Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What are General Practitioner perceptions of workload in England? A qualitative study

Background: General Practitioner (GP) morale is the lowest amongst doctors, job satisfaction is low, and the GP workforce is diminishing. Workload is frequently cited as negatively impacting on commitment to a career in general practice, and many GPs report their workload to be unmanageable. Aim: To gather in-depth understanding of GPs’ perceptions and attitudes towards workload. Design and Setting: All GPs working within NHS England were eligible. Of those who responded to advertisements, a maximum variation sample was selected until data saturation was reached. Method: Semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted. Data were analysed thematically. Results: 171 GPs responded, and 34 were included. GPs described an increase in workload over with working days being and intense, which raised concerns over wellbeing of GPs and patients. Full-time partnership was generally not considered to be possible, and many participants felt workload was unsustainable, particularly given the diminishing workforce. Four major themes emerged to explain increased workload: 1) increased patient needs and expectations, 2) changing relationship between primary and secondary care, 3) bureaucracy and resources, and 4) the balance of workload within a practice. Continuity of care was perceived to be being eroded by changes in contracts and working patterns to deal with workload. Conclusion: This study highlights the urgent need to address perceived lack of investment and clinical capacity in general practice; and suggests that influencing patient expectations of what primary care can deliver and reducing bureaucracy have become key issues, at least until the capacity issues are resolved.
Final analysis of a randomized phase II study of bevacizumab (B) and gemcitabine (G) plus cetuximab (C) or erlotinib (E) in patients (pts) with advanced pancreatic cancer (PC)

4502 Background: Targeting several critical pathways may be more effective than single pathway blockade in a resistant cancer like PC. In preclinical PC models, combining EGFR + VEGF targeted agents is synergistic. Methods: We conducted a multicenter, randomized phase II trial of dual targeted therapy, GBC or GBE, in advanced PC pts who had: no prior therapy for metastatic disease, PS 0–2, measurable disease, no bleeding risk or duodenal invasion. Primary endpoint: response; 2 parallel, Simon 2-stage designs. Baseline correlatives: plasma VEGF, serum VEGFR2. All pts received G 1000 mg/m2 over 30’ days (D) 1, 8, 15 Q28D; B 10 mg/kg D 1, 15 Q28D. Pts, stratified by PS and site, were randomized to C 400 mg/m2 D1 then 250 mg/m2 Q7D, or E 150 mg D1–5, 8- 12, 15–26 Q28D. Results: 139 evaluable pts (GBC/GBE 68/71) enrolled at 16 sites 9/04–2/07. Pt characteristics: median age 63/63 (range 36–83/39–86); male 49%/70%; PS 0 35%/48%, 1 59%/46%, 2 6%/6%. Cycles: 343/373 (median 4/4; range 1–18/1–18). Grade 3/4 toxici.
Role of bank heterogeneity and market structure in transmitting monetary policy via bank lending channel: empirical evidence from Chinese banking sector

ABSTRACT This study investigates how market structure affects the transmission of monetary policy through the policy’s effects on the bank lending channel in the Chinese banking system. By using structural and nonstructural measures of market structure, we also examined how bank responses are affected by heterogeneity. An unbalanced panel was constructed for 122 Chinese banks using annual data from 2000 to 2014. A dynamic model using two-step system GMM gave results indicating that, for both structural and nonstructural measures, banks with greater market power and increased concentration in the market tend to weaken the monetary policy transmission via the bank lending channel. This result holds while accounting for different bank characteristics such as size, liquidity, and capitalisation. In the Chinese banking market, banks which are well capitalised and have good liquidity position are much more insulated from any shifts in monetary policy because they have alternative sources of funds and have buffers of capital to meet the bank loan supply needs. Ownership structure also plays an important role in weakening the transmission effect through the bank lending channels of joint-equity and city commercial banks. These results are shown to be robust by considering an alternative measure of monetary policy.
Desinfeção do cordão umbilical: revisão baseada na evidência

