Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Value and the medical home: effects of transformed primary care.

BACKGROUND The primary care medical home has been promoted to integrate and improve patient care while reducing healthcare spending, but with little formal study of the model or evidence of its efficacy. ProvenHealth Navigator (PHN), an intensive multidimensional medical home model that addresses care delivery and financing, was introduced into 11 different primary care practices. The goals were to improve the quality, efficiency, and patient experience of care. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the ability of a medical home model to improve the efficiency of care for Medicare beneficiaries. STUDY DESIGN Observational study using regression modeling based on preintervention and postintervention data and a propensity-selected control cohort. METHODS Four years of claims data for Medicare patients at 11 intervention sites and 75 control groups were analyzed to compute hospital admission and readmission rates, and the total cost of care. Regression modeling was used to establish predicted rates and costs in the absence of the intervention. Actual results were compared with predicted results to compute changes attributable to the PHN model. RESULTS ProvenHealth Navigator was associated with an 18% (P <.01) cumulative reduction in inpatient admissions and a 36% (P = .02) cumulative reduction in readmissions across the total population over the study period. CONCLUSIONS Investing in the capabilities of primary care practices to serve as medical homes may increase healthcare value by improving the efficiency of care. This study demonstrates that the PHN model is capable of significantly reducing admissions and readmissions for Medicare Advantage members.
Gender and the children's depression inventory's (CDI) ‘crying’ question

Abstract Objectives: Following disruption from students, particularly boys, during the administration of item 10, the ‘feel like crying’ question, of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), this study sought to explore the issue of non-response to this question. It was decided that particular attention should be given to gender differences in responses and non-responses, based on the experiences of researchers administering this measure. Method: Chi-square analysis of non-responses was conducted on CDI items collected from a total sample of 2,297 second year and pre-leaving certificate students from 23 randomly selected schools in the Mid-West region of Ireland. Results: Analysis identified item 10 as being significantly less likely to be completed than any other item. Further analysis revealed that boys were significantly less likely to respond to this question than girls. Conclusion: A modification of the wording to item 10 is suggested to ameliorate this difficulty.
Construction of neural nets using the radon transform

The authors present a method for constructing a feedforward neural net implementing an arbitrarily good approximation to any L/sub 2/ function over (-1, 1)/sup n/. The net uses n input nodes, a single hidden layer whose width is determined by the function to be implemented and the allowable mean square error, and a linear output neuron. Error bounds and an example are given for the method. <<ETX>>
Prediction of cloud condensation nucleus number concentration using measurements of aerosol size distributions and composition and light scattering enhancement due to humidity

[1] A cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) closure experiment is carried out using data from the Chebogue Point, Nova Scotia, ground site during the International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformation (ICARTT) field experiment in 2004. The number concentration of CCN at five supersaturations (∼0.07% to ∼0.5%) is predicted from measurements of aerosol size distribution, composition, and hygroscopic growth and is compared to measured CCN concentrations. It is shown that CCN can be predicted quite reliably using measured size distributions, a simple aerosol model to derive the solute-to-water mole ratio, and the diameter growth factor g(RH) or the optical growth factor f(RH). The mean error ranges from an overestimate in CCN of ≤5% at high supersaturation to a factor of 2.4 at low supersaturation with regression coefficients r2 of 0.90 and 0.53, respectively. The poor agreement at low supersaturation is primarily a result of high flow rates in the CCN counter that prevented small particles from growing to detectable sizes. Precise knowledge of the temperature gradient, and flow rates of the instrument, is essential to establish the correct supersaturation, particularly at low supersaturation, where errors translate into a large percentage of the activated number. There may also be some contribution from simplified composition assumptions, e.g., neglecting variability with size and/or mixing state. The mostly oxygenated organic aerosol could be modeled as insoluble, within the above uncertainties, from the point of view of hygroscopicity and activation. The generality of these conclusions will have to be tested at other locations.
Optimal query/update tradeoffs in versioned dictionaries

External-memory dictionaries are a fundamental data structure in file systems and databases. Versioned (or fully-persistent) dictionaries have an associated version tree where queries can be performed at any version, updates can be performed on leaf versions, and any version can be `cloned' by adding a child. Various query/update tradeoffs are known for unversioned dictionaries, many of them with matching upper and lower bounds. No fully-versioned external-memory dictionaries are known with optimal space/query/update tradeoffs. In particular, no versioned constructions are known that offer updates in $o(1)$ I/Os using O(N) space. We present the first cache-oblivious and cache-aware constructions that achieve a wide range of optimal points on this tradeoff.
Mass-loss rates of Wolf-Rayet stars as a function of stellar parameters

