Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gait, lower extremity strength, and self-assessed mobility after hip arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND Rehabilitation services after hip arthroplasty (HA) usually occur in the first 6 months following surgery. Reports in the literature suggest that 9 months to several years after HA surgery, patients are generally satisfied with pain relief. However, many express dissatisfaction with their ability to perform domestic and social activities. Reduced walking ability and long-term lower extremity (LE) muscle weakness may contribute to decreased mobility. The purpose of this study was to compare the within-group LE muscle strength, gait, and self-assessed functional mobility in adults 9 months to 6 years after HA surgery to age- and gender-matched controls. METHODS Thirty subjects (15 HA and 15 control) were studied. LE muscle strength was assessed using the Spark handheld dynamometer. Gait parameters were measured using the GAITMAT II, and self-assessed mobility was evaluated using the hip-rating questionnaire. RESULTS The HA group walked significantly more slowly than the control group at maximum walking speed. The operative LE of the HA group had less muscle strength than the nonoperative LE, and the hip abductors were the most affected muscle group in that LE. The HA group scored lower in the domains of impact, pain, and function on the hip-rating questionnaire. CONCLUSION Because of long-term residual impairments and disabilities noted after HA surgery, intervention beyond the initial post-surgical rehabilitation is needed.
Association of estrogen-related polymorphisms with age at menarche, age at final menstrual period, and stages of the menopausal transition

Objective: To explore the association of estrogen-related polymorphisms with age at menarche, age at onset and duration of stages of the menopausal transition, and age at final menstrual period (FMP). Design: A total of 152 white women were genotyped for CYP17, CYP19 3-untranslated region, CYP19 TTTA7-13, HSDB1, CYP1A1, CYP1B1, and ESR1 polymorphisms. Analysis of variance was used to test a nonspecific model for differences among genotypes associated with each polymorphism. Results: Five of the 84 associations tested were significant at P < 0.05, which could be expected by chance. Women with two CYP19 7r alleles had menarche earlier (11.5 y) than those with one 7r allele (13.1 y). Women with two 11r alleles were 2 years older at onset of late stage than those with one 11r allele (50.7 y vs 48.6 y). Those with two 7r(-3) alleles were 2 years older at FMP than those without this allele (53.9 y vs 51.3 y). Women with the homozygous wild-type allele for HSDB1 (rs2830) were younger at FMP by 2 years than those with the heterozygous allele (50.8 y vs 52.9 y). Women with the heterozygous allele for CYP1B1*2 had a later age at menarche compared with women with the homozygous wild type (13 y vs 12.5 y). Conclusions: Age at onset of late stage and FMP and age at menarche are associated with specific genetic polymorphisms in the estrogen biosynthesis and metabolism genes. However, because of the number of comparisons, these associations may be false positives. These findings should be confirmed with a larger sample of white women.
Imaging of carotid arteries in symptomatic patients: cost-effectiveness of diagnostic strategies.

PURPOSE To assess the cost-effectiveness of noninvasive imaging strategies in patients who have had a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or minor stroke and are suspected of having significant carotid artery stenosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS From 1997 through 2000, 350 patients were included in a multicenter blinded consecutive cohort study. The sensitivities and specificities of duplex ultrasonography (US), magnetic resonance (MR) angiography, and these two examinations combined were estimated by using digital subtraction angiography (DSA) as the reference standard. The actual costs (from a societal perspective) of performing imaging and endarterectomy were estimated. The survival, quality of life, and costs associated with stroke were based on data reported in the literature. Markov modeling was used to predict long-term outcomes. Subsequently, a decision model was used to calculate costs, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and incremental costs per QALY gained for 62 examination-treatment strategies. Extensive sensitivity analyses were performed. RESULTS Duplex US had 88% sensitivity and 76% specificity with use of conventional cutoff criteria. MR angiography had comparable values: 92% sensitivity and 76% specificity. Combined concordant duplex US and MR angiography had superior diagnostic performance: 96% sensitivity and 80% specificity. Duplex US alone was the most efficient strategy. Adding MR angiography led to a marginal increase in QALYs gained but at prohibitive costs (cost-effectiveness ratio > 1 500 000 per QALY gained). Performing DSA owing to discordant duplex US and MR angiographic findings and to confirm duplex US and MR angiographic findings led to extra costs and QALY loss owing to complications. Sensitivity analyses revealed that duplex US as a stand-alone examination remained the preferred strategy while estimates and assumptions were varied across plausible ranges. CONCLUSION Duplex US performed without additional imaging is cost-effective in the selection of symptomatic patients suitable for endarterectomy. Adding MR angiography increases effectiveness slightly at disproportionately high costs, whereas DSA is inferior because of associated complications.
Can Policy Change Culture? Government Pension Plans and Traditional Kinship Practices

