Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Statin Therapy on Coronary Plaque Composition Using Virtual Histology Intravascular Ultrasound: A Meta-Analysis

Objective Previous studies have indicated that statin therapy may promote plaque regression. However, the impact of statin therapy on plaque composition has not been clearly elucidated. We performed a meta-analysis to investigate the effect of statin therapy on coronary plaque composition as assessed by virtual histology intravascular ultrasound (VH-IVUS). Methods Online databases were searched from inception to March 1, 2015. Studies providing VH-IVUS volumetric analyses of coronary plaque composition at baseline and follow-up in patients receiving statin therapy were included. Weighted mean difference (WMD) using a random-effects model was used. Results Ten studies involving 682 patients were included. There was a substantial reduction in fibrous volume between baseline and follow-up (WMD: -2.37 mm3, 95% confidence interval (CI) -4.01 to -0.74 mm3, P=0.004), and a significant increase in dense calcium (DC) volume (WMD: 0.89 mm3, 95% CI 0.70 to 1.08 mm3, P<0.00001). No significant change was seen in fibro-fatty and necrotic core (NC) volumes. In stratified analyses, the fibrous volume was decreased significantly (WMD: -3.39 mm3, 95% CI -6.56 to -0.21 mm3, P=0.04) and the absolute DC volume (WMD: 0.99 mm3, 95% CI 0.23 to 1.76 mm3, P=0.01) was increased in the subgroup with ≥12 months follow-up, whereas no significant change was observed in the subgroup with < 12 months follow-up. Similarly, a substantial decrease in fibrous volume (WMD: -2.01 mm3, 95% CI -3.05 to -0.96 mm3, P< 0.0002) and an increase in DC volume (WMD: 0.90 mm3, 95% CI 0.70 to 1.10 mm3, P< 0.00001) were observed in the subgroup with high-intensive statin therapy, while the change in fibrous and DC volumes approached statistical significance (P=0.05 and P=0.05, respectively) in the subgroup with low-intensive statin therapy. Conclusions Statin treatment, particularly of high-intensity and long-term duration, induced a marked modification in coronary plaque composition including a decrease in fibrous tissue and an increase in DC.
Variation in Antimicrobial Resistance in Sporadic and Outbreak-related Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium

The prevalence of different antimicrobial resistance profiles and variants of the Salmonella genomic island 1 (SGI1) was reported for Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium DT104 strains isolated from patients in Denmark. Variation in antimicrobial resistance and corresponding changes of SGI1 were shown among isolates from a foodborne outbreak.
Board Characteristics, Managerial Incentives, and the Choice Between Foreign Acquisitions and International Joint Ventures

Drawing on the agency theory, corporate governance, and international business literatures, the authors link board characteristics and managerial incentives to the choice between acquisitions and joint ventures by firms entering foreign markets. Hypothesized relationships are examined in the context of 383 acquisition and 171 joint venture entries undertaken by relatively nondiversified firms in the U.S. manufacturing sector during the period 1991 to 1999. Findings indicate that firms with boards characterized by a higher proportion of outside directors and independent leadership structures (i.e., the absence of duality) are more inclined to favor acquisitions over joint ventures in foreign market entry. Likewise, the data reveal that firms where insiders have greater equity ownership and compensation structures that are more closely linked to long-term firm performance prefer acquisitions over joint ventures. Implications of the findings along with directions for future research are discussed.
The Effects of RCA Clean Variables on Particle Removal Efficiency

Shrunken patterning for integrated device manufacturing requires surface cleanliness and surface smoothness in wet chemical processing [1]. It is necessary to control all process parameters perfectly especially for the common cleaning technique RCA clean (SC-1 and SC-2) [2]. In this paper the characteristic and effect of surface preparation parameters are discussed. The properties of RCA wet chemical processing in silicon technology is based on processing time, temperature, concentration and megasonic power of SC-1 and QDR. An improvement of wafer surface preparation by the enhanced variables of the wet cleaning chemical process is proposed. Keywords—RCA, SC-1, SC-2, QDR
Effect of Renal Function on the Pharmacokinetics of Palifermin

Palifermin (ΔN23KGF) decreases the incidence, severity, and duration of oral mucositis. The objectives of this open‐label study were to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of single‐dose palifermin in subjects with varying degrees of renal function. A single 90‐mcg/kg intravenous dose of palifermin was administered to 31 subjects with varying levels of renal function (normal to requiring hemodialysis). Pharmacokinetic analyses were conducted using serum palifermin concentrations. There was considerable overlap in mean palifermin serum clearance among the groups, ranging from 318 to 495 mL/h/kg, indicating that the level of renal function did not affect clearance in humans; thus, no dose adjustment of palifermin is indicated for patients with renal dysfunction.
The First Days of School in the Classrooms of Two More Effective and Four Less Effective Primary-Grades Teachers

