Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PEDIATRIC AND CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE Original Studies Differences in Right and Left Ventricular Remodeling After Transcatheter Closure of Atrial Septal Defect Among Adults

Objectives: To evaluate acute cardiac remodeling after transcatheter closure of atrial septal defect (ASD) in adult patients. Background: In adult patients with ASD, longer periods of cardiac adaptation should be expected after the procedure due to longstanding RV volume overload and subsequent changes in the pulmonary vasculature. There are limited reports about this remodeling in adult patients. Methods: We prospectively enrolled 17 adults (mean age 58.4 6 17.3 years) who underwent successful transcatheter closure of their ASDs from August 2005 to July 2006. We performed routine transthoracic echocardiographic studies, including LV and RV myocardial performance indices, or Tei indices, and plasma brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) sampling before closure of the ASD, and 1 day, 1 month, and 3 months after closure. Results: We found (1) LV end diastolic diameter increased, and RVEDD decreased markedly after the closure; (2) differences existed in LV and RV adaptation. While LV Tei index improved soon after the procedure, RV Tei index worsened until 1 month after the procedure, then recovered by the 3 month follow-up visit; and (3) BNP elevated 1 day after closure of the ASD and declined by the 1-month follow-up visit. Conclusion: ‘‘Shrinkage’’ of the RV and ‘‘expansion’’ of the LV occurred soon after the procedure, even in elderly patients. Device closure of ASDs caused rapid improvement of LV function, but RV function underwent transient deterioration, probably due to delayed changes in RV ventricular mass in the face of acute volume reduction in this aged cohort. ' 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Community of assessment practice or interests: The case of EAP writing assessment

Setting, disseminating and applying assessment standards are part of university academic programmes of study. Nowadays, assessment is increasingly viewed from a social practice perspective, and so doing entails exploring how the quality of assessment is shaped by interaction and co-participation with different communities of practice. Therefore, based on this perspective, the study reported here aimed to examine the assessment policies and practices of laboratory report writing of first year students in credit-bearing, English for Special Purposes programmes at a university in the Sultanate of Oman. Interviews of programme administrators and the instructors plus institutional and programme documents were examined to investigate these assessment policies and practices. The programme administrators were asked about how they planned the written assessment in their programmes, and the instructors were asked about their experiences of these assessments. The data were then analysed thematically using community of practice framework, namely in relation to (1) a shared repertoire of communal resources, (2) mutual engagement, and (3) a sense of joint enterprise. It was found that instead of community of practice, there were (sub)communities of practices wherein interaction, negotiation and communication amongst members and non-members were punctuated by control, power and autonomy, all working with the aim of narrowing the range between the personal goals of the academic and the communal goals of the institution. The overarching conclusion is that in their assessment practices, the two instructional programmes exhibited varying degrees of community of practice based on the above three attributes.
Did Foreign Firms in Bangladesh Pay Higher Dividend during Subprime Crisis? An Investigation

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether foreign firms in Bangladesh paid higher dividend during subprime crisis. A balanced panel data set of fifty- five non-financial firms (nine foreign and 46 local) of Bangladesh for 10 (2002-2011) years from the Dhaka Stock Exchange is used for this study. The specified model has the cash dividend payout as the dependent variable and profitability, external shareholding, growth in GDP, and two dummy variables as explanatory variables. Newey-West estimator is used to estimate the regression equation. Profitability, external shareholding, GDP growth and the dummy variable for foreign firms turned out to be significant. In addition, stability test based on recursive estimation (recursive least squares) was used to visually check for structural break in recursive coefficient graphs which indicated no significant change in dividend payout pattern of foreign firms around subprime crisis. 
NK Cells Play a Critical Role in the Regulation of Class I-Deficient Hemopoietic Stem Cell Engraftment: Evidence for NK Tolerance Correlates with Receptor Editing1

