Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association between Antihypertensive Agent Use and Hospital Admissions in a Managed Care Population

Background:Utilization of medical care services has been used as a surrogate for outcome of patient compliance with treatment regimens. Antihypertensive treatment status and selection of drug agents may influence medical utilization. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between medically untreated hypertension and treated hypertension according to class of antihypertensive agent with the rate of hospitalization. Methods:This is a retrospective, observational study on adult hypertensive patients based on claim data from a network-model HMO. The 12,548 patients were identified by ICD-9-CM hypertensive codes over a 3-year period. The hospital admission rate was the outcome measurement. The exploratory variables included antihypertensive treatment status and drug class. Patients’ age, gender, and coexisting medical conditions were treated as confounding factors. Descriptive analyses and multivariate regression analyses were performed. Results:Coexisting medical conditions were significant factors in hospital admission rates. Compared with diuretic treatment, there were no differences in hospital admission rates among hypertensive patients treated with an angiotensin II antagonist or angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor. Untreated patients or those treated with beta-blockers or calcium channel blockers experienced higher hospitalization rates (95% CI, 1.25–1.90, 1.03–1.44, and 1.08–1.46, respectively). Conclusions:Compared with the major antihypertensive agents or no therapy for hypertension, diuretic or angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor therapy may result in a reduced rate of hospital utilization.
Early milk feeding influences taste acceptance and liking during infancy.

BACKGROUND We identified a model system that exploits the inherent taste variation in early feedings to investigate food preference development. OBJECTIVE The objective was to determine whether exposure to differing concentrations of taste compounds in milk and formulas modifies acceptance of exemplars of the 5 basic taste qualities in a familiar food matrix. Specifically, we examined the effects of consuming hydrolyzed casein formulas (HCFs), which have pronounced bitter, sour, and savory tastes compared with breast milk (BM) and bovine milk-based formulas (MFs), in which these taste qualities are weaker. DESIGN Subgroups of BM-, MF- and HCF-fed infants, some of whom were fed table foods, were studied on 6 occasions to measure acceptance of sweet, salty, bitter, savory, sour, and plain cereals. RESULTS In infants not yet eating table foods, the HCF group ate significantly more savory-, bitter-, and sour-tasting and plain cereals than did the BM or MF groups. HCF infants displayed fewer facial expressions of distaste while eating the bitter and savory cereals, and they and BM infants were more likely to smile while they were eating the savory cereal. In formula-fed infants eating table foods, preferences for the basic tastes reflected the types of foods they were being fed. In general, those infants who ate more food displayed fewer faces of distaste. CONCLUSIONS The type of formula fed to infants has an effect on their response to taste compounds in cereal before solid food introduction. This model system of research investigation sheds light on sources of individual differences in taste and perhaps cultural food preferences.
MICROMECHANICAL SOLUTION FOR SIMULATING AUTOGENOUS HEALING IN CEMENTITIOUS MATERIALS ( ACME 2016 ) *

Self-healing cementitious materials could greatly improve the durability properties of concrete structures relative to those constructed with conventional cementitious composites. However, there is a need to understand better the healing processes, to predict accurately experimental behaviour and to determine the impact on mechanical properties. Micromechanical modelling, with a two-phase Eshelby inclusion solution, is chosen as a suitable framework within which to explore such a response in cementitious materials. A constitutive material model is described, consideration is given to a self-healing model framework and how the mechanical strength recovery of a micro-cracked material can be simulated with a simplified volumetric micromechanical model.
Segmenting Canadian Culinary Tourists

Researchers in culinary tourism often implicitly treat visitors interested in culinary products as a relatively homogeneous market. Using data obtained from the Canadian Travel Activities and Motivations Study, three a priori segments are defined: visitors who participate only in food-related activities, those who participate only in wine- related activities, and those who participate in both. The food segment was the largest of the three, with nearly 25% of respondents fitting this category; wine was the smallest segment with less than 4%. Wine and food accounted for about 7%. The food segment had a higher proportion of females than the other segments, with lower average educational attainment and lower incomes. Wine-oriented visitors were more balanced between male and female, had average ages and educational attainment, and higher incomes. Those visitors involved in both sets of activities were predominantly male, older, had the highest educational levels, and much higher incomes. Trip motivations and activities also differed significantly among the three segments with the food and wine segment showing the greatest diversity of motivations and activities. In other words, there are distinct types of culinary tourists who seek distinct types of culinary experiences. Different methods of communications, and different packaging and product development strategies need to be employed to reach each of the segments identified here.
The hippocampo‐septal projection in mice: long‐term potentiation in the lateral septum

