Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhancing the Prediction of 30-Day Readmission After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Using Data Extracted by Querying of the Electronic Health Record

Background—Early readmission after percutaneous coronary intervention is an important quality metric, but prediction models from registry data have only moderate discrimination. We aimed to improve ability to predict 30-day readmission after percutaneous coronary intervention from a previously validated registry-based model. Methods and Results—We matched readmitted to non-readmitted patients in a 1:2 ratio by risk of readmission, and extracted unstructured and unconventional structured data from the electronic medical record, including need for medical interpretation, albumin level, medical nonadherence, previous number of emergency department visits, atrial fibrillation/flutter, syncope/presyncope, end-stage liver disease, malignancy, and anxiety. We assessed differences in rates of these conditions between cases/controls, and estimated their independent association with 30-day readmission using logistic regression conditional on matched groups. Among 9288 percutaneous coronary interventions, we matched 888 readmitted with 1776 non-readmitted patients. In univariate analysis, cases and controls were significantly different with respect to interpreter (7.9% for cases and 5.3% for controls; P=0.009), emergency department visits (1.12 for cases and 0.77 for controls; P<0.001), homelessness (3.2% for cases and 1.6% for controls; P=0.007), anticoagulation (33.9% for cases and 22.1% for controls; P<0.001), atrial fibrillation/flutter (32.7% for cases and 28.9% for controls; P=0.045), presyncope/syncope (27.8% for cases and 21.3% for controls; P<0.001), and anxiety (69.4% for cases and 62.4% for controls; P<0.001). Anticoagulation, emergency department visits, and anxiety were independently associated with readmission. Conclusions—Patient characteristics derived from review of the electronic health record can be used to refine risk prediction for hospital readmission after percutaneous coronary intervention.
Neutralization of bacterial lipopolysaccharides by human plasma

To quantify the neutralization of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) by human plasma, dilutions of Escherichia coli O113 LPS were incubated with plasma, followed by the addition of Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL). The reaction between the LPS and LAL was monitored spectrophotometrically, and the concentration of LPS resulting in 50% lysate response (LR50) was determined. Analysis of 145 outdated plasma samples yielded a range of LR50 between 6 and 1,500 ng/ml. Pools of plasma with high and low LR50 were prepared. The pool with high LR50 neutralized 166-fold more E. coli 0113 LPS, 190-fold more E. coli 0111B4 LPS, 42-fold more Klebsiella pneumoniae LPS, and 29-fold more Salmonella typhimurium LPS than did the pool with low LR50. Each pool had similar immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgM antibody levels to homologous LPS, measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Analysis of 212 fresh-frozen plasma units revealed a range of LR50 between 48 and 6,000 ng/ml. Incubation of LPS in a pool of fresh-frozen plasma with high LR50 elicited significantly less fever in the rabbit pyrogen test than did LPS incubated in plasma with low LR50 (fever index, 2.68 +/- 0.61 degrees C X h and 3.52 +/- 0.66 degrees C X h, respectively; P = 0.003). We conclude that there is a 100-fold range in the endotoxin-neutralizing capacity of human plasma and that this variation is not due to LPS-specific IgG or IgM antibodies. Further investigations are needed to determine whether differing susceptibility of patients to the effects of LPS is due to differences in the endotoxin-neutralizing capacity of their plasma and whether plasma screened for high endotoxin-neutralizing capacity may be therapeutically useful in endotoxemia.
Temporary Agency Work and the Business Cycle

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) and agency work. Design/methodology/approach - The paper develops a theoretical model for the time interdependence of GDP, agency work and regular employment and tested model predictions using a VAR model. Findings - Results show that on the macro level temporary agency work leads GDP development. Temporary agency work is an excellent instrument for employers to adjust the size of their workforce to fluctuations in product demand. Temporary work agencies, however, have a tough job finding qualified personnel in tight labour markets because workers generally prefer the security of a permanent contract. It is shown in this paper that, as a result of these two countervailing forces, the number of hours worked through temporary work agencies precedes GDP development. Agency work increases in the last phase of a recession after regular workers have been dismissed. It expands further, in line with GDP, when the trough is passed until agency worker's labour supply stagnates. This leads to a decrease in agency hours even before the business cycle reaches its peak. Then agency work declines further, in line with GDP, until regular workers are dismissed and the cycle start again. Originality/value - Temporary work arrangements have become a key area of interest for firms, academics and policy makers. This paper shows how the use of these work arrangement fluctuates over time. Also, this paper shows that agency work can be used in predicting future GDP development.
Provider Screening and Counseling for Intimate Partner Violence: A Systematic Review of Practices and Influencing Factors

