Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
One Versus Two BAK Fusion Cages in Posterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion to L4–L5 Degenerative Spondylolisthesis: A Randomized, Controlled Prospective Study in 25 Patients With Minimum Two-Year Follow-up

Study Design. We accomplish posterior lumbar interbody fusion using posterolateral insertion of a single BAK fusion cage (Sulzer Spine-Tech, Minneapolis, MN) with unilateral facetectomy and hemilaminectomy. Objective. To subject a single BAK fusion cage inserted posterolaterally in posterior lumbar interbody fusion to a randomized, controlled trial to assess its clinical safety and efficacy. Summary of Background Data. Routinely, two threaded cages in posterior lumbar interbody fusion have been recommended, which need bilateral facetectomy, extensive exposure, and retraction of cauda equina. Our biomechanical study showed that it is feasible to accomplish posterior lumbar interbody fusion using posterolateral insertion of a single threaded cage with unilateral facetectomy and hemilaminectomy. Materials and Methods. Patients with a primary diagnosis of L4–L5 degenerative spondylolisthesis accompanied by low back pain and unilateral leg pain, having failed conservative treatment, were considered for the procedure. Twenty-five patients were randomized into two groups of 13 and 12, respectively, using a random number table. Group 1 had a single BAK fusion cage inserted posterolaterally and oriented counter anterolaterally on the symptomatic side with unilateral facetectomy and hemilaminectomy. Group 2 had two BAK fusion cages inserted posteriorly with bilateral facetectomy and laminectomy. Results. A total of 12 of 13 patients in Group 1 and 11 of 12 patients in Group 2 achieved successful radiographic arthrodesis. Clinical results at 2 years for 7 of 13 patients in Group 1 were excellent, 4 of 13 were good, 2 of 13 fair, and no poor clinical results; 4 of 12 patients in Group 2 were excellent, 5 of 12 good, 1 of 12 fair, and 2 of 12 poor. Regarding complications, 2 of 12 in Group 2 had a postoperative motor and sensory deficit of the opposite adjacent (upper) nerve root. Conclusion. Posterior lumbar interbody fusion using diagonal insertion of a single threaded cage by a posterior approach with unilateral facetectomy enables sufficient decompression and solid interbody arthrodesis to be achieved while maintaining a majority of the posterior elements. It is a clinically safe, easy, and economic technique to treat lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis.
Investigating the Determinants of Nonperforming Loans in the Romanian Banking System: An Empirical Study with Reference to the Greek Crisis

This paper aims to investigate the determinants of nonperforming loans in the Romanian banking sector by means of time series modelling. It is motivated by the hypothesis that macroeconomic-cyclical indicators, monetary aggregates, interest rates, financial markets, and bank-specific variables influence the nonperforming loans in the Romanian banking system. Using monthly series that span from December 2001 to November 2010, we cover both the booming period and the recent financial crisis. Given the significant presence of the Greek banks in Romania, the novelty of the paper lies in the introduction of variables that proxy the Greek crisis. Thus, we examine the existence of a potential transmission channel to the Romanian banking system by investigating the impact of the Greek crisis to the Romanian nonperforming loans. Our findings indicate that macroeconomic variables, specifically the construction and investment expenditure, the inflation and the unemployment rate, and the country's external debt to GDP and M2 jointly with Greek crisis-specific variables influence the credit risk of the Romanian banking system. The results have several implications for policymakers, regulators, and managers as the most recent published stress tests on the Romanian banking system are based on end 2008 data.
Multifaceted Health Benefits of Mangifera indica L. (Mango): The Inestimable Value of Orchards Recently Planted in Sicilian Rural Areas

Historically, Mangifera indica L. cultivations have been widely planted in tropical areas of India, Africa, Asia, and Central America. However, at least 20 years ago its spreading allowed the development of some cultivars in Sicily, an island to the south of Italy, where the favourable subtropical climate and adapted soils represent the perfect field to create new sources of production for the Sicilian agricultural supply chain. Currently, cultivations of Kensington Pride, Keitt, Glenn, Maya, and Tommy Atkins varieties are active in Sicily and their products meet the requirements of local and European markets. Mango plants produce fleshy stone fruits rich in phytochemicals with an undisputed nutritional value for its high content of polyphenolics and vitamins. This review provides an overview of the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties of mango, a fruit that should be included in everyone’s diet for its multifaceted biochemical actions and health-enhancing properties.
The Development of a High-Tech International New Venture as a Process of Acting: A Study of the Lifespan of a Venture in Software Business

