Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cost-effectiveness of rapid hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing and simultaneous rapid HCV and HIV testing in substance abuse treatment programs.

AIMS To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of rapid hepatitis C virus (HCV) and simultaneous HCV/HIV antibody testing in substance abuse treatment programs. DESIGN We used a decision analytic model to compare the cost-effectiveness of no HCV testing referral or offer, off-site HCV testing referral, on-site rapid HCV testing offer and on-site rapid HCV and HIV testing offer. Base case inputs included 11% undetected chronic HCV, 0.4% undetected HIV, 35% HCV co-infection among HIV-infected, 53% linked to HCV care after testing antibody-positive and 67% linked to HIV care. Disease outcomes were estimated from established computer simulation models of HCV [Hepatitis C Cost-Effectiveness (HEP-CE)] and HIV [Cost-Effectiveness of Preventing AIDS Complications (CEPAC)]. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Data on test acceptance and costs were from a national randomized trial of HIV testing strategies conducted at 12 substance abuse treatment programs in the United States. MEASUREMENTS Lifetime costs (2011 US$) and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) discounted at 3% annually; incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs). FINDINGS On-site rapid HCV testing had an ICER of $18,300/QALY compared with no testing, and was more efficient than (dominated) off-site HCV testing referral. On-site rapid HCV and HIV testing had an ICER of $64,500/QALY compared with on-site rapid HCV testing alone. In one- and two-way sensitivity analyses, the ICER of on-site rapid HCV and HIV testing remained <$100,000/QALY, except when undetected HIV prevalence was <0.1% or when we assumed frequent HIV testing elsewhere. The ICER remained <$100,000/QALY in 91% of probabilistic sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSIONS On-site rapid hepatitis C virus and HIV testing in substance abuse treatment programs is cost-effective at a <$100,000/quality-adjusted life year threshold.
Influence of user perception, security needs, and social factors on device pairing method choices

Recent years have seen a proliferation of secure device pairing methods that try to improve both the usability and security of today's de-facto standard -- PIN-based authentication. Evaluating such improvements is difficult. Most comparative laboratory studies have so far mainly focused on completeness, trying to find the single best method among the dozens of proposed approaches -- one that is both rated the most usable by test subjects, and which provides the most robust security guarantees. This search for the "best" pairing method, however, fails to take into account the variety of situations in which such pairing protocols may be used in real life. The comparative study reported here, therefore, explicitly situates pairing tasks in a number of more realistic situations. Our results indicate that people do not always use the easiest or most popular method -- they instead prefer different methods in different situations, based on the sensitivity of data involved, their time constraints, and the social conventions appropriate for a particular place and setting. Our study also provides qualitative data on factors influencing the perceived security of a particular method, the users' mental models surrounding security of a method, and their security needs.
Quantitation of prostate-specific antigen in serum by a sensitive enzyme immunoassay.

A sensitive sandwich-type enzyme immunoassay has been developed for quantitation of a human prostate-specific antigen (PA). With this method, PA at a concentration as low as 0.10 ng/ml can be detected. The assay was reproducible as within and between assays yielded a coefficient of variation of 5.7% and 4.6%, respectively. Only human prostate tissues (n = 31) were shown to contain PA. No PA was detected in other human normal or tumor tissues (n = 13). PA was not detectable in sera from normal females (n = 17) or female cancer patients (n = 25). A mean +/- S.D. of 0.47 +/- 0.661 ng/ml (ranging from less than 0.10 to 2.6) ws obtained from a group of 51 normal males. Sera from male patients with nonprostatic cancer contained a similar range of PA as that of normal males. Patients with prostate cancer (371 of 442) and benign prostatic hypertrophy (13 of 19) were shown to have elevated levels of circulating PA. Although no quantitative difference in PA levels was found between the benign prostatic hypertrophy group and Stage A of prostatic cancer, patients with Stages C and D prostatic cancer exhibited significantly elevated levels of PA qualitatively and quantitatively. These results therefore indicate that PA is a histiotypic product of the prostate and may be of use as an adjunctive tool in diagnostic procedures of prostate cancer.
Genetic Determination of Susceptibility to Estrogen-Induced Mammary Cancer in the ACI Rat

