Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of a clinical trial alert system on physician participation in trial recruitment.

BACKGROUND Failure to recruit a sufficient number of eligible subjects in a timely manner represents a major impediment to the success of clinical trials. Physician participation is vital to trial recruitment but is often limited. METHODS After 12 months of traditional recruitment to a clinical trial, we activated our electronic health record (EHR)-based clinical trial alert (CTA) system in selected outpatient clinics of a large, US academic health care system. When a patient's EHR data met selected trial criteria during the subsequent 4-month intervention period, the CTA prompted physician consideration of the patient's eligibility and facilitated secure messaging to the trial's coordinator. Subjects were the 114 physicians practicing at selected EHR-equipped clinics throughout our study. We compared differences in the number of physicians participating in recruitment and their recruitment rates before and after CTA activation. RESULTS The CTA intervention was associated with significant increases in the number of physicians generating referrals (5 before and 42 after; P < .001) and enrollments (5 before and 11 after; P = .03), a 10-fold increase in those physicians' referral rate (5.7/mo before and 59.5/mo after; rate ratio, 10.44; 95% confidence interval, 7.98-13.68; P<.001), and a doubling of their enrollment rate (2.9/mo before and 6.0/mo after; rate ratio, 2.06; 95% confidence interval, 1.22-3.46; P = .007). CONCLUSIONS Use of an EHR-based CTA led to significant increases in physicians' participation in and recruitment rates to an ongoing clinical trial. Given the trend toward the EHR implementation in health care centers engaged in clinical research, this approach may represent a much-needed solution to the common problem of inadequate trial recruitment.
Insulin-like growth factor-I induces epithelial to mesenchymal transition via GSK-3β and ZEB2 in the BGC-823 gastric cancer cell line

Metastasis is the most common cause of mortality in patients with gastric cancer. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which may be stimulated by insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) is involved in the metastasis of numerous tumors; however, the molecular mechanism by which IGF-I may induce tumor cell EMT remains to be elucidated in gastric cancer. The present study aimed to investigate the induction of EMT in BGC-823 gastric cancer cells. It was identified that IGF-I induced EMT by upregulating the levels of ZEB2 transcription factor, and this was dependent on the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling pathway in these cells. In addition, glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK-3β), an intracellular downstream effector of PI3K/Akt, sustained the epithelial phenotype by repressing ZEB2 expression and the subsequent inhibition of EMT induced by IGF-I, suggesting the involvement of a potential PI3K/Akt-GSK-3β-ZEB2 signaling pathway in IGF-I-induced EMT in gastric cancer BGC-823 cells. Overall, the results of the present study suggest that IGF-I induced EMT by the activation of a PI3K/Akt-GSK-3β-ZEB2 signaling pathway in gastric cancer BGC-823 cells. Therefore, this study may provide more useful information regarding the mechanism of gastric cancer metastasis.
The Bases of Crown Gall Tumorigenesis

The nine decades since Smith and Townsend demonstrated that Agrobacterium tumefaciens causes plant tumors (95) have been marked by a series of surprises. Among the most important of these was the report in 1958 that these tumors could be excised and propagated in vitro without exogenous plant hormones (7). Equally important were a series of reports beginning about the same time that tumors released compounds that agrobacteria could use as nutrients (24). Perhaps the most exciting discoveries, reported in the 1970s and 1980s, were that tumorigenesis required the transfer of fragments of oncogenic DNA to infected plant cells (10), that this process evolved from a conjugal transfer system (99), and that the genes that direct this process are expressed in response to host-released chemical signals (47). This DNA transfer process has become a cornerstone of plant molecular genetics. The genus Agrobacterium also has provided excellent models for several aspects of host-pathogen interactions, including intercellular transport of macromolecules (11), bacterial detection of host organisms (47), targeting of proteins to plant cell nuclei (3), and interbacterial chemical signaling via autoinducer-type pheromones (120).
The role of spiritual leadership in reducing healthcare worker burnout

ABSTRACT Healthcare workers are especially at risk for burnout because of increased efficiency demands, reduced operations budgets, expedited turnaround times, and the consequences associated with patient errors. They also experience a number of negative personal and organizational outcomes from burnout, such as psychological distress, poor health, negative work attitudes, work conflict, absenteeism, turnover, job dissatisfaction, and medical errors, all of which have the potential to negatively affect the quality of healthcare. However, to date no empirical studies examined the influence of spiritual leadership on burnout in medical laboratories, whose workers are especially at risk for burnout. This study explores the extent to which spiritual leadership reduces burnout among medical laboratory personnel while positively influencing organizational commitment, work unit productivity, and employee life satisfaction. Results revealed spiritual leadership exhibited both direct and mediating effects on study outcomes. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.
Making ends meet in financial scarcity in old age

