Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effectiveness of risk-based intrapartum chemoprophylaxis for the prevention of early-onset neonatal group B streptococcal disease.

OBJECTIVE Our purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of a risk-based intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis strategy for the prevention of early-onset neonatal group B streptococcal disease. STUDY DESIGN Cases and controls were selected from infants born to women with one or more risk factors: preterm labor or rupture of membranes, prolonged rupture of membranes (>18 hours), fever during labor, or previous child with group B streptococcal disease. Cases were matched with controls by birth hospital and gestational age. Data abstracted from medical records were analyzed to estimate the effectiveness of intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis. RESULTS We analyzed data from 109 cases and 207 controls. Nineteen (17%) case versus 69 (33%) control mothers received an acceptable regimen of intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis. In adjusted analyses, the effectiveness of intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis was 86% (95% confidence interval, 66%-94%). When the first dose of antibiotics was given > or =2 hours before delivery, the effectiveness increased to 89% (95% confidence interval, 70%-96%); when it was given within 2 hours of delivery, the effectiveness was 71% (95% confidence interval, -8%-92%). Effectiveness was lowest in mothers with intrapartum fever (72%, 95% confidence interval, -9%-93%). On the basis of a 70% prevalence of maternal risk factors expected among cases in the absence of intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis, we estimate that the risk-based strategy could reduce early-onset group B streptococcal disease by 60%. CONCLUSIONS The risk-based approach to intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis is effective in preventing early-onset group B streptococcal disease. To achieve the maximum preventive effect, the first dose of antibiotics should be administered at least 2 hours before delivery.
A Unified Robust Regression Model for Lasso-like Algorithms

We develop a unified robust linear regression model and show that it is equivalent to a general regularization framework to encourage sparse-like structure that contains group Lasso and fused Lasso as specific examples. This provides a robustness interpretation of these widely applied Lasso-like algorithms, and allows us to construct novel generalizations of Lasso-like algorithms by considering different uncertainty sets. Using this robustness interpretation, we present new sparsity results, and establish the statistical consistency of the proposed regularized linear regression. This work extends a classical result from Xu et al. (2010) that relates standard Lasso with robust linear regression to learning problems with more general sparse-like structures, and provides new robustness-based tools to to understand learning problems with sparse-like structures.
Towards a better understanding of risk-taking: key concepts, dimensions and perspectives

The current study of risk is dominated by the risk minimisation approach that frames risk and risk-taking as something undesirable that should be avoided as much as possible. However, this approach to risk often fails to consider the broader conditions and motivations of risk-taking and to examine why people expose themselves to danger. In this editorial, I explore two key concepts – voluntary risk-taking and risk behaviour – considering the ways in which they represent opposing views in risk studies. I make the case for a broader approach to ‘risk-taking’ that addresses the complex tensions between risk-taking and risk aversion in the social, natural and material contexts of everyday life. I examine how risk-taking is characterised by varying degrees of control over decision-making, different mixes of motives, the impact of socio-structural factors, forms of routinisation and habitual risk-taking, how power is involved in risk-taking and how identity is used to challenge experts’ views. I discuss the role of stigma in risk-taking and how general societal contexts and organisational cultures influence the risk-taking. While there is increasing research on risk-taking, there is still scope for further publications that will advance our understanding of risk-taking in its social contexts, and in this editorial, I address issues that will form the basis of a forthcoming special issue of Health, Risk & Society.
Transcription Factor Phosphorylation by pp90 rsk2

The in vitro phosphorylation of transcription factors by growth factor-activated protein kinases has resulted in the discovery of a number of activities whose identities and relationships to one another are unclear. Fos kinase is a growth factor-stimulated serine/threonine protein kinase that phosphorylates c-Fos at serine 362 within the carboxyl-terminal regulatory domain. Fos kinase activation is dependent on p21 ras and mitogen-activated protein kinase/ERK kinase kinase (MEK) activity and is independent of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity. We have purified Fos kinase by affinity chromatography using the Sepharose-linked protein kinase inhibitor, bisindolylmaleimide (BIM). Fos kinase has an apparent molecular mass of 88 kDa, and mass spectrophotometric analysis of the isolated protein showed that it produced tryptic fragments identical to those predicted for pp90 rsk2 . Fos kinase isolated from nerve growth factor-stimulated PC12 cells is indistinguishable from NGFI-B kinase I, based on their chromatographic behavior, substrate specificities, and relative sensitivity to BIM. Furthermore, we have distinguished Fos kinase from calcium/cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) kinase. Therefore, Fos kinase and NGFI-B kinase I and pp90 rsk2 represent the same protein kinase species. Moreover, we report that pp90 rsk2 exists within nerve growth factor-stimulated PC12 cells as two chromatographically and immunologically distinct species. Finally, we demonstrate that CREB kinase is distinct from pp90 rsk2 .
The Role of GATA in Mammalian Reproduction

