Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health Care Cost Analyses for Exploring Cost Savings Opportunities in Older Patients: Longitudinal Retrospective Study

Background Half of Medicare reimbursement goes toward caring for the top 5% of the most expensive patients. However, little is known about these patients prior to reaching the top or how their costs change annually. To address these gaps, we analyzed patient flow and associated health care cost trends over 5 years. Objective To evaluate the cost of health care utilization in older patients by analyzing changes in their long-term expenditures. Methods This was a retrospective, longitudinal, multicenter study to evaluate health care costs of 2643 older patients from 2011 to 2015. All patients had at least one episode of home health care during the study period and used a personal emergency response service (PERS) at home for any length of time during the observation period. We segmented all patients into top (5%), middle (6%-50%), and bottom (51%-100%) segments by their annual expenditures and built cost pyramids based thereon. The longitudinal health care expenditure trends of the complete study population and each segment were assessed by linear regression models. Patient flows throughout the segments of the cost acuity pyramids from year to year were modeled by Markov chains. Results Total health care costs of the study population nearly doubled from US $17.7M in 2011 to US $33.0M in 2015 with an expected annual cost increase of US $3.6M (P=.003). This growth was primarily driven by a significantly higher cost increases in the middle segment (US $2.3M, P=.003). The expected annual cost increases in the top and bottom segments were US $1.2M (P=.008) and US $0.1M (P=.004), respectively. Patient and cost flow analyses showed that 18% of patients moved up the cost acuity pyramid yearly, and their costs increased by 672%. This was in contrast to 22% of patients that moved down with a cost decrease of 86%. The remaining 60% of patients stayed in the same segment from year to year, though their costs also increased by 18%. Conclusions Although many health care organizations target intensive and costly interventions to their most expensive patients, this analysis unveiled potential cost savings opportunities by managing the patients in the lower cost segments that are at risk of moving up the cost acuity pyramid. To achieve this, data analytics integrating longitudinal data from electronic health records and home monitoring devices may help health care organizations optimize resources by enabling clinicians to proactively manage patients in their home or community environments beyond institutional settings and 30- and 60-day telehealth services.
Evaluation of Consumption of Mixed Diet of Garlic, Garden Egg and Groundnut on the Cytoarchitecture of the Spleen of Anaemic Wistar Rats

Twenty five induced anaemic wistar rats of both sexes weighing 160-200g were used in this study to evaluate the effectiveness of consumption of mixed diet of garlic, garden egg and groundnut on the cytoarchitecture of the spleen. The animals were divided into five groups labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Group 1 served as the non-anaemic control and was fed with normal rat chow. Groups 2, 3, 4 and 5 the experimental, were induced with anaemia by oral administration of phenylhydrazine (PHZ) given at 50mg/kgBW. Group 2 served as anaemic control, fed with normal rat chow; Group 3 were fed with 20g (75%ww) of garlic, garden egg and groundnut in the ratio of 1:1:1 with normal rat chow; Group 4 fed with 10g of garden egg (50%ww) in the ratio 1:1 with normal rat chow and Group 5 fed with 10g of groundnut (50%ww) in the ratio 1:1 with normal rat chow. Animals were sacrificed at the end of fourteen days of dietary feeding using chloroform inhalation method. The spleen were dissected out and fixed in 10% formal saline. Cytoarchitecture of spleen were observed in groups 1, 3 4 and 5 rats to be normal. Sections from group 2 anaemic control rats, showed distortion of splenic white pulp with degenerated splenic nodules and diffused red pulp. Thus, the results from this study showed that the mixed diet of garlic, garden egg and groundnut have a protective effect on the cytoarchitecture of the spleen of induced anaemic wistar rats.
In vitro Evaluation of Bioactivity of Dictyonella incisa from Turkey

Marine sources are known to produce structurally unique pharmaceutically potent secondary metabolites. During the course of our studies on Turkish marine sponges, we have collected Dictyonella incisa from Turkey’s coast and methanolic extract was investigated for antioxidant, cytotoxic and antimicrobial activity. Antioxidant activity was evaluated by the superoxide radical scavenging assay, cytotoxic activity was determined against HCT-116 and HEp-2 cell lines by MTT assay. Antimicrobial activity was tested against some Gram positive, Gram negative bacteria and yeasts. Also cholesterol and cholestane isolated and the structure were identified by NMR methods. This is the first work on the bioactivity and secondary metabolites of D. incisa collected from Turkish coasts.
Droplet–turbulence interaction in a confined polydispersed spray: effect of turbulence on droplet dispersion

