Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Organizational Practices Affecting Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Readmissions

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) contributes to more than 700,000 hospitalizations annually in the United States, and approximately 20% of patients are readmitted within 30 days (1, 2). To control costs and improve quality, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services implemented the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), which financially penalizes hospitals with high readmission rates for select conditions, including COPD (3). Despite pressure to improve COPD care, few organizational practices have been shown to reduce COPD readmissions (4). Moreover, no studies have examined the effectiveness of organizational practices to reduce COPD readmission across multiple hospitals. Results of this study were previously presented as an abstract (5).
Histological, histochemical and ultrastructural study of the intestine of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).

The histological and histochemical characteristics of the intestine and the ultrastructure of it's mucosa were studied in rainbow trout. The histological characterizations revealed that the wall of the intestine is composed of the tunica mucosa, tunica submucosa, tunica muscularis and tunica serosa. Intestinal mucosa displays many villi and a simple columnar epithelium in associated with goblet cells and intraepithelial lymphocytes. Muscularis mucosae and mucosal tubular glands were not seen. Eosinophilic granular cells (mast cells) observed along the intestine mainly beneath the stratum compactum, an acidophilic longitudinal layer. Histochemical analysis showed that the goblet cells have acidic and neutral mucosubstances. At the ultrastructural level, the columnar cells of the intestine have microvilli toward the lumen and are joined together at the apical surfaces by the junctional complexes. Lysosomes, rough endoplasmic reticulum and polymorphic mitochondria are scattered in the supranuclear cytoplasm of enterocytes. Many pinocytotic vesicles were observed in the enterocytes of the middle part of the intestine.
Motivations

An exploratory discussion. Call a desire “finitisic” if some conceivable eventuality would fulfil it completely (so that no conceivable eventuality would fulfil it more). That flexibility of behaviour distinguishing the animate from the mindless is accounted for fundamentally by supposing ultimate motivation all infinitistic and outweighable. Decision-making by the counterpoise of such motivation contrasts with algorithmic thinking; and this suggests a non-computational view of mentation, a compatibilist understanding of creative imagination, and (with some additional conceptions) a possible definitional avenue for breaking the circle of intentionality.
The brain proteome profile is highly conserved between Prnp−/− and Prnp+/+ mice

The aim of this study is to compare the proteome of Prnp−/− (Zürich I) gene-ablated mouse brains with wild-type mouse brains. Fluorescence two-dimensional-difference gel electrophoresis (DIGE) and isotope-coded protein labeling (ICPL) were applied for brain homogenates. Similar quantitative protein profiles (≤1.5-fold change, P<0.05) were obtained by quantitative two-dimensional-DIGE analysis of whole brain homogenates of two developmental stages (days 1 and 67). Complementary ICPL-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry experiments (n=5) of whole brain homogenates and synaptosomes were performed. The abundance ratios of all proteins quantified did not exceed the statistical spread determined (<2-fold). Therefore, both of the two-dimensional-DIGE and ICPL analyses demonstrated a highly conserved quantitative protein profile in brain homogenates of Prnp−/− and Prnp+/+ mice.
Impact of Anticipated Interaction on Information Acquisition

A good deal of theoretical and empirical attention has been devoted to the cognitive consequences of disagreement from majority and minority sources. However, little effort has been made to determine how anticipated interaction with majorities and minorities of various sizes affects the cognitions of prospective group members. In this study, subjects were led to believe that they would soon discuss a controversial issue with five other people. In four experimental conditions, subjects were further informed that they belonged to either a majority or a minority faction and that the minority was composed of either one person or two persons. Prior to the discussion, subjects had an opportunity to read computer-stored arguments supporting and opposing their position. Results indicated that, within both majority and minority factions, the more people in the opposing faction (and the fewer people in the supporting faction), the more biased subjects were in reading information that supported (rather than opposed) the position they expected to defend. Control subjects, who anticipated a discussion but were given no information about the opinions of other group members, responded like experimental subjects who expected to be members of a four-person majority opposing a two-person minority. These findings, which are not consistent with prior models of majority and minority influence (e.g., Moscovici, 1985), suggest that, at least under certain circumstances, different forms of disagreement (e.g., anticipated interaction with disagreeing others, mere awareness that others disagree, and actual interaction with disagreeing others) may have different cognitive consequences.
The Role of Displays of Emotions and Ethnicity in Judgments of Rape Victims

The present experiment investigated the impact of displays of emotions and ethnicity of a rape victim on impression formation of white male and female observers. It was expected that victims would be assessed more favourably when they behaved angrily, rather than sadly, and when they were white rather than black. Moreover, it was expected that female observers would assess victims more positively than male observers. In the present experiment 51 male and 49 female observers watched a videotape of a victim of rape (an actress) during a simulated police interview. The ethnicity of the victim (white vs. black) and the emotion displayed by the victim (sad vs angry) was systematically manipulated. Observers' interpretations of what had happened were investigated by means of a questionnaire. The findings supported hypotheses relating to display of emotions and gender of the participants but failed to support the hypothesis concerning ethnicity.
EFEK SAMPING KEMOTERAPI SECARA FISIK PASIEN PENDERITA KANKER SERVIK

