Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of three different pelvic circumferential compression devices: a biomechanical cadaver study.

BACKGROUND Pelvic circumferential compression devices are designed to stabilize the pelvic ring and reduce the volume of the pelvis following trauma. It is uncertain whether pelvic circumferential compression devices can be safely applied for all types of pelvic fractures because the effects of the devices on the reduction of fracture fragments are unknown. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of circumferential compression devices on the dynamic realignment and final reduction of the pelvic fractures as a measure of the quality of reduction. METHODS Three circumferential compression devices were evaluated: the Pelvic Binder, the SAM Sling, and the T-POD. In sixteen cadavers, four fracture types were generated according to the Tile classification system. Infrared retroreflective markers were fixed in the different fracture fragments of each pelvis. The circumferential compression device was applied sequentially in a randomized order with gradually increasing forces applied. Fracture fragment movement was studied with use of a three-dimensional infrared video system. Dynamic realignment and final reduction of the fracture fragments during closure of the circumferential compression devices were determined. A factorial repeated-measures analysis of variance with pairwise post hoc comparisons was performed to analyze the differences in pulling force between the circumferential compression devices. RESULTS In the partially stable and unstable (Tile type-B and C) pelvic fractures, all circumferential compression devices accomplished closure of the pelvic ring and consequently reduced the pelvic volume. No adverse fracture displacement (>5 mm) was observed in these fracture types. The required pulling force to attain complete reduction at the symphysis pubis varied substantially among the three different circumferential compression devices, with a mean (and standard error of the mean) of 43 ± 7 N for the T-POD, 60 ± 9 N for the Pelvic Binder, and 112 ± 10 N for the SAM Sling. CONCLUSIONS The Pelvic Binder, SAM Sling, and T-POD provided sufficient reduction in partially stable and unstable (Tile type-B1 and C) pelvic fractures. No undesirable overreduction was noted. The pulling force that was needed to attain complete reduction of the fracture parts varied significantly among the three devices, with the T-POD requiring the lowest pulling force for fracture reduction.
A major state tobacco tax increase, the master settlement agreement, and cigarette consumption: the California experience.

OBJECTIVES We evaluated the combined effects on California cigarette consumption of an additional 50 cent per pack state tax imposed by Proposition 10 of January 1999 and a 45 cent per pack increase in cigarette prices stemming from the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) of November 1998. METHODS We used quarterly cigarette sales data for the period 1984-2002 to estimate a time-series intervention model adjusting for seasonal variations and time trend. RESULTS Over the period 1999 through 2002, the combined effect was to reduce cigarette consumption by 2.4 packs per capita per quarter (1.3 billion packs total over the 4-year period) and to raise state tax revenues by $2.1 billion. These effects were similar to the effects of a 25 cent per pack tax increase enacted by Proposition 99 a decade earlier, although with decreased relative effectiveness as measured by percentage of reduction in cigarette consumption divided by percentage of increase in taxation (-0.44 vs -0.60). CONCLUSIONS A major increase in price through taxation and the MSA provided a strong economic disincentive for smokers in a state with a low smoking prevalence. This effect could be reinforced if part of the MSA payments were devoted to tobacco control programs.
加强英国学校的“信息通信技术教学”：Vital项目启示 [Enhancing ‘ICT teaching’ in English schools: Vital lessons]

尽管英国学校对数字技术的投资非常可观，但是却未能取得支持者所预期的效果。 这引发了有关以往教师持续专业发展形式有效性的争议。 Vital项目历时四年（2009—2013），英国各级政府出资940万英镑，旨在加强学校的数字技术应用和计算机应用教学。 Vital项目由英国开放大学主持，项目组回顾了相关文献并凭借在开展有支持的开放学习和发展虚拟社区方面的丰富经验，开发了一系列不断改进的专业发展产品。
GABA receptor 1 polymorphism (G1465A) and temporal lobe epilepsy.

