Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy for simple and complex renal caliceal stones: a comparative analysis of more than 10,000 cases.

PURPOSE To determine whether minimally invasive PCNL (MPCNL) is as safe and effective in the management of complex renal caliceal stones as it is for simple renal stones. PATIENTS AND METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 5761(41.2%) simple caliceal stones (isolated renal pelvis including isolated calix) and 8223 (58.8%) complex caliceal stones (renal pelvis accompanying two calices at least) that were managed by MPCNL between 1992 nd 2011. The safety, efficacy, and outcome were compared and analyzed. RESULTS Stone burden was larger in complex caliceal stones (1763.0 vs 1018.6 mm(2), P<0.05). Patients with simple stones had significantly shorter operative time, less frequency of multiple percutaneous accesses, and less hemoglobin drop. They also had a higher initial stone-free rate (SFR) (77.6% vs 66.4%) after a single session of MPCNL (P<0.05). The differences diminished in the final SFR (86.7% vs 86.1%) after relook and/or auxiliary procedures (P>0.05). The complication rate (17.9% vs 19.0%) and blood transfusion rate (grade II) (2.2% vs 3.2%) were similar in both groups (P>0.05). Both groups had a low rate of high Clavien grade complications. Renal vascular embolizations (grade III), however, were significantly higher in patients with complex caliceal stones (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS MPCNL is a safe and effective treatment option for patients with complex caliceal stones except there is a slightly higher frequency rate of embolization. There was a higher initial SFR in simple stones, but this difference diminished with secondary procedures.
Idiopathic phrenic neuropathies: A case series and review of the literature

Introduction: Phrenic neuropathies (PNs) are a major cause of dyspnea, orthopnea, and hypercapnic respiratory failure. The aim of the study was to obtain diagnostic findings, assess therapeutic options, and review outcomes in PN patients. Methods: From 2004 to 2013, patients with PN referred to the author's institution were studied using clinical, pulmonary function, and electrodiagnostic tests. A PubMed search of published PN reports was also done. Unilateral PN (UPN) and bilateral PN (BPN) patients were compared. Results: The analysis consisted of 10 UPN and 9 BPN patients seen by the author, plus previous reports of 18 UPN and 40 BPN patients. BPN patients were older (in the author's series) and were more often hypertensive. They reported pain less often, dyspnea and orthopnea more often, and had worse results on pulmonary function tests than UPN patients. Conclusions: UPN and BPN are probably 2 variants of the same, immune‐mediated focal neuropathy. Electrodiagnosis is a valuable confirmatory test for PN. Muscle Nerve 52: 986–992, 2015
Trade with Benefits: New Insights on Competition and Innovation

This paper examines how Korea’s import and export linkages with China affect the innovation outcomes of Korean manufacturing firms. Using our automated algorithm, we match Korean patent data to KIS-Value firm data from 1996 to 2015. We find that rising import and export with China lead to more patent applications by Korean manufacturing firms, with the positive impact particularly driven by large or public firms compared to SMEs or private firms. Most importantly, all of these results hold only in those sectors with higher quality products than Chinese products, shedding lights on reconciling recent empirical studies that found conflicting evidence on ’Schumpeterian force’ and ’escaping competition. ’
CIGS solar cell absorber formed by rapid thermal processing

Cu(In, Ga)Se2 thin film absorbers were fabricated applying 2-step heating process by IR-lamp furnace. Precursors prepared from Cu/Ga alloy and In target with sputtering process were deposited on Mo back contact layer. The characteristics of selenization on CIGS layer were characterized depending on the conditions of heating rates and holding time in several steps. The characterization of thin film properties were carried out by XRF, XRD, SEM, TEM, SIMS and Current density-voltage (J-V) measurements. The influence of IR-lamp furnace conditions on device performance was investigated. In this work, CIGS solar cells with a absorber composition of Cu(In0.76Ga0.24)Se2 showed 13.56% of conversion efficiency.
Effect of parental hypertension and/or parental diabetes on hypertension in Taiwanese diabetic patients

