Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Childhood appendicitis: factors associated with perforation.

A retrospective study was performed to identify factors associated with perforation in 150 children with acute appendicitis. The children's parents were interviewed about the nature and timing of care, family history of appendicitis, and history of abdominal pain episodes, and the children's medical records were reviewed. Delay in treatment--the interval between first recognized symptoms of abdominal pain and surgery--was most predictive of perforation. A treatment delay of more than 36 hours was associated with a 65% or greater incidence of perforation. Mean delay for the group with perforation of the appendix was 66.7 hours compared with 35.8 hours for the group having appendicitis without perforation (P less than .01). Mean professional delay was significantly longer in the group with perforated appendicitis than in the group having appendicitis without perforation (P less than .01), but mean parental delay was not. Children aged 1 to 4 years and those aged 5 to 8 years had a 74% and 66% incidence of perforation, respectively, compared with a 30% to 42% incidence in older children (P less than .01). Age had a significant effect upon perforation even when adjusted for delay in treatment. Other factors associated with perforation were family history of appendicitis, social class, advice given by the first health professional contacted, and the presence of fecaliths. When all factors were considered simultaneously by using logistic regression techniques, delay in treatment, age, and absence of a family history of appendicitis were all significant predictors of perforation.
Measurement in information retrieval evaluation

Full-text retrieval systems employ heuristics to match documents to user queries. Retrieval correctness cannot, therefore, be formally proven, but must be evaluated through human assessment. To make evaluation automatable and repeatable, assessments of which documents are relevant to which queries are collected in advance, to form a test collection. Collection-based evaluation has been the standard in retrieval experiments for half a century, but only recently have its statistical foundations been considered. This thesis makes several contributions to the reliable and efficient measurement of the behaviour and effectiveness of information retrieval systems. First, the high variability in query difficulty makes effectiveness scores difficult to interpret, analyze, and compare. We therefore propose the standardization of scores, based on the observed results of a set of reference systems for each query. We demonstrate that standardization controls variability and enhances comparability. Second, while testing evaluation results for statistical significance has been established as standard practice, the importance of ensuring that significance can be reliably achieved for a meaningful improvement (the power of the test) is poorly understood. We introduce the use of statistical power analysis to the field of retrieval evaluation, finding that most test collections cannot reliably detect incremental improvements in performance. We also demonstrate the pitfalls in predicting score standard deviation during design-phase power analysis, and offer some pragmatic methodological suggestions. Third, in constructing a test collection, it is not feasible to assess every document for relevance to every query. The practice instead is to run a set of systems against the collection, and pool their top results for assessment. Pooling is potentially biased against systems which are neither included in nor similar to the pooled set. We propose a robust, empirical method for estimating the degree of pooling bias, through performing a leave-one-out experiment on fully pooled systems and adjusting unpooled scores accordingly. Fourth, there are many circumstances in which one wishes directly to compare the document rankings produced by different retrieval systems, independent of their effectiveness. These rankings are top-weighted, non-conjoint, and of arbitrary length, and no suitable similarity measures have been described for such rankings. We propose and analyze such a rank similarity measure, called rank-biased overlap, and demonstrate its utility, on real and simulated data. Finally, we conclude the thesis with an examination of the state and function of retrieval evaluation. A survey of published results shows that there has been no measurable improvement in retrieval effectiveness over the past decade. This lack of progress has been obscured by the general use of uncompetitive baselines in published experiments, producing the appearance of substantial and statistically significant improvements for new systems without actually advancing the state of the art.
Jaw Mechanics in Basal Ceratopsia (Ornithischia, Dinosauria)

Ceratopsian dinosaurs were a dominant group of herbivores in Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystems. We hypothesize that an understanding of the feeding system will provide important insight into the evolutionary success of these animals. The mandibular mechanics of eight genera of basal ceratopsians was examined to understand the variability in shape of the jaws and the early evolution of the masticatory system in Ceratopsia. Data were collected on lever arms, cranial angles and tooth row lengths. The results indicate that psittacosaurids had higher leverage at the beak and in the rostral part of the tooth row than basal neoceratopsians, but lower leverage in the caudal part of the tooth row. Although the vertebrate mandible is generally considered as a third‐class lever, that of basal neoceratopsians acted as a second‐class lever at the caudal part of the tooth row, as is also true in ceratopsids. When total input force from the mandibular adductor muscles on both sides of the skull is considered, the largest bite force in basal ceratopsian tooth rows was exerted in the caudal part of the tooth row at the caudal extremity of the zone with near‐maximum input force. Medially positioned teeth generate higher leverage than laterally positioned teeth. The largest bite force in all basal ceratopsians is smaller than the maximum input force, a limit imposed by the morphology of the basal ceratopsian masticatory system. In ceratopsids, caudal extension of the tooth row resulted in a much larger bite force, even exceeding the maximum input force. Anat Rec, 292:1352–1369, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Isolation of octopamine from annual rye grass.

