Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of socioeconomic factors on in-patient length of stay and their consequences in per case hospital payment systems

Objectives: The number of countries adopting per case hospital payment systems has been continuously increasing in recent years. Nonetheless, debates persist regarding their consequences for equity of access to services. This concern relates to the failure of diagnostic classifications properly to take into account patients’ care requirements, raising the threat of case selection (‘cream skimming’). We examine the heterogeneity of costs within diagnostic categories related to socioeconomic (SE) factors using length of stay (LOS) as a proxy measure of care needs and costs. We evaluate its consequences in terms of fairness in resource allocation between hospitals. Methods: We employ data on all discharges in 2002-03 from a sample of 60 Belgian hospitals (617,275 observations), measuring the association between LOS and SE factors using generalized linear models. We design a resource allocation formula based on the Belgian financing scheme, where non-medical activity is paid based on a normative number of in-patient days, and measure financial penalties and rewards according to whether payment is adjusted for the SE characteristics of patients or not. Results: Both patients’ SE status and hospitals’ area SE profile have a significant impact on LOS, which persists after controlling for detailed diagnostic and hospital characteristics. Hospitals treating low income patients are financially penalized as a result. Conclusion: SE factors are a predictor of in-patient LOS and should be taken into account in per case resource allocation among hospitals.
Identification of in vivo P‐glycoprotein mRNA decay intermediates in normal liver but not in liver tumors

Post‐transcriptional regulation at the level of mRNA stability is one important mechanism for over‐expression of P‐glycoprotein (Pgp) genes observed in cultured cells and in animals. A previous study has shown that mRNA half‐lives for Pgp genes in normal liver were less than 2 h, in contrast to greater than 12 h measured in a transplantable liver tumor line. This lower turnover rate of Pgp mRNA may, in large part, contribute to the abundance of Pgp mRNA in liver tumors. The current study sought to investigate the underlying mechanism for the lower turnover rate of Pgp2 mRNA previously determined in liver tumors. As a first approach, we set out to understand the Pgp2 mRNA decay in both normal liver and liver tumors by first identifying and characterizing Pgp2 mRNA degradation intermediates. In this study, we showed that the sensitive ligation‐mediated polymerase chain reaction (LM‐PCR) method can be used to detect a homogenous pool of in vitro transcribed RNA down to 0.4 ng. By employing gene‐specific primers in the LM‐PCR method, we successfully identified four Pgp2 mRNA decay intermediates in normal liver. All four decay intermediates detected correspond to the 5′ coding region of Pgp2 mRNA, and surprisingly no decay intermediates which correspond to 3′ untranslated region, 3′ coding region or middle coding region were found using LM‐PCR. The identified decay intermediates are unique to the normal liver as they were absent or present at very low level in all three liver tumor samples analyzed. This observation supports our previous findings that the Pgp mRNA turnover rate is lower in liver tumors than in normal liver. These findings have implications for our understanding of the regulation of Pgp mRNA turnover in normal and malignant tissues. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Relationship between the exocrine and endocrine pancreas after acute pancreatitis.

