Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cost-effectiveness of fidaxomicin for Clostridium difficile treatment.

TO THE EDITOR—Bartsch and colleagues recently evaluated the cost-effectiveness of fidaxomicin treatment for Clostridium difficile infection and should be commended for addressing this important question [1]. In light of a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report estimating 250 000 C. difficile infections per year resulting in 14 000 deaths and excess medical costs of $1 billion annually [2], understanding the economic value of C. difficile prevention and treatment strategies has major public health implications in the United States. The authors compared a strategy of NAP1/BI/027 strain-targeted fidaxomicin treatment compared to metronidazole or vancomycin treatment depending on disease severity and found an unfavorable cost-effectiveness ratio of $46 million per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) for the fidaxomicin strain-targeted approach. The authors concluded that fidaxomicin is not cost-effective at current pricing and national prevalence estimates of C. difficile strain type NAP1/BI/027. Another recently published cost-effectiveness analysis on this topic had different findings: Stranges and colleagues found significantly more favorable cost-effectiveness ratios of $68 000 per QALY for fidaxomicin compared with vancomycin and $41 000 per QALY when fidaxomicin was compared to metronidazole for mild/moderate C. difficile infection [3]. This study did not evaluate a straintargeted treatment strategy, but when the strain type was assumed to be NAP1/BI/ O27, results changed, and fidaxomicin was dominated (more costly and less effective). Both models incorporated similar estimates of treatment efficacy from the same clinical trial data [4], and the estimates for fidaxomicin cost ($2800– $3360) were not significantly different. One potentially important difference may relate to the QALY weights used to represent the adverse impact of C. difficile on quality of life. If fidaxomicin prevents more episodes of recurrent C. difficile, cost-effectiveness results will favor fidaxomicin when this adverse impact is greater. As there are no formal studies on quality of life among patients with C. difficile infection, both investigators used estimates from chemotherapy-associated diarrhea [5, 6]. The values used in Stranges’s model assumed more severe adverse quality-of-life effects compared with those used in Bartsch’s model. In addition, Stranges and colleagues incorporated C. difficile–associated complications such as colectomy and mortality in calculating QALYs, whereas Bartsch and colleagues did not include these outcomes. Bartsch et al acknowledge that their estimates likely underestimate the severity of C. difficile–associated diarrhea, but they did not report sensitivity analyses on quality of life, symptom duration, or the number of recurrent episodes. Future work to better quantify C. difficile–associated impairments in quality of life will be critical in evaluating the cost-effectiveness of emerging C. difficile treatment strategies such as monoclonal antibodies and fecal microbiota transplant.
Regression analysis of multiple source and multiple informant data from complex survey samples

In this tutorial, we describe regression‐based methods for analysing multiple source data arising from complex sample survey designs. We use the term ‘multiple‐source’ data to encompass all cases where data are simultaneously obtained from multiple informants, or raters (e.g. self‐reports, family members, health care providers, administrators) or via different/parallel instruments, indicators or methods (e.g. symptom rating scales, standardized diagnostic interviews, or clinical diagnoses). We review regression models for analysing multiple source risk factors or multiple source outcomes and show that they can be considered special cases of generalized linear models, albeit with correlated outcomes. We show how these methods can be extended to handle the common survey features of stratification, clustering, and sampling weights. We describe how to fit regression models with multiple source reports derived from complex sample surveys using general purpose statistical software. Finally, the methods are illustrated using data from two studies: the Stirling County Study and the Eastern Connecticut Child Survey. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Vibrio Population Dynamics in Mid-Atlantic Surface Waters during Saharan Dust Events

Vibrio is a cosmopolitan genus of marine bacteria, highly investigated in coastal and estuarine environments. Vibrio have also been isolated from pelagic waters, yet very little is known about the ecology of these oligotrophic species. In this study we examined the relative change in bacterial abundance and more specifically the dynamics of Vibrio in the tropical North Atlantic in response to the arrival of pulses of Saharan dust aerosols, a major source of biologically important nutrients for downwind marine surface waters. Aerosol and surface water samples were collected over one month coinciding with at least two distinct dust events. Total bacterial counts increased by 1.6-fold correlating with the arrival of Saharan dust (r=0.76; p=0.001). Virus-like particles also followed this trend and were correlated with bacterial counts (r=0.67; p=0.01). Vibrio specific qPCR targeting the 16S rRNA gene ranged from below detection limits to a high of 9,145 gene copies ml-1 with the arrival of dust. This increase equated to 6.5 x 10^2 – 1.5 x 10^3 individual genome equivalents ml-1 based on the known range of 16S rRNA copies among this genus. Vibrio exhibited bloom-bust cycles potentially attributed to selective viral lysis or bloom depletion of organic carbon. This work is one of the few studies to examine the open ocean ecology of Vibrio, a conditionally rare taxon, whose bloom-bust lifestyle likely is a contributing factor in the flow of nutrients and energy in pelagic ecosystems.
THE EFFECTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL TRUST ON TURNOVER INTENTION

