Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Safety and efficacy of combination chemotherapy regimens in older adults with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a systematic review.

Background Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is often diagnosed in older adults. However, most published studies investigating chemotherapy for PDA include a predominantly younger population, and the standard of care for the older adult population is not defined. It is our goal to review the literature available about the safety and efficacy of combination chemotherapy for locally advanced or metastatic PDA in older adults ≥65 years. Methods We conducted a systematic review using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) reporting checklist. We searched PubMed, EMBASE and MEDLINE databases to identify retrospective and prospective studies published until October 2018 that assessed the survival outcomes and adverse events in patients 65 years and older diagnosed with PDA and treated with combination chemotherapy. Results A total of 1,479 studies were screened. Twenty-four full-text studies were assessed for eligibility. Nineteen were excluded due to wrong study design (n=4) or abstract only with no further publication (n=15). A total of 5 full text studies met eligibility and were included in the present review. Combination chemotherapy is associated with similar survival to that reported in younger populations with advanced PDA. The most common toxicities across studies included: sensory neuropathy and neutropenia. Two studies each reported one death related to treatment-associated sepsis. Discussion Papers examined in this systematic review concluded that the use of combination chemotherapy regimens is safe and effective for older adults with minimal comorbidities and adequate performance status. Prospective data is needed to confirm these findings, provided that the most significant limitation of these studies was a small sample size.
Review of some recent advances in quantitative ultrasonic NDT

Nondestructive testing is moving from being an art to a quantitative science. The paper first reviews the ultrasonic NDT literature; this is followed by consideration of the contribution which can be made to the understanding of analytically intractable wave-defect interaction problems by the use of numerical modelling based on explicit finite-difference schemes. Examples are presented of a developing family of ultrasonic NDT techniques which extract additional information from the wave field by combining time-of-flight and mode conversion information with ultrasonic spectroscopy. Immersion schemes, based on leaky Rayleigh waves for surface and near-surface defects are considered. These techniques are shown to extend the scope of ultrasonic NDT with improved reliability of detection and the potential to provide quantitative defect characterisations.
Computer Aided Construction of Reinforced Weaves Using Matrix Calculus

This paper describes mathematical modelling of traditional graphic structures within textile materials using binary matrices, which is made possible by the binary nature of these structures. An algorithm is presented for woven design construction (weave draft, threading draft, treadling draft and tie-up), as well as an algorithm for weave reinforcement using binary matrices. The general advantage of the algorithm is its simplicity and execution speed. Application of the weave reinforcement algorithm is also presented in this paper, and the computer program, written in C#, shows the ease of its implementation, opening the way to integration into existing and new CAD/CAM packages.
Granisetron Versus Ondansetron for Prevention of Post-operative Nausea and Vomiting (PONV) in Patients Undergoing Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

Aim: To determine the efficacy of single dose Granisetron versus ondansetron in preventing PONV in patients undergoing elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Methodology: A total of 100 patients were included in this study after the ethical approval of PUMHSW. Patients were randomly divided into two groups, in (Group G) 50 patients were given Granisetron and in (group O) 50 patients were given Ondansetron. Every patient was evaluated for PONV at one hour, two hours, three hours, six hours, twelve hours and 24 hours post operatively. Results: A sample of 100 patients with age between 20-60 years (mean age 43.72±5.67 years), were included in this study. Patients were received granisetron 1 mg I/V and other patients received ondansetron 4mg I/V before induction. Conclusion: we concluded that there was no significant difference between efficacy of granisetron and ondansetron as the p-value is found to be ≤0.05.
A normative decision analysis method for the sustainability-based design of products

This paper introduces a new normative decision analysis method for the sustainability-based design of products (NASDOP). It is based on the fundamental principles of normative decision-making methods for design optimisation when multiple and often conflicting criteria influence the design of products. A unique feature of NASDOP is that it enables direct consideration of both environmental and economic impacts during a design process. Furthermore, NASDOP takes full advantage of the enhanced life cycle assessment (LCA) capabilities, reflecting the increase in knowledge about the material and energy flows of various processes in recent years, and offers a methodical approach to account for the inherent uncertainty associated with such knowledge. This paper details the development of sustainability models, including the effective integration of LCA mathematical models combined with compatible life cycle costing models from the early stages of conceptual design for use throughout the entire design process. This paper also highlights the design and deployment of hypothetical equivalents and inequivalents method, a proven normative decision method, to consistently model the preferences of a designer during sustainable product design. The implementation and usefulness of NASDOP are demonstrated with the aid of an illustrative case study and the results are discussed.
A π/4 bi‐orthogonal monopole antenna for operation on and beyond of the UWB band

