Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cost-effectiveness of roflumilast in combination with bronchodilator therapies in patients with severe and very severe COPD in Switzerland

Objective Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) represents a burden on patients and health systems. Roflumilast, an oral, selective phosphodiesterase-4-inhibitor reduces exacerbations and improves lung function in severe/very severe COPD patients with a history of exacerbations. This study aimed to estimate the lifetime cost and outcomes of roflumilast added-on to commonly used COPD regimens in Switzerland. Methods A Markov cohort model was developed to simulate COPD progression in patients with disease states of severe, very severe COPD, and death. The exacerbation rate was assumed to be two per year in severe COPD. COPD progression rates were drawn from the published literature. Efficacy was expressed as relative ratios of exacerbation rates associated with roflumilast, derived from a mixed-treatment comparison. A cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted for roflumilast added to long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMA), long-acting β2-agonist/ inhaled corticosteroids (LABA/ICS), and LAMA + LABA/ICS. The analysis was conducted from the Swiss payer perspective, with costs and outcomes discounted at 2.5% annually. Parameter uncertainties were explored in one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Results In each of the comparator regimens mean life expectancy was 9.28 years and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained were 6.19. Mean estimated lifetime costs per patient in the comparator arms were CHF 83,364 (LAMA), CHF 88,161 (LABA/ICS), and CHF 95,564 (LAMA + LABA/ICS) respectively. Adding roflumilast resulted in a mean cost per patient per lifetime of CHF 86,754 (LAMA + roflumilast), CHF 91,470 (LABA/ICS + roflumilast), and CHF 99,364 (LAMA + LABA/ICS + roflumilast), respectively. Life-expectancy and quality-adjusted life-expectancy were 9.63 years and 6.47 QALYs (LAMA + roflumilast), 9.64 years and 6.48 QALYs (LABA/ICS + roflumilast), and 9.63 years and 6.47 QALYs (LAMA + LABA/ ICS + roflumilast). Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were CHF 12,313, CHF 11,456, and CHF 13,671 per QALY when roflumilast was added to the three regimens. Conclusion Treatment with roflumilast is estimated to reduce the health and economic burden of COPD exacerbations and represent a cost-effective treatment option for patients with frequent exacerbations in Switzerland.
Modelling income group differences in the health and economic impacts of targeted food taxes and subsidies.

OBJECTIVE To examine the effects, by income group, of targeted food taxes and subsidies on nutrition, health and expenditure in the UK. METHODS A model based on consumption data and demand elasticity was constructed to predict the effects of four food taxation-subsidy regimens. Resulting changes in demand, expenditure, nutrition, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality were estimated. Data Expenditure data were taken from the Expenditure and Food Survey; estimates of price elasticities of demand for food were taken from a report based on the National Food Survey 1988-2000. Estimates of effect on CVD and cancer mortality of changing fat, salt, fruit and vegetable intake were taken from previous meta-analyses. RESULTS (i) Taxing principal sources of dietary saturated fat is unlikely to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) or cancer mortality. (ii) Taxing 'less healthy' foods (defined by the WXYfm nutrient profiling model) could increase CVD and cancer deaths by 35-1300 yearly. (iii) Taxing 'less healthy' foods and subsidising fruits and vegetables by 17.5% could avert up to 2900 CVD and cancer deaths yearly. (iv) Taxing 'less healthy' foods and using all tax revenue to subsidize fruits and vegetables could avert up to 6400 CVD and cancer deaths yearly. Few obesity-related CVD deaths are averted by any of the regimens. All four regimens would be economically regressive and positive health effects will not necessarily be greater in lower-income groups where the need for dietary improvement is higher. CONCLUSIONS A targeted food tax combined with the appropriate subsidy on fruits and vegetables could reduce deaths from CVD and cancer.
Seed Detection and Discrimination by Ground Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) Are Associated with Olfactory Cues

Olfactory ability is an element of fitness in many animals, guiding choices among alternatives such as mating partners or food. Ground beetles (Coleoptera; Carabidae), exhibit preferences for prey, and some species are well-known weed seed predators. We used olfactometer-based bioassays to determine if olfactory stimuli are associated with detection of Brassica napus L. , Sinapis arvensis L. , and Thlaspi arvense L. seeds by ground beetles characteristic of agroecosystems, and whether behavioural responses to seed odors depended on seed physiological state (imbibed or unimbibed). Imbibed B.napus seeds were preferred over other weed species by two of the three carabid species tested. Only A. littoralis responded significantly to unimbibed seeds of B. napus. Sensitivity to olfactory cues appeared to be highly specific as all carabid species discriminated between the olfactory cues of imbibed brassicaceous weed seeds, but did not discriminate between weed seeds that were unimbibed. Overall, our data suggest that depending on seed physiological state, odours can play an important role in the ability of carabids to find and recognize seeds of particular weed species.
Does Cooperation in the Laboratory Reflect the Operation of A Broad Trait?

