Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving and Learning from Practice

David Maxwell, BPharm, DipHospPharm, DUE Program Coordinator, NSW TAG, Darlinghurst, New South Wales Address for correspondence: David Maxwell, NSW TAG, PO Box 766, Darlinghurst NSW 2010, Australia E-mail: djmaxwell@stvincents.com. au CONFERENCE OVERVIEW The 23rd International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) conference was held in London, UK in October 2006 with the theme ‘Improving healthcare: the challenge of continuous change’. The conference is an annual international meeting that engages interest from across the healthcare system and participants included health professionals, policy makers, administrators, researchers, educators and consumers. I presented the ‘Community-acquired pneumonia: towards improving outcomes nationally’ (CAPTION) project in the Clinical stream that also included papers on patient safety, medication reconciliation, medication safety and disease state management. It was an ideal opportunity to meet other pharmacists working in the area of quality improvement, with a particular interest in medication use. There was also opportunity to visit the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) through the two-day ISQua mentoring program. NPSA is a Special Health Authority within the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. It was created in July 2001 to coordinate national efforts to report and learn from mistakes and problems that affect patient safety. The national system for reporting patient incidents in the healthcare system was a key topic within the two-day mentoring program. This report includes a summary of lessons learned relevant to the CAPTION project and improving practice, as well as an overview of two reporting systems designed to assist in learning from practice.
[Effects of acupuncture-moxibustion intervention on proprioception in athletes with lateral collateral ligament injury of ankle joint].

OBJECTIVE To compare the efficacy differences between acupuncture-moxibustion and physiotherapy interventions in improving proprioception of athletes with lateral collateral ligament injury of the ankle joint. METHODS Thirty patients with injured lateral collateral ligament of ankle joint were randomly divided into acupuncture group (n = 15) and physiotherapy group (n = 15). Patients of the acupuncture group were treated by acupuncture and moxibustion stimulation of Qiuxu (GB40), Kunlun (BL 60), Shenmai (BL 62), Jiexi (ST 41), and Ashi-points, etc., and those of the physiotherapy group treated with TDP irradiation of the regional lateral malleolus. The treatment of the two groups was conducted once the other day, 3 times each week, continuously for 8 weeks. Before and after the treatment, the ankle-joint's active and passive repositioning error angles were measured by using a joint angle ruler. RESULTS The average error angle values of active and passive reposition tests of the injured ankle-joint were 4.98 +/- 1.11 and 4.78 +/- 1.3 before the treatment, and 3.67 +/- 0.58 and 3.51 +/- 0.64 after the treatment, respectively in the acupuncture group, being reduced significantly after the treatment (both P < 0.01). No significant changes of the average error angle values of both active and passive reposition tests of the ankle-joint were found after the treatment in the physiotherapy group (P > 0.05). Comparison between two groups showed that the average error angle, average active and passive reposition angles of the injured ankle in the acupuncture group were evidently lower than those in the physiotherapy group (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION Acupuncture and moxibustion can effectively improve the proprioception of the injured lateral collateral ligament of the ankle joint in athletes, which is superior to conventional physiotherapy in the therapeutic effect.
A Self‐Consistent Bathymetric Mapping Algorithm

The achievable accuracy of bathymetric mapping in the deep ocean using robotic systems is most often limited by the available guidance or navigation information used to combine the measured sonar ranges during the map making process. This paper presents an algorithm designed to mitigate the affects of poor ground referenced navigation by applying the principles of map registration and pose filtering commonly used in simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms. The goal of the algorithm is to produce a self‐consistent point cloud representation of the bottom terrain with errors that are on a scale similar to the sonar range resolution rather than any direct positioning measurement. The presented algorithm operates causally and utilizes sensor data that are common to instrumented underwater robotic vehicles used for mapping and scientific explorations. Real world results are shown for data taken on several expeditions with the JASON remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Comparisons are made between more standard mapping approaches and the proposed method is shown to significantly improve the map quality and reveal scene information that would have otherwise been obscured due to poor direct navigation information. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Artificially Sweetened Beverage Consumption Is Positively Associated with Newly Diagnosed Diabetes in Normal-Weight but Not in Overweight or Obese Brazilian Adults.

