Starkbender8783
Text classification has many applications in text processing and information retrieval. Instance-based learning (IBL) is among the top-performing text classification methods. However, its effectiveness depends on the distance function it uses to determine similar documents. In this study, we evaluate some popular distance measures' performance and propose new ones that exploit word frequencies and the ordinal relationship between them. In particular, we propose new distance measures that are based on the value distance metric (VDM) and the inverted specific-class distance measure (ISCDM). The proposed measures are suitable for documents represented as vectors of word frequencies. We compare these measures' performance with their original counterparts and with powerful Naïve Bayesian-based text classification algorithms. We evaluate the proposed distance measures using the kNN algorithm on 18 benchmark text classification datasets. Our empirical results reveal that the distance metrics for nominal values render better classification results for text classification than the Euclidean distance measure for numeric values. Furthermore, our results indicate that ISCDM substantially outperforms VDM, but it is also more susceptible to make use of the ordinal nature of term-frequencies than VDM. Thus, we were able to propose more ISCDM-based distance measures for text classification than VDM-based measures. We also compare the proposed distance measures with Naïve Bayesian-based text classification, namely, multinomial Naïve Bayes (MNB), complement Naïve Bayes (CNB), and the one-versus-all-but-one (OVA) model. It turned out that when kNN uses some of the proposed measures, it outperforms NB-based text classifiers for most datasets.
Males have a higher prevalence of waterpipe tobacco smoking (WTS) than females in most Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) countries, with a smaller gender gap than that of cigarette smoking. The objective of this study was to determine gender differences among university students with respect to WTS initiation, smoking behavior, tobacco flavors, and expenditure on WTS, in four EMR countries.
A cross-sectional online survey was conducted based on convenient samples of ever waterpipe smokers among university students in four EMR countries (Egypt, Jordan, Occupied Palestinian Territories, and the United Arab Emirates) in 2016. The total samples included 2470 participants. Study participants were invited through flyers, university portals, emails and Facebook, followed by emails with links to the internet survey.
Females (80.4%) were more likely than males (66.4%, p<0.001) to be in the younger age group (18-22 years) and they were less likely to be current waterpipe smokers (females, 60.0%; males 69.5%, p<0.001). Two-thirds of students across both genders smoked their first waterpipe at the age of 15-19 years, with more females starting with family members. Over one-third of males and 14.9% of the females usually smoked ≥10 heads (p<0.001). About half (46.6%) of females smoked for less than half an hour compared to 30.5% of males (p<0.001). EGF816 Only 1% of females smoked non-flavored tobacco compared to 11% of males (p<0.001). There was a significant (p=0.05) positive correlation (r=0.808) with respect to tobacco flavor usually smoked between males and females with apple/double apple being the most popular.
There were gender differences in WTS in several aspects. The study has implications for educational establishments, tobacco control and women civil society groups, as well as policymakers.
There were gender differences in WTS in several aspects. The study has implications for educational establishments, tobacco control and women civil society groups, as well as policymakers.Primary mucinous adenocarcinoma of the renal pelvis is an extremely rare tumor with only a handful of cases reported to date. Clinical and radiological features are not specific, and hence, histopathological examination holds the key for definitive diagnosis. This tumor has mainly been described in the elderly population, with less than five cases reported in individuals aged less then 35 years. Here, we report a case of primary mucinous adenocarcinoma of the renal pelvis in a young male. A 31-year-old male presented with a history of right-sided flank pain for the past year. On examination, he had right-sided costovertebral tenderness. Computed tomography (CT) scan revealed the presence of a hyperdense mass lesion in the right renal pelvis with severe hydronephrosis and cortical thinning. Because of the non-functioning status, right nephrectomy was performed. To our surprise, histopathology showed the presence of mucinous adenocarcinoma of the renal pelvis with carcinoma in situ of the ureter. This case describes a rare presentation of primary mucinous adenocarcinoma of the renal pelvis, and highlights the importance of histopathological examination in reaching the correct diagnosis.Objective General practitioners (GPs) play a key role in the provision of general outpatient palliative care (AAPV) for the majority of patients at the end of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of End-of-Life Care (EoLC) from a GPs' perspective using the German version of the General Practice End of Life Care Index (GP-EoLC-I). Methods Between autumn 2018 and spring 2019, all registered and eligible GPs in two counties in Lower Saxony (n=190) were asked to participate in a survey on EoLC using the German version of the self-assessment questionnaire GP-EoLC-I. The index comprises two subscales clinical care (13 items) and practice organisation (12 items). The summated index of both subscales measures the quality of EoLC by GPs (25 items; range 14-40). The questionnaire was supplemented by questions on sociodemographic data, indicators for good palliative care (PC) and requirements to improve PC. Quantitative data were analysed by descriptive statistics and free text answers by conventionals was applied. The GP-EoLC-I in this study