GATA transcription factors are emerging as critical players in mammalian reproductive development and function. GATA-4 contributes to fetal male gonadal development by regulating genes mediating Müllerian duct regression and the onset of testosterone production. GATA-2 expression appears to be sexually dimorphic being transiently expressed in the germ cell lineage of the fetal ovary but not the fetal testis. In the reproductive system, GATA-1 is exclusively expressed in Sertoli cells at specific seminiferous tubule stages. In addition, GATA-4 and GATA-6 are localized primary to ovarian and testicular somatic cells. The majority of cell transfection studies demonstrate that GATA-1 and GATA-4 can stimulate inhibin subunit gene promoter constructs. Other studies provide strong evidence that GATA-4 and GATA-6 can activate genes mediating gonadal cell steroidogenesis. GATA-2 and GATA-3 are found in pituitary and placental cells and can regulate α-glycoprotein subunit gene expression. Gonadal expression and activation of GATAs appear to be regulated in part by gonadotropin signaling via the cyclic AMP-protein kinase A pathway. This review will cover the current knowledge regarding GATA expression and function at all levels of the reproductive axis.
Age-dependent changes in innate immune phenotype and function in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Aged individuals are more susceptible to infections due to a general decline in immune function broadly referred to as immune senescence. While age-related changes in the adaptive immune system are well documented, aging of the innate immune system remains less well understood, particularly in nonhuman primates. A more robust understanding of age-related changes in innate immune function would provide mechanistic insight into the increased susceptibility of the elderly to infection. Rhesus macaques have proved a critical translational model for aging research, and present a unique opportunity to dissect age-dependent modulation of the innate immune system. We examined age-related changes in: (i) innate immune cell frequencies; (ii) expression of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and innate signaling molecules; (iii) cytokine responses of monocytes and dendritic cells (DC) following stimulation with PRR agonists; and (iv) plasma cytokine levels in this model. We found marked changes in both the phenotype and function of innate immune cells. This included an age-associated increased frequency of myeloid DC (mDC). Moreover, we found toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists lipopolysaccharide (TLR4), fibroblast stimulating ligand-1 (TLR2/6), and ODN2006 (TLR7/9) induced reduced cytokine responses in aged mDC. Interestingly, with the exception of the monocyte-derived TNFα response to LPS, which increased with age, TNFα, IL-6, and IFNα responses declined with age. We also found that TLR4, TLR5, and innate negative regulator, sterile alpha and TIR motif containing protein (SARM), were all expressed at lower levels in young animals. By contrast, absent in melanoma 2 and retinoic acid-inducible gene I expression was lowest in aged animals. Together, these observations indicate that several parameters of innate immunity are significantly modulated by age and contribute to differential immune function in aged macaques. This paper carries supplementary material (Supplemental Table S1, Supplemental Figure S1).
Light‐generated Paramagnetic Intermediates in BLUF Domains †

Blue‐light sensitive photoreceptory BLUF domains are flavoproteins, which regulate various, mostly stress‐related processes in bacteria and eukaryotes. The photoreactivity of the flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) cofactor in three BLUF domains from Rhodobacter sphaeroides, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and Escherichia coli have been studied at low temperature using time‐resolved electron paramagnetic resonance. Photoinduced flavin triplet states and radical‐pair species have been detected on a microsecond time scale. Differences in the electronic structures of the FAD cofactors as reflected by altered zero‐field splitting parameters of the triplet states could be correlated with changes in the amino‐acid composition of the various BLUF domains’ cofactor binding pockets. For the generation of the light‐induced, spin‐correlated radical‐pair species in the BLUF domain from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, a tyrosine residue near the flavin’s isoalloxazine moiety plays a critical role.
GSATools: analysis of allosteric communication and functional local motions using a structural alphabet

Motivation: GSATools is a free software package to analyze conformational ensembles and to detect functional motions in proteins by means of a structural alphabet. The software integrates with the widely used GROMACS simulation package and can generate a range of graphical outputs. Three applications can be supported: (i) investigation of the conformational variability of local structures; (ii) detection of allosteric communication; and (iii) identification of local regions that are critical for global functional motions. These analyses provide insights into the dynamics of proteins and allow for targeted design of functional mutants in theoretical and experimental studies. Availability: The C source code of the GSATools, along with a set of pre-compiled binaries, is freely available under GNU General Public License from http://mathbio.nimr.mrc.ac.uk/wiki/GSATools. Contact: alessandro.pandini@kcl.ac.uk or jkleinj@nimr.mrc.ac.uk Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Scholarship @ Claremont Neural Responses to Vibration during Wobble Board Balancing Neural Responses to Vibration during Wobble Board Balancing

