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Examining the feasibility and utility of an SBAR protocol in long-term care. | Ineffective nurse-physician communication in the nursing home setting adversely affects resident care as well as the work environment for both nurses and physicians. Using a repeated measures design, this quality improvement project evaluated the influence of SBAR (Situation; Background of the change; Assessment or appearance; and Request for action) protocol and training on nurse communication with medical providers, as perceived by nurses and physicians, using a pre-post questionnaire. The majority (87.5%) of nurses respondents found the tool useful to organize information and provide cues on what to communicate to medical providers. Limitations expressed by some nurses included the time to complete the tool, and communication barriers not corrected by the SBAR tool. Project findings, including reported physician satisfaction, support the use of SBAR to address both issues of complete documentation and time constraints. |
An Optically Tunable Optoelectronic Oscillator | An optically tunable optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) implemented by employing a two-port optical phase modulator without using any electronic microwave filters is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The key device in the system is the two-port phase modulator, which functions, in conjunction with a dispersive element in the loop, to form a high-Q microwave filter to perform microwave frequency selection. The central frequency of the microwave filter is a function of the optical wavelength and the chromatic dispersion of the dispersive element, therefore, the oscillation frequency can be simply tuned by tuning the wavelength of the laser source or the chromatic dispersion of the dispersive element. A theoretical analysis is provided, which is verified by experiments. The phase noise performance and the frequency tunability are both experimentally investigated. |
Quality of Service for Database in the Cloud | Cloud computing is a recent trend of technology that aims to provide on-demand services following a pay-peruse model. In the cloud, the service user has some guarantees, such as performance and availability. These guarantees of quality of service are defined between the service provider and user and are expressed through a service level agreement. There are many models for agreement and quality of services in cloud computing. However, most of these models are multipurpose and do not deal with data management aspects in the cloud. This paper presents QoSDBC, an approach to quality of service for database in the cloud. This approach can be used by providers to improve the quality of their services and encompasses different aspects such as response time, throughput, availability and consistency. In order to evaluate QoSDBC, some experiments that measure the quality of service are presented. |
Research on passing values between ASP.NET Web Forms | In ASP.NET, Programmers maybe use POST or GET to pass parameter's value. Two methods are easy to come true. But In ASP.NET, It is not easy to pass parameter's value. In ASP.NET, Programmers maybe use many methods to pass parameter's value, such as using Application, Session, Querying, Cookies, and Forms variables. In this paper, by way of pass value from WebForm1.aspx to WebForm2.aspx and show out the value on WebForm2. We can give and explain actually examples in ASP.NET language to introduce these methods. |
Credit SuPPLy identifying BaLanCe-Sheet ChanneLS With Loan aPPLiCationS and granted LoanS | To identify credit availability we analyze the extensive and intensive margins of lending with loan applications and all loans granted in Spain. We find that both worse economic and tighter monetary conditions reduce loan granting, especially to firms or from banks with lower capital or liquidity ratios. Moreover, responding to applications for the same loan, weak banks are less likely to grant the loan. Our results suggest that firms cannot offset the resultant credit restriction by turning to other banks. Importantly the bank-lending channel is notably stronger when we account for unobserved time-varying firm heterogeneity in loan demand and quality. |
Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in treatment-seeking pathological gamblers. | Little is known about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among pathological gamblers (PGs), even though the two disorders share several clinical characteristics. We examined the relationship between pathological gambling and PTSD on measures of gambling disorder severity, experience of specific traumas, psychiatric symptoms, impulsivity, and dissociation. A total of 149 treatment-seeking PGs were surveyed. Participants were divided into two groups on the basis of their score on the PTSD Checklist (Weathers, Litz, Herman, Huska, & Keane, 1993). Thirty-four percent (n = 51) reported a high frequency of PTSD symptoms. Participants who had high scores reported greater lifetime gambling severity, psychiatric symptom severity, impulsivity, and dissociation than participants who had low PTSD symptom scores. These findings point to a need for more assessment and research about PTSD in PGs. |
Friends and neighbors on the Web | The Internet has become a rich and large repository of information about us as individuals. Anything from the links and text on a user's homepage to the mailing lists the user subscribes to are reflections of social interactions a user has in the real world. In this paper we devise techniques to mine this information in order to predict relationships between individuals. Further we show that some pieces of information are better indicators of social connections than others, and that these indicators vary between user populations and provide a glimpse into the social lives of individuals in different communities. Our techniques provide potential applications in automatically inferring real-world connections and discovering, labeling, and characterizing communities. |
Prognostic index score and clinical prediction model of local regional recurrence after mastectomy in breast cancer patients. | PURPOSE
To develop clinical prediction models for local regional recurrence (LRR) of breast carcinoma after mastectomy that will be superior to the conventional measures of tumor size and nodal status.
METHODS AND MATERIALS
Clinical information from 1,010 invasive breast cancer patients who had primary modified radical mastectomy formed the database of the training and testing of clinical prognostic and prediction models of LRR. Cox proportional hazards analysis and Bayesian tree analysis were the core methodologies from which these models were built. To generate a prognostic index model, 15 clinical variables were examined for their impact on LRR. Patients were stratified by lymph node involvement (<4 vs. >or =4) and local regional status (recurrent vs. control) and then, within strata, randomly split into training and test data sets of equal size. To establish prediction tree models, 255 patients were selected by the criteria of having had LRR (53 patients) or no evidence of LRR without postmastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT) (202 patients).
RESULTS
With these models, patients can be divided into low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups on the basis of axillary nodal status, estrogen receptor status, lymphovascular invasion, and age at diagnosis. In the low-risk group, there is no influence of PMRT on either LRR or survival. For intermediate-risk patients, PMRT improves LR control but not metastases-free or overall survival. For the high-risk patients, however, PMRT improves both LR control and metastasis-free and overall survival.
CONCLUSION
The prognostic score and predictive index are useful methods to estimate the risk of LRR in breast cancer patients after mastectomy and for estimating the potential benefits of PMRT. These models provide additional information criteria for selection of patients for PMRT, compared with the traditional selection criteria of nodal status and tumor size. |
RFMS: Real-time Flood Monitoring System with wireless sensor networks | In this paper, we present RFMS, the real-time flood monitoring system with wireless sensor networks, which is deployed in two volcanic islands Ulleung-do and Dok-do located in the East Sea near to the Korean peninsula and developed for flood monitoring. RFMS measures river and weather conditions through wireless sensor nodes equipped with different sensors. Measured information is employed for early-warning via diverse types of services such as SMS (short message service) and a Web service. |
Attentional and Executive Functions in Neglected Children | This study examined attentional and executive functions of 30 neglected children ages 8 to 12, who were compared with a control group of 30 children. Neuropsychological tests measured aspects of simple and complex attention. The results have shown that neglected children were not different from control children with simple tests of attention. However, neglected children were shown difficulties in executive functions, in particular in tasks requiring mental flexibility. Thus, results supported the presence of difficulties regarding executive functions in neglected children, and supported that this form of maltreatment had consequences on high-level mental functions. |
Pixel-Level Hand Detection in Ego-centric Videos | We address the task of pixel-level hand detection in the context of ego-centric cameras. Extracting hand regions in ego-centric videos is a critical step for understanding hand-object manipulation and analyzing hand-eye coordination. However, in contrast to traditional applications of hand detection, such as gesture interfaces or sign-language recognition, ego-centric videos present new challenges such as rapid changes in illuminations, significant camera motion and complex hand-object manipulations. To quantify the challenges and performance in this new domain, we present a fully labeled indoor/outdoor ego-centric hand detection benchmark dataset containing over 200 million labeled pixels, which contains hand images taken under various illumination conditions. Using both our dataset and a publicly available ego-centric indoors dataset, we give extensive analysis of detection performance using a wide range of local appearance features. Our analysis highlights the effectiveness of sparse features and the importance of modeling global illumination. We propose a modeling strategy based on our findings and show that our model outperforms several baseline approaches. |
A temperature compensated relaxation oscillator for SoC implementations | A temperature and supply independent on-chip reference relaxation oscillator for low voltage design is described. The frequency of oscillation is mainly a function of a PVT robust biasing current. The comparator for the relaxation oscillator is replaced with a high speed common-source stage to eliminate the temperature dependency of the comparator delay. The current sources and voltages are biased by a PVT robust references derived from a bandgap circuitry. This oscillator is designed in TSMC 65 nm CMOS process to operate with a minimum supply voltage of 1.4 V and consumes 100 μW at 157 MHz frequency of oscillation. The oscillator exhibits frequency variation of 1.6% for supply changes from 1.4 V to 1.9 V, and ±1.2% for temperature changes from 20°C to 120°C. |
Spatial representation of magnitude in humans (Homo sapiens), Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), and American black bears (Ursus americanus) | The spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect is the tendency for humans to respond faster to relatively larger numbers on the left or right (or with the left or right hand) and faster to relatively smaller numbers on the other side. This effect seems to occur due to a spatial representation of magnitude either in occurrence with a number line (wherein participants respond to relatively larger numbers faster on the right), other representations such as clock faces (responses are reversed from number lines), or culturally specific reading directions, begging the question as to whether the effect may be limited to humans. Given that a SNARC effect has emerged via a quantity judgement task in Western lowland gorillas and orangutans (Gazes et al., Cog 168:312–319, 2017), we examined patterns of response on a quantity discrimination task in American black bears, Western lowland gorillas, and humans for evidence of a SNARC effect. We found limited evidence for SNARC effect in American black bears and Western lowland gorillas. Furthermore, humans were inconsistent in direction and strength of effects, emphasizing the importance of standardizing methodology and analyses when comparing SNARC effects between species. These data reveal the importance of collecting data with humans in analogous procedures when testing nonhumans for effects assumed to bepresent in humans. |
Enduring effects for cognitive behavior therapy in the treatment of depression and anxiety. | Recent studies suggest that cognitive and behavioral interventions have enduring effects that reduce risk for subsequent symptom return following treatment termination. These enduring effects have been most clearly demonstrated with respect to depression and the anxiety disorders. It remains unclear whether these effects are a consequence of the amelioration of the causal processes that generate risk or the introduction of compensatory strategies that offset them and whether these effects reflect the mobilization of cognitive or other mechanisms. No such enduring effects have been observed for the psychoactive medications, which appear to be largely palliative in nature. Other psychosocial interventions remain largely untested, although claims that they produce lasting change have long been made. Whether such enduring effects extend to other disorders remains to be seen, but the capacity to reduce risk following treatment termination is one of the major benefits provided by the cognitive and behavioral interventions with respect to the treatment of depression and the anxiety disorders. |
Beyond word embeddings: learning entity and concept representations from large scale knowledge bases | Text representations using neural word embeddings have proven effective in many NLP applications. Recent researches adapt the traditional word embedding models to learn vectors of multiword expressions (concepts/entities). However, these methods are limited to textual knowledge bases (e.g., Wikipedia). In this paper, we propose a novel and simple technique for integrating the knowledge about concepts from two large scale knowledge bases of different structure (Wikipedia and Probase) in order to learn concept representations. We adapt the efficient skip-gram model to seamlessly learn from the knowledge in Wikipedia text and Probase concept graph. We evaluate our concept embedding models on two tasks: (1) analogical reasoning, where we achieve a state-of-the-art performance of 91% on semantic analogies, (2) concept categorization, where we achieve a state-of-the-art performance on two benchmark datasets achieving categorization accuracy of 100% on one and 98% on the other. Additionally, we present a case study to evaluate our model on unsupervised argument type identification for neural semantic parsing. We demonstrate the competitive accuracy of our unsupervised method and its ability to better generalize to out of vocabulary entity mentions compared to the tedious and error prone methods which depend on gazetteers and regular expressions. |
Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Team Performance in Higher Education Institutes | Claims about the positive influence of emotional intelligence (EI) on work team performance are very numerous, both in commercial and scientific literature. In this study, EI was assessed using the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS). Paper examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and performance of 15 teams selected from higher education institutes of Pakistan. A single questionnaire was used to gather data from the teams, each team consisting of 5-15 members. Simple and multiple regression was applied to investigate the relationships between emotional intelligence as a whole and team performance and then between different dimensions of emotional intelligence. Results indicated that emotional intelligence had positive impact on team performance. The study recommended that experimental study may be conducted to compare the performance of teams before and after providing the training on emotional intelligence so that a clear picture may emerge. |
Evaluation of dysuria in adults. | Dysuria, defined as pain, burning, or discomfort on urination, is more common in women than in men. Although urinary tract infection is the most frequent cause of dysuria, empiric treatment with antibiotics is not always appropriate. Dysuria occurs more often in younger women, probably because of their greater frequency of sexual activity. Older men are more likely to have dysuria because of an increased incidence of prostatic hyperplasia with accompanying inflammation and infection. A comprehensive history and physical examination can often reveal the cause of dysuria. Urinalysis may not be needed in healthier patients who have uncomplicated medical histories and symptoms. In most patients, however, urinalysis can help to determine the presence of infection and confirm a suspected diagnosis. Urine cultures and both urethral and vaginal smears and cultures can help to identify sites of infection and causative agents. Coliform organisms, notably Escherichia coli, are the most common pathogens in urinary tract infection. Dysuria can also be caused by noninfectious inflammation or trauma, neoplasm, calculi, hypoestrogenism, interstitial cystitis, or psychogenic disorders. Although radiography and other forms of imaging are rarely needed, these studies may identify abnormalities in the upper urinary tract when symptoms are more complex. |
Reining in the Outliers in Map-Reduce Clusters using Mantri | Experience from an operational Map-Reduce cluster reveals that outliers signi cantly prolong job completion. e causes for outliers include run-time contention for processor, memory and other resources, disk failures, varying bandwidth and congestion along network paths and, imbalance in task workload. We present Mantri, a system that monitors tasks and culls outliers using causeand resource-aware techniques. Mantri’s strategies include restarting outliers, network-aware placement of tasks and protecting outputs of valuable tasks. Using real-time progress reports,Mantri detects and acts on outliers early in their lifetime. Early action frees up resources that can be used by subsequent tasks and expedites the job overall. Acting based on the causes and the resource and opportunity cost of actions lets Mantri improve over prior work that only duplicates the laggards. Deployment in Bing’s production clusters and trace-driven simulations show that Mantri improves job completion times by . |
A comparative study of winding configuration effect on the performance of low speed PMSG using FEM | This paper presents a comparative study of the effect of three different winding configurations on the performance of permanent magnet synchronous generators (PMSG). Three generator models with the same outer radius and stack length, and different winding configurations are simulated using Finite element method (FEM) software; the configurations are the long pitched, short the pitched distributed winding and the concentrated winding. The performance of the models is compared. The results show a better performance of concentrated winding over the traditional distributed windings in terms of efficiency and power to weight ratio. |
Impact of comorbid conditions in COPD patients on health care resource utilization and costs in a predominantly Medicare population | BACKGROUND
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often have multiple underlying comorbidities, which may lead to increased health care resource utilization (HCRU) and costs.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the comorbidity profiles of COPD patients and examine the associations between the presence of comorbidities and HCRU or health care costs.
