Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variation in health services utilization among ethnic populations

Background: Although racial and ethnic disparities in health services utilization and outcomes have been extensively studied in several countries, this issue has received little attention in Canada. We therefore analyzed data from the 2001 Canadian Community Health Survey to compare the use of health services by members of visible minority groups and nonmembers (white people) in Canada. Methods: Logistic regression was used to compare physician contacts and hospital admissions during the 12 months before the survey and recent cancer screening tests. Explanatory variables recorded from the survey included visible minority status, sociodemographic factors and health measures. Results: Respondents included 7057 members of visible minorities and 114 255 white people for analysis. After adjustments for sociodemographic and health characteristics, we found that minority members were more likely than white people to have had contact with a general practitioner (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.28, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14–1.42), but not specialist physicians (OR 1.01, 95% CI 0.93–1.10). Members of visible minorities were less likely to have been admitted to hospital (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.70– 0.98), tested for prostate-specific antigen (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.52–0.79), administered a mammogram (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.59–0.80) or given a Pap test (OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.39–0.56). Interpretation: Use of health services in Canada varies considerably by ethnicity according to type of service. Although there is no evidence that members of visible minorities use general physician and specialist services less often than white people, their utilization of hospital and cancer screening services is significantly less.
Impact of an automated test results management system on patients' satisfaction about test result communication.

BACKGROUND Few reliable and efficient systems support the communication of test results to outpatients, and this may lead to patient dissatisfaction with test result communication. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of physicians' use of a test results management tool embedded in an electronic health record on patient satisfaction with test result communication. METHODS A prospective, cluster-randomized, controlled trial of 570 patient encounters in 26 outpatient primary care practices was performed from December 1, 2002, to April 31, 2005. Physicians in the intervention practices were trained and given access to a physician test results management tool with imbedded patient notification functions to evaluate whether patient satisfaction with communication of test results ordered by the primary care provider was improved. Patient satisfaction surveys were conducted by telephone after the patient underwent the test and were administered before and after the intervention in both arms. RESULTS The survey response rate after successful patient contact was 74.2% (570/768). After adjusting for patient age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, and insurance type, the intervention significantly increased patient satisfaction with test results communication (odds ratio, 2.35; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-5.25; P = .03). In addition, patients in the postintervention group were more satisfied with information given them for medical treatments and conditions regarding their results (odds ratio, 3.45; 95% confidence interval, 1.30-9.17; P = .02). CONCLUSION An automated test results management system can improve patient satisfaction with communication of test results ordered by their primary care provider and can improve patient satisfaction with the communication of information regarding their condition and treatment plans.
A neurofuzzy inference system based on biomechanical features for the evaluation of the effects of physical training

The current study aimed to evaluate physical training effects. For this purpose, a classifier was implemented by taking into account biomechanical features selected from force-plate measurements and a neurofuzzy algorithm for data management and relevant decision-making. Measurements included two sets of sit-to-stand (STS) trials involving two homogeneous groups, experimental and control, of elders. They were carried out before and after a 12-week heavy resistance strength-training program undergone by the experimental group. Pre- and post-training differences were analysed, and percentages of membership to “trained” and “untrained” fuzzy sets calculated. The method was shown to be appropriate for detecting significant training-related changes. Detection accuracy was higher than 87%. Slightly weaker results were obtained using a neural approach, suggesting the need for a larger sample size. In conclusion, the use of a set of biomechanical features and of a neurofuzzy algorithm allowed to propose a global score for evaluating the effectiveness of a specific training program.
Roles of ATP sensitive potassium channel in modulating gastric tone and accommodation in dogs

Abstract Objective: The ATP sensitive potassium (KATP) channel plays an important role in the regulation of resting membrane potential and membrane excitability. The role of the KATP channel in modulating gastric motility is unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the role and mechanism of the KATP channel in modulating gastric tone and accommodation in dogs. Materials and methods: Gastric volume under a constant pressure reflecting gastric tone was measured using a barostat device in dogs equipped with a gastric cannula. Gastric accommodation was evaluated by the difference in gastric volume before and after a liquid meal. The roles of cholinergic and nitrergic pathways in the inhibitory effect of pinacidil (a KATP opener) were assessed. Results: 1) Pinacidil dose-dependently decreased gastric tone at a dosage of 30 (p = 0.628), 100 (p = 0.013) and 300 μg kg−1 (p < 0.001). 2) Glibenclamide, a KATP blocker, completely blocked the inhibitory effect of pinacidil on gastric tone. 3) Atropine did not block the inhibitory effect of pinacidil on gastric tone but Nω-Nitro-L-arginine methyl ester markedly attenuated the inhibitory effect of pinacidil (p = 0.004). 4) Glibenclamide significantly reduced gastric accommodation (p < 0.001) while pinacidil had no effects on gastric accommodation. 5) Glibenclamide significantly reduced nitric oxide donor sodium nitroprusside-induced gastric relaxation. Conclusions: These findings indicate that the KATP channel plays an important role in modulating gastric tone and accommodation in dogs. The inhibitory effect of pinacidil on gastric tone was through the nitrergic pathway as well as acting directly on smooth muscle cells.
Prevention of coronary heart disease with pravastatin in men with hypercholesterolemia. West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study Group.

