Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is Physician Anesthesia Cost-Effective?

One of the most controversial issues in anesthesia is whether nonmedically directed nurse anesthetists are relatively more cost-effective than anesthesiologists in the provision of anesthesia care. We electronically surveyed anesthesia practices throughout the United States to estimate the range in anesthesia professional costs from the payer perspective. Using this survey data on anesthesia reimbursement and published outcomes studies, we developed an ad hoc model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of physician-directed anesthesia relative to a nonmedically directed nurse anesthetist model of care from the payer perspective. Cost-effectiveness ratios were defined as the ratio of incremental costs associated with physician anesthesia relative to the estimated incremental life expectancy gains with this model of care (i.e., dollars per year of life saved [$/YLS]). Reference case results suggest that physician anesthesia is cost saving with an estimated incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of −$2,601/YLS for a younger privately insured patient and an estimated cost-effectiveness ratio of −$4,410/YLS for an elderly Medicare insured patient. Cost-effectiveness ratios ranged from −$4,410 to $38,778/YLS in univariate and multivariate sensitivity analyses across payer types. Results were most sensitive to assumed differences in reimbursement (commercial conversion factors) and to mortality rate assumptions by provider type. This analysis offers economic evidence in support of the physician anesthesia model of care.
Formation of temporal-feature maps by axonal propagation of synaptic learning

Computational maps are of central importance to a neuronal representation of the outside world. In a map, neighboring neurons respond to similar sensory features. A well studied example is the computational map of interaural time differences (ITDs), which is essential to sound localization in a variety of species and allows resolution of ITDs of the order of 10 μs. Nevertheless, it is unclear how such an orderly representation of temporal features arises. We address this problem by modeling the ontogenetic development of an ITD map in the laminar nucleus of the barn owl. We show how the owl's ITD map can emerge from a combined action of homosynaptic spike-based Hebbian learning and its propagation along the presynaptic axon. In spike-based Hebbian learning, synaptic strengths are modified according to the timing of pre- and postsynaptic action potentials. In unspecific axonal learning, a synapse's modification gives rise to a factor that propagates along the presynaptic axon and affects the properties of synapses at neighboring neurons. Our results indicate that both Hebbian learning and its presynaptic propagation are necessary for map formation in the laminar nucleus, but the latter can be orders of magnitude weaker than the former. We argue that the algorithm is important for the formation of computational maps, when, in particular, time plays a key role.
Differential effects of advanced glycation end‐products on renal tubular cell inflammation

Aim: The authors recently showed that advanced glycation end‐products (AGE) in the form of glycated albumin (GA) upregulated renal tubular expression of interleukin (IL)‐8 and soluble intercellular adhesion molecule‐1 (sICAM‐1), but not other important cytokines known to mediate diabetic nephropathy. This implies that other molecules such as the carbonyl intermediates of AGE or other modified protein lysine‐albumin may participate in diabetic tubular injury.
Sequence‐specific single‐strand RNA binding protein encoded by the human LINE‐1 retrotransposon

Previous experiments using human teratocarcinoma cells indicated that p40, the protein encoded by the first open reading frame (ORF) of the human LINE‐1 (L1Hs) retrotransposon, occurs in a large cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein complex in direct association with L1Hs RNA(s), the p40 RNP complex. We have now investigated the interaction between partially purified p40 and L1Hs RNA in vitro using an RNA binding assay dependent on co‐immunoprecipitation of p40 and bound RNA. These experiments identified two p40 binding sites on the full‐length sense strand L1Hs RNA. Both sites are in the second ORF of the 6000 nt RNA: site A between residues 1999 and 2039 and site B between residues 4839 and 4875. The two RNA segments share homologous regions. Experiments involving UV cross‐linking followed by immunoprecipitation indicate that p40 in the in vitro complex is directly associated with L1Hs RNA, as it is in the p40 RNP complex found in teratocarcinoma cells. Binding and competition experiments demonstrate that p40 binds to single‐stranded RNA containing a p40 binding site, but not to single‐stranded or double‐stranded DNA, double‐stranded RNA or a DNA–RNA hybrid containing a binding site sequence. Thus, p40 appears to be a sequence‐specific, single‐strand RNA binding protein.
Comparative clinical evaluation of glycosylated haemoglobin level in healthy and chronic periodontitis patients: A chairside diagnostic method.