Policies may change the incentives that allow cultural practices to persist. To test this, I study matrilocality and patrilocality, kinship traditions that determine daughters' and sons' post-marriage residences and thus, which gender lives with and supports parents in their old age. Two separate policy experiments in Ghana and Indonesia show that pension policies reduce the practice of these traditions. I also show that these traditions incentivize parents to invest in the education of children who traditionally co-reside with them. Consequently, when pension plans change cultural practices, they also reduce educational investment. This finding further demonstrates that policy can change culture.
Improved state dependent parametrizations including a piecewise linear feedback for constrained linear MPC

A new class of state dependent parametrizations is introduced which can be used in linear model predictive control (MPC) to approximate the optimal predicted input trajectories and thereby speed up the online optimization. The parametrizations are piecewise constant over the state space and also contain, in addition to previous results, a piecewise linear state feedback term. A new data mining algorithm is presented, tailored to determine such parametrizations offline. A refinement step for the parametrizations is formulated which guarantees constraint satisfaction and thereby enables application of the parametrizations in an asymptotically stabilizing overall MPC scheme online. In an example, superior performance of the new results is demonstrated.
Comorbid Depression and Anxiety Symptoms as Predictors of Cardiovascular Events: Results From the NHLBI-Sponsored Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) Study

Objective: To study the independent and interactive effects of depression and anxiety symptoms as predictors of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in a sample of women with suspected myocardial ischemia. Symptoms of depression and anxiety overlap strongly and are independent predictors of CVD events. Although these symptoms commonly co-occur in medical patients, little is known about combined effects of depression and anxiety on CVD risk. Method: A total of 489 women completed a baseline protocol including coronary angiogram, CVD risk factor assessment, and questionnaire-based measures of depression and anxiety symptoms, using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), respectively. Participants were followed for a median 5.9 years to track the prevalence of CVD events (stroke, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and CVD-related mortality). We tested the BDI × STAI interaction effect in addition to the BDI and STAI main effects. Results: Seventy-five women (15.3% of sample) experienced a CVD event, of which 18 were deaths attributed to cardiovascular causes. Results using Cox regression indicated a significant BDI × STAI interaction effect in the prediction of CVD events (p = .02) after covariate adjustment. Simple effect analyses indicated that depression scores were significant predictors of CVD events among women with low anxiety scores (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.3 [in standard deviation units]; 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 1.3–3.9; p = .005) but not among women with higher levels of anxiety (HR = 0.99; 95% CI = 0.70–1.4; p = .95). Conclusion: Among women with suspected myocardial ischemia, the value of depression symptoms for predicting CVD events varied by the severity of comorbid anxiety. These results suggest that the clinical utility of depression measures may be improved by using them in combination with measures of anxiety. WISE = Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation; CVD = cardiovascular disease; CAD = coronary artery disease; GAD = generalized anxiety disorder; CHF = congestive heart failure; MI = myocardial infarction; BDI = Beck Depression Inventory; STAI = State Trait Anxiety Inventory.
Electrostatic Assembly of Platinum Nanoparticles along Electrospun Polymeric Nanofibers for High Performance Electrochemical Sensors

