Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diabetes Health Disparities

Racial and ethnic minorities bear a disproportionate burden of the diabetes epidemic; they have higher prevalence rates, worse diabetes control, and higher rates of complications. This article reviews the effectiveness of health care interventions at improving health outcomes and/or reducing diabetes health disparities among racial/ethnic minorities with diabetes. Forty-two studies met inclusion criteria. On average, these health care interventions improved the quality of care for racial/ethnic minorities, improved health outcomes (such as diabetes control and reduced diabetes complications), and possibly reduced health disparities in quality of care. There is evidence supporting the use of interventions that target patients (primarily through culturally tailored programs), providers (especially through one-on-one feedback and education), and health systems (particularly with nurse case managers and nurse clinicians). More research is needed in the areas of racial/ethnic minorities other than African Americans and Latinos, health disparity reductions, long-term diabetes-related outcomes, and the sustainability of health care interventions over time.
Mining related information of traffic flows on lanes by k-medoids

Nowadays, processing traffic flows has become an important part in intelligent transportation system (ITS). Prediction and estimation of flows, as a main application in this field, has gradually developed. Moreover, there exist some inherent relationships among various traffic flows, and the mining of related information can provide a platform for traffic flow prediction and estimation, and it can supply some guidance to layout traffic sensors. This paper presents a method of cluster by k-medoids to mine related information of traffic flows from spatial dimension. From spatial dimension, road lanes are clustered by k-medoids to constitute a table of related information. In order to make the mining of related information of flows more accurate, degree of saturation is also used to cluster related information. The results indicate that cluster through combination of flow and degree of saturation has a higher efficiency, and cluster by k-medoids outperforms that by k-means in all experiments.
Buteyko: A useful tool in the management of asthma?

Medical management of asthma focuses on drugs which, although effective, are costly and produce side-effects. Recent evidence suggests a role for breathing interventions that reduce total ventilation, such as the Buteyko method, which has strong similarities to techniques already used by therapists to manage hyperventilation. Both approaches should be made readily available to patients with asthma. Asthma nurses and therapists should consider these techniques to enable patients to ‘step down’ drug treatments in accordance with medical guidelines. This may involve a re-thinking of their role, from one where the main emphasis is on supporting the established medical model towards one that also offers a non-pharmacological alternative. This article explains the aims of Buteyko and discusses the increasing evidence base for methods that reduce ventilation and may benefit many patients with asthma, not just those with established chronic hyperventilation.
Consequences of Participating in Multidisciplinary Medical Team Meetings for Surgical, Nonsurgical, and Supporting Specialties

This study examines the consequences for medical specialists of participating in multidisciplinary medical team meetings in terms of perceived clinical autonomy, domain distinctiveness, and professional accountability. These consequences may influence their willingness to cooperate and the quality of teamwork. The authors hypothesized that multidisciplinary medical team meetings would be more of a threat to the professional identity of surgical specialists than to the professional identity of nonsurgical and supporting specialists. A survey among 1,827 Dutch medical specialists supported the authors’ hypotheses. However, a few specific specialties had response patterns that deviated from our expectations. The results are related to specialty choice, to the training of medical specialties, and to having a role in leading team meetings.
Improving Chronic Illness Care: Findings From a National Study of Care Management Processes in Large Physician Practices

The use of evidence-based care management processes (CMPs) in physician practice is an important component of delivery-system reform.The authors used data from a 2006-2007 national study of large physician organizations—medical groups and independent practice associations (IPAs) to determine the extent to which organizations use CMPs, and to identify external (market) influences and organizational capabilities associated with CMP use. The study found that physician organizations use about half of recommended CMPs, most commonly disease registries, specially trained patient educators, and performance feedback to physicians. Physician organizations that reported participating in quality improvement programs, having a patient-centered focus, and being owned by a hospital or health maintenance organization used more CMPs. IPAs and very large medical groups used more CMPs than smaller groups. Organizations externally evaluated on quality measures used more CMPs than other organizations. These findings can inform efforts to stimulate the adoption of best practices for chronic illness care.
Improving on a rapid attribute reduction algorithm based on neighborhood rough sets

The neighborhood rough sets, which can deal with continuous attribute values directly without data discretization, is easy to understand. So it is widely used in continuous attributes reduction. However, existing methods need to spend a lot of time to process large samples data and thus more effective method needs to be proposed. In this paper, several mathematical properties of neighborhood rough sets are analyzed. The algorithm FARNeMF (Forward Attribute Reduction Based on Neighborhood Rough Sets and Fast Search) in the literature [1] will be improved. By this new algorithm, the comparison times of samples in computing positive regions and neighborhoods is reduced. Finally, experimental results show that the proposed method is more effective than existing methods.
Hierarchical structure and particular spanning trees of edge-bound growing network models

