Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Studying Outcomes and Hospital Utilization in the Elderly: The Advantages of a Merged Data Base for Medicare and Veterans Affairs Hospitals

That veterans aged 65 years and older are eligible to receive care either in the Veteran Affairs (VA) health care system or in the private sector under Medicare confounds the analysis of veterans' health services utilization and outcomes in two ways. First, changes in eligibility or financial barriers to access with regard to either system influence veterans' decisions about where to seek needed care. Second, analyses of VA care for elderly veterans that rely solely on VA data sources underestimate both overall utilization and treatment complications. Similarly, failure to consider the contribution of health care delivery in the VA system may confound analyses of health care utilization by the Medicare-eligible population. To study the magnitude of such confounding influences, we linked the Medicare and VA health care administrative databases for residents of New England and New York. Results indicated that, for ten surgical procedures commonly performed in the elderly, as well as for hospitalizations resulting from acute myocardial infarction and hip fracture, VA patients receive from 17.6% to 37.4% of hospital care outside the VA system. Private hospitalizations account for 5.5% to 19.5% of the care received by veterans within 6 months after an initial episode of care in a VA hospital. It was also found that initial hospitalizations for study conditions in the VA accounted for 3.6% of all such hospitalizations among elderly Medicare-eligible men. Although overall hospital utilization appears to be underestimated in VA data sources, it was found that ascertaining mortality from sources available within the VA produced excellent results when compared with deaths recorded in the Medicare enrollment files. A national, merged VA-Medicare data base is feasible and would enhance the validity of analyses of health care delivery both for elderly veterans and for the Medicare population.
A Hybrid 2-D/3-D Multilevel Green’s Function Interpolation Method for Electrically Large Multilayered Problems

The multilevel Green's function interpolation method has been implemented to solve the general electrically-large multilayered problems. A new hybrid 2-D and 3-D (H2-D/3-D) multilevel interpolation method and a cross-level translation scheme are devised for the specific problems, from which a quad-tree is constructed. The interpolation of the multilayered medium Green's function using radial basis function is then studied. To further accelerate the computation, a subdomain fast Fourier transform scheme and a sparse approximated inverse preconditioner with a new discarding strategy are also incorporated into the algorithm. As numerical examples, typical microstrip antenna arrays, a metasurface antenna and electromagnetic bandgap integrated antenna arrays are analyzed with the proposed method and excellent performance is observed in both accuracy and efficiency.
The battle for 'Trayvon Martin': Mapping a media controversy online and off-line

One of the biggest news stories of 2012, the killing of Trayvon Martin, nearly disappeared from public view, initially receiving only cursory local news coverage. But the story gained attention and controversy over Martin’s death dominated headlines, airwaves, and Twitter for months, thanks to a savvy publicist working on behalf of the victim’s parents and a series of campaigns offline and online. Using the theories of networked gatekeeping and networked framing, we map out the vast media ecosystem using quantitative data about the content generated around the Trayvon Martin story in both offline and online media, as well as measures of engagement with the story, to trace the interrelations among mainstream media, nonprofessional and social media, and their audiences. We consider the attention and link economies among the collected media sources in order to understand who was influential when, finding that broadcast media is still important as an amplifier and gatekeeper, but that it is susceptible to media activists working through participatory or nonprofessional media to co-create the news and influence the framing of major controversies. Our findings have implications for social change organizations that seek to harness advocacy campaigns to news stories, and for scholars studying media ecology and the networked public sphere.
Microvascular responsiveness in obesity: implications for therapeutic intervention

Obesity has detrimental effects on the microcirculation. Functional changes in microvascular responsiveness may increase the risk of developing cardiovascular complications in obese patients. Emerging evidence indicates that selective therapeutic targeting of the microvessels may prevent life‐threatening obesity‐related vascular complications, such as ischaemic heart disease, heart failure and hypertension. It is also plausible that alterations in adipose tissue microcirculation contribute to the development of obesity. Therefore, targeting adipose tissue arterioles could represent a novel approach to reducing obesity. This review aims to examine recent studies that have been focused on vasomotor dysfunction of resistance arteries in obese humans and animal models of obesity. Particularly, findings in coronary resistance arteries are contrasted to those obtained in other vascular beds. We provide examples of therapeutic attempts, such as use of statins, ACE inhibitors and insulin sensitizers to prevent obesity‐related microvascular complications. We further identify some of the important challenges and opportunities going forward.
A Distributed System for SearchOnMath Based on the Microsoft BizSpark Program

