Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strabismus in children of birth weight less than 1701 g.

OBJECTIVE To prospectively study infants of birth weight less than 1701 g in the East Midlands of England in the mid 1980s at 10 to 12 years of age to determine the incidence and risk factors for strabismus in children born preterm. METHODS Low-birth-weight children (n = 572) who had been examined during the neonatal period were invited for a follow-up visit at age 10 to 12 years; 169 eleven-year-old schoolchildren born at full term were also recruited (the school cohort). RESULTS Of the original 572 children, 293 consented to further examination. There was no significant difference between children who were examined and those who were not in terms of birth weight, gestational age, retinopathy of prematurity, and cranial ultrasound abnormalities. Compared with the school cohort (n = 5 [3.0%]; 95% confidence interval, 1.0%-9.1%), the low-birth-weight cohort had a significant increase in the prevalence of strabismus (n = 59 [20.1%]; 95% confidence interval, 15.9%-25.0%; P<.001). Compared with published data, there was a relative increase in the occurrence of exotropia in the low-birth-weight study cohort. Multivariate analysis, by backward logistic regression, indicated that retinopathy of prematurity, birth weight, cerebral palsy, anisometropia, and refractive error were all independently associated with strabismus (P<.05). CONCLUSIONS The results of this study confirm the increased prevalence of strabismus in a low-birth-weight population. This study also provides more detailed information on risk factors and strabismus types.
Commentary: Estimating the global conservation status of more than 15,000 Amazonian tree species

Citation: Feeley KJ (2016) Commentary: Estimating the global conservation status of more than 15,000 Amazonian tree species. Amazonian forests provide ecosystem services that are critical at the planetary scale. Unfortunately, human land use threatens to drive many rainforest species to extinction. In a recent study, ter Steege et al. (2015) provide valuable insight into the threats that current and future deforestation potentially pose for Amazonian tree species. In any such large-scale analysis dealing with thousands of poorly-known species, there are clearly going to be many assumptions and possible sources of uncertainty. Here, I highlight two major assumptions used by ter Steege et al. (2015) to simplify their analyses—namely in the handling of widespread species and rare species. These assumptions have the potential to strongly influence predictions of how many and which species are at risk of being lost to deforestation over the coming decades. Some tree species are likely to be endemic to the lowland Amazon; however, there are also certain to be many species that have ranges extending to higher elevations, different ecoregions, or even different continents. While ter Steege et al. perfunctorily acknowledge (in their online Supplemental Material) the potential problems caused by widespread tree species with geographic ranges extending beyond the defined Amazonian study area, they make no attempt to quantify how pervasive of a problem this may be or to account for it in any of their analyses. Rather, ter Steege et al. assume that rates and patterns of deforestation outside the Amazon mirror those occurring inside the Amazon. This goes against the core proposition of the study that spatial patterns of species' distributions, population densities, and the rates of deforestation, all combine in determining the degree to which species are threatened by habitat loss. To get a sense of how many species may have ranges extending beyond the Amazon, I mapped the locations where Amazonian tree species are known to occur based on their herbarium collections records. More specifically, I downloaded all georeferenced occurrence records available through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF; http://www.gbif.org/) for the nearly 5000 Amazonian tree species occurring in the Amazon Tree Diversity Network's (ATDN; http:// atdn.myspecies.info/) forest plots and queried how many of these " common " species have recorded occurrences outside of the Amazon. I found that the vast majority (81%) of species have ≥1 occurrence outside the defined study region, one-fourth of the species have ≥50% of their …
India Transformed? Insights from the Firm Level 1988-2005

Using firm-level data this paper analyzes, the transformation of India’s economic structure following the implementation of economic reforms. The focus of the study is on publicly-listed and unlisted firms from across a wide spectrum of manufacturing and services industries and ownership structures such as state-owned firms, business groups, private and foreign firms. Detailed balance sheet and ownership information permit an investigation of a range of variables such as sales, profitability, and assets. Here we analyze firm characteristics shown by industry before and after liberalization and investigate how industrial concentration, the number, and size of firms of the ownership type evolved between 1988 and 2005. We find great dynamism displayed by foreign and private firms as reflected in the growth in their numbers, assets, sales and profits. Yet, closer scrutiny reveals no dramatic transformation in the wake of liberalization. The story rather is one of an economy still dominated by the incumbents (state-owned firms) and to a lesser extent, traditional private firms (firms incorporated before 1985). Sectors dominated by state-owned and traditional private firms before 1988-1990, with assets, sales and profits representing shares higher than 50%, generally remained so in 2005. The exception to this broad pattern is the growing importance of new and large private firms in the services sector. Rates of return also have remained stable over time and show low dispersion across sectors and across ownership groups within sectors.
Sensitivity and Specificity of Procalcitonin in Diagnosis of Neonatal Sepsis