The Dictator Game, a face valid measure of altruism, and the Trust Game, a face valid measure of trust and trustworthiness, are among the most widely used behavioural measures in human cooperation research. Researchers have observed considerable covariation among these and other economic games, leading them to assert that there exists a general human propensity to cooperate that varies in strength across individuals and manifests itself across a variety of social settings. To formalize this hypothesis, we created an S–1 bifactor model using 276 participants’ Dictator Game and Trust Game decisions. The general factor had significant, moderate associations with self–reported and peer–reported altruism, trust, and trustworthiness. Thus, the positive covariation among economic games is not reducible to the games’ shared situational features. Two hundred participants returned for a second session. The general factor based on Dictator Game and Trust Game decisions from this session did not significantly predict self–reported and peer–reported cooperation, suggesting that experience with economic games causes them to measure different traits from those that are reflected in self–assessments and peer–assessments of cooperativeness. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology
EMD-Based Temporal and Spectral Features for the Classification of EEG Signals Using Supervised Learning

This paper presents a novel method for feature extraction from electroencephalogram (EEG) signals using empirical mode decomposition (EMD). Its use is motivated by the fact that the EMD gives an effective time-frequency analysis of nonstationary signals. The intrinsic mode functions (IMF) obtained as a result of EMD give the decomposition of a signal according to its frequency components. We present the usage of upto third order temporal moments, and spectral features including spectral centroid, coefficient of variation and the spectral skew of the IMFs for feature extraction from EEG signals. These features are physiologically relevant given that the normal EEG signals have different temporal and spectral centroids, dispersions and symmetries when compared with the pathological EEG signals. The calculated features are fed into the standard support vector machine (SVM) for classification purposes. The performance of the proposed method is studied on a publicly available dataset which is designed to handle various classification problems including the identification of epilepsy patients and detection of seizures. Experiments show that good classification results are obtained using the proposed methodology for the classification of EEG signals. Our proposed method also compares favorably to other state-of-the-art feature extraction methods.
Efficiency and Duality in Nondifferentiable Multiobjective Programming Involving Directional Derivative

In this paper, we introduce a new class of generalized dI-univexity in which each component of the objective and constraint functions is directionally differentiable in its own direction di for a nondifferentiable multiobjective programming problem. Based upon these generalized functions, sufficient optimality conditions are established for a feasible point to be efficient and properly efficient under the generalised dI-univexity requirements. Moreover, weak, strong and strict converse duality theorems are also derived for Mond-Weir type dual programs.
Identification of the carboxy terminus as important for the isoform- specific subcellular targeting of glucose transporter proteins

Differential trafficking of glucose transporters contributes significantly to the establishment of a cell's capacity for hormone- regulatable hexose uptake. In the true insulin-sensitive peripheral target tissues, muscle and adipose, the transporter isoform GLUT1 residues on the cell surface and interior of the cell whereas the highly homologous isoform GLUT4 displays virtually exclusive intracellular sequestration, allowing the latter to redistribute to the cell surface in response to hormone. These patterns are equally pronounced in cells into which the transporters have been introduced by DNA-mediated gene transfer, suggesting that signals for isoform- specific sorting are recognized in diverse cell types. To determine the primary sequences responsible for the characteristic distributions, chimeric transporters were constructed in which reciprocal domains were exchanged between GLUT1 and GLUT4. In addition, a non-disruptive, species-specific epitope "tag" was introduced into a neutral region of the transporter to allow analysis of reciprocal chimeras using a single antibody. These recombinant transporters were stably expressed in HIH 3T3 and PC12 cells by retrovirus-mediated gene transfer, and were localized by indirect immunofluorescence and laser scanning confocal microscopy, as well as by staining of plasma membrane sheets prepared from these cells. The results indicate that the carboxy-terminal 30 amino acids are primarily responsible for the differential targeting of the glucose transporter isoforms GLUT1 and GLUT4, though there is a lesser additional contribution by the amino-terminal 183 amino acids.
The effect of psychological stress on job satisfaction among intensive care nurses

