Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New model innovation through faculty champions.

The Future of Family Medicine project calls for transformation of medical practices to a " New Model " to meet challenges facing the discipline of family medicine. 1 While certain components of the New Model have been developed and tested by innovators, 2-4 the barriers of cost, cultural issues, technology problems, and lack of well-defined reimbursement mechanisms have slowed the diffusion of the New Model into both the practice and residency settings. 5-8 Additionally, physicians and clinic leadership are products of prior training models and traditional areas of expertise. 9 For their practices to move into the future, faculty leaders must become champions of New Model concepts, and they are key to the success of this transformation. Should residency programs wait until demonstration projects are concluded on the New Model of practice, or should they move ahead with New Model learning and implementation? As consultants for the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Residency Assistance Program (RAP), we believe residency programs should be " early adopters. " 11 At a minimum , residency programs should begin preparing for New Model implementation by studying and discussing the model, examining demonstration projects and innovations that address new model components, and analyzing their own systems. Such preparation, particularly if it involves piloting of components, will stimulate organizational learning and will begin to address the many barriers associated with implementation. 12 In seeking resources to help residency programs begin to prepare for New Model implementation, the most valuable resources are a pro-gram's own faculty. Faculty members are core resources, not only for teaching and patient care but for clinic performance, residency curriculum development, role model-ing for residents, and program leadership. Programs that develop their faculty will be best situated to meet the challenges and opportunities of the future. Individual faculty could lead development for some aspect of the New Model consistent with their strengths, taking the residency program through an organizational change process beginning with an assessment of their existing systems of care. Group energy among faculty will initiate and enhance readiness for change and eventual evolution toward the New Model. Larger organizational change techniques such as the " burning platform " (crises that are engineered to force change), use of competing multidisciplinary teams, or formal continuous quality improvement processes are unlikely to work. 13 Creating a burning platform may demoralize faculty and serve as a disincentive to them considering New Model change. Competing …
7F-2 Analysis of Lamb-Wave Dispersion and Band Gaps of Two-Dimensional Piezoelectric Phononic-Crystal Plates

Based on Mindlin's piezoelectric plate theory and the plane wave expansion (PWE) method, an eigen-matrix is formulated to study the frequency band gaps and dispersion relations of the lower-order Lamb waves in two-dimensional (2D) piezoelectric phononic plates. The phononic plates analyzed are composed of solid-solid and air-solid constituents with square and/or triangular lattices. Factors that influence the opening and width of the complete band gaps of Lamb waves are identified and discussed. For solid/solid phononic plates, the filling material chosen with a larger mass density, proper stiffness, and weak anisotropic factor embedded in a soft background material is suggested to obtain wider complete band gaps in the lower bands. On the other hand, for air/solid phononic plates, to achieve the complete band gaps are relatively difficult, and the background material itself with a proper anisotropy and a high filling fraction of air holes may favor the band-gap formation.
Performance Analysis of Floodlight and Ryu SDN Controllers under Mininet Simulator

As the traditional network architecture can not meet the requirements of network users for high-quality network services, software defined network (SDN) has been proposed as a new network architecture. SDN divides the data plane and control plane in the network equipment, so that the controller can schedule the data in the network flexibly through openflow protocol. Floodlight and Ryu are two typical SDN controllers proposed for different purposes. In this paper, we first introduce Floodlight and Ryu, and then introduce the tools used in the paper: mininet and qperf. Then, we simulate the two controllers of Floodlight and Ryu, and compare their bandwidth and delay performance under different network topologies. The experimental results show that in all kinds of topology, the Floodlight controller has higher bandwidth and lower latency than Ryu controller, so the Floodlight controller has better performance.
Impact of process variations on bus-encoding schemes for delay minimization in VLSI interconnects

