Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The use of questionnaires to assess achievement of course goals in medical students' longitudinal community-based clinical experiences.

PURPOSE To examine the usefulness of questionnaires for assessing achievement of course goals in medical students' longitudinal community-based clinical experiences. METHOD In 1997, the authors surveyed 114 first-year students and their preceptors in a longitudinal community-based program at The Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University. The questionnaire used a Likert scale to assess students' and preceptors' pre-course expectations for achieving specific course goals and their post-course perceptions of having met those goals. The students also rated global learning and satisfaction during each office preceptor session, and faculty assessed the students' physical examination skills at the end of the course. RESULTS For all goals assessed, the preceptors scored their students' achievement of course goals significantly higher than did the students themselves (p < .01). The students invariably scored their post-course perceptions of having achieved the goals lower than they did their pre-course expectations (p < .001). Before the course, the preceptors were confident in their ability to teach the curricular material; this confidence remained after the course. Global learning and satisfaction scores were high and all students performed satisfactorily in the demonstration examination. CONCLUSIONS Students and preceptors may not agree on students' achievement of course goals. Furthermore, despite students' high ratings of global satisfaction and learning, and despite their satisfactory performance of physical examination skills, their ratings of post-course performance may be affected by pre-course expectations. The authors suggest that questionnaires assessing students' and preceptors' perceptions of students' achievement of specific goals should be independently verified before making decisions to modify objectives and activities in these kinds of courses.
Influence of Pore Structure on the Effectiveness of a Biogenic Carbonate Surface Treatment for Limestone Conservation

ABSTRACT A ureolytic biodeposition treatment was applied to five types of limestone in order to investigate the effect of pore structure on the protective performance of a biogenic carbonate surface treatment. Protective performance was assessed by means of transport and degradation processes, and the penetration depth of the treatment was visualized by microtomography. Pore size governs bacterial adsorption and hence the location and amount of carbonate precipitated. This study indicated that in macroporous stone, biogenic carbonate formation occurred to a larger extent and at greater depths than in microporous stone. As a consequence, the biodeposition treatment exhibited the greatest protective performance on macroporous stone. While precipitation was limited to the outer surface of microporous stone, biogenic carbonate formation occurred at depths of greater than 2 mm for Savonnières and Euville. For Savonnières, the presence of biogenic carbonate resulted in a 20-fold decreased rate of water absorption, which resulted in increased resistance to sodium sulfate attack and to freezing and thawing. While untreated samples were completely degraded after 15 cycles of salt attack, no damage was observed in biodeposition-treated Savonnières. From this study, it is clear that biodeposition is very effective and more feasible for macroporous stones than for microporous stones.
Is the nasal optic disc sector important for morphometric glaucoma diagnosis?

Background/aim: Since the central retinal vessel trunk usually located in the nasal optic disc sector can render difficult the delineation of the neuroretinal rim and optic disc, the aim of this study was to evaluate whether the nasal region of the optic nerve head is important, or can be left out, for the morphometric glaucoma diagnosis. Methods: The clinical observational study included 1337 patients with primary or secondary open angle glaucoma and 649 normal subjects. The glaucoma group was divided into 1187 patients with glaucomatous visual field defects (“perimetric glaucoma”), and into 150 patients with optic nerve head changes and normal visual fields (“preperimetric glaucoma”). Colour stereo optic disc photographs were morphometrically evaluated. Results: Highest diagnostic power for the separation between the normal group and the perimetric glaucoma group, and for the differentiation between the normal group and the preperimetric glaucoma group, had the sum of inferotemporal rim area plus superotemporal rim area, the sum of inferotemporal rim area plus superotemporal rim area plus temporal rim area, and the inferotemporal rim area as single parameter. The lowest diagnostic precision had the nasal rim area as single parameter or in combination with rim measurements in other disc sectors. Conclusion: Excluding the nasal optic disc sector does not markedly decrease the diagnostic power of morphometric optic disc analysis in glaucoma diagnosis. It may have importance for an automated computerised morphometric detection of glaucomatous optic nerve damage.
Construction and analysis of a Vibrio cholerae delta-aminolevulinic acid auxotroph which confers protective immunity in a rabbit model