In considering the biogenesis of the oxazole alkaloid, annuloline, which occurs in annual rye grass (Lolium multifloruin), and whose structure was determined by Karimoto et al. (1), the participation of 8-hydroxyphenylethylamine seemed likely. This idea was given support by the discovery of synephrine in tangerine leaves (2) and octopamine in lemon leaves (3), showing that such compounds do exist in plants. It is conceivable that a precursor of annuloline is derived from such a /8-hydroxyphenylethylamine and a substituted cinnamic acid:
The future of interactive drama

Interactive Drama is the ultimate challenge of digital entertainment. In this paper, from our seven year experience in Interactive Drama, we try to shape the history of the field and envision what will be (or should be) the future of this history. Two main directions in particular are stressed, because we feel that the success of Interactive Drama lies in these two directions. The first one concerns the architecture of systems and how it would manage both narrative constraints and character's intelligence, believability and roundness. The second one focuses on project management by sketching a methodology of co-design for Interactive Drama.
Convection in a Parameterized and Superparameterized Model and Its Role in the Representation of the MJO

Abstract The behavior of convection and the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) is compared in two simulations from the same global climate model but with two very different treatments of convection: one has a conventional parameterization of moist processes and the other replaces the parameterization with a two-dimensional cloud-resolving model, the so-called superparameterization. The different behavior of local convection and the MJO in the two model simulations reveals that the accurate representation of the following characteristics in the modes of convection might contribute to the improvement of the MJO simulations: (i) precipitation should be an exponentially increasing function of the column saturation fraction, (ii) heavy precipitation should be associated with a stratiform diabatic heating profile, and (iii) there should be a positive relationship between precipitation and surface latent heat flux.
Positive end-expiratory pressure decreases mesenteric blood flow despite normalization of cardiac output.

Positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) is a commonly used adjunct to mechanical ventilation and is known to have deleterious effects on cardiac output (CO). Its effects on regional blood flow are not well known. We evaluated the effect of PEEP on the mesenteric microcirculation and CO. Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with mechanical ventilation and either no PEEP (Control) or increasing levels of PEEP (PEEP). Using in vivo video-microscopy, mesenteric A1 arteriolar optical Doppler velocities and A1 and A3 (the first- and third-order arterioles branching off the feeding mesenteric arcade) intraluminal diameters were measured (n = 6/group). In a separate set of experimental animals, CO was determined by thermodilution technique (n = 5/group). Additionally, after the PEEP group attained a PEEP level of 20-cm H2O PEEP, two boluses of 2 mL 0.9 normal saline (NS) were given intravenously. The Control groups had the same determinations performed over the same time course as the PEEP group but were not exposed to any PEEP. Mesenteric blood flow (MBF) was calculated from vessel diameter and red blood cell velocity. The MBF and CO fell progressively as PEEP was increased from 10- to 15- to 20-cm H2O pressure. MBF was reduced 75% (p < 0.05) and the CO was reduced 31% (p < 0.05) from baseline at 20-cm H2O pressure PEEP. After 4 mL normal saline, the MBF was still 45% below baseline (p < 0.05) while the CO had returned to baseline. In conclusion, both MBF and CO are decreased significantly with increasing PEEP. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Deregulated G1–S control and energy stress contribute to the synthetic-lethal interactions between inactivation of RB and TSC1 or TSC2

Summary Synthetic lethality is a potential strategy for cancer treatment by specifically promoting the death of cancer cells with particular defects such as the loss of the RB (RB1) tumor suppressor. We previously showed that inactivation of both RB and TSC2 induces synergistic apoptosis during the development of Drosophila melanogaster and in cancer cells. However, the in vivo mechanism of this synthetic-lethal interaction is not clear. Here, we show that synergistic cell death in tissues that have lost the RB and TSC orthologs rbf and dtsc1/gig, respectively, or overexpress Rheb and dE2F1, are correlated with synergistic defects in G1–S control, which causes cells to accumulate DNA damage. Coexpression of the G1–S inhibitor Dap, but not the G2–M inhibitor dWee1, decreases DNA damage and reduces cell death. In addition, we show that rbf and dtsc1 mutant cells are under energy stress, are sensitive to decreased energy levels and depend on the cellular energy stress-response pathway for survival. Decreasing mitochondrial ATP synthesis by inactivating cova or abrogating the energy-stress response by removing the metabolic regulator LKB1 both enhance the elimination of cells lacking either rbf or dtsc1. These observations, in conjunction with the finding that deregulation of TORC1 induces activation of JNK, indicate that multiple cellular stresses are induced and contribute to the synthetic-lethal interactions between RB and TSC1/TSC2 inactivation. The insights gained from this study suggest new approaches for targeting RB-deficient cancers.
In Search of A New Development Model For Tunisia: Assessing the Performance of the Offshore Regime

