Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of the original and reduced versions of the Berg Balance Scale and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index in patients following hip or knee arthroplasty.

PURPOSE To compare the original and reduced versions of the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), as completed by patients following total hip arthroplasty (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA), with respect to their potential utility in clinical and research settings. METHOD Patients with THA (n=26) or TKA (n=28) were evaluated before and after 5 to 7 weeks' participation in a home-based exercise programme. They were assessed using the original versions of the BBS and the WOMAC; scores for the reduced versions of the BBS and the WOMAC were extracted from the original versions. RESULTS Good to excellent correlations (r≥0.80) were observed between the original and the reduced versions of the BBS and the WOMAC. The index of responsiveness, evaluated using standardized response means (SRM), was similar for the original and the reduced versions of the BBS and the WOMAC function sub-scale. CONCLUSIONS The reduced versions of the BBS and the WOMAC provided similar information to the original versions and were equally responsive. These reduced versions comprise fewer questions and may be completed in considerably less time, which suggests that they may be advantageous for clinical and research use.
Effect of Heavy Metals Pollution on Protein Biosynthesis in Catfish

The present study was carried out to evaluate the pollution and its effect on the quality of catfish. Four sites in Eygpt were chosen for the research, Ras El-Bar (Site 1) as control, Shatta (Site 2), Kafr El-Bateekh (Site 3), and Talkha (Site 4). The research was carried out on water, sediments and catfish (serum and muscles). Nitrite, nitrate and ammonia were determined in water and sediment. Also, RNA and DNA were determined in serum samples and the muscles of the catfish. In addition, the concentrations of heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Fe, Zn and Cu) were estimated in water, sediments and the muscles of catfish. Also, hepatosomatic index, liver water content, condition factor, lipid and protein contents were determined in the fish. The concentrations of nitrite, nitrate and ammonia in water and sediment of Site 4 and the levels of heavy metals especially Pb and Cd in water, sediment and muscle of catfish from Sites 3 and 4 were highly elevated compared to those of the control. On the other hand, DNA, RNA and protein contents in the catfish of Sites 3 and 4 decreased. The results illustrated that, Cd and Pb levels in the muscle of catfish were negatively correlated with DNA, RNA and with the protein contents. In conclusion, the accumulation of heavy metals in catfish tissues therefore, can cause health problems in human after catfish intake.
Membrane intermediates in the peptidoglycan metabolism of Escherichia coli: possible roles of PBP 1b and PBP 3

The two membrane precursors (pentapeptide lipids I and II) of peptidoglycan are present in Escherichia coli at cell copy numbers no higher than 700 and 2,000 respectively. Conditions were determined for an optimal accumulation of pentapeptide lipid II from UDP-MurNAc-pentapeptide in a cell-free system and for its isolation and purification. When UDP-MurNAc-tripeptide was used in the accumulation reaction, tripeptide lipid II was formed, and it was isolated and purified. Both lipids II were compared as substrates in the in vitro polymerization by transglycosylation assayed with PBP 1b or PBP 3. With PBP 1b, tripeptide lipid II was used as efficiently as pentapeptide lipid II. It should be stressed that the in vitro PBP 1b activity accounts for at best to 2 to 3% of the in vivo synthesis. With PBP 3, no polymerization was observed with either substrate. Furthermore, tripeptide lipid II was detected in D-cycloserine-treated cells, and its possible in vivo use in peptidoglycan formation is discussed. In particular, it is speculated that the transglycosylase activity of PBP 1b could be coupled with the transpeptidase activity of PBP 3, using mainly tripeptide lipid II as precursor.
Studies on blood-brain barrier with radioactive phosphorus. III. Embryonic development of the barrier.

SHORTLY after the discovery was made that the central nervous system cannot be stained by intravenous injection of vital dyes and the concept of a blood-brain barrier was established, the question arose: Does or does not this barrier exist at birth? The phenomenon of kernicterus seemed to indicate that in the newborn infant the barrier is not yet fully developed, and experiments with vital dyes in young animals gave some support to this inference. The evidence these experiments offered was not certain, however. Moreover, some of these early investigations yielded contradictory results. It was thought that the application of radioactive phosphate would clarify the matter of the development of the blood-barrier and also reveal whether or not a similarity exists, in the intrauterine and the early postnatal stage, in the permeability of the barrier to pigments (bilirubin), vital dyes, and ions (P32). The analogy between the response of the
A degree-based genetic algorithm for constrained pinning control in complex networks

In this paper, a novel genetic algorithm (GA) is presented to tackle with the constrained pinning control problem for complex networks. The information of the node degree is incorporated in the design so that a set of pinned nodes can be duly obtained. In addition, the control strength of each selected node is assigned by the use of a decrease-and-conquer approach, satisfying the total control strength constraint of the problem. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the design and it outperforms other evolutionary algorithms and conventional node selection approaches.
Professional education and subsequent careers in library/information work: a follow-up study of former students on the MA/MSc Information Studies (Social Sciences) course at the University of Sheffield

