bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Factors affecting physicians' decisions to forgo life-sustaining treatments in terminal care
Authors: Hinkka H , Kosunen E , Metsänoja R , Lammi U-K , Kellokumpu-Lehtinen P 
Published: July 2002

Objectives: Treatment decisions in ethically complex situations are known to depend on a physician's personal characteristics and medical experience. We sought to study variability in decisions to withdraw or withhold specific life-supporting treatments in terminal care and to evaluate the association between decisions and such background factors.Design: Readiness to withdraw or withhold treatment options was studied using a terminal cancer patient scenario with alternatives. Physicians were asked about their attitudes, life values, experience, and training; sociodemographic data were also collected.Setting: Finnish physicians, postal survey.Survey sample: Five hundred general practitioners, 300 surgeons, 300 internists, and 82 oncologists.Results: Treatments most often forgone were blood transfusion (82%) and thrombosis prophylaxis (81%). Least willingly abandoned were intravenous (IV) hydration (29%) and supplementary oxygen (13%). Female doctors were less likely to discontinue thrombosis prophylaxis (p=0.022) and supplementary oxygen (p<0.001), but more readilyxray (p=0.039) and laboratory (p=0.057) examinations. Young doctors were more likely to continue antibiotics (p=0.025), thrombosis prophylaxis (p=0.006), supplementary oxygen (p=0.004) and laboratory tests (p=0.041). Oncologists comprised the specialty most ready to forgo all studied treatments except antibiotics and blood transfusion. The family's wishes (alternative 1) significantly increased treatment activity. Young and female practitioners and oncologists were most influenced by family appeal. Advance directives (alternative 2) made decisions significantly more reserved and uniform. Different factors in the physician's background were found to predict decisions to withdraw antibiotics or IV hydration.Conclusion: The considerable variation observed in doctors' decisions to forgo specific life-sustaining treatments (LST) was seen to depend on their personal background factors. Experience, supervision, and postgraduate education seemed to be associated with more reserved treatment decisions. To increase the objectivity of end of life decisions, training, and research are of prime significance in this ethically complex area of medicine.
Mortality from all cancers of asbestos factory workers in east London 1933–80
Authors: Berry G , Newhouse M L , Wagner J C 
Published: July 2002

OBJECTIVETo give the observed and expected deaths due to cancer at all separate sites in asbestos workers in east London, and to analyse these for overall effect and exposure-response trend.METHODSThe mortality experience of a cohort of over 5000 men and women followed up for over 30 years since first exposure to asbestos has been extracted.RESULTSThere was a large excess of deaths due to cancer (537 observed, 222 expected). Most of these were due to cancer of the lung (232 observed, 77 expected) and pleural (52) and peritoneal (48) mesothelioma. The exposure-response trend for all these three causes was highly significant. There was also an excess of cancer of the colon (27 observed, 15 expected) which was significantly related to exposure. There were significant excesses of cancer of the ovary, of the liver, and of the oesophagus but with no consistent relation to exposure.CONCLUSIONSThe excess risk of cancer after exposure to asbestos was mainly due to cancer of the lung and mesothelioma. An exposure related excess of cancer of the colon was also detected but the possibility that some of these deaths may have been peritoneal mesotheliomas could not be excluded. There was no consistent evidence of exposure related excesses at any other site.
Exposure to crystalline silica, silicosis, and lung disease other than cancer in diatomaceous earth industry workers: a quantitative risk assessment
Authors: Park R , Rice F , Stayner L , Smith R , Gilbert S , Checkoway H 
Published: July 2002

Objectives: To estimate excess lifetime risk of (a) mortality from lung disease other than cancer (LDOC), and, (b) onset of radiographic silicosis, arising from occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica dust.Methods: Data from a cohort of California diatomaceous earth mining and processing workers exposed to crystalline silica dust (mainly as cristobalite) were reanalyzed with Poisson regression methods with internal and external adjustments for potential confounding by calendar time, age, smoking, Hispanic ethnicity, and time since first observation. Model fit was evaluated by comparing deviances and fitting cubic spline models. Lifetime risks of death from LDOC and radiographic silicosis were estimated up to age 85 with an actuarial approach accounting for competing causes of death.Results: For deaths due to LDOC, a linear relative rate model gave the best fit in Poisson regression analyses. At the mean cumulative exposure of LDOC cases to silica, after adjustment for smoking, the estimated rate ratio was 4.2 (p<0.0001); at the maximum cumulative exposure of cases, the rate ratio was 18.4. The excess lifetime risk for white men exposed to respirable cristobalite dust for 45 years at the current permissible exposure limit (PEL; about 0.05 mg/m3) of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was 54/1000 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 17 to 150). For 70 incident cases of radiographic silicosis largely manifest before the end of employment, the best fit was also the linear relative rate model, predicting a rate ratio of 25.6 for silicosis at the mean cumulative exposure of the cases (p<0.0001). The excess lifetime risk for silicosis at the current PEL was 75/1000.Conclusion: Current occupational health standards for crystalline silica permit risks of lung disease other than cancer far in excess of what is usually considered acceptable by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (a lifetime risk of less than one in a thousand deaths).
Recurrence of adrenal aldosterone-producing adenoma
Authors: Calvo-Romero José María , Ramos-Salado Juan Lucio 
Published: July 2002

