Class of 2006 Abstract / Background: The processes’ underlying a recent rise in the rate of Clostridium difficile associated diarrhea (CDAD) at the Southern Arizona Veterans Administration Health Care System (SAVAHS) is unclear. Past changes to formulary in workhorse oral flouroquinolone from levofloxacin to gatifloxacin are under scrutiny. An infection-control component was also possible. Methods: 142 patients suspected of having CDAD had stool specimens submitted for toxin assay from late July to late Oct of 2004. A retrospective chart review was performed using the Veterans Administration Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) to examine total antibiotic use in the three months prior to having specimens submitted for laboratory toxin analysis. A subset-analysis was performed on 100 specimens submitted for toxin analysis. Parallel culture was performed and 9 isolates of C. difficile were obtained for molecular analysis and fingerprinting. Results: Of the 142 patients sampled, 20 tested positive for C. difficile toxin with the remaining 122 patients testing negative. Antibiotic usage was categorized by total antibiotic use and gatifloxacin use. 98 patients received at least 1 antibiotic within the preceding 3 months with 44 patients receiving no antibiotic therapy of any kind. Of the 98 patients that received antibiotic therapy, 44 received gatifloxacin, however, all of these patients also received at least one other antibiotic. Of the nine isolates fingerprinted, two distinct genetic clusters were identified.

With the growing popularity of the Web Ontology Language (OWL) as a logic-based ontology language, as well as advancements in the language itself, the need for more sophisticated and up-to-date ontology engineering services increases as well. While, for instance, there is active focus on new reasoners and optimisations, other services fall short of advancing at the same rate (it suffices to compare the number of freely-available reasoners with ontology editors). In particular, very little is understood about how ontologies evolve over time, and how reasoners’ performance varies as the input changes. Given the evolving nature of ontologies, detecting and presenting changes (via a so-called diff) between them is an essential engineering service, especially for version control systems or to support change analysis. In this thesis we address the diff problem for description logic (DL) based ontologies, specifically OWL 2 DL ontologies based on the SROIQ DL. The outcomes are novel algorithms employing both syntactic and semantic techniques to, firstly, detect axiom changes, and what terms had their meaning affected between ontologies, secondly, categorise their impact (for example, determining that an axiom is a stronger version of another), and finally, align changes appropriately, i.e., align source and target of axiom changes (so the stronger axiom with the weaker one, from our example), and axioms with the terms they affect. Subsequently, we present a theory of reasoner performance heterogeneity, based on field observations related to reasoner performance variability phenomena. Our hypothesis is that there exist two kinds of performance behaviour: an ontology/reasoner combination can be performance-homogeneous or performance-heterogeneous. Finally, we verify that performance-heterogeneous reasoner/ontology combinations contain small, performance-degrading sets of axioms, which we call hot spots. We devise a performance hot spot finding technique, and show that hot spots provide a promising basis for engineering efficient reasoners.

This work describes development of a diff tool working with audio files containing general sound such as music, speech and other sounds. There are presented facts from different domains of science related to sound, such as psychoacoustics, speech recognition and automatic music genre categorisation. This paper also contains description of some diff algorithms and external tools needed for development of the goal application. Moreover, there is introduced design and implementation of the application, settings used for sound features extraction and evaluation of attained results.

This thesis deals with comparing different types of files, especially source codes. It describes the problem of comparing source code and different ways of solving this problem, from simple line comparison, to AST comparison. Chosen method was comparison based on lexical analysis. This is also described in the work with instruments of its automation. The goal of this thesis is to design and implement modular application, which compares different types of files. The implemented module compares source code in programming languages C/C++, Java a Python. This module is easily extendable for comparisons with other languages.