BACKGROUND Recent animal studies suggest that artificially sweetened beverage (ASB) consumption increases diabetes risk. OBJECTIVE We examined the relation of ASB intake with newly diagnosed diabetes and measures of glucose homeostasis in a large Brazilian cohort of adults. METHODS We used cross-sectional data from 12,884 participants from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil). ASB use was assessed by questionnaire and newly diagnosed diabetes by a 2-h 75-g oral glucose tolerance test and/or glycated hemoglobin. Logistic and linear regression analyses were performed to examine the association of ASB consumption with diabetes and continuous measures of glucose homeostasis, respectively. RESULTS Although ASB consumption was not associated with diabetes in logistic regression analyses after adjustment for body mass index (BMI; in kg/m(2)) overall, the association varied across BMI categories (P-interaction = 0.04). Among those with a BMI <25, we found a 15% increase in the adjusted odds of diabetes for each increase in the frequency of ASB consumption per day (P = 0.001); compared with nonusers, ASB users presented monotonic increases in the adjusted ORs (95% CIs) of diabetes with increased frequency of consumption: 1.03 (0.60, 1.77), 1.43 (0.93, 2.20), 1.62 (1.08, 2.44), and 2.51 (1.40, 4.50) for infrequent, 1-2, 3-4, and >4 times/d, respectively. In linear regression analyses, among normal-weight individuals, greater ASB consumption was also associated with increased fasting glucose concentrations (P = 0.01) and poorer β-cell function (P = 0.009). No such associations were seen for those with BMI ≥25. In fact, in overweight or obese participants, greater ASB consumption was significantly associated with improved indexes of insulin resistance and 2-h postload glucose. CONCLUSIONS Normal-weight, but not excess-weight, individuals with greater ASB consumption presented diabetes more frequently and had higher fasting glucose and poorer β-cell function.
Arg-Gingipain Is Responsible for the Degradation of Cell Adhesion Molecules of Human Gingival Fibroblasts and Their Death Induced by Porphyromonas gingivalis

Abstract Arggingipain (Rgp) and Lysgingipain (Kgp) are two major cysteine proteinases produced by the oral anaerobic bacterium Porphyromonas gingivalis, which has been shown to act as major pathogen in the development and progression of periodontal diseases. These enzymes are also important for this organism to proliferate and survive in periodontal pockets. Here we show that Rgp is responsible for the disruption of fibronectinintegrin interactions in human gingival fibroblasts by P. gingivalis. Fibroblasts incubated with the culture supernatant of P. gingivalis showed a timedependent loss of the adhesion activity. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting revealed that fibronectin and integrin subunits ? 2, ? 1 and ? 3 in the fibroblast culture largely disappeared with the treatment. The detached cells became committed to death by disruption of contacts between adhesion molecules. In contrast, the culture supernatants from the Rgpdeficient mutants produced no significant changes in either cell adhesion or viability. Prior treatment of the culture supernatant of P. gingivalis with an Rgp inhibitor, but not a Kgp inhibitor, strongly inhibited the detachment of fibroblasts followed by cell death. These results suggest that Rgp disrupts the integrinfibronectin interactions in fibroblasts, thereby contributing to the damage of periodontal tissues in periodontal diseases caused by P. gingivalis.
DICOM transmission of simultaneous stereoscopic images of the optic nerve in patients with glaucoma

We evaluated the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standard for the transmission of stereoscopic images of the optic nerve. Digital optic nerve images were obtained from patients with glaucoma. Fifteen simultaneous stereo images from consecutive patients were analysed independently twice, in random order, by two glaucoma specialists to establish baseline values of vertical and horizontal cup-to-disc (CDV and CDH) ratios and image quality (1 = worst, 5 = best). Images were transmitted to a distant location and returned to the sending site using DICOM standards in both directions. The received images were reassessed again by the two glaucoma specialists. The image file size slightly increased for all received images (mean 2545 kByte) in comparison with the transmitted images (mean 2460 kByte). The mean baseline values for CDV, CDH and quality score were 0.66, 0.59 and 3.9, respectively. The corresponding mean values for the received images were 0.66, 0.62 and 3.73, respectively. The differences between transmitted and received images were not significant. Clinical interpretation of digital stereoscopic images of glaucomatous optic nerves appears to be unaffected by DICOM capture and transmission.
A capacitive electrode with fast recovery feature