Summary
Conn's syndrome (adrenal aldosterone-producing adenoma) and bilateral adrenal hyperplasia are the most common causes of primary aldosteronism. The treatment of choice for patients with aldosterone-producing adenoma is unilateral total adrenalectomy. Recurrence after adequate surgery is exceptional. We present a patient with recurrence of an aldosterone-producing adenoma in the right adrenal gland 9 years after adenomectomy of a aldosterone-producing adenoma in the same adrenal gland. We conclude that adenomectomy is not an adequate therapy for patients with adrenal aldosterone-producing adenoma.
Cervical tuberculous lymphadenopathy: changing clinical pattern and concepts in management
Authors: Jha B C , Dass A , Nagarkar N M , Gupta R , Singhal S 
Published: July 2002

Abstract
Tuberculosis is one of the biggest health challenges the world is facing. In this study the clinical pattern of patients with cervical lymphadenitis, who presented to the ear, nose, and throat outpatient department of the Government Medical College Hospital, Chandigarh, India between June 1997 and May 1998 is recorded. Tuberculosis accounted for 60 out of 94 cases of cervical lymph node enlargement. The commonest age group affected was 11–20 years. Constitutional symptoms were not present in most of the patients. Multiple matted nodes were seen in 23 patients but a single discrete node was seen in 18 patients. Upper deep jugular nodes were the most commonly affected lymph nodes. Discharging sinus and abscess formation were uncommon. Fine needle aspiration cytology yielded a positive diagnosis in 52 out of 56 patients. Chest lesions on radiography were evident in 16% of the patients. Mantoux test was positive and was more than 15 mm in most of the patients. This study shows that the classical picture of “scrofula” is no longer seen nowadays and can probably be explained by the earlier presentation of the disease.
All the patients were treated with short course daily chemotherapy for six months. Surgery was not required in the majority of patients except in four cases where excision biopsy was performed. Patients with abscess formation were managed with wide bore needle aspiration only. With a minimum six month period of follow up, no patient was found to have a recurrence of local or systemic disease.
This study emphasises the role of fine needle aspiration cytology in diagnosis and confirms the efficacy of six months short course chemotherapy.
The start of life: a history of obstetrics
Authors: Drife J 
Published: July 2002

Abstract
Obstetric intervention originally consisted of extraction of the baby, usually by the breech, to save the mother’s life in obstructed labour. Forceps, introduced in the 17th century, were later refined by men-midwives like William Smellie. In Victorian times, Simpson championed chloroform anaesthesia, Lister pioneered antisepsis, and caesarean section was introduced. In 1935, however, Britain’s maternal mortality rate was still around 400/100 000. It fell dramatically after antibiotics appeared and is now 11.4. In the 1960s ultrasound and electronic fetal monitoring became widely used. In 2000 the British caesarean section rate reached 20%. Worldwide, childbirth still causes 600 000 maternal deaths a year.
TOPOLOGICAL PARTIAL *-ALGEBRAS: BASIC PROPERTIES AND EXAMPLES
Authors: ANTOINE J.-P. , BAGARELLO F. , TRAPANI C. 
Published: July 2002

Let [Formula: see text] be a partial *-algebra endowed with a topology τ that makes it into a locally convex topological vector space [Formula: see text]. Then [Formula: see text] is called a topological partial *-algebra if it satisfies a number of conditions, which all amount to require that the topology τ fits with the multiplier structure of [Formula: see text]. Besides the obvious cases of topological quasi *-algebras and CQ*-algebras, we examine several classes of potential topological partial *-algebras, either function spaces (lattices of Lp spaces on [0, 1] or on ℝ, amalgam spaces), or partial *-algebras of operators (operators on a partial inner product space, O*-algebras).
Dynamic adaptation of real-time software
Authors: Bihari Thomas E. , Schwan Karsten 
Published: July 2002

