Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sagittal Plane Deformity in Bicondylar Tibial Plateau Fractures

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence and magnitude of sagittal plane deformity in bicondylar tibial plateau fractures. Design: Retrospective radiographic review. Setting: Two Level I trauma centers. Main Outcome Measurement: Sagittal inclination of the medial and lateral plateau measured in relation to the longitudinal axis of the tibia using computed tomographic reconstruction images. Patients: Seventy-four patients (mean age, 49 years; range, 16-82 years; 64% male) with acute bicondylar tibial plateau fractures (Orthopaedic Trauma Association 41C, Schatzker VI) treated from October 2006 to July 2009. Results: The average sagittal plane angulation of the lateral plateau was 9.8° posteriorly (range, 17° anteriorly to 37° posteriorly). The medial plateau was angulated 4.1° posteriorly on average (range, 16° anteriorly to 31° posteriorly). Forty-two lateral plateaus were angulated more than 5° from the “normal” anatomic slope (defined as 5° of posterior tibial slope). Of these, 76% were angulated posteriorly. Forty-three (58%) of the medial plateaus were angulated greater than 5° from normal, of which only 47% were inclined posteriorly (P = 0.019 compared with lateral plateaus). In 68% of patients, the difference between medial and lateral plateaus was greater than 5°; the average intercondylar slope difference was 9° (range, 0°-31°; P < 0.001). Spanning external fixation did not affect the slope of either the medial or lateral tibial plateau. Intraobserver and interobserver correlations were high for both the medial and lateral plateaus (r2 > 0.81, P < 0.01). Conclusions: Considerable sagittal plane deformity exists in the majority of bicondylar tibial plateau fractures. The lateral plateau has a higher propensity for sagittal angulation and tends to have increased posterior slope. Most patients have a substantial difference between the lateral and medial plateau slopes. The identification of this deformity allows for accurate preoperative planning and specific reduction maneuvers to restore anatomic alignment.
Trust in information sources as a source for trust: a fuzzy approach

The aim of this paper is to show how relevant is a trust model based on beliefs and their credibility.The approaches to the study of trust are various and very different from each of other. In our view, just a socio-cognitive approach to trust would be able to analyse the sub-components on which the final decision to trust or not is taken. In this paper we show an implementation of our socio-cognitive model of trust developed using the so-called Fuzzy Cognitive Maps. The model allows to distinguish between internal and external attributions and it introduced a degree of trust derived from the credibility of the trust beliefs, while the credibility of the beliefs derives from their sources and the sources' number, convergence, reliability (i.e. trust). With this implementation we show how the different components may change and how their impact can change depending on the specific situation and from the agent heuristics or personality. In particular, we analyse the different nature of the belief sources and their trustworthiness. We assumed different types of belief sources. For each trustier's belief one should consider what the content of the belief is, who/what the source is, how this source evaluates the belief, how the trustier evaluates this source (with respect to this belief). In addition for considering the contribution of different sources we need a theory of how they combine. The interesting thing in this paper is that starting from finding the sources of trust we are obliged to consider the trustworthiness of these sources.
Preferential utilization of specific immunoglobulin heavy chain diversity and joining segments in adult human peripheral blood B lymphocytes

We have examined at the molecular level the CDR3 and adjacent regions in peripheral blood B lymphocytes of normal individuals. A total of 111 sequences (12-28 sequences from six individuals) were obtained after cloning of the polymerase chain reaction-amplified segments into plasmids or phage. The average length of the VDJ joining was 109 nucleotides, with a range from 79 to 151. Approximately 75% of the sequences were in frame when translated into amino acids. Among the JH segments, JH4 was found most frequently (in 52.5% of the sequences), and JH1 and JH2 segments the least frequently (approximately 1% of the clones). A polymorphic JH6 gene with a one-codon deletion accompanied by a base change was present in two of six patients. Preferential breakpoints were found for JH2, JH3, JH4, and JH5, although the breakpoints of JH6 were distributed more heterogenously. In approximately 90% of the cases, significant homology of the D regions with published D sequences was found. Preferential usage of a particular coding frame was observed in in-frame sequences utilizing DA, D21/9, and DM1 segments. However, in general, all coding frames of germline D genes were used to generate CDR3s. Eight sequences that have a DN1-like D sequence with two base changes at the same positions were identified, suggesting the likely existence of a new germ line D gene belonging to the DN families. Using probes specific for a particular CDR3, the frequency of a specific B cell clone in the peripheral blood of normal individuals was estimated to be at most as high as 1/20,000.
Prediction Error of the Multivariate Additive Loss Reserving Method for Dependent Lines of Business

