Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AFLP analysis of genetic polymorphism and evolutionary relationships among cultivated and wild Nicotiana species.

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis was used to determine the degree of intra- and inter-specific genetic variation in the genus Nicotiana. Forty-six lines of cultivated tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) and seven wild Nicotiana species, including N. sylvestris, N. tomentosiformis, N. otophora, N. glutinosa, N. suaveolens, N. rustica, and N. longiflora, were analyzed, using at least eight different oligonucleotide primer combinations capable of detecting a minimum of 50 polymorphic bands per primer pair. The amount of genetic polymorphism present among cultivated tobacco lines (N. tabacum) was limited, as evidenced by the high degree of similarity in the AFLP profiles of cultivars collected worldwide. Six major clusters were found within cultivated tobacco that were primarily based upon geographic origin and manufacturing quality traits. A greater amount of genetic polymorphism exists among wild species of Nicotiana than among cultivated forms. Pairwise comparisons of the AFLP profiles of wild and cultivated Nicotiana species show that polymorphic bands present in N. tabacum can be found in at least one of three proposed wild progenitor species (i.e., N. sylvestris, N. tomentosiformis, and N. otophora). This observation provides additional support for these species contributing to the origin of N. tabacum.
Private Equity Firms’ Behaviours in Western Europe: Does Country Matter?

Using a unique dataset of private equity firms (PEFs), this paper analyses the investment behaviour of private equity fund managers. This paper uses a multi-country sample of PEFs to compare the approaches to investee valuation, contractual agreements and financial tools in Europe. Univariate analyses describe practices of PEFs and multivariate analyses identify groups of homogeneous countries i.e. countries where PEFs’ behaviours are similar. The comparison of these groups with traditional classifications based on legal regimes does not perform very well. This result can illustrate either the limits of the classification of countries based on legal regimes or the increasing integration of the most developed European countries that makes practices of financial actors converge across European countries.
Window on the Unbanked : Mobile Money in the Philippines

Earlier this year, Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP) teamed up with the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) Association (GSMA) (a global trade association for the mobile communications industry) and McKinsey (a global management consulting firm) to measure the global market for financial services delivered via mobile phones (mobile money) in 147 developing countries. This is the first study of mobile money and the unbanked-those without access to formal financial services-estimated to be almost four billion worldwide.
Successful Use of Ceftolozane‐Tazobactam to Treat a Pulmonary Exacerbation of Cystic Fibrosis Caused by Multidrug‐Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Ceftolozane‐tazobactam, a novel β‐lactam/β‐lactamase inhibitor, was recently approved for the treatment of complicated urinary tract and intraabdominal infections, as monotherapy and in combination with metronidazole, respectively. Ceftolozane‐tazobactam exhibits a wide spectrum of activity against both gram‐positive bacteria, gram‐negative bacteria including multidrug‐resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and some anaerobic bacteria. Although not currently approved for any pulmonary indication, studies have demonstrated excellent distribution to epithelial lining fluid, indicating that it may be an alternative agent to use in the treatment of respiratory tract infections caused by MDRP. aeruginosa. Unfortunately, data are lacking regarding the use of ceftolozane‐tazobactam in the treatment of respiratory tract infections including patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). We describe the first case report, to our knowledge, of a 25‐year‐old white man successfully treated with ceftolozane‐tazobactam for a pulmonary exacerbation of his CF caused by MDRP. aeruginosa. He was admitted for his fourth hospitalization in 7 months for a pulmonary exacerbation of his CF. After blood and sputum were cultured, prednisone, cefepime, inhaled tobramycin, and intravenous ciprofloxacin were started. On day 4, after no signs of clinical improvement, respiratory cultures revealed nonmucoid MDRP. aeruginosa, susceptible only to colistin. β‐Lactam therapy was subsequently changed to ceftolozane‐tazobactam 3 g intravenously every 8 hours while continuing ciprofloxacin and inhaled tobramycin. Ceftolozane‐tazobactam susceptibility was determined by the Etest method (minimum inhibitory concentration 1.5 μg/ml). By day 3 of therapy, the patient showed signs of clinical improvement and was discharged after completion of a 12‐day course of antibiotics. Until additional research is available, we hope this evidence will provide consideration of ceftolozane‐tazobactam for this novel off‐label indication.
Training Needs of Rural Women in Era Culture in Assam Province