Background: Primary care providers have an important role in identifying survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) and providing safety options. Routine screening rates by providers have been consistently low, indicating a need to better understand providers’ practices to ensure the translation of policy into clinical practice. Aim: This systematic review examines common themes regarding provider screening practices and influencing factors on these practices. Method: A literature search was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The search focused on research articles which met the following criteria: (1) health-care providers as participants, (2) provider reports on screening and counseling practices for IPV, and (3) were in English or Spanish. Results: A total of 35 studies were included in the review. Across studies, providers commonly acknowledged the importance of IPV screening yet often used only selective screening. Influencing factors on clinic, provider, and patient levels shaped the process and outcomes of provider screening practices. Overall, a great deal of variability exists in regard to provider screening practices. This variability may be due to a lack of clear system-level guidance for these practices and a lack of research regarding best practices. Conclusions: These findings suggest the necessity of more facilitative, clearly defined, and perhaps mandatory strategies to fulfill policy requirements. Future research directions are outlined to assist with these goals.
EU Leverage and Democratic Backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe: The Case of Romania

This article examines the effectiveness of European Union post-accession leverage to contain democratic backsliding in the Member States by employing as a case study the EU's intervention concerning the impeachment of the Romanian President Băsescu in July 2012. It is argued that a set of domestic factors, such as political miscalculations, tensions within the ruling coalition and opportunistic actions, facilitated the success of EU material leverage to halt democratic deterioration in Romania. The comparison drawn with the anti-democratic turn in Hungary demonstrates that facilitating domestic conditions, available in the Romanian case but lacking in the Hungarian one, can affect the exercise of EU post-accession leverage to contain democratic regression in the Member States.
HMM-Fuzzy Model for Recognition of Gait Changes due to Trip-related Falls

This paper reports the use of HMM-based fuzzy rules generation for identifying the differences in gait between people with tendencies to fall and healthy people. This work is built on the work reported earlier by the authors where fuzzy rules were successfully applied in gait pattern recognition. This paper reports the hybridization of HMM with fuzzy logic for improving the recognition accuracy. Gait features were extracted from minimum foot clearance (MFC) data that was collected during continuous walking on a treadmill from 20 elderly subjects, 10 healthy and 10 with reported balance problem and history of falls. The input feature space was divided into a number of groups based on HMM generated log-likelihood values, and consequently each group was applied to construct a new fuzzy rule. Gradient descent method was used to optimize the parameters of the generated rules. These were then applied to recognize differences in the gait in subjects with trip-related falls history. The model's performance was evaluated using a cross- validation protocol applied on the training and testing data. The HMM-Fuzzy model outperformed the Fuzzy-based gait recognition as reflected both in the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) results as well as absolute percentage accuracy
OTRCaptcha: A Novel Object and Text Recognition Based Image CAPTCHA

CAPTCHA is an important technology to prevent auto-script attack. Currently most of the CAPTCHA systems are text based, which firstly distort, rotate different characters and then use some obfuscation, aiming to make the text difficult to be recognized by auto- script while still can be learnt easily by real users. However, such kind of CAPTCHA schema either too simple, which can be attacked easily by using optimal character recognition (OCR) or machine learning based technology, or it is too complex that even real users cannot tell it. By observing such contradiction between security and usability, we propose a novel object and text recognition based image CAPTCHA system called OTRCaptcha. In OTRCaptcha, some object images (each has a label) and their names are attached into a background image respectively. In order to pass this CAPTCHA, users have to identify all the object images, labels within those objects and their names. Besides, users also need to identify the semantic relationship between object and its name. Both the theoretical analysis and experiment result show that OTRCapthcha can provide both high security and strong usability.
Education and Labor Market Activity of Women: An Age-Group Specific Empirical Analysis

We analyze the determinants of female labor market participation for different age-groups in the European Union. We show that female participation is positively affected by tertiary education at any age. But upper secondary education increases participation only up to an age of 40 while after that it has no effect or even a negative impact The results are tested for robustness and controlled for endogeneity. The results show that increasing educational attainment levels in the female population will contribute significantly to higher aggregate participation rates. However,in simulations up to 2050 such benefits are partially offset by a negative aging effect. This paper is based on the first author's Master thesis presented for the Master of Science in Economics, University of Amsterdam.
Effects of Cochlear Implantation on Binaural Hearing in Adults With Unilateral Hearing Loss