The role that NK cells play in the rejection of hemopoietic stem cell (HSC) and tolerance induction has remained controversial. In this study, we examined whether NK cells play a direct role in the rejection of HSC. Purified HSC from MHC class II-deficient mice engrafted readily in congenic mice, while HSC from class I-deficient donors (β2-microglobulin−/− (β2m−/−)) failed to engraft. Recipient mice lacking CD8+, CD4+, or T cells also rejected HSC from class I-deficient donors, pointing directly to NK cells as the effector in rejection of HSC. Recipients, deficient in or depleted of NK cells, engrafted readily with β2m−/− HSC. Expression of the activating Ly-49D and inhibitory Ly-49G2 receptors on recipient NK cells was significantly decreased in these β2m−/−→B6 chimeras, and the proportion of donor NK cells expressing Ly-49D was also significantly decreased. Notably, β2m−/− chimeras accepted β2m−/− HSC in second transplants, demonstrating that NK cells in the chimeras had been tolerized to β2m−/−. Taken together, our data demonstrate that NK cells play a direct role in the regulation of HSC engraftment, and down-regulation and/or deletion of specific NK subsets in mixed chimeras can contribute to the induction of NK cell tolerance in vivo. Moreover, our data show that bone marrow-derived elements significantly contribute to NK cell development and tolerance.
Collagen Cross-linking for Advanced Progressive Keratoconus

Purpose: Collagen cross-linking (CXL) is a safe and effective procedure to stop progression of keratoconus. However, corneas with a maxK of more than 55 to 58 diopters (D) have been suggested to have an increased failure rate. We report results of CXL for progressive keratoconus in corneas with a maxK of 55 D or more. Methods: Retrospective follow-up. Twenty-eight eyes of 22 patients from 12 to 38 years were treated with CXL for progressive keratoconus. All patients had a preoperative maxK of at least 55 D. Patients were examined on 2 or more occasions after treatment, with a mean follow-up of 22 months. At all visits, patients received routine clinical examination with slit-lamp biomicroscopy, determination of corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), and Pentacam tomography. Results: The average preoperative maxK was 61.2 ± 3.7 D. After CXL, maxK significantly decreased to 59.5 ± 3.7 D at the last recorded visit. In 27 eyes, keratoconic progression seemed to have stopped, and in 14 eyes maxK improved with more than 2.0 D decrease, whereas 1 eye showed an increase in maxK of more than 2.0 D. The average CDVA remained unchanged after CXL treatment, although 11 eyes improved and 2 eyes had an unexplained loss of CDVA. Conclusions: CXL treatment in eyes with advanced progressive keratoconus prevented further progression in 27 of 28 eyes. Progression in cases with advanced keratoconus should not exclude CXL as a treatment to preserve visual acuity or as a supplement to other treatment modalities to delay or avoid keratoplasty.
Premature birth and insulin resistance in infancy: A prospective cohort study

Objective: This study was done to determine the role of prematurity and other variables to predict insulin sensitivity in infancy. Subjects and Methods: In this prospective study, 36 preterm appropriate for gestational age (AGA), 11 preterm small for gestational age (SGA), and 17 term SGA included as study cohort and 36 term AGA as control cohort. Detailed anthropometry assessment was performed at birth, 3, 6, and 9 months and at 9 months, fasting plasma glucose and serum insulin was done. Insulin resistance was determined by using homeostasis model assessment version 2. Results: It is found that preterm AGA (mean difference 0.617, 95% confidence interval [CI]; 0.43–0.80, P = 0.0001), preterm SGA (mean difference 0.764, 95% CI; 0.44–1.09, P = 0.0001), and term AGA (mean difference 0.725, 95% CI; 0.49–0.96, P = 0.0001) group had significantly higher insulin resistance than control. There was no significant difference in between preterm SGA and preterm AGA (mean difference 0.147 95% CI; −0.13–0.42, P = 0.927). In multiple regression models, SGA status (β =0.505) was more significant predictor of insulin resistance index than gestational age (β = −0.481), weight-for-length (β =0.315), and ponderal index (β = −0.194). Conclusion: Preterm birth is a risk factor for the future development of insulin resistance which may develop as early as infancy.
Immunologic Aspects of Carbamazepine Treatment in Epileptic Patients