In order to interpret the dynamical nature of networks, one must realize the integrated features of network models as well as the partial characters, such as degree distribution. Hence, studying topological structure of complex networks is significant and raises scholar's concern at home and aboard. We focus on building up a type of edge-bound growing network model(E-BGN model) by construction algorithm based on the seeds in order to provide various network models, we validate some properties of the E-BGN model, such as hierarchy and small-world. Furthermore, we project an algorithm for the sake of finding particular spanning trees which have maximum leaves (MLS-trees) of the E-BGN model. Besides, we analysis the particular MLS-trees and provide the degree distribution of the MLS-trees in this article.
Risk factors analysis of drug resistance in pulmonary tuberculosis patients with relapse in northern Thailand

Abstract The objective of this study was to analyze risk factors of drug resistance in pulmonary tuberculosis patients with relapse. A total of 196 pulmonary tuberculosis patients with relapses from 2001 to 2005 were referred to the Office of Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Region 10, Thailand. Data were collected from the tuberculosis chart. Classification tree and logistic regression analysis were used to determine the risk factors of drug resistance. According to the optimal classification tree, three risk factors were determined: number of previous TB treatments, weight at baseline and shortness of breath. In the logistic regression model, four risk factors were found to be significant: underlying disease (odds ratio (OR) = 2.3; 95% CI, 1.1–4.4); cavity (OR = 2.8; 95% CI, 1.2–6.9); number of previous TB treatments ≥ 2 times (OR = 2.7; 95% CI, 1.0–7.1); and age ≥ 65 years (OR = 2.4; 95% CI, 1.1–5.1). However, the logistic regression model and optimal tree had low sensitivity, possibly due to the lack of potential risk factors that were not considered in this study. The findings underscore that the treatment of relapse patients, those with at least two previous TB treatments should be subjected to a drug susceptibility test so that an appropriate form of treatment can be prescribed.
The Health Insurance Status of Low-Wage Workers: The Role of Workplace Composition and Marital Status

Many of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), such as tax credits and penalties for employers, vary by employer size and average wage level. Therefore, knowing the wage and firm size distribution of low-wage workers and how employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) characteristics vary by these dimensions is particularly important for understanding the extent to which low-wage workers and their employers may be affected by different provisions in the ACA. To inform this issue, the authors use data from the 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey—Insurance Component to examine offers of coverage and cost-sharing requirements by the wage distribution and firm size dimensions of employers. They also draw on Medical Expenditure Panel Survey household-level data to describe the household circumstances of low-wage workers. The authors find that where low-wage workers are employed, who their colleagues are, and their spouses’ wage levels are important factors in determining low-wage workers’ access to coverage and the cost and generosity of such coverage.
A single fungal MAP kinase controls plant cell-to-cell invasion by the rice blast fungus

Keeping the channels open When the rice blast fungus enters a rice cell, the plasma membrane stays intact, so the rice cell remains viable. The fungus then moves to adjacent cells via plasmodesmata, the plant's intercellular channels. Sakulkoo et al. used a chemical genetic approach to selectively inhibit a single MAP (mitogen-activated protein) kinase, Pmk1, in the blast fungus. Inhibition of Pmk1 trapped the fungus within a rice cell. Pmk1 regulated the expression of a suite of effector genes involved in suppression of host immunity, allowing the fungus to manipulate plasmodesmal conductance. At the same time, Pmk1 regulated the fungus's hyphal constriction, which allows movement into new host cells. Science, this issue p. 1399 A fungal MAP kinase controls hyphal diameters and callose deposition patterns as the fungus grows through intercellular channels. Blast disease destroys up to 30% of the rice crop annually and threatens global food security. The blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae invades plant tissue with hyphae that proliferate and grow from cell to cell, often through pit fields, where plasmodesmata cluster. We showed that chemical genetic inhibition of a single fungal mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase, Pmk1, prevents M. oryzae from infecting adjacent plant cells, leaving the fungus trapped within a single plant cell. Pmk1 regulates expression of secreted fungal effector proteins implicated in suppression of host immune defenses, preventing reactive oxygen species generation and excessive callose deposition at plasmodesmata. Furthermore, Pmk1 controls the hyphal constriction required for fungal growth from one rice cell to the neighboring cell, enabling host tissue colonization and blast disease.
Patient-Centered Medical Homes and Oral Anticoagulation Therapy Initiation

