Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Failure of Porous Tantalum Cervical Interbody Fusion Devices: Two-year Results From a Prospective, Randomized, Multicenter Clinical Study

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the safety and efficacy of 2 novel cervical interbody fusion devices in the treatment of single-level degenerative cervical disk disease. Both devices were fabricated from a porous tantalum material. The high overall porosity of the devices was intended to facilitate anterior cervical interbody fusion. Methods: A prospective, randomized, 3-armed, clinical study was initiated with the following treatment groups: porous tantalum ring device packed with autograft, porous tantalum block device, and iliac crest autograft control. All the patients had single-level symptomatic cervical disk disease that had failed to respond to nonoperative therapy. Clinical and radiographic data were collected preoperatively, during surgery, before hospital discharge, and at 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months postoperatively. Results: Six investigators participated in the clinical study at 6 investigational centers in the United States. Enrollment into the study was terminated after 39 patients had been accrued because of concerns over delayed fusion in the porous tantalum treatment groups. Of the 39 patients enrolled into the clinical study, 11 patients received the control treatment of iliac autograft fusion, 13 patients received the porous tantalum ring device with the center cavity packed with cancellous iliac crest autograft, and 15 patients received the porous tantalum block device. These patients were evaluated for 24 months as per the study protocol. There were no significant differences in any of the patient demographic variables collected. The mean operative times for both the ring and block device groups were slightly lower than the control treatment. Two patients in the block treatment group were determined to be nonunion between the 6- and 12-month time points and underwent additional surgery. Five patients with porous tantalum devices showed radiographic evidence of device fragmentation, and one patient in addition had radiographic evidence of erosion of the involved vertebral bodies by the device. One patient in the ring treatment group died from a myocardial infarction and kidney failure subsequent to the 12-month follow-up visit, which was unrelated to the device or the spinal fusion procedure. Fusion rate at 2 years for the tantalum device was very low as compared with the control arm (44% vs. 100%). Patient Neck Disability Index scores, Short Form-36 scores, and neurological status scores were similar between the 3 treatment groups. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that stand-alone porous tantalum material is not ideal for a cervical spine interbody fusion because of the low rate of arthrodesis and the risk of device fragmentation in patients who fail to fuse.
Effect of social infrastructure investment on economic growth and inequality in South Africa: a SEM approach

This paper investigates the effect of social infrastructure on economic growth and inequality in South Africa using a SEM approach. We use growth as the mediating variable while controlling for production factors, urbanisation and globalisation. Results show a positive and significant relationship between education expenditure and growth. However there is a negative but insignificant relationship between health expenditure and growth. Furthermore, results indicate a negative but insignificant relationship between education and inequality and a significant negative relationship between health and inequality. Consistent with the Kuznets theory, we find a positive and significant relationship between growth and inequality in South Africa.
Traffic Calming and Neighborhood Livability: Evidence from Housing Prices in Portland

Abstract This paper examines the impact of traffic calming on the livability of urban residential streets. Using geo-referenced data on the installation of 1187 calming devices in Portland (OR), I test whether the interventions locally affect housing prices during succeeding years. I provide reduced-form evidence that city dwellers pay significant premiums to limit their exposure to motor vehicles, but obtain mixed results regarding the overall price impacts of calming devices. My estimates suggest that only the most effective traffic calming measures have a detectable impact on housing prices. The implied traffic flow elasticity is −0.07: projects decreasing traffic by 16% raise home values on treated streets by 1%.
Variability of NT-proBNP plasma and urine levels in patients with stable heart failure: a 2-year follow-up study

