Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Process evaluation of a patient-centred, patient-directed, group-based education program for the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus Odgers-Jewell,

1 Aim: This study developed and evaluated a patient-centred, patient-directed, group2 based education program for the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus. 3 Methods: Two frameworks, the MRC Framework for Developing and Evaluating 4 Complex Interventions and the RE-AIM framework were followed. Data to develop the 5 intervention were sourced from scoping of the literature and formative evaluation. 6 Program evaluation comprised analysis of primary recruitment of participants through 7 general practitioners, baseline and endpoint measures of anthropometry, four validated 8 questionnaires, contemporaneous facilitator notes and telephone interviews with 9 participants. 10 Results: A total of 16 participants enrolled in the intervention. Post intervention results 11 were obtained from 13 participants with an estimated mean change from baseline in 12 weight of -0.72kg (95%CI -1.44 to -0.01), BMI of -0.25kg/m2 (95%CI -0.49 to -0.01), 13 and waist circumference of -1.04cm (95%CI -4.52 to 2.44). The group education 14 program was acceptable to participants. The results suggest that recruitment through 15 general practitioners is ineffective and alternative recruitment strategies are required. 16 Conclusions: This patient-centred, patient-directed, group-based intervention for the 17 management of type 2 diabetes mellitus was both feasible and acceptable to patients. 18 Health professionals should consider the combined use of the MRC and RE-AIM 19 frameworks in the development of interventions to ensure a rigorous design process, 20 and to enable the evaluation of all phases of the intervention, which will facilitate 21 translation to other settings. Further research with a larger sample trialling additional 22 recruitment strategies, evaluating further measures of effectiveness, and utilizing 23 lengthier follow up periods is required. 24 25 This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Odgers-Jewell, K. , Isenring, E. , Thomas, R. , & Reidlinger, D. P. (2017). Process evaluation of a patient-centred, patient-directed, group-based education program for the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Nutrition and Dietetics, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/1747-0080.123. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions
Determinants of Early Mortality Among 37,568 Patients With Colon Cancer Who Participated in 25 Clinical Trials From the Adjuvant Colon Cancer Endpoints Database.

PURPOSE Factors associated with early mortality after surgery and treatment with adjuvant chemotherapy in colon cancer are poorly understood. We aimed to characterize the determinants of early mortality in a large cohort of colon cancer trial participants. METHODS A pooled analysis of 37,568 patients in 25 randomized trials of adjuvant systemic therapy was conducted. Multivariable logistic regression models with several definitions of early mortality (30, 60, and 90 days, and 6 months) were constructed, adjusting for clinically and statistically significant variables. A nomogram for 6-month mortality was developed and validated. RESULTS Median age among patients was 61 years, patient demographics included 54% men and 90% White, 29% and 71% had stage II and III disease, respectively, and 79%, 20%, and 1% had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (PS) of 0, 1, and ≥ 2, respectively. Early mortality was low: 0.3% at 30 days, 0.6% at 60 days, 0.8% at 90 days, and 1.4% at 6 months. Of those patients who died by 6 months post-random assignment, 40% had documented disease recurrence prior to death. Early disease recurrence was associated with a markedly increased risk of death during the first 6 months post-treatment (hazard ratio, 82.6; 95%CI, 66.9 to 102.1). In prognostic analyses, advanced age, male sex, poorer PS, increasing ratio of positive to examined lymph nodes, earlier decade of enrollment, and higher tumor stage and grade predicted a greater likelihood of early mortality, whereas treatment received was not strongly predictive. A multivariable model for 6-month mortality showed strong optimism-adjusted discrimination (concordance index, 0.73) and calibration. CONCLUSION Early mortality was infrequent but more prevalent in patients with advanced age and a PS of ≥ 2, underscoring the need to carefully consider the risk-to-benefit ratio when making treatment decisions in these subgroups.
Credit risk predictions with Bayesian model averaging

