Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Attitudes and behaviour of general practitioners and their prescribing costs: a national cross sectional survey

Background: General practitioner (GP) prescribing accounts for about 10% of NHS expenditure. GPs at the top of the range have annual prescribing costs that are almost twice as much as those at the bottom of the range. This variation cannot be accounted for purely in terms of differences in underlying need for health care. Objectives: To describe the relationship between GPs’ prescribing costs and their attitudes towards prescribing decisions and prescribing information sources, and to identify potentially modifiable attitudinal and behavioural factors associated with high cost prescribing. Design: A postal questionnaire was designed on the basis of hypotheses developed from a literature search and an earlier qualitative survey. This questionnaire was sent to a national sample of GPs with equal numbers of practices in the upper, middle, and lowest quintile of prescribing costs. Setting: GP practices in England. Participants: 1714 GPs in NHS practice. Outcome measures: GPs’ self-reported practices, attitudes and personal characteristics. Results: There was a 64% response rate. Responders were more likely to be from larger practices, in less deprived areas, and with lower prescribing costs than were non-responders. Multivariable analysis showed that GPs with high prescribing costs were significantly more likely to work in dispensing practices, in practices with low income populations, in single handed practices, and in practices without a GP trainer. They were also significantly more likely to see drug company representatives more frequently, to prescribe newly available drugs more freely, to prescribe more readily to patients who expect a prescription, to report high levels of frustration from lack of time in the consultation, to find unsatisfactory those consultations which ended in advice only, and to express dissatisfaction with their review methods for repeat prescribing. They were significantly less likely to find useful criticism of prescribing habits by colleagues, and to check the BNF rather than other sources when uncertain about an aspect of drug treatment. Conclusions: While they cannot be held to have a causal relationship, the pattern of attitudes towards prescribing of GPs in the highest quintile of prescribing costs provide the basis for developing an educational intervention which may be an acceptable method of modifying the attitudes of GPs and consequently reducing their prescribing costs.
A meta analysis on the treatment of renal calculus by percutaneous nephroscope set and retrograde intra renal surgery

This meta analysis was focused on the comparison using percutaneous nephroscope set and retrograde intra renal surgery to treat renal calculus. The data were obtained from PubMed and Web of Science databases. The published time of literature were from March, 2014, the language included Chinese and English. The literature selection strategies were based on the evaluation and meta analysis on the preferred reporting items. The subgroup analysis comparison criteria were percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) minimally invasive percutaneous procedures (MIPPs), which included the comparison among mini-PCNL, micro-PCNL and RIRS. The research objects were selected from adult population. The searching words included: percutaneous nephrolithotomy, retrograde intrarenal surgery, percutaneous lithotripsy, RIRS, miniPCNL, micropercutaneous nephrolithtomy, flexible ureteroscopy. The efficiency of calculus removal, complication rate and hemoglobin decline rate after treatment were compared. PCNL had higher efficiency of calculus removal, but also had relatively higher complication rate, hemorrhage and longer hospitalization time. The standard efficiency of calculus removal for PCNL was higher than that of RIRS, while RIRS was better than MIPPs. Considering the complication and low efficacy, if the calculus was less than 2 cm, we should consider the use of RIRS standard treatment.
Root-associated fungal microbiota of nonmycorrhizal Arabis alpina and its contribution to plant phosphorus nutrition

