Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Treadmill step training promotes spinal cord neural plasticity after incomplete spinal cord injury

A large body of evidence shows that spinal circuits are significantly affected by training, and that intrinsic circuits that drive locomotor tasks are located in lumbosacral spinal segments in rats with complete spinal cord transection. However, after incomplete lesions, the effect of treadmill training has been debated, which is likely because of the difficulty of separating spontaneous stepping from specific training-induced effects. In this study, rats with moderate spinal cord contusion were jected to either step training on a treadmill or used in the model (control) group. The treadmill training began at day 7 post-injury and lasted 20 ± 10 minutes per day, 5 days per week for 10 weeks. The speed of the treadmill was set to 3 m/min and was increased on a daily basis according to the tolerance of each rat. After 3 weeks of step training, the step training group exhibited a sig-nificantly greater improvement in the Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan score than the model group. The expression of growth-associated protein-43 in the spinal cord lesion site and the number of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive ventral neurons in the second lumbar spinal segment were greater in the step training group than in the model group at 11 weeks post-injury, while the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor protein in the spinal cord lesion site showed no difference between the two groups. These results suggest that treadmill training significantly improves functional re-covery and neural plasticity after incomplete spinal cord injury.
Running head: STRENGTHENING THE MARRIAGE BOND 1 Strengthening the Marriage Bond in Newlyweds: Factors and Strategies for Successful Outcomes

Marital satisfaction is associated with numerous positive factors while dissolution of marriage is associated with numerous negative factors, especially within the first four years of marriage. Positive factors that contribute to successful marital outcomes are being first married at age 25 and older, possessing a higher level of education, and homogeneous traits such as race, age, and education. Risk factors associated with dissolution of marriage are cohabitation, remarriage, and having children in the family. Identifying strategies to reduce divorce proneness is critical since 20% of first marriages end within five years.
On Image Similarity, Sparse Representation and Kolmogorov Complexity

This paper presents a very general method for the computation of a suitable measure of similarity between two images. The proposed measure relies on the parsimony of some suitable representation of one image using the information of the other. Two quite different theories which capitalize on the parsimony of representation are - Sparse representation and Kolmogorov complexity. The first is used to efficiently model the structures of an object while the latter measures the length of the shortest program that can effectively reconstruct it. This work understands and exploits the link between Sparse representation and Kolmogorov complexity. We show that for an image having a sparse representation w.r. t. some bases, the sparsity of its representation can be used as a practical analog to its Kolmogorov complexity; and the sparsity can be used to develop a meaningful measure of (dis)similarity. The generality of the proposed distance measure is demonstrated through a variety of tasks such as perceptual similarity measurement, clustering, and texture classification. The usefulness of the measure is indicated by the accurate experimental results achieved on a diverse collection of datasets. Index Terms—Image similarity, Compression, Kolmogorov complexity, Overcomplete dictionary, Sparsity, F
Review and evaluation of methods of smoking cessation, 1969-77. Summary of a monograph.

ALTHOUGH 38 PERCENT OF THE U.S. POPULATION has quit smoking, there remained 53 million smokers in 1975. Six of 10 smokers have seriously attempted to stop but have failed; another 3 say they would try to stop if there were an easy way. Many smokers need help in quitting, which is the reason smoking cessation methods have proliferated during the last decade. This report is a summary of a monograph on smoking control methods published by the Bureau of Health Education, Center for Disease Control (1), and a followup to a critical review in Public Health Reports in 1969 (2). In 1975, 39.3 percent of the U.S. males 21 years and older were smoking, a decrease of 13.5 percent since 1964. Smoking among females 21 years and older declined from 31.4 to 28.4 percent during the same decade. Over the 6 years from 1969 to 1976, however, the percentage of U.S. teenage boys who smoked did not change (30 percent), while the teenage girls who smoked increased from 22 to 27 percent. Smoking rates are about the same among Canadian and U.S. adults. Between 1965 and 1974, regular smoking among Canadian teenagers increased 3 percent.
A Practical Outdoor Activity Detection System ∗

We describe implementation details of an activity detectio n system whose function is to detect small image regions (pixels) that are inconsistent with a learned and adaptive background model. The system is based on a classic multiple Gaussian model approach, but c ontains additional model elements to deal with phenomena characteristic of outdoor environment such as wind-blown foliage and moving cloud shadows.
[Disturbances of small intestinal motility in patients with chronic constipation].

