Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of benefits, premiums, and health risk on health plan choice in the Medicare program.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the effect of Medicare+Choice (M+C) plan premiums and benefits and individual beneficiary characteristics on the probability of enrollment in a Medicare+Choice plan. DATA SOURCE Individual data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey were combined with plan-level data from Medicare Compare. STUDY DESIGN Health plan choices, including the Medicare+Choice/Fee-for-Service decision and the choice of plan within the M+C sector, were modeled using limited information maximum likelihood nested logit. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Premiums have a significant effect on plan selection, with an estimated out-of-pocket premium elasticity of -0.134 and an insurer-perspective elasticity of -4.57. Beneficiaries are responsive to plan characteristics, with prescription drug benefits having the largest marginal effect. Sicker beneficiaries were more likely to choose plans with drug benefits and diabetics were more likely to pick plans with vision coverage. CONCLUSIONS Plan characteristics significantly impact beneficiaries' decisions to enroll in Medicare M+C plans and individuals sort themselves systematically into plans based on individual characteristics.
The Breadth and Potency of Passively Acquired Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1-Specific Neutralizing Antibodies Do Not Correlate with the Risk of Infant Infection

ABSTRACT Although a major goal of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) vaccine efforts is to elicit broad and potent neutralizing antibodies (NAbs), there are no data that directly demonstrate a role for such NAbs in protection from HIV-1 infection in exposed humans. The setting of mother-to-child transmission provides an opportunity to examine whether NAbs provide protection from HIV-1 infection because infants acquire passive antibodies from their mothers prior to exposure to HIV-1 through breastfeeding. We evaluated the characteristics of HIV-1-specific NAbs in 100 breast-fed infants of HIV-1-positive mothers who were HIV-1 negative at birth and monitored them until age 2. A panel of eight viruses that included variants representative of those in the study region as well as more diverse strains was used to determine the breadth of the infant NAbs. From their mothers, infants acquired broad and potent NAbs that were capable of recognizing heterologous circulating HIV-1 variants of diverse subtypes, but the presence of NAbs of broad HIV-1 specificity was not associated with transmission risk. There was also no correlation between responses to any particular virus tested, which included a range of diverse variants that demonstrated different neutralization profiles, including recognition by specific antibodies with known epitope targets. The eight viruses tested exhibited neutralization profiles to a variety of monoclonal antibodies (2F5, PG9, and VRC01) similar to those of viruses present in pregnant women in the cohort. These results suggest that the breadth and potency of the heterologous antibody response in exposed infants, measured against a virus panel comprised of variants typical of those circulating in the population, does not predict protection.
DOCKGROUND resource for studying protein-protein interfaces

MOTIVATION Public resources for studying protein interfaces are necessary for better understanding of molecular recognition and developing intermolecular potentials, search procedures and scoring functions for the prediction of protein complexes. RESULTS The first release of the DOCKGROUND resource implements a comprehensive database of co-crystallized (bound-bound) protein-protein complexes, providing foundation for the upcoming expansion to unbound (experimental and simulated) protein-protein complexes, modeled protein-protein complexes and systematic sets of docking decoys. The bound-bound part of DOCKGROUND is a relational database of annotated structures based on the Biological Unit file (Biounit) provided by the RCSB as a separated file containing probable biological molecule. DOCKGROUND is automatically updated to reflect the growth of PDB. It contains 67,220 pairwise complexes that rely on 14,913 Biounit entries from 34,778 PDB entries (January 30, 2006). The database includes a dynamic generation of non-redundant datasets of pairwise complexes based either on the structural similarity (SCOP classification) or on user-defined sequence identity. The growing DOCKGROUND resource is designed to become a comprehensive public environment for developing and validating new methodologies for modeling of protein interactions. AVAILABILITY DOCKGROUND is available at http://dockground.bioinformatics. ku.edu. The current first release implements the bound-bound part.
Biochemical Characterization of StyAB from Pseudomonas sp. Strain VLB120 as a Two-Component Flavin-Diffusible Monooxygenase

