Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Closed-form solution for a class of discrete-time algebraic Riccati equations

In the present paper we obtain a closed-form solution for the class of discrete-time algebraic Riccati equations (ARE) with vanishing state weighting, whenever the unstable eigenvalues are distinct. The AREs in such a class solve a minimum energy control problem for a single-input single-output (SISO) system. The obtained closed-form solution gives insight on issues such as loss of controllability and it might also prove competitive in terms of numerical precision over current solving algorithms.
Sex differences in the association between alcohol consumption and cognitive performance. EVA Study Group. Epidemiology of Vascular Aging.

Heavy alcohol drinking is associated with cognitive impairment, but little is known concerning the cognitive effect of moderate alcohol consumption. The Epidemiology of Vascular Aging (EVA) Study is a longitudinal study of cognitive and vascular aging. Between June 1991 and June 1993, 1,389 subjects aged 59-71 years (574 men and 815 women) who had been recruited from the electoral rolls of Nantes, France, were examined. Trained psychologists administered a battery of 10 neuropsychological tests assessing most areas of cognitive functioning. Detailed information on alcohol intake was collected during a structured interview. A multiple linear regression model was used to examine the relations between test scores and alcohol consumption at baseline in men and women separately, controlling for age, education, income, depressive symptoms, and smoking status. Odds ratios for being a high cognitive performer (i.e., being in the top 10% of the distribution of summary scores from the neuropsychological battery) were calculated. Among men, neuropsychological test scores were not associated with alcohol consumption in either univariate or multivariate analysis; nor did the proportion of high cognitive performers vary by alcohol consumption. In contrast, among women, significant positive associations between alcohol consumption and cognitive performance were observed for most tests in multivariate analysis. For example, for the Mini-Mental State Examination, the adjusted mean score for female nondrinkers was 27.5 and that for the heaviest drinkers 28.2 (p < 0.001). The odds ratio for being a high cognitive performer was 2.5 (95% confidence interval 1.1-5.7) for women who usually consumed two or more drinks per day in comparison with nondrinkers. These findings suggest that, among women, moderate alcohol consumption may have a beneficial effect on cognitive function.
Human corneal epithelial cells express functional PAR-1 and PAR-2.

PURPOSE The objective of this study was to examine whether HCECs express functional proteinase-activated receptor (PAR)-1 and -2 and evaluate the effects of receptor activation on corneal epithelial cell proinflammatory cytokine production. METHODS Expression of PAR-1 and -2 mRNAs was determined by RT-PCR in cultured primary human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs) and the human corneal epithelial cell line HCE-T. Localization of PAR-1 and -2 in whole normal human corneas was determined by immunofluorescence with PAR-1 and -2 antibodies. The functional competence of PAR-1 and -2 in corneal epithelial cells was assessed by measuring the rapid induction of intracellular [Ca(2+)] in response to thrombin, trypsin, and specific receptor-activating peptides derived from the tethered ligands of the PAR receptors. HCE-T expression of cytokines (IL-6, IL-8, and TNFalpha) in response to activation of PAR-1 and -2 was measured by quantitative RT-PCR and ELISA. RESULTS Functional PAR-1 and -2 were expressed in both HCECs and HCE-T cells. Immunoreactivity for PAR-1 and -2 was detected in the outer epithelial layer of the cornea in whole human corneal sections. Activation of PAR-1 and -2 led to upregulation in HCE-T cells of both expression of mRNA and secretion of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-8, and TNFalpha. CONCLUSIONS The results show for the first time that functional PAR-1 and -2 are present in human cornea. Activation of these receptors results in the production of various corneal epithelial cell proinflammatory cytokines. These observations indicate that PAR-1 and -2 may play an important role in modulating corneal inflammatory and wound-healing responses. These receptors may be useful therapeutic targets in several corneal disease processes.
The spontaneously hypertensive rat fetus, not the mother, is responsible for the reduced amniotic fluid PTHrP concentrations and growth restriction.

Intrauterine parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) concentrations are reduced in association with growth restriction in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) compared to those of its normotensive control, the Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rat, implicating PTHrP as a pivotal fetal growth factor. The aim of this study was to examine, by embryo cross-transplanation between SHR and WKY, whether the mother, fetus, or both, are responsible for the suppressed SHR amniotic fluid PTHrP. One-day-old SHR embryos were gestated in either an SHR (SHR-in-SHR) or WKY (SHR-in-WKY) surrogate, similarly one-day-old WKY embryos were gestated in either an SHR (WKY-in-SHR) or WKY (WKY-in-WKY) mother. At 20 days gestation, maternal plasma and amniotic fluid samples were collected and assayed for PTHrP concentrations. Data were analysed by two-way ANOVA (mean+/-sem, n=5-9 mothers/group). There were no differences in litter number or maternal plasma PTHrP concentrations. Fetal weight (P< 0.009), fetal/placental weight ratio (P< 0.004) and amniotic fluid PTHrP concentrations (P< 0.001) were lower and amniotic fluid volume (P< 0.0001) was higher with an SHR fetus compared to the WKY fetus irrespective of maternal strain. Thus, the SHR fetus is growth restricted and has suppressed amniotic fluid PTHrP, which are largely determined by the fetus or gestational tissues and are independent of maternal hypertension or maternal PTHrP. We suggest that the low SHR amniotic fluid PTHrP may play a role in the development of SHR growth restriction.
Preference Heterogeneity and Insurance Markets: Explaining a Puzzle of Insurance

