Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Continuity of antipsychotic medication management for Medicaid patients with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine whether medication refill behavior varies by the number of prescribers of antipsychotic medication a patient has. METHODS A total of 7,868 patients with schizophrenia were identified from North Carolina Medicaid records for the period 2001-2003. Medication switching and adherence outcomes in 2003 were constructed from Medicaid pharmacy claims. Adherence was categorized into four levels (nonadherence, partial adherence, full adherence, or excess filler). Patients were stratified into four groups on the basis of the number of providers who prescribed antipsychotics in 2002 (one prescriber, two prescribers, three prescribers, or four or more prescribers). Medication switching was modeled via logistic regression, and the four-level adherence outcome was modeled via ordered logistic regression, with both regressions controlling for the number of prescribers, age, gender, race, and comorbidity. Medication switching in 2003 was also controlled for in the adherence regression. Predicted probabilities of being in the four adherence groups were estimated to examine the impact of the number of prescribers on adherence. RESULTS Fifty-seven percent of Medicaid patients with schizophrenia had one prescriber for antipsychotic medication, 29% had two prescribers, 10% had three prescribers, and 4% had four or more prescribers in 2002. Patients with more prescribers were significantly more likely than patients with one prescriber to switch medications (p<.01 for patients with three prescribers) and to be either fully adherent or excess fillers (p<.001). CONCLUSIONS Patients with schizophrenia who received medication from multiple prescribers frequently changed medications and filled prescriptions too soon. Care coordination, such as with medical homes, may be effective in improving medication use in this vulnerable population.
Evaluation of the 113Online Suicide Prevention Crisis Chat Service: Outcomes, Helper Behaviors and Comparison to Telephone Hotlines

Recognizing the importance of digital communication, major suicide prevention helplines have started offering crisis intervention by chat. To date there is little evidence supporting the effectiveness of crisis chat services. To evaluate the reach and outcomes of the 113Online volunteer-operated crisis chat service, 526 crisis chat logs were studied, replicating the use of measures that were developed to study telephone crisis calls. Reaching a relatively young population of predominantly females with severe suicidality and (mental) health problems, chat outcomes for this group were found to be comparable to those found for crisis calls to U.S. Lifeline Centers in 2003-2004, with similar but not identical associations with specific helpers' styles and attitudes. Our findings support a positive effect of the 113Online chat service, to be enhanced by practice standards addressing an apparent lack of focus on the central issue of suicidality during chats, as well as by the development of best practices specific for online crisis intervention.
An effective method for human detection using far-infrared images

In this paper, a robust real-time approach to detect humans in far-infrared images is proposed. Adaptive thresholds and vertical edge operator are combined to extract human candidate regions. Then, disturbing components are removed using morphological operations, size filtering and component labeling. After analyzing each connected region through histogram evaluation, local thresholds are employed to separate overlapped human candidates into single ones. At last, nonhuman objects are eliminated by shape refinement. Experimental results demonstrate the approach is accurate to locate human regions and efficient to meet the real-time demand of a general surveillance system.
On Monitoring and Failure Localization in Mesh All-Optical Networks

Achieving fast and precise failure localization has long been a highly desired feature in all-optical mesh networks. M-trail (monitoring trail) has been proposed as the most general monitoring structure for achieving unambiguous failure localization (UFL) of any single link failure while effectively reducing the amount of alarm signals flooded in the networks. However, it is critical to come up with a fast and intelligent m-trail design approach for minimizing the number of m-trails and the totally consumed bandwidth, which ubiquitously determines the length of alarm code and bandwidth overhead for the M-trail deployment, respectively. In this paper, the m-trail design problem is investigated. To gain deeper understanding of the problem, we firstly conduct a bound analysis on the minimum length of alarm code required for UFL. Then, a novel algorithm based on random code assignment (RCA) and random code swapping (RCS) is developed for solving the m-trail design problem. The algorithm prototype can be found in. The algorithm is verified by comparing with an integer linear program (ILP), and the results demonstrate its superiority in minimizing the fault management cost and bandwidth consumption while achieving significant reduction in computation time. To investigate the impact of topology diversity, extensive simulation is conducted on thousands of random network topologies with systematically increased network connectivity. Lastly, we provide abundant discussions and interesting conclusive remarks that position our discoveries.
Acetylcholine ameliorates endoplasmic reticulum stress in endothelial cells after hypoxia/reoxygenation via M3 AChR-AMPK signaling