Objectives: To examine N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) variability in plasma and urine samples of patients with stable heart failure (HF) during a 24-month follow-up. Design: Prospective study. Setting: Teaching hospital based study. Patients: 74 clinically and functionally stable patients (NYHA class 2±0.5) out of 114 patients diagnosed with HF were followed up, and NT-proBNP plasma and urine levels were measured at baseline, 12 and 24 months. Results: Significant differences in mean urinary levels (p<0.01) were found during follow-up, but no changes were found in plasma. Bland–Altman plots showed few variations in plasma percentages in the three intervals (stage I–basal; stage II–stage I; stage II–basal) with a coefficient of reproducibility (CR) of 22%, 21% and 25%, respectively. Changes in NT-proBNP urinary levels had a CR of 7.1%, 6.8% and 9.4% at the three intervals, respectively. A good correlation was found between plasma and urinary levels of NT-proBNP (p<0.001) and between the different NT-proBNP plasma (p<0.001) and urine measurements (p<0.001). Conclusions: NT-proBNP plasma and urine levels show good stability in a 24-month follow-up of patients with stable heart failure. Thus, assessment of urinary and plasma NT-proBNP concentrations may be a useful tool for monitoring patients with HF during follow-up. The results suggest that variations in peptide concentrations exceeding 22% in plasma and 7% in urine in a 12-month follow-up and 25% and 9% in a 24-month follow-up may indicate pathophysiological changes.
Evaluation of leaf-colour chart for need-based nitrogen management in maize (Zea mays) grown under irrigated condition of Mollisols

A field study was conducted at Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, during the rainy (kharif) season of 2013 and 2014 us- ing leaf-colour chart (LCC) as a tool to know nitrogen demand in maize (Zea mays L.) crop and to evaluate and establish LCC threshold value for saving fertilizer N and achieve higher grain. The LCC-treated plots showed higher increase in grain yield/kg N applied over fixed time interval of N treatments. Using of LCC score 3.0 with 90 kg N/ha showed grain-yield equivalent to 120 and 150 kg N/ha applied at fixed time interval and gave higher re- covery efficiency to the tune of 12.118. 1 unit and 4.15. 1 kg higher grain yield/kg fertilizer N applied, whereas LCC 5.0 resulted in significant higher grain yield. Application of fertilizer N with 1.0 unit increase in LCC score sig- nificantly enhanced grain yield but no response of fertilizer N was seen when applied at reproductive stage. Soil- available N increased significantly with increasing the LCC values and was significantly superior at LCC < 5.0 fol- lowed by 150 kg N/ha applied at fixed time interval. Leaf-colour chart-based N management reduced anthesis silking interval by 0.21. 4 days compared to fixed time interval. Strong correlation was obtained for LCC score with N content and grain yield at the reproductive stage. Leaf-colour chart values against grain yield indicated that LCC 4.6 at vegetative stage and LCC 4.9 at reproductive stage can guide crop demand-driven N application to en- hance yield and saving N in maize under irrigated condition of Mollisols in tarai region.
The pattern of maxillary canine impaction in relation to anomalous lateral incisors.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the probability and pattern of maxillary canine impaction in relation to anomalous adjacent lateral incisors. SUBJECTS AND METHOD A total 66 patients (M=24, F=42) in the age range of 12 to 18 years who had at least one impacted maxillary canine were included for the study. The maxillary lateral incisor anomalies and nature of canine impactions were diagnosed from the radiographs and study models. Maxillary lateral incisors were classified as normal, peg shaped, impacted and congenitally missing. The maxillary canine impactions were classified as buccal and palatal impaction. Each affected maxillary side was considered separately. This resulted total 88 cases for which the probabilities of different canine positions adjacent to the different categories of lateral incisor anomalies were evaluated statistically. RESULTS : The occurrence of palatal canine impaction was almost 1.6 times more than the buccal canine impaction. Total 11.76% of the bucally impacted canines and 38.89% of the palatally impacted canines were associated with anomalous lateral incisors. There was no positive association between anomalous lateral incisors and maxillary canines. In relation to anomalous lateral incisor, the probability of palatal canine impaction was more than the buccal canine impaction. CONCLUSIONS There was no positive association between lateral incisor anomalies and maxillary canine impaction. However, there was a high probability of palatal canine impaction when adjacent lateral incisors were anomalous.
A SNP in the flt-1 promoter integrates the VEGF system into the p53 transcriptional network