BACKGROUND Lowering the blood cholesterol level may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. This double-blind study was designed to determine whether the administration of pravastatin to men with hypercholesterolemia and no history of myocardial infarction reduced the combined incidence of nonfatal myocardial infarction and death from coronary heart disease. METHODS We randomly assigned 6595 men, 45 to 64 years of age, with a mean (+/- SD) plasma cholesterol level of 272 +/- 23 mg per deciliter (7.0 +/- 0.6 mmol per liter) to receive pravastatin (40 mg each evening) or placebo. The average follow-up period was 4.9 years. Medical records, electrocardiographic recordings, and the national death registry were used to determine the clinical end points. RESULTS Pravastatin lowered plasma cholesterol levels by 20 percent and low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol levels by 26 percent, whereas there was no change with placebo. There were 248 definite coronary events (specified as nonfatal myocardial infarction or death from coronary heart disease) in the placebo group, and 174 in the pravastatin group (relative reduction in risk with pravastatin, 31 percent; 95 percent confidence interval, 17 to 43 percent; P < 0.001). There were similar reductions in the risk of definite nonfatal myocardial infarctions (31 percent reduction, P < 0.001), death from coronary heart disease (definite cases alone: 28 percent reduction, P = 0.13; definite plus suspected cases: 33 percent reduction, P = 0.042), and death from all cardiovascular causes (32 percent reduction, P = 0.033). There was no excess of deaths from noncardiovascular causes in the pravastatin group. We observed a 22 percent reduction in the risk of death from any cause in the pravastatin group (95 percent confidence interval, 0 to 40 percent; P = 0.051). CONCLUSIONS Treatment with pravastatin significantly reduced the incidence of myocardial infarction and death from cardiovascular causes without adversely affecting the risk of death from noncardiovascular causes in men with moderate hypercholesterolemia and no history of myocardial infarction.
Trust and Prior Experience in Human-Robot Interaction

This experiment explored the influence of users’ experience (prior interaction) with robots on their attitudes and trust toward robotic agents. Specifically, we hypothesized that prior experience would lead to 1) higher trust scores after viewing a robot complete a task, 2) smaller differences in trust scores when comparing a human and a robot completing the same task, and 3) more positive general attitudes towards robots. These hypotheses were supported although not all results achieved significant levels of differentiation. These findings confirm that prior experience plays an important role in both user trust and general attitude in human-robot interactions.
The cerebellofugal projections in the brachium conjunctivum of the rat. I. The contralateral ascending pathway ,

The cerebellofugal projections in the contralateral ascending pathway of the brachium conjunctivum (B.C.) in the rat have been investigated in 23 animals using the Fink‐Heimer technique to demonstrate the axonal degeneration resulting from complete B.C. lesions (7), partial B.C. lesions (14) and control lesions dorsal to the B.C. (2). All of the degeneration resulting from the concomitant involvement of the structures surrounding the B.C. is accounted for in terms of known fiber pathways and from the results in the control experiments.
Role of vasopressin in clinical hypertension and congestive cardiac failure: interaction with the sympathetic nervous system.

The pressor action of vasopressin (AVP) in humans was investigated with the specific anti-vasopressor V1 antagonist d(CH2)5-O(Me)-Tyr-AVP. A single 0.5-mg intravenous bolus of this agent inhibited the pressor effect of AVP by about 80%. Normally hydrated humans had no blood pressure response to this dose, but this agent did prevent the blood pressure rise in response to exogenous AVP given in doses up to 200 milli-units/kg. Patients with severe hypertension, especially that associated with end-stage renal disease, tended to respond with moderate increases in blood pressure and plasma AVP after sodium overload and had a modest blood pressure fall (10-20 mmHg) in response to a single intravenous bolus of the AVP antagonist. Patients with an impaired sympathetic nervous system had increased sensitivity to the pressor action of AVP, in keeping with knowledge derived from experimental studies. These data suggest an interaction between AVP and alpha-adrenergic function, whereby the latter tends to attenuate the pressor action of AVP although it facilitates the release of AVP in response to various stimuli. In patients with congestive heart failure, the direct pressor action of AVP appears to contribute to increased systemic vascular resistance in about 30% of cases, i.e., those with plasma AVP concentrations well above the normal range. In these subjects, circulating AVP concentrations correlated with a decrease in vascular resistance in response to the V1 antagonist.
INTERVAL TYPE-2 FUZZY BASED NEURAL NETWORK FOR HIGH RESOLUTION REMOTE SENSING IMAGE SEGMENTATION