Mathematical information retrieval is a relatively new area, so the first search tools capable of retrieving mathematical formulas began to appear only a few years ago. The proposals made public so far mostly implement searches on internal university databases, small sets of scientific papers, or Wikipedia in English. As such, only modest computing power is required. In this context, SearchOnMath has emerged as a pioneering tool in that it indexes several different databases and is compatible with several mathematical representation languages. Given the significantly greater number of formulas it handles, a distributed system becomes necessary to support it. The present study is based on the Microsoft BizSpark program and has aimed, for 38 different distributed-system scenarios, to pinpoint the one affording the best response times when searching the SearchOnMath databases for a collection of 120 formulas.
Endometrial epithelial cell response to semen from HIV-infected men during different stages of infection is distinct and can drive HIV-1-long terminal repeat

Objectives:Although more than 60% of HIV transmission occurs via semen, little is known about the immune impact of seminal plasma on HIV susceptibility. Here, we examined the level of selected immunomodulatory factors in seminal plasma from HIV-uninfected and therapy-naive, HIV-infected men in acute and chronic stages; the cytokine response elicited by seminal plasma in genital epithelial cells (GECs); and whether any GEC response to seminal plasma could drive HIV replication in infected T cells. Methods:A panel of nine cytokines and chemokines was measured in seminal plasma from HIV-uninfected and HIV-infected men and in primary GEC cultures following seminal plasma exposure. HIV-long terminal repeat (LTR) activation was measured in 1G5 T cells exposed to supernatants from seminal plasma-treated GECs. Results:Pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines were present at significantly higher levels in seminal plasma from acute men, whereas transforming growth factor (TGF)-&bgr;1 was significantly higher in seminal plasma from chronic men. Pro-inflammatory cytokine production by GECs was significantly decreased following incubation with seminal plasma from chronic men. Blocking the TGF-&bgr;1 receptor in GECs prior to seminal plasma exposure enhanced pro-inflammatory cytokine production. Exposure to seminal plasma activated nuclear factor (NF)-&kgr;B in GECs and blocking it significantly reduced pro-inflammatory cytokine production. GEC responses to seminal plasma, especially from acute men, significantly activated HIV-LTR activation in 1G5 T cells. Conclusion:Immunomodulatory factors in seminal plasma vary, depending on presence and stage of HIV infection. Exposure to seminal plasma leads to NF-&kgr;B activation and pro-inflammatory cytokine production, whereas TGF-&bgr; in seminal plasma may suppress pro-inflammatory cytokine production by GECs. GEC responses to seminal plasma can activate HIV-LTR in infected CD4+ T cells.
Prophylactic Antibiotics in Necrotizing Pancreatitis: A Meta-analysis

Purpose: Prophylactic antibiotics have been used in acute necrotizing pancreatitis with mixed results. This meta-analysis analyzes the effects of prophylactic antibiotics in necrotizing pancreatitis. Methods: Multiple databases and abstracts were searched for randomized trials comparing treatment with prophylactic antibiotics to treatment without prophylactic antibiotics in necrotizing pancreatitis. Prophylactic antibiotics’ effects were analyzed by calculating pooled estimates of mortality, infected pancreatic necrosis, length of hospital stay, nonpancreatic infections, and surgical intervention. Results: Seven studies (n = 429) met the inclusion criteria. Prophylactic antibiotics for acute necrotizing pancreatitis significantly decreased the length of hospital stay (P = 0.04) and the rate of nonpancreatic infections (P < 0.01). No significant differences were noted for mortality (P = 0.22), infected necrosis (P = 0.18), and surgical intervention (P = 0.40). Conclusions: Prophylactic antibiotics in necrotizing pancreatitis reduced the length of hospital stay and rate of nonpancreatic infections but did not decrease mortality, infected necrosis, or surgical intervention.
Hepatitis B Infection and Vaccination Among High-Risk Noninjection Drug-Using Women: Baseline Data From the UNITY Study

Objectives: Few studies of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and hepatitis B vaccination have focused on women, and specifically, women who are at high risk. This study was designed to assess the extent of HBV infection and vaccination, level of knowledge about hepatitis B, motivators and barriers to accepting vaccination and uptake of hepatitis B vaccine. Design: From March 2005 to June 2006, 402 HIV-negative noninjection drug-using women at sexual risk were recruited, interviewed, and tested for markers of HBV infection. Results: Based on serologic testing, 16.7% were previously vaccinated against HBV, 31.1% were previously infected and 52.2% were still susceptible to HBV. Knowledge of HBV infection, transmission, and prevention was low with a mean of 6.1 of 12 knowledge items correctly identified as true or false; a substantial percent of women were not sure of the correct answer. Of the women still susceptible, 69.0% started the hepatitis B vaccine series after counseling given through the study. Conclusion: This study illustrates that there continues to be gaps in current strategies for administering hepatitis B vaccine among female populations at sexual risk. Interventions are needed for this population to increase awareness and knowledge of hepatitis B, its transmission, impact on health and the availability of a safe and effective vaccine, supplemented by community programs for adult vaccination.
Electric Vehicle Aggregator/System Operator Coordination for Charging Scheduling and Services Procurement

