Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of clinical nurse specialists in outpatient roles: a systematic review.

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Increasing numbers of clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) are working in outpatient settings. The objective of this paper is to describe a systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the cost-effectiveness of CNSs delivering outpatient care in alternative or complementary provider roles. METHODS We searched CINAHL, MEDLINE, EMBASE and seven other electronic databases, 1980 to July 2012 and hand-searched bibliographies and key journals. RCTs that evaluated formally trained CNSs and health system outcomes were included. Study quality was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool and the Quality of Health Economic Studies instrument. We used the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation to assess quality of evidence for individual outcomes. RESULTS Eleven RCTs, four evaluating alternative provider (n = 683 participants) and seven evaluating complementary provider roles (n = 1464 participants), were identified. Results of the alternative provider RCTs (low-to-moderate quality evidence) were fairly consistent across study populations with similar patient outcomes to usual care, some evidence of reduced resource use and costs, and two economic analyses (one fair and one high quality) favouring CNS care. Results of the complementary provider RCTs (low-to-moderate quality evidence) were also fairly consistent across study populations with similar or improved patient outcomes and mostly similar health system outcomes when compared with usual care; however, the economic analyses were weak. CONCLUSIONS Low-to-moderate quality evidence supports the effectiveness and two fair-to-high quality economic analyses support the cost-effectiveness of outpatient alternative provider CNSs. Low-to-moderate quality evidence supports the effectiveness of outpatient complementary provider CNSs; however, robust economic evaluations are needed to address cost-effectiveness.
Cytokine-like factor-1, a novel soluble protein, shares homology with members of the cytokine type I receptor family.

In this report we describe the identification, cloning, and expression pattern of human cytokine-like factor 1 (hCLF-1) and the identification and cloning of its murine homologue. They were identified from expressed sequence tags using amino acid sequences from conserved regions of the cytokine type I receptor family. Human CLF-1 and murine CLF-1 shared 96% amino acid identity and significant homology with many cytokine type I receptors. CLF-1 is a secreted protein, suggesting that it is either a soluble subunit within a cytokine receptor complex, like the soluble form of the IL-6R alpha-chain, or a subunit of a multimeric cytokine, e.g., IL-12 p40. The highest levels of hCLF-1 mRNA were observed in lymph node, spleen, thymus, appendix, placenta, stomach, bone marrow, and fetal lung, with constitutive expression of CLF-1 mRNA detected in a human kidney fibroblastic cell line. In fibroblast primary cell cultures, CLF-1 mRNA was up-regulated by TNF-alpha, IL-6, and IFN-gamma. Western blot analysis of recombinant forms of hCLF-1 showed that the protein has the tendency to form covalently linked di- and tetramers. These results suggest that CLF-1 is a novel soluble cytokine receptor subunit or part of a novel cytokine complex, possibly playing a regulatory role in the immune system and during fetal development.
Local search for multiobjective function optimization: pareto descent method

Genetic Algorithm (GA) is known as a potent multiobjective optimization method, and the effectiveness of hybridizing it with local search (LS) has recently been reported in the literature. However, there is a relatively small number of studies on LS methods for multiobjective function optimization. Although each of the existing LS methods has some strong points, they have respective drawbacks such as high computational cost and inefficiency in improving objective functions. Hence, a more effective and efficient LS method is being sought, which can be used to enhance the performance of the hybridization.Defining Pareto descent directions as descent directions to which no other descent directions are superior in improving all objective functions, this paper proposes a new LS method, Pareto Descent Method (PDM), which finds Pareto descent directions and moves solutions in such directions thereby improving all objective functions simultaneously. In the case part or all of them are infeasible, it finds feasible Pareto descent directions or descent directions as appropriate. PDM finds these directions by solving linear programming problems, which is computationally inexpensive. Experiments have shown PDM's superiority over existing methods.
A Novel High-Throughput Cell-Based Assay Aimed at Identifying Inhibitors of DNA Metabolism in Bacteria

ABSTRACT Bacterial biosensor strains can be useful tools for the discovery and characterization of antibacterial compounds. A plasmid-based reporter vector containing a transcriptional fusion between the recA promoter and green fluorescence protein gene was introduced into an Escherichia coli ΔtolC strain to create a biosensor strain that selectively senses inhibitors of DNA metabolism via the SOS response. The strain was used to develop a high-throughput assay to identify new inhibitors of DNA metabolism. Screening of the AstraZeneca compound library with this strain identified known inhibitors of DNA metabolism, as well as novel chemotypes. The cellular target of one novel series was elucidated as DNA gyrase through genetic characterization of laboratory-generated resistant mutants followed by 50% inhibitory concentration measurements in a DNA gyrase activity assay. These studies validated the use of this antibiotic biosensor strain to identify novel selective inhibitors of DNA metabolism by high-throughput screening.
Gini Index as Sparsity Measure for Signal Reconstruction from Compressive Samples

