Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scott and Others on History in The Southeast Asian Uplands: A Review Essay

James Scott's The Art of Not Being Governed is likely to rival Leach's Political Systems of Highland Burma for the distinction of being the most influential title on history and society in the uplands of Southeast Asia. Scott's sustained emphasis on hostile highland/lowland relations through historical time is questioned. It is suggested that the internal dynamics of upland societies, which have a large ethnographic literature, need also to synthesized in their own right and not only in relation to the lowland states.
A fluorimetric method for the determination of dopamine (3-hydroxytyramine).

Summary. A fluorimetric method for the determination of dopamine is described. The principle is similar to that employed in the tri-hydroxyindole method for estimating adrenaline and noradrenaline. Utilizing differences in fluorescence characteristics at pH about 5.3, microquantities of dopainine can be determined in the presence of at least equal amounts of adrenaline or noradrenaline.
Training strategies for attaining transfer of problem-solving skill in statistics: A cognitive-load approach.

Studied the differential effect on training performance, transfer performance, and cognitive load for 3 computer-based training strategies. The conventional, worked, and completion conditions emphasized, respectively, the solving of conventional problems, the study of worked-out problems, and the completion of partly worked-out problems. The relation between practice-problem type and transfer was expected to be mediated by cognitive load. It was hypothesized that practice with conventional problems would require more time and more effort during training and result in lower and more effort-demanding transfer performance than practice with worked-out or partly worked-out problems. With the exception of time and effort during training, the results supported the hypothesis. The completion strategy and, in particular, the worked strategy proved to be superior to the conventional strategy for attaining transfer.
Evaluation of Injectable Constructs for Bone Repair with a Subperiosteal Cranial Model in the Rat

While testing regenerative medicine strategies, the use of animal models that match the research questions and that are related to clinical translation is crucial. During the initial stage of evaluating new strategies for bone repair, the main goal is to state whether the strategies efficiently induce the formation of new bone tissue at an orthotopic site. Here, we present a subperiosteal model in rat calvaria that allow the evaluation of a broad range of approaches including bone augmentation, replacement and regeneration. The model is a fast to perform, minimally invasive, and has clearly defined control groups. The procedure enables to evaluate the outcomes quantitatively using micro-computed tomography and qualitatively by histology and immunohistochemistry. We established this new model, using bone morphogenetic protein-2 as an osteoinductive factor and hyaluronic acid hydrogel as injectable biomaterial. We showed that this subperiosteal cranial model offers a minimally invasive and promising solution for a rapid initial evaluation of injectables for bone repair. We believe that this approach could be a powerful platform for orthopedic research and regenerative medicine.
Ineffective disability management by doctors is an obstacle for return-to-work: a cohort study on low back pain patients sicklisted for 3–4 months

Aims: To determine obstacles for return-to-work in disability management of low back pain patients sicklisted for 3–4 months. Methods: A cohort of 467 low back pain patients sicklisted for 3–4 months was recruited. A questionnaire was sent to their occupational physicians (OPs) concerning the medical management, obstacles to return-to-work, and the communication with treating physicians. Results: The OPs of 300 of 467 patients participated in this study. In many cases OPs regarded the clinical waiting period (43%), duration of treatment (41%), and view (25%) of the treating physicians as obstacles for return-to-work. Psychosocial obstacles for return-to-work such as mental blocks, a lack of job motivation, personal problems, and conflicts at work were all mentioned much less frequently by OPs. In only 19% of the patients was there communication between OP and treating physician. Communication almost always entailed an exchange of information, and less frequently an attempt to harmonise the management policy. Surprisingly communication was also limited, when OPs felt that the waiting period (32%), duration of treatment (30%), and view (28%) of treating physicians inhibited return-to-work. Communication was significantly associated with the following obstacles for return-to-work: passivity with regard to return-to-work and clinical waiting period; adjusted odds ratios were 3.35 and 2.23, respectively. Conclusions: Medical management of treating physicians is often an obstacle for return to work regarding low back pain patients sicklisted for 3–4 months, in the opinion of OPs. Nevertheless communication between OPs and the treating physicians in disability management of these patients is limited. More attention to prevention of absenteeism and bilateral communication is needed in medical courses.
Ion channels and their functional role in vascular endothelium.