An ultra‐wideband (UWB) π/4 bi‐orthogonal monopole antenna with a highly omnidirectional radiation pattern in the azimuthal plane with a quasi‐independent on the frequency behavior is presented in this article. Here, it is shown that by combining two orthogonal UWB planar monopole elements rotated 45° with respect to each other in a single structure, it is possible to enhance the performance of the radiation pattern at high frequencies of the operational bandwidth without affecting the radiation pattern at lower frequencies. The measured antenna bandwidth goes from 2.82 to 16.7 GHz for a reflection coefficient lower than −10 dB. The radiation pattern remains almost omnidirectional, and it is enhanced with respect to a conventional single planar monopole antenna of similar characteristics. The basic element used for both the single and the proposed π/4 bi‐orthogonal UWB planar monopole antenna has a rectangular shape, whose impedance bandwidth ratio is achieved based on the bevelling and height‐width ratio techniques. Although the antenna prototype presented in this article has an operational bandwidth of 13.88 GHz, it is possible to design a UWB monopole antenna with the shape and structure proposed here, but for different bandwidths following a design methodology suggested also in this article. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2011.
A novel adaptive mismatch cancellation system for quadrature IF radio receivers

This paper investigates and resolves in-phase/quadrature phase (I/Q) imbalances between the input paths of quadrature IF receivers. These mismatches along the paths result in the image interference aliasing into the desired signal band, thus reducing the dynamic range and degrading the performance of the receivers. I/Q errors occur because of gain and phase imbalances between quadrature mixers. They are also caused by capacitor mismatches in analog-to-digital converters (A/Ds), which are designed to be identical for each input path. This paper presents a novel and feasible digital signal processing (DSP) solution for the I/Q mismatch problems. The system includes a novel complex least mean square algorithm and a modified adaptive noise canceler (signal separator) to separate the desired signal and the image noise caused by the mismatch. The noise canceler can also solve the signal leakage problem, which is that the noise reference includes signal components. This system was implemented in a Xilinx FPGA and an Analog Devices DSP chip. It was tested with a complex intermediate frequency receiver, which includes an analog front end and a complex sigma-delta modulator. Both simulation results and test results show a dramatic attenuation of the image noise. Extending applications of the system to N-path systems further indicates the robustness and feasibility of this novel adaptive mismatch cancellation system.
Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems -- Energy Storage (SEGIS-ES).

This paper describes the concept for augmenting the SEGIS Program (an industry-led effort to greatly enhance the utility of distributed PV systems) with energy storage in residential and small commercial applications (SEGIS-ES). The goal of SEGIS-ES is to develop electrical energy storage components and systems specifically designed and optimized for grid-tied PV applications. This report describes the scope of the proposed SEGIS-ES Program and why it will be necessary to integrate energy storage with PV systems as PV-generated energy becomes more prevalent on the nation's utility grid. It also discusses the applications for which energy storage is most suited and for which it will provide the greatest economic and operational benefits to customers and utilities. Included is a detailed summary of the various storage technologies available, comparisons of their relative costs and development status, and a summary of key R&D needs for PV-storage systems. The report concludes with highlights of areas where further PV-specific R&D is needed and offers recommendations about how to proceed with their development.
Decisions in Construction Operations

A method for selecting the most desirable construction strategy is proposed in this paper. A decision analysis framework is developed considering the information on relative risk, along with the information on cost, benefit, and consequences of each construction strategy. Many factors affect the safety of construction operations. Labor skill, supervisors' experience and attendance, condition of falsework, weather conditions, type of equipment, level of operator's experience, etc., may be considered as the main factors that affect the safety of construction operations. From an engineering point of view, these factors are always desirable to be in their best states. However, it may not be practical in many cases due to time and money constraints. Consequently, the risk of failure and cost of construction operations, and the consequences of failure need to be estimated in order to decide about the optimum construction strategy. The decision problem is complicated since the state of the factors are generally .
Nano-biointerface entre semiconductor y membrana celular: fenómenos fisicoquímicos implicados en la nanotoxicidad y la capacidad antifúngica de las nanopartículas de óxido de cinc