Sparsity is a fundamental concept in compressive sampling of signals/images, which is commonly measured using the l0 norm, even though, in practice, the l1 or the lp ( 0 <; p <; 1) (pseudo-) norm is preferred. In this paper, we explore the use of the Gini index (GI), of a discrete signal, as a more effective measure of its sparsity for a significantly improved performance in its reconstruction from compressive samples. We also successfully incorporate the GI into a stochastic optimization algorithm for signal reconstruction from compressive samples and illustrate our approach with both synthetic and real signals/images.
Evaluation of foot static disturbances in patients with rheumatic diseases

Objectives Rheumatic diseases such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis constitute the most frequent pathological states leading to the development of foot deformities, which reduce quality of life and cause disability. The aim of the present study was to compare the results of plantoconturographic examinations, obtained by means of a computer podoscope, in osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis patients. Special attention was paid to the differences in the values of each parameter determining the level of foot function. Material and methods The study was performed in 94 female patients divided into two groups according to the type of disease. There were 54 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 40 with osteoarthritis. The control group consisted of 34 healthy women. The plantographic assessment of static foot structure was carried out by means of a device for computer-aided foot examination. Results A fallen transverse arch of the right foot was statistically much more frequent in the rheumatoid arthritis patients than in osteoarthritis patients or the control group (p < 0.005 and p < 0.05, respectively). Significant differences in the values of the Wejsflog index were observed in the case of left foot between rheumatoid arthritis patients and the control group (p < 0.05). Similarly, there were statistically significant differences in the values of the hallux valgus angle (α) for the right foot between rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis patients or control group (in both cases p < 0.05). Conclusions Rheumatic diseases predispose patients to disturbances of static foot function. The obtained results highlight the importance of diagnosing foot static disturbances in the prevention of destructive changes affecting the functioning of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis patients.
Morphable crowds

Crowd simulation has been an important research field due to its diverse range of applications that include film production, military simulation, and urban planning. A challenging problem is to provide simple yet effective control over captured and simulated crowds to synthesize intended group motions. We present a new method that blends existing crowd data to generate a new crowd animation. The new animation can include an arbitrary number of agents, extends for an arbitrary duration, and yields a natural-looking mixture of the input crowd data. The main benefit of this approach is to create new spatio-temporal crowd behavior in an intuitive and predictable manner. It is accomplished by introducing a morphable crowd model that allows us to encode the formations and individual trajectories in crowd data. Then, its original spatio-temporal behavior can be reconstructed and interpolated at an arbitrary scale using our morphable model.
A standardized comparison of commercially available prion decontamination reagents using the Standard Steel-Binding Assay

Prions are comprised principally of aggregates of a misfolded host protein and cause fatal transmissible neurodegenerative disorders of mammals, such as variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in humans and bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle. Prions pose significant public health concerns through contamination of blood products and surgical instruments, and can resist conventional hospital sterilization methods. Prion infectivity binds avidly to surgical steel and can efficiently transfer infectivity to a suitable host, and much research has been performed to achieve effective prion decontamination of metal surfaces. Here, we exploit the highly sensitive Standard Steel-Binding Assay (SSBA) to perform a direct comparison of a variety of commercially available decontamination reagents marketed for the removal of prions, alongside conventional sterilization methods. We demonstrate that the efficacy of marketed prion decontamination reagents is highly variable and that the SSBA is able to rapidly evaluate current and future decontamination reagents.
Prospects for Optogenetic Augmentation of Brain Function

The ability to optically control neural activity opens up possibilities for the restoration of normal function following neurological disorders. The temporal precision, spatial resolution, and neuronal specificity that optogenetics offers is unequalled by other available methods, so will it be suitable for not only restoring but also extending brain function? As the first demonstrations of optically “implanted” novel memories emerge, we examine the suitability of optogenetics as a technique for extending neural function. While optogenetics is an effective tool for altering neural activity, the largest impediment for optogenetics in neural augmentation is our systems level understanding of brain function. Furthermore, a number of clinical limitations currently remain as substantial hurdles for the applications proposed. While neurotechnologies for treating brain disorders and interfacing with prosthetics have advanced rapidly in the past few years, partially addressing some of these critical problems, optogenetics is not yet suitable for use in humans. Instead we conclude that for the immediate future, optogenetics is the neurological equivalent of the 3D printer: its flexibility providing an ideal tool for testing and prototyping solutions for treating brain disorders and augmenting brain function.
Static Single Assignment Form in the COINS Compiler Infrastructure

