Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Pre-Injury Anti-Platelet Therapy on the Development of Complications in Isolated Blunt Chest Wall Trauma: A Retrospective Study

Introduction The difficulties in the management of the blunt chest wall trauma patient in the Emergency Department due to the development of late complications are well recognised in the literature. Pre-injury anti-platelet therapy has been previously investigated as a risk factor for poor outcomes following traumatic head injury, but not in the blunt chest wall trauma patient cohort. The aim of this study was to investigate pre-injury anti-platelet therapy as a risk factor for the development of complications in the recovery phase following blunt chest wall trauma. Methods A retrospective study was completed in which the medical notes were analysed of all blunt chest wall trauma patients presenting to a large trauma centre in Wales in 2012 and 2013. Using univariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis, pre-injury platelet therapy was investigated as a risk factor for the development of complications following blunt chest wall trauma. Previously identified risk factors were included in the analysis to address the influence of confounding. Results A total of 1303 isolated blunt chest wall trauma patients presented to the ED in Morriston Hospital in 2012 and 2013 with complications recorded in 144 patients (11%). On multi-variable analysis, pre-injury anti-platelet therapy was found to be a significant risk factor for the development of complications following isolated blunt chest wall trauma (odds ratio: 16.9; 95% confidence intervals: 8.2–35.2). As in previous studies patient age, number of rib fractures, chronic lung disease and pre-injury anti-coagulant use were also found to be significant risk factors. Conclusions Pre-injury anti-platelet therapy is being increasingly used as a first line treatment for a number of conditions and there is a concurrent increase in trauma in the elderly population. Pre-injury anti-platelet therapy should be considered as a risk factor for the development of complications by clinicians managing blunt chest wall trauma.
ECT2 amplification and overexpression as a new prognostic biomarker for early-stage lung adenocarcinoma

Genetic abnormality in early‐stage lung adenocarcinoma was examined to search for new prognostic biomarkers. Six in situ lung adenocarcinomas and nine small but invasive adenocarcinomas were examined by array‐comparative genomic hybridization, and candidate genes of interest were screened. To examine gene abnormalities, 83 cases of various types of lung carcinoma were examined by quantitative real‐time genomic PCR and immunohistochemistry. The results were then verified using another set of early‐stage adenocarcinomas. Array‐comparative genomic hybridization indicated frequent amplification at chromosome 3q26. Of the seven genes located in this region, we focused on the epithelial cell transforming sequence 2 (ECT2) oncogene, as ECT2 amplification was detected only in invasive adenocarcinoma, and not in in situ carcinoma. Quantitative PCR and immunohistochemistry analyses also detected overexpression of ECT2 in invasive adenocarcinoma, and this was correlated with both the Ki‐67 labeling index and mitotic index. In addition, it was associated with disease‐free survival and overall survival of patients with lung adenocarcinoma. These results were verified using another set of early‐stage adenocarcinomas resected at another hospital. Abnormality of the ECT2 gene occurs at a relatively early stage of lung adenocarcinogenesis and would be applicable as a new biomarker for prognostication of patients with lung adenocarcinoma.
Is the "Leverage Effect" a Leverage Effect?

The "leverage effect" refers to the well-established relationship between stock returns and both implied and realized volatility: volatility increases when the stock price falls. A standard explanation ties the phenomenon to the effect a change in market valuation of a firm's equity has on the degree of leverage in its capital structure, with an increase in leverage producing an increase in stock volatility. We use both returns and directly measured leverage to examine this hypothetical explanation for the "leverage effect" as it applies to the individual stocks in the SP it is too small with measured leverage for individual firms, but much too large for OEX implied volatilities; the volatility change associated with a given change in leverage seems to die out over a few months; and there is no apparent effect on volatility when leverage changes because of a change in outstanding debt or shares, only when stock prices change. In short, our evidence suggests that the "leverage effect" is really a "down market effect" that may have little direct connection to firm leverage.
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the effect of close interactions on star formation in galaxies

The modification of star formation (SF) in galaxy interactions is a complex process, with SF observed to be both enhanced in major mergers and suppressed in minor pair interactions. Such changes likely to arise on short time-scales and be directly related to the galaxy–galaxy interaction time. Here we investigate the link between dynamical phase and direct measures of SF on different time-scales for pair galaxies, targeting numerous star- formation rate (SFR) indicators and comparing to pair separation, individual galaxy mass and pair mass ratio. We split our sample into the higher (primary) and lower (secondary) mass galaxies in each pair and find that SF is indeed enhanced in all primary galaxies but suppressed in secondaries of minor mergers. We find that changes in SF of primaries are consistent in both major and minor mergers, suggesting that SF in the more massive galaxy is agnostic to pair mass ratio. We also find that SF is enhanced/suppressed more strongly for short-duration SFR indicators (e.g. Hα), highlighting recent changes to SF in these galaxies, which are likely to be induced by the interaction. We propose a scenario where the lower mass galaxy has its SF suppressed by gas heating or stripping, while the higher mass galaxy has its SF enhanced, potentially by tidal gas turbulence and shocks. This is consistent with the seemingly contradictory observations for both SF suppression and enhancement in close pairs.
Examining user acceptance of computer technology: an empirical study of student teachers

