From M-ary Query to Bit Query: a new strategy for efficient large-scale RFID identification

The tag collision avoidance has been viewed as one of the most important research problems in RFID communications and bit tracking technology has been widely embedded in query tree (QT) based algorithms to tackle such challenge. Existing solutions show further opportunity to greatly improve the reading performance because collision queries and empty queries are not fully explored. In this paper, a bit query (BQ) strategy based Mary query tree protocol (BQMT) is presented, which can not only eliminate idle queries but also separate collided tags into many small subsets and make full use of the collided bits. To further optimize the reading performance, a modified dual prefixes matching (MDPM) mechanism is presented to allow multiple tags to respond in the same slot and thus significantly reduce the number of queries. Theoretical analysis and simulations are supplemented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed BQMT and MDPM, which outperform the existing QT-based algorithms. Also, the BQMT and MDPM can be combined to BQMDPM to improve the reading performance in system efficiency, total identification time, communication complexity and average energy cost

Complete Order alpha_s^3 Results for e^+ e^- to (gamma,Z) to Four Jets

We present the next-to-leading order (O(alpha_s^3)) perturbative QCD predictions for e^+e^- annihilation into four jets. A previous calculation omitted the O(alpha_s^3) terms suppressed by one or more powers of 1/N_c^2, where N_c is the number of colors, and the `light-by-glue scattering' contributions. We find that all such terms are uniformly small, constituting less than 10% of the correction. For the Durham clustering algorithm, the leading and next-to-leading logarithms in the limit of small jet resolution parameter y_{cut} can be resummed. We match the resummed results to our fixed-order calculation in order to improve the small y_{cut} prediction.Comment: Latex2e, 17 pages with 5 encapsulated figures. Note added regarding subsequent related work. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Toward more sustainable tropical agriculture with cover crops: Soil microbiome responses to nitrogen management

Cover crops are a potential pathway for ecological cultivation in agricultural systems. In tropical no-till agricultural systems, the maintenance of residues on the soil surface and the addition of nitrogen (N) benefit the growth and grain yield of cash crops as well as the chemical and physical properties of the soil. However, the effects of these management practices on the soil microbiota are largely unknown. Here, we evaluated the effects of the timing of N application as a pulse disturbance and the growth of different cover crop species before maize in rotation on soil properties, maize productivity, and soil bacterial and fungal community diversity and composition. N fertilizer was applied either on live cover crops (palisade grass or ruzigrass), on cover crop straw just before maize seeding or in the maize V4 growth stage. Soils previously cultivated with palisade grass established similar microbial communities regardless of N application timing, with increases in total bacteria, total archaea, nutrients, and the C:N ratio. The soil microbial alpha diversity in treatments with palisade grass did not vary with N application timing, whereas the bacterial and fungal diversities in the treatments with ruzigrass decreased when N was applied to live ruzigrass or maize in the V4 growth stage. We conclude that palisade grass is a more suitable cover crop than ruzigrass, as palisade grass enhanced soil microbial diversity and maize productivity regardless of N application timing. Ruzigrass could be used as an alternative to palisade grass when N is applied during the straw phase. However, considering the entire agricultural system (soil–plant–microbe), ruzigrass is not as efficient as palisade grass in tropical no-till cover crop–maize rotation systems. Palisade grass is a suitable cover crop alternative for enhancing maize productivity, soil chemical properties and nutrient cycling, regardless of the timing of N application. Additionally, this study demonstrates that a holistic approach is valuable for evaluating soil diversity and crop productivity in agricultural systems

PYTHIA 6.4 Physics and Manual

The PYTHIA program can be used to generate high-energy-physics `events', i.e. sets of outgoing particles produced in the interactions between two incoming particles. The objective is to provide as accurate as possible a representation of event properties in a wide range of reactions, within and beyond the Standard Model, with emphasis on those where strong interactions play a role, directly or indirectly, and therefore multihadronic final states are produced. The physics is then not understood well enough to give an exact description; instead the program has to be based on a combination of analytical results and various QCD-based models. This physics input is summarized here, for areas such as hard subprocesses, initial- and final-state parton showers, underlying events and beam remnants, fragmentation and decays, and much more. Furthermore, extensive information is provided on all program elements: subroutines and functions, switches and parameters, and particle and process data. This should allow the user to tailor the generation task to the topics of interest.Comment: 576 pages, no figures, uses JHEP3.cls. The code and further information may be found on the PYTHIA web page: http://www.thep.lu.se/~torbjorn/Pythia.html Changes in version 2: Mistakenly deleted section heading for "Physics Processes" reinserted, affecting section numbering. Minor updates to take into account referee comments and new colour reconnection option

