Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reasons for Unmet Need for Child and Family Health Services among Children with Special Health Care Needs with and without Medical Homes

Objectives Medical homes, an important component of U.S. health reform, were first developed to help families of children with special health care needs (CSHCN) find and coordinate services, and reduce their children’s unmet need for health services. We hypothesize that CSHCN lacking medical homes are more likely than those with medical homes to report health system delivery or coverage problems as the specific reasons for unmet need. Methods Data are from the 2005-2006 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN), a national, population-based survey of 40,723 CSHCN. We studied whether lacking a medical home was associated with 9 specific reasons for unmet need for 11 types of medical services, controlling for health insurance, child’s health, and sociodemographic characteristics. Results Weighted to the national population, 17% of CSHCN reported at least one unmet health service need in the previous year. CSHCN without medical homes were 2 to 3 times as likely to report unmet need for child or family health services, and more likely to report no referral (OR= 3.3), dissatisfaction with provider (OR=2.5), service not available in area (OR= 2.1), can’t find provider who accepts insurance (OR=1.8), and health plan problems (OR=1.4) as reasons for unmet need (all p<0.05). Conclusions CSHCN without medical homes were more likely than those with medical homes to report health system delivery or coverage reasons for unmet child health service needs. Attributable risk estimates suggest that if the 50% of CSHCN who lacked medical homes had one, overall unmet need for child health services could be reduced by as much as 35% and unmet need for family health services by 40%.
Realized heritability and repeatability of risk-taking behaviour in relation to avian personalities

Personalities are general properties of humans and other animals. Different personality traits are phenotypically correlated, and heritabilities of personality traits have been reported in humans and various animals. In great tits, consistent heritable differences have been found in relation to exploration, which is correlated with various other personality traits. In this paper, we investigate whether or not risk–taking behaviour is part of these avian personalities. We found that (i) risk–taking behaviour is repeatable and correlated with exploratory behaviour in wild–caught hand–reared birds, (ii) in a bi–directional selection experiment on ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ early exploratory behaviour, bird lines tend to differ in risk–taking behaviour, and (iii) within–nest variation of risk–taking behaviour is smaller than between–nest variation. To show that risk–taking behaviour has a genetic component in a natural bird population, we bred great tits in the laboratory and artificially selected ‘high’ and ‘low’ risk–taking behaviour for two generations. Here, we report a realized heritability of 19.3±3.3% (s.e.m.) for risk–taking behaviour. With these results we show in several ways that risk–taking behaviour is linked to exploratory behaviour, and we therefore have evidence for the existence of avian personalities. Moreover, we prove that there is heritable variation in more than one correlated personality trait in a natural population, which demonstrates the potential for correlated evolution.
Ex Vivo Anatomical Characterization of Handsewn or Stapled Jejunocecal Anastomosis in Horses by Computed Tomography Scan

The aim of this study is to compare handsewn and stapled jejunocecal anastomosis with different stomal lengths in terms of anatomical differences. Group 1 underwent a two-layer handsewn jejunocecal side-to-side anastomosis (HS); Group 2 received a stapled jejunocecal side-to-side anastomosis (GIA). Each group was divided into two subgroups (HS80 and HS100, GIA80 and GIA100). Specimens were inflated and CT scanned. The stomal/jejunal area ratio and blind end pouch volume/area were measured and compared. Effective length of the stoma was measured and compared with the initial length. Stomal/jejunal area ratio was 1.1 for both 80 techniques, 1.6 for the GIA100, and 1.9 for the HS100 technique. Both HS and GIA techniques produced a blind end pouch and exhibited a mean increase of the final stomal length ranging from 6 to 11% greater than the original stomal length. All techniques will exhibit a length increase of the final stomal length compared to the intended stomal length, with a consequent increase in stomal area. Stapled techniques consistently produced a large distal blind end pouch. Length of a jejunocecal anastomosis should be selected in accordance with the diameter of afferent jejunum, and the 80 mm stomal length could be deemed sufficient in horses.
Actin Polymerization Controls the Organization of WASH Domains at the Surface of Endosomes