Abstract. Recently, high resolution remote sensing image segmentation is a hot issue in image procesing procedures. However, it is a difficult task. The difficulties derive from the uncertainties of pixel segmentation and decision-making model. To this end, we take spatial relationship into consideration when constructing the interval type-2 fuzzy neural networks for high resolution remote sensing image segmentation. First, the proposed algorithm constructs a Gaussian model as a type-1 fuzzy model to describe the uncertainty contained in the image. Second, interval type-2 fuzzy model is obtained by blurring the mean and variance in type-1 model. The proposed interval type-2 model can strengthen the expression of uncertainty and simultaneously decrease the uncertainty in the decision model. Then the fuzzy membership function itself and its upper and lower fuzzy membership functions of the training samples are used as the input of neuron network which acts as the decision model in proposed algorithm. Finally, the relationship of neighbour pixels is taken into consideration and the fuzzy membership functions of the detected pixel and its neighbourhood are used to decide the class of each pixel to get the final segmentation result. The proposed algorithm, FCM and HMRF-FCM algorithm and an interval type-2 fuzzy neuron networks without spatial relationships are performed on synthetic and real high resolution remote sensing images. The qualitative and quantitative analyses demonstrate the efficient of the proposed algorithm, especially for homogeneous regions which contains a great difference in its gray level (for example forest).
The study of multimodal series elastic actuator

An elastic actuator is proposed for meeting the knee power-assisted exoskeleton effective drive demand under different walking pattern. The actuator can achieve different motion of power-assisted knee exoskeleton through the motor driving the screw nut, series with spring and combing with the corresponding brake pads, and the motion modes are analyzed. The kinematics equations of elastic actuator were established, and the effects of spring stiffness and damping for the properties of elastic actuator are studied. The prototype of actuator is designed and tested, and braking force and motion following experiments are implanted. The results of experiments showed that the elastic actuator can realize effective braking force and favorable motion following. The study of multi-mode elastic actuator provides important theoretical basis for the understanding of motion mechanism of bionic actuator.
Color Demosaicking via Directional Weighted TV Sparse Representation on Spectral Domain

This paper works on the improving the performance of the color demosaicking method for the CFA (color filter array) cameras via directional weighted TV sparse representation. In this paper, the authors clearly model the spectral camera capture process influenced by the material and the geometry of the object surface, and suppose that the normalized color bands can be modeled by 2D piecewise constant functions. Furthermore, in order to describe the change of surface materials and discontinuities in surface geometry, we model the Laplacians of the image's norm matrix as a 2D piecewise linear function. Then we proposed an algorithm based on the directional weighted TV sparse representation on spectral domain, and extensive experiments have been done and show the availability of the strong prior in color demosaicking.
Association of the G4 rotavirus genotype with gastroenteritis in adults

Rotavirus is the most common etiological cause of acute viral gastroenteritis in infants and young children worldwide, yet its role in the adult population is less well understood. We have recently identified rotavirus as the causative agent of severe diarrhea in adults, specifically in two gastroenteritis outbreaks in separate care for the elderly homes. Strain typing has shown the continued presence of P[8]G1, the emergence of P[8]G9, and the reemergence of P[8]G4. A total of 26 community cases and 6 outbreak cases of rotavirus infection, positive via a molecular screening assay, were subsequently amplified using VP4 and VP7 specific primers (Con2/Con3 and 1A/1B primer sets, respectively). The age range of patients investigated was from <1 year to 89 years. The resulting PCR products were cloned into TOPO10 PCR IV vector and sequenced to give the P‐ and G‐type accordingly. All sequence data were subjected to BLAST™ analysis. Three different rotavirus types P[8]G1, P[8]G4, and P[8]G9 were identified. Types P[8]G1 and P[8]G9 were identified as circulating within the community, whereas the third type P[8]G4 was identified only in an elderly care outbreak. The identification of G9 rotaviruses supports evidence of emergence of the genotype on a global scale. J. Med. Virol. 78:1119–1123, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Uma arquitetura de segurança computacional inspirada no sistema imunologico