Vibrio cholerae CVD101 is a very effective live vaccine. Although this strain does not produce active cholera toxin because of a mutation in the gene for the cholera toxin A subunit, it still shows residual pathogenicity. To attenuate CVD101 further, we set out to isolate derivatives of CVD101 which were limited in their ability to proliferate in vivo. Two delta-aminolevulinic acid auxotrophs of CVD101, designated V286 and V287, were isolated by transposon mutagenesis and penicillin enrichment. Southern blotting revealed that the mutants differed with respect to the location of the transposon insertion. Under aerobic conditions, in the absence of delta-aminolevulinic acid, both mutants showed diminished growth compared with CVD101. The growth of V286 was most severely affected. Microaerophilic growth of both mutants was less affected. Competition experiments with a rabbit model showed that strain V286 was found in numbers 10(3)- to 10(4)-fold lower than its parental strain. This observation indicates that strain V286 is impaired in its ability to colonize the rabbit intestine. It also supports an important role for aerobic growth in the colonization of the intestine by V. cholerae. Vaccination of rabbits with a single dose of strain V286 resulted in full protection against challenge with a virulent strain. Strain V286 was not shed from rabbits in a cultivatable form. Our results suggest that delta-aminolevulinic acid auxotrophy can attenuate V. cholerae by limiting its ability to colonize without affecting its capacity to induce protective immunity. Furthermore, this type of mutation may prevent the spread of V. cholerae vaccine strains in the environment.
Parsing Susceptibility and Severity Dimensions of Health Risk Perceptions

Risk perceptions, an important determinant of positive behavioral change, are often conceptualized as an additive or multiplicative index of two concepts: susceptibility to and severity of a health risk. Susceptibility is the possibility of experiencing a health risk, whereas severity is its seriousness or harmfulness. This article challenged the current theorization of risk perceptions. To demonstrate the differential perceptions of susceptibility and severity, two self-report studies (N = 70, each) and one reaction time study (N = 476) provided data on 50 health conditions that varied on several risk characteristics (e.g., prevalence, personal experience). Results showed that susceptibility and severity were two distinct, inversely related concepts. Perceived susceptibility and severity varied by risk characteristics, mainly prevalence (i.e., how common a health risk was perceived to be). Self-report data showed that a progressive increase in perceptions of a health risk prevalence rates was associated with an increase in susceptibility and a decrease in severity (and vice versa). Reaction-time data mirrored this pattern and showed these differential perceptions of susceptibility and severity were highly accessible, as evident by fast reaction times. Several individual differences (e.g., optimism) emerged as significant predictors of risk perceptions and their accessibility. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Parallel Computations on Reconfigurable Meshes

The mesh with reconfigurable bus is presented as a model of computation. The reconfigurable mesh captures salient features from a variety of sources, including the CAAPP, CHiP, polymorphic-torus network, and bus automation. It consists of an array of processors interconnected by a reconfigurable bus system that can be used to dynamically obtain various interconnection patterns between the processors. A variety of fundamental data-movement operations for the reconfigurable mesh are introduced. Based on these operations, algorithms that are efficient for solving a variety of problems involving graphs and digitized images are also introduced. The algorithms are asymptotically superior to those previously obtained for the aforementioned reconfigurable architectures, as well as to those previously obtained for the mesh, the mesh with multiple broadcasting, the mesh with multiple buses, the mesh-of-trees, and the pyramid computer. The power of reconfigurability is illustrated by solving some problems, such as the exclusive OR, more efficiently on the reconfigurable mesh than is possible on the programmable random-access memory (PRAM). >
Étude de la pharmacocinétique du pazopanib en association avec le cisplatine à partir de données issues d'un essai de phase I

