Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Relationship between Health Literacy and Health Disparities: A Systematic Review

Objectives Health literacy is commonly associated with many of the antecedents of health disparities. Yet the precise nature of the relationship between health literacy and disparities remains unclear. A systematic review was conducted to better understand in how far the relationship between health literacy and health disparities has been systematically studied and which potential relationships and pathways have been identified. Methods Five databases, including PubMed/MEDLINE and CINAHL, were searched for peer-reviewed studies. Publications were included in the review when they (1) included a valid measure of health literacy, (2) explicitly conceived a health disparity as related to a social disparity, such as race/ethnicity or education and (3) when results were presented by comparing two or more groups afflicted by a social disparity investigating the effect of health literacy on health outcomes. Two reviewers evaluated each study for inclusion and abstracted relevant information. Findings were ordered according to the disparities identified and the role of health literacy in explaining them. Results 36 studies were included in the final synthesis. Most of the studies investigated racial/ethnic disparities, followed by some few studies that systematically investigated educational disparities. Some evidence was found on the mediating function of health literacy on self-rated health status across racial/ethnic and educational disparities, as well as on the potential effect of health literacy and numeracy on reducing racial/ethnic disparities in medication adherence and understanding of medication intake. Conclusion Overall the evidence on the relationship between health literacy and disparities is still mixed and fairly limited. Studies largely varied with regard to health(-related) outcomes under investigation and the health literacy assessments used. Further, many studies lacked a specific description of the nature of the disparity that was explored and a clear account of possible pathways tested.
Characterization of dielectric and electro-optic properties of PLZT 9/65/35 films on sapphire for electro-optic applications

Lead lanthanum zirconate titanate (PLZT) thin films were deposited on r-plane sapphire at low temperatures by RF triode magnetron sputtering using lead compensated hot-pressed targets. To obtain fully perovskite phase in the films, two types of post-deposition processing were investigated: rapid thermal annealing (RTA) and furnace annealing (FA). Dielectric and electro-optic properties of PLZT films were found to be strongly dependent on annealing conditions. The peak dielectric constant of the films were 1200 and 2800 with Curie temperatures of 110/spl deg/C and 190/spl deg/C after RTA and FA processing, respectively. The dielectric losses in the films were fairly low; tan deltas were less than 0.02 after RTA and less than 0.04 after FA processing. The films showed good optical transmission characteristics after annealing and an anomalously large effective quadratic electro-optic effect was observed in one furnace annealed film.
Transaction Cost Economics: An Assessment of Empirical Research in the Social Sciences

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the empirical literature in transaction cost economics (TCE) across multiple social science disciplines and business fields. We show how TCE has branched out from its economic roots to examine empirical phenomena in several other areas. We find TCE is increasingly being applied not only to business-related fields such as accounting, finance, marketing, and organizational theory, but also to areas outside of business including political science, law, public policy, and agriculture and health. With few exceptions, however, the use of TCE reasoning to inform empirical research in these areas is piecemeal. We find that there is considerable support of many of the central tenets of TCE, but we also observe a number of lingering theoretical and empirical issues that need to be addressed. We conclude by discussing the implications of these issues and outlining directions for future theoretical and empirical work.
LYMPHOID NEOPLASIA PRDM 1 / BLIMP 1 is commonly inactivated in anaplastic large T-cell lymphoma

PRDM1/BLIMP1 is commonly inactivated in anaplastic large T-cell lymphoma Michela Boi, Andrea Rinaldi, Ivo Kwee, Paola Bonetti, Maria Todaro, Fabrizio Tabbò, Roberto Piva, Paola M. V. Rancoita, András Matolcsy, Botond Timar, Thomas Tousseyn, Socorro Maria Rodrı́guez-Pinilla, Miguel A. Piris, Sı́lvia Beà, Elias Campo, Govind Bhagat, Steven H. Swerdlow, Andreas Rosenwald, Maurilio Ponzoni, Ken H. Young, Pier Paolo Piccaluga, Reinhard Dummer, Stefano Pileri, Emanuele Zucca, Giorgio Inghirami, and Francesco Bertoni
Domain-Aware Service Recommendation for Service Composition

Service compositions inherently require multiple services each with its domain-specific functionality. Therefore, how to mine matching patterns between services in relevant domains and compositions becomes crucial to service recommendation for composition. Existing methods usually overlook domain relevance and domain-specific matching patterns, which restrict the quality of recommendations. In this paper, a novel approach is proposed to offer domain-aware service recommendation. First, a K Nearest Neighbor variant (vKNN) based on topic model Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) is introduced to cluster services into semantically coherent domains. On top of service domain clustering results by vKNN, a probabilistic matching model Domain Router (DR) based on Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) is developed for decomposing a requirement to relevant domains. Finally, a comprehensive Domain Topic Matching (DTM) model is built to mine relevant domain-specific matching patterns to facilitate service recommendation. Experiments on a large-scale real-world dataset show that DTM not only gains significant improvement at precision rate but also enhances the diversity of results.
Negative autoregulation of the neu gene is mediated by a novel enhancer

