Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health literacy: a barrier to pharmacist-patient communication and medication adherence.

OBJECTIVE To present a summary of the existing literature on medication nonadherence, health literacy, and use of written patient information in health care and pharmacy in particular. DATA SOURCES Searches of Medline, PubMed, and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts databases were conducted using one or more of the following terms: adherence/nonadherence, compliance/noncompliance, printed/written information, literacy, patient education, communication, and health literacy. These terms were combined with the following search terms: drug information, readability, medication/drug, patient, pharmacy/pharmacist, and prescription. References of pertinent articles were hand searched to retrieve additional articles. DATA EXTRACTION By the author. DATA SYNTHESIS Articles were grouped and summarized into three broad categories (nonadherence, health literacy, and communicating health information to patients), with an emphasis on the use of written patient information in health care and pharmacy practice in particular. The complexities inherent in nonadherence behavior, health literacy, and patient education are summarized, and suggestions for enhancing medication adherence, especially for patients with low health literacy skills, are provided. CONCLUSION The health literacy skills of American adults have not changed considerably during the previous decade. This makes use of written patient medication information in pharmacy practice problematic for some patients. Limited health literacy has been associated with poorer health, medication nonadherence, medication errors, higher medical expenses, and increased hospitalization. A need exists for identifying patients with limited health literacy and tailoring medication counseling to their needs.
Shift and mutually orthogonal, multi-band pilot schemes for large-scale MIMO-OFDM systems

Large-scale (a.k.a. Massive) Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems are considered as a strong candidate to meet the exceptionally high spectral efficiency requirements for “beyond 4G” (or commonly termed 5G) wireless communications systems. For such systems, the availability of accurate uplink channel knowledge at the base station is critical to success, particularly in the time-division duplex (TDD) mode, where channel reciprocity is exploited to employ efficient downlink beamforming/precoding schemes. A major obstacle to acquiring such channel knowledge at the base station, however, is posed by the potential uplink pilot interference in multi-cell environments known as pilot contamination. In a recent contribution [1], it is shown that pilot contamination can be sidestepped with the aid of a simple interference management scheduling protocol. Building and expanding on [1], we elaborate on the design of shift-and mutually orthogonal pilots, and propose a multi-band operation to expand the number of users to be serviced in densely-populated areas. More specifically, the proposed design adjusts the transmission bandwidth to exploit the spatio-temporal resolution properties of wideband wireless channels, which, combined with the shift-orthogonality principle, enable to allocate identical frequency resources to a number of closely-spaced users. In addition, the pilot transmission technique presented herein minimizes guard interval overhead in the OFDM context, and can be realized with quasi-constant envelope, maximizing battery efficiency in user handsets.
The Fate of Endosulfan in Water

Although the use of endosulfan to control cotton pests has declined, this insecticide still has widespread application in agriculture and can contaminate riverine systems as runoff from soil or by aerial deposition. The degradation of endosulfan in pure water at different pH values of 5, 7 and 9 and in river water from the Namoi and the Hawkesbury rivers of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, was studied in the laboratory. Endosulfan transformation into endosulfan sulfate in river water using artificial mesocosms was also investigated. The results show endosulfan is stable at pH 5, with increasing rates of disappearance at pH 7 and pH 9 by chemical hydrolysis. Incubation of endosulfan with river water at pH 8.3 resulted in the disappearance of endosulfan and the formation of endosulfan diol due to the alkaline pH as well as formation of endosulfan sulfate. Although the degradation of endosulfan by Anabaena, a blue-green alga, did not result in the transformation of endosulfan to endosulfan sulfate, we conclude that other microorganisms catalyzed the formation of the sulfate. Significant conversions of endosulfan into endosulfan sulfate were also reported from associated field studies using artificial mesocoms containing irrigation water from rivers inhabitated by micro-macro fauna. From these results, we conclude that the presence of endosulfan sulfate in river water cannot be used to distinguish contamination by runoff from soil from contamination by aerial drift or redeposition.
Differential Diffusion of Information Systems Technology in Multinational Enterprises: A Research Model

