Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the Reliability and Validity of the Questionnaire for Situational Information: Test-Retest Reliability

The Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) is the Florida program tasked with serving the needs of Floridians with developmental disabilities. Prior to 2004, APD existed as the Developmental Disabilities Program within the Department of Children and Families. APD works in partnership with local communities and private providers to assist people who have developmental disabilities and their families. APD also provides assistance in identifying the needs of people with developmental disabilities for supports and services. An instrument, the Questionnaire for Situational Information (QSI), was developed for use in the needs assessment process. The QSI collects information on need across multiple domains as well as demographics and situational information such as where the person lives. The intent of the QSI is the gather information to be used to plan supports. APD is also exploring the use of the QSI among other pieces of data to develop individual budgets for people receiving developmental disability services. Like Florida, states across the nation have developed needs asse ssment procedures to help allocate resources to better meet the needs of individuals and make costs more predictable.
Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors and Antioxidant Peptides Release During Ripening of Mexican Cotija Hard Cheese

Cotija cheese is an artisanal Mexican cheese produced with raw cows milk. Our objective was to measure the antioxidant and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activities of the peptides released during its ripening. For that, Cotija cheeses were ripened 6 months in a chamber at 25 oC without humidity control. Weekly samples were taken to determine acid soluble nitrogen (ASN), non-protein nitrogen (NPN) and ethanol soluble nitrogen (EtOH-SN) indexes, by Kjeldahl method. Antioxidant and ACE inhibitory activities were measured by spectrophotometry and HPLC methods, respectively. Peptides in each nitrogen fraction were determined by HPLC. Our results showed that during ripening of Cotija cheeses peptides with antioxidant and ACE inhibitory activities were released and increased through ripening time reaching a maximum of 79.8 % of 2,2- diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) discoloration and 100 % of ACE inhibition at the end of ripening. Both activities were highly correlated with the types of peptides present in each fraction.
Medical therapy for induction and maintenance of remission in pouchitis: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE To determine the effectiveness of medical therapy (including metronidazole, bismuth carbomer enemas, oral probiotic bacteria, butyrate suppositories, and glutamine suppositories) for inducing a response or for maintaining remission in pouchitis. SEARCH STRATEGY Studies were selected using the MEDLINE data base (1966-December 1997), abstracts from major gastrointestinal meetings, and references from published articles and reviews. SELECTION CRITERIA Four randomized controlled trials of medical therapy in adult patients with pouchitis were identified: two placebo controlled trials in active chronic pouchitis; one maintenance of remission trial comparing two active agents in chronic pouchitis; and one placebo-controlled maintenance of remission trial for chronic pouchitis. A single patient "n-of-1" trial for active chronic pouchitis was excluded. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Data were extracted by three independent observers based on the intention to treat principle. Extracted data were converted to 2 x 2 tables (response versus no response and medical therapy versus placebo or medical therapy versus medical therapy) and an odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were determined as described by Cochrane and Mantel and Haenszel. In addition, the absolute risk reduction, relative risk reduction, and number needed to treat were determined. MAIN RESULTS The odds ratios of inducing a response using oral metronidazole or bismuth carbomer foam enemas compared with placebo in active chronic pouchitis were 12.34 (95% CI 2.34-64.95) and 1.00 (95% CI 0.29-3.42), respectively. The odds ratio of maintaining remission in chronic pouchitis for oral probiotic bacteria (VSL-3) compared with placebo was 15.33 (95% CI 4.51-52.14). There was no difference in the odds ratio of inducing symptomatic remission and then maintaining symptomatic remission after discontinuing suppressive medical therapy for chronic pouchitis with glutamine suppositories compared with butyrate suppositories, 2.75 (95% CI 0.48-15.94). CONCLUSIONS Metronidazole is an effective therapy for active chronic pouchitis. Bismuth carbomer foam enemas are not effective therapy for active chronic pouchitis. Oral probiotic therapy with VSL-3 is an effective therapy for maintaining remission in patients with chronic pouchitis in remission. There is no difference in maintenance of symptomatic remission in patients with chronic pouchitis treated with glutamine versus butyrate suppositories, and it is unknown whether glutamine and butyrate are equally effective or ineffective. Additional randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-ranging clinical trials are needed to determine the efficacy of empiric medical therapies currently being used in patients with pouchitis.
Caregivers’ Advice and Children’s Bystander Behaviors During Bullying Incidents

