Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Patient‐to‐patient peer mentor support in dialysis: Improving the patient experience

Greater focus on patient‐reported outcome measures for dialysis patients and an increased patient engagement focus has highlighted a lack of formal patient‐generated strategies. Patient‐to‐patient peer mentoring is one approach that may improve the outcomes for people receiving dialysis. This review aims to synthesize quantitative and qualitative studies investigating dialysis‐associated patient‐to‐patient peer mentor support among adults with chronic kidney disease and end stage kidney disease. Research studies describe the benefits of peer mentor programs in dialysis to include: improved goal setting, decision‐making and increased self‐management. While a variety of program formats exist, a combination of face‐to‐face and telephone peer support models are recommended and formal training of mentors is required. In addition, the formal support of dialysis clinicians, nephrologists and administrators is vital for the success of a dialysis patient‐to‐patient peer mentor program.
Technology Diffusion in Energy-Economy Models: The Case of Danish Vintage Models

Technological progress is an important issue in long-term energy demand projections and in environmental analyses. Different assumptions on technological progress and diffusion of new technologies are among the reasons for diverging results obtained using bottom-up and top-down models for analysing the costs of greenhouse gas mitigation. This paper examines the effect on aggregate energy efficiency of using technological vintage models to describe technology diffusion. The focus is on short- to medium-term issues. Three different models of Danish energy supply and demand are used to illustrate the consequences of the vintage modelling approach. The fluctuating utilisation rates for power capacity in Denmark are found to have a significant impact on average fuel efficiencies. Diffusion of electric appliances is linked to economic activity and saturation levels for each appliance. In the sector of residential heat demand, fuel price increases are found to accelerate diffusion by increasing replacement rates for heating equipment.
Luminescence properties of Sm3+-doped P2O5–PbO–Nb2O5 glass under high pressure

Samarium doped lead phosphate glass modified with niobium having a composition (in mol%) of 55P2O5+39.5PbO+5Nb2O5+0.5Sm2O3 has been prepared by the conventional melt quenching technique. The emission spectra and the decay curves for the 4G5/2 level of Sm3+ ions have been measured as a function of pressure up to 23.6 GPa at room temperature. A discontinuity in the observed shifts and crystal-field splittings as a function of pressure around 9–10 GPa suggests that a phase transition is taking place in the glass matrix. The , 6H7/2 and 6H9/2 transitions are shifted towards the lower energy side with magnitudes of −7.1, −7.6 and −5.5 cm−1 GPa−1 up to 8.9 GPa (phase 1) and −5.6, −4.9 and −4.4 cm−1 GPa−1 beyond 10.3 GPa (phase 2), respectively. A much stronger increase in the splitting of the and Stark levels with pressure is observed in phase 1 than in phase 2. The lifetime of the 4G5/2 level decreases from 2.29 ms (0 GPa) to 0.64 ms (23.6 GPa) with pressure. The decay curves of the 4G5/2 level exhibit non-exponential behavior for all the pressures and were fitted by the generalized Yokota–Tanimoto model to probe the nature of the energy transfer process. The best fits with S = 6 indicate that the energy transfer between donor and acceptor is of dipole–dipole type. The crystal-field splitting experienced by the Sm3+ ions in the title glass are found to be larger than those found in borate, K–Ba–Al phosphate and tellurite glasses.
Evolutionarily conserved function of Gbx2 in anterior hindbrain development

The amino acid sequence across the DNA‐binding homeodomain of Gbx2 is highly conserved across multiple species. In mice, Gbx2 is essential for establishment of the midbrain–hindbrain boundary (MHB), and in development of anterior hindbrain structures, rhombomeres (r) 1–r3, and the r2/r3‐derived cranial nerve V. In contrast, studies in zebrafish have implicated gbx1 in establishment of the MHB. Therefore, we tested potential roles for gbx2 in anterior hindbrain development in zebrafish. gbx2 knockdown with antisense morpholino results in increased cell death in r2, r3, and r5 and a truncation of the anterior hindbrain, similar to the defect in Gbx2−/− mice. Moreover, there is abnormal clustering of cranial nerve V cell bodies in r2 and r3 indicative of defects in aspects of anterior hindbrain patterning. These phenotypes can be rescued by expression of the mouse GBX2 protein. These results suggest that gbx2/Gbx2 has an evolutionarily conserved role in anterior hindbrain development. Developmental Dynamics 240:828–838, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Dynamic Kick Motion Design with Implementation of Whole-Body Operational Space Control on the NAO