Static single assignment (SSA) form is a program representation that is becoming increasingly popular in language processors. In SSA form, each use of a variable has a single definition point. This property facilitates program analysis and optimization in compilers. We give some preliminary results concerning the SSA form in COINS, which is a compiler infrastructure recently developed by Japanese institutions. In this paper we present (i) the current status of optimization using SSA form in COINS infrastructure, (ii) a comparison of two major algorithms for translating from normal intermediate form into SSA form, and (iii) a comparison of two major algorithms for translating back from SSA form into normal intermediate form. In this paper, we give some preliminary results concerning the SSA form in COINS. We present (i) the current status of optimization using SSA form in the COINS infrastructure, (ii) a comparison of two major algorithms for translating from normal (conventional) intermediate form into SSA form, and (iii) a comparison of two major algorithms for translating back from SSA form into normal intermediate form. A characteristic feature of the SSA module in COINS is that it provides optimization in SSA form and related utility modules as an infrastructure. This makes it easier for the compiler writer to compare and evaluate various optimization methods and to add new optimization methods and translation utilities in SSA form.
Global-to-local protein shape similarity system driven by digital elevation models

We are currently developing a bio-shape similarity system for supplying high-throughput protein shape similarity applications within massive datasets. The proposed system is powered by a global-to-local shape similarity system which exploits shape elevation and local convexity attributes. In the first step, a global similarity is computed between the shape descriptors associated to each protein input. The procedure outputs best N similarities chosen by the user, within a query-to-cluster approach. The second stage is a patch-based local similarity computation method which is designed to find the best similar target from the cluster for supplying query-to-target protein retrieval applications. The local patch-based similarity comparison benefits of a multi-CPU implementation, offering thus fast query search capabilities within massive datasets. Experimental results on the SHREC 2017 BioShape dataset [4] composed of 5484 models, illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed system.
Brain MR in chronic fatigue syndrome.

PURPOSE To determine the prevalence of MR white matter abnormalities in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). METHODS Brain MR studies of 43 patients (29 women and 14 men, 22 to 78 years old) with a clinical diagnosis of CFS (n = 15), CFS with associated depression (n = 14), and CFS with associated other psychiatric disorders, namely, anxiety and somatization disorder (n = 14), were compared with brain MR studies in 43 age- and sex-matched control subjects. RESULTS MR findings were abnormal in 13 (32%) of the patients in the study group (ages 34 to 78 years) and in 12 (28%) of the control subjects (ages 26 to 73 years). One patient with CFS had multiple areas of demyelination in the supratentorial periventricular white matter. Another patient with CFS and associated depression had a single focus of probable demyelination in the supratentorial periventricular white matter. In four patients with CFS (ages 34 to 48 years) MR abnormalities consisted of one or several punctate hyperintense foci in the corona radiata, centrum ovale, and frontal white matter. The remaining seven patients (ages 50 to 78 years) had frontoparietal subcortical white matter foci of high T2 signal. The prevalence of white matter hyperintensities was not different between the patients and the control subjects. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that no MR pattern of white matter abnormalities is specific to CFS.
Graph-Based Collective Lexical Selection for Statistical Machine Translation

Lexical selection is of great importance to statistical machine translation. In this paper, we propose a graph-based framework for collective lexical selection. The framework is established on a translation graph that captures not only local associations between source-side content words and their target translations but also targetside global dependencies in terms of relatedness among target items. We also introduce a random walk style algorithm to collectively identify translations of sourceside content words that are strongly related in translation graph. We validate the effectiveness of our lexical selection framework on Chinese-English translation. Experiment results with large-scale training data show that our approach significantly improves lexical selection.
Rigour of development does not AGREE with recommendations in practice guidelines on the use of ice for acute ankle sprains

Objective This study evaluated whether the Appraisal of Guidelines Research and Evaluation (AGREE) rigour of development score of practice guidelines on ice for acute ankle sprains is related to the convergence between recommendations. Design The authors systematically reviewed guidelines on ice for acute ankle sprains. Four appraisers independently used the AGREE instrument to evaluate the rigour of development of selected guidelines. For each guideline, one reviewer listed the cited evidence on ice and calculated a cited evidence score. The authors plotted the recommended durations and numbers of ice applications over the standardised rigour of development score to explore the relationships. Data sources Three reviewers searched for guidelines in Medline, Embase, Sportdiscus, PEDro, G-I-N Guideline Library, Trip Database, SumSearch, National Guideline Clearinghouse and the Health Technology Assessment database, and conducted a web-based search for guideline development organisations. Eligibility criteria Eligible guidelines had a development methodology that included a process to search or use results from scientific studies and the participation of an expert group to formulate recommendations. Results The authors identified 21 guidelines, containing clinically significant variations in recommended durations and numbers of ice applications. The median standardised rigour of development score was 57% (IQR 18 to 77). Variations occurred evenly among guidelines with low moderate or high rigour scores. The median evidence citation score in the guidelines was 7% (IQR 0 to 61). Conclusions There is no relationship between the rigour of development score and the recommendations in guidelines on ice for acute ankle sprains. The guidelines suffered from methodological problems which were not captured by the AGREE instrument.
Clopidogrel (Plavix), a P2Y12 receptor antagonist, inhibits bone cell function in vitro and decreases trabecular bone in vivo