Capacitive electrodes (CEs) allow for acquiring biopotentials without galvanic contact, avoiding skin preparation and the use of electrolytic gel. The signal quality provided by present CEs is similar to that of standard wet electrodes, but they are more sensitive to electrostatic charge interference and motion artifacts, mainly when biopotentials are picked up through clothing and coupling capacitances are reduced to tens of picofarads. When artifacts are large enough to saturate the preamplifier, several seconds (up to tens) are needed to recover a proper baseline level, and during this period biopotential signals are irremediably lost. To reduce this problem, a CE that includes a fast-recovery (FR) circuit is proposed. It works directly on the coupling capacitor, recovering the amplifier from saturation while preserving ultra-high input impedance, as a CE requires. A prototype was built and tested acquiring ECG signals. Several experimental data are presented, which show that the proposed circuit significantly reduces record segment losses due to amplifier saturation when working in real environments.
Importancia del lenguaje en el ámbito educativo

Partiendo de un evidente interes por la produccion y comprension del lenguaje por parte de los estudiantes colombianos de diferentes niveles de escolaridad, se da una revision al termino lenguaje: momentos e implicaciones; oponiendo esta acepcion amplia a la restringida o reduccionista que suele usarse muchas veces. Asi mismo, se incursiona en el lenguaje pensado en/y para la escuela, con el analisis de propuestas que pretenden intervenir las practicas pedagogicas y didacticas, de acuerdo con problematicas percibidas. A continuacion se toma partido por lo linguistico como uno de los tres elementos y momentos senalados como constitutivos del lenguaje, para analizar como asumen las politicas colombianas la ensenanza de la lengua: sus elementos, sus reglas y la forma como se combinan, es decir, su gramatica; esto, considerando la lengua como un elemento integrador en el lenguaje y considerando, ademas, las implicaciones de su ensenanza y el papel que cumple la gramatica dentro de esta ensenanza. Lo anterior permite tener una idea del papel del lenguaje en el ambito educativo y de la funcion que cumplen la lengua y la gramatica en esta dinamica.
A probabilistic kernel approach for solving the multi-instance learning problems with different assumptions

Multi-instance learning (MIL) has received more and more attentions in the machine learning research field due to its theoretical interest and its applicability to diverse real-world problems. In this paper, we present a probabilistic kernel approach for the multi-instance learning problems with various multi-instance assumptions by imposing Gaussian process prior on an unobservable latent function defined on the instance space. Because the relationship between the bag and its instances, triggered by the multi-instance assumption, can be exactly captured by defining the likelihood function, we can deal with different multi-instance assumptions by employing different likelihood functions. Experimental results on several multi-instance problems show that the proposed algorithms are valid and can achieve superior performance to the published MIL algorithms.
Significance of Replacement Queue in Sequential Prefetching

The performance of a prefetch cache is dependent on both the prefetch technique and the cache replacement policy. Both these algorithms execute independently of each other, but they share a data structure - the cache replacement queue. The replacement queue captures the impact of prefetching and caching. This paper shows that even with a simple sequential prefetch technique, there is an increase in hit rate and a decrease in response time when the LRU replacement queue is split into two equal sized queues. A more signiﬁcant performance improvement is possible with sophisticated prefetch techniques and by splitting the queue unequally.
Kiwifruit Ingredient for Digestive Health

The composition of the gut microflora has been found to play important roles in human health and disease. Some plant components, particularly dietary fibers, which are slow or non-digestible by humans, are called prebiotics because they are selectively fermented by gut bacteria resulting in specific changes in the composition and/or activity of the intestinal microbiota, thus conferring benefit(s) upon the host’s health.
Assessing Jail Inmates’ Proneness To Shame and Guilt