Objective: Umbilical cord care differs across cultures. Aseptic technique is generally accepted, although there is much debate on the best treatment. Keeping the umbilical cord stump clean and dry is often neglected. The aim of this study is to determine if umbilical cord disinfection reduces perinatal morbidity of newborns delivered in the hospital setting in developed countries. Data sources: MEDLINE, National Guideline Clearinghouse, NICE Guidelines Finder, Canadian Medical Association Practice Guidelines Infobase, The Cochrane Library, DARE, Bandolier, evidence-based medicine websites and bibliographic references of the selected articles were searched. Revision methods: A study of clinical guidelines, meta-analyses, systematic reviews and randomized clinical trials was carried out. The MeSH terms used were ‘Chlorhexidine’, ‘Disinfectants’ and ‘Umbilical cord’ for studies published between August 2005 and August 2015 in English, Spanish and Portuguese. To evaluate the levels of evidence and strength of recommendations, the Strength of recommendation taxonomy scale of American Academy of Family Physicians was used. Results: The search produced 315 results. Of these, three publications were included. One meta-analysis showed no significant difference in omphalitis with application of antiseptic versus placebo. Two clinical guidelines stated that application of antimicrobials was not superior to dry cord care in preventing cord infection and bacterial colonization. Conclusions: The analysis of the articles selected showed that there is insufficient evidence to advise the use of antiseptics in the care of the umbilical cord of infants born in hospital in developed countries (strength of recommendation A). Dry cord care is recommended. More high quality studies are needed including randomized controlled trials in relevant populations.
Frequency of Tubal Ectopic Pregnancy and Mode of Management at Al-Thawra General Modern Hospital

Objective: To determine the frequency of tubal ectopic pregnancy and to evaluate the epidemiological and common predisposing factors in cases study. To determine the mode of management of tubal ectopic pregnancy. Study Design: This is a prospective descriptive analytic study carried out from 1 January 2013 until 31 December 2013 at obstetric and gynecological unit at Al-Thawra Hospital in Sana’a, Yemen. Results: Total number of deliveries from the 1st of January 2013 till the 31st of December 2013, were a total of 9330 deliveries, out of which 103 women had tubal ectopic pregnancy creating an incidence of 1.1% of the total deliveries with a ratio of 11/1000 live births. The mean age of the patients was 27.8 yrs and ranged between 17-40 years of age. It was most common in multipara with a percentage of 78.67 54.4% of women were Qat chewers and smokers. It was more commonly found in women of low economic status with 90.3%. 30.1% of women with it had a history of abortion, 70.9% had a history of pelvic inflammatory disease, 20.8% had a history of an abdominopelvic surgery, 11.7% were using intrauterine device and 5.8% were using progesterone-only pills, 1.9% had a history of tubal sterilization, 88.3% presented with abdominal pain, 72.8% gave a history of amenorrhea, 63.1% presented with vaginal bleeding, 79.6% presented with hemodynamic instability, 86.5% were treated surgically, and 14.5% were treated medically using Methotrexate. The surgical treatment was salpingectomy in 90.4%, and 6.6% was salpingostomy. There were no maternal mortalities. Conclusion: The most common risk factors found in patients with tubal ectopic pregnancy were previous abortions and PID. The majority of the patients were treated surgically as they were lately presented in a state of hemodynamic instability. 14.5% were treated medically and this proved to be very effective.
Pairs Trading in Cryptocurrency Markets

Pairs trading is a strategy based on exploiting mean reversion in prices of securities. Even though these strategies have been shown to perform well for equities, their performance is unknown for the field of cryptocurrencies, usually perceived as inefficient and predictable. We apply the distance and cointegration methods to a basket of 26 liquid cryptocurrencies traded on the Binance exchange, specifically at 5-minute, 1-hour and daily frequencies. In our backtests, the strategies underperform classical benchmarks. However, the results are quite sensitive to parameter settings and external factors such as transaction costs or execution windows. Higher-frequency trading delivers significantly better performance, and while the most common daily distance method returns −0.07% monthly, this increases to 11.61% monthly for 5-minute frequency. Additionally, we find evidence of simple mean-reverting behavior in intraday prices that is missing in daily data, and which provides further support for the inefficiency of cryptocurrency markets.
Ebola : too far or so close?

