Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Economic Evaluations in Kidney Transplantation: Frequency, Characteristics, and Quality—A Systematic Review

Background Economic evaluation provides a unique tool for informing healthcare decisions by explicitly quantifying limited resources required to achieve health gains and are widely used by policy makers to inform regulatory and subsidy decisions, but the validity of these studies in the field of transplantation is unknown. Aim The objective of this study is to describe and evaluate the quality and reporting of recently published economic evaluations in kidney transplantation. Methods A comprehensive literature search was undertaken for economic evaluations of interventions used in kidney transplantation published between January 2000 and December 2011. Results A total of 66 studies were identified, with the majority (>60%) being supported by academia. About 80% of the included studies reported highly favorable cost-effectiveness ratios, with the majority showing dominance against the comparator. The overall qualities of the studies were adequate, but there was no improvement in the overall quality and frequency of economic evaluations over time. On a continuous scale between 0 and 1, studies that used a broader (societal) perspective, assessed health gains in quality adjusted life years, were supported by academia, and evaluated non-pharmaceutical interventions were associated with a 5% to 10% increase in the overall quality of the studies compared to studies that employed a narrower perspective, assessed health gains in natural units, were supported by industry, and evaluated pharmaceutical interventions. Conclusions Economic evaluations are infrequently published in transplantation, but the overall methodological quality is high. Publication bias appears highly prevalent, with under-representation of studies that find small health gains and less favorable cost-effectiveness ratios published.
Both helix topology and counterion distribution contribute to the more effective charge screening in dsRNA compared with dsDNA

The recent discovery of the RNA interference mechanism emphasizes the biological importance of short, isolated, double-stranded (ds) RNA helices and calls for a complete understanding of the biophysical properties of dsRNA. However, most previous studies of the electrostatics of nucleic acid duplexes have focused on DNA. Here, we present a comparative investigation of electrostatic effects in RNA and DNA. Using resonant (anomalous) and non-resonant small-angle X-ray scattering, we characterized the charge screening efficiency and counterion distribution around short (25 bp) dsDNA and RNA molecules of comparable sequence. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we find counterion mediated screening to be more efficient for dsRNA than dsDNA. Furthermore, the topology of the RNA A-form helix alters the spatial distribution of counterions relative to B-form DNA. The experimental results reported here agree well with ion-size-corrected non-linear Poisson–Boltzmann calculations. We propose that differences in electrostatic properties aid in selective recognition of different types of short nucleic acid helices by target binding partners.
Modeling Electronic Properties of Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract Reviewing experimental results and based on the physical reasoning, we present a basic circuit model for Multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), which can simulate different experimental results. Investigation of different results confirms the severe effects of fabrication process (nanotube and contacts) on electronic properties of the MWCNTs. The circuit model has been developed to show the performance improvements of a CNT interconnect when the single‐wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) is replaced by an MWCNT. To calculate the current‐voltage characteristic and the switching delay of MWCNTs, we have simulated their DC and AC properties, respectively, using the developed transmission line models. Based on the physical models, the elements of the circuit model can be changed so that the simulation and the practical measurements for an MWCNT can correspond. Switching Delays of the MWCNTs and SWCNTs are calculated and compared for different cases.
Molecular phenotypes of colorectal cancer and potential clinical applications

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogeneous disease, arising from many possible etiological pathways. This heterogeneity can have important implications for CRC prognosis and clinical management. Epidemiological studies of CRC risk and prognosis—as well as clinical trials for the treatment of CRC—must therefore be sensitive to the molecular phenotype of colorectal tumors in patients under study. In this review, we describe four tumor markers that have been widely studied as reflections of CRC heterogeneity: (i) microsatellite instability (MSI) or DNA mismatch repair (MMR) deficiency, (ii) the CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP), and somatic mutations in (iii) BRAF and (iv) KRAS. These tumor markers have been used to better characterize CRC epidemiology and, increasingly, may be used to guide clinical decision-making. Going beyond these traditional tumor markers, we also briefly review some more novel markers likely to be of clinical significance. Lastly, recognizing that none of these individual tumor markers are isolated attributes but, rather, a reflection of broader tumor phenotypes, we review some of the hypothesized etiological pathways of CRC development and their associated clinical differences.
Data-Provenance Verification For Secure Hosts