Endothelial cells (EC) form a unique signal-transducing surface in the vascular system. The abundance of ion channels in the plasma membrane of these nonexcitable cells has raised questions about their functional role. This review presents evidence for the involvement of ion channels in endothelial cell functions controlled by intracellular Ca(2+) signals, such as the production and release of many vasoactive factors, e.g., nitric oxide and PGI(2). In addition, ion channels may be involved in the regulation of the traffic of macromolecules by endocytosis, transcytosis, the biosynthetic-secretory pathway, and exocytosis, e.g., tissue factor pathway inhibitor, von Willebrand factor, and tissue plasminogen activator. Ion channels are also involved in controlling intercellular permeability, EC proliferation, and angiogenesis. These functions are supported or triggered via ion channels, which either provide Ca(2+)-entry pathways or stabilize the driving force for Ca(2+) influx through these pathways. These Ca(2+)-entry pathways comprise agonist-activated nonselective Ca(2+)-permeable cation channels, cyclic nucleotide-activated nonselective cation channels, and store-operated Ca(2+) channels or capacitative Ca(2+) entry. At least some of these channels appear to be expressed by genes of the trp family. The driving force for Ca(2+) entry is mainly controlled by large-conductance Ca(2+)-dependent BK(Ca) channels (slo), inwardly rectifying K(+) channels (Kir2.1), and at least two types of Cl( -) channels, i.e., the Ca(2+)-activated Cl(-) channel and the housekeeping, volume-regulated anion channel (VRAC). In addition to their essential function in Ca(2+) signaling, VRAC channels are multifunctional, operate as a transport pathway for amino acids and organic osmolytes, and are possibly involved in endothelial cell proliferation and angiogenesis. Finally, we have also highlighted the role of ion channels as mechanosensors in EC. Plasmalemmal ion channels may signal rapid changes in hemodynamic forces, such as shear stress and biaxial tensile stress, but also changes in cell shape and cell volume to the cytoskeleton and the intracellular machinery for metabolite traffic and gene expression.
Effects of age on prognosis with imatinib mesylate therapy for patients with Philadelphia chromosome‐positive chronic myelogenous leukemia

Older age is a consistent poor prognostic factor in patients with Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)‐positive chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Whether this is related to an intrinsic worse disease biology or to inadequate drug delivery or excessive treatment‐associated toxicity is unknown. The availability of imatinib mesylate, a selective, Bcr‐Abl‐targeted therapy that is administered orally with minimal side effects, may clarify whether older age would remain an adverse factor (thus, implying a different age‐related CML biology).
Obstetrical suboptimality in autistic children.

Abstract Using an optimality scale, the pre-, peri-, and neonatal histories of autistic children were compared with those of their siblings, children matched for nonverbal intelligence, and normal controls. Reduced total optimality differentiated the autistic children from all control groups, as did suboptimal prenatal scores. Neonatal optimality of the autistic group was reduced relative to their siblings and normal children but not relative to IQ-matched controls. The findings are accounted for by a subgroup of the cases, consistent with the view that autism is not the product of a single etiology. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry , 1988, 27, 4:418–422.
Medicinal Chemistry of the Anti-Diabetic Effects of Momordica Charantia: Active Constituents and Modes of Actions

