Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating Peripheral Vascular Injuries: Is Color Doppler Enough for Diagnosis?

Background: Vascular injury poses a serious threat to limb and life. Thus, diagnosis should be made immediately with minimally invasive methods. Doppler is a good aid in diagnosis of vascular injury. Methods: The present prospective study was conducted on 150 patients who presented with soft signs (the signs which are suggestive but not confirmatory) of vascular injury. They were subjected to color Doppler examination before exploration. The patients with the features of vascular injury on color Doppler were subjected to exploration. On the other hand, those who had normal Doppler were subjected to CT- angiography. Then, the findings of the exploration were matched with those of color Doppler. The data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical software. Results: Out of the 150 Doppler examinations, 110 (73.33%) were reported as positive, while 40 were reported as negative for vascular injury. These were subjected to CT-angiography and seven of them had the features of vascular injury on CT-angiography. All the patients with positive Doppler or CT angiography findings were subjected to exploration. Doppler had a sensitivity of 94% and specificity of 82.5% in diagnosis of vascular injury using Binary classification test. Conclusions: Color Doppler is an easily available, reliable, and handy method of diagnosing a vascular injury. It has a very high sensitivity and specificity in diagnosis of vascular injuries.
Loss of autonomy, control and independence when caring: A qualitative study of informal carers of stroke survivors in the first three months after discharge

Purpose. Stroke has far reaching effects on both stroke survivors and their informal carers. Research has highlighted changes in autonomy of stroke survivors, but insufficient focus has been put on the associated reduced control and independence of their informal carers. This study investigates the experiences of informal carers of stroke survivors from discharge to 3 months later. Method. A purposive sample of 31 informal carers was interviewed in depth just prior to discharge, 1 month and 3 months post-discharge. Interviews lasted 30–90 min and were audio-taped and transcribed. Data analysis was ongoing starting during data collection and ending with themes that described and helped understand carers' experiences. Results. Carers described reductions in their autonomy and independence but also over time identified strategies to manage these changes and to increase control in their lives. These strategies included selection, optimisation, compensation, asking for and accepting help and negotiation. Some carers, especially older carers and those with prior caring experience, were less likely to describe changes in autonomy and control. Conclusions. Carers' reduced autonomy and independence should be recognised by practitioners and service providers. Helping carers to negotiate choice and control over the support offered could help increase their autonomy and independence. To offer improved support to these carers, greater attention should to given to the diversity of their situations and experiences.
Is Tiger Woods Loss Averse? Persistent Bias in the Face of Experience, Competition, and High Stakes

Although experimental studies have documented systematic decision errors, many leading scholars believe that experience, competition, and large stakes will reliably extinguish biases. We test for the presence of a fundamental bias, loss aversion, in a high-stakes context: professional golfers' performance on the PGA Tour. Golf provides a natural setting to test for loss aversion because golfers are rewarded for the total number of strokes they take during a tournament, yet each individual hole has a salient reference point, par. We analyze over 2.5 million putts using precise laser measurements and find evidence that even the best golfers--including Tiger Woods--show evidence of loss aversion. (JEL D03, D81, L83)
Prevention of marital distress: Results of a German prospective longitudinal study.

This article reports on the development and long-term evaluation of a marital distress prevention program for German couples, the Ein Partnerschaftliches Lernprogramm (EPL, A Couple's Learning Program). The EPL is a 6-session program designed to teach couples effective communication and problem-solving skills. In the current article, the EPL is evaluated in a prospective, quasi-experimental, controlled trial. The results of the 3-year follow-up are reported, contrasting 55 EPL couples with a control group of 17 couples. Significant differences emerged with regard to the couples' dissolution rates, relationship satisfaction, and positive and negative communication behavior favoring the EPL couples. These results demonstrate the utility of the EPL program in assisting happy couples who are preparing for marriage. The implications of the findings for prevention research and for the dissemination of prevention programs are discussed.
Organizations in a State of Darkness: Towards a Theory of Organizational Miasma