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the offshore regime in Tunisia and to assess the overall effects of this export promoting strategy for the years 2002-2014. Using firm-level data, we look in particular at its impact on turnover, productivity, wages, job creation, profitability and survival of firms. We compare offshore firms to onshore firms to assess if the incentives that were provided to the former have been successful. Analysis of offshore premium on samples including all firms and only exporting firms show that both categories of offshore firms have a better performance for all indicators. Generally, the important gap between the performance indicators such as turnover, productivity and wages and the very high level of profitability displayed by offshore firms, all categories considered, compared to onshore firms points out that incentives given by the Tunisian Investment Code is benefiting more firms than to the country. When considering the specific example of offshore exporting and importing firms, performance is weaker than their onshore counterparts across the board, except in the areas of gross job creation and profitability. Lower productivity of two way offshore traders suggest that these firms are low performers and that they self-select in the offshore regime in order to cover their export fixed costs. The survival analysis highlights an increased probability that offshore two-way traders will exit the market once tariffs and tax exemptions privileges end, usually after 10 years. Thus, incentives given in the Tunisian Investment Code are attracting mainly firms in lower rungs of the Global Value Chains. Instead of incentives, Tunisia should rethink its Investment Code in favor of highly added sectors that requires more complex skills and capital.
Product development sourcing over technology life-cycle

Product development sourcing is vital due to the significant impact on company and product success. Different technology life-cycle (TLC) stages also necessitate product development sourcing to focus accordingly. Understanding the dynamics of product development sourcing over TLC's can prove beneficial. This study analyses product development sourcing strategies through three strategy formulating theories of transaction cost theory, knowledge-based theory, and resource-based theory over TLC stages. Three sourcing strategies of outsourcing, strategic acquisitions, and strategic alliances are considered. The topic is approached both by analysing literature and applying inductive logic for analysing product development sourcing over three technology generations in the context of an important player in the high-tech infrastructure business. A framework is introduced where product development activities emphasis and sourcing strategies' focus is presented over TLC, indicating the priorities in different situations. Contribution is provided by analysing motivations behind product development sourcing decisions over three technology generations' life-cycles.
Strategies to Improve Engagement Among Public Sector Information Technology Employees

Strategies to Improve Engagement Among Public Sector Information Technology Employees by Michelle Dawn Benham MBA, University of Phoenix, 2012 MEd, Northern Arizona University, 2001 BEd, Arizona State University, 1996 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration
K-band CMOS power amplifier with adaptive bias for enhancement in back-off efficiency

A K-band power amplifier that dynamically adjusts the dc consumption based on the output power is presented. Compared with a fixed-bias PA that consumes a constant dc power of 265 mW, the proposed PA saves 157 mW at quiescent state and 88 mW when operated at P1dB 6-dB back-off, and the OP1dB of the PA is also extended. This is the first CMOS PA with effective enhancement in back-off efficiency near MMW region.
Age-Related Changes in the Processing of Emotional Faces in a Dual-Task Paradigm

Background/ Study Context: Age-related changes appear to affect the ability to identify emotional facial expressions in dual-task conditions (i.e., while simultaneously performing a second visual task). The level of interference generated by the secondary task depends on the phase of emotional processing affected by the interference and the nature of the secondary task. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of these variables on age-related changes in the processing of emotional faces. Methods: The identification of emotional facial expressions (EFEs) was assessed in a dual-task paradigm using the following variables: (a) the phase during which interference was applied (encoding vs. retrieval phase); and (b) the nature of the interfering stimulus (visuospatial vs. verbal). The sample population consisted of 24 healthy aged adults (mean age = 75.38) and 40 younger adults (mean age = 26.90). The accuracy of EFE identification was calculated for all experimental conditions. Results: Consistent with our hypothesis, the performance of the older group was poorer than that of the younger group in all experimental conditions. Dual-task performance was poorer when the interference occurred during the encoding phase of emotional face processing and when both tasks were of the same nature (i.e., when the experimental condition was more demanding in terms of attention). Conclusions: These results provide empirical evidence of age-related deficits in the identification of emotional facial expressions, which may be partially explained by the impairment of cognitive resources specific to this task. These findings may account for the difficulties experienced by the elderly during social interactions that require the concomitant processing of emotional and environmental information.
Increased prevalence of varicella zoster virus DNA in cerebrospinal fluid from patients with multiple sclerosis

