Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring Patient Expectations: Does the Instrument Affect Satisfaction or Expectations?

Background.Fulfillment of patients’ expectations may influence health care utilization, affect patient satisfaction, and be used to indicate quality of care. Several different instruments have been used to measure expectations, yet little is known about how different assessment methods affect outcomes. Objective.The object of the study was to determine whether different measurement instruments elicit different numbers and types of expectations and different levels of patient satisfaction. Design.Patients waiting to see their physician were randomly assigned to receive 1 of 2 commonly used instruments assessing expectations or were assigned to a third (control) group that was not asked about expectations. After the visit, patients in all 3 groups were asked about their satisfaction and services they received. Subjects.The study subjects were 290 male, primary care outpatients in a VA general medicine clinic. Measures.A “short” instrument asked about 3 general expectations for tests, referrals, and new medications, while a “long” instrument nested similar questions within a more detailed list. Wording also differed between the 2 instruments. The short instrument asked patients what they wanted; the long instrument asked patients what they thought was necessary for the physician to do. Satisfaction was measured with a visit-specific questionnaire and a more general assessment of physician interpersonal skills. Results.Patients receiving the long instrument were more likely to express expectations for tests (83% vs. 28%, P <0.001), referrals (40% vs. 18%, P <0.001), and new medications (45% vs. 28%, P <0.001). The groups differed in the number of unmet expectations: 40% of the long instrument group reported at least 1 unmet expectation compared with 19% of the short instrument group (P <0.001). Satisfaction was similar among the 3 groups. Conclusions.These different instruments elicit different numbers of expectations but do not affect patient satisfaction.
Intensity Noise of an Actively Mode-Locked Quantum Dot External Cavity Laser

We present the intensity noise characteristics of an actively mode-locked quantum-dot hybrid soliton pulse source (QD-HSPS) with a linearly chirped Gaussian-apodized fiber Bragg grating. The QD-HSPS is modeled by using an approximate solution for the propagation equation that governs the electric field and the rate equations, including spontaneous and carrier noise sources. Our results show that QD carrier noise is the most effective noise type, and the spontaneous coupling factor, carrier recombination time in the QD, and laser cavity length are the most important noise parameters. In addition we find that a QD-HSPS produces considerably shorter pulses, with or without noise, than a multi-quantum-well HSPS and has a larger mode-locking frequency range.
5-HT3 Receptors Mediate Serotonergic Fast Synaptic Excitation of Neocortical Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide/Cholecystokinin Interneurons

Neocortical neurons expressing the serotonin 5-HT3receptor (5-HT3R) were characterized in rat acute slices by using patch-clamp recordings combined with single-cell RT-PCR and histochemical labeling. The 5-HT3A receptor subunit was expressed selectively in a subset of GABAergic interneurons coexpressing cholecystokinin (CCK) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). The 5-HT3B subunit was never detected, indicating that 5-HT3Rs expressed by neocortical interneurons did not contain this subunit. In 5-HT3A-expressing VIP/CCK interneurons, serotonin induced fast membrane potential depolarizations by activating an inward current that was blocked by the selective 5-HT3R antagonist tropisetron. Furthermore, we observed close appositions between serotonergic fibers and the dendrites and somata of 5-HT3R-expressing neurons, suggestive of possible synaptic contacts. Indeed, in interneurons exhibiting rapid excitation by serotonin, local electrical stimulations evoked fast EPSCs of large amplitude that were blocked by tropisetron. Finally, 5-HT3R-expressing neurons were also excited by a nicotinic agonist, indicating that serotonergic and cholinergic fast synaptic transmission could converge onto VIP/CCK interneurons. Our results establish a clear correlation between the presence of the 5-HT3A receptor subunit in neocortical VIP/CCK GABAergic interneurons, its functional expression, and its synaptic activation by serotonergic afferent fibers from the brainstem raphe nuclei.
Search Engines - Information Retrieval in Practice

KEY BENEFIT: Written by a leader in the field of information retrieval, this text provides the background and tools needed to evaluate, compare and modify search engines. KEY TOPICS: Coverage of the underlying IR and mathematical models reinforce key concepts. Numerous programming exercises make extensive use of Galago, a Java-based open source search engine. MARKET: A valuable tool for search engine and information retrieval professionals.
Practical low delay broadcast of compressed variable bit rate movies