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to analyze the development of high-tech international new ventures as an acting process by individuals in relationship networks. Design/methodology/approach – The study cross-fertilizes research on internationalization of international new ventures, opportunity development of entrepreneurs and innovation development in technology-based firms. A longitudinal case study on the development process of an international new venture operating in the software business is used as a base for analytical generalization and theory development. Findings – The study illustrates events at three intertwined levels of acting on the development of an international new venture. It defines internal problem solving, external solution creation, opportunity selling and opportunity organizing as the behaviors driving the emergent, multi-level process and embedding the venture in various networks. Research limitations/implications – Statistical generalization based on common patterns experienced by several firms was not sought in this study. Using the process research approach with event-based analysis, the study, however, provides an in-depth analysis of international new venture development through the actions of individuals at the level of key events. The methods for examining a complex development process over time can be utilized by other process researchers. Practical implications – The complexity of building high-tech international new ventures is, to a great extent, due to the necessity of handling the process at three levels simultaneously and in connection with one another. Since international new ventures are often based on business opportunities that have a short window of opportunity, the timeline creates further challenges. Embedding the business into various resourcing, legitimizing and otherwise assisting networks is crucial. Originality/value – The study provides an insight into the ways of acting in networks that intertwines the internationalization, opportunity and technology development with development of a high-tech international new venture. The study follows the development process in real time, something that is quite rare in previous international entrepreneurship research.
Reversible Data Hiding in Encrypted Three-Dimensional Mesh Models

Reversible data hiding in encrypted domain (RDH-ED) has greatly attracted researchers as the original content can be losslessly reconstructed after the embedded data are extracted, while the content owner's privacy remains protected. Most of the existing RDH-ED algorithms are designed for grayscale/color images, which cannot be directly applied to other carriers, such as three-dimensional (3D) meshes. With the rapid development of 3D related applications, 3D models have been widely used on the Internet, which motivated us to design a reliable RDH-ED scheme for 3D meshes. The proposed method maps decimals of the vertex coordinates into integers first, so that a bit-stream encryption technique can be executed. With a data-hiding key, several least-significant bits are operated to embed data. By using the encryption key, a receiver can roughly reconstruct the content of the mesh. According to the data-hiding key, with the aid of spatial correlation in natural mesh models, the embedded data can be successfully extracted and the original mesh can be perfectly recovered. Experiments show that the proposed method has a high data-embedding payload, maintains high values of the decrypted meshes, and has low computational complexity.
Time to farm. A qualitative inquiry into the dynamics of the gender regime of land and labour rights in subsistence farming: an example of the Chiweshe communal area, Zimbabwe

In the context of multiple stressors such as land shortage and food insecurity, the thesis deals with gendered land and labour rights as a social aspect of food production in subsistence agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Using the Chiweshe communal area in Zimbabwe as an example, it identifies, investigates and draws conclusions on higher order social processes of gender, power and incremental institutional change in a local context. To that end, it investigates how access to and control over land and labour rights are governed by gender and how that determines men’s and women’s social goals in production and reproduction as well as their strategies for meeting the goals and the opportunities for achieving them. Using a qualitative method of inquiry based on interviews and observations with maize peasant farmers, men and women, an empirical material is constructed and interpreted. Using constructivist grounded theory, men’s and women’s social goals and strategies in production and reproduction are identified, mapped out and analysed. Drawing on gender theory and new institutional theory, which recognise power and discursive signs of institutional change in rules, norms and values, it uncovers layers of social complexity in the dynamics between female and male land rights as well as between male land rights and female labour in the gender regime. In so doing, it shows how power relations emerging from unequal land and labour rights are enacted in cooperation, competition and conflict within polygyny, between spouses and between co-wives.The findings show how land, besides being a natural resource for food production, is an important social, cultural and intergenerational symbol, especially for men. This has implications for women and for their position and room of manoeuvre in food production. It also shows how the gender regime is subject to incremental institutional change through gendered agency, mainly from within the regime but accelerated by land scarcity as an external process. To conclude, the gender regime of land and labour rights has implications for how gender is enacted in everyday strategies, constructed in terms of female and male identities and configured in terms of masculinity and femininity. In the end, it is argued, these conditions affect food production and, in its extension, also food security. (Less)
WHY ARE THERE SO FEW COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS BETWEEN FARMERS AND WATER SERVICES IN FRANCE? WATER POLICIES AND THE PROBLEM OF LAND USE RIGHTS

One of the recurrent shortcomings of water policy in France is the control of diffuse agricultural pollution. Numerous lacunae and incoherencies in the French Rural, Public Health, and Environmental Codes have hindered the effective implementation of efficient protection measures. In this paper, we underline the extent to which these incoherencies have hampered the emergence of cooperative agreements (CAs) between farmers and drinking water service providers. The theoretical framework of institutional resource regimes (IRRs) provides a key to understanding the failure of public policy to impose restrictions on agricultural land use rights and to encourage voluntary arrangements concerning agricultural practices. The IRR framework was applied before 2005 to 12 cases of public attempts to negotiate a reduction in polluting practices. Our study enabled us to characterise the lack of extent and coherence of the water sector's IRR in France. Since 2005, regulatory changes have extended the scope of this IRR with a view to making water, agriculture and health policies more coherent. We discuss the complexity of the new approach, and question its capacity to mobilise the actors concerned around the territorial reorganisation of agriculture aimed at reducing diffuse pollution. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Prognosis for primary retroperitoneal sarcoma survivors