AIM To determine the prevalence and time course of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency in individuals with newly diagnosed prediabetes or diabetes mellitus after acute pancreatitis. METHODS Relevant literature cited in three major biomedical journal databases (EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Scopus) was reviewed independently by two authors. There were no language constraints but the search was limited to human studies. Studies included were cohort studies of adult patients who were discharged after an attack of acute pancreatitis. Patients were excluded if they were under 18 years of age or had a previous diagnosis of prediabetes or diabetes mellitus, pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, or chronic pancreatitis. The main outcome measure was the prevalence of concomitant pancreatic exocrine insufficiency in patients who were diagnosed with prediabetes and diabetes mellitus after an attack of acute pancreatitis. Subgroup analysis was conducted for patients who were diagnosed with prediabetes only and those who were diagnosed with diabetes mellitus only. Subgroup analysis looking at the time course of concomitant pancreatic exocrine and endocrine insufficiency was also conducted. Pooled prevalence and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were calculated for all outcome measures and P-values < 0.05 were deemed statistically significant. RESULTS Eight clinical studies comprising of 234 patients met all eligibility criteria. The pooled prevalence of newly diagnosed prediabetes or diabetes in individuals after acute pancreatitis was 43% (95%CI: 30%-56%). The pooled prevalence of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency in individuals after acute pancreatitis was 29% (95%CI: 19%-39%). The prevalence of concomitant pancreatic exocrine insufficiency in individuals with newly diagnosed prediabetes or diabetes was 40% (95%CI: 25%-55%). The prevalence of concomitant pancreatic exocrine insufficiency among individuals with prediabetes alone and diabetes mellitus alone was 41% (95%CI: 12%-75%) and 39% (95%CI: 28%-51%), respectively. Further analysis showed that the prevalence of concomitant pancreatic exocrine insufficiency in individuals with prediabetes or diabetes decreases over time after an attack of acute pancreatitis. CONCLUSION Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency occurs in 40% of individuals with newly diagnosed prediabetes or diabetes mellitus after acute pancreatitis. Further studies are needed to investigate the pathogenesis of diabetes in this setting.
Reducing Postoperative Pain After Tubal Ligation With Rings or Clips: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness of using local anesthesia during interval laparoscopic tubal ligation to control postoperative pain. DATA SOURCES: We searched MEDLINE, PubMed, and Cochrane databases and found additional articles from bibliographies of relevant studies. METHODS OF STUDY SELECTION: We included only randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials reporting postoperative pain after interval laparoscopic tubal ligation under general anesthesia (n=20). The trials compared the application of topical or injectable local anesthetic with placebo and used a visual analog scale (VAS) (scores 0–100) or the Modified McGill Pain Intensity Scale (subsequently converted to a VAS) to assess pain. TABULATION, INTEGRATION, AND RESULTS: Pain scores were evaluated at the following times after extubation: 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, and 24 hours. The meta-analysis was based on random-effects methods for pooled data using RevMan. Postoperative pain decreased with the use of local anesthetic compared with placebo as follows (mean VAS decrease in millimeters, 95% confidence interval): 30 minutes 18.6 (11.7–25.5); 1 hour 16.6 (9.3–24.0); 2 hours 17.4 (9.6–25.2); 4 hours 12.5 (5.1–19.9); 8 hours 11.9 (6.7–17.1); and 24 hours 3.9 (−1.4 to 9.2). There was moderate heterogeneity in the data across studies (I2 statistic ranging from 55% to 75%). The effect size was similar for the following subgroups: pain scores reported as means or medians and use of McGill compared with VAS pain scales. A stratified analysis of trials including ring tubal ligation compared with clip tubal ligation showed the use of local anesthetic decreased pain substantially for both. No eligible studies assessed tubal ligation with cautery. CONCLUSION: Use of local anesthetic during laparoscopic tubal ligation substantially reduces postoperative pain up to 8 hours after surgery.
Articulatory Impairment Associated with Tardive Dyskinesia

The speech of two patients with tardive dyskinesia was studied, and one neuroleptictreated patient having no signs of overt tardive dyskinesia served as control. A structured interview, including reading, repetition of sentences, and spontaneous conversation, was performed. A phonetic transcription and analysis of abnormal phonemes was done by a linguist under blind conditions Both patients with tardive dyskinesia had abnormal phonemes whereas the control patient had none. These differences could not be explained by age, direct neuroleptic effect, or neuroleptic exposure time. The abnormal phonemes were all consonants. The authors conclude that tardive dyskinesia may cause articulatory communication problems
Differential Dual-Band Antenna-in-Package With T-Shaped Slots