Significance Most terrestrial plants live in symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and rely on this association to scavenge the macronutrient phosphorus (P) from soil. Arabis alpina thrives in P-limited alpine habitats, although, like all Brassicaceae species, it lacks the ability to establish an AM symbiosis. By studying the fungal microbiota associated with A. alpina roots we uncovered its association with a beneficial Helotiales fungus capable of promoting plant growth and P uptake, thereby facilitating plant adaptation to low-P environments. Most land plants live in association with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and rely on this symbiosis to scavenge phosphorus (P) from soil. The ability to establish this partnership has been lost in some plant lineages like the Brassicaceae, which raises the question of what alternative nutrition strategies such plants have to grow in P-impoverished soils. To understand the contribution of plant–microbiota interactions, we studied the root-associated fungal microbiome of Arabis alpina (Brassicaceae) with the hypothesis that some of its components can promote plant P acquisition. Using amplicon sequencing of the fungal internal transcribed spacer 2, we studied the root and rhizosphere fungal communities of A. alpina growing under natural and controlled conditions including low-P soils and identified a set of 15 fungal taxa consistently detected in its roots. This cohort included a Helotiales taxon exhibiting high abundance in roots of wild A. alpina growing in an extremely P-limited soil. Consequently, we isolated and subsequently reintroduced a specimen from this taxon into its native P-poor soil in which it improved plant growth and P uptake. The fungus exhibited mycorrhiza-like traits including colonization of the root endosphere and P transfer to the plant. Genome analysis revealed a link between its endophytic lifestyle and the expansion of its repertoire of carbohydrate-active enzymes. We report the discovery of a plant–fungus interaction facilitating the growth of a nonmycorrhizal plant under native P-limited conditions, thus uncovering a previously underestimated role of root fungal microbiota in P cycling.
Cross View Link Prediction by Learning Noise-resilient Representation Consensus

Link Prediction has been an important task for social and information networks. Existing approaches usually assume the completeness of network structure. However, in many real-world networks, the links and node attributes can usually be partially observable. In this paper, we study the problem of Cross View Link Prediction (CVLP) on partially observable networks, where the focus is to recommend nodes with only links to nodes with only attributes (or vice versa). We aim to bridge the information gap by learning a robust consensus for link-based and attribute-based representations so that nodes become comparable in the latent space. Also, the link-based and attribute-based representations can lend strength to each other via this consensus learning. Moreover, attribute selection is performed jointly with the representation learning to alleviate the effect of noisy high-dimensional attributes. We present two instantiations of this framework with different loss functions and develop an alternating optimization framework to solve the problem. Experimental results on four real-world datasets show the proposed algorithm outperforms the baseline methods significantly for cross-view link prediction.
Should Banking Supervision and Monetary Policy Tasks Be Given to Different Agencies

This paper adds some new arguments to the thesis that the responsibility for banking supervision should be assigned to an agency formally separated by the Central bank. We also provide some additional evidence on the macro and microeconomic performance of OECD countries whose banking systems are classified according to the regulatory regime in place. We find that the inflation rate is considerably higher and more volatile in countries where the Central bank acts as a monopolist in banking supervision. Besides, although banks seem to be more profitable when Central banks supervise them, they incur into higher costs and rely more on deposits with respect to more sophisticated liabilities as a funding source. The data are not definitively in favor of functional separation. However, we argue that the evolution of financial intermediaries, moral hazard problems and especially cost accountability seem to suggest that separation would be a better solution for industrialized countries. We also critically discuss the current arrangement of financial regulation and supervision in the EMU: our proposal is to establish an independent European System of Financial Supervisors (ESFS) structured similarly to the ESCB.
The Increase of Apolipoprotein A-V During Postprandial Lipemia Parallels the Response of Triglyceride-Rich Lipoproteins in Type 2 Diabetes

Postprandial lipemia is a distinct feature of diabetic dyslipidemia and may partly explain the atherogeneity of the lipid profile in type 2 diabetes (1). Several genetic factors contribute to the elevation of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TRLs). The role of apolipoprotein (apo)C-III as a regulator of TRL metabolism is well documented (2). Recently, apoA-V has been identified as a novel regulator of triglyceride metabolism. When the human APOA5 gene was expressed in transgenic mice, plasma triglyceride concentration was decreased by 70%, whereas apoA 5 gene knockout mice had fourfold elevation of plasma triglyceride levels (3). Inherited apoA-V deficiency results in severe hypertriglyceridemia in humans (4). A mutation in the APOA5 gene causes hypertriglyceridemia due to decreased lipoprotein lipase (LPL) mass and activity (5). Thus, previous studies have proposed that apoA-V decreases triglycerides by stimulating lipolysis. The present study focused on the response of apoA-V and apoC-III during postprandial lipemia and the associations between apoA-V and apoC-III and postheparin plasma LPL and hepatic lipase activities in type 2 diabetes. The present study cohort was comprised of 39 men and 8 women with type 2 diabetes who were enrolled in the previously published nateglinide study with the same inclusion and exclusion criteria (6). A total of 17 patients were treated with diet alone, 20 with sulfonylurea, and 11 with metformin. The …
A combinatorial approach to the conditioning of a single entry in the stationary distribution for a Markov chain.