The VEGF system is essential for angiogenesis. VEGF overexpression frequently correlates with increased microvascularity and metastasis and decreased spontaneous apoptosis. Although a precise mechanism has not been established, studies suggest that VEGF expression is negatively regulated by p53, a master regulator and tumor suppressor. There are no reports of additional components of the VEGF signal transduction pathway being part of the p53 transcriptional network. A target of VEGF, the VEGF receptor 1/flt-1, can regulate growth and migration of endothelial cells and modulate angiogenesis. VEGF appears to be up-regulated in various cancers in which flt-1 may have a role in tumor progression and metastasis. We identified a C-to-T SNP upstream of the transcriptional start site in ≈6% of the people examined. The SNP is located within a putative p53 response element. Only the promoter with the T SNP (FLT1-T) was responsive to p53 when examined with reporter assays or by endogenous gene expression analysis in cell lines with different SNP status. In response to doxorubicin-induced DNA damage, there was clear allele discrimination based on p53 binding at the FLT1-T but not FLT1-C promoters as well as p53-dependent induction of flt-1 mRNA, which required the presence of FLT1-T. Our results establish that p53 can differentially stimulate transcription at a polymorphic variant of the flt-1 promoter and directly places the VEGF system in the p53 stress-response network via flt-1 in a significant fraction of the human population. We suggest that the p53-VEGF-flt-1 interaction is relevant to risks in angiogenesis-associated diseases, including cancer.
P2‐purinoceptors of two subtypes in the rabbit mesenteric artery: reactive blue 2 selectively inhibits responses mediated via the P2y‐ but not the P2x‐purinoceptor

1 α,β‐Methylene ATP and ATP both produced concentration‐dependent contractions of the isolated mesenteric artery of the rabbit that were not inhibited by reactive blue 2. 2 In preparations where the tone had been raised with noradrenaline, ATP and 2‐methylthio ATP, but not α,β‐methylene ATP, produced relaxations of the vessel. These relaxations were inhibited in the presence of reactive blue 2. 3 Reactive blue 2 did not inhibit the contractions to noradrenaline, and only slightly inhibited relaxations to adenosine and acetylcholine. 4 The rank order of potency of purine nucleotide analogues in contracting the vessel was: α,β‐methylene ATP > β,γ‐methylene ATP = 2‐methylthio ATP > ATP, and in relaxing the vessel at raised tone was: 2‐methylthio ATP > ATP > β,γ‐methylene ATP > α,β‐methylene ATP. 5 It is concluded from this study that in the isolated mesenteric artery of the rabbit, purine nucleotides act via P2y‐purinoceptors to cause the muscle to relax and via P2x‐purinoceptors to cause the muscle to contract. The results also suggest that reactive blue 2 selectively inhibits responses mediated via the P2y‐purinoceptor, at least within a limited concentration range.
The Efficacy of Eye Masks and Earplugs Interventions for Sleep Promotion in Critically Ill Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Using physical devices such as eye masks and earplugs to improve to the quality of sleep in intensive care units (ICUs) is a very important issue. This study was conducted to assess the efficacy of eye masks and earplugs for sleep promotion in critically ill adult patients in the ICU based on various sleep quality assessment tools. PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and ProQuest were systematically retrieved until May 2021. Both randomized and non-randomized experimental and quasi-experimental studies were included if they evaluated the efficacy of eye masks and earplugs interventions on sleep outcomes in critically ill patients. The methodological quality was assessed by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal tool. For the main outcome (sleep quality), a mean difference (MD) and confidence intervals (CIs) of 95% were determined. A total of 2,687 participants from 35 studies met the inclusion criteria. Twenty one studies were included in meta-analysis and 14 studies were included in the qualitative analysis. According to the results based on sleep quality assessment tools; overall scores of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire (RCSQ), eye mask and/or earplug interventions have a positive effect on sleep quality. Based on Verran-Snyder-Halpern Sleep Scale (VSHSS), sleep disturbance was significantly lower in the intervention groups. In terms of polysomnography, the use of eye masks and/or earplugs resulted in a significant increase in total sleep time, sleep efficiency, rapid eye movement (REM) time, significant reduction of awaking, and sleep arousals index. The results of the present study suggest that the use of earplugs or eye masks, separately or combined affects sleep improvement in critically ill patients. Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd. york.ac. uk/prospero/display_record. php? RecordID=145830, PROSPERO: CRD42020145830.
Determinant Factors of Indonesia Palm Oil Export to Major Importing Countries : an Error Correction Model Analysis