Background Both type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and hypertension aggregate in families. It is a common thought that diabetic patients with parental diabetes and/or parental hypertension are more likely to develop hypertension. This study evaluated the separate and joint effects of parental hypertension and parental diabetes on the prevalence of hypertension in patients with T2DM.
Volumetric MRI predicts rate of cognitive decline related to AD and cerebrovascular disease

ObjectiveTo examine volumetric MRI correlates of longitudinal cognitive decline in normal aging, AD, and subcortical cerebrovascular brain injury (SCVBI). BackgroundPrevious cross-sectional studies examining the relationship between cognitive impairment and dementia have shown that hippocampal and cortical gray matter atrophy are the most important predictors of cognitive impairment, even in cases with SCVBI. The authors hypothesized that hippocampal and cortical gray matter volume also would best predict rate of cognitive decline in cases with and without SCVBI. Methods Subjects were recruited for a multicenter study of contributions to dementia of AD and SCVBI. The sample (n = 120) included cognitively normal, cognitively impaired, and demented cases with and without lacunes identified by MRI. Cases with cortical strokes were excluded. Average length of follow-up was 3.0 years. Measures of hippocampal volume, volume of cortical gray matter, presence of subcortical lacunes, and volume of white matter hyperintensity were derived from MRI. Random effects modeling of longitudinal data was used to assess effects of baseline MRI variables on longitudinal change in a measure of global cognitive ability. Results Cortical gray matter atrophy predicted cognitive decline regardless of whether lacunes were present. Hippocampal atrophy predicted decline only in those without lacunes. Neither lacunes nor white matter hyperintensity independently predicted decline. ConclusionsResults suggest that cortical atrophy is an index of disease severity in both AD and subcortical cerebrovascular brain injury and consequently predicts faster progression. Hippocampal volume may index disease severity and predict progression in AD. The absence of this effect in cases with lacunes suggests that this group is etiologically heterogeneous and is not composed simply of cases of AD with incidental stroke.
The Theory of Bank Risk Taking and Competition Revisited

There is a large body of literature that concludes that-when confronted with increased competition-banks rationally choose more risky portfolios. We argue that this literature has had a significant influence on regulators and central bankers. We review the empirical literature and conclude that the evidence is best described as "mixed. " We then show that existing theoretical analyses of this topic are fragile, since there exist fundamental risk-incentive mechanisms that operate in exactly the opposite direction, causing banks to become more risky as their markets become more concentrated. These mechanisms should be essential ingredients of models of bank competition. Copyright 2005 by The American Finance Association.
Flavonoid Quantification in Onion by Spectrophotometric and High Performance Liquid Chromatography Analysis

Direct spectrophotometric determination of quercetin content in onions (Allium cepa L.) was investigated as a possible alternative to high-performance liquid chroma- tography (HPLC) analysis. Quercetin content in five onion varieties was monitored at 362 nm and quantified using simple spectrophotometric and HPLC methods. HPLC revealed that 3,4'-Qdg and 4'-Qmg comprised up to 93% of total flavonol content detected in the studied varieties. These major quercetin conjugates combined (3,4'-Qdg + 4'-Qmg) and total flavonol conjugates quantified by HPLC correlated closely with spectrophotometer values. Correlation coefficients were 0.96 (P < 0.0001) for 3,4'-Qdg + 4'-Qmg and 0.97 (P < 0.0001) for total flavonol conjugates in onion. Simple spectropho- tometric procedure proved to be a valid, efficient, and cost-effective method for the quantification of total quercetin in onion. Chemical names used: quercetin-3,4'-O- diglucoside (3,4'-Qdg); quercetin-4'-O-glucoside (4'-Qmg).
A Novel Security-Driven Scheduling Algorithm for Precedence-Constrained Tasks in Heterogeneous Distributed Systems