Reports on a survey of former students which aimed to collect career information, gain an impression of views on their course, compare findings with an earlier study, and assess these findings in the context of the current employment situation. The results showed, inter alia, an increasing interest in com puter-based information work, that most graduates were able to find posts that matched their interests, that they entered a wide range of jobs in 'the emerging market', and that job satisfaction was at a high level.
The Invasive Phenotype in HMT-3522 Cells Requires Increased EGF Receptor Signaling Through Both PI 3-Kinase and ERK 1,2 Pathways

We studied the invasion of HMT-3522 breast epithelial cells in response to epidermal growth factor (EGF), and the associated signaling pathways. HMT-3522 T4-2 cells were shown to invade Matrigel-coated Transwell membranes in response to EGF while HMT-3522 S-1 cells failed to invade when treated with EGF. Studies utilizing specific molecular inhibitors showed the importance of g 1 integrin, phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI 3-kinase), p38, extracellular regulated kinase 1, 2 (Erk 1,2) MAP kinases, and metalloproteinases in invasion and motility. T4-2 cell invasion was shown to be time-dependent and also gene transcription-dependent as shown by inhibition with Actinomycin D. T4-2 cells exhibited an increased activation of MAP kinases Erk 1,2 (2-fold), EGF receptor (3-fold), and PI 3-kinase (3- to 4-fold) when compared to the S-1 cells. In response to EGF, T4-2 cells showed a 5-fold greater secretion of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) as compared to S-1 cells, and this increase was largely dependent on the activity of PI 3-kinase. These findings indicate that expression of the invasive phenotype in these breast epithelial cells requires increased EGF receptor signaling, involving both PI 3-kinase and Erk 1,2 activities, which leads to multiple downstream effects, including enhanced secretion of MMP-9 and transcription of invasion-related genes.
The role of coronary bypass operation on children with Kawasaki disease

BackgroundKawasaki disease, initially called mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome was reported 35 years ago as a new inflammatory disease in infants and children and is characterized by a variety of symptoms and signs resulted from systemic vasculitis. Although the etiology of the disease remains unknown, its serious coronary complications have been proved to cause ischemic heart disease in children, and are now the most common cause of pediatric coronary disease in the world. The incidence of serious coronary sequelae is fortunately low (2-3% of patients with Kawasaki disease), but once myocardial infarction occurs in children, the mortality is quite high (22% at the first infarction). Development of surgical treatment for the disease was essential in preventing premature death and improving the quality of life of children. Methods and resultsCoronary revascularization surgery was attempted following careful evaluation of characteristic patters of coronary aneurysms and obstructions secondary to Kawasaki disease, although the surgical efficacy was initially questioned because the disease is inflammatory vasculitis in origin. The operation utilizing the pedicled internal thoracic artery has been demonstrated quite successful and now established as a reliable treatment for inflammatory coronary obstructions due to Kawasaki disease (the Kitamura Operation). There is valid evidence for the internal thoracic artery graft being a viable structure, accommodating in length and diameter for the growth of children. Results of the surgery and long-term prognosis are favorable and postoperative quality of life is markedly improved. ConclusionsCoronary bypass operation utilizing the pedicled internal thoracic artery is a safe and reliable surgical modality for coronary artery sequelae in children due to Kawasaki disease. Long-term follow-up results up to 20-years are quite satisfactory.
The Pharmacokinetics of Methohexital in Young and Elderly Subjects

The pharmacokinetics of methohexital were investigated in ten young adult volunteers and in seven young and seven elderly patients. The latter two groups underwent enflurane and nitrous oxide anesthesia and surgery. Each subject received a bolus dose of 2 mg/kg of methohexital intravenously. Plasma levels of the drug were measured for 8 h after injection by gas chromatography using a nitrogen detector. Anesthesia (combined with surgery) and increase in age did not separately affect the kinetics of the drug; however, the elimination half‐life was longer in the elderly patients group than in the young non‐anesthetized volunteers.
Diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency in childhood

Purpose of reviewThe diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) in childhood is challenging, in large part because of the lack of a true gold standard and the relatively poor performance of available diagnostic testing. This review discusses the recent literature on this topic. Recent findingsAuxology and clinical judgment remain the foundation for the diagnosis of GHD. Provocative growth hormone testing is poorly reproducible, dependent on factors such as body composition and pubertal status, and further limited by significant variability among commercially available growth hormone assays. Measurement of insulin-like growth factor I and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3 is not diagnostically useful in isolation but is helpful in combination with other diagnostic measures. Neuroimaging is also useful to inform diagnosis, as pituitary abnormalities suggest a higher likelihood of GHD persisting into adulthood. Although genetic testing is not routinely performed in the diagnosis of GHD at the present time, multiple recent reports raise the possibility that it may play a more important role in diagnosing GHD in the future. SummaryBeyond physicians’ integrated assessment of auxology, clinical presentation, and bone age, current tools to diagnose GHD are suboptimal. Recent literature emphasizes the need to reappraise our current practice and to consider new tools for diagnosis.
Reference intervals and age-related changes for venous biochemical, hematological, electrolytic, and blood gas variables using a point of care analyzer in 68 puppies.

