Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effectiveness of state trauma systems in reducing injury-related mortality: a national evaluation.

BACKGROUND Regional trauma systems were proposed 2 decades ago to reduce injury mortality rates. Because of the difficulties in evaluating their effectiveness and the methodologic limitations of previously published studies, the relative benefits of establishing an organized system of trauma care remains controversial. METHODS Data on trauma systems were obtained from a survey of state emergency medical service directors, review of state statutes and a previously published trauma system inventory. Injury mortality rates were obtained from national vital statistics data, whereas motor vehicle crash (MVC) mortality rates were obtained from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Mortality rates were compared between states with and without trauma systems. RESULTS As of 1995, 22 states had regional trauma systems. States with trauma systems had a 9% lower crude injury mortality rate than those without. When MVC-related mortality was evaluated separately, there was a 17% reduction in deaths. After controlling for age, state speed laws, restraint laws, and population distribution, there remained a 9% reduction in MVC-related mortality rate in states with a trauma system. CONCLUSION These data demonstrate that a state trauma system is associated with a reduction in the risk of death caused by injury. The effect is most evident on analysis of MVC deaths.
Ancient polymorphism and the hypothesis of a recent bottleneck in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

RICH et al. ([1998][1]) have recently proposed that the current world population of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum consists of individuals descended from a single haploid genotype or strain (malarial Eve) that occurred between 24,500 and 57,500 years ago. They base this conclusion
Dependency of Cortisol Suppression on the Administration Time of Inhaled Corticosteroids

Endogenous cortisol suppression is one of the major systemic side effects of inhaled corticosteroids in the treatment of asthma. A previously developed pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic approach was used to evaluate the influence of administration time on the cumulative cortisol suppression (CCS) after single doses of the inhaled corticosteroids flunisolide and fluticasone propionate. Administration time‐dependent simulations of CCS were performed with drug‐specific pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters obtained from previous clinical trials. Both drugs showed similar diurnal variation in CCS, dependent on the administration time, with maximum suppression when administered in the early morning at approximately 3 am. The optimum administration time for minimized CCS was in the afternoon but was shifted from 3 pm for fluticasone propionate to later time points around 7 pm for flunisolide, probably because of the shorter terminal elimination half‐life of flunisolide. Regarding peak to trough fluctuation, however, CCS after fluticasone propionate showed only half the administration time dependency as after flunisolide. Therefore, the ratio between CCS after flunisolide and after fluticasone propionate also followed administration time‐dependent variations. This led to the conclusion that administration time has to be considered as a pivotal influential factor in clinical studies comparing CCS among different inhaled corticosteroids.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of the Craniocervical Junction

Purposes. To confirm the accuracy of the standard parameters of Chamberlain's line, McGregor's line, McRae's line, and Ranawat's line in the diagnosis of basilar impression in a normal Asian population using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the craniocervical junction, and to evaluate the use of MRI in the initial diagnosis of basilar impression. Methods. We retrospectively reviewed MRI scans of the craniocervical junction in 114 Thai patients (61 men and 53 women) aged 20 to 89 years to assess the lines of Chamberlain, McGregor, McRae, and Ranawat. Patients with injury, tumour, or metastasis in the craniocervial junction; congenital anomalies; or clinical symptoms and signs of basilar impression were excluded. Results. 39 of the 114 patients had the odontoid tip extended above Chamberlain's line by 1 mm to 9 mm (mean, 2.89 mm). Only 7 men and 5 women had the tip of the odontoid process extended beyond the normal range of 5 mm. The mean distance of the odontoid tip extended past McGregor's line in male and female subjects was 0.33 mm (standard deviation [SD], 1.2 mm) and 0.17 mm (SD, 0.7 mm), respectively, markedly less than those reported previously, although one male patient's odontoid tip extended 8 mm above the McGregor's line. Regarding McRae's line, no patient had the odontoid tip extended above the foremen magnum. The mean Ranawat's line in male and female subjects was 15.75 mm (range, 12–19; SD, 1.71 mm) and 14.09 mm (range, 11–17; SD, 1.38 mm), respectively. Conclusion. After using MRI to confirm the standard parameters of basilar impression as previously formulated from lateral skull radiographs, we recommend using McRae's line and Ranawat's line in the initial screening for basilar impression for the Asian population. Chamberlain's line and McGregor's line are viable alternatives, but clinicians must be aware of the potential for false positives.
A protein associated with the manchette during rat spermiogenesis is encoded by a gene of the TBP‐1‐like subfamily with highly conserved ATPase and protease domains