H.264 is currently the best way to compress media to achieve high quality at low bandwidth. Since its inception, technologies such as video-on-demand are increasingly realizable. Periodic broadcast is a popular way of implementing video-on-demand, yet most current methods do not work on H.264 because they assume a constant bit rate stream and do not account for B frames. In this paper, we describe a new protocol for periodic broadcast of video-on-demand that works for variable bit rate streams with B frames. We map the periodic broadcast problem into the generalized windows scheduling problem of arbitrary length jobs on parallel machines. Our method is lossless and practical, in that it does not require channels of differing bandwidth. We apply our method to H.264 encoded video traces and achieve a delay of under 10 seconds on a 1.5 Mbps channel
Multiplexing issues in communication system design

This paper considers some of the multiplexing issues in communication system design by examining overall system issues. In particular, we distinguish physical multiplexing of resources from logical multiplexing of streams. Both physical-resource multiplexing and logical multiplexing determine the service that can be provided by a communication system. We also discuss two issues affected by logical multiplexing - flow control and the relationship between control and data streams of a connection. We conclude that the granularity of physical resource sharing must be fine enough to meet the jitter and latency constraints of demanding applications. Also, high speed communication systems should restrict their logical multiplexing to layer 3.
Restricting access to palatable foods affects children's behavioral response, food selection, and intake.

BACKGROUND Restricting children's access to palatable foods may appeal to parents as a straightforward means of promoting moderate intakes of foods high in fat and sugar; however, restricting access to palatable foods may have unintended effects on children's eating. The efficacy of restricting children's access to palatable foods as a means of promoting patterns of moderate intake of those foods is unknown. OBJECTIVE Two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that restricting access to a palatable food enhances children's subsequent behavioral responses to, selection of, and intake of that restricted food. DESIGN Both experiments used a within-subjects design to examine the effects of restricting access to a palatable food on children's subsequent behavior, food selection, and food intake. The first experiment examined the effects of restriction within and outside the restricted context and the second experiment focused on the effects within the restricted context. RESULTS In both experiments, restricting access to a palatable food increased children's behavioral response to that food. Experiment 2 showed that restricting access increased children's subsequent selection and intake of that food within the restricted context. CONCLUSIONS Restricting access focuses children's attention on restricted foods, while increasing their desire to obtain and consume those foods. Restricting children's access to palatable foods is not an effective means of promoting moderate intake of palatable foods and may encourage the intake of foods that should be limited in the diet.
The Quadruplicity Decomposed of Labor Productivity Based on DEA

Based on frontier production surface of DEA, authors decompose index of labor productivity into technical efficiency, pure technical progress, scale efficiency of capital/labor and change of intensity for capital/labor, and analyses the economic meanings of the four indexes. Then the papers propose the effect of the four indexes to provincial industrial labor productivity during 2006 and 2007 in China. We get some results: (1) the improvement of industrial labor productivity mainly came from technical progress and capital deepening, (2) most of province have lied in the state of decreasing returns to scale efficiency of capital/labor.
Sub-10-nm half-pitch electron-beam lithography by using poly(methyl methacrylate) as a negative resist

Developing high-resolution resists and processes for electron-beam lithography is of great importance for high-density magnetic storage, integrated circuits, and nanoelectronic and nanophotonic devices. Until now, hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) and calixarene were the only two reported negative resists that could approach sub-10-nm half-pitch resolution for electron-beam lithography. Here, the authors report that 10-nm half-pitch dense nanostructures can also be readily fabricated using the well known poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) resist operating in negative tone, even at exposure energies as low as 2 keV. In addition to scanning electron microscopy metrology, transmission electron microscopy metrology was done to confirm the high-resolution capability of negative-tone PMMA. This process was compared to HSQ with salty development and showed similar ultimate resolution, so it could be used as an alternative for applications incompatible with HSQ.
Convergence analysis for extended Kalman filter based SLAM

The main contribution of this paper is a theoretical analysis of the extended Kalman filter (EKF) based solution to the simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) problem. The convergence properties for the general nonlinear two-dimensional SLAM are provided. The proofs clearly show that the robot orientation error has a significant effect on the limit and/or the lower bound of the uncertainty of the landmark location estimates. Furthermore, some insights to the performance of EKF SLAM and a theoretical analysis on the inconsistencies in EKF SLAM that have been recently observed are given
From APIs to languages: generalising method names

Method names with multiple separate parts are a feature of many dynamic languages derived from Smalltalk. Generalising the syntax of method names to allow parts to be repeated, optional, or alternatives, means a single definition can respond to a whole family of method requests. We show how generalising method names can support flexible APIs for domain-specific languages, complex initialisation tasks, and control structures defined in libraries. We describe how we have extended Grace to support generalised method names, and prove that such an extension can be integrated into a gradually-typed language while preserving type soundness.
Cannabis use predicts future psychotic symptoms, and vice versa.