Rural women in Assam are actively involved in eri culture and being considered it as a subsidiary occupational venture. The women farmers are generally traditionally bound in respect of knowledge and skills being used in eri culture. Hence, imparting training of women on improved practices of eri culture is exist as a gap to be filled. Training is an effective tool for improving ability of the women to do their vocation more efficiently. A good understanding of needs of the farmers is fundamental to make the training programme successful and hence, an assessment of the needs of the farmers was made in the year 2008 for designing the relevant means of training to meet them. The study has also focused on level of knowledge and skills of the women farmers in different activities of eri culture. From the study, it could be observed that majority of the women involved in spinning of eri silk (92.7%) followed by silkworm egg production and silkworm rearing (86.0%), marketing of produces( 74.0%) and disinfection of rearing house and rearing appliances (45.3%). Involvement of women in host plant cultivation and management was found very less (4.0%). The study also inferred that level of knowledge and skills of the women farmers was considerably low and the training need was more prominent almost in all the improved practices. The women desired to have practical training at the Research Institute for a period of one or two weeks with the facilities like free boarding, stipend, transportation, exposure visit and teaching through audio-visual aids using local language.
Pediatric Facial Fractures as a Result of Gunshot Injuries: An Examination of Associated Injuries and Trends in Management

IntroductionFacial fractures are relatively uncommon in the pediatric population, especially those inflicted as a result of interpersonal violence in the form of gunshot injuries. Few studies have examined the unique management of such high-energy injuries in the pediatric population. Oftentimes the resultant damage to soft tissue and bony structures is so great that it challenges the previously accepted standards in the management of pediatric facial fractures. This study will examine a level 1 trauma center’s experience with these unique injuries. MethodsA retrospective review of all facial fractures occurring in a pediatric population (those 18 years of age or younger) as a result of gunshot wounds in a level 1 trauma center in an urban environment was performed for the years 2000 to 2012. Descriptive information was collected regarding each case as well as information regarding concomitant injuries, treatment modalities, and selected outcomes. ResultsDuring this time period, there were 3147 facial fractures treated at our institution, 353 of which were in pediatric patients. Of these, 17 were the results of gunshot wounds. Three patients were excluded due to insufficient data, leaving a total of 14 patients. The average age of patients was 16.5 (range 14–18); all patients were African-American males. The most common fracture was that of the mandible (n = 10), with 2 of those patients exhibiting panfacial fractures. The average Glasgow Coma Scale on admission was 13.5 (range 3–15). Six of the patients were intubated in the emergency department. The most common concomitant injury was a skull fracture (n = 3), followed by cervical spine fractures (n = 2) and intracranial hemorrhages (n = 2). All patients were admitted to the hospital for reasons other than fracture management. Seven patients ultimately went to the operating room for fracture management. The treatment modalities employed were conservative management with closed techniques (n = 11), rigid internal fixation (n = 2), and the use of an external fixator device (n = 1). Minimal to no soft-tissue debridement was performed in 10 of the 14 patients, 2 of which presented between 6 months and 10 years post-injury with soft-tissue complications related to retained material. The mean hospital length of stay was 8.2 days (range 1–18 days). One patient expired. DiscussionPediatric facial fractures as a result of gunshot wounds represent a unique and fortunately rare entity that presents a challenge to all disciplines involved in treatment. In our patients, there was a tendency towards conservative management, with only 3 patients undergoing some form of fixation and only 7 undergoing some form of operative debridement. Concomitant injuries and the high-energy nature of gunshot wounds often preclude traditional management with rigid fixation to ensure adequate bony healing. However, it is important to adequately debride devitalized soft tissue and remove all foreign material to avoid future soft tissue–related complications.
Experimental evidence of early costs of reproduction in conspecific viviparous and oviparous lizards