In modeling Indonesian palm oil international trade, dynamic econometric model which puts emphasis on cointegration and error correction is applied to develop a representative model captureing both long run and short run effects of changes in the model’s variables and subsequently the nature of the import market. The import demand analysis observes that: (1) aggregate income is the principal factor that stimulates palm oil import demand of the main consumers, i.e. China, India and EU countries, and (2) the demand is elastic in the short and long run with high rate of adjustment. The export demand side examines effects of (1) the income and price changes to importer’s preferences of palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, and (2) shifter in form of exported commodity, that is from crude palm oil (CPO) to processed palm oil (PPO). Indonesia’s total export supply generates negative response toward any changes on price export. Such a response is justified with hindsight that Indonesia as the largest producer of palm oil is also the massive consumer itself, and moreover, the commodity shifter from CPO to PPO. Palm oil import tariff imposes insufficient effect in distorting palm oil trade volumes. Consequently, reducing import tariff is less effective in rising the volume of imported palm oil, vis-a-vis, than if there are adjustments in aggregate income
Self Tuning Texture Optimization

The goal of example‐based texture synthesis methods is to generate arbitrarily large textures from limited exemplars in order to fit the exact dimensions and resolution required for a specific modeling task. The challenge is to faithfully capture all of the visual characteristics of the exemplar texture, without introducing obvious repetitions or unnatural looking visual elements. While existing non‐parametric synthesis methods have made remarkable progress towards this goal, most such methods have been demonstrated only on relatively low‐resolution exemplars. Real‐world high resolution textures often contain texture details at multiple scales, which these methods have difficulty reproducing faithfully. In this work, we present a new general‐purpose and fully automatic self‐tuning non‐parametric texture synthesis method that extends Texture Optimization by introducing several key improvements that result in superior synthesis ability. Our method is able to self‐tune its various parameters and weights and focuses on addressing three challenging aspects of texture synthesis: (i) irregular large scale structures are faithfully reproduced through the use of automatically generated and weighted guidance channels; (ii) repetition and smoothing of texture patches is avoided by new spatial uniformity constraints; (iii) a smart initialization strategy is used in order to improve the synthesis of regular and near‐regular textures, without affecting textures that do not exhibit regularities. We demonstrate the versatility and robustness of our completely automatic approach on a variety of challenging high‐resolution texture exemplars.
Specialisation in key enabling technologies and regional growth in Europe

ABSTRACT This paper explores the specialisation of European Union (EU) regions in key enabling technologies (KETs) and assesses whether or not being specialised in these technological areas has an effect on regional growth. The evidence presented shows that regions specialised in KETs are concentrated in central Europe; however, over the period taken into account (1996–2011), less innovative and peripheral EU regions have been increasing their specialisation in these technological areas at the expense of the most advanced regions. There is also evidence that (spatial) diffusion of KETs often occurs across regions contiguous to each other. The results of the econometric estimations show that being specialised in KETs affects regional economic growth (per capita gross domestic product) and that this effect is stronger in the case of less innovative EU regions. Overall, these results hint at the pervasive nature and enabling role of KETs and demonstrate the importance for EU regions to target these technologies as part of their smart specialisation strategies.
Alpha 2-chimerin, an SH2-containing GTPase-activating protein for the ras-related protein p21rac derived by alternate splicing of the human n-chimerin gene, is selectively expressed in brain regions and testes