In an attempt to study potential feedback regulation of the neu oncogene, we have found that the neu oncogene product specifically represses its own promoter activity. Deletion analysis indicated a 140-bp region (nucleotides -312 to -173 relative to the ATG initiation codon) in the rat neu promoter responsible for neu autorepression. Gel shift assays and methylation interference analysis further demonstrated that a GGTGGGGGGG sequence (nucleotides -243 to -234 relative to the ATG initiation codon) in this 140-bp region interacts with specific protein complexes. The GGTGGGGGGG sequence (GTG element), which functions as an enhancer, is sufficient to cause neu-mediated repression in a heterologous promoter. Furthermore, it produces different gel shift patterns with nuclear extracts from neu-transformed cell lines and their parental lines, suggesting that a transcriptional factor(s) interacting with this enhancer element has been perturbed by the introduction of neu. Taken together, the data presented in this report show that (i) the neu oncogene product autorepresses its own promoter, (ii) the neu promoter contains a novel enhancer, and (iii) neu autorepression is mediated through this enhancer, likely by inhibition of the enhancer activity.
Role of physical factors in the pathogenesis of bullous pemphigoid: Case report series and a comprehensive review of the published work

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune subepidermal blistering disease affecting mainly the elderly. The subtype of the disease induced by physical agents represents a rare and, therefore, insufficiently characterized form. In the present study, we aimed to contribute to a better understanding of the pathogenetic mechanisms involved in the onset of BP induced by different trigger factors. We have retrospectively analyzed nine cases of BP. All patients were characterized based on clinical, epidemiological and immunological parameters. For each case, the trigger factor involved was specified. In addition to our retrospective analysis, a comprehensive review of the 59 published cases was conducted, regarding the involvement of trigger factor in BP, and clinical, epidemiological and immunological data were collected. In the local study, conducted on nine patients diagnosed with BP, various trigger factors were identified: contrast substance injection, surgical procedure, mechanical trauma, insect bite, thermal burn, radiotherapy and ultraviolet exposure associated with pre‐existing psoriasis. The autoantibodies from all patients were shown to activate granulocytes and induce dermal–epidermal split. Different hypotheses regarding the pathogenetic mechanism involving the trigger factors have been discussed. In regard of the pathogenetic mechanism, we believe that the most reliable hypothesis is that BP patients already have low titers of anti‐basement membrane autoantibodies which activate the granulocytes. However, more studies are needed for a better understanding of the pathogenetic mechanism of the intervention of trigger factors.
Religious Affiliation and Attendance as Predictors of Immigration Attitudes in Nebraska

Advisor: Miguel Ceballos This study examines the relationship between religious affiliation, church attendance, and attitudes towards immigration. Following the ethnoreligious perspective, I predict that those who identify as Mainline Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, or Catholic will hold more positive attitudes than those who do not affiliate, which would reflect the teachings of their churches. I also predict that Catholics may have particularly positive attitudes because of social identity theory. Attending church services should be associated with more positive attitudes, according to religious restructuralism. Using 2006 telephone survey data of 1,135 Nebraskans from the Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS), I use binary logistic regression to test these theories and their effect on seven separate measures of immigration attitudes. I found that while affiliating with one of the religious groups did not lead to more positive attitudes, attending church services at least once a week was associated with more positive attitudes on the topics of government spending on immigrants and immigrants and crime. Results partially support religious restructuralism and the theory that church attendance, not merely identifying with a religious group, is what can improve attitudes towards immigration. 1 From its formation, immigrants have traveled to the United States in search of a better life. Many immigrants from around the world continue to make the journey; from the years 2000 to 2010, almost nine million newcomers made the U.S. their home almost one third of all immigrants in the country (Passel and Cohn 2009). The successful adjustment of these immigrants to life in the U.S. depends in part on the response of the native-born population, making their attitudes towards immigration a relevant area of study. Possible issues shaping individual attitudes on immigration are religious affiliation and attendance to religious services. Religion as a determinant has been " virtually ignored " in previous literature (Brenneman 2008), but recent research has shown that an individual's religious affiliation and rate of attendance are associated with These measures, therefore, could offer an additional explanation to negative attitudes towards our nation's most recent wave of immigrants. The most recent immigrants have settled at a much higher rate in the Midwest rather than on the coasts (Fry 2008). Nebraska is one of the Midwestern states experiencing this surge in the foreign-born, mostly due to the growing food-processing industry in rural communities (Dalla 2005). Immigration to the more rural communities 2 in these states warrants closer study to examine …
Extracellular Acidosis Induces Neutrophil Activation by a Mechanism Dependent on Activation of Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase/Akt and ERK Pathways1