In the recent past, security-sensitive applications, such as electronic transaction processing systems, stock quote update systems, which require high quality of security to guarantee authentication, integrity, and confidentiality of information, have adopted heterogeneous distributed system (HDS) as their platforms. This is primarily due to the fact that single parallel-architecture-based systems may not be sufficient to exploit the available parallelism with the running applications. Most security-aware applications end up in handling dependence tasks, also referred to as Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), on these HDSs. Unfortunately, most existing algorithms for scheduling such DAGs in HDS fail to fully consider security requirements. In this paper, we systematically design a security-driven scheduling architecture that can dynamically measure the trust level of each node in the system by using differential equations. To do so, we introduce task priority rank to estimate security overhead of such security-critical tasks. Furthermore, we propose a security-driven scheduling algorithm for DAGs which can achieve high quality of security for applications. Our rigorous performance evaluation study results clearly demonstrate that our proposed algorithm outperforms the existing scheduling algorithms in terms of minimizing the makespan, risk probability, and speedup. We also observe that the improvement obtained by our algorithm increases as the security-sensitive data of applications increases.
Shannon-theoretic approach to a Gaussian cellular multiple-access channel

We obtain Shannon-theoretic limits for a very simple cellular multiple-access system. In our model the received signal at a given cell site is the sum of the signals transmitted from within that cell plus a factor /spl alpha/ (0/spl les//spl alpha//spl les/1) times the sum of the signals transmitted from the adjacent cells plus ambient Gaussian noise. Although this simple model is scarcely realistic, it nevertheless has enough meat so that the results yield considerable insight into the workings of real systems. We consider both a one dimensional linear cellular array and the familiar two-dimensional hexagonal cellular pattern. The discrete-time channel is memoryless. We assume that N contiguous cells have active transmitters in the one-dimensional case, and that N/sup 2/ contiguous cells have active transmitters in the two-dimensional case. There are K transmitters per cell. Most of our results are obtained for the limiting case as N/spl rarr//spl infin/. The results include the following. (1) We define C/sub N/,C/spl circ//sub N/ as the largest achievable rate per transmitter in the usual Shannon-theoretic sense in the one- and two-dimensional cases, respectively (assuming that all signals are jointly decoded). We find expressions for limN/spl rarr//spl infin/C/sub N/ and limN/spl rarr//spl infin/C/spl circ//sub N/. (2) As the interference parameter /spl alpha/ increases from 0, C/sub N/ and C/spl circ//sub N/ increase or decrease according to whether the signal-to-noise ratio is less than or greater than unity. (3) Optimal performance is attainable using TDMA within the cell, but using TDMA for adjacent cells is distinctly suboptimal. (4) We suggest a scheme which does not require joint decoding of all the users, and is, in many cases, close to optimal. >
Influence on audit process effectiveness and audit infrastructure on internal audit functions

This study aims to test how much influence on Audit Process Effectiveness and Infrastructure Audit on Internal Audit Function at PT. Pupuk Indonesia (Persero). Given the importance of Internal Audit Function, it is known that BAKN finds potential deviations from financial management and financial reports in the state-owned fertilizer industry, particularly PT. Pupuk Indonesia (Persero). The design used is the design of causality, while the method used is a survey. This research was conducted on 7 (seven) subsidiaries of PT. Pupuk Indonesia (Persero) in Indonesia. The results of the analysis show that: (1) Simultaneously Audit Process Effectiveness and Infrastructure Audit gives a positive influence of 82.0% on Internal Audit Function at PT. Pupuk Indonesia (Persero), (2) Partially Audit Process Effectiveness and Infrastructure Audit gives positive influence, the magnitude of the effect in sequence is 40,6% and 34,2%.
Identification of IL-23p19 as an endothelial proinflammatory peptide that promotes gp130-STAT3 signaling