Malicious software typically resides stealthily on a user's computer and interacts with the user's computing resources. Our goal in this work is to improve the trustworthiness of a host and its system data. Specifically, we provide a new mechanism that ensures the correct origin or provenance of critical system information and prevents adversaries from utilizing host resources. We define data-provenance integrity as the security property stating that the source where a piece of data is generated cannot be spoofed or tampered with. We describe a cryptographic provenance verification approach for ensuring system properties and system-data integrity at kernel-level. Its two concrete applications are demonstrated in the keystroke integrity verification and malicious traffic detection. Specifically, we first design and implement an efficient cryptographic protocol that enforces keystroke integrity by utilizing on-chip Trusted Computing Platform (TPM). The protocol prevents the forgery of fake key events by malware under reasonable assumptions. Then, we demonstrate our provenance verification approach by realizing a lightweight framework for restricting outbound malware traffic. This traffic-monitoring framework helps identify network activities of stealthy malware, and lends itself to a powerful personal firewall for examining all outbound traffic of a host that cannot be bypassed.
Value Encoding in Single Neurons in the Human Amygdala during Decision Making

A growing consensus suggests that the brain makes simple choices by assigning values to the stimuli under consideration and then comparing these values to make a decision. However, the network involved in computing the values has not yet been fully characterized. Here, we investigated whether the human amygdala plays a role in the computation of stimulus values at the time of decision making. We recorded single neuron activity from the amygdala of awake patients while they made simple purchase decisions over food items. We found 16 amygdala neurons, located primarily in the basolateral nucleus that responded linearly to the values assigned to individual items.
Daclatasvir Plus Asunaprevir for Chronic HCV Genotype 1b Infection

All‐oral combinations of direct‐acting antivirals may improve efficacy and safety outcomes for patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, particularly those who are poor candidates for current interferon/ribavirin‐based regimens. In this open‐label, phase 3 study, 135 interferon‐ineligible/intolerant and 87 nonresponder patients with chronic HCV genotype 1b infection were enrolled at 24 centers in Japan. Patients received daclatasvir 60 mg once daily plus asunaprevir 100 mg twice daily for 24 weeks. The primary endpoint was sustained virologic response 24 weeks after treatment (SVR24). This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01497834). SVR24 was achieved by 87.4% of interferon‐ineligible/intolerant patients and 80.5% of nonresponder (null and partial) patients; rates were similar in cirrhosis (90.9%) and noncirrhosis (84.0%) patients, and in patients with IL28B CC (84.5%) or non‐CC (84.8%) genotypes. Fourteen patients in each group (12.6%) discontinued dual therapy, mainly due to adverse events or lack of efficacy. Nine nonresponder patients received additional treatment with peginterferon/ribavirin per protocol‐defined criteria. The rate of serious adverse events was low (5.9%) and varied among patients. The most common adverse events were nasopharyngitis, increased alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), headache, diarrhea, and pyrexia. Conclusion: Interferon‐free, ribavirin‐free all‐oral therapy with daclatasvir and asunaprevir for 24 weeks is well tolerated and can achieve a high rate of SVR in patients with HCV genotype 1b who were ineligible, intolerant, or had not responded to prior interferon‐based therapy. (Hepatology 2014;59:2083–2091)
SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE FOR MULTICHANNEL MULTI-INTERFACE WIRELESS NETWORKS