Kanker serviks merupakan penyebab kematian terbanyak terutama di Negara berkembang. Penatalaksanaan untuk kanker serviks ada beberapa macam yaitu melalui pembedahan, radioterapi dan kemoterapi. Kemoterapi memiliki dampak dalam berbagai bidang kehidupan antara lain dampak terhadap fisik dan psikologis. Efek samping kemoterapi dapat mempengaruhi kualitas hidup pasien kanker servik. Tujuan penelitian : adalah mengembangkan konsep efek samping kemoterapi terhadap fisik pasien yang menderita kanker servik. Desain penelitian di rancang menggunakan metode kualitatif Pendekatan yang digunakan adalah penelitian kualitatif Study Fenomenologi. Subjek penelitian adalah wanita penderita kanker serviks dengan kemoterapi Di RSUD Dr. Moewardi Surakarta. Pengambilan sampel dengan tehnik purposive sampling. Instrumen penelitian dalam penelitian kualitatif ini dengan menggunakan pedoman wawancara, pedoman observasi, alat tulis dan juga alat perekam serta catatan lapangan (field note). Analisa data dilakukan menggunakan analisa Kualitatif. Hasil penelitian :Efek samping kemoterapi terhadap fisik pasien Kanker Servik meliputi mual muntah, konstipasi, perubahan rasa, penurunan berat badan toksisitas kulit, Alopecia, penurunan nafsu makan, nyeri, neuropati perifer.Kesimpulan dan saran : Kemoterapi memberikan efek nyata kepada fisik pasien, setiap orang memiliki variasi yang berbeda dalam merespon obat kemoterapi. Tenaga kesehatan sebaiknya memperhatikan dan memahami efek samping yang dialami oleh setiap pasien untuk merencanakan pendekatan yang sesuai. Kata kunci : efek samping, fisik, kemoterapi
Shifts in species richness, herbivore specialization, and plant resistance along elevation gradients

Environmental gradients have been postulated to generate patterns of diversity and diet specialization, in which more stable environments, such as tropical regions, should promote higher diversity and specialization. Using field sampling and phylogenetic analyses of butterfly fauna over an entire alpine region, we show that butterfly specialization (measured as the mean phylogenetic distance between utilized host plants) decreases at higher elevations, alongside a decreasing gradient of plant diversity. Consistent with current hypotheses on the relationship between biodiversity and the strength of species interactions, we experimentally show that a higher level of generalization at high elevations is associated with lower levels of plant resistance: across 16 pairs of plant species, low-elevation plants were more resistant vis-à-vis their congeneric alpine relatives. Thus, the links between diversity, herbivore diet specialization, and plant resistance along an elevation gradient suggest a causal relationship analogous to that hypothesized along latitudinal gradients.
A Cross-Cultural Examination of the Psychometric Properties of Responses to the Achievement Goal Questionnaire

The psychometric properties of scores from the Achievement Goal Questionnaire were examined in samples of Japanese (N = 326) and Canadian (N = 307) postsecondary students. Previous research found evidence of a four-factor structure of achievement goals in U.S. samples. Using confirmatory factor-analytic techniques, the authors found strong evidence for the four-factor structure of achievement goals in both the Canadian and Japanese populations. Subsequent multigroup structural equation modeling indicated the metric invariance of this four-factor structure across the two populations.
Maternal cigarette smoking and effects on androgen action in male offspring: unexpected effects on second-trimester anogenital distance.

INTRODUCTION Fertility, sperm counts, and testis weights are reduced in men whose mothers smoked in pregnancy. Animal studies suggest this could be due to impaired androgen action. Anogenital distance (AGD) provides a readout of fetal androgen exposure and is reduced by in utero exposure to harmful chemicals in rodents. This study assessed whether maternal cigarette smoking disturbs AGD in the second trimester human fetus. MATERIALS AND METHODS Morphological indices, including AGD, and circulating cotinine concentrations were measured in 83 electively terminated, normally progressing, second-trimester fetuses between 11 and 20 wk gestation. RESULTS A gender difference in AGD (1.4-fold longer in males) was already apparent at 11-13 wk, rising to 2.00-fold longer in males at 17-20 wk gestation. In males, AGD and AGD normalized against ponderal index (a measure of fetal leanness) were significantly increased by maternal smoking (1.19- and 1.31-fold, respectively). The difference between smoke-exposed and nonexposed male AGD was greatest at 11-13 wk (1.25-fold) but had declined to 1.01-fold by 17-20 wk gestation. AGD in females was not affected by maternal cigarette smoking. CONCLUSIONS Androgen programming of masculinization occurs before 11-13 wk gestation in the human because AGD is already significantly longer in male fetuses by that stage. AGD reaches the 2-fold difference reported for the neonate by 17-20 wk gestation. Significantly longer AGD in smoke-exposed males was surprising and may indicate increased androgen exposure in the early programming window. Convergence of AGD by late second trimester suggests, however, that by birth, male AGD may be shorter in smoke-exposed individuals.
Liver endothelial cells participate in T‐cell‐dependent host resistance to lymphoma metastasis by production of nitric oxide in vivo