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the oldest known human disease currently affecting more than 200 million people worldwide. Diabetes mellitus is derived from two Greek words meaning siphon and sugar. In DM, patients have high blood level of glucose and this passes out with urine. This is because the endocrine pancreas does not produce either or not enough insulin or the insulin which is produced is not exerting its biochemical effect (or insulin resistance) effectively. Insulin is a major metabolic hormone which has numerous functions in the body and one main role is to stimulate glucose uptake into body’s cells where it is utilized to provide energy. The disease is classified into type 1 and type 2 DM. Type 1 DM develops when the insulin producing β cells have been destroyed and are unable to produce insulin. This is very common in children and is treated with insulin. Type 2 DM (T2DM) develops when the body is unable to produce an adequate amount of insulin or the insulin which is provided does not work efficiently. This is due to life style habits including unhealthy diet, obesity, lack of exercise and hereditary and environmental factors. Some symptoms of DM include excess urination, constant thirst, lethargy, weight loss, itching, decreased digestive enzyme secretion, slow wound healing and other related symptoms. If left untreated, DM can result in severe long-term complications such as kidney and heart failure, stroke, blindness, nerve damage, exocrine glands insufficiency and other forms of complications. T2DM can be treated and controlled by prescribed drugs, regular exercise, diet (including some plant-based food) and general change in life style habits. This review is concerned with the role of plant-based medicine to treat DM. One such plant is Momordica charantia which is grown in tropical countries worldwide and it has been used as a traditional herbal medicine for thousands of years although its origin in unknown. This review examines the medicinal chemistry and use(s) of M. charantia and its various extracts and compounds, their biochemical properties and how they act as anti-diabetic (hypoglycemic) drugs and the various mechanisms by which they exert their beneficial effects in controlling and treating DM.
Max-plus convexity in Riesz spaces

We study max-plus convexity in an Archimedean Riesz space $E$ with an order unit $\un$; the definition of max-plus convex sets is algebraic and we do not assume that $E$ has an {\it a priori} given topological structure. To the given unit $\un$ one can associate two equivalent norms $\norm\cdot\norm_{\un}$ and $\norm\cdot\norm_{\hun}$ on $E$; the distance ${\sf D}_{\hun}$ on $E$ associated to $\norm\cdot\norm_{\hun}$ is a geodesic distance for which max-plus convex sets in $E$ are geodesically closed sets. Under suitable assumptions, we establish max-plus versions of some fixed points and continuous selection theorems that are well known for linear convex sets and we show that hyperspaces of compact max-plus convex sets are Absolute Retracts.
Stochastic analysis on configuration spaces: basic ideas and recent results

The purpose of this paper is to provide a both comprehensive and summarizing account on recent results about analysis and geometry on configuration spaces ΓX over Riemannian manifolds X. Particular emphasis is given to a complete description of the so–called “lifting– procedure”, Markov resp. strong resp. L1–uniqueness results, the non–conservative case, the interpretation of the constructed diffusions as solutions of the respective classical “heuristic” stochastic differential equations, and a self–contained presentation of a general closability result for the corresponding pre–Dirichlet forms. The latter is presented in the general case of arbitrary (not necessarily pair) potentials describing the singular interactions. A support property for the diffusions, the intrinsic metric, and a Rademacher theorem on ΓX , recently proved, are also discussed. AMS Subject Classification Primary: 60G60, 82C22 Secondary: 31C25, 82C31, 60H07, 60J60, 53B99, 82C21
A mathematical model for fluid-glucose-albumin transport in peritoneal dialysis

Abstract A mathematical model for fluid and solute transport in peritoneal dialysis is constructed. The model is based on a threecomponent nonlinear system of two-dimensional partial differential equations for fluid, glucose and albumin transport with the relevant boundary and initial conditions. Our aim is to model ultrafiltration of water combined with inflow of glucose to the tissue and removal of albumin from the body during dialysis, by finding the spatial distributions of glucose and albumin concentrations as well as hydrostatic pressure. The model is developed in one spatial dimension approximation, and a governing equation for each of the variables is derived from physical principles. Under some assumptions the model can be simplified to obtain exact formulae for spatially non-uniform steady-state solutions. As a result, the exact formulae for fluid fluxes from blood to the tissue and across the tissue are constructed, together with two linear autonomous ODEs for glucose and albumin concentrations in the tissue. The obtained analytical results are checked for their applicability for the description of fluid-glucose-albumin transport during peritoneal dialysis.
LIDAR and Stereo-Camera fusion for reliable Road Extraction