PURPOSE To reevaluate the genetic contribution of the polymorphism G1465A of the gene coding for gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)(B) receptor 1 subunit [GABA(B)(1)] in a sample of French patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and to perform an exploratory analysis in other phenotypic subgroups. METHODS The 134 patients were genotyped for the polymorphism G1465A. This sample was divided in two groups. The first one had patients with nonlesional TLE, and the second one, with lesional TLE. Then these two groups were compared with a sample of 145 healthy individuals. RESULTS The genotype and allele distributions for the polymorphism G1465A showed no difference between patients and controls. CONCLUSIONS The association between the variant G1465A and the sample of patients could not be replicated, so these results exclude a major effect of this polymorphism in the susceptibility to nonlesional TLE. Larger samples should be tested to determine whether the G1465A in exon 7 of the GABA(B)(1) receptor gene is a susceptibility factor for nonlesional TLE.
Financial Advice and Individual Investors' Portfolios

This paper is an early response to Campbell's (2006) call to analyze the role of financial intermediaries in household finance. We first sketch a basic theory of financial advice that proceeds from cognitive errors and costly information acquisition. We then derive hypotheses about honest and deceptive financial advice and test them on a unique administrative dataset from a large German retail bank. We find that the clients advised are older, wealthier, more risk averse and more likely to be female. Financial advice enhances portfolio diversification, makes investor portfolios more congruent with predefined model portfolios, and increases investors' fee expenses. Our empirical evidence is broadly in line with honest financial advice. A general implication of the paper is that financial advisory service has a significant impact on household investment behavior and that it deserves more attention in future research on household finance.
Transient reversion of O4+ Galc− oligodendrocyte progenitor development in response to the phorbol ester TPA

The physiological importance of protein kinase C during oligodendrocyte progenitor maturation was investigated by analyzing the effects of the protein kinase C activator phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate (TPA) on the morphology, proliferation, and differentiation of oligodendrocytes at sequential stages of development. Monoclonal antibodies A2B5 and O4 were used to identify the A2B5+ O4− and the A2B5+ O4+ galactocerebroside− progenitor stages. Anti‐galactocerebroside and anti‐myelin basic protein were used to identify mature, post‐mitotic oligodendrocytes. Proliferation was measured by bromodeoxyuridine incorporation. Within 24 hr after addition, TPA induced a down‐regulation of the O4 antigen in OL progenitors, and an increase of expression of the intermediate filament protein vimentin, leading to a phenotypic reversion from the vimentin− A2B5+ O4+ phenotype to the less mature vimentin+ A2B5+ O4− stage. Concomitantly, TPA induced an increase in the number of bromodeoxyuridine‐labeled oligodendrocyte progenitors and extensive process elongation. The response of O4+ progenitors was transient. Even with continued exposure to TPA, by 4 days after TPA addition the reverted cells ceased proliferation, reacquired O4 immunoreactivity, became vimentin‐negative, and began to express galactocerebroside and myelin basic protein, and to display the complex, highly branched morphology characteristic of terminally differentiated oligodendrocytes. These results indicate that modulation of protein kinase C activity by TPA induces a transient reversion of O4+ progenitors to less mature O4− cells, causing a transient inhibition of terminal differentiation. The relationship of these data to similar responses of the OL lineage to specific growth factors and implications for remyelination after pathologic injury are discussed. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An Empirical Study of Factors Influencing the SME's Intention to Adopt m-Banking in Rural Bangladesh

This research empirically studies the factors that influence the intention of SME owners and managers to adopt m-banking in rural Bangladesh. The study specifically focuses on business oriented m-banking, such as paying suppliers or receiving payments from customers, and on person-to-person use of m-banking. Although over the last ten years a wide spectrum of mbanking frameworks has emerged in various countries, very few research have focused on SMEs m-banking adoption and acceptance of the service. Another rationale for undertaking such a study is that m-banking has not yet been extended to rural Bangladesh. To fill the gap this research surveyed 550 SMEs owners/managers in four (4) rural villages. The survey indicates that poor banking facilities, cost, credibility, gender, education and SME business type are the main factors that significantly influence the intention to adopt m-banking. The analysis focuses on the three factors that have been largely overlooked in prior literature, that are banking satisfaction, m-banking advantages for SMEs, and SME business type. The study broadens our understanding of m-banking and provides insights into developing m-banking strategies in Bangladesh. This research will be of potential value in accelerating the development of m-banking in Bangladesh.
Entrepreneurship and Public Policy: Can Government Stimulate Business StartUps?