IN anaesthetized young mice, the fimbria was stimulated and field potentials were recorded ipsilaterally in the lateral septum (LS). Evoked responses were typically characterized by a two-component negative wave (N2 and N3) followed by a low amplitude positive wave. The amplitudes and latencies were highest and shortest respectively in the dorsal LS for the N3 component and in the ventral LS for the N2 component. Tetanic stimulation of the fimbria induced long-term potentiation (LTP) only in the case of the N3 component. The differential changes in N2 and N3 following tetanic fimbrial stimulation are discussed in the context that the dorsal LS appears to exhibit a higher density of LTP-mediating receptors.
Ethnography and health care

Development of a culture of evidence based medicine depends on a body of research that draws from both qualitative and quantitative approaches.1 Recent BMJ articles have usefully questioned a stark polarity between qualitative and quantitative research and helped to demystify qualitative approaches. 2 3 4 There has been little mention of ethnography, however, and little argument for its use in health research. I have examined some of these omissions, giving a broad indication of the nature of ethnography and arguing for its greater use within health care. I have given examples of ethnographic studies to suggest some of the issues that ethnography can help to explore, together with a brief outline of limitations of the approach. #### Summary points Ethnography has been overlooked as a qualitative methodology for the in depth study of healthcare issues in the context in which they occur An ethnographic study can utilise a range of qualitative and quantitative methods The methods of ethnographic research raise ethical and other issues, which means that skilled supervision is essential Ethnographers do not usually aim to produce findings that can be generalised Ethnography can be useful in a predesign stage of research and can generate questions for research that can be followed up by other methodologies Perhaps one of the reasons for the neglect of ethnography is that there is no standard interpretation of what it is. Ethnography is, confusingly, both a process and a product: the term can apply both to a methodology and to the written account of a particular ethnographic project. It is not, as is often implied, a pseudonym for qualitative research in general or a way of describing studies premised solely on semistructured interviews. On the contrary, an ethnographic approach usually incorporates a range of methods and can combine qualitative and quantitative data. For many, the …
English league transfer prices: is there a racial dimension?

Carmichael and Thomas (1993) recently examined the transfer market for association football within a Nash bargaining framework, and explored empirically some of the determinants of association football transfer prices for the 1990-91 English league season. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role exerted by race in the determination of association football transfer prices. Using data from the 1991-92 English league season, transfer price equations are estimated to establish if black players encounter unequal treatment in the transfer market.
The Arabidopsis Tellurite resistance C protein together with ALB3 is involved in photosystem II protein synthesis.

Assembly of photosystem II (PSII) occurs sequentially and requires several auxiliary proteins, such as ALB3 (ALBINO3). Here, we describe the role of the Arabidopsis thaliana thylakoid membrane protein Tellurite resistance C (AtTerC) in this process. Knockout of AtTerC was previously shown to be seedling-lethal. This phenotype was rescued by expressing TerC fused C-terminally to GFP in the terc-1 background, and the resulting terc-1TerC- GFP line and an artificial miRNA-based knockdown allele (amiR-TerC) were used to analyze the TerC function. The alterations in chlorophyll fluorescence and thylakoid ultrastructure observed in amiR-TerC plants and terc-1TerC- GFP were attributed to defects in PSII. We show that this phenotype resulted from a reduction in the rate of de novo synthesis of PSII core proteins, but later steps in PSII biogenesis appeared to be less affected. Yeast two-hybrid assays showed that TerC interacts with PSII proteins. In particular, its interaction with the PSII assembly factor ALB3 has been demonstrated by co-immunoprecipitation. ALB3 is thought to assist in incorporation of CP43 into PSII via interaction with Low PSII Accumulation2 (LPA2) Low PSII Accumulation3 (LPA3). Homozygous lpa2 mutants expressing amiR-TerC displayed markedly exacerbated phenotypes, leading to seedling lethality, indicating an additive effect. We propose a model in which TerC, together with ALB3, facilitates de novo synthesis of thylakoid membrane proteins, for instance CP43, at the membrane insertion step.
Fast Voxelization of Three-Dimensional Synthetic Objects

Abstract This paper presents a new approach to the voxelization of threedimensional synthetic objects. It makes use of existing graphics hardware on standard graphics workstations, such as the polygon-based geometry engine and frame buffer operations, and is able to generate the voxel-based volume representations of general curves, surfaces, or solid objects efficiently. On a workstation with hardwaresupported texture mapping, the voxelization result may also be written directly to the three-dimensional texture memory as a three-dimensional texture object, and interactively rendered by the three-dimensional texture-mapping hardware. This approach provides a practical solution to the interactive manipulations of geometric objects within a volume graphics framework.
Sparse approximation and atomic decomposition: Considering atom interactions in evaluating and building signal representations

