Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of telehealth on use of secondary care and mortality: findings from the Whole System Demonstrator cluster randomised trial

Objective To assess the effect of home based telehealth interventions on the use of secondary healthcare and mortality. Design Pragmatic, multisite, cluster randomised trial comparing telehealth with usual care, using data from routine administrative datasets. General practice was the unit of randomisation. We allocated practices using a minimisation algorithm, and did analyses by intention to treat. Setting 179 general practices in three areas in England. Participants 3230 people with diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or heart failure recruited from practices between May 2008 and November 2009. Interventions Telehealth involved remote exchange of data between patients and healthcare professionals as part of patients’ diagnosis and management. Usual care reflected the range of services available in the trial sites, excluding telehealth. Main outcome measure Proportion of patients admitted to hospital during 12 month trial period. Results Patient characteristics were similar at baseline. Compared with controls, the intervention group had a lower admission proportion within 12 month follow-up (odds ratio 0.82, 95% confidence interval 0.70 to 0.97, P=0.017). Mortality at 12 months was also lower for intervention patients than for controls (4.6% v 8.3%; odds ratio 0.54, 0.39 to 0.75, P<0.001). These differences in admissions and mortality remained significant after adjustment. The mean number of emergency admissions per head also differed between groups (crude rates, intervention 0.54 v control 0.68); these changes were significant in unadjusted comparisons (incidence rate ratio 0.81, 0.65 to 1.00, P=0.046) and after adjusting for a predictive risk score, but not after adjusting for baseline characteristics. Length of hospital stay was shorter for intervention patients than for controls (mean bed days per head 4.87 v 5.68; geometric mean difference −0.64 days, −1.14 to −0.10, P=0.023, which remained significant after adjustment). Observed differences in other forms of hospital use, including notional costs, were not significant in general. Differences in emergency admissions were greatest at the beginning of the trial, during which we observed a particularly large increase for the control group. Conclusions Telehealth is associated with lower mortality and emergency admission rates. The reasons for the short term increases in admissions for the control group are not clear, but the trial recruitment processes could have had an effect. Trial registration number International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number Register ISRCTN43002091.
On the relation between seismic interferometry and the simultaneous‐source method

In seismic interferometry the response to a virtual source is created from responses to sequential transient or simultaneous noise sources. Most methods use crosscorrelation, but recently seismic interferometry by multidimensional deconvolution (MDD) has been proposed as well. In the simultaneous‐source method (also known as blended acquisition), overlapping responses to sources with small time delays are recorded. The crosstalk that occurs in imaging of simultaneous‐source data can be reduced by using phase‐encoded sources or simultaneous noise sources, by randomizing the time interval between the shots, or by inverting the blending operator. Seismic interferometry and the simultaneous‐source method are related. In this paper we make this relation explicit by deriving deblending as a form of seismic interferometry by MDD. Moreover, we discuss a deblending algorithm for blended data acquired at the surface.
The Role of the Exchange Rate in Monetary-Policy Rules

For a country that chooses not to "permanently" fix its exchange rate through a currency board, or a common currency, or some kind of dollarization, the only alternative monetary policy that can work well in the long run is one based on the trinity of (i) a flexible exchange rate, (ii) an inflation target, and (iii) a monetary policy rule. ' While not often put into this threepart format, the desirability of such a monetary policy in an open economy is, in my view, the clear implication of three corresponding strands of recent monetary research: (i) research on fixed-exchange-rates regimes, including the influential 1995 article "The Mirage of Fixed Exchange Rates" by Maurice Obstfeld and Kenneth Rogoff and the many analyses of the breakdown of fixed-exchange-rate regimes in the late 1990's; (ii) research on the practical success with inflation targeting by Ben Bernanke et al. (1999); and (iii) research on the benefits of simple monetary-policy rules (see e.g., Taylor, 1999a). This clear policy implication, however, does not end the debate about how exchange rates should be taken into account in formulating monetary policy. Even if one excludes capital controls and sterilized exchange-market intervention from consideration because they are not effective or attractive ways to de-link exchangerate movements from the domestic interest rate, a crucial question remains: "How should the instruments of monetary policy (the interest rate or a monetary aggregate) react to the exchange rate? Should policymakers avoid any reaction and focus instead on domestic indicators such as inflation and real GDP? Or is "the rule of thumb" that "a substantial appreciation of the real exchange rate . furnishes a prima facie case for relaxing monetary policy," as characterized by Obstfeld and Rogoff (1995, p. 93), a better monetary policy rule? Or perhaps policymakers should heed the Obstfeld-Rogoff warning that "substantial departures from PPP [purchasing-power parity], in the short run and even over decades" make such a policy reaction to the exchange rate undesirable. More generally, if one accepts the trinity concept of monetary policy in an open economy, then what is the role of the exchange rate in the monetarypolicy rule?
Enhanced Spatial Stability with Hilbert and Moore Treemaps