AIMS To assess if cannabis use is a risk factor for future psychotic symptoms, and vice versa, in adolescents and young adults from the general population. DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS 'Zuid Holland' study, a 14-year follow-up study of 1580 initially 4-16-year-olds who were drawn randomly from the Dutch general population. Because cannabis use is generally condoned in the Netherlands, false-negative reports of cannabis use may occur less frequently than in countries with stricter drug policies, which supports the value of the present study. MEASUREMENTS Life-time cannabis use and psychotic symptoms, assessed with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). FINDINGS Cannabis use, in individuals who did not have psychotic symptoms before they began using cannabis, predicted future psychotic symptoms (hazard ratio = 2.81; 95% confidence interval = 1.79-4.43). However, psychotic symptoms in those who had never used cannabis before the onset of psychotic symptoms also predicted future cannabis use (hazard ratio = 1.70; 95% confidence interval = 1.13-2.57). CONCLUSIONS The results imply either a common vulnerability with varying order of onset or a bi-directional causal relationship between cannabis use and psychosis. More research on patterns and timings of these relationships is needed to narrow down the possibilities.
Privacy-Preserving Multivariate Statistical Analysis: Linear Regression and Classification

Multivariate statistical analysis is an important data analysis technique that has found applications in various areas. In this paper, we study some multivariate statistical analysis methods in Secure 2-party Computation (S2C) framework illustrated by the following scenario: two parties, each having a secret data set, want to conduct the statistical analysis on their joint data, but neither party is willing to disclose its private data to the other party or any third party. The current statistical analysis techniques cannot be used directly to support this kind of computation because they require all parties to send the necessary data to a central place. In this paper, We define two Secure 2-party multivariate statistical analysis problems: Secure 2-party Multivariate Linear Regression problem and Secure 2-party Multivariate Classification problem. We have developed a practical security model, based on which we have developed a number of building blocks for solving these two problems.
Efficacy of duloxetine add on in treatment of inflammatory bowel disease patients: A double-blind controlled study

Background: Treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) with antidepressants might be of utility to improve patient's condition. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of Duloxetine on depression, anxiety, severity of symptoms, and quality of life (QOL) in IBD patients. Materials and Methods: In a randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trial on 2013-2014, in Alzahra Hospital (Isfahan, Iran), 44 IBD patients were chosen to receive either duloxetine (60 mg/day) or placebo. They were treated in a 12 weeks program, and all of the participants also received mesalazine, 2-4 g daily. We assessed anxiety and depression with Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the severity of symptoms with Lichtiger Colitis Activity Index and QOL with World Health Organization Quality of Life Instruments, before and just after the treatment. The data were analyzed using Paired sample t-test and ANCOVA. Results: In 35 subjects who completed the study, the mean (standard error [SE]) scores of depression and anxiety were reduced in duloxetine more than placebo group, significantly (P = 0.041 and P = 0.049, respectively). The mean (SE) scores of severity of symptom were also reduced in duloxetine more than the placebo group, significantly (P = 0.02). The mean (SE) scores of physical, psychological, and social dimensions of QOL were increased after treatment with duloxetine more than placebo group, significantly (P = 0.001, P = 0.038, and P = 0.015, respectively). The environmental QOL was not increased significantly (P = 0.260). Conclusion: Duloxetine is probably effective and safe for reducing depression, anxiety and severity of physical symptoms. It also could increase physical, psychological, and social QOL in patients.
Using acoustics to estimate inspiratory flow rate and drug removed from a dry powder inhaler

Morbidity and mortality rates of chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are rising. There is a strong requirement for more effective management of these chronic diseases. Dry powder inhalers (DPIs) are one kind of devices currently employed to deliver medication aimed at controlling asthma and COPD symptoms. Despite their proven effectiveness when used correctly, some patients are unable to reach the inspiratory flow rate required to remove medication from the breath actuated devices and as a result, the medication does not reach the airways. This study employs an acoustic recording device, attached to a common DPI to record the audio signals of simulated inhalations. A rotameter was used to measure the flow rate through the inhaler while a milligram weighing scale was used to measure the amount of drug removed from each simulated inhalation. It was found that a strong correlation existed (R2>0.96) when average power, median amplitude, root mean square and mean absolute deviation were used to predict peak inspiratory flow rate. At a flow of 30L/Min (mean absolute deviation=0.0049), it was found that 77% of the total emitted dose was removed from the inhaler. Results indicate that acoustic measurements may be used in the prediction of inspiratory flow rate and quantity of medication removed from an inhaler.
Chemically Driven Printed Textile Sensors Based on Graphene and Carbon Nanotubes

