162 research outputs found

    Out-Of-Band Management on UEFI System Firmware

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    The modern Redfish is a specification that utilize RESTful interface semantics to access data defined in model format to perform out-of-band (OOB) management through specific OOB software or hardware (such as Baseboard Management Controller, BMC). The OOB management allow users to configure system remotely when the system is in either power-off or power-on state. Industry can expect there are more and more pre-boot firmware drivers (like UEFI drivers) and system peripherals (such as PCI devices, PCI add-on-card and so on) support Redfish Schema/Configuration data model in the near future. This article describes the method to abstract the data communication/synchronization between UEFI drivers and OOB management on UEFI firmware environment. Furthermore, this article is not only restricted to single OOB management on system, the abstracts method described in this article is flexible and extensible to support multiple OOB management instances on one system simultaneously. Not only Redfish OOB management data model is supported, this article fulfills the requirements of any other data model of OOB managements such as OData XML/JSON data model, CIM-XML data model, 3rd party data model and etc

    18F-FDG PET/CT-based gross tumor volume definition for radiotherapy in head and neck Cancer: a correlation study between suitable uptake value threshold and tumor parameters

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To define a suitable threshold setting for gross tumor volume (GTV) when using <sup>18</sup>Fluoro-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography and computed tomogram (PET/CT) for radiotherapy planning in head and neck cancer (HNC).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fifteen HNC patients prospectively received PET/CT simulation for their radiation treatment planning. Biological target volume (BTV) was derived from PET/CT-based GTV of the primary tumor. The BTVs were defined as the isodensity volumes when adjusting different percentage of the maximal standardized uptake value (SUVmax), excluding any artifact from surrounding normal tissues. CT-based primary GTV (C-pGTV) that had been previously defined by radiation oncologists was compared with the BTV. Suitable threshold level (sTL) could be determined when BTV value and its morphology using a certain threshold level was observed to be the best fitness of the C-pGTV. Suitable standardized uptake value (sSUV) was calculated as the sTL multiplied by the SUVmax.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our result demonstrated no single sTL or sSUV method could achieve an optimized volumetric match with the C-pGTV. The sTL was 13% to 27% (mean, 19%), whereas the sSUV was 1.64 to 3.98 (mean, 2.46). The sTL was inversely correlated with the SUVmax [sTL = -0.1004 Ln (SUVmax) + 0.4464; R<sup>2 </sup>= 0.81]. The sSUV showed a linear correlation with the SUVmax (sSUV = 0.0842 SUVmax + 1.248; R<sup>2 </sup>= 0.89). The sTL was not associated with the value of C-pGTVs.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In PET/CT-based BTV for HNC, a suitable threshold or SUV level can be established by correlating with SUVmax rather than using a fixed threshold.</p

    Persistent surgical wound bleeding: A rare condition related to acquired hemophilia A

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    SummaryAcquired hemophilia A (AHA) is a rare condition that predisposes affected patients to a bleeding tendency, even after a trivial physical insult. We present our experience with a 45-year-old male patient who was referred to our institute because of persistent bleeding from a left forearm surgical wound after fasciotomy. He was diagnosed as having AHA. Surgical treatment in combination with recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa) led to a satisfactory result. Clinical awareness and multidisciplinary professional connections are necessary in the treatment of AHA. Acquired hemophilia should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients with uncontrolled bleeding episodes

    Seroprevalence and Severity of 2009 Pandemic Influenza A H1N1 in Taiwan

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    BACKGROUND: This study is to determine the seroprevalence of the pandemic influenza A H1N1 virus (pH1N1) in Taiwan before and after the 2009 pandemic, and to estimate the relative severity of pH1N1 infections among different age groups. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A total of 1544 and 1558 random serum samples were collected from the general population in Taiwan in 2007 and 2010, respectively. Seropositivity was defined by a hemagglutination inhibition titer to pH1N1 (A/Taiwan/126/09) ≥1:40. The seropositivity rate of pH1N1 among the unvaccinated subjects and national surveillance data were used to compare the proportion of infections that led to severe diseases and fatalities among different age groups. The overall seroprevalence of pH1N1 was 0.91% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.43-1.38) in 2007 and significantly increased to 29.9% (95% CI 27.6-32.2) in 2010 (p<0.0001), with the peak attack rate (55.4%) in 10-17 year-old adolescents, the lowest in elderly ≥65 years (14.1%). The overall attack rates were 20.6% (188/912) in unvaccinated subjects. Among the unvaccinated but infected populations, the estimated attack rates of severe cases per 100,000 infections were significantly higher in children aged 0-5 years (54.9 cases, odds ratio [OR] 4.23, 95% CI 3.04-5.90) and elderly ≥ 65 years (22.4 cases, OR 2.76, 95% CI 1.99-3.83) compared to adolescents aged 10-17 years (13.0 cases). The overall case-fatality rate was 0.98 per 100,000 infections without a significant difference in different age groups. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Pre-existing immunity against pH1N1 was rarely identified in Taiwanese at any age in 2007. Young children and elderly--the two most lower seroprotection groups showed the greatest vulnerability to clinical severity after the pH1N1 infections. These results imply that both age groups should have higher priority for immunization in the coming flu season

    Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

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    Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P &lt; 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

    Insensible CR Scheme for Contention-based Wireless Network

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    隨著無線網路技術的發展,造成了所制定的許多無線網路標準必須共享無線傳輸頻帶。然而另一方面,也因為許多不穩定的資料流採用最高需求流量和許多爆發性的資料現象,造成在大部分的時間,頻道的使用率是相當低的。因此,無線傳輸頻道的這項資源是相當珍貴的,而技術關於提昇或是平衡頻道的使用率也被高度地重視。感知無線電(Cognitive Radio)技術於是被發展來解決這項問題。感知無線電的技術包含了許多範圍,包括不被察覺地使用頻帶的空檔、學習使用者之行為、自動調整以適應外在環境的變化等。這篇論文提出了一個可以確保主要使用者傳輸品質的感知借取演算法(cognitive borrowing algorithm)。在可以掃描環境的前提之下,若採用這個演算法,感知無線電通訊可以增加頻帶的使用率,並且對主要使用者只產生極小傷害。此外,此演算法還有分散式系統、適應性、低運算複雜度、和公平性等等優點。With the fast development of wireless technology, a lot of user demands rely on wireless communication. Therefore, many wireless network standards are developed for certain purpose and that causes the radio frequency spectrums of the standards to have the overlap part. On the other hand, because of the usage of many requests from instable multimedia traffic and some user behavior of bursted traffic, the utilization of the channel might be low in most of the time. Therefore, the limited radio frequency spectra are treasurable. Issues about increasing or balancing spectrum utilization become more important. Moreover, issues about using spectrum holes have also been focused. CR (Cognitive Radio) technology is now developing for solving this critical problem. CR device is able to use a large range of frequency spectrum. The goal of CR is raise the channel utilization without influencing the original users. CR technology includes many aspects of researches, such as reusing spectrum holes invisibly, learning form users’ behavior, adjusting changes form the environment automatically. This thesis gives out a cognitive borrowing algorithm which can ensure the QoS of primary users. By using this algorithm with environment scanning capability, CR traffics increase the utilization of the channel with only rare damage to prior users. Moreover, the algorithm has the advantages of decentralized system, flexibility, low computing complexity, and fairness.Contents Abstract 5 中文摘要 6 1 Introduction 7 1.1 Importance of Channel Utilization 7 1.2 Traditional Ways to Raise Channel Utilization 9 1.3 Cognitive Radio 14 2 Related Works 18 2.1 Active Groups and Ongoing Researches about CR 18 2.2 Channel Modeling Researches 19 2.3 Channel State Learning 22 3 Proposed Cognitive Borrowing Algorithm 25 3.1 Decentralized CR System 25 3.2 Cognitive Borrowing algorithm 28 3.3 Historical Maintenance and Complexity analysis32 3.4 Fairness 33 4 Simulation Results 36 5 Conclusion 55 6 Reference 5

    Determination of X-Ray Diffraction on the Phase Transformation of Microwave-Assisted Titanate Nanotubes during Thermal Treatment

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    Based on the determination of X-ray powder diffraction, this study aims to investigate the thermal effect on the phase transformation of microwave-assisted titanate nanotubes (MTNTs). The phase transformation is highly dependent on the intercalating amount of Na(I) within MTNTs and on the heating atmosphere. In other words, the presence of Na(I) favors the transformation of TNTs phase into Na2Ti6O13 whereas anatase phase selectively formed in the case of MTNTs with less Na(I) amount. Furthermore, H2 versus O2 is able to form anatase phase and establish a newly transformation pathway. The photocatalytic ability of the calcined MTNTs was also evaluated based on the observed rate constant of trichloroethylene degradation. In addition to anatase phase, the newly phase including Na2Ti6O13 and Ti2O3 with calcined MTNTs is able to photocatalyze trichloroethylene. MTNTs calcined with the presence of H2 also exhibit a superior photocatalytic performance to P25 TiO2
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