A differential dual-band antenna-in-package (AiP) with multilayer structure is proposed. Compared to the normal antenna, the introduced package structure changes the impedance of the antenna, such that the new resonant frequency is excited. Then, a dual-band antenna is realized. Also, in order to improve the radiation pattern in higher band, two symmetrical T-shaped slots are etched on the patch. The T-slots can help to widen the bandwidths. The realized AiP can work at 2.49 and 5.8 GHz. The 10-dB relative bandwidth is 1.61% (2.47 ~ 2.51 GHz) and 5.51% (5.67 ~ 5.99 GHz), respectively.
LHS: A novel method of information retrieval avoiding an index using linear hashing with key groups in deduplication

Indexing of RAM is important to information retrieval. In deduplication systems, we need to use methods of information retrieval to find duplicate data chunks quickly. Chunk-lookup disk bottleneck problem is one of the most important problems in the information retrieval of deduplication systems. Previous methods can reduce RAM usage of index a lot to avoid reading index from disk for every chunk search. However, these methods still need several TB of RAM to hold the index for dozens of PB of storage space utilization. We design Linear Hashing with Key Groups(LHs), a variation of Linear Hashing, to organize and address bins. Based on LHs, we propose a novel method of information retrieval in deduplication, which can avoid an index in RAM by utilizing LHs to compute the address of a bin. A bin contains the chunk IDs of the similar files to a file. Then, we do not need to maintain an index in RAM to do the same thing. Our method does not decrease the deduplication efficiency compared with Extreme Binning, when it needs one disk read for every file. For every file, our method firstly computes the bin address of this file using LHs, loads the bin and then deduplicates the file against the loaded bin. Experimental results show that, while our method does not need an index in RAM, the deduplication efficiency of our method is slightly better than that of Extreme Binning.
Role of Heme Oxygenase-1 in the Regulation of Blood Pressure and Cardiac Function

Heme oxygenase (HO) is a cytoprotective enzyme that degrades heme (a potent oxidant) to generate carbon monoxide (a vasodilatory gas that has anti-inflammatory properties), bilirubin (an antioxidant derived from biliverdin), and iron (sequestered by ferritin). Because of the properties of inducible HO (HO-1) and its products, we hypothesized that HO-1 would play an important role in the regulation of cardiovascular function. In this article, we will review the role of HO-1 in the regulation of blood pressure and cardiac function and highlight previous studies from our laboratory using gene deletion and gene overexpression transgenic approaches in mice. These studies will include the investigation of HO-1 in the setting of hypertension (renovascular), hypotension (endotoxemia), and ischemia/reperfusion injury (heart). In a chronic renovascular hypertension model, hypertension, cardiac hypertrophy, acute renal failure, and acute mortality induced by one kidney–one clip surgery were more severe in HO-1-null mice. In addition, HO-1-null mice with endotoxemia had earlier resolution of hypotension, yet the mortality and the incidence of end-organ damage were higher in the absence of HO-1. In contrast, mice with cardiac-specific overexpression of HO-1 had an improvement in cardiac function, smaller myocardial infarctions, and reduced inflammatory and oxidative damage after coronary artery ligation and reperfusion. Taken together, these studies suggest that an absence of HO-1 has detrimental consequences, whereas overexpression of HO-1 plays a protective role in hypoperfusion and ischemia/reperfusion injury.
Relationships between Stress Experienced by Parents of Hospitalized Infants in NICU and the Infants’ Characteristics

: This study addressed the relationships between stress experienced by parents of hospitalized infants in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the infants’ characteristics. 216 parents of at-risk infants in the NICU of two Teaching Hospitals in the South-East Zone of Nigeria were selected for the study. Two research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The respondents completed two questionnaires on NICU Parental Stress Scale. A parent – infant demographic sheet was also used to obtain information about the parent and infant characteristics. Mean score, standard deviation and Spearman Rank correlation coefficient (rho) were used to answer the research questions. Chi-Square test statistics was adopted in testing the null hypotheses at 0.01 level of significance. The infant gestational age and birth weight were observed to be significantly correlated with the stress experienced by the parents over the appearance and behaviour of the NICU infants. Also there were significant differences in parental stress for NICU staff behaviour and communication, the sights and sounds in the NICU as well as NICU infant behaviour and appearance with regard to the infant position in the family.
Mechanomyography Assisted Myoeletric Sensing for Upper-Extremity Prostheses: A Hybrid Approach