Background and Objective: According to the fact that neonatal infection is a challenging diagnosis field, several studies have tried to test sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic tests. This study was conducted to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of procalcitonin (PCT) as a single early marker of neonatal sepsis. Materials and Methods: In this study, 150 neonates admitted to NICU and neonatal ward in Shahrekord Hajar hospital were enrolled. A full workup including blood cultureand other tests and PCT was conductede. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for PCT was determined. Results: It was found out that 8 patients had definite infection, 15 patients had possible infection, and 127 patients had no infection. Although PCT was not able to significantly differentiate between those with definite and possible infections (p>0.05), but there was a significant difference for frequency of abnormal PCT between non-infectious patients and other patients. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of PCT was 87.5%, 87.4%, 30.4%, 99.1%, and 87.41% respectively. Conclusion: Beside the limitation of the sample size, the satisfactory diagnostic characteristics of PCT highlight it as a good measure for diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. Further studies are essential to be carried out.
The effects of metabolite molecules produced by drinking water-isolated bacteria on their single and multispecies biofilms

The elucidation of the mechanisms by which diverse species survive and interact in drinking water (DW) biofilm communities may allow the identification of new biofilm control strategies. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of metabolite molecules produced by bacteria isolated from DW on biofilm formation. Six opportunistic bacteria, viz. Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Burkholderia cepacia, Methylobacterium sp. , Mycobacterium mucogenicum, Sphingomonas capsulata and Staphylococcus sp. isolated from a drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) were used to form single and multispecies biofilms in the presence and absence of crude cell-free supernatants produced by the partner bacteria. Biofilms were characterized in terms of mass and metabolic activity. Additionally, several physiological aspects regulating interspecies interactions (sessile growth rates, antimicrobial activity of cell-free supernatants, and production of iron chelators) were studied to identify bacterial species with biocontrol potential in DWDS. Biofilms of Methylobacterium sp. had the highest growth rate and M. mucogenicum biofilms the lowest. Only B. cepacia was able to produce extracellular iron-chelating molecules. A. calcoaceticus, B. cepacia, Methylobacterium sp. and M. mucogenicum biofilms were strongly inhibited by crude cell-free supernatants from the other bacteria. The crude cell-free supernatants of M. mucogenicum and S. capsulata demonstrated a high potential for inhibiting the growth of counterpart biofilms. Multispecies biofilm formation was strongly inhibited in the absence of A. calcoaceticus. Only crude cell-free supernatants produced by B. cepacia and A. calcoaceticus had no inhibitory effects on multispecies biofilm formation, while metabolite molecules of M. mucogenicum showed the most significant biocontrol potential.
The Development of Job-Based Psychological Ownership

Psychological ownership has come to light as an important state with strong implications on employee attitudes and behaviors. However, relatively little attention has been paid towards the process by which employees come to develop feelings of psychological ownership towards their work, particularly regarding the role played by individual traits in this process. Ownership theorists claim that personality and disposition should matter (Mayhew, Ashkanasy, Bramble, & Gardner, 2007; Pierce & Jussila, 2011), yet these claims remain largely untested. The purpose of the current investigation is to address these gaps by exploring how employee disposition and job design contribute to the development of job-based psychological ownership. Employing a cross-sectional approach, data were collected using an online survey where participants were asked to complete measures of trait positive affectivity (PA), job characteristics, work experiences, and job-based psychological ownership. Because the study focused on job-related phenomenon, participants were required to work full-time in a location other than their home to be considered for this study. The final 426 participants (60.4% male, 39.6% female) had an average tenure of 5.04 years (SD = 5.03) and represented a wide range of industries and job levels (23.7% entry-level, 31.0% individual contributor, 17.8% supervisory, 10.8% mid-level manager, 2.8% senior manager, 13.8% technical or professional). Hypotheses were tested using bootstrapped regression analyses and structural equation modeling. Results indicated that job autonomy has a positive effect on job-based psychological ownership (B = 0.501, CI 0.415 to 0.594) through three mediated paths: investment of ideas, THE DEVELOPMENT OF JOB-BASED PSYCHOLOGICAL OWNERSHIP xii effort, and self into one’s work (B = 0.252, CI 0.178 to 0.349), experienced control and influence over one’s work (B = 0.214, CI 0.137 to 0.293), and intimate knowledge and understanding of one’s job (B = 0.036, CI 0.003 to 0.082). Employee PA significantly moderated the mediated path from autonomy to ownership through experienced control (Index of ModMed = 0.017, CI 0.000 to 0.045), such that control mattered more for high-PA employees. Exploratory analyses suggest that PA may play a dual role – as a moderator of autonomy’s effects on control (B = 0.052, CI 0.009 to 0.100), and as an indirect effect on ownership itself. For example, high-PA employees reported greater investment of self in their work, which in turn predicted job-based psychological ownership (B = 0.255, CI 0.177 to 0.361). Ultimately, job autonomy stood out as having a particularly strong and consistent positive effect on job-based psychological ownership. Results suggest that all employees, from the most enthusiastic to the most apathetic can experience this positive psychological state. That is, as long as they are afforded a high level of autonomy in deciding how to plan and carry out their work.
Passive separation control using a self-adaptive hairy coating

