Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Affecting Child Mortality among Poor and Non-Poor Households with Children under Five in Lao PDR: an Analysis of the 2015 Population and Housing Census

Background: Lao PDR has the highest rate of child mortality among ASEAN countries. The reduction of child mortality is one of the core goals of the Lao government and an overarching indicator of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Overall, child mortality in Lao PDR has significantly declined. However, child mortality has still remained high and differences between socio-economic groups in terms of child mortality rates have persisted, reflecting differences in household wealth, education, place of residence and household sanitation. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to analyze the socio-economic factors affecting child mortality and to assess the inequity of child mortality between the poor and non-poor households in Lao PDR. Methods: This study used the binary logistic regression analysis. The data from the Lao Population and Housing Census 2015 conducted by the Lao Statistics Bureau was analyzed. Results: Findings revealed that poor households were more likely to experience child mortality. Factors associated with child mortality were rural residency, large family size, the inability to speak the Lao-Tai language, male headship, lower education of household headship, households without electricity and use of unclean energy, use of unimproved latrine and unimproved water sources. Conclusion: To further reduce child mortality, the Lao government and its development partners, in their efforts, should lay emphasis on rural and urban poor households and guarantee that these households are able to access safe water, improved latrines and clean energy for cooking.
Biomechanical Comparison of Coracoclavicular Reconstructive Techniques

Background: Acromioclavicular joint dislocations are common orthopaedic injuries. Numerous operative techniques have been described, but the gold standard has yet to be defined. The goal of fixation is to create a stiff and strong reconstruction of the coracoclavicular ligaments to provide optimal stability. The modified Weaver-Dunn is the traditional surgical procedure. However, due to the high rate of recurrent instability with this technique, a shift toward a more anatomic repair has occurred. Purpose: To evaluate the biomechanical performance of multiple types of coracoclavicular ligament reconstruction. Study Design: Controlled laboratory study. Methods: Thirty fresh-frozen human cadaveric shoulders were assigned to 1 of 5 reconstruction groups or a control group: modified Weaver-Dunn, nonanatomic allograft, anatomic allograft, anatomic suture, and GraftRope. A type III acromioclavicular joint dislocation was simulated in all specimens. The 5 techniques were completed, and a cyclic preload and a load-to-failure protocol were performed. Results: The control had an average load to failure of 1330.6 ± 447.0 N. Compared with all techniques, the anatomic allograft had the highest load to failure, 948 ± 148 N. It had a significantly higher load to failure than the modified Weaver-Dunn (523.2 ± 98.6 N, P = .001), the anatomic suture (578.2 ± 195.3 N, P = .01), the nonanatomic allograft (591.2 ± 65.6 N, P = .003), and the GraftRope (646 ± 167.4, P = .016). No significant difference in load to failure was found between the remaining techniques. Conclusion: The anatomic allograft reconstruction has superior initial biomechanical properties compared with the modified Weaver-Dunn, nonanatomic allograft, anatomic suture, and GraftRope techniques. Clinical Relevance: Anatomic reconstruction of the coracoclavicular ligaments with allograft may provide a stronger biological solution for acromioclavicular joint dislocations. This reconstruction may minimize recurrent subluxation and pain and permit earlier rehabilitation when compared with current techniques.
A taxonomy of see-through tools

Abstract In current interfaces, users select objects, apply operations, and change viewing parameters in distinct steps that require switching attention among several screen areas. Our See-Through Interface™ software reduces steps by locating tools on a transparent sheet that can be moved over applications with one hand using a trackball, while the other hand controls a mouse cursor. The user clicks through a tool onto application objects, simultaneously selecting an operation and an operand. Tools may include graphical filters that display a customized view of application objects. Compared to traditional interactors, these tools save steps, require no permanent screen space, reduce temporal modes, apply to multiple applications, and facilitate customization. This paper presents a taxonomy of see-through tools that considers variations in each of the steps they perform. As examples, we describe particular see-through tools that perform graphical editing and text editing operations. CR Categories and Subject Descriptors: I.3. 6 [Computer Graphics]: Methodology and Techniques—interaction techniques; H.5. 2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation): User Interfaces—interaction styles; I.3. 3 [Computer Graphics]: Picture/Image Generation—viewing algorithms; 1.3. 4 [Computer Graphics]: Graphics Utilities—graphics editors
A Low-Power Level Shifter With Logic Error Correction for Extremely Low-Voltage Digital CMOS LSIs

This paper presents a level shifter circuit capable of handling extremely low-voltage inputs. The circuit has a distinctive current generation scheme using a logic error correction circuit that works by detecting the input and output logic levels. The proposed level shifter circuit can convert low-voltage digital input signals into high-voltage digital output signals. The circuit achieves low-power operation because it dissipates operating current only when the input signal changes. Measurement results demonstrated that the circuit can convert a 0.23-V input signal into a 3-V output signal. The power dissipation was 58 nW for a 0.4-V 10-kHz input pulse.
Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis in childhood: retrospective experience from a tertiary referral centre in the UK.