Clumping-corrected mass-loss rates of 64 Galactic Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are used to study the dependence of mass-loss rates, momentum transfer efficiencies and terminal velocities on the basic stellar parameters and chemical compo- sition. The luminosities of the WR stars have been determined either directly from the masses, using the dependence of L on mass predicted by stellar evolution theory, or they were deter- mined from the absolute visual magnitudes and the bolometric corrections. For this purpose we improved the relation between the bolometric correction and the spectral subclass. (1) The momentum transfer efficiencies (i.e. the ratio between the wind momentum loss and radiative momentum loss) of WR stars are found to lie in the range of 1.4 to 17.6, with the mean value of 6.2 for the 64 program stars. Such values can probably be explained by radiative driving due to multiple scattering of photons in a WR wind with an ionization stratification. However, there may be a problem in explaining the driving at low velocities. (2) We derived the linear regression relations for the depen- dence of the terminal velocity, the momentum transfer effi- ciency and the mass-loss rates on luminosity and chemical composition. We found a tight relation between the terminal velocity of the wind and the parameters of the hydrostatic core. This relation enables the determination of the mass of the WR stars from their observed terminal velocities and chemical composition with an accuracy of about 0.1 dex for WN and WC stars. Using evolutionary models of WR stars, the luminosity can then be determined with an accuracy of 0.25 dex or better. (3) We found that the mass-loss rates ( _ M ) of WR stars depend strongly on luminosity and also quite strongly on chemical composition. For the combined sample of WN and WC stars we found that _ M in M yr 1 can be expressed as _
The association between age and long term cosmetic effect of treatment with botulinum toxin

v TABLE OF CONTENTS . vi LIST OF TABLES . viii LIST OF FIGURES . ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . x INTRODUCTION . 1 Background . 1 Statement of the Problem . 1 Hypothesis. 2 Objectives and specific aims . 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE . 4 Overview . 4 Existing research . 20 METHODS . 28
Respiratory resistance by the forced oscillation technique in asthmatic children and cystic fibrosis patients.

Measurement of the total resistance of the respiratory system (Rrs) is an attractive alternative to measurement of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) in young children because it requires minimal co-operation. The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of the forced oscillation technique (FOT) to detect airway obstruction in asthmatic children and in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Spirometry and Rrs were recorded in 45 asthmatic children (32 males and 13 females) and in 45 patients with CF (28 males and 17 females). Rrs was measured at 10 Hz with the Siregnost FD5 (Siemens, Germany). The asthmatic children were slightly younger than the patients with CF (10+/-3 vs 14+/-7 yrs), and had milder airway obstruction (FEV1 80+/-19 vs 66+/-27% of predicted). Rrs was significantly higher in the asthmatic children (6.6+/-1.7 cmH2O x L(-1) x s) than in the patients with CF (4.8+/-1.4 cmH2O x L(-1) x s). A normal FEV1 (> or = mean -2SD) was associated with a normal Rrs (< or = mean +2SD) in 17 of the 45 asthmatic children and in 13 of the 45 CF patients. By contrast, a low FEV1 (< mean -2SD) was associated with an increased Rrs (> mean +2SD) in 21 of the 45 asthmatic children, but in only 3 of the 45 CF patients. Thus, FEV1 and Rrs yielded concordant information in asthmatic children much more often (38 out of 45) than in CF patients (16 out of 45) (p < 0.001). In CF, Rrs failed to detect even severe airways obstruction. These findings might be accounted for by the inability of Rrs to reflect peripheral obstruction. We conclude that total respiratory resistance is suitable to assess airways obstruction in asthmatic children but not in cystic fibrosis patients.
Efficient Closed-Loop Schemes for MIMO-OFDM-Based WLANs

The single-input single-output (SISO) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems for wireless local area networks (WLAN) defined by the IEEE 802.11a standard can support data rates up to 54 Mbps. In this paper, we consider deploying two transmit and two receive antennas to increase the data rate up to 108 Mbps. Applying our recent multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transceiver designs, that is, the geometric mean decomposition (GMD) and the uniform channel decomposition (UCD) schemes, we propose simple and efficient closed-loop MIMO-OFDM designs for much improved performance, compared to the standard singular value decomposition (SVD) based schemes as well as the open-loop V-BLAST (vertical Bell Labs layered space-time) based counterparts. In the explicit feedback mode, precoder feedback is needed for the proposed schemes. We show that the overhead of feedback can be made very moderate by using a vector quantization method. In the time-division duplex (TDD) mode where the channel reciprocity is exploited, our schemes turn out to be robust against the mismatch between the uplink and downlink channels. The advantages of our schemes are demonstrated via extensive numerical examples.
Speaking the Same Language: A Case Study in Intergenerational Interactions to Promote Understanding across Generations