Dynamic, or closed-loop, kicking motion is more flexible with ball position, hence theoretically more accurate than key-frame based open-loop kicking motions. This improved accuracy can be beneficial to teams participating in the RoboCup Standard Platform League, where the Aldebaran NAO robot is used as the platform. Implementing dynamic kicks is not trivial since it also requires employing dynamic balancing. Many of the existing balance controllers for NAO use inverse-kinematics-based control and center-of-mass(CoM) or zero-moment-point(ZMP) based balancing techniques. These approaches are unable to handle conflicting control scenarios in nature and often require compensation of the kick speed for balancing. Therefore, our team propose to implement a Whole-Body Operational Space Controller (WBOSC) on the NAO, where the control is hierarchical and tasks can be prioritized. WBOSC allows us to develop behaviors of the robot while complying environment and body constraints. With WBOSC, we can implement tasks such as ’foot trajectory task’, ’balance control task’ and ’joint position task’ with desired hierarchy, so that tasks with higher priority will not compensate for tasks with lower priorities. This idea has been proved successful in a NAO simulator we built. However, with limited computational resource and sensor accuracy, there are some challenges implementing the complete WBOSC on a real NAO robot.
The evolution of cost and profit efficiency of Philippine commercial banks

The paper aims to analyse the evolution of cost and profit efficiency for Philippine commercial banks during the period 1992-2004. It has been observed that cost inefficiency increased after liberalization in 1994 and further shot up after the Asian financial crisis. Profit efficiency, on the other hand, is steadily declining, from above the 90 percent mark prior to liberalization to 84 percent in 2004. The evolution of efficiency scores clearly shows that Philippine banks experienced declining profit and cost efficiencies. Two hypotheses can be suggested to explain these evolutions, following Berger and Mester [1999]. First is the increasing quality of bank services hypothesis due to competitive pressures, which led to higher costs of production and lower profit margins. Second is the “quiet life” hypothesis. Threatened by new competitors, the banks have opted for defensive strategies instead of reducing their costs.
Candidate Positioning in US Congressional Elections

Theory suggests that three factors – the importance of ideology to primary voters, costly movement due to candidate reputations and lack of competition – all contribute to candidate divergence in US congressional elections. These predictions are analysed with new data from a 2000 mail survey that asked congressional candidates to place themselves on a left–right ideological scale. The data reveal that candidates often diverge, but that the degree of candidate polarization is variable and may be explained by factors in the theory. Candidates with firm public reputations, those who face weak general election competition, and those who experience stiff primary competition are all more likely to deviate from the median voter's position. Perhaps more importantly, the locations that candidates adopt have clear effects on their vote shares.
Lipid rafts are required for GLUT4 internalization in adipose cells