Introduction Small Businesses and Smokestacks: Opportunities and Challenges for Development Policy The Business Startup: Issues in Designing Local Stimulus Policies Promoting Entrepreneurship Locally: There Is a Will But Is There a Way? Measuring the Effects of Policy on Small Business Startups Development Policy in Four New York State Counties The Performance of Entrepreneurial Promotion Policies Reconsidering Entrepreneurial Promotion Appendixes: Note on the Quasi-Experimental Research Design Development Organizations in Study Sites Questionnaire Used in the Study Cluster Map of Baseline Counties Industries Used in the Study References Index
Management of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension due to congenital heart disease: recent advances and future directions

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a serious complication of adult congenital heart disease associated with systemic-to-pulmonary shunts. Although early shunt closure restricts development of pulmonary arterial hypertension, patients remain at risk even after repair. The development of pulmonary arterial hypertension is associated with a markedly increased morbidity and mortality. It is important to identify patients with a poor prognosis using disease specific markers. Echocardiography and biomarkers arise as practical tools to determine the risk of mortality. Although pulmonary arterial hypertension cannot be cured, four classes of disease-targeting therapies are currently available and several promising therapies are being studied. There is a shift in drug studies towards more clinically relevant endpoints such as time to clinical worsening and morbidity and mortality events.
From Resistance to Stimulation: the Evolution of a Virus in the Presence of a Dominant Lethal Inhibitory Scaffolding Protein

ABSTRACT By acquiring resistance to an inhibitor, viruses can become dependent on that inhibitor for optimal fitness. However, inhibitors rarely, if ever, stimulate resistant strain fitness to values that equal or exceed the uninhibited wild-type level. This would require an adaptive mechanism that converts the inhibitor into a beneficial replication factor. Using a plasmid-encoded inhibitory external scaffolding protein that blocks φX174 assembly, we previously demonstrated that such mechanisms are possible. The resistant strain, referred to as the evolved strain, contains four mutations contributing to the resistance phenotype. Three mutations confer substitutions in the coat protein, whereas the fourth mutation alters the virus-encoded external scaffolding protein. To determine whether stimulation by the inhibitory protein coevolved with resistance or whether it was acquired after resistance was firmly established, the strain temporally preceding the previously characterized mutant, referred to as the intermediary strain, was isolated and characterized. The results of the analysis indicated that the mutation in the virus-encoded external scaffolding protein was primarily responsible for stimulating strain fitness. When the mutation was placed in a wild-type background, it did not confer resistance. The mutation was also placed in cis with the plasmid-encoded dominant lethal mutation. In this configuration, the stimulating mutation exhibited no activity, regardless of the genotype (wild type, evolved, or intermediary) of the infecting virus. Thus, along with the coat protein mutations, stimulation required two external scaffolding protein genes: the once inhibitory gene and the mutant gene acquired during evolution.
A Weighted Scoring System to Differentiate Malignant Liposarcomas from Benign Lipomas