But. Cette etude de phase I associant le pazopanib administre par voie orale, au cisplatine administre par voie intraveineuse une fois toutes les trois semaines, a ete initiee dans la perspective de determiner la dose maximale toleree de ces deux medicaments anticancereux en association. L’objectif secondaire de cette etude est d’etudier l’interaction pharmacocinetique potentielle ainsi que le profil de tolerance de cette association. Methodes. Des concentrations plasmatiques de pazopanib et de platine ultrafiltrables ont ete recoltees sur 35 patients, traites sur 4 paliers de doses de 200, 400 et 600 mg de pazopanib, associe a 60 ou 75 mg/m² de cisplatine. L’analyse de donnees pharmacocinetiques a ete effectue a l’aide du logiciel NONMEM. Resultats. La dose maximale toleree determinee correspond a 400 mg de pazopanib associe a 75 mg/m² de cisplatine. La clairance moyenne (CV% pour la variabilite interindividuelle) du cisplatine est de 13.6 L/h (27.4%), elle n’est pas influencee par la prise concomitante de pazopanib. La pharmacocinetique du pazopanib, en revanche, est significativement modifiee en presence de cisplatine. La clairance moyenne (CV%) de pazopanib est de 0.66 L/h (55%) au Jour-1 (avant l’administration de cisplatine), 24.8% plus faible au Jour 1 (le jour de l’administration de cisplatine), et 32.9% plus faible au Jour 2 (un jour apres l’administration de cisplatine). L’interaction pharmacocinetique observee s’explique par l’inhibition competitive du metabolisme et de l’efflux du pazopanib par l’aprepitant, medicament antiemetique administre de maniere systematique avec le cisplatine. L’exposition plasmatique du pazopanib au Jour-1 observee apres administration d’une dose de 400 mg est comparable a celle observee lors de l’etude de phase I du pazopanib en monotherapie a la dose recommandee de 800 mg. Conclusion. L’exposition plasmatique au pazopanib plus elevee qu’attendue explique tres certainement la mauvaise tolerance observee au cours de cette etude de phase I.
Meta‐analysis of epoetin beta and darbepoetin alfa treatment for chemotherapy‐induced anemia and mortality: Individual patient data from Japanese randomized, placebo‐controlled trials

Erythropoiesis‐stimulating agents (ESA) reduce the need for transfusions and improve the quality of life in patients receiving chemotherapy, but several clinical trials have suggested that ESA might have a negative impact on survival. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of ESA, epoetin beta and darbepoetin alfa, including their impact on overall survival and thromboembolic events, we conducted an individual data‐based meta‐analysis of three randomized, placebo‐controlled trials studying Japanese patients with chemotherapy‐induced anemia. All trials were conducted in compliance with Good Clinical Practice. A total of 511 patients with solid tumor or lymphoma (epoetin beta or darbepoetin alfa, n = 273; placebo, n = 238) were included. The ESA significantly reduced the risk of transfusion (relative risk, 0.47; 95% confidence interval, 0.29–0.76). No significant effect of the ESA on overall survival was observed (unadjusted hazard ratio, 1.00; 95% confidence interval, 0.75–1.34). A prespecified subgroup analysis showed no strong interaction between the baseline hemoglobin concentration and the effect of ESA on overall survival. Among the ESA‐treated patients, the highest hemoglobin achieved during the treatment period in each patient had no impact on mortality. No increase in thromboembolic events was observed in the ESA‐treated patients (0.7% vs 1.7% placebo). The ESA reduced the risk of transfusion without a negative impact on the survival of patients with chemotherapy‐induced anemia.
Anticipative grid design in point-mass approach to nonlinear state estimation

Numerical solution of the Bayesian recursive relations by the point-mass approach is treated. The stress is laid on the grid design as the main user design problem in this approach. An anticipative approach for finding a minimum sufficient number of grid points is developed, yielding a new adaptive algorithm reducing the computational operations without a loss of estimation accuracy. A numerical example is presented to compare the new algorithm with the standard point-mass technique and with a sequential importance sampling nonlinear filtering algorithm.
Tissue-mimicking agar/gelatin materials for use in heterogeneous elastography phantoms