o sistema imunologico humano e capaz de garantir a sobrevivencia de um individuo durante toda sua vida, mesmo que ele se depare, a cada dia, com bacterias e virus potencialmente mortais. Dessa forma, esse sistema biologico prove uma rica fonte de inspiracao para a manutencao da seguranca computacional. Alem de representar um modelo bastante proximo das condicoes em que a maioria das redes de computadores se encontra, o sistema imunologico engloba uma serie de caracteristicas e principios desejaveis a um sistema de seguranca. Considerando esses fatos, este trabalho explora as caracteristicas e principios do sistema imunologico humano para construir uma arquitetura de seguranca computacional. A arquitetura desenvolvida possibilita a identificacao de ataques atraves da analise de evidencias de intrusao, respostas inespecifica e especifica e a extracao automatizada de assinaturas para ataques desconhecidos, tornando o sistema computacional dinamicamente adaptavel a novos ataques. Com base nessa arquitetura foi construido um prototipo, ADENoIDS, que implementa as principais funcionalidades modeladas e considera a importante classe de ataques buffer overftow. Resultados experimentais permitem verificar que e possivel identificar ataques desconhecidos atraves da analise de evidencias de intrusao. Apos identificar um ataque, sao ativados os mecanismos de restauracao e e iniciado o processo de extracao de assinatura. Utilizando um algoritmo probabilistico para a extracao de assinaturas, tambem desenvolvido nesta pesquisa, e possivel eliminar falso-positivos e obter uma assinatura para o ataque em questao Abstract
Sales-Marketing Integration in SMEs : An Exploratory Investigation of Marketing as a Sales Support Function

Improving collaboration between different business functions can be seen as a core priority for both large and small organisations. Indeed, Rouzies et al. (2005) have argued that breaking down barriers between functions and encouraging teamwork can be the key to building competitive advantage. One area of business where such integration would be particularly beneficial is the sales-marketing interface, where both functions are responsible for the cultivation of successful customer relationships. As a result, the integration of sales and marketing is receiving increased academic attention (Dawes and Massey, 2005), particularly since publication of the seminal article ‘Ending the War between Sales and Marketing’ (Kotler, Rackham, and Krishanaswamy, 2006) in the Harvard Business Review. However this remains an area in need of further exploration (Le Meunier-FitzHugh and Piercy, 2010).
Implementing the Regular Education Initiative in Secondary Schools

Discussions on the Regular Education Initiative (REI) have not addressed the significant differences that exist between the organizational structures, curricula, and other features of elementary and secondary schools. It is argued here that wholesale application of the REI to both elementary and secondary schools is a gross oversimplification of a complex problem. This article reviews potential barriers to implementing the REI with mildly handicapped adolescents in secondary schools and then discusses a set of factors central to developing a workable partnership that is compatible with the intent and goals of the REI but that is also realistic in responding to the unique parameters of secondary schools.
Mobilizing organizations for innovation and value creation: an integrated model of the mobile company

Purpose – The purpose of the article is to provide managers and academics alike with valuable insights into how global organizations are able to manage innovation by the organization‐wide mobilization of knowledge resources.Design/methodology/approach – This paper is the result of an eight‐year in‐depth theoretical and practical research process mainly undertaken within Siemens AG, and is based on a total of 68 expert interviews conducted with distinguished experts in related fields. Consisting of three phases, the research stretched from analyzing the interrelation of mobility and innovation and deducing case studies towards the development of an integrated model of a mobile company.Findings – In order to leverage on innovation as one of the most important sources of competitiveness and business success, organizations have to abandon outdated organizational models and engage into mobilizing their knowledge resources.Originality/value – The results of this in‐depth work can be applied to the reality of a .
The Head Domain of Plakophilin-1 Binds to Desmoplakin and Enhances Its Recruitment to Desmosomes

The contribution of desmosomes to epidermal integrity is evident in the inherited blistering disorder associated with the absence of a functional gene for plakophilin-1. To define the function of plakophilin-1 in desmosome assembly, interactions among the desmosomal cadherins, desmoplakin, and the armadillo family members plakoglobin and plakophilin-1 were examined. In transient expression assays, plakophilin-1 formed complexes with a desmoplakin amino-terminal domain and enhanced its recruitment to cell-cell borders; this recruitment was not dependent on the equimolar expression of desmosomal cadherins. In contrast to desmoplakin-plakoglobin interactions, the interaction between desmoplakin and plakophilin-1 was not mediated by the armadillo repeat domain of plakophilin-1 but by the non-armadillo head domain, as assessed by yeast two-hybrid and recruitment assays. We propose a model whereby plakoglobin serves as a linker between the cadherins and desmoplakin, whereas plakophilin-1 enhances lateral interactions between desmoplakin molecules. This model suggests that epidermal lesions in patients lacking plakophilin-1 are a consequence of the loss of integrity resulting from a decrease in binding sites for desmoplakin and intermediate filaments at desmosomes.