Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of an educational intervention on steroid prescribing and dosing effect on patient outcomes in COPD exacerbations

The increasing number of patients affected by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and associated exacerbations has led to both rising hospital admissions and significant economic impact. Evidence-based guidelines have been formulated for COPD management recommending the use of low dose, oral corticosteroid therapy in the treatment of exacerbations. However, fewer than 50% of physicians’ prescribing practices appropriately reflect the published clinical guidelines on the use of systemic corticosteroids in these patients. Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a pharmacist-led educational intervention on prescribing practices and patient outcomes when using systemic corticosteroids in patients with COPD exacerbations. Methods This retrospective case-control study included patients admitted to an inpatient family medicine service with a COPD exacerbation who received systemic corticosteroids. Two pharmacist-led educational interventions were delivered to prescribers to review current guidelines for managing COPD exacerbations with systemic corticosteroids. Patients were retrospectively identified over a three month span prior to and following the educational intervention. Data was collected via chart review to evaluate prescribing practices prior to and following the educational sessions. In addition, data was collected to evaluate the effects of an educational intervention on length of stay, adverse events, and cost of treatment. Results A total of 23 pre-intervention patients and 18 post-intervention patients met inclusion criteria. After pharmacist-led interventions, guidelines were not more likely to be adhered to by prescribers when compared to guideline adherence in the pre-intervention patients. Because no statistically significant change in guideline adherence was observed, there was no impact on secondary outcomes. Conclusion Pharmacist-led didactic educational interventions and guideline dissemination do not improve guideline adherence and prescribing practices with respect to systemic corticosteroids in COPD exacerbations.
Cellular hyper-excitability caused by mutations that alter the activation process of voltage-gated sodium channels

Voltage-gated sodium channels (Nav) are widely expressed as macro-molecular complexes in both excitable and non-excitable tissues. In excitable tissues, the upstroke of the action potential is the result of the passage of a large and rapid influx of sodium ions through these channels. NaV dysfunction has been associated with an increasingly wide range of neurological, muscular and cardiac disorders. The purpose of this review is to summarize the recently identified sodium channel mutations that are linked to hyper-excitability phenotypes and associated with the alteration of the activation process of voltage gated sodium channels. Indeed, several clinical manifestations that demonstrate an alteration of tissue excitability were recently shown to be strongly associated with the presence of mutations that affect the activation process of the Nav. These emerging genotype-phenotype correlations have expanded the clinical spectrum of sodium channelopathies to include disorders which feature a hyper-excitability phenotype that may or may not be associated with a cardiomyopathy. The p.I141V mutation in SCN4A and SCN5A, as well as its homologous p.I136V mutation in SCN9A, are interesting examples of mutations that have been linked to inherited hyperexcitability myotonia, exercise-induced polymorphic ventricular arrhythmias and erythromelalgia, respectively. Regardless of which sodium channel isoform is investigated, the substitution of the isoleucine to valine in the locus 141 induces similar modifications in the biophysical properties of the Nav by shifting the voltage-dependence of steady state activation toward more negative potentials.
Ultraviolet Shadowing of RNA Causes Substantial Non-Poissonian Chemical Damage in Seconds

Chemical purity of RNA samples is critical for high-precision studies of RNA folding and catalytic behavior, but such purity may be compromised by photodamage accrued during ultraviolet (UV) visualization of gel-purified samples. Here, we quantitatively assess the breadth and extent of such damage by using reverse transcription followed by single-nucleotide-resolution capillary electrophoresis. We detected UV-induced lesions across a dozen natural and artificial RNAs including riboswitch domains, other non-coding RNAs, and artificial sequences; across multiple sequence contexts, dominantly at but not limited to pyrimidine doublets; and from multiple lamps that are recommended for UV shadowing in the literature. Most strikingly, irradiation time-courses reveal detectable damage within a few seconds of exposure, and these data can be quantitatively fit to a 'skin effect' model that accounts for the increased exposure of molecules near the top of irradiated gel slices. The results indicate that 200-nucleotide RNAs subjected to 20 seconds or less of UV shadowing can incur damage to 20% of molecules, and the molecule-by-molecule distribution of these lesions is more heterogeneous than a Poisson distribution. Photodamage from UV shadowing is thus likely a widespread but unappreciated cause of artifactual heterogeneity in quantitative and single-molecule-resolution RNA biophysical measurements.
Measuring the galaxy–mass and galaxy–dust correlations through magnification and reddening