METHODS
A retrospective cohort study utilizing data from a large US national health plan with a predominantly Medicare population was conducted. COPD patients aged 40-89 years and continuously enrolled for 12 months prior to and 24 months after the first COPD diagnosis during the period of January 01, 2009, through December 31, 2010, were selected. Eleven comorbidities of interest were identified 12 months prior through 12 months after COPD diagnosis. All-cause and COPD-related hospitalizations and costs were assessed 24 months after diagnosis, and the associations with comorbidities were determined using multivariate statistical models.
RESULTS
Ninety-two percent of 52,643 COPD patients identified had at least one of the 11 comorbidities. Congestive heart failure (CHF), coronary artery disease, and cerebrovascular disease (CVA) had the strongest associations with all-cause hospitalizations (mean ratio: 1.56, 1.32, and 1.30, respectively; P<0.0001); other comorbidities examined had moderate associations. CHF, anxiety, and sleep apnea had the strongest associations with COPD-related hospitalizations (mean ratio: 2.01, 1.32, and 1.21, respectively; P<0.0001); other comorbidities examined (except chronic kidney disease [CKD], obesity, and osteoarthritis) had moderate associations. All comorbidities assessed (except obesity and CKD) were associated with higher all-cause costs (mean ratio range: 1.07-1.54, P<0.0001). CHF, sleep apnea, anxiety, and osteoporosis were associated with higher COPD-related costs (mean ratio range: 1.08-1.67, P<0.0001), while CVA, CKD, obesity, osteoarthritis, and type 2 diabetes were associated with lower COPD-related costs.
CONCLUSION
This study confirms that specific comorbidities among COPD patients add significant burden with higher HCRU and costs compared to patients without these comorbidities. Payers may use this information to develop tailored therapeutic interventions for improved management of patients with specific comorbidities. |
Attendance automation using face recognition biometric authentication | Attendance automation has become one of the most important needs in educational institutions and work places across the world, since it saves time and accurate too. Face recognition system needs least human cooperation and is viable too. The system automatically detects the student's entry in the class and marks attendance for the particular student periodically. The data collected can be used by the system further for attendance score calculation and other managerial decisions. Arduino is used to create and control the system that could automatically mark the attendance for the students. Thus the system reduces the manual collection of attendance and the time taken for report generation. |
Autonomous Multisensor System Powered by a Solar Thermoelectric Energy Harvester With Ultralow-Power Management Circuit | An autonomous multisensor system powered by an energy harvester fabricated with a flat-panel solar thermoelectric generator with an ultralow-power management circuit is presented. The multisensor system was tested in an agricultural application, where every 15 min the values of the temperature, air humidity, and solar radiation have to be measured and stored in a mass memory device (a Secure Digital card), with their respective time stamp. The energy-harvesting switching dc-dc converter is based on a low-input-voltage commercial integrated circuit (LTC3108), which charges a 1.65-F supercapacitor up to 5.0 V. A novel ultralow-power management circuit was developed to replace the internal power management circuitry of the LTC3108, and using this circuit, the operation of the system when no energy can be harvested from the environment is extended from 136 h to more than 266 h. The solar thermoelectric generator used for the energy harvesting is composed of a bismuth telluride thermoelectric generator with a 110-mV/°C Seebeck coefficient sandwiched between a 40 cm × 40 cm anodized aluminum flat panel and an aluminum heatsink. On a sunny winter day in the southern hemisphere (12 August 2014, at Campinas, SP-Brazil, Latitude: 22° 54'), the energy supplied by the harvesting system to the supercapacitor was 7 J. |
Stories with Help from Recurrent Neural Networks | Automated story generation has a long history of pursuit in artificial intelligence. Early approaches used hand-authored formal models of a particular story-world domain to generate narratives pertaining to that domain (Klein, Aeschlimann, and Balsiger 1973; Lebowitz 1985; Meehan 1977). With the advent of machine learning, more recent work has explored how to construct narrative models automatically from story corpora (Li et al. 2013; McIntyre and Lapata 2009; Swanson and Gordon 2012). This research has created a new potential for interactivity in narrative generation. Unlike previous approaches which lacked the breadth of knowledge required for open-domain storytelling, these systems leverage story data to interface with authors pursuing diverse narrative content. For example, Swanson and Gordon (Swanson and Gordon 2012) demonstrated an application where a user and automated agent took turns contributing sentences to a story. Their system used a case-based reasoning approach to retrieve a relevant continuation of the user’s sentence from a large database of stories. This research has given rise to a new type of story generation task, one of “narrative auto-completion”, where a system analyzes an ongoing narrative and generates a new contribution to the story. Analogous to existing automated writing aids like spelling and grammar correction, narrative auto-completion is applicable as a writing tool that suggests new ideas to authors. Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) are a promising machine learning framework for language generation tasks. In natural language processing (NLP) tasks, RNNs are trained on sequences of text to model the conditional probability distribution of predicting a sequence unit (often a character or word) given the sequence up to that point. After training it is straightforward to generate new text by iteratively predicting the next unit based on the text generated so far. In this same way, a given text can be extended by predicting additional text in the sequence. For this reason an RNN is a suitable engine for an automated story writing assistant that takes an ongoing story as input for predicting a continuation of the story. In this thesis I explore the use of RNNs for this novel generation task, and show how this task affords a unique opportunity for the evaluation of generation systems. |
Road Sign Classification without Color Information | The robust and general method for the recognition of traffic devices like road signs in traffic scene images is necessary for the creation of Driver Support System. Color may be used as a useful attribute for the decomposition of classification problem into several apriori defined road sign groups/subproblems. In this paper, the colorless method for the road sign classification is presented working on gray-level images and allowing the same problem decomposition as its color-based counterpart. The method may be used in combination with the color-independent sign detection algorithms. The road sign recognition system then works entirely without the color which may be used as an alternative procedure when the input traffic scene images lacks good color information. |
Combining two hyaluronic acids in osteoarthritis of the knee: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial | Synovial fluid in patients may differ in molecular weight depending on the presence and degree of osteoarthritis. Treatment is not directed at this relationship. Patients with osteoarthritis of the knee with resting visual analogue scale (VAS) pain of >45 mm were included in a randomized, prospective, double-blind cohort followed for 16 weeks. Patients were randomized at baseline to receive a three intra-articular injection series with one of: dual molecular weight (DMW; 580–780 kDa + 1.2 to 2.0 million Da); low molecular weight (LMW; 500–730 kDa); high molecular weight (HMW; 6 million Da); or saline placebo over 3 weeks. Patients completed baseline assessment of rest and walking VAS pain (primary efficacy variable), collection of a 5-point categorical global satisfaction score, and record of adverse events. Two-hundred and twenty-five patients (age 68 ± 8 y) were screened and 200 were randomized to one of the four groups. There were no differences at baseline between groups. At 4, 12 and 16 weeks, respectively, walking VAS pain was significantly improved in all treatment groups vs. placebo: DMW (79.6%, p < 0.001; 85.6, p < 0.001; 89.3%, p < 0.001); LMW (73.6%, p < 0.001; 76.4, p < 0.001; 81.3%, p < 0.001) and HMW (69.1%, p < 0.001; 81.0, p < 0.001; 79.1%, p < 0.001). Patients in the DMW group had significantly greater improvement (p < 0.007) in VAS walking pain by 3 weeks (following the second injection) compared to all groups. This difference was persistent at 16 weeks. Greater improvement in patients who received the DMW product was achieved by the second injection persistent at 16 weeks. |
Design of Variable-Speed Dish-Stirling Solar–Thermal Power Plant for Maximum Energy Harness | Analysis on a developed dynamic model of the dish-Stirling (DS) system shows that maximum solar energy harness can be realized through controlling the Stirling engine speed. Toward this end, a control scheme is proposed for the doubly fed induction generator coupled to the DS system, as a means to achieve maximum power point tracking as the solar insolation level varies. Furthermore, the adopted fuzzy supervisory control technique is shown to be effective in controlling the temperature of the receiver in the DS system as the speed changes. Simulation results and experimental measurements validate the maximum energy harness ability of the proposed variable-speed DS solar-thermal system. |
Substantial variation across geographic regions in the obesity prevalence among 6–8 years old Hungarian children (COSI Hungary 2016) | BACKGROUND
There have been previous representative nutritional status surveys conducted in Hungary, but this is the first one that examines overweight and obesity prevalence according to the level of urbanization and in different geographic regions among 6-8-year-old children. We also assessed whether these variations were different by sex.
METHODS
This survey was part of the fourth data collection round of World Health Organization (WHO) Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative which took place during the academic year 2016/2017. The representative sample was determined by two-stage cluster sampling. A total of 5332 children (48.4% boys; age 7.54 ± 0.64 years) were measured from all seven geographic regions including urban (at least 500 inhabitants per square kilometer; n = 1598), semi-urban (100 to 500 inhabitants per square kilometer; n = 1932) and rural (less than 100 inhabitants per square kilometer; n = 1802) areas.
RESULTS
Using the WHO reference, prevalence of overweight and obesity within the whole sample were 14.2, and 12.7%, respectively. According to the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) reference, rates were 12.6 and 8.6%. Northern Hungary and Southern Transdanubia were the regions with the highest obesity prevalence of 11.0 and 12.0%, while Central Hungary was the one with the lowest obesity rate (6.1%). The prevalence of overweight and obesity tended to be higher in rural areas (13.0 and 9.8%) than in urban areas (11.9 and 7.0%). Concerning differences in sex, girls had higher obesity risk in rural areas (OR = 2.0) but boys did not. Odds ratios were 2.0-3.4 in different regions for obesity compared to Central Hungary, but only among boys.
CONCLUSIONS
Overweight and obesity are emerging problems in Hungary. Remarkable differences were observed in the prevalence of obesity by geographic regions. These variations can only be partly explained by geographic characteristics.