Purpose To construct a scoring system to differentiate malignant liposarcomas from benign lipomas by comparing their clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features. Methods Clinical and MRI features of 33 women and 33 men aged 17 to 83 (mean, 53) years who underwent resection of malignant liposarcomas (n=32) or benign lipomas (n=34) were reviewed. Results The 5 strongest predictors of liposarcoma were male gender, larger tumour maximum dimension, deep to fascia, thick non-fatty septum or nodule, and internal cystic change. A weighted scoring system was constructed using the 5 strongest predictors as: Z score=10X1+X2+12X3+15X4+10X5, respectively. A cut-off score of 35 was used; all 32 malignant liposarcomas and 4 of 34 benign lipomas scored >35. The cut-off score of ≤35 could predict 30 of 66 lipomatous tumours as benign with a negative predictive value of 100% (p<0.0001). Conclusion The 5 strongest clinical and MRI features were identified to construct a scoring system to differentiate malignant from benign lipomatous tumours. Further validation in independent populations is required.
Risk Factors for Development of New-Onset Diabetes Mellitus After Kidney Transplantation

Background. New-onset diabetes mellitus after kidney transplantation (NODM) is an important co morbid condition that is associated with inferior graft and patient survival. The objective of this study was to identify donor, recipient and transplant factors, and choices of immunosuppression associated with development of NODM using Organ Procurement Transplant Network/United Network of Organ Sharing database (OPTN/UNOS). Methods. From January 2004 to December 2005, 15,309 adult kidney transplants alone with at least one follow-up report as of March 2006 were identified in the OPTN/UNOS database. Among these, 1,581 patients developed NODM during the follow-up period. We examined the risk factors of NODM using multivariate Cox regression analysis using the time to diagnosis of NODM as a time-varying end point. Other events such as graft loss, patient death, and lost to follow-up were censored. Results. NODM was reported in 10% in our study population with mean follow-up time of 306 days. After adjusting for other known factors, independent factors associated with the development of NODM included recipient age (29% increase of relative risk [RR] for every 10-year age increment), obesity (RR=1.39 for body mass index [BMI] 25–30 and RR=1.85 for BMI>30 vs. BMI<25), tacrolimus use (RR=1.50), hepatitis C virus (HCV) positivity (RR=1.42), and African-American recipients (RR=1.32). Alemtuzumab was associated with a lower risk of NODM (RR=0.52). Discussion. Using OPTN/UNOS database, we identified risk factors for development of NODM. Some of these factors are potentially modifiable, including obesity, HCV infection, and the use of tacrolimus. Clinical trials are needed to assess whether modifying these “modifiable risk factors” will indeed prevent NODM.
The Relationship Between Corporate Social Performance And Financial Asset Characteristics

This thesis explores the theoretical and empirical evidence for a relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and financial characteristics. An empirical analysis is performed to examine the Australian evidence for such a relationship, from a financial asset perspective. CSP data provided by Corporate. Monitor Pty. Ltd. are used in the analysis. Specifically, available measures of environmental, social and governance performance of 237 Australian companies are compared with selected financial asset characteristics, including firm size, book-to­ market value, financial performance and risk, covering the period between July 1997 and August 2003. Evidence of relationships is sought using bivariate correlations, group comparisons and multivariate regression models. The analysis allows for heterogeneity in CSP-financial characteristics relationships, related to firm size, trading history and industry. Findings indicate that governance performance is most strongly related to financial characteristics, followed by social performance, whereas environmental performance is in general not strongly or consistently related to financial characteristics. Very strong and consistent evidence is found of a negative relationship between risk and all categories of CSP, although such relationships are again strongest for corporate governance. Strong evidence is found of a positive relationship between financial performance and governance performance ( and to a certain extent social performance), which is concentrated among recently listed companies, large companies and constituents of an industry group containing banks, diversified financials, insurance companies and telecommunication companies. Environmental and social performance is found to be contingent on size and industry, whereas governance performance is found to be contingent predominantly on size. However, the causes of the relationships between environmental and social performance and size are suggested to be different from the causes of the relationships between governance performance and size.
Determinants of WTP for Prosecco wine: A latent class regression with attitudinal responses

