Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceived Unmet Needs and Health-Related Quality of Life of Chinese Cancer Survivors at 1 Year After Treatment

Background: Although advanced cancer treatments prolong survivors’ lives, a significant proportion experienced poorer health-related quality of life (HRQoL) than general populations. Identifying their needs is essential to develop a health service delivery model to improve patient outcomes. Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the perceived unmet needs and HRQoL of Chinese cancer survivors who completed treatment less than 1 year ago. Methods: Three hundred seventy-six participants completed a self-report survey: the 34-item Supportive Care Needs Survey, the supplementary module of access to healthcare and ancillary support services, and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy: General. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the prevalence of unmet needs. Multivariable logistic regressions were conducted to identify participants’ characteristics that were associated with unmet needs. Multiple linear regression was used to delineate which domains of unmet needs were significantly associated with HRQoL with adjustment for potential confounding factors. Results: Healthcare information was the most common unmet needs among the survivors. Age, stage of cancer, and remission were significantly associated with 1 or more unmet need domains. Participants with unmet needs in physical, psychological, and patient care domains, on average, have poorer HRQoL. Conclusions: Chinese cancer survivors have various unmet needs that might have adverse effects on their HRQoL. Younger age, more advanced stages of cancer, and remission were factors contributing to further unmet needs. Implications for Practice: The results provided useful information on the special needs of survivors that may affect their HRQoL, enabling clinicians to plan better how to allocate existing limited resources to those who most require them.
Negative interaction in late life: issues in the stability and generalizability of conflict across relationships.

This study used an inductive approach to probe more deeply into the nature of negative interaction in late life. The data come from a nationwide longitudinal survey of older adults (N = 515). We began with two empirical observations and derived theoretical propositions from them that have not been explored extensively in mainstream gerontological research on negative interaction. First, the findings reveal that unpleasant interaction is quite stable over a 6-year period. This suggests that interpersonal difficulties are chronic stressors that may arise because at least some older people are involved in conflicted relationships that are difficult to terminate. The second empirical finding reveals that older adults who encounter interpersonal problems in one social relationship (e.g., with children) tend to encounter them in others as well (e.g., with friends). This suggests that some older people may play a role in creating the negative interactions they encounter.
The Chromosomal arsR Gene of Escherichia coli Encodes a trans-acting Metalloregulatory Protein (*)

Plasmid-encoded arsenical resistance (ars) operons confer high level resistance to arsenicals and antimonials, while the chromosomally encoded ars operon of Escherichia coli bestows low level resistance. The transcriptional start site of the chromosomal ars mRNA was mapped by primer extension, and putative −10 and −35 promoter recognition sites were identified. The arsR gene, the first gene in this operon, was cloned using polymerase chain reaction. The arsR gene product, the ArsR repressor, was expressed and purified. The results of gel mobility shift assays indicated that the repressor is a DNA binding protein that binds to a fragment of DNA containing the chromosomal ars promoter. The specific binding site, as determined by DNase I footprint analysis, spans 33 nucleotides in the promoter region, including the putative −35 promoter element. By construction and expression of a series of in-frame fusions between truncated arsR genes and the coding region for the mature form of β-lactamase (blaM′), it was shown that ArsR is a trans-acting repressor that regulates expression of the chromosomal ars operon. In addition, the chromosomally-encoded repressor can regulate expression of the ars operon of plasmid R773, and the R773 repressor can cross-regulate expression from the chromosomal operon.
Economic choice theory: Labor-supply behavior II: Tests of competing motivational processes and earnings distributions for animal workers

This book details the results of the authors' research using laboratory animals to investigate individual choice theory in economics-consumer-demand and labour supply behaviour and choice under uncertainty. The use of laboratory animals provides the opportunity to conduct controlled experiments involving precise and demanding tests of economic theory with rewards and punishments of real consequence. Economic models are compared to psychological and biological choice models along with the results of experiments testing between these competing explanations. Results of animal experiments are used to address questions of social policy importance.
Elimination of hepatocellular carcinoma and acute hepatitis B in children 25 years after a hepatitis B newborn and catch‐up immunization program

