Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impairment of Caloric Function After Cochlear Implantation.

PURPOSE This article seeks to review current literature on caloric function following cochlear implantation while analyzing any correlations of caloric function changes with vestibular symptoms. METHOD This article is a systematic review of evidence-based literature. English language articles published between 1980 and 2014 that presented some form of caloric data from cochlear implant (CI) patients and that did not solely analyze overlapping data from a previous study were reviewed. Twenty-five articles met these criteria. RESULTS Of the 439 individuals tested, 37% of patients demonstrated reduced maximum slow-phase velocity, and 34% had onset of caloric asymmetry post-CI. CONCLUSIONS This review article found that cochlear implantation can affect caloric responses but is variable. When counseling patients preoperatively, possible effects of CI on labyrinthine function should be discussed.
Clinical Pearls in Using Antiarrhythmic Drugs in the Outpatient Setting

A role for oral antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) remains in clinical practice for patients with atrial and ventricular arrhythmias in spite of advances in nonpharmacologic therapy. Pharmacists play a vital role in the appropriate use of AAD dosing, administration, adverse effects, interactions, and monitoring. Pharmacists who are involved in providing care to patients with cardiac arrhythmias must remain updated regarding the efficacy and safety of the most commonly used AADs. This review will address key issues for appropriate initiation and maintenance of commonly selected Vaughan-Williams Class Ic and III agents in the outpatient setting.
Changes in cannabis use and its consequences over 3 years in a remote indigenous population in northern Australia.

BACKGROUND Few studies describe cannabis use in indigenous populations, and no longitudinal studies are available in Australia. We conducted 3-year follow-up interviews and assessments in Aboriginal communities in Arnhem Land (Northern Territory, NT). METHODS A randomly selected sample (n = 161; 80 males, 81 females aged 13-36 years) was assessed in October 2001 and then reassessed in September 2004. An opportunistically recruited sample (n = 104; 53 males, 51 females aged 13-36 years) was also interviewed in 2001 and followed-up in 2004. Cannabis and other substance use were determined by combining proxy assessments by local Aboriginal health workers, medical records and data from interviews. Changes in cannabis use and symptoms of misuse were assessed using McNemar's test for paired proportions and the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Logistic regression assessed associations between clinical presentations and cannabis use at both time-points. RESULTS Those who used cannabis at both baseline and follow-up were at greater risk than those who never used it to have suffered: auditory hallucinations; suicidal ideation; and imprisonment. In the randomly selected cohort there were fewer cannabis users at follow-up than at baseline (P = 0.003). The reduction was evident in females generally (P = 0.008) and older males (aged = 16 at baseline) (P = 0.007). In those interviewed at both baseline and follow-up we measured no statistically significant reduction in frequency and levels of use, although fewer cannabis users reported symptoms of misuse such as: fragmented thought processes; memory disruption; difficulties controlling use; and auditory and visual hallucinations. CONCLUSIONS Modest reductions in cannabis use and its consequences in this population were demonstrated. These may be the result of enhanced supply control and broader socio-political changes.
Designing Good Multi-Dimensional Constellations

In this letter we consider the design of multi-dimensional compact constellations that minimize the average symbol energy for a given minimum Euclidian distance between constellation points. We formulate the constellation design as a non-convex quadratically constrained quadratic programming. We propose a simple and efficient optimization method, which offers good solutions for small to medium sized constellations.
Trust in Health Research Relationships: Accounts of Human Subjects

Trust is fundamental in health research, yet there is little empirical evidence that explores the meaning of trust from the perspective of human subjects. The analysis presented here focuses on how human subjects talked about trust in the in-depth interviews. It emerged from the accounts that trust could not be assumed in the research setting, rather it was portrayed as a dynamic concept, built and easily broken, characterized by reciprocity and negotiation. Human subjects were ambivalent about who, when, what, and how much to trust in the research endeavor. This paper adds a fresh perspective to the literature on trust, and so offers a currently neglected, and little understood dimension to the discourse around health research ethics.
Breast care among Latino immigrant women in the U.S.

