Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictors of patient satisfaction in an emergency care centre in central Saudi Arabia: a prospective study

Aim This study aimed to (i) assess the level of patient satisfaction and its association with different sociodemographic and healthcare characteristics in an emergency care centre (ECC) in Saudi Arabia and (ii) to identify the predictors of patients' satisfaction. Methods A prospective cohort study of 390 adult patients with Canadian triage category III and IV who visited ECC at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between 1 July and end of September 2011 was conducted. All patients were followed up from the time of arrival at the front desk of ECC until being seen by a doctor, and were then interviewed. Patient satisfaction was measured using a previously validated interview-questionnaire, within two domains: clarity of medical information and relationship with staff. Patient perception of health status after as compared with before the visit, and overall life satisfaction were also measured. Data on patient characteristics and healthcare characteristics were collected. Multiple linear regression analysis was used, and significance was considered at p≤0.05. Results One-third (32.8%) of patients showed high level of overall satisfaction and 26.7% were unsatisfied, with percentage mean score of 70.36% (17.40), reflecting moderate satisfaction. After adjusting for all potential confounders, lower satisfaction with the ED visit was significantly associated with male gender (p<0.001), long waiting time (p=0.032) and low perceived health status compared with status at admission (p<0.001). Overall life satisfaction was not a significant predictor of patient satisfaction. Conclusions An appreciation of waiting time as the only significant modifiable risk factor of patient satisfaction is essential to improve the healthcare services, especially at emergency settings.
Operator-based nonlinear feedback control design using robust right coprime factorization

In this note, robust stabilization and tracking performance of operator based nonlinear feedback control systems are studied by using robust right coprime factorization. Specifically, a new condition of robust right coprime factorization of nonlinear systems with unknown bounded perturbations is derived. Using the new condition, a broader class of nonlinear plants can be controlled robustly. When the spaces of the nonlinear plant output and the reference input are different, a space change filter is designed, and in this case this note considers tracking controller design using the exponential iteration theorem.
Dietary products used in infants for treatment and prevention of food allergy.

For more than 50 years, many children with food protein allergies and other forms of dietary protein intolerance have been treated successfully with protein hydrolysates with highly reduced allergenicity and, more recently, also with products based on amino acid mixtures. Strategies for the prevention of allergy have been proposed, including the use of products with extensively reduced allergenicity. Products designed to have a moderately reduced allergenicity have also been proposed and marketed in Europe as hypoallergenic formulas. The European Society for Paediatric Allergology and Clinical Immunology (ESPACI) and the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) have commented previously on these issues,1 2 and the Commission of the European Union has issued a regulation for the requirements of infant formulas with reduced allergenicity or reduced antigenicity.3 This paper comments on the current developments and unresolved issues in the dietary treatment and prevention of food allergy in infancy to help inform paediatricians and other health care professionals, as well as manufacturers of infant foods. Adverse reactions to foods are a problem, particularly in infancy and early childhood, and can present with a wide spectrum of clinical reactions such as cutaneous, gastrointestinal, respiratory, or other symptoms. Reproducible adverse reactions to food(s) can be the result of one or more immune mechanism(s) or they can be non-immunologically mediated. Immunologically mediated reactions, which are often immediate IgE mediated reactions, are defined as food protein allergy. Non-immunologically mediated reactions can be divided into enzymatic or transport defects (for example, lactase deficiency, or glucose/galactose malabsorption), pharmacological or other (undefined) reactions.2 4 The pattern and threshold of adverse reactions to foods varies. None of the symptoms related to immunologically or non- immunologically mediated adverse reactions to foods are pathognomonic, and no single laboratory test is diagnostic of food allergy. Therefore, the diagnosis …
Selecting the appropriate outcome in paediatric physical therapy: how individual treatment goals of children with cerebral palsy are reflected in GMFM-88 and PEDI.

OBJECTIVE To assess to what extent individual physical therapy treatment goals for children with cerebral palsy are reflected in 2 standardized measures: the GMFM-88 and the PEDI. SUBJECTS A total of 36 paediatric physical therapists working in primary healthcare with children with cerebral palsy in their caseload. METHODS The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health was used as a measure to link individual treatment goals to the GMFM-88 and the PEDI. RESULTS Sixty percent of the treatment goals were covered by the 2 measures. Twenty-seven percent and 21% of the goals were reflected in the GMFM-88 and the PEDI, respectively; 12% of the goals were reflected in both instruments. Another 26% of the treatment goals appeared to be partly covered (21% in PEDI and 5% in GMFM-88). Fourteen percent of the goals were not covered by the 2 measures. CONCLUSION Individual goals set in a physical therapy practice for children with cerebral palsy can be linked, to a large extent, to items and activities of 2 standardized measures.
Offer and Software Diffusion : The Monopolist Case