Standard theories of insurance, dating from Rothschild and Stiglitz (1976), stress the role of adverse selection in explaining the decision to purchase insurance. In these models, higher risk people buy full or near-full insurance, while lower risk people buy less complete coverage, if they buy at all. While this prediction appears to hold in some real world insurance markets, in many others, it is the lower risk individuals who have more insurance coverage. If the standard model is extended to allow individuals to vary in their risk tolerance as well as their risk type, this could explain why the relationship between insurance coverage and risk occurrence can be of any sign, even if the standard asymmetric information effects also exist. We present empirical evidence in five difference insurance markets in the United States that is consistent with this potential role for risk tolerance. Specifically, we show that individuals who engage in risky behavior or who do not engage in risk reducing behavior are systematically less likely to hold life insurance, acute private health insurance, annuities, long-term care insurance, and Medigap. Moreover, we show that the sign of this preference effect differs across markets, tending to induce lower risk individuals to purchase insurance in some of these markets, but higher risk individuals to purchase insurance in others. These findings suggest that preference heterogeneity may be important in explaining the differential patterns of insurance coverage in various insurance markets.
International Journal of Women's Health Dovepress Video Abstract Prevention of Postpartum Hemorrhage in Low-resource Settings: Current Perspectives

Point your SmartPhone at the code above. If you have a QR code reader the video abstract will appear. Or use: Background: Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is the leading cause of maternal death in low-income countries and is the primary cause of approximately one-quarter of global maternal deaths. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of PPH prevention interventions, with a particular focus on misoprostol, and the challenges and opportunities that preventing PPH in low-resource settings presents. Methods: Using PubMed, we conducted a review of the literature on the randomized controlled trials of interventions to prevent PPH. We then searched PubMed and Google Scholar for non-randomized field trials of interventions to prevent PPH. We limited our review to interventions that are discussed in the current World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for PPH prevention and present evidence regarding the use of these interventions. We focused our review on nondrug PPH prevention interventions compared with no intervention and uterotonics versus placebo; this review does not decipher the relative effectiveness of uterotonic drugs. We describe challenges to and opportunities for scaling up PPH prevention interventions. Results: Active management of the third stage of labor is considered the " gold standard " strategy for reducing the incidence of PPH. It combines nondrug interventions (controlled cord traction and cord clamping) with the administration of an uterotonic drug, the preferred uterotonic being oxytocin. Unfortunately, oxytocin has limited application in resource-poor countries, due to its heat instability and required administration by a skilled provider. New heat-stable drugs and drug formulations are currently in development that may improve the prevention of PPH; however, misoprostol is a viable option for provision at home by a lay health care worker or the woman herself, in the interim. Conclusion: As the main cause of maternal mortality worldwide, PPH prevention interventions need to be prioritized. Increased access to prophylactic uterotonics, regardless of where deliveries occur, should be the primary means of reducing the burden of this complication.
The Importance and Motivational Content of Money Attitudes: South Africans with Living Standards Similar to Those in Industrialised Western Countries

Long neglected in psychological research, money attitudes influence consumer decisionmaking and information processing, and may be active whenever consumers contemplate money situations or exchange relations. This study focused on the money attitudes of 221 urban South Africans whose standards of living are similar to those in industrialised Western countries. A recently developed pan-cultural theory on human values is used to gain insights into the fundamental motivations of money attitudes. The results suggest that money attitudes and value priorities have predictable and theoretically meaningful relations and provide evidence supporting the nomological validity of the revised Money Attitude Scale (MAS). Confirmatory analyses support the five-factor structure of the MAS scale and the hypothesised structure of the Portrait Values Questionnaire. Five new money attitudes are proposed for future research to broaden the scope of the MAS and refine its measurement.
Twin Feature and Similarity Maximal Matching for Image Retrieval

