Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health-Related Quality of Life Measurement for Evaluation Research and Policy Analysis

The present article describes a unit of health status, the "Well-Year," which expresses the output of health programs in terms of the number of years and the health-related "quality of life" produced by a treatment or program. Dividing the cost of the program by the number of Well-Years that it produces gives the cost-utility of the program. This cost-utility ratio can be used in a general health policy model to compare the efficiency of different programs or to assess the relative contribution of different programs and providers in the health care system. A comprehensive standardized measure of health status has many advantages for health planning, decision analysis, and program evaluation. An example demonstrates how the relative production of WellYears by psychologists might be compared to the contribution of other health care services.
The selectivity of nonmaterial beliefs in interpreting life events

An experimental study addresses the propositions that nonmaterial beliefs, including supernatural powers and transcendental moral laws, function to enhance comprehension of life events, and perform this function selectively. Informal surveys of newspaper articles and two pilot experiments consistently indicated that the beliefs in fate, God, luck, chance, just reward, and just punishment are elicited to explain life events that are difficult to explain in material terms, and are more or less specialized in the life events they explain. In a final experiment, a sample of U.S. university students (N=103) was presented with 12 life event cases designed to match the belief specializations and asked to interpret freely. Analysis of the reliably coded spontaneous comments confirmed both predictions. In addition, subjects who personally held a given nonmaterial belief used it more selectively than those who did not. Finally, employing the same design and measures, a sample from North India replicated the major U.S. findings. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Environmental isolation of Cryptococcus neoformans from an endemic region of HIV‐associated cryptococcosis in Thailand

We successfully isolated Cryptococcus neoformans from chicken faeces in suburban areas of Thailand. C. neoformans was isolated from 36/150 houses (24.0%) in the dry season and 6/150 (4.0%) in the rainy season. All environmental isolates were of serotype A. The high isolation rate of 24% from chicken faeces has never been reported previously. Our environmental study could probably explain the high incidence of cryptococcal meningitis in HIV patients in Thailand. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Memetic algorithm for dynamic bi-objective optimization problems

Dynamic multi-objective optimization (DMO) is a challenging class of problems where the objective and/or the constraint function(s) change over time. DMO has received little attention in the past and none of the existing multi-objective optimization algorithms have performed too well on the set DMO test problems. In this paper, we introduce a memetic algorithm (MA) embedded with a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) solver for faster convergence and an orthogonal epsilon-constrained formulation is used to deal with two objectives. The performance of the memetic algorithm is compared with an evolutionary algorithm (EA) embedded with a Sub-EA with and without restart mechanisms on two benchmark functions FDA1 and modified FDA2. The memetic algorithm consistently outperforms the evolutionary algorithm for both FDA1 and modified FDA2 problems.
The PEDANT genome database

The PEDANT genome database (http://pedant.gsf.de) provides exhaustive automatic analysis of genomic sequences by a large variety of established bioinformatics tools through a comprehensive Web-based user interface. One hundred and seventy seven completely sequenced and unfinished genomes have been processed so far, including large eukaryotic genomes (mouse, human) published recently. In this contribution, we describe the current status of the PEDANT database and novel analytical features added to the PEDANT server in 2002. Those include: (i) integration with the BioRS data retrieval system which allows fast text queries, (ii) pre-computed sequence clusters in each complete genome, (iii) a comprehensive set of tools for genome comparison, including genome comparison tables and protein function prediction based on genomic context, and (iv) computation and visualization of protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks based on experimental data. The availability of functional and structural predictions for 650 000 genomic proteins in well organized form makes PEDANT a useful resource for both functional and structural genomics.
Maternal Age-Specific Rates of Fetal Chromosomal Abnormalities at 16–20 Weeks’ Gestation in Korean Pregnant Women ≧35 Years of Age