Alaska Native people experience the highest rates of acute and chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the United States. We examined the effect of a universal newborn immunization with hepatitis B vaccine and mass population screening immunization program initiated in 1984 on rates of HBV and HCC in children 25 years later. During this time, the population of Alaska Native people grew from an estimated 75,000 to 130,000 persons. A surveillance system to detect acute HBV infection in Alaska Native facilities was established in 1981. Cases of HCC in children under 20 years of age were identified using a National Cancer Institute (NCI)‐funded Cancer Registry established in 1969 coupled with an active surveillance program of screening persons with chronic HBV semiannually for alpha‐fetoprotein since 1982. The incidence of acute symptomatic HBV infection in persons <20 years of age fell from cases 19/100,000 in 1981‐1982 to 0/100,000 in 1993‐1994. No cases of acute HBV have occurred in children since 1992. The incidence of HCC in persons <20 years decreased from 3/100,000 in 1984‐1988 to zero in 1995‐1999 and no cases have occurred since 1999. The number of identified hepatitis B surface antigen‐positive children <20 years in the Alaska Native population declined from 657 in 1987 to two in 2008. Conclusion: Universal newborn vaccination coupled with mass screening and immunization of susceptible Alaska Natives has eliminated HCC and acute symptomatic HBV infection among Alaska Native children and this approach is the best way to prevent HBV‐related disease in children. (HEPATOLOGY 2011;)
Viral-derived complement inhibitors: current status and potential role in immunomodulation

The complement system is one of the body’s major innate immune defense mechanisms in vertebrates. Its function is to detect foreign bodies and promote their elimination through opsonisation or lysis. Complement proteins play an important role in the immunopathogenesis of several disorders. However, excessive complement activation does not confer more protection but instead leads to several autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. With inappropriate activation of the complement system, activated complement proteins and glycoproteins may damage both healthy and diseased tissues. Development of complement inhibitors represents an effective approach in controlling dysregulated complement activity and reducing disease severity, yet few studies have investigated the nature and role of novel complement inhibitory proteins of viral origin. Viral complement inhibitors have important implications in understanding the importance of complement inhibition and their role as a promising novel therapeutic approach in diseases caused by dysregulated complement function. In this review, we discuss the role and importance of complement inhibitors derived from several viruses in the scope of human inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
Chest radiographic manifestations of scrub typhus

Background and Rationale: Respiratory system involvement in scrub typhus is seen in 20–72% of patients. In endemic areas, good understanding and familiarity with the various radiologic findings of scrub typhus are essential in identifying pulmonary complications. Materials and Methods: Patients admitted to a tertiary care center with scrub typhus between October 2012 and September 2013 and had a chest X ray done were included in the analysis. Details and radiographic findings were noted and factors associated with abnormal X-rays were analyzed. Results: The study cohort contained 398 patients. Common presenting complaints included fever (100%), generalized myalgia (83%), headache (65%), dyspnea (54%), cough (24.3%), and altered sensorium (14%). Almost half of the patients (49.4%) had normal chest radiographs. Common radiological pulmonary abnormalities included pleural effusion (14.6%), acute respiratory distress syndrome (14%), airspace opacity (10.5%), reticulonodular opacities (10.3%), peribronchial thickening (5.8%), and pulmonary edema (2%). Cardiomegaly was noted in 3.5% of patients. Breathlessness, presence of an eschar, platelet counts of <20,000 cells/cumm, and total serum bilirubin >2 mg/dL had the highest odds of having an abnormal chest radiograph. Patients with an abnormal chest X-ray had a higher requirement of noninvasive ventilation (odds ratio [OR]: 13.98; 95% confidence interval CI: 5.89–33.16), invasive ventilation (OR: 18.07; 95% CI: 6.42–50.88), inotropes (OR: 8.76; 95% CI: 4.35–17.62), higher involvement of other organ systems, longer duration of hospital stay (3.18 ± 3 vs. 7.27 ± 5.58 days; P< 0.001), and higher mortality (OR: 4.63; 95% CI: 1.54–13.85). Conclusion: Almost half of the patients with scrub typhus have abnormal chest radiographs. Chest radiography should be included as part of basic evaluation at presentation in patients with scrub typhus, especially in those with breathlessness, eschar, jaundice, and severe thrombocytopenia.
High‐dose dexamethasone or all‐trans‐retinoic acid restores the balance of macrophages towards M2 in immune thrombocytopenia

Essentials M1/M2 imbalance is involved in many autoimmune diseases, and could be restored. The expressions and functions of M1 and M2 were investigated in an in vitro culture system. A preferred M1 polarization is involved in the pathogenesis of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). High‐dose dexamethasone or all‐trans‐retinoic acid restores M1/M2 balance in ITP patients.
Surface wrinkling of a channelized flow