Today where global competition, rapid and continuous change are being experienced, it has become more difficult for enterprises to improve in production and management process, to increase efficiency and quality, to reduce costs, to move fast, to renew technology, to achieve flexible structure and to succeed by achieving superiority in the competition against its like. These efforts which seek to increase operational efficiency are necessary in order to provide competitive advantage today but insufficient. In order to provide and maintain competitive advantage, it is also necessary to make innovation, to make difference, or to use available resources-technology-knowledge in a way that will make a difference and produce new values. It is the human resources that will produce new values, make a difference and implement the strategies for the matter. However, the signs of negativity in human resources, such as high cost of human resources, labour turnover, job dissatisfaction, a decrease in performance-efficiency-quality-motivation, absenteeism are also factors that directly affect the performance of enterprises.Therefore, what enterprises have to use to accomplish their objectives is the human resources that are the source of providing a competitive advantage. In order for the human resources to create value, it is required to determine and prepare the resources in line with the strategies of the enterprise, to focus on the applications, programs, approaches that provide the development, uncovering of its potential, utilization, motivation, resolution of problems, effective use, production of new values, retention, loyalty, satisfaction, and so on.The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of organizational trust on turnover intention. In the study carried out for this purpose, trust scale and turnover intention scale have been used. 228 people working in private sector in Istanbul have participated in the study. According to the findings obtained from the analysis of the data, organizational trust significantly affects turnover intention. In other words, 18% of the change upon the turnover intention can be explained by the organizational trust ( =0.18).
Power System Security Assessment - Application of Learning Algorithms

The last years blackouts have indicated that the operation and control of power systems may need to be improved. Even if a lot of data was available, the operators at different control centers did not take the proper actions in time to prevent the blackouts. This depends partly on the reorganization of the control centers after the deregulation and partly on the lack of reliable decision support systems when the system is close to instability. Motivated by these facts, this thesis is focused on applying statistical learning algorithms for identifying critical states in power systems. Instead of using a model of the power system to estimate the state, measured variables are used as input data to the algorithm. The algorithm classifies secure from insecure states of the power system using the measured variables directly. The algorithm is trained beforehand with data from a model of the power system. The thesis uses two techniques, principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machines (SVM), in order to classify whether the power system can withstand an (n (Less)
Title : Motivational interviewing as a smoking cessation strategy with nurses : An exploratory randomised controlled trial

Background: Despite the important role that health professionals have in reducing tobacco use, many have a smoking habit themselves. The prevalence of smoking is particularly high among nurses. Objective: To test the efficacy, acceptability and feasibility of a motivational interviewing (MI) based smoking cessation intervention with nurses. Design: two group parallel experimental design with random allocation to groups. Setting: a large teaching hospital in the North of Spain. Participants: Nurses who smoked (n=30) were randomised into two groups: motivational interviewing based intervention (n=15) and usual care (n=15). Methods: Motivational interviewing based intervention consisted of four individual MI sessions. Usual care consisted of brief advice. Variables considered to assess efficacy were biochemically verified smoking cessation, mean cigarettes smoked, stages of change, self-efficacy and depression score. Variables to assess acceptability and feasibility included participant satisfaction, adherence to MI, and duration of sessions. Data were collected at: baseline, end of intervention and three months after the end of the intervention. Results: At three month follow up, compared with the control group, more nurses in the intervention group had quit (absolute difference 33.3%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.6 to 58.2). In the nurses who did not quit, there was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups in the number of cigarettes smoked per day, although progress in the stages of change was greater in the intervention group compared to the control group. Measures of acceptability and feasibility indicated good satisfaction with the intervention, with high levels of attendance and completion. Conclusion: This study found a beneficial effect of motivational interviewing on nurses’ smoking cessation. The intervention was acceptable for nurses and a number of aspects were identified that
Developing competitive advantage for a restaurant