Hormonal, genetic, and environmental factors play major roles in the complex etiology of breast cancer. When treated continuously with 17β-estradiol (E2), the ACI rat exhibits a genetically conferred propensity to develop mammary cancer. The susceptibility of the ACI rat to E2-induced mammary cancer appears to segregate as an incompletely dominant trait in crosses to the resistant Copenhagen (COP) strain. In both (ACI × COP)F2 and (COP × ACI)F2 populations, we find strong evidence for a major genetic determinant of susceptibility to E2-induced mammary cancer on distal rat chromosome 5. Our data are most consistent with a model in which the ACI allele of this locus, termed Emca1 (estrogen-induced mammary cancer 1), acts in an incompletely dominant manner to increase both tumor incidence and tumor multiplicity as well as to reduce tumor latency in these populations. We also find evidence suggestive of a second locus, Emca2, on chromosome 18 in the (ACI × COP)F2 population. The ACI allele of Emca2 acts in a dominant manner to increase incidence and decrease latency. Together, Emca1 and Emca2 act independently to modify susceptibility to E2-induced mammary cancer.
Studies of the HER-2/neu proto-oncogene in human breast cancer.

The HER-2heu proto-oncogene encodes a putative growth factor receptor which was shown to be amplified in 25-30% of primary human breast cancers. Amplification of the gene was associated with disease behavior and was more predictive of outcome than any other known prognostic factor with the exception of positive lymph nodes in patients with Stage 11 disease. Since this initial report, a number of studies have evaluated both amphkation rate and association between HER-2heu and prognosis in breast cancer with considerable variation in published results. Some of this variability may be due to the small numbers of specimens studied or to significant differences in the methods used to evaluate the gene and its product. The current study addresses both biological and clinical aspects of the gene and its alteration in human breast cancer. Sequence analysis of several c-DNA clones from actual tumors indicate that, unlike the rat mu gene, mutations in the transmembrane domain may not be an absolute requirement for alteration of the gene. Instead, the data are consistent with an alteration involving overexpression of a normal product since gene amplification is virtually always associated with high levels of expression in the malignant cells of these tumors. The gene product has a half life of 12 h and can be readily identified in both tissue homogenates and tissue sections from breast tumors. To circumvent potential statistical problems introduced by small numbers reported in earlier studies, an analysis of HER-2heu amplification was done in 668 primary tumors, 526 of which had long-term follow-up. The overall amplification rate in breast cancer as well as the association between gene amplification and disease outcome previously reported for Stage II patients was conlirmed in this larger series. A comprehensive analysis of the gene and its products (DNA, RNA, and protein) was simultaneously performed on 187 tumors for which sufficient tissue was available. This analysis identSed several potential shortcomings of the various methods used to evaluate HER-2ineu in this disease (i.e., Southern, Northern, and Western blots, and immunohistochemistry). The Western blot was most prone to errors in assessing HER-2/neu, while immunohistochemical analysis of frozen tissue was the most reliable method. This result has diagnostic implications. The data presented in this study further support the concept that the HER-2/neu gene may play a role in the pathogenesis of some human breast cancers.
Gene‐dose titration analysis in the search of trans‐regulatory genes in Drosophila.

We have searched for trans‐regulatory genes in two genetic systems in Drosophila, the bithorax complex (BX‐C) and the achaete‐scute complex (AS‐C). Previous genetic evidence suggests that the activation of both BX‐C and AS‐C, depends on trans‐regulatory genes (Polycomb, Pc, in the former and hairy, h, in the latter) acting in a negative type of control. Mutants of these regulatory genes in heterozygous condition have dominant derepression phenotypes in flies with extra doses of the corresponding gene complexes. We have searched for new loci, with similar gene‐dose relationships. We have isolated only new alleles (six) of Pc in the BX‐C experiment. In the AS‐C experiment four h alleles, and 13 alleles of a new locus (extramacrochaetae, emc) have been discovered. Whereas the h locus shows specific interactions upon achaete, the new locus, emc, is specific for the scute part of the AS‐C. Statistical analysis suggests that these are the only loci in the genome with those dose‐dependent properties in the two systems.
Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems ( PACIS ) 2014 EFFECT OF BRAND PEREFFECT OF BRAND PERSONALITY ON BRAND LOYALTY IN COMPANIES ’ MICROBLOGS