La aplicación de la nanotecnología, específicamente de las nanopartículas en campos como la medicina, la remediación medioambiental y la agricultura pasa por conocer y entender las interacciones que ocurren entre estas y el sistema biológico, para lo cual es necesario abordar el estudio de la nano-biointerface. Con base en resultados obtenidos en el estudio de la capacidad antifúngica y antibacterial de las nanopartículas de óxido de cinc (ZnO-NPs), se hizo una revisión de ciertos fenómenos fisicoquímicos que podrían ocurrir en la interface entre semiconductor y membrana celular y explicarían la acción de dichas nanopartículas. Concretamente, se analizaron los efectos de la naturaleza semiconductora del ZnO y la existencia de defectos puntuales en el sólido, así como de las interacciones de tipo entrópico, sobre un sistema biológico. Con base en estos procesos fisicoquímicos, se estructuraron modelos cualitativos de mecanismos que permitirían explicar los efectos de la presencia de las ZnO-NPs en cultivos de diversos hongos (Omphalia sp., Colletotrichum sp. y Phoma sp.), tales como la inhibición de su crecimiento y la alteración de su ultraestructura, y de la bacteria Escherichia coli, en la cual causarían la inhibición del crecimiento hasta en un ⁓70 % y una concentración mínima inhibitoria (CMI50) de 30,40 µg/mL, sin incidencia de radiación UV.
Simultaneous configuration of platform products and manufacturing supply chains

The product platform concept represents a powerful approach for manufacturers to compete cost-effectively in a global market that requires diverse product range, quick time to market, and rapid responses to supply sources. A key challenge is how to strike a balance between platform commonality and modularity. When a manufacturer outsources its raw materials or module options, the supplier capabilities and production costs should be considered. This paper discusses optimizing decision variables for simultaneously configuring not only platform-based product variants but also their supply chain. We develop a mixed-integer programming model that integrates both platform product design and material purchase decisions based on cost drivers sensitive to commonality and modularity. Theoretical analysis of the model yields two properties, allowing us to further simplify the model and thus help in developing an effective solution algorithm. A numerical example is presented to illustrate how manufacturers strive to dynamically adjust their product design strategies in response to changes in the market demands and/or supply base.
Initial results in electromechanical mode identification from ambient data

Power system loads are constantly changing. Over a time-span of a few minutes, these changes are primarily random. The random load variations act as a constant low-level excitation to the electromechanical dynamics of the power system which shows up as ambient noise in field measured voltage, current and power signals. Assuming the random variations are white and stationary over an analysis window, it is theoretically possible to estimate the electromechanical modal frequencies and damping from the spectral content of the ambient noise. In this paper, field collected ambient noise is analyzed by solving the Wiener-Hopf linear prediction equations to estimate the modal frequency and damping. These estimates are then compared with results from a Prony analysis on a ringdown resulting from a 1400 MW brake insertion under the same operating conditions as the ambient data. Results show that estimates are consistent between the ambient and ringdown analysis indicating that it is possible to estimate a power system's electromechanical characteristics simply from ambient data. These results demonstrate that it may be possible to provide power system control and operation algorithms with a real-time estimate of modal frequency and damping.
Creep Crack Growth Prediction of Solder Joints During Temperature Cycling—An Engineering Approach

A model is developed which predicts the creep damage accumulation in solder joints during temperature cycling. The model relates the crack growth rate to the rate of creep energy density dissipated using the C* parameter of nonlinear fracture mechanics for extensive creep damage. For a eutectic tin-lead solder joint, the damage due to both grain boundary sliding and matrix creep is considered. The validity of the model is proved by correlating the predicted fatigue life of solder joints for 84 I/O leadless ceramic chip carriers with the published measured data for a number of test conditions. The published experimental conditions are simulated in a three dimensional, nonlinear, time and temperature dependent finite element analysis. For each test condition, both components of creep energy density, i.e., energy densities because of grain boundary sliding and matrix creep, are determined separately in the finite element analysis. The values are then used to determine the crack growth parameters and predict the crack growth rate in the solder joint using the crack growth model. The predicted results are found to have good correlation with the measured fatigue life for each test condition.
Increasing Adherence to Acute Otitis Media Treatment Duration Guidelines using a Quality Improvement Approach