Inflammation in peripheral tissues is usually associated with the development of local acidosis; however, there are few studies aimed at analyzing the influence of acidosis on immune cells. We have shown previously that extracellular acidosis triggers human neutrophil activation, inducing a transient increase in intracellular Ca2+ concentration, a shape change response, the up-regulation of CD18 expression, and a delay of apoptosis. In this study, we analyzed the signaling pathways responsible for neutrophil activation. We found that acidosis triggers the phosphorylation of Akt (the main downstream target of PI3K) and ERK MAPK, but not that of p38 and JNK MAPK. No degradation of IκB was observed, supporting the hypothesis that NF-κB is not activated under acidosis. Inhibition of PI3K by wortmannin or LY294002 markedly decreased the shape change response and the induction of Ca2+ transients triggered by acidosis, whereas the inhibition of MEK by PD98059 or U0126 significantly inhibited the shape change response without affecting the induction of Ca2+ transients. We also found that acidosis not only induces a shape change response and the induction of Ca2+ transients in human neutrophils but also stimulates the endocytosis of FITC-OVA and FITC-dextran. Stimulation of endocytosis was partially prevented by inhibitors of PI3K and MEK. Together, our results support the notion that the stimulation of human neutrophils by extracellular acidosis is dependent on the activation of PI3K/Akt and ERK pathways. Of note, using mouse peritoneal neutrophils we observed that the enhancement of endocytosis induced by acidosis was associated with an improved ability to present extracellular Ags through a MHC class I-restricted pathway.
Type IV Pili in Gram-Positive Bacteria

SUMMARY Type IV pili (T4P) are surface-exposed fibers that mediate many functions in bacteria, including locomotion, adherence to host cells, DNA uptake (competence), and protein secretion and that can act as nanowires carrying electric current. T4P are composed of a polymerized protein, pilin, and their assembly apparatuses share protein homologs with type II secretion systems in eubacteria and the flagella of archaea. T4P are found throughout Gram-negative bacterial families and have been studied most extensively in certain model Gram-negative species. Recently, it was discovered that T4P systems are also widespread among Gram-positive species, in particular the clostridia. Since Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria have many differences in cell wall architecture and other features, it is remarkable how similar the T4P core proteins are between these organisms, yet there are many key and interesting differences to be found as well. In this review, we compare the two T4P systems and identify and discuss the features they have in common and where they differ to provide a very broad-based view of T4P systems across all eubacterial species.
Large-signal microwave characterization of AlGaAs/GaAs HBT's based on a physics-based electrothermal model

A physics-based multicell electrothermal equivalent circuit model is described that is applied to the large-signal microwave characterization of AlGaAs/GaAs HBT's. This highly efficient model, which incorporates a new multifinger electrothermal model, has been used to perform dc, small-signal and load-pull characterization, and investigate parameter-spreads due to fabrication process variations. An enhanced Newton algorithm is presented for solving the nonlinear system of equations for the model and associated circuit simulator, which allows a faster and more robust solution than contemporary quasi-Newton nonlinear schemes. The model has been applied to the characterization of heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) microwave power amplifiers.
Community optometrist referral of those aged 65 and over for raised IOP post-NICE: AOP guidance versus joint college guidance—an epidemiological model using BEAP

Background/aims To identify the percentage of those aged 65 and over who might be referred by community optometrists as ocular hypertensive suspects in the post-NICE era when differing guidance is followed by community optometrists. Method The authors constructed an epidemiologically based model utilising Bridlington Eye Assessment Project (BEAP) data. Ocular hypertensive suspects' data were subjected to two algorithms (Association of Optometrists (AOP) and Joint College) to determine referral of suspects if community optometrists followed either algorithm. Results 85 of 1643 people (5.2%) tested by BEAP, with normal acuity and visual fields, recorded Goldmann IOPs of >21 mm Hg in either or both eyes. Without pachymetric information, all 85 would be referred under the AOP algorithm, decreasing to 31 (1.9%) under the joint College algorithm (63% reduction). If central corneal thickness readings influenced referral, 39 (2.4%) would be referred under the AOP algorithm and 13 (0.8%) under the joint College algorithm. Conclusion If community optometrists use Goldmann tonometry and pachymetry, following the joint College guidelines, referrals of OHT suspects could be reduced to a fifth of those under the original AOP guidance. Community optometrists should be encouraged to use GAT and pachymetry in order to refine referrals when another examination is normal. Potential savings to the NHS are considerable.
Management of bronchiolitis in infants and children.