OBJECTIVE To describe the presenting clinical features, treatment and outcome in children with eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) and to define factors that predicted mortality. METHODS A retrospective case notes review of patients fulfilling the Chapel Hill Consensus Conference definition and/or ACR criteria for EGPA seen at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. Demographics, clinical features, histopathology, treatment and outcomes were recorded. Descriptive statistics were expressed as median and range. Fisher's exact test was used for group comparisons. The Paediatric Vasculitis Activity Score and Paediatric Vasculitis Damage Index (PVDI) were calculated. RESULTS Thirteen children (38% female) aged at diagnosis 14.1 (4-15.6) years were identified. The median time to diagnosis was 2 (0-7.3) years. History of asthma was documented in 76%. The most common presenting features were pulmonary (69%), skin (61%), gastrointestinal (46%), cardiac involvement (46%), paranasal sinus abnormality (38%), arthritis/arthralgia (38%) and neurological involvement (15%). Paediatric Vasculitis Activity Score at presentation was 8/63 (2-25/63); ANCA was negative in all 10/13 patients tested. Treatment included corticosteroids in all, combined with CYC in 38% or AZA in 23%. PVDI at 12 (3-48) months follow-up was 3/72 (0-13/72). Relapses were recorded in 46%. Mortality was 15%; cardiomyopathy and PVDI scores ⩾5 significantly associated with mortality risk (P = 0.012). CONCLUSION EGPA in the paediatric population is a rare and potentially life-threatening vasculitis. Increased awareness is essential to secure a timely diagnosis and to promptly initiate treatment since our data emphasize a high mortality, particularly in those with cardiac involvement and significant accrued damage.
Entailment of Finite Domain Constraints

Using a glass-box theory of ﬁnite domain constraints, FD, we show how the entailment of user-deﬁned constraints can be expressed by antimonotone FD constraints. We also provide an algorithm for checking the entailment and consistency of FD constraints. FD is shown to be expressive enough to allow the deﬁnition of arithmetical constraints, as well as nontrivial symbolic constraints, that are normally built in to CLP systems. In particular, we use conditional FD constraints, which exploit entailment checking, to deﬁne symbolic constraints. Thus, we claim that a glass-box system such as FD is expressive enough to capture the essence of ﬁnite domain constraint programming
Muscle Growth and Poultry Meat Quality Issues

Over the past 50 years the worldwide growing demand of poultry meat has resulted in pressure on breeders, nutritionists and growers to increase the growth rate of birds, feed efficiency, size of breast muscle and reduction in abdominal fatness. Moreover, the shift toward further processed products has emphasized the necessity for higher standards in poultry meat to improve sensory characteristics and functional properties. It is believed that genetic progress has put more stress on the growing bird and it has resulted in histological and biochemical modifications of the muscle tissue by impairing some meat quality traits. The most current poultry meat quality concerns are associated with deep pectoral muscle disease and white striping which impair product appearance, and increased occurrence of problems related with the meat’s poor ability to hold water during processing and storage (PSE-like condition) as well as poor toughness and cohesiveness related to immaturity of intramuscular connective tissue. This paper is aimed at making a general statement of recent studies focusing on the relationship between muscle growth and meat quality issues in poultry.
FMRI to probe sex-related differences in brain function with multitasking

Background Although established as a general notion in society, there is no solid scientific foundation for the existence of sex-differences in multitasking. Reaction time and accuracy in dual task conditions have an inverse relationship relative to single task, independently from sex. While a more disseminated network, parallel to decreasing accuracy and reaction time has been demonstrated in dual task fMRI studies, little is known so far whether there exist respective sex-related differences in activation. Methods We subjected 20 women (mean age = 25.45; SD = 5.23) and 20 men (mean age = 27.55; SD = 4.00) to a combined verbal and spatial fMRI paradigm at 3.0T to assess sex-related skills, based on the assumption that generally women better perform in verbal tasks while men do better in spatial tasks. We also obtained behavioral tests for verbal and spatial intelligence, attention, executive functions, and working memory. Results No differences between women and men were observed in behavioral measures of dual-tasking or cognitive performance. Generally, brain activation increased with higher task load, mainly in the bilateral inferior and prefrontal gyri, the anterior cingulum, thalamus, putamen and occipital areas. Comparing sexes, women showed increased activation in the inferior frontal gyrus in the verbal dual-task while men demonstrated increased activation in the precuneus and adjacent visual areas in the spatial task. Conclusion Against the background of equal cognitive and behavioral dual-task performance in both sexes, we provide first evidence for sex-related activation differences in functional networks for verbal and spatial dual-tasking.
The stability and validity of automated vocal analysis in preverbal preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder

Theory and research suggest that vocal development predicts “useful speech” in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but conventional methods for measurement of vocal development are costly and time consuming. This longitudinal correlational study examines the reliability and validity of several automated indices of vocalization development relative to an index derived from human coded, conventional communication samples in a sample of preverbal preschoolers with ASD. Automated indices of vocal development were derived using software that is presently “in development” and/or only available for research purposes and using commercially available Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) software. Indices of vocal development that could be derived using the software available for research purposes: (a) were highly stable with a single day‐long audio recording, (b) predicted future spoken vocabulary to a degree that was nonsignificantly different from the index derived from conventional communication samples, and (c) continued to predict future spoken vocabulary even after controlling for concurrent vocabulary in our sample. The score derived from standard LENA software was similarly stable, but was not significantly correlated with future spoken vocabulary. Findings suggest that automated vocal analysis is a valid and reliable alternative to time intensive and expensive conventional communication samples for measurement of vocal development of preverbal preschoolers with ASD in research and clinical practice. Autism Res 2017, 10: 508–519. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Employer Learning and Statistical Discrimination

We provide a test for statistical discrimination or rational stereotyping in in environments in which agents learn over time. Our application is to the labor market. If profit maximizing firms have limited information about the general productivity of new workers, they may choose to use easily observable characteristics such as years of education to 'statistically discriminate' among workers. As firms acquire more information about a worker, pay will become more dependent on actual productivity and less dependent on easily observable characteristics or credentials that predict productivity. Consider a wage equation that contains both the interaction between experience and a hard to observe variable that is positively related to productivity and the interaction between experience and a variable that firms can easily observe, such as years of education. We show that the wage coefficient on the unobservable productivity variable should rise with time in the labor market and the wage coefficient on education should fall. We investigate this proposition using panel data on education, the AFQT test, father's education, and wages for young men and their siblings from NLSY. We also examine the empirical implications of statistical discrimination on the basis of race. Our results support the hypothesis of statistical discrimination, although they are inconsistent with the hypothesis that firms fully utilize the information in race. Our analysis has wide implications for the analysis of the determinants of wage growth and productivity and the analysis of statistical discrimination in the labor market and elsewhere.
Value of Diagnostic Lumbar Selective Nerve Root Block: A Prospective Controlled Study

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Although diagnostic lumbar selective nerve root blocks are often used to confirm the pain-generating nerve root level, the reported accuracy of these blocks has been variable and their usefulness is controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of diagnostic lumbar selective nerve root blocks to analyze potential causes of false results in a prospective, controlled, single-blinded manner. Materials and METHODS: A total of 105 block anesthetics were performed under fluoroscopic guidance in 47 consecutive patients with pure radiculopathy from a single confirmed level: 47 blocks were performed at the symptomatic level, and 58 were performed at the adjacent asymptomatic “control” level. Contrast and local anesthetics were injected, and spot radiographs were taken in all cases. We calculated the diagnostic value of the block anesthetics using concordance with the injected level. We analyzed the potential causes of false results using spot radiographs. RESULTS: On the basis of a definition of a positive block as 70% pain relief, determined by receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) analysis, diagnostic lumbar selective nerve root block anesthetics had a sensitivity of 57%, a specificity of 86%, an accuracy of 73%, a positive predictive value of 77%, and a negative predictive value of 71%. False-negatives were due to the following causes identifiable on spot radiographs: insufficient infiltration, insufficient passage of the injectate, and intraepineural injections. On the other hand, false-positives resulted from overflow of the injectate from the injected asymptomatic level into either the epidural space or symptomatic level. CONCLUSION: The accuracy of diagnostic lumbar selective nerve root blocks is only moderate. To improve the accuracy, great care should be taken to avoid inadequate blocks and overflow, and to precisely interpret spot radiographs.
Recombination of A but Not of E. coli

Bacteriophage X can recombine in recBC sbcB sbcC mutant cells by using its own gene orj; the Escherichia coli recO, recR, and recF genes, or both. Expression of an orf-containing plasmid complements the recombination defects of orf mutant phage. However, this clone does not complement a recO mutation for conjugational recombination or recO, recR, or recF mutations for repair of UV-induced DNA damage. A plasmid clone of orf produces a protein with an apparent molecular mass of 15 kDa.
Clusters of neural cell adhesion molecule at sites of cell-cell contact