BACKGROUND Studies in patients with chronic severe constipation, suggest the presence of a diffuse motor disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. AIM To investigate small bowel motor activity in a group of patients with severe constipation. MATERIAL AND METHODS Forty three patients (age range 13 to 70 years, 40 women) with severe constipation referred to our motility laboratory, where studied. Ten had a previous colectomy. Radiological examinations showed a megacolon in 30 and dilatation of small intestinal loops in nine; the remaining X rays studies were normal. Small intestinal motility was studied using perfused catheters and external transducers. RESULTS Ten patients had normal motor recordings. Eight patients showed a neuropathic disorder characterized by a continuous irregular pattern of contractions of normal amplitude, with absence of phase III of the migrating motor complex (MMC). Sixteen presented a normal MMC associated to a decreased amplitude of contractions (Miopatic disorder). Nine showed both types of motor disorders (Mixed pattern). Normal radiological findings were more commonly associated to normal manometric recordings. By contrast, an altered motor activity, mainly of myopathic and mixed type motor disorder, was observed in all patients with dilated small intestinal and colonic loops. CONCLUSIONS The presence of small intestinal motor disorders was a frequent finding in this selected group of patients with chronic constipation.
A Critical Assessment of Outcomes in Emergency versus Nonemergency General Surgery Using the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Database

Emergent operations are thought to carry higher morbidity and mortality than nonemergent cases. However, there is a lack of specific outcomes data for emergent general surgery procedures. The objective of our study was to assess and quantify postoperative morbidity and mortality for emergency versus nonemergency general surgery operations. All general surgery inpatients were identified in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program 2008 database. Preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative clinical metrics and occurrences were assessed. A total of 25,770 emergent and 98,867 nonemergent cases were identified. Postoperative morbidity was significantly worse in the emergent group, including ventilation more than 48 hours, bleeding requiring transfusion, deep vein thrombosis, renal failure, and need for reoperation. Overall, emergent cases had significantly more postoperative complications (22.8% vs 14.2%) and higher mortality rates (6.5% vs 1.4%). General surgery patients who undergo emergent operations have significantly poorer outcomes when compared with nonemergent patients; our analysis has quantified these differences. Emergent patients seem to manifest unique clinical, pathophysiologic, and inflammatory responses to their surgical disease. This data suggests that there is a need for improvement in both methods and systems of care for the emergent population.
Web usage, advertising, and shopping: relationship patterns

Web sales reached over 30 billion dollars in the year 2001. This study explores the differences between heavy, medium, and light Web users in terms of their beliefs about Web advertising, attitudes toward Web advertising, purchasing patterns, and demographics. They lead to a more positive attitude toward Web advertising, which likely leads to more frequent Web purchasing and higher dollars spent on these purchases, suggesting marketers should consider consumer Web usage in their targeting efforts.
SME Financing in Europe: Cross-Country Determinants of Debt Maturity

We examine the influence of cross country differences on debt maturity for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) using a sample of 3366 SMEs from 19 European countries. We analyze a country’s legal environment, institutional environment, banking structure and economic situation while controlling for firm specific characteristic. We find that SMEs in countries with high property rights that protect their creditors or enforce existing laws are more likely to obtain long-term debt. We also show evidence that banks seem to rely more on the legal, economic, and institutional determinants when determining the length of a loan agreement for micro firms than when granting loans to medium size firms.
MASSIVE FACTOR-VIII INFUSION IN HÆMOPHILIAC WITH FACTOR-VIII INHIBITOR, HIGH RESPONDER

Sir,—Bleeding in hæmophiliacs with factor-VIII inhibitors of low-responder type is generally overcome by massive factor-VIII infusions. The addition of immunosuppressive therapy may be successful in high responders, delaying and possibly weakening the anamnestic response. ‘‘Activated’’ factor-IX concentrates may also be useful. These regimens, however, are unsuitable when prolonged substitution therapy is necessary in a high responder. Our patient is a 20-year-old hæmophiliac with factor-VIII inhibitor. His elder brother, also a hæmophiliac with inhibitor, died aged 18 from a retroperitoneal hæmorrhage. Our patient has had bleeding episodes since birth and has been given many infusions of whole blood, plasma, cryoprecipitate, and factor-VIII concentrates in more than thirty hospital admissions, without much success. Inhibitor was detected when he was 12 years old. Three times he has received concentrates in combination with immunosuppressive therapy, the last (1973) being with cyclophosphamide (15 mg/kg intravenously followed by 2 mg/kg body-weight orally for 10 days) when the inhibitor concentration increased after 4–5 days from 0Æ5 units/ml to a peak of 30–40 units/ml after 2 weeks. The preinfusion level was regained after 2 months. In 1976 at the age of 18 he passed his final school examination, brilliantly, but he was confined to a wheelchair or bed and he wanted to be more independent. This would need prolonged physiotherapy, which could be achieved only if covered by factor-VIII after elimination of inhibitor. We decided to use the treatment given by the hæmophilic centre in Bonn —a combination of daily massive infusions of factor VIII and activated factor IX until the increase in inhibitor, which follows infusions, has been eliminated, after which daily doses should keep the inhibitor level low and permit physiotherapy. Our patient was treated in Bonn. His factor-VIII level was 1% and his inhibitor level was 0.5 Bethesda units/ml on admission. The dosages and inhibitor levels are shown in the figure. At first he received 3000 units of factor VIII and 2500 units of concentrated factor IX daily. His inhibitor level increased during the first week to about 1100 units/ml and did not fall significantly until he had received 12 000 units of factor VIII per day for 10 days. The dose could then be reduced, and after 3 months with daily injections an inhibitor level of 1 unit/ml was obtained. The inhibitor concentration rose 3 weeks later, the daily dosage of factor VIII having been reduced too far, but the inhibitor concentration fell again when the dose was increased. After 7 months he has no demonstrable inhibitor while on 3000 units of factor VIII and 1000 units of factor IX concentrate (‘Feiba’) daily. He received, due to shortage of feiba, other factor-IX concentrates in between. E E E E T E E E E EE E E bleeding E = elbow T = thigh
Behaviour of reinforced concrete beams strengthened in shear

