Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Subacute Care, Medicare Benefits, and Nursing Home Behavior

Two policy changes in 1988, one administrative and one legislative, allowed greater Medicare coverage of subacute care in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). The Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act (MCCA) of 1988, in conjunction with an administrative directive, or transmittal, from the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), changed the Medicare SNF benefit structure substantially. In this study, we specified a simultaneous equation system to explain the effects of the benefit changes on Medicare use. The results suggest that the two policychanges increased Medicare use in Pennsylvania SNFs substantially; however, the increase was associated with facility and case mix characteristics, which suggest that the increase was largely attributable to reclassification of current patients from other payer categories, Medicaid and self-pay, rather than new admissions. The effects of the MCCA and the HCFA transmittal on increased Medicare use were unanticipated and have important implications for the way in which subacute care is defined and financed infuture benefit discussions.
ADHD and DAT1: Further evidence of paternal over‐transmission of risk alleles and haplotype

We [Hawi et al. (2005); Am J Hum Genet 77:958–965] reported paternal over‐transmission of risk alleles in some ADHD‐associated genes. This was particularly clear in the case of the DAT1 3′‐UTR VNTR. In the current investigation, we analyzed three new sample comprising of 1,248 ADHD nuclear families to examine the allelic over‐transmission of DAT1 in ADHD. The IMAGE sample, the largest of the three‐replication samples, provides strong support for a parent of origin effect for allele 6 and the 10 repeat allele (intron 8 and 3′‐UTR VNTR, respectively) of DAT1. In addition, a similar pattern of over‐transmission of paternal risk haplotypes (constructed from the above alleles) was also observed. Some support is also derived from the two smaller samples although neither is independently significant. Although the mechanism driving the paternal over‐transmission of the DAT risk alleles is not known, these finding provide further support for this phenomenon. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Kinect-Based Gesture Recognition Approach for a Natural Human Robot Interface

In this paper, we present a gesture recognition system for the development of a human-robot interaction (HRI) interface. Kinect cameras and the OpenNI framework are used to obtain real-time tracking of a human skeleton. Ten different gestures, performed by different persons, are defined. Quaternions of joint angles are first used as robust and significant features. Next, neural network (NN) classifiers are trained to recognize the different gestures. This work deals with different challenging tasks, such as the real-time implementation of a gesture recognition system and the temporal resolution of gestures. The HRI interface developed in this work includes three Kinect cameras placed at different locations in an indoor environment and an autonomous mobile robot that can be remotely controlled by one operator standing in front of one of the Kinects. Moreover, the system is supplied with a people re-identification module which guarantees that only one person at a time has control of the robot. The system's performance is first validated offline, and then online experiments are carried out, proving the real-time operation of the system as required by a HRI interface.
Colored black holes.

We analyze the static spherically symmetric Einstein-Yang-Mills equations with SU(2) gauge group and show numerically that the equations possess asymptotically flat solutions with regular event horizon and nontrivial Yang-Mills (YM) connection. The solutions have zero global YM charges and asymptotically approximate the Schwarzschild solution with quantized values of the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner mass. Our result questions the validity of the ``no-hair'' conjecture for YM black holes. This work complements the recent study of Bartnik and McKinnon on static spherically symmetric Einstein-Yang-Mills soliton solutions.
Prozessorientiertes Wissensmanagement. Konzepte und Modellierung