Often in non-life insurance, claims reserves are the largest position on the liability side of the balance sheet. Therefore, the prediction of adequate claims reserves for a portfolio consisting of several run-off subportfolios from dependent lines of business is of big importance for every non-life insurance company. In the present paper we consider the claims reserving problem in a multivariate context, that is, we study the multivariate additive loss reserving method proposed by Hess-Schmidt-Zocher [7] and Schmidt [18]. This model allows for a simultaneous study of the individual runoff subportfolios and enables the derivation of an estimator for the conditional mean square error of prediction (MSEP) for the predictor of the ultimate claims of the total portfolio. We illustrate the results using the data from Braun [2] and show that the multivariate additive loss reserving method leads for this data set to much better results than the multivariate Chain-ladder method considered by Braun [2] and Merz-Wüthrich [14, 15].
Mass spectrometric and charge density studies of organometallic clusters photoionized by gigawatt laser pulses.

Clusters on exposure to nanosecond laser pulses of gigawatt intensity exhibit a variety of photo-chemical processes such as fragmentation, intracluster reaction, ionization, Coulomb explosion, etc. Present article summarizes the experimental results obtained in our laboratory utilizing time-of-flight mass spectrometer which deal with one such aspect of cluster photochemistry related to generation of multiply charged atomic ions upon excessive ionization of cluster constituents (Coulomb explosion) at low intensity laser field (∼109 W/cm2 ). To understand the mechanism of laser-cluster interaction, laser as well as cluster parameters were varied. Mass spectrometric studies were carried out at different laser wavelength as well as varying the nature of cluster constituents, backup pressure, nozzle diameter, etc. In addition, charge density measurements were also preformed to get information about the total number of ions generated upon laser-cluster interaction as a function of laser wavelength. In case of pure molecular clusters, the charge state of atomic ions as well as charge density was observed to enhance with increasing laser wavelength, signifying efficient coupling of the cluster medium with nanosecond laser pulse at longer wavelength. While in case of clusters doped with species having comparatively lower ionization energy, the efficiency of laser-cluster interaction was less, in contrast to studies carried out using femtosecond lasers. Results obtained in the present work have been rationalized on the basis of proposed three-stage cluster ionization mechanism, that is, multiphoton ionization ignited-inverse Bremsstrahlung heating and electron ionization. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Mass Spec Rev. 36:188-212, 2017.
Potentials of Mouthwashes in Disinfecting Cariogenic Bacteria and Biofilms Leading to Inhibition of Caries

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the effects of certain commercially available mouthwashes on cariogenic bacteria and biofilms, following the acquisition of inhibition potentials of caries. Materials and Methods: Mouthwashes containing I) chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG; 0.0005% w/v), II) benzethonium chloride (BTC; 0.01% w/v), III) an essential oil (Listerine), and IV) povidone-iodine (PVP-I; 0.035% w/v) were tested on planktonic cariogenic bacteria, biofilms, and an ex vivo caries model. Bacterial aliquots were inoculated with each solution separately and vortexed for 10 seconds at room temperature. Bacterial viability was subsequently investigated by fluorescence microscopy (FM) after staining with a BacLight viability kit and the number of colony-forming units (CFUs) was counted. Similarly, mouthwash solutions were applied to artificial cariogenic biofilms, and bacterial viability of the biofilms was investigated as stated above. Inhibition potentials of two selected mouthwashes of carious lesions were investigated using biofilm-induced caries and a secondary caries model. In all steps, a phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solution was included as a control. Results: Planktonic cariogenic bacteria and bacteria embedded in biofilms were killed in remarkably large numbers with Listerine and PVP-I treatment compared to PBS and other gargles. CFU counts also showed significant reduction after treatment with Listerine and PVP-I compared to other solutions (P<0.05). Listerine also displayed significant (P<0.05) inhibition effects in preventing the progression of demineralization. Conclusion: Bactericidal potencies of the mouthwashes varied significantly, suggesting that mouthwashes like Listerine can be useful for the prevention of caries and secondary caries.
Toward Synthesis of Relationships among Leaf Longevity, Instantaneous Photosynthetic Rate, Lifetime Leaf Carbon Gain, and the Gross Primary Production of Forests