In large, dynamic, real-time computer systems, it is frequently most cost effective to employ different software performance and reliability techniques at different levels of granularity, at different times, or within different subsystems. These techniques may include regulation of redundancy and resource allocation, multiversion and multipath execution, adjustments of program attributes such as time-out periods and others.
The management of software in such systems is a difficult task. Software that may be adapted to meet varying performance and reliability requirements offers a solution. A REal-time Software Adaptation System (RESAS) includes a uniform model of adaptable software and provides the tool necessary for programmers to implement algorithms that choose and enact adaptations in real time.
RESAS has been implemented on a testbed consisting of a multiprocessor and an attached workstation, and adaptation algorithms have been developed that address the problem of adapting software to achieve two goals: software execution within specified time constraints and software resiliency with respect to computer hardware failures.
Compiler transformations for high-performance computing
Authors: Bacon David F. , Graham Susan L. , Sharp Oliver J. 
Published: July 2002

In the last three decades a large number of compiler transformations for optimizing programs have been implemented. Most optimizations for uniprocessors reduce the number of instructions executed by the program using transformations based on the analysis of scalar quantities and data-flow techniques. In contrast, optimizations for high-performance superscalar, vector, and parallel processors maximize parallelism and memory locality with transformations that rely on tracking the properties of arrays using loop dependence analysis.
This survey is a comprehensive overview of the important high-level program restructuring techniques for imperative languages, such as C and Fortran. Transformations for both sequential and various types of parallel architectures are covered in depth. We describe the purpose of each transformation, explain how to determine if it is legal, and give an example of its application.
Programmers wishing to enhance the performance of their code can use this survey to improve their understanding of the optimizations that compilers can perform, or as a reference for techniques to be applied manually. Students can obtain an overview of optimizing compiler technology. Compiler writers can use this survey as a reference for most of the important optimizations developed to date, and as bibliographic reference for the details of each optimization. Readers are expected to be familiar with modern computer architecture and basic program compilation techniques.
Integer and signed constants in ALGOL
Authors: Petrone L. , Vandoni C. E. 
Published: July 2002

A few remarks are given on the relations between syntax and semantics in the programming languages.
The aim is to point out that, it is true that the grammar of a contex-free language should be conceived not only as a strings-generating device but also as a method for expressing a meaning, then the grammar of ALGOL is open to some criticism.
A note on the calculation of average working set size
Authors: Slutz D. R. , Traiger I. L. 
Published: July 2002

Finite-length reference string of arbitrary structure are considered, and an exact expression for average working set size in terms of “corrected” interreference interval statistics is derived. An example is discussed; upper and lower bounds are obtained; and the average working set size function is shown to be efficiently obtained for a set of page sizes, in a single pass of the reference string.
This work follows the developments of a paper by Denning and Schwartz, who consider infinite-length reference strings which satisfy certain statistical properties and who derive an expression relating the asymptotic average working set size to the asymptotic missing page rate function under working set replacement.
Programming pearls: Writing correct programs
Authors: Bentley Jon 
Published: July 2002

In the late 1960s people were talking about the promise of programs that verify the correctness of other programs. Unfortunately, it is now the middle of the 1980s, and, with precious few exceptions, there is still little more than talk about automated verification systems. Despite unrealized expectations, however, the research on program verification has given us something far more valuable than a black box that gobbles programs and flashes “good” or “bad”—we now have a fundamental understanding of computer programming.
The purpose of this column is to show how that fundamental understanding can help programmers write correct programs. But before we get to the subject itself, we must keep it in perspective. Coding skill is just one small part of writing correct programs. The majority of the task is the subject of the three previous columns: problem definition, algorithm design, and data structure selection. If you perform those tasks well, then writing correct code is usually easy.
Algorithms for computing the volume and other integral properties of solids. II. A family of algorithms based on representation conversion and cellular approximation
Authors: Lee Yong Tsui , Requicha Aristides A. G. 
Published: July 2002

This paper discusses a family of algorithms for computing the volume, moments of inertia, and other integral properties of geometrically complex solids, e.g. typical mechanical parts. The algorithms produce approximate decompositions of solids into cuboid cells whose integral properties are easy to compute.
The paper focuses on versions of the algorithms which operate on solids represented by Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG), i.e., as set-theoretical combinations of primitive solid “building blocks.” Two known algorithms are summarized and a new algorithm is presented. The efficiencies and accuracies of the three algorithms are analyzed theoretically and compared experimentally.
The new algorithm uses recursive subdivision to convert CSG representations of complex solids into approximate cellular decompositions based on variably sized blocks. Experimental data show that the new algorithm is efficient and has predictable accuracy. It also has other potential applications, e.g., in producing approximate octree representations of complex solids and in robot navigation.
Logic and programming languages
Authors: Scott Dana S. 
Published: July 2002

