Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do Small‐Group Health Insurance Regulations Influence Small Business Size?

The cost of health insurance has been the primary concern of small business owners for several decades. State small group health insurance reforms, implemented in the 1990s, aimed to control the variability of health insurance premiums and to improve access to health insurance. Small group reforms only affected firms within a specific size range, and the definition of the upper size threshold for small firms varied by state and over time. As a result, small group reforms may have affected the size of small firms around the legislative threshold and may also have affected the propensity of small firms to offer health insurance. Previous research has examined the second issue, finding little to no effect of health insurance reforms on the propensity of small firms to offer health insurance. In this paper, we examine the relationship between small group reform and firm size. We use data from a nationally representative repeated cross-section survey of employers and data on state small group health insurance reform. Contrary to the intent of the reform, we find evidence that small firms just below the regulatory threshold that were offering health insurance grew in order to bypass reforms.
Degree of Postictal Suppression Depends on Seizure Induction Time in Magnetic Seizure Therapy and Electroconvulsive Therapy

Objectives Anesthesia is required for both magnetic seizure therapy (MST) and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), although it has anticonvulsant properties. In this case, bispectral index (BIS) monitoring, a specific electroencephalogram-derived monitoring, can be used to find the optimal seizure induction time during anesthesia to elicit adequate seizures. A measurement of seizure adequacy in electroencephalogram is the postictal suppression. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of seizure induction time on the degree of postictal suppression by comparing BIS versus no-BIS monitoring in MST and ECT. Methods Twenty patients with treatment-resistant depression were randomly assigned to either MST or ECT. Each patient underwent 3 treatments with the determination of seizure induction time by defined prestimulation BIS (BIS condition) and 3 treatments with determination of seizure induction time by controlled clinical trial protocol (no-BIS condition). Statistical analysis was calculated by repeated-measures analysis of variance. Results The degree of postictal suppression was more pronounced in both MST and ECT, with BIS monitoring. In this connection, no differences between MST and ECT were found. Seizure induction time was significantly later in the BIS condition (181.3 ± 6 seconds) compared with the no-BIS condition (114.3 ± 12 seconds) (P < 0.001). Conclusions Adequacy of seizures, in the form of the degree of postictal suppression, was superior by determining the seizure induction time with BIS in both MST and ECT. Further research is needed to investigate the correlation between the degree of postictal suppression and treatment response.
Shape from Focus

The shape from focus method presented here uses different focus levels to obtain a sequence of object images. The sum-modified-Laplacian (SML) operator is developed to provide local measures of the quality of image focus. The operator is applied to the image sequence to determine a set of focus measures at each image point. A depth estimation algorithm interpolates a small number of focus measure values to obtain accurate depth estimates. A fully automated shape from focus system has been implemented using an optical microscope and tested on a variety of industrial samples. Experimental results are presented that demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method. These results suggest shape from focus to be an effective approach for a variety of challenging visual inspection tasks. >
Ligand‐activated Flpe for temporally regulated gene modifications

The selectivity by which site‐specific recombinase‐mediated genetic changes can be targeted to specific cells in the mouse has been limited by the fact that many genes used as recombinase “drivers” are expressed either in cell populations that change over time or constitutively in a given cell population for an extended time period, for example, in a germinal zone that gives rise successively to different lineages. These scenarios limit the selective dimension of conditional gene modification experiments as they preclude studying the later‐generated lineages either because of earlier phenotypes (in the case of conditional mutagenesis experiments) or because the early and permanent activation of a reporter in a germinal zone results in all descendant lineages being marked (in the case of fate‐mapping experiments). To circumvent this limitation, inducible forms of Cre recombinase have been developed, enabling the induction of genetic changes in late embryonic or adult cells accessible only through late aspects of a dynamic driver gene expression profile. To increase the number of tools available for engineering genetic changes in selective cell populations, we have generated a ligand‐regulated form of Flpe using the recombinase‐steroid receptor fusion approach. In two prototypical scenarios, we show that the fused gene product, FlpeERT2, is competent to mediate DNA recombination in vivo and responds specifically to the inducer tamoxifen in a dose‐dependent manner without detectable background activity. genesis 41:99–109, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Why Fuzzy Transform Is Efficient in Large-Scale Prediction Problems: A Theoretical Explanation

In many practical situations like weather prediction, we are interested in large-scale (averaged) value of the predicted quantities. For example, it is impossible to predict the exact future temperature at different spatial locations, but we can reasonably well predict average temperature over a region. Traditionally, to obtain such large-scale predictions, we first perform a detailed integration of the corresponding differential equation and then average the resulting detailed solution. This procedure is often very time-consuming, since we need to process all the details of the original data. In our previous papers, we have shown that similar quality large-scale prediction results can be obtained if, instead, we apply a much faster procedure--first average the inputs (by applying an appropriate fuzzy transform) and then use these averaged inputs to solve the corresponding (discretization of the) differential equation. In this paper, we provide a general theoretical explanation of why our semiheuristic method works, that is, why fuzzy transforms are efficient in large-scale predictions.
Comparison of changes in endothelial adhesion molecule expression following UVB irradiation of skin and a human dermal microvascular cell line (HMEC‐1)