This paper uses psychoanalytic ideas to develop a theory of organizational miasma, a concept that describes a contagious state of pollution – material, psychological and spiritual – that afflicts all who work in certain organizations that undergo sudden and traumatic transformations. Miasma is offered not as another organizational metaphor, a prism through which to view particular organizations. Instead, I delineate the fundamental psychodynamics of organizational miasma as a theoretical concept that accounts for and explains numerous processes in these organizations. These include a paralysis of resistance, an experience of pollution and uncleanliness, and feelings of disgust, worthlessness and corruption. Miasma may occur in organizations that undergo a sudden transformation involving the discarding and loss of many of their valued members through downsizing or retrenchment, without either separation rituals or psychological mourning. The ‘old’ organization is frequently presented as corrupt, indulgent and inefficient, contrasted to the ‘new’ organization that is entrepreneurial, dynamic and flexible. Yet, for many surviving members, the new organization is tainted by the presence of ‘murderers’, i.e. managers who have initiated a series of dismissals, and ‘corpses’, i.e. employees who have been dismissed or are about to be dismissed and ‘disappear’, once alive, now discarded. Miasma is seen as the result of a failed separation rite, one that instead of honouring loss, finitude and discontinuity in today’s organizations seeks to obliterate and repress it. In this sense, miasma represents a contemporary version of tragedy where attempts to offer cleansing end up by reinforcing it.
Opioid pathways in an avian retina. II. Synaptic organization of enkephalin-immunoreactive amacrine cells

Peroxidase-antiperoxidase immunocytochemistry was utilized to investigate the synaptic organization of enkephalin-like immunoreactive amacrine (Enk-amacrine) cells in the chicken retina. An initial light microscopic analysis revealed that immunostained cell bodies were situated in either the second or third tier of cells from the border of the inner nuclear and inner plexiform layers. The processes of such cells extended into the inner plexiform layer where they ramified as a fine plexus in sublaminae 1 and 3 to 5. At the ultrastructural level, enkephalin-positive somas exhibited a rather dense and evenly distributed peroxidase reaction product throughout their cytoplasm. Furthermore, the nucleus of Enk-amacrine cells was characterized by a round, unindented nuclear membrane. Immunoreactive processes of such cells were found to receive synaptic input from unstained amacrine and bipolar cells. Immunolabeled varicosities formed conventional synaptic contacts onto other vesicle-filled, nonimmunoreactive profiles tentatively suggested to originate from amacrine cells. Bipolar cell terminals did not receive synaptic input from stained varicosities of enkephalin-immunoreactive amacrine cells. Moreover, each of the above synaptic relationships were identified in each of sublaminae 1, and 3 to 5 of the inner plexiform layer. In addition, labeled varicosities of Enk-amacrine cells synapsed upon unstained processes which lacked synaptic vesicles and possibly arise from ganglion cells. Enkephalin- positive processes were also observed to synapse upon the vitreal pole of unstained somas situated in the innermost cell row of the inner nuclear layer. Lastly, large immunoreactive varicosities of Enk- amacrine cells were often characterized by the presence of large dense- core vesicles in addition to typical, small agranular synaptic vesicles.
Nitinol Stent Implantation Versus Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty in Superficial Femoral Artery Lesions up to 10 cm in Length: The Femoral Artery Stenting Trial (FAST)

Background— Endoluminal treatment of superficial femoral artery lesions is a matter of controversy. The present study was designed to investigate the impact of nitinol stenting of superficial femoral artery lesions with a maximum length of 10 cm on restenosis and clinical outcomes at 1 year. Methods and Results— Two hundred forty-four patients (168 men; 66±9 years) with a single superficial femoral artery lesion and chronic limb ischemia were randomized to implantation of a single Bard Luminexx 3 stent (123 patients) or stand-alone percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) (121 patients). Mean lesion length was 45 mm. Technical success (residual stenosis <50% for PTA, <30% for stenting) was achieved in 96 patients assigned to PTA (79%) and 117 patients assigned to stenting (95%); 13 PTA group patients (11%) “crossed over” to stenting. At 1 year, the primary end point of ultrasound-assessed binary restenosis was reached in 39 of 101 PTA group patients (38.6%) and 32 of 101 stent group patients (31.7%; absolute treatment difference, −6.9%; 95% CI, −19.7% to 6.2%; P=0.377). Target lesion revascularization rates at 1 year were 18.3% and 14.9%, respectively (absolute treatment difference, −3.3%; 95% CI, −13.0% to 6.4%; P=0.595). No statistically significant difference between treatment groups was observed at 12 months in the improvement by at least 1 Rutherford category of peripheral arterial disease. Conclusions— In the present study of patients with short superficial femoral artery lesions, the hypothesized absolute difference of 20% in binary restenosis at 1 year between the implantation of a single Luminexx nitinol stent and stand-alone PTA could not be demonstrated. A smaller difference requiring a larger trial might have been missed.
OrthoZoom scroller: 1D multi-scale navigation

This article introduces the OrthoZoom Scroller, a novel interaction technique that improves target acquisition in very large one-dimensional spaces. The OrthoZoom Scroller requires only a mouse to perform panning and zooming in a 1D space. Panning is performed along the slider dimension while zooming is performed along the orthogonal one. We present a controlled experiment showing that the OrthoZoom Scroller is about twice as fast as Speed Dependant Automatic Zooming to perform pointing tasks whose index of difficulty is in the 10-30 bits range. We also present an application to browse large textual documents with the OrthoZoom Scroller that uses semantic zooming and snapping on the structure.
The PLUS factors of family science