Die Arbeit beschaftigt sich mit Konzepten des prozessorientierten Wissensmanagement, die sich im integrativen, gemeinsamen Einsatz von Konzepten aus den Disziplinen Prozess- und Wissensmanagement zeigt. Zunachst kann eine prozesorientierte WM-Strategie definiert werden, die die Umsetzung auf den zentralen Interventionsebenen Strategie, Prozesse, Wissensbasis, Instrumente und Systeme steuert. Kennzeichen der Prozessorganisation ist die Verknupfung von Prozessen des Wissensmanagements mit den operativen Geschaftsprozessen zu einem geschlossenen Kreislauf. Neben den typischen Instrumenten des Wissensmanagements werden im prozessorientierten Wissensmanagement auch Instrumente des Prozesmanagements, wie z.B. die kontinuierliche Prozessverbesserung und die Prozessmodellierung eingesetzt. Der bisher noch mangelnde Prozessbezug der typischen WM-Instrumente last sich durch die organisatorische Verankerung der Instrumente als Wissensprozesse losen. Dazu werden Instrumente als Wissensprozesse organisatorisch durch die Zuordnung von Aufgaben, Rollen, Verantwortlichkeiten und Ressourcen abgegrenzt. Am Ende der theoretischen Untersuchung werden typische Anwendungsszenarien abgeleitet. Fur diese Szenarien wird die Rolle der Modellierung durch die Analyse einer Reihe von Fallstudien diskutiert. Die praktischen wie auch die theoretischen Ergebnisse gehen in die Beschreibung eines Modellierungsansatzes fur die Modellierung im prozessorientierten Wissensmanagement ein. Dort werden fur die Parameter Modellierungsmethode, -organisation und �unterstutzung die wesentlichen Auspragungen besprochen und mogliche Erweiterungen vorgeschlagen. Die Arbeit schliest mit der Zusammenfassung der wichtigsten Ergebnisse und einem Ausblick auf kunftige Entwicklungen im prozessorientierten Wissensmanagement.
SELECTION FOR WITHIN-CLASS COVARIANCE ESTIMATION

Methods for performing channel and session compensation in conjunction with subspace techniques have been a focus of considerable study recently and have led to significant gains in speaker recognition performance. While developers have typically exploited the vast archive of speaker labeled data available from earlier NIST evaluations to train the within-class and across-class covariance matrices required by these techniques, little attention has been paid to the characteristics of the data required to perform the training efficiently. This paper focuses on within-class covariance normalization and shows that a reduction in training data requirements can be achieved by proper data selection. In particular, it is shown that the key variables are the total amount of data and the degree of handset variability, with total calls per handset playing a smaller role. The study offers insight into efficient within-class covariance matrix training data collection in real world applications.
A comparison of two methods of palliation of large bowel obstruction due to irremovable colon cancer.

INTRODUCTION Untreated malignant large bowel obstruction is rapidly fatal. Short-term palliation of symptoms can be achieved by formation of a stoma in those patients for whom resection surgery is inappropriate. In the final months of life, a stoma represents a significant burden for both patients and carers. Palliative endoluminal stenting may therefore be an attractive alternative option for this poor prognostic group. PATIENTS Thirty-six patients were studied of whom 18 had obstructing left-sided colon cancer relieved by placement of endoluminal stents. These were compared with 18 historical controls with similar clinicopathological features that were treated more conventionally with palliative stoma formation in the same hospital. RESULTS Patients in the two groups had similar sex distribution (P = 0.5); however, patients undergoing palliative stoma formation were significantly younger than patients being stented (P = 0.0065). As well as being older, there was a trend towards greater co-morbidities, stent patients having higher ASA grades (P = 0.01). Both groups of patients gained relief of obstructive symptoms. There were no differences in survival (P = 0.5) or in hospital mortality (2 in each group). The median length of palliation is 92 days (42-infinity days) for stenting and 121 days (89-281 days) for palliative stoma formation. Formation of a stoma required a significantly longer stay in ITU (P = 0.003) but total hospital stay was similar. CONCLUSIONS As an alternative to palliative surgery, selected patients benefit from colonic endoluminal stenting with relief of obstructive symptoms and no adverse effect on survival. They may be spared the potential problems associated with palliative stoma formation and the morbidity of surgery. Stenting can be offered to the very frail patient who would otherwise be managed conservatively.
Safety of drotrecogin alfa (activated) in the treatment of patients with severe sepsis