The assimilation of carbon by plant communities (gross primary production [GPP]) is a central concern in plant ecology as well as for our understanding of global climate change. As an alternative to traditional methods involving destructive harvests or time‐consuming measurements, we present a simple, general model for GPP as the product of the lifetime carbon gain by a single leaf, the daily leaf production rate, and the length of the favorable period for photosynthesis. To test the model, we estimated leaf lifetime carbon gain for 26 species using the concept of mean labor time for leaves (the part of each day the leaf functions to full capacity), average potential photosynthetic capacity over the leaf lifetime, and functional leaf longevity (leaf longevity discounted for periods within a year wholly unfavorable for photosynthesis). We found that the lifetime carbon gain of leaves was rather constant across species. Moreover, when foliar biomass was regressed against functional leaf longevity, aseasonal and seasonal forests fell on a single line, suggesting that the leaf production rate during favorable periods is not substantially different among forests in the world. The gross production of forest ecosystems then can be predicted to a first approximation simply by the annual duration of the period favorable for photosynthetic activity in any given region.
Incremental fault diagnosis

Fault diagnosis is important in improving the circuit-design process and the manufacturing yield. Diagnosis of today's complex defects is a challenging problem due to the explosion of the underlying solution space with the increasing number of fault locations and fault models. To tackle this complexity, an incremental diagnosis method is proposed. This method captures faulty lines one at a time using the novel linear-time single-fault diagnosis algorithms. To capture complex fault effects, a model-free incremental diagnosis algorithm is outlined, which alleviates the need for an explicit fault model. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method, experiments on multiple stuck-at faults, open-interconnects and bridging faults are performed. Extensive results on combinational and full-scan sequential benchmark circuits confirm its resolution and performance.
Adoption Patterns for the Digital Post System by Danish municipalities and Citizens

The value of e-government, services to citizens by public institutions through the internet, is dependent on the mutual adoption of e-government by both the public institution and the citizens. This paper describes a longitudinal study of e-government adoption by municipalities and citizens in Denmark. We studied the e-government initiative Digital Post – encrypted digital communication between municipalities and citizens. Over the three-year adoption period, we found four adoption patterns among municipalities, characterized by a slow, late, gradual or early increase in the use of Digital Post. The adoption patterns among citizens were less distinct. We calculated the realized savings to only 20% of the anticipated savings, leading to a deficit of nearly €5 million in 2013. Municipal funding was reduced according to the anticipated savings. In addition, the variation in adoption by municipal staff explained much more of the variation in the deficit than the variation in adoption by citizens did. We wish to draw attention to the overly optimistic expectations of savings from egovernment and to a need for further research into the governmental processes of e-government.
Late 20th century attribution of drying trends in the Sahel from the Regional Climate Model (RegCM3)