I have examined the distribution of neural cell adhesion molecule (N- CAM) in cultured C2 myogenic cells and other cell lines to determine if N-CAM accumulates at sites of cell-cell contact. C2 cells growing in log phase display large clusters of neural cell adhesion molecule where they contact each other. These clusters are remarkably stable, do not form at cell-substrate contacts, and appear not to be enriched in a number of other cytoskeletal, membrane, or extracellular proteins. Thus, N-CAM clusters form preferentially in response to cell-cell contact and are specifically enriched in N-CAM. As C2 cultures mature and differentiate, clusters persist at contacts between aligning myoblasts and between myotubes, consistent with a role in myogenesis. N- CAM is also enriched at cell-cell contacts in cultures of PC12, NRK, and CHO cells. These cells have significant amounts of N-CAM as detected on immunoblots. Clusters are not seen in L929 cells, which do not have detectable amounts of N-CAM. Coculture of these cells with C2 cells results in the clustering of N-CAM at heterologous contacts between C2 cells and NRK, CHO, or PC12 cells, but not between C2 cells and L929 cells. These results suggest that N-CAM specifically accumulates where N-CAM-bearing cells contact one another. Clustering of N-CAM may be an important step in strengthening intercellular adhesion.
Plasma n‐3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Japanese, Korean and Mongolian Workers

Plasma n‐3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Japanese, Korean and Mongolian Workers: Akiko Nogi, et al. Department of Environmental and Preventive Medicine, Shimane University School of Medicine—The favorable role of n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) in cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been demonstrated in animal experiments and in humans in Western countries, but its effect remains controversial in Asian populations. An observational study of Japanese, Koreans and Mongolians with extended histories of remarkably different frequencies of fish intake was conducted to examine whether differences in plasma n‐3 PUFA affects CVD risk factors. We conducted a crosssectional study in workplace settings and determined body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL‐cholesterol, HDL‐cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), glucose, insulin, homeostasis model assessment‐insulin resistance (HOMA‐IR) and fatty acid composition in plasma. A total of 411 Japanese, 418 Korean and 252 Mongolian workers aged 30–60 yr participated in this study. The Japanese ate fish more frequently and had remarkably higher values of eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid and n‐3 PUFA, and lower values of BMI and HOMA‐IR, followed by the Koreans, and then the Mongolians. In age groups, the Japanese and Koreans showed a similar tendency of increase in n‐3 PUFA with increasing age. General linear measurement multivariate analysis after adjustment for gender, age, smoking, drinking, exercise habits and BMI showed n‐3 PUFA was associated with HDL‐C and TG in the Japanese, while it was associated with systolic blood pressure in the Koreans, and TG in the Mongolians. In conclusion, an increase in n‐3 PUFA was associated with HDL‐C and TG in the Japanese and Mongolians, but these beneficial effects were not constant across the three Asian ethnic groups.
Effectiveness of Emergency Department Based Palliative Care for Adults with Advanced Disease: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND Emergency departments (EDs) are seeing more patients with palliative care (PC) needs, but evidence on best practice is scarce. OBJECTIVES To examine the effectiveness of ED-based PC interventions on hospital admissions (primary outcome), length of stay (LOS), symptoms, quality of life, use of other health care services, and PC referrals for adults with advanced disease. METHODS We searched five databases until August 2014, checked reference lists/conference abstracts, and contacted experts. Eligible studies were controlled trials, pre-post studies, cohort studies, and case series reporting outcomes of ED-based PC. RESULTS Five studies with 4374 participants were included: three case series and two cohort studies. Interventions included a screening tool, traditional ED-PC, and integrated ED-PC. Two studies reported on hospital admissions: in one study there was no statistically significant difference in 90-day readmission rates between patients who initiated integrated PC at the ED (11/50 patients, 22%) compared to those who initiated PC after hospital admission (179/1385, 13%); another study showed a high admission rate (90%) in 14 months following ED-PC, but without comparison. One study showed an LOS reduction (mean 4.32 days in ED-initiated PC group versus 8.29 days in postadmission-initiated group; p < 0.01). There was scarce evidence on other outcomes except for conflicting findings on survival: in one study, ED-PC patients were more likely to experience an interval between ED presentation and death >9 hours (OR 2.75, 95% CI 2.21-3.41); another study showed increased mortality risk in the intervention group; and a case series described a higher in-hospital death rate when PC was ED-initiated (62%), compared to ward (16%) or ICU (50%) (unknown p-value). CONCLUSIONS There is yet no evidence that ED-based PC affects patient outcomes except for indication from one study of no association with 90-day hospital readmission but a possible reduction in LOS if integrated PC is introduced early at ED rather than after hospital admission. There is an urgent need for trials to confirm these findings alongside other potential benefits and survival effects.