A die assembly for extrusion molding of profile shapes is rigidly mounted on the press ram and includes two coaxially arranged parts. The first part is a holder having the free cylindrical end portion provided with an external thread of which the axial extent is limited by a radial shoulder. The other part is a cylindrical nut threaded onto the free end portion of the holder, so that an axial gap is left between the face end of the nut and the radial shoulder of the holder, with this gap being intended to be taken up in the course of an extrusion mold operation, whereby the die assembly provides for a variation of the external diameter thereof, and the cylindrical shape of the external periphery of the die assembly being unaffected by this variation of the diameter.
Surveillance and Identification of Influenza A Viruses in Wild Aquatic Birds in the Crimea, Ukraine (2006–2008)

Abstract The ecology of avian influenza (AI) viruses in wild aquatic birds of Asia is poorly understood, especially for the H5N1 high pathogenicity AI (HPAI) viruses. From March 2006 through November 2008, 20 AI viruses were isolated in the Crimea region of Ukraine with an overall frequency of virus recovery of 3.3%. All the viruses were isolated from three species of dabbling ducks: mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), wigeon (Anas penelope), and garganey (Anas querquedula), making the frequency of virus recovery for dabbling ducks 6.3%. The viruses were predominantly isolated during the fall sampling period. All viruses were genetically and antigenically characterized. No H5N1 HPAI viruses were isolated, but other HA and NA subtypes were identified including H3N1 (2), H3N6 (3), H3N8 (4), H4N6 (6), H5N2 (3), H7N8 (1), and H10N6 (1) subtypes. All isolates were of low pathogenicity, as determined by the intravenous pathogenicity index of 0.00. For H5N2 and H7N8 isolates, the HA gene was sequenced and the phylogenetic analysis revealed possible ecologic connections of the Crimea region with AI viruses from Siberia and Europe. No influenza A isolates were recovered from other Anseriformes (diving ducks [two species of pochards] and graylag geese), Columbiformes (collared doves), Gruiformes (coot), and Galliformes (gray partridges).
Childhood sexual trauma and psychosocial functioning in adults with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE This study explored the association between sexual abuse in childhood and the severity of psychosocial deficits in adults with schizophrenia. METHODS The Quality of Life Scale, which assesses current interpersonal and work function, and the NEO personality inventory, which assesses personality dimensions relevant to social functioning, were administered to 54 individuals who had been diagnosed as having schizophrenia. Nineteen of the individuals reported having been sexually abused as children, and 35 reported no history of abuse. RESULTS A multiple analysis of variance indicated that there were differences between the group of individuals who had a history of sexual trauma and the group that did not. Subsequent univariate analysis of variance indicated that the individuals with a history of abuse had poorer current role functioning and fewer of the basic psychological building blocks necessary for sustaining intimacy. They also demonstrated higher levels of neuroticism, which is a measure of vulnerability to emotional turmoil. The two groups did not differ in frequency of interpersonal contacts or level of extroversion. CONCLUSIONS Sexual abuse in childhood is associated with poorer psychosocial functioning in adults with schizophrenia.
Identification of Chlamydia trachomatis Antigens Recognized by T Cells From Highly Exposed Women Who Limit or Resist Genital Tract Infection.

BACKGROUND Natural infection induces partial immunity to Chlamydia trachomatis Identification of chlamydial antigens that induce interferon γ (IFN-) secretion by T cells from immune women could advance vaccine development. METHODS IFN-γ production by CD4+ and CD8+ peripheral blood T cells from 58 high-risk women was measured after coculture with antigen-presenting cells preincubated with recombinant Escherichia coli expressing a panel of 275 chlamydial antigens. Quantile median regression analysis was used to compare frequencies of IFN-γ responses in women with only cervical infection to those in women with endometrial infection and frequencies in women who remained uninfected for over 1 year to those in women who developed incident infection. Statistical methods were then used to identify proteins associated with protection. RESULTS A higher median frequency of CD8+ T-cell responses was detected in women with lower genital tract chlamydial infection, compared with those with upper genital tract chlamydial infection (13.8% vs 9.5%; P =04), but the CD4+ T-cell response frequencies were not different. Women who remained uninfected displayed a greater frequency of positive CD4+ T-cell responses (29% vs 18%; P < .0001), compared with women who had incident infection, while the frequencies of CD8+ T-cell responses did not differ. A subset of proteins involved in central metabolism, type III secretion, and protein synthesis were associated with protection. CONCLUSIONS Investigations in naturally exposed women reveal protective responses and identify chlamydial vaccine candidate antigens.
Resilience for Today: Gaining Strength from Adversity