The AJCC staging system and post‐operative nomograms use patient and tumor characteristics to provide prognostic estimates after resection of retroperitoneal sarcoma (RPS). While these variables help to predict survival at the time of diagnosis and resection, the applicability of these prognostic factors to survivors of RPS remains unknown. We hypothesized that the variables evaluated in the current staging system and post‐operative nomograms would have limited ability to predict conditional survival in patients surgically treated for RPS.
Quantifying the Uruguay Round

The effects of the Uruguay Round are quantified using a numerical general equilibrium model which incorporates increasing returns to scale, 24 regions, 22 commodities, and steady state growth effects. We conclude that the aggregate welfare gains from the Round are in the order of $96 billion per year in the short run, but could be as high as $171 billion per year in the long run after capital stocks have optimally adjusted. Despite these global gains, we identify some developing countries that lose from the Round in the short run. In the long run, almost all gain, and the Round will allow developing countries to gain further through their own unilateral liberalisation.
Essays on international macroeconomics and trade

Title of dissertation: ESSAYS ON INTERNATIONAL MACROECONOMICS AND TRADE Jorge M. Salas Maldonado Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Professor John Shea Department of Economics This dissertation explores quantitative implications of heterogeneity in price stickiness and contractual vulnerability within an open economy context. Particular attention is given to the effects of these frictions on sectoral variables during economic downturns. Chapter 1 documents that U.S. producer prices of differentiated goods barely moved in recent recessions, while the declines in industrial production were large. In contrast, for nondifferentiated goods, large producer price reductions were accompanied by relatively small adjustments in production. Similar patterns have been found in international trade data on prices and quantities. I use a two-country general equilibrium model with trade in nondifferentiated and differentiated goods to shed light on the reasons behind these sectoral differences. I focus on two mechanisms: sector-specific nominal rigidities and endogenous variable markups at the producer level. The calibration of the main parameters of the model is based on micro data and national accounts data. The impulse responses of relative prices and quantities to a monetary shock are compared with empirical vector autoregressions, showing a good match. These responses can largely be explained by heterogeneity in the frequency of price adjustment, while the variable markup channel is quantitatively less important. Chapter 2, co-written with Renzo Castellares, starts from the observation that some products are more sensitive to imperfect contracting than others. Hence, industries exhibit different degrees of contractual vulnerability. We build a simple theory in which: (i) exporters are paid after delivery of the goods, and (ii) a complementarity exists between (procyclical) contract enforcement at the importing-country level and contractual vulnerability at the industry level. In this model, an adverse aggregate shock in an importing country generates a disproportional decline in imports in more contractually vulnerable industries. Using disaggregated bilateral trade data for many countries from 1989 to 2000, and exploiting the variation in contractual dependence across manufacturing industries, we find robust empirical support for the model’s predictions. The estimated sectoral effects are statistically significant and economically important. Our analysis employs different industry measures of contractual vulnerability, including a novel indicator that reflects payment defaults among firms. ESSAYS ON INTERNATIONAL MACROECONOMICS AND TRADE
Magnetically controllable silicon microring with ferrofluid cladding.

We experimentally investigate the application of magnetic fluids (MFs) on integrated silicon photonics. Using a ferrofluid-clad silicon microring resonator, we demonstrate active control of resonances by applying an external magnetic field. Relatively high loaded quality factors on the order of 6000 are achieved, despite the optical losses introduced by the magnetic nanoparticles. We demonstrate resonance shifts of 185 pm in response to a 110 Oe strong magnetic field, corresponding to an overall refractive index change of -3.2×10-3 for the cladding MF. The combination of MFs and integrated photonics could potentially lead to the development of magnetically controllable optical devices and ultra-compact cost-effective magnetic field sensors.
Mathematical description of q‐space in spherical coordinates: Exact q‐ball imaging