A novel polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibrous membrane conjugated with platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) was fabricated by electrospinning and electrostatic assembly techniques. In this procedure, PAN was electrospun with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APS) together as precursor materials. First, amine groups were introduced onto PAN nanofibers, and then the as-prepared negative-charged platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) were conjugated onto the surface of the amino-modified PAN nanofibers uniformly by the electrostatic interaction-mediated assembly. The fabricated PAN–PtNPs hybrid nanofibrous membrane was further utilized to modify the glassy carbon electrodes and was used for the fabrication of a non-enzymatic amperometric sensor to detect hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The electrochemical results indicated that, due to the uniform dispersion of PtNPs and the electrostatic interaction between amine groups and PtNPs, the fabricated PAN–PtNPs nanofibrous membrane-based electrochemical sensor showed excellent electrocatalytic activity toward H2O2, and the chronoamperometry measurements illustrated that the fabricated sensor had a high sensitivity for detecting H2O2. It is anticipated that the strategies used in this work will not only guide the design and fabrication of functional polymeric nanofiber-based biomaterials and nanodevices, but also extend their potential applications in energy storage, cytology, and tissue engineering.
An evaluation of human recombinant alpha interferon in patients with metastatic gastrinoma.

BACKGROUND Metastatic gastrinoma is becoming increasingly recognized in patients with Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome. The mean 5-year survival of these patients is < 20%. Chemotherapeutic regimens are of limited benefit. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of interferon in these patients because a preliminary report suggested it might be effective. METHODS The efficacy and toxicity of interferon was assessed in 13 consecutive Zollinger-Ellison syndrome patients with liver metastases. Patients were treated with human recombinant alpha interferon (5 million IU, subcutaneously [SC]) daily and followed up at 3-month intervals with multiple imaging studies. At each follow-up, toxicity of therapy was assessed and fasting serum gastrin concentrations were obtained. RESULTS No patient showed a reduction in tumor size at any follow-up. One patient died after 2 months. At 6 months, six patients (46%) had stable tumor size in the liver, although new bone metastases developed in one patient. Three patients showed stable disease for up to 21 months. Changes in serum gastrin correlated with tumor response at 6 months. All patients developed some side effects of therapy. Thirty-one percent required dose reduction, and one patient (8%) had to have interferon therapy interrupted briefly. CONCLUSIONS These results fail to define a therapeutic role for interferon in the treatment of metastatic gastrinoma.
Peripheral fractional oxygen extraction and other measures of tissue oxygenation to guide blood transfusions in preterm infants.

The physiological effects of anemia in the preterm infant are complex and the indications for transfusions in preterm infants are controversial. A measure of the adequacy of tissue oxygenation may be a better guide to the need for transfusions than currently used criteria. This article considers 2 measures of tissue oxygenation of preterm infants: 1) The whole blood lactate concentration, and 2) Peripheral fractional oxygen extraction (FOE) by using near infrared spectroscopy. Several studies have shown falls in blood lactate concentration after blood transfusion, but it has been difficult to establish a convincing link between raised lactate concentrations and significant anemia because even anemic infants have lactate concentrations that are within or close to the normal range. Lactate concentrations may be affected by the haematocrit of the blood sample. Peripheral FOE can be measured by using near infrared spectroscopy with partial venous occlusion and has been studied in preterm infants with symptomatic and asymptomatic anaemia. Mean (SD) FOE was significantly higher in symptomatic [0.425 (0.06)] (P< .01) but not asymptomatic [0.334 (0.05)] compared to controls [0.352 (0.06)], (P = .22). After transfusion there was a significant fall in FOE in symptomatic infants to 0.367 (0.06) (P = .001) but there was no change in infants who were asymptomatic. FOE correlated with other measures known to reflect the adequacy of oxygen availability during anemia. These results suggest that peripheral FOE may be suitable as a guide to the need for blood transfusions. A pilot randomized controlled trial is currently being undertaken to test this hypothesis.
A brief Review of the ChaLearn AutoML Challenge: Any-time Any-dataset Learning without Human Intervention