OBJECTIVE AND BACKGROUND Glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) level can consequently be interpreted as an average of the blood glucose present over the past 3-4 months. Periodontitis is associated with glycemic control in patients with diabetes. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of HbA1c in healthy and periodontitis patients who were previously not diagnosed with diabetes mellitus. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 40 patients were selected for study and divided into two groups. Group 1 included patients with a healthy periodontium, and Group 2 included patients suffering from chronic periodontitis. Finger stick blood was collected by special collection unit (A1CNOW+® Bayer Health Care, Tarrytown New York, USA), for estimating level of HbA1c. RESULT Both groups showed similar HbA1c levels clinically with slight increase in levels in the test group, but was statistically significant (test--5.66 ± 0.35%, control--5.17 ± 0.3% P = 0.003). CONCLUSION Indians are at a high-risk of developing periodontitis and diabetes. These data suggest a possible link between periodontitis and glycemic control in nondiabetic individuals, periodontal disease may be a potential contributor to the development of type 2 diabetes.
Using Mechanistic Models to Simulate Comparative Effectiveness Trials of Therapy and to Estimate Long-term Outcomes in HIV Care

Background:In HIV care, it is difficult to decide when to initiate therapy, which drugs to use for initial treatment, and which drugs to use if drug resistance develops. With hundreds of possible drug regimens available and variable patterns of drug resistance, randomized controlled trials cannot answer all HIV treatment decisions. Mechanistic models of HIV infection can be used to conduct virtual therapeutic trials with the goal of predicting outcomes, some of which are long-term and may not fall within the time frame of a typical therapeutic trial. Methods:We used a previously developed and validated model of HIV infection to replicate 2 arms of an HIV initial treatment trial (ACTG A5142) and predict long-term outcomes. The model incorporated data about biologic processes involved in the development of drug resistance. Results:The model reproduced the proportion that developed AIDS (0.04 and 0.05 for the efavirenz arm and lopinavir arms, respectively, vs. 0.04 and 0.06 for the trial), the development of virologic failure (0.27 and 0.33 for the Efavirenz arm and lopinavir arms, respectively, vs. 0.24 and 0.37 for the trial), and drug resistance. The hazard ratio for the time to treatment failure, a combination of resistance and other causes (0.96 for the model vs. 0.75 for the trial; 95% confidence interval, 0.57–0.98), and changes in CD4 cell count, were less accurate. The model estimated longer-term life expectancy, quality-adjusted life expectancy, and HIV-related deaths. Conclusions:Mechanistic models of HIV infections have the potential to be useful in comparative effectiveness research.
Use of social values : Decisions, application, and persuasion

This Thesis examines the use of social values in human behaviour and social judgment and investigates the processes that underlie how values are used. Across 10 experiments, I examine aspects of social values that have been largely unaddressed by prior research. Chapter 1 highlights the importance of social values, reviews the previous research on the topic, and outlines three main issues that are the focus of the subsequent experimental chapters. Chapter 2 investigates whether people base their decisions on values or on value-irrelevant consequences the results reveal that situational factors influence whether or not social values are used to guide decision making (Experiments 1 - 3). Chapter 3 focuses on this use of values as guiding principles and specifically on how abstract trans-situational values bridge the gap to impact behaviour in specific contexts. The results show that this occurs through the instantiation of the value in the specific situation and not via the abstract value itself (Experiments 4 - 7). Chapter 4 examines the use of values in persuasion and specifically the impact of the relatedness of the values paired in co-value arguments the findings show that the motivational structure of values places plausibility constraints on which values can be paired in this way (Experiments 8 - 10). Finally, Chapter 5 reviews the contribution of the research presented in the Thesis to the field of human behaviour and decision-making and outlines potential directions for future research. Overall, the research emphasises the importance of social values and presents a new conceptualization of how values are used and applied in everyday life.
Eastern and Western Promises in Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom

This essay examines Jonathan Franzen’s novel Freedom (2010) and explores the symbolic way in which this novel uses the urban and regional spaces/places of the United States. Franzen’s use of space/place is related to Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925), as well as to Franzen’s previous novels, his well-known Harper’s essay (1996), and other writings like “A Rooting Interest” (2012) or his memoir The Discomfort Zone (2007), where he scrutinizes his own position as a writer and his attitude towards nature. Franzen’s environmental concerns in the novel are also considered from the perspective of ecocriticism. The conclusion is that following Fitzgerald’s example, Franzen uses the East and West (and the urban locales of the inner city and the suburbs) as a backdrop to explore not only the meanings and interpretations of the word freedom (as has been repeatedly pointed out) but also the hopes and aspirations shared by the people of his country, the different dimensions and contradictions of the amalgam of promises and myths known as the American Dream. Keywords: Jonathan Franzen; Freedom ; American Dream; space; place; F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Great Gatsby
Multiple Victimization of Children: Conceptual, Developmental, Research, and Treatment Issues

Contents Foreword * Preface * 1. Introduction* The Multiple Victimization of Children: Incidence and Conceptual Issues * II. Incidence and Conceptual Issues * Cumulative Risk and Protection Models of Child Maltreatment * Stress and Coping Approaches and Research: The Impact of Marital Conflict on Children * Trauma Models and the Effects of Childhood Maltreatment * III. Overview of the Literature * The Victimization of Young Children * The Victimization of School-Age Children * Maltreated Adolescents: Victims Caught Between Childhood and Adulthood * IV. Impact on Development * The Effect of Multiple Victimization on Children's Cognition: Variations in Response * The Effects of Child Abuse on the Self-System * Multiple Maltreatment and the Development of Self and Emotion Regulation * The Effects of Multiple Abuse in Interpersonal Relationships: An Attachment Perspective * V. Treatment Approaches and Issues * Intervention for Young Children Who Have Been Multiply Abused * Multiple Victimization and the Process and Outcome of Child Psychotherapy * Into the Haunted House of Mirrors: The Treatment of Multiply Traumatized Adolescents * VI. Special Issues * Correlates of Multiple Forms of Victimization in Religion-Related Child Abuse Cases * Legal and Ethical Issues in the Treatment of Multiply Victimized Children * Conclusion: The Multiple Victimization of Children: Remaining Issues * Index * Reference Notes Included
Sensitivity of off‐axis performance of aspheric spectacle lenses to tilt and decentration

Apparatus was modified lo measure, and theoretical raytracing was used to predict, off‐axis powers of spectacle lenses in the presence of till or decentration. In response lo poor fitting in the form of lilt or decentration, lenses with aspheric from surfaces were found to have greater off‐axis power errors than best‐form lenses with spherical surfaces. This is attributable to the aspheric lenses having flatter surfaces than the spherical lenses. The errors are up to twice those occurring for the spherical lenses, and can be quite high. e.g. 0.9 D astigmatism for + 6D power with 10° tilt in 20° upgaze. Negative lenses are more sensitive to poor fitting than are positive lenses of the same power. The errors for straight ahead vision associated with tilt are approximately proportional to the square of the angle of tilt, and the errors for straight ahead vision associated with decentration are approximately proportional to the square of decentration. It is most important that aspheric lenses be correctly fitted, which means that each 2° of pantascopic tilt should be accompanied by approximately 1 mm decentration.
Isolation of Free-Living Amoebae from Sarein Hot Springs in Ardebil Province, Iran