This paper presents a novel approach that combines LIDAR and Stereo-cameras. First, a stereo camera is used to guide the extraction of road surface points from a 3D point cloud obtained by a LIDAR. Then, the number of points is reduced based on their elevation and illumination invariant colors. Finally, a post-processing is applied to have a projection in an image to obtain the final segmentation of the road. The method has been tested on three types of roads as defined in the KITTI benchmark. The obtained experimental results prove the effectiveness of our approach and its robustness in accuracy compared to existing approaches in the literature.
Complementarity , Relation-Specific Investment , and Opportunism : Explaining Asymmetric Governance Modes in Huband-Spoke Networks within the Enterprise Application Software Industry

In the enterprise application software industry, dominant system vendors (hubs) have formed strategic partnerships with small software companies (spokes), resulting in the emergence of hub-and-spoke networks. Based upon the concept of software stacks, we argue that the governance mechanisms applied by hub and spokes depend on the complementarity between hub's and spoke's resources. Specifically, we draw on the relational view and combine it with the resource dependence theory to develop a theoretical framework that explains the link between the type of complementarity and differential governance mechanisms. We are able to show that while hubs seek to take advantage of complementarities with the entire network of partners, spokes are primarily interested in gaining access to complementary resources and capabilities of the hub organization. In order to leverage the benefits of resource complementarity, hubs mainly invest in network-specific resources to generate value. On the contrary, the spokes' investments are hub-specific. Accordingly, hubs only face minor threats of opportunistic behavior on the part of a specific spoke, whereas the spokes' existence is endangered by the threat of opportunistic behavior by the hub. Due to these three asymmetries, hubs apply formal governance mechanisms in order to efficiently coordinate the network of spokes, whereas spokes rely on informal governance mechanisms.
Identification of the vascular endothelial growth factor signalling pathway by quantitative proteomic analysis of rat condylar cartilage

Angiogenesis mediated by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is known to play an important role in regulating cartilage remodelling and endochondral ossification. However, the details of how VEGF signalling mechanisms affect condyle remodelling in response to alterations in functional loading remains unclear. To explore this, eighty 16‐day‐old male SD rats were divided into two equal groups which were fed either a soft/powdery diet or a hard diet for 4 weeks; the stiffness of the diet results in alteration of mastication force and hence temporomandibular joint (TMJ) development. We performed a proteomic analysis of rat condylar cartilage using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) labelling, followed by 2D nano‐high performance liquid chromatography and MALDI‐TOF/time‐of‐flight technology. After protein identification, we used biological information analysis to identify the differentially expressed proteins associated with the VEGF signalling pathway. Among the identified differentially expressed proteins, we found VEGF signalling mainly via the p44/42 MAPK and p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways in condylar cartilage, including VEGFD, VGFR2, KPCB, KPCT, KPCZ, ARAF, RASN, PLCG2, PLCG1, JUN and M3K12. Furthermore, four representative protein candidates, VEGF, p38 MAPK and p44/42 MAPK/phospho‐p44/42 MAPK, were confirmed by immunohistochemical staining and western blot. Our data suggest that VEGF might play an important role in TMJ development and remodelling in response to alterations in functional loading through the p44/42 MAPK and p38 MAPK signalling pathway. This study provides new clues to the understanding of the signalling mechanism responsible for VEGF production in response to different masticatory functions at the protein level.
Neonatal Meningitis: What Is the Correlation Among Cerebrospinal Fluid Cultures, Blood Cultures, and Cerebrospinal Fluid Parameters?