The unique properties of graphene, such as the high elasticity, mechanical strength, thermal conductivity, very high electrical conductivity and transparency, make them it an interesting material for stretchable electronic applications. In the work presented herein, the authors used graphene and carbon nanotubes to introduce chemical sensing properties into textile materials by means of a screen printing method. Carbon nanotubes and graphene pellets were dispersed in water and used as a printing paste in the screen printing process. Three printing paste compositions were prepared—0%, 1% and 3% graphene pellet content with a constant 3% carbon nanotube mass content. Commercially available materials were used in this process. As a substrate, a twill woven cotton fabric was utilized. It has been found that the addition of graphene to printing paste that contains carbon nanotubes significantly enhances the electrical conductivity and sensing properties of the final product.
Germinal Center B Cells Regulate Their Capability to Present Antigen by Modulation of HLA-DO

Peptide acquisition by MHC class II molecules is catalyzed by HLA-DM (DM). In B cells, HLA-DO (DO) inhibits or modifies the peptide exchange activity of DM. We show here that DO protein levels are modulated during B cell differentiation. Remarkably, germinal center (GC) B cells, which have low levels of DO relative to naive and memory B cells, are shown to have enhanced antigen presentation capabilities. DM protein levels also were somewhat reduced in GC B cells; however, the ratio of DM to DO in GC B cells was substantially increased, resulting in more free DM in GC B cells. We conclude that modulation of DM and DO in distinct stages of B cell differentiation represents a mechanism by which B cells regulate their capacity to function as antigen-presenting cells. Efficient antigen presentation in GC B cells would promote GC B cell–T cell interactions that are essential for B cells to survive positive selection in the GC.
CLAVATA-WUSCHEL signaling in the shoot meristem

Shoot meristems are maintained by pluripotent stem cells that are controlled by CLAVATA-WUSCHEL feedback signaling. This pathway, which coordinates stem cell proliferation with differentiation, was first identified in Arabidopsis, but appears to be conserved in diverse higher plant species. In this Review, we highlight the commonalities and differences between CLAVATA-WUSCHEL pathways in different species, with an emphasis on Arabidopsis, maize, rice and tomato. We focus on stem cell control in shoot meristems, but also briefly discuss the role of these signaling components in root meristems. Summary: This Review discusses how CLV-WUS signaling coordinates stem cell proliferation with differentiation, highlighting commonalities and differences between CLV-WUS pathways in different species.
Adrenergic Coronary Vasoconstriction in the Presence of Coronary Stenosis in the Dog

Previous studies have demonstrated competition between sympathetic α receptor-mediated coronary vasoconstriction and local metabolic vasodilation during sympathetic activation. The present study tested if this competition also occurs in the presence of coronary stenosis. In closed-chest dogs, the left coronary artery was cannulated, and blood flow from the aorta was restricted by a moderate stenosis (70% area reduction). Intracoronary norepinephrine infusion produced coronary vascular α receptor and myocardial β receptor activation. Norepinephrine infusion was repeated following α receptor blockade with phenoxybenzamine (0.25 mg/kg, injected into the coronary artery). Myocardial oxygen and lactate extraction, coronary sinus blood oxygen tension, and coronary resistance were compared at equal levels of myocardial oxygen consumption before and after coronary α receptor blockade. In the presence of coronary stenosis, intracoronary norepinephrine infusion decreased coronary sinus oxygen content and increased myocardial oxygen extraction. At comparable myocardial oxygen consumptions coronary vascular resistance was greater with α receptors intact than after α receptor blockade. The increase in myocardial oxygen extraction was prevented by α receptor blockade. We conclude that a sympathetic α receptor-mediated coronary vasoconstrictor influence operates, even in the presence of coronary stenosis, to limit oxygen delivery to the heart and increase myocardial oxygen extraction up to the point of cardiac failure, but that this vasoconstrictor effect does not result in net myocardial lactate production. Circ Res 48: 416-423, 1981
Time-resolved evaluation of inductive pulse heating measurements

Thermo-inductive investigation can be well used for the detection of surface cracks in metallic materials. In this technique the work-piece is heated by induced eddy currents and an infrared camera is recording the temperature distribution of the surface. Irregularities and defects cause anomalies in the temperature distribution. Therefore, cracks become visible in the infrared images. In this paper the temperature distribution around a surface crack and its changes in the time are investigated after a short inductive pulse heating. Results of measurements and model calculations are presented showing the advantages of this technique. Magnetic and also non-magnetic materials have been investigated and in both cases the cracks become very well visible, independently from inhomogeneous surface properties or inhomogeneous heating.