For an irreducible stochastic matrix T of order n, a certain condition number κj(T ) that measures the sensitivity of the j−th entry of the corresponding stationary distribution under perturbation of T is considered. A lower bound on κj is produced in terms of the directed graph of T , and the case of equality is characterized in that lower bound. Also all of the directed graphs D are characterized such that κj(T ) is bounded from above as T ranges over the set of irreducible stochastic matrices having directed graph D. For those D for which κj is bounded, a tight upper bound is given on κj in terms of information contained in D.
Protective effect of some selected fruit blends on testicular toxicity in alloxan-induced diabetic rats

Abstract Background: The protective effect of a developed drink from blends of selected fruits on the sperm quality of alloxan-induced diabetic rats was investigated. Methods: Diabetes was intraperitoneally induced with alloxan; the formulated drink blend was orally administered 2.5 or 5 mL/day. Treatment lasted for 14 days and the rats were humanely sacrificed by cervical dislocation. The antioxidant status via assessment of reduced glutathione (GSH), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) was carried out on the testis, while sperm cells were analyzed for sperm motility, counts and abnormality. Results: Induction of diabetes led to a significant (p<0.05) decrease in GSH level, elevated SOD and CAT activities, significant (p<0.05) decrease in the sperm quality parameters studied. However, treatment with the formulated drink led to a significant (p<0.05) reduction of LPO, SOD and CAT activities as well as increase in GSH level. Conclusions: This study shows an improvement in testicular antioxidant activities and sperm qualities by single and double doses of the formulation, suggesting its protective potential against testicular toxicity in diabetic rats.
Effects of UV photographs, photoaging information, and use of sunless tanning lotion on sun protection behaviors.

OBJECTIVES To examine the efficacy of UV photographs and information about photoaging (eg, wrinkles and age spots) for increasing the sun protection intentions and behaviors of young adults and to determine whether any effects of this appearance-based intervention could be enhanced by providing a non-UV alternative for achieving a tan (ie, sunless tanning lotion). DESIGN Randomized control trial with 1-month follow-up. SETTING Two universities in Southern California. PARTICIPANTS A volunteer sample of 146 college students, 91.1% of whom completed the "surprise" 1-month follow-up. INTERVENTION A UV facial photograph and a brief videotape describing the causes and consequences of photoaging. The study tested the effects of the photoaging information/UV photographic intervention only, the intervention plus use of sunless tanning lotion, and a control condition. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Participants sun protection intentions as assessed immediately after the intervention and sun protection behaviors during the month after the intervention as assessed during a surprise telephone follow-up. RESULTS The intervention resulted in significantly stronger sun protection intentions (P<.001) and greater sun protection behaviors (P<.05) relative to controls. Furthermore, the group that also used sunless tanning lotion tended to engage in greater sun protection behaviors than the group that received the intervention alone (P<.08). CONCLUSION The UV photographic intervention holds promise as a cost-effective approach to motivate practices that may ultimately result in health benefits (ie, reduced skin cancer rates).
Three-year clinical and angiographic follow-up after intracoronary radiation : results of a randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND Although several early trials indicate treatment of restenosis with radiation therapy is safe and effective, the long-term impact of this new technology has been questioned. The objective of this report is to document angiographic and clinical outcome 3 years after treatment of restenotic stented coronary arteries with catheter-based (192)Ir. METHODS AND RESULTS A double-blind, randomized trial compared (192)Ir with placebo sources in patients with previous restenosis after coronary angioplasty. Over a 9-month period, 55 patients were enrolled; 26 were randomized to (192)Ir and 29 to placebo. At 3-year follow-up, target-lesion revascularization was significantly lower in the (192)Ir group (15. 4% versus 48.3%; P<0.01). The dichotomous restenosis rate at 3-year follow-up was also significantly lower in (192)Ir patients (33% versus 64%; P<0.05). In a subgroup of patients with 3-year angiographic follow-up not subjected to target-lesion revascularization by the 6-month angiogram, the mean minimal luminal diameter between 6 months and 3 years decreased from 2.49+/-0.81 to 2.12+/-0.73 mm in (192)Ir patients but was unchanged in placebo patients. CONCLUSIONS The early clinical benefits observed after treatment of coronary restenosis with (192)Ir appear durable at late follow-up. Angiographic restenosis continues to be significantly reduced in (192)Ir-treated patients, but a small amount of late loss was observed between the 6-month and 3-year follow-up time points. No events occurred in the (192)Ir group to suggest major untoward effects of vascular radiotherapy. At 3-year follow-up, vascular radiotherapy continues to be a promising new treatment for restenosis.
Political Identification and the Defining Issues Test: Reevaluating an Old Hypothesis