The effect of entrained air turbulence on dispersion of droplets (with Stokes number based on the Kolmogorov time scale, $St_{{\it\eta}}$ , of the order of 1) in a polydispersed spray is experimentally studied through simultaneous and planar measurements of droplet size, velocity and gas flow velocity (Hardalupas et al., Exp. Fluids, vol. 49, 2010, pp. 417–434). The preferential accumulation of droplets at various measurement locations in the spray was examined by two independent methods viz. counting droplets on images by dividing the image in to boxes of different sizes, and by estimating the radial distribution function (RDF). The dimension of droplet clusters (obtained by both approaches) was of the order of Kolmogorov’s length scale of the fluid flow, implying the significant influence of viscous scales of the fluid flow on cluster formation. The RDF of different size classes indicated an increase in cluster dimension for larger droplets (higher $St_{{\it\eta}}$ ). The length scales of droplet clusters increased towards the outer spray regions, where the gravitational influence on droplets is stronger compared to the central spray locations. The correlation between fluctuations of droplet concentration and droplet and gas velocities were estimated and found to be negative near the spray edge, while it was close to zero at other locations. The probability density function of slip between fluctuating droplet velocity and gas velocity ‘seen’ by the droplets signified presence of considerable instantaneous slip velocity, which is crucial for droplet–gas momentum exchange. In order to investigate different mechanisms of turbulence modulation of the carrier phase, the three correlation terms in the turbulent kinetic energy equation for particle-laden flows (Chen & Wood, Can. J. Chem. Engng, vol. 65, 1985, pp. 349–360) are evaluated conditional on droplet size classes. Based on the comparison of the correlation terms, it is recognized that although the interphase energy transfer due to fluctuations of droplet concentration is low compared to the energy exchange only due to droplet drag (the magnitude of which is controlled by average droplet mass loading), the former cannot be considered negligible, and should be accounted in two phase flow modelling.
Some Attempted Strategies towards the Control of Avian Coccidiosis: A Review

his paper focuses on anticoccidial drugs and resistance, poultry management, alternatives for anticoccidial drugs including dietary modulation, natural additives and herbs comprising of botanicals to coccidia. The paper also viewed at the treatment programme for coccidiosis control as well as its potential implications in meat tissue to man. Keywords: Anticoccidial drugs; Avian Coccidiosis; Coccidiostats
Routing Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks : A Brief Review

Routing in WSN is very challenging task due to lack of resources. For efficient communication and increase in lifetime of WSN there is a great need of optimal path selection. Data forwarding in optimal routes saves a lot of transmission energy of sensor nodes. This will results in increment in lifetime of the network. Many routing protocols have been proposed by researchers in recent years to save the energy and other resources like memory for WSN. Routing protocols mostly depend on applications and architecture of WSN. This paper presents the classification and analysis of routing protocols for WSN and concludes with open research issues in routing strategies in WSN.
Autobiographical recall triggers visual exploration

Autobiographical recall is thought to rely on the ability to generate a visual image of the remembered event. Neuropsychological studies suggest a relationship between deterioration in visual mental imagery and autobiographical distortions, while neuroimaging data similarly implicate visual brain areas in autobiographical recall. However, neither whether autobiographical retrieval is associated with visual exploration, or not. Our paper aimed to provide such evidence one way or the other. Using an eye tracking system, we recorded eye movements of 40 participants during autobiographical recall and during a control condition in which participants had to count aloud. In both conditions, the participants had to look at a blank screen while their gaze location was recorded by the eye-tracker. Autobiographical recall triggered a lower number of fixations and reduced their duration. In contrast, the number, duration, and amplitude of saccades increased compared to the control condition. Our data suggest that autobiographical recall is characterized by visual processing.
Cantilever deflection associated with hybridization of monomolecular DNA film

Recent experiments show that specific binding between a ligand and surface immobilized receptor, such as hybridization of single stranded DNA immobilized on a microcantilever surface, leads to cantilever deflection. The binding-induced deflection may be used as a method for detection of biomolecules, such as pathogens and biohazards. Mechanical deformation induced due to hybridization of surface-immobilized DNA strands is a commonly used system to demonstrate the efficacy of microcantilever sensors. To understand the mechanism underlying the cantilever deflections, a theoretical model that incorporates the influence of ligand/receptor complex surface distribution and empirical interchain potential is developed to predict the binding-induced deflections. The cantilever bending induced due to hybridization of DNA strands is predicted for different receptor immobilization densities, hybridization efficiencies, and spatial arrangements. Predicted deflections are compared with experimental reports to validate .
Parallel Spectral Graph Partitioning

In this paper we develop a novel parallel spectral partitioning method that takes advantage of an efficient implementation of a preconditioned eigenvalue solver and a k-means algorithm on the GPU. We showcase the performance of our novel scheme against standard spectral techniques. Also, we use it to compare the ratio and normalized cut cost functions often used to measure the quality of graph partitioning. Finally, we show that the behavior of our spectral scheme and popular multi-level schemes is starkly different for two classes of problems: (i) social network graphs that often have power law-like distribution of edges per node and (ii) meshes arising from discretization of partial differential equations. Although in our numerical experiments the multi-level schemes are almost always faster, we show that our spectral scheme can achieve a significantly higher quality of partitioning for the former class of problems.
Learning-based Air Data System for Safe and Efficient Control of Fixed-wing Aerial Vehicles

We develop an air data system for aerial robots executing high-speed outdoor missions subject to significant aerodynamic forces on their bodies. The system is based on a combination of Extended Kalman Filtering (EKF) and autoregressive feedforward Neural Networks, relying only on IMU sensors and GPS. This eliminates the need to instrument the vehicle with Pitot tubes and mechanical vanes, reducing associated cost, weight, maintenance requirements and likelihood of catastrophic mechanical failures. The system is trained to clone the behaviour of Pitot-tube measurements on thousands of instrumented simulated and real flights, and does not require a vehicle aerodynamics model. We demonstrate that safe guidance and navigation is possible in executing complex maneuvers in the presence of wind gusts without relying on airspeed sensors. We also demonstrate accuracy enhancements from successful “simulation-to-reality” transfer and dataset aggregation techniques to correct for training-test distribution mismatches when the air-data system and the control stack operate in closed loop.
Vocal Emotion Expressions Effects on Cooperation Behavior.

Emotional expressions have been proposed to be important for regulating social interaction as they can serve as cues for behavioral intentions. The issue has been mainly addressed analyzing the effects of facial emotional expressions in cooperation behavior, but there are contradictory results regarding the impact of emotional expressions on that behavior, particularly regarding the effects of joy expressions. In the present study, we extend research on the influence of emotional expressions on cooperation using vocal emotional expressions and address methodological shortcomings of previous studies. Forty-eight participants were exposed to joy, anger, and neutral emotional expressions before taking part in the “Assurance Dilemma” task, where behavioral and judgment measures were obtained. Behavioral results constitute the first evidence that non-facial emotional expressions influence cooperation behavior in experimental games and suggest that specific emotional expressions may have different effects on cooperation. Judgment measures suggest that experience, in addition to emotional expressions, may also play a role in this context. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.
Adaptive video streaming and multipath: can less be more?

A prominent portion of the traffic carried by In-ternet Service Providers (ISP) is delivered by Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). CDNs usually deploy their own caches at ISPs in addition to the servers deployed in their own premises. With the adoption of multipath transport protocols such as MPTCP, content consumers are able to retrieve their data from either caches deployed in their ISPs or server in the CDN premises using multiple paths in parallel. In this paper we present a study on the interplay between actors of a multipath-enabled video delivery system. For that we design a realistic numerical evaluation experiment; results obtained suggest that multipath can be both beneficial and harmful for ISP and CDN in different representative scenarios.
Identifying appropriate flagship species: the importance of culture and local contexts

Over the last 50 years there has been increasing use of charismatic large mammals and birds as ‘flagship species’ to raise funds and promote the ethos of conservation. However, species chosen to appeal to donor and membership groups may not necessarily be considered popular among local communities. A growing recognition of the need to engage local communities in conservation makes them an increasingly important audience for information about conservation. In such situations an awareness of the local perception and value of different species is central to choosing effective flagships. Emphasising this, we propose 10 criteria for the selection of flagship species. We then describe three examples of local flagship species and assess their use against these criteria: the Asian elephant Elephas maximus for the conservation of landscapes in Aceh, Indonesia, the flying fox Pteropus voeltzkowi for forest protection on Pemba Island, Tanzania, and the ceiba or kapok tree Ceiba pentandra for the conservation of forests in Belize.
Factors in establishing positive youth–staff relations in social pedagogy-based Norwegian treatment collectives: A study of young people’s impressions and experiences

The objective of this study was to gain insight into the process that occurs when young people establish positive emotional relations with staff in ‘treatment collectives’ in Norway. Eighteen young people living in two social pedagogy-based treatment collectives were interviewed regarding their relationships with the treatment staff. Because positive relationships have been shown to be of great importance for the outcomes of treatment, this study’s main objective was to obtain insight into what the young people found important when establishing such relationships with staff members. Our findings suggest that certain of the collective’s structural factors and staff’s personal factors contributed to the establishment of positive youth–staff relations. The main structural factor is that the core staff are resident with the young people, and the resulting continuity and trust this engenders. The main personal staff factors are attention, persistence and genuine personal affection shown for the young people in their care.
Non-Cooperative Dynamic Games for General Insurance Markets

