Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Benzodiazepine use and expenditures for Medicare beneficiaries and the implications of Medicare Part D exclusions.

OBJECTIVES Benzodiazepines are excluded from prescription drug coverage under Medicare Part D. The objectives of this study were twofold: to provide national estimates of benzodiazepine utilization and expenditure patterns and to examine the impact of drug coverage and other factors associated with utilization of benzodiazepines and potential benzodiazepine substitute classes. METHODS The 2002 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey provided national estimates of benzodiazepine use and expenditures among Medicare beneficiaries. Multivariate logistic regression was conducted to assess the relationships between independent variables and use of benzodiazepines and potential substitute classes. The independent variable of interest was drug coverage, assessed by payer source. Other covariates included in the models were chronic conditions associated with benzodiazepine use, age, sex, race, and income. RESULTS In 2002, 13.7% of Medicare beneficiaries received at least one benzodiazepine fill, with an average of 5.8 benzodiazepine prescriptions filled at an annual cost of 190 dollars. Specific sources of prescription drug coverage were not significantly associated with benzodiazepine use. Female gender, chronic mental illness, age under 65, and lower income were significantly positively associated with benzodiazepine use in the Medicare population, whereas black and other races were significantly negatively associated with benzodiazepine use in this population. Compared with Medicare beneficiaries without supplemental drug coverage, beneficiaries with supplemental drug coverage were more likely to use potential benzodiazepine substitute classes than benzodiazepines. CONCLUSIONS Benzodiazepines were widely used by Medicare beneficiaries. Drug coverage influences access to benzodiazepines and potential substitute classes. These findings have important implications for identifying beneficiaries potentially affected by the exclusion of benzodiazepine coverage under Medicare Part D.
clustering.sc.dp: Optimal Clustering with Sequential Constraint by Using Dynamic Programming

The general clustering algorithms do not guarantee optimality because of the hardness of the problem. Polynomial-time methods can ﬁnd the clustering corresponding to the exact optimum only in special cases. For example, the dynamic programming algorithm can solve the one-dimensional clustering problem, i.e., when the items to be clustered can be characterised by only one scalar number. Optimal one-dimensional clustering is provided by package Ckmeans.1d. dp in R. The paper shows a possible generalisation of the method implemented in this package to multidimensional data: the dynamic programming method can be applied to ﬁnd the optimum clustering of vectors when only subsequent items may form a cluster. Sequential data are common in various ﬁelds including telecommunication, bioinformatics, marketing, transportation etc. The proposed algorithm can determine the optima for a range of cluster numbers in order to support the case when the number of clusters is not known in advance.
Techniques for measurement and assessment of mobility in rehabilitation: a theoretical approach

Objective: Mobility is an important construct in rehabilitation; many instruments have emerged which measure or assess (aspects of) mobility. In the selection or development of an appropriate technique, knowledge about the fundamentals of rehabilitation medicine is needed, as well as about essential characteristics of techniques and fundamental differences between them. The aim of this paper is to classify, assess and discuss current techniques which are or can be used to measure aspects of mobility. Design: Eight techniques (physical science techniques, clinimetry, observation, diaries, questionnaires, actigraphy, physiological techniques and activity monitors) are classified, assessed and discussed, based on the level of outcome measures, the aspect of mobility they measure, and methodological and practical criteria. Results and conclusions: Rehabilitation medicine has a particular need for instruments that enable measurement of outcome measures on the level of activity and role fulfilment. Techniques differ in the type and number of mobility aspects they measure. Furthermore, important differences exist based on methodological and practical criteria. One optimal technique does not exist: the choice of a technique always depends on a complexity of factors, such as clinical problem, research questions, the mobility aspect of interest, required methodological strength, costs and availability.
A scalable collaborative filtering algorithm based on localized preference

Collaborative filtering has been very successful in both research and applications. The K-nearest neighbor (KNN) method is a popular way for its realizations. Its key technique is to find k nearest neighbors for a given user to predict his interests. User-based clustering algorithms of collaborative filtering classify the users into some clusters and select top-N neighbors by using all items to compute similarity in one cluster. Collaborative filtering based on cluster has high scalability but low accuracy of prediction. In this paper we present a new approach to improve the accuracy and the scalability of collaborative filtering. Our approach partition the users, discovered the localized preference in each part and using the localized preference of users to select neighbors for prediction instead of using all items. We present empirical results which show that the method have better satisfactory accuracy and performance.
Characterization of the 20S proteasome from the actinomycete Frankia