Research on the association between the development of moral judgment (as measured by the Defining Issues Test [DIT]; J. R. Rest, 1979) and political attitudes has demonstrated that these factors are often reliably related. N. Emler (1987, 1990) and colleagues have asserted that DIT scores actually measure test-takers' political identity rather than their developmental level. To test this claim, these researchers have designed "faking studies" in which respondents are asked to complete the DIT as if they were of a particular political orientation, regardless of their real political views. These faking studies have yielded contradictory conclusions, whereas tests of the incremental validity of the DIT have provided some evidence for its empirical distinctiveness. In the present study, the authors reexamined this issue by pitting scores on the DIT, Version 2 (DIT-2; J. R. Rest, D. Narvaez, S. J. Thoma, & M. J. Bebeau, 1999) against several more concrete measures of political identification in several predictive models of attitudes toward human rights and civil liberties. DIT-2 scores and political identification emerged as significant predictors in nearly all regression analyses.
Nitrate Uptake Affects Cell Wall Synthesis and Modeling

Nowadays, the relationship(s) about N assimilation and cell wall remodeling in plants remains generally unclear. Enzymes involved in cell wall synthesis/modification, and nitrogen transporters play a critical role in plant growth, differentiation, and response to external stimuli. In this review, a co-expression analysis of nitrate and ammonium transporters of Arabidopsis thaliana was performed in order to explore the functional connection of these proteins with cell-wall related enzymes. This approach highlighted a strict relationship between inorganic nitrogen transporters and cell wall formation, identifying a number of co-expressed remodeling enzymes. The enzymes involved in pectin and xyloglucan synthesis resulted particularly co-regulated together with nitrate carriers, suggesting a connection between nitrate assimilation and cell wall growth regulation. Major Facilitator Carriers, and one chloride channel, are similarly co-expressed with pectin lyase, pectinacetylesterase, and cellulose synthase. Contrarily, ammonium transporters show little or no connection with those genes involved in cell wall synthesis. Different aspects related to plant development, embryogenesis, and abiotic stress response will be discussed, given the importance in plant growth of cell wall synthesis and nitrate uptake. Intriguingly, the improvement of abiotic stress tolerance in crops concerns both these processes indicating the importance in sensing the environmental constraints and mediating a response. These evaluations could help to identify candidate genes for breeding purposes.
Pooling of urine specimens allows accurate and cost-effective genetic detection of Chlamydia trachomatis in Lithuania and other low-resource countries