Recorded evidence suggests that information systems technology IST can be harnessed at least at a national level to create favorable market asymmetries leading to competitive advantage for the firm. Diffusion of IST over worldwide divisions of a multinational enterprise MNE and its ramifications, however, pose a more complex scenario. Economic analyses have been shown to be insufficient to explain why and how diffusion of technology occurs in MNEs. Cultural and political factors at both the organizational and societal national/regional levels also influence the diffusion process. Is IST a viable competitive weapon in a worldwide market setting? How diverse are the IST needs of the units of an MNE? Is uniform diffusion of IST across the board a necessary condition for the smooth operation and success of an MNE? How does IST diffuse within an MNE? What are the contingent factors that contribute to the differential rate of diffusion of IST across the units of an MNE? This paper proposes a research model to address these questions.
Fiscal Policy and Capital Market Performance: Evidence from EU Countries from Central and Eastern Europe

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between fiscal policy and capital market performance in 6 European Union (EU) countries from Central and Eastern Europe, for period 2004 – 2015. In order to understand very well the relationship between the analyzed indicators, we searched in both directions: the effects of fiscal policy on capital market performance and also the effects of capital market performance on fiscal policy. For Czech Republic and Slovakia we found that there is a bilateral relationship between fiscal policy and capital market performance. In Bulgaria we found that the fiscal policy affects the capital market return, while in Poland we obtain that the capital market return affects the fiscal policy. For the other 2 countries, Hungary and Romania, we didn’t find any significant influence between the variables.
Design of a compact patch antenna using UC-EBG structure

This paper presents a design of a small size patch antenna using uni-planar electromagnetic bandgap (UC-EBG) structure. A square microstrip patch is printed on an inexpensive Fire Retardant-4 (FR4) board, and a 3 by 3 UC-EBG array is embedded in the ground. With the help of the UC-EBG array, the gain and bandwidth of the antenna is improved over the conventional patch antenna. Moreover, the size of the patch antenna can be significantly reduced. The proposed antenna design is fabricated. Measurement results show good agreement with the simulation results.
Improved learning efficiency and increased student collaboration through use of virtual microscopy in the teaching of human pathology

The implementation of virtual microscopy in the teaching of pathology at the Bloomington, Indiana extension of the Indiana University School of Medicine permitted the assessment of student attitudes, use and academic performance with respect to this new technology. A gradual and integrated approach allowed the parallel assessment with respect to both the virtual and optical microscopes. Student survey data indicated that the virtual imaging technology was enthusiastically received, and aggregate grade comparisons with the previous classes showed no decrease in content mastery. Survey questions assessing a variety of parameters reveal improved time and resource utilization, as well as increased student collaboration. Even so, 50% of the respondents indicated having both optical and virtual microscopes available was preferable. Anat Sci Ed 1:240–246, 2008. © 2008 American Association of Anatomists.
Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Resembling Severe Preeclampsia in Pregnancy

Although colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in women, it is a rare malignancy in pregnancy. Symptoms of CRC such as fatigue, malaise, nausea, vomiting, rectal bleeding, anemia, altered bowel habits, and abdominal mass are often considered typical symptoms of pregnancy. Many cases of CRC are diagnosed in advanced stages due to missed warning signs of CRC, which may be misinterpreted as normal symptoms related to pregnancy. This report reviews 2 cases of CRC diagnosed within a 4-month interval at our institution. Both cases were initially thought to be atypical presentations of preeclampsia. Prenatal history, hospital course, and postpartum course were reviewed for both patients. CRC is often diagnosed at advanced stages in pregnancy. Common physiological symptoms of pregnancy should be scrutinized carefully and worked up appropriately, especially if symptoms remain persistent or increase in intensity or severity.
High-density compliant die-package interconnects