Novel methodologies have been recently developed to characterize the microgeometry of neural tissues and porous structures via diffusion MRI data. In line with these previous works, this article provides a detailed mathematical description of q‐space in spherical coordinates that helps to highlight the differences and similarities between various related q‐space methodologies proposed to date such as q‐ball imaging (QBI), diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI), and diffusion orientation transform imaging (DOT). This formulation provides a direct relationship between the orientation distribution function (ODF) and the diffusion data without using any approximation. Under this relationship, the exact ODF can be computed by means of the Radon transform of the radial projection (in q‐space) of the diffusion MRI signal. This new methodology, termed exact q‐ball imaging (EQBI), was put into practice using an analytical ODF estimation in terms of spherical harmonics that allows obtaining model‐free and model‐based reconstructions. This work provides a new framework for combining information coming from diffusion data recorded on multiple spherical shells in q‐space (hybrid diffusion imaging encoding scheme), which is capable of mapping ODF to a high accuracy. This represents a step toward a more efficient development of diffusion MRI experiments for obtaining better ODF estimates. Magn Reson Med, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Tumor Microenvironment Macrophage Inhibitory Factor Directs the Accumulation of Interleukin-17-producing Tumor-infiltrating Lymphocytes and Predicts Favorable Survival in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Patients*

Background: Tumor microenvironments affect the progression of cancers. Results: We demonstrated that Th17 cells were accumulated in tumor tissues, and the tumor-derived MIF induced Th17 cell accumulation and had clinical relevance in NPC. Conclusion: The cytokine MIF regulates intratumoral Th17 cell expansion and has prognostic value for NPC patients. Significance: The tumor microenvironment influences the clinical prognosis of NPC patients. The accumulation of an intratumoral CD4+ interleukin-17-producing subset (Th17) of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) is a general characteristic in many cancers. The relationship between the percentage of Th17 cells and clinical prognosis differs among cancers. The mechanism responsible for the increasing percentage of such cells in NPC is still unknown, as is their biological function. Here, our data showed an increase of Th17 cells in tumor tissues relative to their numbers in normal nasopharynx tissues or in the matched peripheral blood of NPC patients. Th17 cells in tumor tissue produced more IFNγ than did those in the peripheral blood of matched NPC patients and healthy controls. We observed high levels of CD154, G-CSF, CXCL1, IL-6, IL-8, and macrophage inhibitory factor (MIF) out of 36 cytokines examined in tumor tissue cultures. MIF promoted the generation and recruitment of Th17 cells mediated by NPC tumor cells in vitro; this promoting effect was mainly dependent on the mammalian target of rapamycin pathway and was mediated by the MIF-CXCR4 axis. Finally, the expression level of MIF in tumor cells and in TILs was positively correlated in NPC tumor tissues, and the frequency of MIF-positive TILs was positively correlated with NPC patient clinical outcomes. Taken together, our findings illustrate that tumor-derived MIF can affect patient prognosis, which might be related to the increase of Th17 cells in the NPC tumor microenvironment.
FERTILITY INTENTIONS AND SUBSEQUENT FERTILITY BEHAVIOUR IN MATLAB: DO FERTILITY INTENTIONS MATTER?

This study examines the extent of the interrelationship between future fertility intention and subsequent fertility behaviour in rural Bangladesh using longitudinal data. It confirms that fertility intention is an important predictor of subsequent fertility behaviour for rural Bangladeshi women. Women wanting no more children are over three times less likely to have a child during a 5-year follow-up than those wanting more children. A multivariate model using logistic regression shows that fertility intention is a useful indicator for fertility behaviour, when background and life-cycle variables are controlled. The different patterns of fertility intentions by socioeconomic and demographic subgroups suggest that different programme strategies should be designed for specific target groups.
Is European integration causing Europe to become more nationalist? Evidence from the 2007–9 financial crisis

ABSTRACT The European Union's (EU) political and economic integration project has grown dramatically since its inception in 1952. While the ultimate goal of the EU is unclear, one of its aspirations has been to attempt to create European citizens. The idea is that over time, citizens would look towards Europe as their main national identity. While the political and economic integration projects are quite far along, the national identity project has lagged far behind. The number of people who have primarily a European identity is quite small and has not increased much in the past 20 years. There is a far larger number of citizens for whom their national identity is paramount, but a European identity also exists. Since 2005, this group has grown smaller and the number of citizens with only a national identity has grown larger. This article argues that the EU integration project has pushed citizens to value their national identities more and to look to their national governments to protect them. We examine the evidence for this in the context of the 2007–9 financial crisis. We show that in countries most seriously hit by the crisis, national identities have increased dramatically and citizens with some European identity have decreased.
Effectiveness of Electoral Systems for Reducing Government Corruption: A Game-Theoretic Analysis

A theoretical model is developed for predicting the relative effectiveness of different electoral systems for reducing government corruption. We consider voting games in which parties with known corruption levels and known positions on a major policy question are competing of legislative seats. We find that approval voting and proportional representation are fully effective, in the sense that all equilibria exclude corrupt parties from legislative seats. Plurality voting is partly effective, in the sense that there always exist some equilibria that exclude corrupt parties. Borda voting is ineffective because, for some political situations, no equilibria can guarantee the exclusion of corrupt parties.