Proximity Full-Text Search with a Response Time Guarantee by Means of Additional Indexes

Full-text search engines are important tools for information retrieval. Term proximity is an important factor in relevance score measurement. In a proximity full-text search, we assume that a relevant document contains query terms near each other, especially if the query terms are frequently occurring words. A methodology for high-performance full-text query execution is discussed. We build additional indexes to achieve better efficiency. For a word that occurs in the text, we include in the indexes some information about nearby words. What types of additional indexes do we use? How do we use them? These questions are discussed in this work. We present the results of experiments showing that the average time of search query execution is 44-45 times less than that required when using ordinary inverted indexes. This is a pre-print of a contribution "Veretennikov A.B. Proximity Full-Text Search with a Response Time Guarantee by Means of Additional Indexes" published in "Arai K., Kapoor S., Bhatia R. (eds) Intelligent Systems and Applications. IntelliSys 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 868" published by Springer, Cham. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01054-6_66. The work was supported by Act 211 Government of the Russian Federation, contract no 02.A03.21.0006.Comment: Alexander B. Veretennikov. Chair of Calculation Mathematics and Computer Science, INSM. Ural Federal Universit

Culture-specific programs for children and adults from minority groups who have asthma (Review)

Background People with asthma who come from minority groups have poorer asthma outcomes and more asthma related visits to Emergency Departments (ED). Various programmes are used to educate and empower people with asthma and these have previously been shown to improve certain asthma outcomes. Models of care for chronic diseases in minority groups usually include a focus of the cultural context of the individual and not just the symptoms of the disease. Therefore, questions about whether culturally specific asthma education programmes for people from minority groups are effective at improving asthma outcomes, are feasible and are cost-effective need to be answered. Objectives To determine whether culture-specific asthma programmes, in comparison to generic asthma education programmes or usual care, improve asthma related outcomes in children and adults with asthma who belong to minority groups. Search strategy We searched the Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), the Cochrane Airways Group Specialised Register, MEDLINE, EMBASE, review articles and reference lists of relevant articles. The latest search was performed in May 2008. Selection criteria All randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the use of culture-specific asthma education programmes with generic asthma education programmes, or usual care, in adults or children from minority groups who suffer from asthma. Data collection and analysis Two review authors independently selected, extracted and assessed the data for inclusion. We contacted authors for further information if required. Main results Four studies were eligible for inclusion in the review. A total of 617 patients, aged from 5 to 59 years were included in the meta-analysis of data. Use of a culture-specific programme was superior to generic programmes or usual care, in improving asthma quality of life scores in adults, pooled WMD 0.25 (95% CI 0.09 to 0.41), asthma knowledge scores in children, WMD 3.30 (95% CI 1.07 to 5.53), and in a single study, reducing asthma exacerbation in children (risk ratio for hospitalisations 0.32, 95% CI 0.15, 0.70). Authors' conclusions Current limited data show that culture-specific programmes for adults and children from minority groups with asthma, are more effective than generic programmes in improving most (quality of life, asthma knowledge, asthma exacerbations, asthma control) but not all asthma outcomes. This evidence is limited by the small number of included studies and the lack of reported outcomes. Further trials are required to answer this question conclusively

Factor V Leiden and thrombosis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: a meta-analysis.

The aim of this study was to perform a meta-analysis of the association between the factor V Leiden polymorphism (FVL) and thrombosis among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and/or antiphospholipid antibody (aPL) positivity. Included studies recruited patients based on SLE or aPL-positive status, confirmed subjects' SLE diagnosis as defined by the American College of Rheumatology, and documented thrombotic events. Excluded studies were non-English or considered only arterial thrombosis. Individual patient data, available from 5 studies, together with unpublished data from 1210 European-American SLE patients from the UCSF Lupus Genetics Collection genotyped for FVL, were further analyzed. Seventeen studies (n=2090 subjects) were included in the initial meta-analysis. Unadjusted odds ratios (OR) were calculated to assess association of FVL with thrombosis. The OR for association of thrombosis with FVL was 2.88 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.98-4.20). In the secondary analysis with our individual patient dataset (n=1447 European-derived individuals), SLE subjects with the FVL polymorphism still had more than two times the odds of thrombosis compared to subjects without this polymorphism, even when adjusting for covariates such as gender, age and aPL status. SLE and/or aPL-positive patients with the FVL variant have more than two times the odds of thrombosis compared to those without this polymorphism

