Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deregulated power prices: changes over time

We examine price by season and by year in 14 deregulated markets, by looking at diurnal price patterns and price volatility. Power price volatility is measured by price velocity, the daily average of the absolute value of price change per hour, which is broken into a component expected from the average diurnal pattern, and an unexpected component. Deregulated markets can be categorized into three groups: stable markets, markets that experienced one bad period or season of high price excursion, and chaotic markets. Britain, Spain and Scandinavia show consistent price patterns and low unexpected price velocity; a thoughtful consumer could reasonably implement demand side management (DSM) by shaping consumption patterns to reflect price. California, New Zealand and Alberta are examples of markets that had a period of very high price excursion; we discuss factors affecting public reaction to this. Australian power markets have inconsistent price patterns from season to season and year to year, and very high unexpected price velocity. Planned DSM in these markets would be very difficult. We offer four policy considerations for markets considering deregulation in the future.
What data do California HMOs use to select hospitals for contracting?

OBJECTIVE To explore whether health maintenance organization (HMO) executives in a mature market are familiar with hospital report cards, whether they find the report cards useful (and if not, why not), and how they weight such data relative to other factors. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional survey of HMO executives in 1999. PATIENTS AND METHODS We contacted all 47 licensed HMOs and the sponsors of all 90 employee medical benefit plans in California with at least 1000 participants. Thirty of the 47 (63.8%) eligible HMOs provided usable responses: 19 in writing, 11 by telephone. RESULTS HMO executives reported basing their contracting decisions primarily on hospital accreditation, location, and price. Although hospital quality is considered important, HMO executives rely primarily on accreditation, government disciplinary actions, reputation, and member satisfaction as measures of quality. Respondents voiced multiple concerns about the validity and usefulness of currently available process and outcome data. Accredited plans are more likely than unaccredited plans to perform independent analyses of hospital performance. CONCLUSIONS Although HMO executives are interested in information on hospital quality, and are confident that such information will improve care, they are concerned about the limitations of available data and uncomfortable weighting these data heavily in selecting network hospitals. Prior empirical evidence suggests that HMOs may rely on surrogate quality measures and informal evaluation mechanisms to steer their members toward better-performing hospitals. Policy makers and producers of hospital report cards will need to address these problems by providing more timely data with longitudinal follow-up and external validation.
Sometimes we do get it right! Early clinical contact is a rewarding experience.

OBJECTIVE Like many other medical education bodies, the Health Professions Council of South Africa has advocated changes in the education and training of medical practitioners. The suggested reform includes early clinical exposure in a range of settings. Early in the design of Curriculum 2001, a problem-based learning programme, health care visits in Year 1 were considered essential. Since the student population was diverse in many aspects, including age, it was necessary to evaluate whether students were prepared for the early exposure. METHODS Data on the impact of the health care visits were collected directly through a survey administered towards the end of the academic year and indirectly from student comments regarding their most rewarding experiences during the year. RESULTS Responses to survey items indicated that students were generally prepared for their health care visits and gave them insights into the activities of a medical practitioner. Sixty-nine per cent of students indicated that aspects of their health care visits, particularly the labour ward and an ambulance duty where many had hands-on experience, were their most rewarding experiences. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS The decision of curriculum organisers to introduce students to patients in Year 1 of the new PBL curriculum was well received. Despite their young age, many students believed that they were psychologically prepared for this exposure. For many, it was the highlight of their academic year, often reinforcing their original desire to study medicine and allowing them to experience the real world of medicine.
Pharmacists' documentation in patients' hospital health records: issues and educational implications

Objectives We aimed to identify potential barriers to hospital pharmacists' documentation in patients' hospital health records, and to explore pharmacists' training needs. Our objectives were to identify the methods used by pharmacists to communicate and document patient care issues, to explore pharmacists' attitudes towards documentation of patient care issues in health records, to identify and examine the factors influencing whether or not pharmacists document their care in health records and to make recommendations to inform development of a training programme to educate pharmacists regarding documentation in health records.
Early detection and screening for ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is associated with potmenopausal women on North Ameican or European descent, nulliparous women, and women with a first‐degree relative with an epithelial overaina cancer. Methods for early detection of ovarian cancer are the pelvic examination, ultrasound techniques, and CA‐125 monitoring, none of which are highly sensitive or specific for the disease. At the Yale‐New Haven Medical Center, first‐degree relatives of women with epithelial ovarian cancer were invited to participate in an intense ovarian cancer screening program consisting of tumor markers, endovaginal ultrasound and color Doppler flow studies, and physical examinations performed in a serial fashion. The false‐postive rate for the tumor markers varied from 2 to 9% at initial evaluation of the first 247 participants. Endovaginal ultrasound and color Doppler flow techniques were used to evaluate 326 ovaries in 169 womens. Resistive indices < 0.5 were present in 26 ovaries (8.4%) and peak systolic velocities > 30 cm/sec occurred in 7 ovaries (2.3%). To date, four breast cancers have been detected, three cervical intraepithelial neoplasias have been identified, and three atypical adenomatous hyperplasias were diagnosed. No epithelial ovarian cancer was found. Isolated screening for ovarian cancer even in high‐risk womed is not cost effective. Women screened for ovarian cancer should also be evaluated for cancers of the breast, cervix, colon rectum and endometrium. Isolated abnormal screening test values are not an indication for surgery.
Molecular Dissection of Dual Pseudosymmetric Solute Translocation Pathways in Human P-Glycoprotein