Background and Objectives:Nurses in intensive care (ICU) wards often experience a wide range of stressful situations. Excessive work stress influences nurses’ physical and mental health and declines their life quality and the ability to work. High psychological stress can cause job dissatisfaction and job strain. The aim of this study was to explore the effects of psychological stress on job satisfaction among ICU nurses. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was performed on 402 nurses in the ICU of the teaching hospitals in Kerman and Babo in Iran from September 2016 to March 2017. Data were gathered by the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) and Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) and analyzed by logistic regression and ANOVA using SPSS 18. Results: Significant relations were found between job satisfaction and some dimensions of JCQ such as psychological and physical demands, discretionary and binding decisions (autonomy in nursing), supervisor support and co-worker support. As the score of autonomous decisions and supervisor support increased, the chance of job satisfaction increased 2.33 and 1.56 times respectively. In addition, nurses with passive jobs and low job strain were more satisfied than the ones with active jobs and high job strain (P = 0.012). Conclusion: More satisfaction in ICU nurses can be achieved by involving nurses in decision making and supporting them through their supervisors, alongside with reducing nurses’ psychological and physical needs through increasing the number of nurses in different wards.
QsRank: Query-sensitive hash code ranking for efficient ∊-neighbor search

Although binary hash code-based image indexing methods have been recently developed for large-scale applications, the problem of ranking such hash codes has been barely studied. In this paper, we propose a query sensitive ranking algorithm (QsRank) to rank PCA-based hash codes for the ε-neighbor search problem. The QsRank algorithm takes the target neighborhood radius ε and the raw feature of a given query as input, and models the statistical properties of the target ε-neighbors in the space of hash codes. Unlike the Hamming distance, the proposed algorithm does not compress query points to hash codes. Therefore, it suffers less information loss and is more effective than Hamming distance-based approaches. Based on the QsRank method, we developed an efficient indexing structure and retrieval algorithm for large-scale ε-neighbor search. Evaluations on two datasets of 10 million web images and 10 million SIFT descriptors demonstrate that the proposed retrieval system achieves higher accuracy with less memory cost and faster speed.
Protective Effects of Enantia chlorantha Stem Bark Extracts on Acetaminophen Induced Liver Damage in Rats

The study was designed to evaluate the hepatoprotective activity of different solvent extracts (hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol) of Enantia chlorantha stem bark in acute experimental liver injury induced by acetaminophen. The effects observed were compared with a known hepatoprotective agent, silymarin (100 mg/kg p.o.). Preliminary phytochemical tests and acute toxicity study were done. The degree of hepatoprotection was measured using serum transaminases (AST and ALT), alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin, albumin, and total protein levels. In the acute liver damage induced by acetaminophen, E. chlorantha stem bark extracts (200 mg/kg, p.o.) significantly reduced the elevated serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase and bilirubin in acetaminophen induced hepatotoxicity. The total serum protein was significantly increased (P<0.05) by all the solvent extracts. Histological examination of the liver tissues supported the hepatoprotection. Our findings suggested that E. chlorantha stem bark extracts possessed hepatoprotective activity; the hexane extract of stem bark of E. chlorantha plant possesses better hepatoprotective activity compared to other extracts.
Mechanism Design and Approximation

Our world is an interconnected collection of economic and computational systems. Within such a system, individuals optimize their actions to achieve their own, perhaps selfish, goals; and the system combines these actions with its basic laws to produce an outcome. Some of these systems perform well, e.g., the national residency matching program which assigns medical students to residency programs in hospitals, e.g., auctions for online advertising on Internet search engines; and some of these systems perform poorly, e.g., financial markets during the 2008 meltdown, e.g., gridlocked transportation networks. The success and failure of these systems depends on the basic laws governing the system. Financial regulation can prevent disastrous market meltdowns, congestion protocols can prevent gridlock in transportation networks, and market and auction design can lead to mechanisms for allocating and exchanging goods or services that yield higher profits or increased value to society. The two sources for economic considerations are the preferences of individuals and the performance of the system. For instance, bidders in an auction would like to maximize their gains from buying; whereas, the performance of the system could (i.e., from the perspective of the seller) be measured in terms of the revenue it generates. Likewise, the two sources for computational considerations are the individuals who must optimize their strategies, and the system which must enforce its governing rules. For instance, bidders in the auction must figure out how to bid, and the auctioneer must calculate the winner and payments from the bids received. While these calculations may seem easy when auctioning a painting, they both become quite challenging when, e.g., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auctions cell phone spectrum for which individual lots have a high degree of complementarities. These economic and computational systems are complex. The space
Investigation of Channel Formation in a MANET