Process variations can have a significant impact on both device and interconnect performance in deep submicron (DSM) technologies. In this paper, authors discuss the impact of process parameter variations on bus-encoding schemes for delay minimization. It is shown that if process variability is taken into consideration, there will be a change in effective capacitance (Ceff) of the bus lines because of which the amount of delay that each crosstalk class causes is going to vary. SPICE simulations have been carried out for interconnect lines (three bit bus model) of different dimensions at different technology nodes (180, 130, 90 and 65 nm) to find out the effect of process variability on the effective capacitance of bus lines. Finally, the impact of process variations on bus-encoding schemes for delay minimization is discussed in detail.
Prevalence and Diversity of Leptospires in Different Ecological Niches of Urban and Rural Areas of South Andaman Island

Leptospirosis is an emerging disease around the globe. South Andaman Island is an endemic region for leptospirosis. We herein compared the prevalence of leptospires in urban and rural areas of South Andaman Island. The PCR detection and isolation of Leptospira revealed that pathogenic leptospires were prevalent in sewage water and household drainage water in urban areas and in paddy fields, vegetable field water, and stream water in rural areas. These results demonstrate that intermediates are ubiquitously present in the environment and may be responsible for asymptomatic infections, and also provide an insight into disease ecology.
A Dileucine Motif and a Cluster of Acidic Amino Acids in the Second Cytoplasmic Domain of the Batten Disease-related CLN3 Protein Are Required for Efficient Lysosomal Targeting*

The juvenile form of ceroid lipofuscinosis (Batten disease) is a neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorder caused by mutations in the CLN3 gene. CLN3 encodes a multimembrane-spanning protein of unknown function, which is mainly localized in lysosomes in non-neuronal cells and in endosomes in neuronal cells. For this study we constructed chimeric proteins of three CLN3 cytoplasmic domains fused to the lumenal and transmembrane domains of the reporter proteins LAMP-1 and lysosomal acid phosphatase to identify lysosomal targeting motifs and to determine the intracellular transport and subcellular localization of the chimera in transfected cell lines. We report that a novel type of dileucine-based sorting motif, EEEX8LI, present in the second cytoplasmic domain of CLN3, is sufficient for proper targeting to lysosomes. The first cytoplasmic domain of CLN3 and the mutation of the dileucine motif resulted in a partial missorting of chimeric proteins to the plasma membrane. At equilibrium, 4-13% of the different chimera are present at the cell surface. Analysis of lysosome-specific proteolytic processing revealed that lysosomal acid phosphatase chimera containing the second cytoplasmic domain of CLN3 showed the highest rate of lysosomal delivery, whereas the C terminus of CLN3 was found to be less efficient in lysosomal targeting. However, none of these cytosolic CLN3 domains was able to interact with AP-1, AP-3, or GGA3 adaptor complexes. These data revealed that lysosomal sorting motifs located in an intramolecular cytoplasmic domain of a multimembrane-spanning protein have different structural requirements for adaptor binding than sorting signals found in the C-terminal cytoplasmic domains of single- or dual-spanning lysosomal membrane proteins.
Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2): Evaluating the Swedish version by confirmatory factor analyses

The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) is one of the most frequently used instruments when assessing competitive state anxiety in sport psychology research. However, doubts have been expressed about the factorial validity of both the English and the Greek versions of the scale. Hence, a revised version of the inventory (CSAI-2R) has recently been suggested to be more psychometrically sound (Cox et al., 2003). In the present study, the aim was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the CSAI-2 using confirmatory factor analyses. A total of 969 athletes (571 men and 398 women) competing in 26 different sports completed the Swedish version of the CSAI-2. Three different factor structures were evaluated: the original three-factor model (with cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and self-confidence), a two-factor model in which self-confidence was excluded, and a three-factor model containing 17 items (CSAI-2R). The results revealed that only the 17-item model displayed an acceptable fit to the data. Although some doubts remain about the amount of variance that can be attributed to error variance in the subscales, the results suggest that it is better to use the CSAI-2R rather than the original CSAI-2.
Neural Stem/Progenitor Cells for Spinal Cord Regeneration

