Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Use of High-Volume Hospitals

Differences in the source of care could contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in health status. This study looks at a major metropolitan area and examines racial and ethnic differences in the use of high-volume hospitals for 17 services for which there is a documented positive volume-outcome relationship. Focusing on the hospitalizations of New York City area residents in the periods 1995-1996 and 2001–2002, we found, after controlling for socioeconomic characteristics, insurance coverage, proximity of residence to a high-volume hospital, and paths to hospitalization, that minority patients were significantly less likely than whites to be treated at high-volume hospitals for most volume-sensitive services. The largest disparities were between blacks and whites for cancer surgeries and cardiovascular procedures.
Normalization for Genetic Algorithms With Nonsynonymously Redundant Encodings

Normalization transforms one parent genotype to be consistent with the other before crossover. In this paper, we explain how normalization alleviates the difficulties caused by nonsynonymously redundant encodings in genetic algorithms. We define the encodings with maximally nonsynonymous property and prove that the encodings induce uncorrelated search spaces. Extensive experiments for a number of problems show that normalization transforms the uncorrelated search spaces to correlated ones and leads to significant improvement in performance.
Reciprocal Regulation of the Platelet-Derived Growth Factor Receptor-β and G Protein-Coupled Receptor Kinase 5 by Cross-Phosphorylation: Effects on Catalysis

Signaling by the platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β (PDGFRβ) is diminished when the PDGFRβ is phosphorylated on seryl residues by G protein-coupled receptor kinase-5 (GRK5), but mechanisms for GRK5 activation by the PDGFRβ remain obscure. We therefore tested whether the PDGFRβ is able to tyrosine-phosphorylate and thereby activate GRK5. Purified GRK5 was tyrosine-phosphorylated by the wild-type PDGFRβ to a stoichiometry of 0.8 mol phosphate/mol GRK5, an extent ∼5 times greater than observed with a Y857F PDGFRβ mutant that fails to phosphorylate exogenous substrates but autophosphorylates and activates Src normally. The degree of PDGFRβ-mediated phosphorylation of GRK5 correlated with GRK5 activity, as assessed by seryl phosphorylation of the PDGFRβ in purified protein preparations, in intact cells expressing a tyrosine-to-phenylalanine GRK5 mutant, and in GRK5 peptide phosphorylation assays. However, tyrosyl phosphorylation of GRK5 was not necessary for GRK5-mediated phosphorylation of the β2-adrenergic receptor, even though β2-adrenergic receptor activation promoted tyrosyl phosphorylation of GRK5 in smooth muscle cells. Phosphorylation of the PDGFRβ by GRK5 in smooth muscle cells or in purified protein preparations reduced PDGFRβ-mediated peptide phosphorylation. In contrast, phosphorylation of GRK5 by the PDGFRβ enhanced the Vmax of GRK5-mediated peptide phosphorylation, by 3.4-fold, without altering the GRK5 KM for peptide. We conclude that GRK5 tyrosyl phosphorylation is required for the activation of GRK5 by the PDGFRβ, but not by the β2-adrenergic receptor, and that by activating GRK5, the PDGFRβ triggers its own desensitization.
Repeated oestrus synchronisation of beef cows with progesterone implants and the effects of a gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonist at implant insertion