TRIAL REGISTRATION
Study protocol was approved by the Scientific and Research Ethics Committee of the Medical Research Council ( 61158-2/2016/EKU ). |
Interactions between model membranes and lignin-related compounds studied by immobilized liposome chromatography. | In order to elucidate the modes of interaction between lignin precursors and membranes, we have studied the influence of temperature, lipid composition and buffer composition on the partitioning of monolignol and dilignol model substances into phospholipid bilayers. The partitioning was determined by immobilized liposome chromatography, which is an established method for studies of pharmaceutical drugs but a new approach in studies of lignin synthesis. The temperature dependence of the retention and the effect of a high ammonium sulfate concentration in the mobile phase demonstrated that the interaction involved both hydrophobic effects and polar interactions. There was also a good correlation between the partitioning and the estimated hydrophobicity, in terms of octanol/water partitioning. The partitioning behavior of the model substances suggests that passive diffusion over the cell membrane is a possible transport route for lignin precursors. This conclusion is strengthened by comparison of the present results with the partitioning of pharmaceutical drugs that are known to pass cell membranes by diffusion. |
LIMA : A Multilingual Framework for Linguistic Analysis and Linguistic Resources Development and Evaluation | The increasing amount of available textual information makes necessary the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools. These tools have to be used on large collections of documents in different languages. But NLP is a complex task that relies on many processes and resources. As a consequence, NLP tools must be both configurable and efficient: specific software architectures must be designed for this purpose. We present in this paper the LIMA multilingual analysis platform, developed at CEA LIST. This configurable platform has been designed to develop NLP based industrial applications while keeping enough flexibility to integrate various processes and resources. This design makes LIMA a linguistic analyzer that can handle languages as different as French, English, German, Arabic or Chinese. Beyond its architecture principles and its capabilities as a linguistic analyzer, LIMA also offers a set of tools dedicated to the test and the evaluation of linguistic modules and to the production and the management of new linguistic resources. 1 Context and objectives In this article, we present the LIMA (CEA List Multilingual Analyzer) platform which is, as GATE (Cunningham et al., 2002), together an architecture, a set of tools and resources and an environment for developing applications based on Natural Language Processing (NLP). This platform was developed by the LVIC laboratory of CEA LIST with the following requirements: • multilingualism, with the objective of dealing with a broad spectrum of languages; • a large diversity of applications. LIMA aims at being used as a basic component for various applications that can be text-based applications such as automatic summarization or question-answering but can also be applications dealing with multimedia documents; • extensibility, that is to say the ability to support the addition of new functionalities. As illustrated by Section 2.2, the current version of LIMA mainly performs analyses up to syntactic analysis but we also aim at extending it to semantic and discourse analyses; • the need for efficiency. A platform such as LIMA must be able to process very large corpora both because the processing of such corpora is more and more required by work in Computational Linguistics (see (Pantel et al., 2009) for instance) and because it also has to be used in an industrial context. The first three requirements make necessary to design an architecture based on modularity and flexibility at a high degree. All languages are not characterized by the same set of linguistic phenomena and as a consequence, their processing doesn’t rely on the combination of the same elementary analyses. Moreover, even if a linguistic analysis module can be used for two different languages, the linguistic resources it relies on are generally specific to each language. The same need for modularity and flexibility comes from the diversity of applications LIMA has to deal with: using the same system for lemmatizing a set of keywords from a base of images, a newspaper article or the transcription of a phone conversation is not the best means to have good results in each of these three contexts. Finally, the main difficulty LIMA had to face was to fulfill these requirements without sacrificing efficiency. Several kinds of architectures were already proposed to address these different issues. Process-oriented architectures focus on the combination and the control of a set of modules together with the communication between them. They generally implement a loosely integration by the means of a “glue” that can be a multi-agent system as in TalLab (Wolinski et al., 1998) or a client-server architecture as in FreeLing (Carreras et al., 2004). Data-oriented architectures also represent a weak type of integration by concentrating on the normalization of data between modules, as in the MULTEXT project (Ide and Véronis, 1994) or the LT XML Library (Brew et al., 1999). The TIPSTER-like architectures (Grishman, 1997) go a step further by imposing both a shared representation of data, often by annotation graphs (Bird and Liberman, 1999), and a uniform interface for modules. The GATE platform (Cunningham et al., 2002) is the typical representative of this kind of architectures but TEXTRACT (Neff et al., 2004) and its most recent descendant, UIMA (Ferrucci and Lally, 2004), also belong to this category. Finally, the highest degree of integration is reached by formalism-oriented architectures in which both data and processes are represented through a declarative formalism associated to a kind of inference engine. This approach was initially dedicated to the development of grammars as in ALVEY (Grover et al., 1993) but was also applied more widely through platforms such as ALEP (Simkins, 1994), NooJ (Koeva et al., 2007) or Outilex (Blanc et al., 2006). As it will be illustrated in the following sections, we chose a TIPSTER-like architecture for LIMA as it represents the best trade-off between modularity and efficiency, which are |
MEAN GIRLS ? THE INFLUENCE OF GENDER PORTRAYALS IN TEEN MOVIES ON EMERGING ADULTS ' GENDER-BASED ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS | This two-part exploratory study utilized a social cognitive theory framework in documenting gender portrayals in teen movies and investigating the influence of exposure to these images on gender-based beließ about friendships, social aggression, and roles of women in society. First, a content analysis of gender portrayals in teen movies was conducted, revealing that female characters are more likely to be portrayed as socially aggressive than male characters. Second, college students were surveyed about their teen movie-viewing habits, gender-related beliefs, and attitudes. Findings suggest that viewing teen movies is associated with negative stereotypes about female friendships and gender roles. |
Universal robotic gripper based on the jamming of granular material | Gripping and holding of objects are key tasks for robotic manipulators. The development of universal grippers able to pick up unfamiliar objects of widely varying shape and surface properties remains, however, challenging. Most current designs are based on the multifingered hand, but this approach introduces hardware and software complexities. These include large numbers of controllable joints, the need for force sensing if objects are to be handled securely without crushing them, and the computational overhead to decide how much stress each finger should apply and where. Here we demonstrate a completely different approach to a universal gripper. Individual fingers are replaced by a single mass of granular material that, when pressed onto a target object, flows around it and conforms to its shape. Upon application of a vacuum the granular material contracts and hardens quickly to pinch and hold the object without requiring sensory feedback. We find that volume changes of less than 0.5% suffice to grip objects reliably and hold them with forces exceeding many times their weight. We show that the operating principle is the ability of granular materials to transition between an unjammed, deformable state and a jammed state with solid-like rigidity. We delineate three separate mechanisms, friction, suction, and interlocking, that contribute to the gripping force. Using a simple model we relate each of them to the mechanical strength of the jammed state. This advance opens up newpossibilities for the designof simple, yet highly adaptive systems that excel at fast gripping of complex objects. |
Representation and Exchange of Knowledge About Actions, Objects, and Environments in the RoboEarth Framework | The community-based generation of content has been tremendously successful in the World-Wide Web - people help each other by providing information that could be useful to others. We are trying to transfer this approach to robotics in order to help robots acquire the vast amounts of knowledge needed to competently perform everyday tasks. RoboEarth is intended to be a web community by robots for robots to autonomously share descriptions of tasks they have learned, object models they have created, and environments they have explored. In this paper, we report on the formal language we developed for encoding this information and present our approaches to solve the inference problems related to finding information, to determining if information is usable by a robot, and to grounding it on the robot platform. |
ICT and e-Business Development by the Ukrainian Enterprises: The Empirical Research | This paper presents the results of the research about the level of information and communication technology (ICT) implementation by the Ukrainian enterprises. We studied different Web-sites and made more detailed research about ICT implementation at the Odessa industrial enterprises. The conclusion is made that the state of Odessa e-commerce market does not correspond to the current state of ICT development, nor to the needs of the information society development in our country. The research of industrial enterprises shows insufficient use of the advantages, which can brings the effective use of ICT. Most businesses, despite the relatively high level of technical equipment, automate only a part of routine operations. Most administrative functions are performed by traditional methods, using only email. Thus, the Ukrainian enterprises are facing an urgent task of the most effective use of available human and ICT potential to improve their performance and competitive position at the market. |
Ethical leadership : A review and future directions | Our literature review focuses on the emerging construct of ethical leadership and compares this construct with related concepts that share a common concern for a moral dimension of leadership (e.g., spiritual, authentic, and transformational leadership). Drawing broadly from the intersection of the ethics and leadership literatures, we offer propositions about the antecedents and outcomes of ethical leadership. We also identify issues and questions to be addressed in the future and discuss their implications for research and practice. Our review indicates that ethical leadership remains largely unexplored, offering researchers opportunities for new discoveries and leaders opportunities to improve their effectiveness. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
Matching Networks for One Shot Learning | Learning from a few examples remains a key challenge in machine learning. Despite recent advances in important domains such as vision and language, the standard supervised deep learning paradigm does not offer a satisfactory solution for learning new concepts rapidly from little data. In this work, we employ ideas from metric learning based on deep neural features and from recent advances that augment neural networks with external memories. Our framework learns a network that maps a small labelled support set and an unlabelled example to its label, obviating the need for fine-tuning to adapt to new class types. We then define one-shot learning problems on vision (using Omniglot, ImageNet) and language tasks. Our algorithm improves one-shot accuracy on ImageNet from 87.6% to 93.2% and from 88.0% to 93.8% on Omniglot compared to competing approaches. We also demonstrate the usefulness of the same model on language modeling by introducing a one-shot task on the Penn Treebank. |
Suicide rates among physicians: a quantitative and gender assessment (meta-analysis). | OBJECTIVE
Physicians' suicide rates have repeatedly been reported to be higher than those of the general population or other academics, but uncertainty remains. In this study, physicians' suicide rate ratios were estimated with a meta-analysis and systematic quality assessment of recent studies.
METHOD
Studies of physicians' suicide rates were located in MEDLINE, PsycINFO, AARP Ageline, and the EBM Reviews: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews with the terms "physicians," "doctors," "suicide," and "mortality." Studies were included if they were published in or after 1960 and gave estimates of age-standardized suicide rates of physicians and their reference population or reported extractable data on physicians' suicide; 25 studies met the criteria. Reviewers extracted data and scored each study for quality. The studies were tested for heterogeneity and publication bias and were stratified by publication year, follow-up, and study quality. Effect sizes were pooled by using fixed-effects (women) and random-effects (men) models.
RESULTS
The aggregate suicide rate ratio for male physicians, compared to the general population, was 1.41, with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.21-1.65. For female physicians the ratio was 2.27 (95% CI=1.90-2.73). Visual inspection of funnel plots from tests of publication bias revealed randomness for men but some indication of bias for women, with a relative, nonsignificant lack of studies in the lower right quadrant.
CONCLUSIONS
Studies on physicians' suicide collectively show modestly (men) to highly (women) elevated suicide rate ratios. Larger studies should help clarify whether female physicians' suicide rate is truly elevated or can be explained by publication bias. |
A Derivative-Free Kalman Filtering Approach to State Estimation-Based Control of Nonlinear Systems | For nonlinear systems, subject to Gaussian noise, the extended Kalman filter (EKF) is frequently applied for estimating the system's state vector from output measurements. The EFK is based on linearization of the systems' dynamics using a first-order Taylor expansion. Although EKF is efficient in several problems, it is characterized by cumulative errors due to the gradient-based linearization it performs, and this may affect the accuracy of the state estimation or even risk the stability of the state estimation-based control loop. To overcome the flaws of EKF, it has been proposed to use the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) as a method for nonlinear state estimation, which does not introduce linearization errors. Aiming also at finding more efficient implementations of nonlinear Kalman filtering, this paper introduces a derivative-free Kalman filtering approach, which is suitable for state estimation-based control of a class of nonlinear systems. The considered systems are first subject to a linearization transformation, and next state estimation is performed by applying the standard Kalman filter to the linearized model. Unlike EKF, the proposed method provides estimates of the state vector of the nonlinear system without the need for derivatives and Jacobians calculation and without using linearization approximations. The proposed derivative-free Kalman filtering approach has been compared to EKF and UKF in the case of state estimation-based control for a nonlinear DC motor model. |
Automated Facial Trait Judgment and Election Outcome Prediction: Social Dimensions of Face | The human face is a primary medium of human communication and a prominent source of information used to infer various attributes. In this paper, we study a fully automated system that can infer the perceived traits of a person from his face -- social dimensions, such as "intelligence," "honesty," and "competence" -- and how those traits can be used to predict the outcomes of real-world social events that involve long-term commitments, such as political elections, job hires, and marriage engagements. To this end, we propose a hierarchical model for enduring traits inferred from faces, incorporating high-level perceptions and intermediate-level attributes. We show that our trained model can successfully classify the outcomes of two important political events, only using the photographs of politicians' faces. Firstly, it classifies the winners of a series of recent U. S. elections with the accuracy of 67.9% (Governors) and 65.5% (Senators). We also reveal that the different political offices require different types of preferred traits. Secondly, our model can categorize the political party affiliations of politicians, i.e., Democrats vs. Republicans, with the accuracy of 62.6% (male) and 60.1% (female). To the best of our knowledge, our paper is the first to use automated visual trait analysis to predict the outcomes of real-world social events. This approach is more scalable and objective than the prior behavioral studies, and opens for a range of new applications. |
A Compile-Time Scheduling Heuristic for Interconnection-Constrained Heterogeneous Processor Architectures | This paper presents a compile-time scheduling heuristic called dynamic level scheduling, which accounts for interprocessor communication overhead when mapping precedence-constrained, communicating tasks onto heterogeneous processor architectures with limited or possibly irregular interconnection structures. This technique uses dynamicallychanging priorities to match tasks with processors at each step, and schedules over both spatial and temporal dimensions to eliminate shared resource contention. This method is fast, flexible, widely targetable, and displays promising performance. |
A 210 nW 29.3 ppm/°C 0.7 V voltage reference with a temperature range of −50 to 130 °C in 0.13 µm CMOS | A low-voltage, low-power CMOS voltage reference with high temperature stability in a wide temperature range is presented. The temperature dependence of mobility and oxide capacitance is removed by employing transistors in saturation and triode regions and the temperature dependence of threshold voltage is removed by exploiting the transistors in weak inversion region. Implemented in 0.13um CMOS, the proposed voltage reference achieves temperature coefficient of 29.3ppm/°C against temperature variation of −50 – 130°C and line sensitivity of 337ppm/V against supply variation of 0.7–1.8V, while consuming 210nW from 0.7V supply and occupying 0.023mm2. |
On partial least squares in head pose estimation: How to simultaneously deal with misalignment | Head pose estimation is a critical problem in many computer vision applications. These include human computer interaction, video surveillance, face and expression recognition. In most prior work on heads pose estimation, the positions of the faces on which the pose is to be estimated are specified manually. Therefore, the results are reported without studying the effect of misalignment. We propose a method based on partial least squares (PLS) regression to estimate pose and solve the alignment problem simultaneously. The contributions of this paper are two-fold: 1) we show that the kernel version of PLS (kPLS) achieves better than state-of-the-art results on the estimation problem and 2) we develop a technique to reduce misalignment based on the learned PLS factors. |
A multivariate analysis of 416 patients with glioblastoma multiforme: prognosis, extent of resection, and survival. | OBJECT
The extent of tumor resection that should be undertaken in patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to identify significant independent predictors of survival in these patients and to determine whether the extent of resection was associated with increased survival time.
METHODS
The authors retrospectively analyzed 416 consecutive patients with histologically proven GBM who underwent tumor resection at the authors' institution between June 1993 and June 1999. Volumetric data and other tumor characteristics identified on magnetic resonance (MR) imaging were collected prospectively.