Treemaps are a well known and powerful space-filling visualisation method for displaying hierarchical data. Many alternative treemap algorithms have been proposed, often with the aim being to optimise performance across several criteria, including spatial stability to assist users in locating and monitoring items of interest. In this paper, we demonstrate that spatial stability is not fully captured by the commonly used "distance change” (DC) metric, and we introduce a new "location drift” (LD) metric to more fully capture spatial stability. An empirical study examines the validity and usefulness of the location drift metric, showing that it explains some effects on user performance that distance change does not. Next, we introduce "Hilbert” and "Moore” treemap algorithms, which are designed to achieve high spatial stability. We assess their performance in comparison to other treemaps, showing that Hilbert and Moore treemaps perform well across all stability metrics.
Effects of Stretch Shortening Cycle Exercise Fatigue on Stress Fracture Injury Risk During Landing

The purpose of this study was to examine changes in landing performance during fatigue that could result in increased stress fracture injury risk. Five participants performed nonfatigued and fatigued drop landings (0.60 m), while ground reaction force (GRF), electromyographic (EMG) activity, and kinematics were recorded. Fatigue was defined as a 5-20% reduction in vertical jumping performance. Single-subject analyses revealed that all participants were affected (p < .05) by fatigue. Post hoc comparisons revealed a group effect (p < .05) for selected variables. Participants landed with (a) less joint flexion at contact and used a greater range of motion, (b) greater GRF peaks and loading rates, and (c) less EMG activity. These changes were consistent with greater risk of stress fracture.
Association of managed care market share and health expenditures for fee-for-service Medicare patients.

CONTEXT Managed care has the potential to transform fundamentally the structure and functioning of the entire health care system, including the care provided to patients who are not enrolled in managed care plans. OBJECTIVE To determine whether increasing health maintenance organization (HMO) market share is associated with decreased expenditures for the care of patients covered by Medicare's traditional fee-for-service plan, a group cared for well outside the boundaries of managed care. DESIGN AND SETTING Data from the Health Care Financing Administration were used to compare expenditures for the care of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries for 802 market areas, representing the entire United States, for 1990 to 1994. These data were matched with data on system-wide (Medicare and non-Medicare) HMO market share in these areas. PATIENTS All fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries (1990-1994) except for those with end-stage renal disease. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Average fee-for-service expenditure per fee-for-service Medicare beneficiary by market area. RESULTS In a regression model, increases in system-wide HMO market share were associated with declines in both Part A and Part B fee-for-service expenditures per Medicare beneficiary (P<.001). Increases from 10% market share to 20% market share were associated with 2.0% decreases in Part A fee-for-service expenditures and 1.5% decreases in Part B fee-for-service expenditures. CONCLUSIONS Managed care can have widespread effects on the health care system. Health care for individuals who are not covered by managed care organizations can be influenced by the presence of managed care. Lower expenditures in areas with high HMO market shares may indicate that traditional Medicare beneficiaries in areas with high market shares received fewer or less intensive services than traditional Medicare beneficiaries in other areas.
Inverse-free Dual Neural Networks for Online Solution of Strictly Convex Quadratic Programming

In view of its fundamental role arising in numerous fields of science and engineering, the problem of solving quadratic programs (QP) has been investigated extensively for the past decades. One of the state-of-the-art recurrent neural network (RNN) solvers/models is dual neural network (DNN). The dual neural network is of simple piecewise-linear dynamics and has global exponential convergence to optimal solutions. However, such a dual neural network was originally designed to solve quadratic programs with coefficient matrix W being positive-definite, entailing the inverse of IV. Considering that W could be nondiagonal and/or time-varying, two neural-network solvers are presented for the online computation of the inverse or its related term. By combining such matrix-inversion neural networks with the dual neural network, we could thus have inverse-free neural computation for solving online strictly-convex quadratic-programming problems. The effectiveness of the inverse-free dual-neural-network approach is further substantiated by computer-simulation results.
MULTIPLE AND RARE VARIANT BRANCHES OF THE CELIAC TRUNK COMBINED WITH RETROPORTAL HEPATIC PROPER ARTERY: A CASE REPORT

