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Showing papers by "David Martin published in 2018"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Administration of CD34+ selected SCBs from alternative donors is safe and effective in paediatric patients with PGF and patients who responded to SCB displayed a trend toward better overall survival (OS) (P = 0·07).
Abstract: Poor graft function (PGF) is a severe complication of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and administration of donor stem cell boosts (SCBs) represents a therapeutic option. We report 50 paediatric patients with PGF who received 61 boosts with CD34+ selected peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) after transplantation from matched unrelated (n = 25) or mismatched related (n = 25) donors. Within 8 weeks, a significant increase in median neutrophil counts (0·6 vs. 1·516 × 109 /l, P < 0·05) and a decrease in red blood cell and platelet transfusion requirement (median frequencies 1 and 7 vs. 0, P < 0·0001 and <0·001), were observed, and 78·8% of patients resolved one or two of their cytopenias. 36·5% had a complete haematological response. Median lymphocyte counts for CD3+ , CD3+ CD4+ , CD19+ and CD56+ increased 8·3-, 14·2-, 22.- and 1·6-fold. The rate of de novo acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) grade I-III was only 6% and resolved completely. No GvHD grade IV or chronic GvHD occurred. Patients who responded to SCB displayed a trend toward better overall survival (OS) (P = 0·07). Thus, administration of CD34+ selected SCBs from alternative donors is safe and effective. Further studies are warranted to clarify the impact on immune reconstitution and survival.

34 citations


Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the existing residential segregation patterns are based mainly on religion, ethnicity, age and income; and the factors responsible for residential segregation in the study area are individual and aggregate socioeconomic characteristics, individual preference/taste/choice of neighbourhood and political/institutional factors.
Abstract: Residential segregation, the spatial separation of population sub-groups within a given geographical area, is a phenomenon which is prevalent in both developed and developing countries like Nigeria. This study sought to contribute to existing knowledge by reviewing the existing patterns of residential segregation and housing quality in Nigeria, and developing a framework for the existing patterns of residential segregation and housing quality. The study established that the existing residential segregation patterns are based mainly on religion, ethnicity, age and income; and the factors responsible for residential segregation in the study area are individual and aggregate socioeconomic characteristics, individual preference/taste/choice of neighbourhood and political/institutional factors. While the indicators of housing quality in the study area are building design, type of roofing and wall materials, condition and age of buildings, the type of internal facilities and the source of lighting. And the framework showed that there is a relationship between the factors responsible for residential segregation and housing quality in the study area. Keywords: Framework, Patterns, Residential Segregation, Housing Quality, Bauchi

12 citations


Book ChapterDOI
12 Nov 2018
TL;DR: A previous extension to SPARQL is modified for simple preferences to correctly handle any preference relation and translations of this extension back into SParQL that can compute the desired solutions for all preference relations that are acyclic or transitive are provided.
Abstract: Sometimes one does not want all the solutions to a query but instead only those that are most desirable according to user-specified preferences. If a user-specified preference relation is acyclic then its specification and meaning are straightforward. In many settings, however, it is valuable to support preference relations that are not acyclic and that might not even be transitive, in which case though their handling involves some open questions. We discuss a definition of desired solutions for arbitrary preference relations and show its desirable properties. We modify a previous extension to SPARQL for simple preferences to correctly handle any preference relation and provide translations of this extension back into SPARQL that can compute the desired solutions for all preference relations that are acyclic or transitive. We also propose an additional extension that returns solutions at multiple levels of desirability, which adds additional expressiveness over prior work. However, for the latter we conjecture that an effective translation to a single (non-recursive) SPARQL query is not possible.

10 citations


Book ChapterDOI
12 Nov 2018
TL;DR: The approach, based on machine classification of the text, avoids the need for feature engineering and provides valuable guidance when building or refining large knowledge bases.
Abstract: We present a method for making decisions as to whether an entity in a knowledge base should be a class or an instance based on external evidence in the form of corresponding textual corpora such as Wikipedia articles. The approach, based on machine classification of the text, avoids the need for feature engineering and provides valuable guidance when building or refining large knowledge bases. The approach works well over different domains and outperforms a variety of other state-of-the-art approaches.

4 citations


Book ChapterDOI
18 Sep 2018
TL;DR: The Nuance Reasoning Framework is presented, a rule-based framework for semantic query rewriting and reasoning that is being utilized by Nuance Communications Inc. in speech-enabled conversational virtual assistant solutions for numerous automotive Original Equipment Manufacturer’s (OEM).
Abstract: We present the Nuance Reasoning Framework (NRF), a rule-based framework for semantic query rewriting and reasoning that is being utilized by Nuance Communications Inc. in speech-enabled conversational virtual assistant solutions for numerous automotive Original Equipment Manufacturer’s (OEM). We focus on the semantic rewriting task performed by NRF, which bridges the conceptual mismatch between the natural language front-end of automotive virtual assistants and their back end databases, and personalizes the results to the driver. We also describe many of its powerful features such as rewriter arbitration, query mediation and more.

3 citations


Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors critically analyzed the existing literature on municipal awareness relevancy of municipal councils' service delivery for the purpose of enhancing citizen satisfaction and concluded that municipal service delivery can be enhanced through citizen awareness campaign, to sensitise the local community on various aspects of service delivery.
Abstract: This research study critically analysed the existing literature on municipal awareness relevancy of Municipal councils’ service delivery for the purpose of enhancing citizen satisfaction. The purpose of the study is the investigation of citizen satisfaction level of municipal services. Analysis of the existing literature on the relationship between municipal awareness and citizen satisfaction. The Material and methods were carried out using secondary data and were meticulously and critically analysed to come up with reliable results. The study shows the relevancy of the public awareness, citizen satisfaction and municipal council performance in Malaysia. It is evident in the research that citizen consent is important before municipal services should be provided in the local community. The research study highlighted many discrepancies in many kinds of literature related to the existing research study, the evidence-based analysis was carried out to buttress importance and significance of the related study to the research work. The literature was reviewed to ascertain the current happening in the area of local government service delivery. The study shows that many municipal councils in Malaysia provide adequate and satisfactory services to their citizens’. The study also revealed that municipal council plays an important role in citizen awareness of municipal service delivery. The study concludes that municipal service delivery can be enhanced through citizen awareness campaign, to sensitise the local community on various aspects of service delivery including maintenance of the facilities provided. The study also concludes that Municipal councils lack awareness section affects their performance in service delivery process. The study recommends that Municipal councils officials need to be consulted the citizen for their needs and wants; awareness campaign needs to be regularly carried out to maintain cordial relationship between Municipal councils and their citizen; it is also recommended that municipal services should be delivered the needed services by the local inhabitants’ after duly consultation.

01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: The proposals each add an extra construct to SPARQL filtering out non-preferred query solutions, which can each be thought of as providing a skyine operator, defined as follows.
Abstract: Preferences have been part of the goal of the Semantic Web from its inception [1] but are not currently part of any Semantic Web standards, such as SPARQL. Several proposals [2–4] have been made to add comparative preferences to SPARQL. Comparative preferences are based on comparing solutions to a query and eliminating ones that come out worse in the comparison, as in searching for gas stations and eliminating any for which there is a closer station serving the same brand of gasoline. The proposals each add an extra construct to SPARQL filtering out non-preferred query solutions. Their preference constructs are of different expressive power but they can each be thought of as providing a skyine operator, defined as follows: