Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The use of a 95 degree blade plate and a posterior approach to achieve tibiotalocalcaneal arthrodesis.

UNLABELLED Various types of internal fixation have been used to achieve arthrodesis of both the ankle and subtalar joints. We have investigated the use of a standard 95 degree angled blade plate as a method of more rigid internal fixation to achieve arthrodesis of these joints. The purpose of this retrospective study was to review our clinical and radiographic results in adults using a blade plate applied through a posterior approach to fuse the ankle and subtalar joints. METHODS Between April 1995 and June 2000, 10 tibiotalocalcaneal arthrodeses were performed using a posterior approach and a blade plate for internal fixation. There were 10 adults (five men and five women) whose average age was 64 years (range, 42 to 80 years). The indication for the procedure was severe pain which was unresponsive to nonoperative management in patients with arthritic joints. Preoperative diagnoses included six patients with post-traumatic arthritis, two with primary degenerative arthritis, one with rheumatoid arthritis, and one with post-polio deformity. An average of 1.7 previous operations had been performed on the affected ankle. RESULTS Clinical and radiographic follow-up was performed for all patients at an average of 37 months (range, 12 to 71 months) postoperatively. All 10 patients achieved a solid fusion. The mean time to radiographic fusion was 14.5 weeks (range, 9 to 26 weeks). The operation resulted in plantigrade feet in all patients with an average tibia-floor angle of 2.3 degrees of dorsiflexion and an average of 5 degrees of hindfoot valgus. Patients had excellent pain relief, however function did not improve as much. Complications occurred in three patients. One patient required a small split-thickness skin graft for wound healing, one experienced a transient posterior tibial nerve neuropraxia, and one developed a deep venous thrombosis in the nonoperative leg at six weeks postoperatively. Three patients required removal of the blade plate because of discomfort, which promptly cleared. CONCLUSIONS Arthrodesis provides excellent pain relief for patients with painful arthritic deformities of the ankle and subtalar joints. Using a posterior approach, a blade plate for internal fixation and bone grafts resulted in a solid fusion for all our patients. This method is particularly effective in large patients with a mild-moderate hindfoot deformity.
IS911 transpososome assembly as analysed by tethered particle motion

Initiation of transposition requires formation of a synaptic complex between both transposon ends and the transposase (Tpase), the enzyme which catalyses DNA cleavage and strand transfer and which ensures transposon mobility. We have used a single-molecule approach, tethered particle motion (TPM), to observe binding of a Tpase derivative, OrfAB[149], amputated for its C-terminal catalytic domain, to DNA molecules carrying one or two IS911 ends. Binding of OrfAB[149] to a single IS911 end provoked a small shortening of the DNA. This is consistent with a DNA bend introduced by protein binding to a single end. This was confirmed using a classic gel retardation assay with circularly permuted DNA substrates. When two ends were present on the tethered DNA in their natural, inverted, configuration, Tpase not only provoked the short reduction in length but also generated species with greatly reduce effective length consistent with DNA looping between the ends. Once formed, this ‘looped’ species was very stable. Kinetic analysis in real-time suggested that passage from the bound unlooped to the looped state could involve another species of intermediate length in which both transposon ends are bound. DNA carrying directly repeated ends also gave rise to the looped species but the level of the intermediate species was significantly enhanced. Its accumulation could reflect a less favourable synapse formation from this configuration than for the inverted ends. This is compatible with a model in which Tpase binds separately to and bends each end (the intermediate species) and protein–protein interactions then lead to synapsis (the looped species).
The Logical Space of Democracy

Can we design a perfect democratic decision procedure? Condorcet famously observed that majority rule, our paradigmatic democratic procedure, has some desirable properties, but sometimes produces inconsistent outcomes. Revisiting Condorcet’s insights in light of recent work on the aggregation of judgments, I show that there is a conflict between three initially plausible requirements of democracy: “robustness to pluralism,” “basic majoritarianism,” and “collective rationality. ” For all but the simplest collective decision problems, no decision procedure meets these three requirements at once; at most two can be met together. This “democratic trilemma” raises the question of which requirement to give up. Since different answers correspond to different views about what matters most in a democracy, the trilemma suggests a map of the “logical space” in which different conceptions of democracy are located. It also sharpens our thinking about other impossibility problems of social choice and how to avoid them, by capturing a core structure many of these problems have in common. More broadly, it raises the idea of “cartography of logical space” in relation to contested political concepts.
When Do People Initiate a Negotiation? The Role of Discrepancy, Satisfaction and Implicit Negotiation Beliefs

