjects, mean age 64 years (range 50–78 years), diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (n= 43), mild cognitive impairment (n= 59) or with subjective memory complaints (n = 34), were included. Methods: auditory function was assessed with pure tone audiometry, speech perception in quiet and in background noise and dichotic digits tests with two or three digits. 249 Central auditory function in early AD and in MCI D ow naded rom http/academ ic.p.com /ageing/artictract/40/2/249/46957 by gest on 04 M arch 2019 Results: pure tone audiometry and speech perception scores in quiet and in background noise were normal for age and without between-group differences. Dichotic digits tests showed strongly significant differences between the three groups, where the Alzheimer’s disease group performed significantly poorer than the other two groups, with the mild cognitive impairment group in an intermediate position. Conclusions: our results demonstrate that central auditory processing dysfunction is highly evident in subjects with Alzheimer’s disease, and to a considerable extent even in subjects with mild cognitive impairment.
Digital Technology and the Variation in Design Routines : A Sequence Analysis of Four Design Processes 1

We advance a theory of design process variation across organizational types and the effects of digitalization on these processes. We argue that design routines are subject to greater variation within and between organizations as organizations embed increasingly rich repertoires of digital capabilities in their design activities. Using a sequence analysis method we compare design process variation in four organizations to examine how design routines vary due to differences in embedded digital capabilities and organization of the design process. Our analysis reveals new insights on the effects organizational context and digitalization have on design routine composition.
Placenta accreta: evaluation with color Doppler US, power Doppler US, and MR imaging.

PURPOSE To determine the value of transabdominal ultrasound (US), transvaginal US, color Doppler US, power Doppler US, and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in the diagnosis of placenta accreta. MATERIALS AND METHODS Nineteen patients in the third trimester of pregnancy who were at risk for placenta accreta underwent color Doppler and power Doppler US; 18 patients also underwent MR imaging. Images were interpreted prospectively for signs of accreta by two reviewers. The reviewers' confidence in their diagnosis was graded on a five-point scale. RESULTS Outcomes at delivery were as follows: normal placenta (n = 11), hysterectomy owing to uncontrollable bleeding (n = 1), and placenta accreta (n = 7). Five cases of lower-uterine-segment placenta accreta were diagnosed with a high level of confidence with vaginal and power Doppler US. In one patient with a posterior placenta who had previously undergone myomectomy, MR imaging enabled the diagnosis of placenta accreta, which was not well depicted at US. CONCLUSION In patients with a history of uterine scars, vaginal US with power Doppler US performed well in the evaluation of lower-uterine-segment placenta accreta. MR imaging depicts posterior placenta accreta.
Processed electroencephalogram in depth of anesthesia monitoring

Purpose of review We critically review the principles underlying processed electroencephalogram (EEG) monitors and recent studies validating their use in monitoring anesthetic depth. Recent findings Depth of anesthesia is a theoretical construct to conceptualize anesthetic effects on the central nervous system as discrete or continuous phases or states. Clinical signs for assessing anesthetic depth are currently being supplemented by brain monitors. Their use may help to prevent insufficient anesthesia, which can lead to intraoperative awareness with recall, as well as anesthetic overdose, which may be associated with adverse events. Commercial and open-source brain monitoring indices are computed from frequency, entropy, or information theoretic analysis of the spontaneous or evoked EEG. These techniques are undergoing refinement to determine the best method for titrating anesthetics. Future depth-of-anesthesia monitors will benefit from current work aimed at correlating anesthetic effects to alterations in specific neural circuits. Summary Current processed EEG monitors are limited by their calibration range and the interpatient variability in their dose–response curves. The next generation of depth-of-anesthesia monitors will require a greater understanding of the transformations of cortical and subcortical activity into EEG signals, the effects of anesthetics at a systems level, and the neural correlates of consciousness.
N ov 2 00 7 The squeezed generalized amplitude damping channel