The ChaLearn AutoML Challenge team conducted a large scale evaluation of fully auto- matic, black-box learning machines for feature-based classi cation and regression problems. The test bed was composed of 30 data sets from a wide variety of application domains and ranged across di erent types of complexity. Over six rounds, participants succeeded in delivering AutoML software capable of being trained and tested without human intervention. Although improvements can still be made to close the gap between human-tweaked and AutoML models, this competition contributes to the development of fully automated environments by challenging practitioners to solve problems under speci c constraints and sharing their approaches; the platform will remain available for post-challenge submissions at http://codalab.org/AutoML.
Taux d'intérêt et investissement privé en Tunisie: Asymétrie à court terme et symétrie à long terme

Ce papier analyse la reponse de l'investissement prive aux fluctuations du taux d'interet en Tunisie. L'application du modele ARDL non lineaire confirme la presence de cointegration entre l'investissement prive, l'investissement public, le PIB reel par habitant, la stabilite gouvernementale et le taux d'interet reel. Les resultats montrent que l'hypothese d'asymetrie est valide seulement pour le court terme. Cela suggere que l'investissement prive est plus sensible a la baisse qu'a la hausse du taux d'interet. Nous constatons aussi que les coefficients estimes du taux d'interet sont toujours negatifs et significatifs, aussi bien a court qu'a long terme. Cela signifie que l'offre de credit joue un role important dans la decision d'investissement. Ainsi, le maintien des taux d'interet reels a des niveaux relativement faibles devrait favoriser le financement du secteur prive tunisien.
Predicting competition performance in long-distance running by means of a treadmill test.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to examine the power of 16 parameters beside the individual anaerobic threshold (IAT) in predicting performance in various competition distances. METHODS This study examined 427 competitive runners to test the prediction probability of the IAT and other parameters for various running distances. All runners (339 men, 88 women; ages, 32.5 +/- 10.14 yr; training, 7.1 +/- 5.53 yr; training distance, 77.9 +/- 35.63 km.wk-1) performed an increment test on the treadmill (starting speed, 6 or 8 km.h-1; increments, 2 km.h-1; increment duration, 3 min to exhaustion). The heart rate (HR) and the lactate concentrations in hemolyzed whole blood were measured at rest and at the end of each exercise level. The IAT was defined as the running speed at a net increase in lactate concentration 1.5 mmol.L-1 above the lactate concentration at LT. RESULTS Significant correlations (r = 0.88-0.93) with the mean competition speed were found for the competition distances and could be increased using stepwise multiple regression (r = 0.953-0.968) with a set of additional parameters from the training history, anthropometric data, or the performance diagnostics. CONCLUSIONS The running speed at a defined net lactate increase thus produces an increasing prediction accuracy with increasing distance. A parallel curve of the identity straight lines with the straight lines of regression indicates the independence of at least a second independent performance determining factor.
Two Distinct Gamma Interferon-Inducible Promoters of the Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II Transactivator Gene Are Differentially Regulated by STAT1, Interferon Regulatory Factor 1, and Transforming Growth Factor β

ABSTRACT The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II transactivator (CIITA) is the master regulatory factor required for appropriate expression of class II MHC genes. Understanding the expression of CIITA is key to understanding the regulation of class II MHC genes. This report describes the independent regulation of two distinct CIITA promoters by cytokines with opposing functions, gamma interferon (IFN-γ) and transforming growth factor β (TGF-β). A functional analysis of deletion mutations of the upstream promoter (promoter III) identified an IFN-γ-responsive region located approximately 5 kb from the transcriptional start site. An in vivo DNase I hypersensitivity analysis detected a hypersensitive site in this area which supports the relevance of this region. When the downstream promoter (promoter IV) was studied by in vivo genomic footprinting, IFN-γ-induced changes at putative binding sites for STAT1, interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF-1), and E-box proteins were seen. Gel shift and supershift analyses for IRF-1 confirmed the in vivo footprint results. The role of the IFN-γ-inducible transcription factor STAT1 was examined functionally. Although both promoters were controlled by STAT1, promoter-specific regulation was exhibited. The IFN-γ response of promoter III was completely dependent on STAT1 and not IRF-1, while promoter IV was partially activated by IRF-1 in the total absence of STAT1 expression. While both promoters were affected by TGF-β, activation of promoter III by IFN-γ was more severely diminished by TGF-β treatment. The differential control of CIITA promoters by TGF-β, IRF-1, and STAT1 may be important in refining regulation of class II MHC genes in different cell types and under different stimulatory conditions.
The Impact of Moderate-to-severe Crohn's Disease on Employees' Salary Growth

