Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tendon Reattachment to Bone in an Ovine Tendon Defect Model of Retraction Using Allogenic and Xenogenic Demineralised Bone Matrix Incorporated with Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Background Tendon-bone healing following rotator cuff repairs is mainly impaired by poor tissue quality. Demineralised bone matrix promotes healing of the tendon-bone interface but its role in the treatment of tendon tears with retraction has not been investigated. We hypothesized that cortical demineralised bone matrix used with minimally manipulated mesenchymal stem cells will result in improved function and restoration of the tendon-bone interface with no difference between xenogenic and allogenic scaffolds. Materials and Methods In an ovine model, the patellar tendon was detached from the tibial tuberosity and a complete distal tendon transverse defect measuring 1 cm was created. Suture anchors were used to reattach the tendon and xenogenic demineralised bone matrix + minimally manipulated mesenchymal stem cells (n = 5), or allogenic demineralised bone matrix + minimally manipulated mesenchymal stem cells (n = 5) were used to bridge the defect. Graft incorporation into the tendon and its effect on regeneration of the enthesis was assessed using histomorphometry. Force plate analysis was used to assess functional recovery. Results Compared to the xenograft, the allograft was associated with significantly higher functional weight bearing at 6 (P = 0.047), 9 (P = 0.028), and 12 weeks (P = 0.009). In the allogenic group this was accompanied by greater remodeling of the demineralised bone matrix into tendon-like tissue in the region of the defect (p = 0.015), and a more direct type of enthesis characterized by significantly more fibrocartilage (p = 0.039). No failures of tendon-bone healing were noted in either group. Conclusion Demineralised bone matrix used with minimally manipulated mesenchymal stem cells promotes healing of the tendon-bone interface in an ovine model of acute tendon retraction, with superior mechanical and histological results associated with use of an allograft.
7 Precise Real-Time Positioning Using Network RTK

In the classic RTK method using a single reference station the rover needs to work within a short range from the reference station due to the spatial decorrelation of distance-dependent errors induced by the ionosphere, troposphere and orbital errors. The operating range of RTK positioning is thus dependent on the existing atmospheric conditions and is usually limited to a distance of up to 10-20 km. In addition, no redundancy of the reference stations is usually available if the reference station experiences any malfunctioning. The constraint of the limited reference-to-rover range in RTK can be removed by using a method known as Network RTK (NRTK), whereby a network of reference stations with ranges usually less than 100 km is used. The network stations continuously collect satellite observations and send them to a central processing facility, at which the station observations are processed in a common network adjustment and observation errors and their corrections are computed. The observation corrections obtained from the network are sent to the user, operating within the coverage area of the network, to mitigate his observation errors.
Relational quality and innovative performance in R&D based science and technology firms

The knowledge-based view of the firm implies that the innovative performance of R&D based organisations is strongly influenced by the quality of their relational capital. However, the quality of the employment relationship has been underplayed in this perspective. A model is developed that tests the quality of three dimensions of the employment relationship – the psychological contract, affective commitment and knowledge-sharing behaviours – and their consequences for innovative performance amongst 429 R&D employees in six different science and technology based firms. Analysis found that affective commitment plays an important role in mediating psychological contract fulfilment on knowledge-sharing behaviour, which in turn is strongly related to innovative performance. More specifically, fulfilment of the job design dimension of the psychological contract has an independent positive association with innovative performance, whereas fulfilment of the performance pay dimension is negatively associated.
Analytical results on the stochastic behaviour of an averaged queue length

The joint dynamics of the instantaneous and exponentially averaged queue length in an M/M/1/K queue is studied. A system of ordinary differential equations is derived for the joint stationary distribution of the instantaneous and the exponentially averaged queue length. The equations are similar to those governing an MMRP driven fluid queue. An analytical solution to the equations is obtained in a few special cases. Mean and variance of the marginal distribution of the averaged queue length, both unconditional and conditional on the value of the instantaneous queue length, are derived for the general case.
Integrative analysis of cancer genomic data

In the past decade, we have witnessed an unparalleled development in high throughput technologies. One of the most exciting developments is in microarray technology. Microarrays have been extensively used in biomedical, particularly cancer, studies. Microarrays make it possible to measure the expressions of thousands of genes simultaneously and detect genomic markers that are associated with cancer development and progression. In this article, we will focus mainly on cancer microarray studies, although many issues and techniques discussed are also applicable to other high throughput (eg epigenetic, proteomic) measurements, and to other diseases or phenotypes (eg diabetes, cardiovascular diseases).
Scaling up M-estimation via sampling designs: The Horvitz-Thompson stochastic gradient descent