Although the U.S. is recognized as a developed country, knowledge of how to perform a breast self-examination (BSE) and the availability and accessibility screening mammography are not evenly distributed across ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups. Some U.S. organizations have decreased their emphases on BSE and are strongly promoting technological advances such as mammography. Disparities in obtaining breast health care are found worldwide. In this article we present the findings of a study that was conducted in a large urban area in the Midwest of the United States, to identify factors associated with breast care in Latino immigrant women (n = 111). Limited knowledge about breast care, unemployment, and short period of residence in the U.S. were all found to be related to inadequate breast care in this group of women. These findings have global implications for health care practitioners in directing attention toward discovering factors that promote and inhibit early breast cancer detection.
PARP1 is a novel independent prognostic factor for the poor prognosis of chordoma.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the expression of PARP1 in chordoma and analyzed its association with clinical factors and patients' prognosis. METHODS The expression of Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) in chordoma specimens from 74 chordoma patients (50 primary and 24 recurrent tumors of 50 patients)and 20 distant normal tissue specimens was measured by immunohistochemical staining. The association of PARP1with the clinical factors and patients' prognosis was also analyzed. RESULTS Of all the chordoma samples, 78% showed high expression of PARP1, whereas, only 10% of distant normal tissues expressed a high level of PARP1 (p< 0.01). Chi-square analysis revealed that high expression of PARP1 was significantly correlated with tumor recurrence (p< 0.01) and invasion into surrounding muscle (p< 0.01), while the data did not indicate any association with patients' gender, age, tumor location and size (p> 0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival curve and log-rank test showed that continuous disease free survival time (CDFS) was significantly shorter in the PARP1-positive group than in the PARP1-negative group (P= 0.019). CONCLUSION High expression of PARP1 is significantly associated with chordoma invasion and recurrence. PARP1 may become a potential biomarker for chordoma in predicting its recurrence and patients' prognosis.
Interactive comment on “Present state of global wetland extent and wetland methane modelling: conclusions from a model intercomparison project (WETCHIMP)” by J. R. Melton et al

The paper of Melton et al. aspires to describe the present state of modelling wetland extent and its associated methane emissions. It does so by describing the results of a model intercomparison project, WETCHIMP. In my opinion the paper is extremely comprehensive, perhaps overly so see below though its full impact will only be realised with the publication of the companion paper by Wania et al. in which the contributing models are described in more detail. This will allow readers to evaluate the extent of the "parameter and structural uncertainty" touched upon here, but never adequately discussed.
The RNA Polymerase of Influenza A Virus Is Stabilized by Interaction with Its Viral RNA Promoter

ABSTRACT The RNA polymerase of the influenza virus is responsible for the transcription and replication of the segmented RNA viral genome during infection of host cells. Polymerase function is known to be strictly dependent on interaction with its RNA promoter, but no attempts to investigate whether the virion RNA (vRNA) promoter stabilizes the polymerase have been reported previously. Here we tested whether the vRNA promoter protects the polymerase against heat inactivation. We prepared partially purified recombinant influenza A virus RNA polymerase, in the absence of influenza virus vRNA promoter sequences, by transient transfection of expression plasmids into human kidney 293T cells. The polymerase was found to be heat labile at 40°C in the absence of added vRNA. However, it was protected from heat inactivation if both the 5′ and 3′ strands of the vRNA promoter were present. By using the ability of vRNA to protect the enzyme against heat inactivation, we established a novel assay, in conjunction with a mutagenic approach, that was used to test the secondary structure requirement of the vRNA promoter for polymerase binding. Binding required a panhandle structure and the presence of local hairpin loop structures in both the 5′ and 3′ ends of vRNA, as suggested by the corkscrew model. The interaction of the vRNA promoter with the influenza virus RNA polymerase heterotrimeric complex is likely to favor a particular closed conformation of the complex, thereby ensuring the stability of the RNA polymerase within both the infected cell and the isolated virus.
Social network analysis as a metric for the development of an interdisciplinary, inter-organizational research team

Abstract The development of an interdisciplinary and inter-organizational research team among eight of Canada’s leading emergency, geriatric medicine and rehabilitation researchers affiliated with six academic centers has provided an opportunity to study the development of a distributed team of interdisciplinary researchers using the methods of social network theory and analysis and to consider whether these methods are useful tools in the science of team science. Using traditional network analytic methods, the team of investigators were asked to rate their relationships with one another retrospectively at one year prior to the team’s first meeting and contemporaneously at two subsequent yearly intervals. Using network analytic statistics and visualizations the data collected finds an increase in network density and reciprocity of relationships together with more distributed centrality consistent with the findings of other researchers. These network development characteristics suggest that the distributed research team is developing as it should and supports the assertion that network analysis is a useful science of team science research tool.
Comparative Evaluation of the Roche Cobas AmpliPrep/Cobas TaqMan HIV-1 Version 2 Test Using the TaqMan 48 Analyzer and the Abbott RealTime HIV-1 Assay

ABSTRACT Acceptable precision was achieved in a comparison study of the Abbott RealTime (RT) and Roche CAP/CTM-48 V2 HIV-1 assays, but viral load quantification was under- and overestimated, respectively, compared to the 2nd HIV-1 WHO International Standard. The same quantification patterns were observed for patient cohorts from Africa and the United States.
Comparative in Vivo Confocal Microscopical Study of the Cornea Anatomy of Different Laboratory Animals