The myoelectric upper-limb prosthetic manipulation is inherently limited by the unreliable sensor-skin interface. This paper presents a hybrid approach to overcome the limitation of electromyography (EMG) through mechanomyography (MMG) assisted myoelectric sensing. An integrated hybrid sensor system was developed for simultaneous EMG and MMG measurement. The hybrid system formed a platform to capture muscular activations in different frequencies. To evaluate the effectiveness of hybrid EMG-MMG sensing, hand motion experiments have been carried out on seven able-bodied and two transradial amputee subjects. It convincingly demonstrated, a significantly ( ${p} <0.01$ ) improved classification accuracy (CA). Furthermore, the CA was compensated by 8.7% ~ 33.7% in the presence of 2 ~ 3 fault EMG channels. These results suggest that MMG assisted myoelectric sensing can improve the control performance and robustness. It has great potential to promote the clinical application of multi-functional prosthetic hand with hybrid EMG-MMG sensor system.
Maternal‐fetal transfer of melatonin in pregnant women near term

Abstract: Our objective was to evaluate the maternal‐fetal transfer of melatonin in pregnant women. Serum melatonin concentration was measured by high‐performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection in a maternal vein and in the umbilical artery and umbilical vein at the time of birth. Blood samples were obtained from 12 women who had spontaneously delivered vaginally at night. A single oral dose of melatonin was administered to each of 33 patients who underwent a cesarean section, and. blood samples were taken at 1,2, 3, or 4 hr after the administration of melatonin at delivery. Cesarean section was performed between 1300 and 1500 hr. The mean melatonin concentrations of melatonin in maternal peripheral venous blood and umbilical arterial and umbilical venous blood did not differ significantly, and positive correlations in the serum levels of melatonin were observed between the three sources of blood. The oral administration of 3 mg of melatonin to pregnant women led to marked increases in the serum levels of melatonin, with maximum levels observed 2 hr (21.84 ± 2.09 ng/ml) after drug administration. Changes in serum levels of melatonin in the umbilical vein and artery resembled those found in the maternal vein. Serum melatonin concentrations did not differ significantly between the maternal vein and the umbilical veins. Serum levels of melatonin in the umbilical vein after the administration of melatonin were significantly and closely correlated with those in the maternal vein (r = 0.924, (P < 0.001). These results suggest that, in humans, melatonin is transferred from the maternal to the fetal circulation both easily and rapidly. A potential for the therapeutic use of melatonin as an antioxidant exists in the patients with preeclampsia.
A dual-band printed dipole antenna for indoor GSM-BTS applications

In this paper the design and optimization of a dual-band antenna combining two printed dipole structures is presented. Due to the large antenna bandwidth and its dual-band operation, it can be used in the GSM wireless communication base stations and especially in indoor applications. Beside its large bandwidth, The main characteristic of the antenna is its high achieved gain due to a reflector placed behind the antenna and its simple feeding balun. Also since it is a planar structure, it can be fabricated easily and with low cost.
A Current-Mode Control Li-Ion Battery Charger with Trickle-Current Mode and Built-In Aging Detection

A current-mode control Li-ion battery charger is proposed in this paper. The main architecture adopts two-loop current-mode control in the constant current (CC) and the constant voltage (CV) stages. Compare to the voltage-mode control, the proposed architecture reduces the complexity significantly. Trickle-current mode provides complete battery charging process to protect the battery. The built-in battery resistance detector is proposed to achieve aging detection while charging. The proposed charger is fabricated in TSMC 0.35-μm process, achieving 78% power efficiency.
Experimental evaluation of IEEE 802.11ad millimeter-wave WLAN devices