We present a simultaneous detection of gravitational magnification and dust reddening effects due to galactic haloes and large-scale structure. The measurement is based on correlating the brightness of ~85 000 quasars at z > 1 with the position of 24 million galaxies at z ~ 0.3 derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and is used to constrain the galaxy-mass and galaxy-dust correlation functions up to cosmological scales. The presence of dust is detected from 20 kpc to several Mpc, and we find its projected density to follow: Σ dust ~ r -0.8 p , a distribution similar to mass. On large scales, its wavelength dependence is described by R v ≃ 4.9 ± 3.2, consistent with interstellar dust. This, in turn, implies a cosmic dust density of Ω dust ≃ 5 x 10 -6 , roughly half of which comes from dust in haloes of ~L* galaxies. We estimate the resulting opacity of the Universe for various evolutionary models and find 〈A v 〉 ~ 0.03 mag up to z = 0.5. We present magnification measurements, corrected for dust extinction, from which the galaxy-mass correlation function is inferred to give the mean surface mass density profile around galaxies Σ ~ 30 (θ/1 arcmin) -0.8 h M ⊙ pc -2 up to a radius of 10 Mpc, in agreement with gravitational shear estimates.
The Impact of Parent Engagement on the Academic Achievement of African American Students: A Phenomenological Study from the Perspective of Parents of Middle School Students in the Northeastern Region of the United States

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of parent engagement on the academic achievement of African American students in an urban middle school in the northeastern region of the United States. Middle years are a transitional time for middle school students as they face more challenges academically and become more independent and socially aware of their surroundings. This phenomenological, qualitative study explored the perspectives of the African American parents/guardians and their engagement, relative to their sixth, seventh, and eighth grade children and their academic achievement in an urban school. Bronfenbrenner’s (1977, 2005) ecological systems theory (EST) and Bell’s (1976a, 1976b) critical race theory (CRT) were the two theoretical frameworks that informed this study. Historically, African American parents/guardians have a strong voice that has been either silenced or ignored. This study confirmed that the participants in this study, African American parents/guardians demonstrated care and concern, and actively participated as engaged parents. Additionally, these participants in the study, African American parents/ guardians, utilized a system of best practices and willfully advocated for their child at home and in school. Document Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Education (EdD) Department Executive Leadership First Supervisor Jennifer Schulman Second Supervisor Debra R. Lamb Subject Categories Education This dissertation is available at Fisher Digital Publications: https://fisherpub.sjfc. edu/education_etd/336 The Impact of Parent Engagement on the Academic Achievement of African American Students: A Phenomenological Study from the Perspective of Parents of Middle School Students in the Northeastern Region of the United States By Tonya Couch-Jenkins Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Ed.D. Program in Executive Leadership Supervised by Jennifer Schulman, Ed.D. Committee Member Debra R. Lamb, Ed.D. Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. School of Education St. John Fisher College
Optimum-Path Forest Classifier for Large Scale Biometric Applications

This paper addresses biometric identification using large databases, in particular, iris databases. In such applications, it is critical to have low response time, while maintaining an acceptable recognition rate. Thus, the trade-off between speed and accuracy must be evaluated for processing and recognition parts of an identification system. In this paper, a graph-based framework for pattern recognition, called Optimum-Path Forest (OPF), is utilized as a classifier in a pre-developed iris recognition system. The aim of this paper is to verify the effectiveness of OPF in the field of iris recognition, and its performance for various scale iris databases. The existing Gauss-Laguerre Wavelet based coding scheme is used for iris encoding. The performance of the OPF and two other - Hamming and Bayesian - classifiers, is compared using small, medium, and large-scale databases. Such a comparison shows that the OPF has faster response for large-scale databases, thus performing better than the more accurate, but slower, classifiers.
Robo-Blocks: designing debugging abilities in a tangible programming system for early primary school children

Research on engaging young children in computer programming to develop high-level cognitive skills has suggested that debugging is among the most important actions leading to the development of logical thinking, problem solving, and social interaction skills. Although there have been a significant amount of studies done in this area, the debugging tools and techniques have been developed only as models and instructional methodologies outside of the tool itself. This work presents the design and analysis of debugging abilities embedded into a tangible programming system called Robo-Blocks. Students create a program by connecting physical command blocks, which then wirelessly controls the motion of a floor robot. Debugging is achieved by allowing children to run their program in a step-by-step manner and use passive objects to recognize and identify problems. Our evaluation with 52 children ages 8-9 has shown that (1) although tangible programming has the benefit of being exceptionally engaging to young children, early primary school children can quickly loose attention when no progress is made on a particular problem unless there are heuristics provided to help them move forward (2) Robo-Block's framework supplements the existing instructional methodologies used in the debugging process. Students showed significant increase in the ability to analyze problems and think of ways to correct them.
Prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum Parasitaemia and Its Correlation with Haematological Parameters among HIV-Positive Individuals in Nigeria