It has been recently reported that insulin recruits a novel signaling machinery to lipid rafts required for insulin-stimulated GLUT4 translocation [Baumann, A. , Ribon, V. , Kanzaki, M. , Thurmond, D. C. , Mora, S. , Shigematsu, S. , Bickel, P. E. , Pessin, J. E. & Saltiel, A. R. (2001) Nature 407, 202–207, 2000; Chiang, S. H. , Baumann, C. A. , Kanzaki, M. , Thurmond, D. C. , Watson, R. T. , Neudauer, C. L. , Macara, I. G. , Pessin, J. E. & Saltiel, A. R. (2001) Nature 410, 944–948]. We have assessed the role of lipid rafts on GLUT4 traffic in adipose cells. High GLUT4 levels were detected in caveolae from adipocytes by two approaches, the mechanical isolation of purified caveolae from plasma membrane lawns and the immunogold analysis of plasma membrane lawns followed by freeze-drying. The role of lipid rafts in GLUT4 trafficking was studied by adding nystatin or filipin at concentrations that specifically disrupt caveolae morphology and inhibit caveolae function without altering clathrin-mediated endocytosis. These caveolae inhibitors did not affect the insulin-stimulated glucose transport. However, they blocked both the GLUT4 internalization and the down-regulation of glucose transport triggered by insulin removal in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Our data indicate that lipid rafts are crucial for GLUT4 internalization after insulin removal. Given that high levels of GLUT4 were detected in caveolae from insulin-treated adipose cells, this transporter may be internalized from caveolae or caveolae may operate as an obligatory transition station before internalization.
The International Business Environment

PART I: GLOBAL CONTEXT 1. Globalization 2. The Global Economy 3. Analysing Global Industries 4. The Global Business Environment 5. Assessing Country Attractiveness PART II: GLOBAL ISSUES 6. The Socio-cultural Framework 7. The Technological Framework 8. The Political Framework 9. The Legal Framework 10. The Financial Framework 11. Corporate Social Responsibility 12. The Ecological Environment
Hospitality Students' Competencies: Are They Work Ready?

Work-integrated learning offers opportunities to ensure graduates are work ready. Employers indicated that students often lack certain competencies (soft skills) when they enter the world of work and request faculty to ensure transferable skills are included and assessed as part of the curriculum. The objective of this research was to establish what competencies (soft skills) the hospitality management final year students from the School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, South Africa thought they needed at the start of their semester of work-integrated learning compared to their thoughts at the end of that semester. The results were compared and used to recommend to faculty what competencies should be infused in the curriculum to enhance students’ opportunities to be employed, and to conduct themselves in the business world of hospitality with confidence and competence.
Two-Stage Motion Correction for Super-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging in Human Lower Limb

The structure of microvasculature cannot be resolved using conventional ultrasound (US) imaging due to the fundamental diffraction limit at clinical US frequencies. It is possible to overcome this resolution limitation by localizing individual microbubbles through multiple frames and forming a superresolved image, which usually requires seconds to minutes of acquisition. Over this time interval, motion is inevitable and tissue movement is typically a combination of large- and small-scale tissue translation and deformation. Therefore, super-resolution (SR) imaging is prone to motion artifacts as other imaging modalities based on multiple acquisitions are. This paper investigates the feasibility of a two-stage motion estimation method, which is a combination of affine and nonrigid estimation, for SR US imaging. First, the motion correction accuracy of the proposed method is evaluated using simulations with increasing complexity of motion. A mean absolute error of 12.2 $\mu \text{m}$ was achieved in simulations for the worst-case scenario. The motion correction algorithm was then applied to a clinical data set to demonstrate its potential to enable in vivo SR US imaging in the presence of patient motion. The size of the identified microvessels from the clinical SR images was measured to assess the feasibility of the two-stage motion correction method, which reduced the width of the motion-blurred microvessels to approximately 1.5-fold.
Dynamic Analysis of UTAUT: The Case of Microsoft Project Management Software

The technology adoption domain is rich with studies that utilized a cross-sectional snapshot of subjects' perceptions regarding the adoption of new technology. This research tried to implement a longitudinal study that took three measures within 4 months to estimate the influence of time and experience on students' perceptions. The study adopted a modified version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and use of Technology (UTAUT) with effort expectancy, performance expectancy, facilitating conditions, and locus of control predicting the intention to use Microsoft Project. Results supported the UTAUT and its prediction. Also, this study fitted two types of dynamic research typologies (learning curve and equilibrium circles) to the UTAUT relationships and across time.
Effects of the addition of second-messenger effectors to platelet concentrates separated from whole-blood donations and stored at 4 degrees C or -80 degrees C.