Five 9 cm × 9 cm × 9 cm phantoms, each with a 2-cm-diameter cylindrical inclusion, were produced with various dry-weight concentrations of agar and gelatin. Elastic contrasts ranged from 1.5 to 4.6, and values of the storage modulus (real part of the complex Young's modulus) were all in the soft tissue range. Additives assured immunity from bacterial invasion and can produce tissue-mimicking ultrasound and NMR properties. Monitoring of strain ratios over a 7 to 10 month period indicated that the mechanical properties of the phantoms were stable, allowing about 1 month for the phantom to reach chemical equilibrium. The only dependable method for determining the storage moduli of the inclusions is to make measurements on samples excised from the phantoms. If it is desired to produce and accurately characterize a phantom with small inclusions with other shapes, such as an array of small spheres, an auxiliary phantom with the geometry of the cylindrical inclusion phantoms or the equivalent should be made at the same time using the same materials. The elastic contrast can then be determined using samples excised from the auxiliary phantom. A small increase of about 10% in volume of the cylindrical inclusions occurred—a tolerable increase. Interestingly, the smallest increase (about 5%) occurred in the phantom with the largest elastic contrast.
Parathyroid hormone-related protein in preterm human milk.

BACKGROUND Parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) has the ability to activate parathyroid hormone receptors and cause hypercalcemia. High concentrations of PTHrP are found in human breastmilk of mothers of term-infants. It is not known whether PTHrP is excreted in preterm human milk. This study tested the hypothesis that PTHrP concentrations in milk obtained from mothers of preterm infants are similar to those found in milk from mothers of term infants. METHODS We collected samples of expressed human milk obtained from 27 mothers of preterm infants (27-34 weeks' gestation) and from 16 mothers of full-term infants. Samples were collected within the first 72 hours postpartum (colostrum) and again at 1 and 2 weeks postpartum. PTHrP concentrations in these samples were measured by two-site immunoradiometric assay. RESULTS PTHrP concentrations were significantly higher in samples obtained after 1 week postpartum than in samples obtained during the first 72 hours of life in breastmilk obtained from mothers of both term and preterm infants (P < 0.0001). PTHrP concentrations were similar in colostrum and after 1 week in term and preterm milk. PTHrP concentrations after 2 weeks of lactation were significantly higher in samples obtained from mothers of term infants (P < 0.006). CONCLUSION Human milk expressed by mothers of preterm infants contains amounts of PTHrP similar to those measured in milk expressed by mothers of term infants.
Contribuciones del desarrollo financiero al crecimiento económico : aspectos teóricos y empíricos de largo plazo

El presente articulo ofrece una revision de la literatura a nivel internacional sobre las vinculaciones existentes entre el desarrollo del sistema financiero y el crecimiento de la actividad economica. La amplia bibliografia existente en la materia intenta explicar tanto el rol provisto por los intermediarios financieros como el impacto que su accionar brinda a la hora de mitigar las fricciones de mercado tanto en relacion al diseno de incentivos como a la reduccion de restricciones de los agentes economicos, afectando a las tasas de inversion y de ahorro, la innovacion tecnologica y, por ende, el crecimiento economico de largo plazo. En la segunda parte del mismo, se detallan los principales resultados empiricos a nivel mundial que sustentan los postulados teoricos presentados en la primera parte y se analiza el debate actual en torno a la reciente crisis.
Intra-oral Models for Studying De- and Remineralization in Man: Methodology and Measurement

A wide range of different methodologies and measurement techniques has been employed in laboratories around the world for the study of de- and remineralization of enamel and dentin in intra-oral systems. These different approaches are summarized and discussed in relation to the nature of the different research questions to be studied by means of the intra-oral model.
Differential Activation of Mitogen-activated Protein Kinases in Ischemic and Anesthetic Preconditioning