Background Free-living amoebae (FLA) are a group of ubiquitous protozoan, which are distributed in the natural and artificial environment sources. The main aim of the current study was to identify the presence of FLA in the recreational hot springs of Sarein in Ardebil Province of Iran. Methods Seven recreational hot springs were selected in Sarein City and 28 water samples (four from each hot spring) were collected using 500 ml sterile plastic bottles during three month. Filtration of water samples was performed, and culture was done in non-nutrient agar medium enriched with Escherichia coli. Identification of the FLA was based on morphological criteria of cysts and trophozoites. Genotype identification of Acanthamoeba positive samples were also performed using sequencing based method. Results Overall, 12 out of 28 (42.9%) samples were positive for FLA which Acanthamoeba and Vahlkampfiid amoebae were found in one (3.6%) and 11 (39.3%) samples, respectively. Sequence analysis of the single isolate of Acanthamoeba revealed potentially pathogenic T4 genotype corresponding to A. castellanii. Conclusion Contamination of hot springs to FLA, such as Acanthamoeba T4 genotype (A. castellanii) and Vahlkampfiid amoebae, could present a sanitary risk for high risk people, and health authorities must be aware of FLA presence.
Defects in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Budding and Endosomal Sorting Induced by TSG101 Overexpression

ABSTRACT Retrovirus budding is greatly stimulated by the presence of Gag sequences known as late or L domains. The L domain of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) maps to a highly conserved Pro-Thr-Ala-Pro (PTAP) sequence in the p6 domain of Gag. We and others recently observed that the p6 PTAP motif interacts with the cellular endosomal sorting protein TSG101. Consistent with a role for TSG101 in virus release, we demonstrated that overexpressing the N-terminal, Gag-binding domain of TSG101 (TSG-5′) suppresses HIV-1 budding by blocking L domain function. To elucidate the role of TSG101 in HIV-1 budding, we evaluated the significance of the binding between Gag and TSG-5′ on the inhibition of HIV-1 release. We observed that a mutation in TSG-5′ that disrupts the Gag/TSG101 interaction suppresses the ability of TSG-5′ to inhibit HIV-1 release. We also determined the effect of overexpressing a panel of truncated TSG101 derivatives and full-length TSG101 (TSG-F) on virus budding. Overexpressing TSG-F inhibits HIV-1 budding; however, the effect of TSG-F on virus release does not require Gag binding. Furthermore, overexpression of the C-terminal portion of TSG101 (TSG-3′) potently inhibits budding of not only HIV-1 but also murine leukemia virus. Confocal microscopy data indicate that TSG-F and TSG-3′ overexpression induces an aberrant endosome phenotype; this defect is dependent upon the C-terminal, Vps-28-binding domain of TSG101. We propose that TSG-5′ suppresses HIV-1 release by binding PTAP and blocking HIV-1 L domain function, whereas overexpressing TSG-F or TSG-3′ globally inhibits virus release by disrupting the cellular endosomal sorting machinery. These results highlight the importance of TSG101 and the endosomal sorting pathway in virus budding and suggest that inhibitors can be developed that, like TSG-5′, target HIV-1 without disrupting endosomal sorting.
Star-forming galaxy models: Blending star formation into TREESPH

We have incorporated star-formation algorithms into a hybrid N-body/smoothed particle hydrodynamics code (TREESPH) in order to describe the star forming properties of disk galaxies over timescales of a few billion years. The models employ a Schmidt law of index n approximately 1.5 to calculate star-formation rates, and explicitly include the energy and metallicity feedback into the Interstellar Medium (ISM). Modeling the newly formed stellar population is achieved through the use of hybrid SPH/young star particles which gradually convert from gaseous to collisionless particles, avoiding the computational difficulties involved in creating new particles. The models are shown to reproduce well the star-forming properties of disk galaxies, such as the morphology, rate of star formation, and evolution of the global star-formation rate and disk gas content. As an example of the technique, we model an encounter between a disk galaxy and a small companion which gives rise to a ring galaxy reminiscent of the Cartwheel (AM 0035-35). The primary galaxy in this encounter experiences two phases of star forming activity: an initial period during the expansion of the ring, and a delayed phase as shocked material in the ring falls back into the central regions.
Decentralized P2P protocol for video-on-demand streaming: Simple and efficient

