LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Maintaining quality of health services after abolition of user fees: A Uganda case study

BACKGROUND
It has been argued that quality improvements that result from user charges reduce their negative impact on utilization especially of the poor. In Uganda, because there was no concrete evidence for improvements in quality of care following the introduction of user charges, the government abolished user fees in all public health units on 1st March 2001. This gave us the opportunity to prospectively study how different aspects of quality of care change, as a country changes its health financing options from user charges to free services, in a developing country setting. The outcome of the study may then provide insights into policy actions to maintain quality of care following removal of user fees.


METHODS
A population cohort and representative health facilities were studied longitudinally over 3 years after the abolition of user fees. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to obtain data. Parameters evaluated in relation to quality of care included availability of drugs and supplies and; health worker variables.


RESULTS
Different quality variables assessed showed that interventions that were put in place were able to maintain, or improve the technical quality of services. There were significant increases in utilization of services, average drug quantities and stock out days improved, and communities reported health workers to be hardworking, good and dedicated to their work to mention but a few. Communities were more appreciative of the services, though expectations were lower. However, health workers felt they were not adequately motivated given the increased workload.


CONCLUSION
The levels of technical quality of care attained in a system with user fees can be maintained, or even improved without the fees through adoption of basic, sustainable system modifications that are within the reach of developing countries. However, a trade-off between residual perceptions of reduced service quality, and the welfare gains from removal of user fees should guide such a policy change.
Peri-implantitis susceptibility as it relates to periodontal therapy and supportive care.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the long-term survival of implants inserted in periodontally susceptible patients and to investigate the influence of residual pockets on the incidence of peri-implantitis and implant loss.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
For 70 patients, comprehensive periodontal treatment was followed by installation of 165 Straumann Dental implants. Subsequently, 58 patients entered a University supportive periodontal therapy (SPT) program and 12 had SPT in a private practice. The follow-up time ranged from 3 to 23 years (mean 7.9 years). Bleeding on probing (BOP), clinical attachment level (CAL), and peri-implant probing depths (PPD) were evaluated at baseline (T0), completion of active treatment (T1), and at follow-up (T2). Peri-implant bone levels were assessed on radiographs at T2. Patients were categorized as having implants not affected by peri-implantitis (non-PIP), or affected by peri-implantitis (PIP).


RESULTS
From 165 implants inserted, six implants were lost, translating into a cumulative survival rate of 95.8%. Solid screw implants yielded significantly higher survival rates than the hollow cylinder and hollow screw implants (99.1% vs. 89.7%). Implants lost due to peri-implant infection were included in the PIP groups. When peri-implantitis (PPD ≥ 5 mm, BOP+) was analyzed, 22.2% of the implants and 38.6% of patients had one or more implants affected by peri-implantitis. Using the peri-implantitis definition (PPD ≥ 6 mm, BOP+), the prevalence was reduced to 8.8% and 17.1%, respectively. Moreover, all these implants demonstrated significant (≥ 2 mm) bone loss at T2. At T1, the non-PIP group had significantly (P = 0.011) fewer residual pockets (≥ 5 mm) per patient than the PIP group (1.9 vs. 4.1). At T2, the PIP group displayed an increased number of residual pockets compared to T1, whereas in the non-PIP group, the number remained similar to T1. At T2, mean PPD, mean CAL and BOP were significantly higher in the PIP group compared with the non-PIP group. The prevalence of peri-implantitis was lower in the group that was in a well organized SPT at the University.


CONCLUSIONS
In periodontitis susceptible patients, residual pockets (PPD ≥ 5 mm) at the end of active periodontal therapy represent a significant risk for the development of peri-implantitis and implant loss. Moreover, patients in SPT developing re-infections are at greater risk for peri-implantitis and implant loss than periodontally stable patients.
Overexpression of AeNHX1, a root-specific vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter from Agropyron elongatum, confers salt tolerance to Arabidopsis and Festuca plants

Agropyron elongatum, a species in grass family, has a strong tolerance to salt stress. To study the molecular mechanism of Agropyron elongatum in salt tolerance, we isolated a homolog of Na+/H+ antiporters from the root tissues of Agropyron plants. Sequence analysis revealed that this gene encodes a putative vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter and was designated as AeNHX1. The AeNHX1–GFP fusion protein was clearly targeted to the vacuolar membrane in a transient transfection assay. Northern analysis indicated that AeNHX1 was expressed in a root-specific manner. Expression of AeNHX1 in yeast Na+/H+ antiporter mutants showed function complementation. Further, overexpression of AeNHX1 promoted salt tolerance of Arabidopsis plants, and improved osmotic adjustment and photosynthesis which might be responsible for normal development of transgenic plants under salt stress. Similarly, AeNHX1 also functioned in transgenic Festuca plants. The results suggest that this gene might function in the roots of Agropyron plants, and its expression is involved in the improvement of salt tolerance.
Role of chelating agents for prevention, intervention, and treatment of exposures to toxic metals.