A model of hairy medium is developed using a homogenized approach, and the fluid flow around a circular cylinder partially coated with hair is analysed by means of numerical simulations. The capability of this coating to adapt to the surrounding flow is investigated, and its benefits are discussed in the context of separation control. This fluid–structure interaction problem is solved with a partitioned approach, based on the direct resolution of the Navier–Stokes equations together with a nonlinear set of equations describing the dynamics of the coating. A volume force, arising from the presence of a cluster of hair, provides the link between the fluid and the structure problems. For the structure part, a subset of reference elements approximates the whole layer. The dynamics of these elements is governed by a set of equations based on the inertia, elasticity, interaction and losses effects of articulated rods. The configuration chosen is that of the two-dimensional flow past a circular cylinder at Re = 200, a simple and well-documented test case. Aerodynamics performances quantified by the Strouhal number, the drag and the maximum lift in the laminar unsteady regime are modified by the presence of the coating. A set of parameters corresponding to a realistic coating (length of elements, porosity, rigidity) is found, yielding an average drag reduction of 15% and a decrease of lift fluctuations by about 40%, associated to a stabilization of the wake.
A statistical similarity measure for aggregate crowd dynamics

We present an information-theoretic method to measure the similarity between a given set of observed, real-world data and visual simulation technique for aggregate crowd motions of a complex system consisting of many individual agents. This metric uses a two-step process to quantify a simulator's ability to reproduce the collective behaviors of the whole system, as observed in the recorded real-world data. First, Bayesian inference is used to estimate the simulation states which best correspond to the observed data, then a maximum likelihood estimator is used to approximate the prediction errors. This process is iterated using the EM-algorithm to produce a robust, statistical estimate of the magnitude of the prediction error as measured by its entropy (smaller is better). This metric serves as a simulator-to-data similarity measurement. We evaluated the metric in terms of robustness to sensor noise, consistency across different datasets and simulation methods, and correlation to perceptual metrics.
ERCC1 Single Nucleotide Polymorphism C8092A, but Not Its Expression Is Associated with Survival of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients from Fujian Province, China

Esophageal carcinoma is one of the world's deadliest cancers. Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is more frequent than adenocarcenoma (AC) in China. Platinum-based chemotherapy with surgical resection is a common treatment approach for ESCC; however, the treatment response is uncertain. Evidence suggests polymorphisms in genes encoding excision repair cross-complementing group 1 (ERCC1), a protein involved in nuclear excision repair (NER), may help predict response to cisplatin and other platinum-based chemotherapeutics. Multiple ERCC1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been associated with platinum chemotherapy response. Two common SNPs occur at the C8092A and C118T loci. Our study aimed to determine if 1) an association exists between ERCC1 tumor expression and patient survival, 2) whether adjuvant therapy influence on survival is related to histological ERCC1 presence in tumor cell nuclei, and 3) whether other clinicopathological characteristics in a cohort of patients following surgery for various stages of ESCC are associated with tumor ERCC1 expression. One hundred eight patients were included in the study, and tumor biopsy was collected for genotyping and immunohistochemical analysis of ERCC1. Sixty-seven patients (62%) received no adjuvant therapy, and the rest had either platinum-based chemotherapy (28.5%), radiotherapy (6.5%) or both treatments (2.8%). Log-rank analysis revealed no significant connection between tumor ERCC1 expression (P = 0.12) or adjuvant therapy (P = 0.56) on patient survival. Also, non-parametric Mann-Whitney analysis showed no significant link between tumor size or nodus tumor formation and ERCC1 presence in patients in the study. Interestingly, C8092A SNP showed significant association with patient survival (P = 0.01), with patients homozygous for the mutant allele showing the most significantly reduced survival (P = 0.04) compared to those homozygous for the dominant allele (CC). Our results provide novel insight into the genotypic variation of patients from Quanzhou, Fujian province China.
A Theory of Combative Advertising