Tumor growth and metastasis of IacZ‐transduced murine lymphoma ESbL cells inoculated into syngeneic DBA/2 mice are characterized by a transient plateau phase with a constant tumor diameter and low metastatic load, indicating a host response against the tumor. Here we show that endothelial cells participate in a T‐cell‐dependent, anti‐metastatic response by producing NO in situ. Liver endothelial cells were isolated and examined directly ex vivo without further manipulation. NO production in liver endothelial cells reached the highest level during the plateau phase but declined toward the end of it, followed by an overall breakdown of host response, leading to progressive tumor growth and high load of liver metastasis. Mice subjected to anti‐tumor immunization and subsequent challenge with a tumorigenic dose of ESbL‐IacZ cells showed, in comparison to non‐immunized challenged controls, reduced liver metastasis and increased endothelial NO production. Adoptive transfer of anti‐tumor immune spleen cells from semi‐allogeneic B10.D2 mice into tumor‐bearing animals during the plateau phase caused a regression of primary tumor and metastases, together with a preservation of the high level of NO synthesis in endothelial cells. In immuno‐incompetent (SCID) mice, tumor growth and metastasis were progressive and there was no endothelial NO response. Pre‐immunization of immuno‐competent mice with both live and irradiated tumor cells at different sites of the body led to an induction of NO production by liver endothelial cells. These results reveal a novel role of endothelial cells in the suppression of lymphoma metastasis in the liver. The inducible endothelial cell NO response is apparently dependent and induced by mature T lymphocytes.
Continuous Conditional Random Fields for Efficient Regression in Large Fully Connected Graphs

When used for structured regression, powerful Conditional Random Fields (CRFs) are typically restricted to modeling effects of interactions among examples in local neighborhoods. Using more expressive representation would result in dense graphs, making these methods impractical for large-scale applications. To address this issue, we propose an effective CRF model with linear scale-up properties regarding approximate learning and inference for structured regression on large, fully connected graphs. The proposed method is validated on real-world large-scale problems of image de-noising and remote sensing. In conducted experiments, we demonstrated that dense connectivity provides an improvement in prediction accuracy. Inference time of less than ten seconds on graphs with millions of nodes and trillions of edges makes the proposed model an attractive tool for large-scale, structured regression problems.
Perception of complex sounds in autism: abnormal auditory cortical processing in children.

OBJECTIVE The authors have previously described less activation of left speech-related temporal areas in adults with autism when listening to speech-like sounds than in normal adults. Here, they investigated whether this abnormal cortical processing was also present in children with primary autism. METHOD Regional cerebral blood flow was measured with positron emission tomography after premedication in 11 autistic children and six nonautistic mentally retarded children during rest and while they were listening to speech-like sounds. RESULTS As with autistic adults, direct comparison between the two groups revealed significantly less activation in the autistic group localized in left speech-related areas. CONCLUSIONS For the first time to their knowledge, an activation study was performed in children with autism and has confirmed previous results obtained in adults. The abnormal cortical auditory processing observed in both children and adults with autism could be involved in inadequate behavioral responses to sounds and in language impairments characteristic of autism.
Inter-party Agenda-Setting in the Belgian Parliament: The Role of Party Characteristics and Competition

In this article we explore the inter-party agenda-setting dynamics in the Belgian parliament during the period 1993–2000 and investigate whether and when parties respond to the attention paid to issues by other parties in parliament. We rely on an elaborate coding of parliamentary questions and interpellations, as well as media coverage and government meetings. Pooled time series analyses demonstrate considerable agenda-setting effects from one party agenda to another. The results indicate that in particular parties from the same language community, parties that participate in government and extreme-right and environmental ‘niche parties’ have agenda-setting power.
Improvement of Endothelial Function by Amlodipine and Vitamin C in Essential Hypertension