The cytokine subunit p19 signals alone and intracellularly to promote inflammation in endothelial cells. Working from the inside The proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-23 (IL-23), which is composed of the p19 and p40 subunits and produced by macrophages and dendritic cells, is implicated in inflammatory diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Endothelial cells make only the p19 protein and so cannot produce IL-23. When examining adventitial capillaries from patients with the inflammatory disease giant-cell arteritis (GCA), Espígol-Frigolé et al. found that p19 associated with the cytokine receptor signaling subunit gp130 intracellularly in endothelial cells. This association activated STAT3 signaling and increased the cell surface abundance of adhesion molecules, which led to the transendothelial migration of lymphocytes in vitro. Together, these results suggest that p19 signals alone within endothelial cells to promote inflammation and that it may provide a therapeutic target to treat GCA and other related diseases. Interleukin-23 (IL-23), a heterodimeric cytokine composed of the unique p19 peptide (IL-23p19) and a peptide called IL-12p40, which is shared with IL-12, is implicated in Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and other immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Endothelial cells produce the IL-23p19 peptide in the absence of the IL-12p40 chain and thus do not make heterodimeric IL-23. We found that intercellular IL-23p19 increased the cell surface abundances of intercellular adhesion molecule–1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule–1 (VCAM-1) on endothelial cells, which enhanced the attachment of leukocytes and increased their transendothelial migration. Intracellular p19 associated with the cytokine receptor subunit gp130 and stimulated the gp130-dependent activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling. Proinflammatory factors promoted the generation of IL-23p19 in endothelial cells. The adventitial capillaries of inflamed temporal arteries in patients with giant-cell arteritis (GCA) had endothelial p19 protein associated with gp130, but did not contain the IL-12p40 chain. Because adventitial capillaries are essential for the entry of inflammatory cells into arterial walls, these data suggest that p19 may contribute to GCA disease and could represent a therapeutic target. Our results provide evidence that IL-23p19 is a previously unrecognized endothelial proinflammatory peptide that promotes leukocyte transendothelial migration, advancing our current understanding of the complexities of inflammatory responses.
[Drugs use among adolescents: results from the National Survey on Addictions, 1998].

OBJECTIVE The aim of this paper is to describe drug and associated factors use among adolescents (12 to 17 years of age). MATERIAL AND METHODS Data come from the recent Encuesta Nacional de Adicciones, 1998 (National Survey on Addictions) undertaken in urban areas of Mexico. A probabilistic, multi-stage, stratified cluster sampling design was used to select the study population. The sampling unit was the individual in each household. Statistical analysis consisted of the estimation of prevalences of drug use, with 95% confidence intervals. Associations were analyzed using logistic regressions models. RESULTS Excluding tobacco and alcohol, 3.57% of males and 0.6% of females have used one or more drugs; 2.14% and 0.45% used them in the 12 months previous to the survey, and 1.4% and 0.3% in the previous 30 days, respectively. Marihuana was the drug more often used by males (2.4%) and females (0.45%), followed by inhaled solvents (1.08% and 0.20%), and cocaine (0.99% and 0.22%), respectively. The risk of using illicit drugs was associated to being male, having dropped out from school, perceiving availability, drug use by family and friends, social tolerance among friends, and symptoms of depression. CONCLUSIONS Adolescents between 12 to 17 years of age are exposed to increasing drug use. The rates of drug use have risen, especially in the northern region of Mexico and in the big urban areas (Tijuana, Mexico City and Guadalajara). These findings emphasize the need to develop campaigns to detect emotional problems. Preventive measures should provide appropriate care to prevent drug use as a mechanism to cope with such emotional conflicts. Also, more intense preventive interventions should be targeted to adolescents with a high probability of developing drug abuse.
Where Sex Was, There Shall Gender Be? the Dialectics of Psychoanalytic Gender Theory