Wireless local area network (WLAN) using millimeter wave (mmWave) communications is one of enabler of next generation wireless access networks since huge bandwidth is available in mmWave bands and it enables beyond Gbit/s communications. This paper experimentally evaluate the PHY rate and the throughput performance of off the shelf mmWave WLAN devices that are compatible with IEEE 802.11ad standard. Our experimental evaluation shows that the association can be established until the distance between an access point (AP) and a station (STA) is 27 m and even if a STA is located at opposite side of an AP, the association still be established until the distance is smaller than 5 m. Our interference evaluation reveals an unfairness of throughput between two pairs of the AP and the STA.
Extracranial glomus faciale tumour

Abstract Objectives: To describe a unique presentation of a predominantly extracranial glomus faciale tumour. To discuss the role of imaging in the differential diagnosis and evaluation of a hypervascular parotid mass. To review the previous literature concerning the glomus faciale tumour. Case report: A 54-year-old woman presented with a six-month history of facial weakness, pain and a parotid mass. Ultrasound revealed a hypervascular parotid mass and pre-operative core biopsy suggested a paraganglioma. Computed tomography defined its deep extent and demonstrated involvement of the petrous temporal bone along the descending portion of the facial nerve canal with a pattern of permeative lucency. A tumour was surgically removed which arose from the facial nerve from the second genu to the proximal divisions within the parotid gland and histology confirmed a paraganglioma. Conclusions: A facial nerve glomus faciale tumour should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a hypervascular parotid mass and may present in a predominantly extracranial location. Computed tomography will prove helpful in such a case in order to limit the differential diagnosis and to define the extent of skull base involvement.
An overview on 2‐methyl‐2,4‐pentanediol in crystallization and in crystals of biological macromolecules

2‐Methyl‐2,4‐pentanediol (MPD) is the most popular chemical additive used for crystallization of biological macromolecules. However, the mechanism of its action on proteins in aqueous solution is not well understood. We have carried out a systematic analysis of the conformation and environment of MPD molecules bound to proteins. We find that the majority of MPD molecules adopt their most stable conformer. They prefer to bind to hydrophobic sites with a distinct preference for leucine side chains. Most MPD binding sites involve amino‐acid residues in helical or β‐sheet structures. MPD binding to proteins is penetrative, leading to displacement of water molecules in grooves and cavities (sometimes ligand‐binding and active sites) on the protein surface. This results in a large reduction of solvent‐accessible area, which can have significant implications for protein stability. The packing of the MPD molecules by the protein is not optimal and usually some other solvent molecules are also bound along with it. Our analysis suggests that MPD is not as strong a denaturant as often suggested. It promotes stabilization of the protein by preferential hydration, which is facilitated by attachment of MPD molecules to the hydrophobic surface.
Cross-contamination with Salmonella on a broiler slaughterhouse line demonstrated by use of epidemiological markers.

AIMS To investigate contamination of surfaces on a poultry slaughter line from infected poultry and subsequent cross-contamination of non-infected poultry. METHODS AND RESULTS A broiler slaughterhouse was investigated for the presence of Salmonella on 17 defined points over two 1-week periods. Flocks supplied to slaughter and neck skin samples from processed chicken were likewise investigated. Salmonella was detected in 10 out of 18 flocks at ante-mortem inspection, while seven flocks tested positive in the finished products. Equipment at all but one control point at the slaughter line tested positive at least once during the study. The chicken receiving area was the most contaminated. By comparison of typing results from serotyping, plasmid profile typing and phage typing, direct evidence for cross-contamination with Salm. serotype Typhimurium, Salm. Serotype 4.12:b:- and Salm. serotype Virchow on the slaughter line was obtained for four of the flocks. The cleaning procedure in place did not remove all Salmonella from the contaminated areas. CONCLUSIONS Evidence for contamination of equipment on a slaughter line and subsequent cross-contamination to non-infected chicken was provided by typing methods. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY This study has provided detailed information on cross-contamination on a slaughter line by the use of phage typing and plasmid profiling. The study stresses the importance of controlling Salmonella in the primary production, as contamination of the equipment on the slaughter line will act as a vehicle to contaminate finished products. Cleaning procedures on slaughter lines cannot be expected to control this problem with the current equipment.