Sorting of cargoes in endosomes occurs through their selective enrichment into sorting platforms, where transport intermediates are generated. The WASH complex, which directly binds to lipids, activates the Arp2/3 complex and hence actin polymerization onto such sorting platforms. Here, we analyzed the role of actin polymerization in the physiology of endosomal domains containing WASH using quantitative image analysis. Actin depolymerization is known to enlarge endosomes. Using a novel colocalization method that is insensitive to the heterogeneity of size and shape of endosomes, we further show that preventing the generation of branched actin networks induces endosomal accumulation of the WASH complex. Moreover, we found that actin depolymerization induces a dramatic decrease in the recovery of endosomal WASH after photobleaching. This result suggests a built-in turnover, where the actin network, i.e. the product of the WASH complex, contributes to the dynamic exchange of the WASH complex by promoting its detachment from endosomes. Our experiments also provide evidence for a role of actin polymerization in the lateral compartmentalization of endosomes: several WASH domains exist at the surface of enlarged endosomes, however, the WASH domains coalesce upon actin depolymerization or Arp2/3 depletion. Branched actin networks are thus involved in the regulation of the size of WASH domains. The potential role of this regulation in membrane scission are discussed.
Impact of a Social Support Intervention on the Transition to University

University marks an important transition in many people's lives, from adolescence to young adulthood. University students often move away from home, establish new friendships, and attempt to cope with academic work that may be much more demanding than that which they have previously experienced. Many have difficulty in making this transition, as evidenced by the fact that a high proportion (up to 40%) of students who enter university fail to complete their degrees. The present study assessed the impact of a support group intervention for students entering their first year of university. Students attended six weekly 90-minute sessions led by male and female facilitators. The sessions focused on issues such as forming new social ties, residential concerns, and how to balance academic and social demands. Social support and transition adjustment measures were administered to three nine-member intervention groups (N=27), and to randomly assigned comparison participants (N=28). For two of the three intervention.
Interaction of a Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Signaling Module with the Neuronal Protein JIP3

ABSTRACT The c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) group of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) is activated in response to the treatment of cells with inflammatory cytokines and by exposure to environmental stress. JNK activation is mediated by a protein kinase cascade composed of a MAPK kinase and a MAPK kinase kinase. Here we describe the molecular cloning of a putative molecular scaffold protein, JIP3, that binds the protein kinase components of a JNK signaling module and facilitates JNK activation in cultured cells. JIP3 is expressed in the brain and at lower levels in the heart and other tissues. Immunofluorescence analysis demonstrated that JIP3 was present in the cytoplasm and accumulated in the growth cones of developing neurites. JIP3 is a member of a novel class of putative MAPK scaffold proteins that may regulate signal transduction by the JNK pathway.
On reducing aliasing in accumulator-based compaction

The utilization of accumulators for time compaction of the responses in built-in self test environments has been studied by various researchers. One of the well-known problems of time compactors is aliasing, i.e. the event that a series of responses containing errors result in a signature equal to that of an error-free response sequence. In this paper we propose a scheme to reduce aliasing in accumulator based compaction environments. With the proposed scheme, the aliasing probability tends to zero, as the number of the patterns of the test set increases.
Learning Multi-level Region Consistency with Dense Multi-label Networks for Semantic Segmentation

Semantic image segmentation is a fundamental task in image understanding. Per-pixel semantic labelling of an image benefits greatly from the ability to consider region consistency both locally and globally. However, many Fully Convolutional Network based methods do not impose such consistency, which may give rise to noisy and implausible predictions. We address this issue by proposing a dense multi-label network module that is able to encourage the region consistency at different levels. This simple but effective module can be easily integrated into any semantic segmentation systems. With comprehensive experiments, we show that the dense multi-label can successfully remove the implausible labels and clear the confusion so as to boost the performance of semantic segmentation systems.
Randomized controlled trial of education and feedback for implementation of guidelines for acute low back pain

OBJECTIVE: The effect of clinical guidelines on resource utilization for complex conditions with substantial barriers to clinician behavior change has not been well studied. We report the impact of a multifaceted guideline implementation intervention on primary care clinician utilization of radiologic and specialty services for the care of acute low back pain.DESIGN: Physician groups were randomized to receive guideline education and individual feedback, supporting patient education materials, both, or neither. The impact on guideline adherence and resource utilization was evaluated during the 12-month period before and after implementation.PARTICIPANTS: Fourteen physician groups with 120 primary care physician and associate practitioners from 2 group model HMO practices.INTERVENTIONS: Guideline implementation utilized an education/audit/feedback model with local peer opinion leaders. The patient education component included written and videotaped materials on the care of low back pain.MAIN RESULTS: The clinician intervention was associated with an absolute increase in guideline-consistent behavior of 5.4% in the intervention group versus a decline of 2.7% in the control group (P=.04). The patient education intervention produced no significant change in guideline-consistent behavior, but was poorly adopted. Patient characteristics including duration of pain, prior history of low back pain, and number of visits during the illness episode were strong predictors of service utilization and guideline-consistent behavior.CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of an education and feedback-supported acute low back pain care guideline for primary care clinicians was associated with an increase in guideline-consistent behavior. Patient education materials did not enhance guideline effectiveness. Implementation barriers could limit the utility of this approach in usual care settings.
Performance Impact of a Slower Main Memory: A case study of STT-MRAM in HPC