Clinical features and therapeutic management of patients admitted to Italian acute hospital psychiatric units: the PERSEO (psychiatric emergency study and epidemiology) survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The PERSEO study (psychiatric emergency study and epidemiology) is a naturalistic, observational clinical survey in Italian acute hospital psychiatric units, called SPDCs (Servizio Psichiatrico Diagnosi e Cura; in English, the psychiatric service for diagnosis and management). The aims of this paper are: (i) to describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients, including sociodemographic features, risk factors, life habits and psychiatric diagnoses; and (ii) to assess the clinical management, subjective wellbeing and attitudes toward medications.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 62 SPDCs distributed throughout Italy participated in the study and 2521 patients were enrolled over the 5-month study period.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Almost half of patients (46%) showed an aggressive behaviour at admission to ward, but they engaged more commonly in verbal aggression (38%), than in aggression toward other people (20%). A total of 78% of patients had a psychiatric diagnosis at admission, most frequently schizophrenia (36%), followed by depression (16%) and personality disorders (14%), and no relevant changes in the diagnoses pattern were observed during hospital stay. Benzodiazepines were the most commonly prescribed drugs, regardless of diagnosis, at all time points. Overall, up to 83% of patients were treated with neuroleptic drugs and up to 27% received more than one neuroleptic either during hospital stay or at discharge. Atypical and conventional antipsychotics were equally prescribed for schizophrenia (59 vs 65% during stay and 59 vs 60% at discharge), while atypical drugs were preferred in schizoaffective psychoses (72 vs 49% during stay and 70 vs 46% at discharge) and depression (41 vs 32% during stay and 44 vs 25% at discharge). Atypical neuroleptics were slightly preferred to conventional ones at hospital discharge (52 vs 44%). Polypharmacy was in general widely used. Patient attitudes toward medications were on average positive and self-reported compliance increased during hospital stay.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Results confirm the widespread use of antipsychotics and the increasing trend in atypical drugs prescription, in both psychiatric in- and outpatients.</p

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362

International nosocomial infection control consortium (INICC) report, data summary of 36 countries, for 2004-2009

The results of a surveillance study conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) from January 2004 through December 2009 in 422 intensive care units (ICUs) of 36 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe are reported. During the 6-year study period, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN; formerly the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance system [NNIS]) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infections, we gathered prospective data from 313,008 patients hospitalized in the consortium's ICUs for an aggregate of 2,194,897 ICU bed-days. Despite the fact that the use of devices in the developing countries' ICUs was remarkably similar to that reported in US ICUs in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were significantly higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals; the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infection in the INICC ICUs of 6.8 per 1,000 central line-days was more than 3-fold higher than the 2.0 per 1,000 central line-days reported in comparable US ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia also was far higher (15.8 vs 3.3 per 1,000 ventilator-days), as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (6.3 vs. 3.3 per 1,000 catheter-days). Notably, the frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates to imipenem (47.2% vs 23.0%), Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (76.3% vs 27.1%), Escherichia coli isolates to ceftazidime (66.7% vs 8.1%), Staphylococcus aureus isolates to methicillin (84.4% vs 56.8%), were also higher in the consortium's ICUs, and the crude unadjusted excess mortalities of device-related infections ranged from 7.3% (for catheter-associated urinary tract infection) to 15.2% (for ventilator-associated pneumonia). Copyright © 2012 by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Combined Therapy (ultrasound And Interferential Current) In Patients With Fibromyalgia: Once Or Twice In A Week?

Background and Purpose: Combined Therapy (CT) composed of ultrasound and Interferential Therapy has been reported as a cost-effective, local analgesic intervention on tender points in Fibromyalgia (FM). This study aims to investigate the difference between CT applied once a week and twice a week in patients with FM. Method: Fifty patients with the diagnosis of FM were randomized into two groups (G1=once a week treatment and G2=twice a week treatment) with each group containing 25 patients. All eighteen tender points were assessed and treated with CT during each session, over a three-month time period. Interferential Therapy was modulated at 4,000Hz of current carrier, 100Hz of amplitude modulated frequency and at a bearable sensorial threshold of intensity. Pulsed ultrasound of 1MHz at 20% of 2.5W/cm2 was used. For evaluation, the Visual Analogue Scale, Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, Post Sleep Inventory and the tender point count were utilized, and the examiner was blinded to the group assignments. Results: G1 and G2 showed a significant improvement in Visual Analogue Scale (p&lt;0.0001 and p&lt;0.0005, respectively), Tender Points (p&lt;0.005 and p&lt;0.001, respectively), Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire and Post Sleep Inventory (p&lt;0.005 and p&lt;0.05, respectively). However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in all performed analyses. 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