Reduction in inter-level dielectric (ILD) constant has been accompanied by a reduction in ILD adhesive and cohesive strength thus increasing potential for under bump (flip-chip) ILD cracking during packaging and reliability testing. Two primary mechanisms were determined to cause this failure: (1) stress on the ILD created due to the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch between the silicon and the package substrate; and (2) the die-to-package interconnection, i.e. the bump, transmits the CTE-induced mismatch stresses directly to the ILD (Chandran et al., 2004). Compliant die-package interconnects (Zhu et al., 2004) substituted for conventional C4 flip-chip interconnections promises to offer reduction in package induced stresses onto the silicon die consisting of low-k ILD layers. The reduction of stresses achieved with these compliant interconnects is by decoupling the die and the package substrate such that either entity is able to deform without constraining the other. Extensive thermomechanical simulation using various modeling approaches predicts an ILD stress reduction offered by compliant interconnects to be between 17-57% relative to conventional C4 flip-chip bump. A prototype compliant interconnect structure was fabricated on a low-k ILD silicon test-chip with 180mum C4 pitch and packaged onto an organic substrate with Pb-free solder. Assembly end-of-line (EOL) data was collected to assess the ILD stress reduction, warpage analysis, Imax and electromigration performance of the compliant interconnects. The focus of this paper is a comparison of the performance of compliant die-package interconnects as a substitute for conventional C4 flip-chip bump technologies in low-k ILD architectures
Experience with laparoscopic surgery at the Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi.

OBJECTIVE To outline the experience of laparoscopic surgery at the Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi, and to determine the acceptability and outcome of the various procedures undertaken laparoscopically. DESIGN A retrospective case analysis. SUBJECTS Four hundred and seventy eight cases of laparoscopic surgery were undertaken in Nairobi from May 2000 to May 2002 in the presence of the principal author, of these 408 cases (85.35%) were performed at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi. A review of these cases and their outcomes are analysed and presented. EXCLUSIONS Loss of client records, or follow up, all diagnostic procedures and all procedures performed at the three other private hospitals, namely; Nairobi Hospital, Nairobi Womens' Hospital and the M.P. Shah Hospital, have been excluded in this review. RESULTS Minimal access surgery will in time find its place amongst the institutions in Kenya. In the last two years 408 cases were undertaken at the Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi, involving a pool of 48 consultants obstetricians and gynaecologists and general surgeons. The case load increased from 7.0 cases per month in 2000 to 22 cases per month in 2001. Sixty four point four six percent of the patients spent one night in hospital, while 1.96% had conversion to laparotomy intraoperatively. Thirty nine point seven percent of the patients had no previous surgery. The surgical procedures performed included laparoscopic adhesiolysis (34.55%) and tuboplasty (17.89%) for primary or secondary infertility, 33 cases (8.08% ) for the management of ectopic pregnancies, laparoscopic myomectomy (15.44%), ovarian cystectomy (16.91%), ovarian drilling (4.65%), laparoscopic assisted vaginal hysterectomy (15.19%) and total laparoscopic hysterectomy (2.20%). All cases were reviewed by the consultant pool one week after discharge. The major complications encountered included bladder injury (0.49%) and gut injury (0.73%). CONCLUSIONS Minimal access surgery in gynaecology and general surgery is gaining remarkable ground worldwide and has tremendous potential in Kenya. It is evident that in trained hands, the common gynaecological operations and certain general Surgical procedures can be undertaken safely, laparoscopically. Minimal access surgery is acceptable to the patients and significantly favourable outcomes have been established in all the cases undertaken, thus far. Patient compliance has been excellent in this series.
A Self-Adaptive Cooperative Routing Protocol for underwater acoustic sensor networks

Design an effective routing protocol in underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) is an important issue. Long propagation time and low DATA rate which are two major concerns for routing protocol design in UASNs will lead to the long end-to-end transmission time. This paper proposes a Self-Adaptive Cooperative Routing Protocol (SACRP) to effectively route collecting DATA to the sink in UASNs. Cooperative transmission in SACRP not only can enhance the link quality (Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR)) to improve the network throughput but also can increase the transmission range of a node to reduce the end-to-end transmission time. Some mathematical analyses about cooperative transmission scheme are done to support SACRP protocol in the different DATA size and transmission range as well. Based on the network simulations, the proposed protocol, SACRP, has a significant performance against the related work in average end-to-end delay and packet delivery ratio.
A graph representation for programmable logic arrays to facilitate testing and logic design