CONCLUSIONS
Five independent predictors of survival were identified: age, Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS) score, extent of resection, and the degree of necrosis and enhancement on preoperative MR imaging studies. A significant survival advantage was associated with resection of 98% or more of the tumor volume (median survival 13 months, 95% confidence interval [CI] 11.4-14.6 months), compared with 8.8 months (95% CI 7.4-10.2 months; p < 0.0001) for resections of less than 98%. Using an outcome scale ranging from 0 to 5 based on age, KPS score, and tumor necrosis on MR imaging, we observed significantly longer survival in patients with lower scores (1-3) who underwent aggressive resections, and a trend toward slightly longer survival was found in patients with higher scores (4-5). Gross-total tumor resection is associated with longer survival in patients with GBM, especially when other predictive variables are favorable. |
A short-term graphomotor program for improving writing readiness skills of first-grade students. | OBJECTIVE
Children with fine-motor problems and handwriting difficulties often are referred for occupational therapy. The objective of this study was to test the efficacy of a short-term treatment on the fine-motor and graphomotor skills of first-grade students.
METHOD
We recruited 52 first-grade students who had scored below the 21st percentile on the Visual-Motor Integration test from schools in a city with a low socioeconomic, mixed (Arab and Jewish) population. The children were randomly divided into an intervention group and a control group. Before and after the intervention, we administered two tests to both groups.
RESULTS
Students in the intervention group made significant gains both in the total score on the graphomotor test (Developmental Test of Visual Perception) and on the fine-motor test (Bruininks-Oseretsky Motor Development Scale).
CONCLUSION
This study provided preliminary evidence of the efficacy of a short-term graphomotor intervention. The results increased the feasibility of implementing occupational therapy intervention in the Israeli school system, allowing treatment of more children using the same resources. |
Backstepping control with speed estimation of PMSM based on MRAS | This paper presents a backstepping control method with speed estimation of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) based on model reference adaptive system (MRAS). First, a comprehensive dynamical model of PMSM in d–q axis and its space state equations are established. Next, using Lyapunov stability theorem, based on the backstepping control theory, the PMSM rotor speed and current backstepping controllers are designed. Furthermore, using Popov stability theory, based on MRAS, the PMSM rotor speed observer is designed. Finally, Matlab/Simulink simulation results show that the backstepping control and speed observer are effective and feasible. |
Event Embeddings for Semantic Script Modeling | Semantic scripts is a conceptual representation which defines how events are organized into higher level activities. Practically all the previous approaches to inducing script knowledge from text relied on count-based techniques (e.g., generative models) and have not attempted to compositionally model events. In this work, we introduce a neural network model which relies on distributed compositional representations of events. The model captures statistical dependencies between events in a scenario, overcomes some of the shortcomings of previous approaches (e.g., by more effectively dealing with data sparsity) and outperforms count-based counterparts on the narrative cloze task. |
MANET simulation studies: the incredibles | Simulation is the research tool of choice for a majority of the mobile ad hoc network (MANET) community. However, while the use of simulation has increased, the credibility of the simulation results has decreased. To determine the state of MANET simulation studies, we surveyed the 2000-2005 proceedings of the ACM International Symposium on Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and Computing (MobiHoc). From our survey, we found significant shortfalls. We present the results of our survey in this paper. We then summarize common simulation study pitfalls found in our survey. Finally, we discuss the tools available that aid the development of rigorous simulation studies. We offer these results to the community with the hope of improving the credibility of MANET simulation-based studies. |
Recovery of Interdependent Networks. | Recent network research has focused on the cascading failures in a system of interdependent networks and the necessary preconditions for system collapse. An important question that has not been addressed is how to repair a failing system before it suffers total breakdown. Here we introduce a recovery strategy for nodes and develop an analytic and numerical framework for studying the concurrent failure and recovery of a system of interdependent networks based on an efficient and practically reasonable strategy. Our strategy consists of repairing a fraction of failed nodes, with probability of recovery γ, that are neighbors of the largest connected component of each constituent network. We find that, for a given initial failure of a fraction 1 - p of nodes, there is a critical probability of recovery above which the cascade is halted and the system fully restores to its initial state and below which the system abruptly collapses. As a consequence we find in the plane γ - p of the phase diagram three distinct phases. A phase in which the system never collapses without being restored, another phase in which the recovery strategy avoids the breakdown, and a phase in which even the repairing process cannot prevent system collapse. |
Wear characteristics in turning high hardness alloy steel by ceramic and CBN tools | The wear behaviour in the turning of AISI 4340 hardened alloy steels by CBN and ceramic tools was studied. Experimental results showed that the main wear mechanism for the CBN tools was the abrasion of the binder material by the hard carbide particles of the workpiece. For the ceramic tools, there was adhesive wear and abrasive wear. It was also found that there was a protective layer formed on the chip–tool interface. For the CBN tool, this was a solution of the binder of the tool material and the work material, while for the ceramic tool, this was from the work material. This layer plays a very important role in the wear behavior of CBN and ceramic tools. Variations of tool wear with the cutting speed and the hardness of the work material are discussed accordingly. © 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved. |
Exploring romantic relationships on social networking sites using the self-expansion model | Several hypotheses were derived from the self-expansion model (Aron & Aron, 1986 ) concerning romantic relationships and social networking sites (SNSs). A sample of 276 participants responded to questions about their relationshi p history and SNS uses and a subset of those (N = 149) responded to additional questions about a current romantic partner. Results suggest that past self-expansion leaves a residue shown by more interests. This finding was moderated by overall Facebook use. Particular Facebook behaviors such as tagging one’s partner in status updates, appearing together in photographs, and listing similar interests on profiles are indicative of self-expansion processes typically found in romantic |
Facebook and self-perception : Individual susceptibility to negative social comparison on Facebook | a r t i c l e i n f o Social network sites such as Facebook give off the impression that others are doing better than we are. As a result, the use of these sites may lead to negative social comparison (i.e., feeling like others are doing better than oneself). According to social comparison theory, such negative social comparisons are detrimental to perceptions about the self. The current study therefore investigated the indirect relationship between Facebook use and self-perceptions through negative social comparison. Because happier people process social information differently than unhappier people, we also investigated whether the relationship between Facebook use and social comparison and, as a result, self-perception, differs depending on the degree of happiness of the emerging adult. A survey among 231 emerging adults (age 18–25) showed that Facebook use was related to a greater degree of negative social comparison, which was in turn related negatively to self-perceived social competence and physical attractiveness. The indirect relationship between Facebook use and self-perception through negative social comparison was attenuated among happier individuals, as the relationship between Facebook use and negative social comparison was weaker among happier individuals. SNS use was thus negatively related to self-perception through negative social comparison, especially among unhappy individuals. Social network sites (SNSs), such as Facebook, are notorious for giving off the impression that other people are living better lives than we are (Chou & Edge, 2012). People generally present themselves and their lives positively on SNSs (Dorethy, Fiebert, & Warren, 2014) for example by posting pictures in which they look their best (Manago, Graham, Greenfield, & Salimkhan, 2008) and are having a good time with their friends (Zhao, Grasmuck, & Martin, 2008). The vast majority of time spent on SNSs consists of viewing these idealized SNS profiles, pictures, and status updates of others (Pempek, Yermolayeva, & Calvert, 2009). Such information about how others are doing may impact how people see themselves, that is, their self-perceptions because people base their self-perceptions at least partly on how they are doing in comparison to others (Festinger, 1954). These potential effects of SNS use on self-perceptions through social comparison are the focus of the current study. Previous research on the effects of SNSs on self-perceptions has focused predominantly on the implications of social interactions on these websites (e.g., feedback from others) (Valkenburg, Peter, & Schouten, 2006) or due to editing and viewing content about the self … |
Confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis of the caregiver quality of life index-cancer with Turkish samples | The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the CQOLC in Turkey. The 35-item English version of the CQOLC was translated into Turkish following the standard translation methodology. The questionnaire was administered to 237 caregivers of patients with cancer. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses (CFA and EFA) were carried out using principal component analysis with varimax rotation and Kaiser Normalization to test its construct validity. We used Cronbach’s alpha to examine the CQOLC’s reliability (internal consistency). The CFA did not confirm the original factor model. The EFA yielded a 25-item measure with a four-factor solution with different labels for three of the four original scales (shown in parentheses): Psychological Distress (Burden), Disruption in Daily Life (Disruptiveness), Caregiving Responsibility (Positive Adaptation), and Financial Concerns (Financial Concerns). Cronbach’s alpha for the total scale was 0.88 and subscale alpha coefficients ranged from 0.73 to 0.83. The results indicate some differences in the factor structures of the CQOLC scale between Turkish and American samples but provided preliminary support for the Turkish version of the CQOLC as a reliable and valid measure of the quality of life of Turkish cancer caregivers. |
The effects of high-intensity interval training on glucose regulation and insulin resistance: a meta-analysis. | The aim of this meta-analysis was to quantify the effects of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on markers of glucose regulation and insulin resistance compared with control conditions (CON) or continuous training (CT). Databases were searched for HIIT interventions based upon the inclusion criteria: training ≥2 weeks, adult participants and outcome measurements that included insulin resistance, fasting glucose, HbA1c or fasting insulin. Dual interventions and participants with type 1 diabetes were excluded. Fifty studies were included. There was a reduction in insulin resistance following HIIT compared with both CON and CT (HIIT vs. CON: standardized mean difference [SMD] = -0.49, confidence intervals [CIs] -0.87 to -0.12, P = 0.009; CT: SMD = -0.35, -0.68 to -0.02, P = 0.036). Compared with CON, HbA1c decreased by 0.19% (-0.36 to -0.03, P = 0.021) and body weight decreased by 1.3 kg (-1.9 to -0.7, P < 0.001). There were no statistically significant differences between groups in other outcomes overall. However, participants at risk of or with type 2 diabetes experienced reductions in fasting glucose (-0.92 mmol L(-1), -1.22 to -0.62, P < 0.001) compared with CON. HIIT appears effective at improving metabolic health, particularly in those at risk of or with type 2 diabetes. Larger randomized controlled trials of longer duration than those included in this meta-analysis are required to confirm these results. |
Magnetic Metamaterial Superlens for Increased Range Wireless Power Transfer | The ability to wirelessly power electrical devices is becoming of greater urgency as a component of energy conservation and sustainability efforts. Due to health and safety concerns, most wireless power transfer (WPT) schemes utilize very low frequency, quasi-static, magnetic fields; power transfer occurs via magneto-inductive (MI) coupling between conducting loops serving as transmitter and receiver. At the "long range" regime - referring to distances larger than the diameter of the largest loop - WPT efficiency in free space falls off as (1/d)(6); power loss quickly approaches 100% and limits practical implementations of WPT to relatively tight distances between power source and device. A "superlens", however, can concentrate the magnetic near fields of a source. Here, we demonstrate the impact of a magnetic metamaterial (MM) superlens on long-range near-field WPT, quantitatively confirming in simulation and measurement at 13-16 MHz the conditions under which the superlens can enhance power transfer efficiency compared to the lens-less free-space system. |
Plate-laminated corporate-feed slotted waveguide array antenna at 350-GHz band by silicon process | A corporate feed slotted waveguide array antenna with broadband characteristics in term of gain in the 350 GHz band is achieved by measurement for the first time. The etching accuracy for thin laminated plates of the diffusion bonding process with conventional chemical etching is limited to ±20μm. This limits the use of this process for antenna fabrication in the submillimeter wave band where the fabrication tolerances are very severe. To improve the etching accuracy of the thin laminated plates, a new fabrication process has been developed. Each silicon wafer is etched by DRIE (deep reactive ion etcher) and is plated by gold on the surface. This new fabrication process provides better fabrication tolerances about ±5 μm using wafer bond aligner. The thin laminated wafers are then bonded with the diffusion bonding process under high temperature and high pressure. To validate the proposed antenna concepts, an antenna prototype has been designed and fabricated in the 350 GHz band. The 3dB-down gain bandwidth is about 44.6 GHz by this silicon process while it was about 15GHz by the conventional process using metal plates in measurement. |
Intimate partner violence attitudes and experience among women and men in Uganda. | This study examines intimate partner violence (IPV) attitudes and experience among women and men in Uganda to inform IPV-prevention programs in the region. Nationally representative population-based data from women aged 15 to 49 and men aged 15 to 54 were collected between May and October 2006 as part of the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey. The survey included questions on women's and men's attitudes toward wife beating and information on IPV victimization (women) and perpetration (men). More than half of men and nearly three quarters of women have attitudes supportive of wife beating in Uganda. More than half of married women report IPV victimization, and 40% of married men report perpetration. Women and men who reported witnessing their fathers beating their mothers were more likely to report IPV victimization (perpetration for men). Witnessing violence was also associated with positive attitudes toward wife beating among men. IPV-prevention programs need to address the important role of having witnessed wife beating between the mother and the father on men's subsequent attitudes and behaviors. Women who witnessed wife beating are also the most likely to have supportive attitudes and IPV experience, possibly indicating that their relationship expectations are different than women who did not witness violence. Community-based prevention programs targeting men and women are needed in Uganda and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa where gender norms that justify IPV prevail. |