Squeezing of a thermal bath introduces new features absent in an open quantum system interacting with an uncorrelated (zero squeezing) thermal bath. The resulting dynamics, governed by a Lindblad-type evolution, extends the concept of a generalized amplitude damping channel, which corresponds to a dissipative interaction with a purely thermal bath. Here we present the Kraus representation of this map, which we call the squeezed generalized amplitude damping channel. As an application of this channel to quantum information, we study the classical capacity of this channel.
Determination of physical variables of the mendocino piedmont through the use of remote sensing tools in relation to geological risks

The metropolitan area of Mendoza, in periandean sectors, tends to accommodate and sustain geological processes of internal and external order related to seismic and alluvial events, among others. Because of the growing and uncontrolled urbanization especially onto capital city and metropolitan area, much of the population is moving into areas of significant slope, generating phenomena related with summer rainfall events activating landslides. These processes together with other of lower order, but not less important, expose thousands of people to geological risk. The development of mapping detail to establish mitigation plans, zoning and adequate contingency in the piedmont area western Mendoza are presented here. Studies with the base of OLI, ETM+ and TM landsat program information were made, in order to perform, multitemporal studies to determine urban growth rates. Simultaneously, digital processing was performed to establish stratigraphic, topographic differences, orientation, attitude and anisotropies because of structural deformations that could make physical parameters to determine geological and hydrological active hazard areas. Supervised classification (maximum likelihood), decision tree (using digital elevation models from own data), density slice; principal components and decorrelation strecht were included. The results provided a detailed cartographic output raster, complemented by field work, _________________________________________ 1) Universidad Juan Agustín Maza. Avda. Lat. Sur 2245 Dorrego, 5500, Mendoza. e-mail: hcisneros@umaza.edu. ar 2) Facultad De Filosofía y Letras. Universidad Nacional De Cuyo. 3) INSUTEC Instituto Superior Tecnológico De Mendoza. Tucumán, 2017 ISSN 1514-4186 ISSN on-line 1666-9479 Serie Correlación Geológica 33 (1 2): 101 110 that allowed summarize information to successfully establish zones of seismic and hydrological potential hazard. The resulting graphs are presented in this opportunity. Palabras clave: Teledetección. Imágenes OLI, ETM+. Riesgo Geológico.
A multicriteria approach for selecting consultancy and certification services related to Quality Management

The implementation of a Quality Management System (QMS) in any organization requires efforts, planning, and everyone’s involvement. The selection of consultancy services (if needed), and certification services through an Accredited Certification Body (ACB) has an important role in this process. This study aims to propose a structured model to support these two decisions by using a multicriteria focus (MCDA) to guide the design of a methodological framework. In addition, this study considers the maturity level of the organization, and the importance of continuous improvement after implementing ISO 9001. One of the differential points in this study is the detailed scientific technical foundation of the qualifying and selection criteria, of the consultancy and ACB by using ISO standards (9001, 10019, 17021, 19011), and the guidance document CB-25, which is related to quality. Finally, an application was made in a pharmaceutical industry using the PROMETHEE II method, and the GAIA plan. We adopted three scenarios.
Systematic literature review on the ways of measuring the of reverse logistics performance