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Introduction: This quality improvement initiative aimed to improve American Academy of Pediatrics acute otitis media (AOM) guideline adherence in pediatric urgent care sites by increasing the percentage of patients 2 years and older with AOM who received a short duration (7 days or fewer) of antibiotics from a baseline of 7% to a goal of 50%. Methods: This quality improvement initiative was conducted in a network of seven urgent care sites affiliated with a large academic children’s hospital. The interventions focused on clinician and family education, clinical decision support, and a discharge template that defaulted to a 7-day duration of antibiotics for patients 2 years and older diagnosed with AOM. The outcome measure was the percentage of patients receiving 7 days or fewer of antibiotics. The process measure was the percentage of prescriptions originating from the new discharge template. A repeat visit for AOM within 30 days from the initial visit was the balancing measure. Results: The percentage of patients diagnosed with AOM receiving a short antibiotic course increased from a baseline of 7% to a new centerline mean of 67%, which exceeded the goal. This project resulted in 10,138 antibiotic days being avoided. Eighty-two percent of short-course prescriptions originated from the discharge template. Repeat visits for AOM within 1 month of the initial visit did not increase. Conclusions: A quality improvement initiative combining education and clinical decision support improved adherence to AOM treatment duration guidelines and avoided unnecessary antibiotic exposure in a pediatric urgent care network without increasing treatment failures.
Integrated GPS and QRCode in Personalized Mobile Learning System Based on Rocommendation Mechanism

With the fast development of personal communication network and mobile technology, various mobile communication applications have already been incorporated into our life. Therefore, the mobile learning is becoming a hot issue too. This paper combines the mobile network with the GPS technology to use the characteristic of fast input of QR-Code technology taking action in study, and utilize the data mining technique which extracts from the learner’s e-portfolio data to achieve the learners to enjoy and get the suitable and individualized study teaching material whenever and wherever possible. And we will focus on how to fully develop the fast and large memory ability of the QR-code to combine the analysis of the learner’s learning records into the m-learning to provide the real-time recommending learning materials. Finally, through some experiments about some different QR-code input efficient and correct we found the certainly and greatly improved the learning results through our personalized mobile learning system.
Graphene-based spin logic gates

Logic operation is the key of digital electronics and spintronics. Based on spin-dependent transport property of zigzag graphene nanoribbons studied using nonequilibrium Green’s function method and density functional theory, we propose a complete set of all-carbon spin logic gates, in which the spin-polarized current can be manipulated by the source-drain voltage and magnetic configuration of the electrodes. These logic gates allow further designs of complex spin logic operations and pave the way for full implementation of spintronics computing devices.
Use Logistic Regression to Predict User’ Behaviors

Accurately capturing user behaviors over time is a great practical challenge in recommender system. Recently there is an Alibaba competition, which is to predict users’ purchase behave according to users’ previous four months behaviors, including click, purchase, add to collection and add to cart. We find that the brand is of crucial for user and click have a great impact for users. Besides, 1 / 5 users may buy according to previous interest. 4 / 5 users may choose other brands. While we focus on the predicting users for those brands which they have some behaviors. We extract some features, such as the number of click, the most last time for click, the number of purchase, the most last time for purchase. Then we use assemble model to predict users’ behaviors, which is better than other models.
Toward a practical performance index for predicting voltage collapse in electric power systems

Voltage collapse is generally caused by either of two types of power system disturbances: load variations; and contingencies. A number of performance indices intended to measure the severity of the voltage collapse problem have been proposed in the literature. However, few of these performance indices can answer questions such as: "can the system withstand another 100 MVar increase on bus 11? " This paper presents a new performance index that provides a direct relationship between its value and the amount of load demand that the system can withstand before collapse. One of the features that distinguishes the proposed performance is its development in the load-demand space and its ability to answer questions such as: "can the system withstand a simultaneous increase of 70 MW on bus 2 and 50 MVAr on bus 6? " This feature makes the performance index readily interpretable to operators. Moreover, the computation involved in the proposed performance index is relatively inexpensive in comparison with those required in existing solutions. Simulation results on the IEEE 39-bus system and a 234-bus power system are presented with promising results. >
A novel hybrid three-band transport system based on a DFB LD with multi-wavelength output characteristic

A potentially cost-effective radio-over-fiber (ROF)/fiber-to-the-X (FTTX)/CATV hybrid three-band transport system based on direct modulation of a distributed feedback laser diode (DFB LD) with multi-wavelength output characteristic is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Directly modulated radio-frequency (RF) (1.25Gbps/6GHz), externally remodulated baseband (BB) (622 Mbps), and externally remodulated CATV (channels 2-78) signals are successfully transmitted simultaneously. Over an 80-km single-mode fiber (SMF) transmission, low bit error rate (BER) and clear eye diagram were achieved for ROF and FTTX applications; and good performances of carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR), composite second-order (CSO) and composite triple beat (CTB) were obtained for CATV signals. Since our proposed systems use only a directly modulated DFB LD to achieve multi-wavelength transmission, it reveals an outstanding one with simpler and more economic advantages.