Dielectric properties of cobalt doped cadmium oxalate crystals | CoxCd1−xC2O44H2O crystals grown by gel technique are characterized for dielectric properties by optical absorption measurements. Loss curve shows a relaxation peak at 500 KHz corresponding to a relaxation time of 0·3 µs. Cole-Cole diagrams give exponent of universal power law to be equal to 0·22. Optical absorption shows peaks due to Co+2 ion and water of hydration. An attempt is made to understand the results. |
An Efficient Transaction Commit Protocol for Composite Web Services | Transaction commit protocols have widely been used to ensure the correctness and reliability of distributed applications. This paper investigates into the performance of such protocols within the context of composite Web services. It presents a new commit protocol which aims to improve the performance of composite Web services transactions. The proposed protocol is tested through various analytical experiments. These experiments reveal that the proposed protocol significantly improves the performance in committing a composite Web service transaction. The experiments also exhibit the processing overhead of the proposed protocol in the case of unsuccessful execution of a Web service transaction |
Online Sequencing of Non-Decomposable Macrotasks in Expert Crowdsourcing | A large class of computational problems involve the determination of properties of graphs, digraphs, integers, arrays of integers, finite families of finite sets, boolean formulas and elements of other countable domains. Through simple encodings from such domains into the set of words over a finite alphabet these problems can be converted into language recognition problems, and we can inquire into their computational complexity. It is reasonable to consider such a problem satisfactorily solved when an algorithm for its solution is found which terminates within a number of steps bounded by a polynomial in the length of the input. We show that a large number of classic unsolved problems of covering, matching, packing, routing, assignment and sequencing are equivalent, in the sense that either each of them possesses a polynomial-bounded algorithm or none of them does. |
Pathogen testing of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products collected at federally inspected establishments in the United States, 1990 to 1999. | The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) conducted microbiological testing programs for ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products produced at approximately 1,800 federally inspected establishments. All samples were collected at production facilities and not at retail. We report results here for the years 1990 through 1999. Prevalence data for Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli O157:H7, or staphylococcal enterotoxins in nine different categories of RTE meat and poultry products are presented and discussed. The prevalence data have certain limitations that restrict statistical inferences, because these RTE product-testing programs are strictly regulatory in nature and not statistically designed. The cumulative 10-year Salmonella prevalences were as follows: jerky, 0.31%; cooked, uncured poultry products, 0.10%; large-diameter cooked sausages, 0.07%; small-diameter cooked sausages, 0.20%; cooked beef, roast beef, and cooked corned beef, 0.22%; salads, spreads, and pâtés, 0.05%; and sliced ham and luncheon meat, 0.22%. The cumulative 3-year Salmonella prevalence for dry and semidry fermented sausages was 1.43%. The cumulative 10-year L. monocytogenes prevalences were as follows: jerky, 0.52%; cooked, uncured poultry products, 2.12%; large-diameter cooked sausages, 1.31%; small-diameter cooked sausages, 3.56%; cooked beef, roast beef, and cooked corned beef, 3.09%; salads, spreads, and pâtés, 3.03%; and sliced ham and luncheon meat, 5.16%. The cumulative 3-year L. monocytogenes prevalence for dry and semidry fermented sausages was 3.25%. None of the RTE products tested for E. coli O157:H7 or staphylococcal enterotoxins was positive. Although FSIS and the industry have made progress in reducing pathogens in these products, additional efforts are ongoing to continually improve the safety of all RTE meat and poultry products manufactured in federally inspected establishments in the United States. |
Learning to Rank Query Graphs for Complex Question Answering over Knowledge Graphs | In this paper, we conduct an empirical investigation of neural query graph ranking approaches for the task of complex question answering over knowledge graphs. We experiment with six different ranking models and propose a novel self-attention based slot matching model which exploits the inherent structure of query graphs, our logical form of choice. Our proposed model generally outperforms the other models on two QA datasets over the DBpedia knowledge graph, evaluated in different settings. In addition, we show that transfer learning from the larger of those QA datasets to the smaller dataset yields substantial improvements, effectively offsetting the general lack of training data. |
Safe, Multi-Agent, Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Driving | Autonomous driving is a multi-agent setting where the host vehicle must apply sophisticated negotiation skills with other road users when overtaking, giving way, merging, taking left and right turns and while pushing ahead in unstructured urban roadways. Since there are many possible scenarios, manually tackling all possible cases will likely yield a too simplistic policy. Moreover, one must balance between unexpected behavior of other drivers/pedestrians and at the same time not to be too defensive so that normal traffic flow is maintained. In this paper we apply deep reinforcement learning to the problem of forming long term driving strategies. We note that there are two major challenges that make autonomous driving different from other robotic tasks. First, is the necessity for ensuring functional safety — something that machine learning has difficulty with given that performance is optimized at the level of an expectation over many instances. Second, the Markov Decision Process model often used in robotics is problematic in our case because of unpredictable behavior of other agents in this multi-agent scenario. We make three contributions in our work. First, we show how policy gradient iterations can be used, and the variance of the gradient estimation using stochastic gradient ascent can be minimized, without Markovian assumptions. Second, we decompose the problem into a composition of a Policy for Desires (which is to be learned) and trajectory planning with hard constraints (which is not learned). The goal of Desires is to enable comfort of driving, while hard constraints guarantees the safety of driving. Third, we introduce a hierarchical temporal abstraction we call an “Option Graph” with a gating mechanism that significantly reduces the effective horizon and thereby reducing the variance of the gradient estimation even further. The Option Graph plays a similar role to “structured prediction” in supervised learning, thereby reducing sample complexity, while also playing a similar role to LSTM gating mechanisms used in supervised deep networks. |
A two-stage short-term load forecasting approach using temperature daily profiles estimation | Electrical load forecasting plays an important role in the regular planning of power systems, in which load is influenced by several factors that must be analysed and identified prior to modelling in order to ensure better and instant load balancing between supply and demand. This paper proposes a two-stage approach for short-term electricity load forecasting. In the first stage, a set of day classes of load profiles are identified using K-means clustering algorithm alongside daily temperature estimation profiles. The proposed estimation method is particularly useful in case of lack of historical regular temperature data. While in the second stage, the stacked denoising autoencoders approach is used to build regression models able to forecast each day type independently. The obtained models are trained and evaluated using hourly electricity power data offered by Algeria’s National Electricity and Gas Company. Several models are investigated to substantiate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed approach. |
Dysregulation of miRNA146a versus IRAK1 induces IL-17 persistence in the psoriatic skin lesions. | Psoriasis is a common chronic inflammatory skin disorder with dysregulation of miRNAs. The expression pattern of miR-146a and target gene IRAK1 in lesions and PBMCs of plaque psoriasis remains unclear. In our study, we found the expression of miR-146a was up-regulated both in lesions and PBMCs of psoriatic patients, and positively correlated with IL-17 expression, whereas the target gene IRAK1 expression was expressed differentially in lesions and peripheral blood. Inability of miR-146a inhibiting target gene IRAK1 may contribute to the persistent inflammation in lesions of psoriasis. |
Procedural Modeling of Interconnected Structures | The complexity and detail of geometric scenes that are used in today’s computer animated films and interactive games have reached a level where the manual creation by traditional 3D modeling tools has become infeasible. This is why procedural modeling concepts have been developed which generate highly complex 3D models by automatically executing a set of formal construction rules. Well-known examples are variants of L-systems which describe the bottom-up growth process of plants and shape grammars which define architectural buildings by decomposing blocks in a top-down fashion. However, none of these approaches allows for the easy generation of interconnected structures such as bridges or roller coasters where a functional interaction between rigid and deformable parts of an object is needed. Our approach mainly relies on the top-down decomposition principle of shape grammars to create an arbitrarily complex but well structured layout. During this process, potential attaching points are collected in containers which represent the set of candidates to establish interconnections. Our grammar then uses either abstract connection patterns or geometric queries to determine elements in those containers that are to be connected. The two different types of connections that our system supports are rigid object chains and deformable beams. The former type is constructed by inverse kinematics, the latter by spline interpolation. We demonstrate the descriptive power of our grammar by example models of bridges, roller coasters, and wall-mounted catenaries. |
Survey on mining subjective data on the web | In the past years we have witnessed Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining becoming increasingly popular topics in Information Retrieval and Web data analysis. With the rapid growth of the user-generated content represented in blogs, wikis and Web forums, such an analysis became a useful tool for mining the Web, since it allowed us to capture sentiments and opinions at a large scale. Opinion retrieval has established itself as an important part of search engines. Ratings, opinion trends and representative opinions enrich the search experience of users when combined with traditional document retrieval, by revealing more insights about a subject. Opinion aggregation over product reviews can be very useful for product marketing and positioning, exposing the customers’ attitude towards a product and its features along different dimensions, such as time, geographical location, and experience. Tracking how opinions or discussions evolve over time can help us identify interesting trends and patterns and better understand the ways that information is propagated in the Internet. In this study, we review the development of Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining during the last years, and also discuss the evolution of a relatively new research direction, namely, Contradiction Analysis. We give an overview of the proposed methods and recent advances in these areas, and we try to layout the future research directions in the field. |
Aquaporin proteins in murine trophectoderm mediate transepithelial water movements during cavitation. | Mammalian blastocyst formation is dependent on establishment of trophectoderm (TE) ion and fluid transport mechanisms. We have examined the expression and function of aquaporin (AQP) water channels during murine preimplantation development. AQP 3, 8, and 9 proteins demonstrated cell margin-associated staining starting at the 8-cell (AQP 9) or compacted morula (AQP 3 and 8) stages. In blastocysts, AQP 3 and 8 were detected in the basolateral membrane domains of the trophectoderm, while AQP3 was also observed in cell margins of all inner cell mass (ICM) cells. In contrast, AQP 9 was predominantly observed within the apical membrane domains of the TE. Murine blastocysts exposed to hyperosmotic culture media (1800 mOsm; 10% glycerol) demonstrated a rapid volume decrease followed by recovery to approximately 80% of initial volume over 5 min. Treatment of blastocysts with p-chloromercuriphenylsulfonic acid (pCMPS, > or =100 microM) for 5 min significantly impaired (P < 0.05) volume recovery, indicating the involvement of AQPs in fluid transport across the TE. Blastocysts exposure to an 1800-mOsm sucrose/KSOMaa solution did not demonstrate volume recovery as observed following treatment with glycerol containing medium, indicating glycerol permeability via AQPs 3 and 9. These findings support the hypothesis that aquaporins mediate trans-trophectodermal water movements during cavitation. |
