Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What doctors and managers can learn from each other

Doctors and managers have different cultures, which opens up possibilities not only of fruitless fighting but also of rich learning. I've belonged to both cultures. In 1989 I went to the Stanford Business School in California with a typical doctor's view of management: boring, uncreative, and best left to those incapable of doing anything better. I came back thinking the opposite. To be able to mix together ideas, people, and resources to makes things happen is creative, difficult, and a privilege. Generally, there is even more uncertainty in management than medicine. Having now inhabited both cultures it's clear that they have much to learn from each other—and where better to do that than within healthcare systems, where they work alongside each other? Not everything is different between the two cultures. Both professions are full of highly committed people who work extremely hard—often to the point of damaging themselves and their families. The training of both is long, hard, and never ends. Contrary to what doctors may believe, managers think about ethics. Shocked by the scandals of the 1980s, business schools have been teaching ethics for as long as medical schools. This is not to say that all managers behave ethically any more than all doctors do. Both professions respond to financial incentives. Doctors like to fool themselves that they don't, but there is overwhelming evidence that they do—just like everybody …
Determination of precipitable water and cloud liquid water over oceans from the NOAA 15 advanced microwave sounding unit

The advanced microwave sounding unit (AMSU) was finally launched in May 1998 aboard the NOAA 15 satellite. Algorithms are provided for retrieving the total precipitable water (TPW) and cloud liquid water (CLW) over oceans using the AMSU measurements at 23.8 and 31.4 GHz. Extensive comparisons are made between the AMSU retrievals of CLW and TPW and those obtained using other satellite instruments (Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI)) and ground-based radiometers. The AMSU TPW is also compared against radiosonde data, where all of the results are in good agreement with rms differences less than 3 mm and biases less than 1 mm over the range between 5 and 60 mm. The CLW comparisons show greater variability, although the time series of the AMSU and ground-based sensors follow each other and cover the same dynamic range of 0 - 0.5 mm. The AMSU CLW also compares well with the other satellite measurements, although a bias exists between AMSU and TMI when the CLW exceeds 0.5 mm.
Growth of Spinal Interventional Pain Management Techniques: Analysis of Utilization Trends and Medicare Expenditures 2000 to 2008

Study Design. Analysis of the growth, utilization trends, and Medicare expenditures of spinal interventional pain management techniques from 2000 through 2008. Objective. To evaluate the use of epidural steroid injections, facet joint interventions, and sacroiliac joint interventions, and to analyze the trends of Medicare utilization and expenditures in multiple settings—namely, hospital outpatient departments, ambulatory surgery centers, and physician offices. Summary of Background Data. There has been an explosive growth of many invasive and noninvasive modalities designed to manage chronic spinal pain. Commonly used interventional techniques include epidural steroid injections, facet joint interventions, and sacroiliac joint interventions. However, their effectiveness and the appropriateness of their application continue to be debated. Methods. The present article provides an analysis of the growth of spinal interventional techniques, as described earlier, for managing the chronic spinal pain of Medicare beneficiaries from 2000 through 2008. The standard 5% national sample of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services carrier claims that record data from 2000 through 2008 were utilized. Current procedural terminology codes from 2000 through 2008 were used to identify the number of procedures performed each year, as well as trends and expenditures. Results. Medicare recipients receiving spinal interventional techniques increased 107.8% from 2000 through 2008, with an annual average increase of 9.6%, whereas spinal interventional techniques increased 186.8%, an annual average increase of 14.1% per 100,000 beneficiaries. Conclusion. The study suggests explosive increases in spinal interventional techniques from 2000 to 2008, with some slowing of growth in later years.
Some topics on similarity metric learning