The purpose of this paper is to explore qualitatively how older people (aged 69–85 years) living in relative poverty experience their daily life and how they make ends meet (N = 16). The empirical analysis shows that despite deprivations, the interviewees are mostly satisfied, and in order to analytically understand this satisfaction I draw on three individual and structural aspects: (1) The Danish welfare state ensures the interviewees’ basic ontological safety. (2) As the interviewees lived in financial scarcity during other phases of their lives, they are familiar with being thrifty, and they have a practical sense of making ends meet. (3) Although none of the interviewees had saved up for their retirement, some had saved up social capital, which enables them to modify or take a break from financial scarcity. Thus, although the interviewees’ financial capabilities are similar, their actual daily lives are very different from each other.
Design spaces and niche spaces of believable social robots

This paper discusses the design space of believable social robots. We synthesise ideas and concepts from areas as diverse as comics design and rehabilitation robotics. First, we revisit the work of the Japanese researcher Masahiro Mori in the context of recent developments in social robots. Next, we discuss work in the arts into comics design, an area which has dealt for decades with the problem of creating believable characters. Finally, in order to illustrate some of the important issues involved we focus on a particular application area: the use of interactive robots in autism therapy, work that is carried out in the Aurora project. We discuss design issues of social robots in the context of 'design spaces' and 'niche spaces', concepts that have been defined originally for intelligent agent architectures but which, we propose, can be highly valuable for social robotics design. This paper is meant to open up a discussion towards a systematic exploration of design spaces and niche spaces of social robots.
Characterizing Active Data Sharing in Threaded Applications Using Shared Footprint

Footprint is one of the most intuitive metrics in measuring locality and the memory behavior of programs. Much of the footprint research has been done on workloads consisting of independent sequential applications. For threaded applications, however, the traditional metric of footprint is inadequate since it does not directly measure data sharing. This paper proposes two new metrics called shared footprint and sharing ratio to capture the amount of active data sharing in a threaded execution. It also presents an empirical characterization of the data sharing behaviors using these metrics on the PARSEC Benchmark Suite. Based on the initial results, this paper discusses possible uses of the new metrics in program tuning and optimization for threaded applications on multicore processors.
Dendrosomatic voltage and charge transfer in rat neocortical pyramidal cells in vitro.

Most excitatory synapses on neocortical pyramidal cells are located on dendrites, which are endowed with a variety of active conductances. The main origin for action potentials is thought to be at the initial segment of the axon, although local regenerative activity can be initiated in the dendrites. The transfer characteristics of synaptic voltage and charge along the dendrite to the soma remains largely unknown, although this is an essential determinant of neural input-output transformations. Here we perform dual whole-cell recordings from layer V pyramidal cells in slices from somatosensory cortex of juvenile rats. Steady-state and sinusoidal current injections are applied to characterize the voltage transfer characteristics of the apical dendrite under resting conditions. Furthermore, dendrosomatic charge and voltage transfer are determined by mimicking synapses via dynamic current-clamping. We find that around rest, the dendrite behaves like a linear cable. The cutoff frequency for somatopetal current transfer is around 4 Hz, i.e., synaptic inputs are heavily low-pass filtered. In agreement with linearity, transfer resistances are reciprocal in opposite directions, and the centroids of the synaptic time course are on the order of the membrane time constant. Transfer of excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) charge, but not peak amplitude, is positively correlated with membrane potential. We conclude that the integrative properties of dendrites in infragranular neocortical pyramidal cells appear to be linear near resting membrane potential. However, at polarized potentials charge transferred is voltage-dependent with a loss of charge at hyperpolarized and a gain of charge at depolarized potentials.
A Survey On Image Segmentation Using Decision Fusion Method

Neonatal brain MRI segmentation is challenging due to the poor image quality. Existing population atlases used for guiding segmentation are usually constructed by averaging all images in a population with no preference. However, such approaches diminish the important local inter-subject structural variability. Tissue segmentation of neonatal brain MR images remains challenging because of the insufficient image quality due to the properties of developing tissues. Among various brain tissue segmentation algorithms, atlas-based brain image segmentation can potentially achieve good segmentation results on neonatal brain images. Atlas-based segmentation approaches have been widely used for guiding brain tissue segmentation. Existing brain atlases are usually constructed by equally averaging presegmented images in a population. However, such approaches diminish local inter-subject structural variability and thus lead to lower segmentation guidance capability. To deal with this problem, we propose a multi-region-multi-reference framework for atlas-based neonatal brain
Principles of Good Practice: For Student Affairs