The use of computer technology in schools has made slow progress since the mid-1980s even though governments have been generous in funding. It is therefore important to understand how and when teachers use computer technology in order to devise implementation strategies to encourage them. This study investigates student teachers’ perceptions of computer technology in relation to their intention to use computers. The purpose is to shed light on more effective ways to motivate the use of computer technology in schools. Based on an expanded variation of the Technology Acceptance Model, 84 completed surveys of student teachers were collected at a local university in Sweden. Overall, the results indicated that (1) student teachers’ perceived usefulness of computer technology had a direct significant effect on their intention to use it; (2) student teachers’ perceived ease of use had only an indirect significant effect on intention to use; however, (3) student teachers’ subjective norm, that is the possible influence of external expectations, did not have any direct or indirect significant effects on their intention to use computer technology. Theoretical and practical implications that follow from the results are discussed.
Neuromelanins of Human Brain Have Soluble and Insoluble Components with Dolichols Attached to the Melanic Structure

Neuromelanins (NMs) are neuronal pigments of melanic-lipidic type which accumulate during aging. They are involved in protective and degenerative mechanisms depending on the cellular context, however their structures are still poorly understood. NMs from nine human brain areas were analyzed in detail. Elemental analysis led to identification of three types of NM, while infrared spectroscopy showed that NMs from neurons of substantia nigra and locus coeruleus, which selectively degenerate in Parkinson’s disease, have similar structure but different from NMs from brain regions not targeted by the disease. Synthetic melanins containing Fe and bovine serum albumin were prepared to model the natural product and help clarifying the structure of NMs. Extensive nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies showed the presence of dolichols both in the soluble and insoluble parts of NM. Diffusion measurements demonstrated that the dimethyl sulfoxide soluble components consist of oligomeric precursors with MWs in the range 1.4–52 kDa, while the insoluble part contains polymers of larger size but with a similar composition. These data suggest that the selective vulnerability of neurons of substantia nigra and locus coeruleus in Parkinson’s disease might depend on the structure of the pigment. Moreover, they allow to propose a pathway for NM biosynthesis in human brain.
Educational Achievement of Children From Single-Mother and Single-Father Families: The Case of Japan

This article examines the relationships between single parenthood and student achievement in Japan. The study uses sixth-grade data from the 2013 National Assessment of Academic Ability and the Detailed Survey, which was the first nationally representative parental survey collected through schools in Japan. The results indicate that children of single-mother and single-father families perform academically lower than children of two-parent families. For children living in single-mother families, more than 50% of the educational disadvantage was explained by a lack of economic resources. For children living in single-father families, the educational disadvantage was explained more by a lack of parenting resources, measured by discussions at home, supervision at home, and involvement in school, than economic resources. These findings suggest that the gendered labor force and division of labor among spouses in Japanese society may deprive parents of the ability to buffer the negative relationship between single parenthood and children's educational achievement.
Voronoi quantized crossover for traveling salesman problem

It is known that the performance of a genetic algorithm depends on the survival environment and the reproducibility of building blocks. In this paper, we propose a new encoding/crossover scheme that uses genie distance which explicitly defines the distance between each pair of genes in the chromosome. It pursues both relatively high survival probabilities of more epistatic gene groups and diverse crossover operators for the high creativity of new schemata. The experimental results on benchmark traveling salesman problems showed remarkable improvement in tour cost and running time over state-of-the-art genetic algorithms for the problem.
The Effects of Social Stories on Negative Behaviors in Social Settings and Situations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using social stories to increase positive and decrease negative behaviors in students with autism in social settings and situations. The study was conducted over a six week period involving two preschool aged students diagnosed with autism. The instrument used to gather data was a tally sheet on which the teacher recorded the frequency of positive and negative social behaviors as they occurred during arrival times and developmental play times.
Optimal linear cooperation for signal classification