Despite evidence-based guidelines, oral anticoagulation therapy (OAT) initiation is low among incident atrial fibrillation (AF) patients. Patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) may increase access, quality, and value through coordinating care. As such, PCMHs hold potential for improving OAT initiation among AF patients. We estimated the effect of receiving care in accredited PCMHs on OAT initiation for incident AF patients compared with those not receiving care in accredited PCMHs. Our study, a retrospective cohort new user design, included privately insured patients in North Carolina during years 2006 to 2010. We developed propensity scores for PCMH exposure, performed inverse probability of treatment weighting, and estimated effects with generalized estimating equations. We found a positive association between PCMH exposure and OAT initiation in unadjusted (6.78%; p < .001) and adjusted (6.25%; p < .001) models. Greater implementation and optimization of PCMH model principles may enhance this association, reducing AF-related stroke morbidity and mortality.
Economics and Health Reform

Two prior studies, conducted in 1966 and in 1979, examined the role of economic research in health policy development. Both concluded that health economics had not been an important contributor to policy. Passage of the Affordable Care Act offers an opportunity to reassess this question. We find that the evolution of health economics research has given it an increasingly important role in policy. Research in the field has followed three related paths over the past century—institutionalist research that described problems; theoretical research, which proposed relationships that might extend beyond existing institutions; and empirical assessments of structural parameters identified in the theoretical research. These three strands operating in concert allowed economic research to be used to predict the fiscal and coverage consequences of alternative policy paths. This ability made economic research a powerful policy force. Key conclusions of health economics research are clearly evident in the Affordable Care Act.
Veterans’ Pharmacy and Health Care Utilization Following Implementation of the Medicare Part D Pharmacy Benefit

We examined associations between enrollment in Medicare Part D pharmacy benefits and changes in medication acquisition from Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) pharmacies. We included all women and a random 10% sample of men who were VA enrollees, ≥65 years old as of January 1, 2004, and alive through December 2007. We used difference-in-differences models with propensity score weighting to examine changes in medication acquisition between 2005 (before Part D was implemented) and 2007 (after Part D implementation) for veterans who were or were not Part D enrolled. Of 231,716 veterans meeting inclusion criteria, 49,881 (21.5%) were enrolled. While 30-day medication supplies decreased from 26.2 to 23.4 for enrolled veterans, they increased from 36.6 to 37.4 for nonenrolled veterans (difference-in-differences: −4.0, p < .001). Reductions in 30-day supplies were greater among veterans who were required to pay VA copayments for some or all medications and who used VA and Medicare outpatient services.
Detection of drivers visual attention using smartphone

A lot of traffic accidents are caused by driver distraction, while most existing driver attention assistance solutions need specialized hardware, which limit their wide accessibility. We present a convenient driver attention detecting system based on smartphones with dual cameras. Firstly, a feature detector describing pupil location, yaw and pitch angle of eyes, position and size of face detected with the front camera is proposed to track drivers gaze direction. Secondly, nine safe gaze areas and one unsafe gaze area are defined. Then a SVM classifier is used to estimate gaze area. At the same time, motion objects in the view of road are detected with the rear camera using optical flow methodology combined dynamic background compensation. At last, an inference module is proposed to quantify the level of drivers visual attention by inferring whether the motion objects are located in the drivers gaze areas. Experimental results on an android pad show that the proposed system can detect driver visual attention in real driving scenarios efficiently.
Relationship Between Modality and the Degree of Knowledge Retention in Bioterrorism Training

Relationship Between Modality and the Degree of Knowledge Retention in Bioterrorism Training by Gaylon R. Crawford, Sr. MS, Boston University, 2001 MBA, National University, 1992 BS, Southern Illinois University, 1987 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Public Policy and Administration
Concordance Between Adolescent Reports of Childhood Abuse and Child Protective Service Determinations in an At-Risk Sample of Young Adolescents

This study examines the concordance between adolescent reports of abuse and abuse determinations from Child Protective Service (CPS) agencies. It also compares the utility of adolescent reports of abuse, relative to CPS determinations in predicting adolescent psychological adjustment. The sample included 350 early adolescents, ages 12 to 13 years, who were initially identified prior to age 2 years as being at elevated risk of maltreatment. An Audio-Computer Assisted Self Interview (A-CASI) was used to assess lifetime experiences of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. The A-CASI interview elicited prevalence rates of abuse 4 to 6 times higher than those found in CPS records. However, 20 of 45 adolescents with CPS determinations of abuse failed to report abuse during the study interview. Adolescent psychological adjustment was more strongly associated with self-reports than with CPS determinations. The implications of these findings are discussed for validity of adolescent self-reports of childhood abuse and for the ongoing debate about disclosure patterns among victims of child sexual abuse.
An active storage system with dynamic task assignment policy