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to analyze and compare in vivo morphology of healthy cornea of six different laboratory animals. Matherials and Methods: One Pomeranian Coarsewool sheep, 5 Beagle dogs, 1 Norwegian and 2 Domestic Short-haired cats, 20 New Zealand White rabbits, 6 Wistar rats, and 10 Balb/c mice were included. The examination was performed bilaterally, using Heidelberg Retina Tomograph equipped with Rostock Cornea Module. The morphology of living corneal layers was visualized and compared between species. The central corneal thickness, density of keratocytes, and endothelial cells were quantified. Results: The epithelial multilayer showed a similarity in morphology between animal types, displaying three clearly distinguishable layers: superficial, intermediate, and basal. Subbasal nerve fibers were displayed as hyperreflective structures underneath basal cells. The subbasal fibers were confirmed in all species, however, the density varied between species. A pronounced Bowman’s membrane was visualized in sheep. In all other species, however, a thin acellular layer with overlying nerve fibers could be seen between basal epithelial cells and anterior stroma. The keratocytes nuclei could be demonstrated in all species except for mice, where no nuclei but only reflective structures resembling keratocytes cell bodies were detected. Overall, the density of keratocytes nuclei was significantly higher in the anterior than in the posterior stroma. Besides endothelial cells density, the endothelial cells morphology was very similar among all species, except for sheep. The endothelial cells were displayed as polygonal structures with bright cytoplasm and dark borders. In sheep, the appearance of the endothelium was very poor because of a thick hyperreflective Descemet’s membrane. Conclusions: The present study will help researchers consider appropriate models for animal experiments, depending on focus of investigation. In vivo CLSM can be used for the characterization of the living cornea over time, thus, reducing the number of animal experiments.
Pengaruh Keahlian Audit dan Independensi terhadap Pendapat Audit: Sebuah Kuasieksperimen

Auditor’s opinion is the service product of public accounting firms. Auditor opinion forms the quality assurance of financial statements issued by a corporation. This opinion is based on the auditor’s belief toward the evidence collected. It means that auditor opinion is the auditor’s inference on the evidence collected. This inference is often incorrect. An opinion on audited financial statement is based on the assumption that the company will be viable during a reasonable period of time (one year, SPAP 341). This going concern concept is the main assumption in publishing a financial statement. Auditors have often made mistakes in predicting a company’s going-concern. Erroneous opinions occurred not only in Indonesia. Taffler and Citroen (1988) showed that among USA and British companies that failed, only 20 per cent that receive qualified opinion. Actually, the mistakes may simply occur due to fraudulence. But should the frauds were considered nonexistent, the question is, “Why is it happen? ” This study tried to answer that question. The results showed that some of these mistakes were due to auditing competence and independence factors (Barnes and Huan 1993; Lee, Tom, and Stone 1995). In addition to auditing skills and independence factors, the decision over the going-concern of a company was a type of decision that needed a testing of a long-term memory (Birenberg and Shields 1984; Libby 1989). A bias may occur because of the error in recalling other related types of information. This bias will cause the error in drawing a conclusion (Libby 1989). Choo and Trotman (1991) argued that the experienced auditors had more tendencies to recall atypical than typical information. This study was performed using quasi-experiment. The experiment was performed in two stages. In the first stage, an instrument classifying the expert and non-expert and the independent and non-independent was developed. The instrument was used to manipulate the subjects as the experts and non-experts as well as independent and non-independent. The experimental group was assigned to predict continuity a company in one year later. In the second step, the experiment was per formed to test whether there were treatment differences (expert and non-expert) with respect to the typical and atypical information. The analysis used in the experiment was ANOVA. The results showed that the opinion on the company going concern of the expert and the independent auditor was statistically different from that of the other experimental group. This finding supported the first hypothesis. Further testing on the impact of expert and nonexpert on the quantity of information use was also determined by the information typed. This was demonstrated by the interaction between the expertise and the type of information. The study results confirmed Choo and Trotman’s study (1991) that the expert auditors gave more attention to atypical information.
Protective effect of ethanolic extract of polyherbal formulation on carbon tetrachloride induced liver injury

Protective effect of ethanolic extract of polyherbalformulation (PHF) of three medicinalplants was studied on carbon tetrachloride induced liver damage in rats. Treatment with 250mg I kg b.w. of ethanolic extract of PHF protected rats against carbon tetrachloride liver injury by significantly lowering 5’NT, GGF, GDH and SDH and bilirubin levels compared to control group of rats. Normalising the effect of these parameters indicates strong hepatoprotective property of the PHF extract.
Identifying Restaurant Features via Sentiment Analysis on Yelp Reviews