A group of 97 spring-calving beef cows were initially oestrus synchronised with controlled internal drug release (CIDR) intravaginal progesterone implants inserted for nine days and a prostaglandin injection on day 7. Approximately half the cows were given 10 μg buserelin when the implants were inserted, and they all received a single fixed-time artificial insemination (Al) 56 hours after the withdrawal of the implants. The overall pregnancy rate to the first synchronised Al was 55 per cent, the buserelin-treated cows having a pregnancy rate of 63 per cent compared with 47 per cent in the untreated cows (P>0.05). Sixteen days after the first synchronised Al all the cows were re-implanted with used CIDR implants which were removed five days later, and the cows received a second synchronised Al on days 23 to 24. Cows which received the second Al were implanted with new CIDR devices 16 days later and these were removed after five days and the non-pregnant cows received a third synchronised Al. The pregnancy rates to the second and third synchronised services were 74 per cent and 75 per cent, respectively.
Ultrasound-Guided Laser Ablation Using Multidirectional-Firing Fiber for Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: An Ex Vivo Study with Evaluation of Tumor Cell Viability.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate the viability of tumor cells after laser ablation for papillary thyroid carcinoma and to determine if the laser ablation procedure using multidirectional-firing fiber had a therapeutic effect. BACKGROUND DATA Many noninvasive techniques have been introduced for the treatment of thyroid cancer. Among them, the laser ablation technique has been proven its therapeutic effect for large benign thyroid nodules. MATERIALS AND METHODS Three patients who were diagnosed with papillary thyroid carcinoma using fine-needle aspiration cytology were enrolled. All of the selected tumors were >2 cm in size and there was no case of extrathyroidal extension. A laser fiber was inserted into the tumor by means of ultrasound guidance and ablation was performed for 3 min at 7 W of output power. The specimens were stained using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), and were evaluated by a pathologist. RESULTS The specimen showed three clearly distinct zones: zone 1, carbonized zone; zone 2, coagulated zone; and zone 3, normal thyroid tissue. No remaining thyroid tissue was visible in zone 1 after staining, because of complete necrosis of the tumor cells. Although thyroid tissue remained in zone 2, no viable tumor cells were detected using NADH staining. CONCLUSIONS It was found that laser ablation using multidirectional-firing fiber could be an effective treatment technique for papillary thyroid carcinoma. This technique enables not only direct cancer treatment with cell necrosis but also the securement of a tumor safety margin in a similar manner to surgery.
PRETERM INFANTS

In the past 50 years, only 7 studies evaluating demand feedings in preterm infants have been published. The studies employed a variety of research methods including nonexperimental, quasi-experimental, and experimental designs. The earliest demand feeding studies are difficult to interpret due to inadequate sample sizes and incomplete descriptions of methodology. Trials in the 1980s and early 1990s were better described; however, they suffered from designs that produced findings that likely were strongly related to unit, nurse, or infant-specific interactions with the treatment, making it unlikely that findings could be replicated in other settings. The most recent studies are better conceived and described. Overall, the pattern of findings across the past 50 years indicates that preterm infants who were fed on demand showed some clinical improvement when compared to those infants offered other feeding patterns. Demand-fed infants exhibited more hunger cues and had improved behavior state organization, shorter duration of hospitalization, and gained weight at the same rate or faster than infants not fed on demand. Although each of the studies reviewed had some methodologic weaknesses, the consistency of findings across differing researchers, settings, empirical indicators, and years supports the cautious contention that demand feeding might prove to be the feeding approach of choice for most healthy preterm infants. Further studies in this area are warranted to add to current knowledge regarding the safety and efficacy of feeding various preterm infant populations. Research to address subpopulation differences (i.e., infants with congenital heart disease or orofacial lesions) in timing, method, and approaches to preterm infant feeding care is also needed.
Role for gene looping in intron-mediated enhancement of transcription

Intron-containing genes are often transcribed more efficiently than nonintronic genes. The effect of introns on transcription of genes is an evolutionarily conserved feature, being exhibited by such diverse organisms as yeast, plants, flies, and mammals. The mechanism of intron-mediated transcriptional activation, however, is not entirely clear. To address this issue, we inserted an intron in INO1, which is a nonintronic gene, and deleted the intron from ASC1, which contains a natural intron. We then compared transcription of INO1 and ASC1 genes in the presence and absence of an intron. Transcription of both genes was significantly stimulated by the intron. The introns have a direct role in enhancing transcription of INO1 and ASC1 because there was a marked increase in nascent transcripts from these genes in the presence of an intron. Intron-mediated enhancement of transcription required a splicing competent intron. Interestingly, both INO1 and ASC1 were in a looped configuration when their genes contained an intron. Intron-dependent gene looping involved a physical interaction of the promoter and the terminator regions. In addition, the promoter region interacted with the 5′ splice site and the terminator with the 3′ splice site. Intron-mediated enhancement of transcription was completely abolished in the looping defective sua7-1 strain. No effect on splicing, however, was observed in sua7-1 strain. On the basis of these results, we propose a role for gene looping in intron-mediated transcriptional activation of genes in yeast.
Three cases of human herpesvirus‐6 latent infection: Integration of viral genome in peripheral blood mononuclear cell DNA

Saliva and peripheral blood mononuclear cells from three patients, two with lymphoproliferative disorders and one suffering from multiple sclerosis, were examined for the presence of human herpesvirus‐6 (HHV‐6) genome by using the polymerase chain reaction and Southern blot analysis. The search for anti‐HHV‐6 antibodies, carried out in the sera of the same cases by an immunofluorescence assay, was negative in two cases at the lowest dilution used (1:40). These three patients had a high number of HHV‐6 specific sequences in uncultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells, which are thought to be a normal site of viral latency although, in healthy individuals, the infected cells are extremely rare. In order to gain some insight into the state of the viral genome in this latent HHV‐6 infection, we used pulsed field gel electrophoresis to separate HHV‐6 DNA directly from HHV‐6 (strain GS) infected HSB‐2 cells and from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of these three patients. Our study showed the presence of intact viral genome, of the expected length of 170 kb, persisting as free extrachromosomal element in the HSB‐2 cells but not in patients' peripheral blood mononuclear cells. On the other hand, in strong contrast with the results obtained in infected HSB‐2 DNA, the restriction analysis of the three patients' peripheral blood mononuclear cell DNA showed fragments of molecular weight constantly higher than the 170 kb segment, indicating that the viral sequences are linked to high molecular weight cellular DNA. Our findings are consistent only with a latent infection in which HHV‐6 is integrated in vivo and suggest that pulsed field gel electrophoresis analysis is well worth using to evaluate the presence of integrated, intact, or fragmented viral genomes in HHV‐6 associated lymphoproliferative diseases and immune disorders. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Purification and sequence analysis of 4-methyl-5-nitrocatechol oxygenase from Burkholderia sp. strain DNT

4-Methyl-5-nitrocatechol (MNC) is an intermediate in the degradation of 2,4-dinitrotoluene by Burkholderia sp. strain DNT. In the presence of NADPH and oxygen, MNC monooxygenase catalyzes the removal of the nitro group from MNC to form 2-hydroxy-5-methylquinone. The gene (dntB) encoding MNC monooxygenase has been previously cloned and characterized. In order to examine the properties of MNC monooxygenase and to compare it with other enzymes, we sequenced the gene encoding the MNC monooxygenase and purified the enzyme from strain DNT. dntB was localized within a 2.2-kb ApaI DNA fragment. Sequence analysis of this fragment revealed an open reading frame of 1,644 bp with an N-terminal amino acid sequence identical to that of purified MNC monooxygenase from strain DNT. Comparison of the derived amino acid sequences with those of other genes showed that DntB contains the highly conserved ADP and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) binding motifs characteristic of flavoprotein hydroxylases. MNC monooxygenase was purified to homogeneity from strain DNT by anion exchange and gel filtration chromatography. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed a single protein with a molecular weight of 60,200, which is consistent with the size determined from the gene sequence. The native molecular weight determined by gel filtration was 65,000, which indicates that the native enzyme is a monomer. It used either NADH or NADPH as electron donors, and NADPH was the preferred cofactor. The purified enzyme contained 1 mol of FAD per mol of protein, which is also consistent with the detection of an FAD binding motif in the amino acid sequence of DntB. MNC monooxygenase has a narrow substrate specificity. MNC and 4-nitrocatechol are good substrates whereas 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol, 3-methyl-4-nitrocatechol, 4-nitrophenol, 3-nitrophenol, and 4-chlorocatechol were not. These studies suggest that MNC monooxygenase is a flavoprotein that shares some properties with previously studied nitrophenol oxygenases.
Decision-making in patients with advanced cancer compared with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Aim: Patients with advanced cancer need information about end-of-life treatment options in order to make informed decisions. Clinicians vary in the frequency with which they initiate these discussions. Patients and methods: As part of a long-term longitudinal study, patients with an expected 2-year survival of less than 50% who had advanced gastrointestinal or lung cancer or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) were interviewed. Each patient’s medical record was reviewed at enrollment and at 3 months for evidence of the discussion of patient wishes concerning ventilator support, artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH), resuscitation (DNR) and hospice care. A Kaplan–Meier analysis was also performed and 2-year survival calculated. Results: 60 cancer and 32 ALS patients were enrolled. ALS patients were more likely than cancer patients to have evidence of discussion about their wishes for ventilator support (31% vs 0%, p<0.001), ANH (38% vs 0%, p<0.001), DNR (25% vs 0%, p<0.001) and hospice care (22% vs 5%, p = 0.03). At 6 months, 91% of ALS patients were alive compared with 62% of cancer patients; at 2 years, 63% of ALS patients were alive compared with 23% of cancer patients (p<0.001). Conclusions: Cancer patients were less likely than ALS patients to have had documented advanced care planning discussions despite worse survival. This may reflect perceptions that ALS has a more predictable course, that advanced cancer has a greater number of treatment options, or differing views about hope. Nevertheless, cancer patients may be less adequately prepared for end-of-life decision-making.
Relationship between the number of life events and memory capacity in children