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is associated with various cardiovascular diseases. However, its pathophysiological relevance and the underlying mechanisms in the context of hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) in endothelial cells are not fully understood. Previous findings have suggested that acetylcholine (ACh), the major vagal nerve neurotransmitter, protected against cardiomyocyte injury by activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). This study investigated the role of ER stress in endothelial cells during H/R and explored the beneficial effects of ACh. Our results showed that H/R triggered ER stress and apoptosis in endothelial cells, evidenced by the elevation of glucose-regulated protein 78, cleaved caspase-12 and C/EBP homologous protein expression. ACh significantly decreased ER stress and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling positive cells and restored ER ultrastructural changes induced by H/R, possibly via protein kinase-like ER kinase and inositol-requiring kinase 1 pathways. Additionally, 4-diphenylacetoxy-N-methylpiperidine methiodide, a type-3 muscarinic ACh receptor (M3 AChR) inhibitor, abolished ACh-mediated increase in AMPK phosphorylation during H/R. Furthermore, M3 AChR or AMPK siRNA abrogated the ACh-elicited the attenuation of ER stress in endothelial cells, indicating that the salutary effects of ACh were likely mediated by M3 AChR-AMPK signaling. Overall, ACh activated AMPK through M3 AChR, thereby inhibited H/R-induced ER stress and apoptosis in endothelial cells. We have suggested for the first time that AMPK may function as an essential intermediate step between M3 AChR stimulation and inhibition of ER stress-associated apoptotic pathway during H/R, which may help to develop novel therapeutic approaches targeting ER stress to prevent or alleviate ischemia/reperfusion injury.
Speaker recognition and verification using artificial neural network

Speaker recognition is a biometrie technique which uses individual voice samples for recognition purpose. Speaker recognition is mainly divided into speaker identification and speaker verification. In this paper, a comparative study is made between various combinations of features for speaker identification. Mel frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC) features are combined with spectral centroid and spectral subtraction and tested for improvement in efficiency. Feed forward artificial neural network is used as a classifier. System was tested for 30 speakers. For speaker identification, an average identification rate of 65.3% is achieved when MFCC is combined with centroid features and an identification rate of 60% is achieved when MFCC is combined with spectral subtraction. For speaker verification, an average verification rate of 65.7% is achieved when MFCC is combined with spectral subtraction and a verification rate of 75.3% is achieved when MFCC is used along with centroid.
Markedly elevated soluble intercellular adhesion molecule 1, soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 levels, and blood-brain barrier breakdown in neuromyelitis optica.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the degree of blood-brain barrier disruption in patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and to clarify whether the levels of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (sICAM-1) and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (sVCAM-1) in patients with NMO can be useful biomarkers for blood-brain barrier breakdown. DESIGN Descriptive historical cohort. SETTING Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University. PATIENTS The levels of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 in 25 patients with NMO, 21 patients with multiple sclerosis, and 20 patients with other noninflammatory neurologic disorders in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were measured using a multiplexed fluorescent magnetic bead-based immunoassay. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Levels of the soluble adhesion molecules in serum and CSF and their associations with blood-brain barrier disruption. RESULTS The CSF levels of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 increased in patients with NMO compared with patients with multiple sclerosis and other noninflammatory neurologic disorders (P < .001), and serum levels of sICAM-1 increased in patients with NMO compared with healthy control individuals (P = .003). The CSF sICAM-1 levels from patients with NMO were correlated with the albumin quotient (P = .02) and the presence of lesions detected via gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging. CONCLUSIONS Severe blood-brain barrier breakdown occurs in patients with NMO. Measuring adhesion molecules is useful to evaluate this barrier disruption.
Blood pressure and kidney cancer risk: meta-analysis of prospective studies

Background: Globally, kidney cancer is the twelfth most common cancer, accounting for 337 860 cases recorded in 2012. By 2020, this number has been estimated to reach 412 929 or increase by 22%. Over the past few decades, a number of prospective studies have investigated the association between blood pressure (BP) and risk of kidney cancer, using either recorded BP levels or reported hypertension as the principal exposure variable. However, the relation of BP to kidney cancer remains incompletely understood, and the data on sex-specific differences in risk estimates have been inconsistent. Method: PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched for studies assessing the association between BP and kidney cancer through July 2016. The summary relative risk with 95% confidence intervals was calculated using a random-effects model. Result: A total of 18 prospective studies with 8097 kidney cancer cases from 3 628 479 participants were included in our meta-analysis. History of hypertension was associated with 67% increased risk of kidney cancer. Significant heterogeneity and evidence of publication bias were observed. However, the results remain unchanged after introducing the trim and fill method to correct the publication bias. Accordingly, each 10-mmHg increase in SBP and DBP was associated with 10 and 22% increased risk of kidney cancer. Conclusion: Collectively, the present meta-analysis of 18 prospective studies provides further support for a positive association between hypertension and kidney cancer risk.
Immigration transition and sleep-related symptoms experienced during menopausal transition