To meet the needs of a growing older adult population, some undergraduate courses add service-learning projects where younger students interact with older adults outside the classroom, either as an alternative approach to traditional classroom learning or as an outside application project. College students who are learning a foreign language also participate in off campus service learning projects, allowing them to reinforce their academic curriculum. While these projects are beneficial, there are barriers for establishing such programs, such as funding and lack of scheduling flexibility. One alternative may be to offer intergenerational service-learning opportunities inside the college classroom. For that reason, we invited older adults from the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) into the college classroom to learn introductory French from college students who had taken at least one semester of college-level French. Results of a case study examination of the in-class service learning design are consistent with prior language studies of service learning completed outside of a traditional classroom (see Natvig, 2007; Pine, 1997). Hence, altering the servicelearning format by inviting older adults into the college classroom do not seem to affect the benefits that may be gained from the experiential learning process. Results also suggest college students were able to adapt to generational differences and learning styles that might influence future intergenerational experiences. Although this case study found both age groups gained mutual respect for each other, younger participants still displayed some evidence of age-related stereotyping, therefore, a more indepth approach to developing respect and reducing age related stereotyping is recommended.
Online Multi-Modal Distance Metric Learning with Application to Image Retrieval

Distance metric learning (DML) is an important technique to improve similarity search in content-based image retrieval. Despite being studied extensively, most existing DML approaches typically adopt a single-modal learning framework that learns the distance metric on either a single feature type or a combined feature space where multiple types of features are simply concatenated. Such single-modal DML methods suffer from some critical limitations: (i) some type of features may significantly dominate the others in the DML task due to diverse feature representations; and (ii) learning a distance metric on the combined high-dimensional feature space can be extremely time-consuming using the naive feature concatenation approach. To address these limitations, in this paper, we investigate a novel scheme of online multi-modal distance metric learning (OMDML), which explores a unified two-level online learning scheme: (i) it learns to optimize a distance metric on each individual feature space; and (ii) then it learns to find the optimal combination of diverse types of features. To further reduce the expensive cost of DML on high-dimensional feature space, we propose a low-rank OMDML algorithm which not only significantly reduces the computational cost but also retains highly competing or even better learning accuracy. We conduct extensive experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms for multi-modal image retrieval, in which encouraging results validate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.
Perflubron Emulsion in Prolonged Hemorrhagic Shock: Influence on Hepatocellular Energy Metabolism and Oxygen-dependent Gene Expression

Background Liver dysfunction as a result of impaired oxygen availability frequently occurs following hemorrhage and contributes to delayed mortality. Artificial oxygen carriers may improve oxygen supply to vital organs while avoiding the need for allogeneic transfusion. Methods Rats were subjected to hemorrhagic hypotension (mean arterial pressure = 35–40 mmHg for 120 min) and were subsequently resuscitated with (1) stored whole rat blood, (2) pentastarch, or (3) pentastarch combined with perflubron emulsion (PFE; 2.7 or 5.4 g/kg body weight), a second-generation artificial oxygen carrier. Recovery of liver adenosine triphosphate, hepatocellular injury, and expression of glutamine synthetase 1, a gene that is induced by exposure of hepatocytes to low partial pressure of oxygen, were studied at 4 h of resuscitation. Results Stored whole blood or pentastarch failed to restore liver adenosine triphosphate concentrations after prolonged shock as compared to sham controls and resulted in increased gene expression of glutamine synthetase 1. Addition of 2.7 g PFE/kg restored liver adenosine triphosphate to control, whereas 5.4 g PFE/kg resulted in adenosine triphosphate concentrations significantly above control. Improved hepatocellular oxygen supply was also confirmed by restoration of the physiologic expression pattern of glutamine synthetase 1. Serum enzyme concentrations were highest after resuscitation with stored blood, whereas addition of PFE failed to further decrease enzyme concentrations as compared to pentastarch alone. Conclusions Resuscitation with PFE is superior to stored blood or asanguineous resuscitation with respect to restoration of hepatocellular energy metabolism. The improved hepatocellular oxygen availability is reflected in normalization of oxygen-dependent gene expression. However, improved oxygen availability failed to affect early hepatocellular injury.
Acceptance of Self-driving Cars