In mature markets with competing firms, a common role for advertising is to shift consumer preferences towards the advertiser in a tug-of-war, with no effect on category demand. In this paper, we analyze the effect of such “combative” advertising on market power. We show that, depending on the nature of consumer response, combative advertising can reduce price competition to benefit competing firms. However, it can also lead to a procompetitive outcome where individual firms advertise to increase their own profitability, but collectively become worse off. This is because combative advertising can intensify price competition such that an “advertising war” leads to a “price war. ” Similar to price competition, advertising competition can result in a prisoner's dilemma where all competing firms make less profit even when the effect of each firm's advertising is to enhance consumer preferences in its favor. Given such procompetitive effects, we further show that cost of combative advertising could be a blessing in disguise---higher unit cost of advertising resulting in lower equilibrium levels of advertising, leading to higher prices and profits. We conduct a laboratory experiment to investigate how combative advertising by competing brands influences consumer preferences. Our experimental analysis offers strong support for our conclusions.
Social deprivation as a risk factor for late presentation of proliferative diabetic retinopathy

Purpose The aim of this study was to determine whether social deprivation is a risk factor for late presentation of patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy and whether it affects their access to urgent laser treatment. Methods Using a 2:1 case: control design, 102 patients referred to a UK teaching hospital as part of the UK Diabetic Retinopathy National Screening Programme were identified for the period between 1 June 2010 to 1 June 2013. Social deprivation was scored using the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2010. Additional variables considered included age, duration of disease, ethnicity, and HbA1c at time of referral. Results The cases comprised 34 patients referred with proliferative (grade R3) retinopathy with a control group of 68 patients with lower retinopathy grades; two control patients were excluded due to incomplete data. On univariate analysis, R3 retinopathy was associated with higher social deprivation (P<0.001, Mann–Whitney U-test), and with higher HbA1c (11.5% vs 8.4%; P<0.001, Mann–Whitney U-test). Forward stepwise multivariable analysis showed that the association of R3 retinopathy with deprivation was significant even after adjusting for HbA1c (P=0.016). On univariate analysis South Asian ethnicity was also identified as being a risk factor for presentation with R3 retinopathy, but this was no longer significant when HbA1c was adjusted for in a forward stepwise logistic regression analysis. Conclusion In our cohort social deprivation appears to be associated with late presentation of proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Our study supports the need to target these groups to reduce preventable blindness and to identify strategies which overcome barriers to care.
Cardiovascular morbidity and endothelial dysfunction in chronic haemodialysis patients: is homocyst(e)ine the missing link?

BACKGROUND Haemodialysis patients exhibit an excessive burden of atherothrombotic disease, which is not explained adequately by traditional risk factors. Hyperhomocyst(e)inaemia, a consistent finding in uraemic patients, is now widely recognized as an independent risk factor for vascular disease. The aim of this study was to examine the hypothesis that hyperhomocyst(e)inaemia is associated with cardiovascular complications in dialysed patients. METHODS In a cohort of 63 stable chronic haemodialysis patients, we examined the causal relationship between hyperhomocyst(e)inaemia and vascular endothelial and haemostatic function. All their markers were determined before and after an 8-week course of a 10 mg per day oral folate supplementation, a manoeuvre known to decrease hyperhomocyst(e)inaemia in uraemic patients. RESULTS History of at least one cardiovascular atherothrombotic event was present in 47.6% of the haemodialysed patients, and radiographic evidence of vascular calcifications in 70%. Hyperhomocyst(e)inaemia was found in all patients, averaging 3.5-fold the upper limit of normal values (P<0.001), despite the lack of clinical and biological evidence of malnutrition. Fibrinogen, von Willebrand factor and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1, but not endothelin 1, were significantly higher in haemodialysis patients than in controls. After adjustment for all variables, past history of cardiovascular events was independently associated with higher levels of homocyst(e)inaemia only (odds ratio (OR) 1.06; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01-1.12; P<0.026). The presence of aortic calcifications was independently and significantly associated with age (OR 1.37; 95% CI 1.07-1.75; P<0.025), homocyst(e)inaemia (OR 1.14; 95% CI 1.02-1.27; P<0.05) and fibrinogen concentration only (OR 9.74; 95% CI 1.25-75.2; P<0.05). None of the endothelial haemostatic factors was, however, related to homocyst(e)ine levels. Mid-term folate supplementation decreased plasma homocyst(e)ine levels significantly without achieving normal values. No significant change of endothelial-haemostatic markers was observed, however, despite the drop in plasma homocyst(e)ine. CONCLUSIONS Hyperhomocyst(e)inaemia is associated with increased cardiovascular risk in haemodialysis patients. Folate supplementation was partially effective in lowering hyperhomocyst(e)inaemia, but its usefulness in terms of reduction in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality remains to be determined in prospective trials.