Introduction: Resilience for Today What Is Resilience? How Do You Promote It? How Do You Use It? by Edith H. Grotberg The Yin and the Yang of Resilience by Rhonda Baruch Enhancing Family Resilience: Transgenerational Approach to Positive Change in Dysfunctional Families by Sandra Neil Resilience in Families with Children Who Are Exceptional by Sharon Ramey, Stephanie DeLuca, and Karen Echols Resilience, the Fourth 'R': The Role of Schools in This Promotion by Judy Paphazy Resilience for Those Needing Health Care by Bette Keltner and Leslie Walker Resilience and Biculturalism: The Latino Experience in the USA by Francisca Infante and Alexandra Lamond Community Resilience: A Social Approach by Elbo Nestor Suarez-Ojeda and Lillian Aulter Resilience in the Wake of Disaster by Russ Newman, Luana Bossolo, Marguerite I. Schroeder, Jan Peterson, Jennifer Zabriskie, Rachael Payne, and Gillian Foster Resilience and Tragedy by Edith Henderson Grotberg
Growth of the Fission Yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, with Late, Eccentric, Lytic Fission in an Unbalanced Medium

Growth of Schizosaccharomyces pombe in batch cultures in a commercial defined medium was found to be normal until the last generation before the stationary phase. Approximately one-half the progeny of the last division lysed. Lysis occurred at breaks in the cell wall at cell-plates whose fission was eccentric. Normal culture cycle patterns were obtained when the medium was balanced by addition of either 0.20 mg of l-asparagine per ml or 5.0 mg of KH2PO4 per ml, or both. The lytic effect of growth in the unbalanced medium was compared with similar effects of growth in 2-deoxyglucose. These studies with 2-deoxyglucose in the balanced medium confirmed earlier cytological observations (lysis at all growing points), but showed that the similarities were superficial.
The Stock Market Investments: Is the Market a Sideshow?

RECENT EVENTS and research findings increasingly suggest that the stock market is not driven solely by news about fundamentals. There seem to be good theoretical as well as empirical reasons to believe that investor sentiment, also referred to as fads and fashions, affects stock prices. By investor sentiment we mean beliefs held by some investors that cannot be rationally justified. Such investors are sometimes referred to as noise traders. To affect prices, these less-than-rational beliefs have to be correlated across noise traders, otherwise trades based on mistaken judgments would cancel out. When investor sentiment affects the demand of enough investors, security prices diverge from fundamental values. The debates over market efficiency, exciting as they are, would not be important if the stock market did not affect real economic activity. If the stock market were a sideshow, market inefficiencies would merely redistribute wealth between smart investors and noise traders. But if the stock market influences real economic activity, then the investor sentiment that affects stock prices could also indirectly affect real activity.
Individual differences in second language learning

Individual Differences in Second Language Learning: Introduction Leah Roberts and Antje Meyer Individual Differences in L2 Learning and Long-Term L1 L2 Relationships Richard L. Sparks Nature and Nurture in School-Based Second Language Achievement Philip S. Dale, Nicole Harlaar, and Robert Plomin Determinants of Success in Native and Non-Native Listening Comprehension: An Individual Differences Approach Sible Andringa, Nomi Olsthoorn, Catherine van Beuningen, Rob Schoonen, and Jan Hulstijn Individual Differences in the Acquisition of a Complex L2 Phonology: A Training Study Adriana Hanulikov'a, Dan Dediu, Zhou Fang, Jana Ba snakov'a, and Falk Huettig The Structural Connectivity Underpinning Language Aptitude, Working Memory, and IQ in the Perisylvian Language Network Huadong Xiang, Dan Dediu, Leah Roberts, Erik van Oort, David G. Norris, and Peter Hagoort First and Second Language Speech Perception: Graded Learning N'uria Sebasti 'an-Gall'es and Bego na Diaz Second Language Proficiency and Cross-Language Lexical Activation Janet G. van Hell and Darren Tanner
Parents' Observations of Kindergartners Who are Advanced in Mathematical Reasoning