Many people use Yelp to find a good restaurant. Nonetheless, with only an overall rating for each restaurant, Yelp offers not enough information for independently judging its various aspects such as environment, service or flavor. In this paper, we introduced a machine learning based method to characterize such aspects for particular types of restaurants. The main approach used in this paper is to use a support vector machine (SVM) model to decipher the sentiment tendency of each review from word frequency. Word scores generated from the SVM models are further processed into a polarity index indicating the significance of each word for special types of restaurant. Customers overall tend to express more sentiment regarding service. As for the distinction between different cuisines, results that match the common sense are obtained: Japanese cuisines are usually fresh, some French cuisines are overpriced while Italian Restaurants are often famous for their pizzas.
Export Activity in Visegrad 4 Countries: Firm Level Investigation

Following the new strand in the new trade theory literature that focuses on firm heterogeneity initiated by the Melitz [2003] model, in this paper we investigate the determinants of export activity of firms in the Visegrad-4 countries. The study covers the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia and is based on firm level data for the 2002–2009 period.We will start with estimating probit regressions for the pooled dataset that includes all V-4 countries and will then disaggregate the sample into particular countries. Our preliminary estimation results obtained for the whole V-4 sample indicate that the probability of exporting increases with the higher share of university graduates in productive employment, larger spending on R&D projects, the use of foreign technology licenses, foreign ownership, higher productivity and company size. The results obtained for particular V-4 countries reveal some degree of heterogeneity among those countries.
Charts for estimating the axial shielding factors for triple-shell open-ended cylindrical shields

Describing the shields with the number of shells greater than two differs from the previously done work in having a significant increase in the number of charts needed. To limit the number of charts, only the shields were examined that have the most-used exterior aspect ratio, namely, equal to 5. It was also assumed that all the shielding shells are made of the same material with an equal and relatively small thickness, which is a practical case as well. Since the three-shell structure does not allow much freedom for variations in the air gaps between the shells, only the shields having air gaps of 5% and 10% of the diameter of the outermost shell were considered. Finally, a set of charts was computed with the help of a standard ANSYS(R) software employing an FEM method. The charts are represented as logarithmic contour plots where the ratio of the inner to outer shells' lengths and permeability normalized to the thickness-to-diameter ratio of the outermost shell are independent variables; and the air gaps and ratio of the middle to outer shells' lengths are fixed parameters. The charts calculated allow one to quickly estimate the axial shielding factor and to clearly observe the effect of the shield's parameters on the axial shielding.
Vestibular dysfunction of patients with mutations of Connexin 26

The gap junctional network of the inner ear plays an important role in cochlear ionic homoeostasis. Mutations of connexin 26 can induce different types of hearing loss and even deafness. Therefore, it is hypothesized that gap junctions of the human vestibular organ are functionally impaired by mutations of connexin 26. In a prospective, nonrandomized study, the functional status of the semicircular canals and the otolith organs was assessed in one homozygous and six heterozygous carriers of connexin 26 mutations. Five out of seven patients (71.4%) had pathological vestibular evoked myogenic potentials, indicating a loss of saccular function. The utricular function (as tested by subjective haptic vertical) and the function of the semicircular canals (as tested by recording the vestibuloocular reflex) were largely normal. Thus, connexin 26 mutations can be associated with saccular defects of the vestibular receptors.
The process of the strategy formulation in small and medium enterprises in Greece and the role of accounting information

This thesis examines the strategy formulation of small and medium enterprises in Greece by measuring the two principal dimensions of the strategy formulation process, the normative/descriptive dimension and the individual/collective dimension. For the purposes of the thesis a theoretical model of strategy formulation is proposed and evaluated, drawing upon the principles of contingency theory which presumes that there is no exclusive approach to strategy formulation which applies likewise to all firms in all circumstances. According to contingency theory there are many variables or factors which predict and influence the decision of formulating a strategy. Furthermore, the thesis investigates the role of accounting information on the process of strategy formulation by examining the relationship between the adoption of a specific strategy formulation approach and the information sources that SMEs use, the extensiveness of accounting information usage and the perceived usefulness of accounting information to SME managers. Using a data-triangulation (semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire), the findings of the study show the following: First, organizational size, perceived environmental volatility, the level of technology and specific owner manager characteristics (experience and education) are all significant predictors of SMEs adoption of a specific strategy formulation approach. Second, accounting information usage is positively associated with the normative and collective strategy formulation approaches. More specific, SMEs which utilize a broad range of information sources, which engage in extensive accounting information utilization and which perceive accounting information as very useful are positively correlated with the normative and collective approaches of strategy formulation. Third, financial performance was found to have a positive relationship with the descriptive and individualistic approach to strategy, meaning that SME owner managers who employ emergent strategies without the collaboration and participation of others in the process tend to achieve higher levels of profitability. Fourth, significant differences were found between SMEs having a different ownership status (family and non-family SMEs) and belonging to different business sectors (retail, construction and service providing firms) in relation to strategy formulation approach.