The aims of this study were to compare performance characteristics and cost-effectiveness of pooling urine samples for screening and diagnosis of Chlamydia trachomatis using Digene Hybrid Capture II CT/NG Test (HCII), and to examine the prevalence of C. trachomatis in male military recruits in Lithuania. A total of 410 urine samples were individually tested and pooled by 5 and 10 samples, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of diagnosis were not affected by either pooling strategy. The estimated population prevalence of C. trachomatis infection was nearly identical, i.e. 4.4%, 4.4% and 4.1% based on individually tested samples, and samples pooled by 5 and 10, respectively. For this estimation of the population prevalence, pooling 5 samples reduced the costs by 80% and pooling 10 samples reduced the costs by 90%. For diagnosis of each individual sample, the pooling strategies resulted in cost savings of 60% (5 samples per pool) and 56% (10 samples per pool). The present pooling strategies were sensitive, specific and cost-efficient for screening and diagnosis of C. trachomatis infection in male military recruits in Lithuania. The strategies would be most useful for reasonably inexpensive large-scale screening, prevalence studies and even diagnostics in Lithuania and many other low-resource countries.
Treatment Trends, Complications, and Effects of Comorbidities on Distal Radius Fractures

Background: Distal radius fractures (DRFs) are the most common upper extremity fractures in adults. This study seeks to elucidate the impact age, fracture type, and patient comorbidities have on the current treatment of DRFs and risk of complications. We hypothesized that comorbidities rather than age would relate to the risk of complications in the treatment of DRFs. Methods: A retrospective review of data was performed for patients treated between 2007 and 2014 using Truven Health MarketScan Research Databases. Patients who sustained a DRF were separated into “closed” versus “open” treatment groups, and the association between patient demographics, treatment type, and comorbidities with complication rates was analyzed, along with the trend of treatment modalities throughout the study time interval. Results: In total, 155 353 DRFs were identified; closed treatment predominated in all age groups with the highest percentage of open treatment occurring in the 50- to 59-year age group. Between 2007 and 2014, there was an increase in the rate of open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) in all age groups <90 with the largest increase (11%) occurring in the 70- to 79-year age group. Higher complication rates were observed in the open treatment group in all ages <90 years with a trend toward decreasing complication rates as age increased. Comorbidities were more strongly associated with the risk of developing complications than age. Conclusions: Closed treatment of DRFs remains the predominant treatment method among all age groups, but DRFs are increasingly being treated with ORIF. Emphasis on the patients’ comorbidities rather than chronological age should be considered in the treatment decision-making process of elderly patients with DRFs.
APPLYING PROGRAM DEPENDENCE ANALYSIS TO JAVA SOFTWARE

Understanding program dependences is essential for many software engineering activities including program slicing, testing, debugging, reverse engineering, maintenance, and complexity measurement. This paper presents the software dependence graph for Java (JSDG), which extends previous dependence-based representations, to represent various types of program dependences in Java software. The JSDG consists of a group of dependence graphs which can be used to represent Java methods, classes and their extensions and interactions, interfaces and their extensions, complete programs, and packages respectively. The JSDG can be used as an underlying representation to develop software engineering tools for Java software.
SleepMonitor

Respiratory rate and body position are two major physiological parameters in sleep study, and monitoring them during sleep can provide helpful information for health care. In this paper, we present SleepMonitor, a smartwatch based system which leverages the built-in accelerometer to monitor the respiratory rate and body position. To calculate respiratory rate, we design a filter to extract the weak respiratory signal from the noisy accelerometer data collected on the wrist, and use frequency analysis to estimate the respiratory rate from the data along each axis. Further, we design a multi-axis fusion approach which can adaptively adjust the estimates from the three axes and then significantly improve the estimation accuracy. To detect the body position, we apply machine learning techniques based on the features extracted from the accelerometer data. We have implemented our system on Android Wear based smartwatches and evaluated its performance in real experiments. The results show that our system can monitor respiratory rate and body position during sleep with high accuracy under various conditions.