Most studies on the topic of negotiation examine negotiation processes, strategies and results without considering the initiation of negotiation. But isn't it important for a deeper understanding of the negotiation process to know what makes people initiate a negotiation (or not) in the first place? Building on a Theory of Complaining (Kowalski, 1996), we argue that a perceived negative discrepancy between a current state and an individual’s standard leads to the perception of dissatisfaction which in turn leads to a motivation to reduce the discrepancy in the form of initiating a negotiation on the topic. We furthermore propose that in situations with no perceived discrepancy, the intention to initiate a negotiation is influenced by one's implicit negotiation beliefs (Kray & Haselhuhn, 2007) and that this influence is moderated by subjective negotiation ability. Using an online survey, N = 272 student participants at the LMU Munich worked on a scenario experiment. Results show that negative discrepancy increases the intention to initiate a negotiation and that this effect is mediated by satisfaction. In situations with no perceived discrepancy, incremental implicit negotiation beliefs increase the tendency to initiate a negotiation in low ability persons. Our study contains first evidence for the applicability of the Theory of Complaining (Kowalski, 1996) to the initiation of negotiation and provides important insights in the origin of initiating negotiation behavior, taking also into account individual differences in perceived negotiation ability and implicit negotiation beliefs.
The isoperimetric constant of the random graph process

The isoperimetric constant of a graph G on n vertices, i(G), is the minimum of $|\partial S| \over |S|$, taken over all nonempty subsets S ⊂ V (G) of size at most n/2, where ∂S denotes the set of edges with precisely one end in S. A random graph process on n vertices, $\tilde{G}(t)$, is a sequence of $n \choose 2$ graphs, where $\tilde{G}(0)$ is the edgeless graph on n vertices, and $\tilde{G}(t)$ is the result of adding an edge to $\tilde{G}(t-1)$, uniformly distributed over all the missing edges. The authors show that in almost every graph process $i(\tilde{G}(t))$ equals the minimal degree of $\tilde{G}(t)$ as long as the minimal degree is o(log n). Furthermore, it is shown that this result is essentially best possible, by demonstrating that along the period in which the minimum degree is typically Θ(log n), the ratio between the isoperimetric constant and the minimum degree falls from 1 to $1\over 2$, its final value. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. , 2008
Integration of sales channels in multichannel retail organizations - Controlling intra-organizational channel conflict

Objectives of the study The expectations of customers have evolved as they increasingly expect a seamless shopping experience while using multiple channels. The ability of retailers to respond to these expectations and remain competitive is perceived to largely depend on their ability to integrate their existing physical and online channels. The integration of the sales channels, however, poses significant challenges. Especially the arising channel conflict within an organization has been perceived to be one of the major barriers to successful integration. The aim of this study is to investigate the intra-organizational channel conflict phenomenon by evaluating which influential underlying factors can be identified to be triggering channel conflict within organizations, as well as by identifying strategies that managers can use to control channel conflict and promote cooperation. Academic background and methodology The research was conducted among managers of retailing companies and industry consultants with extensive experience in working with multichannel retail organizations. In order to capture in-depth understanding on the perceptions and mindsets of the experts, the research followed a qualitative approach. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews. The data was examined and interpreted using a research model that was built based on an extensive review on the findings of earlier research in the field. Findings and conclusions The study identified nine sources of intra-organizational channel conflict that are of certain importance when integrating the physical store and online channels, and it indicated that these sources of conflict are closely interconnected. The study also identified that the strength of the conflict experienced, is strongly connected to organizational characteristics and strategy, the business model as well as maturity stage of the integration. The results further indicated that there exists three fundamental management interventions that can be utilized to control the arising conflict, but channel conflict is bound to exist at some level or some form in all multichannel organizations.
Characterization of submicron aerosol chemical composition and sources in the coastal area of Central Chile Saarikoski , S . 2019-0215

Chemical characteristics and the sources of submicron particles (< 1 μm in diameter) were investigated in Valle Alegre, the coastal area of Central Chile. The chemical composition of particles was studied by using a Soot particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometer and Multi-Angle Absorption Photometer. Submicron particles were dominated by organics (42% of mass) and sulfate (39% of mass) while the mass fractions of ammonium, nitrate and black carbon were much smaller (13, 2 and 4% of mass, respectively). Additionally, several metals (V, Zn, Fe, Cd, Cu, K, Na and Mg) were detected in submicron particles and also some of their inorganic salts (e.g. NaCl, MgCl2, CaCl2, KCl and KNO3). The sources of particles were examined by using Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF). Organic aerosol (OA) was divided into five factors by using PMF; hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA), biomass burning OA (BBOA), low-volatility oxygenated OA (LV-OOA), semi-volatile OA (SV-OOA) and marine oxygenated OOA (MOOA). Oxygenated factors (LV-OOA; SV-OOA and MOOA) comprised 75% of total OA with LV-OOA being the dominant factor (38% of OA). Sulfate had two major sources in Valle Alegre; ∼70% of sulfate was related to anthropogenic sources through the oxidation of gas phase SO2 whereas ∼24% of sulfate was associated with biogenic origin related to the oxidation of dimethyl sulfide in the marine environment. Regarding total submicron particle mass (campaign-average 9.5 μgm), the contribution of anthropogenic sources was at least as large as that of biogenic origin.
Which Spoken Language Markers Identify Deception in High-Stakes Settings? Evidence From Earnings Conference Calls