Purpose – Under investigation is Prosecco wine, a sparkling white wine from North‐East Italy. Information collection on consumer perceptions is particularly relevant when developing market strategies for wine, especially so when local production and certification of origin play an important role in the wine market of a given district, as in the case at hand. Investigating and characterizing the structure of preference heterogeneity become crucial steps in every successful marketing strategy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sources of systematic differences in consumer preferences.Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores the effect of inclusion of answers to attitudinal questions in a latent class regression model of stated willingness to pay (WTP) for this specialty wine. These additional variables were included in the membership equations to investigate whether they could be of help in the identification of latent classes. The individual specific WTPs from the sampled respondents .
Gordie Howe’s “Miraculous Treatment”: Case Study of Twitter Users’ Reactions to a Sport Celebrity’s Stem Cell Treatment

Background Former Detroit Red Wing Gordie Howe received stem cell (SC) treatment in Mexico in December 2014 for a stroke he suffered in October 2014. The news about his positive response to the SC treatment prompted discussion on social networks like Twitter. Objective This study aims to provide information about discussions that took place on Twitter regarding Howe’s SC treatment and SC treatment in general. In particular, this study examines whether tweets portrayed a positive or negative attitude towards Howe’s SC treatment, whether or not tweets mention that the treatment is unproven, and whether the tweets mention risks associated with the SC treatment. Methods This is an infodemiology study, harnessing big data published on the Internet for public health research and analysis of public engagement. A corpus of 2783 tweets about Howe’s SC treatment was compiled using a program that collected English-language tweets from December 19, 2014 at 00:00 to February 7, 2015 at 00:00. A content analysis of the corpus was conducted using a coding framework developed through a two-stage process. Results 78.87% (2195/2783) of tweets mentioned improvements to Howe’s health. Only one tweet explicitly mentioned that Howe’s SC treatment was unproven, and 3 tweets warned that direct-to-consumer SC treatments lacked scientific evidence. In addition, 10.31% (287/2783) of tweets mentioned challenges with SC treatment that have been raised by scientists and researchers, and 3.70% (103/2783) of tweets either defined Howe as a “stem cell tourist” or claimed that his treatment was part of “stem cell tourism”. In general, 71.79% (1998/2783) of tweets portrayed a positive attitude towards Howe’s SC treatment. Conclusions Our study found the responses to Howe’s treatment on Twitter to be overwhelmingly positive. There was far less attention paid to the lack of scientific evidence regarding the efficacy of the treatment. Unbalanced and uncritical discussion on Twitter regarding SC treatments is another example of inaccurate representations of SC treatments that may create unrealistic expectations that will facilitate the market for unproven stem cell therapies.
The unique factors affecting employee performance in non-profit organisations

The research examines unique performance enhancing or inhibiting factors among Zimbabwean employees in non-profit organizations in the capital city Harare. Two research questions were formulated. First, “Are there unique work ethics inherent in employees working in the non-profit sector? ; and second, “What unique variables affect workers in the non-profit sector? ” We explore whether “workplace performance of employees in the non-profit sector is dependent on unique factors that apply in the non-profit sector and not in the for-profit sectors”. Data analysis identified unique performance factors: de-motivation due to the absence of regular merit-based promotions for high performing employees; opportunities for employee advancement through a policy of competitive recruitment, and growth opportunities for local staff who can apply for international positions within the organization. We recommend that non-profit organizations use creative, sector-specific approaches to motivate employee performance.
Digital Image Watermarking Based On Joint (DCT-DWT) and Arnold Transform

The researcher has adopted a digital watermarking technique which operates in the frequency domain: a hybrid watermarking scheme based joint discrete wavelet transform – discrete cosine transform – (DWT-DCT). Its main objective is to test whether this technique can withstand attacks (its robustness) and invisibility (its imperceptibility), achieved by taking DCT of the DWT coefficients of the LL mid-frequency sub-bands from its band. To ensure security, the secret code (watermark) is scrambled using the Arnold transformation which is embedded in the original host image; only gray-scale digital images are used. The results of this research reveal that the secret code (watermark) is strong enough against threats (noise). Comparative results are measured using signal-tonoise ratio criterions, mean square error and normalized cross correlation. Simulated experimentation is done in Matlab.