Logic has been long interested in whether answers to certain questions are computable in principle, since the outcome puts bounds on the possibilities of formalization. More recently, precise comparisons in the efficiency of decision methods have become available through the developments in complexity theory. These, however, are applications to logic, and a big question is whether methods of logic have significance in the other direction for the more applied parts of computability theory.
Programming languages offer an obvious opportunity as their syntactic formalization is well advanced; however, the semantical theory can hardly be said to be complete. Though we have many examples, we have still to give wide-ranging mathematical answers to these queries: What is a machine? What is a computable process? How (or how well) does a machine simulate a process? Programs naturally enter in giving descriptions of processes. The definition of the precise meaning of a program then requires us to explain what are the objects of computation (in a way, the statics of the problem) and how they are to be transformed (the dynamics).
So far the theories of automata and of nets, though most interesting for dynamics, have formalized only a portion of the field, and there has been perhaps too much concentration on the finite-state and algebraic aspects. It would seem that the understanding of higher-level program features involves us with infinite objects and forces us to pass through several levels of explanation to go from the conceptual ideas to the final simulation on a real machine. These levels can be made mathematically exact if we can find the right abstractions to represent the necessary structures.
The experience of many independent workers with the method of data types as lattices (or partial orderings) under an information content ordering, and with their continuous mappings, has demonstrated the flexibility of this approach in providing definitions and proofs, which are clean and without undue dependence on implementations. Nevertheless much remains to be done in showing how abstract conceptualizations can (or cannot) be actualized before we can say we have a unified theory.
Extending the infomation theory approach to converting limited-entry decision tables to computer programs
Authors: Shwayder Keith 
Published: July 2002

This paper modifies an earlier algorithm for converting decision tables into flowcharts which minimize subsequent execution time when compiled into a computer program.
The algorithms considered in this paper perform limited search and, accordingly, do not necessarily result in globally optimal solutions. However, the greater search effort needed to obtain a globally optimal solution for complex decision tables is usually not justified by sufficient savings in execution time.
There is an analogy between the problem of converting decision tables into efficient flowcharts and the well-understood problem in information theory of noiseless coding. The results of the noiseless coding literature are used to explore the limitations of algorithms used to solve the decision table problem.
The analogy between the two problems is also used to develop improvements to the information algorithm in extending the depth of search under certain conditions and in proposing additional conditions to be added to the decision table.
Finally, the information algorithm is compared with an algorithm proposed in a recent paper by Verhelst.
An experimental model of system/360
Authors: Katz Jesse H. 
Published: July 2002

The problem of predicting the performance of modern computer systems is formidable. One general technique which can ease this problem is macroscopic simulation. This paper reports on the applicability of that technique to System/360.
The paper describes an experimental model of System/360—its hardware, software, and its environment. The measures of system performance produced by the model consist of statistics relating to turnaround time, throughput, hardware utilization, software utilization, and queueing processes.
The model is mechanized in SIMSCRIPT and consists of some 1750 statements. An auxiliary program, the Job Generator, creates automatically the properties of System/360 jobs that get simulated.
Transparent-mode control procedures for data communication, using the American standard code for information interchange—a tutorial
Authors: Gorn S. 
Published: July 2002

This paper gives the considerations of Task Group X3.3.4 in the area of transparent-mode data communication control philosophy. The appearance of this paper was forecast (under the name of “second-level control”) in the earlier tutorial paper, “Control Procedures for Data Communications,” Task Group document X3.3.4.44, dated May 1964.
The present paper elaborates upon solutions to the problems of transparency to the basic ASCII communication control characters, as outlined in the previous paper mentioned above. Moreover, it goes on to cover the additional control problems of handling material such as offline encrypted data or non-ASCII codes by means of systems providing complete character transparency. It does not cover concepts of transparency in which the normal character structure or modulation rate of a system may be abandoned.
In conjunction with the earlier tutorial paper, this paper is expected to lead to a proposal for standardization of data communication control procedures using the American Standard Code for Information Interchange.
A system organization for resource allocation
Authors: Dahm D. M. , Gerbstadt T. H. , Pacelli M. M. 
Published: July 2002

This paper introduces a system for resource management using the concepts of “process,” “facility,” and “event.” Except for the processor no attempt has been made to give serious suggestions for the policy to be followed for resource allocation. However, a basic framework is provided in which a system analyst can express solutions to resource management problems.
The paper is divided into a tutorial presentation, a description of the system primitives, and a small collection of examples of the use of the primitives.
A SIMSCRIPT-FORTRAN case study
Authors: Weinert Arla E. 
Published: July 2002

Two programs for a vehicle dispatching model, one written in 7040 SIMSCRIPT and the other in 7040 FORTRAN IV are compared. The comparison is made in terms of basic program design decisions, storage requirements, computer time used, and the ease of making changes.
In the SIMSCRIPT program, the primary design considerations center around the choice of model variables, model changing events, and model testing. In the FORTRAN program, basic design problems relate to the representation of the passage of time, the allocation of storage, and the organization of input data.
The comparison of these differently designed programs shows that the SIMSCRIPT program uses more computer storage and more computer time, but requires fewer program changes to introduce model revisions.