BACKGROUND. Meningitis is a substantial cause of morbidity and mortality in neonates. Clinicians frequently use the presence of positive blood cultures to determine whether neonates should undergo lumbar puncture. Abnormal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) parameters are often used to predict neonatal meningitis and determine length and type of antibiotic therapy in neonates with a positive blood culture and negative CSF culture. METHODS. We evaluated the first lumbar puncture of 9111 neonates at ≥34 weeks' estimated gestational age from 150 NICUs, managed by the Pediatrix Medical Group, Inc. CSF culture results were compared with results of blood cultures and CSF parameters (white blood cells [WBCs], glucose, and protein) to establish the concordance of these values in culture-proven meningitis. CSF cultures positive for coagulase-negative staphylococci and other probable contaminants, as well as fungal and viral pathogens, were excluded from analyses. RESULTS. Meningitis was confirmed by culture in 95 (1.0%) neonates. Of the 95 patients with meningitis, 92 had a documented blood culture. Only 57 (62%) of 92 patients had a concomitant-positive blood culture; 35 (38%) of 92 had a negative blood culture. In neonates with both positive blood and CSF cultures, the organisms isolated were discordant in 2 (3.5%) of 57 cases. In each case, the CSF pathogen required different antimicrobial therapy than the blood pathogen. For culture-proven meningitis, CSF WBC counts of >0 cells per mm3 had sensitivity at 97% and specificity at 11%. CSF WBC counts of >21 cells per mm3 had sensitivity at 79% and specificity at 81%. Culture-proven meningitis was not diagnosed accurately by CSF glucose or by protein. CONCLUSIONS. Neonatal meningitis frequently occurs in the absence of bacteremia and in the presence of normal CSF parameters. No single CSF value can reliably exclude the presence of meningitis in neonates. The CSF culture is critical to establishing the diagnosis of neonatal meningitis.
Transformational leadership, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction: A comparative study of Kenyan and U.S. financial firms

This study explores the nature of the relationship between transformational leadership and two work-related attitudes, organizational commitment and job satisfaction, by comparing Kenya and the United States. The results show that transformational leadership has a strong and positive effect on organizational commitment and job satisfaction in both cultures. Simultaneous factor analyses in several populations (SIFASP), using AMOS maximum likelihood procedure, provides evidence of conceptual and measurement equivalence for all three measures (transformational leadership, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction) employed in this study.
The Prevalence of Vitamin A Deficiency in Chinese Children: A Systematic Review and Bayesian Meta-Analysis

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD), a leading cause of preventable childhood blindness, has been recognized as an important public health problem in many developing countries. In this study, we conducted a systematic review to identify all population-based studies of VAD and marginal VAD (MVAD) in Chinese children published from 1990 onwards. Hierarchical Bayesian meta-regressions were performed to examine the effects of age, sex, setting and year on the prevalence of VAD and MVAD, separately. The estimated prevalence was applied to the Chinese pediatric population in the year 2015 to generate prevalence estimates of VAD and MVAD for defined age groups, with 95% credible intervals (CrIs). Fifty-four studies met the inclusion criteria. The prevalence of VAD and MVAD both decreased with increasing age, and rural children had a higher prevalence of VAD and MVAD than urban children. In 2015, the prevalence of VAD was 5.16% (95% CrI: 1.95–12.64) and that of MVAD was 24.29% (95% CrI: 12.69–41.27) in Chinese children aged 12 years and under. VAD remains a public health problem in China. Efforts to reduce VAD in younger children are needed, especially for those in rural areas.
Confidence, social and special treatment benefits as predictors of relationship strength in recreation settings

Abstract This research uses the relational benefits framework to investigate the relative utility of confidence (i.e., trust, consistency of service), social (i.e., friendships, personal recognition), and special treatment (i.e., priority service, price breaks) benefits in predicting recreation participants’ self‐reported relationship strength with service providers in the public, not‐for‐profit, and private sectors. Fitness class participants (N=255) completed a questionnaire asking about the extent to which they received each type of benefit in their interactions with the organization. The three relational benefits were found to explain significant variance in relationship strength scores above and beyond behavioural variables such as length or frequency of participation. Only social and confidence benefits were significant predictors of relationship strength, with social benefits being approximately twice as important across the entire sample and the only type of benefit that was significant in all three sectors of service delivery. These findings have implications for future research on client loyalty in recreation settings and for fostering strong bonds with leisure program participants.