In response to the need for the decarbonization of the transport sector, it is expected that large fleets of electric vehicles (EVs) will constitute an important share of the electricity demand. This evolution is likely to be accompanied by a parallel evolution of the electricity supply business with the deployment of smart grid technologies. As a consequence, it is expected that demand will feature higher potential for communication and control, which will enable its active participation in the daily operational planning of power systems. In particular, EVs being equipped with a battery can both defer their demand or inject electricity back into the system. However, to achieve volumes that can have an impact on the system, these demands need to be aggregated and operated as an ensemble. This paper proposes the necessary adaptations to include the input of EV aggregation to electricity markets. This permits the scheduling of EV charging and services in coordination with the system operator thus enhancing the power system's efficiency and security while reducing its environmental impact. Results show that the EVs penetration levels that the system would be able to absorb without requiring expansion of the supply side, are significantly increased when coordination over their charging schedule is performed.
Identification of specific gene modules in mouse lung tissue exposed to cigarette smoke.

BACKGROUND Exposure to cigarette may affect human health and increase risk of a wide range of diseases including pulmonary diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, lung fibrosis and lung cancer. However, the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis induced by cigarettes still remain obscure even with extensive studies. With systemic view, we attempted to identify the specific gene modules that might relate to injury caused by cigarette smoke and identify hub genes for potential therapeutic targets or biomarkers from specific gene modules. MATERIALS AND METHODS The dataset GSE18344 was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and divided into mouse cigarette smoke exposure and control groups. Subsequently, weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was used to construct a gene co-expression network for each group and detected specific gene modules of cigarette smoke exposure by comparison. RESULTS A total of ten specific gene modules were identified only in the cigarette smoke exposure group but not in the control group. Seven hub genes were identified as well, including Fip1l1, Anp32a, Acsl4, Evl, Sdc1, Arap3 and Cd52. CONCLUSIONS Specific gene modules may provide better understanding of molecular mechanisms, and hub genes are potential candidates of therapeutic targets that may possible improve development of novel treatment approaches.
Passive Immunization of Farmed Fish

The fast growth and potential of global aquaculture has necessitated the adoption of sustainable and welfare-oriented therapeutics and prophylactic strategies. Knowledge gathered from studies about maternal passive immunity in fish and fish-to-fish passive immunization experiments supports the concept of using therapeutic Abs (of piscine and other vertebrate origin) in aquaculture. Traditional Ab formats (IgG, IgM) are expensive and laborious to produce; however, the introduction of new rAb fragments and single-domain Abs have reinvigorated the concept of passive immunization. This review will focus primarily on farmed salmonids (salmon and trout) within a comparative context and will give an overview of the basic principles and scientific premises for the passive immunization strategy, including existing and emerging Ab therapeutics.
On distributed coding, quantization of channel measurements and faster-than-Nyquist signaling

On Distributed Coding, Quantization of Channel Measurements and Faster-than-Nyquist Signaling. (December 2004) Angelos Dimitriou Liveris, B.S., National Technical University of Athens Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Costas N. Georghiades This dissertation considers three different aspects of modern digital communication systems and is therefore divided in three parts. The first part is distributed coding. This part deals with source and sourcechannel code design issues for digital communication systems with many transmitters and one receiver or with one transmitter and one receiver but with side information at the receiver, which is not available at the transmitter. Such problems are attracting attention lately, as they constitute a way of extending the classical point-to-point communication theory to networks. In this first part of this dissertation, novel source and source-channel codes are designed by converting each of the considered distributed coding problems into an equivalent classical channel coding or classical source-channel coding problem. The proposed schemes come very close to the theoretical limits and thus, are able to exhibit some of the gains predicted by network information theory. In the other two parts of this dissertation classical point-to-point digital communication systems are considered. The second part is quantization of coded channel measurements at the receiver. Quantization is a way to limit the accuracy of continuous-valued measurements so that they can be processed in the digital domain. Depending on the desired type of processing of the quantized data, different quantizer design criteria should be used. In this second part of this dissertation, the quantized received values from the channel are processed by the receiver, which tries to recover
Trends in the prevalence of chronic kidney disease and its risk factors in a general Japanese population: the Hisayama Study.