A FDA clinical trial was carried out to evaluate the potential benefit of cochlear implant (CI) use for adults with unilateral moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss. Subjects were 20 adults with moderate-to-profound unilateral sensorineural hearing loss and normal or near-normal hearing on the other side. A MED-EL standard electrode was implanted in the impaired ear. Outcome measures included: (a) sound localization on the horizontal plane (11 positions, −90° to 90°), (b) word recognition in quiet with the CI alone, and (c) masked sentence recognition with the target at 0° and the masker at −90°, 0°, or 90°. This battery was completed preoperatively and at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after CI activation. Normative data were also collected for 20 age-matched control subjects with normal or near-normal hearing bilaterally. The CI improved localization accuracy and reduced side bias. Word recognition with the CI alone was similar to performance of traditional CI recipients. The CI improved masked sentence recognition when the masker was presented from the front or from the side of normal or near-normal hearing. The binaural benefits observed with the CI increased between the 1- and 3-month intervals but appeared stable thereafter. In contrast to previous reports on localization and speech perception in patients with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss, CI benefits were consistently observed across individual subjects, and performance was at asymptote by the 3-month test interval. Cochlear implant settings, consistent CI use, and short duration of deafness could play a role in this result.
AZO Coated Microchannel Incorporated PCF-Based SPR Sensor: A Numerical Analysis

An aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) coated photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is proposed and numerically analyzed for surface plasmon resonance-based refractive index (RI) sensing. A microchannel is incorporated in this PCF, which is proposed to be fabricated using a pulsed laser. Such a structure is expected to have less roughness compared to that fabricated by mechanical polishing. Furthermore, properties such as no island formation and absence of intraband transition are added advantages of AZO. Numerical simulation shows that the maximum wavelength sensitivity and the corresponding resolution of this sensor are 5000 nm/RIU and $2\times 10^{-5}$ RIU, respectively. Furthermore, the amplitude sensitivity is found to be as high as 167 RIU−1. The proposed structure can be easily fabricated and utilized for sensing applications as it does not require either coating of metals on the inner surface of holes of PCF nor filling of the voids of PCF and it requires a small amount of analyte for RI monitoring.
Platelet-derived Growth Factor Mediates Tyrosine Phosphorylation of the Cytoplasmic Domain of the Low Density Lipoprotein Receptor-related Protein in Caveolae*

The low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor gene family represents a class of multifunctional, endocytic cell surface receptors. Recently, roles in cellular signaling have also emerged. For instance, the very low density lipoprotein receptor (VLDLR) and the apolipoprotein receptor-2 (apoER2) function in a developmental signaling pathway that regulates the lamination of cortical layers in the brain and involves the activation of tyrosine kinases. Furthermore, the cytoplasmic domain of the LDL receptor-related protein (LRP) was found to be a substrate for the non-receptor tyrosine kinase Src, but the physiological significance of this phosphorylation event remained unknown. Here we show that tyrosine phosphorylation of LRP occurs in caveolae and involves the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) receptor β and phosphoinositide 3-kinase. Receptor-associated protein, an antagonist of ligand binding to LRP, and apoE-enriched β-VLDL, a ligand for LRP, reduce PDGF-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of the LRP cytoplasmic domain. In the accompanying paper (Loukinova, E., Ranganathan, S., Kuznetsov, S., Gorlatova, N., Migliorini, M., Ulery, P. G., Mikhailenko, I., Lawrence, D. L., and Strickland, D. K. (2002) J. Biol. Chem. 277, 15499–15506) Loukinova et al.further demonstrate that one form of PDGF, PDGF-BB, binds specifically to LRP and that phosphorylation of LRP requires the activation of Src family kinases. Taken together, these findings provide a biochemical basis for a cellular signaling pathway that involves apoE and LRP.
Atrial electrical activity extraction for atrial fibrillation assessment

The work is dedicated to noninvasive research of atrial electrical activity by its extraction from the surface electrocardiogram recordings and spectral and time-frequency analysis for fibrillatory frequency detection and tracking. Atrial electrical activity and ventricular activity were separated from real multichannel recordings with symptoms of atrial fibrillation by means of independent component analysis. To identify the source that corresponds to atrial electrical activity the frequency spectrums and coefficients of skewness and kurtosis were determined. Also atrial activity extraction was performed by average beat subtraction method. The comparison of obtained results was carried out. Spectral analysis by Fast Fourier Transform and Multiple Signal Classification methods as well as time-frequency analysis were used to find and track dominant atrial fibrillation frequency.
Allosteric control of simian virus 40 T-antigen binding to viral origin DNA