The human multispecific drug efflux transporter P-glycoprotein (P-gp) causes drug resistance and modulates the pharmacological profile of systemically administered medicines. It has arisen from a homodimeric ancestor by gene duplication. Crystal structures of mouse MDR1A indicate that P-gp shares the overall architecture with two homodimeric bacterial exporters, Sav1866 and MsbA, which have complete rotational symmetry. For ATP-binding cassette transporters, nucleotide binding occurs in two symmetric positions in the motor domains. Based on the homology with entirely symmetric half-transporters, the present study addressed the key question: can biochemical evidence for the existence of dual drug translocation pathways in the transmembrane domains of P-gp be found? P-gp was photolabeled with propafenone analogs, purified, and digested proteolytically, and peptide fragments were identified by high-resolution mass spectrometry. Labeling was assigned to two regions in the protein by projecting data into homology models. Subsequently, symmetric residue pairs in the putative translocation pathways were identified and replaced by site-directed mutagenesis. Transport assays corroborated the existence of two pseudosymmetric translocation pathways. Although rhodamine123 has a preference to take one path, verapamil, propafenones, and vinblastine preferentially use the other. Two major findings ensued from this study: the existence of two solute translocation pathways in P-gp as a reflection of evolutionary origin from a homodimeric ancestor and selective but not exclusive use of one of these pathways by different P-gp solutes. The pseudosymmetric behavior reconciles earlier kinetic and thermodynamic data, suggesting an alternative concept of drug transport by P-gp that will aid in understanding the off-target quantitative structure activity relationships of P-gp interacting drugs.
Oral prednisolone is more cost-effective than oral indomethacin for treating patients with acute gout-like arthritis

Objectives Acute gouty arthritis is often treated with NSAIDs, but recent studies have suggested that treatment with prednisolone has at least equivalent analgesic efficacy and fewer adverse effects. No formal economic analysis has been performed earlier. In this study, we aimed to compare the economic impact of oral indomethacin therapy and oral prednisolone therapy in the treatment of acute gout in patients presenting to an emergency department in Hong Kong. Methods Data from a previously published randomized controlled trial were used to compare the costs of the two treatment options. Direct, incremental costs incurred in the 2 weeks after the initial presentation were considered from the perspective of the healthcare provider. Costs were subdivided into those incurred in the emergency department phase; admission on day 1 to the emergency department's observation ward; admission subsequently to the general medical ward for adverse events and reattendance to the hospital outpatients' or emergency department. Results The prednisolone strategy resulted in cost savings in the emergency department of HK$5.67 (US$0.73; £0.37) and in medical admissions of HK$1727.48 (US$221.47; £111.45) per patient treated. Overall, the average saving with prednisolone was HK$1235 (US$158.33; £79.68) per patient treated, which was equivalent to one admission bed/day saved for every two patients treated. Treatment for each of the six patients in the indomethacin group admitted for serious adverse effects cost the healthcare provider HK$13 244 (US$1697.95; £854.45). Conclusion Treatment of acute gouty arthritis with a 5-day course of prednisolone is significantly more cost-effective than treatment with indomethacin.
Utilization of System Dynamics in Southern Africa: A Systematic Review

Research efforts using system dynamics to understand and evaluate societal and policy-related problems in Southern Africa are becoming essential. This paper undertook a systematic review to examine the extent of utilization of system dynamics in Southern Africa between 2003 and 2014. The results showed that system dynamics has been used, or referred to, in the academic literature pertaining to the themes of environment, public policy and resources. Nevertheless, focuses remain limited in its application across various industries, particularly relating to stakeholder engagement and strategy. However, some analysis of the non-academic literature suggests that commercial practice of system dynamics has a different trend, where it is mainly used for strategic and tactical projects, mostly for industry clients. Thus, the current research outputs do not necessarily reflect the industry needs. This review is then useful to facilitate further discussions on practical applications of system dynamics through the South Africa System Dynamics Chapter. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Cardiometabolic risk in patients with first-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders: baseline results from the RAISE-ETP study.