As public concerns about food safety and health increase, many people are raising their expectations of food quality and safety. To help a restaurant establish competitive advantages with food traceability control is the study purpose. The research problems include how the food traceability system can improve food quality and safety; how it will bring competitive advantages for the restaurant; and whether it is adaptable to the restaurant. The primary data was obtained by interviewing key participants in the restaurant’s food supply chain. The data is reliable as triangulation data shows similarities. The study finds that there is a willingness to build the food traceability system regardless of resources deficiency, as participants all agree that a food traceability system can help enhance food quality and safety. The innovation outcome shows a benefit that food traceability system can bring is adequate updated information along the food supply chain according to published food traceability case studies. Conclusions of the research are that a food traceability system can help improve food quality and safety. Furthermore, it also presents as a source of competitive advantage. A computerised traceability system can offer maximum information along the supply chain, which can help the organisation respond faster to changes, and make a strategic plan in supply, inventory and production with lower cost. Therefore, the research recommends that the restaurant introduce a suitable computerised food traceability system to obtain competitive advantages.
EFFECT OF INCLUDING (VERSUS EXCLUDING) FATES WORSE THAN DEATH ON UTILITY MEASUREMENT

Objectives: Most studies typically measure health preferences excluding health states perceived as worse than death. The objective of this study is to test the impact of including (versus excluding) health states perceived to be worse than death on utility measurementusing standard gamble (SG) and visual analogue scale (VAS) methods. Methods: By means of a cross-sectional descriptive study design, women were asked to rate the utility of three hypothetical breast cancer health states: cure, treatment, and recurrence (n=119). Preference weights were estimated, allowing for negative utilities with death (perfect health) scaled at zero (1.0). Results: Unpaired t-test analysis showed significantly greater change in SG and VAS weights for individuals perceiving cancer recurrence as worse than death than those perceiving death as least desirable state. Excluding negative utilities from the study resulted in significantly smaller changes in utility. Study results show that preference elicitation methods can be successfully adapted to acquire negative utilities. Conclusions: Changes in utility were greater when negative preferences were permitted. Addressing negative preference scores could significantly affect quality adjusted life year estimates in economic analyses.
LPmerge: an R package for merging genetic maps by linear programming

UNLABELLED Consensus genetic maps constructed from multiple populations are an important resource for both basic and applied research, including genome-wide association analysis, genome sequence assembly and studies of evolution. The LPmerge software uses linear programming to efficiently minimize the mean absolute error between the consensus map and the linkage maps from each population. This minimization is performed subject to linear inequality constraints that ensure the ordering of the markers in the linkage maps is preserved. When marker order is inconsistent between linkage maps, a minimum set of ordinal constraints is deleted to resolve the conflicts. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION LPmerge is on CRAN at http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/LPmerge.
Fuzzy Expert System for the Selection of Tourist Hotel

Abstract: A model is represented for the selection of tourist hotel using the concept of fuzzy expert system. There are several ways for the selection of tourist hotel but till date no mathematical model is available, therefore we try to design a model the selection of tourist hotel. We use trapezoidal and triangular membership function for input factors as well as output factors. Further, we use some authenticated factors to solve the problem of selection of tourist hotels. In the process, case study is also considered to support this methodology.
Burning Issues in the Nigeria Tax System and Tax Reforms on Revenue Generation: Evidence from Rivers State

This study examined the burning issues in the Nigeria tax system, tax reforms, and how they affect revenue generation in River State, Nigeria. Data were generated through primary sources and the use of multiple regression analysis was employed. A sample size of 80 respondents, determined by the Yaro Yamen’s formula, was selected. The t-test was used to establish sufficient evidence that the correlation coefficient is not zero. The F-statistic was also used in terms of testing for the model’s overall significance. The result indicated that tax reforms have positive relationship with and influence revenue generation very significantly as better reforms will lead to increase in total revenue. It was revealed that tax evasion and avoidance are negatively related with revenue generation because increase in such practices brings about very significant reduction in total revenue. The study also discovered that the relationship between multiple taxation and revenue generation is positive as multiplicity of taxes tend to increase the revenue base of government. However, it was concluded that the Nigeria tax system cannot operate effectively and efficiently except such burning issues as tax evasion and avoidance are reduced to the barest minimum while several others are also adequately addressed. On the basis of the findings and conclusions, the study recommended that without any delay, tax reforms should be carried as soon as the need arises, to effect relevant and necessary changes in the tax system so as to address the contentious and contemporary issues to boost the revenue earning capacity of government.
Reduction of the impairment of online OTDR monitoring by use of a narrow bandwidth OTDR and an optical bandpass filter

We demonstrate that the impairment on optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) noise floor when testing a fiber in the presence of traffic signals can be reduced by using a tunable narrow-bandwidth OTDR combined with an optical bandpass filter. By this technique, we observed that the OTDR penalty caused by the spontaneous Raman scattering generated by the traffic signals was significantly reduced. Moreover, we found that it is advantageous to monitor online fiber with a counterpropagation scheme. The simulations and experimental results will be discussed.
Patient Safety in Hospitals: What We Do and What We Need—Focus Groups With Stakeholders of Hospitals in Southern Germany