Reproduction entails costs, and disentangling the relative importance of each stage of the reproductive cycle may be important to assess the costs and benefits of different reproductive strategies. We studied the early costs of reproduction in oviparous and viviparous lizard females of the bimodal reproductive species Zootoca vivipara. Egg retention time in oviparous females is approximately one‐third of the time in viviparous females. We compared the vitellogenesis and egg retention stages that are common to both reproductive modes. Precisely, we monitored the thermoregulatory behaviour, the weight gain and the immunocompetence of the females. Moreover, we injected an antigen in half of the females (immune challenge) to study the trade‐offs between reproductive mode and immune performance and between different components of the immune system. Finally, we experimentally induced parturition in viviparous females at the time of egg laying in oviparous females. Oviparous and viviparous females did not show strong differences in response to the immune challenge. However, viviparous females spent more time thermoregulating while partially hidden and gained more weight than oviparous females. The greater weight gain indicates that the initial period of egg retention is less costly for viviparous than for oviparous females or that viviparous females are able to save and accumulate energy at this period. This energy may be used by viviparous females to cope with the subsequent costs of the last two‐third of the gestation. Such an ability to compensate the higher costs of a longer egg retention period may account for the frequent evolution of viviparity in squamate reptiles.
Corporate Governance Antecedents to Shareholder Activism: A Zero-Inflated Process

Shareholder activism has become more widespread, yet the role of corporate governance as antecedent to shareholder activism remains equivocal. We propose a new conceptual model that characterizes the stochastic of observable shareholder activism as a compound product of two latent components representing (a) shareholder activists’ propensity to target a company and (b) executives’ propensity to privately settle activists’ demands. Our model explicitly decouples corporate governance expectations for the two latent components embedded in activism process, and thus allows us to relax assumptions of homogenous shareholder interests and constrained managerial discretion where corporate managers are expected to privately negotiate and settle only value-creating activist demands. Bayesian analysis of zero-inflated Poisson regression reveals that corporate governance relationships with activism vary across shareholder demands and private settlements.
Explicit vs. Statistical Preferential Treatment in Affirmative Action: Theory and Evidence from Chicago&Apos;S Exam Schools

Affirmative action schemes must confront the tension between admitting the highest scoring applicants and ensuring diversity. In Chicago's affirmative action system for exam schools, applicants are divided into one of four socioeconomic tiers based on the characteristics of their neighborhood. Applicants can be admitted to a school either through a slot reserved for their tier or through a merit slot. Equity considerations motivate equal percentage reserves for each tier, but there is a large debate on the total size of these reserve slots relative to merit slots. An issue that has received much less attention is the order in which slots are processed. Since the competition for merit slots is influenced directly by the allocation to tier slots, equal size reserves are not sufficient to eliminate explicit preferential treatment. We characterize processing rules that are tier-blind. While explicit preferential treatment is ruled out under tier-blind rules, it is still possible to favor certain tiers, by exploiting the distribution of scores across tiers, a phenomenon we call statistical preferential treatment. We characterize the processing order that is optimal for the most disadvantaged tier assuming that these applicants systematically have lower scores. This policy processes merit slots prior to any slots reserved for tiers. Our main result implies that Chicago has been providing an additional boost to the disadvantaged tier beyond their reserved slots. Using data from Chicago, we show that the bias due to processing order for the disadvantaged tier is comparable to that from the 2012 decrease in the size of the merit reserve.
Estimating the Number of Firms and Capacity in Small Markets