Malta Medical Journal Volume 26 Issue 03 2014 Abstract The year 2014 has witnessed the escalation of the largest ever Ebola outbreak which started in Guinea, and later spread to other countries in West Africa. The associated disease burden has already exceeded the total number of cases in all the sporadic outbreaks that occurred since the first description of Ebola in 1976. The threat of further spread across Africa, and possibly beyond through international travel, is of concern and has led several countries around the world to implement preparedness measures against Ebola. In an attempt to contain the spread of Ebola, WHO and other nongovernmental humanitarian organisations have pooled their resources to fuel efforts at improving patient care, isolation facilities, healthcare worker training, and availability of personal protective equipment in the affected countries. The outbreak has brought to light the lack of past investment in research into treatment or potential vaccine development against the Ebola virus, with the only hope of expediting a cure that can be used in the current outbreak being through the launch of clinical trials investigating experimental drugs in the affected countries.
Carotid Artery intimal thickness measurement as a marker of iron overload in beta-thalassemia patients and as predictor of early atherosclerosis.

Poster: "ECR 2016 / C-0752 / Carotid Artery intimal thickness measurement as a marker of iron overload in beta-thalassemia patients and as predictor of early atherosclerosis. " by: "M. R. Verma1, D. P. Patkar1, A. S. KARNIK2, R. Merchant1, S. chate1, K. Agawane1, M. Bapat1; 1Mumbai/IN, 2MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA/IN"
Prognostic Factors in the Survival Rate of colorectal cancer patients

Background & objectives : colorectal cancer is The second common cancer in women and the third cancers in men. The aim of this study was to recognize of prognostic factors in the survival rate of colorectal cancer patients who referred to Omid Hospital of Mashhad from 2006 to 2011. Material & Methods : In this historical cohort study, 241 colorectal cancer patients were investigated. Demographic and clinical data were collected. Then the prognostic factors were established by Cox model using SAS software. (α = 0.05) Results : The mean age at diagnosis was 56.62 ± 0.94 years. The 1,2,3,4 years survival rate were 81%, 66%, 53% and 44% respectively and the Median survival time in five years period, was 3.348 years. In Cox regression model, recurrence, history of opioid consumption and Duke’s stage were determined as effective factors in the survival rate of patients. (P-value<0.05) Conclusion : Considering different results from different studies, further studies to detection of Prognostic Factors in the survival rate of patients seem to be necessary.
Review of assistive technology in the training of children with autism spectrum disorders

The use of socially assistive robotics (SARs) is a promising method for improving the social skills of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Studies conducted in this field in recent years show that the use of robots as collaborators may have positive effects on the development of social skills in children with ASD, especially in those areas where they reveal great deficits. In this literature review, we present, organize and evaluate the most important features and results of 13 relevant scientific articles. In analysis of the research findings we explored the documented effectiveness of robotics in enhancing the social skills of children with ASD in the areas of mutual attention, verbal communication and imitation skills, and also in the reduction of stereotypical behavior. Analysis of the results of the 13 studies confirmed that robots can have positive immediate effects on the communication skills of children with ASD, which holds promise for future intervention programs and relevant research.
Presentación clínica de tumores intracraneales supratentoriales (ST) e infratentoriales (IT) en pacientes pediátricos