The role of chelating agents for the prevention, intervention, and treatment of exposures to toxic metals was the topic of a conference held at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 22-23 September 1994. The objective of the conference was to review experimental and clinical studies concerned with the effectiveness and potential toxicity of chelating agents used to reduce the body burden of various metals and to identify research needs in the area of chelation. The conference was prompted by emerging evidence that low-level exposures to metals may result in toxic effects not previously recognized. For example, the recent interest in use of chelation as an intervention strategy to reduce blood lead levels followed the awareness that exposure to lead in infants and young children resulting in blood lead levels as low as 10-15 )ig/dl may impair cognitive and behavioral development (1). The question increasingly asked is to what degree, if any, does increased excretion of a toxic metal reverse established toxicity? For example, does reduction in blood lead levels reverse the impairment of cognitive and behavioral development in children? Does the process of chelation cause potentially dangerous redistribution of lead to susceptible organs from those less susceptible to lead toxicity? While intervention for toxicity from any metal includes removal from exposure, what are the indications for using chelating agents that enhance excretion of metals? Complete answers to these questions may not be currently available, but discussion of benefits and problems related to chelation therapy should help identify areas needing further study. The conference participants were asked to share current data and to identify gaps in data necessary to obtain a better understanding of the proper place of chelating agents in the management of metals exposure and toxicity.
Efficacy of the addition of interferential current to Pilates method in patients with low back pain: a protocol of a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND
Chronic low back pain is one of the four most common diseases in the world with great socioeconomic impact. Supervised exercise therapy is one of the treatments suggested for this condition; however, the recommendation on the best type of exercise is still unclear. The Pilates method of exercise is effective in reducing pain and disability in these patients, as well as the analgesia promoted by interferential current. Currently, the literature lacks information on the efficacy of the association of these two techniques in the short- and medium-term than performing one of the techniques isolated. The objective of this study will be to evaluate the efficacy of adding interferential current to the Pilates method exercises for the treatment of patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain in the short- and medium-term.


METHODS/DESIGN
This study will be a randomized controlled trial with two arms and blinded evaluator, conducted at an outpatient Physical Therapy Department in Brazil. Patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain and pain equal to or greater than 3 in the Pain Numerical Rating Scale (0/10) will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: Group with active interferential current + Pilates (n = 74) will be submitted to the active interferential current associated to the modified Pilates exercises, and Group with sham interferential current + Pilates (n = 74) will be submitted to the sham interferential current associated with the modified Pilates exercises during 18 sessions. The outcomes pain intensity, pressure pain threshold, general and specific disability, global perceived effect and kinesiophobia will be evaluated by a blinded assessor at baseline, six weeks and six months after randomization.


DISCUSSION
Because of the study design, blinding of the participants and the therapists involved in the study will not be possible. The results of this study could contribute to the process of clinical decision- making for the improvement of pain and disability in participants with nonspecific chronic low back pain.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01919268.
Comprehensive performance assessment of bipartition upstream bandwidth assignment schemes in GPON

With the emerging diversified services, the gigabit-capable passive optical network (GPON) has emerged as one of the most important technologies to support the next-generation broadband access networks. Dynamic bandwidth assignment (DBA) avoids transmission collision in the upstream direction and improves the efficiency of the PON upstream bandwidth by dynamically adjusting the bandwidth among the optical network units (ONUs) in response to the ONU burst traffic requirement. Instead of using GATE and REPORT control messages in Ethernet PON DBA, the buffer REPORT/GRANT message is embedded into a GPON encapsulation mode (GEM)/GPON transmission convergence (GTC) frame, and all ONUs are essentially polled simultaneously within a GEM/GTC frame in GPON DBA. This paper proposes a bipartition DBA (BI-DBA) mechanism in GPON that divides the transmission cycle time into two groups and adjusts the bandwidth dynamically. Two cases are considered: in the first case, there is a first group for high priorities T-CONT 1 and T-CONT 2 and a second group for low priorities T-CONT 3 and T-CONT 4, called class based scheduling (CBDBA). In the second case, the first and the second group are created according to the number of ONUs, called group based scheduling (GBDBA). Moreover, the T-CONT 2 traffic has a prediction mechanism and recycles the remaining unused bandwidth for the low-priority T-CONTs. The GBDBA has better system performances in terms of the average bandwidth utilization, packet latency, and drop probability; on the other hand, the CBDBA has better packet delay performance when the proportion of T-CONT 1 traffic is higher and has better fairness performance.
The association of body mass index with time to target temperature and outcomes following post-arrest targeted temperature management.