Objective: To provide estimates of maternal age-specific rates of fetal chromosomal abnormalities at 16–20 weeks’ gestation for Korean women ≧35 years of age. Methods: Using the logistic regression method, we analyzed the amniocentesis data of 2,032 gravidas who had fetal karyotyping for the sole indication of advanced maternal age. Also, we compared the prevalence of trisomy 21 among countries using previously published datasets. Results: The incidence of aneuploidies increased exponentially with maternal age (p < 0.001). The expected rate of trisomy 21 was 3.7 per 1,000 gravidas at 35 years of age. Comparison with other countries showed that Japan has a significantly lower rate of trisomy 21 than North America (p = 0.041; 95% CI 0.522–0.986) and the UK (p = 0.011; 95% CI 0.474–0.909). Conclusion: These age-related risk figures are the first data for Korean women. Advanced maternal age was in this study ascertained to be a strong risk factor for chromosomal abnormalities; however, the age-specific risk can be influenced by racial factors.
Knowledge about genes and heredity among Finns

Abstract A survey (n = 1216) was conducted to evaluate the knowledge about genes and heredity in Finland. In the study, which is the first one concerning general knowledge of genes and heredity in a population sample, the majority of respondents had at least a rough picture of the association between genes, heredity and diseases. However, there were some aspects that were not so well known. Most difficult issues contained specialized terms such as “chromosome” and “DNA”. When asked to list diseases and human characteristics that are hereditary, only few mentioned conditions that are not at all hereditary. The knowledge was not significantly related to gender or reported experiences of hereditary diseases or gene tests, but younger people and those with a higher level of education and social status exhibited greater knowledge. Implications for genetic testing and counselling undertakings are discussed.
Genetic Deletion of NP1 Prevents Hypoxic‐Ischemic Neuronal Death Via Reducing AMPA Receptor Synaptic Localization in Hippocampal Neurons

Background Trafficking of α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isoxazole propionic acid receptors (AMPARs) to excitatory synapses is critical to their synaptic functions. Previously, we have shown induction of neuronal pentraxin 1 (NP1) and its colocalization with AMPAR subunit GluR1 in hypoxic‐ischemic (HI) brain injury. However, the role of NP1 in mediating GluR1 surface expression, trafficking, and clustering at synapses in HI neuronal death is unclear. Methods and Results Primary hippocampal neurons, isolated from wild‐type (WT) and NP1‐knockout (C57BL/6 background) mice at DIV 12 to 14 were exposed to 2 to 8 hours of oxygen glucose deprivation (OGD)—in vitro conditions that mimic human stroke. OGD exposure resulted in time‐dependent induction of NP1 (∼4‐fold), enhanced redistribution of AMAP GluR1 receptors at excitatory synapses, and increased neuronal death. We observed a significant increase in surface and synaptic GluR1 clusters that colocalized with PSD‐95 on dendrites with a simultaneous decrease in internalized GluR1. Surface cross‐linking with BS3 showed enhanced membrane insertions of GluR1, and increased phosphorylation at Ser‐845 further supported enhanced surface availability of GluR1 after OGD. NP1 protein colocalized with GluR1 and PSD‐95, and OGD significantly increased their synaptic coclustering. Most strikingly, the genetic deletion of NP1 resulted in decreases in surface GluR1 cluster density, synaptic localization, phospho‐GluR1 (Ser‐845) levels, and neuronal death after OGD compared with WT neurons. AMPA (50 μmol/L) induced NP1 and significant cell death in WT but not in NP1−/− neurons. Conclusions Our results indicate that NP1 plays a key role in synaptic clustering of GluR1, suggesting that targeting NP1 might be a practical approach to preventing ischemic brain damage.
Receiver Cancellation of Nonlinear Power Amplifier Distortion in SDMA-OFDM Systems

Space division multiple access in conjunction with OFDM main drawback associated with orthogonal frequency division efficiency and system capacity. This combination is approaches have been presented in the literature, such as future WLAN implementations. One drawback of OFDM systems is the high peak to average power ratio, which imposes (LNST), and the exponential companding transform (Exp-CT). However, most of them involve high computational complexity. In this paper, we propose a new low-complexity companding transform scheme for PAPR reduction. From computer simulations, the proposed low-complexity scheme nonlinear distortion over the recovered symbols. The error rate than the Exp-CT scheme and smaller spectrum side-lobe generation than the LNST and Exp-CT schemes. It is useful for physical realization of an OFDM system. of the cancellation technique at channel estimation accuracy
Cesarean delivery among nulliparous women in Beirut: assessing predictors in nine hospitals.