Sparse Approximation and Atomic Decomposition: Considering Atom Interactions in Evaluating and Building Signal Representations by Bobby Lee Townsend Sturm, Jr. This dissertation makes contributions to the sparse approximation and efficient representation of complex signals, e.g., acoustic signals, using greedy iterative descent pursuits and overcomplete dictionaries. As others have noted before, peculiar problems arise when a signal model is mismatched to the signal content, and a pursuit makes bad selections from the dictionary. These result in models that contain several atoms having no physical significance to the signal, and instead exist to correct the representation through destructive interference. These “spurious” terms greatly diminish the efficiency of the generated signal model, and hinder the useful application of sparse approximation to signal analysis (e.g., source identification), visualization (e.g., source selection), and modification (e.g., source extraction). While past works have addressed these problems by reformulating a pursuit to avoid them, such as adding restrictions to the content of a dictionary, in this dissertation we use these corrective terms to learn about the signal, the pursuit algorithm, the dictionary, and the created model. Our thesis is xii essentially that a better signal model results when a pursuit builds it considering the interaction between the atoms. We formally study these effects and propose novel measures of them to quantify the interaction between atoms in a model, and to illuminate the role of each atom in representing a signal. We then propose and study three different ways of incorporating these new measures into the atom selection criteria of greedy iterative descent pursuits, and show analytically and empirically that these interferenceadaptive pursuits can produce models with increased efficiency and meaningfulness, e.g., the direct correspondence between an atom and specific signal content. Finally, we propose creating a higher-level model of the decomposed signal by agglomerating the atoms of a representation into molecules based on a set of similarity criteria, and compare this method with a previous pursuit that builds molecules simultaneously with the decomposition process. In both cases, we find that the resulting molecules have a more clear relationship with the signal content.
Structure and Strategy for Regional Learning and Innovation--Challenges for Regional Planning

Development of codified and tacit knowledge is important for capacity building in regional communities. To do so regions need active cooperation and trust building between public organizations related to research and education, private companies and organizations and the civil society so as to cross sector barriers and to mobilize to meet regional challenges proactively. Such processes must enjoy wide support in the regional community; mobilization for change must take place from below and across a broad front. Actors from outside can stimulate such processes, but they cannot take responsibility for them. The role in building out the community that is held by democratically elected bodies, make it natural to demand or expect that such actors take an initiative towards improvement, which brings challenges that are discussed later in this article.
How Parties Organize : Change and Adaptation in Party Organizations in Western Democracies

Party Organizations - Peter Mair From Civil Society to the State Party Organization as an Empty Vessel - Richard S Katz and Robin Kolodny Parties in American Politics The Development of Austrian Party Organizations in the Post-war Period - Wolfgang C M[um]uller The Decline of Consociationalism and the Reluctant Modernization of Belgian Mass Parties - Kris Deschouwer Party Organizational Change in Britain - Paul D Webb The Iron Law of Centralization? Denmark - Lars Bille The Decline of the Membership Party? Finland - Jan Sundberg Nationalized Parties, Professionalized Organizations Parties in a Legalistic Culture - Thomas Poguntke The Case of Germany Ireland - David M Farrell Centralization, Professionalization and Competitive Pressures Italy - Luciano Bardi and Leonardo Morlino Tracing the Roots of the Great Transformation The Vulnerability of the Modern Cadre Party in the Netherlands - Ruud A Koole Change and Adaptation in Norwegian Party Organizations - Lars Sv[a with a circle on the top]asand Party Organizations in Sweden - Jon Pierre and Anders Widfeldt Colossuses with Feet of Clay or Flexible Pillars of Government? Transnational Party Federations, European Parliamentary Party Groups and the Building of Europarties - Luciano Bardi
Risk factors for candidemia in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit patients

Background. Candida species are important nosocomial pathogens in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) patients. Methods. A prospective cohort study was performed in six geographically diverse NICUs from 1993 to 1995 to determine the incidence of and risk factors for candidemia, including the role of gastrointestinal (GI) tract colonization. Study procedures included rectal swabs to detect fungal colonization and active surveillance to identify risk factors for candidemia. Candida strains obtained from the GI tract and blood were analyzed by pulsed field gel electrophoresis to determine whether colonizing strains caused candidemia. Results. In all, 2847 infants were enrolled and 35 (1.2%) developed candidemia (12.3 cases per 1000 patient discharges or 0.63 case per 1000 catheter days) including 23 of 421 (5.5%) babies ≤1000 g. After adjusting for birth weight and abdominal surgery, forward multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated significant risk factors, including gestational age <32 weeks, 5‐min Apgar <5; shock, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, prior use of intralipid, parenteral nutrition, central venous catheters, H2 blockers, intubation or length of stay >7 days before candidemia (P < 0.05). Catheters, steroids and GI tract colonization were not independent risk factors, but GI tract colonization preceded candidemia in 15 of 35 (43%) case patients. Conclusions. Candida spp. are an important cause of late onset sepsis in NICU patients. The incidence of candidemia might be decreased by the judicious use of treatments identified as risk factors and avoiding H2 blockers.
Determinants of the Round-to-Round Returns to Pre-Ipo Venture Capital Investments in U.S. Biotechnology Companies