We observed 6 primary-grades teachers in public and private schools in this study. Based on mid-year observations, 2 of these teachers were much more effective compared to the other 4 in producing greater student engagement and literacy progress, as determined by video and observation data of multiple content areas and as rated by the Classroom AIMS instrument. These 2 more effective teachers began the school year differently than the other teachers, again documented through observation of their teaching. Consistent with previous studies, the 2 more effective teachers did more to establish routines and procedures at the beginning of the year. In addition, compared to the less effective teachers, on the first days of school the more effective teachers offered more engaging activities, more enthusiastically introduced reading and writing, indicated higher expectations, praised specific accomplishments of students, pointed out when specific students were behaving in a praiseworthy fashion, and encouraged student self-regulation. In short, the first days of school were very different in the classes taught by the more effective teachers from those taught by the less effective teachers.
Is social support associated with greater weight loss after bariatric surgery?: a systematic review

Social support may be associated with increased weight loss after bariatric surgery. The objective of this article is to determine impact of post‐operative support groups and other forms of social support on weight loss after bariatric surgery. MEDLINE search (1988–2009) was completed using MeSH terms including bariatric procedures and a spectrum of patient factors with potential relationship to weight loss outcomes. Of the 934 screened studies, 10 reported on social support and weight loss outcomes. Five studies reported on support groups and five studies reported on other forms of social support (such as perceived family support or number of confidants) and degree of post‐operative weight loss (total n = 735 patients). All studies found a positive association between post‐operative support groups and weight loss. One study found a positive association between marital status (being single) and weight loss, while three studies found a non‐significant positive trend and one study was inconclusive. Support group attendance after bariatric surgery is associated with greater post‐operative weight loss. Further research is necessary to determine the impact of other forms of social support. These factors should be addressed in prospective studies of weight loss following bariatric surgery, as they may represent ways to improve post‐operative outcomes.
Massive Sorghum Collection Genotyped with SSR Markers to Enhance Use of Global Genetic Resources

Large ex situ collections require approaches for sampling manageable amounts of germplasm for in-depth characterization and use. We present here a large diversity survey in sorghum with 3367 accessions and 41 reference nuclear SSR markers. Of 19 alleles on average per locus, the largest numbers of alleles were concentrated in central and eastern Africa. Cultivated sorghum appeared structured according to geographic regions and race within region. A total of 13 groups of variable size were distinguished. The peripheral groups in western Africa, southern Africa and eastern Asia were the most homogeneous and clearly differentiated. Except for Kafir, there was little correspondence between races and marker-based groups. Bicolor, Caudatum, Durra and Guinea types were each dispersed in three groups or more. Races should therefore better be referred to as morphotypes. Wild and weedy accessions were very diverse and scattered among cultivated samples, reinforcing the idea that large gene-flow exists between the different compartments. Our study provides an entry to global sorghum germplasm collections. Our reference marker kit can serve to aggregate additional studies and enhance international collaboration. We propose a core reference set in order to facilitate integrated phenotyping experiments towards refined functional understanding of sorghum diversity.
Family Events and the Residential Mobility of Couples

Using data from retrospective surveys carried out in the Netherlands during the early 1990s, we describe how the residential mobility of couples—that is, short-distance moves—is affected by family events and how fertility is affected by residential mobility. The results show that residential moves are particularly likely to happen in a short period preceding a wedding or during pregnancy, supporting the hypothesis that residential mobility is likely to occur in anticipation of family changes. Anticipation is also suggested by the fact that the likelihood of having a child is greater after a residential move, but only starting from some months after the move. Family events also have a hampering effect on residential moves. Starting from some months after the wedding, being married is associated with a lower propensity of experiencing a short-distance move, while the presence of children is associated with less residential mobility only when children are school-aged.
Detecting potentially biased test items : Comparison of IRT area and Mantel-Haenszel methods

The purpose of this study was to compare the IRT-based area method and the Mantel-Haenszel method for investigating differential item functioning (DIF), to determine the degree of agreement between the methods in identifying potentially biased items, and, when the two methods led to different results, to identify possible reasons for the discrepancies. Data for the study were the item responses of Anglo American and Native American students who took the 1982 New Mexico High School Proficiency Exam. Two samples of 1,000 students from each group were studied. The major findings were that (a) the consistency of classifications of items into "biased" and "not-biased" categories across replications was 75% to 80% for both methods and (b) when the unreliability of the statistics was taken into account, the two methods led to very similar results. Discrepancies between methods were due to the presence of nonuniform DIF (the Mantel-Haenszel method could not identify these items) and the choice of interval over wh.
The Influence of Positive Affect on Variety Seeking among Safe, Enjoyable Products