Resumo: A logística reversa pode proporcionar uma vantagem competitiva sustentável para a empresa. No entanto, para obter benefícios, as empresas devem monitorar sua logística reversa com base em um sistema de medição de desempenho composto por indicadores financeiros e não financeiros. Desse modo, este estudo investigou, por meio de uma análise sistemática da literatura, as formas de mensuração do desempenho da logística reversa. Os resultados deste estudo evidenciaram que os indicadores mais utilizados foram a performance financeira e/ou econômica, juntamente com os indicadores relacionados aos clientes, seguido dos indicadores relacionados com a melhoria dos processos internos, ambiental, inovação e crescimento, social e, por último, fornecedor. Ressalta-se que não há uma justificativa singular sobre as melhores medidas de avaliação do desempenho de uma atividade, portanto cada empresa deve estabelecer as medidas apropriadas às suas características. para que possam atender as metas da empresa. Palavras-chave: Revisão sistemática; Mensuração do desempenho; Indicadores; Logística reversa. Abstract: Reverse logistics can provide a sustainable competitive advantage for the company. However, to benefit from it, companies must monitor their reverse logistics based on a performance measurement system composed of financial and non-financial indicators. Thus, this study investigated, through a systematic literature review, the ways of measuring the of reverse logistics performance. The results of this study showed that the most used indicators were the financial and/or economic performance, together with the indicators related to the clients, followed by the indicators related to the improvement of internal, environmental, innovation and growth, social and, finally, supplier processes. It should be emphasized that there is no single justification on the best measures of performance evaluation of an activity. Therefore, each company must establish the measures appropriate to its characteristics, in order to meet the company goals.
Software defined networking for 5G

5G networks will have several advanced features. Starting from the physical layer to all the way to the upper layers, there will be several new technologies and techniques. 5G will have gigantic data rates and many different data formats. In addition the devices and platforms for 5G will be very diverse and heterogeneous. There will be massive carrier aggregation and dynamic bandwidth provisioning. Optical integration with the wireless at both the fronthaul and backhaul looks eminent. Elastic optical networking will be used at the core to optimize the resource allocations. Massive MIMO and digital beam-forming techniques too need a lot of computing in 5G. All these applications and services cannot be handled without distributed software management which can be controlled from a few centralized locations in the network. Overall, the network and its elements have to be software defined in order to provide agile and flexible services. In this article, we show the needs and ways for software defined networking in 5G.
Design and Evaluation of Frequency-Agile Multi-Standard Direct RF Digitizing Receivers for Automotive Use

This paper presents the design and evaluation of a ΣΔ-modulator based analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for direct RF digitization within a multi-standard vehicular connectivity architecture. Upcoming trends and changes which will require new architecture concepts for connectivity in the automotive domain are discussed. Hardware requirements are derived. Based on these goals, a reconfigurable ADC is designed with capabilities of digitizing all relevant wireless services for vehicular use within the frequency range of 600 MHz to 6GHz. A performance assessment is done based on evaluation of the signal to noise ratio within a realistic use case where multiple services at different frequencies are successfully digitized.
Symmetry Axis Based Object Recognition under Translation, Rotation and Scaling

This paper presents a new approach, known as symmetry axis based feature extraction and recognition (SAFER), for recognizing objects under translation, rotation and scaling. Unlike most previous invariant object recognition (IOR) systems, SAFER puts emphasis on both simplicity and accuracy of the recognition system. To achieve simplicity, it uses simple formulae for extracting invariant features from an object. The scheme used in feature extraction is based on the axis of symmetry and angles of concentric circles drawn around the object. SAFER divides the extracted features into a number of groups based on their similarity. To improve the recognition performance, SAFER uses a number of neural networks (NNs) instead of single NN are used for training and recognition of extracted features. The new approach, SAFER, has been tested on two of real world problems i.e., English characters with two different fonts and images of different shapes. The experimental results show that SAFER can produce good recognition performance in comparison with other algorithms.
REMOTE SENSING BASED PARAMETER EXTRACTION FOR EROSION CONTROL PURPOSES IN THE LOESS PLATEAU OF CHINA

The loess plateau is one of the poorest regions in China. The massive erosion in this area brings severe ecological but also economical problems on local level, the lack of water storage capacity in the loess plateau at a whole was identified as one of the reasons for the large inundation in the lowland planes of the Yellow River with thousands of victims. Reforestation of the loess plateau should help to solve this problems. Both, socio-economic and ecological values must be taken into account when performing reforestation. To work out reforestation plans and to develop adopted bio engineering erosion control measures, the evaluation of old reforestation programs and the understanding of the current land use and his impact on the erosion processes is very important. As an important base of information, CORONA-images have been used. The handling of these panoramic space images is described in detail.
Linking e-hrm practices and organizational outcomes: empirical analysis of line manager’s perception