Central nervous system (CNS) repair and regeneration following traumatic injury or disease pathology is a widely studied and widely debated field. This book chapter will outline the pathology of spinal cord injury (SCI) with particular focus on how it lends itself to cell-based intervention. Next, we will outline the different populations of cells proposed for SCI treat‐ ment, including neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPC), and methods of generating clinically relevant NSPCs from adult tissue, embryonic stem (ES) cells and induce pluripotent stem (iPS) sources. Lastly, we will examine the use of NSPCs in SCI models with a specific focus on how the environment affects the transplanted population and how the transplanted cells modulate the spinal cord niche.
Timing of developmental sequences in different brain structures: physiological and pathological implications

The developing brain is not a small adult brain. Voltage‐ and transmitter‐gated currents, like network‐driven patterns, follow a developmental sequence. Studies initially performed in cortical structures and subsequently in subcortical structures have unravelled a developmental sequence of events in which intrinsic voltage‐gated calcium currents are followed by nonsynaptic calcium plateaux and synapse‐driven giant depolarising potentials, orchestrated by depolarizing actions of GABA and long‐lasting NMDA receptor‐mediated currents. The function of these early patterns is to enable heterogeneous neurons to fire and wire together rather than to code specific modalities. However, at some stage, behaviourally relevant activities must replace these immature patterns, implying the presence of programmed stop signals. Here, we show that the developing striatum follows a developmental sequence in which immature patterns are silenced precisely when the pup starts locomotion. This is mediated by a loss of the long‐lasting NMDA‐NR2C/D receptor‐mediated current and the expression of a voltage‐gated K+ current. At the same time, the descending inputs to the spinal cord become fully functional, accompanying a GABA/glycine polarity shift and ending the expression of developmental patterns. Therefore, although the timetable of development differs in different brain structures, the g sequence is quite similar, relying first on nonsynaptic events and then on synaptic oscillations that entrain large neuronal populations. In keeping with the ‘neuroarcheology’ theory, genetic mutations or environmental insults that perturb these developmental sequences constitute early signatures of developmental disorders. Birth dating developmental disorders thus provides important indicators of the event that triggers the pathological cascade leading ultimately to disease.
Real Time 3D motion tracking for interactive computer simulations

Motion tracking has been employed by industry for many years but has remained an expensive and difficult process. Specialist equipment and the requirement for a highly controlled environment are obstacles stopping tracking from breaking into the consumer market. This project aims to demonstrate that high accuracy optical tracking can be achieved using inexpensive video cameras in an unconstrained environment. The software developed here is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the tracking solution, showing that the idea of optical tracking with inexpensive cameras is a viable mechanism for computer interaction.
In vivo degradation of secreted fusion proteins by the Escherichia coli outer membrane protease OmpT

The Escherichia coli outer membrane protease OmpT (protease VII) has been shown to degrade several proteins in vitro, but its function in vivo is uncertain. We demonstrate that OmpT participates in the degradation of a fusion protein secreted into the periplasmic space. A strain with mutations in degP (K.L. Strauch and J. Beckwith, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85:1576-1580, 1988) and ompT exhibits a cumulative decrease in protein degradation and should be useful for the expression of proteolytically sensitive secreted proteins.
Changes in sensitivity patterns to selected antibiotics in Clostridium difficile in geriatric in-patients over an 18-month period.