Los tumores cerebrales son la segunda neoplasia mas comun en la infancia, ademas de los tumores solidos mas comunes en la edad pediatrica y la causa mas frecuente de morbilidad y mortalidad asociada a cancer en esta edad. Objetivo: Determinar la presentacion clinica de las tumoraciones intracraneales ST e IT en pacientes pediatricos. Material y metodos: Se realizo un estudio observacional, retrospectivo, transversal y comparativo en el que se revisaron los expedientes de 51 pacientes pediatricos diagnosticados con tumor intracraneal de localizacion ST o IT. Resultados: La localizacion del tumor fue IT en 32 pacientes (62.7%) y ST en 19 (37.3%). El sindrome cerebeloso se presento en 21 pacientes (65.6%) con tumoracion IT y en 6 (31.5%) con tumoracion ST (p = 0.04). El nistagmo predomino de manera significativa en el grupo de pacientes con tumoraciones IT (p = 0.029). Las alteraciones endocrinas se presentaron en cuatro pacientes (21%) con tumoracion ST, pero en ninguno con tumoracion IT (p = 0.03). Conclusiones: El sindrome cerebeloso se observa con mayor frecuencia en los pacientes con tumoracion IT. El nistagmo es una de las alteraciones visuales mas frecuentes en pacientes con tumoracion IT. Las alteraciones endocrinas son significativamente mas frecuentes en pacientes con tumoracion ST. El tiempo transcurrido entre el inicio de los sintomas y el diagnostico de tumoracion intracraneal es significativamente mas prolongado en los ninos con tumoracion ST, ya que los sintomas son de inicio de mas insidioso y se confunden con otras enfermedades benignas
Adult Bronchiectasis Patients: A First Look at the United States Bronchiectasis Research Registry.

Abstract We sought to describe the characteristics of adult bronchiectasis patients enrolled in the United States Bronchiectasis Research Registry (BRR). The BRR is a database of non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (NCFB) patients enrolled at 13 sites within the United States. Baseline demographic, spirometric, imaging, microbiologic, and therapeutic data were entered into a central web-based database. Patients were subsequently analyzed by the presence NTM. We enrolled 1826 patients between 2008 and 2014. Patients were predominantly female (79%), white (89%), and never smokers (60%) with a mean age 64±14 years. Sixty-three percent of the patients had a history of NTM disease or NTM isolated at baseline evaluation into the BRR. NTM patients were older, predominantly female, and had bronchiectasis diagnosed at a later age than those without NTM. Gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) was more common in those with NTM whereas asthma, primary immunodeficiency and primary ciliary dyskinesia were more common in those without NTM. Fifty-one percent of patients had spirometric evidence of airflow obstruction. NTM patients were more likely to have diffusely dilated airways and tree-in-bud abnormalities. Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus aureus isolates were less commonly cultured among patients with NTM. Bronchial hygiene measures were used more often in those with NTM; whereas antibiotics used for exacerbations, rotating oral antibiotics, steroid use, and inhaled bronchodilators were more commonly used in those without NTM. Adult bronchiectasis patients enrolled in the US BRR are described with differences noted in demographic, radiographic, microbiologic, and treatment variables based on stratification of the presence of NTM.
Standards for language assessment: demystifying university-level English placement testing in China

ABSTRACT Despite the increasing discussions on quality and professionalism in the field of language assessment, limited empirical research is currently available on whether language testing practice conforms to the best practice model prescribed in professional standards. Situated in the context of Chinese higher education, this study examined how English placement tests are developed, implemented and used, and explored the social and contextual factors that shaped different aspects of placement testing practice. A mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was employed to collect the research data. Findings suggest the lack of quality control procedures in placement testing practice, thus raising legitimate concerns over the reliability, validity, and indeed the overall usefulness of English placement tests for College English (CE) teaching programmes. Several factors featured prominently in the qualitative data which affected placement testing practice, including time pressure, a lack of policy and financial support from relevant administrative departments, stakeholders’ lack of language assessment literacy (LAL), and students’ cheating behaviours. Through investigating these aspects of English placement testing practice, this study highlights the crucial roles of professional standards in language testing practice and the importance of understanding the social dimensions of language assessment.
Caracterización de los pacientes con Fibrosis Quística diagnosticados por cloruros en Sudor