While severe sepsis continues to plague hospitals worldwide, new treatment modalities, including activated recombinant protein C (drotrecogin alfa, Xigris™, Lilly), have become a standard treatment alternative in many institutional algorithms. Drotrecogin alfa was shown to have a beneficial effect on mortality versus placebo in the PROWESS (Recombinant Human Activated Protein C Worldwide Evaluation in Severe Sepsis) trial (p = 0.005), but its use is not completely without risk. An increased risk of bleeding, including severe bleeding episodes, exists ranging 3.5 – 5.2% in the drotrecogin alfa treatment group versus 2.0 – 5.0% in the placebo group. Patients at risk include those on concomitant heparin therapy (> 15,000 units/day), those with platelet counts ≤ 30,000/mm3, and those undergoing an invasive procedure during the scheduled infusion period. After almost three years on the US market, the reported incidence of severe bleeding episodes has risen only slightly from the pre-marketing era, at that time notable for restrictive treatment protocols, devoid of at-risk patients. Drotrecogin alfa, while a promising agent for severe sepsis, requires prudent patient evaluation for bleeding risks.
Phenolic Composition of Propolis from China and from South America

Flavonoids and other phenolic compounds were determined in 15 samples of propolis originating from China, from Brazil, and from Uruguay. A total of 24 compounds were identified using mainly HPLC and a few other analytical methods. The most abundant compounds found were benzoic acid and benzaldehyde derivatives, flavones, flavonols. and flavanones. 80% of the samples contained at least 22 g/100 g of flavonoids, primarily acacetin, isorhamnetin, apigenin, and pinocembrin. The flavonoid patterns were sufficiently distinctive to permit discrimination between propolis from China, from Uruguay, and from Brazil.
CARD15 Mutation Analysis in an Italian Population: Leu1007fsinsC but Neither Arg702Trp nor Gly908Arg Mutations Are Associated with Crohn’s Disease

BackgroundCARD15 gene mutations have been demonstrated to confer a high risk of Crohn’s disease (CD). Despite this, recent studies reported variable associations between CD and CARD15 mutations in distinct ethnic groups, thus raising the hypothesis that genetic and/or allelic heterogeneity may influence the relationship between CARD15 and CD. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency of the main mutations of the CARD15 gene (Leu1007fsinsC, Arg702Trp, and Gly908Arg) in Italian CD patients and to establish possible genotype-phenotype correlations. MethodsOne hundred sixty-five CD patients and 125 healthy subjects were consecutively enrolled from January to November 2001. The Leu1007fsinsC mutation was assessed by denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography and Arg702Trp and Gly908Arg mutations by Pyrosequencing technology. ResultsAmong the CARD15 gene mutations tested, only the Leu1007fsinsC was associated with CD (30/165 CD patients, 18%, versus 3/125 healthy subjects, 2.4%; p < 0.001). In particular, 23 CD patients were heterozygotes and 7 were homozygotes. No healthy subject exhibited the mutant homozygous genotype. Odds ratios for CD were 6.9 for heterozygotes and 41.0 for homozygotes. The genotype-phenotype analysis revealed that a fibrostenosing CD of the distal ileum was more frequent in patients carrying the Leu1007fsinsC mutation. ConclusionsThis study confirms the association between CARD15 gene mutations and CD and shows that only the Leu1007fsinsC mutation is a risk factor of CD in an Italian population.
Adolescent immunisation: the next big thing?

The recent introduction of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine into the routine immunisation schedule for girls in the UK has reaffirmed the possibility of widespread adolescent immunisation, assuming appropriate prior consultation and resource allocation. On the back of this success, it is timely to consider the case for extending the programme of school-based adolescent immunisations to include the provision of both additional primary immunisations as well as important booster doses of vaccines given earlier in childhood. Such a programme, if well designed, would ensure that individual protection from vaccine preventable disease was maximised prior to school leaving and, of equal importance in some cases, that herd immunity was sustained more effectively in the population as a whole. The possible contents of a re-invigorated adolescent immunisation programme are discussed considering those vaccines which are already available and for which cost-benefit calculation may therefore be of prime importance, as well as vaccines which may become available in the future and for which the issues may be more complicated. The importance of providing balanced, accurate, appropriate and accessible information regarding adolescent immunisation is also highlighted.
Myocardial tagging with B1 insensitive adiabatic DANTE inversion sequences