Falling, an epidemic most prevalently seen in the elderly population, accounts for the majority of injury-related cases seen by emergency departments across the United States. Unfortunately, with no large-scale institutionalization of a solution, the problem is only expected to exacerbate as our planet‘s population approaches the 7 billion mark. In the wake of the recent surge of falls among the elderly, Japan has implemented a program to include unicycling in the physical education curriculum for elementary schools across the country. The goal for this program is to encourage children to establish strong fundamental balancing skills, which could potentially alleviate the pain—physical, emotional, and financial— incurred from falls in the elderly. This senior thesis study builds off Japan‘s unicycling program by investigating ways to improve wobble board balancing, a more practical alternative to unicycling. In previous research, the skill of stick balancing, a motor task that has been shown to behave with the same power laws as wobble board balancing, has been improved with the use of vibrations. Here, we show that learning to wobble board balance is not expedited and wobble board balancing skill is not improved with the employment of vibrations, unlike stick balancing. Nonetheless, those who learned to wobble board balance with background vibrations went on to later outperform those who learned to wobble board balance without vibrations. These results suggest that vibrations (50 Hz, 0.18 mm amplitude) have a beneficial effect on the development of skill for wobble board balancing that is not related to the direct physical effects of the vibration. The observations also suggest that in the presence of vibrations, the nervous system develops more robust strategies for controlling balance.
Novel Insights into the Pathogenesis of Hirschsprung's-associated Enterocolitis

Objective:To systematically summary the updated results about the pathogenesis of Hirschsprung's-associated enterocolitis (HAEC). Besides, we discussed the research key and direction based on these results. Data Sources:Our data cited in this review were obtained mainly from PubMed from 1975 to 2015, with keywords “Hirschsprung enterocolitis”, “Hirschsprung's enterocolitis”, “Hirschsprung's-associated enterocolitis”, “Hirschsprung-associated enterocolitis”, “HAEC”, and “EC”. Study Selection:Articles regarding the pathogenesis of HAEC were selected, and the articles mainly regarding the diagnosis, surgical approach, treatment, and follow-up were excluded. Results:Several factors, mainly including mucus barrier, intestinal microbiota, and immune function, as well as some other factors such as genetic variations and surgical reasons, have been found to be related to the pathogenesis of HAEC. Changed quantity and barrier property of mucus, different composition of microbiota, and an abnormal immune state work together or separately trigger HAEC. Conclusions:The maintenance of intestinal homeostasis is due to a well cooperation of microbiota, mucus barrier, and immune system. If any part presents abnormal, intestinal homeostasis will be broken. Meanwhile, for patients with Hirschsprung's disease or HAEC, dysfunction of these parts has been found. Thus, the happening of HAEC may be mainly attributed to the disorders of intestinal microbiota, mucus barrier, and immune system.
BEHAVIORAL MODELING IN OPTIMAL INVESTMENT-CONSUMPTION DECISIONS FOR LONG-TERM FINANCIAL PLANNING

Decision making criteria for making important flnancial and business decisions are assumed to be normative, however this is far from an accurate representation of reality. This paper provides a systematic organization of behavioral preferences found in the litera- ture and incorporates them in a modelling framework for an individual planner's long-term flnancial planning decisions. Inclusion of behavioral preferences implies that the result- ing optimization problems lose some of their well-behaved properties when compared with similar normative formulations. We solve the resulting large-scale nonlinear optimization problems using state-of-the-art algorithms that are found to be robust to these regularity issues and obtain optimal consumption, saving, and investment decisions corresponding to these behavioral preferences. The computational results demonstrate the efiect of modifled preferences on the tradeofi between immediate consumption and long-term savings. This analysis paves the path for a detailed prescriptive analysis. A prescriptive analysis will allow flnancial advisory services to tailor advice to speciflc individual's preferences, rather than provide a 'one answer flts all' solution.
Job Proximity and Accessibility for Workers of Various Wage Groups

This research proposes two indexes, job proximity and accessibility, to measure workers' location advantage by residences with respect to their job markets. Job proximity is designed to capture the spatial separation between residents and jobs. Job accessibility measures one's ability to overcome such separation as may be affected by transportation means, road network, congestion, and intensity of competition for jobs among workers. The research compares the two measures among workers of various wage levels in an attempt to reveal who has the greatest advantage in job access and whether job access is a spatial or nonspatial issue. In Cleveland in 1990, the mean wage rate of 30,000 was a critical turning point: below this level, the higher the mean wage rate in a residential area, the farther the area was away from jobs; above this level, the trend is reversed. In other words, below a wage threshold, workers tend to trade better and more spacious housing (usually farther away from jobs) for more commuting; but above the threshold, workers retreat for saving in commuting (pertaining to their high opportunity cost of commuting). Although low-wage workers enjoy better job proximity, many of them (particularly some inner-city residents) have the worst job accessibility because of their limited transport mobility as indicated by a low level of automobile ownership. Job proximity declines with distance from the CBD and conforms to the monocentric model, as does job accessibility but to a less degree. Since workers with various wages respond differently to job access, the distribution of mean wage rates in the metropolitan area is hardly monocentric.
Strategies for high retention rates of low-income families in FAST (Families and Schools Together): An evidence-based parenting programme in the USA, UK, Holland and Germany