Auf dem Gebiet der Klinischen Studien sind präzise Begriffsdefinitionen äußerst wichtig, um eine objektive Datenerfassung und -auswertung zu gewährleisten. Zudem ermöglichen sie externen Experten die Forschungsergebnisse korrekt zu interpretieren und anzuwenden. Allerdings weisen viele Klinische Studien Defizite in diesem Punkt auf: Definitionen sind oft ungenau oder werden implizit verwendet. Außerdem sind Begriffe oft uneinheitlich definiert, obwohl standardisierte Definitionen im Hinblick auf einen weitreichenderen Austausch von Ergebnissen wünschenswert sind. Vor diesem Hintergrund entstand die Idee des Data Dictionary, dessen Ziel zunächst darin besteht, die Definitionsalternativen von Begriffen zu sammeln und Klinischen Studien zur Verfügung zu stellen. Zusätzlich soll die Analyse der Definitionen in Bezug auf ihre Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede sowie deren Harmonisierung unterstützt werden. Standardisierte Begriffsdefinitionen werden jedoch nicht erzwungen, da die Unterschiede in Definitionen inhaltlich gerechtfertigt sein können, z.B. aufgrund der Verwendung in unterschiedlichen Fachgebieten, durch studienspezifische Bedingungen oder verschiedene Expertensichten. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird ein Modell für das Data Dictionary entwickelt. Das entwickelte Modell folgt dem aus der Terminologie bekannten konzept-basierten Ansatz und erweitert diesen um die Möglichkeit der Repräsentation alternativer Definitionen. Insbesondere wird hierbei angestrebt, die Unterschiede in den Definitionen möglichst genau zu explizieren, um zwischen inhaltlich verschiedenen Definitionsalternativen (z.B. sich wider-sprechenden Expertenmeinungen) und konsistenten Varianten einer inhaltlichen Definition (z.B. verschiedene Sichten, Übersetzungen in verschiedene Sprachen) unterscheiden zu können. Mehrere Modellelemente widmen sich zudem der Explizierung von kontextuellen Informationen (z.B. der Gültigkeit innerhalb von Organisationen oder der Domäne zu der ein Konzept gehört), um die Auswahl und Wiederverwendung von Definitionen zu unterstützen. Diese Informationen erlauben verschiedene Sichten auf die Inhalte des Data Dictionary. Sichten werden dabei als kohärente Teilmengen des Data Dictionary betrachtet, die nur diejenigen Inhalte umfassen, die als relevant im ausgewählten Kontext spezifiziert sind.

As the availability and popularity of the Internet continues to grow, the trend ofproviding global access to business resources and services online is an efficient andprofitable way for organizations to acquire a new share of the market. Due to the flexibilityand scalability of modern web technologies, web-based applications processand store personal or critical information in enormous amounts. Hence, the overallapplication’s functionality and secure data processing are the main key factors ofeach web application. For ensuring those key factors, the web page code must be regularlymonitored to retain the overall quality of the code. This project is devoted tochange identification and classification in modern web-based applications, based onthe comparison of two versions of web page code, acquired in different time periods.The foundation of the development is described as a detection algorithm in one of theacademic papers. The algorithm was supplemented by a more extensive classificationof changes that was originally proposed by the author. The result of the researchis a semi-automatic tool, developed in Python. The tool compares two versions ofthe web page code to find changes and classify those changes. The result of the tool’sexecution is a report file that contains statistics of the overall algorithm’s executionand type-clustered information about the detected changes between two versions ofthe web page code. The analysis of results showed that the implemented diff-toolprovides reliable results and allocates all types of possible changes in the web pagecodes, which are acknowledged by statistical analysis. The comparative analysis ofthe results of the developed diff-tool with the results of other similar technical solutionsrevealed serious shortcomings of other solutions, due to their data processingimplementation, classification of the changes and resulting report file.

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) continues to possess a significant disease burden in the United States (US) as well as all over the world. Given the increase in severity and recurrence rate, the decrease in cure rate, and the fact that the virulent ribotype 027 strain remains one of the most commonly identified strains in the US, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) published a clinical practice guideline in February 2018 moving away from metronidazole as the first-line treatment for initial CDI and recommending either oral vancomycin or fidaxomicin. The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical data available comparing the efficacy of primary treatment of CDI between those two antibiotics. We performed a PubMed, PubMed Central, and ScienceDirect database search without restriction to regions, publication types, or languages. A comprehensive literature search was performed from January 1, 1980 up to March 20, 2018. We used the following keywords in different combinations: Clostridium difficile, Clostridium difficile infection, CDI, C. diff, C. difficile, fidaxomicin, vancomycin, pseudomembranous colitis, and antibiotic-associated colitis. The search was limited to human studies. Data were independently extracted by two reviewers with disagreements resolved by a third author. We pooled an odds ratio (OR) on two primary outcomes: Clinical cure rate and rate of recurrence during the follow-up period. The computer search was also supplemented with manual searches by the authors of the retrieved review articles and primary studies. The search phrase "((Clostridium difficile) AND vancomycin) AND fidaxomicin" had the highest yield results. We identified four observational studies with a total of 2,303 patients with CDI that met our inclusion criteria. Compared with vancomycin, fidaxomicin use was associated with a significantly lower recurrence of CDI with a pooled OR of 0.47 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.37 - 0.60, I2 = 0). On the other hand, there was no significant association of fidaxomicin use with CDI cure rate compared to vancomycin with a pooled OR of 1.22 (95% CI, 0.93 - 1.60, I2 = 0). In light of the recently updated clinical practice guidelines by the IDSA, our review suggests that fidaxomicin has a more sustained clinical response with a statistically significant lower recurrence rate. Although fidaxomicin appears to be the better drug with statistical significance, its cost-effectiveness continues to be an ongoing controversy. More randomized clinical trials are needed to shed light on this matter to assess if there is any clinical significance in fidaxomicin superiority.