In high-performance computing (HPC), significant effort is invested in research and development of novel memory technologies. One of them is Spin Transfer Torque Magnetic Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM) --- byte-addressable, high-endurance non-volatile memory with slightly higher access time than DRAM. In this study, we conduct a preliminary assessment of HPC system performance impact with STT-MRAM main memory with recent industry estimations. Reliable timing parameters of STT-MRAM devices are unavailable, so we also perform a sensitivity analysis that correlates overall system slowdown trend with respect to average device latency. Our results demonstrate that the overall system performance of large HPC clusters is not particularly sensitive to main-memory latency. Therefore, STT-MRAM, as well as any other emerging non-volatile memories with comparable density and access time, can be a viable option for future HPC memory system design.
A 1.3mA biphasic current stimulator IC with active charge balancing for nerve interfacing applications

This paper presents a 1.3mA current stimulator integrated circuit (IC) with closed-loop, active charge balancing for nerve interfacing applications. The stimulator employs two current-based digital-to-analog converters (DACs), one each for anodic and cathodic phases, with binary-weighted transistors and 2b-programmable least-significant bit (LSB) currents. The biphasic, cathodic-leading, stimulus current pulse amplitude is 5b-programmable in four ranges of ~ 12-341μA, 23-682μA, 32-992μA, and 42-1,300μA. A low-power (~10μW), active charge balancer monitors the site voltage after each stimulus cycle and, if necessary, injects positive or negative current pulses via two 3b auxiliary DACs to bring the site voltage back within a userset safety window. All digital circuitry operate from 3.3V, whereas the stimulator output stage operates from 5V with a stimulus site common-mode voltage of 3.3V for better use of the available voltage headroom in cathodic-leading, single-supply stimulation. A prototype chip is fabricated in 0. 5μm 2P/3M CMOS, and measured results from benchtop electrical characterization of the chip are presented.
Robust segmentation for multiple planar surface extraction in laser scanning 3D point cloud data

This paper investigates the segmentation of multiple planar surfaces from 3D point clouds. A Principle Component Analysis (PCA) based covariance technique is used for segmentation which is one of the most popular approaches in point cloud processing. It is well known that PCA is very sensitive to outliers and does not give reliable estimates for segmentation. We propose a statistically robust segmentation algorithm using a fast-minimum covariance determinant based robust PCA approach to get the local covariance statistics. This results in more reliable, robust and accurate segmentation. The application of the proposed method to simulated and terrestrial laser scanning point cloud datasets gives good results for multiple planar surface extraction and shows significantly better performance than PCA based methods. The algorithm has the potential for non-planar complex surface reconstruction.
Indian Streams

:- The present study seeks to measure the relationship between identity statuses and locus of control of higher secondary students. The normative survey method has been followed for the present study. The samples of the study were 800 adolescents’ students studying higher secondary in Cuddalore District of Tamilnadu, India. The sample includes 410 boys and 390 girls. The random sampling technique has been followed for the present study. The ego-identity scale constructed and validated by investigator and locus of control scale standardized by Anne Betts (1995) has been used for the present study. The findings of the study indicate that the locus of control is negatively correlated with identity diffusion. It further indicates that the locus of control is positively correlated with identity foreclosure and identity achievement. There is no significant correlation found between locus of control and identity moratorium.
Disease Susceptibility to Graft-vs-Malignancy Effects

High-dose myeloablative therapy with allogeneic hematopoietic transplantation is an effective treatment for hematologic malignancies, but this approach is associated with a high risk of complications. The use of relatively nontoxic, nonmyeloablative, or reduced-intensity preparative regimens still allows engraftment and the generation of graft-vs-malignancy effects, is potentially curative for susceptible malignancies, and reduces the risk of treatment-related morbidity. Two general strategies along these lines have emerged, based on the use of (1) immunosuppressive chemotherapeutic drugs, usually a purine analog in combination with an alkylating agent, and (2) lowdose total body irradiation, alone or in combination with fludarabine (Fludara). High-dose myeloablative therapy with allogeneic hematopoietic transplantation is an effective yet risky treatment for hematologic malignancies. This strategy is associated with a high risk of treatment-related complications, ranging from 10% to > 50%, depend depending on histocompatibility, age comorbidities, and disease factors. The initial concept of allogeneic transplantation for treatment of cancer was to use the transplant for supportive care, as a means to restore hematopoiesis after myeloablative doses of chemotherapy and/or total body irradiation. [1] The pretransplant "preparative regimen" was intended to eradicate the malignancy as well as provide sufficient immunosuppression to prevent graft rejection. The therapeutic benefit of allogeneic marrow transplantation for many diagnoses is largely related to an associated immune-mediated graftvsmalignancy effect. [2,3] This realization has recently led to the use of less toxic, nonmyeloablative preparative regimens to achieve engraftment and allow development of graft-vs-malignancy effects as a primary form of therapy. [4] For nonmalignant disorders, it is not necessary to ablate diseased tissues; it is only necessary to achieve mixed chimerism to provide a source of normal hematopoietic cells. Two general strategies have emerged. One approach is based on the use of immunosuppressive chemotherapeutic drugs, usually a purine analog in combination with an alkylating agent. [5-7] The other technique is based on the immunosup pressive effects of low-dose total body irradiation, alone or in combination with fludarabine (Fludara). [8] Nonmyelablative vs Reduced-Intensity Regimens
Parametric Population Representation of Retinal Location: Neuronal Interaction Dynamics in Cat Primary Visual Cortex