In this paper, we present a new graph model and an associated set of operations for representing programmable logic arrays (PLAs). The signal lines and devices of a PLA are represented as the edges and vertices of a directed graph, respectively. Through this graph model, most realistic PLA faults, including cross-point, stuck-at, break, and bridging faults, can be modeled and classified, and the maximal diagnosis resolution of a PLA can be determined. Moreover, the model can be easily transformed into a gate-level model. Hence, the work of automatic test-pattern generation for a PLA and for other random logic ran be done simultaneously. We also show that this representation can be extended to some logic design techniques such as logic minimization, folding, and decomposition for PLAs. Thus, this graph model can unify the data structure and operations required in PLA design and test.
Chronic Electroconvulsive Treatment Augments Coupling of the GTP‐Binding Protein Gs to the Catalytic Moiety of Adenylyl Cyclase in a Manner Similar to That Seen with Chronic Antidepressant Drugs

Abstract: A significant increase of guanylylimidodiphosphate (GppNHp)‐, fluoride‐, and forskolin‐stimulated adenylyl cyclase was observed in synaptic membrane preparations from rat cerebral cortex subsequent to chronic electroconvulsive shock (ECS) treatment. This effect required at least five treatments over a course of 10 days. The inhibition of adenylyl cyclase induced by GppNHp was not affected by these treatments. The dissociation constant (KD) and maximal binding for the photoaffinity GTP analog, [32P]P3‐(4‐azidoanilido)‐P1‐5′‐GTP ([32P]AAGTP), to each of the synaptic membrane G proteins also were unchanged after ECS treatment. Nonetheless, the transfer of [32P]AAGTP from Gi to Gs, which we suggest is indicative of the coupling between Gs and the adenylyl cyclase catalytic moiety, was accelerated by chronic ECS treatment but not by acute or sham treatment. Furthermore, chemical uncoupling of Gs from adenylyl cyclase rendered membranes from treated animals indistinguishable from controls. Finally, in all cases tested, membranes prepared from animals subjected to chronic treatment with amitriptyline or iprindole showed similar changes in the Gs‐mediated activation of adenylyl cyclase. Acute treatments produced effects similar to controls, and liver and kidney membranes from animals receiving chronic treatment showed no changes in adenylyl cyclase despite the marked changes seen in brain. These results suggest that chronic administration of ECS enhances coupling between Gs and adenylyl cyclase enzyme and modifies interactions between Gs and Gi.
DNA methylation of CHFR is not a predictor of the response to docetaxel and paclitaxel in advanced and recurrent gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND Cell cycle checkpoint dysfunction is often associated with sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents. In this study, the question of whether DNA methylation of CHFR, a mitotic checkpoint gene, can predict the response of advanced and recurrent gastric cancers (GCs) to docetaxel or paclitaxel was examined. MATERIALS AND METHODS In a retrospective study, 41 patients with GC treated with paclitaxel alone (n=12) or a combination of docetaxel and S-1 (tegafur, 5-chloro-2,4-dihydroxypyridine, potassium oxonate) (n=29) were studied. The DNA methylation status of the CHFR gene was examined by combined bisulfite restriction analysis of DNAs from 41 GC tissues and the methylation status was compared to their sensitivity to chemotherapy. The levels of CHFR mRNA were measured by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR. RESULTS DNA methylation of CHFR was found in 15 (36.6%) out of the 41 GC samples and the levels of CHFR mRNA were associated with the methylation status of CHFR (p = 0.034). In 41 samples of corresponding non-neoplastic mucosae, no DNA methylation of CHFR was detected. Among 12 patients treated with paclitaxel alone, only 1 (20.0%) of the 5 patients with CHFR methylation had a partial response (PR) to paclitaxel, whereas 3 (42.9%) of the 7 patients without CHFR methylation had a PR to paclitaxel (p = 0.836). In 29 patients treated with a combination of S-1 and docetaxel, there was no clear association between the CHFR methylation status and response to chemotherapy (p = 0.092). CONCLUSION We conclude that the DNA methylation of CHFR alone cannot predict the response of advanced and recurrent GC to docetaxel or paclitaxel. Both paclitaxel and docetaxel may be effective for treatment of GC even if CHFR is expressed.
Optimization of Fingerprints Reporting Strategy for WLAN Indoor Localization