BACKGROUND
Evidence suggests that more rapid attainment of target temperature (32-34°C) improves neurologic outcome following cardiac arrest and targeted temperature management (TTM). It is unclear to what extent body mass index (BMI) is associated with the time to reach target temperature and subsequent clinical outcomes.


OBJECTIVE
We sought to determine whether the time to target temperature was affected by BMI. In addition, we wished to determine whether the incidence of skin breakdown, survival to discharge and neurologic outcomes were associated with BMI.


METHODS
Multicenter retrospective cohort study of cardiac arrest patients who underwent TTM between July 2007 and December 2012. We examined the association between BMI and the time from initiation of cooling to attainment of target temperature (32-34°C).


RESULTS
Of 236 patients treated with TTM, 184 were included in the study. Mean age was 57.8±17.0 years; 78/184 (42%) were female and 48/184 (26%) had VF/VT as the initial rhythm. Median time to reach target temperature from ROSC was 6.4 (4.1, 9.8)h and median time from initiation of TTM to target temperature was 3.4 (2.1, 5.8)h. Cooling duration was a median of 24.0 (23.0, 24.0)h and median rewarming time was 12.0 (9.5, 18.0)h. Overall, 104/184 (56.5%) achieved target temperature within 4h and 128/184 (69.6%) within 6h. Increased BMI was associated with a longer time to achieve target temperature from initiation of TTM (p=0.01). There was no significant difference across BMI groups in time to achieve target temperature from ROSC (0.07), skin breakdown (p=0.35), survival (p=0.21), nor rate of good neurologic outcome (p=0.32).


CONCLUSIONS
Target temperature was frequently achieved within 4-6h; as BMI increased, the time to reach target temperature from initiation of TTM was prolonged. There was no significant difference across BMI groups for survival or good neurologic outcome.
Graph Kernels for RDF Data

The increasing availability of structured data in Resource Description Framework (RDF) format poses new challenges and opportunities for data mining. Existing approaches to mining RDF have only focused on one specific data representation, one specific machine learning algorithm or one specific task. Kernels, however, promise a more flexible approach by providing a powerful framework for decoupling the data representation from the learning task. This paper focuses on how the well established family of kernel-based machine learning algorithms can be readily applied to instances represented as RDF graphs. We first review the problems that arise when conventional graph kernels are used for RDF graphs. We then introduce two versatile families of graph kernels specifically suited for RDF, based on intersection graphs and intersection trees. The flexibility of the approach is demonstrated on two common relational learning tasks: entity classification and link prediction. The results show that our novel RDF graph kernels used with Support Vector Machines (SVMs) achieve competitive predictive performance when compared to specialized techniques for both tasks.
Pyrosequencing Analysis of the Microbial Diversity of Airag, Khoormog and Tarag, Traditional Fermented Dairy Products
of Mongolia

Here, we used pyrosequencing to obtain a detailed analysis of the microbial diversities of traditional fermented dairy products of Mongolia. From 22 Airag (fermented mare's milk), 5 Khoormog (fermented camel's milk) and 26 Tarag (fermented milk of cows, goats and yaks) samples collected in the Mongolian provinces of Arhangai, Bulgan, Dundgobi, Tov, Uburhangai and Umnugobi, we obtained a total of 81 operational taxonomic units, which were assigned to 15 families, 21 genera and 41 species in 3 phyla. The genus Lactobacillus is a core bacterial component of Mongolian fermented milks, and Lactobacillus helveticus, Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Lactobacillus delbrueckii were the predominant species of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in the Airag, Khoormog and Tarag samples, respectively. By using this pyrosequencing approach, we successfully detected most LAB species that have been isolated as well as seven LAB species that have not been found in our previous culture-based study. A subsequent analysis of the principal components of the samples revealed that L. delbrueckii, L. helveticus, L. kefiranofaciens and Streptococcus thermophilus were the main factors influencing the microbial diversity of these Mongolian traditional fermented dairy products and that this diversity correlated with the animal species from which the milk was sourced.
Macromastia: a review of presentation and management.

BACKGROUND
Macromastia is a condition of abnormal enlargement of the breast tissue in excess of the normal proportion. The condition may be caused by glandular hypertrophy, excessive fatty tissue or combination of both. The usual physiologic enlargement of female breast occurs over 3 to 5 years and the female breast size is related to body habitus and hereditary characteristics.


METHOD
A review of the literatures of Macromastia was undertaken with emphasis on presentation and management.