An interesting phenomenon often observed is the availability of free software. The benefits resulting from network externality have been discussed in the related literature. However, the effect of a free software offer on new software diffusion has not been formally analyzed. We show in this study that even if other benefits do not exist, a software firm can still benefit from giving away fully functional software at the beginning period of the marketing process. This is due to the accelerated diffusion process and subsequently the increased NPV of future cash flows. The analysis is based on the well-known Bass diffusion model.
Interaction between prosody and intelligibility

In the lead article, Peppé (2009) provides a clear and detailed overview of prosody as it relates to the field of speech-language pathology, an often marginalized and misunderstood subject. Peppé makes a convincing case as to why speech-language pathologists should take notice of atypical prosody in the speech of their clients and provides an overview of current methods of documentation. Peppé also briefly notes that prosody can affect intelligibility and the purpose of this article is to expand upon this point. This article discusses current research on the effect of prosody on intelligibility in the speech of deaf individuals and individuals with neurological disorders. Research findings on acoustic dimensions of prosody and intelligibility are also examined. Finally, this article presents a case study of a child with highly unintelligible speech due to multiple articulatory errors. The child's appropriate use of intonation is examined in several examples as a possible factor that aids intelligibility. Based on the evidence provided in this case study, it is argued that further research is needed in order to determine what degree prosodic cues facilitate the intelligibility of disordered speech.
Target tracking in collaborative sensor networks by using a decentralized leader-based scheme

In this paper, the problem of fully-decentralized data fusion is addressed for tracking a target with nonlinear motion model. The problem is solved by applying a fully-decentralized estimation algorithm based on the extended information filter. We propose the neighbor selection and information selection algorithms for sensor selection based on their closeness to the estimated target position and their information contribution, respectively. Simulation results show that compared to the DEIF algorithm we obtain an analogous response with less consumption of energy and computations.
Robots can be perceived as goal-oriented agents

Understanding the goals of others is fundamental for any kind of interpersonal interaction and collaboration. From a neurocognitive perspective, intention understanding has been proposed to depend on an involvement of the observer’s motor system in the prediction of the observed actions (Nystrom et al. 2011; Rizzolatti & Sinigaglia 2010; Southgate et al. 2009). An open question is if a similar understanding of the goal mediated by motor resonance can occur not only between humans, but also for humanoid robots. In this study we investigated whether goal-oriented robotic actions can induce motor resonance by measuring the appearance of anticipatory gaze shifts to the goal during action observation. Our results indicate a similar implicit processing of humans’ and robots’ actions and propose to use anticipatory gaze behaviour as a tool for the evaluation of human-robot interactions. Keywords: Humanoid robot; motor resonance; anticipation; proactive gaze; action understanding
Dose-finding and pharmacokinetic study of an all-oral combination regimen of oral vinorelbine and capecitabine for patients with metastatic breast cancer.

PURPOSE A phase I study was performed to determine the maximal tolerated dose, recommended doses (RDs), safety and efficacy of oral vinorelbine when combined with capecitabine in an all-oral chemotherapy regimen in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC), with pharmacokinetic blood sampling to investigate potential drug-drug interactions. PATIENTS AND METHODS Forty-four patients with MBC received as first- or second-line chemotherapy, oral vinorelbine at a dose of 60 or 80 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8 (and 15) with escalating doses of capecitabine from 1650 to 2500 mg/m2/day days 1-14 every 3 or 4 weeks. Three schedules were tested: day 1, day 8 and weekly regimens of oral vinorelbine with a 14-day course of capecitabine every 3 weeks; and a days 1 and 8 regimen of oral vinorelbine with a 14-day course of capecitabine every 4 weeks. RESULTS With oral vinorelbine at 60 mg/m2, the RDs were established as oral vinorelbine 60 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8 plus capecitabine 2250 mg/m2/day days 1-14 and oral vinorelbine 60 mg/m2/week plus capecitabine 2000 mg/m2/day days 1-14. With oral vinorelbine at 80 mg/m2, the RD was oral vinorelbine 80 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8 plus capecitabine 2000 mg/m2/day days 1-14. Neutropenia was the main dose-limiting toxicity of the combination; it was reported in 40 patients (90.9%), with grade 3 in 14 patients (31.8%) and 6.2% of cycles, and grade 4 in 12 patients (27.3%) and 4.3% of cycles. Complications were rare with only three patients experiencing febrile neutropenia (one episode each). The most frequent non-haematological toxicity was gastrointestinal; however, the incidence of grade 3 was low, with no episode of grade 4. Hand-foot syndrome was reported in 14 patients (31.8%) and 22.6% of cycles, with grade 2 in two patients (4.5%) and 1.2% of cycles (two episodes each). No episode of grade 3 was observed. Objective responses were reported in 18 patients (three complete responses and 15 partial responses), yielding a response rate of 40.9% in the intention-to-treat population according to the investigator assessment. Results from the pharmacokinetic study demonstrated the absence of mutual pharmacokinetic interactions when both drugs were co-administered. CONCLUSIONS The combination of oral vinorelbine and capecitabine is safe and easy to administer in an outpatient setting. This all-oral combination chemotherapy may offer a good alternative to the intravenous route for patients with MBC. Based on these promising results, a phase II study has started using oral vinorelbine 60 mg/m2/week with capecitabine 2000 mg/m2/day days 1-14 every 3 weeks as first-line chemotherapy in patients with MBC.
Self‐reflection and self‐practice in training of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: an overview