• Engages students in active learning. • Helps students develop coherent values and ethical standards. • Sets and communicates high expectations for student learning. • Uses systematic inquiry to improve student and institutional performance. • Uses resources effectively to achieve institutional missions and goals. • Forges educational partnerships that advance student learning. • Builds supportive and inclusive communities.
The Design and Application of an Automatic Course Generation System for Large-Scale Education

In China, the number of online learners who attend formal education has quadrupled in the last 5 years to 8.2 millions until the end of 2008. How can online teachers build and update web-courses for such a large numbers of online students – courses that ideally respect the different requirements of the students? In this paper we describe an automatic course generation System (ACGS) developed at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). In this ACGS, teachers can build web-based courses according to their own instructional plan and publish the web-based courses without requiring technological support. Teachers can also update the web-courses whenever the instructional objective changes. The web-course learning environment generated from this system takes into account pedagogical scenarios. The ease of use of our system is illustrated by its quickly increasing number of users. About 50 teachers in the SJTU School of Continuing Education (SOCE-SJTU) have developed 45 web-courses in only two months. These 45 web-courses have been provided to about 5800 online learners in the last 2009 autumn semester alone.
Improving reconstruction of man-made objects from sensor images by machine learning

In this paper we present a new approach for the acquisition and analysis of background knowledge which is used for 3D reconstruction of man-made objects -- in this case buildings. Buildings can be easily represented as parameterized graphs from which p-subisomorphic graphs will be computed. P-graphs will be defined and an upper bound complexity estimation of the computation of p-subisomorphims will be given. In order to reduce search space we will discuss several pruning mechanisms. Background knowledge requires a classification in order to receive a probability distribution which will serve as a priori knowledge for 3D building reconstruction. Therefore, we will apply an alternative view of nearest- neighbor classification to measured knowledge in order to learn based on a complete seed and a noise model a distribution of this knowledge. An application of an extensive scene consisting of 1846 building cluster which are represented as p-graphs in order to estimate a probability distribution of corner nodes demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach. An evaluation using the information coding theory determines the information gain which is provided by the estimated distribution in comparison with no available a priori knowledge.
Fatores de Desempenho e Consumo de Entretenimento de Videos em Streaming

O objetivo deste estudo foi identificar e analisar os fatores que tem relacao direta e positiva com a intencao de uso de plataformas de streaming de videos pagas, e com o consumo de entretenimento nestas plataformas. Para isso, foi realizada uma pesquisa quantitativa por meio de um survey online que obteve 207 respondentes validos. Os dados coletados foram analisados estatisticamente com os softwares SPSS e SmartPLS. Concluiu-se que o consumo de entretenimento audiovisual foi desviado das redes de televisao para as plataformas streaming . Os fatores determinantes desse movimento foram a expectativas de desempenho, a influencia social, a motivacao hedonica, o preco e o custo de troca. Os consumidores pretendem continuar comprando esses servicos no futuro e usa-lo frequentemente no seu dia-a-dia. Curiosamente, os fatores tecnologicos, a facilidade de uso e expectativa de desempenho nao foram fatores imprescindiveis desse deslocamento.
Robustness of networks against propagating attacks under vaccination strategies

We study the effect of vaccination on the robustness of networks against propagating attacks that obey the susceptible–infected–removed model. By extending the generating function formalism developed by Newman (2005 Phys. Rev. Lett. 95 108701), we analytically determine the robustness of networks that depends on the vaccination parameters. We consider the random defense where nodes are vaccinated randomly and the degree-based defense where hubs are preferentially vaccinated. We show that, when vaccines are inefficient, the random graph is more robust against propagating attacks than the scale-free network. When vaccines are relatively efficient, the scale-free network with the degree-based defense is more robust than the random graph with the random defense and the scale-free network with the random defense.
Examining the Relationships Among Personality Traits, IT-specific Traits, and Perceived Ease of Use