Quarterly conference calls where corporate executives discuss earnings that are later found to be misreported offer an excellent test bed for determining if automated linguistic and vocalic analysis tools can identify potentially fraudulent utterances in prepared versus unscripted remarks. Earnings conference calls from one company that restated their financial reports and were accused of making misleading statements were annotated as restatement-relevant (or not) and as prepared (presentation) or unprepared (Q&A) responses. We submitted more than 1,000 utterances to automated analysis to identify distinct linguistic and vocalic features that characterize various types of utterances. Restatement-related utterances differed significantly on many vocal and linguistic dimensions. These results support the value of language and vocal features in identifying potentially fraudulent utterances and suggest important interplay between utterances that are unscripted responses rather than rehearsed statements.
Unraveling the Lipolytic Activity of Thermophilic Bacteria Isolated from a Volcanic Environment

In a bioprospecting effort towards novel thermostable lipases, we assessed the lipolytic profile of 101 bacterial strains isolated from the volcanic area of Santorini, Aegean Sea, Greece. Screening of lipase activity was performed both in agar plates and liquid cultures using olive oil as carbon source. Significant differences were observed between the two screening methods with no clear correlation between them. While the percentage of lipase producing strains identified in agar plates was only 17%, lipolytic activity in liquid culture supernatants was detected for 74% of them. Nine strains exhibiting elevated extracellular lipase activities were selected for lipase production and biochemical characterization. The majority of lipase producers revealed high phylogenetic similarity with Geobacillus species and related genera, whilst one of them was identified as Aneurinibacillus sp. Lipase biosynthesis strongly depended on the carbon source that supplemented the culture medium. Olive oil induced lipase production in all strains, but maximum enzyme yields for some of the strains were also obtained with Tween-80, mineral oil, and glycerol. Partially purified lipases revealed optimal activity at 70–80°C and pH 8-9. Extensive thermal stability studies revealed marked thermostability for the majority of the lipases as well as a two-step thermal deactivation pattern.
An Emotion-Enriched Context Influences the Effect of Action Observation on Cortical Excitability

Observing other people in action activates the “mirror neuron system” that serves for action comprehension and prediction. Recent evidence suggests that this function requires a high level codification triggered not only by components of motor behavior, but also by the environment where the action is embedded. An overlooked component of action perceiving is the one related to the emotional information provided by the context where the observed action takes place. Indeed, whether valence and arousal associated to an emotion might exert an influence on motor system activation during action observation has not been assessed so far. Here, cortico-spinal excitability of the left motor cortex was recorded in three groups of subjects. In the first condition, motor-evoked potential (MEPs) were recorded from a muscle involved in the grasping movement (i.e., abductor pollicis brevis, APB) while participants were watching the same reach-to-grasp movement embedded in contexts with negative emotional valence, but different levels of arousal: sadness (low arousal), and disgust (high arousal) (“Context plus Movement-APB” condition). In the second condition, MEPs were recorded from APB muscle while participants were observing static images representing the contexts in which the movement observed by participants in “Context plus Movement-APB” condition took place (“Context Only-APB” condition). Finally, in the third condition, MEPS were recorded from a muscle not involved in the grasping action, i.e., abductor digiti minimi, ADM, while participants were watching the same videos shown during the “Context plus Movement-APB” condition (“Context plus Movement-ADM” condition). Results showed a greater increase of cortical excitability only during the observation of the hand moving in the context eliciting disgust, and these changes were specific for the muscle involved in the observed action. Our findings show that the emotional context in which a movement occurs modulates motor resonance and that the combination of negative valence/high arousal drives the greater response in the observer’s mirror neuron system in a strictly muscle specific fashion.
Elevated expression of hTERT is associated with dysplastic cell transformation during human oral carcinogenesis in situ.