This study of 550 jail inmates (379 male and 171 female) held on felony charges examines the reliability and validity of the Test of Self Conscious Affect—Socially Deviant Version as a measure of offenders’ proneness to shame and proneness to guilt. Discriminant validity (e.g., vis-à-vis self-esteem, negative affect, social desirability/impression management) and convergent validity (e.g., vis-à-vis correlations with empathy; externalization of blame, anger, psychological symptoms; and substance use problems) were supported, paralleling results from community samples. Furthermore, proneness to shame and guilt were differentially related to widely used risk measures from the field of criminal justice (e.g., criminal history, psychopathy, violence risk, antisocial personality). Guilt-proneness appears to be a protective factor, whereas there was no evidence that shame-proneness serves an inhibitory function. Subsequent analyses indicate these findings generalize quite well across gender and race. Implications for intervention and sentencing practices are discussed.
Polus: Growing Storage QoS Management Beyond a "4-Year Old Kid"

Policy-based storage management has been advertised as the silver bullet to overcome the complexity that limits the amount of storage that can be managed by system administrators. Key to this approach are: a mechanism to specify quality of service (QoS) goals; a canonical virtual model of storage devices and operations; and the mapping of the high level QoS goals to low level storage device actions. In spite of prior research and industrial standards the latter problem results in complex, manual, error-prone processes that burden system administrators and prevent the widespread acceptance of policy-based storage management. This paper proposes the Polus framework which specifically addresses this open problem.Polus removes the need for system administrators to write code that maps the QoS goals to low level system actions. Instead, it generates this mapping code by using a combination of rule-of-thumb specification mechanism, a reasoning engine and a learning engine to change the implementation paradigm of policy-based storage management. This paper also provides a quantitative analysis of the Polus framework within the context of a storage area network (SAN) file system to verify the feasibility of this new approach.
A 79-GHz Resonant Laminated Waveguide Slotted Array Antenna Using Novel Shaped Slots in LTCC

This letter presents a laminated waveguide (LWG)-based slotted array antenna in LTCC. The introduced novel slot shape derived from a standard longitudinal offset slot provides a further degree of freedom for the antenna design by bending the outer sections of the slot. Based on the characteristics of a single slot, the design procedure of an antenna array with amplitude tapering at a constant slot offset is presented. As an example, design, realization, and measurement of a 12-element array at 79 GHz with Dolph-Chebyshev power distribution with a sidelobe level of -20 dB are presented.
Age-based beliefs about memory changes for self and others across adulthood.

This study is intended to clarify the nature of beliefs about aging and memory. Earlier experiments (e.g., Ryan, 1992) had demonstrated that more frequent everyday memory problems are expected for typical older adults than for typical young adults. We used three self-efficacy scales of the Metamemory in Adulthood instrument (Dixon & Hultsch, 1983) to examine whether age changes are anticipated for oneself as well as for typical adults. Volunteers (N = 224; mean age = 35 years) completed the questionnaire about the memory of either typical adults (aged 25, 45, 65, or 85 years) or themselves at one of these ages. The anticipation of decline was obtained on two of the three self-efficacy scales (i.e., capacity and change) for both typical adults and for oneself. In contrast to Ryan's 1992 study, significant differentiation between target ages of 45 and 65 was observed on these more age-sensitive measures. Beliefs about memory change across adulthood were no weaker for the self than for typical others. Hence, this study supports the potential influence of general age-based beliefs upon individual self-efficacy beliefs and memory performance.
Retropatellar cartilage morphology and kneeling ability: cartilage wear and kneeling function of TKA patients