A review of research on regulation changes in the Asia-Pacific region

In this study, we review the financial research on regulation in the Asia-Pacific region. We do this by analysing six leading regional accounting and finance journals – Abacus, Accounting & Finance, Australian Accounting Review, Australian Journal of Management, International Review of Finance and the Pacific-Basin Finance Journal. We identify five main themes of regulation research relating to: (i) banking and financial institutions, (ii) markets and trading, (iii) corporate governance, (iv) disclosure and (v) accounting standard setting. Our paper synthesises the regional literature in these areas and provide some suggestions for future directions

Cough quality in children: a comparison of subjective vs. bronchoscopic findings

BACKGROUND: Cough is the most common symptom presenting to doctors. The quality of cough (productive or wet vs dry) is used clinically as well as in epidemiology and clinical research. There is however no data on the validity of cough quality descriptors. The study aims were to compare (1) cough quality (wet/dry and brassy/non-brassy) to bronchoscopic findings of secretions and tracheomalacia respectively and, (2) parent's vs clinician's evaluation of the cough quality (wet/dry). METHODS: Cough quality of children (without a known underlying respiratory disease) undergoing elective bronchoscopy was independently evaluated by clinicians and parents. A 'blinded' clinician scored the secretions seen at bronchoscopy on pre-determined criteria and graded (1 to 6). Kappa (K) statistics was used for agreement, and inter-rater and intra-rater agreement examined on digitally recorded cough. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine if cough quality related to amount of airway secretions present at bronchoscopy. RESULTS: Median age of the 106 children (62 boys, 44 girls) enrolled was 2.6 years (IQR 5.7). Parent's assessment of cough quality (wet/dry) agreed with clinicians' (K = 0.75, 95%CI 0.58–0.93). When compared to bronchoscopy (bronchoscopic secretion grade 4), clinicians' cough assessment had the highest sensitivity (0.75) and specificity (0.79) and were marginally better than parent(s). The area under the ROC curve was 0.85 (95%CI 0.77–0.92). Intra-observer (K = 1.0) and inter-clinician agreement for wet/dry cough (K = 0.88, 95%CI 0.82–0.94) was very good. Weighted K for inter-rater agreement for bronchoscopic secretion grades was 0.95 (95%CI 0.87–1). Sensitivity and specificity for brassy cough (for tracheomalacia) were 0.57 and 0.81 respectively. K for both intra and inter-observer clinician agreement for brassy cough was 0.79 (95%CI 0.73–0.86). CONCLUSIONS: Dry and wet cough in children, as determined by clinicians and parents has good clinical validity. Clinicians should however be cognisant that children with dry cough may have minimal to mild airway secretions. Brassy cough determined by respiratory physicians is highly specific for tracheomalacia

Tailoring asthma treatment on eosinophilic markers (exhaled nitric oxide or sputum eosinophils): a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Asthma guidelines guide health practitioners to adjust treatments to the minimum level required for asthma control. As many people with asthma have an eosinophilic endotype, tailoring asthma medications based on airway eosinophilic levels (sputum eosinophils or exhaled nitric oxide, FeNO) may improve asthma outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To synthesise the evidence from our updated Cochrane systematic reviews, for tailoring asthma medication based on eosinophilic inflammatory markers (sputum analysis and FeNO) for improving asthma-related outcomes in children and adults. DATA SOURCES: Cochrane reviews with standardised searches up to February 2017. STUDY SELECTION: The Cochrane reviews included randomised controlled comparisons of tailoring asthma medications based on sputum analysis or FeNO compared with controls (primarily clinical symptoms and/or spirometry/peak flow). RESULTS: The 16 included studies of FeNO-based management (seven in adults) and 6 of sputum-based management (five in adults) were clinically heterogeneous. On follow-up, participants randomised to the sputum eosinophils strategy (compared with controls) were significantly less likely to have exacerbations (62 vs 82/100 participants with ≥1 exacerbation; OR 0.36, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.62). For the FeNO strategy, the respective numbers were adults OR 0.60 (95% CI 0.43 to 0.84) and children 0.58 (95% CI 0.45 to 0.75). However, there were no significant group differences for either strategy on daily inhaled corticosteroids dose (at end of study), asthma control or lung function. CONCLUSION: Adjusting treatment based on airway eosinophilic markers reduced the likelihood of asthma exacerbations but had no significant impact on asthma control or lung function

Flood Inundation Analysis Using HEC-6 And Arcview GIS 3.2a

An integration procedure namely AVHEC6.avx has been created between Arc View GIS 3.2a and HEC-6 hydraulic model to perform flood inundation analysis. The procedure was tested using hydraulic and hydrological data for Pari River channel and floodplain with the reach approximately 4 km long

Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS) – Malaysian Experiences.

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) have been used widely in USA, Europe, Japan and Australia to name a few developed countries