RESULT
The aetiology of macromastia is usually undetermined, however, hormonal excesses and hypersensitivity of the target organ have been found in some cases. Cases of hyperprolactinaemia has been reported by some workers. Immunological risk factors for development of macromastia have also been seen in some groups of patients with Myasthenia gravis, Chronic arthritis, and Hashimoto thyroiditis. Ultrasonography may show no breast parenchyma abnormalities, while mammography may be indicated in some patients who are 40 years or older. Hormonal assay can be done but its value in treatment is doubtful. Drugs are only marginally effective in reversing gigantomastia, therefore surgery remains the mainstay of treatment.


CONCLUSION
Management of macromastia can be physically, socially and psychologically satisfying to both the patients and the surgeons.
Metal detector head analysis

Metal-detector performance depends heavily on the sensor head. Errors in coil placement within the head can lead to degradation in detector performance. Electromagnetic modelling of typical very-low-frequency detector heads shows the effect of coil placement errors on detector sensitivity. Provided the bucking coil ‘tracks’ the receive coil, required error corrections can remain small.
The alldifferent Constraint: A Survey

The constraint of difference is known to the constraint programming community since Lauriere introduced Alice in 1978. Since then, several strategies have been designed to solve the alldifferent constraint. This paper surveys the most important developments over the years regarding the alldifferent constraint. First we summarize the underlying concepts and results from graph theory and integer programming. Then we give an overview and an abstract comparison of different solution strategies. In addition, the symmetric alldifferent constraint is treated. Finally, we show how to apply cost-based filtering to the alldifferent constraint. A preliminary version of this paper appeared as [14].
Metasurfaces for general transformations of electromagnetic fields.

In this review paper I discuss electrically thin composite layers, designed to perform desired operations on applied electromagnetic fields. Starting from a historical overview and based on a general classification of metasurfaces, I give an overview of possible functionalities of the most general linear metasurfaces. The review is concluded with a short research outlook discussion.
Recognition Technology of Money Laundering Transactions Based on Data Mining

Data mining is a common tool for monitoring anti-money laundering transactions. In recent years, classification analysis techniques and cluster analysis techniques in data mining are widely used in anti-money laundering system. The article lists several of their common methods, points out their strengths and weaknesses, and introduces the applicable conditions of each method.
Modeling, analysis, and verification of optimal fixturing design

Fixture design is an important manufacturing activity which affects the quality of parts produced. In order to develop a viable computer-aided fixturing tool, the fixture-workpiece system has to be accurately modeled and analyzed. This paper describes the modeling, analysis, and verification of optimal fixturing configurations by the methods of force closure, optimization, and finite-element modeling (FEM). Force closure has been employed to find optimal clamping positions and sequencing, while optimization is used for determining the minimum clamping forces required to balance the cutting forces. The developed FEM is able to determine in detail what are the reaction forces, workpiece displacement, deformation in the workpiece and fixtures. In order to produce a more accurate model for predicting the behavior of the fixture-workpiece system, the developed FEM includes fixture stiffness, which past models have assumed as rigid bodies. The reaction forces on the locators are experimentally verified. A sensor-embedded experimental fixturing setup was developed to verify the modeling and the data was used to compare with the FEM. Note to Practitioners-In practice, the machinist applies excessive force to hold the part on machine table, so that it does not move when machining is carried out. However, while machining flexible parts or clamping on finished surfaces, care must be taken so that only necessary and optimal clamping forces are applied, to avoid deforming the part or damaging the surface. Therefore, in this study, we have developed a mathematical model to characterize the mechanics and conditions for a fixture to hold a given part. The developed mathematical model computes the optimal clamping forces required to hold the part in position, given the cutting conditions. The result obtained was verified by conducting the machining test using the developed sensor-embedded experimental fixture setup. The FEM was also developed to predict the behavior of fixture-workpiece system and the results obtained were encouraging.
Macro Factors in Bond Risk Premia

Are there important cyclical fluctuations in bond market premiums and, if so, with what macroeconomic aggregates do these premiums vary? We use the methodology of dynamic factor analysis for large datasets to investigate possible empirical linkages between forecastable variation in excess bond returns and macroeconomic fundamentals. We find that “real” and “inflation” factors have important forecasting power for future excess returns on U.S. government bonds, above and beyond the predictive power contained in forward rates and yield spreads. This behavior is ruled out by commonly employed affine term structure models where the forecastability of bond returns and bond yields is completely summarized by the cross-section of yields or forward rates. An important implication of these findings is that the cyclical behavior of estimated risk premia in both returns and long-term yields depends importantly on whether the information in macroeconomic factors is included in forecasts of excess bond returns. Without the macro factors, risk premia appear virtually acyclical, whereas with the estimated factors risk premia have a marked countercyclical component, consistent with theories that imply investors must be compensated for risks associated with macroeconomic activity. ( JEL E0, E4, G10, G12)