In three brand-choice experiments executed on personal computers, a significant interaction was found regarding the influence of positive affect, induced by the gift of a small bag of candy or sugarless gum, on variety-seeking behavior. In three food categories (crackers, soup, and snack foods), a positive-affect manipulation increased variety-seeking behavior relative to that in the control conditions, when circumstances did not make unpleasant or negative features of the items in the choice task salient. However, when a negative feature, such as the possibility that a product would taste bad, was made more salient, there was no difference in variety-seeking behavior between the subjects who had received the small gift and the control subjects. Positive affect was also found (1) to increase the tendency of subjects to categorize nontypical items as belonging to a predefined product category, (2) to increase credibility that a product designed to reduce negative health effects would be successful, and (3) to increase variety-seeking behavior in choice sets containing the latter two types of items.
Driver intention inference with vehicle onboard sensors

This paper investigates methods to infer the driver's intention to leave the lane- or car-following state and start a specific manoeuvre, such as a lane change or a turn, from easily accessible vehicle onboard sensors, such as the vehicle data bus, GPS localisation, digital maps, and optionally camera-based lane detection. Pattern recognition and classification is done with Hidden Markov Models. Starting from suitable model grammars, training and evaluation processes are described with the focus on the task of early recognition during manoeuvre start. Information about imminent manoeuvres can then be used in driver assistance systems to predict trajectories or assess risk.
Comparison of empirically-derived and rationally-derived methods for identifying patients at risk for treatment failure

Several systems have been developed to monitor and feedback information about a patient's responses to psychotherapy as a method of enhancing patient outcome. Feedback is generated from decision rules based on a patient's expected level of progress. Those patients who do not make expected levels of progress or whose progress in therapy is less than adequate are referred to as signal–alarm cases. Research has shown that feedback based on rationally-derived identification procedures increased the duration of treatment and improved outcomes for patients identified as potential treatment failures (signal–alarms). This paper compared two identification methods: a rationally-derived method based on clinical judgments about poor progress, and an empirical method based on statistically-derived expected recovery curves. The concordance of these two methods was examined with regards to detecting signal–alarm cases. Results suggested that the empirically-derived method was more accurate in identifying patients who actually deteriorated. It was able to identify 100% of the cases that had deteriorated at termination, with 85% being identified by the time they had had three treatment sessions. However, the rationally-derived method was faster at identifying signal cases and more likely to identify the most seriously disturbed cases as potential treatment failures. Future directions for research in quality management were identified. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Attention to Key in a Nondirected Music Listening Task: Musicians vs. Nonmusicians

This study questions the assumption that a majority of nonmusicians pay attention to key when not specifically directed to do so. The question asked was "what do people hear," rather than "what can people hear. " Musicians and nonmusicians listened to a song sung in a different key from its accompaniment. There were no other differences in the music stimuli. Subjects were asked what differences, if any, they heard. In other words, left to their own devices would listeners pay attention to and report the bitonality of the excerpt? Although 100% of the musicians heard the clash of keys, only 40% of the nonmusicians indicated that they heard the difference in keys between singer and accompaniment. Of these, half also mentioned nonexistent differences, for example, in instrumentation, dynamics, and tempo.
Detection of Human Toxoplasma-Specific Immunoglobulins A, M, and G with a Recombinant Toxoplasma gondii Rop2 Protein

ABSTRACT The Toxoplasma gondii rhoptry protein Rop2 was expressed in Escherichia coli as a fusion protein containing 44 kDa of the 55-kDa mature Rop2, supplied with six histidyl residues at the N-terminal end (Rop2196–561). Humoral response during Toxoplasma infection of humans was analyzed by immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgA, and IgM enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with Rop2196–561 as the antigen substrate. The analyzed sera were divided according to T. gondii-specific serological tests (IgG, IgA, or IgM indirect immunofluorescence and IgA or IgM immunosorbent agglutination assay) as group A (IgG+ IgA− IgM−;n = 35), group B (IgG+ IgA+IgM+; n = 21), group C (IgG+IgA+ IgM−; n = 5), and group D (IgG+ IgA− IgM+;n = 16). Twenty-six T. gondii-seronegative sera from individuals with other infections were also included (group E). Anti-Rop2 IgG antibodies were detected in 82.8% of group A sera and in 97.6% of the sera with acute-phase marker immunoglobulins (groups B, C, and D). The percentage of IgA antibody reactivity against Rop2196–561 was 17.1% in group A, 50% in group D, and 80.8% in groups B and C. The percentage of IgM antibody reactivity was 0% in groups A and C and 62% in groups B and D. Sera from group E failed to show IgA, IgM, or IgG antibody reactivity. Since T. gondii Rop2 elicits a strong humoral response from an early stage of infection, it is suggested that recombinant Rop2196–561 would be suitable for use in diagnostic systems, in combination with other T. gondii antigens, to detect specific IgG, IgA, and IgM antibodies.
A Hybrid PWM Applied to High-Power Three-Level Inverter-Fed Induction-Motor Drives

