Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predicting One-year Mortality After a “First” Hospitalization for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: An Eight-Variable Assessment Score Tool

ABSTRACT Several authors have studied predictors of outcomes following a hospitalization for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); however, few have reported outcomes following a first hospitalization for COPD. The objective is to develop a predictive mortality risk model in patients surviving a first hospitalization for COPD. This is a retrospective cohort study using linked administrative and clinical data. The cohort included 1129 patients of 40–84 years, discharged alive from a hospitalization for COPD in a regional hospital (Sherbrooke, Canada) between 04/2006 and 03/2013 and to whom were prescribed at least two COPD drugs during their hospitalization. One-year mortality was analysed using logistic regression on a derivation sample and validated on a testing sample. In total, 141 (12.5%) patients died within one year from discharge of their first hospitalization for COPD. Predictors were: older age (OR (95% CI): 1.055 (1.026–1.085)), male sex (OR (95% CI): 1.474 (0.921–2.358)), having a severe COPD exacerbation (OR (95% CI): 2.548 (1.571–4.132)), higher hospital length of stay (OR (95% CI): 1.024 (0.996–1.053)), higher Charlson co-morbidity index (OR (95% CI): 1.262 (1.099–1.449)), being diagnosed of cancer (OR (95% CI): 2.928 (1.456–5.885)), the number of prior all-cause hospitalizations (OR (95% CI): 1.323 (1.097–1.595)), and a COPD duration exceeding 3 years (OR (95% CI): 1.710 (1.058–2.763)). A simple clinical prognosis tool is proposed and shows good discrimination in both the derivation and validation cohorts (c-statistic >0.78). One over eight patients discharged alive from a first COPD hospitalization will die the following year. It is thus important to identify higher-risk patients in order to plan and manage appropriate treatment.
Persian Plagiarism Detection Using Sentence Correlations

This report explains our Persian plagiarism detection system which we used to submit our run to Persian PlagDet competition at FIRE 2016. The system was constructed through four main stages. First is pre-processing and tokenization. Second is constructing a corpus of sentences from combination of source and suspicious document pair. Each sentence considered to be a document and represented as a tf-idf vector. Third step is to construct a similarity matrix between source and suspicious document. Finally the most similar documents which their similarity is higher than a specific threshold marked as plagiarized segments. Our performance measures on the training corpus were promising (precision=0.914, recall=0.848, granularity=3.85). CCS Concepts • Information systems➝Information retrieval ➝Retrieval tasks and goals. Near-duplicate and plagiarism detection. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]
Treadmill Slope Modulates Inflammation, Fiber Type Composition, Androgen, and Glucocorticoid Receptors in the Skeletal Muscle of Overtrained Mice

Overtraining (OT) may be defined as an imbalance between excessive training and adequate recovery period. Recently, a downhill running-based overtraining (OTR/down) protocol induced the nonfunctional overreaching state, which is defined as a performance decrement that may be associated with psychological and hormonal disruptions and promoted intramuscular and systemic inflammation. To discriminate the eccentric contraction effects on interleukin 1beta (IL-1β), IL-6, IL-10, IL-15, and SOCS-3, we compared the release of these cytokines in OTR/down with other two OT protocols with the same external load (i.e., the product between training intensity and volume), but performed in uphill (OTR/up) and without inclination (OTR). Also, we evaluated the effects of these OT models on the muscle morphology and fiber type composition, serum levels of fatigue markers and corticosterone, as well as androgen receptor (AR) and glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expressions. For extensor digitorum longus (EDL), OTR/down and OTR groups increased the cytokines and exhibited micro-injuries with polymorphonuclear infiltration. While OTR/down group increased the cytokines in soleus muscle, OTR/up group only increased IL-6. All OT groups presented micro-injuries with polymorphonuclear infiltration. In serum, while OTR/down and OTR/up protocols increased IL-1β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor alpha, OTR group increased IL-1β, IL-6, IL-15, and corticosterone. The type II fibers in EDL and soleus, total and phosphorylated AR levels in soleus, and total GR levels in EDL and soleus were differentially modulated by the OT protocols. In summary, the proinflammatory cytokines were more sensitive for OTR/down than for OTR/up and OTR. Also, the specific treadmill inclination of each OT model influenced most of the other evaluated parameters.
Nurse-Physician Communication in the Long-Term Care Setting: Perceived Barriers and Impact on Patient Safety