In order to investigate the possible involvement of viruses in Multiple Sclerosis (MS), the study evaluated the presence of viral genomic sequences in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), as markers of viral replication within the central nervous system (CNS). A total of 85 CSF samples were collected from 38 MS patients, 28 patients with other neurological diseases and 19 subjects without neurological diseases. Using nested‐PCR, the investigation focused on the presence of human herpes virus DNA, including herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV‐1) and 2 (HSV‐2), the Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV), varicella zoster virus (VZV), human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), human herpes virus 6 (HHV‐6) and JC virus (JCV). All the CSF samples from the individuals without neurological diseases were negative for viral DNA. Genomic sequences of HSV‐1, HCMV, EBV, HHV6, and JCV were found in patients with MS and other neurological diseases without significant differences between the two groups. VZV DNA was detected more frequently (P < 0.05) in the MS group (31.6%), particularly among the relapsing‐remitting MS patients (43.5%), compared with patients with other neurological diseases (10.7%). In addition, the results indicated that JCV and HHV‐6 were replicating actively in the CNS of a small, but significant number of patients with MS and other neurological diseases. Most importantly, the study revealed a high frequency of VZV DNA in the CSF of patients with MS, suggesting a possible role of this virus in the pathogenesis of MS. J. Med. Virol. 79:192–199, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Poverty Reduction in the Developing Countries

The aim of this study is to choose and estimate the effect of foreign investments in engine for economic growth and hence poverty reduction in the developing countries. The study concluded that there is a weak effect of non-moral of foreign investments on decreasing unemployment in the developing countries, regardless of the existence or absence of development. In addition, the study concluded with a negative effect for the total local production on unemployment and poverty. Finally, we concluded that this may be a result of profit repatriation of foreign firms, crowding out of domestic investment because of FDI or low level of human capital in the country. Consequently, the study recommended to despite how desirable the inflow of FDI is to developing countries, care should be taken when attracting foreign investments and they should be directed to the productive sectors of the economy. Also government should create a competitive environment so as to maximize the benefits of FDI because by exposing foreign investors to an even playing field with indigenous investors.
Adsorption of Human Salivary Proteins to Hydroxyapatite: A Comparison Between Whole Saliva and Glandular Salivary Secretions

The protein compositions of in vitro pellicles formed from whole saliva and parotid and submandibular secretions were determined by use of synthetic hydroxyapatite as a model for dental enamel. The adsorbed and unadsorbed protein fractions were analyzed by amino acid analysis and both anionic and cationic discontinuous polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. For further characterization of the in vitro pellicle, the adsorbed fractions were subjected to gel filtration on Sephadex G-100 and reversed-phase chromatography on C18 columns. Amylase, acidic and glycosylated proline-rich proteins, statherins, and histatins were identified in the parotid-derived pellicle. Detailed analysis of the statherin-containing fractions resulted in the observation of several statherin-like proteins. The use of cationic gel electrophoresis allowed for the identification of histatin 3 and histatin 5, which have not been previously detected in pellicle formed in vitro. The protein composition of submandibular-derived pellicle was similar to that of parotid-derived pellicle except for the presence of cystatins and the absence of glycosylated proline-rich proteins. In contrast, in vitro pellicle derived from whole saliva exhibited a vastly different composition, consisting primarily of amylase, acidic proline-rich proteins, cystatins, and proteolytically-derived peptides. The results indicate that acidic phosphoproteins as well as neutral and basic histatins from pure secretions selectively adsorb to hydroxyapatite, whereas in whole saliva some of these proteins are proteolytically degraded, dramatically changing its adsorption pattern.
The Shortest Path Problem on a Fuzzy Time-Dependent Network

In this study, we introduce a Fuzzy Time-Dependent Network (FTDN) and analyze its shortest path problem. The FTDN is a network in which travel times are represented as fuzzy sets and are also time-dependent. Under these circumstances, the shortest path problem on the FTDN is far more complex in comparison with the shortest path problem on the existing networks. To highlight the complexity, we show that on the FTDN, "standard" shortest path algorithms (e.g., the well-known Dijkstra algorithm) are not able to come up with solutions. Subsequently, we construct a suitable method which is suitable to deal with the shortest problem. A fuzzy programming model is presented for finding the shortest path on the FTDN. The proposed model is handled through the techniques which combine mechanisms of fuzzy simulation and genetic optimization. In this particular setting, fuzzy simulation is exploited to estimate the value of uncertain functions, which do not exist in the general networks. The proposed model is evaluated with the use of numerical experimentation. A comparative analysis demonstrates that the proposed model leads to the shortest path while standard algorithms are not capable of finding the path when dealing with the shortest path problem on the FTDN.