BACKGROUND Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasingly recognized as a leading public health issue. However, there are limited data assessing secular trends in the prevalence of CKD in general Asian communities. METHODS We performed three repeated cross-sectional surveys of residents aged >or=40 years in 1974 [2118 subjects (participation rate, 81.2%)], 1988 [2741 subjects (80.9%)] and 2002 [3297 subjects (77.6%)] in a Japanese community. We compared the prevalence of CKD [one or both of proteinuria and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 60 mL/min/1.73 m(2)] and potential risk factors among the three surveys. RESULTS The prevalence of CKD increased significantly with time in men (13.8% [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 11.4-16.2%] in 1974, 15.9% [95% CI, 13.6-18.2%] in 1988 and 22.1% [95% CI, 19.6-24.6%] in 2002; P for trend < 0.001), but not in women (14.3% [95% CI, 12.2-16.4%], 12.6% [95% CI, 10.9-14.3%] and 15.3% [95% CI, 13.4-17.2%]; P for trend = 0.97). The frequencies of individuals with CKD Stages 3-5 (eGFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m(2)) increased over the three decades in both sexes. Despite the widespread use of antihypertensive agents, the proportions of individuals with CKD who reached blood pressure of <130/80 mmHg were only 27.0% in men and 47.5% in women. The frequency of metabolic disorders including diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia and obesity increased over the three decades in both sexes. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of CKD increased significantly in men, but not in women over the last three decades in a general Japanese population. Our findings support the requirement for a comprehensive treatment for hypertension and metabolic disorders to reduce the burden of CKD.
Another View of the Empire - Camera Control for Heritage Applications

‘Another View of the Empire’ focused on the evaluation of user perspectives and control techniques to help define best practice for the design and implementation of interactive heritage applications. A comparison study was undertaken on two popular avatar control techniques from the field of video games to determine the suitability for integration into interactive heritage environments, where the typical user may not be a regular player of 3D action games. This paper outlines the preliminary research, the design and build of a set of research orientated interactive environments, and the resulting user focused exploratory heuristic qualitative analysis – which found that a hybrid control system may provide the optimum experience for a typical heritage audience.
Effect of reduction in endogenous dopamine on extrastriatal binding of [11C]FLB 457 in rat brain—An ex vivo study

Carbon‐11 labeled FLB 457 has been used successfully as a selective, high affinity PET ligand for the quantification of extrastriatal D2‐like receptors in man. This study was carried out in rats to investigate regional values for maximal binding and ED50 (a measure of apparent Kd) for the radioligand in vivo in control animals and in a group pretreated with the neuronal impulse flow inhibitor, γ‐butyrolactone. The aims were to obtain further information regarding the specific activity needed to ensure tracer kinetics and to investigate baseline occupancy by dopamine (DA), each relevant to optimal clinical use of the radioligand. Regional Bmax values were consistent with the distribution of D2‐like receptors in rat brain. Of interest, 60% of the binding in cerebellum, often used as a low‐binding “reference region” for PET quantification, was saturable, with Bmax only 2‐ to 3‐fold less than that in neocortex, hippocampus, and thalamus. ED50 values were in the range 2–3 nmol/kg, confirming minimal receptor occupancy by the tracer in human PET, using high but achievable specific activities. In the majority of extrastriatal tissues, reduction in synaptic DA did not significantly decrease the apparent Kd, except in cortical regions, where the extent of the effect suggested a low (∼10%), but measurable baseline receptor occupancy by DA. Synapse 59:162–172, 2006. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Detection of data injection attacks in decentralized learning

Gossip based optimization and learning are appealing methods that solve big data learning problems sharing computation and network resources when data are distributed. The main advantage these methods offer is that they are fault tolerant. Their flat architecture, however, expands the attack surface in the case of a data injection attack. We analyze the effects of data injection on the asymptotic behavior of the network and draw a parallel with the case of opinion dynamics in a network where zealots inject opinions to mislead a community. We further propose a possible decentralized detection of such attacks and analyze its performance.
Analysis of p53 Tumor Suppressor Gene, H-ras Protooncogene and Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) in Squamous Cell Carcinomas of HRA/Skh Mice Following Exposure to 8-Methoxypsoralen (8-MOP) and UVA Radiation (PUVA Therapy)

Treatment with 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP) and ultraviolet radiation (primarily UVA), called PUVA therapy, has been used to treat different chronic skin diseases but led to a significant increased risk for skin cancer. The National Toxicology Program (NTP) performed a study in mice treated with PUVA that showed a significant increase in squamous cell carcinomas of the skin. In the present study, we evaluated the protein expression of p53 and PCNA and DNA mutations of p53 and H-ras genes in both hyperplastic and neoplastic squamous cell lesions from the NTP study. By immunohistochemical staining, protein expression of both p53 and PCNA was detected in 3/16 (19%) of hyperplastic lesions and 14/17 (82%) of SCCs in groups treated with both 8-MOP and UVA. The mutation frequency of p53 in SCCs from mice administered 8-MOP plus UVA was 15/17 (88%) with a predominant distribution of mutations in exon 6 (14/15 – 93%). No H-ras mutations were detected in the hyperplastic lesions/tumors. The mutagenic effect of PUVA on the p53 tumor suppressor gene may lead to a conformational modification and inactivation of the p53 protein, which are considered critical steps in PUVA-induced skin carcinogenesis. The p53 mutational frequency and patterns from our study were different from those reported in human PUVA-type tumors.