Objectives To provide the basis for designing an interprofessional patient safety training for medical treatment teams, the current situation regarding patient safety and existing training programs in southern German hospitals should be explored. Moreover, need-based content regarding the subject areas teamwork, safety culture, and patient involvement should be derived, a conducive learning format suggested, and wishes and concerns regarding the training explored. Methods Qualitative design (focus groups) in five hospitals with different levels of care involving a total of 39 members of interprofessional teams, administration, and quality management team. Structured contents analysis was used for evaluation. Results The need for training to improve patient safety was highlighted. Related contents regarding the subject areas were derived: teamwork (team-building exercises, interprofessional teamwork, interprofessional communication), safety culture (dealing with criticism, appraisals, open handling of errors/proactive error reporting), and patient involvement (inclusion of patients and/or relatives, question types). The combination of e-learning and interprofessional in-person training was emphasized as a conducive learning format. The desire for practical tips, Continuing Medical Education credits, and intuitive review of theories was expressed. Conclusions The study initially presents the current situation regarding patient safety, existing training, teamwork, safety culture, and patient involvement in southern German hospitals and gives recommendations for related content and learning format. Based on our results, we recommend to develop a combination of e-learning and interprofessional in-person training. This training should systematically link all three subject areas and address the derived content from the focus groups to improve patient safety.
Comparative analysis of two techniques for detection and segmentation of moving bodies

This paper makes a comparative analysis of results produced by the application of two techniques for the detection and segmentation of bodies in motion captured in images sequence, namely: 1) technique based on the temporal average of the values of each pixel recorded in N consecutive image frames and, 2) technique based on historical values associated with pixels recorded in different frames of an image sequence.
Caudal fourth ventricular administration of the AMPK activator 5‐aminoimidazole‐4‐carboxamide‐riboside regulates glucose and counterregulatory hormone profiles, dorsal vagal complex metabolosensory neuron function, and hypothalamic fos expression

This study investigated the hypothesis that estrogen controls hindbrain AMP‐activated protein kinase (AMPK) activity and regulation of blood glucose, counterregulatory hormone secretion, and hypothalamic nerve cell transcriptional status. Dorsal vagal complex A2 noradrenergic neurons were laser microdissected from estradiol benzoate (E)‐ or oil (O)‐implanted ovariectomized female rats after caudal fourth ventricular (CV4) delivery of the AMPK activator 5‐aminoimidazole‐4‐carboxamide‐riboside (AICAR), for Western blot analysis. E advanced AICAR‐induced increases in A2 phospho‐AMPK (pAMPK) expression and in blood glucose levels and was required for augmentation of Fos, estrogen receptor‐α (ERα), monocarboxylate transporter‐2, and glucose transporter‐3 protein in A2 neurons and enhancement of corticosterone secretion by this treatment paradigm. CV4 AICAR also resulted in site‐specific modifications in Fos immunolabeling of hypothalamic metabolic structures, including the paraventricular, ventromedial, and arcuate nuclei. The current studies demonstrate that estrogen regulates AMPK activation in caudal hindbrain A2 noradrenergic neurons during pharmacological replication of energy shortage in this area of the brain, and that this sensor is involved in neural regulation of glucostasis, in part, through control of corticosterone secretion. The data provide unique evidence that A2 neurons express both ERα and ‐β proteins and that AMPK upregulates cellular sensitivity to ERα‐mediated signaling during simulated energy insufficiency. The results also imply that estrogen promotes glucose and lactate uptake by these cells under those conditions. Evidence for correlation between hindbrain AMPK and hypothalamic nerve cell genomic activation provides novel proof for functional connectivity between this hindbrain sensor and higher order metabolic brain loci while demonstrating a modulatory role for estrogen in this interaction. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Hybrid media transport system

The hybrid era integrating broadcasting and broadband is upon us, in which it is one of challenge issues how to synchronize broadcasting services with the Internet applications under the hybrid network environment. The related technologies and standards have been developed by major broadcasters and international standardzation organizations. This paper gives a description of requirements, architecture, and some service examples of the hybrid media transport system.
α1‐Adrenoceptor‐mediated contraction of rat aorta is partly mediated via transactivation of the epidermal growth factor receptor

Background and purpose: High level of plasma catecholamines is a risk factor for vascular diseases such as hypertension and atherosclerosis. Catecholamines induce hypertrophy of vascular smooth muscle through α1‐adrenoceptors, which in cell culture involves the transactivation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). We hypothesized that EGFR transactivation was also involved in contractions of rat aorta mediated by α1‐adrenoceptors.