We consider an inclined rectangular duct of constant cross-section conveying viscous fluid and covered by an elastic plate. The fluid is described by the Stokes equations and the plate by the Föppl–von Kármán equations. The equations admit an equilibrium solution in which the plate is flat and fluid flows underneath due to gravity. This base flow induces a varying traction across the plate, which can lead to out-of-plane buckling due to the associated in-plane shear. Linear stability analysis demonstrates that buckling occurs for sufficiently thin plates on steep slopes and deep channels. The most unstable modes take the form of either symmetric or antisymmetric downslope-directed chevron patterns that travel downstream at a fraction of the average speed of the base flow. An analogous analysis shows that similar buckling also occurs if the elastic plate is replaced by a thin skin of very viscous fluid. Our description provides a simple model for the formation of ropy pahoehoe lava.
Depletion of Pulmonary Intravascular Macrophages Prevents Hyperacute Pulmonary Xenograft Dysfunction

Background. Recent years have brought dramatic progress in the field of xenotransplantation, with the development of transgenic swine and various other means of overcoming the rejection mediated by xenoreactive antibodies. Although progress has been rapid with kidney and heart xenografts, progress with pulmonary xenografts has lagged behind. Recent findings have suggested that donor pulmonary intravascular macrophages may play a critical role in the hyperacute dysfunction of pulmonary xenografts. Methods. The function of pulmonary xenografts from pigs depleted of pulmonary intravascular macrophages was compared with the function of xenografts from normal pigs. Results. Pulmonary xenografts from pigs from which pulmonary intravascular macrophages were depleted survived (23.5±0.9 hours) about five times longer than normal (macrophage sufficient) xenografts (4.4±1.41 hours) (P< 0.0001). At 21 hours postreperfusion, the left pulmonary arterial flow was 225.0±34 ml/min in lungs depleted of pulmonary intravascular macrophages, whereas all normal xenografts had failed. Conclusions. These findings indicate that donor macrophages play a critical role in pulmonary xenograft dysfunction. This finding has broad implications for xenotransplantation, suggesting that porcine macrophages might pose a barrier to the engraftment and function of a variety of porcine organ xenografts.
Alternative Approaches to Forecasting Inflation in the Case of Egypt

With Egypt’s transition to a new monetary policy regime based on inflation targeting, an important pre-requisite for the success of monetary policy conduct is the ability to forecast future inflation. This paper evaluates the robustness of three alternative approaches to forecasting inflation in Egypt during the period 2001:1-2002:4. The alternative modeling approaches are namely an output gap (Phillips curve) model, a money gap model, and a vector autoregressive (VAR) model. The empirical results show that the money gap model fits the data very well and is able to capture the dynamics of inflation in Egypt during the period 1980:4-2000:4; however, the three models result in poor forecast performance. A possible reason behind this outcome could be due to the recently observed anomaly in inflation developments using different price indices.
Combination polypharmacy for cardiovascular disease prevention in men: a decision analysis and cost-effectiveness model.

Pharmacotherapies to lower blood pressure and cholesterol are effective in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The use of fixed-dose medication combinations has not been well studied. The authors created a Markov model to analyze the cost-effectiveness of 4 fixed-dose medications for primary CVD prevention in men. The initial decision node was to treat or not treat men older than 55 years, without CVD, hypertension, or dyslipidemia with a combination of simvastatin, captopril, hydrochlorothiazide, and atenolol. Probability, costs, and effectiveness were derived from the literature. The outcome variable was marginal cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY). Sensitivity analyses were performed. The average cost of treatment was $70,000 compared with $93,000 for non-treatment. Treatment resulted in 13.62 QALYs vs 12.96 QALYs without treatment. Primary prevention of CVD with fixed-dose medications dominated "no-treatment. " The use of a fixed-dose polypharmacy approach to CVD prevention in men older than 55 years may be cost-effective.
Social big data mining: A survey focused on opinion mining and sentiments analysis

The emergence of social media and the huge amount of data generated by them, has lead researchers to study the possibility of their exploitation in order to identify hidden knowledge. Thus, two areas are attracting more and more interest in the research community, the opinion mining and sentiment analysis. The research papers in this field are increasing rapidly. However, few survey papers have been published in this area. The rare survey papers that have been published focusing on a particular aspect (for example, the sentiment classification techniques, the challenges and application of opinion mining and sentiment analysis, etc.) and don't concern the research work proposed this last two years. We propose, in this paper, a study of 60 recent papers (60 % published between 2013 and 2015) treating the social media mining. We compare this work regarding to several criteria. Finally, we present a table summarizing all studied work. Due to the richness of social media opinions, emotions and sentiments. We focus in this paper on opinion mining and sentiment analysis and show the position of this field in social media mining issues. Then, we describe them in detail by studying the research work on each task in these issues. We will finish by identifying a set of open issues that we will try to propose contributions in our future work.
An Analysis of Reduction in Medical Expenditures by e-Health Systems: Case of Nishiaizu Town, Fukushima Prefecture