This paper explores a semi-formal intervention in the public learning and understanding of science (PLUS) by involving school children and their family adults in project work in astronomy. Mixed generation 'family teams' attended two 'Family Science Evenings' at the children's primary schools and undertook to tackle and report on home-based projects over the intervening six week period. The projects required the family teams to collaborate in their learning and the results, in terms of enhanced interest and enjoyment of astronomy, were very positive. The evaluation of the research data considers outcomes at three levels: (i) general evaluative comments, (ii) gains for the family teams involved; and (iii) gains in the general public understanding of science. The research raises a number of issues, and highlights that, particularly in such a mixed context as this, precise learning gains are difficult to assess.
Producing equal-status interracial interaction: A replication.

This paper reports a replication study of a recent experiment by Cohen and Roper (1972) which attempted to produce equal-status contact between black and white junior high school boys in a controlled laboratory setting. Ourfindings lend general support to those obtained by Cohen and Roper in the original study. The results indicate that equal-status contact should not be assumed when blacks and whites interact, even when variables like socioeconomic status, age, and sex, for example, are controlled. Rather, equal status is a condition which can be achieved when the expectations of both blacks and whites are treated in advance of the interaction, or (though not found in the original experiment) when black expectations alone are given a particularly powerful treatment.
Images of Work

The ways in which work gets done are observably different from the ways in which those in positions of responsibility talk about that work or from the ways in which the organizational and business literature portrays work. The ethnographic study of work focuses on work practice, on what is actually done, and on how those doing the work make sense of their practice, but this is rarely part of either corporate or organizational discourse about work This article tries to show what is missing from this discourse and suggests that the corporate model is based on a common misapprehension of the nature of technique and confounds the ways humans work with the ways machines work
Identification of Dominant Antibody-Dependent Cell-Mediated Cytotoxicity Epitopes on the Hemagglutinin Antigen of Pandemic H1N1 Influenza Virus

ABSTRACT Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) bridges innate and adaptive immunity, and it involves both humoral and cellular immune responses. ADCC has been found to be a main route of immune protection against viral infections in vivo. Hemagglutinin (HA) of influenza virus is highly immunogenic and considered the most important target for immune protection. Several potent cross-reactive HA-specific neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) have been reported, and their conserved neutralizing epitopes have been revealed, but there has been no report so far about ADCC epitopes on HA. Here we identified two dominant ADCC epitopes, designated E1 (amino acids [aa] 92 to 117) and E2 (aa 124 to 159), on HA of pandemic H1N1 influenza virus by epitope mapping of convalescent-phase plasma IgG antibodies from six H1N1-infected human subjects in China that exhibited different levels of ADCC activity. The E1 and E2 ADCC epitopes overlapped with immunodominant epitopes of HA. Depletion of purified patient plasma IgG antibodies with EBY100 yeast cells expressing E1 or E2 decreased the ADCC activity of the IgG antibodies. E1 and E2 sequences were found to be highly conserved in H1N1 strains but less so in other subtypes of influenza A viruses. Our study may aid in designing immunogens that can elicit antibodies with high ADCC activity. Vaccine immunogens designed to include the structural determinants of potent broadly neutralizing antibodies and ADCC epitopes may confer comprehensive immune protection against influenza virus infection.
Soluble Guanylate Cyclase Is Required during Development for Visual System Function in Drosophila

A requirement for nitric oxide (NO) in visual system development has been demonstrated in many model systems, but the role of potential downstream effector molecules has not been established. DevelopingDrosophila photoreceptors express an NO-sensitive soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), whereas the optic lobe targets express NO synthase. Both of these molecules are expressed after photoreceptor outgrowth to the optic lobe, when retinal growth cones are actively selecting their postsynaptic partners. We have previously shown that inhibition of the NO–cGMP pathway in vitro leads to overgrowth of retinal axons. Here we examined flies mutant for the α subunit gene of the Drosophila sGC (Gcα1). This mutation severely reduced but did not abolish GCα1 protein levels and NO-stimulated sGC activity in the developing photoreceptors. Although few mutant individuals possessed a disorganized retinal projection pattern, pharmacological NOS inhibition during metamorphosis increased this disorganization in mutants to a greater degree than in the wild type. Adult mutants lacked phototactic behavior, and the off-transient component of electroretinograms was frequently absent or greatly reduced in amplitude. Normal phototaxis and off-transient amplitude were restored by heat shock-mediatedGcα1 expression applied during metamorphosis but not in the adult. We propose that diminished sGC activity in the visual system during development causes inappropriate or inadequate formation of first-order retinal synapses, leading to defects in visual system function and visually mediated behavior.
Motives for initiating and continuing membership in a recreation‐related voluntary association

Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine motives for joining and continuing membership in a recreation‐related voluntary association. The theoretical framework for this study was based on a three‐category incentive typology. Data were obtained from 371 members of a voluntary association with a mail‐back questionnaire. Results indicated that the most important reason for joining and continuing membership in the association was to contribute to society. The least important reason was for an incentive or material benefit. Shifts in importance in these reasons from joining to continuing were assessed, as were the influence of gender and income level.
Cognitive and behavioral effects of prenatal alcohol exposure

Children exposed to substantial amounts of alcohol prenatally are known to display a range of physical and cognitive anomalies, referred to as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs). Animal models and neuroimaging studies of FASDs have consistently demonstrated that specific regions of the brain (e.g., midline structures) are more vulnerable to the teratogenic effects of alcohol than other regions. The main aim of this article is to assess whether findings from cognitive–behavioral studies of FASDs yield a profile that maps onto the pattern of damage revealed by neuroanatomical investigations. To achieve this aim, the findings from studies that have investigated elementary functions (e.g., associative learning), general functions (e.g., intellectual abilities), specific functions (e.g., language and memory) and behavior in children and adults with FASDs are examined. The cognitive–behavioral profile emerging from the data is defined as a generalized deficit in processing and integrating complex informat.
Price of ignorance in dynamic topology control

In autonomous ad hoc networks, nodes may act in their self-interest to improve their performance, perhaps at the expense of other nodes', or even the overall network's, performance. Besides, nodes are often mobile and must contend with limited and obsolete information about the operating state of network during their decision-making. We examine topology control of ad hoc networks and analyze the impact of mobility, selfishness, and partial information on energy efficiency and network connectivity using tools from game theory. We develop a local topology control algorithm that uses the idea of maintaining connectivity of 1-hop neighborhoods. By examining the trade-off between network performance (energy efficiency) and the cost of cooperation (by exchanging control messages) it turns out that mobility and selfishness are, in some sense, synergistic features in information-constrained networks. Such networks consume least energy when nodes are more mobile and have significantly less connectivity information.
On the Performance of BICM with Trivial Interleavers in Nonfading Channels

Recent results have shown that the performance of bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) using convolutional codes in nonfading channels can be greatly improved if the bit-level interleaver takes a trivial form (BICM-T), i.e., if it does not interleave the bits at all. The reported gains reach a few decibels and are obtained using a less complex BICM system. In this paper, we give a formal explanation for these results and show that BICM-T is in fact the combination of a TCM transmitter and a BICM receiver. Analytical bounds that predict the performance of BICM-T are developed and a new type of distance spectrum for the convolutional code is introduced.
tmRNA of Streptomyces collinus and Streptomyces griseus during the growth and in the presence of antibiotics

Streptomycetes are soil microorganisms with the potential to produce a broad spectrum of secondary metabolities. The production of antibiotics is accompanied by a decrease in protein synthesis, which raises the question of how these bacteria survived the transition from the primary to the secondary metabolism. Translating ribosomes incapable to properly elongate or terminate polypeptide chain activate bacterial trans‐translation system. Abundance and stability of the tmRNA during growth of Streptomyces collinus and Streptomyces griseus producing kirromycin and streptomycin, respectively, was analysed. The level of tmRNA is mostly proportional to the activity of the translational system. We demonstrate that the addition of sub‐inhibitory concentrations of produced antibiotics to the cultures from the beginning of the exponential phase of growth leads to an increase in tmRNA levels and to an incorporation of amino acids into the tag‐peptides at trans‐translation of stalled ribosomes. These findings suggest that produced antibiotics induce tmRNA that facilitate reactivation of stalled complex of ribosomes and maintain viability. The effect of antibiotics that inhibit the cell‐wall turnover, DNA, RNA or protein synthesis on the level of tmRNA was examined. Antibiotics interfering with ribosomal target sites are more effective at stimulation of the tmRNA level in streptomycetes examined than those affecting the synthesis of DNA, RNA or the cell wall.
Optimal Positioning Strategies for Shape Changes in Robot Teams

In this paper, we consider the task of repositioning a formation of robots to a new shape while minimizing either the maximum distance that any robot travels, or the total distance traveled by the formation. We show that optimal solutions in SE (2) can be achieved for either metric through second-order cone programming (SOCP) techniques. For the case where the orientation of the new formation shape is fixed, we obtain optimal solutions in both R2and R3. The latter also allows for complete regulation of the formation size via constraints on the shape scale. We expect that these results will prove useful for extending the mission lives of robot formations and mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs).