Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electronic and Paper Diary Recording of Infant and Caregiver Behaviors

Objectives: To assess (1) preference of parental use of an electronic diary (e-diary) over a paper diary to record continuous infant and caregiver behaviors over 7 days; (2) whether e-diary recordings would differ in systematic ways from those obtained by paper diaries, and (3) frequency of diary entries when parents provide entries when convenient. Methods: Mothers of normal newborns were randomized at 5 weeks infant age to a paper diary first (n = 34) or e-diary first (n = 35) group. With 3 days between, mothers completed 7-day recordings on both the paper Baby's Day Diary and an analogous personal digital assistant e-diary for infant (sleep, awake alert, feeding, fussing, crying, inconsolable crying) and caregiver (carrying/holding, moving) behaviors, and completed post diary ease-of-use ratings and poststudy preference ratings. Results: Mothers found e-diaries less bothersome but similarly disruptive and enjoyable to paper diaries. At study end, more found e-diaries easier to use, less bothersome and more efficient. E-diary behaviors were consistently more frequent, but rarely different in duration, then paper diary behaviors. Time-stamped e-diary entries (1) generally declined across weeks, (2) were higher if e-diaries were used first, and (3) settled at a modal 2 to 3 entries/day by the second week. Conclusions: For behavioral recording of infant and caregiver behaviors, mothers generally expressed more approval for e-diaries than paper diaries, but neither was considered onerous. E-diaries consistently report more frequent but similar durations of behaviors. If recording when convenient, daily diary entries trend toward 2 to 3 entries a day. The e-diary results provide convergent evidence that paper diary recordings of common infant and caregiver behavior durations provide good estimates of durations, but that behavioral frequencies may be underestimated.
A Prospective Evaluation of a New Physical Examination in Predicting Glenoid Labral Tears

We studied 62 patients (40 men and 22 women) with an average age of 28 years over a 28-month period who presented with shoulder pain that was refractory to 3 months of conservative management. Patients with a prior glenohumeral dislocation or a rotator cuff tear were excluded. The "crank" test was performed with the arm elevated 160° in the scapular plane of the body, loaded axially along the humerus, and with max imal internal and external rotation. Although similar tests have been described, the crank test is a new examination previously unreported. Half of the patients (31) had a positive crank test. Arthroscopy performed on all 62 patients revealed glenoid labral tears in 32 patients. Two patients who had positive crank tests did not have labral tears but had partial-thickness, articu lar-side rotator cuff tears. The sensitivity of the crank test was 91%, the specificity was 93%, the positive predictive value was 94%, and the negative predictive value was 90%. With these data, the crank test fulfills the criteria as a single physical examination test that is highly accurate for the preoperative diagnosis of gle noid labral tears. Accordingly, expensive imaging mo dalities currently used in this patient population may be employed less in the future.
Estimated policy rules for different monetary regimes: Flexible inflation targeting versus a dual mandate

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has had a single price-stability mandate for monetary policy since February 1990. This mandate is set to be extended due to the RBNZ (Monetary Policy) Amendment Bill that is currently before parliament and that seeks to add employment to the RBNZ’s mandate. The Federal Reserve System in the United States (Federal Reserve) also has a dual mandate for monetary policy. In this paper we compare the responses of monetary policy to inflation and economic activity in New Zealand and the United States. We estimate how monetary policy in New Zealand responded to inflation and economic activity using the data available to policy makers at each point in time from 2000 through 2017. We then compare these estimates to similar estimates for the United States and assess how monetary policy settings have evolved over time. We find that, on average, monetary policy in New Zealand and the United States has responded to changes in economic activity and inflation in similar ways. Our findings show that the RBNZ has stabilised measures of economic activity, i.e. the output gap and output growth, to a similar extent to that of the Federal Reserve. This is despite the RBNZ not operating under a dual mandate. A potential explanation for this result is that the flexibility of the RBNZ’s inflation targeting strategy over history has allowed it to stabilise economic activity while maintaining the broader emphasis on price stability.
Understanding Medical Care of Transplant Recipients through Integrated Registry and Pharmacy Claims Data

Background: Limited data exist on medication use aside from immunosuppression among large samples of kidney transplant recipients. Methods: We examined a novel database wherein Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) registry data were linked to records from a US pharmaceutical claims clearinghouse (2005-2010 claims) to examine pharmaceutical care at the first transplant anniversary (n = 16,157). We quantified the use of the following medication types within ±60 days of the first-year OPTN report according to estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR): antihypertensives, lipid-lowering, bone and mineral, and anemia treatments. Adjusted associations of medication use with eGFR and other clinical factors were quantified by multivariate logistic regression. Results: Requirements for multiple antihypertensive agents rose with lower eGFR, with β-blockers comprising the most commonly used antihypertensive agent. The adjusted likelihood of vitamin D (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 2.07, 95% CI 1.19-3.59) and especially erythrocyte-stimulating agents (aOR 19.94, 95% CI 7.01-56.00) rose in a graded manner to peak with eGFR <15 versus >90, whereas statin use was most common with eGFR 30-59 ml/min/1.73 m2. Black race was independently associated with increased use of all classes of antihypertensives and vitamin D, but lower adjusted statin use. Rapamycin-based immunosuppression was associated with increased use of statins and erythrocyte-stimulating agents. Conclusions: Integrated registry and pharmacy fill data provide a novel tool for pharmacoepidemiologic investigations of delivered post-transplant care. Transplant recipients with reduced renal function have increased requirements for pharmaceutical care of comorbidities. Causes of racial variation in medication fills warrant further investigation.
Factors associated with tobacco sales to minors: lessons learned from the FDA compliance checks.

CONTEXT Tobacco products continue to be widely accessible to minors. Between 1997 and 1999, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted more than 150,000 tobacco sales age-restriction compliance checks. Data obtained from these checks provide important guidance for curbing illegal sales. OBJECTIVE To determine which elements of the compliance checks were most highly associated with illegal sales and thereby inform best practices for conducting efficient compliance check programs. DESIGN AND SETTING Cross-sectional analysis of FDA compliance checks in 110,062 unique establishments in 36 US states and the District of Columbia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Illegal sales of tobacco to minors at compliance checks; association of illegal sales with variables such as age and sex of the minor. RESULTS The rate of illegal sales for all first compliance checks in unique stores was 26.6%. Clerk failure to request proof of age was strongly associated with illegal sales (uncorrected sales rate, 10.5% compared with 89.5% sales when proof was not requested; multivariate-adjusted odds ratio [OR], 0.03; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.03-0.04). Other factors associated with increased illegal sales were employment of older minors to make the purchase attempt (adjusted ORs for 16- and 17-year-old minors compared with 15-year-olds were 1.52 [95% CI, 1.46-1.63] and 2.43 [95% CI, 2.31-2. 59], respectively), attempt to purchase smokeless tobacco (adjusted OR, 2.16 [95% CI, 1.90-2.45] vs cigarette purchase attempts), and performing checks at or after 5 PM (adjusted OR, 1.28 [95% CI, 1. 21-1.35] vs before 5 PM). Female sex of clerk and minor, Saturday checks, type of store (convenience store selling gas, gas station, drugstore, supermarket and general merchandise), and rural store locations also were associated with increased illegal sales. CONCLUSIONS This analysis found that a request for age verification strongly predicted compliance with the law. The results suggest several ways in which the process of compliance checks might be optimized. JAMA. 2000;284:729-734
A comparison of the family and childhood backgrounds of hospitalised offenders with schizophrenia or personality disorder.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have demonstrated high levels of childhood adversity and familial criminality in offender patients with schizophrenia and/or personality disorder, but few have directly compared these groups. AIMS To compare the parenting histories of offender patients with schizophrenia with those with personality disorder. We hypothesised that rates of family criminality and experiences of disrupted parenting would be higher in the personality disorder group than the schizophrenia group. METHOD A retrospective case-control methodology compared the family background and childhood experiences of patients with either schizophrenia or personality disorder (n = 3088) admitted to any of the English high-security hospitals. RESULTS Compared with those with schizophrenia, patients with personality disorder had experienced higher rates of family criminality, parental separation, and multiple changes of caregiver and institutional care. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of family psychiatric history between the groups. DISCUSSION Although our hypotheses were sustained, we were impressed that rates of disruption to parenting were high in the schizophrenia group as well as in the personality disorder group. Less than a third of the personality disorder group had survived childhood without a change in parenting, but this was true for about half of the schizophrenia group, too. Family work tailored for people with schizophrenia is needed, even though within personality disorder services, a greater demand for disorder-sensitive family work is likely to be encountered.
Deep learning for single-molecule science

Exploring and making predictions based on single-molecule data can be challenging, not only due to the sheer size of the datasets, but also because a priori knowledge about the signal characteristics is typically limited and poor signal-to-noise ratio. For example, hypothesis-driven data exploration, informed by an expectation of the signal characteristics, can lead to interpretation bias or loss of information. Equally, even when the different data categories are known, e.g., the four bases in DNA sequencing, it is often difficult to know how to make best use of the available information content. The latest developments in machine learning (ML), so-called deep learning (DL) offer interesting, new avenues to address such challenges. In some applications, such as speech and image recognition, DL has been able to outperform conventional ML strategies and even human performance. However, to date DL has not been applied much in single-molecule science, presumably in part because relatively little is known about the ‘internal workings’ of such DL tools within single-molecule science as a field. In this Tutorial, we make an attempt to illustrate in a step-by-step guide how one of those, a convolutional neural network (CNN), may be used for base calling in DNA sequencing applications. We compare it with a SVM as a more conventional ML method, and discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach. In particular, a ‘deep’ neural network has many features of a ‘black box’, which has important implications on how we look at and interpret data.
Extravascular Lung Water Measured Using Single Transpulmonary Thermodilution Reflects Perioperative Pulmonary Edema Induced by Esophagectomy

Pulmonary edema is the most frequent postoperative complication following esophagectomy for thoracic esophageal cancer. We enrolled 23 patients who underwent esophagectomy with extended lymph node dissection for thoracic esophageal cancer in a prospective observational clinical trial. We used the PiCCO device to measure extravascular lung water with the aim of determining whether it correlates with the respiratory index and whether it is predictive of pulmonary complications. Based on constant criteria, the tracheal tubes of 11 patients were removed on the morning of postoperative day 1 (extubation group), while 12 patients remained intubated (intubation group). These two groups significantly differed in that all patients in the extubation group recovered without any pulmonary complications, whereas 4 patients (33%) in the intubation group developed pulmonary complications. The extravascular lung water measured using PiCCO correlated significantly with the respiratory index. In the intubation group, both extravascular lung water and respiratory index were elevated 12 h after surgery and were even higher 24 h after surgery. The extravascular lung water measured using PiCCO reflects the level of postoperative pulmonary edema and predicts the pulmonary complications induced by esophagectomy with extended lymph node dissection.
Simultaneous Assessment of Brain Tissue Oxygenation and Cerebral Perfusion during Orthostatic Stress

Simultaneous registration of cerebral tissue oxygenation parameters obtained by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), intracranial blood flow velocity (CBFV) measured by transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) and basic cardiovascular parameters was carried out during a passive 80° head-up tilt table test in 15 patients with a history of orthostatic syncope and 20 control subjects. In normals, the cardiovascular parameters showed a specific course after changing to a vertical position: the heart rate increased, the mean arterial blood pressure remained unchanged, and the CBFV decreased. The NIRS measurements showed an increase in deoxyhemoglobin (HHb) and a decline in oxyhemoglobin (O2Hb) and the regional oxygen saturation (RSAT). Patients had a significantly more prominent decline in arterial blood pressure (p < 0.001), CBFV (p < 0.001) and RSAT (p = 0.04). Five patients experienced symptoms of (pre)syncope during the experiment, which were associated with a further sudden and marked (>10%) drop of O2Hb. The results indicate that the combination of TCD and NIRS increases the understanding of hemodynamic and metabolic changes during orthostatic stress, which may lead to individually suited therapeutic procedures.
Effects of sirtuin 1 activation on nicotine and lipopolysaccharide-induced cytotoxicity and inflammatory cytokine production in human gingival fibroblasts.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Although sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) over-expression and resveratrol exert anti-inflammatory and proinflammatory effects, their effects and the mechanism of action on human gingival fibroblast (HGF)-mediated inflammation are unknown. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the effects of activating SIRT1 using resveratrol and recombinant adenovirus encoding SIRT1 (Ad-SIRT1) on the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and to elucidate its mechanism of action of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and nicotine stimulated-HGF. MATERIAL AND METHODS Cytotoxicity and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were measured using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and flow cytometry, respectively. The amount of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2 ) released into the culture medium was measured by radioimmunoassay. mRNA and protein levels were analyzed using RT-PCR and western blotting, respectively. RESULTS Nicotine and LPS up-regulated the expression of SIRT1 mRNA and SIRT1 protein in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. Resveratrol and Ad-SIRT1 decreased LPS and nicotine-induced cytotoxicity, ROS and PGE2 production, and expression of cyclooxygenase-2 in HGFs. Resveratrol and Ad-SIRT1 inhibited nicotine and LPS-mediated protein kinase C (PKC), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), p38, ERK, JNK, MAPK and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) activation. CONCLUSION This study is the first to show that the anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective effects of SIRT1 activation in HGFs occur through the PKC, PI3K, MAPK and NF-κB pathways.
Connections between the facial, vestibular and cochlear nerve bundles within the internal auditory canal

