jimnoneill/paper-to-field-training huggingface dataset:
Including patient‐reported measures in performance evaluation systems: Patient contribution in assessing and improving the healthcare systems

Field: Health Professions (Health Sciences)

Abstract In healthcare, the introduction of quality standards and indicators to assess performance triggered the development of multidimensional Performance Management Systems (PMSs). The concept of performance in healthcare has recently evolved and broadened its scope. One of the current challenges of PMSs is measuring and integrating the patient perspective into traditional measures. In the regional healthcare system of Tuscany (Italy), a PMS has been implemented and used since 2005. The PMS counts on the systematic involvement of clinicians and managers. Furthermore, the PMS also includes patients' perspective. Moreover, Tuscany has recently implemented the first regional permanent Patient‐Reported Outcome and Experience Measures (PROMs and PREMs) Observatory in Italy. This paper presents the results of an action research aimed at analysing the integration of patient‐reported outcome and experience indicators into a consolidated PMS. The study describes the process of identifying and discussing of patient‐reported indicators with practitioners and categorising findings into three domains: design of patient‐reported indicators, integration process into the PMS, and goal of adoption of the patient‐related indicators. The paper also describes facilitators, challenges, and lessons learnt with respect to organisational, methodological, cultural, and responsibility‐linked factors. The study discusses the ability to agree on how to transform patient data, especially PROMs, into effective performance indicators. The integration of patient‐reported indicators into the PMS poses two main challenges: one in terms of sustainability of the performance system itself, and another regarding the attribution of the responsibility for patient outcomes between care settings and providers. This paper provides initial insights on how the integration of patient‐reported indicators can make PMSs more inclusive and focussed on the patient‐centred perspective.
Training of advanced practice nurses in oncology for the best care: a systematic review

Field: Health Professions (Health Sciences)

ABSTRACT Objective: To search for evidence on the training of advanced practice nurses, through clinical practice and nursing care with cancer patients. Method: Systematic review, searching the databases: MEDLINE-PubMed, LILACS, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL and Cochrane CENTRAL. A manual search of the reference list and Google Scholar was also carried out. To assess the methodological quality of the studies, the following tools were used: Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias Tool (RoB 1) for randomized controlled trials and Risk of Bias in Non-randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) for quasi-experimental studies. Results: A total of 12 experimental studies were identified. The main intervention identified in the studies was educational guidance. The studies showed improvement in pain control or other symptoms related to disease and/or treatment, satisfaction and improvement in the quality of life of cancer patients. Conclusion: It is observed that there are studies that demonstrate the value of advanced practice nursing in oncology, through differentiated clinical training and advanced professional performance. Registration number of the systematic review: CRD42018098906.
Knowledge regarding subfertility among patients who are attending to general surgical and subfertility clinics at the Teaching Hospital Peradeniya

Field: Health Professions (Health Sciences)

The AMJ is a peer-reviewed, triannual health journal published by Anuradhapura Clinical Society (ACS).The Journal strives to be a forum for all health professionals to publish original research and review articles in their area of expertise. The AMJ publishes articles in clinical medicine, public health and health promotion. Our priority is given to manuscripts on health related issues which affects the communities living in rural tropical communities. Established as a journal in 2006 as a publication parallel to ACS annual scientific sessions, the journal was relaunched as a proper journal in 2013. Anuradhapura Medical Journal is a member of COPE and is included on DOAJ.
Evaluation of Plasmodium berghei Models in Malaria Research

Field: Immunology and Microbiology (Life Sciences)

As a key model organism for studying malaria, Plasmodium berghei provides essential information on pathophysiology, host immunological responses, and possible targets for treating this debilitating illness. This narrative review compares other Plasmodium species models, including P. falciparum and P. vivax, to assess the evolution, traits, and applicability of P. berghei models. We discuss the development of P. berghei research and its historical background, emphasizing its advantages in genetic modification and experimental accessibility. The difficulties and constraints these models have, as well as new methods and prospects for their development in the future, are discussed. This study highlights the potential of P. berghei models for translating malaria research and creating efficient control methods by combining important discoveries and comparative studies. This thorough assessment seeks to maximize the use of P. berghei in the battle against malaria and to direct future research endeavors.
The hyaluronan synthesis inhibitor 7-hydroxy-4-methylcoumarin inhibits LPS-induced inflammatory response in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells

Field: Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics (Life Sciences)