The success of many computer vision problems and machine learning algorithms critically depends on the quality of the chosen distance metrics or similarity functions. Due to the fact that the real-data at hand is inherently taskand data-dependent, learning an appropriate distance metric or similarity function from data for each specific task is usually superior to the default Euclidean distance or cosine similarity. This thesis mainly focuses on developing new metric and similarity learning models for three tasks: unconstrained face verification, person re-identification and kNN classification. Unconstrained face verification is a binary matching problem, the target of which is to predict whether two images/videos are from the same person or not. Concurrently, person re-identification handles pedestrian matching and ranking across non-overlapping camera views. Both vision problems are very challenging because of the large transformation differences in images or videos caused by pose, expression, occlusion, problematic lighting and viewpoint. To address the above concerns, two novel methods are proposed. Firstly, we introduce a new dimensionality reduction method called Intra-PCA by considering the robustness to large transformation differences. We show that Intra-PCA significantly outperforms the classic dimensionality reduction methods (e.g. PCA and LDA). Secondly, we propose a novel regularization framework called Sub-SML to learn distance metrics and similarity functions for unconstrained face verification and person re-identification. The main novelty of our formulation is to incorporate both the robustness of Intra-PCA to large transformation variations and the discriminative power of metric and similarity learning, a property that most existing methods do not hold. Working with the task of kNN classification which relies a distance metric to identify the nearest neighbors, we revisit some popular existing methods for metric learning and develop a general formulation called DMLp for learning a distance metric from data. To obtain the optimal solution, a gradient-based optimization algorithm is proposed which only needs the computation of the largest eigenvector of a matrix per iteration. Although there is a large number of studies devoted to metric/similarity learning based on different objective functions, few studies address the generalization analysis of such methods. We describe a novel approch for generalization analysis of metric/similarity learning which can deal with general matrix regularization terms including the Frobenius norm, sparse L1-norm, mixed (2, 1)-norm and trace-norm. The novel models developed in this thesis are evaluated on four challenging databases: the Labeled Faces in the Wild dataset for unconstrained face verification in still images; the YouTube Faces database for video-based face verification in the wild; the Viewpoint Invariant Pedestrian Recog-
Cancer Therapy : Preclinical Forkhead Transcription Factor FOXO 1 is a Direct Target of Progestin to Inhibit Endometrial Epithelial Cell Growth

Purpose and experimental design: Despite the therapeutic utility of progestin in invasive and preinvasive endometrial neoplasias, the molecular mechanisms through which it exerts inhibitory effects on endometrial epithelial growth are largely unknown. The aim of the study was to clarify the molecular mechanisms of progestin action to endometrial epithelial cells using originally established in vitro and in vivo treatment models for immortalized and transformed endometrial epithelial cell lines that express progesterone receptor. Results: In this model, progestin effectively inhibited the cell growth, inducing G0/G1 arrest rather than apoptosis without p21/WAF-1 induction. Using DNA microarray analysis, we identified 24 genes whose expression increasedmore than 10-fold on progestin treatment. Of these genes, we paid special attention to forkhead box transcription factor FOXO1, known as a key gene for endometrial decidualization. Progestin markedly induced FOXO1 gene expression mainly in the nuclei in vitro and in vivo. This induction was not due to the canonical activation of FOXO1 via protein dephosphorylation but due to FOXO1 promoter activation and mRNA induction. siRNA inhibition of FOXO1 significantly attenuated the effects of progestin to inhibit endometrial epithelial cell growth. Disrupting Akt activity by the introduction of the dominant negative form of Akt increased nuclear FOXO1 accumulation and enhanced the effect
Genome Analysis Integrating Membrane Transport with Male Gametophyte Development and Function through Transcriptomics 1 [ W ]

Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742–5815 (K.W.B., S.P., E.P.N., H.S.); Laboratory of Pollen Biology, Institute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 16502 Prague 6, Czech Republic (D.H.); Department of Plant Physiology, Charles University, 128 44 Praha 2, Czech Republic (D.H.); Department Plant Biology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108 (J.M.W.); Department of Pediatrics and Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030 (K.D.H.); and Department of Biology, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom (D.T.)
Necrotizing soft tissue infections: review and current concepts in treatment, systems of care, and outcomes.