This paper investigates how to optimize the fingerprints reporting strategy to improve localization accuracy, and how the optimal strategy theory can be utilized to streamline the design of WLAN fingerprinting localization systems. In particular, we first reveal that the fingerprints reporting problem is essentially an NP-Hard size-constrained supermodular maximization problem, and then show the inapplicability of the state-of-the-art approximation algorithms to the problem. We then propose a new algorithm and show that if the number of fingerprints measurements is large enough, then the localization accuracy is at most <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1-\varepsilon$</tex-math> <alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:href="tian-ieq1-2715820.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> times worse than the optimal value, with <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\varepsilon$</tex-math><alternatives> <inline-graphic xlink:href="tian-ieq2-2715820.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> any given constant close to 0. Moreover, we demonstrate how the optimal strategy theory can be utilized to improve accuracy of location estimation by resolving the issue of similar fingerprints for both faraway and close-by locations, with an iterative algorithm developed to cross check fingerprints sampled in different locations, in order to derive the best possible result of localization. Further, we reveal the relationship between accuracy of location estimation and coverage of Wi-Fi signals in indoor spaces when planning deployment of APs. Experiment results are presented to validate our theoretical analysis.
Circadian rhythm of intraocular pressure in cats.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the rhythm of intraocular pressure (IOP) in healthy domestic cats with no evidence of ocular disease and to analyze the influence of photoperiod, age, gender and ocular diseases on diurnal-nocturnal variations of cat IOP. ANIMALS All animals were Domestic Short-haired cats; 30 were without systemic or ocular diseases, classified as follows: 12 male intact adult cats, five intact adult female, five adult spayed female, and eight male cats; the latter were less than 1 year of age. In addition, five adult cats with uveitis and three adult cats with secondary glaucoma were included. PROCEDURE IOP was assessed with a Tono-Pen XL at 3-h intervals over a 24-h period in 12 healthy adult male cats kept under a photoperiod of 12-h light/12-h darkness for 2 weeks. Eight animals from the same group were then kept under constant darkness for 48 h, and IOP was measured at 3-h intervals for the following 24 h. In addition, IOP was assessed at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. in five intact females, five spayed females, and in eight young cats, as well as in five adult cats with uveitis and three glaucomatous cats. RESULTS Consistent, daily variations in IOP were observed in animals exposed to a light-dark cycle, with maximal values during the night. In cats exposed to constant darkness, maximal values of IOP were observed at subjective night. Differences of IOP values between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. (diurnal-nocturnal variations) persisted in intact females, spayed females, and young animals, as well as in uveitic and glaucomatous eyes. CONCLUSIONS The present results indicate a daily rhythm of cat IOP, which appears to persist in constant darkness, suggesting some level of endogenous circadian control. In addition, daily variations of cat IOP seem to be independent of gender, age, or ocular diseases (particularly uveitis and glaucoma).
Vibrio cholerae non-O1 isolated from ayu fish (Plecoglossus altivelis) in Japan

A fish pathogen, Vibrio cholerae non-O1, was isolated from diseased ayu fish (Plecoglossus altivelis) collected from rivers in eight prefectural districts of Japan. This organism was found to have biochemical characteristics similar to those of V. cholerae non-O1, except that our isolates were negative for ornithine decarboxylase. Antiserum against an ayu isolate did not agglutinate with the majority of environmental V. cholerae non-O1 isolates, but a major O antigen was common among the ayu isolates. All strains were hemolytic to sheep erythrocytes, and oral administration of culture supernatants induced fluid accumulation in suckling mice. However, the crude toxin was not lethal to adult mice, and no cholera toxin-like enterotoxins were detected.