Purpose: Clear and complete communication between health care providers is a prerequisite for safe patient management and is a major priority of the Joint Commission's 2008 National Patient Safety Goals. The goal of this study was to describe nurses' perceptions of nurse-physician communication in the long-term care (LTC) setting. Methods: Mixed-method study including a self-administered questionnaire and qualitative semistructured telephone interviews of licensed nurses from 26 LTC facilities in Connecticut. The questionnaire measured perceived openness to communication, mutual understanding, language comprehension, frustration, professional respect, nurse preparedness, time burden, and logistical barriers. Qualitative interviews focused on identifying barriers to effective nurse-physician communication that may not have previously been considered and eliciting nurses' recommendations for overcoming those barriers. Results: Three hundred seventy-five nurses completed the questionnaire, and 21 nurses completed qualitative interviews. Nurses identified several barriers to effective nurse-physician communication: lack of physician openness to communication, logistic challenges, lack of professionalism, and language barriers. Feeling hurried by the physician was the most frequent barrier (28%), followed by finding a quiet place to call (25%), and difficulty reaching the physician (21%). In qualitative interviews, there was consensus that nurses needed to be brief and prepared with relevant clinical information when communicating with physicians and that physicians needed to be more open to listening. Conclusions A combination of nurse and physician behaviors contributes to ineffective communication in the LTC setting. These findings have important implications for patient safety and support the development of structured communication interventions to improve quality of nurse-physician communication.
AECL/U.S. INERI - Development of Inert Matrix Fuels for Plutonium and Minor Actinide Management in Power Reactors Fuel Requirements and Down-Select Report

This report documents the first milestone of the International Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (INERI) U.S./Euratom Joint Proposal 1.8 entitled “Development of Inert Matrix Fuels for Plutonium and Minor Actinide Management in Light-Water Reactors. ” The milestone represents the assessment and preliminary study of a variety of fuels that hold promise as transmutation and minor actinide burning fuel compositions for light-water reactors. The most promising fuels of interest to the participants on this INERI program have been selected for further study. These fuel compositions are discussed in this report.
Cooperative Strategies for Challenged Networks and Applications: A Survey

Wireless ad hoc networks use mobile devices to deliver services supported by high-speed network connections and high-speed data transmissions in real time. These devices (network nodes) typically act as the network infrastructure to forward data to other nodes from a source to the destination. However, several constraints (e.g., processor, energy consumption, and bandwidth) affect the overall network performance. Cooperation strategies have been considered as a solution to such network limitations and constraints. Recent studies have presented cooperation mechanisms as a solution to unstable network infrastructures where mobile nodes cooperate with each other, forwarding data and performing all the networking functionalities. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the state of the art on cooperation strategies and algorithms for mobile ad hoc networks and delay-tolerant networks. These challenged networks frequently comprise situations where traditional Internet protocols fail to effectively provide desired or expected communication. This paper focuses on cooperation incentive-based approaches for network architectures that support mobile devices and are challenged by mobility constraints such as battery and storage capacity, broadcast constraints, interferences, disconnections, noises, limited bandwidths, and network delays. The surveyed approaches' merits and weaknesses are discussed, and open issues are identified. Finally, conclusions are detailed.
Reining in the Outliers in Map-Reduce Clusters using Mantri

Experience froman operational Map-Reduce cluster reveals that outliers significantly prolong job completion. The causes for outliers include run-time contention for processor, memory and other resources, disk failures, varying bandwidth and congestion along network paths and, imbalance in task workload. We present Mantri, a system that monitors tasks and culls outliers using cause- and resource-aware techniques. Mantri's strategies include restarting outliers, network-aware placement of tasks and protecting outputs of valuable tasks. Using real-time progress reports, Mantri detects and acts on outliers early in their lifetime. Early action frees up resources that can be used by subsequent tasks and expedites the job overall. Acting based on the causes and the resource and opportunity cost of actions lets Mantri improve over prior work that only duplicates the laggards. Deployment in Bing's production clusters and trace-driven simulations show that Mantri improves job completion times by 32%.
A Pilot Study of the Effect of Aloe barbadensis Mill . Extract ( AVH 200 ® ) in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome : a Randomized , Double-Blind , Placebo-Controlled Study