Despite enthusiastic speculation about the potential benefits of self-driving cars, to date little is known about the factors that will affect drivers’ acceptance or rejection of this emerging technology. Gaining acceptance from end users will be critical to the widespread deployment of self-driving vehicles. Long-term acceptance may be harmed if initial acceptance is built upon unrealistic expectations developed before people interact with these systems. A brief (24-item) measurement scale was created to assess acceptance of self-driving cars. Before completing the scale, participants were randomly assigned to read short vignettes that featured either a realistic or an idealistic description of a friend’s experiences during the first six months of owning a self-driving car. A small but significant effect showed that reading an idealized portrayal in the vignette resulted in higher acceptance of self-driving cars. Potential factors affecting user acceptance of self-driving cars are discussed. Establishing realistic expectations about the performance of automation before users interact with self-driving cars may be important for long-term acceptance.
International Journal of Information Management

Cloud computing has become the buzzword in the industry today. Though, it is not an entirely new concept but in today’s digital age, it has become ubiquitous due to the proliferation of Internet, broadband, mobile devices, better bandwidth and mobility requirements for end-users (be it consumers, SMEs or enterprises). In this paper, the focus is on the perceived inclination of micro and small businesses (SMEs or SMBs) toward cloud computing and the beneﬁts reaped by them. This paper presents ﬁve factors inﬂuencing the cloud usage by this business community, whose needs and business requirements are very different from large enterprises. Firstly, ease of use and convenience is the biggest favorable factor followed by security and privacy and then comes the cost reduction. The fourth factor reliability is ignored as SMEs do not consider cloud as reliable. Lastly but not the least, SMEs do not want to use cloud for sharing and collaboration and prefer their old conventional methods for sharing and collaborating with their stakeholders.
New insights in the pathogenesis and genetics of leprosy

In the last 30 years the leprosy burden has been dramatically reduced but over the last 5 years still more than 200,000 new cases were detected each year. Advances in immunology, pathogenesis, and genetics of leprosy have been reported. A deeper understanding of the mechanisms of infection will ultimately improve our ability to fight against this potentially devastating infectious disease.
Yelp Dataset Challenge: Review Rating Prediction

Review websites, such as TripAdvisor and Yelp, allow users to post online reviews for various businesses, products and services, and have been recently shown to have a significant influence on consumer shopping behaviour. An online review typically consists of free-form text and a star rating out of 5. The problem of predicting a user's star rating for a product, given the user's text review for that product, is called Review Rating Prediction and has lately become a popular, albeit hard, problem in machine learning. In this paper, we treat Review Rating Prediction as a multi-class classification problem, and build sixteen different prediction models by combining four feature extraction methods, (i) unigrams, (ii) bigrams, (iii) trigrams and (iv) Latent Semantic Indexing, with four machine learning algorithms, (i) logistic regression, (ii) Naive Bayes classification, (iii) perceptrons, and (iv) linear Support Vector Classification. We analyse the performance of each of these sixteen models to come up with the best model for predicting the ratings from reviews. We use the dataset provided by Yelp for training and testing the models.
An Empirical Analysis of Short-run and Long-run Irish Export Functions: Does exchange rate volatility matter?

We analyse the long-run and short-run relationship between merchandise export volume and its determinants, foreign income, relative prices and exchange rate volatility, using the techniques of cointegration and error correction. The model was estimated for Irish exports and sectoral exports SITC 0-4 and SITC 5-8 to the EU using quarterly data for the period 1978-1998. The sectoral classification corresponds to the exports of mainly indigenous Irish firms and multinationals, respectively. We find that the exchange rate volatility has no effect on the volume of trade in the short-run but a significant positive effect in the long run. This is true in the aggregate and for our sectoral classifications. We can tentatively conclude that the decline in intra-EU exchange rate volatility associated with the single currency will lead to a long-run fall in Irish exports to the EU.
The Olfactory Co-receptor Orco from the Migratory Locust (Locusta migratoria) and the Desert Locust (Schistocerca gregaria): Identification and Expression pattern

In locusts, olfaction plays a crucial role for initiating and controlling behaviours, including food seeking and aggregation with conspecifics, which underlie the agricultural pest capacity of the animals. In this context, the molecular basis of olfaction in these insects is of particular interest. Here, we have identified genes of two orthopteran species, Locusta migratoria and Schistocera gregaria, which encode the olfactory receptor co-receptor (Orco). It was found that the sequences of LmigOrco and SgreOrco share a high degree of identity to each other and also to Orco proteins from different insect orders. The Orco-expressing cells in the antenna of S. gregaria and L. migratoria were visualized by in situ hybridization. Orco expression could be assigned to clusters of cells in sensilla basiconica and few cells in sensilla trichodea, most likely representing olfactory sensory neurons. No Orco-positive cells were detected in sensilla coeloconica and sensilla chaetica. Orco expression was found already in all nymphal stages and was verified in some other tissues which are equipped with chemosensory hairs (mouthparts, tarsi, wings). Together, the results support the notion for a decisive role of Orco in locust olfaction.