We have used a rat pachytene spermatocyte cDNA expression library to clone TBP‐1 (for tat‐binding protein‐1; designated rat testis TBP‐1 [rtTBP‐1]), a new member of the family of putative ATPases associated with the 26S proteasome complex. The 1.63 kb rtTBP‐1 cDNA encodes a 49 kDa protein with 99% amino acid identity to human TBP‐1 protein. rtTBP‐1 protein contains a heptad repeat of six leucine‐type zipper fingers at the amino terminal end and highly conserved ATPase and DNA/RNA helicase motifs towards the carboxyl terminal region. Chromatofocusing fractionation of rat testis sucrose extracts demonstrates that the encoded product, recognized by an antiserum raised to the first 196 amino acids of human TBP‐1, consists of a protein triplet with a molecular mass range of 52‐48 kDa and acidic pI (5.0–5.9). An identical immunoreactive triplet was detected by immunoblotting in extracts of fractionated pachytene spermatocytes, round spermatids and epididymal sperm. In situ hybridization using digoxigenin‐labeled antisense RNA probes shows a predominant distribution of specific mRNA in the seminiferous epithelial region occupied by elongating spermatids and primary spermatocytes. Indirect immunofluorescence and immunogold electron microscopy studies show that rtTBP‐1 immunoreactive sites colocalize with α‐tubulin‐decorated manchettes of elongating spermatids. In addition, rtTBP‐1 immunoreactivity was detected in fibrillar and granular cytoplasmic bodies typically observed in spermatocytes and spermatids as well as in association with paraaxonemal mitochondria and outer dense fibers of the developing spermatid tail. Results of this study indicate that rtTBP‐1 is a member of the highly evolutionary conserved TBP‐1‐like subfamily of putative ATPases, sharing regions of identity—including ATP‐binding sites—with several subunits of the 26S proteasome, known to be involved in the ATP‐dependent degradation of ubiquitin‐conjugated proteins. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 48:77–89, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Research on voltage and power balance control for cascaded modular solid-state transformer

The solid-state transformer (SST) is one of the key elements in power electronic-based microgrid systems. The single-phase SST consists of a modular multilevel ac-dc rectifier, a modular dual active bridge (DAB) dc-dc converter with high-frequency transformers, and a dc-ac inverter stage. However, due to dc bus voltage and power unbalancing in each module, the modular SST often presents instability problems making its design difficult and causing unpredictable behavior. Moreover, the unbalanced dc-link voltages increase the stress of the semiconductor devices, and also cause high harmonic distortions of grid current, therefore, necessitating the use of a bigger ac filter. This paper presents a novel single-phase d-q vector-based common-duty-ratio control method for the multilevel rectifier, and a voltage feedforward and feedback based controller for the modular DAB converter. With the proposed control methods, the dc-link voltage and power in each module can be balanced. In addition, the low-distortion grid current, unity power factor, and bidirectional power flow can be achieved. Simulation and experimental results are presented to validate the proposed control methods.
Molecular field technology applied to virtual screening and finding the bioactive conformation

Virtual screening is being applied to reduce the high-throughput screening bottleneck in many pharmaceutical companies and to reduce compound wastage. Cresset’s ligand-based virtual screening technology using molecular fields can facilitate rapid identification of novel chemotypes from biologically testing only 200 – 1000 compounds. Four molecular fields calculated using the interaction of different probe atoms with the ligand are sufficient to describe how a ligand binds to its protein. Compounds with similar fields to known active ligands are predicted to have a high probability of showing similar activity. As binding is related to field similarity, this property has been exploited further to predict the bioactive conformation of small sets of structurally diverse active ligands starting from the two-dimensional structures alone without knowledge of the target site structure.
An investigation of the role of vitamin E in the protection of mice against microcystin toxicity

The presence of cyanobacterial toxins in drinking and recreational waters represents a potential public health risk. Microcystin‐LR (MC‐LR) is a potent cyclic heptapeptide hepatotoxin produced by the blue‐green alga Microcystis aeruginosa. Chemoprotectant studies have indicated that membrane‐active antioxidants such as vitamin E may offer protection against microcystin toxicity. This study investigated the effect of vitamin E supplementation on microcystin toxicity in mouse liver. Groups of mice were fed vitamin E supplements (8.33 or 33.3 U/mouse/day) for 4 weeks, with intraperitoneal doses of MC‐LR extract (70% LD50) every 3 days from day 8. The potential benefits of vitamin E were evaluated based on lipid peroxidation, alanine transaminase (ALT), and glutathione S‐transferase (GST) levels. Vitamin E supplementation at 33.3 U/mouse/day offered some protection against lipid peroxidation induced by repeated exposure to MC‐LR extract and limited both the toxin‐induced increase in ALT leakage and decrease in GST activity. Vitamin E supplementation at 66.6 U/mouse/day significantly increased the time to death and reduced the increase in liver percentage body weight induced in mice given a lethal dose challenge of MC‐LR extract. Therefore, vitamin E, taken as a dietary supplement, may have a protective effect against chronic exposure to MC‐LR. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 18: 142–148, 2003.
Learning to Learn Visual Object Categories by Integrating Deep Learning with Hierarchical Bayes