What behaviors and abilities do young, mathematically precocious children display? Are parents able to recognize such precocity? Questionnaires were completed by 100 parents of kindergarten-age children whom the parents thought to be mathematically precocious. Questions were derived from parents' spontaneous descriptions of the development of their children as well as behaviors consonant with items on two screening measures: the Arithmetic subtests of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Revised (WPPSI-R). The children, as a group, did well on the screening measures, achieving mean scores of 121.4 (92nd percentile) on the K-ABC and 124.9 (95th percentile) on the Wechsler subscales. The questionnaire asked parents 27 items about children's mathematical behavior and 18 items comparing the children with peers on nonmathematical skills. Five factors were found to characterize the parents' responses: (a) a general intellectual factor, (b) short- and long-term memory, (c) rote (rehearsed) memory, (d) spatial reasoning, and (e) specific relational knowledge. It was concluded that parents can indeed identify young children who are advanced in mathematical reasoning and can describe that mathematical behavior in coherent ways.
Relationships between Psychosocial Resilience and Physical Health Status of Western Australian Urban Aboriginal Youth

Background Psychosocial processes are implicated as mediators of racial/ethnic health disparities via dysregulation of physiological responses to stress. Our aim was to investigate the extent to which factors previously documented as buffering the impact of high-risk family environments on Aboriginal youths’ psychosocial functioning were similarly beneficial for their physical health status. Method and Results We examined the relationship between psychosocial resilience and physical health of urban Aboriginal youth (12–17 years, n = 677) drawn from a representative survey of Western Australian Aboriginal children and their families. A composite variable of psychosocial resilient status, derived by cross-classifying youth by high/low family risk exposure and normal/abnormal psychosocial functioning, resulted in four groups- Resilient, Less Resilient, Expected Good and Vulnerable. Separate logistic regression modeling for high and low risk exposed youth revealed that Resilient youth were significantly more likely to have lower self-reported asthma symptoms (OR 3.48, p<.001) and carer reported lifetime health problems (OR 1.76, p<.04) than Less Resilient youth. Conclusion The findings are consistent with biopsychosocial models and provide a more nuanced understanding of the patterns of risks, resources and adaptation that impact on the physical health of Aboriginal youth. The results support the posited biological pathways between chronic stress and physical health, and identify the protective role of social connections impacting not only psychosocial function but also physical health. Using a resilience framework may identify potent protective factors otherwise undetected in aggregated analyses, offering important insights to augment general public health prevention strategies.
Human sperm DNA fragmentation: Correlation of TUNEL results as assessed by flow cytometry and optical microscopy

An association between DNA fragmentation in sperm determined by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase [TdT]‐mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate (dUTP) nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay and the incidence of reproductive failure has been reported, either using flow cytometry or optical microscopy. However, the results obtained using each of these two approaches are different. Since there is a relative lack of studies standardizing these two approaches, the direct comparison of the results described in the different articles is difficult at present. To allow the comparison of the TUNEL results obtained using flow cytometry and optical microscopy, we applied these two approaches in a total of 66 human sperm samples. A positive correlation is detected in the TUNEL results as measured by flow cytometry and optical microscopy (Spearman; r = 0.720, P < 0.001). The percentage of TUNEL‐positive spermatozoa assessed by flow cytometry is 2.6 times higher than that detected in optical microscopy (39.7% ± 23.1% versus 15.3% ± 10.3%). Although there is a good correlation of the TUNEL results obtained by flow cytometry and optical microscopy, the percentages obtained with either technique are different. Therefore, the TUNEL results described in the present work should be valuable to compare the results described in many independent articles, using either optical microscopy or flow cytometry. © 2007 International Society for Analytical Cytology