A new technique, based on adiabatic delays alternating with nutations for tailored excitation (DANTE) inversion sequences, is presented for generating uniform contrast tags across the myocardial wall even in the presence of B1 inhomogeneities. The utility of this pulse was demonstrated using a surface coil for both transmission and signal reception in phantom and animal heart tagging studies. The experimental data demonstrated uniform grid contrast over a sixfold variation of B1 magnitude, sharp tagging profiles, and the ability to follow the cardiac wall motion through the deformation of the fine rectangular tagging grid at different phases throughout the cardiac cycle.
Correlation between age and MMSE in schizophrenia

ABSTRACT Background: The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is widely used in schizophrenia, although normative data are lacking in this population. This review and meta-regression analysis studies the effect of aging on MMSE scores in schizophrenic patients. Methods: We entered the search terms schizophrenia and MMSE in PubMed and PsychInfo. Bibliographies of pertinent articles were also examined. We included every study presenting the MMSE scores in schizophrenic patients along with a corresponding mean age. We conducted our analyses using simple linear regression weighted for the inverse of within-trial variance of the age variable, thus conferring more importance to studies with narrower age groups. Results: We identified 56 articles (n = 5,588) published between 1990 and 2012. The MMSE scores of schizophrenic patients decline by approximately 1 point for every four years (y = 34.939−0.247x, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) [−0.304, −0.189], R 2 = 0,545), which is five times the rate in the general population. Institutionalized patients account for a large proportion of this decline (y = 37.603–0.308x, 95% CI [−0.349, −0.267], R 2 = 0.622) whereas community-dwelling patients are relatively stable throughout aging (y = 27.591–0.026x, 95% CI [−0.074, 0.023], R 2 = 0.037). Conclusions: Subgroup analyses show different trajectories between institutionalized and outpatients with schizophrenia. The deterioration observed in institutionalized patients may have to do with greater illness severity, heavier medication load, vascular risk factors, and lack of stimulation in institutional settings. Studies documenting the role of these variables would be useful. Cognitive screening tools that assess executive functions would be interesting to study in schizophrenics, as they may reveal more subtle age-related cognitive changes not measured by the MMSE.
Mitochondria, Calcium Regulation, and Acute Glutamate Excitotoxicity in Cultured Cerebellar Granule Cells

Abstract: Exposure of cultured cerebellar granule cells to 100 µM glutamate plus glycine in the absence of Mg2+ causes calcium loading of the in situ mitochondria and is excitotoxic, as demonstrated by a collapse of the cellular ATP/ADP ratio, cytoplasmic Ca2+ deregulation (the failure of the cell to maintain a stable cytoplasmic free Ca2+ concentration), and extensive cell death. Glutamate‐evoked Ca2+ deregulation is exacerbated by the mitochondrial respiratory chain inhibitor rotenone. Cells maintained by glycolytic ATP, i.e., in the presence of the mitochondrial ATP synthase inhibitor oligomycin, remain viable for several hours but are still susceptible to glutamate; thus, disruption of mitochondrial ATP synthesis is not a necessary step in glutamate excitotoxicity. In contrast, the combination of rotenone (or antimycin A) plus oligomycin, which collapses the mitochondrial membrane potential, therefore preventing mitochondrial Ca2+ transport, allows glutamate‐exposed cells to maintain a high ATP/ADP ratio while accumulating little 45Ca2+ and maintaining a low bulk cytoplasmic free Ca2+ concentration determined by fura‐2. It is concluded that mitochondrial Ca2+ accumulation is a necessary intermediate in glutamate excitotoxicity, whereas the decreased Ca2+ flux into cells with depolarized mitochondria may reflect a feedback inhibition of the NMDA receptor mediated by localized Ca2+ accumulation in a microdomain accessible to the mitochondria.
Drosophila female sterile mutation spoonbill interferes with multiple pathways in oogenesis