We consider the video-on-demand streaming problem in a P2P network in a decentralized model, in which peers have no global information about the network. Assuming that only one server has all the chunks, the objective is to stream all chunks to all peers in the network such that small latency and good fluency are achieved by all peers. We design a simple and decentralized protocol in which each peer maintains a constant number of neighbors and only need to communicate with one of them chosen uniformly at random every time. Moreover, the maximum number of communications established on each peer every time is also constant. We provide theoretical and experimental analysis to show that almost all peers achieve optimal latency and fluency under our protocol.
Increased levels of urinary biomarkers of lipid peroxidation products among workers occupationally exposed to diesel engine exhaust

Abstract Diesel engine exhaust (DEE) was found to induce lipid peroxidation (LPO) in animal exposure studies. LPO is a class of oxidative stress and can be reflected by detecting the levels of its production, such as malondialdehyde (MDA) and 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), and etheno-DNA adducts including 1,N6-etheno-2′-deoxyadenosine (ɛdA) and 3,N4-etheno-2′-deoxycytidine (ɛdC). However, the impact of DEE exposure on LPO has not been explored in humans. In this study, we evaluated urinary MDA, 4-HNE, ɛdA, and ɛdC levels as biomarkers of LPO among 108 workers with exclusive exposure to DEE and 109 non-DEE-exposed workers. Results showed that increased levels of urinary MDA and ɛdA were observed in subjects occupationally exposed to DEE before and after age, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, and alcohol use were adjusted (all p < 0.001). There was a statistically significant relationship between the internal exposure dose (urinary ΣOH-PAHs) and MDA, 4-HNE, and ɛdA (all p < 0.001). Furthermore, significant increased relations between urinary etheno-DNA adduct and MDA, 4-HNE were observed (all p < 0.05). The findings of this study suggested that the level of LPO products (MDA and ɛdA) was increased in DEE-exposed workers, and urinary MDA and ɛdA might be feasible biomarkers for DEE exposure. LPO induced DNA damage might be involved and further motivated the genomic instability could be one of the pathogeneses of cancer induced by DEE-exposure. However, additional investigations should be performed to understand these observations.
CANDELS Multi-wavelength Catalogs: Source Identification and Photometry in the CANDELS Extended Groth Strip

We present a 0.4–8 μm multi-wavelength photometric catalog in the Extended Groth Strip (EGS) field. This catalog is built on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFC3 and ACS data from the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS), and it incorporates the existing HST data from the All-wavelength Extended Groth strip International Survey (AEGIS) and the 3D-HST program. The catalog is based on detections in the F160W band reaching a depth of F160W = 26.62 AB (90% completeness, point sources). It includes the photometry for 41,457 objects over an area of arcmin2 in the following bands: HST/ACS F606W and F814W; HST WFC3 F125W, F140W, and F160W; Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT)/Megacam u*, , , and CFHT/WIRCAM J, H, and KS; Mayall/NEWFIRM J1, J2, J3, H1, H2, and K; Spitzer IRAC 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 μm. We are also releasing value-added catalogs that provide robust photometric redshifts and stellar mass measurements. The catalogs are publicly available through the CANDELS repository.
Margin-based Generalization Error Bounds for Threshold Decision Lists

This paper concerns the use of threshold decision lists for classifying data into two classes. The use of such methods has a natural geometrical interpretation and can be appropriate for an iterative approach to data classification, in which some points of the data set are given a particular classification, according to a linear threshold function (or hyperplane), are then removed from consideration, and the procedure iterated until all points are classified. We analyse theoretically the generalization properties of data classification techniques that are based on the use of threshold decision lists and the subclass of multilevel threshold functions. We obtain bounds on the generalization error that depend on the levels of separation — or margins —achieved by the successive linear classifiers.