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas sp. VLB120 uses styrene as a sole source of carbon and energy. The first step in this metabolic pathway is catalyzed by an oxygenase (StyA) and a NADH-flavin oxidoreductase (StyB). Both components have been isolated from wild-type Pseudomonas strain VLB120 as well as from recombinant Escherichia coli. StyA from both sources is a dimer, with a subunit size of 47 kDa, and catalyzes the enantioselective epoxidation of C═C double bonds. Styrene is exclusively converted to S-styrene oxide with a specific activity of 2.1 U mg−1 (kcat = 1.6 s−1) and Km values for styrene of 0.45 ± 0.05 mM (wild type) and 0.38 ± 0.09 mM (recombinant). The epoxidation reaction depends on the presence of a NADH-flavin adenine dinucleotide (NADH-FAD) oxidoreductase for the supply of reduced FAD. StyB is a dimer with a molecular mass of 18 kDa and a NADH oxidation activity of 200 U mg−1 (kcat [NADH] = 60 s−1). Steady-state kinetics determined for StyB indicate a mechanism of sequential binding of NADH and flavin to StyB. This enzyme reduces FAD as well as flavin mononucleotide and riboflavin. The NADH oxidation activity does not depend on the presence of StyA. During the epoxidation reaction, no formation of a complex of StyA and StyB has been observed, suggesting that electron transport between reductase and oxygenase occurs via a diffusing flavin.
Transmission and emission x-ray microscopy: operation modes, contrast mechanisms and applications

Advances in microscopy techniques based on x-rays have opened unprecedented opportunities in terms of spatial resolution, combined with chemical and morphology sensitivity, to analyze solid, soft and liquid matter. The advent of ultrabright third and fourth generation photon sources and the continuous development of x-ray optics and detectors has pushed the limits of imaging and spectroscopic analysis to structures as small as a few tens of nanometers. Specific interactions of x-rays with matter provide elemental and chemical sensitivity that have made x-ray spectromicroscopy techniques a very attractive tool, complementary to other microscopies, for characterization in all actual research fields. The x-ray penetration power meets the demand to examine samples too thick for electron microscopes implementing 3D imaging and recently also 4D imaging which adds time resolution as well. Implementation of a variety of phase contrast techniques enhances the structural sensitivity, especially for the hard x-ray regime. Implementation of lensless or diffraction imaging helps to enhance the lateral resolution of x-ray imaging to the wavelength dependent diffraction limit.
Parallel ID Shadow-Map Decompression on GPU

ID shadow-maps are used for robust real-time rendering of shadows. The primary disadvantage of using shadow-maps is their excessive size for large scenes in case high quality shadows are needed. To eliminate large memory requirements and texture-size limitations of the current generation GPUs, texture compression is an important tool. We present a framework where compressed ID-shadow-maps are used for real-time rendering of static scene shadows. The texture compression is performed off-line on the CPU and real-time decompression is performed on the GPU within a fragment-shader for shadowing the pixels. The use of ID shadow-maps (instead of conventional depth-based shadow-maps) is the key to high compression ratios. The ID shadow-map is compressed on the CPU by first partitioning it into blocks. Each compressed block is packed densely into a global array, while a pointer table is constructed that holds a pointer to the start of every compressed block in the global array. This data organization provides the GPU with a random access to the start of each compressed block thus enables fast parallel decompression. The proposed decompression shader-program and the underlying data structures can be applied to any type of array consisting of integers. The framework is implemented using OpenGL and GLSL.
TESOL and Policy Enactments: Perspectives From Practice

Prior research in the area of language policy and planning (LPP) has been focused primarily on macro decision-making and the impact of national, local, and institutional policies in educational settings. Only recently have scholars begun examining the everyday contexts in which policies are interpreted and negotiated in ways that reflect local constraints and possibilities. The redirection of inquiry toward situated policy enactments in TESOL is the central theme of this special issue and the introductory article. In this article we address and expand on several key themes that arise from and unify the various contributions to the issue: (a) the enhanced status and implications of locality in policy research, (b) practitioner agency and the ethical concerns involved, (c) the globalization of particularistic agendas (i.e., neo-liberalism) and their impact on nation-state identities and policy enactments.
Modelo Bayesiano del Alumno basado en el Estilo de Aprendizaje y las Preferencias

Nowadays, modeling user's preferences is one of the most challenging tasks in e-learning systems that deal with large volumes of information. The growth of on-line educational resources including encyclopaedias, repositories, etc., has made it crucial to "filter" or "sort" the information shown to the student, so that he/she can make a better use of it. To find out the student's preferences, a commonly used approach is to implement a decision model that matches some relevant characteristics of the learning resources with the student's learning style. The rules that compose the decision model are, in general, deterministic by nature and never change over time. In this paper, we propose to use adaptive machine learning algorithms to learn about the student's preferences over time. First we use all the background knowledge available about a particular student to build an initial decision model based on learning styles. This model can then be fine-tuned with the data generated by the student's interactions with the system in order to reflect more accurately his/her current preferences.
Dissecting and Reconstructing Synergism