This paper analyzes the effects of e-health systems on medical expenditures. An e-health system monitors the health condition of patients at home by transmitting the patients' health-related data to a remote medical institution via a telecommunications network, allowing patients to be monitored by medical institutions 24 hours a day. Previous research has identified the following effects of the e-health system: (i) reduced anxiety in day-to-day life; (ii) stabilization of illness; (iii) enhancement of health consciousness; and (iv) decrease in medical expenditures. In order to test the significance of these effects, we conducted a case study of Nishiaizu Town, which has been making full use of the system since 1994. Nishiaizu was the second local government in Japan to introduce the system; since then, the system has been the core of the town's health, welfare, and medical services. The authors conducted field research on Nishiaizu in 2000, 2001 and 2006, taking advantage of the town's readily available medical expenditure data. Our analysis compares the town's medical expenditures with the nationwide average for four distinct categories of patients, using difference tests of difference and Pearson correlations. The former test examines differences in expenditure levels, while the latter measures differences in expenditure trends. We compare these before and after the introduction of Nishiaizu's e-health system. We conclude that the e-health system may have had significant effects for residents classified as "Elderly" and "General. " The former category includes most users of the e-health system in Nishiaizu. In order to make a more rigorous analysis, we require more detailed data, such as individuals' medical expenditures and their experiences using the system.
Semi-supervised convolutional extreme learning machine

We propose a scheme for training a neural network as an image classifier. The approach includes a very rapid unsupervised feature learning algorithm and a supervised technique. We show that convolving and downsampling clustered descriptors of image patches with each input image can provide more discriminative features compared to both pre-trained descriptors and randomly generated convolutional filters. The implemented algorithm to discover clusters centroids (i.e. k-means clustering) for color images is not restricted to only RGB and we show that the algorithm is appropriate for Lab color representations. We use the centroids for obtaining convolutional features. We also present a high performance extreme learning machine (ELM), which is a method characterized by low implementation complexity, and run-time, to classify the learned features. We show that the combination of the unsupervised feature learning with the ELM outperforms previous related models that use different feature representations fed into an ELM, on the CIFAR-10 and Google Street View House Number (SVHN) datasets.
Future IPM Trends in Trinidad and Tobago: A Qualitative Study of Farmers’ Perspectives

Agriculture plays a fundamental role in the infrastructure of many developing economies. Trinidad and Tobago depends on food imports for over 90% of its domestic food supply making agriculture a politically sensitive sector. Technology adoption, specifically Integrated Pest Management (IPM), is one method used by the government to help enhance food security. The purpose of this study is to evaluate factors affecting IPM program adoption in Trinidad and Tobago, to describe current practices used by farmers, and to identify future perceptions of IPM technology. The theoretical framework for this study was constructed using Rogers’ diffusion of innovations as it pertains to agriculture. Twenty-one farmers were purposively selected to participate in this study. Economics, progressive ideology, mixed control methods, pest management practices, traditions, and a holistic approach to agriculture were identified as the key elements of IPM programs by farmers. Practitioners seeking to influence the adoption of IPM in this country should be knowledgeable of IPM program elements. Future research should seek to enhance information communication and dissemination.
Changing Student Attitudes towards Globalization: A Study on the Influence of International BusinessCourses in Qatar and Hong Kong

We report how the attitudes of students towards globalization changed upon completing the International Business course in two mid-sized universities, one in the Middle East and the other in East Asia. We examined students’ attitudes towards globalization – economic, political, and cultural – through questionnaire surveys administered at the start and end of the IB course. Paired t-tests show that students’ awareness of globalization and diversity, and their knowledge of international trade increased significantly from the start of the course to its end. However, students’ views on the impacts of globalization, their tolerance for diversity, support for free market policies, and attitudes towards foreign investment showed little or no change. We conclude that it is easier to raise awareness and knowledge of globalization than to change more deeply held values on diversity, free market economics, and foreign investment. Keywords : Globalization, Student Attitudes, Before-After Design
Beyond the Uniform Distribution: Equilibrium Prices and Qualities in a Vertically Differentiated Duopoly

The paper proves the existence of a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium in a vertically differentiated duopoly with uncovered market, for a large set of symmetric and asymmetric distributions of consumers, including, among others, all logconcave distributions. The proof relies on the ’income share elasticity’ representation of the consumers’ density function, which ensures the analytical tractability of the firms’ optimality conditions at a high level of generality. Some illustrative examples of the solution are offered, in order to assess the impact of distributive shocks on the equilibrium market configuration.