In certain situations that shall be undoubtedly more and more common in the Big Data era, the datasets available are so massive that computing statistics over the full sample is hardly feasible, if not unfeasible. A natural approach in this context consists in using survey schemes and substituting the “full data” statistics with their counterparts based on the resulting random samples, of manageable size. It is the purpose of this paper to investigate the impact of survey sampling with unequal inclusion probabilities on (stochastic) gradient descent-based M-estimation methods in large-scale statistical-learning problems. We prove that, in presence of some a priori information, one may significantly reduce the number of terms that must be averaged to estimate the gradient at each step with overwhelming probability, while preserving the asymptotic accuracy. These striking results are described here by limit theorems.
Effect of Personality on Organizational Commitment and Employees' Performance: Empirical Evidence from Banking Sector of Pakistan

3 Abstract: Considering the importance of employees' performance and their commitment with organization, this study is initiated to investigate the impact of individuals' personality on the employees' commitment level and employees' performance in organization. Mediating role of organizational commitment is investigated in relation of personality and performance. The model is empirically tested on the employees banking sector of Pakistan. In data analysis, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness are found as significant and positive predictors of employee's commitment with organization, while organizational commitment is a significant predictor of task and contextual performance of employees.
Strongyloides Stercoralis Infection Among Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-Infected Patients in the United States of America: A Case Report and Review of Literature

Patient: Male, 61 Final Diagnosis: Strongyloides stercolaris-associated diarrhea Symptoms: Diarrhea • epigastric pain • nausea • weight loss Medication: Ivermectin Clinical Procedure: Colonic biopsies Specialty: Infectious Diseases Objective: Rare disease Background: Strongyloides stercoralis infection is endemic in subtropical and tropical regions but is reported rather sporadically in temperate countries. In the USA, the highest rates of infection are from the southeastern states, predominantly among immigrants. There is paucity of case reports on S. stercoralis infection among HIV-infected patients who were born and raised in the USA. Case Report: A 61-year-old male with known HIV infection (CD4 count: 235 cells/uL, undetectable HIV RNA, on antiretroviral therapy) presented with a 3-month history of diarrhea. He was initially diagnosed to have diarrhea secondary to norovirus and later with Escherichia coli. He was treated with levofloxacin but the diarrhea persisted. Stool PCR, Clostridium difficile enzyme-linked immunoassay, cryptosporidium and giardia antigen, cyclospora and isospora smear, and fecal microscopy were all negative. Peripheral blood eosinophil count was 1,000 eosinophils/mcL. Colonic biopsies revealed fragments of S. stercoralis larvae within the crypts. The patient was treated with ivermectin with improvement of symptoms. Social history revealed that he was born and raised in the northeastern USA. He was a daily methamphetamine user and engaged in anal sex with men. He denied travel to endemic areas, except for a visit to Japan more than 30 years ago. Conclusions: Our case highlights that S. stercoralis may be an underdiagnosed/under-reported cause of chronic diarrhea among HIV-infected patients. What makes this case peculiar is that the patient was born and raised in the continental USA, absence of recent travel to endemic areas, and relatively high CD4 counts. Parasitic infections, such as S. stercoralis, should be considered among HIV-infected patients with persistent diarrhea and eosinophilia regardless of ethnicity or recent travel history.
A tight lower bound for parity in noisy communication networks

We show a tight lower bound of Ω(N log log N) on the number of transmission required to compute the parity of N bits (with constant error) in a network of N randomly placed sensors, communicating using local transmissions, and operating with power near the connectivity threshold. This result settles a question left open by Ying, Srikant and Dullerud (WiOpt 06), who showed how the sum of all N bits can be computed using O(N log log N) transmissions. Earlier works on lower bounds for communication networks worked with the full broadcast model without using the fact that the communication in real networks is local, determined by the power of the transmitters. In fact, in full broadcast networks parity can be computed using O(N) transmissions. To obtain our lower bound we employ techniques developed by Goyal, Kindler and Saks (FOCS 05), who showed lower bounds in the full broadcast model by reducing the problem to a model of noisy decision trees. However, in order to capture the limited range of transmissions in real sensor networks, we define and work with a localized version of noisy decision trees. Our lower bound is obtained by exploiting special properties of parity computations in such decision trees.
Towards a Nanoscale Artificial Cortex

This paper presents an approach to predicting the feasibility of artificial brains in the future. We focus on biomimetic neural models and electronic circuits that implement those models. Complexities in modeling biological neural tissue are discussed. Estimates are given for the size of artificial neural systems based on CMOS technology in 2021, without considering interconnections. We propose some solutions to the problem of interconnecting neurons. However, the best solution to this issue is an ongoing research topic.
RR Lyrae Stars in Galactic Globular Clusters. III. Pulsational Predictions for Metal Content Z = 0.0001 to Z = 0.006