Non-engineered construction in rural areas of developing third world in recent years has gained attention of many agencies mainly due to the alarming damage to property and life caused by earthquakes. Ferrocement having excellent ductility may become one of the main structural materials for retrofitting and strengthening of modest span reinforced concrete beams in such construction, specially, in earthquake prone areas. Shear mode of failure in beams is undesired mainly being a brittle failure. An attempt, therefore, has been made to explore the potentials of Ferrocement in transforming brittle mode to ductile mode, through an experimental study presented in this paper. Test results of 4 beams in which shear spans were strengthened by providing a complete Ferrocement warp and equally spaced strips, with one and two layers of woven square mesh are presented and compared with reinforced beam having identical material and sectional properties. The beams were loaded up to service load; de-loaded and strengthened prior to test up to failure. The sections were designed for brittle shear-compression failure by keeping shear stirrups, which provided 3.5 to 4 times the shear capacity of concrete alone. Theflexural reinforcement was kept as the minimum that is normally provided in expected non-engineered construction. The strengthened beams showed a marked improvement in performances at service load; greatly improved ductility at ultimate with either a ductile shear failure or seemingly a transition from shear to flexure mode of failure.
Arousal in obstructive sleep apnoea patients is associated with ECG RR and QT interval shortening and PR interval lengthening

Sudden cardiac death appears to be more prevalent during the normal sleeping hours in obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients compared with the general population as well as to cardiovascular disease patients. The reasons for this remain unclear, but there are three likely main contributors to nocturnal death in OSA patients; cardiac arrhythmias, stroke/ruptured cerebral aneurism and myocardial infarction. Particularly marked cardiovascular system activation with arousal may play a role in initiating sudden adverse cardiovascular events in OSA. The purpose of this study was to investigate cardiac RR, QT and PR interval changes in the electrocardiogram (ECG) associated with spontaneous and respiratory‐related arousals in OSA patients. A detailed observational study of ECG records obtained during conventional diagnostic sleep study with no further interventions was carried out in 20 patients (12 males, age 42.8 ± 2.1 years, body mass index 35.1 ± 1.9 kg m−2, and respiratory disturbance index 51.8 ± 6.4 events/hour). RR and QT intervals showed significant shortening during arousals. RR interval shortening was found to be greater during respiratory arousals when compared to spontaneous arousals. PR interval showed a trend toward a greater prolongation during respiratory arousal. QT interval shortening was weakly correlated with arterial oxygen saturation levels preceding arousal. In conclusion, these data suggest that despite greater cardiac acceleration following respiratory versus spontaneous arousals from sleep, QT shortening and PR prolongation responses are similar independent of arousal type. These data support that arousals produce quite marked and differential cardiac conduction system activation in OSA and that the degree and pattern of activation may be partly influenced by the presence and severity of preceding respiratory events.
Early Results of Large Head Metal-on-Metal Hip Arthroplasties

Background and Aims Total hip arthroplasty significantly improves patient's life quality. However, total joint replacement is associated with possible complications, such as dislocations, infections, fractures and periprosthetic osteolysis. The goal of this study was to evaluate a large head metal-on-metal total hip arthroplasties and analyse short term complications related to them. Material and Methods Between 9/2005 and 6/2009, a total of 691 hip replacements were performed on 635 patients with the use of Magnum M2 large head cementless metal-on-metal prosthesis in Turku University Hospital. All patients had a scheduled follow-up at two to three months, and at one year. The results were evaluated using X-rays, Harris Hip Score (HHS), and evaluating post-operative complications and reasons for re-operations. Results During our follow-up the HHS median raised from its preoperative value of 59.8 to 86.4 two to three months after the operation, and to 93.9 one year after the operation. As a complication we had five infections requiring single open debridement (early infection) or a two stage revision. Seven patients had a periprosthetic femoral fracture that was operated and 11 patients were reoperated because of acetabular component malposition, fracture or early loosening. We did not observe any dislocations, n. ischiadicus damages, squeeking or complications related to high metal ion release (ALVAL-reactions (Aseptic Lymphocyte-dominated Vasculitis-Associated Lesion) or pseudotumours). Conclusions The metal-on-metal bearing pair allows large femoral head size, which decreases the risk for dislocation. It may also decrease the risk for osteolysis and aseptic loosening in a long run. Early complication rate related to the bearing surface is minimal. Metal-on-metal prosthesis is a good choice for young and active patients with good bone quality.
On using signature registers as pseudorandom pattern generators in built-in self-testing