Address for Correspondence: Dr. Tongluk Teerasarntipan, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, 1873 Rama IV Rd., Pathumwan, Bangkok, Thailand, 10330, Fax: +66-2-2564963 E-Mail: kulgnotb@hotmail.com Background: Understanding the variation patterns of the celiac trunk and its branches is necessary for the upper abdominal operations to prevent an unintentional injury to the variant structures. Purpose of the study: To point out the clinical importance of the variations in the vascular anatomical locations, especially when they coexisted with the variation in origin. Results: The common hepatic artery was not presented, as a result, the celiac trunk abnormally quadrifurcated into the left gastric, splenic, gastroduodenal and hepatic proper arteries. Variant arteries were further identified from these branches: the left gastric artery gave the accessory left hepatic artery, the replaced right gastric artery came off the gastroduodenal artery and the replaced posterior superior pancreaticoduodenal artery was originated from the hepatic proper artery. The hepatic proper artery was located posterior to the portal vein. The right and left terminal branches of the hepatic proper artery also ran behind their corresponding portal veins and hepatic ducts. Conclusion: This article demonstrates a cadaver having complexed multiple and rare variations of the celiac trunk and retroportal hepatic artery.
Application of the optimal minimization of the THD technique to the multilevel symmetrical inverters and study of its performance in comparison with the selective harmonic elimination technique

Many interesting modulation strategies reported in literature are suitable to control multilevel power converters which presents several advantages over the conventional two-level counterpart. Since each of themes have its proper advantages and disadvantages, these strategies can be chosen according to certain performance aspects, which are required or desirable. The general performance specifications are: reducing harmonic distortion, reducing power losses and speeding transient response. In which, the harmonic elimination method and the optimal minimization technique are very important for reducing the harmonic distortion. In order to know which what control techniques the harmonic performance can be greatly enhanced or substantially improved, a detailed comparison between these two latest techniques with interpretation of its simulation results is the focus of this work
Viral modulation of cellular RNA alternative splicing: A new key player in virus–host interactions?

Upon viral infection, a tug of war is triggered between host cells and viruses to maintain/gain control of vital cellular functions, the result of which will ultimately dictate the fate of the host cell. Among these essential cellular functions, alternative splicing (AS) is an important RNA maturation step that allows exons, or parts of exons, and introns to be retained in mature transcripts, thereby expanding proteome diversity and function. AS is widespread in higher eukaryotes, as it is estimated that nearly all genes in humans are alternatively spliced. Recent evidence has shown that upon infection by numerous viruses, the AS landscape of host‐cells is affected. In this review, we summarize recent advances in our understanding of how virus infection impacts the AS of cellular transcripts. We also present various molecular mechanisms allowing viruses to modulate cellular AS. Finally, the functional consequences of these changes in the RNA splicing signatures during virus–host interactions are discussed.
Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Measurement Variability with Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

Purpose To evaluate the effect of the scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) guided re-test mode on short- and long-term measurement variability of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness obtained by spectral domain-SLO optical coherence tomography (SD-SLO/OCT). Methods Seventy five healthy eyes were scanned 3 times per day (intra-session variability) by both the SLO guided re-test mode and the independent mode of SD-SLO/OCT. Subjects were scanned 3 times by both modes at visits within a 2-week interval (inter-session variability). For testing longitudinal variability, 3 separate exams were performed over 6 months by both modes. The coefficient of variation (CV), reproducibility coefficient (RC) and intraclass correlation coefficient of RNFL thickness were compared between the two modes. Results The intra-session RC and CV ranged from 5.4 to 12.9 microns and 1.76% to 5.72% when measured by independent mode and 5.4 to 12.5 microns and 1.75% to 5.58% by re-test mode, respectively. The inter-session RC and CV ranged from 5.8 to 13.3 microns and 1.89% to 5.78% by independent mode and 5.8 to 12.7 microns and 1.90% to 5.54% by re-test mode, respectively. Intra-session and inter-session variability measurements were not significantly different between the two modes. The longitudinal RC and CV ranged from 8.5 to 19.2 microns and 2.79% to 7.08% by independent mode and 7.5 to 14.4 microns and 2.33% to 6.22% by re-test mode, respectively. Longitudinal measurement variability was significantly lower when measured by the re-test mode compared to the independent mode (average, p = 0.011). Conclusions The SLO guided re-test mode for RNFL thickness measurement in SD-SLO/OCT employing a tracking system improved long-term reproducibility by reducing variability induced by inconsistent scan circle placement.
Using Fourier analyses to enhance IC testability

In this paper, we explore the potential of FFTs in digital IC tests. The effects of three parasite contact types are investigated. Results show that unappropriate logical values on output voltages are easily detected and that FFTs on supply current can make detectable undesired contacts causing additional delays. Application of the method to technologies with non small quiescent currents and to large ICs is also discussed.
Requirements Analyses Integrating Goals and Problem Analysis Techniques