was slightly lower than the index of GPs in the United Kingdom. Including relatives and family carers, implementing tools to support early identification of PC patients and strengthening cooperation between GPs and other stakeholders in PC may be promising approaches to improve general PC and EoLC in Germany.Previous studies using contrast-enhanced imaging for glioma isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutation assessment showed promising yet inconsistent results, and this study attempts to explore this problem by using an advanced tracer kinetic model, the distributed parameter model (DP). Fifty-five patients with glioma examined using dynamic contrast-enhanced imaging sequence at a 3.0 T scanner were retrospectively reviewed. The imaging data were processed using DP, yielding the following parameters blood flow F, permeability-surface area product PS, fractional volume of interstitial space Ve, fractional volume of intravascular space Vp, and extraction ratio E. The results were compared with the Tofts model. The Wilcoxon test and boxplot were utilized for assessment of differences of model parameters between IDH-mutant and IDH-wildtype gliomas. Spearman correlation r was employed to investigate the relationship between DP and Tofts parameters. Diagnostic performance was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and quantified using the area under the ROC curve (AUC). Results showed that IDH-mutant gliomas were significantly lower in F (P = 0.018), PS (P 0.8), both of which were not statistically significant. The findings by DP revealed a tissue environment with lower vascularity, lower vessel permeability, and lower blood flow in IDH-mutant than in IDH-wildtype gliomas, being hostile to cellular differentiation of oncogenic effects in IDH-mutated gliomas, which might help to explain the better outcomes in IDH-mutated glioma patients than in glioma patients of IDH-wildtype. The advantage of DP over Tofts in glioma DCE data analysis was demonstrated in terms of clearer elucidation of tissue microenvironment and better performance in IDH mutation assessment.We present the design of a powered knee-ankle prosthetic leg, which implements high-torque actuators with low-reduction transmissions. The transmission coupled with a high-torque and low-speed motor creates an actuator with low mechanical impedance and high backdrivability. This style of actuation presents several possible benefits over modern actuation styles in emerging robotic prosthetic legs, which include free-swinging knee motion, compliance with the ground, negligible unmodeled actuator dynamics, less acoustic noise, and power regeneration. Benchtop tests establish that both joints can be backdriven by small torques (~1-3 Nm) and confirm the small reflected inertia. Impedance control tests prove that the intrinsic impedance and unmodeled dynamics of the actuator are sufficiently small to control joint impedance without torque feedback or lengthy tuning trials. Walking experiments validate performance under the designed loading conditions with minimal tuning. Lastly, the regenerative abilities, low friction, and small reflected inertia of the presented actuators reduced power consumption and acoustic noise compared to state-of-art powered legs.A special place among vegetable oils was occupied by natural tobacco oil. Natural tobacco oil in folk medicine is used as an antiseptic and antibacterial agent. To determine the possible alternative use of tobacco, the seeds representing Kazakhstan tobacco cultivars, extracted from ground Nicotiana tabacum seeds, were investigated by using the cold press. The quality of the oil was assessed in terms of free fatty acid content. The percentage oil yield was 36.75 ± 0.50%. Tobacco seed oil is highly unsaturated, nonacidic, and would require little purification. The oil can be used for the production of soap, antiwrinkle cream for the face, hair shampoo, shoe cream, and as a high-resolution base oil for perfumes and light industry and can be commercialized due to its high oil yield, for use as anti-inflammatory drugs.
Crocin as an important constituent of saffron has antineuropathic pain properties; however, the exact mechanism of this effect is not known. The aim of this study was whether the hypoalgesic effect of crocin can be exerted through muscarinic receptors.
In the present project, 36 male Wistar rats (200 ± 20 g) were used. Animals randomly divided into six groups (sham, neuropathy, neuropathy + crocin, neuropathy + atropine 0.5 mg/kg, neuropathy + atropine 1 mg/kg, and neuropathy + atropine 1 mg/kg + crocin). Neuropathy was induced by the chronic constriction injury (CCI) method on the sciatic nerve. Crocin and atropine was administered intraperitoneally during 14 days following the 14
day after surgery. Pain response was detected every three days, two hours after each injection and 3 days following last injection. Mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia were detected using the Von Frey filaments and plantar test device, respectively.
CCI significantly reduced the paw withdrawal response to mechanical and thermal stimulus (
< 0.01 and
< 0.05, respectively). Crocin therapy significantly reduced mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia induced by CCI (
< 0.05). Atropine pretreatment significantly blocked the hypoalgesic effect of crocin (
< 0.05 in mechanical allodynia and
< 0.01 in thermal hyperalgesia). Fourteen days administration of atropine alone at a dose of 0.5 mg/kg but not 1 mg/kg significantly reduced CCI-induced mechanical allodynia at day 30 after surgery.
Crocin significantly decreased CCI-induced neuropathic pain. The hypoalgesic effect of crocin was blocked by atropine pretreatment, which indicates an important role for muscarinic receptors in the effect of crocin.
Crocin significantly decreased CCI-induced neuropathic pain. The hypoalgesic effect of crocin was blocked by atropine pretreatment, which indicates an important role for muscarinic receptors in the effect of crocin.