A subsonic wind tunnel facility was designed and built to test and optimize various diffuser-collector box geometries at the one-twelfth scale.  The facility was designed to run continuously at an inlet Mach number of 0.42 and an inlet hydraulic diameter Reynolds number of 340,000. Different combinations of diffusers, hubs, and exhaust collector boxes were designed and evaluated for overall optimum performance. Both 3-hole and 5-hole probes were traversed into the flow to generate multiple diffuser inlet and collector exit performance profile plots. Surface oil flow visualization was performed to gain an understanding of the complex 3D flow structures inside the diffuser-collector subsystem. The cutback radial hardware was found to increase the subsystem pressure recovery by over 10% from baseline resulting in an approximate 1% increase in gas turbine power output. / Master of Science

The aim of this diploma thesis is an attempt to reveal a regularity and dependence in spatial distribution of the pork barrel (i.e. the parliamentary grants) in the case of Czechia in 2003-2009. Moreover, the thesis attempts to identify some undermining factors of the proven spatial pattern in allocation of pork barrel financial sources. The selection of supported projects highly depends on subjective preferences of particular deputies being influenced by many factors. Accordingly, the diploma thesis examines a role of the spatial distribution of deputies' places of living and their influences on the spatial allocation of the pork barrel through the state budget being approved in the Lower House.

Bakgrund: Immunsystemet är en av flera fysiologiska aspekter som försämras vid ökad ålder. Aktuell forskning tyder på att fysisk aktivitet stimulerar ett akut svar från immunsystemet i form av mobilisering av vita blodkroppar (WBC) i blodbanan. I efterförloppet av den fysiska aktiviteten sker en immunosuppression som fortlöper olika länge (3-72 h) beroende på aktivitetens intensitet och duration. Detta fenomen benämns ”open window” och det är idag omstritt huruvida det gör individen mer infektionskänslig efter träning. Syfte: Syftet med den aktuella studien var att finna en träningsvolym som tillåter seniorer utföra måttlig aerob fysisk aktivitet utan att riskera en period av immunosuppression. Ur ett folkhälsoperspektiv skulle detta kunna öka livskvalitén hos seniorer utifrån rådanade rekommendationer kring fysisk aktivet utan att riskera infektioner. Metod: 29 testpersoner (12 män, 17 kvinnor; medelålder (SD) 70,7 ± 3,8 år) utförde cykelergometertester i intensitetszon 1 under antingen 5, 10 eller 20 minuter. Under provtillfället togs 4 blodprover (Baseline, direkt efter test, efter 15 minuters vila och efter 30 minuters vila) där WBC och dess undergrupper analyserades med hjälp av ett bildanalyssystem (HemoCue WBC Diff System). Resultat: Resultaten indikerar att all måttlig fysisk aktivitet på cykelergometer akut förhöjer koncentrationen WBC i blodbanan med 23, 32 och 30 % i respektive grupp (5, 10, 20 min). Efter 15 minuters vila minskade antalet WBC endast signifikant hos de testpersoner som cyklade i 5 minuter med totalt 15 %. Efter 30 minuters vila fanns det inte längre någon skillnad i WBC mellan baselinevärdena och de sist uppmätta värdena vilket tyder på att ingen grupp befann sig i ”open window”. Konklusion: Resultaten tyder på att friska seniorer kan utföra fysisk träning som motsvarar de rådande allmänna rekommendationerna för aerob fysisk aktivitet utan att riskera immunosuppression och ”open window”.