One of the difficulties that goal-oriented requirements analyses encounters is that the efficiency of the goal refinement is based on the analysts’ subjective knowledge and experience. To improve the efficiency of the requirements elicitation process, engineers need approaches with more systemized analysis techniques. This paper integrates the goal-oriented requirements language i* with concepts from a structured problem analysis notation, problem frames (PF). The PF approach analyzes software design as a contextualized problem which has to respond to constraints imposed by the environment. The proposed approach is illustrated using the meeting scheduler exemplar. Results show that integration of the goal and the problem analysis enables simultaneous consideration of the designer’s subjective intentions and the physical environmental constraints.
Preference Ontologies based on Social Media for compensating the Cold Start Problem

Recommendation systems leverage future internet services to predict personalized recommendations for products, services, media entities or other offerings. Based on the research and development of the FIcontent 2 initiative, we introduce an approach to compensate Cold Start and Sparsity Problems by analyzing semantics of external textual data, in terms of comments from social networks as well as item reviews from product and rating services. Thereby sentiment analysis and semantic keyword extraction approaches are explained and evaluated by using preliminary implementations. The mined data is transferred into, so called, preference ontologies describing the users interest in automatic analyzed topics and subsequently mapped to the properties of items in order to calculate the associated recommendation value.
Signal Controller Design for Agent-Based Traffic Control System

The development of urban traffic control system asks for high performance and complex function of the signal controller at intersection. It causes increasing of cost and difficulty associated with operation, maintenance, upgrading and expansion of signal controller. In this paper, we introduce agent-based networked traffic control system which "control on demand". In this system, a traffic signal controller becomes an agent host where different agents reside at different times in response to different traffic condition. Producing, dispatching, migrating, replacing of control agents are processed in the high level regional traffic control center and global traffic operation center. In order to fulfill the requirements of agent-based traffic system, we designed a new type of signal controller. It is integrated with main control module, lamp control module, input module, voltage/current monitor module and failure detecting module. A traffic controller application-specific operating system (tcASOS) runs on the main control module and achieves effective, reliable real-time traffic signal control operation. The hardware-in-the-loop simulation of the signal controller shows that this agent-based traffic control system has better performance than traditional fixed time and actuated control systems.
Neurophysiological changes in demyelinating and axonal forms of acute experimental autoimmune neuritis in the Lewis rat

Myelin‐sensitized T‐ and B‐cells (lymph node cells) induced experimental autoimmune neuritis (EAN) in Lewis rats after passive transfer to naive recipients. After 6 days, all recipient rats developed tail paresis that progressed to limb paresis within 12–72 h. Progressive nerve conduction changes consistent with demyelination in the sciatic nerve (conduction block and prolongation of the distal motor latencies) and lumbar nerve roots (initial low F‐wave frequencies followed by later prolongation in F‐wave latencies) were observed during the disease. For comparison, adoptive transfer experimental autoimmune neuritis (AT‐EAN) of differing disease severity was induced by titrating the dose of P2‐specific T‐cells. In contrast to EAN induced by myelin‐sensitized T‐ and B‐cells, AT‐EAN was predominantly associated with rapid nerve conduction changes consistent with axonal dysfunction and degeneration. These findings demonstrate that distinct forms of EAN with different pathophysiological mechanisms are induced by the passive transfer of P2‐specific T‐cell lines or myelin‐specific T‐cells and B‐cells. The electrophysiological changes in EAN induced by myelin‐specific T‐ and B‐cells are very similar to those seen clinically during acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, whereas AT‐EAN has less resemblance to axonal forms of Guillain–Barré syndrome. Muscle Nerve 28: 344–352, 2003
Milk intake, height and body mass index in preschool children

Objectives To evaluate links between the volume of milk consumed and weight and height status in children aged 4 and 5 years. Design We analysed data from 8950 children followed up as part of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey, Birth cohort, a nationally representative cohort of children. We used linear and logistic regression to assess associations of daily servings of milk intake at age 4 years with z-scores of body mass index (BMI), height and weight-for-height at 4 and 5 years, adjusted for sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status and type of milk consumed. Results Among children who drank milk at age 4 years, higher milk consumption was associated with higher z-scores of BMI, height and weight-for-height at 4 years (all p<0.05). This corresponded to differences between children drinking <1 and ≥4 milk servings daily of approximately 1 cm in height and 0.15 kg in weight. By age 5 years, only the association with height remained significant (p<0.001). At 4 years, children drinking ≥3 servings of milk daily were more likely to be overweight/obese (BMI≥85th percentile) than those drinking 0.5–2 servings of milk daily (adjusted OR 1.16 (95% CI 1.02 to 1.32) p=0.02). Conclusions In a cohort of children at age 4 years, the volume of milk consumed was associated with higher weight status and taller stature, while at 5 years, higher milk consumption continued to be associated with taller stature. Given higher odds of overweight/obesity with milk consumption ≥3 servings daily, this study supports current American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations that pre-school children consume two milk servings daily.