Along with companies’ increasing engagement on microblogging sites, how to leverage the marketing potential of this kind of social platform remains an important concern for many marketers. The purpose of this research is to address this gap by exploring the effect of brand personality on brand loyalty in companies’ microblogs. Building upon prior research on brand personality, consumer satisfaction, and brand loyalty, we propose and empirically test our research model with an online survey study on an existing microblogging site in China. Our findings show that the four dimensions of brand personality, including sincerity, competence, excitement, and sophistication, have positive impacts on consumer satisfaction, which further increases consumers’ loyalty toward brands. Consumer satisfaction is found to be a key mediator that connects brand personality and brand loyalty in companies’ microblogs. We believe that the findings of this research can bring noteworthy implications to both theory and practice. We provide new insight on how consumers’ brand loyalty develops from the perspective of brand personality. The managers of enterprises can also utilize our findings to strengthen their relationship marketing with consumers on microblogging sites.
Constitutive Expression of a Bacterial Pattern Recognition Receptor, CD14, in Human Salivary Glands and Secretion as a Soluble Form in Saliva

ABSTRACT Saliva contains a number of proteins and glycoproteins that protect oral tissues, but little is known about the role of human saliva in innate immunity. Here we showed that human major salivary gland cells constitutively expressed a bacterial pattern recognition receptor, CD14, by immunohistochemistry. Human salivary gland cells in culture express CD14 mRNA and a 55-kDa CD14 protein in, but not on the cells, and secrete a soluble form with the same molecular mass. Human whole saliva contains a 55-kDa CD14, and the concentration of parotid saliva was 10-fold higher than whole saliva, which is comparable to that of serum CD14. Levels of CD14 in unstimulated whole and parotid saliva were unchanged before and after a meal and between unstimulated and stimulated saliva, indicating that saliva CD14 is constitutively secreted into the oral cavity. In contrast, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-binding protein was below the detectable level. The saliva CD14 is functionally active in that it mediated the activation of CD14-lacking intestinal epithelial cells by LPS in a Toll-like receptor 4-dependent manner. These results suggested that saliva CD14 is important for the maintenance of oral health and possibly intestinal homeostasis.
A study of the perceptions of depression, spirituality, and treatment among African Americans

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK lESTER, VICKIE MARIE B.A. SMITH COLLEGE, 1976 M.S.W. CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY, 1987 A STUDY OF THE PERCEPTIONS OF DEPRESSION. SPIRITUALITY. AND TREATMENT AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS Advisor: Richard Lyle, Ph.D. Dissertation dated May 2010 This study examines the perceptions of depression, spirituality, treatment modalities including both traditional and nontraditional treatments among African Americans. Two hundred and four respondents were selected for this study utilizing non-probability convenience sampling. The survey participants were composed of African Americans who attended a large metropolitan Atlanta Christian church and self-reported no history of being clinically/medically diagnosed with depression. The survey questionnaire consisted of a demographic information section and questions that defmed the four variables, depression, spirituality, traditional treatment and nontraditional treatment. The responses were measured in a four point Likert scale. Phi (cF) test statistic was used to test the strength of the relationships among the variables. The chi-square test statistic used to test statistical significance of the results. The fmdings of the study indicated that eighty percent of the participants did not report depressive symptoms. Women reported more depressive symptoms than men. Spirituality was . 1 reported as being important in managing depression. However, the majority of the survey respondents would not seek or use traditional or nontraditional treatments for depression. There was a significant statistical difference in the report of depressive symptoms between men and women. Women reported more depressive symptoms. There were no significant differences in the responses among African American men and women in regards to spirituality, traditional and non-traditional treatments. A STUDY OF THE PERCEPTIONS OF DEPRESSION, SPIRITUALITY, AND TREATMENT AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY VICKIE MARTE JESTER WHITNEY M. YOUNG, JR., SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK
Designing a Pediatric Severe Sepsis Screening Tool