ABSTRACT The transition due to immigration from one country to another country (referred to as immigration transition henceforth) is inherently stressful, placing an additional dimension of stress to midlife women in the menopausal transition. However, few studies have examined the association of immigration to sleep-related symptoms experienced by midlife women in the menopausal transition. The authors’ purpose for this study was to explore the associations of immigration to sleep-related symptoms among four major racial/ethnic groups of 1,054 midlife women in the United States. This was a secondary analysis of data from two national surveys that were collected from 2005 to 2013. The instruments included questions on background characteristics, health and menopausal status, immigration transition, and the Sleep Index for Midlife Women. The data were analyzed using t-tests, chi-square tests, correlation analyses, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Immigrants reported fewer total numbers of and lower total severity scores of sleep-related symptoms than non-immigrants (p < .01). Yet, when background characteristics and health and menopausal status were controlled, self-reported racial/ethnic identity was the only significant factor associated with sleep-related symptoms (ΔR2 = 0.02, p < .01). Health-care providers need to consider self-reported racial/ethnic identity as a factor significantly related to sleep-related symptoms during the menopausal transition.
Risk of Colorectal Cancer and Associated Mortality in HIV: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: As people with HIV live longer, the numbers of colorectal cancer cases are expected to increase. We sought to compare the colorectal cancer incidence and cause-specific mortality among people living with and without HIV. Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: We searched 5 electronic databases up to June 28, 2016, for primary studies reporting standardized incidence ratios (SIRs), standardized mortality ratios (SMRs)/hazard ratios or data sufficient for estimating these summary measures. We performed a random effects pooled analysis to estimate SIR and SMR of colorectal cancer in HIV. Results: Of 8110 articles, we included 27 studies from North America (n = 18), Europe (n = 7), the Pacific region (n = 4), and South America (n = 1). Overall, 1660 cases of colorectal cancer and colon cancer (excluding rectal cancer) occurred among 1,696,070 persons with HIV. In pooled analysis, we found no summary risk of malignancy among those with HIV relative to an uninfected population (SIR 1.00; 95% confidence interval 0.82 to 1.22; I2 = 89.2%). Colorectal cancer–specific mortality was higher among people with HIV but did not reach statistical significance (SMR 2.09; 95% confidence interval: 1.00 to 4.40; I2 = 85.0%). Conclusions: Rates of colorectal cancer are similar between people with and without HIV. Existing screening guidelines are likely adequate for people with HIV.
Textile UWB Antennas for Wireless Body Area Networks

A new ultrawideband (UWB) textile antenna designed for UWB wireless body area network (WBAN) applications is presented. Unlike previous textile antennas, these antennas offer a direct integration into clothing due to a very small thickness (0.5 mm) and flexibility. We have realized two different designs of textile antennas: coplanar waveguide fed printed UWB disc monopole and UWB annular slot antenna. To our knowledge, these are the first textile UWB antennas reported in the open literature. Measured return loss and radiation pattern characteristics of textile UWB antennas agree well with simulations. Moreover, measured transfer functions show that these textile antennas possess excellent transient characteristics, when operating in free space as well as on the human body. They can operate in the entire UWB band approved by the Federal Communications Commission (3.1-10.6 GHz)
Ethanol Reversal of Tolerance to the Antinociceptive Effects of Oxycodone and Hydrocodone

This study compared the development of tolerance to two orally bioavailable prescription opioids, oxycodone and hydrocodone, to that of morphine, and the reversal of this tolerance by ethanol. Oxycodone (s.c.) was significantly more potent in the mouse tail-withdrawal assay than either morphine or hydrocodone. Oxycodone was also significantly more potent in this assay than hydrocodone when administered orally. Tolerance was seen following chronic subcutaneous administration of each of the three drugs and by the chronic administration of oral oxycodone, but not following the chronic oral administration of hydrocodone. Ethanol (1 g/kg i.p.) significantly reversed the tolerance to the subcutaneous administration of each of the three opioids that developed when given 30 minutes prior to challenge doses. It took twice as much ethanol, when given orally, to reverse the tolerance to oxycodone. We investigated whether the observed tolerance to oxycodone and its reversal by ethanol were due to biodispositional changes or reflected a true neuronal tolerance. As expected, a relationship between brain oxycodone concentrations and activity in the tail-immersion test existed following administration of acute oral oxycodone. Following chronic treatment, brain oxycodone concentrations were significantly lower than acute concentrations. Oral ethanol (2 g/kg) reversed the tolerance to chronic oxycodone, but did not alter brain concentrations of either acute or chronic oxycodone. These studies show that there is a metabolic component of tolerance to oxycodone; however, the reversal of that tolerance by ethanol is not due to an alteration of the biodisposition of oxycodone, but rather is neuronal in nature.
CLDN1 expression in cervical cancer cells is related to tumor invasion and metastasis