IMPORTANCE The fact that individuals with schizophrenia have high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality is well established. However, risk status and moderators or mediators in the earliest stages of illness are less clear. OBJECTIVE To assess cardiometabolic risk in first-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders (FES) and its relationship to illness duration, antipsychotic treatment duration and type, sex, and race/ethnicity. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Baseline results of the Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode (RAISE) study, collected between July 22, 2010, and July 5, 2012, from 34 community mental health facilities without major research, teaching, or clinical FES programs. Patients were aged 15 to 40 years, had research-confirmed diagnoses of FES, and had less than 6 months of lifetime antipsychotic treatment. EXPOSURE Prebaseline antipsychotic treatment was based on the community clinician's and/or patient's decision. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Body composition and fasting lipid, glucose, and insulin parameters. RESULTS In 394 of 404 patients with cardiometabolic data (mean [SD] age, 23.6 [5.0] years; mean [SD] lifetime antipsychotic treatment, 47.3 [46.1] days), 48.3% were obese or overweight, 50.8% smoked, 56.5% had dyslipidemia, 39.9% had prehypertension, 10.0% had hypertension, and 13.2% had metabolic syndrome. Prediabetes (glucose based, 4.0%; hemoglobin A1c based, 15.4%) and diabetes (glucose based, 3.0%; hemoglobin A1c based, 2.9%) were less frequent. Total psychiatric illness duration correlated significantly with higher body mass index, fat mass, fat percentage, and waist circumference (all P<.01) but not elevated metabolic parameters (except triglycerides to HDL-C ratio [P=.04]). Conversely, antipsychotic treatment duration correlated significantly with higher non-HDL-C, triglycerides, and triglycerides to HDL-C ratio and lower HDL-C and systolic blood pressure (all P≤.01). In multivariable analyses, olanzapine was significantly associated with higher triglycerides, insulin, and insulin resistance, whereas quetiapine fumarate was associated with significantly higher triglycerides to HDL-C ratio (all P≤.02). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In patients with FES, cardiometabolic risk factors and abnormalities are present early in the illness and likely related to the underlying illness, unhealthy lifestyle, and antipsychotic medications, which interact with each other. Prevention of and early interventions for psychiatric illness and treatment with lower-risk agents, routine antipsychotic adverse effect monitoring, and smoking cessation interventions are needed from the earliest illness phases.
Maximizing the Health of Women with Epilepsy: Science and Ethics in New Drug Development

Summary: Issues of unique concern to women with epilepsy largely arise from gender‐based physiological differences. Female sex steroid hormones may alter the expression of epilepsy and the efficacy of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Seizures and AEDs in turn affect the hypothalamic‐pituitary axis and can adversely impact reproductive function and bone health. Maternal seizures and exposure to AEDs may compromise fetal development. At this time, women with epilepsy and their medical caretakers do not have access to all the information necessary to formulate a treatment plan that will have the least impact on reproductive and general health. In part, this is because reproductive aged women are excluded from the earliest phases of drug testing and pregnant and lactating women are excluded from all aspects of new drug development. Therefore, as new AEDs enter the marketplace, women with epilepsy must decide whether a new AED is appropriate for therapy based on very limited information. Postmarketing surveillance of gender‐specific adverse effects, as with all adverse effects, depends on voluntary reporting. Only a small percentage of significant adverse events are believed to be captured by the present system. Consumers, ethicists, and some physician groups are now arguing that women should be included in all aspects of the development of drugs they will ultimately use–even pregnant and lactating women. Some of the issues of concern for women with epilepsy regarding epilepsy treatment, reproductive function and general health will be reviewed, followed by a discussion of the drug development process and how it does, and could better, address the concerns of women.
Risk Analysis and Utility Decision-making of Spinning Reserve Scheme in Power Generating System

In the electricity market environment, there exist risks in determining the spinning reserve capacity and its allocation. In order to analyze the risks of spinning reserve scheme from the prospective of power generating system, a stochastic variable called spinning reserve’s gain or loss is defined. The probability distribution of spinning reserve’s gain or loss is studied and the standard semi-variance is used to measure the risk of a spinning reserve scheme. The utility function and utility value are used to reflect different decision makers’ satisfaction levels to the spinning reserve’s gain or loss figure (conservative, risky, or neutral). A utility expectation decision-making model is proposed. It not only reflects the objective risk of a spinning reserve scheme, but also the decision-maker’s attitude to risks, which makes the model more practical. A case study shows the validity of the presented model.
A 13.2% locking-range divide-by-6, 3.1mW, ILFD using even-harmonic-enhanced direct injection technique for millimeter-wave PLLs