We sought to create a screening tool with improved predictive value for pediatric severe sepsis (SS) and septic shock that can be incorporated into the electronic medical record and actively screen all patients arriving at a pediatric emergency department (ED). “Gold standard” SS cases were identified using a combination of coded discharge diagnosis and physician chart review from 7,402 children who visited a pediatric ED over 2 months. The tool’s identification of SS was initially based on International Consensus Conference on Pediatric Sepsis (ICCPS) parameters that were refined by an iterative, virtual process that allowed us to propose successive changes in sepsis detection parameters in order to optimize the tool’s predictive value based on receiver operating characteristics (ROC). Age-specific normal and abnormal values for heart rate (HR) and respiratory rate (RR) were empirically derived from 143,603 children seen in a second pediatric ED over 3 years. Univariate analyses were performed for each measure in the tool to assess its association with SS and to characterize it as an “early” or “late” indicator of SS. A split-sample was used to validate the final, optimized tool. The final tool incorporated age-specific thresholds for abnormal HR and RR and employed a linear temperature correction for each category. The final tool’s positive predictive value was 48.7%, a significant, nearly threefold improvement over the original ICCPS tool. False positive systemic inflammatory response syndrome identifications were nearly sixfold lower.
The −20 and −217 Promoter Variants Dominate Differential Angiotensinogen Haplotype Regulation in Angiotensinogen-Expressing Cells

A number of naturally occurring polymorphisms exist in the human angiotensinogen locus, some of which have been associated with essential hypertension, preeclampsia, and other medical disorders. However, to date there has been no comprehensive determination of the significance of specific haplotypes in relation to the regulation of angiotensinogen expression. We cloned the promoters extending from −1219 to +125 bp from 11 ethnically diverse individuals to acquire a representative cross-section of known haplotype diversity. Eight nonredundant haplotypes were identified, fused to luciferase, and studied for their effect on transcriptional regulation in human astrocyte, proximal tubule, and hepatocyte cell lines endogenously expressing angiotensinogen and in a mouse adipocyte cell line. The studies were carried out under baseline conditions, in the presence of the angiotensinogen enhancer, and in response to hormonal stimulation by dexamethasone, &bgr;-estradiol, or testosterone. A statistical model was then constructed to assess the significance of individual polymorphisms. The polymorphisms with the greatest effect on transcription in these cell lines were located at −20 and −217. There were modest haplotype-specific effects of the angiotensinogen enhancer and no haplotype-specific effects of &bgr;-estradiol, dexamethasone, or testosterone treatment. We conclude the following: (1) the −20 and −217 polymorphisms have the largest influence on angiotensinogen transcription, (2) other polymorphisms have a much smaller impact on angiotensinogen transcription, and (3) the transcriptional influence of the promoter polymorphisms may act cell specifically. Therefore, our data support a hypothesis that polymorphisms in the angiotensinogen promoter may act cell specifically to differentially regulate the level of angiotensinogen transcription in angiotensin-producing tissues.
Leukoaraiosis predicts the need for intraoperative shunt placement during carotid endarterectomy.

OBJECTIVES White matter hyperintense lesions (WMHLs) are related to age, hypertension, and ischemia. They increase the risk of stroke in natural history and perioperatively during carotid endarterectomy. This may reflect an association with impaired cerebral hemodynamics. Hence, the authors studied whether ipsilateral WMHLs predict shunt requirement on clamping as an indicator of hemodynamic compromise. DESIGN AND METHODS A retrospective analysis was done in patients with symptomatic and severe carotid stenosis (>60%). Ipsilateral WMHL volumes were calculated from magnetic resonance imaging scans and association studied with the requirement of an intraoperative shunt. RESULTS Seventy patients were included. Twelve (17%) patients required shunting and 2 developed perioperative strokes. Patients requiring shunting had a larger WMHL volume (adjusted means = 16.2 +/- 2.9 mL compared with 8.7 +/- 1.2 mL for the nonshunt group; P = .020). CONCLUSIONS Ipsilateral WMHL volume is a significant predictive factor for shunt requirement during carotid endarterectomy. This may reflect cerebral hemodynamic compromise.
Oscillations in Neural Systems