BACKGROUND Platelet concentrates (PCs) are currently stored at 22 degrees C under continuous agitation. Because of the potential risk of the overgrowth of bacteria in case of contamination, PC shelf life is limited to 5 days. A mixture of second-messenger effectors is being evaluated to determine if it has benefits for cold liquid storage and cryopreservation of platelets. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS PCs separated from whole-blood donations by the buffy coat method were randomly assigned (n = 6 each) to be stored for 5 days at 22 degrees C under continuous agitation or at 4 degrees C after treatment with a platelet storage medium (ThromboSol, LifeCell Corp. ). PCs were also cryopreserved with 6-percent DMSO (final concentration) or with ThromboSol plus 2-percent DMSO (final concentration) (TC). After storage, platelets were analyzed by flow cytometry, transmission electron microscopy, and aggregation and perfusion techniques. RESULTS Cold liquid storage of ThromboSol-treated platelets resulted in a lower binding of coagulation factor Va on the platelet surface than on platelets stored at 22 degrees C. In transmission electron microscopy, a conversion to spherical morphology was seen in the case of cold liquid storage. No difference between ThromboSol-treated platelets stored at 4 degrees C and platelets stored at 22 degrees C was seen in perfusion studies. Cryopreservation in the presence of TC prevented the reduction in glycoprotein Ib and IV expression on platelet surface that is seen in 6-percent DMSO-cryopreserved platelets. Platelets cryopreserved in TC covered, by thrombus, a significantly greater percentage of the perfused surface after the freezing and thawing process. CONCLUSION ThromboSol-treated PCs separated from whole-blood donations by the buffy coat method, stored at 4 degrees C for 5 days, or cryopreserved in the presence of TC, maintained in vitro functional activity comparable to that achieved by current methods of storage, although discoid morphology was not preserved during cold liquid storage with ThromboSol.
Anti‐gp210 and anti‐centromere antibodies are different risk factors for the progression of primary biliary cirrhosis

The predictive role of antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) remains elusive in the long‐term outcome of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). The progression of PBC was evaluated in association with ANAs using stepwise Cox proportional hazard regression and an unconditional stepwise logistic regression model based on the data of 276 biopsy‐proven, definite PBC patients who have been registered to the National Hospital Organization Study Group for Liver Disease in Japan (NHOSLJ). When death of hepatic failure/liver transplantation (LT) was defined as an end‐point, positive anti‐gp210 antibodies (Hazard ratio (HR) = 6.742, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.408, 18.877), the late stage (Scheuer's stage 3, 4) (HR = 4.285, 95% CI:1.682,10.913) and male sex (HR = 3.266, 95% CI: 1.321,8.075) were significant risk factors at the time of initial liver biopsy. When clinical progression to death of hepatic failure/LT (i.e., hepatic failure type progression) or to the development of esophageal varices or hepatocellular carcinoma without developing jaundice (Total bilirubin < 1.5 mg/dL) (i.e., portal hypertension type progression) was defined as an end‐point in the early stage (Scheuer's stage 1, 2) PBC patients, positive anti‐gp210 antibodies was a significant risk factor for hepatic failure type progression [odds ratio (OR) = 33.777, 95% CI: 5.930, 636.745], whereas positive anti‐centromere antibodies was a significant risk factor for portal hypertension type progression (OR = 4.202, 95% CI: 1.307, 14.763). Histologically, positive anti‐gp210 antibodies was most significantly associated with more severe interface hepatitis and lobular inflammation, whereas positive anticentromere antibodies was most significantly associated with more severe ductular reaction. Conclusion: These results indicate 2 different progression types in PBC, hepatic failure type and portal hypertension type progression, which may be represented by positive‐anti‐gp210 and positive‐anticentromere antibodies, respectively. (HEPATOLOGY 2007;45:118–127.)
Assessing National Development Plans for Alignment With Sustainable Development Goals via Semantic Search