Many oligopoly theories predict that there will be a positive correlation between market size and the equilibrium number of firms, and some also imply that competition is more intense in larger markets. We test these predictions with a sample of 535 driving schools in 249 markets. With an ordered Probit, a Tobit, and a Poisson model we estimate the relation between the number of firms, capacity, and market size. We find a strong positive correlation between market size and the number of firms. The results show that the per firm market size is increasing in the number of firms in the market. The market size per capacity unit is smaller in large markets. Since the industry produces a fairly homogenous good, we argue that this is evidence that competition is increasing in market size.
Optimized Speech Understanding with the Continuous Interleaved Sampling Speech Coding Strategy in Patients with Cochlear Implants: Effect of Variations in Stimulation Rate and Number of Channels

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of systematic variations in stimulation rate and number of channels on speech understanding in 13 patients with cochlear implants who used the continuous interleaved sampling speech coding strategy. Reducing the stimulation rate from 1,515 to 1,730 pulses per second per channel to 600 pulses per second per channel resulted in decreased overall performance; the understanding of monosyllables and consonants was more affected than the understanding of vowels. Reducing the number of active channels below 7 or 8 channels decreased speech understanding; the identification of vowels and monosyllables was most affected. We conclude that vowel recognition with the continuous interleaved sampling strategy relies on spectral cues more than on temporal cues, increasing with the number of active channels, whereas consonant recognition is more dependent on temporal cues and stimulation rate.
Mesenteric lymph from burned rats induces endothelial cell injury and activates neutrophils

ObjectiveOur previous studies indicated that mesenteric lymph duct ligation prevented burn-induced lung injury. Thus, the goal of the present study was to begin to investigate potential mechanisms of this protective effect. DesignProspective animal study with concurrent control. SettingSmall animal laboratory. SubjectsAdult male Sprague-Dawley rats. InterventionsMesenteric lymph and portal vein plasma were collected from male rats subjected to a 40% third-degree scald burn or sham burn. The biological effects of these lymph and plasma samples were tested for their ability to kill human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), increase HUVEC monolayer permeability, and activate polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs), as reflected in CD11b adhesion molecule expression and superoxide production. Additionally, ileal specimens were harvested at the end of the experiment (6 hrs postburn) for histologic analysis. Measurements and Main ResultsPostburn mesenteric lymph produced during the first 2 hrs after burn injury and tested at a 5% concentration, but not sham-burn lymph or portal plasma from burned rats, was toxic for HUVECs resulting in cell death after an 18-hr incubation period. Similarly, only postburn lymph increased HUVEC monolayer permeability. Postburn lymph activated both rat and human PMNs as reflected in increased CD11b expression and augmentation of the phorbol myristate acetate-induced superoxide response. Neither sham-burn lymph nor postburn portal vein plasma activated PMNs. Both the burn and sham-burn lymph samples were sterile, indicating that the effects of burn lymph on the HUVECs or PMNs were not due to translocating bacteria. Last, an association was found between burn-induced gut injury and the production of toxic burn lymph. ConclusionsBurn-induced gut injury results in the production of biologically active factors that are carried in the mesenteric lymph, but not the portal plasma, which injure endothelial cells and activate PMNs and thus could contribute to distant organ injury.
Retention of robot-assisted surgical skills in urological surgeons acquired using Mimic dV-Trainer.

INTRODUCTION We assess the retention of robot-assisted surgical skills among urologic surgeons. METHODS The robot-assisted surgery skills of 20 urologic surgeons were assessed using a Mimic dV-Trainer program (Mimic Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA) consisting of 6 tasks. These 20 surgeons had no previous experience either using the Mimic dV-Trainer or acting as the main surgeon in robot-assisted surgery. The surgeons completed the program 4 times in a row; after 1 year, they completed it again for a fifth time. Performance scores were recorded using the Mimic dV-Trainer's built-in algorithm. RESULTS For all 6 tasks, there were significant improvements to the scores in the fourth trials compared with those in the first trials. The scores in the fifth trials did not significantly decline compared with those in the fourth trials. There was no significant difference between the fifth trial scores of surgeons with laparoscopic surgery skills/experience and those without. CONCLUSION Our results indicate that fundamental robot-assisted surgical skills can be retained in the long-term after they are acquired.
The Manager of Volunteers - Privileged or Powerless? A case study on motivating volunteers