Falls in the nursing home. | Falls are responsible for considerable morbidity, immobility, and mortality among older persons, especially those living in nursing homes. Falls have many different causes, and several risk factors that predispose patients to falls have been identified. To prevent falls, a systematic therapeutic approach to residents who have fallen is necessary, and close attention must be paid to identifying and reducing risk factors for falls among frail older persons who have not yet fallen. We review the problem of falls in the nursing home, focusing on identifiable causes, risk factors, and preventive approaches. Epidemiology Both the incidence of falls in older adults and the severity of complications increase steadily with age and increased physical disability. Accidents are the fifth leading cause of death in older adults, and falls constitute two thirds of these accidental deaths. About three fourths of deaths caused by falls in the United States occur in the 13% of the population aged 65 years and older [1, 2]. Approximately one third of older adults living at home will fall each year, and about 5% will sustain a fracture or require hospitalization. The incidence of falls and fall-related injuries among persons living in institutions has been reported in numerous epidemiologic studies [3-18]. These data are presented in Table 1. The mean fall incidence calculated from these studies is about three times the rate for community-living elderly persons (mean, 1.5 falls/bed per year), caused both by the more frail nature of persons living in institutions and by more accurate reporting of falls in institutions. Table 1. Incidence of Falls and Fall-Related Injuries in Long-Term Care Facilities* As shown in Table 1, only about 4% of falls (range, 1% to 10%) result in fractures, whereas other serious injuries such as head trauma, soft-tissue injuries, and severe lacerations occur in about 11% of falls (range, 1% to 36%). However, once injured, an elderly person who has fallen has a much higher case fatality rate than does a younger person who has fallen [1, 2]. Each year, about 1800 fatal falls occur in nursing homes. Among persons 85 years and older, 1 of 5 fatal falls occurs in a nursing home [19]. Nursing home residents also have a disproportionately high incidence of hip fracture and have been shown to have higher mortality rates after hip fracture than community-living elderly persons [20]. Furthermore, because of the high frequency of recurrent falls in nursing homes, the likelihood of sustaining an injurious fall is substantial. In addition to injuries, falls can have serious consequences for physical functioning and quality of life. Loss of function can result from both fracture-related disability and self-imposed functional limitations caused by fear of falling and the postfall anxiety syndrome. Decreased confidence in the ability to ambulate safely can lead to further functional decline, depression, feelings of helplessness, and social isolation. In addition, the use of physical or chemical restraints by institutional staff to prevent high-risk persons from falling also has negative effects on functioning. Causes of Falls The major reported immediate causes of falls and their relative frequencies as described in four detailed studies of nursing home populations [14, 15, 17, 21] are presented in Table 2. The Table also contains a comparison column of causes of falls among elderly persons not living in institutions as summarized from seven detailed studies [21-28]. The distribution of causes clearly differs among the populations studied. Frail, high-risk persons living in institutions tend to have a higher incidence of falls caused by gait disorders, weakness, dizziness, and confusion, whereas the falls of community-living persons are more related to their environment. Table 2. Comparison of Causes of Falls in Nursing Home and Community-Living Populations: Summary of Studies That Carefully Evaluated Elderly Persons after a Fall and Specified a Most Likely Cause In the nursing home, weakness and gait problems were the most common causes of falls, accounting for about a quarter of reported cases. Studies have reported that the prevalence of detectable lower-extremity weakness ranges from 48% among community-living older persons [29] to 57% among residents of an intermediate-care facility [30] to more than 80% of residents of a skilled nursing facility [27]. Gait disorders affect 20% to 50% of elderly persons [31], and nearly three quarters of nursing home residents require assistance with ambulation or cannot ambulate [32]. Investigators of casecontrol studies in nursing homes have reported that more than two thirds of persons who have fallen have substantial gait disorders, a prevalence 2.4 to 4.8 times higher than the prevalence among persons who have not fallen [27, 30]. The cause of muscle weakness and gait problems is multifactorial. Aging introduces physical changes that affect strength and gait. On average, healthy older persons score 20% to 40% lower on strength tests than young adults [33], and, among chronically ill nursing home residents, strength is considerably less than that. Much of the weakness seen in the nursing home stems from deconditioning due to prolonged bedrest or limited physical activity and chronic debilitating medical conditions such as heart failure, stroke, or pulmonary disease. Aging is also associated with other deteriorations that impair gait, including increased postural sway; decreased gait velocity, stride length, and step height; prolonged reaction time; and decreased visual acuity and depth perception. Gait problems can also stem from dysfunction of the nervous, musculoskeletal, circulatory, or respiratory systems, as well as from simple deconditioning after a period of inactivity. Dizziness is commonly reported by elderly persons who have fallen and was the attributed cause in 25% of reported nursing home falls. This symptom is often difficult to evaluate because dizziness means different things to different people and has diverse causes. True vertigo, a sensation of rotational movement, may indicate a disorder of the vestibular apparatus such as benign positional vertigo, acute labyrinthitis, or Meniere disease. Symptoms described as imbalance on walking often reflect a gait disorder. Many residents describe a vague light-headedness that may reflect cardiovascular problems, hyperventilation, orthostatic hypotension, drug side effect, anxiety, or depression. Accidents, or falls stemming from environmental hazards, are a major cause of reported falls16% of nursing home falls and 41% of community falls. However, the circumstances of accidents are difficult to verify, and many falls in this category may actually stem from interactions between environmental hazards or hazardous activities and increased individual susceptibility to hazards because of aging and disease. Among impaired residents, even normal activities of daily living might be considered hazardous if they are done without assistance or modification. Factors such as decreased lower-extremity strength, poor posture control, and decreased step height all interact to impair the ability to avoid a fall after an unexpected trip or while reaching or bending. Age-associated impairments of vision, hearing, and memory also tend to increase the number of trips. Studies have shown that most falls in nursing homes occurred during transferring from a bed, chair, or wheelchair [3, 11]. Attempting to move to or from the bathroom and nocturia (which necessitates frequent trips to the bathroom) have also been reported to be associated with falls [34, 35] and fall-related fractures [9]. Environmental hazards that frequently contribute to these falls include wet floors caused by episodes of incontinence, poor lighting, bedrails, and improper bed height. Falls have also been reported to increase when nurse staffing is low, such as during breaks and at shift changes [4, 7, 9, 13], presumably because of lack of staff supervision. Confusion and cognitive impairment are frequently cited causes of falls and may reflect an underlying systemic or metabolic process (for example, electrolyte imbalance or fever). Dementia can increase the number of falls by impairing judgment, visual-spatial perception, and ability to orient oneself geographically. Falls also occur when residents with dementia wander, attempt to get out of wheelchairs, or climb over bed siderails. Orthostatic (postural) hypotension, usually defined as a decrease of 20 mm or more of systolic blood pressure after standing, has a 5% to 25% prevalence among normal elderly persons living at home [36]. It is even more common among persons with certain predisposing risk factors, including autonomic dysfunction, hypovolemia, low cardiac output, parkinsonism, metabolic and endocrine disorders, and medications (particularly sedatives, antihypertensives, vasodilators, and antidepressants) [37]. The orthostatic drop may be more pronounced on arising in the morning because the baroreflex response is diminished after prolonged recumbency, as it is after meals and after ingestion of nitroglycerin [38, 39]. Yet, despite its high prevalence, orthostatic hypotension infrequently causes falls, particularly outside of institutions. This is perhaps because of its transient nature, which makes it difficult to detect after the fall, or because most persons with orthostatic hypotension feel light-headed and will deliberately find a seat rather than fall. Drop attacks are defined as sudden falls without loss of consciousness and without dizziness, often precipitated by a sudden change in head position. This syndrome has been attributed to transient vertebrobasilar insufficiency, although it is probably caused by more diverse pathophysiologic mechanisms. Although early descriptions of geriatric falls identified drop attacks as a substantial cause, more recent studies have reported a smaller proportion of perso |
Drug prescription rates in secondary cardiovascular prevention in old age: Do vulnerability and severity of the history of cardiovascular disease matter? | OBJECTIVE
To assess the influence vulnerability and severity of cardiovascular disease (CVD), on prescription rates of secondary cardiovascular preventive drugs in old age.
DESIGN
Population-based observational study within the ISCOPE study.
SETTING
General practices in the Netherlands.
SUBJECTS
A total of 1350 patients with a history of CVD (median age 81 years, 50% female).
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
One-year prescription rates of lipid-lowering drugs and antithrombotics were obtained from the electronic medical records of 46 general practitioners (GPs). Prescription of both drugs for ≥ 270 days per year was considered optimal. GPs made a judgement of vulnerability. Severity of CVD was expressed as major (myocardial infarction, stroke, or arterial surgery) versus minor (angina, transient ischaemic attack, or claudication).
RESULTS
GPs considered 411 (30%) participants to be vulnerable and 619 (55%) participants had major CVD. Optimal treatment was prescribed to 680 (50%) participants, whereas 370 (27%) received an antithrombotic drug only, 53 (4%) a lipid-lowering drug only, and 247 (18%) received neither. Optimal treatment was lower in participants aged ≥ 85 years (OR 0.37 [95% CI 0.29-0.48]), in females (OR 0.63 [0.50-0.78]), in vulnerable persons (OR 0.79 [0.62-0.99]) and in participants with minor CVD (OR 0.65 [0.53-0.81]). Multivariate ORs remained similar whereas vulnerability lost its significance (OR 0.88 [0.69-1.1]).
CONCLUSION
In old age, GPs' judgement of vulnerability is not independently associated with lower treatment rates of both lipid-lowering drugs and antithrombotics, whereas a history of minor CVD is. Individual proactive re-evaluation of preventive treatment in older (female) patients, especially those with a history of minor CVD, is recommended. Key points Prescriptions of lipid-lowering drugs and antithrombotics in secondary cardiovascular prevention tend to decline with age. In this study with median age 81 years, 50% of participants received optimal treatment with both lipid-lowering drugs and antithrombotics. GPs' judgement of vulnerability was not independently associated with optimal treatment. A history of less severe cardiovascular disease was independently associated with lower prescription rates of lipid-lowering drugs and antithrombotics. Proactive individual re-evaluation of cardiovascular preventive treatment in older (female) patients, especially patients with less severe cardiovascular disease, is recommended. |
A note on maximizing a submodular set function subject to a knapsack constraint | In this paper, we obtain an (1 − e−1)-approximation algorithm for maximizing a nondecreasing submodular set function subject to a knapsack constraint. This algorithm requires O(n) function value computations. c © 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V. |
SemEval-2015 Task 2: Semantic Textual Similarity, English, Spanish and Pilot on Interpretability | In Semantic Textual Similarity (STS), systems rate the degree of semantic equivalence between two text snippets. This year, the participants were challenged with new datasets in English and Spanish. For the English subtask, we exposed the systems to a diversity of testing scenarios, by preparing additional pairs from headlines and image descriptions, as well as introducing new genres, including answer pairs from a tutorial dialogue system, answer pairs from Q&A websites, and pairs from a committed belief dataset. For the Spanish subtask, additional pairs from news and Wikipedia articles were selected. The annotations for both subtasks leveraged crowdsourcing. The English subtask attracted 29 teams with 74 system runs, and the Spanish subtask engaged 7 teams participating with 16 system runs. In addition, this year we ran a pilot task on Interpretable STS, where the systems needed to add an explanatory layer, that is, they had to align the chunks in the sentence pair, explicitly annotating the kind of relation and the score for the chunk pair. The train and test data were manually annotated by an expert, and included headline and image sentence pairs from previous years. 7 teams participated with 29 runs. |
Anonymizing moving objects: how to hide a MOB in a crowd? | Moving object databases (MOD) have gained much interest in recent years due to the advances in mobile communications and positioning technologies. Study of MOD can reveal useful information (e.g., traffic patterns and congestion trends) that can be used in applications for the common benefit. In order to mine and/or analyze the data, MOD must be published, which can pose a threat to the location privacy of a user. Indeed, based on prior knowledge of a user's location at several time points, an attacker can potentially associate that user to a specific moving object (MOB) in the published database and learn her position information at other time points.
In this paper, we study the problem of privacy-preserving publishing of moving object database. Unlike in microdata, we argue that in MOD, there does not exist a fixed set of quasi-identifier (QID) attributes for all the MOBs. Consequently the anonymization groups of MOBs (i.e., the sets of other MOBs within which to hide) may not be disjoint. Thus, there may exist MOBs that can be identified explicitly by combining different anonymization groups. We illustrate the pitfalls of simple adaptations of classical k-anonymity and develop a notion which we prove is robust against privacy attacks. We propose two approaches, namely extreme-union and symmetric anonymization, to build anonymization groups that provably satisfy our proposed k-anonymity requirement, as well as yield low information loss. We ran an extensive set of experiments on large real-world and synthetic datasets of vehicular traffic. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. |
Retinoic Acid Activity in Undifferentiated Neural Progenitors Is Sufficient to Fulfill Its Role in Restricting Fgf8 Expression for Somitogenesis | Bipotent axial stem cells residing in the caudal epiblast during late gastrulation generate neuroectodermal and presomitic mesodermal progeny that coordinate somitogenesis with neural tube formation, but the mechanism that controls these two fates is not fully understood. Retinoic acid (RA) restricts the anterior extent of caudal fibroblast growth factor 8 (Fgf8) expression in both mesoderm and neural plate to control somitogenesis and neurogenesis, however it remains unclear where RA acts to control the spatial expression of caudal Fgf8. Here, we found that mouse Raldh2-/- embryos, lacking RA synthesis and displaying a consistent small somite defect, exhibited abnormal expression of key markers of axial stem cell progeny, with decreased Sox2+ and Sox1+ neuroectodermal progeny and increased Tbx6+ presomitic mesodermal progeny. The Raldh2-/- small somite defect was rescued by treatment with an FGF receptor antagonist. Rdh10 mutants, with a less severe RA synthesis defect, were found to exhibit a small somite defect and anterior expansion of caudal Fgf8 expression only for somites 1-6, with normal somite size and Fgf8 expression thereafter. Rdh10 mutants were found to lack RA activity during the early phase when somites are small, but at the 6-somite stage RA activity was detected in neural plate although not in presomitic mesoderm. Expression of a dominant-negative RA receptor in mesoderm eliminated RA activity in presomitic mesoderm but did not affect somitogenesis. Thus, RA activity in the neural plate is sufficient to prevent anterior expansion of caudal Fgf8 expression associated with a small somite defect. Our studies provide evidence that RA restriction of Fgf8 expression in undifferentiated neural progenitors stimulates neurogenesis while also restricting the anterior extent of the mesodermal Fgf8 mRNA gradient that controls somite size, providing new insight into the mechanism that coordinates somitogenesis with neurogenesis. |
Osmophobia in migraine classification: a multicentre study in juvenile patients. | AIMS
This study was planned to investigate the diagnostic utility of osmophobia as criterion for migraine without aura (MO) as proposed in the Appendix (A1.1) of the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-II, 2004).
METHODS
We analysed 1020 patients presenting at 10 Italian juvenile headache centres, 622 affected by migraine (M) and 328 by tension-type headache (TTH); 70 were affected by headache not elsewhere classified (NEC) in ICHD-II. By using a semi-structured questionnaire, the prevalence of osmophobia was 26.9%, significantly higher in M than TTH patients (34.6% vs 14.3%).
RESULTS
Osmophobia was correlated with: (i) family history of M and osmophobia; and (ii) other accompanying symptoms of M. By applying these 'new' criteria, we found an agreement with the current criteria for the diagnosis of migraine without aura (MO) in 96.2% of cases; 54.3% of previously unclassifiable patients received a 'new' diagnosis.
CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, this study demonstrates that this new approach, proposed in the Appendix (A1.1), appears easy to apply and should improve the diagnostic standard of ICHD-II in young patients too. |
A Model for Understanding How Virtual Reality Aids Complex Conceptual Learning | Designers and evaluators of immersive virtual reality systems have many ideas concerning how virtual reality can facilitate learning. However, we have little information concerning which of virtual reality's features provide the most leverage for enhancing understanding or how to customize those affordances for different learning environments. In part, this reflects the truly complex nature of learning. Features of a learning environment do not act in isolation; other factors such as the concepts or skills to be learned, individual characteristics, the learning experience, and the interaction experience all play a role in shaping the learning process and its outcomes. Through Project Science Space, we have been trying to identify, use, and evaluate immersive virtual reality's affordances as a means to facilitate the mastery of complex, abstract concepts. In doing so, we are beginning to understand the interplay between virtual reality's features and other important factors in shaping the learning process and learning outcomes for this type of material. In this paper, we present a general model that describes how we think these factors work together and discuss some of the lessons we are learning about virtual reality's affordances in the context of this model for complex conceptual learning. |
Specification of Graph Translators with Triple Graph Grammars | Data integration is a key issue for any integrated set of software tools where each tool has its own data structures (at least on the conceptual level), but where we have many interdependencies between these private data structures. A typical CASE environment, for instance, offers tools for the manipulation of requirements and software design documents and provides more or less sophisticated assistance for keeping these documents in a consistent state. Up to now almost all of these data consistency observing or preserving integration tools are hand-crafted due to the lack of generic implementation frameworks and the absence of adequate specification formalisms. Triple graph grammars, a proper superset of pair grammars, are intended to fill this gap and to support the specification of interdependencies between graph-like data structures on a very high level. Furthermore, they form a solid fundament of a new machinery for the production of batch-oriented as well as incrementally working data integration tools. |
Does the Timing of Measurement Alter Session-RPE in Boxers? | The purpose of this study was to compare the influence of measuring the overall session rating of perceived exertion (session-RPE) at 10 vs. 30 minutes following exercise. Eight boxers completed three different standardized training sessions of different intensities (easy, moderate and hard) in a matchedpairs, randomized research design. Exercise intensity was assessed during each bout by measuring heart rate, blood lactate concentration and session-RPE. To assess the effect of measurement timing on session-RPE, RPE data were collected either 10 or 30 minutes post-exercise. There was no significant effect of measurement time on session-RPE values following easy (10 minutes: session-RPE = 1.3 ± 1.0 Arbitrary Unit (AU), %Heart Rate Reserve (HRR) = 49.5 ± 11.1, and ∆Blood lactate = -2.3 ± 16.3%; 30 minutes: session-RPE = 1.7 ± 1.0 AU, %HRR = 51.3 ± 10.8, and ∆Blood lactate = 0.7 ± 25.2%), moderate (10 minutes: session-RPE = 2.7 ± 1.6 AU, %HRR = 67.2 ± 10.8, and ∆Blood lactate = 2.2 ± 19%; 30 minutes: session-RPE = 2.5 ± 0.9 AU, %HRR = 67.2 ± 5.9, and ∆Blood lactate = 24.5 ± 17.1%) and hard (10 minutes: session-RPE = 5.7 ± 1.0 AU, %HRR = 88.1 ± 6.3, and ∆Blood lactate = 146.3 ± 87.9%; 30 minutes: session-RPE = 5.8 ± 1.9 AU, %HRR> = 83.3 ± 8.0, and ∆Blood lactate = 91.6 ± 39%) sessions. In conclusion, our findings suggest that session-RPE can be used in boxing training routines across a range of intensities and accurate measurements can be determined as early as 10 minutes after exercise. Key PointsIt is difficult to quantify and monitoring the external training load in martial arts (e.g. Aikido, Kung Fu, Judo) and physical combat sports (e.g. Boxing, Muay Thai), session RPE method appears to be a reliable method to quantifying training load in those sports.For many athletes it is impractical to wait 30 minutes after training session to provide a session-RPE. The present findings show that collecting ses-sion-RPE measures at 10 min following exercise ses-sions of various intensities (i.e. easy, moderate, and hard) provide similar values as if taken 30 min fol-lowing the session.Our data have significant practical benefit and fur-ther support the practical usefulness of session-RPE for measuring internal training load in sport. |
The control of hypertension by use of coconut water and mauby: two tropical food drinks. | In this study, the authors investigated the effect of regular consumption of two tropical food drinks, coconut (Cocos nucifera) water and mauby (Colubrina arborescens), on the control of hypertension. Twenty-eight hypertensive subjects were assigned to four equal groups and their systolic and diastolic blood pressures recorded for two weeks before and then for another two weeks while receiving one of four interventions. One group (the control) received bottled drinking water, the second group received coconut water, the third received mauby and the fourth group, a mixture of coconut water and mauby. Significant decreases in the mean systolic blood pressure were observed for 71%, 40% and 43% respectively of the groups receiving the coconut water, mauby and the mixture (p < or = 0.05). For these groups, the respective proportions showing significant decreases in the mean diastolic pressure were 29%, 40% and 57%. For the group receiving the mixture, the largest decreases in mean systolic and mean diastolic pressure were 24 mmHg and 15 mmHg respectively; these were approximately double the largest values seen with the single interventions. |
Intent Generation for Goal-Oriented Dialogue Systems based on Schema.org Annotations | Goal-oriented dialogue systems typically communicate with a backend (e.g. database, Web API) to complete certain tasks to reach a goal. The intents that a dialogue system can recognize are mostly included to the system by the developer statically. For an open dialogue system that can work on more than a small set of well curated data and APIs, this manual intent creation will not scalable. In this paper, we introduce a straightforward methodology for intent creation based on semantic annotation of data and services on the web. With this method, the Natural Language Understanding (NLU) module of a goal-oriented dialogue system can adapt to newly introduced APIs without requiring heavy developer involvement. We were able to extract intents and necessary slots to be filled from schema.org annotations. We were also able to create a set of initial training sentences for classifying user utterances into the generated intents. We demonstrate our approach on the NLU module of a state-of-the art dialogue system development framework. |
Impact of pharmacist intervention on adherence and measurable patient outcomes among depressed patients: a randomised controlled study | BACKGROUND
Adherence to antidepressant treatment is essential for the effective management of patients with major depressive disorder. Adherence to medication is a dynamic decision-making process, and pharmacists play an important role in improving adherence to antidepressant treatment in different settings within the healthcare system. The aim of this study was to assess whether pharmacist interventions based on shared decision making improved adherence and patient-related outcomes.
METHODS
This was a randomised controlled study with a 6-month follow-up. Participants were randomly allocated to two groups: 1) intervention group (IG) (usual pharmacy services plus pharmacist interventions based on shared decision making); or 2) control group (CG) (usual pharmacy services). Recruited patients fulfilled the following inclusion criteria: aged 18 to 60 years diagnosed with a major depressive disorder, and no history of psychosis or bipolar disorders. A research assistant blinded to the group allocations collected all data.
RESULTS
Two hundred and thirty-nine patients met the inclusion criteria and were randomised to the IG (n = 119) or CG (n = 120). Nineteen patients dropped out of the study during the follow-up phase. After 6 months, patients in the IG had significantly more favorable medication adherence, treatment satisfaction, general overuse beliefs, and specific concern beliefs. However, the groups did not differ in severity of depression or health-related quality of life after 6 months.
CONCLUSIONS
Our findings emphasise the important role of pharmacists in providing direct patient care in regular pharmacy practice to improve adherence to medications and other patient-reported outcomes.
TRIAL REGISTRATION
ISRCTN34879893, Date assigned: 30/12/2014. |
Sim-to-Real Robot Learning from Pixels with Progressive Nets | Applying end-to-end learning to solve complex, interactive, pixeldriven control tasks on a robot is an unsolved problem. Deep Reinforcement Learning algorithms are too slow to achieve performance on a real robot, but their potential has been demonstrated in simulated environments. We propose using progressive networks to bridge the reality gap and transfer learned policies from simulation to the real world. The progressive net approach is a general framework that enables reuse of everything from low-level visual features to highlevel policies for transfer to new tasks, enabling a compositional, yet simple, approach to building complex skills. We present an early demonstration of this approach with a number of experiments in the domain of robot manipulation that focus on bridging the reality gap. Unlike other proposed approaches, our realworld experiments demonstrate successful task learning from raw visual input on a fully actuated robot manipulator. Moreover, rather than relying on modelbased trajectory optimisation, the task learning is accomplished using only deep reinforcement learning and sparse rewards. |
Neural Abstractive Text Summarization with Sequence-to-Sequence Models | In the past few years, neural abstractive text summarization with sequence-to-sequence (seq2seq) models have gained a lot of popularity. Many interesting techniques have been proposed to improve the seq2seq models, making them capable of handling different challenges, such as saliency, fluency and human readability, and generate high-quality summaries. Generally speaking, most of these techniques differ in one of these three categories: network structure, parameter inference, and decoding/generation. There are also other concerns, such as efficiency and parallelism for training a model. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive literature and technical survey on different seq2seq models for abstractive text summarization from viewpoint of network structures, training strategies, and summary generation algorithms. Many models were first proposed for language modeling and generation tasks, such as machine translation, and later applied to abstractive text summarization. Therefore, we also provide a brief review of these models. As part of this survey, we also develop an open source library, namely Neural Abstractive Text Summarizer (NATS) toolkit, for the abstractive text summarization. An extensive set of experiments have been conducted on the widely used CNN/Daily Mail dataset to examine the effectiveness of several different neural network components. Finally, we benchmark two models implemented in NATS on two recently released datasets, i.e., Newsroom and Bytecup. |
Humans are still the best lossy image compressors | Lossy image compression has been studied extensively in the context of typical loss functions such as RMSE, MS-SSIM, etc. However, it is not well understood what loss function might be most appropriate for human perception. Furthermore, the availability of massive public image datasets appears to have hardly been exploited in image compression. In this work, we perform compression experiments in which one human describes images to another, using publicly available images and text instructions. These image reconstructions are rated by human scorers on the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform and compared to reconstructions obtained by existing image compressors. In our experiments, the humans outperform the state of the art compressor WebP in the MTurk survey on most images, which shows that there is significant room for improvement in image compression for human perception. Data: The images, results and additional data is available at https://compression. stanford.edu/human-compression. |
A randomized phase II presurgical trial of weekly low-dose tamoxifen versus raloxifene versus placebo in premenopausal women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer | We previously demonstrated that 1 or 5 mg per day of tamoxifen (T) given for four weeks before surgery reduces Ki-67 in breast cancer (BC) patients to the same extent as the standard 20 mg/d. Given the long half-life of T, a weekly dose (10 mg per week (w)) may be worth testing. Also, raloxifene (R) has shown Ki-67 reduction in postmenopausal patients in a preoperative setting, but data in premenopausal women are limited. We conducted a randomized trial testing T 10 mg/w vs. R 60 mg/d vs. placebo in a presurgical model. Out of 204 screened subjects, 57 were not eligible, 22 refused to participate and 125 were included in the study. The participants were all premenopausal women with estrogen receptor-positive BC. They were randomly assigned to either T 10mg/w or R 60 mg/d or placebo for six weeks before surgery. The primary endpoint was tissue change of Ki-67. Secondary endpoints were modulation of estrogen and progesterone receptors and several other circulating biomarkers. Ki-67 was not significantly modulated by either treatment. In contrast, both selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) significantly modulated circulating IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio, cholesterol, fibrinogen and antithrombin III. Estradiol was increased with both SERMs. Within the tamoxifen arm, CYP2D6 polymorphism analysis showed a higher concentration of N-desTamoxifen, one of the tamoxifen metabolites, in subjects with reduced CYP2D6 activity. Moreover, a reduction of Ki-67 and a marked increase of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) were observed in the active phenotype. A weekly dose of tamoxifen and a standard dose of raloxifene did not inhibit tumor cell proliferation, measured as Ki-67 expression, in premenopausal BC patients. However, in the tamoxifen arm women with an extensive phenotype for CYP2D6 reached a significant Ki-67 modulation. |
Entrepreneurial Development and Interventionist Agencies in Nigeria | The focus of this paper is on entrepreneurial development and analysis of Interventionist Agencies in Nigeria. It examines the critical stages or sphere of development required of the entrepreneur in order to enable him perform his strategic functions in the organization and in the context of organizational strategic management in Nigeria. In pursuit of the focus of this paper, it treats numerous issues (an overview inclusive). It also examines the entrepreneurial roles and factors affecting its strategic management importance. Furthermore it x-rays in detail the three-skill approach to entrepreneurial development. These include technical, human and conceptual skills. It analyzes some government interventionist institutions and agencies established to encourage entrepreneurial development in Nigeria. The paper posits that though there is a widespread knowledge of the efficacy of entrepreneurial development mix, integrated entrepreneurial development efforts indicates that several of the institutions established by government concentrated on a partial approach to entrepreneurial development programme. Finally, it concludes and recommends four priorities agenda to enhance the entrepreneurial development in Nigeria. |
Training Complex Decision Support Systems with Differential Evolution Enhanced by Locally Linear Embedding | This paper aims at improving the training process of complex decision support systems, where evolutionary algorithms are used to integrate a large number of decision rules in a form of a weighted average. It proposes an enhancement of Differential Evolution by Locally Linear Embedding to process objective functions with correlated variables, which focuses on detecting local dependencies among variables of the objective function by analyzing the manifold in the search space that contains the current population and transforming it to a reduced search space. Experiments performed on some popular benchmark functions as well as on a financial decision support system confirm that the method may significantly improve the search process in the case of objective functions with a large number of variables, which usually occur in many practical applications. |
Chaplin: The Tramp's Odyssey | An Everyman who expressed the defiant spirit of freedom, Charlie Chaplin was first lauded and later reviled in the America that made him Hollywood's richest man. He was a figure of multiple paradoxes, and many studies have sought to unveil 'the man behind the mask'. Louvish charts the tale of the Tramp himself through his films - from the early Mack Sennett shorts through the major features ("The Gold Rush", "City Lights", "Modern Times", "The Great Dictator" et al.) He weighs the relationship between the Tramp, his creator, and his world-wide fans, and in doing so retrieves Chaplin as the iconic London street-kid who carried the 'surreal' antics of early BritishMusic Hall triumphantly onto the Hollywood screen. Louvish also looks anew at Chaplin's and the Tramp's social and political ideas - the challenge to fascism, defiance of the McCarthyite witch-hunts, eventual 'exile', and last mature disguises as the serial-killer Monsieur Verdoux and the dying English clown Calvero in Limelight. This book is an epic journey, summing up the roots of Comedy and its appeal to audiences everywhere, who revelled in the clown's raw energy, his ceaseless struggle against adversity, and his capacity to represent our own fears, foibles, dreams, inner demons and hopes. |