Stressful life events can result into declined memory performance at later age. One hypothesis suggests that stress affects the hippocampus, a brain area important for memory functioning. This study explored a potential relationship between the number of negative stressful life events and hippocampus-dependent declarative but not hippocampus-independent procedural memory performance in a community sample of 255 children, aged 6–12 years. The findings revealed that negative stressful life events were negatively related to verbal declarative memory, but not to nonverbal declarative and procedural memory. The memory impairments could not be accounted for by attention and sleep disturbances, and parenting characteristics as perceived by the child did not influence the vulnerability for the stress-related memory impairments. These findings provide further insight into the deleterious effects of negative stressful life events on learning in school-aged children.
Reduced thrombus formation in native blood of homozygous factor VII-deficient patients at high arterial wall shear rate.

Inhibition of thrombin formation in flowing native blood reduces thrombus formation on subendothelium, dacron, or collagen fibrils at arterial wall shear rates of 450 to 650 s-1. In the present study, we have investigated the role of low levels of factor VII (FVII) in thrombus formation on collagen fibrils at arterial wall shear rates of 650 s-1 (coronary arteries), 2,600 s-1 (mildly stenosed arteries), and 10,510 s-1 (severely stenosed arteries) in parallel-plate perfusion chambers. In the perfusion chamber with the highest wall shear rate, thrombus formation took place at the apex of an eccentric stenosis, which reduced the cross-sectional area of the blood flow channel by 80%, thus simulating thrombus formation at an atherosclerotic plaque rupture. Native blood from 21 healthy volunteers and 12 homozygous FVII-deficient patients was drawn by a pump directly from an antecubital vein over a surface of fibrillar collagen positioned in the respective perfusion chambers. The patients had FVII coagulant activities ranging from 1.3% to 4.5% and FVII antigen levels of 16% to 23% of normal. Immunoaffinity purification of the patients' FVII followed by electrophoresis (sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis [SDS-PAGE]) and immunoblotting showed a protein with similar molecular mass as normal FVII. In the perfusion studies, a reduction in thrombus volume of 54% of normal (P < .007) at 10,510 s-1 was observed. The deposition of fibrin on the thrombogenic surface and the plasma level of fibrinopeptide A (FPA) in blood samples collected distal to the perfusion chamber were concomitantly reduced (P < .002 and P < .04, respectively). The plasma FPA level was also reduced at 2,600 s-1 (P < .04), but not at 650 s-1. However, at the lower shear conditions, the thrombus volume and the fibrin deposition were within the ranges observed in normal blood. The platelet-collagen adhesion was not affected at any of the three shear conditions. Thus, low plasma levels of FVII result in significantly less formation of thrombin and fibrin in and around growing platelet masses at high shear condition. This may weaken the thrombus stability and reduce platelet recruitment, thereby lowering thrombus volume. In support of this theory, one patient with afibrinogenemia had an 83% reduction in thrombus volume at this high shear condition.
Smoking status, knowledge of health effects and attitudes towards tobacco control in South Africa.

