Detailed Pilots Specification

The Electronic Archiving Service consists of a series of activities covered by software tools and manual workflow steps. These tools are currently partly in existence, some are being developed by E-ARK project, many more are to be added by developments of the digital preservation community in the future. The role of this report is to identify the most relevant scenarios for the E-ARK Service, define which scenario which level of activity is needed in order to bridge the gap of the currently existing solutions (e.g. integration, software development, interface definition

Documentation, Common Information and Short Overview of the E-ARK pilots

This report contains the common information and short overview of the pilots, along with references to the final version of the Pilot Definition Excel files and Pilot Documentation Packages

Best Practice:SIP specification, records export requirements, transfer and ingest

This report provides an overview of the current situation of the digital archiving best practices. Special attention is placed on archival ingest workflows, submission information package formats used for transfer and ingest of digital objects and their metadata. Records export best practices are covered as well. The report consists of the following parts: • introduction; • description of the methods used for the analysis; • overview of the results with short descriptions of practices, standards and tools; • recommendations for the E-ARK project; • appendices (the survey questions, an assessment of the interviewed stakeholders, the questions from the qualitative interview and a terminology list). The study concentrates on the following topics from the archival workflow: • Records export (Pre-Ingest workflow steps); • Steps in Ingest workflow; • Submission information packages (SIP) used. Highlighted points of this best practice report for E-ARK work are: • One high-level (pre-) ingest workflow is proposed in section 4 which consists of 4 phases of the PAIMAS methodology, but several existing workflow parts must be examined more deeply to include the common steps to the E-ARK archiving workflow; • E-ARK needs to develop detailed and commonly understood requirements for the records export process which include procedures for data selection, extraction, metadata mapping, validation and quality control as these are currently lacking; • One high-level SIP structure is proposed in section 4. (Recommendation for further work), but several existing SIP physical and logical structures must be examined more deeply to include the common aspects of formats used at archives into the E-ARK SIP specification

Cost effectiveness of disc prosthesis versus lumbar fusion in patients with chronic low back pain: randomized controlled trial with 2-year follow-up

This randomized controlled health economic study assesses the cost-effectiveness of the concept of total disc replacement (TDR) (Charité/Prodisc/Maverick) when compared with the concept of instrumented lumbar fusion (FUS) [posterior lumbar fusion (PLF) /posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF)]. Social and healthcare perspectives after 2 years are reported. In all, 152 patients were randomized to either TDR (n = 80) or lumbar FUS (n = 72). Cost to society (total mean cost/patient, Swedish kronor = SEK, standard deviation) for TDR was SEK 599,560 (400,272), and for lumbar FUS SEK 685,919 (422,903) (ns). The difference was not significant: SEK 86,359 (−45,605 to 214,332). TDR was significantly less costly from a healthcare perspective, SEK 22,996 (1,202 to 43,055). Number of days on sick leave among those who returned to work was 185 (146) in the TDR group, and 252 (189) in the FUS group (ns). Using EQ-5D, the total gain in quality adjusted life years (QALYs) over 2 years was 0.41 units for TDR and 0.40 units for FUS (ns). Based on EQ-5D, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of using TDR instead of FUS was difficult to analyze due to the “non-difference” in treatment outcome, which is why cost/QALY was not meaningful to define. Using cost-effectiveness probabilistic analysis, the net benefit (with CI) was found to be SEK 91,359 (−73,643 to 249,114) (ns). We used the currency of 2006 where 1 EURO = 9.26 SEK and 1 USD = 7.38 SEK. It was not possible to state whether TDR or FUS is more cost-effective after 2 years. Since disc replacement and lumbar fusion are based on different conceptual approaches, it is important to follow these results over time

Recommended Practices and Final Public Report on Pilots

This report summarizes pilot activities, achievements and best practice recommendations using the following chapter structure: Chapter 1 - This introductory chapter. Chapter 2 - Planning and executing the E-ARK pilots Summary of all pilot related activities in the 3 years of the pilot, from planning to evaluation. Chapter 3 - Pilot overview A brief overview of the full-scale and additional pilots. Chapter 4 - Pilot report Summary of the pilot execution and results with recommended practices and further development recommendations. The chapter consists of the following sections for each full-scale pilot: Pilot scenario details Execution report Changes to previous plans Feedback report, and Recommended practices and lessons learnt. Chapter 4 ends with an overview of the external evaluations performed by non-EARK member organizations. Chapter 5 - Pilot evaluation Evaluation of the full-scale pilot against project objectives and success criteria. Chapter 6 - Referenced documents and web pages Appendix 1 – Extract from E-ARK Description of Wor

Atlas of prostate cancer heritability in European and African-American men pinpoints tissue-specific regulation

Although genome-wide association studies have identified over 100 risk loci that explain ∼33% of familial risk for prostate cancer (PrCa), their functional effects on risk remain largely unknown. Here we use genotype data from 59,089 men of European and African American ancestries combined with cell-type-specific epigenetic data to build a genomic atlas of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) heritability in PrCa. We find significant differences in heritability between variants in prostate-relevant epigenetic marks defined in normal versus tumour tissue as well as between tissue and cell lines. The majority of SNP heritability lies in regions marked by H3k27 acetylation in prostate adenoc7arcinoma cell line (LNCaP) or by DNaseI hypersensitive sites in cancer cell lines. We find a high degree of similarity between European and African American ancestries suggesting a similar genetic architecture from common variation underlying PrCa risk. Our findings showcase the power of integrating functional annotation with genetic data to understand the genetic basis of PrCa

Factors Associated with Revision Surgery after Internal Fixation of Hip Fractures

Background: Femoral neck fractures are associated with high rates of revision surgery after management with internal fixation. Using data from the Fixation using Alternative Implants for the Treatment of Hip fractures (FAITH) trial evaluating methods of internal fixation in patients with femoral neck fractures, we investigated associations between baseline and surgical factors and the need for revision surgery to promote healing, relieve pain, treat infection or improve function over 24 months postsurgery. Additionally, we investigated factors associated with (1) hardware removal and (2) implant exchange from cancellous screws (CS) or sliding hip screw (SHS) to total hip arthroplasty, hemiarthroplasty, or another internal fixation device. Methods: We identified 15 potential factors a priori that may be associated with revision surgery, 7 with hardware removal, and 14 with implant exchange. We used multivariable Cox proportional hazards analyses in our investigation. Results: Factors associated with increased risk of revision surgery included: female sex, [hazard ratio (HR) 1.79, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25-2.50; P = 0.001], higher body mass index (fo

On design principles for self-organizing network functions

With an increasing number of SON functions deployed in cellular radio networks, conflicts between the actions proposed by independently-designed and distributed SON functions may arise. The process of minimizing the occurrence, and the consequences, of such conflicts is referred to as SON coordination. SON coordination can be achieved either by a separate entity, a SON coordinator, controlling the actions of each SON function during operation, or in the design of the SON functions as such, through a conflict free SON design. In both cases, the SON functions should be designed in a way compliant with the coordination method used. This paper proposes a number of SON design principles to apply in order to achieve this. In the case of an operational SON coordinator, SON functions should be able to deal with the possible actions that are taken by the SON coordination function in order not to worsen the problems experienced in the network. In the case of conflict free SON design the aim is at removing potential conflicts already in the design phase. The ambition of this paper is not to provide a complete set of design guidelines that address all aspects. Instead, the target is to open up the discussion on the distributed SON design principles in the community