Purpose - This study seeks to explore the value creation opportunities offered by e-HRM practices. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of operational, relational, and transformational e-HRM practices on organizational outcomes by incorporating HRM service quality as an intermediary value creating factor. Design/methodology/approach –Line managers of commercial banks that adopted operational, relational, and transformational e-HRM were asked to participate in the study. The study used exploratory factor analysis for scale validation. PLS-SEM was used to validate and test the conceptual model. Findings - Drawing on data from a large and new survey, the study found that operational, relational, and transformational e-HRM practices have a significant impact on HR service quality and employee productivity. HRM service quality mediates the relationship between e-HRM practices and organizational outcomes. Implications - The study focuses on the relevance of e-HRM practices for improving organizational effectiveness, leading to competitive advantage for the firm. It is one of the pioneering studies that explore the link between e-HRM practices and organizational outcomes by analyzing the perception of South Asian line managers from the banking sector. Organizations from developing and developed countries can extract benefits by designing and implementing e-HRM systems in a way that supports their workflow.
Cardiac consequences of diabetes mellitus

A variety of disciplines including noninvasive and invasive cardiac methodologies, as well as epidemiologic studies, have provided information that has altered our view on the relation of diabetes to cardiac disease. Instead of an exclusive focus on coronary artery disease, it is now recognized that heart muscle can be independently involved in diabetic patients. In diabetics without known cardiac disease, abnormalities of left ventricular mechanical function have been demonstrated in 40 to 50% of subjects, and it is primarily a diastolic phenomenon. Left ventricular hypertrophy may eventually appear in the absence of hypertension. The diastolic dysfunction appears related to interstitial collagen deposition, largely attributable to diminished degradation. The presence of even moderate obesity intensifies the abnormality. Reversibility of this process is not readily achieved with chronic insulin therapy. Experimental studies have indicated normalization of the collagen alteration by endurance training, begun relatively early in the disease process. General measures of management include the control of other cardiac risk factors and a reasonable program of physical activity. The high mortality during an initial acute myocardial infarction has been attributed to heart failure, which is managed as in nondiabetic patients. Recently, the early introduction of aspirin, thrombolysis, and beta‐adrenergic blockade has reduced mortality during the initial infarction. Chronic use of the latter agent over the subsequent years has also proven to be more beneficial in diabetic patients with acute myocardial infarction compared with nondiabetic patients.
Directing the Development of Constraint Languages by Checking Constraints on RDF Data

For research institutes, data libraries, and data archives, validating RDF data according to predefined constraints is a much sought-after feature, particularly as this is taken for granted in the XML world. Based on our work in two international working groups on RDF validation and jointly identified requirements to formulate constraints and validate RDF data, we have published 81 types of constraints that are required by various stakeholders for data applications. In this paper, we evaluate the usability of identified constraint types for assessing RDF data quality by (1) collecting and classifying 115 constraints on vocabularies commonly used in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences, either from the vocabularies themselves or from domain experts, and (2) validating 15,694 data sets (4.26 billion triples) of research data against these constraints. We classify each constraint according to (1) the severity of occurring violations and (2) based on which types of constraint languages are able to express its constraint type. Based on the large-scale evaluation, we formulate several findings to direct the further development of constraint languages.
2 Multi-Cover Formula for Calabi – Yau Three-folds 2 . 1 Complete Toric Intersections

The disk partition function of certain 3d N = 2 supersymmetric gauge theories computes a quantum K-theoretic ring for Kähler manifolds X. We study the 3d gauge theory/quantum K-theory correspondence for global and local Calabi–Yau manifolds with several Kähler moduli. We propose a multi-cover formula that relates the 3d BPS world–volume degeneracies computed by quantum K-theory to Gopakumar–Vafa invariants.