Model uncertainty remains a challenge to researchers in different applications. When many competing models are available for estimation, and without enough guidance from theory, model averaging represents an alternative to model selection. Despite model averaging approaches have been present in statistics for many years, only recently they are starting to receive attention in applications. The Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) approach sometimes can be difficult in terms of applicability, mainly because of the following reasons: firstly two types of priors need to be elicited and secondly the number of models under consideration in the model space is often huge, so that the computational aspects can be prohibitive. In this paper we show how Bayesian model averaging can be usefully employed to obtain a well calibrated model, in terms of predictive accuracy for credit risk problems. In this paper we shall investigate how BMA performs in comparison with classical and Bayesian (single) selected models using two real credit risk databases.
Brainstem modulation of visual response properties of single cells in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of cat

The dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) transmits visual signals from the retina to the cortex. In the dLGN the antagonism between the centre and the surround of the receptive fields is increased through intrageniculate inhibitory mechanisms. Furthermore, the transmission of signals through the dLGN is modulated in a state‐dependent manner by input from various brainstem nuclei including an area in the parabrachial region (PBR) containing cholinergic cells involved in the regulation of arousal and sleep. Here, we studied the effects of increased PBR input on the spatial receptive field properties of cells in the dLGN. We made simultaneous single‐unit recordings of the input to the cells from the retina (S‐potentials) and the output of the cells to the cortex (action potentials) to determine spatial receptive field modifications generated in the dLGN. State‐dependent modulation of the spatial receptive field properties was studied by electrical stimulation of the PBR. The results showed that PBR stimulation had only a minor effect on the modifications of the spatial receptive field properties generated in the dLGN. The PBR‐evoked effects could be described mainly as increased response gain. This suggested that the spatial modifications of the receptive field occurred at an earlier stage of processing in the dLGN than the PBR‐controlled gain regulation, such that the PBR input modulates the gain of the spatially modified signals. We propose that the spatial receptive field modifications occur at the input to relay cells through the synaptic triades between retinal afferents, inhibitory interneurone dendrites, and relay cell dendrites and that the gain regulation is related to postsynaptic cholinergic effects on the relay cells.
Regulation of interaction of the iron-responsive element binding protein with iron-responsive RNA elements

The 5' untranslated region of the ferritin heavy-chain mRNA contains a stem-loop structure called an iron-responsive element (IRE), that is solely responsible for the iron-mediated control of ferritin translation. A 90-kilodalton protein, called the IRE binding protein (IRE-BP), binds to the IRE and acts as a translational repressor. IREs also explain the iron-dependent control of the degradation of the mRNA encoding the transferrin receptor. Scatchard analysis reveals that the IRE-BP exists in two states, each of which is able to specifically interact with the IRE. The higher-affinity state has a Kd of 10 to 30 pM, and the lower affinity state has a Kd of 2 to 5 nM. The reversible oxidation or reduction of a sulfhydryl is critical to this switching, and the reduced form is of the higher affinity while the oxidized form is of lower affinity. The in vivo rate of ferritin synthesis is correlated with the abundance of the high-affinity form of the IRE-BP. In lysates of cells treated with iron chelators, which decrease ferritin biosynthesis, a four- to fivefold increase in the binding activity is seen and this increase is entirely caused by an increase in high-affinity binding sites. In desferrioxamine-treated cells, the high-affinity form makes up about 50% of the total IRE-BP, whereas in hemin-treated cells, the high-affinity form makes up less than 1%. The total amount of IRE-BP in the cytosol of cells is the same regardless of the prior iron treatment of the cell. Furthermore, a mutated IRE is not able to interact with the IRE-BP in a high-affinity form but only at a single lower affinity Kd of 0.7 nM. Its interaction with the IRE-BP is insensitive to the sulfhydryl status of the protein.
Developing advanced practical recycling method of FRP boats