Many bullying prevention programs take a bystander approach, which encourages children to intervene when they are bystanders to bullying incidents. Little is known about how caregivers’ advice to children might promote or undermine the positive bystander behaviors targeted by these programs. Accordingly, the aim of the current study was to investigate relations between caregivers’ advice and children’s bystander behavior during bullying situations. Participants were 106 racially/ethnically diverse 4th- and 5th-grade students (M age = 10.5 years, SD = .71 years), their classmates, and their caregivers. During classroom visits, peers reported on children’s bystander behaviors. During home visits, caregivers and children completed a coded interaction task in which caregivers advised children about how to respond to bullying situations at school. Results suggested that (a) bystander intervention was positively predicted by caregivers’ advice to help/comfort the victim, (b) bystander passivity was positively predicted by caregivers’ advice to not intervene and negatively predicted by caregivers’ advice to help/comfort the victim, and (c) bystander reinforcement/assistance of the bully was positively predicted by caregivers’ advice not to intervene and not to tell adults. Results support a link between caregivers’ advice at home and children’s corresponding behavior when they are bystanders to bullying situations at school. These results emphasize the importance of collaboration between families and schools to reduce school bullying. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
The nucleoporin Nup153 is required for nuclear pore basket formation, nuclear pore complex anchoring and import of a subset of nuclear proteins

The nuclear pore complex (NPC) is a large proteinaceous structure through which bidirectional transport of macromolecules across the nuclear envelope (NE) takes place. Nup153 is a peripheral NPC component that has been implicated in protein and RNP transport and in the interaction of NPCs with the nuclear lamina. Here, Nup153 is localized by immunogold electron microscopy to a position on the nuclear ring of the NPC. Nuclear reconstitution is used to investigate the role of Nup153 in nucleo‐ cytoplasmic transport and NPC architecture. NPCs assembled in the absence of Nup153 lacked several nuclear basket components, were unevenly distributed in the NE and, unlike wild‐type NPCs, were mobile within the NE. Importin α/β‐mediated protein import into the nucleus was strongly reduced in the absence of Nup153, while transportin‐mediated import was unaffected. This was due to a reduction in import complex translocation rather than to defective receptor recycling. Our results therefore reveal functions for Nup153 in NPC assembly, in anchoring NPCs within the NE and in mediating specific nuclear import events.
Integrating the Radiology Information System with Computerised Provider Order Entry: The Impact on Repeat Medical Imaging Investigations

Repeat and redundant procedures in medical imaging are associated with increases in resource utilisation and labour costs. Unnecessary medical imaging in some modalities, such as X-Ray (XR) and Computed Tomography (CT) is an important safety issue because it exposes patients to ionising radiation which can be carcinogenic and is associated with higher rates of cancer. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of implementing an integrated Computerised Provider Order Entry (CPOE)/Radiology Information System (RIS)/Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) system on the number of XR and CT imaging procedures (including repeat imaging requests) for inpatients at a large metropolitan hospital. The study found that patients had an average 0.47 fewer XR procedures and 0.07 fewer CT procedures after the implementation of the integrated system. Part of this reduction was driven by a lower rate of repeat procedures: the average inpatient had 0.13 fewer repeat XR procedures within 24-hours of the previous identical XR procedure. A similar decrease was not evident for repeat CT procedures. Reduced utilisation of imaging procedures (especially those within very short intervals from the previous identical procedure, which are more likely to be redundant) has implications for the safety of patients and the cost of medical imaging services.
The Return on Private Placement in Small Public Equity

Private placements provided by institutional or individual accredited investors are becoming an important financing tool for small public firms worldwide. However, private placement issuers offer, on average, poor returns. We explain this puzzle using 2,987 traditional private placements by Canadian small public firms over a decade. We observe significant long-run post-issue underperformance using a classic factor pricing model. This underperformance is partially erased when the returns are adjusted to consider the high level of investment by the issuers, and to include the discount granted to private investors. We split the sample by the glamour/value dimension and by the firms’ investment activity. Only glamour firms with high investment activity underperform in the long run. Private investors obtain positive returns on placements in value and high investment firms. However, they overestimate investment projects of glamour firms.
Internet-based information-seeking behaviour amongst doctors and nurses: a short review of the literature.

BACKGROUND Reviews of how doctors and nurses search for online information are relatively rare, particularly where research examines how they decide whether to use Internet-based resources. Original research into their online searching behaviour is also rare, particularly in real world clinical settings. as is original research into their online searching behaviour. This review collates some of the existing evidence, from 1995 to 2009. OBJECTIVES To establish whether there are any significant differences in the ways and reasons why doctors and nurses seek out online information; to establish how nurses and doctors locate information online; to establish whether any conclusions can be drawn from the existing evidence that might assist health and medical libraries in supporting users. METHODS An initial scoping literature search was carried out on PubMed and CINAHL to identify existing reviews of the subject area and relevant original research between 1995 and 2009. Following refinement, further searches were carried out on Embase (Ovid), LISA and LISTA. Following the initial scoping search, two journals were identified as particularly relevant for further table of contents searching. Articles were exclused where the main focus was on patients searching for information or where the focus was the evaluation of online-based educational software or tutorials. Articles were included if they were review or meta-analysis articles, where they reported original research, and where the primary focus of the online search was for participants' ongoing Continuing Professional Development (CPD). The relevant articles are outlined, with details of numbers of participants, response rates, and the user groups. RESULTS There appear to be no significant differences between the reasons why doctors and nurses seek online Internet-based evidence, or the ways in which they locate that evidence. Reasons for searching for information online are broadly the same: primarily patient care and CPD (Continuing Professional Development). The perceived barriers to accessing online information are the same in both groups. There is a lack of awareness of the library as a potential online information enabler. CONCLUSIONS Libraries need to examine their policy and practice to ensure that they facilitate access to online evidence-based information, particularly where users are geographically remote or based in the community rather than in a hospital setting. Librarians also need to take into account the fact that medical professionals on duty may not be able to take advantage of the academic model of online information research. Further research is recommended into the difference between the idealised academic model of searching and real world practicalities; and how other user groups search, for example patients.
The RNA-induced Silencing Complex: A Versatile Gene-silencing Machine*