This article describes strategies of an evidence-based parenting programme, Families and Schools Together (FAST), which has a track record for retaining low-income families. FAST multi-family groups held after school are led by culturally representative teams of parents and professionals. Parents are coached to practise positive parenting, lead fun family activities, including one to one responsive play, and meet in parent groups. Families (n = 403) were recruited into 31 FAST groups: 253 families in the UK; 114 in Germany and 36 in Holland. Attendance was recorded. To graduate a family attended 6 or more of 8 weekly sessions. Results revealed high retention rates; 83% for the UK, 83% for Holland and 89% for Germany. The assumption is that the following strategies contributed to these high retention rates: respect for parents to co-produce the programme; flexibility while being “manualized”; providing positive emotion; “foot in the door” recruitment technique; crossing the social ecology to increase social capital; and systematically reinforcing attendance.
The Contribution of fMRI in the Study of Visual Categorization and Expertise

We recognize and categorize objects around us within a fraction of a second and in a number of different ways, depending on context, our experience with them, and the purpose of the categorization. For example the same animal can be a dog, a bow wow or a bulldog, a mammal or a Canis lupus familiaris. We are also able to recognize it in a variety of lighting conditions, orientations and positions, despite the large number of two dimensional images that every three dimensional object generates. It is therefore not surprising that our extraordinary ability to recognize objects has fascinated philosophers for a very long time. In Categories Aristotle made an attempt to categorize everything, mainly by analysing patterns of language and speech, answering questions like “τί ἐστί”, “what is it? ”, “what like is it? ” (Cross, 1959), and by describing the defining qualities that all instances of a particular category share, e.g. all soft things share the quality of softness.
Organizational learning capability and organizational citizenship behaviour in the health sector: examining the role of happiness at work from a gender perspective

Both researchers and managers are interested in finding the factors that raise organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), particularly in the health sector. In this complex context, characterized by a high workload, it becomes essential that physicians voluntarily contribute beyond their official job description. Our research aims to evidence the working conditions that promote OCB, considering the role of organizational learning capability through happiness at work. Our research was based on a sample of 167 allergists at Spanish public hospitals, and by means of structural equation models, interesting results were found. We offer to hospital managers both a tool and an explanation for the fostering of OCB. Physicians that progress through learning, under positive attitudes at work, may indeed behave more civically, going beyond their job description. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Performance Increasing Methods for Probabilistic Neural Networks

Through this paper, some performance increasing methods for probabilistic neural network (PNN) are presented. These methods are tested with the glass benchmark database which has an irregular class distribution. Selection of a good training dataset is one of the most important issue. Therefore, a new data selection procedure was proposed. A data replication method is applied to the rare events of the dataset. After reaching the best accuracy, a principal component analysis (PCA) is used to reduce the computational complexity of PNN. Better classification accuracy than the reference work using Bayesian EM model was achieved by PNN using these methods.
Reactions to Patients' Self-or Chance-Blaming Attributions for Illnesses Having Varying Life-style Involvement

The effects of the perceived accuracy of attributions of self blame and chance blame were examined in the context of health care. Health practitioners (N= 147) rated interviews in which patients made self-or chance-blaming attributions for diseases with high (heart attack, stroke), or low (cancer, arthritis) life-style involvement, or acidental injuries. Three discriminant analyses yielded p < . 001. Self-blaming heart and stroke patients were rated as coping better and acting more appropriately and typically than chance blamers. Other self blamers were rated as more depressed, poorly adjusted, coping poorly, not accepting disability, needing counselling and information. Additionally, self-blaming accident victims were judged as more dependent, less likeable, and having poorer prognoses than chance blamers. Realistic self blame for life-style diseases did not lead to victimization, but other self-blaming patients were stigmatized and the adaptiveness of self blame as a coping strategy was unrecognized.
Turnover predictors: causes of employee turnover in sheriff‐operated jails

County jails have faced a high turnover problem among jail officers for some time. This study analyzed five jails with a survey to determine the predominant predictors of turnover. Some predictors are under the control of the sheriff, some of the government and others of the economy. Of those elements that the sheriff can control, communication of realistic promotion support, genuine interest and full use of employee skills, are the most important.