As the amount of data grows exponentially, active storage was proposed as an alternative solution in order to mitigate the I/O performance problem in distributed cluster system. It moves appropriate computation to the location in which data is stored and hence reduces the amount of data transferred. Prior research has investigated and deployed the concept in different forms. However, balancing the computation load between compute and storage nodes in active storage system according to the current system status has been largely unexplored. In this paper, we propose an active storage system that provides programming interfaces for applications to implement the offload computing algorithm and assignment policy. We have implemented a dynamic task assignment policy that assigns computing tasks between compute and storage nodes according the feedback information of system environment. Our experimental results show that there is a optimal allocation proportion with the considerable impact of system status and characteristics of computation, and the proposed dynamic task assignment policy can make an allocation of computing tasks at a proportion close to the optimal assignment.
Evaluation of oral epithelial dysplastic features in oral lichen planus: The diagnostic difficulties

Background: Lichen planus (LP) is chronic, mucocutaneous, autoimmune disease which can affect oral mucosa, skin, scalp, nails, and genital mucosa. The prevalence of oral LP (OLP) varies with different geographic distribution. It presents symmetrical and bilateral or multiple lesions with varying clinical types accompanying with burning sensation and sometimes pain. Due to its potentially malignant nature, the evaluation of cell proliferation brings important information regarding diagnosis and prognosis of several types of cancer. Materials and Methods: Sixty-four cases of OLP were retrieved and were histologically assessed under 10× and 40× magnifications for valuation of the dysplastic features. The grading was done by the criteria followed by Odukoya et al. The data obtained were tabulated and subjected for the statistical analysis. Results: Epithelial dysplasias were observed in 60 cases of OLP which Grade I had 9 cases, Grade II 27 and Grade III 24 cases. Four cases of OLP did not show any dysplasia. The interrater reliability was found to be in strong or substantial agreement in assessing few of the dysplastic features. Male:female ratio was 1.2:1 with buccal mucosa being the most common site. Conclusion: Our study showed the importance to establish a correct diagnosis of OLP based on the history, clinical presentations, and histopathology. Furthermore, the long-term follow-up of the patient with OLP is mandatory when dysplasia is encountered on histopathology.
Child Welfare Caseworkers as Service Brokers for Youth in Foster Care

Youth in the foster care system have substantially higher rates of mental health needs compared to the general population, yet they rarely receive targeted, evidence-based practices (EBPs). Increasingly emerging in the literature on mental health services is the importance of “brokers” or “gateway providers” of services. For youth in foster care, child welfare caseworkers often play this role. This study examines caseworker-level outcomes of Project Focus, a caseworker training and consultation model designed to improve emotional and behavioral outcomes for youth in foster care through increased linkages with EBPs. Project Focus was tested through a small, randomized trial involving four child welfare offices. Caseworkers in the Project Focus intervention group demonstrated an increased awareness of EBPs and a trend toward increased ability to identify appropriate EBP referrals for particular mental health problems but did not have significantly different rates of actual referral to EBPs. Dose of consultation was associated with general awareness of EBPs. Implications for practice and outcomes for youth are discussed.
Lower Volume Peripheral Blood Sample Collection: Key Considerations for Nurses - Roundtable Discussion

Abstract A group of seven nurses from a range of laboratory and hospital settings across the United States were invited to present opinions and clinical case study examples that reflect the key considerations in peripheral blood sample collection involving lower volume samples and patients affected by difficult venous access (DVA). Panelists were asked to review and compare prevailing standard operating procedures (SOPs) in sample collection and challenges in efforts to expand the use of lower volume sample collection and processing. The discussion identified achievable goals to improve standard of care in lower volume blood sample collection and the treatment of DVA patients.
Minimum fault coverage in reconfigurable arrays

The authors discuss the case in which the redundant elements are arranged in the form of spare rows and spare columns for a rectangular array. Redundant RAMs are examples of such case. A covering is set of rows and columns that are to be replaced by spare rows and spare columns so that all defective elements are replaced. The authors introduce the notion of a critical set, which is a maximum set of rows and columns that must be included in any minimum covering. They show that for a given pattern of defective elements the corresponding critical set is unique. They also present a polynomial-time algorithm for finding the critical set and demonstrate how the concept of critical sets can be used to solve a number of fault-coverage problems. <<ETX>>