The vestibular, cochlear and facial nerves have a common course in the internal auditory canal (IAC). In this study we investigated the average number of nerve fibres, the average cross‐sectional areas of the nerves and nerve fibres, and the apparent connections between the facial, cochlear and vestibular nerve bundles within the IAC, using light and scanning electron microscopy. The anatomical localization of the nerves within the IAC was not straightforward. The general course showed that the nerves rotated anticlockwise in the right ear from the inner ear end towards the brainstem end and vice versa for the left ear. The average number of fibres forming vestibular, cochlear, and facial nerves was not constant during their courses within the IAC. The superior and the inferior vestibular nerves showed an increase in the number of nerve fibres from the inner ear end towards the brainstem end of the IAC, whereas the facial and the cochlear nerves showed a reduction in the number of fibres. This suggests that some of the superior and inferior vestibular nerve bundles may receive fibres from the facial and/or cochlear nerves. Scanning electron microscopic evaluations showed superior vestibular–facial and inferior vestibular–cochlear connections within the IAC, but no facial–cochlear connections were observed. Connections between the nerves of the IAC can explain the unexpected vestibular disturbances in facial paralysis or persistence of tinnitus after cochlear neurectomy in intractable tinnitus cases. The present study offers morphometric and scanning electron microscopic data on the fibre connections of the nerves of the IAC.
Explaining India’s Current Account Deficit: A Time Series Perspective

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the issue of high current account deficit (CAD) from various perspectives focussing its behaviour, financing pattern and sustainability for India. Design/methodology/approach To begin with the trends, composition and dynamics of CAD for India are analysed. Next, the influence of capital flows on current account is investigated using Granger non-causality test proposed by Toda and Yamamoto (1995) between current account balance (CAB) to GDP ratio and financial account balance to GDP ratio. Also, the sustainability of India’s current account is examined using different econometrics techniques. In particular, Husted’s (1992), Johansen’s cointegration and vector error correction model (VECM) is applied along with conducting unit root and structural break tests wherever applicable. Further, long-run and short-run determinants of the CAB are estimated using Johansen’s VECM. Findings The study found that the widening of CAD is due to fall in household financial savings and corporate investments. Also, it was found that a large part of India’s CAD has been financed by FDI and portfolio investments which are partly replaced by short-term volatile flows. The unit root and cointegration tests indicate a sustainable current account for India. Further, econometric analysis reveals that India’s current account is driven by fiscal deficit, terms of trade growth, inflation, real deposit rate, trade openness, relative income growth and the age dependency factor. Practical implications Since India’s CAD has widened and is expected to widen primarily due to rise in gold and oil imports, policy makers should focus on achieving phenomenal export growth so that a sustainable current account is maintained. Also, with rising working-age and skilled population, India should focus more on high-value product exports rather than low-value manufactured items. Further, on the structural side it is important to correct fiscal deficit as it is one of the important factors contributing to large CAD. Originality/value The paper is an important empirical contribution towards explaining India’s CAD over time using latest and comprehensive data and econometric models.
A randomized, controlled pilot study of placing third‐year medical clerks in a continuity clinic

BACKGROUND. Because of the great interest in developing ambulatory care components within medical school curricula, there is a need for outcome data concerning such changes. METHOD. In 1991–92, 40 third-year students at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine were assigned to the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center for their core medicine clerkships; ten of these students were exposed to ambulatory care by being assigned to medical residents who worked in a general medicine continuity clinic. The ten students in the continuity clinic and the 30 who were not were evaluated by means of their (1) final clerkship evaluation scores for overall competence, (2) performances on a standardized-patient exercise where the majority of the simulations were of ambulatory care problems, and (3) self-assessment of clinical skills and knowledge and attitudes about primary care. Student's t-test was used to determine whether there were statistically significant differences between the performances of the two groups. In addition, the students in the clinic kept diaries about their clinic experiences. RESULTS. No significant difference was found between the two groups of students on the objective or subjective measures of evaluation, although the diary narratives of the clinic students revealed that they were extremely enthusiastic about the clinic experience. CONCLUSION. Because there was no significant difference between the performances of the two student groups, the ambulatory care model in this study, despite its feasibility to implement, was not adequate to teach the students the different problem-solving and therapeutic skills necessary in the ambulatory care setting.