RNA interference is a powerful mechanism of gene silencing that underlies many aspects of eukaryotic biology. On the molecular level, RNA interference is mediated by a family of ribonucleoprotein complexes called RNA-induced silencing complexes (RISCs), which can be programmed to target virtually any nucleic acid sequence for silencing. The ability of RISC to locate target RNAs has been co-opted by evolution many times to generate a broad spectrum of gene-silencing pathways. Here, we review the fundamental biochemical and biophysical properties of RISC that facilitate gene targeting and describe the various mechanisms of gene silencing known to exploit RISC activity.
Interleukin‐2 receptor common γ‐chain signaling cytokines regulate activated T cell apoptosis in response to growth factor withdrawal: Selective induction of anti‐apoptotic (bcl‐2, bcl‐xL) but not pro‐apoptotic (bax, bcl‐xS) gene expression

Cytokine deprivation from activated T cells leads to apoptosis associated with down‐regulation of the bcl‐2 gene product. It is not clear, however, how cytokines other than interleukin‐2 (IL‐2) may affect this process and regulate the involvement of other apoptosis‐modulating genes. We show that a group of cytokines including IL‐2, IL‐4, IL‐7 and IL‐15, which can all signal through the γ chain of the IL‐2R (IL‐2Rγ), prevent the apoptosis of IL‐2‐deprived activated T cells. This rescue involves the induction of the anti‐apoptosis genes (bcl‐2 and bcl‐xL), but causes little change in expression of bax and bcl‐xS, which promote apoptosis. Furthermore, the prevention of apoptosis and induction of proliferation by the common γ chain cytokines can be dissociated. Thus, when proliferation is blocked, the common γ chain cytokines still induce up‐regulation of bcl‐2 relative to bax and retard apoptosis. These cytokines can thus regulate the persistence or removal of effector T cells by coordinating the balance between genes which promote and those which inhibit apoptosis, events which are probably mediated at least in part by signals through the common γ chain. These data also implicate inappropriate T cell apoptosis resulting from a dysfunctional common γ‐chain as part of the pathophysiological defect in patients with X‐linked severe‐combined immunodeficiency (SCID).
Extending voluntary health insurance to the informal sector: experiences and expectations of the informal sector in Kenya

Background: Kenya has made a policy decision to use contributory health insurance as one of its key pre-payment health financing mechanisms. The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) is the main health insurer in Kenya. While the NHIF has hitherto focused its efforts on providing health insurance coverage to individuals in the formal sector, it has recently broadened its focus to include individuals in the informal sector. This paper provides an analysis of the perceptions, and experiences of informal sector individuals in Kenya with regard to enrolment with the NHIF. Methods: We collected data through key informant interviews (39) in two purposefully selected counties. Study participants were drawn from healthcare facilities contracted by the NHIF, and current, former, and prospective informal sector members. We analyzed data using a grounded approach. Results: Participants felt that the NHIF provided inadequate information about the registration and membership processes as well as benefit entitlements. There was variable and inconsistent communication by the NHIF. There was also variance between the official benefit package and the actual benefits received by members. The NHIF registration requirements and processes presented an administrative barrier to obtaining membership. The NHIF premium level and contribution mechanism presents a financial barrier to current and prospective members. Healthcare providers discriminated against NHIF members compared to cash-payers or private insurance holders. Conclusions: The NHIF could improve enrolment and retention of informal sector individuals by; 1) using communication strategies that are effective at reaching the informal sector, 2) improving the affordability of the premium rates, 3) simplifying the enrolment requirements and process, and 4) strengthening accountability mechanisms between itself and healthcare facilities to ensure that enrolled members receive the benefits that they are entitled to, and that client experience at healthcare facilities are satisfactory.
Recipients Mobile and Landline Telephone Performance Outcomes among Telephone-Using Cochlear Implant