Clostridium difficile-associated disease continues to be a major problem in hospitals and long-term care facilities throughout the developed world. Administration of certain antibiotics such as amoxycillin, oral cephalosporins and clindamycin is associated with the greatest risk of developing C. difficile disease. The two antibiotics used for treatment of C. difficile disease are vancomycin and metronidazole, to which there is currently very little resistance. Randomly selected isolates (186) from 90 patients being investigated during an 18-month epidemiological study into the disease were tested for their susceptibility to vancomycin, metronidazole, amoxycillin, clindamycin, cefoxitin and ceftriaxone by the NCCLS agar dilution method. There was a narrow range of MIC for the two treatment agents (vancomycin and metronidazole), from 0.5 to 4 microg ml(-1), with no evidence of resistance. All strains were resistant to cefoxitin (MIC 64-256 microg ml(-1)), the antibiotic used in most selective media. All strains were of similar sensitivity to amoxycillin (MIC(90)= 4 microg ml(-1)). Most strains were resistant to ceftriaxone (MIC > or = 64 microg ml(-1)) or of intermediate resistance (MIC > or = 32 microg ml(-1)), with only two sensitive strains (MIC 16 microg ml(-1)). Clindamycin resistance was common, with 67 % of strains resistant (MIC > or = 8 microg ml(-1)), 25 % with intermediate resistance (MIC > or = 4 microg ml(-1)) and only 8 % sensitive (MIC < or = 2 microg ml(-1)). Twelve isolates from six different patients had very high resistance to clindamycin (MIC > or = 128 microg ml(-1)). Multiple isolates from the same patient, taken at different times, showed changes in susceptibility patterns over time. The only major change in susceptibility over the time-period was in clindamycin resistance; some strains appeared to become more resistant while others became less resistant. No differences were seen in the MIC(50) and MIC(90) of the different S-types of C. difficile identified, although some S-types were present in very small numbers. There was no correlation between the antibiotics prescribed and susceptibility.
Automatic personality identification using writing behaviours: an exploratory study

ABSTRACT The ability of automatically identifying users’ personality is an important part of building adaptive systems and providing personalised services. However, there is still a lack of evaluation methods which can not only unobtrusively gather user data without supplement equipment, but also provide accurate and real-time prediction of users’ personality. This paper presents a new approach to identifying personality by combining writing features and machine learning techniques. We conducted an exploratory study where we collected participants’ handwriting information and personality information via questionnaire. From these data, we extracted writing features and created classifiers for seven personality dimensions. Our top results include a unique set of writing features which could be predictive of personality and binary classifiers for the seven personality dimensions, with accuracies ranging from 62.5% to 83.9%. These results show that writing features are useful for personality identification when suitable classifiers are adopted.
Comparison of intraluminal radiofrequency ablation and stents vs. stents alone in the management of malignant biliary obstruction

Abstract Purpose: To retrospectively evaluate the added benefit of adding intraluminal radiofrequency ablation (RFA) to biliary metal stent placement for patients with malignant biliary obstruction (MBO). Methods: From November 2013 to December 2015, 89 patients with MBO who had undergone percutaneous intraluminal RFA and stent placement (RFA-stent group, n = 50) or stent placement only (stent group, n = 39) were included. Outcomes were compared according to the type of tumour: cholangiocarcinoma or non-cholangiocarcinoma. Results: Primary and secondary stent patency (PSP, SSP) were significantly higher for the RFA-stent group than the stent group (PSP: 7.0 months vs. 5.0 months, p = 0.006; SSP: 10.0 months vs. 5.6 months, p < 0.001), with overall survival being comparable (5.0 months vs. 4.7 months, p = 0.068). In subgroup analysis, RFA-stent showed significant PSP benefits compared to stent alone in patients with cholangiocarcinoma (7.4 months vs. 4.3 months; p = 0.009), but with comparable outcomes in patients with non-cholangiocarcinoma (6.3 months vs. 5.2 months; p = 0.266). The SSP was improved in both subgroups (cholangiocarcinoma, 12.6 months vs. 5.0 months, p < 0.001; non-cholangiocarcinoma, 10.3 months vs. 5.5 months, p = 0.013). Technical success and clinical success were not significantly different between the two groups. The rate of complication was higher for the RFA-stent group, but tolerable when compared to the stent group. Conclusions: Although survival was comparable between the groups, RFA-stent confers therapeutic benefits to patients with MBO in terms of stent patency compared to stent placement alone, especially in those with cholangiocarcinoma.
Secreted Proteins of the Oviduct