Since 1990s, these many researchers have been fully involved in developing recycling methods for mechanical recycling of FRP boats, which involves shredding and grinding of the scrap FRP in a new recycled product. But still it leads to secondary problem such as air pollution and unacceptable shredding noise level. Another urgent and also FRP recycling is very limited applications. This study is to propose a newly advanced method which is more efficient and environment friendly waste FRP regenerating system. As extracting FRP layer and making the recycled fiber for recycled-fiber reinforced concrete(RFRC) from waste FRP, the recycling process has some merits in a sense of the recycling energy and the environmental effects. In this study spectrochemical differentiation between the two layers has been made using (1) boiling concentrated sulfuric acid which can dissolve the resin in the FRP layer, (2) methanol and isopropanol solution saturated with KOH which can dissolve the glass, or (3) hydrogen fluoride(HF) solution which can reacts with SiO2 fragments of the glass. Furthermore coloring water-soluble dye following the HF treatment makes the roving layer more distinguishable photophysically. For those tasks, spectro-chemical differentiation method and coloring water-soluble dye treatment makes the roving layer more distinguishable photophysically. Newly developed (patented) recycling system is not just efficient but also eco-friendly FRP waste regenerating system. That has remarkably reduced safety hazards and energy. Using the mechanical properties of polymers and composite, FRP with the orthotropic and laminated plastic structure has been easily separated in the new extracting system. Also five kind of separating manuals have been introduced for the some different compositions of FRP boats. The roving fiber of laminated glass-fiber layer is as good as the polyvinyl fiber which is cost-high commercial fiber to increasing strength of concrete products. The early study has shown the effectiveness of laminated glass-fiber layer which also is chemical-resistant due to the resin coating. The application of laminated glass-fiber layer has been to be very effective and value added. Therefore the extracting system of laminated glass-fiber layer in FRP waste should be more studied for mass production and industrialization. It will also be eco-friendly regenerate recycling of the troublesome FRP waste. These results imply that more efficient and environment friendly recycled glass fiber can be better applied to the fiber reinforced concrete(FRC) substitute and this study also has shown wide concrete applications with recycled-fiber reinforced concrete from the waste FRP boat. Furthermore it may be introduced in real life for the practical and eco-friendly FRP regenerating system to the waste FRP boats.
Profiling the sport of stand-up paddle boarding

Abstract Stand-up paddle boarding (SUP) is a rapidly growing activity where only anecdotal evidence exists for its proposed health and fitness benefits. The purpose of this study was to profile elite and recreational SUP with respect to anthropometric, physiological and musculoskeletal measurements. A total of 30 SUP participants (15 recreational, 15 elite) and 15 sedentary controls participated in this study. Elite and recreational (rec) SUP participants had significantly lower body fat than sedentary (sed) individuals, elite had significantly higher HDL and significantly lower triglycerides than other groups during lipid profiling (P > 0.05). There were significant differences (P > 0.05) between all groups in maximal oxygen uptake (elite 43.7, s = 5.89 ml · kg–1 · min–1 vs. rec 31.9, s = 7.7 ml · kg–1 · min–1 vs. sed 20.4, s = 3.7 ml · kg–1 · min–1) and anaerobic power outputs (35.7, s = 11.1 W vs. 25.0, s = 11.7 W vs. 13.5, s = 7.1 W). The elite group displayed significantly longer endurance than the recreational and sedentary group in the prone bridge (elite 253.4, s = 67.6 s vs. rec 165.6, s = 42.2 s vs. sed 69.7, s = 31.2 s), right-sided bridge (elite 107.9, s = 34.0 s vs. recreational 68.2, s = 24.1 s vs. sed 34.6, s = 15.5 s), left-sided bridge (elite 99.8, s = 24.9 s vs. rec 68.2, s = 27.2 s vs. sed 32.5, s = 15.2 s) and Biering Sorensen test (elite 148.8, s = 35.4 s vs. rec 127.2, s = 43.2 s vs. sed 71.1, s = 32.9 s). Elite SUP had significantly better static and dynamic postural control when compared to the other groups. This study demonstrates the anthropometric, physiological and musculoskeletal values representative of elite and recreational SUP. SUP appears to be associated with increased levels of aerobic and anaerobic fitness, increased static and dynamic balance and a high level of isometric trunk endurance.
Interlaboratory comparison of red‐cell ATP, 2,3‐diphosphoglycerate and haemolysis measurements