Malaria and HIV are the two most important health challenges of our time. Haematologic abnormalities are features in Plasmodium falciparum infection, and anaemia is a well-known outcome. The prevalence and haematological impact of P. falciparum parasitaemia were determined among HIV-infected individuals in Nigeria. Parasite detection was carried out using microscopy and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Haemoglobin concentration was determined using an automated machine while CD4+ T-cells count was analyzed using flow cytometer. Thirty-seven (18.5%) out of the 200 HIV individuals enrolled had malaria parasites detected in their blood. All the positive cases were detected by PCR while only 20 (10%) were detected by thick blood microscopy. The mean haemoglobin concentration and packed cell volume (PCV) of HIV individuals with malaria parasitaemia were lower compared to those without malaria parasitaemia but the difference was not statistically significant. Also no significant difference was observed in malaria positivity in respect to sex and mean CD4+ cell count. The study highlights the effects of P. falciparum parasitaemia on the haematologic and immune components of HIV individuals.
MEMBANGUN KEUNGGULAN BERSAING MELALUI KINERJA SISTEM INFORMASI DAN CUSTOMER INTIMACY DALAM MENINGKATKAN KINERJA PEMASARAN

Latar belakang penelitian ini yaitu adanya fenomena persaingan yang semakin ketat pada industri perhotelan di Bali yang dipengaruhi oleh kemajuan teknologi informasi. Bermunculan hotel-hotel baru baik yang bertaraf nasional maupun internasional terutama hotel berbintang 3, 4, dan 5 membuat semakin sulitnya persaingan bisnis akomodasi di Bali. Sangat disayangkan ketatnya persaingan ini turut membawa dampak menurunkan kinerja pemasaran industri perhotelan di Bali. Hal ini ini terbukti dengan terus menurunya tingkat hunian kamar hotel di Bali selama 5 tahun terakhir yang tercatat pada tahun 2016 sebesar 53,67% dari awalnya sebesar 63,21% pada tahun 2012. Menyikapi hal ini perlu dicarikan terobosan baru untuk mengangkat kembali tingkat hunian kamar hotel pada tahun-tahun mendatang dengan cara meningkatkan kinerja pemasaran dengan menciptakan keunggulan bersaing melalui penerapan customer intimacy yang didukung dengan kinerja sistem informasi yang baik. Untuk mencapai tujuan tersebut, penelitian ini mengambil sampel sebanyak 118 hotel dengan unit analisis yaitu para manajer hotel dengan menggunakan alat analisis Stuctural Equation Modelling (SEM). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kinerja sistem informasi dan customer intimacy memiliki pengaruh yang positif dan signifikan terhadap keunggulan bersaing dan kinerja pemasaran. Keunggulan bersaing memiliki pengaruh yang positif dan signifikan terhadap kinerja pemasaran. Keunggulan bersaing juga mampu memediasi kinerja sistem informasi dan customer intimacy terhadap kinerja pemasaran. Implikasi praktis penelitian ini dapat memberikan sumbangan pemikiran bagi industri perhotelan di Bali agar senantiasa meningkatkan kinerja pemasaran perusahaan dengan cara membangun keunggulan bersaing melalui kinerja sistem informasi yang baik dan customer intimacy yang intim dengan pelanggan.
Private wars in secret life

Intrusions into the privacy of Web users, launched on a massive scale mostly to get commercial advantage, are not only annoying, but also start to hinder the further development of the Web and its accepted commercial uses. In this paper we seek the efficient ways of implementing privacy by assuring anonymity understood as unlinkability-the impossibility to reliably correlate the visible communication with a particular user. We briefly survey the state of the art and identify the deficiencies of existing anonymity solutions. We then submit the original approach to anonymity assurance: the VAST system, which is based on a particular unlinkability notion-the impossibility to reliably correlate communication with the intentional behaviour of a particular user.
Involvement of actin polymerization in podosome dynamics

Podosomes, which are formed by different monocyte derivatives, are small adhesion structures whose coordinated dynamics and cytoskeletal reorganization drive their motile and invasive features. Using live-cell microscopy, we explored the temporal molecular steps of the de novo assembly and disassembly of podosomes in cultured osteoclasts. We demonstrate here that the earliest visible step in podosome assembly is the local accumulation of the plaque protein paxillin, along with cortactin, which stabilizes actin networks, followed by robust polymerization of actin filaments and their association with α-actinin. Only then is a local increase in integrin β3 levels apparent in the podosome ring domain. Thus, local actin polymerization in cortactin- and paxillin-rich locations nucleates podosome assembly before the local accumulation of β3 integrin. We further show that actin polymerization is also important for the recruitment and maintenance of plaque proteins in the mature podosome ring domain. Our model implies that core bundle dynamics play a central role in regulating podosome stability.
Bargaining Outside the Lab a Newspaper Experiment of a Three-Person Ultimatum Game

In a large scale newspaper experiment 5,132 readers of the German weekly, Die Zeit, participated in a three-person bargaining game. In our data analysis we focus on (1) the influence of age, gender, profession and the medium chosen for participation on bargaining behavior and on (2) the external validity of student behavior (inside and outside the lab). We find that older participants and women care more about equal distributions and that Internet users are more self-regarding than those using mail or fax. Decisions made by students in the lab are rather similar to those made by students in the newspaper experiment. Furthermore, student behavior is not different from non-student behavior when the same age group is considered, indicating a high degree of external validity of student data.
COBRA: A Constraint-Based Awareness Management Framework

The effective and efficient cooperation in communities and groups requires that the members of the community or group have adequate information about each other and the environment. In this paper, we outline the basic challenges of managing awareness information. We analyse the management of awareness information in face-to-face situations, and discuss challenges and requirements for the support of awareness management in distributed settings. Finally, after taking a look at related work, we present a simple, yet powerful framework for awareness management based on constraint pattern named COBRA.
Accelerating Spark RDD Operations with Local and Remote GPU Devices

Apache Spark is a distributed processing framework for large-scale data sets, where intermediate data sets are represented as RDDs (Resilient Distributed Datasets) and stored in memory distributed over machines. To accelerate its various computation intensive operations, such as reduction and sort, we focus on GPU devices. We modified Spark framework to invoke CUDA kernels when computation intensive operations are called. RDDs are transformed into array structures and transferred to GPU devices when necessary. Although we need to cache RDDs in GPU device memory as much as possible in order to hide the data transfer overhead, the number of local GPU devices mounted in a host machine is limited. In this paper, we propose to use remote GPU devices which are connected to a host machine via a PCI-Express over 10Gbps Ethernet technology. To mitigate the data transfer overhead for remote GPU devices, we propose three RDD caching policies for local and remote GPU devices. We implemented various reduction programs (e.g., Sum, Max, LineCount) and transformation programs (e.g., SortByKey, PatternMatch, WordConversion) using local and remote GPU devices for Spark. Evaluation results show that Spark with GPU outperforms the original software by up to 21.4x. We also evaluate the RDD caching policies for local and remote GPU devices and show that a caching policy that minimizes the data transfer amount for remote GPU devices achieves the best performance.
Using Functional Morphology to Examine the Ecology and Evolution of Specialization1

Abstract Researchers strive to understand what makes species different, and what allows them to survive in the time and space that they do. Many models have been advanced which encompass an array of ecological, evolutionary, mathematical, and logical principles. The goal has been to develop ecological theories that can, among other things, make specific and robust predictions about how and where organisms should live and what organisms should utilize. The role of functional morphology is often an under-appreciated parameter of these models. A more complete understanding of how anatomical features work to allow the organism to accomplish certain tasks has allowed us to revisit some of these ideas with a new perspective. We illustrate our view of this role for functional morphology in ecology by considering the issue of specialization: we attempt to align several definitions of specialization based upon shared ecological and evolutionary principles, and we summarize theoretical predictions regarding why an organism might specialize. Kinematic studies of prey capture in several types of fishes are explored with regard to the potential ecological and evolutionary consequences of specialization, most notably in the area of trade-offs. We suggest that a functional morphological perspective can increase our understanding of the ecological concepts of specialization and it consequences. The kinds of data that functional morphologists collect can help us to quantify organismal performance associated with specialization and the union of functional morphology with ecology can help us to better understand not just how but why organisms interact in the manner that they do.
An SPMD environment machine for functional BSP programs

A functional data-parallel language called BSML has been designed for programming bulk-synchronous parallel (BSP) algorithms in so-called direct mode. Its aim is to offer predictable and scalable performance for BSP algorithms written as functional programs. The current implementation of BSML is a library and has not been validated w.r. t the language’s formal definition. As a library, it does not allow static tools to support performance management. As a first step in the construction of a complete BSML language, we have defined a parallel environment machine from our language’s evaluation semantics and begun testing the scalability and predictability of its performance. This paper presents the machine design and the results of our experiments.
Control of a One-Legged Hopping Robot using a Hybrid Neuro-PD Controller

Primary simulation results of the control of a pneumatically actuated hopping robot along with the mathematical model are presented in. This paper presents the next phase of the research: design of a robust controller for an experimental hopper. Dynamic stability of the hopping robot is investigated using an artificial neural network (ANN)-based proportional-derivative (PD) controller. The hopper's model (i.e. the transfer function of the plant) is identified with the help of an ANN, and then the PD controller is integrated with the trained ANN, so that the plant's output follows a pre-specified reference trajectory. It is evident through computer simulations and experimental results that the proposed controller effectively meets the system's performance requirements, i.e. achieving a user-defined constant jumping height after a number of hops. It is noteworthy that a near zero steady state error and a shorter settling time in the presence of unmodeled system dynamics can be achieved by incorporating an inverse dynamics paradigm into the proposed PD controller in conjunction with an ANN