Background:Moderate-to-severe Crohn's Disease (CD) has been shown to reduce daily activities; however, little is known of the impact on employees' salary growth. Methods:Employment and health care benefit data were extracted from the OptumHealth Reporting and Insights database, aggregating data from 23 self-insured U.S. companies with approximately 2.5 million covered beneficiaries. Employees diagnosed with moderate-to-severe CD (i.e., ≥1 prescription fill for systemic corticosteroids, immunosuppressive drugs, methotrexate or cyclosporine, or biologic agents within 6 months after the first observed CD diagnosis) between January 1999 and December 2006 were retrospectively matched with controls without CD based on year of birth, sex, industry, and geographic region. Employees' salaries and salary growth rates were estimated and compared between cohorts. Both descriptive comparison and multivariate regression analyses controlling for baseline characteristics and differences in comorbidities were performed. Results:A total of 918 employees with moderate-to-severe CD were matched to 2154 CD-free controls. The 2 cohorts did not differ in their annual salary in the first year of observation. However, regression analyses revealed that the 2 groups had significantly different adjusted annualized salary growth rates (0.69% versus 1.01%, P < 0.001), and employees with CD had a 31% lower salary increase rate than controls. A total income loss of $3195 per person was estimated for employees with CD compared with their CD-free peers over a cumulative 5 years after the first calendar year. Conclusions:In the United States, employees with moderate-to-severe CD had a substantially lower salary growth rate than their peers without CD, suggesting an impaired career progression.
The Use of Internet Cancer Support Groups by Asian Americans and White Americans Living With Cancer

Purpose: To explore the use of Internet cancer support groups (UICSG) by Asians and Whites living with cancer and determine the factors influencing their UICSG. Design and Method: A cross-sectional Internet study among 30 Asians and 30 Whites. The instruments included (a) questions on sociodemographic and cultural factors, and disease status, (b) the Support Care Needs Survey-34 Short Form, (c) the 2003 Health Information National Trends Survey subscale on Internet usage, and (d) the UICSG Questionnaire. The data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test and nonparametric multiple regression analyses. Results: There was a significant ethnic difference in the UICSG, but there were no ethnic differences in general Internet use or needs for help. Across the ethnic groups, the significant factors influencing the UICSG included “self-reported ethnic identity,” “born in the United States,” and “general Internet use. ” Conclusion: Nurses should consider the cultural factors that influence the UICSG.
Customer insurance frauds: the influence of fraud type, moral intensity and fairness perception

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine customers’ ethical attitudes (EA) and intentions toward two types of insurance frauds. This study proposes that the factors, such as fraud types (i.e. opportunistic and planned insurance fraud), moral intensity and fairness perception (FP), can affect the customers’ acceptance of the insurance frauds. Design/methodology/approach To test the research hypotheses of this study, Taiwanese insurance customers are invited in the empirical investigation, and a scenario-based questionnaire is used to collect the data. The hypotheses of this study are tested by using a partial least squares regression. Findings The results show that moral intensity constructs and FP significantly relate to the respondents’ acceptance of insurance frauds, while fraud types also have significant impacts on the respondents’ perceptions of moral intensity and fairness. Originality/value There is no research which has examined the relationships among fraud types, moral intensity, FP, demographic variables and customers’ EA and intentions toward insurance frauds. Understanding the relationships among these variables could provide implications for those involved in the practice of anti-fraud programs.