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) helps countries implement the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an agenda for tackling major societal issues such as poverty, hunger, and environmental degradation by the year 2030. A key service provided by UNDP to countries that seek it is a review of national development plans and sector strategies by policy experts to assess alignment of national targets with one or more of the 169 targets of the 17 SDGs. Known as the Rapid Integrated Assessment (RIA), this process involves manual review of hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of documents and takes weeks to complete. In this work, we develop a natural language processing-based methodology to accelerate the workflow of policy experts. Specifically we use paragraph embedding techniques to find paragraphs in the documents that match the semantic concepts of each of the SDG targets. One novel technical contribution of our work is in our use of historical RIAs from other countries as a form of neighborhood-based supervision for matches in the country under study. We have successfully piloted the algorithm to perform the RIA for Papua New Guinea’s national plan, with the UNDP estimating it will help reduce their completion time from an estimated 3-4 weeks to 3 days.
Learning Constraints From Examples

While constraints are ubiquitous in artificial intelligence and constraints are also commonly used in machine learning and data mining, the problem of learning constraints from examples has received less attention. In this paper, we discuss the problem of constraint learning in detail, indicate some subtle differences with standard machine learning problems, sketch some applications and summarize the state-of-the-art.
ADP-induced platelet aggregation frequently fails to detect impaired clopidogrel-responsiveness in patients with coronary artery disease compared to a P2Y12-specific assay

Summary Incomplete P2Y12-inhibition during clopidogrel treatment is associated with increased cardiovascular events and mortality after coronary intervention. We investigated the incidence of impaired individual clopidogrel-responsiveness using a P2Y12-specific and pre-treatment-independent assay in a real world situation. One hundred consecutive patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) on combined acetylsalicylic acid and clopidogrel treatment (75 mg/d) and 33 patients on aspirin only were screened for platelet ADP-induced signalling by conventional aggregometry, platelet P-selectin expression and the platelet reactivity index (PRI). Impaired P2Y12-specific inhibition by clopidogrel was defined as a PRI>50%. Functional platelet reactivity was significantly lower in clopidogrel-treated patients compared to controls. Impaired individual response to treatment was diagnosed in 69% of clopidogrel-treated patients. Conventional assessment of maximum ADP-induced platelet aggregation failed to detect impaired P2Y12 inhibition in 36% of patients identified by PRI to have an impaired clopidogrel response. Impaired clopidogrel response was associated with lower HDL levels and a history of hyperlipidaemia. In conclusion, PRI as a P2Y12-specific assay to evaluate the treatment effect of clopidogrel in patients with CAD revealed insufficient P2Y12-inhibition in two thirds of patients in a real-world scenario indicating a markedly higher incidence than previously assumed. PRI detected significantly more patients with impaired response than conventional platelet aggregation.
Bypassing Health Centres in Tanzania: Revealed Preferences for Quality

When patients bypass one health facility to seek care at another, strong preferences are revealed. The patterns of bypassing observed in Iringa Rural district in Tanzania show evidence of patients' understanding of various measures of quality at the facilities that they visit and bypass. We match two data sets that measured quality in health facilities with a sample of patient choice of health facilities. We use a conditional logit regression on patient choice of provider to show the relationship between patient behaviour and objective measures of technical quality in the health facilities. The paper shows that patients seek facilities that provide high quality consultations and prescriptions, are staffed by more knowledgeable physicians, and are better stocked with basic supplies. Patients avoid facilities that use injections too liberally or over-prescribe medication. Furthermore, the patterns differ significantly by illness condition and show evidence that patients understand the relative importance of these qualities for the condition from which they suffer. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.
Automatic depth map generation from reconstructed 3D points

We propose a novel method to automatically generate a depth map of static background region from 3D reconstructed points. First, camera parameters and 3D points are reconstructed by SfM technique. Next, depth values of the 3D points are computed and the values are spreaded in 2D image domain. Finally post-processing to deal with over-lapped depth informations and reduce flickering artifact is followed. The proposed method generates 2D depth map images directly from camera parameters and 3D points and so it is faster and more stable than previous methods. The generated depth map can be used for 2Dto3D converting and contents retrieval, etc.