We have assessed the pattern of dermal endothelial adhesion molecule expression following broadband UVB irradiation in vivo and in vitro. Skin biopsies were taken from 4 human volunteers at baseline and at 4, 8 and 24 h post‐irradiation with 2.5 minimal erythema doses of UVB. Sections were stained immunohistochemically for E‐selectin, intercellular adhesion molecule‐1 (ICAM‐1), vascular cell adhesion molecule‐1 (VCAM‐1), CD31 and neutrophil elastase. The effect of direct UVB irradiation on E‐selectin, ICAM‐1 and VCAM‐1 was examined in a human dermal microvascular endothelial cell line, HMEC‐1. Cultured HMEC‐1 were irradiated with 2.5–40 mJ/cm2 of UVB, and assessed for adhesion molecule expression by immunofluorescence microscopy and fluorescence‐activated cell sorter analysis. In vivo, E‐selectin was minimally expressed on EC at baseline and was induced by 4 h following irradiation, P<0.01. ICAM‐1 was moderately expressed at baseline and appeared mildly induced at 24 h, although this did not reach statistical significance. VCAM‐1 was weakly expressed in unirradiated skin while CD31 was moderately expressed, but neither was induced by UVB irradiation. A significant neutrophilic infiltrate appeared by 8 h and was maximal at 24 h, P<0.05. Neutrophil infiltration correlated with E‐selectin expression, r=0.96. In HMEC‐1, ICAM‐1 was upregulated at 24 h post‐irradiation, with an increase in mean channel fluorescence from 100% at baseline to 145 (SD12)%> at 24 h, P<0.05. No change was seen in expression of E‐selectin, VCAM‐1 or CD31. These studies support the involvement of endothelial adhesion molecules E‐selectin and ICAM‐1 in UVB‐induced inflammation. Whereas ICAM‐1 is upregulated by direct irradiation of endothelial cells, E‐selectin stimulation appears to be an indirect effect.
Cross-Domain Reuse of Extracted Knowledge in Genetic Programming for Image Classification

Genetic programming (GP) is a well-known evolutionary computation technique, which has been successfully used to solve various problems, such as optimization, image analysis, and classification. Transfer learning is a type of machine learning approach that can be used to solve complex tasks. Transfer learning has been introduced to GP to solve complex Boolean and symbolic regression problems with some promise. However, the use of transfer learning with GP has not been investigated to address complex image classification tasks with noise and rotations, where GP cannot achieve satisfactory performance, but GP with transfer learning may improve the performance. In this paper, we propose a novel approach based on transfer learning and GP to solve complex image classification problems by extracting and reusing blocks of knowledge/information, which are automatically discovered from similar as well as different image classification tasks during the evolutionary process. The proposed approach is evaluated on three texture data sets and three office data sets of image classification benchmarks, and achieves better classification performance than the state-of-the-art image classification algorithm. Further analysis on the evolved solutions/trees shows that the proposed approach with transfer learning can successfully discover and reuse knowledge/information extracted from similar or different problems to improve its performance on complex image classification problems.
Reduced lipolysis and increased lipogenesis in adipose tissue from pinealectomized rats adapted to training

Abstract: The current study investigated the effects of chronic training and pinealectomy on the lipogenic and lipolytic activity of adipose tissue. Pinealectomized and sham‐operated adult male Wistar rats were distributed in to four subgroups: pinealectomized untrained, pinealectomized trained, control untrained and control trained. At the end of the training period (8 wk) the rats were killed. Blood samples were collected for glucose, insulin and leptin determinations. Peri‐epididymal adipocytes were isolated for measurement of in vitro rates of lipolysis and incorporation of substrates (d‐[U‐14C]‐glucose, l‐[U‐14C]‐lactate, [2‐14C]‐acetate and [1‐14C]‐palmitate) into lipids, and samples of epididymal adipose tissue were homogenized for evaluation of glucose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase maximal activity. Pinealectomy resulted in a significantly increased lipolytic capacity in response to isoproterenol and a decrease in circulating leptin levels without affecting the rates of incorporation of different substrates into lipids. However, only in the intact control group did training promote a higher basal and isoproterenol‐stimulated lipolysis, increase the incorporation of palmitate (esterification), decrease the incorporation of acetate (lipogenesis) into lipids and diminish circulating leptin levels. These effects of exercise training were not seen in pinealectomized rats. However, pinealectomized trained animals showed a marked reduction in lipolysis and an increased rate of acetate incorporation. In conclusion, we demonstrated for the first time that the pineal gland plays an important role in the regulation of lipid metabolism in such a way that its absence caused a severe alteration in the balance between lipogenesis and lipolysis, which becomes evident with the adaptation to exercise training.
Hospital transfer for primary coronary angioplasty in high risk patients with acute myocardial infarction