The RegCM3 has been integrated for the period of 1960–2002 using initial and lateral boundary conditions from the NCEP re‐analyses at 6‐hour intervals. Greenhouse gas concentrations remain fixed and the land‐use/soil properties are not altered. The RegCM3 accurately portrays a trend from wetter conditions in the 1960s to very dry conditions in the 1980s. The dry 1980s temperatures in the Sahel are approximately 3°K warmer than the wet 1960s, caused by a reduction in precipitation and clouds leading to an increase in the net absorbed solar radiation at the surface. This anomalous warming maintains the steepest meridional temperature gradient and therefore the African Easterly Jet in lower latitudes. The initiation of dry conditions starts in June and persists through July and August in the model simulations. The initiation of dry conditions appears to be related to a weaker Tropical Easterly Jet which may be linked to warmer Indian Ocean temperatures over the past several decades.
Partial Permutation Decoding for Abelian Codes

In our earlier work, we introduced a technique to construct an information set for every semisimple Abelian code over an arbitrary field, solely in terms of its defining set. In this paper, we apply the geometrical properties of those information sets to obtain sufficient conditions for a -error correcting Abelian code to have a b-PD-set for every b ≤ t. These conditions are simply given in terms of the structure of the defining set of the code.
Hierarchical clustering and filtering in half-inverse space for MEG and/or EEG hypothesis-free analysis

We propose hierarchical clustering and filtering methods for the analysis of spatio-temporal multidimensional time series, where both methods are based on a new pseudo distance. The pseudo distance is determined between orthogonal matrices, which are derived by eigenvalue decomposition of the variance-covariance matrix of the time series. Because the grouping algorithm is also important in clustering, a modified Ward method grouping criterion is used here. The filtering derives temporal similarity information between two time series, providing information that cannot be evaluated by the clustering. If the time series to be clustered and filtered cannot be obtained directly, different time series reflecting the original time series are used instead. There exists a transform between the time series, and hence, scaling distortion occurs. We also propose a scaling normalization method. As an application example, we present an analysis of a multichannel magnetoencephalography (MEG) and/or electroencephalography (EEG) time series. Each of the MEG and EEG generations is a transform from the same electrophysiological brain activity. We applied these methods to sound localization-related MEG time series and evaluated their effectiveness. These methods may be useful for discovering similarity among many multidimensional time series without a priori information and/or hypotheses.
Statistical region merging

This paper explores a statistical basis for a process often described in computer vision: image segmentation by region merging following a particular order in the choice of regions. We exhibit a particular blend of algorithmics and statistics whose segmentation error is, as we show, limited from both the qualitative and quantitative standpoints. This approach can be efficiently approximated in linear time/space, leading to a fast segmentation algorithm tailored to processing images described using most common numerical pixel attribute spaces. The conceptual simplicity of the approach makes it simple to modify and cope with hard noise corruption, handle occlusion, authorize the control of the segmentation scale, and process unconventional data such as spherical images. Experiments on gray-level and color images, obtained with a short readily available C-code, display the quality of the segmentations obtained.
Interaction of the Main Components from the Traditional Chinese Drug Pair Chaihu-Shaoyao Based on Rat Intestinal Absorption

The Chaihu-Shaoyao drug pair (Bupleuri Radix and Paeoniae Radix Alba) which is a traditional Chinese drug pair, has been widely used for anti-inflammatory purposes. Saikosaponin a (SSA), saikosaponin d (SSD) and paeoniflorin are identified as the main components in the pair. The present study focused on the interaction of the main components based on investigating their intestinal absorption using a four-site perfused rat intestinal model in order to clarify the mechanism of the compatibility of Chaihu-Shaoyao. The concentrations of SSA, SSD and paeoniflorin in the intestinal perfusate were determined by LC/MS or UPLC (Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography) methods, followed by P*eff (effective permeability) and 10% ABS (the percent absorption of 10 cm of intestine) calculations. The results showed that all of the three main components displayed very low permeabilities (P*eff < 0.4), which implied their poor absorption in the rat intestine. The absorption levels of SSA and SSD were similar in intestine and higher in ileum than those in other intestinal regions in the decreasing order: colon, jejunum and duodenum. However, there is no significant difference in the absorption of paeoniflorin in the four segments (P < 0.05). The P*eff values of paeoniflorin exhibited an almost 2.11-fold or 1.90-fold increase in ileum when it was co-administrated with SSA and SSD, as well as 2.42-, 2.18-fold increase in colon, respectively, whereas the absorptions of SSA and SSD were not influenced by paeoniflorin. In conclusion, SSA and SSD could promote the absorption of paeoniflorin. To some extent this might explain the nature of the compatibility mechanisms of composite formulae in TCMs.
Sequential cooperative spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks: Optimal selection of secondary users and their spectral measurements