In distributed inference, cooperation among networked agents can be exploited to enhance the performance of each individual agent. In this paper, we consider signal classification over a network of agents, where each agent observes a certain signal under a particular signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Each agent produces a statistic that summarizes its observations over a time period and then forwards it to a fusion center for identifying the type of signal in a global manner. A linear cooperation strategy for signal classification is formulated as maximizing the classification probability subject to constrained misclassification probabilities. We show that this problem can be transformed into a convex problem under some conditions and linear cooperation is a simple but effective strategy that can greatly enhance the performance of signal classification over networked agents.
Detecting similarity of R functions via a fusion of multiple heuristic methods

In this paper we describe recent advances in our R code similarity detection algorithm. We propose a modification of the Program Dependence Graph (PDG) procedure used in the GPLAG system that better fits the nature of functional programming languages like R. The major strength of our approach lies in a proper aggregation of outputs of multiple plagiarism detection methods, as it is well known that no single technique gives perfect results. It turns out that the incorporation of the PDG algorithm significantly improves the recall ratio, i.e. it is better in indicating true positive cases of plagiarism or code cloning patterns. The implemented system is available as web application at http://SimilaR.Rexamine. com/.
Characterizing structural association alterations within brain networks in normal aging using Gaussian Bayesian networks

Recent multivariate neuroimaging studies have revealed aging-related alterations in brain structural networks. However, the sensory/motor networks such as the auditory, visual and motor networks, have obtained much less attention in normal aging research. In this study, we used Gaussian Bayesian networks (BN), an approach investigating possible inter-regional directed relationship, to characterize aging effects on structural associations between core brain regions within each of these structural sensory/motor networks using volumetric MRI data. We then further examined the discriminability of BN models for the young (N = 109; mean age =22.73 years, range 20–28) and old (N = 82; mean age =74.37 years, range 60–90) groups. The results of the BN modeling demonstrated that structural associations exist between two homotopic brain regions from the left and right hemispheres in each of the three networks. In particular, compared with the young group, the old group had significant connection reductions in each of the three networks and lesser connection numbers in the visual network. Moreover, it was found that the aging-related BN models could distinguish the young and old individuals with 90.05, 73.82, and 88.48% accuracy for the auditory, visual, and motor networks, respectively. Our findings suggest that BN models can be used to investigate the normal aging process with reliable statistical power. Moreover, these differences in structural inter-regional interactions may help elucidate the neuronal mechanism of anatomical changes in normal aging.
PISA: multiple ‘truths’ and mediatised global governance

ABSTRACT The OECD’s PISA programme has been portrayed as central to the emergence of a regime of global educational governance and the subsequent convergence of policies towards a standardised model. Whilst there is an extensive literature describing PISA’s impact on education policies, there is a paucity of analysis of how PISA data is presented to the public within nations by three main actors which interpret the results; namely the OECD itself, politicians, and the media. This study analyses how England’s 2012 PISA results were interpreted by those actors, focusing particularly on the role of the media. We demonstrate that the OECD’s original messages were significantly distorted by the UK Government and show how the media, driven by its own logic, framed the results in terms of a narrative of decline, crisis and the need for urgent reform, while, significantly, giving little coverage to either the recommended policy actions or the contrasting interpretations of the PISA results by politicians and the OECD. We argue that a form of ‘mediatised governance’ shaped and limited the overall frame within which the results were debated and had a powerful influence on how local politicians represented the PISA results and advocated their own policy actions.
Effect of 5-FU and MTX on the Expression of Drug-resistance Related Cancer Stem Cell Markers in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Cells

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are often characterized by the elevated expression of drug-resistance related stem-cell surface markers, such as CD133 and ABCG2. Recently, we reported that CSCs have a high level of expression of the IL-6 receptor (IL-6R). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of anticancer drugs on the expression of the drug resistance-related cancer stem cell markers, ABCG2, IL-6R, and CD133 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines. A549, H460, and H23 NSCLC cell lines were treated with the anticancer drugs 5-fluorouracil (5-FU; 25 µg/ml) and methotrexate (MTX; 50 µg/ml), and the expression of putative CSC markers was analyzed by fluorescent activated cell sorter (FACS) and the gene expression level of abcg2, il-6r and cd133 by reverse transcriptasepolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). We found that the fraction of ABCG2-positive(+) cells was significantly increased by treatment with both 5-FU and MTX in NSCLC cells, and the elevation of abcg2, il-6r and cd133 expressions in response to these drugs was also confirmed using RT-PCR. Also, the number of IL-6R(+) cells was increased by MTX in the 3 cell lines mentioned and increased by 5-FU in the H460 cell line. The number of CD133(+) cells was also significantly increased by both 5-FU and MTX treatment in all of the cell lines tested. These results indicate that 5-FU and MTX considerably enhance the expression of drug-resistance related CSC markers in NSCLC cell lines. Thus, we suggest that antimetabolite cancer drugs, such as 5-FU and MTX, can lead to the propagation of CSCs through altering the expression of CSC markers.
Credit Booms Gone Bust: Monetary Policy, Leverage Cycles and Financial Crises, 1870-2008