Background: Synergistic interplay of cellulases is key for efficiency of cellulose hydrolysis. Results: In situ observation of individual and synergistic action of endo- and exo-cellulases on a polymorphic cellulose substrate reveals specificity of individual enzyme components for crystalline or amorphous regions. Conclusion: Cellulase synergism is governed by mesoscopic morphological characteristics of the cellulose substrate. Significance: Advanced knowledge basis for rational optimization of cellulose saccharification. Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer and a major reservoir of fixed carbon on earth. Comprehension of the elusive mechanism of its enzymatic degradation represents a fundamental problem at the interface of biology, biotechnology, and materials science. The interdependence of cellulose disintegration and hydrolysis and the synergistic interplay among cellulases is yet poorly understood. Here we report evidence from in situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) that delineates degradation of a polymorphic cellulose substrate as a dynamic cycle of alternating exposure and removal of crystalline fibers. Direct observation shows that chain-end-cleaving cellobiohydrolases (CBH I, CBH II) and an internally chain-cleaving endoglucanase (EG), the major components of cellulase systems, take on distinct roles: EG and CBH II make the cellulose surface accessible for CBH I by removing amorphous-unordered substrate areas, thus exposing otherwise embedded crystalline-ordered nanofibrils of the cellulose. Subsequently, these fibrils are degraded efficiently by CBH I, thereby uncovering new amorphous areas. Without prior action of EG and CBH II, CBH I was poorly active on the cellulosic substrate. This leads to the conclusion that synergism among cellulases is morphology-dependent and governed by the cooperativity between enzymes degrading amorphous regions and those targeting primarily crystalline regions. The surface-disrupting activity of cellulases therefore strongly depends on mesoscopic structural features of the substrate: size and packing of crystalline fibers are key determinants of the overall efficiency of cellulose degradation.
Grounding subgoals in information transitions

In reinforcement learning problems, the construction of subgoals has been identified as an important step to speed up learning and to enable skill transfer. For this purpose, one typically extracts states from various saliency properties of an MDP transition graph, most notably bottleneck states. Here we introduce an alternative approach to this problem: assuming a family of MDPs with multiple goals but with a fixed transition graph, we introduce the relevant goal information as the amount of Shannon information that the agent needs to maintain about the current goal at a given state to select the appropriate action. We show that there are distinct transition states in the MDP at which new relevant goal information has to be considered for selecting the next action. We argue that these transition states can be interpreted as subgoals for the current task class, and we use these states to automatically create a hierarchical policy, according to the well-established Options model for hierarchical reinforcement learning.
Coordination of bat sonar activity and flight for the exploration of three-dimensional objects

SUMMARY The unique combination of flight and echolocation has opened the nocturnal air space as a rich ecological niche for bats. By analysing echoes of their sonar emissions, bats discriminate and recognize three-dimensional (3-D) objects. However, in contrast to vision, the 3-D information that can be gained by ensonifying an object from only one observation angle is sparse. To date, it is unclear how bats synchronize echolocation and flight activity to explore the 3-D shape of ensonified objects. We have devised an experimental design that allows creating 3-D virtual echo-acoustic objects by generating in real-time echoes from the bat's emissions that depend on the bat's position relative to the virtual object. Bats were trained to evaluate these 3-D virtual objects differing in their azimuthal variation of either echo amplitude or spectral composition. The data show that through a very effective coordination of sonar and flight activity, bats analyse an azimuthal variation of echo amplitude with a resolution of approximately 16 dB and a variation of echo centre frequency of approximately 19%. Control experiments show that the bats can detect not only these variations but also perturbations in the spatial arrangement of these variations. The current experimental paradigm shows that echolocating bats assemble echo-acoustic object information – acquired sequentially in flight – to reconstruct the 3-D shape of the ensonified object. Unlike previous approaches, the recruitment of virtual objects allows for a direct quantification of this reconstruction success in a highly controlled experimental approach.
The pressure wire as a diagnostic tool in patients with congenital cardiac disease

Abstract The pressure wire has emerged as a useful tool to assess the clinical severity of moderate coronary artery lesions. We report a novel use of the pressure wire in adult patients with complex congenital cardiac disease in whom it was used in assessing pressures beyond the stenosis in the distal pulmonary artery, aorto-pulmonary collaterals, and across prosthetic tricuspid valves, where conventional catheters were unable to reach. We used this in three of our patients for assessment of pulmonary artery pressures and in two patients for assessment of pressures across a prosthetic St Jude® valve. Out of the three patients referred for assessment, only two had significantly raised distal pulmonary pressures enabling them to receive appropriate therapy. Out of the two patients with a prosthetic tricuspid valve, only one required surgery based on this assessment. We describe a novel use of the pressure wire in the functional assessment of adults with congenital cardiac disease in whom conventional catheter techniques may not be able to provide adequate data. It can be a guide to provide appropriate therapy and avoid unnecessary interventions in this patient group.
What Do Injured Workers Think About Their Medical Care and Outcomes After Work Injury?