7-Hydroxy-4-methylcoumarin (7H-4MC) inhibits hyaluronan production in multiple cell lines and tissue types both in vitro and in vivo.It is a commercially available drug approved for human use, called hymecromone, in European and Asian countries to prevent biliary spasms.Nevertheless, as the pharmacological efficacy of 7H-4MC has not yet been reported in macrophages, this study investigated its anti-inflammatory effects and mechanism of action using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW 264.7 macrophages.LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells were treated with various concentrations of 7H-4MC (62.5, 125, 250, and 500 μM).The application of 7H-4MC significantly reduced nitric oxide and prostaglandin E 2 production without cytotoxic effects.Additionally, 7H-4MC strongly decreased the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase.Furthermore, 7H-4MC reduced the production of proinflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-6.Finally, 7H-4MC exerted its potent anti-inflammatory actions via the upregulation of IκB-α production, which led to the inhibition of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activity.These results, obtained in macrophage cell lines, suggest that 7H-4MC prevents inflammatory diseases via the NF-κB signaling pathway and that its use could be beneficial for human health.Ultimately, this is the first report describing the anti-inflammatory activity of 7H-4MC in a macrophage cell line.
Performance Evaluation of a Resource Discovery Service

Field: Computer Science (Physical Sciences)

In a pervasive computing environment, the number and variety of resources (services, devices, and contextual information resources) make it necessary for applications to accurately discover the best ones quickly. Thus a resource-discovery service, which locates specific resources and establishes network connections as better resources become available, is necessary for those applications. The performance of the resource-discovery service is important when the applications are in a dynamic and mobile environment. In this thesis, however, we do not focus on the resource- discovery technology itself, but the evaluation of the scalability and mobility of the resource discovery module in Solar, a context fusion middleware. Solar has a naming service that provides resource discovery, since the resource names encode static and dynamic attributes. The results of our experiments show that Solar’s resource discovery performed generally well in a typical dynamic environment, although Solar can not be scaled as well as it should. And we identify the implementation issues related to that problem. We also discuss experience, insights, and lessons learned from our quantitative analysis of the experiment results.
A fast and effective technique for partial scan selection at RT level

Field: Computer Science (Physical Sciences)

In this paper, we present a method for quickly identifying the scan path chain of datapaths. The originality of the method resides in working with both RT and gate-level level descriptions of circuits. The proposed technique results in a very significant reduction on the CPU time required for scan path selection. We investigate also some directions for the incorporation of partial scan methodology within High Level Synthesis for Testability.
Zeolites Containing Heteroatoms/Metal Nanoparticles for Catalytic Conversion of Light Alkanes

Field: Chemical Engineering (Physical Sciences)

Producing light olefins, oxygenates, and other value-added chemicals starting from light alkanes – the primary components in natural gas and shale gas – has been one of the most studied topics for decades. As yet several challenges, including insufficient catalytic activity under mild conditions, poor selectivity toward object products, and short catalytic lives, still hindered their commercial application. The incorporation of active metallic heteroatoms into the framework of zeolites (forming metallosilicates) or fixation of metal nanoparticles into zeolite crystals (forming metal@zeolites) has emerged as a new series of heterogeneous catalysts, some of which have been demonstrated to be catalytically more active, selective, and stable that steadily outperform the generally supported metals or metal oxides. In this chapter, the development of the strategies for the construction of metallosilicates and metal@zeolite catalysts for the conversion of propane, ethane, and methane is briefly summarized, where the rational preparation and the fundamental principles of optimality of these hybrid catalysts in various reactions are briefly discussed. Finally, a summary and outlook regarding the opportunities for the conversion processes of light olefins using zeolite-based catalysts to meet industrial demands are also presented in the end.
Molecular Heterogeneity of I-AbMolecules: Analysis of I-AbSubsets with Monoclonal Antibodies

Field: Immunology and Microbiology (Life Sciences)

In the mouse there are two Ia molecules, A and E, which are encoded by two alpha genes and two beta genes. However, previous studies from this laboratory suggested the existence of multiple forms of Ia molecules. In this report, we have investigated the molecular heterogeneity of Ab molecules by isolating and analyzing subpopulations of Ia molecules. By using monoclonal antibody affinity columns, we have isolated four distinct subpopulations of Ab molecules. These subpopulations representing a significant fraction of the total A molecules were negative for determinants recognized by one or more anti-Ab monoclonal antibodies. Possible mechanisms of the origin of these molecules are discussed.
Infrared multiphoton dissociation of acetic anhydride: Experimental study

Field: Chemistry (Physical Sciences)