This paper presents a wide-locking-range, low-power, Injection-Locked Frequency Divider (ILFD) using even-harmonic-enhanced direct injection technique which can operate with a high division ratio of 4 and 6. The proposed ILFD has been fabricated in a 65nm CMOS process with a core area of 0.002mm2. The proposed ILFD achieves the widest measured locking range reported of 4.3 GHz (13.2%) for a divide-by-6 operation with a power consumption of only 3.1mW without any tuning mechanism. Moreover, it also achieves 5.7GHz (28.5%) for divide-by-4 operation while consuming only 3.1mW. Combining its multi-division and tuning capability, the dividing capability ranges from 14.0-38.0GHz while consuming 2.8 to 5.4mW.
Novel time related quality of service criteria

The orientation towards web service technology gives a raise to huge number of functionally similar web services. Hence, quality of service is becoming more important and even essential in web service technology as a distinctive criterion. Generally providers have sufficient information about the really provided quality, however, clients don't. Service level agreements that define the relationship between consumer and provider are the only way to express their functional as well as non-functional requirements and to rise notifications to providers in case of violation. One of the major challenges in this regard is to provide ways to assign responsibilities of each party (client / provider) in such case. The idea is to include expectations for measurable and only-provider related attributes (accessibility, availability, throughput,…). Time is a common measure of performance, but it is reduced into a unique temporal attribute: the response time. The latter depends simultaneously on client, network and provider side. Thus, we introduce three temporal attributes namely connection time, transport time and execution time. In this work, we study quality attributes and propose a quality model which includes a set of selected measurable and only provider related attributes and defined temporal ones. Experiments prove the significance of temporal attributes separation in web service selection and duties.
Distinct domains within Mash1 and Math1 are required for function in neuronal differentiation versus neuronal cell-type specification

Many members of the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) family of transcription factors play pivotal roles in the development of a variety of tissues and organisms. We identify activities for the neural bHLH proteins Mash1 and Math1 in inducing neuronal differentiation, and in inducing the formation of distinct dorsal interneuron subtypes in the chick neural tube. Although both factors induce neuronal differentiation, each factor has a distinct activity in the type of dorsal interneuron that forms, with overexpression of Math1 increasing dI1 interneurons, and Mash1 increasing dI3 interneurons. Math1 and Mash1 function as transcriptional activators for both of these functions. Furthermore, we define discrete domains within the bHLH motif that are required for these different activities in neural development. Helix 1 of the Mash1 HLH domain is necessary for Mash1 to be able to promote neuronal differentiation, and is sufficient to confer this activity to the non-neural bHLH factor MyoD. In contrast, helix 2 of Math1, and both helix 1 and 2 of Mash1, are the domains required for the neuronal specification activities of these factors. The requirement for distinct domains within the HLH motif of Mash1 and Math1 for driving neuronal differentiation and cell-type specification probably reflects the importance of unique protein-protein interactions involved in these functions.
(k, R, r)-anonymity: a light-weight and personalized location protection model for LBS query

This paper studies the problem of location and query content preserving in location based service (LBS) systems. Based on the private information retrieval (PIR) theory and location k-anonymity model, we propose a new privacy preserving model, called (k, R, r)-anonymity, which is a light-weight and personalized resolution that can be implemented on mobile terminals. Main idea of the proposed model is to replace the user's real location and the query target by a specific area and a set of location types, respectively. A user may control his privacy preserving degree according to his specific demand by dynamically adjusting parameters of the proposed model, such as query contents, the size and location of the anonymous region, etc. Taking the nearest neighbor query as example, we evaluate performance of the proposed model and make a brief comparison with k-anonymity and PIR. Results show that the proposed model provides stronger anonymity protection than k-anonymity, whereas it its simpler and induces less additional overheads than PIR. In addition, it does not need a third-party privacy anonymity server either.
Hhex is Required at Multiple Stages of Adult Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cell Differentiation

Hhex encodes a homeodomain transcription factor that is widely expressed in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell populations. Its enforced expression induces T‐cell leukemia and we have implicated it as an important oncogene in early T‐cell precursor leukemias where it is immediately downstream of an LMO2‐associated protein complex. Conventional Hhex knockouts cause embryonic lethality precluding analysis of adult hematopoiesis. Thus, we induced highly efficient conditional knockout (cKO) using vav‐Cre transgenic mice. Hhex cKO mice were viable and born at normal litter sizes. At steady state, we observed a defect in B‐cell development that we localized to the earliest B‐cell precursor, the pro‐B‐cell stage. Most remarkably, bone marrow transplantation using Hhex cKO donor cells revealed a more profound defect in all hematopoietic lineages. In contrast, sublethal irradiation resulted in normal myeloid cell repopulation of the bone marrow but markedly impaired repopulation of T‐ and B‐cell compartments. We noted that Hhex cKO stem and progenitor cell populations were skewed in their distribution and showed enhanced proliferation compared to WT cells. Our results implicate Hhex in the maintenance of LT‐HSCs and in lineage allocation from multipotent progenitors especially in stress hematopoiesis. Stem Cells 2015;33:2628—2641