Frankia is an actinomycete that fixes atmospheric nitrogen in symbiotic association with the root systems of a variety of non‐leguminous plants, denominated actinorhizal plants. Information on the biology of proteolysis in Frankia is almost non‐existent as it is extremely difficult to grow this organism. We have purified 20S proteasomes from Frankia strain ACN14a/ts‐r. It is composed of one α‐subunit and one β‐subunit, which assemble into the canonical structure of four rings of seven subunits each. The enzyme displayed a chymotrypsin‐like activity against synthetic substrates and was sensitive to lactacystin, a specific proteasome inhibitor. Analysis of the structural genes and the flanking regions revealed a similar organization to Rhodococcus erythropolis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Streptomyces coelicolor and showed that the β‐subunit is encoded with a 52‐amino‐acid propeptide that is cleaved off in the course of the assembly. We report also for the first time the in vitro assembly of chimeric proteasomes composed of Frankia and Rhodococcus erythropolis subunits, which are correctly assembled and proteolytically active.
DETECTION OF CASPASE‐3, NEURON SPECIFIC ENOLASE, AND HIGH‐SENSITIVITY C‐REACTIVE PROTEIN LEVELS IN BOTH CEREBROSPINAL FLUID AND SERUM OF PATIENTS AFTER ANEURYSMAL SUBARACHNOID HEMORRHAGE

OBJECTIVEThe purpose of this study is to explore whether or not the levels of caspase-3 (Casp3), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) were elevated in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum of patients after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). METHODSThis prospective clinical study consisted of 20 patients who experienced recent aneurysmal SAH and 15 control patients who experienced hydrocephalus without any other central nervous system disease. CSF and serum samples obtained within the first 3 days, and on the fifth and seventh days of SAH were assayed for Casp3, NSE, and hsCRP by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTSLevels of Casp3, NSE, and hsCRP in the CSF (P = 0.00001, P = 0.00001, and P <0.003, respectively) and in the serum (P = 0.00001, P <0.01, and P = 0.00001, respectively) of SAH patients were found to be elevated when compared with controls with normal pressure hydrocephalus. CONCLUSIONThe authors have demonstrated the synchronized elevation of Casp3, NSE, and hsCRP in both CSF and serum of patients with aneurysmal SAH. Further studies with a large number of patients are recommended to more accurately determine the roles of these molecules in aneurysmal SAH.
When is a Forum 'More Favourable'? The Use of MFN Clauses to Found an Investment Arbitration Tribunal’s Jurisdiction

The goal of this article is to provide a baseline analysis of the operation of MFN clauses in the international investment law context, from which more refined analyses can be made of the operation of a particular clause in a particular context. The restriction of the present analysis to this baseline approach is necessary because although MFN clauses are a common feature of international investment agreements, the language in which they are expressed can differ significantly, and any such differences will, of course, impact upon their manner of operation. However, while attention must ultimately be paid to the specific language adopted in each individual MFN clause, this does not entail that nothing can be said regarding the operation of such clauses generally. Rather, it simply means that the general analysis offered here can always be varied by States through the language they choose for the MFN clause they adopt. That is, the analysis offered here provides a first step in the analysis of any individual MFN clause, it does not provide the final word.
States of the Business Concepts Model: Structural Assertions' Impact on Natural Language Business Rules

Organizations constantly need to adapt to the rapidly changing macro environment. Information systems, that hinder and restrain flexibility, may jeopardize the ability for organizations to survive. A new method for developing information systems called the Business Rules Approach has emerged with promises of business agility. The Business Rules Approach focuses on business rules which are reliant on a Business Concepts Model for their structure and vocabulary. This paper examines the relation between the business rules and the Business Concepts Model. We conclude that a Business Concepts Model with less participation facts between terms generally yield less complex rules and that a Business Concepts Model with more participation facts between terms generally yield more complex Business Rules. However the tradeoff for decreased complexity is a loss of the ability to talk about or verbalize certain terms. We conclude that generalization facts in the Business Concepts Model do not impact complexity of Business Rules. Finally, the ability to express Business Rules in natural language is not impacted by increases or decreases in Business Concepts Model complexity. (Less)
A single-walled carbon nanotube wall paper as an absorber for simultaneously achieving passively mode-locked and Q-switched Yb-doped fiber lasers

We demonstrate a fiber ring laser based on a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) wall paper absorber. It is found that the proposed Yb-doped fiber laser can either be operated in the mode-locked states or Q-switched states. First, SWCNT wall paper acts as a mode locker when the pump power is below 80 mW. Self-started mode locking can be obtained when the pump power is about 47 mW. The proposed Yb-doped mode-locked fiber lasers can be operated in the dissipative soliton regime that the spectra have a narrow peak. Second, SWCNT wall paper acts as a Q switcher when the pump power is above 80 mW. The Yb-doped fiber laser can work in the Q-switched states at higher pump power which is quite different from the conventional pulse fiber lasers. The repetition rate increases from 30 kHz to 50 kHz and the pulse duration decreases from 2.7 μs to 1 μs with the increase of pump power. This is due to the SWCNT wall paper induced loss in the cavity which leads to Q-switched state at higher pump powers. The combination of the Q-switching and mode-locking in one fiber laser have potential application in the fields that require different pulse fiber lasers.
The relationship of code churn and architectural violations in the open source software JabRef