Necrotizing soft tissue infections (NSTIs) rank among the more difficult disease processes encountered by physicians and surgeons. NSTIs can arise primarily in the dermis and epidermis, but they more commonly affect the deeper layers of adipose tissue, fascia, or muscle. NSTIs are typically caused by toxin-producing bacteria and are characterized clinically by very rapid progression of disease with significant local tissue destruction. Varying amounts of early or late systemic toxicity depend on the strain of bacteria and toxins produced. Once symptomatic, the progression of disease is typically measured in hours; early diagnosis and treatment are crucial to survival. Diagnosis is hindered by the fact that the disease progresses below the surface, and the cutaneous manifestations belie the severity of disease. As the infection disseminates, patients develop pain and signs of systemic toxicity disproportionate to the findings of skin examination, and physicians must maintain a high index of suspicion to rapidly diagnose NSTIs. The standard treatment consists of broad-spectrum antibiotics, wide surgical debridement, and supportive care. Most patients require multiple surgical debridements, and survivors often have large and complex wounds requiring soft tissue coverage and prolonged hospitalizations. Even with optimal treatment, NSTIs portend significant morbidity and have mortality rates of 25%-35% in recent series. In this review, we provide historical context; discuss the epidemiology, etiology, and pathogenesis of disease; summarize the major microbiology; and elaborate the clinical presentation and diagnosis of disease with a special discussion of NSTIs in immune-compromised patients. We then outline the major and novel treatment strategies, organized by phase of treatment and with special emphasis on the importance of multidisciplinary care teams. Finally, we summarize the information on in-hospital outcomes and close with a brief discussion of posthospital and developing information on long-term quality of life and functional outcomes.
Pharmacokinetics of cefotaxime in the dog

Each of five dogs was given cefotaxime at a dose rate of 50 mg/kg by intravenous, intramuscular and subcutaneous routes, in three separate treatments. Plasma concentration time profiles were characterised by a linear two-compartment model after the intravenous administration. After intravenous, intramuscular and subcutaneous injections the mean biological half-lives were 0.74, 0.83 and 1.71 hours, respectively. The apparent steady state volume of distribution was 0.48 litre/kg and body clearance after intravenous injection was approximately 0.63 litre/hour/kg. After intramuscular and subcutaneous injections peak plasma cefotaxime concentrations were 47 +/- 15 and 29.6 +/- 16 micrograms/ml at 0.5 and 0.8 hours, respectively. The average bioavailability of cefotaxime given by intramuscular injection was 86.5 per cent and for cefotaxime given subcutaneously it was approximately 100 per cent. After two hours, the cefotaxime plasma concentration remained higher after subcutaneous than after intramuscular administration.
A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of Community-Based Occupational Therapy in Late Stroke Rehabilitation

Abstract Chronic participation deficits are common following stroke. We hypothesized that a brief period of occupation-focused, client-centered occupational therapy would lead to improved participation in valued activities for individuals who had experienced strokes 6 or more months previously. Sixteen individuals were randomized to the intervention or no-treatment control group. All participants identified up to five activities in which they wished to improve. Following intervention, both groups rated their performance of these activities similarly. However, those who received the intervention rated their satisfaction with these activities significantly higher than did the participants who did not receive the occupational therapy intervention. There were no differences between postintervention measures of well-being or overall participation. Further evaluation of such a program of late stroke rehabilitation is recommended.
Bathymetry of the Coral Reefs of Weizhou Island Based on Multispectral Satellite Images