OBJECTIVE To provide data on the South African adult population's smoking status, their knowledge of the health effects of tobacco and their attitudes towards tobacco control in South Africa. METHODOLOGY A national representative sample of 2,238 adult (> 18 years) South Africans was surveyed by means of an interviewer-administered questionnaire. RESULTS Thirty-four per cent of adult South Africans smoke (52% male, 17% female). There were notable differences in gender smoking rates for Indians (61% of men and only 7% of women smoke) and blacks (53% of men and 10% of women smoke) but not for coloureds (58% of men and 59% of women smoke). Provinces with the highest smoking rates are the Northern Cape (55%), Western Cape (48%) and North-West (46%). Forty-eight per cent of respondents reported that at least one household member smoked. The majority of the respondents (87%) acknowledged the harmful effects of direct smoking. Fifty-eight per cent were aware that cancer is associated with smoking but only 36% associated heart disease with smoking. Sixty per cent of the respondents have tried to quit at least once for reasons such as the protection of their own health, the expense of tobacco products and because of a medical doctor's advice. Confusion existed with regard to the effects of the cigarette constituents described on cigarette packages. Forty-two per cent of adults incorrectly indicated that nicotine causes cancer while 28% correctly indicated that it causes addiction, and 44% correctly indicated that condensate causes cancer. There is substantial support for a total ban of tobacco advertising on radio (61%), for local authorities to regulate smoking in public places (78%), for government assistance to farmers for tobacco crop replacement (53%) and for an increase in tobacco excise tax if the money is used for health purposes (50%). CONCLUSION The extremely high proportion of both male and female coloured smokers is a cause for concern and requires prompt action. Knowledge of the specific effects of tobacco in respect of active and passive smoking needs to be improved and this could be a first step towards facilitating behaviour change. The public support that exists for stronger measures against tobacco use, promotion, pricing and growing provides many opportunities for health promotion action.
An application of the CORER classifier on customer churn prediction

Acquiring new customers in any business is much more costly than trying to retain the existing ones. So, many prediction methods have been suggested to detect churning customers. In this paper, the CORER (Colonial cOmpetitive Rule-based classifiER) classification algorithm is brought to the attention of marketing researchers to enhance the prediction accuracy of existing churn management systems. CORER is new rule-based classifier which works based on Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA), a recently-proposed evolutionary optimization algorithm. Applied to the database of a telecommunication company, this classifier is found to remarkably improve accuracy in predicting churn in comparison with the most well-known techniques in the literature of the churn management, namely LOLIMOT, C5.0, neural networks and boosting classification trees. Our findings lead us to believe that the CORER classifier could cause to increase profit for the companies.
Application of Malliavin calculus to exact and approximate option pricing under stochastic volatility

The article is devoted to models of financial markets with stochastic volatility, which is defined by a functional of Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process or Cox-Ingersoll-Ross process. We study the question of exact price of European option. The form of the density function of the random variable, which expresses the average of the volatility over time to maturity is established using Malliavin calculus.The result allows calculate the price of the option with respect to minimum martingale measure when the Wiener process driving the evolution of asset price and the Wiener process, which defines volatility, are uncorrelated.
Towards better eye tracking in human robot interaction using an affordable active vision system

Knowing where a person is looking is an important parameter of every human-human interaction. Detecting a person's gaze could significantly improve the interaction capabilities of today's robotic agents. But many robots' visual systems are limited by data bandwidth and optical hardware. We propose a low-cost high-def pan/tilt/zoom active vision system that could significantly improve the robot's eye tracking capabilities. We tested the proposed system for improving mutual gaze detection in a human-robot interaction scenario and found significant results compared to systems without zoom capability.