The open source application JabRef has existed since 2003. In 2015, the developers decided to make an architectural refactoring as continued development was deemed too demanding. The developers also introduced Static Architecture Conformance Checking (SACC) to prevent violations to the intended architecture. Measurements mined from source code repositories such as code churn and code ownership has been linked to several problems, for example fault proneness, security vulnerabilities, code smells, and degraded maintainability. The root cause of such problems can be architectural. To determine the impact of the refactoring of JabRef, we measure the code churn and code ownership before and after the refactoring and find that large files with violations had a significantly higher code churn than large files without violations before the refactoring. After the refactoring, the files that had violations show a more normal code churn. We find no such effect on code ownership. We conclude that files that contain violations detectable by SACC methods are connected to higher than normal code churn.
Burnout and Workplace Deviance among Flight Attendants in Taiwan

The relationship between burnout and workplace deviance, identified as a component of job performance, was examined. Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory which has three dimensions, Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Reduced Personal Accomplishment. Workplace deviance was defined as voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms and threatens the well-being of an organization, its members, or both. This was assessed with the Workplace Deviance Scale, measuring the extent to which the participants had engaged in workplace deviant behavior such as taking property from work without permission, making fun of someone at work, or cursing at someone at work. Anonymous questionnaires with stamped envelopes were distributed to a sample of 1,470 Taiwanese flight attendants at the Arrival Hall of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. A response rate of 22.45% was obtained. After cases with missing data (n = 27) had been eliminated, the sample totaled 303, 17 men and 286 women. The average age was 28.7 yr. (SD = 4.6). Results of hierarchical regression showed that Depersonalization scores were significantly predictive of Workplace Deviance scores but not Emotional Exhaustion and Reduced Personal Accomplishment scores. Possible reasons and implications of these findings were discussed.
Glycaemia Regulation Predictive Control Systems Performances Evaluation - A Comparative Study of Neural and Mathematical Models

Type 1 blood glucose regulation remains a complex problem to simulate. Different blood glucose control schemes for insulin-dependent diabetes therapies and syst ems have been proposed in the literature. This article presents an adaptative predictive control system for gl ycaemia regulation based on feedforward Artificial Neural Networks trained with the resilient propagation (RP ROP) method. Experiments performed on a mathematical (theoretical) compensation model and our system a im to objectively compare the behaviour of each approach when both exact and perturbated data are presented . These experiments, which make use of a virtual patient, not only cover the ANN’s best configuration and trai ning parameters on exact training information, they also demonstrate the accuracy of the neural approach wh en up to 20% perturbated data are supplied. As a result of the experiments on perturbated data, the neural a ppro ch gives slightly better evaluations than the theoretical model. This demonstrates the neural system’s a bility to adapt to perturbated environments.
The revised recursive reduction for efficiently generating random numbers

One of the general methods for implementing a multiple recursive generator is recursive reduction method (RRM). This paper provides an analysis of its number of operations. We also propose a new method that modifies the RRM by considering the stop conditions and the order of multiplier and multiplicand. Some empirical comparisons reveal that the new algorithm is more efficient with a reduction of iterative numbers in the range of 13.1416%-20.5118% depending on the moduli and multipliers being used.
Beliefs of senior managers and their influence on market orientation: an Australian owner-managed, vertically-integrated horticultural enterprise perspective

i Declaration by the author . iii Publications during candidature . iv Publications included in this thesis . iv Contributions by others to the thesis . iv Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree . iv Acknowledgements . v
Perphenylcarbamoylated β‐cyclodextrin bonded‐silica particles as chiral stationary phase for enantioseparation by pressure‐assisted capillary electrochromatography

Perphenylcarbamoylated β‐cyclodextrin bonded‐silica particles (5 μm) were packed into 75‐μm fused‐silica capillaries, and used for the enantiomer separation of neutral and basic solutes by pressure‐assisted capillary electrochromatography. Triethylammonium acetate and phosphate buffer were employed as the BGEs. A cathodic EOF was observed with these two BGEs. Seven chiral analytes were successfully resolved into their enantiomers under optimized conditions, and five of them could be baseline‐separated within 12 min due to their high electrophoretic mobility. Better results were achieved with phosphate buffer as the BGE. The effects of organic content and pH on the enantioseparation were also investigated.
Market Beta (β) and Stock Returns - An Analysis of Select Gulf Companies