Background and Objectives Red blood cell (RBC) storage systems are licensed based on their ability to prevent haemolysis and maintain RBC 24‐h in vivo recovery. Preclinical testing includes measurement of RBC ATP as a surrogate for recovery, 2,3‐diphosphoglycerate (DPG) as a surrogate for oxygen affinity, and free haemoglobin, which is indicative of red cell lysis. The reproducibility of RBC ATP, DPG and haemolysis measurements between centres was investigated.
Simultaneous extraction and rapid visualization of peptidomic and lipidomic body fluids fingerprints using mesoporous aluminosilicate and MALDI‐TOF MS

Herein we report the use of mesoporous aluminosilicate (MPAS) for the simultaneous extraction of peptides and lipids from complex body fluids such as human plasma and synovial fluid. We show that MPAS particles, given their mesostructural features with nanometric pore size and high surface area, are an efficient device for simultaneous extraction of peptidome and lipidome from as little as a few microliters of body fluids. The peptides and the lipids, selected and enriched by MPAS particles and rapidly visualized by MALDI‐TOF MS, could form part of a diagnostic profile of the “peptidome” and the “lipidome” of healthy versus diseased subjects in comparative studies. The ability of this approach to rapidly reveal the overall pattern of changes in both lipidome and peptidome signatures of complex biofluids could be of valuable interest for handling large numbers of samples required in ‐omics studies for the purpose of finding novel biomarkers.
Early health economic modelling of single‐stage cartilage repair. Guiding implementation of technologies in regenerative medicine

Both the complexity of clinically applied tissue engineering techniques for articular cartilage repair – such as autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) – plus increasing healthcare costs, and market competition, are forcing a shift in focus from two‐stage to single‐stage interventions that are more cost‐effective. Early health economic models are expected to provide essential insight in the parameters driving the cost‐effectiveness of new interventions before they are introduced into clinical practice. The present study estimated the likely incremental cost‐effectiveness ratio (ICER) of a new investigator‐driven single‐stage procedure (IMPACT) compared with both microfracture and ACI, and identified those parameters that affect the cost‐effectiveness. A decision tree with clinical health states was constructed. The ICER was calculated by dividing the incremental societal costs by the incremental Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs). Costs were determined from a societal perspective. A headroom analysis was performed to determine the maximum price of IMPACT compared with both ACI and microfracture, assuming a societal willingness to pay (WTP) of €30 000/QALY. One‐way sensitivity analysis was performed to identify those parameters that drive the cost‐effectiveness. The societal costs of IMPACT, ACI and microfracture were found to be €11 797, €29 741 and €6081, respectively. An 8% increase in all utilities after IMPACT changes the ICER of IMPACT vs. microfracture from €147 513/QALY to €28 588/QALY. Compared with ACI, IMPACT is less costly, which is largely attributable to the cell expansion procedure that has been rendered redundant. While microfracture can be considered the most cost‐effective treatment option for smaller defects, a single‐stage tissue engineering procedure can replace ACI to improve the cost‐effectiveness for treating larger defects, especially if clinical non‐inferiority can be achieved. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Assessing Behavioral Symptoms of Dementia of the Alzheimer Type: Categorical and Quantitative Approaches

Behavioral disturbances are a prevalent and important aspect of dementia of the Alzheimer type, but they have been relatively neglected by researchers. To characterize patients as having dementia, at least two goals should be addressed: first, determining a reliable definition and categorical diagnosis of dementia using such criteria as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)–IV and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)–10; second, establishing a reliable and valid measurement of the severity of cognitive and noncognitive impairment by means of rating scales. DSM-IV and ICD-10 do not provide definitions of behavioral disturbance, whereas more than 100 geriatric rating scales exist that include some measurement of behavioral disturbances of dementia. There is a need for consensus on the term for these noncognitive symptoms. Some authors prefer the subdivisions of (a) psychiatric and noncognitive symptomatology into psychiatric symptoms, or syndromes and behavioral distrubances; and (b) cognitive syndromes. Given the frequency and clinical significance of behavioral and psychiatric disturbances in dementia, a standardized assessment procedure is needed for reliably and comprehensively describing psychiatric phenomena and behavioral disturbances in patients with dementia.
Comparison of methods for DNA extraction from Candida albicans