Humans are capable of generalizing and learning new concepts after very little experience. They have the ability to create semantic structures from concepts they acquire, they can learn appropriate inductive biases that are later used as priors for different tasks, and they can learn novel categories from very few examples. While recent advances in neural networks and other machine learning methods are beginning to approach humanlevel capabilities in several tasks, building computational models that replicate these abilities has proven difficult. We propose a model that combines powerful features extracted from a deep neural network with a semantic structure inferred using probabilistic Hierarchical Bayes. We test and demonstrate the capabilities of our model in three different tasks: learning a new concept from a single example of a novel category, learning new categories from few examples of different categories, and learning the semantic tree from an unlabeled set of novel objects.
User-Centered Design of a Controller-Free Game for Hand Rehabilitation.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to develop and test a hand therapy game using the Microsoft (Redmond, WA) Kinect(®) sensor with a customized videogame. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using the Microsoft Kinect sensor as an input device, a customized game for hand rehabilitation was developed that required players to perform various gestures to accomplish a virtual cooking task. Over the course of two iterative sessions, 11 participants with different levels of wrist, hand, and finger injuries interacted with the game in a single session, and user perspectives and feedback were obtained via a questionnaire and semistructured interviews. RESULTS Participants reported high levels of enjoyment, specifically related to the challenging nature of the game and the visuals. Participant feedback from the first iterative round of testing was incorporated to produce a second prototype for the second round of testing. Additionally, participants expressed the desire to have the game adapt and be customized to their unique hand therapy needs. CONCLUSIONS The game tested in this study has the potential to be a unique and cutting edge method for the delivery of hand rehabilitation for a diverse population.
A Clathrate Reservoir Hypothesis for Enceladus' South Polar Plume

We hypothesize that active tectonic processes in the south polar terrain of Enceladus, the 500-kilometer-diameter moon of Saturn, are creating fractures that cause degassing of a clathrate reservoir to produce the plume documented by the instruments on the Cassini spacecraft. Advection of gas and ice transports energy, supplied at depth as latent heat of clathrate decomposition, to shallower levels, where it reappears as latent heat of condensation of ice. The plume itself, which has a discharge rate comparable to Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park, probably represents small leaks from this massive advective system.
Prevalence of low sexual desire and hypoactive sexual desire disorder in a nationally representative sample of US women.

BACKGROUND We sought to estimate the prevalence of low sexual desire and hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in US women, focusing on their menopausal status. METHODS We performed a cross-sectional study. From a probability sample of households, 2207 US women aged 30 to 70 years and in stable relationships (>or=3 months) were interviewed by telephone. The analysis focused on 755 premenopausal women and 552 naturally and 637 surgically menopausal women. Low sexual desire was defined using the Profile of Female Sexual Function desire domain, and HSDD was defined using the Profile of Female Sexual Function and the Personal Distress Scale. RESULTS Prevalence of low sexual desire ranged from 26.7% among premenopausal women to 52.4% among naturally menopausal women. The prevalence of HSDD was highest among surgically menopausal women (12.5%). Compared with premenopausal women and adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, educational level, and smoking status, the prevalence ratios for HSDD were 2.3 (95% confidence interval, 1.2-4.5) for surgically menopausal women and 1.2 (0.5-2.8) for naturally menopausal women; the prevalence ratios for low sexual desire were 1.3 (0.9-1.9) and 1.5 (1.0-2.2) for surgically and naturally menopausal women, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Prevalence of low sexual desire is elevated among surgically and naturally menopausal women vs premenopausal women. Distress about low desire (HSDD) appears to be more than twice as prevalent among surgically menopausal women vs premenopausal women, although the estimate is fairly imprecise.
Problems in Umbilical Cord Blood Collection

The goal of the Cord Blood Bank Basel is to provide umbilical cord blood (UCB) for allogeneic stem cell transplantations from unrelated donors. Our registry contains 1,044 units, 12 have been released for transplantation (1%). In the past collection mainly took place at the Women’s Hospital Basel, where only 10% of deliveries resulted in HLA-typed and frozen transplants. The aim of our study was to evaluate the high deferral rate. Materials and Methods: During a 4-week period we assessed every delivery at our hospital by a questionnaire on patient data, consent procedure, inclusion or exclusion criteria and reasons for performing or not performing UCB collection. Results: 164 women delivered at our institution (135 vaginal deliveries, 29 cesarean sections). Among these, 131 were eligible for autologous UCB donation, whereas 33 women had to be excluded due to their medical history (26), triplet delivery (1), post partum hemorrhage (1), congenital malformation (1) or chorioamnionitis (4). Of the eligible women, 17 refused donating UCB, and 29 women underwent a cesarean section. 11 women were admitted under painful contractions. 18 had to be rejected due to lack of laboratory facilities at the weekend. Finally, 43 UCB samples had been taken, 2 for private banking purposes (4.6%), 21 (48.8%) for the public bank, and 20 samples (46.5%) which had to be discarded due to a low cell count. Conclusions: Donor selection is efficiently performed before the collection process. The rate of donor deferral and UCB sample discard is high and comparable to other UCB banks. The yield of UCB transplants could be increased if UCB collection would be additionally performed during cesarean section and with increased laboratory facilities during the weekend.
An Analysis of Telepsychiatry Programs from an Organizational Perspective