The crisis of the advanced economies in 2008-09 has focused new attention on money and credit fluctuations, financial crises, and policy responses. We study the behavior of money, credit, and macroeconomic indicators over the long run based on a new historical dataset for 14 countries over the years 1870-2008, using the data to study rare events associated with financial crisis episodes. We present new evidence that leverage in the financial sector has increased strongly in the second half of the twentieth century as shown by a decoupling of money and credit aggregates. We show for the first time how monetary policy responses to financial crises have been more aggressive post-1945, but how despite these policies the output costs of crises have remained large. Importantly, we demonstrate that credit growth is a powerful predictor of financial crises, suggesting that such crises are "credit booms gone wrong" and that policymakers ignore credit at their peril. It is only with the long-run comparative data assembled for this paper that these patterns can be seen clearly.
Customer orientation of service employees: Its impact on customer satisfaction, commitment, and retention

With the performance of service personnel often constituting a major element of a service per se, the customer orientation of service personnel is often regarded as a main determinant of service firms' success. Drawing on a deductively derived four‐dimensional conceptualization of the customer orientation of service personnel, consisting of employees' technical skills, social skills, motivation, and decision‐making power, a model of the impact employees' customer orientation has on key service marketing constructs is theoretically developed. The model is then empirically tested against a sample of 989 consumers for two service contexts (i.e. book/CD/DVD retailers and travel agencies), with the results providing support for most hypotheses. Implications of the findings for services and retail management are discussed.
Motivation gets you going and habit gets you there

Abstract Background Educational changes often face resistance as lecturers tend to stand by familiar methods of instruction. This reluctance presents a challenge for programme coordinators who wish to introduce other methods, such as flipped classrooms, and seek to motivate lecturers to embrace educational change. Research into lecturers’ motivational strategies during educational change is evident in the setting of adult education but outnumbered by studies on student motivation in the context of higher education. Purpose This study looks into what leads adult education teachers to integrate flipped classrooms and seeks to cultivate change management principles to facilitate flipped classroom adoption. We integrate change and self-determination theory to draw and test a conceptual model that allows educational change managers to make lecturers feel related to their institution, competent to flip their classroom and autonomous in deciding how to apply flipped instruction. Design and methods This study employed a phenomenological design to explore how lecturers experience the impact of change management principles on their relatedness, competence and autonomy when flipping their classrooms. We conducted semi-structured interviews with eleven lecturers at three Flemish adult education centres. Qualitative interview data were deductively and inductively analysed, validating the literature-based framework while allowing additional insights to emerge from participants’ experiences. Results and conclusions Our findings suggest that it would be beneficial to appoint a ‘guiding coalition’ that addresses lecturers’ need for relatedness. This would be a way of acknowledging change efforts and facilitating periodic peer exchanges that eliminate fear of interference in colleagues’ teaching practices. Both the need for customised training materials and emotional support, in case of technical failure, were perceived important in achieving competence. Lecturers’ need for autonomy represents a balancing act between top-down change communication and inviting lecturers to co-decide on the pace and level of flipped classroom adoption. We suggest that lecturers’ instructional practices (i.e. routines) have the potential for propagating flipped instruction from the bottom-up.
Analysis of protein transmembrane helical regions by a neural data

Neural networks were used to generalize common themes found in transmembrane-spanning protein helices. Various-sized databases were used containing nonoverlapping sequences, each 25 amino acids long. Training consisted of sorting these sequences into 1 of 2 groups: transmembrane helical peptides or nontransmembrane peptides. Learning was measured using a test set 10% the size of the training set. As training set size increased from 214 sequences to 1,751 sequences, learning increased in a nonlinear manner from 75% to a high of 98%, then declined to a low of 87%. The final training database consisted of roughly equal numbers of transmembrane (928) and nontransmembrane (1,018) sequences. All transmembrane sequences were entered into the database with respect to their lipid membrane orientation: from inside the membrane to outside. Generalized transmembrane helix and nontransmembrane peptides were constructed from the maximally weighted connecting strengths of fully trained networks. Four generalized transmembrane helices were found to contain 9 consensus residues: a K-R-F triplet was found at the inside lipid interface, 2 isoleucine and 2 other phenylalanine residues were present in the helical body, and 2 tryptophan residues were found near the outside lipid interface. As a test of the training method, bacteriorhodopsin was examined to determine the position of its 7 transmembrane helices.