OBJECTIVE To determine the reference interval for various venous analyte concentrations using a point-of-care (POC) analyzer in healthy, 4-84-day-old puppies and identify any age-specific variations in the values as compared with adults. DESIGN A prospective cohort study. SETTING University teaching hospital. ANIMALS Clinically healthy dogs; 68 puppies and 30 adults. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Samples were collected by jugular venipuncture from 68 clinically healthy puppies at 4, 10, 12, 16, 28, 70, 77, and 84 days of age and once each from 30 clinically healthy adult dogs. Blood samples (n = 287) were analyzed within 5 minutes of collection using an automated POC analyzer. Reference intervals for puppies at various ages were estimated using a bootstrap sampling approach. The analytes that were closest to the adult values were pH and bicarbonate. On days 4 and 10 the pH for puppies was higher than the adults while the HCO3 was higher than the adults only on day 4. HCT on day 4 approximated adult values but fell to a nadir on day 28 before rising toward adult levels. At all time points, sodium, chloride, and ionized magnesium concentrations were lower than adult values, and potassium and ionized calcium were higher than adult values. Glucose was similar to adult values on day 4 but was above adult values at all other time points. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) was higher in puppies until day 28 when it became lower than in adults. BUN levels remained lower than adults through day 84. CONCLUSIONS Variations exist between puppies and adults for venous POC analyzer results. Adult reference intervals should not be used for puppies as this might cause misinterpretation of the results.
A multicenter, case–control study on risk factors for antepartum stillbirth

Objective. As the influence of socio-demographic variables, lifestyle and medical conditions on the epidemiology of stillbirth (SB) is modified by population features, we aimed at investigating the role played by these factors on the incidence of SB in a developed country. Study design. Multivariate logistic regression analysis (OR with 95% CI) was utilized in a prospective multicentre nested case–control study to compare in a 1:2 ratio stillborn of >22 weeks gestation with matched for gestational age live-born (LB) infants. Intrapartum SB were excluded. Results. Two hundred fifty-four consecutive SBs and 497 LBs were enrolled. Socio-demographic variables were equally distributed. Fetal malformations (7.96, 2.69–23.55), severe intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) (birthweight ≤5th %ile) (4.32, 2.27–8.24), BMI > 25 (2.87, 1.90–4.33), and preeclampsia (PE, 0.40, 0.21–0.77) were recognized as independent predictors for SB. At term, only BMI > 25 was associated with SB (7.70, 2.9–20.5). Conclusion. Fetal malformations, severe IUGR and maternal BMI > 25 were associated with a significant increase in the risk of SB; PE presented instead a protective role. Maternal BMI > 25 was the only risk factor for SB identified in term pregnancies.
Input Modality and Remembering Name-Referent Associations in Vocabulary Learning

This experimental laboratory-based study investigated the role of input modality in remembering name-referent associations in learning nonsense words. Three groups of L2 learners of English attempted to learn and remember name-referent associations in three different conditions: auditory only (n = 26), visual only (n = 28) and dual-modality (auditory/visual) (n = 25). Immediate recall and recognition of name-referent associations revealed no significant differences between the visual and auditory conditions. However, both recall and recognition of paired associations improved significantly when dual modality was used. These results do not seem to support the superiority of one mode of presentation over another for remembering name-referent associations in vocabulary acquisition. However, they do seem to provide support for the dual-modality hypothesis in vocabulary learning and the idea that semantic representations of words benefit from referential connections in which both auditory and visually-based processing is involved.
SUPPORT VECTOR MACHINE COMBINED WITH GENETIC ALGORITHM FOR OPTIMIZATION OF MICROWAVE-ASSISTED EXTRACTION OF POLYPHENOLS FROM SPRUCE WOOD BARK

* “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection, 71 A Mangeron Blvd., 700050, Iasi, Romania ** “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, 27 Mangeron Blvd., 700050, Iasi, Romania *** Laboratory for Protection and Physiology, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, 5 Lerchenfeldstrasse Str. , Gallen 9014, Switzerland ✉Corresponding author: R. -E. Ghitescu, ghitescu.roxana@yahoo.com
Phenotypic Correlations among Body Weights at Various Ages in White Cornish, Red Cornish and White Plymouth Rock Pure Breeds -