Background & Aims: Few effective treatment options exist for patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and many patients state the use of aloe vera products reduce their symptoms. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the effect of Aloe barbadensis Mill. Extract (AVH200®) in adult patients with IBS in a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled study. Methods: Sixty-eight adult patients diagnosed with IBS according to the Rome III criteria were randomized to receive AVH200® or matching placebo for four weeks. Symptom questionnaires were completed on a weekly basis and the patients were asked if they had had adequate relief of their gastrointestinal symptoms. Results: A tendency towards a higher proportion of responders in the aloe vera group (55%) vs. placebo (31%), (p=0.09) was observed, and the proportion of subjects who reported adequate relief at least 50% of the weeks during the treatment period tended to be larger in the aloe vera vs. placebo group (33% vs. 14%; p=0.12). The overall severity of the gastrointestinal symptoms was reduced in the aloe vera group (314±83 vs. 257±107; p=0.003) but not the placebo group (276±88 vs. 253±100; NS), without difference between the groups (p=0.10). AVH200® was well tolerated and no serious adverse events were observed. Conclusion: Even though the primary endpoint was not met, AVH200® seems to be a promising treatment option for patients with IBS owing to the positive results seen within the secondary endpoints. This study may have been underpowered to detect a clinically meaningful difference between the treatment groups, and therefore larger randomized, controlled studies are required to confirm these results and to elucidate potential mechanisms explaining its effect.
Child Problems as a Moderator of Relations Between Maternal Impulsivity and Family Environment in a High-Risk Sample

ABSTRACT Objective: Previous studies have suggested that maternal characteristics are related to family environment; however, the relation between maternal impulsivity, in particular, and family environment is not well understood. As such, we examined direct relations between maternal impulsivity and family environment, as well as whether the relation between maternal impulsivity and family environment was moderated by child problems for sons and daughters. We hypothesized that child problems would moderate the association between maternal impulsivity and family environment. We also explored whether these associations differ for boys and girls. Method: Data from the initial visit of a longitudinal study was used for the current study. Participants included 297 youth (137 boys; 160 girls) of 10 to 12 years of age (M = 10.99, SD = .84) and their mothers. The majority of the sample had a family history of substance use disorder (n = 236). Results: Hierarchical linear regressions showed that for sons there was a significant interaction between maternal impulsivity and child problems on family environment. Maternal impulsivity was positively related to family environment problems among sons with few emotional and behavioral problems, but there was no significant correlation among sons with high problem levels. Among daughters, there was no significant interaction between maternal impulsivity and child emotional and behavioral problems on family environment. Conclusions: The results suggest that the association between maternal impulsivity and family environment may depend on problem level and child gender. Thus, addressing maternal impulsivity in therapy may benefit some families.
Job Embeddedness and Nurse Retention

BackgroundNurse retention is a different way of conceptualizing the employer-employee relationship when compared with turnover. Job embeddedness (JE), a construct based on retention, represents the sum of reasons why employees remain at their jobs. However, JE has not been investigated in relation to locale (urban or rural) or exclusively with a sample of registered nurses (RNs). The purpose of this study was to determine what factors (JE, age, gender, locale, and income) help predict nurse retention. MethodsA cross-sectional mailed survey design was used with RNs in different locales (urban or rural). Job embeddedness was measured by the score on the composite, standardized instrument. Nurse retention was measured by self-report items concerning intent to stay. ResultsA response rate of 49.3% was obtained. The typical respondent was female (96.1%), white, non-Hispanic (87.4%), and married (74.9%). Age and JE were predictive of nurse retention and accounted for 26% of the explained variance in intent to stay. Although age was a significant predictor of intent to stay, it accounted for only 1.4% of the variance while JE accounted for 24.6% of the variance of nurse retention (as measured by intent to stay). ConclusionsOlder, more “embedded” nurses are more likely to remain employed in their current organization. Based on these findings, JE may form the basis for the development of an effective nurse retention program.
Charged residues in the H-NS linker drive DNA binding and gene silencing in single cells

Significance H-NS is a nucleoid-associated protein that plays a major role in silencing pathogen genes. We discovered that the unstructured linker region connecting the N-terminal oligomerization and C-terminal DNA binding domains plays an important and surprising role in promoting DNA binding. Superresolution imaging identified H-NS foci that required DNA binding for their formation and were associated with the nucleoid. Removing the linker led to the disappearance of foci and a substantially lower affinity for DNA. It was proposed that H-NS compacts DNA, but decreasing DNA binding in cells did not lead to a relaxation of the nucleoid, suggesting H-NS does not play a major role in nucleoid compaction. Molecular dynamic simulations suggested that target acquisition by H-NS may involve sliding along the DNA. Nucleoid-associated proteins (NAPs) facilitate chromosome organization in bacteria, but the precise mechanism remains elusive. H-NS is a NAP that also plays a major role in silencing pathogen genes. We used genetics, single-particle tracking in live cells, superresolution microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and molecular dynamics simulations to examine H-NS/DNA interactions in single cells. We discovered a role for the unstructured linker region connecting the N-terminal oligomerization and C-terminal DNA binding domains. In the present work we demonstrate that linker amino acids promote engagement with DNA. In the absence of linker contacts, H-NS binding is significantly reduced, although no change in chromosome compaction is observed. H-NS is not localized to two distinct foci; rather, it is scattered all around the nucleoid. The linker makes DNA contacts that are required for gene silencing, while chromosome compaction does not appear to be an important H-NS function.
Effects of a low-energy diet associated with egg supplementation on plasma cholesterol and lipoprotein levels in normal subjects: results of a cross-over study