In recent years, most advanced image retrieval algorithms are built upon local features, and various up-to-date match kernels are developed to boost image retrieval performances. However, most of these image retrieval algorithms need to face up two challenging issues: (1) the locality property of local features as well as quantization noise and (2) the phenomenon of burstiness, which significantly affect image retrieval performances. In this paper, two novel techniques including Twin Feature (TF) and Similarity Maximal Matching (SMM) are proposed for image retrieval performance improvement, which can be employed with non-aggregated kernel models, for example, the Selective Match Kernel (SMK). The proposed TF employs extra information from neighboring image patches to refine visual matching. As far as SMM is concerned, it tries to control burstiness by dynamically searching the match-pair combinations to maximize the global similarity score and thus removes multiple matches. Experimental results on two benchmark image datasets including Oxford5k and Paris6k demonstrate that the new techniques SMKtf (SMK with TF) and SMKsmm (SMK with SMM) can greatly enhance image retrieval accuracy performances as compared to SMK, and their combination, i.e., SMKtf+smm, is able to achieve better image retrieval accuracies than a number of state-of-the-art approaches.
The He II Fowler lines and the O III and N III Bowen fluorescence lines in the symbiotic nova RR Telescopii

Aims. A detailed study of the Oiii and Niii Bowen lines in the spectrum of RR Tel. Methods. Absolute intensities for the Heii ,O iii ,a nd Niii emission lines have been obtained from STIS, UVES, FEROS and IUE data, after re-calibration of UVES and FEROS on the STIS scale. Results. A new measure of reddening (E(B−V) ∼ 0.00) has been obtained from the comparison between the observed and the theoretical intensity decrement for 20 emission lines of the Heii Fowler (n → 3) series. This value has been confirmed by the STIS and IUE continuum distribution, and by the value of nH from the damped profile of the IS H Ly-α line. We have obtained very accurate measurements for about thirty Bowen lines of Oiii and a precise determination of the efficiency in the O1 and O3 excitation channels (18% and 0.7%, respectively). The relative Oiii intensities are in good agreement with the predictions by Froese Fischer (1994). A detailed study of the decays from all levels involved in the Bowen mechanism has lead to the detection of two new Oiii Bowen lines near λ 2190. High resolution IUE data have shown a nearly linear decline with time, from 1978 to 1995, in the efficiency of the O1 and O3 processes, with a steeper slope for the O3 channel. A detailed study of the Niii λ 4640 lines and of their excitation mechanism has shown that, recombination and continuum fluorescence being ruled out, line fluorescence remains the only viable mechanism to pump the 3d 2 D5/2 and 3d 2 D3/2 levels of Niii. We point out the important role of multiple scattering in the resonance lines of Oiii and Niii near λ 374 and show that the observed Niii line ratios and intensities can be explained in terms of line fluorescence by the three resonance lines of Oiii at λλ 374.432, 374.162 and 374.073 under optically thick conditions.
Pharmaceutical Care for hypertensive patients provided within the Family Health Strategy in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil

A Atencao Farmaceutica tem como objetivo conseguir resultados concretos que melhorem a qualidade de vida do paciente, contribuindo especialmente em doencas cronicas, como a Hipertensao Arterial. O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar um modelo de Atencao Farmaceutica a pacientes com Hipertensao Arterial assistidos pela Estrategia Saude da Familia (ESF). Trata-se de um estudo longitudinal realizado com pacientes assistidos pela ESF de uma Unidade Basica de Saude de Goiânia-GO. Participaram do estudo, 14 pacientes que receberam seis visitas domiciliares para Atencao Farmaceutica. Registraram-se 142 Problemas Relacionados a Medicamentos (PRM) sendo mais frequente a falta de efetividade do tratamento (33,8%). Realizaram-se 135 intervencoes farmaceuticas, das quais 92,6% foram com a comunicacao farmaceutico-paciente, em que 48,8% das intervencoes foram implementadas. Observou-se reducao do risco cardiovascular em tres pacientes e nove pacientes nao apresentaram alteracao no nivel de risco cardiovascular. Entre os pacientes hipertensos e diabeticos observou-se reducao da glicemia de jejum em seis. O modelo de Atencao Farmaceutica proposto foi capaz de detectar PRM propondo intervencoes para resolve-los e preveni-los e, consequentemente, pode ter contribuido na melhora de parâmetros clinicos como glicemia de jejum e risco cardiovascular em pacientes hipertensos assistidos pela ESF.
Homogamy Outlaws

SUMMARY This study explores how black-white interracial couples experience and respond to racism and how they negotiate racial and ethnic difference in their relationships. Twelve black-white couples were interviewed individually and conjointly, and the descriptive data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Results reflect interracial couples' strategic responses to negative public reactions and how they resist and comply with the discourse of homogamy in their relationship. Implications for couple and family therapists working with interracial couples are discussed.
Adolescents’ perceptions of the ‘substance use-violence nexus’: a South African perspective