n-Chimerin (alpha 1-chimerin) is a brain GTPase-activating protein (GAP) for the ras-related p21rac. We now report the occurrence of another form of chimerin, termed alpha 2-chimerin. This is the product of an alternately spliced transcript of the human n-chimerin gene encoding an N-terminal SH2 (src homology 2) domain in addition to the phorbol ester receptor and GAP domains. alpha 1- and alpha 2-chimerin mRNAs were expressed differently. In the rat brain, only alpha 1-chimerin mRNA was expressed in cerebellar Purkinje cells, although both alpha 1- and alpha 2-chimerin mRNAs occurred in neurons in the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and thalamus. Only alpha 2-chimerin RNA was expressed in rat testes, in early pachytene spermatocytes. A 45-kDa SH2-containing chimerin corresponding to the alpha 2 form was purified from rat brain. As with Escherichia coli 45-kDa recombinant alpha 2-chimerin, purified brain alpha 2-chimerin exhibited racGAP activity which was stimulated by phosphatidylserine. The recombinant SH2 domain bound several 32P-labelled phosphoproteins of PC12 cells, whose phosphorylation increased in response to trophic factors, including nerve growth factor. To examine the relationships of alpha 1- and alpha 2-chimerin transcripts, human genomic DNA clones were characterized. In alpha 2-chimerin mRNA, a 3' splice acceptor site within exon 1 of alpha 1-chimerin mRNA was used, replacing its 5' untranslated region and N-terminal coding sequence. The single human n-chimerin gene was mapped to chromosome 2q31-q32.1, colocalizing with the CRE-BP1 transcription factor gene (2q32). It contained several splice junctions conserved with the sequence-related protein kinase C and bcr genes. alpha 2-Chimerin is only the second SH2-containing GAP and the first example of an SH2 domain generated by alternate splicing.
Longitudinal Effects of Stressful Life Events on Problematic Smartphone Use and the Mediating Roles of Mental Health Problems in Chinese Undergraduate Students

Background and Aims: This three-wave longitudinal study investigated the effects of stressful life events on problematic smartphone use and the mediating roles of mental health problems (i.e., depressive symptoms, poor sleep quality, and suicidal ideation) in Chinese undergraduate students. Methods: A total of 197 undergraduate students completed the three-wave surveys. Their severity of stressful life events, mental health problems, and problematic smartphone use were assessed. Results: Regression analyses revealed that stressful life events at T1 was significantly associated with problematic smartphone use at T3. Mediation analyses showed that mental health problems (i.e., depressive symptoms, poor sleep quality, and suicidal ideation) at T2 fully mediated the association between stressful life events at T1 and problematic smartphone use at T3 (B = 0.042, 0.034, and 0.022, respectively). Conclusions: The present study revealed that stressful life events and mental health problems (i.e., depressive symptoms, poor sleep quality, and suicidal ideation) are predictors of problematic smartphone use in Chinese college students.
The impact of prophylactic treatment on post-traumatic epilepsy after severe traumatic brain injury

Aim: To assess the incidence of late post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) in patients with very severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) who either received or did not receive anti-epileptic prophylactic treatment. Methods: Two populations were studied: 55 patients retrospectively and 82 subjects prospectively. Results: Ten patients (18%) in the first population showed late PTE. Although the incidence was lower in patients who did not receive prophylactic treatment, the difference between the treated and the non-treated group was not statistically significant. Sixty-nine patients in the second group (84%) had prophylactic treatment. Twenty-seven patients (39%) suffered from late PTE during the 2-year follow-up period and 17 of them (63%) showed EEG epileptic abnormalities. No patient who did not receive preventive therapy suffered from late PTE during the observation period. Conclusions: Due to the negative cognitive effects of anti-epileptic drugs, the preliminary results are of considerable interest for the rehabilitation of patients with very severe TBI.