Even though infection with human papillomaviruses (HPV) is very important, it is not the sole cause of cervical cancer. Because it is known that genetic variations that result from HPV infection are probably the most important causes of cervical cancer, we used human whole genome array comparative genomic hybridization to detect the copy number variations of genes in cervical squamous cell carcinoma. The results of the array were validated by PCR, FISH and immunohistochemistry. We find that the copy number and protein expression of claudin-1 (CLDN1) increase with the progression of cervical cancer. The strong positive staining of CLDN1 in the cervical lymph node metastasis group received a significantly higher score than the staining in the group with no lymph node metastasis of cervical cancer tissues. The overexpression of CLDN1 in SiHa cells can increase anti-apoptosis ability and promote invasive ability of these cells accompanied by a decrease in expression of the epithelial marker E-cadherin as well as an increase in the expression of the mesenchymal marker vimentin. CLDN1 induces the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) through its interaction with SNAI1. Furthermore, we demonstrate that CLDN1 overexpression has significant effects on the growth and metastasis of xenografted tumors in athymic mice. These data suggest that CLDN1 promotes invasion and metastasis in cervical cancer cells via the expression of EMT/invasion-related genes. Therefore, CLDN1 could be a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of cervical cancer.
Semen says: assessing the accuracy of adolescents' self-reported sexual abstinence using a semen Y-chromosome biomarker

Objective Researchers often assess condom use only among participants who report recent sexual behaviour, excluding participants who report no recent vaginal sex or who did not answer questions about their sexual behaviour, but self-reported sexual behaviour may be inaccurate. This study uses a semen Y-chromosome biomarker to assess semen exposure among participants who reported sexual abstinence or did not report their sexual behaviour. Methods This prospective cohort study uses data from 715 sexually active African–American female adolescents in Atlanta, surveyed at baseline, 6 months and 12 months. Participants completed a 40 min interview and were tested for semen Y-chromosome with PCR from a self-administered vaginal swab. We predicted Y-chromosome test results from self-reported sexual behaviour using within-subject panel regression. Results Among the participants who reported abstinence from vaginal sex in the past 14 days, 9.4% tested positive for semen Y-chromosome. Among item non-respondents, 6.3% tested positive for semen Y-chromosome. Women who reported abstinence and engaged in item non-response regarding their sexual behaviour had respectively 62% and 78% lower odds of testing positive for Y-chromosome (OR 0.38 (0.21 to 0.67), OR 0.22 (0.12 to 0.40)), controlling for smoking, survey wave and non-coital sexual behaviours reported during abstinence. Conclusions Adolescents who report sexual abstinence under-report semen exposure. Research should validate self-reported sexual behaviour with biomarkers. Adolescents who engage in item non-response regarding vaginal sex test positive for semen Y-chromosome at similar rates, which supports the practice of grouping non-respondents with adolescents reporting abstinence in statistical analysis. Trial registration number NCT00633906.
A dual‐weighted trust‐region adaptive POD 4‐D Var applied to a finite‐volume shallow water equations model on the sphere

In this paper we study solutions of an inverse problem for a global shallow water model controlling its initial conditions specified from the 40‐yr ECMWF Re‐analysis (ERA‐40) data sets, in the presence of full or incomplete observations being assimilated in a time interval (window of assimilation) with or without background error covariance terms. As an extension of the work by Chen et al. (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 2009), we attempt to obtain a reduced order model of the above inverse problem, based on proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), referred to as POD 4D‐Var for a finite volume global shallow water equation model based on the Lin–Rood flux‐form semi‐Lagrangian semi‐implicit time integration scheme. Different approaches of POD implementation for the reduced inverse problem are compared, including a dual‐weighted method for snapshot selection coupled with a trust‐region POD adaptivity approach. Numerical results with various observational densities and background error covariance operator are also presented. The POD 4‐D Var model results combined with the trust‐region adaptivity exhibit similarity in terms of various error metrics to the full 4D Var results, but are obtained using a significantly lesser number of minimization iterations and require lesser CPU time. Based on our previous and current work, we conclude that POD 4‐D Var certainly warrants further studies, with promising potential of its extension to operational 3‐D numerical weather prediction models. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.