SUMMARY: Immune abnormalities have been found in epileptic patients receiving antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Phenytoin (PHT) produces a decrease in serum IgA and IgM levels and a decrease in blastic transformation of circulating lymphocytes stimulated with phytohemoagglutinin (PHA). The effects of carbamazepine (CBZ) on the immune response are still conflicting. To elucidate the effects of CBZ on some immunologic parameters, serum concentrations of IgA, IgG, IgM, the phagocytosis and killing properties of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs), the cytotoxic activity of natural killer cells and the response of lymphocytes to mitogenic agents were studied. Forty healthy individuals and 39 epileptic patients treated with carbamazepine (CBZ) monotherapy (age range 18–40 years) entered the study. Student's t test was used to evaluate the data. CBZ had no effect on the serum immunoglobulin concentrations or on lymphocytic reactivity to phytohemoagglutinin (PHA) mitogen. CBZ produced a significant enhancement of phagocytosis and killing properties of PMNs and an increase in natural killer (NK) cell activity. Therefore, a negative effect of CBZ therapy on the immune system was not observed in this study.
Bone Maturation Reflects the Secular Trend in Growth

The aim of this study was to compare a series of X-rays from the mid–1990s with another taken in the mid–1980s in order to test the possibility that environmental causes affect the skeletal maturation. The first group of subjects included a total of 1,057 girls and 1,055 boys participating in a project for Japan and China health research in 1986. The second group of subjects included a total of 382 girls and 629 boys participating in a project for bone mineral density research in 1996. The skeletal maturity score using the Tanner-Whitehouse 2-RUS method was used as the fundamental datum. This score was used to represent each group. The Wilcoxon’s rank sum test was applied to examine the significance of the difference between the 1986 and the 1996 groups. The 1996 children had not matured more than the 1986 children; children in both groups reached the given scores at almost the same ages. In girls, there was little difference between the groups at 7 years of age, but it declined from 8 years of age onward. Some apparent differences arose at ages 14 and 15, but ceased by age 16 in girls. In boys, no differences were found in those aged from 7 to 17 years, except for 12-year-olds. We did not detect much of a difference in bone maturation between the 1986 and 1996 groups of children, and no differences in height during the same period. Our findings suggest that bone maturation reflects the secular trend in growth.
Accounting Ratios and the Cross‐Section of Expected Stock Returns

Under clean‐surplus accounting, the log return on a stock can be decomposed into a linear function of the contemporaneous log return on equity, the contemporaneous log dividend–price ratio (if the stock pays a dividend), and both the contemporaneous and lagged values of the log book‐to‐market equity ratio. This paper studies the implications of this decomposition for the cross‐section of conditional expected stock returns. The empirical analysis reveals that the log accounting ratios capture cross‐sectional variation in both the conditional mean and conditional variance of log stock returns, which is consistent with the decomposition. It also brings fresh insights to the relation between firm size (market equity) and conditional expected stock returns. The evidence indicates that the conditional median return increases with firm size, while the conditional return skewness decreases with firm size. Empirically, the skewness effect outweighs the median effect, leading to the well‐documented inverse relation between size and average returns. The results of out‐of‐sample tests suggest that investors could use the information provided by the observed values of the log accounting ratios to formulate more effective portfolio strategies.
The Integration of Machine Translation and Translation Memory