Objective. To objectively study mobile and standard landline telephone speech perception performance using cochlear implant recipients. Study Design. Nonrandomized trial. Setting. Tertiary referral center. Subjects and Methods. Twenty-five subjects enrolled in this study from a pool of 50 cochlear implant recipients who had participated in an earlier questionnaire study from which demographic data were gathered. Preoperative speech perception scores were collated from preoperative audiological data. Postoperative speech perception scores were calculated with subjects listening to the Australian Version of the Bamford-Kowal-Bench Sentence Test read aloud in a soundproof booth via live voice, played back on a speaker, on a standard landline and mobile phone. Telephone speech perception scores were analyzed and banded into 3 performance categories: very good (90%100%), good (80%-89%), and fair (\80%). Results. The mean speech perception scores were 88.6% (SD, 14.3%) for postoperative recorded speech and 92.3% (SD, 10.7%) for live voice listening, which were significantly better than the mean score of 37.2% (SD, 29.1%) listening to recorded voice preoperatively. The mean speech perception score was 84.3% (SD, 20.7%) using a mobile telephone and 57% (SD, 29.4%) using the standard landline. Further analysis showed better performance with mobile phones over standard landlines. Seventy-six percent of subjects attained at least good telephone speech performance (score .80%). Older patients had poorer telephone speech perception than younger patients did. Conclusions. Many cochlear implant recipients achieve good objective telephone speech perception performance, indicating that they should be effective telephone users, especially when using mobile telephones and among younger implant recipients.
Current issues in iron deficiency

This brief review of developments relating to iron deficiency during the past year covers three main areas: iron supplementation, the regulation of iron absorption, and the use of the serum transferrin receptor for the assessment of iron status. The intermittent administration of iron supplement once or twice weekly rather than daily has been advocated by international health agencies in recent years, but radioiron absorption studies in human subjects have failed to demonstrate any absorptive advantage of the intermittent schedule. The value of prophylactic iron supplementation in elderly blood donors was evaluated and shown to offer limited benefit in maintaining donation frequency. A recent model of the regulation of iron absorption involving erythropoietic and store regulators is discussed and a recent article indicating a potential non‐hematopoietic effect of hematopoietic growth factors on iron absorption by the gastrointestinal mucosal cell is reviewed. A new measure of functional iron deficiency, namely the serum transferrin receptor, is discussed, with particular reference to its mechanism of production and its great value in distinguishing iron deficiency anemia from the anemia of chronic disease.
Algebraic criteria for consensus problems of continuous-time networked systems

This article addresses algebraic criteria for consensus problems of continuous-time networked systems with fixed and switching topology. A special eigenvector ω of the Laplacian matrix is first constructed and correlated with the connectivity of digraph. And then, some necessary and/or sufficient algebraic conditions are presented by employing the vector ω, which can directly determine whether the consensus problem can be solved. More importantly, for the switching topology case, the obtained algebraic conditions for the average consensus problem are necessary and sufficient. Furthermore, the presented results clearly show that only the agents corresponding to the positive elements of ω contribute to the group decision value and decide the collective behaviour of the system. Particularly for the fixed topology case, the role of each agent is exactly measured by the value of the corresponding element of ω. Based on these results, some extended protocols are further proposed to solve the average consensus problem, in which the interaction digraphs are not needed to be balanced. Numerical examples are included to illustrate the obtained results.
Mouse RAD54 Affects DNA Double-Strand Break Repair and Sister Chromatid Exchange

ABSTRACT Cells can achieve error-free repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) by homologous recombination through gene conversion with or without crossover. In contrast, an alternative homology-dependent DSB repair pathway, single-strand annealing (SSA), results in deletions. In this study, we analyzed the effect of mRAD54, a gene involved in homologous recombination, on the repair of a site-specific I-SceI-induced DSB located in a repeated DNA sequence in the genome of mouse embryonic stem cells. We used six isogenic cell lines differing solely in the orientation of the repeats. The combination of the three recombination-test substrates used discriminated among SSA, intrachromatid gene conversion, and sister chromatid gene conversion. DSB repair was most efficient for the substrate that allowed recovery of SSA events. Gene conversion with crossover, indistinguishable from long tract gene conversion, preferentially involved the sister chromatid rather than the repeat on the same chromatid. Comparing DSB repair in mRAD54wild-type and knockout cells revealed direct evidence for a role ofmRAD54 in DSB repair. The substrate measuring SSA showed an increased efficiency of DSB repair in the absence ofmRAD54. The substrate measuring sister chromatid gene conversion showed a decrease in gene conversion with and without crossover. Consistent with this observation, DNA damage-induced sister chromatid exchange was reduced in mRAD54-deficient cells. Our results suggest that mRAD54 promotes gene conversion with predominant use of the sister chromatid as the repair template at the expense of error-prone SSA.