Contents: Preface. Part I: Oscillations in Single Neurons and Local Networks. G. Gross, J.M. Kowalski, B.K. Rhoades, Spontaneous and Evoked Oscillations in Cultured Mammalian Neuronal Networks. D.C. Tam, Detection of Oscillations and Synchronous Firing in Neurons. D.A. Baxter, H.A. Lechner, C.C. Canavier, R.J. Butera, Jr., A.A. DeFraneschi, J.W. Clark, Jr., J.H. Byrne, Coexisting Stable Oscillatory States in Single Cells and Multicellular Neuronal Oscillators. M. Stemmler, M. Usher, C. Koch, Oscillatory Local Field Potentials. G.J. Mpitsos, J.P. Edstrom, Computations Neurons Perform in Networks: Inside Versus Outside and Lessons Learned From a Sixteenth-Century Shoemaker. Part II: Oscillations in Cortical and Cortical/Subcortical Systems. I. Soltesz, The Interplay of Intrinsic and Synaptic Membrane Currents in Delta, Theta and 40-Hz Oscillations. E. Thomas, Dynamics of Low-Frequency Oscillations in a Model Thalamocortical Network. M.E. Jackson, L.J. Cauller, Towards the Function of Reciprocal Corticocortical Connections: Computational Modeling and Electrophysiological Studies. D. Young, An Oscillatory Model of Cortical Neural Processing. G.L. Yuen, Response Synchrony, APG Theory, and Motor Control. Part III: Oscillatory Models in Perception, Memory, and Cognition. D. Horn, I. Opher, Temporal Segmentation and Binding in Oscillatory Neural Systems. A. Grunewald, S. Grossberg, Perceptual Framing and Cortical Synchronization. D. DeMaris, Attention, Depth Gestalts, and Spatially Extended Chaos in the Perception of Ambiguous Figures. G. Borisyuk, R. Borisyuk, Y. Kazanovich, G. Strong, Oscillatory Neural Networks: Modeling Binding and Attention by Synchronization of Neural Activity. B. Baird, T. Troyer, F. Eeckman, Attentional Network Streams of Synchronized 40-Hz Activity in a Cortical Architecture of Coupled Oscillatory Associative Memories. Part IV: Applications of Synchronized and Chaotic Oscillations. G.E. Mobus, P.S. Fisher, Foraging Search at the Edge of Chaos. A.G. Brown, S. Collins, An Oscillatory Associative Memory Analogue Architecture. N.S. Park, D. Robertson, K. Stenning, Symbolic Knowledge Encoding Using a Dynamic Binding Mechanism and an Embedded Inference Mechanism. A. Jagota, X. Wang, Oscillations in Discrete and Continuous Hopfield Networks. S. Wolpert, Modeling Neural Oscillation Using VLSI-Based Neuromimes.
Les manifestations subtiles du stress dans le continuum de la psychose

The aetiology of schizophrenia seems to be complex and the VulnerabilityStress model (Nuechterlein & Dawson, 1984) proposes that genetic vulnerability factors, in conjunction with a particular history of environmental stress, would act together to drive the individual into a clinical state of psychosis. The principal objective of this thesis is to better understand the physiological reaction to a psychological stressor in people with schizophrenia, while conceptualizing psychotic symptoms along a continuum, rather than as a restrictive dichotomy. In order to distinguish between schizophrenia patients and controls from the general community, beyond the severity of their psychotic symptoms, they are compared on their stress reaction, and the phenomenon of critical threshold is explored within the cortisol reaction for its ability to distinguish between the two groups. The first study of this thesis (Brenner et al., 2007) examines the reliability, validity and factor structure of the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE) (Stefanis et al., 2002), with a French and English speaking sample form the north American population, a 42-item self-report questionnaire assessing psychoticlike symptoms in the general community: positive (or psychotic), negative (or vegetative) and depressive symptoms. This questionnaire was completed by 2 275 individuals from the Montreal area and the results support the internal consistencies of the original three subscales. Further, the exploratory factor analysis suggests 3-5 factor solutions, where the 4and 5-factor solutions propose separating the positive symptoms into more specific subcategories. Finally, this study suggests a shorter