Abstract The infrared multi‐photon dissociation (IRMPD) of acetic anhydride to generate state‐selected CH 2 has been investigated by using time and wavelength resolved fluorescence techniques. It has been observed that the generation of the nascent ground state CH 2 ( a 1 A 1 ) is delayed by about 0.6 μ relative to the onset time of the excited CH 2 ( b 1 B 1 ). The relative population of the ground and excited state CH 2 and the onset time for the appearance of the ground state CH 2 have been found to depend strongly on CO 2 laser output fluences. These results appear to have a strong bearing on the structure of the potential energy surfaces of the intermediate CH 2 CO. A possible photolysis mechanism is proposed to explain these experimental results.
Software Programming & Developing for Energy Removing with High-energy Fluid in a Condenser

Field: Computer Science (Physical Sciences)

The software for energy removing of the additional fluid has been developed in a way of programming facing the object so as to meet with the requirement of safe operation of the condenser in large power plant.The basic concept and the features of the object program design(OOP in short) have been described in the paper.5 functional modules have been set up based on OOP concept,which may realize multiple functions for the software with the help of flexible combination of different modules and additional new module.The practical results show that this kind of applied engineering software is programmed based on OOP and has obvious advantages in the aspects of flexibility,expansibility and maintainability.
Prototyping Energy Harvesting Powered Systems with Nonvolatile Processor (Invited Paper)

Field: Computer Science (Physical Sciences)

Energy harvesting is a promising solution to power ubiquitous Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. But the frequent and inevitable power failure incurs significant backup overhead, greatly degrading performance and energy efficiency. Nonvolatile processor (NVP), which can checkpoint processor states, is designed to tackle this problem. The conventional system-level design method involves repeated system modification and verification on hardware, in which measurement on hardware consumes the majority time. To expedite the NVP-based system design process, we propose a rapid system prototyping flow to eliminate repeated hardware measurement in the design flow. This method involves an NVP system-level simulator, which takes the harvester power trace, system characteristics extracted from hardware, and user design as the input, and analyzes system energy and time profile under this power trace. Iterative system optimization and verification are conducted on the simulator, with only the final verification on hardware. We demonstrate the advantages of this method by two design cases, in which time, energy efficiency and the impact of different capacitor size are optimized.
Children's and Parents’ Evaluations of ‘FRIENDS for Life’, an Indicated School-Based Prevention Program for Children With Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression

Field: Psychology (Social Sciences)

There is evidence that the school-based program FRIENDS for Life is effective in preventing childhood anxiety and depression. Effectiveness is, however, not the only prerequisite for successful implementation. Participants’ evaluation of a prevention program may provide suggestions about how to fine-tune it to fit the needs of the target population. This study investigated children's and parents’ evaluations of the Dutch version of FRIENDS for Life. Forty-four participants of FRIENDS for Life (9–13 years) participated in online focus groups and 38 parents were interviewed in 2011–2012. Questions concerned the general opinion about the program, its perceived effectiveness and group atmosphere, and suggestions for program improvement. Most children (95.5%) and parents (65.8%) evaluated the program positively, and the majority (61.4% and 76.3%) thought that it had been useful in changing the child's behaviour. Children and parents expressed complementary views about the behaviours the child had learned. Some children (38.6%) expressed negative opinions about the program. Parents’ attendance at parent meetings was low (31.6–36.8%). Considered together with the growing evidence of the effectiveness of FRIENDS for Life, we concluded that it can be successfully implemented as an indicated prevention program in primary schools for children who show symptoms of anxiety or depression. Efforts could be made to increase parents’ involvement in the program.
Raman Nanoparticle Probes for Antibody-based Protein Detection in Tissues

Field: Chemistry (Physical Sciences)

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanoparticles are emerging as a new approach for optical detection of biomolecules. In a model assay in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) prostate tissue sections, we detect prostate-specific antigen (PSA) using antibody (Ab) conjugated to composite organic–inorganic nanoparticles (COINs), and we use identical staining protocols to compare COIN-Ab and Alexa–Ab conjugates in adjacent tissue sections. Spectral analysis illustrates the fundamental difference between fluorescence and Raman signatures and accurately extracts COIN probe signals from background autofluorescence. Probe signals are used to generate images of PSA expression on the tissue, and quality measures are presented to characterize the performance of the COIN assay in comparison to Alexa. Staining accuracy (ability to correctly identify PSA expression in epithelial cells) is somewhat less for COIN than Alexa, which is attributed to an elevated false negative rate of the COIN. However, COIN provided signal intensities comparable to Alexa, and good intra-, inter-, and lot-to-lot consistencies. Overall, COIN and Alexa detection reagents possess similar performance with FFPE tissues, supporting the further development of Raman probes for this application. This manuscript contains online supplemental material at http://www.jhc.org . Please visit this article online to view these materials.
Survey on the Choice of the Treatment in Elderly Patients with Head and Neck Cancer

Field: Medicine (Health Sciences)