ABSTRACT The aim of the study was to explore adolescents’ perceptions of substance use as a contributing factor to community violence by employing a conceptual framework proposed by Goldstein. Data were collected from a sample of adolescents between the ages of 15 and 16 years by means of focus group interviews. Theoretical thematic analysis was used to analyse and interpret the findings. The participants’ perceptions indicated that substance use and withdrawal symptoms induce physiological and behavioural modifications resulting in aggression and violence. The findings also suggest that participants believed that substance users frequently commit property and violent interpersonal crimes such as theft, robbery, assault and murder to procure their substances. Further, the adolescents’ perceived violence to be rooted within gang culture as well as the involvement in shared markets for illicit substance trading.
Primary central nervous system lymphoma

Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Practice | January March 2015 | Vol 6 | Issue 1 Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) is an aggressive type of lymphoma that arises in the brain parenchyma or spinal cord, eyes, cranial nerves, and meninges. PCNSL can occur in immunocompetent as well as in immunocompromised hosts, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐infected people or posttransplant patients. PCNSL represented a major cause of morbidity and mortality among HIV‐infected people before the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy. However, PCNSL nearly disappeared in the era of effective combined antiretroviral therapy. [1] Curiously, the incidence of PCNSL has been raising in HIV‐uninfected people,[2] in whom PCNSL today represent <1% of all non‐Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) and approximately 2‐3% of all brain tumors. [3] Irrespective of HIV status, 90‐95% of PCNLS are histologically classified as diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL) which consistently express B‐cell antigens and monotypic surface immunoglobulin light chains, and usually display positivity for MUM1 (90% of cases) and BCL6 (60‐80% of cases), with frequent coexpression of BCL2 and MYC. Only a minority (<10%) of cases express CD10. [3] Overall, PCNSL does not homogeneously conform to either of the principal molecular profiles identified in systemic DLBCL, namely germinal center and activated B‐cell subtypes, but appears to exhibit unique transcriptional features by gene expression profiling. [4] From a virological point of view PCNSL DLBCL harbor Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) infection only in immunocompromised individuals. [1,3]
Hand-Assisted Laparoscopic Donor Nephrectomy: A Low Rate of Complications

Background Laparoscopic donor nephrectomy is associated with a higher incidence of ureteral complications. Hand-assisted dissection minimizes the use of instruments for intraoperative retraction and handling of periureteric tissue, and may reduce posttransplant complications. Objective To assess the outcome of hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, in particular ureteral complications. Methods Records of 143 kidney transplant recipients who received allografts removed using the hand-assisted laparoscopic technique were retrospectively studied. Results Total operating time was 2.0±0.55 (range 1.08–4) hours. Warm ischemia time was 1.45±0.60 (range 0.58–3.00) minutes. Length of artery, vein, and ureter was 2.4±0.5 cm, 3.0±0.5 cm, and 10.3±2.1 cm, respectively. Estimated blood loss averaged 86.3±55.6 mL. Intraoperative suction was not needed in 65% of patients. Two donors developed incisional hernias and 1 had a postoperative ileus. Four of 143 (2.8%) recipients developed ureteral complications: reoperations for ureteral necrosis (1), stenting for ureteral stenosis (2), and urethral catheterization for ureterovesical leak (1). Graft loss in the first year after transplantation occurred because of renal vein thrombosis, thrombosis of revised arterial anastomosis, arterial thrombosis due to myocardial infarction, vasculitis, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, and chronic rejection. Delayed graft function developed in 3 recipients. The acute rejection rate was 14.6%. Mean serum creatinine levels at 1 and 3 years were 134±61 μmol/L (1.52±0.69 mg/dL) and 121±35 μmol/L (1.37±0.40 mg/dL), respectively. Conclusions Hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy is associated with a low incidence of ureteral complications; may reduce the technical difficulty of the operation and minimize retraction with instruments, resulting in fewer complications for donors and recipients; and minimizes donor blood loss.
Estimating consumer familiarity with health terminology: a context-based approach.

OBJECTIVES Effective health communication is often hindered by a "vocabulary gap" between language familiar to consumers and jargon used in medical practice and research. To present health information to consumers in a comprehensible fashion, we need to develop a mechanism to quantify health terms as being more likely or less likely to be understood by typical members of the lay public. Prior research has used approaches including syllable count, easy word list, and frequency count, all of which have significant limitations. DESIGN In this article, we present a new method that predicts consumer familiarity using contextual information. The method was applied to a large query log data set and validated using results from two previously conducted consumer surveys. MEASUREMENTS We measured the correlation between the survey result and the context-based prediction, syllable count, frequency count, and log normalized frequency count. RESULTS The correlation coefficient between the context-based prediction and the survey result was 0.773 (p < 0.001), which was higher than the correlation coefficients between the survey result and the syllable count, frequency count, and log normalized frequency count (p < or = 0.012). CONCLUSIONS The context-based approach provides a good alternative to the existing term familiarity assessment methods.