In the insurance industry, the number of product-specific policies from different companies has increased significantly. The strong market competition has boosted the demand for a competitive premium. In actuarial science, scant literature still exists on how competition actually affects the calculation and the cycles of company’s premiums. In this paper, we model premium dynamics via differential games, and study the insurers’ equilibrium premium dynamics in a competitive market. We apply an optimal control theory methodology to determine the open-loop Nash equilibrium premium strategies. The market power of each insurance company is characterized by a price sensitive parameter, and the business volume is affected by the solvency ratio. We study two models. Considering the average market premiums, the first model studies an exponential relation between premium strategies and volume of business. The second model initially characterizes the competition between any selected pair of insurers, and then aggregates all the paired competitions in the market. Numerical examples illustrate the premium dynamics, and show that premium cycles may exist in equilibrium.
Regenerative Medicine: A New Paradigm in Bone Regeneration

Bone defects are the cause of functional disability and the restoration of skeletal function remains an important challenge on orthopedics, neurosurgery and oral and maxillofa‐ cial surgery. Because of the limitations of the currently used techniques for the reconstruction of bone defects and the difficulties for the implementation of new therapeutic strategies, a new paradigm in the field of reconstructive surgery has arisen, leading to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have emerged as a promising alternative for the treatment of bone lesions. It was postulated that the therapeutic action was the result of proliferation and differentia‐ tion of MSCs, replacing injured tissue. However, recent studies have shown that MSCs secrete a number of trophic factors that have a strong effect during repair and tissue regeneration. This represents a shift from a paradigm centered on MSC proliferation and differentiation to a new paradigm in which the MSCs exert their beneficial effect by the secretion of paracrine factors that induce endogenous repair mechanisms. This chapter will bring together basic and clinical aspects, focused on novel findings on MSC paracrine effect and the development of new therapeutic strategies based on growth factors, cytokines and signaling molecules involved in bone regeneration.
Vehicular beacon broadcast scheduling based on age of information (AoI)

Vehicular beaconing plays an important role to facilitate various applications in the paradigm of Internet of Vehicles (IoV). Due to high dynamic and resource limitation in IoV, how to schedule the vehicular beacon broadcast is challenging, especially in dense scenarios. In this paper, we investigate the beacon broadcast scheduling problem considering the Age of Information (AoI). We first propose an algorithm minimizing the expected sum of AoI considering the limited communication resource and vehicle mobility. Then the performance of the proposed algorithm is analyzed. With the proposed algorithm, the optimal solution can be obtained under certain conditions. Extensive simulations are conducted to verify the efficiency, effectiveness and fairness of the proposed solution.
Electromagnetic Scattering From Periodic Array With Object Using a New Efficient Aggregate Basis Function Method

A new efficient aggregate basis function method is proposed for the electromagnetic scattering from composite structures consisting of finite periodic array and other object. The aggregate basis functions composed of Rao–Wilton–Glisson basis functions are defined, which leads to a good decrease in the number of unknowns, but with the enough accuracy. To obtain the aggregate basis functions, the approximate solution is implemented. By taking advantage of the nature of periodic array, the filling number of the impedance matrix blocks is substantially decreased, and the procedure of getting the approximate solutions is accelerated. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method are demonstrated in a typical scattering example.
SynPharm: A Guide to PHARMACOLOGY Database Tool for Designing Drug Control into Engineered Proteins

A major challenge in synthetic biology, particularly for mammalian systems, is the inclusion of adequate external control for the synthetic system activities. Control at the transcriptional level can be achieved by adaptation of bacterial repressor–operator systems (e.g., TetR), but altering the activity of a protein by controlling transcription is indirect and for longer half-life mRNAs, decreasing activity this way can be inconveniently slow. Where possible, direct modulation of protein activity by soluble ligands has many advantages, including rapid action. Decades of drug discovery and pharmacological research have uncovered detailed information on the interactions between large numbers of small molecules and their primary protein targets (as well as off-target secondary interactions), many of which have been well studied in mammals, including humans. In principle, this accumulated knowledge would be a powerful resource for synthetic biology. Here, we present SynPharm, a tool that draws together information from the pharmacological database GtoPdb and the structural database, PDB, to help synthetic biologists identify ligand-binding domains of natural proteins. Consequently, as sequence cassettes, these may be suitable for building into engineered proteins to confer small-molecule modulation on them. The tool has ancillary utilities which include assessing contact changes among different ligands in the same protein, predicting possible effects of genetic variants on binding residues, and insights into ligand cross-reactivity among species.