The present paper deals with a developing training element in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), the self-practice of therapeutic techniques and the self-exploration of the person of the therapist. Initially, the current status of this training element in CBT is discussed, and a short note on its terminology is presented. Then an overview of the most important objectives of self-practice and self-reflection in CBT, and the concepts and methods of practice of this element is given. The concepts focus on two major aims, the self-exploration of the person of the therapist within and beyond his or her therapeutic practice, and the self-application of therapeutic techniques (= self-practice). In the second part of the paper empirical studies related to the outcome of self-reflection and self-practice on the development of the therapist and her or his therapeutic practice are reviewed. The few empirical studies show that trainees experience in their own view substantial professional and personal gains from this training tool, with the professional impact being more important than the personal one. The most important outcomes evaluated by subjective data from the trainees are improvements in self-insight and self-awareness and a better understanding of the therapist's role and the therapeutic change process. Additionally, a better understanding of CBT methods and of general therapeutic skills, such as empathy and role-taking-competencies, are reported by the trainees. The paper comes to the conclusion that self-exploration and self-practice are important components of CBT training. Consequences and recommendations for its integration into training courses for CBT are discussed as well as the necessity for more research in this area. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Enzymatic activity of poliovirus RNA polymerase mutants with single amino acid changes in the conserved YGDD amino acid motif

RNA-dependent RNA polymerases contain a highly conserved region of amino acids with a core segment composed of the amino acids YGDD which have been hypothesized to be at or near the catalytic active site of the molecule. Six mutations in this conserved YGDD region of the poliovirus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase were made by using oligonucleotide site-directed DNA mutagenesis of the poliovirus cDNA to substitute A, C, M, P, S, or V for the amino acid G. The mutant polymerase genes were expressed in Escherichia coli, and the purified RNA polymerases were tested for in vitro enzyme activity. Two of the mutant RNA polymerases (those in which the glycine residue was replaced with alanine or serine) exhibited in vitro enzymatic activity ranging from 5 to 20% of wild-type activity, while the remaining mutant RNA polymerases were inactive. Alterations in the in vitro reaction conditions by modification of temperature, metal ion concentration, or pH resulted in no significant differences in the activities of the mutant RNA polymerases relative to that of the wild-type enzyme. An antipeptide antibody directed against the wild-type core amino acid segment containing the YGDD region of the poliovirus polymerase reacted with the wild-type recombinant RNA polymerase and to a limited extent with the two enzymatically active mutant polymerases; the antipeptide antibody did not react with the mutant RNA polymerases which did not have in vitro enzyme activity. These results are discussed in the context of secondary-structure predictions for the core segment containing the conserved YGDD amino acids in the poliovirus RNA polymerase.
A simple model from a powerful framework that spans levels of analysis

Abstract The commentaries reflect three core themes that pertain not just to our theory, but to the enterprise of connectionist modeling more generally. The first concerns the relationship between a cognitive theory and an implemented computer model. Specifically, how does one determine, when a model departs from the theory it exemplifies, whether the departure is a useful simplification or a critical flaw? We argue that the answer to this question depends partially upon the model's intended function, and we suggest that connectionist models have important functions beyond the commonly accepted goals of fitting data and making predictions. The second theme concerns perceived in-principle limitations of the connectionist approach to cognition, and the specific concerns these perceived limitations raise for our theory. We argue that the approach is not in fact limited in the ways our critics suggest. One common misconception, that connectionist models cannot address abstract or relational structure, is corrected through new simulations showing directly that such structure can be captured. The third theme concerns the relationship between parallel distributed processing (PDP) models and structured probabilistic approaches. In this case we argue that there the difference between the approaches is not merely one of levels. Our PDP approach differs from structured statistical approaches at all of Marr's levels, including the characterization of the goals of cognitive computations, and of the representations and algorithms used.
Validation Study of the Siriraj Stroke Score in African Nigerians and Evaluation of the Discriminant Values of Its Parameters: A Preliminary Prospective CT Scan Study