Clopidogrel (Plavix), a selective P2Y12 receptor antagonist, is widely prescribed to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke and acts via the inhibition of platelet aggregation. Accumulating evidence now suggests that extracellular nucleotides, signaling through P2 receptors, play a significant role in bone, modulating both osteoblast and osteoclast function. In this study, we investigated the effects of clopidogrel treatment on (1) bone cell formation, differentiation, and activity in vitro; and (2) trabecular and cortical bone parameters in vivo. P2Y12 receptor expression by osteoblasts and osteoclasts was confirmed using qPCR and Western blotting. Clopidogrel at 10 µM and 25 µM inhibited mineralized bone nodule formation by 50% and >85%, respectively. Clopidogrel slowed osteoblast proliferation with dose‐dependent decreases in cell number (25% to 40%) evident in differentiating osteoblasts (day 7). A single dose of 10 to 25 µM clopidogrel to mature osteoblasts also reduced cell viability. At 14 days, ≥10 µM clopidogrel decreased alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity by ≤70% and collagen formation by 40%, while increasing adipocyte formation. In osteoclasts, ≥1 µM clopidogrel inhibited formation, viability and resorptive activity. Twenty‐week‐old mice (n = 10–12) were ovariectomized or sham treated and dosed orally with clopidogrel (1 mg/kg) or vehicle (NaCl) daily for 4 weeks. Dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) analysis showed clopidogrel‐treated animals had decreases of 2% and 4% in whole‐body and femoral bone mineral density (BMD), respectively. Detailed analysis of trabecular and cortical bone using micro–computed tomography (microCT) showed decreased trabecular bone volume in the tibia (24%) and femur (18%) of clopidogrel‐treated mice. Trabecular number was reduced 20%, while trabecular separation was increased up to 15%. Trabecular thickness and cortical bone parameters were unaffected. Combined, these findings indicate that long‐term exposure of bone cells to clopidogrel in vivo could negatively impact bone health. © 2012 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Finite XXZ critical chain with double boundaries

Finite XXZ chain with double boundaries is considered at critical regime $-1<\Delta<1$. We construct the eigenvectors of finite Hamiltonian by means of vertex operators and the quasi-boundary states. Using the free field realizations of the vertex operators and the quasi-boundary states, integral representations for the correlation functions are derived.
Resumptive Pronoun Detection for Modern Standard Arabic to English MT

Many languages, including Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), insert resumptive pronouns in relative clauses, whereas many others, such as English, do not, using empty categories instead. This discrepancy is a source of difficulty when translating between these languages because there are words in one language that correspond to empty categories in the other, and these words must either be inserted or deleted—depending on translation direction. In this paper, we first examine challenges presented by resumptive pronouns in MSA-English translations and review resumptive pronoun translations generated by a popular online MSA-English MT engine. We then present what is, to the best of our knowledge, the first system for automatic identification of resumptive pronouns. The system achieves 91.9 F1 and 77.8 F1 on Arabic Treebank data when using gold standard parses and automatic parses, respectively.
Real-time image template matching algorithm based on differential evolution

A humanoid robot must be able to perceive its environment in order to perform its tasks autonomously. An interesting approach to perceive the environment is robot vision. Robot vision allows humanoid robots to perform tasks such as visual servoing, object tracking, object grasping, etc. In this paper, we propose an approach to solve image template matching problems based on the Differential Evolution algorithm. Both simulation and real experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
A Space Efficient Scheme for Persistent Graph Representation

Graph mining is currently the focus of intense research. Major driving factors include social media, opinion mining, and the schemaless noSQL databases. Time evolving or dynamic graphs are the primary data structures in these fields. Often dynamic graphs must support persistency, meaning that from any given graph state past states can be accessed. Within the graph database context, persistency enables rollback capability, whereas in social media several phenomena such as friend deletion can be modeled. A novel, efficient, and persistent data structure based on tries is proposed. Its potential is displayed by added persistency to the deterministic Kronecker graph model.