spoonbill is a Drosophila female‐sterile mutation, which displays a range of eggshell and egg chamber patterning defects. Previous analysis has shown that the mutation interfered with the function of two major signaling pathways, GRK/EGFR and DPP. In this report, the nature of spoonbill was further investigated to examine whether it was associated with additional pathways in oogenesis. Clonal analysis, presented here, demonstrated that most of the aberrant phenotypes associated with spoonbill were dependent on a mutant germline. Nevertheless, SPOONBILL may function also in the soma to ensure proper polarization and migration of the border‐cell‐cluster. Further, genetic interaction studies implicated spoonbill in additional unrelated pathways such as the one(s) involved in actin polymerization/depolymerization. Based on the previous data and the results presented here, it is anticipated that spoonbill may encode a multifunctional protein that perhaps coordinately regulated the activity of multiple signaling pathways during oogenesis. genesis 45:369–381, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Radical-Based Hierarchical Embeddings for Chinese Sentiment Analysis at Sentence Level

Text representation in Chinese sentiment analysis is usually working at word or character level. In this paper, we prove that radical-level processing could greatly improve sentiment classiﬁcation performance. In particular, we propose two types of Chinese radical-based hierarchical embeddings. The embeddings incorporate not only semantics at radical and character level, but also sentiment information. In the evaluation of our embeddings, we conduct Chinese sentiment analysis at sentence level on four different datasets. Experimental results validate our assumption that radical-level semantics and sentiments can contribute to sentence-level sentiment classiﬁcation and demonstrate the superiority of our embed-dings over classic textual features and popular word and character embeddings.
The Malaysian Private Finance Initiative and Value for Money

The concept of value for money (VFM) is the fundamental reason for most PFI projects to be attractive in many developed and developing countries. The concept encourages governments to deliver Mega projects by using PFI procurement method. The aims of this paper are to investigate the notion of VFM for PFI projects by different countries (i.e. UK, Australia and Japan) and to discover the detailed components of Public Sector Comparator ( PSC ) protocol to evaluate VFM. Based on the consideration of these models, the paper proposes a framework of VFM assessment for PFI projects in Malaysia. The proposed framework outlines six processes to be considered: key assessment criteria (affordability, risk sharing and competition) of VFM assessment; VFM assessment approach by using PSC; VFM appraisal by application of three tests (financial, qualitative and cost benefit analysis); VFM drivers; benefits; and barriers that could affect the VFM assessment process. Hence, achieving VFM can be described in terms of three core components; economic, efficiency and effectiveness of PFI projects. The framework developed in this paper will help to gain a better understanding of VFM in PFI projects and to establish PSC guideline in the evaluation of VFM.
Synthetic aperture radar image despeckling via spatially adaptive shrinkage in the nonsubsampled contourlet transform domain

A new spatially adaptive shrinkage approach based on the nonsubsampled contourlet transform (NSCT) to despeckling synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images is proposed. This method starts from the existing stationary wavelet transform (SWT)–domain Gamma-exponential likelihood model combined with a local spatial prior model and extends the model further for despeckling an SAR image via spatially adaptive shrinkage in the NCST domain. The proposed NSCT-domain shrinkage estimator consists of a new likelihood ratio function and a new prior ratio function, both of which are dependent on the estimated masks for the NSCT coefficients. The former is established by the Gamma distribution with variable scale and shape parameters and the exponential distribution with variable scale parameter to adapt the shrinkage estimator to the redundancy property of the NSCT. Parameters of these two distributions are estimated by using moment-based estimators. The latter is equipped with directional neighborhood configurations to accommodate the estimator to the flexible directionality of the NSCT, and thus to enhance the detail fidelity. We validate the proposed method on real SAR images and demonstrate the excellent despeckling performance through comparisons with the SWT-based counterpart, two classical spatial filters, and the contourlet transform-based despeckling technique.