We investigate the channel formation in a Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) using the NS-2 simulator. The results show that the normalized node density is a good measure for predicting the performance of a MANET: for the normalized node density of 2.8 two nodes in a MANET running the AODV routing protocol stay connected 90% of the time. For the DSR protocol this is only 70%. The results may be used in deciding how many nodes would be required in a MANET to cover a particular area, and as a future benchmark for comparing different MANET routing protocols.
Stock Liquidity and Capital Structure : An Empirical Study on Amman Stock Exchange

This paper examines the relationship between stock liquidity and capital structure, using a sample of 38 industrial companies listed on Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) over the time period 2000 through 2009. The univariate and panel regression analysis results show insignificant relationship between the three measures of liquidity (Amihud's (2002) illiquidity, modified turnover, and modified liquidity ratio) and both book leverage and market Leverage. These results are inconsistent with Lipson and Mortal (2010) and Frider and Martell (2006) using U.S firms, and Udomsirikul, et, al. (2010) using Thai firms. The results suggest that corporate ownership concentration, dependent on bank loans, and less sophisticated capital markets in Jordan still dominated, and liquidity still has no effect on capital structure choices.
The Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Do Bank-Firm Relationships Affect Bank Competition In the Corporate Bond Underwriting Market?

This paper empirically examines how bank-firm relationships affect post-deregulation competition among underwriters in the U.S. corporate bond underwriting market. I find that there is a trade-off between relationships and price in the demand equation and that this trade-off is sharply higher for junk bond issuers and first-time issuers. This finding is consistent with the certification effect of commercial bank underwriting. Commercial bank entry has increased bank competition to the extent that their client-specific relationships have increased product differentiation in the market. Since issuers with low reputation value the relationships more, the deregulation has increased competition the most in these segments. JEL Classification: G1, G2, G3, L1, L5. ∗The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. I thank Franklin Allen, Masa Aoki, Doug Bernheim, Tim Bresnahan, Thomas Chemmanur, Serdar Dinc, Simon Gervais, Gary Gorton, Ken Judd, Debarshi Nandy, Roger Noll, Manju Puri, John Shoven, Julie Wulf, and all the seminar and conference participants at the Center for Financial Studies at Frankfurt, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Kellogg, Harvard Business School, International Monetary Fund, National Taiwan University, Peking University, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, 37th Annual Conference of the Western Finance Association in Park City, Utah, Wharton, and the World Bank for many valuable discussions and comments. I also thank Yue Zhang and Andy Nimmer for their great research assistance. All errors are my own. Financial support from the Kapnick Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. Please address correspondence to Ayako Yasuda, The Wharton School, 2300 Steinberg Hall-Dietrich Hall, 3620 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6367, tel 215.898. 6087, fax 215.898. 6200, e-mail yasuda@wharton.upenn. edu.
Patterns of HIV-1 drug resistance after first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) failure in 6 sub-Saharan African countries: implications for second-line ART strategies.

BACKGROUND Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) drug resistance may limit the benefits of antiretroviral therapy (ART). This cohort study examined patterns of drug-resistance mutations (DRMs) in individuals with virological failure on first-line ART at 13 clinical sites in 6 African countries and predicted their impact on second-line drug susceptibility. METHODS A total of 2588 antiretroviral-naive individuals initiated ART consisting of different nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) backbones (zidovudine, stavudine, tenofovir, or abacavir, plus lamivudine or emtricitabine) with either efavirenz or nevirapine. Population sequencing after 12 months of ART was retrospectively performed if HIV RNA was >1000 copies/mL. The 2010 International Antiviral Society-USA list was used to score major DRMs. The Stanford algorithm was used to predict drug susceptibility. RESULTS HIV-1 sequences were generated for 142 participants who virologically failed ART, of whom 70% carried ≥1 DRM and 49% had dual-class resistance, with an average of 2.4 DRMs per sequence (range, 1-8). The most common DRMs were M184V (53.5%), K103N (28.9%), Y181C (15.5%), and G190A (14.1%). Thymidine analogue mutations were present in 8.5%. K65R was frequently selected by stavudine (15.0%) or tenofovir (27.7%). Among participants with ≥1 DRM, HIV-1 susceptibility was reduced in 93% for efavirenz/nevirapine, in 81% for lamivudine/emtricitabine, in 59% for etravirine/rilpivirine, in 27% for tenofovir, in 18% for stavudine, and in 10% for zidovudine. CONCLUSIONS Early failure detection limited the accumulation of resistance. After stavudine failure in African populations, zidovudine rather than tenofovir may be preferred in second-line ART. Strategies to prevent HIV-1 resistance are a global priority.