The results of nonlinear, convective models of RR Lyrae pulsators with metal content Z = 0.0001-0.006 are discussed and several predicted relations connecting pulsational (period and amplitude of pulsation) and evolutionary parameters (mass, absolute magnitude, and color of the pulsator) are derived. These relations, when linked with the average mass of RR Lyrae stars, as suggested by horizontal-branch evolutionary models, provide a "pulsational" route to the determination of the distance modulus, both apparent and intrinsic, of RR Lyrae-rich globular clusters. Based on a preliminary set of synthetic horizontal-branch simulations, we compare the predicted relations with observed variables in selected globular clusters (M2, M3, M5, M15, M55, M68, NGC 1851, NGC 3201, NGC 5466, NGC 6362, NGC 6934, and IC 4499). We show that the distance moduli inferred by the various theoretical relations are mutually consistent within the errors, provided that the value of the mixing-length parameter slightly increases from the blue to the red edge of the pulsation region. Moreover, we show that the relative "pulsational" distance moduli fit well previous empirical results and that the parallax of the prototype variable RR Lyr, as inferred by the predicted period-Wesenheit relation, is in close agreement with the Hubble Space Telescope astrometric measurement.
An Accurate Method for Skew Determination in Document Images

A reactor container is composed of a dry well and a wet well and, in the reactor container, there is provided with a dry well cooling system, the dry well cooling system including, in one aspect, an in-dry-well heat exchanger disposed in the dry well of the reactor container, an in-dry-well blower connected to a primary side of the in-dry-well heat exchanger, a circulation pipe connected to a secondary side of the in-dry-well heat exchanger, a normal cooling system connected to the secondary side of the in-dry-well heat exchanger through the circulation pipe and including an equipment cooling pump, an equipment cooling heat exchanger and a seawater pump, and a standby cooling system connected to and branched from the circulation pipe. The dry well cooling system may include an extra-dry-well heat exchanger and blower, and in such case, there is provided an emergency dry well cooling system equipment cooling system connected to a secondary side of the extra-dry-well heat exchanger, the emergency dry well cooling system equipment cooling system including an emergency dry well cooling system equipment cooling pump, an emergency dry well cooling system equipment cooling heat exchanger and an emergency dry well cooling system equipment cooling seawater pump. The pipe lines may respectively be connected to the dry well and the wet well of the reactor container at one end thereof.
The Sense of Agency during Continuous Action: Performance Is More Important than Action-Feedback Association

The sense of agency refers to the feeling that one is controlling events through one’s own behavior. This study examined how task performance and the delay of events influence one’s sense of agency during continuous action accompanied by a goal. The participants were instructed to direct a moving dot into a square as quickly as possible by pressing the left and right keys on a keyboard to control the direction in which the dot traveled. The interval between the key press and response of the dot (i.e., direction change) was manipulated to vary task difficulty. Moreover, in the assisted condition, the computer ignored participants’ erroneous commands, resulting in improved task performance but a weaker association between the participants’ commands and actual movements of the dot relative to the condition in which all of the participants’ commands were executed (i.e., self-control condition). The results showed that participants’ sense of agency increased with better performance in the assisted condition relative to the self-control condition, even though a large proportion of their commands were not executed. We concluded that, when the action-feedback association was uncertain, cognitive inference was more dominant relative to the process of comparing predicted and perceived information in the judgment of agency.
Utilizing Focused Relevance Feedback

We present a novel study of ad hoc retrieval methods utilizing document-level relevance feedback and/or focused relevance feedback; namely, passages marked as (non-)relevant. The first method uses a novel mixture model that integrates relevant and non-relevant information at the language model level. The second method fuses retrieval scores produced by using relevant and non-relevant information separately. Empirical exploration attests to the merits of our methods, and sheds light on the effectiveness of using and integrating relevance feedback for textual units of varying granularities.
Human Capital Development

This paper has two main objectives. First, it assesses and measures the gaps in the stock of human capital across the world. It presents how effectively different regions are improving their stock of human capital, and how long it will take for developing countries to catch up with the current level of human capital in industrialized countries. Second, it revisits the contribution of human capital to economic growth, proposing a decomposition method to account for employment growth—which is also impacted on by human capital growth—in explaining growth in total output per worker. The proposed methodology introduces employment growth in the growth decomposition through the employment growth elasticity. It is conjectured that as human capital increases, employment growth elasticity will decrease, making the economy less labor-intensive, resulting in higher economic growth. The proposed method points to the importance of the micro linkage between human capital and the labor market.
The TRAINS project: a case study in building a conversational planning agent