OBJECTIVE To investigate the feasibility, safety, and associated time delays of interhospital transfer in patients with acute myocardial infarction for primary percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). DESIGN AND PATIENTS Prospective observational study with group comparison in a single centre. 68 consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarction transferred for primary PTCA from other hospitals (group A) were compared with 78 patients admitted directly to the referral centre (group B). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Patient groups were analysed with regard to baseline characteristics, time intervals from onset of chest pain to balloon angioplasty, hospital stay, and follow up outcome. RESULTS Patients in group A presented with a higher rate of cardiogenic shock initially than patients in group B (25% v 6%, p = 0.01) and had been resuscitated more frequently before PTCA (22%v 5%, p = 0.01). No deaths or other serious complications occurred during interhospital transfer. Median transfer time was 63 (range 40–115) minutes for helicopter transport (median 42 (28–122) km, n = 14), and 50 (18–110) minutes by ground ambulance (median 8 (5–68) km, n = 54). The median time interval from the decision to perform coronary arteriography to balloon inflation was 96 (45–243) minutes in group A and 52 (17–214) minutes in group B (p = 0.0001). In transferred patients (group A) the transportation associated delay and the longer in-hospital median decision time (50 (10–1120) minutes in group Av 15 (0–210) minutes in group B, p = 0.002) concurred with a longer total period of ischaemia (239 (114–1307) minutes in group A v 182 (75–1025) minutes in group B, p = 0.02) since the beginning of chest pain. Success of PTCA (TIMI 3 flow in 95% of all patients), in-hospital mortality (7% v 9%, mortality for patients not in cardiogenic shock 0% v4%), and follow up after median 235 days was similarly favourable in groups A and B, respectively. Only one hospital survivor (group A) died during follow up. CONCLUSION Interhospital transport for primary PTCA in high risk patients with acute myocardial infarction is safe and feasible within a reasonable period of time. Short and medium term outcome is favourable. Optimising the decision process and transport logistics may further improve outcome by reducing the total time of ischaemia.
Near-Infrared Fluorescent Imaging of Matrix Metalloproteinase Activity After Myocardial Infarction

Background—We used a molecular probe activated by protease cleavage to image expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in the heart after myocardial infarction. Methods and Results—We synthesized and characterized a near-infrared fluorescent (NIRF) probe that is activated by proteolytic cleavage by MMP2 and MMP9. The NIRF probe was injected into mice at various time points up to 4 weeks after myocardial infarction induced by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. NIRF imaging of MMP activity increased in the infarct region, with maximal expression at 1 to 2 weeks, persisting to 4 weeks. Zymography and real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that MMP9 expression is increased at 2 to 4 days, and MMP2 expression is increased at 1 to 2 weeks. Dual-label confocal microscopy showed colocalization of NIRF imaging with neutrophils on day 2, and flow cytometric analysis confirmed that NIRF signal is associated with leukocytes in the infarct zone. Conclusions—This study demonstrates that the activity of MMPs in the myocardium may be imaged by use of specific activity–dependent molecular probes.
Multi-response optimization of thermophysiological comfort properties of polyester filament woven fabrics

Abstract Microfilament woven fabrics are used in many products such as sportswear, rainclothes, windproof clothes, sleeping bags and surgical gowns and for these products, thermophysiological comfort properties are of prime importance. In this study, it is intended to investigate the effects of filament linear density and weft sett on thermophysiological comfort properties. Also, an optimization model was developed to determine the optimum filament linear density and weft sett for the best response variables of air permeability, water vapour permeability and thermal resistance. Four different weft sett and five different filament linear densities were applied in weft direction with three different weave types. In doing so, 60 woven fabric samples were produced. According to ANOVA results and experimental observations, it is observed that, the effect of filament linear density on air and water vapour permeability was minor on microfilament range, whereas the differences between conventional filament and microfilament sample groups are considerable. Also, higher weft sett causes decreasing of air and water vapour permeability. On the other hand, there is no obvious consistent trend for thermal resistance of samples with different filament linear density and weft sett.
Generating executable code from the dynamic model of omt with concurrency

Dynamic model is one of the three basic models of Object Modeling Technique (OMT). It is represented by a set of state transition diagrams showing the behavior of a system. This paper introduces a new method to implement a state diagram in an object oriented language. In our approach, states are represented as classes and transitions as their operations. Inheritance is used to implement common transitions and aggregation is used to implement concurrent states. A system has also been developed that successfully implements the method. The system reads the specifications of the dynamic model of a system and generates executable Java code.
Early motor deficits in mouse disease models are reliably uncovered using an automated home-cage wheel-running system: a cross-laboratory validation