Patient satisfaction is an important aspect of quality of care. Little information about injured workers’ satisfaction is available. A survey instrument was developed to assess “What Do Injured Workers Think About Their Medical Care? ” Survey domains included access, satisfaction, reports of physician behaviors, and outcomes after work injury. Descriptive analyses were performed on more than 800 responses. Approximately 25% of respondents reported dissatisfaction with care. Satisfaction with choice of provider, interpersonal care, claims handling, and outcomes were major predictors of overall satisfaction. Spanish-speakers were more likely to be dissatisfied with physician communications. Months after injury, many workers reported significant pain and impact on job ability and daily function. Routine evaluation of patient satisfaction with occupational medical care could facilitate quality improvement efforts and informed purchaser and worker choice of occupational health services.
Egas Moniz and the Origins of Psychosurgery: A Review Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Moniz's Nobel Prize

Modern psychosurgery began in 1936 with the work of the Portuguese neurologist, Egas Moniz, who attempted to treat the symptoms of mental illness by severing neural tracts in the frontal lobes. This procedure eventually became widespread and applied to thousands of institutionalized, psychotic patients in the United States and other countries. Despite serious side effects associated with psychosurgery, the apparent importance and validity of the treatment was recognized in 1949 when Moniz received the Nobel Prize for his innovation. Psychosurgery was largely replaced by anti-psychotic drugs in the mid-1950s, and the procedure and its practitioners rapidly fell into disrepute. This article reviews Moniz's career, the factors that led up to his first clinical trials of frontal lobe surgery, and the circumstances that allowed psychosurgery to flourish in the 1940s, eventually leading to Moniz's Nobel Prize.
Young children and the environment: early education for sustainability

seeking to oust subjects and become an academic specialism. Instead, it may become an element of innovative, context-sensitive pedagogies; included in cross-disciplinary research that will be linked to teaching and learning; drive sustainable forms of assessment. It is likely that the change will take time, in small steps because the barriers inhibit radical leaps. An overcrowded curriculum; perceived irrelevance of sustainable development by academic staff; limited staff awareness and expertise, when coupled with limited institutional drive and commitment, are identified barriers in HEIs. Barriers to engagement in education for sustainable development emerge in schools where teachers, currently, are at the early-adopters stage. Resources, programmes, practices and policies in teacher education institutions are needed to take teachers beyond ‘tinkering’ with sustainable development ideas, e.g. promoting the use of low energy light bulbs. Examples earlier in the book link low energy light bulbs and architecture to use of scarce resources but the indispensable mental skills required are those that construct an optimum balance between teachers’ conceptions and their willingness to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries. The authors believe that higher education should ‘promote rationality and freedom’ and that ‘these qualities are inalienably associated with tolerance for a plurality of values’ (169). Exposing and examining assumptions during interdisciplinary work and engaging trainee teachers and students in sustainable development issues and management, nurtures capacity building. Doing so is crucial to increase their potential to ‘break through into unexplored territories’ (166) beyond problem solving into problem redefinition. Higher Education and Sustainable Development was published in 2007 at the beginning of the UN-designated ‘decade of education for sustainable development’. Whilst HEIs promote learning and pursuit of new knowledge, the context of this learning is crucial. By enriching graduates’ capacity to conceptualise future sustainable development and assimilate change over time, HEIs may assist them to identify the best sequence of choices in their careers. Gough and Scott make recommendations for realistic future development. They also suggest that HEIs should take a more prominent role at the forefront of society’s response to unfolding circumstances.
Delay Bounds for Random Linear Coding in Parallel Relay Networks

We consider the problem of transmitting a collection of packets from a source node to a destination node across a relay network. We analyze a simple random network coding scheme where each node transmits a random linear combination of packets each time it has an opportunity to transmit. The main result of this paper is an upper bound on the expected time to transmit a generation of packets across the network. We show that the expected time is bounded by the generation size divided by the capacity of the minimum cut separating the source from the destination, plus a term that grows as the square root of the generation size. We then use this bound to provide a queueing analysis of a strategy that dynamically creates generations as packets arrive in a queue at the network's source node. To facilitate our analysis, we model the relay network by a continuous-time Markov chain. Our primary analytical tool is a general method for computing upper bounds on hitting times associated with continuous-time Markov chains. We believe that this approach also provides a method for analyzing transmission times associated with more general network topologies.