The TRAINS project is an effort to build a conversationally proficient planning assistant. A key part of the project is the construction of the TRAINS system, which provides the research platform for a wide range of issues in natural language understanding, mixed-initiative planning systems, and representing and reasoning about time, actions and events. Four years have now passed since the beginning of the project. Each year we have produced a demonstration system that focused on a dialog that illustrates particular aspects of our research. The commitment to building complete integrated systems is a significant overhead on the research, but we feel it is essential to guarantee that the results constitute real progress in the field. This paper describes the goals of the project, and our experience with the effort so far. pp This paper is to appear in the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical AI, 1995.
Implicit-signal monitors

An implicit (automatic) signal monitor uses a waituntil predicate statement to construct synchronization, as opposed to an explicit-signal monitor using condition variables and signal/wait statements for synchronization. Of the two synchronization approaches, the implicit-signal monitor is often easier to use and prove correct, but has an inherently high execution cost. Hence, its primary use is for prototyping concurrent systems using monitors, where speed and accuracy of software development override execution performance. After a concurrent system is working, any implicit-signal monitor that is a performance bottleneck can be converted to an explicit-signal monitor. Unfortunately, many monitor-based concurrency systems provide only explicit-signal monitors, precluding the design benefits of implicit-signal monitors.This article presents a historical look at the development of the implicit-signal monitor in relation to its counterpart the explicit-signal monitor. An analysis of the different kinds of implicit-signal monitors shows the effects certain design decisions have on the problems that can be solved and the performance of the solutions. Finally, an extensive discussion is presented on simulating an implicit-signal monitor via different explicit-signal monitors. These simulations are reasonably complex, depending on the kind of explicit-signal monitor available for the simulation and the desired semantics required for the implicit-signal monitor. Interestingly, the complexity of the simulations also illustrates certain deficiencies with explicit-signal monitors, which are discussed in detail. Performance comparisons are made among the different simulations with monitors from the concurrent systems PThreads, Java, and μC++.
Genotoxicity of pesticide waste contaminated soil and its leachate.

OBJECTIVE Improper land disposal of hazardous waste can result in leaching of hazardous constituents which may contaminate ground and surface water leading to adverse impact on human health and environment consequences. The present study utilized mammalian cell culture for the genotoxicity assessment of waste and its leachate. METHODS Genotoxic potential and chemical analysis of pesticide derived tarry waste contaminated soil extract and its leachate was assessed using in vitro human lymphocyte cultures and GC-MS. RESULTS The investigation revealed that the soil extract could cause significant to highly significant genotoxicity in the form of DNA strand break at 25 microL (P < 0.01), 50 microL, 100 microL and 200 microL (P < 0.001) and chromosomal aberration at 25 microL (P < 0.01) and 50 microL and 100 microL (P < 0.001). The leachate could cause significant DNA strand break and chromosomal aberration only at 100 microL and 200 microL (P < 0.01) dose levels. CONCLUSION The genotoxicity observed is attributed to carbaril and tetra methyl naphthyl carbamate, the major ingredients of the extracts, as revealed by GC-MS.
Online Mode Switch Algorithms for Maintaining Data Freshness in Dynamic Cyber-Physical Systems

Maintaining the freshness of real-time data is one of the crucial design issues in cyber-physical systems (CPS). Past studies have focused on designing update algorithms to minimize the workload imposed by a fixed set of update tasks while ensuring the temporal validity of data. In this paper, we revisit this problem in dynamic cyber-physical systems (DCPS) which may exhibit multi-modal behavior. Any solution to this problem must recognize that: (1) different update algorithms may be needed in different modes according to the workload in each mode, and (2) temporal validity of data must be maintained not only in each mode but also during the mode switch. To strike a balance between data freshness and system schedulability, we propose a utilization-based scheduling selection (UBSS) strategy. We first introduce two synchronous mode switch algorithms, named search-based switch (SBS) and adjustment-based switch (ABS) to search for the proper switch point online and execute all update tasks in the new mode synchronously. SBS checks for temporal validity at the beginning time slot of each idle period in the schedule, while ABS relaxes this restriction through schedule adjustment. To support immediate mode switch, we propose an asynchronous switch algorithm named instant switch (IS) to reduce the switch delay. IS schedules outstanding jobs from the old mode together with the jobs in the new mode using the least-available-laxity-first scheduling policy. Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of these three algorithms. They also show that UBSS strategy can significantly outperform a single fixed update algorithm in terms of maintaining better data freshness while incurring only limited online switch overhead.
Estimation of signal-dependent sensor noise via sparse representation of noise level functions

This paper proposes a noise estimation method for signal-dependent sensor noise based on sparse representation of noise level functions (NLFs). Homogeneous blocks are detected by an image structure analyzer, and grouped to estimate noise levels for various image intensities with confidences. The noise level function is recovered from the incomplete and noisy estimated samples by solving its sparse representation under a trained basis. Experimental results show that our proposed method accurately estimates NLFs for both smooth and highly-textured images over various noise levels.