Shallow water depth measurements using multispectral images are crucial for marine surveying and mapping. At present, relevant studies either depend on the use of other auxiliary data (such as field water depths or water column data) or contain too many unknown variables, thus making these studies suitable only for images that contain enough visible wavebands. To solve this problem, a Quasi-Analytical Algorithm (QAA) approach is proposed in this paper for estimating the water depths around Weizhou Island by developing a QAA to estimate the diffuse attenuation coefficients and simplifying the parameterization of the bathymetric model. The approach contains an initialization sub-approach and a novel global adjustment sub-approach. It is not only independent of other auxiliary data but also greatly reduces the number of unknowns. Experimental results finally demonstrated that the Root Mean Square Errors (RMSEs) were 1.01 m and 0.77 m for the ZY-3 image and the WorldView-3 (WV-3) image, respectively, so the approach is competitive to other QAA bathymetric methods. Besides, the global adjustment sub-approach was also seen to be superior to common smoothing filters: if the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) is as low as 42, i.e., ZY-3, it can smooth the water depths and improve the accuracies, otherwise can avoid the over-smoothing of water depths.
Planification de stratégies de déplacement robuste pour robot mobile

Cette these traite du probleme de la planification de trajectoires robustes pour un robot mobile en presence d'incertitudes. Jusqu'a present, les techniques classiques de planification de mouvements s'averaient peu robustes car conceptuellement independantes des contraintes d'execution. Notre approche prend en compte ces contraintes en integrant la presence d'incertitudes tant sur les mesures que sur le controle du mouvement du robot des la phase de planification. Notre approche met a profit les capacites de localisation exteroceptive du robot, de maniere a compenser l'accumulation d'incertitude occasionnee par l'utilisation de capteurs de position odometrique. Une premiere methode est presentee pour planifier les deplacements d'un robot dans un environnement parfaitement connu. L'algorithme produit automatiquement un plan en terme de primitives referencees capteurs. Le plan permet d'atteindre un but fixe avec une incertitude bornee a partir d'une position initiale incertaine. Un capteur de proximetrie peut etre utilise pour localiser le robot par rapport aux obstacles de l'environnement. Le robot peut egalement se deplacer a l'interieur de zones de localisation absolue pour reduire l'incertitude sur sa position. Nous presentons des resultats de simulation obtenus pour de nombreux problemes de planification. Nous presentons ensuite une validation experimentale de ces travaux realisee avec le robot hilare2 dans l'enceinte du laboratoire. La seconde approche traite le probleme d'une planification basee sur le deplacement asservi du robot dans des regions de validite des mesures capteurs a partir d'un modele incertain de l'environnement. Les plans sont generes sous la forme de listes de fonctions d'execution prenant en compte les contraintes de non-holonomie du robot. Ces fonctions caracterisent les mesures capteurs le long de la trajectoire guidant le robot vers son but. Une decomposition topologique de l'environnement en cartes locales est ensuite proposee afin de s'affranchir des problemes poses par la gestion d'une incertitude globale de position.
Physiological and psychological illness symptoms at high altitude and their relationship with acute mountain sickness: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND The aim of this prospective observational cohort study was to investigate relationships between acute mountain sickness (AMS) and physical and mental health during a high altitude expedition. METHODS Forty-four participants (mean age, 34 ± 13 y; body mass index, 23.6 ± 3.5 kg·m(2) ; 57% male) completed the Dhaulagiri base camp trek in Nepal, a 19-day expedition attaining 5,372 m. Participants self-reported the following daily physical and mental health: AMS (defined by Lake Louise diagnosis and individual and total symptom scores), upper respiratory symptoms, diarrhea, and anxiety, plus physiological and behavioral factors. RESULTS The rate of Lake Louise-defined AMS per 100 person days was 9.2 (95% CI: 7.2-11.7). All investigated illnesses except diarrhea increased with altitude (all p < 0.001 by analysis of variance). Total AMS symptom score was associated with a lower arterial oxygen saturation, higher resting heart rate, more upper respiratory and diarrhea symptoms, greater anxiety, and lower fluid intake (all p < 0.02 by longitudinal multiple regression analyses). However, only upper respiratory symptoms, heart rate, arterial oxygen saturation, and fluid intake predicted future AMS symptoms [eg, an increase in upper respiratory symptoms by 5 units predicted an increase in the following day's AMS total symptom score by 0.72 units (0.54-0.89)]. CONCLUSIONS Upper respiratory symptoms and anxiety increasingly contributed to symptom burden as altitude was gained. Data were consistent with increased heart rate, decreased arterial oxygen saturation, reduced fluid intake, and upper respiratory symptoms being causally associated with AMS. Upper respiratory symptoms and fluid intake are the simplest targets for intervention to reduce AMS during high altitude exposure.
The innervation of the adrenal glands