The ease of use perception of an information technology has been shown to be an important factor in technology acceptance. This study extends prior research by presenting and testing a new theoretical model of the determinants of perceived ease of use by linking personality traits and IT-specific traits to the ease of use perception. Specifically, our research model theorizes that two broad traits of personality from the Big Five taxonomy, openness to experience and emotional stability, influence the perception of ease of use via three IT-specific traits: personal innovativeness in the domain of information technology (PIIT), computer anxiety, and computer playfulness. The research model was tested using PLS on data from a cross-sectional survey of 111 new users of a spreadsheet software package. The findings indicate a strong effect of openness to experience on PIIT and confirm PIIT as particularly important in influencing computer anxiety, compute playfulness, and perceived ease of use.
A client-centred ADL intervention: three-month follow-up of a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Objective: The aim was to study a client-centred activities of daily living (ADL) intervention (CADL) compared with the usual ADL intervention (UADL) in people with stroke regarding: independence in ADL, perceived participation, life satisfaction, use of home-help service, and satisfaction with training and, in their significant others, regarding: caregiver burden, life satisfaction, and informal care. Methods: In this multicentre study, 16 rehabilitation units were randomly assigned to deliver CADL or UADL. The occupational therapists who provided the CADL were specifically trained. Eligible for inclusion were people with stroke treated in a stroke unit ≤3 months after stroke, dependent in ≥two ADL, not diagnosed with dementia, and able to understand instructions. Data were collected at inclusion and three months thereafter. To detect a significant difference between the groups in the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS) domain “participation”, 280 participants were required. Intention-to-treat analysis was applied. Results: At three months, there was no difference in the outcomes between the CADL group (n = 129) and the UADL group (n = 151), or their significant others (n = 87/n = 93) except in the SIS domain “emotion” in favour of CADL (p = 0.04). Conclusion: The CADL does not appear to bring about short-term differences in outcomes and longer follow-ups are required.
A novel marker glycoprotein for the microvillus membrane of surface colonocytes of rat large intestine and its presence in small-intestinal crypt cells

Murine mAbs were produced against purified microvillus membranes of rat colonocytes in order to establish a marker protein for this membrane. The majority of antibodies binding to the colonic microvillus membrane recognized a single protein with a mean apparent Mr of 120 kD in both proximal and distal colon samples. The antigen is membrane bound as probed by phase-partitioning studies using Triton X-114 and by the sodium carbonate extraction procedure and is extensively glycosylated as assessed by endoglycosidase F digestion. Localization studies in adult rats by light and electron microscopy revealed the microvillus membrane of surface colonocytes as the principal site of the immunoreaction. The antigen was not detectable in kidney or liver by immunoprecipitation but was present in the small intestine, where it was predominantly confined to the apical membrane of crypt cells and much less to the microvillus membrane of differentiated enterocytes. During fetal development, the antigen appears first in the colon at day 15 and 1-2 d later in the small intestine. In both segments, it initially covers the whole luminal surface but an adult-like localization pattern develops soon after birth. The antibodies were also used to develop a radiometric assay for the quantification of the antigen in subcellular fractions of colonocytes in order to assess the validity of a previously developed method for the purification of colonic brush-border membranes (Stieger, B., A. Marxer, and H.P. Hauri. 1986. J. Membr. Biol. 91:19-31.). The results suggest that we have identified a valuable marker glycoprotein for the colonic microvillus membrane, which in adult rats may also serve as a marker for early differentiation of enterocyte progenitor cells in small-intestinal crypt cells.
A system for visualizing human behavior based on car metaphors

There are many accidents such as bumping between walkers in crowded places. One of reasons for them is that it is difficult for each person to predict the behaviors of other people. On the other hand, cars implicitly communicate with other cars by presenting their contexts with equipments such as brake lights and turn signals. In this paper, we propose a system for visualizing the user context by using information presentation methods based on those found in cars, such as wearing LEDs as brake lights, which can be seen by surrounding people. The evaluation results when using our prototype system confirmed that our method visually and intuitively presented the user context. In addition, we evaluated the visibility effects of changing the mounting position of the wearable devices.
Commentary: Credit Channel or Credit Actions? An Interpretation of the Postwar Transmission Mechanism

In recent years we have seen the development of a new literature on credit, based largely on the asymmetry of the information available to lenders and borrowers and drawing out various implications of this asymmetric information hypothesis. The primary emphasis of the . earlier part of this new literature was on microeconornic phenomena and it contributed importantly to our understanding of the behavior of lenders and borrowers and the nature of the credit-granting process by financial intermediaries. More recently, there has been an increased tendency to focus on the macroeconomic implications of the creditgranting decision and a long debate has been waged over the relative importance in the transmission mechanism of the so-called credit channel and the so-called money channel, although the latter should be more appropriately called the monetary conditions channel. Romer and Romer have been important contributors to this debate, as has Mark Gertler, the other discussant this morning.