The present study examines the association, if any, between the market beta (β) and the risk-return pattern of selected companies in one of the Gulf Markets, the Muscat Securities Market. A sample of thirty companies was drawn applying suitable sampling methods. Market Beta (β) was computed using the fx function in MSExcel which is the slope of the linear regression line of known y’s, the returns of sample companies and known x’s, the index returns of the stock exchange included in the sample. Based on the results, these companies were bifurcated into high-risk and low-risk categories applying the standard CAPM (Capital Asset Pricing Model) approach. Our results provide weak evidence of relationship between risk and return indicating that high-risk is not always associated with high-returns and low-risk with low-returns although some exemptions have been noticed. The result is not surprising given the fact that most of the Gulf markets are not efficient in processing information. Yet another analysis provided evidence of significant changes in the risk category of companies when beta was computed on mean monthly return basis instead of daily returns. Our results offer valuable insights and suggestions to the investors, analysts and fund managers for making rational investment decisions.
On Characterization and Efficient Exhaustive Search of Elementary Trapping Sets of Variable-Regular LDPC Codes

Recently, Karimi and Banihashemi demonstrated that a large majority of the elementary trapping set (ETS) structures of variable-regular low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are layered supersets (LSS) of short cycles. The LSS property corresponds to a simple search algorithm that can find all ETSs with LSS structure starting from short cycles in a guaranteed fashion. In this letter, we complement this characterization by demonstrating that the remaining structures of ETSs, that are not LSS of short cycles, are all LSS of a small number of other graphical structures within the Tanner graph of the code, and thus can also be found efficiently. This together with the results of Karimi and Banihashemi provides a simple search algorithm that can find all the (a,b) ETSs of any variable-regular LDPC code for any size a and any number of unsatisfied check nodes b in a guaranteed fashion.
Cell-surface hydrophobicity of Staphylococcus saprophyticus

SUMMARY The cell-surface hydrophobicity of 100 urinary isolates of Staphylococcus saprophyticus, cultured from symptomatic females in the general population, was assessed using a two-phase aqueous: hydrocarbon system. Relatively strong cell-surface hydrophobicity was exhibited by 79 isolates using the criteria employed, while only 2 of the remaining 21 isolates failed to demonstrate any detectable hydrophobicity. Cell-surface hydrophobicity may be a virulence factor of S. saprophyticus. important in adherence of the organism to uroepithelia. Additionally, the data support the concept that cell-surface hydrophobicity may be a useful predictor of clinical significance of coagulase-negative staphylococci isoated from clinical sources.
Pemetrexed in the treatment of thoracic malignancies: a single centre experience in Singapore.

INTRODUCTION This study aimed to examine the efficacy and toxicity of pemetrexed in Singapore. METHODS We conducted a retrospective review of patients treated with pemetrexed between July 2005 and November 2007. RECIST was used to assess the efficacy independent of the treating physician's assessment, and NCI CTC-AE version 3.0 was used to describe adverse events. RESULTS 37 patients had non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and six had malignant pleural mesothelioma. Those with NSCLC had a median age of 60 and an ECOG PS of 0-1, and they were predominantly male, ethnic Chinese and smokers. A median of two cycles were delivered (total 95; range 1-12). Grade 3/4 toxicity was rare. Five (14 percent) patients had an objective response (one complete, four partial) and 13 (35 percent) had stable disease. Median time to treatment failure was 1.86 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 0-6.5). Median overall survival was 18.6 months (95% CI 12.6-27.7). Median age of patients with mesothelioma was 46.5 (range 29-73) years. Five men and one woman received a median of four (total 30, range 1-15) cycles of pemetrexed in combination with cisplatin. Three patients had a partial response, two had stable disease and one had disease progression. Grade 3/4 toxicities were as follows: leucopenia, neutropenia and thrombocytopenia in one patient. CONCLUSION The results of this retrospective study and literature review show that pemetrexed is safe and efficacious in the treatment of Asian patients with NSCLC and mesothelioma.
A transgenic mouse that reveals cell shape and arrangement during ureteric bud branching

Understanding the cellular events that underlie epithelial morphogenesis is a key problem in developmental biology. Here, we describe a new transgenic mouse line that makes it possible to visualize individual cells specifically in the Wolffian duct and ureteric bud, the epithelial structures that give rise to the collecting system of the kidney. myr‐Venus, a membrane‐associated form of the fluorescent protein Venus, was expressed in the ureteric bud lineage under the control of the Hoxb7 promoter. In Hoxb7/myr‐Venus mice, the outlines of all Wolffian duct and ureteric bud epithelial cells are strongly labeled at all stages of urogenital development, allowing the shapes and arrangements of individual cells to be readily observed by confocal microscopy of freshly excised or cultured kidneys. This strain should be extremely useful for studies of cell behavior during ureteric bud branching morphogenesis in wild type and mutant mouse lines. genesis 47:61–66, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.