A hybrid pulsewidth modulation (PWM), combining the merits of both space-vector PWM (SVPWM) and selective harmonic elimination (SHE) PWM (SHEPWM), is proposed for three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverter-fed high-power adjustable-speed drives, which uses asynchronous SVPWM at low frequency and SHEPWM at high frequency. For SHEPWM, a novel formula is proposed to obtain the initial values of switching angles, leading to another valid solution that is different from the known ones in the literature. Furthermore, it is shown that, by eliminating the quarter-wave symmetry, unlimited groups of solutions to three-level SHEPWM can be obtained. The characteristics of the multiple solutions in terms of harmonic distribution, pulsewidth, and total harmonic distortion are investigated for the application of SHE in practical drives. Switching between SVPWM and SHEPWM is problematic if no appropriate measure is taken, particularly when the influence of the minimum pulsewidth (MPW) is considerable. A simple but effective method, taking into account the MPW, is proposed in this paper to address this problem. The multiple groups of solutions to SHE are simulated and experimentally verified on a low-voltage three-level NPC inverter prototype. Experimental results obtained from a low-voltage prototype and an industrial 6-kV/1250-kW three-level drive are presented to validate the smooth switching between SVPWM and SHEPWM.
Menstrual migraine: an updated review on hormonal causes, prophylaxis and treatment

Introduction: In this article, we will discuss pure menstrual migraine without aura (PMM) and menstrually related migraine without aura (MRM). Depending on the frequency and severity of their attacks, patients with PMM will likely need an acute treatment and/or short-term preventive plan. Of note, with the use of acute treatments and short-term preventive therapy there is risk of medication overuse if the patient does have pure menstrual migraine and is being treated for menstrually related migraine. Areas covered: A PubMed, Cochrane Central, Medline, Ovid search provided articles relating to menstrual migraine pathophysiology and treatment. Expert opinion: Long-term daily preventive treatment should be considered for patients with MRM and those with severe PMM. Miniprophylaxis can be used in PMM rather than daily preventive treatment. When considering the use of short-term miniprophylaxis, sumatriptan, zolmitriptan, naratriptan, and frovatriptan have shown efficacy; however, frovatriptan appears to be the triptan of choice based on overall efficacy. Oral contraceptives may be considered if patients do not respond to or cannot tolerate typical migraine preventive medications. In patients with migraine with aura, oral contraceptives should be used with caution as this may add to the risk of stroke in this population.
Semantic-Episodic Memory Interactions in Semantic Dementia: Implications for Retrograde Memory Function

Semantic dementia refers to a multi-modal loss of semantic knowledge, resulting from degeneration of the anterior temporal neocortex. Loss of information is not absolute. We have previously demonstrated (Snowden, Griffiths,& Neary, 1994, 1995) that autobiographical experience has an important role in influencing information preservation, and have argued that patients' preserved experiential memory helps to invest words and objects with meaning that would otherwise be lost. Those studies suggested a particularly critical role of current autobiographical experience. The present study aimed to explore the generality of the observed current information superiority in an investigation of patients' knowledge of celebrities, understanding of a contemporary and obsolete monetary system, and autobiographical memory. Performance was superior for contemporary (recent) than for past (remote) information, both factual and autobiographic, suggesting an inverse of the temporally graded pattern of retrograde memory found.
Helping Networks and Human Services

How can human service agencies make use of the ordinary people -- relatives, friends, neighbours, pastors -- who help each other? Do human service agencies have anything to offer them, considering they do a good job on their own? The authors present a thorough examination of the problems, benefits, history, goals and potentials of such collaboration. 'The breadth of experience of working with informal helpers that is presented in this book and the categories and strategies that are discussed will be an invaluable complement to discussion about similar work in this country.It is a challenging book expecially to professionals and agencies. ' -- British Journal of Social Work, 1982 '. this work is a valuable resource because it is rooted in actual practice and describes program innovations in diverse agency and community contexts' -- Journal of Primary Prevention, Vol 3 No2, Winter 1982
Image Modeling Using Tree Structured Conditional Random Fields

In this paper we present a discriminative framework based on conditional random fields for stochastic modeling of images in a hierarchical fashion. The main advantage of the proposed framework is its ability to incorporate a rich set of interactions among the image sites. We achieve this by inducing a hierarchy of hidden variables over the given label field. The proposed tree like structure of our model eliminates the need for a huge parameter space and at the same time permits the use of exact and efficient inference procedures based on belief propagation. We demonstrate the generality of our approach by applying it to two important computer vision tasks, namely image labeling and object detection. The model parameters are trained using the contrastive divergence algorithm. We report the performance on real world images and compare it with the existing approaches.