Neuronal interactions are an intricate part of cortical information processing generating internal representations of the environment beyond simple one-to-one mappings of the input parameter space. Here we examined functional ranges of interaction processes within ensembles of neurons in cat primary visual cortex. Seven “elementary” stimuli consisting of small squares of light were presented at contiguous horizontal positions. The population representation of these stimuli was compared to the representation of “composite” stimuli, consisting of two squares of light at varied separations. Based on receptive field measurements and by application of an Optimal Linear Estimator, the representation of retinal location was constructed as a distribution of population activation (DPA) in visual space. The spatiotemporal pattern of the DPA was investigated by obtaining the activity of each neuron for a sequence of time intervals. We found that the DPA of composite stimuli deviates from the superposition of its components because of distance-dependent (1) early excitation and (2) late inhibition. (3) The shape of the DPA of composite stimuli revealed a distance-dependent repulsion effect. We simulated these findings within the framework of dynamic neural fields. In the model, the feedforward response of neurons is modulated by spatial ranges of excitatory and inhibitory interactions within the population. A single set of model parameters was sufficient to describe the main experimental effects. Combined, our results indicate that the spatiotemporal processing of visual stimuli is characterized by a delicate, mutual interplay between stimulus-dependent and interaction-based strategies contributing to the formation of widespread cortical activation patterns.
Stability analysis of an autonomous microgrid operation based on Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper presents the stability analysis for an inverter based Distributed Generation (DG) unit in an autonomous microgrid operation. The small-signal model of the controlled Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) system is developed in order to investigate the dynamic stability for the given operating point and under the proposed power controller. This model includes all the details of the proposed controller, while no switching actions are considered. System oscillatory modes and the sensitivity to the control parameters are the main performance indices which are considered, particularly when the microgrid is islanded or under the load change condition. In this work, the proposed power controller is composed of an inner current control loop and an outer power control loop, both based on a synchronous reference frame and conventional PI regulators. These controllers also utilize the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) for real-time self-tuning in order to improve the quality of the power supply. The complete small-signal model is linearized and used to define the system state matrix which is employed for eigenvalue analysis. The results prove that the stability analysis is fairly accurate and the controller offers reliable system's operation.
Laboratory Mouse Models for the Human Genome-Wide Associations

The agnostic screening performed by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has uncovered associations for previously unsuspected genes. Knowledge about the functional role of these genes is crucial and laboratory mouse models can provide such information. Here, we describe a systematic juxtaposition of human GWAS-discovered loci versus mouse models in order to appreciate the availability of mouse models data, to gain biological insights for the role of these genes and to explore the extent of concordance between these two lines of evidence. We perused publicly available data (NHGRI database for human associations and Mouse Genome Informatics database for mouse models) and employed two alternative approaches for cross-species comparisons, phenotype- and gene-centric. A total of 293 single gene-phenotype human associations (262 unique genes and 69 unique phenotypes) were evaluated. In the phenotype-centric approach, we identified all mouse models and related ortholog genes for the 51 human phenotypes with a comparable phenotype in mice. A total of 27 ortholog genes were found to be associated with the same phenotype in humans and mice, a concordance that was significantly larger than expected by chance (p<0.001). In the gene-centric approach, we were able to locate at least 1 knockout model for 60% of the 262 genes. The knockouts for 35% of these orthologs displayed pre- or post-natal lethality. For the remaining non-lethal orthologs, the same organ system was involved in mice and humans in 71% of the cases (p<0.001). Our project highlights the wealth of available information from mouse models for human GWAS, catalogues extensive information on plausible physiologic implications for many genes, provides hypothesis-generating findings for additional GWAS analyses and documents that the concordance between human and mouse genetic association is larger than expected by chance and can be informative.