Phenotypic correlations among body weights at various ages were studied using genetic stock of poultry involving White Cornish, Red Cornish and White Plymouth Rock breeds of poultry maintained at Central Poultry Farm, Patna on random mating for a large number of generations. A total of 266 birds (131 males and 135 females) were utilized to compute correlation coefficients among body weights at various ages. All the phenotypic correlations among body weights from 4 th week to 8 th week of age, both in males and females, of WC, RC and WPR purebreds were observed to be positive, highly significant (P<0.01) and of high magnitude ranging from 0.387(between 4 th week X 8 th week body weights in females of WC) to 0.976 (between 6 th week X 7 th week body weights in males of WPR) in this study. Besides, the magnitudes of standard errors of phenotypic correlations were also observed to be very low suggesting high precision of the estimates. Besides, it was found that the magnitude of phenotypic correlations of day old chick weight, in general, had a declining tendency with that of body weights at subsequent ages. This might be, possibly, due to the dilution of maternal influence as the age advances.
Acceptance and use of lecture capture system (LCS) in executive business studies: Extending UTAUT2

Purpose Adoption of latest technological advancements (e.g. lecture capture system) is a hallmark of market-driven private universities. Among many other distinguishing features, lecture capture system (LCS) is the one which is being offered to enhance the flexibility of learning environment for attracting executive business students. Majority of foreign universities are offering the facility of LCS to their students in offshore campuses established in Malaysia. Yet, very little is known about perception and behaviour of executive business students towards acceptance and use of this facility. Therefore, to bridge the identified gap in academic literature, this study is an effort to explore the causal relationship between existing constructs of extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2), personal innovativeness (PI), intention and use behaviour (UB) towards LCS. Moreover, this study is aimed to extend the UTAUT2 by introducing a new variable, namely, PI in the domain of information technology (IT) (PIIT). Design/methodology/approach SmartPLS-3.2. 6 was used for data analysis and all PLS-related calculations. For this purpose, a self-administered questionnaire was designed to collect data regarding acceptance and UB towards LCS. A sample size of 481 responses from executive business students, who were enrolled in offshore campuses of five selected foreign universities in Malaysia, was used for testing the proposed theoretical model. Findings The results of structural equation modelling (SEM) revealed that, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, price value, hedonic motivation, habit and PIIT have a significant and positive influence on acceptance and use of LCS among executive business students. Unique to this study is that, findings of this study have highlighted PIIT as an important factor that affects intention and UB towards LCS among executive business students. Practical implications By validating and extending the UTAUT2, the findings of this study provide a number of practical implications along with a comprehensive, robust and useful framework for universities to successfully implement technological advancements, such as LCS, to enhance overall learning outcomes. Originality/value By investigating the factors determining acceptance and use of LCS among executive business students, using a partial least square (PLS)-based SEM approach, this study makes a sizeable theoretical, methodological and contextual contribution to the overall body of knowledge.
Depolarization of multiply scattered waves by spherical diffusers: Influence of the size parameter.

We study numerically, using the Mie theory, light transmission through a multiply scattering medium composed of a collection of uncorrelated, optically inactive spherical particles. The characteristic length over which a plane-wave field is depolarized depends on whether it is initially linearly or circularly polarized and on the size of the particles. In a medium containing particles small compared to the wavelength (Rayleigh regime), the characteristic length of depolarization for incident linearly polarized light is found to exceed that for incident circularly polarized light, while the opposite is true in a medium composed of particles large compared to the wavelength (Mie regime). A comparison of numerical results with the data from measurements on suspensions of polystyrene latex spheres in water is made. Agreement between these simulations and experiment is good for the range of sizes considered in this paper. We also discuss the relevance of the helicity-flip model to the analysis of these data.
Effects on Modeling Sequential Body Movements When Viewed from the Front or Rear

This study investigated the effect of having a model demonstration viewed from the rear and/or front on the subsequent acquisition of sequential gross-movement patterns, and further examined how participants who observed the bi-angle model directed their attention toward the rear view or the front view in mirror. The movement pattern consisted of seven pauses. A total of 36 participants was divided into three groups: the rear-angle group, which observed the rear view; the front-angle group, which observed from the front view and had to change the motions into their mirror opposites; and the bi-angle group, which observed the rear view and the front view in the mirror. The results showed that (1) all groups acquired the movement pattern, (2) the bi-angle and the rear-angle groups reproduced the demonstrated movement more accurately than the front-angle group, and (3) the bi-angle group tended to focus gaze on viewing the model from the rear. These results suggest that rear viewing was more effective than front viewing, because the participants could simply copy the motion, the bi-angle group members directed their visual attention to the view from the rear without any instruction about observational strategy, and modeling effect was the same for the rear-angle group and the bi-angle group.