BACKGROUND Obstetric practice has witnessed a worldwide trend of increasing cesarean section rates in recent years. Similar trends have been observed in Lebanon, according to 2 studies conducted in 1996 and 1999. The objective of the present study was to assess the differences in predictors of cesarean delivery among nulliparous women in a "control hospital" with a low cesarean delivery rate (12.5%) and the rest of the National Collaborative Perinatal Neonatal Network (NCPNN) "study hospitals" with a higher cesarean delivery rate (31.4%). METHODS Data were collected by the NCPNN database, which covers deliveries at 9 major hospitals located in the Greater Beirut area. Data analysis was performed on the 6,668 consecutive deliveries occurring between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2002, at the NCPNN participating centers. The questionnaires included items that cover parental sociodemographic characteristics and maternal and newborn health characteristics. Sources of data included direct interviews with mothers after delivery and before hospital discharge and reviews of obstetric and nursery medical charts. Chi-square tests and t tests were performed for categorical and continuous clinical predictors of cesarean section. Logistic regression was performed to determine the odds of having a cesarean section for the study hospitals when compared with the control hospital. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals are reported. RESULTS Variables in the study hospitals that correlated with a higher cesarean delivery rate were male obstetricians, day of the week, and mode of payment compared with the control hospital. CONCLUSIONS In a country with a high cesarean section rate, 1 hospital met World Health Organization criteria for acceptable cesarean section rates, with no compromise in neonatal outcome. Further studies are needed to investigate potential policies to decrease the high cesarean section rate.
Optimal transmitter power control in interleave division multiple access (IDMA) spread spectrum uplink channels

The optimal transmitter power control policy in an interleave division multiple access (IDMA) spread spectrum uplink channel is derived. The policy is applied to an IDMA channel with repetition code and a chip-by-chip maximum-likelihood decoder whose sum-rate is compared to the capacity of a linear minimum mean square error multiuser detector and to the Cover-Wyner capacity
Experiments of DDoS detect using Triangle Expectation with MapReduce

With the growing use of the Internet, Internet security has become important. Increasing damage has been done by Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks (DDoS). In this paper, a technique called "triangle expectation ” is used, which works to find the sources of attack so that they can be identified and blocked. To analyze a large amount of collected network connection data, a sampling technique has been used and the proposed technique is verified by experiments.
System of Document Connections Based on References

Analysis of bibliographic references is becoming a tool of studying information processes in science, of classification of documents. In order to classifL documents in a field of knowledge it is important to study all references in the documents, connected with the given direction of research. The numerically expressed data of citing practices within the field should be followed by hrther conceptual analysis.
Food deserts: towards the development of a classification

Abstract Many people in developed countries fail to consume a healthy diet. This phenomenon has been linked to the contested existence of ‘food deserts’ in the UK, and the occurrence of ‘food insecurity’ in the USA and elsewhere. ‘Food deserts’ remain contested theoretical territory at least partly because no firm definition has been proposed. This paper argues that the barriers to consumption of a healthy diet may be classified according to whether such barriers are financial, physical, or derive from the mental attitude and knowledge of the consumer. The perception of ‘unsupportive food environments’ by some consumers is contrasted with the geographical existence of multiple sources of fresh fruit and vegetables in certain locations. Using a total of 234 semi—structured interviews in various UK locations, qualitative evidence is gathered for the existence of at least ten different types of ‘food desert’. The paper then goes on to show how such a three fold classification may be developed, using a modified ternary diagram, to assess the most appropriate initiatives to tackle ‘food deserts’ and to monitor progress in alleviating their effects.
Influence of cardiopulmonary resuscitation prior to defibrillation in patients with out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation


CONTEXT Use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) by first arriving emergency medical technicians (EMTs) is advocated to improve the outcome for out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation (VF). However, adding AEDs to the emergency medical system in Seattle, Wash, did not improve survival. Studies in animals have shown improved outcomes when cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was administered prior to an initial shock for VF of several minutes' duration. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of providing 90 seconds of CPR to persons with out-of-hospital VF prior to delivery of a shock by first-arriving EMTs. DESIGN Observational, prospectively defined, population-based study with 42 months of preintervention analysis (July 1, 1990-December 31, 1993) and 36 months of post-intervention analysis (January 1, 1994-December 31, 1996). SETTING Seattle fire department-based, 2-tiered emergency medical system. PARTICIPANTS A total of 639 patients treated for out-of-hospital VF before the intervention and 478 after the intervention. INTERVENTION Modification of the protocol for use of AEDs, emphasizing approximately 90 seconds of CPR prior to delivery of a shock. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Survival and neurologic status at hospital discharge determined by retrospective chart review as a function of early (<4 minutes) and later (> or =4 minutes) response intervals. RESULTS Survival improved from 24% (155/639) to 30% (142/478) (P=.04). That benefit was predominantly in patients for whom the initial response interval was 4 minutes or longer (survival, 17% [56/321] before vs 27% [60/220] after; P = .01). In a multivariate logistic model, adjusting for differences in patient and resuscitation factors between the periods, the protocol intervention was estimated to improve survival significantly (odds ratio, 1.42; 95% confidence interval, 1.07-1.90; P = .02). Overall, the proportion of victims who survived with favorable neurologic recovery increased from 17% (106/634) to 23% (109/474) (P = .01). Among survivors, the proportion having favorable neurologic function at hospital discharge increased from 71% (106/150) to 79% (109/138) (P<.11). CONCLUSION The routine provision of approximately 90 seconds of CPR prior to use of AED was associated with increased survival when response intervals were 4 minutes or longer.
A novel flow cytometric protocol for assessment of yeast cell adhesion

Microbial adhesion is a field of recognized relevance and, as such, an impressive array of tools has been developed to understand its molecular mechanisms and ultimately for its quantification. Some of the major limitations found within these methodologies concern the incubation time, the small number of cells analyzed, and the operator's subjectivity. To overcome these aspects, we have developed a quantitative method to measure yeast cells' adhesion through flow cytometry. In this methodology, a suspension of yeast cells is mixed with green fluorescent polystyrene microspheres (uncoated or coated with host proteins). Within 2 h, an adhesion profile is obtained based on two parameters: percentage and cells‐microsphere population's distribution pattern. This flow cytometry protocol represents a useful tool to quantify yeast adhesion to different substrata in a large scale, providing manifold data in a speedy and informative manner. © 2011 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry
Conformance Testing and Interoperability: A Case Study in Healthcare Data Exchange

Correct data exchange is critical for ensuring reliable healthcare systems. Standards based systems are the foundation for achieving this goal. However, standards alone are not enough to ensure this promise; conformance and interoperability testing are essential. We present and compare conformance testing strategies for a widely used healthcare clinical data exchange messaging standard. We discuss in detail an actor-based testing framework and give insight on the approach used in developing the framework. We present an architecture that extends this framework to support testing of integrated healthcare systems using multiple messaging and document data exchange standards.
Relative Humidity Sensor Based on Tilted Fiber Bragg Grating With Polyvinyl Alcohol Coating