Additive efficacy of short-acting bronchodilators on dynamic hyperinflation and exercise tolerance in stable COPD patients treated with long-acting bronchodilators. | The purpose of this study was to clarify the additive efficacy of short-acting β(2)-agonists (SABA) or muscarinic antagonists (SAMA) on dynamic hyperinflation and exercise tolerance in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who had been treated with long-acting bronchodilators. Thirty-two patients with stable COPD who had been treated with long-acting bronchodilators, including long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMA), were examined by pulmonary function tests, dynamic hyperinflation evaluated by the method of step-wise metronome-paced incremental hyperventilation, and the incremental shuttle walking test before and after inhalation of SABA or SAMA. The additive efficacy of the two drugs was analyzed. Inhalation of SABA and SAMA improved airflow limitation and dynamic hyperinflation in stable COPD patients who had been treated with LAMA. Inhalation of SABA decreased respiratory resistance and the difference in respiratory resistance at 5 Hz and 20 Hz. On the whole, the additive efficacy of SABA on airflow limitation and dynamic hyperinflation was superior to that of SAMA. Furthermore, inhalation of SABA resulted in relief of breathlessness during exercise and significant improvement in exercise capacity. Inhalation of SABA resulted in significant improvement in exercise tolerance, which may have been due to improvement in dynamic hyperinflation. Single use of SABA before exercise, in addition to regular treatment with LAMA, may therefore be useful in stable COPD patients. |
Clinical practice. Graves' disease. | Copyright © 2008 Massachusetts Medical Society. A 23-year-old woman presents with palpitations. Over the past 6 months, she has reported loose stools, a 10-lb (4.5-kg) weight loss despite a good appetite and food intake, and increased irritability. She appears to be anxious and has a pulse of 119 beats per minute and a blood pressure of 137/80 mm Hg. Her thyroid gland is diffusely and symmetrically enlarged to twice the normal size, and it is firm and nontender; a thyroid bruit is audible. She has an eyelid lag, but no proptosis or periorbital edema. The serum thyrotropin level is 0.02 μU per milliliter (normal range, 0.35 to 4.50) and the level of free thyroxine is 4.10 ng per deciliter (normal range, 0.89 to 1.76). How should she be further evaluated and treated? |
A novel privacy preserving authentication and access control scheme for pervasive computing environments | Privacy and security are two important but seemingly contradictory objectives in a pervasive computing environment (PCE). On one hand, service providers want to authenticate legitimate users and make sure they are accessing their authorized services in a legal way. On the other hand, users want to maintain the necessary privacy without being tracked down for wherever they are and whatever they are doing. In this paper, a novel privacy preserving authentication and access control scheme to secure the interactions between mobile users and services in PCEs is proposed. The proposed scheme seamlessly integrates two underlying cryptographic primitives, namely blind signature and hash chain, into a highly flexible and lightweight authentication and key establishment protocol. The scheme provides explicit mutual authentication between a user and a service while allowing the user to anonymously interact with the service. Differentiated service access control is also enabled in the proposed scheme by classifying mobile users into different service groups. The correctness of the proposed authentication and key establishment protocol is formally verified based on Burrows-Abadi-Needham logic |
An end-to-end approach to making self-folded 3D surface shapes by uniform heating | This paper presents an end-to-end approach for creating 3D shapes by self-folding planar sheets activated by uniform heating. These shapes can be used as the mechanical bodies of robots. The input to this process is a 3D geometry (e.g. an OBJ file). The output is a physical object with the specified geometry. We describe an algorithm pipeline that (1) identifies the overall geometry of the input, (2) computes a crease pattern that causes the sheet to self-fold into the desired 3D geometry when activated by uniform heating, (3) automatically generates the design of a 2D sheet with the desired pattern and (4) automatically generates the design files required to fabricate the 2D structure. We demonstrate these algorithms by applying them to complex 3D shapes. We demonstrate the fabrication of a self-folding object with over 50 faces from automatically generated design files. |
Semantic Sentence Matching with Densely-connected Recurrent and Co-attentive Information | Sentence matching is widely used in various natural language tasks such as natural language inference, paraphrase identification, and question answering. For these tasks, understanding logical and semantic relationship between two sentences is required but it is yet challenging. Although attention mechanism is useful to capture the semantic relationship and to properly align the elements of two sentences, previous methods of attention mechanism simply use a summation operation which does not retain original features enough. Inspired by DenseNet, a densely connected convolutional network, we propose a densely-connected co-attentive recurrent neural network, each layer of which uses concatenated information of attentive features as well as hidden features of all the preceding recurrent layers. It enables preserving the original and the co-attentive feature information from the bottommost word embedding layer to the uppermost recurrent layer. To alleviate the problem of an ever-increasing size of feature vectors due to dense concatenation operations, we also propose to use an autoencoder after dense concatenation. We evaluate our proposed architecture on highly competitive benchmark datasets related to sentence matching. Experimental results show that our architecture, which retains recurrent and attentive features, achieves state-of-the-art performances for most of the tasks. |
提高地理素质教育的途径之一——借鉴香港“LIVING GEOGRAPHY”的经验 | )教材(以下简称"教材").列举一些章节内容,体现地理学科知识与日常生活各种现象的紧密联系,打破以往地理学的逻辑系统,摆脱从理论到理论传统的束缚,摒弃死记硬背的学习方法,为提高学生学习地理知识和技能的兴趣,提供了一套素质教育的范本. |
BLEWS: Using Blogs to Provide Context for News Articles | An overwhelming number of news articles are available every day via the internet. Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to peruse more than a handful; furthermore it is difficult to ascertain an article’s social context, i.e., is it popular, what sorts of people are reading it, etc. In this paper, we develop a system to address this problem in the restricted domain of political news by harnessing implicit and explicit contextual information from the blogosphere. Specifically, we track thousands of blogs and the news articles they cite, collapsing news articles that have highly overlapping content. We then tag each article with the number of blogs citing it, the political orientation of those blogs, and the level of emotional charge expressed in the blog posts that link to the news article. We summarize and present the results to the user via a novel visualization which displays this contextual information; the user can then find the most popular articles, the articles most cited by liberals, the articles most emotionally discussed in the political blogosphere, etc. |
Use of trajectory and spatiotemporal features for retrieval of videos with a prominent moving foreground object | This paper presents generalized spatiotemporal analysis and lookup tool (GESTALT), an unsupervised framework for content-based video retrieval. GESTALT takes a query video and retrieves “similar” videos from the database. Motion and dynamics of appearance (shape) patterns of a prominent moving foreground object are considered as the key components of the video content and captured using corresponding feature descriptors. GESTALT automatically segments the moving foreground object from the given query video shot and estimates the motion trajectory. A graph-based framework is used to explicitly capture the structural and kinematics property of the motion trajectory, while an improved version of an existing spatiotemporal feature descriptor is proposed to model the change in object shape and movement over time. A combined match cost is computed as a convex combination of the two match scores, using these two feature descriptors, which is used to rankorder the retrieved video shots. Effectiveness of GESTALT is shown using extensive experimentation, and comparative study with recent techniques exhibits its superiority. |
An efficient forward private RFID protocol | Radio Frequency IDentifiers (RFID) are low-cost pervasive devices used in various settings for identification purposes: although they have originally been introduced to ease the supply chain management, they are already used in many other applications. Some of these applications need secure identification and ad-hoc authentication protocols have to be designed for that purpose. But the intrusion of RFID in the life of end-users might additionally require a higher level of user-privacy. Such security and privacy requirements conflict with the highly constrained environment of RFID systems. Ohkubo, Suzuki, and Kinoshita first proposed an appealing RFID protocol that meets the highest privacy requirements. However, their scheme and its known variants suffer from limitations in terms of computational complexity and provable security which this paper aims to address. We propose a novel forward private authentication scheme built upon less computationally expensive cryptographic ingredients, namely pseudo-random generators and universal hash functions instead of one way hash functions. In contrast with existing schemes, we provide security proofs of our construction in the standard model instead of the random oracle model. |
One-year outcome after prehospital intubation. | BACKGROUND
The aim of physician staffed emergency medical services (EMS) is to supplement other EMS units in the care of prehospital patients. The need for advanced airway management in critical prehospital patients can be considered as one indicator of the severity of the patient's condition. Our primary aim was to study the long-term outcome of critically ill patients (excluding cardiac arrest) who were intubated by EMS physicians in the prehospital setting.
METHODS
Data of 845 patients, whose airways were secured by the EMS physicians during a 5-year (2007-2011) period, were retrospectively evaluated. After exclusions, the outcome of 483 patients (8.9% of all patients treated by EMS) was studied. Evaluation was based on hospital patient records 1 year after the incident. For assessment of neurological outcome, a modified Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS) was used. Time and cause of death were recorded.
RESULTS
55.3% of the study patients had a good neurological recovery (GOS 4-5) with independent life 1 year after the event. The overall 1-year mortality (GOS 1) was 35.0%. Poor neurological outcome (GOS 2-3) was found in 9.7% of the patients. Patients with intoxication or convulsions survived best, while those with suspected intracranial pathology had the worst prognosis. Of all survivors, 85% recovered well.
CONCLUSION
The majority of the study patients had a favourable neurological recovery with independent life at 1 year after the incident. More than 80% of all deaths occurred within 30 days of the incident. |
Taxonomy for description of cross-domain attacks on CPS | The pervasiveness of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) in various aspects of the modern society grows rapidly. This makes CPS to increasingly attractive targets for various kinds of attacks. We consider cyber-security as an integral part of CPS security. Additionally, the necessity exists to investigate the CPS-specific aspects which are out of scope of cyber-security. Most importantly, attacks capable to cross the cyber-physical domain boundary should be analyzed. The vulnerability of CPS to such cross-domain attacks has been practically proven by numerous examples, e.g., by the currently most famous Stuxnet attack. In this paper, we propose taxonomy for description of attacks on CPS. The proposed taxonomy is capable of representing both conventional cyber-attacks as well as cross-domain attacks on CPS. Furthermore, based on the proposed taxonomy, we define the attack categorization. Several possible application areas of the proposed taxonomy are extensively discussed. Among others, it can be used to establish a knowledge base about attacks on CPS known in the literature. Furthermore, the proposed description structure will foster the quantitative and qualitative analysis of these attacks, both of which are necessarily to improve CPS security. |
IoT security attacks using reverse engineering methods on WSN applications | With the rapid technological advancements of sensors, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have become a popular technology for the Internet of Things (IoT). We investigated the security of WSNs in an environmental monitoring application with the goal to demonstrate the overall security. We implemented a Secure Temperature Monitoring System (STMS), which served as our WSN application. Our results revealed a security flaw found in the bootstrap loader (BSL) password used to protect MSP430 micro-controller units (MCUs). We demonstrated how the BSL password could be brute forced in a matter of days. Furthermore, we illustrate how an attacker can reverse engineer WSN applications to obtain critical security information such as encryption keys. We contribute a solution to patch the weak BSL password security flaw and improve the security of MSP430 MCU chips. The Secure-BSL patch we contribute allows the randomization of the BSL password. Our solution increases the brute force time to decades. The impractical brute force time enhances the security of the MSP430 and prevents future reverse engineering tactics. Our research serves as proof that the security of WSNs and the overall IoT technology is broken if we cannot protect these everyday objects at the physical layer. |
An EMG Interface for the Control of Motion and Compliance of a Supernumerary Robotic Finger | In this paper, we propose a novel electromyographic (EMG) control interface to control motion and joints compliance of a supernumerary robotic finger. The supernumerary robotic fingers are a recently introduced class of wearable robotics that provides users additional robotic limbs in order to compensate or augment the existing abilities of natural limbs without substituting them. Since supernumerary robotic fingers are supposed to closely interact and perform actions in synergy with the human limbs, the control principles of extra finger should have similar behavior as human's ones including the ability of regulating the compliance. So that, it is important to propose a control interface and to consider the actuators and sensing capabilities of the robotic extra finger compatible to implement stiffness regulation control techniques. We propose EMG interface and a control approach to regulate the compliance of the device through servo actuators. In particular, we use a commercial EMG armband for gesture recognition to be associated with the motion control of the robotic device and surface one channel EMG electrodes interface to regulate the compliance of the robotic device. We also present an updated version of a robotic extra finger where the adduction/abduction motion is realized through ball bearing and spur gears mechanism. We have validated the proposed interface with two sets of experiments related to compensation and augmentation. In the first set of experiments, different bimanual tasks have been performed with the help of the robotic device and simulating a paretic hand since this novel wearable system can be used to compensate the missing grasping abilities in chronic stroke patients. In the second set, the robotic extra finger is used to enlarge the workspace and manipulation capability of healthy hands. In both sets, the same EMG control interface has been used. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed control interface is intuitive and can successfully be used, not only to control the motion of a supernumerary robotic finger but also to regulate its compliance. The proposed approach can be exploited also for the control of different wearable devices that has to actively cooperate with the human limbs. |
Incorporating Body Dynamics into the Sensor-Based Motion Planning Paradigm. The Maximum Turn Strategy | The existing approaches to sensor-based motion planning tend to deal solely with kinematic and geometric issues, and ignore the system dynamics. This work attempts to incorporate body dynamics into the paradigm of sensor-based motion planning. We consider the case of a mass point robot operating in a planar environment with unknown arbitrary stationary obstacles. Given the constraints on the robot’s dynamics, sensing, and control means, conditions are formulated for generating trajectories which guarantee convergence and the robot’s safety at all times. The approach calls for continuous computation and is fast enough for real time implementation. The robot plans its motion based on its velocity, control means, and sensing information about the surrounding obstacles, and such that in case of a sudden potential collision it can always resort to a safe emergency stopping path. Simulated examples demonstrate the algorithm’s performance. |
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