RECENT work has proved beyond dQubt that the splanchnic nerves control the excretion of adrenalin from the adrenal glands, and that the curve of blood pressure rise caused by their electrical stimulation is the resultant of two components, namely the direct reaction of the vascular muscles to the nervous stimulus and the secondary effect on the heart and blood vessels of the adrenalin thrown into the circulation. This fact, that the splanchnics contain glandular secretor1 nerves for the adrenals, revives a question of great morphological interest. Langley's analysis of the known glandular nerves, whether they be for the secretion of sweat or saliva, proved that all conform to the type peculiar to the autonomic system, a ganglion cell relay being placed on their path between the spinal cord and the peripheral gland cell. Gland cells with such innervation naturally belong to the peripheral tissues of the body. But the embryological observations of Balfour, and their enlargement by Kohn and others, have suggested that the chromaffine cells of the medulla of the gland are derived from the same tissue as that which gives birth to the sympathetic ganglion cells, and that in consequence of this higher parentage and their habit through life of close association with the nerve cells, they should be ranked above the simple glands. If this be true, the chromaffine cell must be directly innervated by " preganglionic " primary nerve fibres from the spinal cord and there should be no intercalated ganglion cell relay. The adrenal medulla, despite its glandular functions, would not belong to the peripheral gland group but would lie on a level nearer to the central nervous system,
Gender Differences, Loneliness, Self Esteem and Depression in A Sample of Nigerian University Students

Loneliness is a hurtful feeling that has been attributed to a discrepancy between desired and achieved levels of social contact, self esteem has to do with an individual’s overall evaluation of his or her sense of worth, whereas depression was associated with isolated lives, the absence of pleasure as well as social and vocational impairment. The UCLA loneliness scale (version 3), the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (SES), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-2) were used to assess loneliness, self esteem and depression among 610 university students. Result revealed various levels of loneliness, self esteem and depression among the students.
VEGFR3 and CD31 as prognostic factors in renal cell cancer.

AIM To evaluate the expression levels of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-3 (VEGFR3) and CD31 and assess their associations with grade, stage and survival in patients with renal cell cancer (RCC). PATIENTS AND METHODS Our study included 224 consecutive patients who received treatment during the years 1985-1995 in Tampere Finland but had not been treated with modern anti-angiogenesis drugs. All tumor samples were re-classified and investigated using immunohistological techniques. Data were collected from patient records and the Finnish Cancer Registry. RESULTS In total, 54.2% and 98.2% of the tumor samples tested positive for VEGFR3 and CD31 expression, respectively. CD31 expression levels were classified into two groups according to the median level revealing that its high expression was nearly significantly associated with low tumor stage (p=0.069). In an age- and gender-adjusted analysis, low expression of CD31 associated with poorer survival. Grade 3 and grade 4 tumors had significantly higher mortality rates compared to those of grades 1-2 (hazard ratio (HR)=4.91; 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.12-20.4; p=0.029 for grade 3 and HR=9.31; 95% CI=2.23-38.8; p=0.002 for grade 4). In addition, stage 2, 3 and 4 tumors revealed that they possessed significantly higher mortality hazard ratios compared to those of stage 1 tumors (HR=2.62; 95% CI=1.27-5.41; p=0.009 for stage 2, HR=4.37;95% CI=2.29-8.3; p<0.001 for stage 3 and HR 13.8; 95% CI=7.18-26.7; p<0.001 for stage 4). CONCLUSION High CD31 expression associated significantly with better survival and VEGFR3 had no association with survival. Both higher tumor grade and stage were associated with a decreased survival time.