Psychoanalytic theories of gender identity have come a long way since Freud. The author reviews two dialectics that have shaped psychoanalytic gender theory thus far: first, the tension between theories that emphasize biological versus sociocultural influences on gender, and second, the dialectic between nomothetic (i.e., universalizing) and idiographic (i.e., focusing on individual variation) approaches. The author argues that psychoanalytic gender theory could be further enriched with more attention to two additional dialectics. One involves the so-called gender binary and the relative focus on cultural versus developmental aspects of the binary; a second involves the relationship between gender identity and desire. Attention to these dialectics can help better integrate theoretical and clinical perspectives on gender identity.
Gene expression analysis of macrophages derived from ankylosing spondylitis patients reveals interferon-gamma dysregulation.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether macrophages, a type of cell implicated in the pathogenesis of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), exhibit a characteristic gene expression pattern. METHODS Macrophages were derived from the peripheral blood of 8 AS patients (median disease duration 13 years [range <1-43 years]) and 9 healthy control subjects over 7 days with the use of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. Cells were stimulated for 24 hours with interferon-gamma (IFN gamma; 100 units/ml), were left untreated for 24 hours, or were treated for 3 hours with lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 10 ng/ml). RNA was isolated and examined by microarray and real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis. RESULTS Microarray analysis revealed 198 probe sets detecting the differential expression of 141 unique genes in untreated macrophages from AS patients compared with healthy controls. Clustering and principal components analysis clearly distinguished AS patients and controls. Of the differentially expressed genes, 78 (55%) were IFN-regulated, and their relative expression indicated a "reverse" IFN signature in AS patient macrophages, where IFN gamma-up-regulated genes were underexpressed and down-regulated genes were overexpressed. Treatment of macrophages with exogenous IFN gamma normalized the expression of these genes between patients and controls. In addition, the messenger RNA encoded by the IFN gamma gene was approximately 2-fold lower in AS patient macrophages at baseline (P = 0.004) and was poorly responsive to LPS (P = 0.018), as compared with healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS Our findings reveal consistent differences in gene expression in macrophages from AS patients, with evidence of a striking "reverse" IFN signature. Together with poor expression and responsiveness of the IFN gamma gene, these results suggest that there may be a relative defect in IFN gamma gene regulation, with autocrine consequences and implications for disease pathogenesis.
PENGGUNAAN PERSPEKTIF POSITIVE ACCOUNTING THEORYTERHADAP KONSERVATISMA AKUNTANSIDI INDONESIA

This study aims to analyze the effect of using Positive Accounting Theory Perspective of Accounting C on s ervatism in Indonesia in manufacturing company from 2008 to 2012. Independent variables of this study are Manajerial Ownership, Public Ownership, Leverage, Profitability, and Firm Size. While the dependent variable of this study is Accounting Conservatism. The data which used in this study were obtained from Indonesian Capital Market Directory (ICMD) for 2008 - 2012 period and historical data published by Indonesia Stock Exchange.There is a population of 139 manufacturing companies. The sampling technique used is purposive sampling with having sample criteria is manufacturing companies listed on the IDX (Indonesia Stock Exchange) in the period 2008 to 2012, so will be obtained 35 as a sample of research with 175 observation data. The method of analyzing data used is multiple linear regression analysis with using of SPPS software version 19. The results of this study to indicate that manajerial ownership, leverage and profitabiltas have a significant effect of accounting conservatisma. Public ownership, firm size have no effect of accounting conservatism.
Vasopressin Response to Dehydration in Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive deterioration of neuropsychological functioning. One of the main neuropathological correlates of the disease is a drop‐out of cholinergic neurons within the central nervous system. The neuropeptide that is responsible for water homeostasis and defense against dehydration, vasopressin, is also under direct cholinergic control. Several studies have suggested that in Alzheimer's disease there has been a trend toward lower vasopressin levels than in age‐matched controls. In order to improve discrimination of normal from diminished vasopressin levels, nine subjects with Alzheimer's disease (mean age 65 ± 2 years) and nine age‐ and sex‐matched controls (68 ± 3 years) underwent a mild provocative challenge of overnight fluid restriction. Individuals with Alzheimer's disease had a greater degree of dehydration, with overnight serum osmolality of 313 ± 4 vs 300 ± 3 Mosmol/kg, P = . 01, and diminished “thirst” as measured by water ingested in one hour of ad libitum water intake. Eight of the nine with Alzheimer's disease had levels of vasopressin which, by extrapolation, appear to be subnormal for their serum osmolalities, whereas seven of the nine control subjects has vasopressin levels within or above the reference range (P < .05). Elderly individuals with Alzheimer's disease may be at increased risk of dehydration during periods of fluid restriction due to the loss of normal physiological responses of “thirst” and vasopressin secretion.