1. The influence of a low-energy diet when associated with high-cholesterol intake was investigated in seventeen normal men during an 8-week cross-over study. The subjects were given a daily supplement of two whole eggs and two egg yolks (approximately 1 g cholesterol) either with their usual diet for 4 weeks or with a low-energy diet for 4 weeks. Each subject took part randomly in both dietary periods. 2. During the first part of the study, no changes occurred in the plasma cholesterol of the subjects with egg supplementation of the usual diet. 3. In contrast, the low-energy diet and associated weight loss markedly decreased the tolerance to high- cholesterol intake resulting in increased plasma cholesterol. The mean rise was 22.7% but with wide individual variations in the response. This was almost completely normalized when the subjects returned to their usual energy intake indicating the involvement of weight reduction in the increase observed. 4. Changes in low-density-lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol were parallel to those of total plasma cholesterol with an increase following the low-energy diet and normalization after body-weight recovery. 5. The opposite effect was shown with the low-energy diet after previous adaptation to the consumption of four eggs per day. This dietary regimen resulted in a decrease in plasma cholesterol although it was not significant. Moreover, the lipoprotein profile was improved with a decrease in very-low-density-lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol and an increase in high-density-lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. 6. High-cholesterol intake induced significant changes in lipoprotein composition whatever the energy ration. LDL and HDL were enriched in cholesterol esters as early as the 1st month of egg supplementation of the diet. 7. Taken together, the results emphasize the possible adverse effect of slimming diets when associated with high-cholesterol intake. The existence of ‘high-responders’ to these dietary conditions calls for special attention to be paid to the cholesterol content of restricted diets.
Digital Library Federation Council on Library and Information Resources about the Authors

Additional copies are available for $15 per copy. Orders must be placed online through CLIR's Web site. research has examined the publication of reference works in the humanities, specifically within the areas of literature and music. Recent research has centered on textual studies and reception studies of James Joyce, on the role of libraries in literary censorship, and on twentieth-century publishing history and literary collecting. Presently he is engaged in a study of the publication history of Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and is working on a primary bibliography of the works of Joyce. Since 1990, he has been bibliogra-pher for the James Joyce Quarterly, for which he compiles the " Current James Joyce Checklist. " Laura Neumann is a usability engineer at Microsoft Corporation. She has a Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has a background in sociology and cultural anthropology. Her research examines how people use, organize, find, and gather information. As part of the Illinois Digital Library Initiative (1994-1998), she studied how scientists and engineers use journal literature in their work. She also studied how scientists and scholars create and organize their personal collections and work space. Her recent research focuses on how humanities scholars accomplish their work through a number of specific practices. Her dissertation is an analysis of humanities scholars' community of practice and how the community works as an information system. She is interested in finding ways to apply field research and library and information science research to real-world problems in the information technology industry. Her background is in academic librarianship, and she teaches in the areas of information seeking and use, information services, and library collections. Her research explores how information systems and services can best support the work of researchers. In addition to her studies of the information environments of humanities scholars , she is investigating how information practices and knowledge structures affect researchers' ability to find and integrate information from multiple fields of study. She is also engaged in projects to develop digital libraries and knowledge discovery systems that support and promote diverse research collaborations. Her recent publications include a series of articles on the information work of interdisciplinary scientists and humanities scholars. Her book, Work at the Boundaries of Science: Information and the Interdisciplinary Research Process, will be published in 2002. Tonyia J. Tidline received her MLS …
Support Vector Classification Strategies for Localization in Sensor Networks

We consider the problem of estimating the geographic locations of nodes in a wireless sensor network where most sensors are without an effective self-positioning functionality. A solution to this localization problem is proposed, which uses support vector machines (SVM) and mere connectivity information only. We investigate two versions of this solution, each employing a different multiclass SVM strategy. They are shown to perform well in various aspects such as localization error, processing efficiency, and effectiveness in addressing the border issue.
Influence of external constraints on the stability of sintering of bi-porous materials

The constitutive behavior of a material with bimodal pore distribution is considered in the presence of external constraints and loading. For analysis, numerical methods of the continuum mechanics of sintering are utilized. The effects of partial constraining of the external surface of powder specimens subjected to sintering are studied. The evolution of volume fractions of small and large pores is analyzed. The sensitivity of large and small pore volume fraction kinetics to constraining/loading path is determined.