In this paper we consider the problem of spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks which involves detection of primary (licensed) users (PUs) by secondary (unlicensed) users (SUs), who are interested in transmitting their data opportunistically. To facilitate accurate detection of PUs by the fusion center (FC) based on the energy measurements received from the chosen set of SUs, we formulate an optimization problem for selection of SUs and the number of samples they need to collect of the underlying spectrum. By assuming that the FC uses a sequential probability ratio test (SPRT) for performing spectrum sensing we formulate the problem of joint optimization over subset of SUs and the number of samples each of the SU in the chosen subset needs to collect, so that a composite cost function is maximized. For the computation of the optimal subset of SUs and the number of samples each SU has to collect we propose an algorithm based on DSO, in which optimization over the subset of SUs and the number of samples is done successively till convergence to the optimal set of values is achieved. Our simulation results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed optimization approach based on SPRT as against that of a fixed sample size test at the FC. Specifically, the average number of samples required for an SPRT is much lower than that of a fixed sample size test for given values of probability of detection and probability of false alarm. The simulation results also confirm tracking ability of the proposed DSO based algorithms, in response to variations in the corresponding channel gains between the SUs and the FC.
Tranexamic Acid Reduces Bleeding After Cardiopulmonary Bypass When Compared to Epsilon Aminocaproic Acid and Placebo

Abstract Perioperative bleeding following coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is associated with increased blood product usage. Although aprotonin is effective in reducing perioperative blood loss, excessive cost prohibits routine utilization. Epsilon aminocaproic acid (EACA) and tranexamic acid (TA) are inexpensive antifibrinolytic agents, which, when give prophylactically, may reduce blood loss. The present study was undertaken to compare the efficacy of TA and EACA in reducing perioperative blood loss. Methods: The study population consisted of first‐time CABG patients. Patients were allocated in a prospective double‐blind fashion: (1) group EACA (loading dose 150 mg/kg, continuous infusion 10 mg/kg per hour for 6 hours, N = 20); (2) group TA (loading dose 15 mg/kg, continuous infusion 1 mg/kg per hour for 6 hours, N = 20); (3) control group (infusion of normal saline for 6 hours, N = 19). Results: Treatment groups were similar preoperatively. No significant difference in intraoperative blood loss or perioperative use of blood products was noted. D‐dimer concentration was elevated in the control group compared to the EACA and TA groups (p < 0.05). Group TA had less postoperative blood loss than the EACA and control groups at 6 and 12 hours postoperatively (p < 0.05). TA had reduced total blood loss (600 ± 49 mL) postoperatively compared to EACA (961 ± 148 mL) and control (1060 ± 127mL, p < 0.05). Conclusion: TA and EACA effectively inhibited fibrinolytic activity intraoperatively and throughout the first 24 hours postoperatively. TA was more effective in reducing blood loss postoperatively following CABG. This suggests that TA may be beneficial as an effective and inexpensive antifibrinolytic in first‐time CABG patients.
Economic Growth and the Environment

Using data assembled by the Global Environmental Monitoring System we examine the reduced-form relationship between various environmental indicators and the level of a country's per capita income. Our study covers four types of indicators: concentrations of urban air pollution; measures of the state of the oxygen regime in river basins; concentrations of fecal contaminants in river basins; and concentrations of heavy metals in river basins. We find no evidence that environmental quality deteriorates steadily with economic growth. Rather, for most indicators, economic growth brings an initial phase of deterioration followed by a subsequent phase of improvement. The turning points for the different pollutants vary, but in most cases they come before a country reaches a per capita income of $8,000.