Background The effects of antihypertensive agents on endothelial function have not been fully evaluated in human hypertension and data on the forearm circulation of humans are controversial. The aim of this study was (1) to evaluate the endothelial function in hypertensive patients (2) to investigate whether vitamin C administration has any benefit on the endothelial function and (3) to determine whether treatment with calcium antagonist improves endothelial dysfunction in hypertensive patients. Methods The endothelial function was estimated using venous occlusion plethysmography (VOP) in 8 hypertensive patients and 8 healthy volunteers. The patients in the hypertension group were treated with amlodipine, then examined again. The change of forearm blood flow (FBF) was measured with acetylcholine infusion through brachial artery and also with intra-arterial vitamin C. Results Forearm blood flow response to acetylcholine was significantly enhanced with intra-arterial infusion of vitamin C in hypertensive group before antihypertensive treatment. Co-infusion of L-NMMA, an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase, blunted forearm blood flow response to acetylcholine. After treatment with amlodipine for 2 months in hypertensive group, endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation to acetylcholine was significantly improved compared to pretreatment, and vitamin C did not affect the improved endothelial function by amlodipine treatment. Conclusion Vitamin C (acutely) and amlodipine (chronically) improved endothelial function in hypertensive patients. These results suggest that increased oxidative stress, at least in part, may be involved in the decreased endothelial function in hypertension.
Gastric cancer mortality in the spouses of patients who died from gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND There is evidence to support the hypothesis that the main determinants of gastric carcinogenesis act in childhood and adolescence. Based on the assumption that husband and wife share many of these factors (dietary habits and other exogenous exposures) only in adult life, the aim of the study was to demonstrate that the spouses of patients who died from gastric cancer (GC) are not at increased risk of GC death. METHODS The study was conducted on data from the province of Forlì (north eastern Italy). The anonymous GC death records provided by the Italian National Statistics Bureau for the years 1969-1988 were matched by month/year of birth, sex, marital status, month/year and place of death with those of the population registries in the area. The subjects identified had a total of 2720 wives or husbands. Gastric cancer mortality observed in the cohort of spouses was compared with that of the general population using the standardized mortality ratio (SMR), calculated by applying the sex-, age-, and time period-specific mortality rate in the population to the appropriate person-years at risk in the cohort. RESULTS The cohort yielded a total of 22 414 person-years. The SMR was 1.1 (95% CI : 0.9-1.5) with a value of 0.9 (95% CI : 0.6-1.5) among males and 1.2 (95% CI : 0.9-1.7) among females. CONCLUSION The study provided further evidence that the main events in gastric carcinogenesis occur before adult life.
Reported Outcome Factors for Pulmonary Resection in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

Pulmonary resection of metastatic colorectal cancer is widely practiced in surgical oncology. However, only a highly selected subset of patients is eligible for resection, and the average recurrence rate is still high. We reviewed the recent literature on pulmonary metastasectomy for colorectal cancer and tried to address the issue of patient selection based on prognostic parameters associated with long-term survival. No randomized phase III trials are available, and data for this review were retrieved only from retrospective studies. We excluded papers reporting on patients earlier than 1990. In summary, there is a substantial body of evidence demonstrating that resection of pulmonary metastases can be performed safely and with a low mortality rate. For a subset of highly selected patients, the overall results of a 5-year actuarial survival rate after complete resection ranged between 40 and 68%. These outcomes exceed those normally associated with metastatic colorectal cancer. It is this perception that has encouraged surgeons and caused the practice to grow.
Towards an Optimized Method of Olive Tree Crown Volume Measurement

Accurate crown characterization of large isolated olive trees is vital for adjusting spray doses in three-dimensional crop agriculture. Among the many methodologies available, laser sensors have proved to be the most reliable and accurate. However, their operation is time consuming and requires specialist knowledge and so a simpler crown characterization method is required. To this end, three methods were evaluated and compared with LiDAR measurements to determine their accuracy: Vertical Crown Projected Area method (VCPA), Ellipsoid Volume method (VE) and Tree Silhouette Volume method (VTS). Trials were performed in three different kinds of olive tree plantations: intensive, adapted one-trunked traditional and traditional. In total, 55 trees were characterized. Results show that all three methods are appropriate to estimate the crown volume, reaching high coefficients of determination: R2 = 0.783, 0.843 and 0.824 for VCPA, VE and VTS, respectively. However, discrepancies arise when evaluating tree plantations separately, especially for traditional trees. Here, correlations between LiDAR volume and other parameters showed that the Mean Vector calculated for VCPA method showed the highest correlation for traditional trees, thus its use in traditional plantations is highly recommended.
The Classification, Intercorrelation, and Dynamic Nature of MSW Student Practice Preferences

Data was collected biannually (1992-98) from a complete population of students entering and exiting accredited graduate programs of social work in California (N=5,793). Findings suggest that practice interests and career aspirations of MSW students are more diverse and dynamic in nature than the debate in the literature on social work’s mission would lead readers to believe. Although the proportion of all students most interested in each of the seven practice areas studied does not change throughout graduate studies, there is tremendous movement among individual students with respect to practice preferences during the course of their education.