Background and Objective: Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disease of autosomal recessive inheritance characterized by dysfunctional secretion of the exocrine glands. In Honduras there are no reviews of this topic, so this study was conducted to characterize patients diagnosed with cystic fibrosis through sweat chloride test.Patient and Methods: This is a descriptive study with a quantitative approach. Clinical records were reviewed and an instrument of 20 questions was applied to patients from January 2010-June 2015.Results: five patients diagnosed with cystic fibrosis are presented. The age at diagnosis ranged from newborn to 5 years; 2 of them with a family history of the disease. At the onset of the disease 3 had respiratory and digestive symptoms. In relation to height / age at diagnosis 4 were found below the Z -3 score. All cultures reported Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Regarding the therapeutic management of patients, all of them were nebulized with 7% hypertonic saline, beta -2-agonists, systemic antibiotics, and enzymes and fat-soluble vitamin supplementation were indicated. 2 patients out of 3 (67%) had mutations detected in the CFTR gene _F 508.Conclusions: Cystic Fibrosis is a disease still largely unknown. Neonatal screening should be implemented to help the early diagnosis and sweat chloride test in older patients with high clinical suspicion of the disease.Acta Pediatrica Hondurena, Vol. 6, No. 2 /octubre 2015 a marzo 2016: 486-492
Teaching a Series of Mind-Body Techniques to Address the Risk of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Sonography Students: A Pilot Study

Sonographers have been the focus of documenting work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The literature has focused on self-reported survey data, which point to more than 80% of sonographers performing their jobs in pain. However, few intervention studies have been designed to address these risks. A pre-post pre-experimental design was employed, and longitudinal data were collected from a cohort of first-year sonography students (n = 12). Three groups of participants (n = 4 each) were exposed to a combination of ergonomics education and mind-body techniques. Analysis of survey data did not demonstrate statistically significant changes across any of the groups. However, participants who specifically practiced mindful sonography yoga and cueing indicated an improvement in mental health, stress level, and right upper extremity pain. Posture was improved with biofeedback training, while participants who used both biofeedback training and mindful sonography yoga and cueing demonstrated even greater improvement in posture.
Frequentist Properties of Bayesian Procedures for High-Dimensional Sparse Regression.

JEONG, SEONGHYUN. Frequentist Properties of Bayesian Procedures for High-Dimensional Sparse Regression. (Under the direction of Subhashis Ghoshal.) High-dimensional sparse models have received a lot of attention during the last two decades, but their theoretical properties from the Bayesian point of view have been much less studied than those under the frequentist framework. This dissertation aims to fill these gaps by studying the frequentist properties of the Bayesian procedures for various high-dimensional sparse regression models. Chapter 2 deals with a unified approach to Bayesian sparse regression when a possibly infinite-dimensional nuisance parameter is involved in a model. A mixture of a point mass at zero and a Laplace distribution is used for the prior distribution on sparse regression coefficients and an appropriate prior distribution is assigned to a nuisance parameter to yield nearly optimal posterior contraction. A shape approximation to the posterior distribution is characterized to show a semiparametric Bernstein-von Mises-type theorem and model selection consistency. Numerous examples are discussed including regression with partially sparse coefficients, multiple response models with missing components, multivariate measurement error models, mixed effects models, partial linear models, and nonparametric heteroskedastic regression models. Chapter 3 considers high-dimensional logit models for categorical response variables under group sparsity. Similar to Chapter 2, a mixture prior consisting of a point mass at zero and a Laplace-type distribution is assigned to high-dimensional regression coefficients. Our study improves existing results in various directions. The procedure exhibits nearly optimal posterior contraction for the group sparse modeling. An approximation to the posterior distribution is also characterized to achieve model selection consistency. The distributional approximation also leads to a Bernstein-von Mises theorem for uncertainty quantification through credible sets with guaranteed frequentist coverage. Chapter 4 focuses on posterior contraction rates for the high-dimensional generalized linear models with sparse priors. Again, a mixture prior is considered for high-dimensional regression coefficients, but a proper class of continuous distributions is considered for the slab-part in place of one single distribution. Our procedure incorporates non-canonical and canonical link functions; hence some standard, but non-canonical, models can also be considered, such as probit regression or gamma regression with the logarithmic link. The induced posterior contraction rates are nearly optimal. High-dimensional generalized linear models can be treated under this framework and their posterior contraction rates can be derived explicitly using the developed theory. © Copyright 2019 by Seonghyun Jeong