Motivation is a hot topic in the corporate world and managers are searching for ways to motivate the workers in order to improve performance. Profit-seeking organizations are able to control the workers motivation and actions, because they are usually in higher power and employees are often dependent on the organization for monetary reasons (Sayer, 2007). But what about managers in voluntary organizations? In the absence of a monetary contract, how can managers motivate the volunteers? Managing volunteers in everyday practice is an under-researched field and the aim of this thesis is to provide an insight of how managers attempt to motivate volunteers in 'real life'. We have explored to what extent managers’ attempts are perceived to influence the members’ motivations to participate and to remain in the organization. The research is based on a interpretative approach as we were interested in gaining a deeper understanding of motivation from the respondents’ perspectives. Our empirical material is based on 12 semi-structured in-depth interviews with managers and members. From the findings we conclude that the managers' attempts to motivate volunteers are perceived to have limited effect on the members. Although social activities were perceived to influence on members motivations, it is questionable to what extent the manager can create and control the socialization process.
Characteristics of trauma in North East Iran and the prevention strategies.

BACKGROUND The increase in mortality and morbidity of traumatized patients in developing countries might be due to disorganized medical services and credit tightness. This study was designed to describe the characteristics of injury, the strategies for the trauma prevention, and to improve the healthcare system. METHODS This was part of a national research project about trauma, conducted in the main trauma center of Mashhad, in North East Iran; it was a prospective cross-sectional study which comprised of all consecutively admitted patients to the emergency department from December 2003 through July 2004. RESULTS Most of the traumatized patients were male, uneducated, housewives, or workers. Motor vehicle accidents (during the time when fastening seat belts and wearing helmets were not compulsory) and falling (height less than four meters and falling on the ground) were considered as the most common mechanisms. Almost 68.5% of the patients transferred to the hospitals did not have prehospital care. With an average injury severity score (ISS) value of 10.3, lower extremities and head and neck were the most common traumatized anatomic areas leading to their related morbidity and mortality. CONCLUSION A large number of traumatized cases among uneducated and nonoccupational population makes the role of mass media more prominent. Public education about traffic law, streets, and vehicle security check seems to be crucial to decrease the mortality and morbidity.
NEW APPROACHES IN THE REHABILITATION OF THE TRAUMATIC HIGH LEVEL QUADRIPLEGIC

The use of noninvasive alternatives to tracheostomy for ventilatory support have been described in the patient management of various neuromuscular disorders. The use of these techniques for patients with traumatic high level quadriplegia, however, is hampered by the resort to tracheostomy in the acute hospital setting. Twenty traumatic high level quadriplegic patients on intermittent positive pressure ventilation (IPPV) via tracheostomy with little or no ability for unassisted breathing were converted to noninvasive ventilatory support methods and had their tracheostomy sites closed. Four additional patients were ventilated by noninvasive methods without tracheostomy. These methods included the use of body ventilators and the noninvasive intermittent positive airway pressure alternatives of IPPV via the mouth, nose, or custom acrylic strapless oral-nasal interface (SONI). Overnight end-tidal pCO2 studies and monitoring of oxyhemoglobin saturation (SaO2) were used to adjust ventilator volumes and to document effective ventilation during sleep. No significant complications have resulted from the use of these methods over a period of 45 patient-years. Elimination of the tracheostomy permitted significant free time by glossopharyngeal breathing for four patients, two of whom had no measurable vital capacity. We conclude that noninvasive ventilatory support alternatives can be effective and deserve further study in this patient population.