A relative humidity (RH) sensor based on tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) is proposed by utilizing polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as the sensitive cladding film. RH increasing in the PVA coating will result in reduction of refractive index. Due to the TFBG's sensitivity to ambient refractive index, the spectral properties of PVA-coated TFBG are modified under exposure to different ambient humidity levels ranging from 20% to 98% RH. The transmission power of TFBG has different linear behaviors for two different humidity ranges (20%-74% RH and 74%-98% RH), and the sensitivity for each humidity range reaches as high as 2.52 and 14.947 dBm/%RH, respectively. Combining the advantages of optical fiber grating and PVA as a smart material, this design involves simple configuration, low cost, compactness, a small degree of hysteresis, stability, and wide dynamic sensing range as well. Therefore, the sensor could be applied in real-time RH monitoring for normal as well as extremely humid environments.
The "Sissy Boy Syndrome" and the Development of Homosexuality.

In undergoing this life, many people always try to do and get the best. New knowledge, experience, lesson, and everything that can improve the life will be done. However, many people sometimes feel confused to get those things. Feeling the limited of experience and sources to be better is one of the lacks to own. However, there is a very simple thing that can be done. This is what your teacher always manoeuvres you to do this one. Yeah, reading is the answer. Reading a book as this the sissy boy syndrome and the development of homosexuality by green richard and other references can enrich your life quality. How can it be?
Generation and Evaluation in Bayesian Models

Bayesian models of cognition are typically used to describe human learning and inference at the computational level, identifying which hypotheses people should select to explain observed data given a particular set of inductive biases. However, such an analysis can be consistent with human behavior even if people are not actually carrying out exact Bayesian inference. We analyze a simple algorithm by which people might be approximating Bayesian inference, in which a limited set of hypotheses are generated and then evaluated using Bayes’ rule. Our mathematical results indicate that a purely computationallevel analysis of learners using this algorithm would confound the distinct processes of hypothesis generation and hypothesis evaluation. We use a causal learning experiment to establish empirically that the processes of generation and evaluation can be distinguished in human learners, demonstrating the importance of recognizing this distinction when interpreting Bayesian models.
How does the new emphasis on managerialism in education redefine teacher professionalism? A case study in Guangdong Province of China

China, the same as her Western counterpart countries, has been experiencing educational decentralization over the last two decades. Such a policy shift, however, brings with it issues of “managerialism”, “accountability” and “competition”, all of which are becoming part of the common language in the educational lexicon. These newly imposed strictures have been theorized to influence teachers' daily practice in certain ways and also their views about their roles and responsibilities. It is said teachers have had to redefine their professionalism due to the invasion of this “audit culture” in education. However, research on this particular area has not devoted significant attention to the voices of teachers. This paper uses interview data from 75 teachers in Guangdong Province of China to find out whether policy changes have necessitated teachers to develop strategies to cope with new educational demands and challenges.
The Surface Topography of Large Ice Masses from Landsat Imagery

Abstract Apparent ice-surface topography is observed at several scales on Landsat multi-spectral scanner (MSS) imagery. Digitally enhanced MSS scenes from Antarctica and Nordaustlandet, Svalbard, are compared with ice-surface elevations from aircraft altimetry (relative accuracy 2–3 m) to show that this apparent topography is real. Apparent ice divides on Landsat images fit closely with divides on altimetric records. Ice-surface irregularities within drainage basins are also shown to be real. On Byrd Glacier, Antarctica, apparent “flow lines” coincide with ridges on altimetric records. Synoptic Landsat data, calibrated by information from aircraft altimetric flight lines, are used to classify the surface roughness of the ice caps on Nordaustlandet and 40% of the Antarctic ice sheet. On Nordaustlandet, the roughest ice is of amplitude 15–25 m and wavelength 3–4.5 km. Drainage basins with such rough surface characteristics may be associated with ice streams or possibly past surge activity. The most rough Antarctic terrain is up to 60 m in amplitude, with wavelengths of <10 km. The roughness of the Antarctic ice sheet increases with distance from ice divides, reflecting changes in the parameters affecting the transfer of basal stresses to the ice surface.