We design and evaluate several models for integrating Machine Translation (MT) output into a Translation Memory (TM) environment to facilitate the adoption of MT technology in the localization industry. We begin with the integration on the segment level via translation recommendation and translation reranking. Given an input to be translated, our translation recommendation model compares the output from the MT and the TMsystems, and presents the better one to the post-editor. Our translation reranking model combines k-best lists from both systems, and generates a new list according to estimated post-editing effort. We perform both automatic and human evaluation on these models. When measured against the consensus of human judgement, the recommendation model obtains 0.91 precision at 0.93 recall, and the reranking model obtains 0.86 precision at 0.59 recall. The high precision of these models indicates that they can be integrated into TM environments without the risk of deteriorating the quality of the post-editing candidate, and can thereby preserve TM assets and established cost estimation methods associated with TMs. We then explore methods for a deeper integration of translation memory and machine translation on the sub-segment level. We predict whether phrase pairs derived from fuzzy matches could be used to constrain the translation of an input segment. Using a series of novel linguistically-motivated features, our constraints lead both to more consistent translation output, and to improved translation quality, reflected by a 1.2 improvement in BLEU score and a 0.72 reduction in TER score, both of statistical significance (p < 0.01). In sum, we present our work in three aspects: 1) translation recommendation and translation reranking models that can access high quality MT outputs in the TMenvironment, 2) a sub-segment translation memory and machine translation integration model that improves both translation consistency and translation quality, and 3) a human evaluation pipeline to validate the effectiveness of our models with human judgements.
Purine-metabolizing enzymes in normal rat liver and Novikoff hepatoma.

Summary The levels of activity and the intracellular distribution of 5′-nucleotidase, nucleoside phosphorylase, adenosine deaminase, guanase, adenase, xanthine oxidase, and uricase have been determined in normal liver and in Novikoff hepatoma. The activities of 5′-nucleotidase, nucleoside phosphorylase, guanase, and adenase were greatly diminished, whereas that of adenosine deaminase was increased in the transplanted hepatoma as compared with normal liver. Xanthine oxidase and uricase activities could not be demonstrated in the tumor transplant. The intracellular distributions of the enzymes studied were similar in both the liver and hepatoma tissues. These findings suggest that the catabolism of purines and purine derivatives is not only deeply impaired but completely blocked at the stage of xanthine and hypoxanthine.
Single center experience: Implantation failures, early, and late complications after implantation of a partially biodegradable ASD/PFO‐device (BioStar®)

In the search for a biodegradable device that leaves nothing but the tissue of the patient after complete endotheliazation and absorption, the BioSTAR® device was introduced in 2007 (CE Mark in European community and HPB in Canada) for ASD and PFO closure. It consists of a metal framework covered by a biodegradable membrane generated from a layer of porcine collagen that is broken down and absorbed over time. In a sheep model, the results were promising, showing complete closure of the defect with degradation of approximately 90% of the implanted membrane material after two years.
Environmental and genetic determinants of innovativeness in a natural population of birds

Much of the evidence for the idea that individuals differ in their propensity to innovate and solve new problems has come from studies on captive primates. Increasingly, behavioural ecologists are studying innovativeness in wild populations, and uncovering links with functional behaviour and fitness-related traits. The relative importance of genetic and environmental factors in driving this variation, however, remains unknown. Here, we present the results of the first large-scale study to examine a range of causal factors underlying innovative problem-solving performance (PSP) among 831 great tits (Parus major) temporarily taken into captivity. Analyses show that PSP in this population: (i) was linked to a variety of individual factors, including age, personality and natal origin (immigrant or local-born); (ii) was influenced by natal environment, because individuals had a lower PSP when born in poor-quality habitat, or where local population density was high, leading to cohort effects. Links with many of the individual and environmental factors were present only in some years. In addition, PSP (iii) had little or no measurable heritability, as estimated by a Bayesian animal model; and (iv) was not influenced by maternal effects. Despite previous reports of links between PSP and a range of functional traits in this population, the analyses here suggest that innovativeness had weak if any evolutionary potential. Instead most individual variation was caused by phenotypic plasticity driven by links with other behavioural traits and by environmentally mediated developmental stress. Heritability estimates are population, time and context specific, however, and more studies are needed to determine the generality of these effects. Our results shed light on the causes of innovativeness within populations, and add to the debate on the relative importance of genetic and environmental factors in driving phenotypic variation within populations.
Robust Outlier Removal from Point Clouds Acquired with Structured Light

We present a method for automatic, robust identiﬁcation of outliers in point clouds acquired with structured light. In contrast to most state of the art methods, we consider available 2D information instead of operating on the points only. Our method performs robust even for complex, glossy surfaces, where illumination artifacts introduce ghost geometry or outliers that seamlessly blend into the correct surface. The key idea of our algorithm is to only use cameras for reconstruction and the projector for a separate consistency check. We use encoding by phase shifting to obtain per pixel correspondences for the cameras and subpixel accuracy for the projector. The method requires at least 2 cameras, a projector and a precise calibration of all devices.
The effects of postpartum stress and social support on postpartum women's health status.