Employing telecommunication tools to deliver behavioral health services over a distance, referred to as telepsychiatry, is a technique that has been around since the 1950s. With more than 40 formally recognized active telepsychiatry programs, ample published studies have documented the technical feasibility and apparent satisfaction and acceptance by patients and providers. However, there has been minimal analysis regarding the formal programs delivering these services. This study collected data from 16 programs recognized as among the most active in the world. The results indicate a dearth of strategic business plans for the provision of telepsychiatry services; a focus on patient services above all and; the potential for telepsychiatry to eventually meld into the everyday practice of psychiatrists and psychologists.
Mechanisms of LTR-Retroelement Transposition: Lessons from Drosophila melanogaster

Long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons occupy a special place among all mobile genetic element families. The structure of LTR retrotransposons that have three open reading frames is identical to DNA forms of retroviruses that are integrated into the host genome. Several lines of evidence suggest that LTR retrotransposons share a common ancestry with retroviruses and thus are highly relevant to understanding mechanisms of transposition. Drosophila melanogaster is an exceptionally convenient model for studying the mechanisms of retrotransposon movement because many such elements in its genome are transpositionally active. Moreover, two LTR-retrotransposons of D. melanogaster, gypsy and ZAM, have been found to have infectious properties and have been classified as errantiviruses. Despite numerous studies focusing on retroviral integration process, there is still no clear understanding of integration specificity in a target site. Most LTR retrotransposons non-specifically integrate into a target site. Site-specificity of integration at vertebrate retroviruses is rather relative. At the same time, sequence-specific integration is the exclusive property of errantiviruses and their derivatives with two open reading frames. The possible basis for the errantivirus integration specificity is discussed in the present review.
Progress in coverage with hepatitis B vaccine among US children, 1994-1997.

OBJECTIVES This study was done to assess progress in hepatitis B vaccination of children from 1994 through 1997. METHODS We used data from the National Immunization Survey (NIS), a random-digit-dialed telephone survey that includes a mail survey to verify vaccination providers' records. The NIS is conducted in 78 geographic areas (50 states and 28 selected urban areas) in the United States. RESULTS A total of 32,433 household interviews were completed in the 1997 NIS. An estimated 83.7% of children aged 19 to 35 months received 3 or more doses of hepatitis B vaccine. Coverage with 3 doses was greater (86.7%) among children in states that had day care entry requirements for hepatitis B vaccination than among children in states without such requirements (83.0%) and was greater among children from families with incomes at or above the poverty level (85.0%) than among children below the poverty level (80.6%). Hepatitis B vaccination of children increased from 1994 through 1996, from 41% to 84%, but coverage reached a constant level of 84% to 85% in 1996/97. CONCLUSION Although substantial progress has been made in fully vaccinating children against hepatitis B, greater efforts are needed to ensure that all infants receive 3 doses of hepatitis B vaccine.
Expectation-Driven Climate Treaties with Breakthrough Technologies

Recent research has shown that agreements centered on the adoption of breakthrough technologies can break the deadlock in international climate negotiations if the mitigation technology exhibits a network externality that transforms full cooperation into a self-enforcing outcome. This paper shows that the same externality also increases strategic uncertainty about future technology adoption, which makes coordination on the cooperative outcome more demanding. We analyze this coordination problem in a dynamic game of technology adoption with convex switching costs. We find that the adoption dynamics for some technologies depend exclusively on countries' expectations about future adoption. This possibility calls for a more prominent role of expectation management in climate policy. Another implication is that the choice of breakthrough technologies should be guided not only by economic efficiency and strategic adoption incentives but also by the amount of strategic uncertainty they engender.
FPGA / DSP hybrid architectures : Satisfying the reconfigurability requirements of the military

Embedded signal processing applications in the evolving modern-day military increasingly require flexibility, adaptability, and reprogrammability. The ability to modify a military system in real time based on what is happening in the real world – adapting to weather conditions, new threats, mission changes – is crucial. When this is coupled with the requirements of floating-point signal processing – low latency, high throughput, extended precision, and dynamic range – the ability to properly satisfy all requirements using one processing technology diminishes.