Background and Purpose— CT scanning is important to identify stroke pathology and exclude mimics. Its poor availability in our environment makes the search for simple, reliable clinical-score imperative. This study aims to validate the Siriraj Stroke score (SSS) and determine the discriminant values of its parameters in the black population of African-Nigerians. Methods— A prospective multicenter study was carried out on patients that presented with stroke and had brain CT scan done within 14 days of onset. An interviewer structured questionnaire was administered and SSS computed. The stroke-type was classified and compared with CT diagnosis. Data were analyzed using Epi-info-2002. Results— 1122 patients presented with clinical features of stroke, of which only 101 (9%) could afford the cost of CT scan. Of these, 90 had CT-scan features consistent with acute stroke, 5 had cortical atrophy and 1 was normal. Thus, 96 patients were analyzed, of which 68 (71%) had cerebral ischemia and 28 (29%) had intracerebral hemorrhage. The 6 patients with no visible infarct on CT were regarded as cerebral infarction. The correlation between SSS, headache, vomiting, loss-of-consciousness and CT diagnosis achieved statistical significance, whereas atheroma markers and diastolic blood pressure did not. The SSS has an overall predictive accuracy of 80%. Conclusions— This preliminary study has shown that only 9% of our hospital stroke population had benefit of CT scan. The limited number of patients studied and their potential lack of representativeness, represent a funding issue to properly establish the performance of clinical scoring systems and assist in descriptive epidemiology of hospital and community-based stroke studies in resource-poor settings. However, in this study, the SSS diagnosis correlates significantly with CT diagnosis.
Pourquoi les enseignants quittent-ils leur école ? Revue de la littérature scientifique relative au turnover des enseignants

Cette note de synthese vise a apprehender pourquoi certains enseignants souhaitent ou decident de quitter leur lieu de travail, que ce soit pour se reorienter professionnellement ou pour exercer leur metier dans un autre etablissement. Elle centre donc l’analyse de la mobilite professionnelle enseignante sur les etablissements, en essayant de comprendre pourquoi certains sont plus exposes que d’autres au turnover des enseignants. Elle montre qu’au niveau individuel, des variables objectives telles que l’anciennete, la formation initiale, la discipline enseignee et les caracteristiques sociodemographiques des enseignants influencent les taux de turnover, mais aussi que des facteurs individuels plus subjectifs comme la satisfaction professionnelle et l’engagement organisationnel representent des elements favorables au maintien du personnel dans la profession et dans l’etablissement. Enfin, elle fait apparaitre que la composition sociale, ethnique et academique des etablissements ainsi que leurs caracteristiques organisationnelles sont egalement liees au turnover.
A Low-Power High-Dynamic-Range Receiver System for In-Probe 3-D Ultrasonic Imaging

In this paper, a dual-mode low-power, high dynamic-range receiver circuit is designed for the interface with a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer. The proposed ultrasound receiver chip enables the development of an in-probe digital beamforming imaging system. The flexibility of having two operation modes offers a high dynamic range with minimum power sacrifice. A prototype of the chip containing one receive channel, with one variable transimpedance amplifier (TIA) and one analog to digital converter (ADC) circuit is implemented. Combining variable gain TIA functionality with ADC gain settings achieves an enhanced overall high dynamic range, while low power dissipation is maintained. The chip is designed and fabricated in a 65 nm standard CMOS process technology. The test chip occupies an area of 76<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}\; \times$</tex-math></inline-formula> 170 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$</tex-math></inline-formula>. A total average power range of 60–240 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$</tex-math></inline-formula> for a sampling frequency of 30 MHz, and a center frequency of 5 MHz is measured. An instantaneous dynamic range of 50.5 dB with an overall dynamic range of 72 dB is obtained from the receiver circuit.
Aggregate G-buffer anti-aliasing

We present Aggregate G-Buffer Anti-Aliasing (AGAA), a new technique for efficient anti-aliased deferred rendering of complex geometry using modern graphics hardware. In geometrically complex situations, where many surfaces intersect a pixel, current rendering systems shade each contributing surface at least once per pixel. As the sample density and geometric complexity increase, the shading cost becomes prohibitive for real-time rendering. Under deferred shading, so does the required framebuffer memory. AGAA uses the rasterization pipeline to generate a compact, pre-filtered geometric representation inside each pixel. We then shade this at a fixed rate, independent of geometric complexity. By decoupling shading rate from geometric sampling rate, the algorithm reduces the storage and bandwidth costs of a geometry buffer, and allows scaling to high visibility sampling rates for anti-aliasing. AGAA with 2 aggregate surfaces per-pixel generates results comparable to 8x MSAA, but requires 30% less memory (45% savings for 16x MSAA), and is up to 1.3x faster.