The elderly population has been increasing, in Japan. With this increase, the incidence of elderly patients with head and neck cancer is likely to increase concomitantly. Therefore, a strategy for addressing this problem must be defined. In this study, a questionnaire for head and neck cancer specialists, certified by the Japanese Society of Head and Neck Surgery, is analyzed. The survey was conducted in 225 head and neck cancer specialists, and 122 answers were complete and bare analyzed in this study. Comorbidity was found to be the most important factor in decision making for head and neck cancer, even though it is subclinical. Especially important was the cognitive state, the dysfunction of which might decrease the feeling of struggle against the disease. These results indicate that we must choose the appropriate treatment based on the evaluation of the physical and emotional condition of the patients and their families, not only on their age. However, this suggestion includes some problems, such as the fact that the criteria are not definite and the choice of the treatment might be at risk of being judged by only one doctor.
Toward a Computational Model of Actin Filament Networks

Field: Computer Science (Physical Sciences)

Actin is one of the most important proteins responsible for a reaction of cells to external stimuli (stresses). There are monomeric actin or G-actin and polimeric actin or F-actin. Monomers of G-actin are connected into double helical filaments of F-actin by the processes of nucleation, polymerization, and depolymerization. Filaments are of 7-8 nm in diameter. They are of several microns in length. Furthermore, filaments can be organized as complex networks of different forms: unstable bunches (parallel unbranched filaments), trees (branched filaments), stable bunches (cross-linked filaments). Actin filament networks can be considered a natural computational model of cells to perform different responses to different external stimuli. So, in this model we have inputs as different stresses and outputs as formations and destructions of filaments, on the one hand, and as assemblies and disassemblies of actin filament networks, on the other hand. Hence, under different external conditions we observe dynamic changes in the length of actin filaments and in the outlook of filament networks. As we see, the main difference of actin filament networks from others including neural networks is that the topology of actin filament networks changes in responses to dynamics of external stimuli. For instance, a neural network is a sorted triple (N,V,w), where N is the set of neurons/processors, V is a set of connections among neurons/processors, and w is a weight for each connection. In the case of actin filament networks we deal with a variability of filaments/processors. Some new filaments/processors can appear in one conditions and they can disappear in other conditions. The same situation when the computational substratum changes during the time of computations is faced in the so-called swarm computing, e.g. in slime mould

computing. In this paper we propose a swarm computing on the medium of actin filament networks.
Diagnostic Criteria and Prevalence of Sarcopenia in the Elderly

Field: Medicine (Health Sciences)

The purpose of the study was to assess the prevalence of sarcopenia in people over 65 years of age, to analyze instrumental and functional methods for studying skeletal muscle in the elderly. A case-control study of 230 participants 65 years of age and older, the average age of 74±6,5 years. Patients were divided into three age groups: 1st - 65-74 years old, 2nd - 75-84 years old, 3rd - 85 years and older. The calculation of muscle mass was carried out according to the index of appendicular muscle mass (AMM/m2) using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) with correction of patient growth. Muscle strength was measured with a «Jamar» hand dynamometer, muscle function was determined using a short set of physical activity tests (SPPB tests). The prevalence of sarcopenia was 30% in the presented sample and increased with increasing age of patients. There were no significant differences in the incidence of the most common chronic diseases, with the exception of obesity, which was less common in sarcopenic patients than in non-sarcopenic patients (p<0,0001). The results of the study showed that in sarcopenic patients, the AMM index (p<0,001) and muscle strength (p<0,001) were lower than in non-sarcopenic patients. The overall score of SPPB tests was low in both groups, however, in sarcopenic patients it was significantly lower than in non-sarcopenic patients (p=0,035) due to balancing tests.
TGA1a, a tobacco DNA-binding protein, increases the rate of preinitiation complex formation in a plant in vitro transcription system [corrected]

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Life Sciences)

We describe here a plant in vitro transcription system for class II promoters using wheat germ extract. In this system transcription is stimulated by TGA1a, a tobacco DNA-binding protein, and the stimulation is dependent on the presence of its cognate binding site upstream of the TATA box. Titration experiments showed that transcription initiation is more sensitive than transcription elongation to low concentrations of sarkosyl (N-lauroylsarcosine). At 0.07% sarkosyl, the formation of initiated complex is inhibited but transcription elongation is not. Under these conditions, events associated with a single round of transcription can be studied. We demonstrate that the time required for completing transcription of a 380-base-pair template is about 10 min. Addition of TGA1a increases the number of preinitiation complexes by approximately 3-fold with no significant effect on the frequency of transcription initiation from a single complex or on the rate of RNA elongation. We anticipate that this in vitro system will be valuable for the elucidation of mechanisms that regulate transcription in plants.