Simian virus 40 (SV40) large tumor antigen (T antigen) possesses several biochemical activities localized in different domains of the protein. These activities include sequence-specific binding to two major sites, I and II, in the SV40 control region, ATPase, and nucleotide-binding activity. In the present communication, we present evidence that specific binding of immunopurified T antigen to SV40 DNA is markedly inhibited by low concentrations of ATP, dATP, GTP, and dGTP. The inhibition is reversible after removal of the nucleotide, suggesting that simple nucleotide binding rather than a covalent modification of T antigen in the presence of ATP is responsible for the inhibition. The results suggest that T antigen may assume two conformations, one active and one inactive in binding to the SV40 origin of replication. In the presence of purine nucleoside triphosphates, the inactive conformation is favored.
Green synthesis of gold nanoparticles from the rind extract of Garcinia mangostana and its synergistic effect with antibiotics against human pathogenic bacteria

The present investigation reports a facile method for the biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles from the rind extract of Garcinia mangostana, a medicinal plant which acts as a reducing agent. It was observed that the aqueous gold ions, when exposed to the rind extract of G.mangostana were reduced in the solution, thereby leading to the formation of gold nanoparticles (GMREGNP). The structural characterization was performed using HR-TEM; the micrographs showed the well dispersed spherical nanoparticles ranged from 25 - 60 nm. The SAED diffraction rings suggested that the GMREGNP were polycrystalline in nature. The peaks in the XRD were in good agreement with the standard values of the spherical form of metallic gold and no peaks of impurities were detected. From the Fourier Transformed-Infrared Spectra (FT-IR) of the rind extract and phytosynthesised gold nanoparticles, the possible functional groups involved in the gold ions reduction and capping of the gold nanoparticles were identified. The particle size (DLS) and the electro kinetic measurement (zeta potential) of the GMREGNP was also evaluated. The nanoparticles were assessed for their increased antimicrobial activity with various antibiotics against potential human pathogens. Further the fabrication of the bio-inspired GMREGNP with the drug and the changes on the characteristics of the nanoparticles were studied using various techniques like UV-VIS spectroscopy and FT-IR. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the GMREGNP and drug fabricated GMREGNP has been recorded. The topological changes stamped by the nanoparticles on the surface of the bacteria have been recorded by SEM images. Experiments are underway to prove the possible mechanism for the synergistic effect of the nanoparticles with antibiotics.
Towards an Integrated Model for Safety and Security Requirements of Cyber-Physical Systems

Increasing interest in cyber-physical systems with integrated computational and physical capabilities that can interact with humans can be identified in research and practice. Since these systems can be classified as safety- and security-critical systems the need for safety and security assurance and certification will grow. Moreover, these systems are typically characterized by fragmentation, interconnectedness, heterogeneity, short release cycles, cross organizational nature and high interference between safety and security requirements. These properties combined with the assurance of compliance to multiple standards, carrying out certification and re-certification, and the lack of an approach to model, document and integrate safety and security requirements represent a major challenge. In order to address this gap we developed a domain agnostic approach to model security and safety requirements in an integrated view to support certification processes during design and run-time phases of cyber-physical systems.
A semiparametric analysis of the relationship of body mass index to mortality.

OBJECTIVES I used a semi-parametric analysis of the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and mortality to assess the adequacy of conventional BMI categories for planning public health programs to reduce mortality. METHODS I linked supplements from the 1987 and 1989 versions of the National Health Interview Survey to the 1995 Multiple Cause of Death File to obtain mortality information. I constructed nonlinear estimates of the association between BMI and mortality using a semiparametric regression technique. RESULTS The mortality risk among "normal" weight men (i.e., those in the BMI range of 20 to 25 kg/m(2)) was as high as that among men in the mild obesity category (BMIs of 30-35 kg/m(2)), with a minimum risk observed at a BMI of approximately 26 kg/m(2). Among women, the mortality risk was smallest at approximately 23 to 24 kg/m(2), with the risk increasing steadily with BMIs above 27 kg/m(2). In each specification, the slope of the line was small and volatile through the BMI range of 20 to 35 kg/m(2), suggesting negligible risk differences with minor differences in weight for much of the population. CONCLUSIONS Traditional BMI categories do not conform well to the complexities of the BMI-mortality relationship. In concurrence with conclusions from previous literature, I found that the current definitions of obesity and overweight are imprecise predictors of mortality risk.
Managing human resources for TQM: possibilities and pitfalls

Examines the implications of total quality management for the management of people. The implementation of TQM requires the development of a high commitment employee relations strategy and involves an attempt to build a culture of continuous improvement among employees. Argues that employee relations strategies have a key role to play in the success of TQM initiatives. Cautions against underestimating the difficulties faced in winning commitment. Emphasizes that the successful implementation of TQM is likely to require far‐reaching changes, not only in employee relations policies, but also in management style and work organization.