BACKGROUND Eastern sociocultural systems differ in many ways from Western ones, and these differences influence many aspects of the postpartum period. AIM The purpose of this study was to determine postpartum women's health status in the wider social context of the Taiwanese family after women return home from the hospital or clinic. METHOD A longitudinal study was conducted with data collected at the first, the third, and the fifth weeks of the postpartum period. Five hundred and twenty-six postpartum women were included in the study using stratified sampling from clinics and hospitals in Kaohsiung City in the southern part of Taiwan. The Hung Postpartum Stress Scale (HPSS), Smilkstein's Social Support Scale, and the Chinese Health Questionnaire were used to obtain information about the women's postpartum stress, social support, and health status at each time point. Data were analysed with factor analysis, repeated measures MANOVA, and multiple logistic regression. RESULTS Three factors associated with postpartum stress were identified by factor analysis: (1) maternity role attainment, (2) lack of social support, and (3) body changes. Furthermore, the level of postpartum stress at the third and the fifth postnatal weeks was higher than at the first. Social support scores at this postnatal week were the highest among the three points in time. In addition, 29%, 41% and 41% of the women at the first, third, and fifth weeks, respectively, had minor psychiatric morbidity. CONCLUSIONS Because the postpartum women's self-reported stress is relatively low whereas the social support is relatively high, especially from the family, this confirms Pillsbury's conclusion regarding the significance of social support during the Chinese women's postpartum period. The study also showed that the three factors associated with postpartum stress were important predictors of postpartum women's health status. Future studies should compare the level of postpartum stress, social support, and women's health status in both Western and Eastern cultures.
Business Cycle and Long-Term Debt: Effects on Hotel Operating Lease

Over the last 25 years, many hotel operators have chosen to lease their property instead of owning as a financing strategy. This paper examines the combined and separate contributions of business cycles and a firm's level of long-term debt on hotel owner/operator use of operating leases. The results indicate that operating leases were used more often during contracting business cycles and less often during cycles of expansion. According to the results, operating leases and long-term debt are not complementary, although they are increasingly treated as complements when the economy suffers a downturn.
Thyroid Cancer after Childhood Exposure to External Radiation: An Updated Pooled Analysis of 12 Studies

Studies have causally linked external thyroid radiation exposure in childhood with thyroid cancer. In 1995, investigators conducted relative risk analyses of pooled data from seven epidemiologic studies. Doses were mostly <10 Gy, although childhood cancer therapies can result in thyroid doses >50 Gy. We pooled data from 12 studies of thyroid cancer patients who were exposed to radiation in childhood (ages <20 years), more than doubling the data, including 1,070 (927 exposed) thyroid cancers and 5.3 million (3.4 million exposed) person-years. Relative risks increased supralinearly through 2–4 Gy, leveled off between 10–30 Gy and declined thereafter, remaining significantly elevated above 50 Gy. There was a significant relative risk trend for doses <0.10 Gy (P < 0.01), with no departure from linearity (P = 0.36). We observed radiogenic effects for both papillary and nonpapillary tumors. Estimates of excess relative risk per Gy (ERR/Gy) were homogeneous by sex (P = 0.35) and number of radiation treatments (P = 0.84) and increased with decreasing age at the time of exposure. The ERR/Gy estimate was significant within ten years of radiation exposure, 2.76 (95% CI, 0.94–4.98), based on 42 exposed cases, and remained elevated 50 years and more after exposure. Finally, exposure to chemotherapy was significantly associated with thyroid cancer, with results supporting a nonsynergistic (additive) association with radiation.