Deficits in motor function are debilitating features in disorders affecting neurological, neuromuscular and musculoskeletal systems. Although these disorders can vary greatly with respect to age of onset, symptomatic presentation, rate of progression and severity, the study of these disease models in mice is confined to the use of a small number of tests, most commonly the rotarod test. To expand the repertoire of meaningful motor function tests in mice, we tested, optimised and validated an automated home-cage-based running-wheel system, incorporating a conventional wheel with evenly spaced rungs and a complex wheel with particular rungs absent. The system enables automated assessment of motor function without handler interference, which is desirable in longitudinal studies involving continuous monitoring of motor performance. In baseline studies at two test centres, consistently significant differences in performance on both wheels were detectable among four commonly used inbred strains. As further validation, we studied performance in mutant models of progressive neurodegenerative diseases – Huntington’s disease [TgN(HD82Gln)81Dbo; referred to as HD mice] and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [Tg(SOD1G93A)dl1/GurJ; referred to as SOD1 mice] – and in a mutant strain with subtle gait abnormalities, C-Snap25Bdr/H (Blind-drunk, Bdr). In both models of progressive disease, as with the third mutant, we could reliably and consistently detect specific motor function deficits at ages far earlier than any previously recorded symptoms in vivo: 7–8 weeks for the HD mice and 12 weeks for the SOD1 mice. We also conducted longitudinal analysis of rotarod and grip strength performance, for which deficits were still not detectable at 12 weeks and 23 weeks, respectively. Several new parameters of motor behaviour were uncovered using principal component analysis, indicating that the wheel-running assay could record features of motor function that are independent of rotarod performance. This represents a powerful new method to detect motor deficits at pre-symptomatic stages in mouse disease models and should be considered as a valid tool to investigate the efficacy of therapeutic agents.
Evaluation of Internet-Based Dengue Query Data: Google Dengue Trends

Dengue is a common and growing problem worldwide, with an estimated 70–140 million cases per year. Traditional, healthcare-based, government-implemented dengue surveillance is resource intensive and slow. As global Internet use has increased, novel, Internet-based disease monitoring tools have emerged. Google Dengue Trends (GDT) uses near real-time search query data to create an index of dengue incidence that is a linear proxy for traditional surveillance. Studies have shown that GDT correlates highly with dengue incidence in multiple countries on a large spatial scale. This study addresses the heterogeneity of GDT at smaller spatial scales, assessing its accuracy at the state-level in Mexico and identifying factors that are associated with its accuracy. We used Pearson correlation to estimate the association between GDT and traditional dengue surveillance data for Mexico at the national level and for 17 Mexican states. Nationally, GDT captured approximately 83% of the variability in reported cases over the 9 study years. The correlation between GDT and reported cases varied from state to state, capturing anywhere from 1% of the variability in Baja California to 88% in Chiapas, with higher accuracy in states with higher dengue average annual incidence. A model including annual average maximum temperature, precipitation, and their interaction accounted for 81% of the variability in GDT accuracy between states. This climate model was the best indicator of GDT accuracy, suggesting that GDT works best in areas with intense transmission, particularly where local climate is well suited for transmission. Internet accessibility (average ∼36%) did not appear to affect GDT accuracy. While GDT seems to be a less robust indicator of local transmission in areas of low incidence and unfavorable climate, it may indicate cases among travelers in those areas. Identifying the strengths and limitations of novel surveillance is critical for these types of data to be used to make public health decisions and forecasting models.
Ethylene preparation and its application to physiological experiments

Ethylene is the first identified gaseous hormone regulating many aspects of plant growth and development. ACC and ethephon are two widely used chemicals replacing ethylene treatment when ethylene is not available. However, the amount of ethylene converted by ACC and ethephon is not controllable, leaving it questionable whether either treatment can mimic the effects of ethylene for experiments that are sensitive to ethylene concentration, response window, and treatment durations. Ethylene can be chemically made by ethanol dehydration; however, further purification from the dehydration products is needed. We previously reported that the ethylene gas can be easily prepared by decomposing ethephon in a buffered condition and the resulting ethylene can be used directly. Ethylene responses can be estimated by the measurement of the hypocotyl length of etiolated seedlings, or by ERF1 (Ethylene Response Factor1) expression. Although ACC of low concentrations is insufficient to induce ERF1 expression, ACC of high concentrations can replace ethylene for experiments where ethylene treatment is not feasible. However, ACC may undergo early consumption. Versatile approaches were developed so that laboratories lacking ethylene and techniques for gas handling can easily perform necessary ethylene treatments.