ors and Trainers The RTI-UNC EPC used both clinical and methods abstractors. All abstractors attended three training sessions. At the first session, we explained the process and goals of data abstraction, and then sent the abstractors home with an article to review. We then reconvened the group and, through a review of the test article, ensured that the abstractors understood what was expected of them. The reviewers abstracted an additional two test articles, reconvened, and reviewed their work. At this time the Scientific Directors determined that the abstractors were able to abstract the data as required, and we began the data abstraction process. The Research Coordinator monitored progress and routed the data abstractors’ questions or issues to the Scientific Directors.
Early 18F-FDG PET for Prediction of Prognosis in Patients with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma: SUV-Based Assessment Versus Visual Analysis

The purpose of this study was to assess the prognostic value of early 18F-FDG PET using standardized uptake value (SUV) compared with visual analysis in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Methods: Ninety-two patients with newly diagnosed DLBCL underwent 18F-FDG PET prospectively before and after 2 cycles of chemotherapy (at midtherapy). Maximum SUV (SUVmax) and mean SUV (SUVmean) normalized to body weight and body surface area, as well as tumor-to-normal ratios, were computed on the most intense uptake areas. The SUVs, tumor-to-normal ratios, and their changes over time were compared with visual analysis for predicting event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival, using receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) analysis. Survival curves were estimated with Kaplan–Meier analysis and compared using the log-rank test. Results: With visual analysis, the accuracy of early PET to predict EFS was 65.2%. The 2-y estimate for EFS was 51% (95% confidence interval [CI], 34%–68%) in the PET-positive group compared with 79% (95% CI, 68%–90%) in the PET-negative group (P = 0.009). An optimal cutoff value of 65.7% SUVmax reduction from baseline to midtherapy obtained from ROC analysis yielded an accuracy of 76.1% to predict EFS. The 2-y estimate for EFS was 21% (95% CI, 0%–42%) in patients with SUVmax reduction ≤ 65.7% compared with 79% (95% CI, 69%–88%) in those with reduction > 65.7% (P < 0.0001). Fourteen patients considered as positive on visual analysis could have been reclassified as good responders. Conclusion: SUV-based assessment of therapeutic response during first-line chemotherapy improves the prognostic value of early 18F-FDG PET compared with visual analysis in DLBCL.
Measurement of coronary flow response to cold pressor stress in asymptomatic women with cardiovascular risk factors using spiral velocity-encoded cine MRI at 3 tesla

Background: Coronary sinus (CS) flow in response to a provocative stress has been used as a surrogate measure of coronary flow reserve, and velocity-encoded cine (VEC) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an established technique for measuring CS flow. In this study, the cold pressor test (CPT) was used to measure CS flow response because it elicits an endothelium-dependent coronary vasodilation that may afford greater sensitivity for detecting early changes in coronary endothelial function. Purpose: To investigate the feasibility and reproducibility of CS flow reactivity (CSFR) to CPT using spiral VEC MRI at 3 Tesla in a sample of asymptomatic women with cardiovascular risk factors. Material and Methods: Fourteen asymptomatic women (age 38 years ± 10) with cardiovascular risk factors were studied using 3D spiral VEC MRI of the CS at 3 T. The CPT was utilized as a provocative stress to measure changes in CS flow. CSFR to CPT was calculated from the ratio of CS flow during peak stress to baseline CS flow. Results: CPT induced a significant hemodynamic response as measured by a 45% increase in rate-pressure product (P<0.01). A significant increase in CS volume flow was also observed (baseline, 116 ± 26 ml/min; peak stress, 152 ± 34 ml/min, P=0.01). CSFR to CPT was 1.31 ± 0.20. Test-retest variability of CS volume flow was 5% at baseline and 6% during peak stress. Conclusion: Spiral CS VEC MRI at 3 T is a feasible and reproducible technique for measuring CS flow in asymptomatic women at risk for cardiovascular disease. Significant changes in CSFR to CPT are detectable, without demanding pharmacologic stress.
Tensor Spectral Clustering for Partitioning Higher-order Network Structures

Spectral graph theory-based methods represent an important class of tools for studying the structure of networks. Spectral methods are based on a first-order Markov chain derived from a random walk on the graph and thus they cannot take advantage of important higher-order network substructures such as triangles, cycles, and feed-forward loops. Here we propose a Tensor Spectral Clustering (TSC) algorithm that allows for modeling higher-order network structures in a graph partitioning framework. Our TSC algorithm allows the user to specify which higher-order network structures (cycles, feed-forward loops, etc.) should be preserved by the network clustering. Higher-order network structures of interest are represented using a tensor, which we then partition by developing a multilinear spectral method. Our framework can be applied to discovering layered flows in networks as well as graph anomaly detection, which we illustrate on synthetic networks. In directed networks, a higher-order structure of particular interest is the directed 3-cycle, which captures feedback loops in networks. We demonstrate that our TSC algorithm produces large partitions that cut fewer directed 3-cycles than standard spectral clustering algorithms.