Invasive Candida infection is an increasing cause of morbidity and mortality in the immunocompromised patient. Molecular diagnosis based on genomic amplification methods, such as real time PCR, has been reported as an alternative to conventional culture for early detection of invasive candidiasis. The template DNA extraction step has been the major limitation in most reported nucleic acid based assays, due to problems in breaking fungal cell walls and incomplete purification in PCR inhibitor substances.The aim of this study was to compare enzymatic cell wall disruption using recombinant lyticase with mechanical disruption using glass beads. The QIAamp tissue kit was compared with two automated DNA extraction robots, the BioRobot M48 and NucliSens easyMAG, to determine their sensitivity, reliability and duration for DNA release of C. albicans. Mechanical cell wall disruption shortened and facilitated the extraction procedure, but the quantity of released DNA was significantly lower than when enzymatic cell wall disruption was used. Use of robots did not significantly shorten the DNA extraction time, compared with manual DNA extraction. However the NucliSens easyMAG resulted in a higher yield of target DNA compared to the BioRobot M48 and the manual QIAamp tissue kit.
Web-Assisted Instruction for Changing Social Cognitive Variables Related to Physical Activity

The authors examined the efficacy of Web-assisted instruction for promoting the use of social cognitive theory (SCT) strategies related to physical activity. They recruited college students attending health courses. The authors created 3 groups (Web-assisted, comparison, and control) based on the course structure. The Web-assisted group received information on exercise and fitness and a Web-based program (treatment, n = 127); 7 sections received the same exercise and fitness information as the treatment condition, but no Web-based program (comparison, n = 118); and 6 sections received information in unrelated areas (control, n = 178). The Web-based program consisted of 9 Web assignments (1 per week) that targeted key SCT variables. Satisfaction with the Web-based program was high. Use of self-regulation strategies was significantly higher at posttest in the treatment group than it was in the other groups. Knowledge concerning the skills taught by the Web assignments was significantly greater in the treatment group than it was in the comparison group. The results of this study demonstrate that a Web-based instructional program has a positive impact on knowledge and skills related to SCT strategies for changing physical activity behavior.
Program equivalence in a linear functional language

Researchers have recently proposed that for certain applications it is advantageous to use functional languages whose type systems are based upon linear logic: so-called linear functional languages. In this paper we develop reasoning techniques for programs in a linear functional language, linPCF, based on their operational behaviour. The principal theorem of this paper is to show that contextual equivalence of linPCF programs can be characterised coinductively. This characterisation provides a tractable method for reasoning about contextual equivalence, and is used in three ways: [bull ] A number of useful contextual equivalences between linPCF programs is given. [bull ] A notion of type isomorphism with respect to contextual equivalence, called operational isomorphism, is given. In particular the types ! ϕ[otimes ]! ψ and ! (ϕ&ψ) are proved to be operationally isomorphic. [bull ] A translation of non-strict PCF into linPCF is shown to be adequate, but not fully abstract, with respect to contextual equivalence.
Modeling of hybrid system combining an offshore wind turbine and an Oscillating Water Column system

Hybrid systems of renewable energy technologies are new solutions to take full advantage of the nature energy. To get back energy from wind and waves is however one of these solutions. The Marine energy power is one of the biggest sources of nature energy by the wind that is big and regular throughout the year or by the movement of the waves that engendering considerable energy. After making the design of the 3D model in CATIA V5, in a previous step, the objective of this article is modeling hybrid system combining an offshore wind turbine and Oscillating Water Column system (OWC).