BackgroundAccumulating evidence pinpoints to the pivotal role of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in the signal transduction underlying cardiac preconditioning. MethodsPD98059, an inhibitor of extracellular signal–regulated protein kinase (MEK-ERK1/2), and SB203580, an inhibitor of p38 MAPK, were used to evaluate the role of MAPKs with respect to postischemic functional recovery in isolated perfused rat hearts subjected to ischemic preconditioning (IPC) and anesthetic preconditioning (APC). Western blot analyses were used to determine the degree of ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK activation after the application of the preconditioning stimulus and after ischemia–reperfusion. Immunohistochemical staining served to visualize subcellular localization of activated MAPKs. ResultsPD98059 and SB203580 abolished postischemic functional recovery in IPC but not in APC. IPC but not APC markedly activated ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK, which were abrogated by coadministration of the specific blockers. Conversely, IPC and APC enhanced ERK1/2 activity after ischemia–reperfusion as compared to nonpreconditioned hearts, and IPC in addition enhanced p38 MAPK activity. Coadministration of PD98059 and SB203580 during IPC but not during APC inhibited postischemically enhanced MAPK activities. Moreover, chelerythrine and 5-hydroxydecanoate, effective blockers of IPC and APC, annihilated IPC- and APC-induced enhanced postischemic responses of MAPKs. Finally, administration of PD98059 during ischemia–reperfusion diminished the protective effects of IPC and APC. Immunohistochemistry revealed increased ERK1/2 activity primarily in intercalated discs and nuclei and increased p38 MAPK activity in the sarcolemma and nuclei of IPC-treated hearts. ConclusionsAlthough MAPKs may orchestrate cardioprotection as triggers and mediators in IPC, they are devoid of triggering, but they may have mediator effects in APC.
Sparse Representation based Target Detection in Infrared Image

Infrared target detection research has recently attracted much attention, especially in pedestrian detection. In this paper, we use compressive sensing theory, a new and emerging field, for an infrared target detection system. Based on the framework of Bayesian filter, target is expressed by sparse representation. Compressive sensing (CS) is based on the illusion that a small quantity of non-adaptive linear projection of a compressible signal contains sufficient information for signal reconstruction and processing. In this paper we give an overview of compressive sensing and our proposed method. The method firstly construct appearance model using features extracted from the data independent image feature space. The appearance model can preserve structure targets’ feature since it adopts non-adaptive random projections. The experiment results show that the proposed infrared target detection system is feasible and efficient.
Resampling Methods: A Practical Guide to Data Analysis

The goal of this book is to introduce statistical methodology-estimation, hypothesis, testing and classification-to a wide applied audience through resampling from existing data via the bootstrap, and estimation or cross-validation methods. The book provides an accessible introduction and practical guide to the power, simplicity and veritability of the bootstrap, cross-validation and permutation tests. Industrial statistical consultants, professionals and researchers will find the book's methods and software imimediately helpful. (unvollstandig)) This Second edition is a practical guide to data analysis using the bootstrap, cross-validation, and permutation tests. It is an essential resource for industrial statisticians, statistical consultants, and research professionals in science, engineering, and technology. Only requiring minimal mathematics beyond algebra, it provides a table-free introduction to data analysis utilizing numerous exercizes, practical data sets, and freely available statistical shareware. Topics and features: *Thoroughly revised text features more practical examples plus an additional chapter devoted to regression and data mining techniques and their limitations *Uses resampling approach to introduction statistics *A Practical presentation that covers all three sampling methods - bootstrap, density-estimation, and permutations *Includes systematic guide to help one select correct procedure for a particular application *Detailed coverage of all three statistical methodologies - classification, estimation, and hypothesis testing *Suitable for classroom use and individual, self-study purposes *Numerous practical examples using popular computer programs such as SAS, Stata, and StatXact *Useful appendices with computer programs and code to develop own methods *Downloadable freeware from author's website: http://users.oco. net/drphilgood/resamp.htm With its accessable style and intuitive topic development, the book is an excellent basic resource and guide to the power, simplicity and versatility of bootstrap, cross-validation and permutation tests. Students, professionals, and researchers will find it a particularly useful guide to modern resampling methods and their applications.