Objectives: To investigate the retro-patellar cartilage (RPC) morphology and the patterns of retropatellar cartilage wear as well as the patients’ kneeling ability to determine whether the kneeling ability is related to the area and pattern of wear in the cartilage. Methods: 30 patients undergoing primary TKAs participated in this study. The patients were seen in the preoperative assessment clinics and consented to allow intraoperative photographing of their retro patellar cartilage. These photographs were used to determine the area and pattern of wear by using Image J software. The total area of the retropatellar cartilage and the area of wear was measured and used to calculate the percentage of RPC wear. The percentages of retro patellar cartilage wear for all the patients were linked with their kneeling ability before the surgery. Results: 15 patients (cases numbered 1-15, termed group A) were able to kneel, and 15 patients (cases numbered 16-30, termed group B) were unable to kneel. The % of wears for all RPC images measured 3 times with a week interval and the average of the records in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd week recorded for statistical analysis. Mean % of RPC wears in-group A was (15%), and in-group B was (36%). Intra-Rater and Inter-Rater Reliability statistically assessed by using Intraclass Correlation Coefficient. Patients who able to kneel (Group A) had normal RPC superior surfaces with no damages in comparison with patients who unable to kneel (Group B) who had damaged superior surfaces medially and laterally. All the RPC surfaces (Superior, Middle and Inferior) were damaged in Group B patients (Unable to kneel). Conclusion: No direct association was found between the retropatellar cartilage damage and the kneeling ability. The most damaged areas were found in the middle and lower thirds of retropatellar cartilage.
Timed Ablation of Regulatory CD4+ T Cells Can Prevent Murine AIDS Progression

We describe successful immunotherapy of murine AIDS (MAIDS) in C57BL/6J mice based on the elimination of replicating CD4+ regulator T cells. We demonstrate that a single injection of the antimitotic drug vinblastine (Vb) given 14 days postinfection (p.i.) with LP-BM5 can prevent MAIDS progression. Treatment with anti-CD4 mAb at 14 days p.i. is similarly able to prevent MAIDS. Treatment at other time points with Vb or anti-CD4 mAb is ineffective. The effect is based on ablation of a replicating dominantly suppressive CD4+ T cell population, as indicated by adoptive transfer and in vivo depletion experiments using mAbs against CD4 as well as combinations of mAbs against the known regulatory cell surface markers CD25, GITR, and CTLA-4. Cell surface marker analysis shows a population of CD4+CD25+ cells arising shortly before day 14 p.i. Cytokine analyses show a peak in IL-10 production from day 12 to day 16 p.i. MAIDS-infected mice also have CD4+ T cells with significantly higher expression levels of CD38 and particularly CD69, which have been demonstrated to be regulator T cell markers in the Friend retroviral model. The immunotherapy appears to prevent disease progression, although no protection against reinfection with LP-BM5 is generated. These data define a new therapy for murine retroviral infection, which has potential for use in other diseases where T regulator cell-mediated immunosuppression plays a role in the disease process.
High expression of L‐type amino‐acid transporter 1 (LAT1) in gastric carcinomas: Comparison with non‐cancerous lesions

Amino acid transporters are essential for maintenance and proliferation of both normal and transformed cells. In the present study, L‐type amino‐acid transporter 1 (LAT1) immunoreactive expression was investigated in gastric carcinomas, in comparison with gastric adenomas and non‐neoplastic lesions, using our recently developed novel monoclonal antibody. In a total of 87 cases of advanced gastric cancer, high LAT1 expression was observed in carcinoma cells, predominantly at plasma membranes with greater intensity in non‐scirrhous than scirrhous carcinomas. Gastric carcinoma cases with lymph node metastasis showed significantly higher LAT1 expression than cases without lymph node metastasis. A positive correlation with Ki‐67 LI was observed and the highly expressing non‐scirrhous carcinomas showed a significantly poorer prognosis than the low LAT1 group. Cox hazard test revealed that TNM stage and LAT1 expression were independent prognostic factors in non‐scirrhous carcinoma group. Further, a significant poor prognosis was confirmed in high LAT1 expression group, when limited to undifferentiated carcinoma cases excluding scirrhous carcinoma. Lower levels were found in adenomas. In conclusion, LAT 1 expression may be linked with cell proliferation and prognosis of gastric carcinomas, and offers a potential target for future anticancer therapy by inhibitors.