Signature registers are commonly used to collect test responses in built-in self-testing (BIST). If the contents of signature registers can be used as test patterns, the overall testing time can be reduced due to improved testing parallelism. Moreover, the number of extra registers for implementing BIST could be reduced. Here, the characteristics of the patterns generated by signature registers are studied through analyses as well as experiments. It is shown that the patterns generated by signature registers are rarely repeated when the number of test patterns is relatively small compared to the number of possible patterns. It is also shown that the patterns generated are almost uniformly distributed. Therefore, signature registers can be used effectively as pseudorandom pattern generators. The practicality of using signature registers as pseudorandom pattern generators is investigated by fault simulation experiments using an example circuit. >
Clinical Features, Neuroimaging and Treatment of Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evidence of Blind Epidural Blood Patch

Background and Purpose: Spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH) is an uncommon, but not rare, cause of headache. We analyzed a series of patients with SIH and attempted to establish a clinical procedure. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 11 patients with SIH who were admitted between January 2004 and May 2007. Data recorded from patients included basic data, clinical symptoms, neurological imaging studies and treatment. Results: Orthostatic headache was the most common symptom, but there were still 2 patients without orthostatic headache. Diffuse pachymeningeal enhancement was the most common finding in brain MRI study and engorgement of the spinal epidural venous plexus was the most common finding in spinal MRI study. Eight of our patients received epidural blood patches in the lumbar area and 6 of these were symptom-free within 2 weeks. Two patients received spinal MRI immediately after administering the epidural blood patch, and this revealed that most of the blood had spread to the upper cervical area from the lumbar injection. Conclusion: A blind epidural blood patch from the lumbar area is an acceptable procedure even if the area of leakage is unknown. A reasonable clinical procedure for the patients of SIH may minimize the rate of repeat puncture.
Pathway Relevance Ranking for Tumor Samples through Network-Based Data Integration

The study of cancer, a highly heterogeneous disease with different causes and clinical outcomes, requires a multi-angle approach and the collection of large multi-omics datasets that, ideally, should be analyzed simultaneously. We present a new pathway relevance ranking method that is able to prioritize pathways according to the information contained in any combination of tumor related omics datasets. Key to the method is the conversion of all available data into a single comprehensive network representation containing not only genes but also individual patient samples. Additionally, all data are linked through a network of previously identified molecular interactions. We demonstrate the performance of the new method by applying it to breast and ovarian cancer datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas. By integrating gene expression, copy number, mutation and methylation data, the method’s potential to identify key pathways involved in breast cancer development shared by different molecular subtypes is illustrated. Interestingly, certain pathways were ranked equally important for different subtypes, even when the underlying (epi)-genetic disturbances were diverse. Next to prioritizing universally high-scoring pathways, the pathway ranking method was able to identify subtype-specific pathways. Often the score of a pathway could not be motivated by a single mutation, copy number or methylation alteration, but rather by a combination of genetic and epi-genetic disturbances, stressing the need for a network-based data integration approach. The analysis of ovarian tumors, as a function of survival-based subtypes, demonstrated the method’s ability to correctly identify key pathways, irrespective of tumor subtype. A differential analysis of survival-based subtypes revealed several pathways with higher importance for the bad-outcome patient group than for the good-outcome patient group. Many of the pathways exhibiting higher importance for the bad-outcome patient group could be related to ovarian tumor proliferation and survival.
Factors Related to Postpartum Depression

To determine which factors from a range of demographic, perinatal, psychosocial and hormonal factors were related to postpartum depression, a sample of 81 women between two weeks and six months postpartum was divided into a depressed group (n = 22) and a non-depressed group (n = 59) by means of the Beck Depression Inventory as the main measure and the Visual Analogue Scale as an additional measure. A demographical questionnaire, a social support questionnaire and a marital satisfaction questionnaire were completed by each subject. A depression incidence rate of 27,2% was found. Significant differences were found between the depressed group and the non-depressed group regarding social support, marital satisfaction and premenstrual tension. No significant differences were found regarding age, parity, previous depressive episodes, Caesarean births and prematurity. It was concluded that psychosocial and hormonal factors played a more important role in postpartum depression than demographic and perinatal factors.