I propose that pre-IPO venture-backed biotech companies offer a productive new setting through which to discriminate among theories of why firm size and book-to-market explain variation in expected stock returns. This is because pre-IPO biotech firms have large and rapidly evolving growth options relative to assets-in-place. Such attributes align closely with the key features of Berk, Green and Naik's (1999) model of the endogenous relations between growth options, optimal investment actions and expected equity returns, where firm size and book-to-market emerge as sufficient statistics for the aggregate risk of a firm's assets-in-place. Using venture capital investments in pre-IPO U.S. biotech companies during 1992-2001, I find that equity returns between financing rounds ("round-to-round" returns) are reliably negatively related to firm size and positively related to book-to-market ratios. These results are consistent with Berk, Green and Naik's theory. They are less consistent with competing explanations such as financial distress, behaviorally biased investors or data snooping.
Linking environmental activity and environmental disclosure in an organisational change framework

Purpose – Over the past decades, a plethora of papers have been written describing organisations' reaction to pressure on them to change their practices regarding the natural environment. These papers can broadly be classified into two groups, those research papers interested in organisations' activities and strategies to deal with environmental issues, and those concerned with the external reporting or disclosure of information regarding organisations' effects on the environment. What appears to be missing in this research is very much detailed analysis of the link between these two areas. This paper aims to address this issue.Design/methodology/approach – This paper, while calling for empirical work to be carried out to investigate this link further, discusses the assumptions made about this link in previous research and then theorises what our expectations for this link might look like given our current knowledge of reporting practices, and the abundance of reporting frameworks and guidelines that curr.
Pulse pressure is an independent determinant of renal function decline during treatment of essential hypertension

Background In large epidemiological studies and using serum creatinine or estimates of glomerular filtration rate (GFR), blood pressure has emerged as a predominant determinant of the age-associated decline in renal function. Methods The present longitudinal study (median follow-up period of 5.8 years) was conducted in 132 never-treated patients with essential hypertension at baseline. The effect of treatment on the GFR and effective renal plasma flow, estimated by urinary clearances of isotopic markers, was assessed. Results Satisfactory control of hypertension (<140/90 mmHg) was achieved in 57% of the population. During follow-up, the yearly change in the GFR was −1.72 ± 0.21 ml/min per year (mean ± SEM). In univariate regression analysis, the change in the GFR was correlated with baseline pulse pressure (r = −0.27, P = 0.002), whereas no influence of systolic, diastolic or mean blood pressures, as well as baseline albuminuria or left ventricular mass index, was found. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that only baseline pulse pressure conveyed a significant odds ratio of accelerated decline of GFR (> median of 1.5 ml/min per year), independently of age, baseline GFR, mean blood pressure and other known cardiovascular risk factors. No influence of the type of antihypertensive treatment (64% of the population had received angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor) was detected. Conclusion Pulse pressure (a marker of arterial stiffening) is suggested as an independent determinant of the treatment-associated decline in renal function in essential hypertension. No influence of target organ damage (albuminuria of left ventricular hypertrophy) was detected.
Long-term effects of crop residues and fertility management on carbon sequestration and agronomic productivity of groundnut–finger millet rotation on an Alfisol in southern India

The data from long-term management and cropping systems experiments are needed to assess changes in soil quality, organic carbon pool, and agronomic sustainability. Thus, a 13-year-old soil fertility management experiment was used to assess the impact of crop residues carbon (C) inputs on SOC stock in a rainfed groundnut (Arachis hypogeae L.)–fingermillet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn) rotation in semiarid alfisol. The application of farmyard manure (FYM) alone or in a combination with chemical fertilizers contributed to higher amounts of C inputs and subsequently to build up a higher SOC pool. Application of 10 Mg ha−1 of FYM and a recommended dose of chemical fertilizer (25:21.8:20.7 and 50:21.8:20.7 kg N, P, K ha−1 for groundnut and fingermillet, respectively) increased soil SOC pool by 41.2% to 73.0 Mg ha−1 with an increase of 9.3 Mg ha−1 over 13 years. Both SOC pool and rates of its sequestration were positively correlated with cumulative C input and sustainable yield index. A minimal input of 1.62 Mg C ha−1 yr−1 is needed to maintain SOC pool at the antecedent level. Balanced application of NPK fertilizers is needed to reduce and reverse the depletion of SOC pool.