PURPOSE Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein complex composed of the catalytic protein subunit (human telomerase reverse transcriptase or hTERT) and the RNA template. This enzyme activity is a necessary and rate-limiting step of cellular immortalization and could provide a unique marker of aberrant cells, which may selectively be targeted. The current study was undertaken to quantitatively determine the degree of telomerase activation during multistage oral carcinogenesis using paraffin-embedded tissue samples. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN hTERT expression level was quantitatively compared between normal and cancerous oral tissues by real-time reverse-transcription-PCR (RT-PCR). Also, the presence of hTERT transcript in individual cells was surveyed in the biopsy specimens with varying degrees of histopathology by in situ RT-PCR. RESULTS Low level of hTERT amplification was detected by real-time RT-PCR in most (11/13) normal human oral mucosa. hTERT expression was also detected in the majority (11/12) of squamous cell carcinoma tissues, and the level was significantly (P < 0.05) elevated, on the average, by a factor >6.9. By in situ RT-PCR, hTERT expression was not noted in normal epithelium (0/10) nor in mild dysplasia (0/7) but was detected in moderate dysplasia (4/5) and in those tissues with a higher grade of histopathology: severe dysplasia (3/3) and invasive carcinoma (4/4). CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that enhanced expression of telomerase activity occurs early during human oral carcinogenesis and support the critical role of telomerase in the development of human oral cancer.
Long CTG Tracts from the Myotonic Dystrophy Gene Induce Deletions and Rearrangements during Recombination at the APRT Locus in CHO Cells

ABSTRACT Expansion of CTG triplet repeats in the 3′ untranslated region of the DMPK gene causes the autosomal dominant disorder myotonic dystrophy. Instability of CTG repeats is thought to arise from their capacity to form hairpin DNA structures. How these structures interact with various aspects of DNA metabolism has been studied intensely for Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae but is relatively uncharacterized in mammalian cells. To examine the stability of (CTG)17, (CTG)98, and (CTG)183 repeats during homologous recombination, we placed them in the second intron of one copy of a tandemly duplicated pair of APRT genes. Cells selected for homologous recombination between the two copies of the APRT gene displayed distinctive patterns of change. Among recombinants from cells with (CTG)98 and (CTG)183, 5% had lost large numbers of repeats and 10% had suffered rearrangements, a frequency more than 50-fold above normal levels. Analysis of individual rearrangements confirmed the involvement of the CTG repeats. Similar changes were not observed in proliferating (CTG)98 and (CTG)183 cells that were not recombinant at APRT. Instead, they displayed high frequencies of small changes in repeat number. The (CTG)17 repeats were stable in all assays. These studies indicate that homologous recombination strongly destabilizes long tracts of CTG repeats.
Association between Social Integration and Health among Internal Migrants in ZhongShan, China

Internal migrants are the individuals who migrate between regions in one country. The number of internal migrants were estimated at 245 million in China in 2013. Results were inconsistent in the literature about the relationship between their health statuses and social integration. The main difference exists on how to measure the social integration and whether health statuses of internal migrants improve with years of residence. To complement the existing literature, this study measured social integration more comprehensively and estimated the internal migrants’ health statuses with varying years of residence, and explored the associations between the migrants’ social integration and health. We used the data from 2014 Internal Migrant Dynamic Monitoring Survey of Health and Family Planning in ZhongShan, China. Health status was measured from four aspects: self-reported health, subjective well-being, perception of stress, mental health. We measured social integration through four dimensions: economy, social communication, acculturation, and self-identity. The analyses used multiple linear regressions to examine the associations between self-reported health, subjective well-being, and perception of stress, mental health and social integration. The analytical sample included 1,999 households of the internal migrants and 1,997 local registered households, who were permanent residents in ZhongShan. Among the internal migrants, Adults in the labor force, who were aged 25 to 44 years old, accounted for 91.2% of the internal migrant population, while 74.6% of the registered population were in that age group. Median residential time among migrants was 2.8 (1.3–6.2) years, and 20.2% of them were migrating in the same Guangdong province. Except for mental health, other health statuses among migrants had significant differences compared with local registered population, e.g. self-reported health was better, but subjective well-being was worse. However, these health measurements were improved with more years of residence. Moreover, our results show that two aspects of social integration, economic integration and self-identity, were significantly associated with health status. Subjective feeling of relative social status levels were more associated with health, which prompted the attention to social fairness and the creation of a fair and respectful culture. More interventions could be experimented, such as encouraging internal migrants to participate in community activities more actively, educating local registered residents to treat internal migrants more equally, and developing self-identity among internal migrants. Better social, economic, and cultural environment can benefit internal migrants’ health statuses.