During late follicular development and estrus, the mammalian oviduct undergoes specific physiological and biochemical modifications which contribute to an optimization of the microenvironment for fertilization and early cleavage-stage embryonic development. These changes appear to be hormonally regulated by ovarian steroids, most importantly, estrogen. The hundreds of macromolecules found within the oviductal lumen are contributed by selective serum transudation and active biosynthesis and secretion from nonciliated epithelial cells. Recent studies have indicated temporal and regional (infundibulum, ampulla and isthmus) differences in steady-state levels of specific mRNAs and in de novo protein synthesis and secretion by the oviduct. One protein synthesized de novo, the estrogen-dependent oviductal secretory glycoprotein (OSP), has been shown to be unique to the oviduct and is conserved across a number of mammalian species. This protein associates with the zona pellucida, perivitelline space and vitelline or blastomere membrane of ovulated eggs and preimplantation embryos. OSPs have been shown to enhance sperm binding and penetration in oocytes and may regulate development in early preimplantation embryos. Other regulatory molecules, protease inhibitors, growth factors, cytokines, binding proteins, enzymes and immunoglobulins have been identified in the oviductal microenvironment. The identification and potential roles for oviduct-secreted proteins will be reviewed and discussed. Current research focuses on continued identification and characterization of specific oviductal proteins and a determination of the molecular basis of their interactions with the oocyte, sperm or embryo.
Ten year follow up study of lymphocytic gastritis: further evidence on Helicobacter pylori as a cause of lymphocytic gastritis and corpus gastritis.

AIMS--To examine the course of lymphocytic gastritis and its relation to Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) infection in a 10 year follow up. METHODS--Ninety six patients were originally examined for dyspepsia in 1981. Gastroscopies with stepwise biopsies were performed on all the patients initially and after an interval of 10 years. RESULTS--Nine per cent of the patients (9/96) had features of lymphocytic gastritis in gastric biopsy at the first examination, and 12.5% (12/96) at the second examination; 7/9 patients (78%) had persistent lymphocytic gastritis during the follow up; in two the diagnostic features of lymphocytic gastritis had disappeared, and five had a new diagnosis of lymphocytic gastritis at the second examination. At the second examination 9/12 lymphocytic gastritis patients (75%) were H pylori positive histologically, while all had specific antibodies to H pylori. The lymphocytic gastritis patients had higher grades of gastritis (p = 0.009), neutrophilic and eosinophilic granulocytes, mononuclear inflammatory cells, and foveolar hyperplasia in the corpus mucosa, but smaller numbers of H pylori, than the H pylori positive patients without lymphocytic gastritis. The appearance of lymphocytic gastritis during the 10 year interval was associated with increases in the grades of corpus gastritis and neutrophilic granulocytes (p = 0.043 for both). During the follow up, the patients with lymphocytic gastritis, but not the H pylori positive patients without lymphocytic gastritis, appeared to have a significant increase in the grade of intestinal metaplasia in the corpus mucosa (p = 0.043). CONCLUSIONS--In some patients H pylori may cause a gastritis that predominates in the corpus and is associated with an increase in the intraepithelial lymphocyte count. This form of gastritis may cause progression of intestinal metaplasia.
Optimized Extraction Condition and Characterization of Pectin from Kaffir Lime ( Citrus hystrix )

The present study was focused on the potential of Kaffir lime (Citrus hystrix) peel to be a source of pectin. Kaffir lime belongs to the citrus family and has a thicker skin which can be used as a source of pectin. Pectin was extracted from Kaffir lime peel using three different acids (citric, hydrochloric or nitric) and at three different temperatures (45, 65 & 90°C). Also, sun-dried and microwave-dried peels were studied at the same extraction time 1 hour at 1.5 pH. Pectin yields varied from 10.4% to 59.30% for sun dried peel while for microwave dried peel was 25.9% to 61.80%. The best extraction condition is using citric acid at 90°C using microwave-dried peels. The isolated pectin contained 12.40% moisture, 85.07% anhydrouronic acid (AUA), equivalent weight at 234.742, 1.78% methoxyl content and 11.86% degree of esterification. Purification using alcohol precipitation procedure (APP) was sufficient to yield pectin of high purity. This is supported by the content of AUA which is higher than 65% for most of the pectin isolates. According to the values of methoxyl content and degree of esterification, pectin isolated from Kaffir lime peels can be classified as low methoxyl pectin and are of potential use in manufacture of low sugar products such as low sugar jam and jellies.