Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endoscopic saphenous vein and radial harvest: state-of-the-art

Purpose of review Over the past decade, there has been an increased adoption of minimally invasive techniques for saphenous vein and radial artery procurement during coronary artery bypass surgery, albeit concerns have been raised about the potential detrimental effects of the endoscopic approach when compared with the conventional ‘open’ technique. The aim of the present review is to analyse the current available techniques and evidence about the impact of an endoscopic approach on conduit quality and clinical outcomes. Recent findings At present, the available techniques for endoscopic vessel harvesting can be based on a sealed or non-sealed concept, for both saphenous vein and radial artery procurement. Despite the proven advantages of a minimally invasive approach in terms of reduced incidence of wound complications, pain reduction and improved cosmetic results, some studies questioned the impact of this technique in terms of potential graft damage, thus impairing the longevity of the graft itself. Summary Endoscopic conduit harvesting can be performed safely and effectively with the currently available techniques, albeit a careful knowledge of the pitfalls of each technique is mandatory. Since there is ample evidence in literature that a minimally invasive approach for saphenous vein and radial artery procurement is not associated with an increased risk of graft damage and related failure in the mid–long term, the endoscopic technique should be adopted as the approach of choice for saphenous vein and radial artery harvesting in coronary artery bypass graft surgery.
Changes in human primary motor cortex activity during acute cutaneous and muscle orofacial pain.

AIMS To use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine whether orofacial cutaneous or muscle pain is associated with changes in primary motor cortex (M1) activity that outlast the duration of perceived pain, and whether these M1 changes are different during cutaneous pain compared with muscle pain. METHODS fMRI was used in healthy subjects experiencing orofacial muscle (n = 17) or cutaneous (n = 15) pain induced by bolus injections of hypertonic saline (4.5%) into the belly of the masseter muscle (0.5 ml) or subcutaneously (0.2 ml) into the overlying skin, respectively. To determine the effects of the injection volume, isotonic saline (n = 4) was injected into the masseter muscle. RESULTS Similar pain scores were observed following subcutaneous (mean [± SEM]; 4.73 ± 0.51) or intramuscular injections (4.35 ± 0.56). Orofacial muscle but not cutaneous pain was associated with a transient increase in signal intensity in the contralateral M1. Cutaneous and muscle orofacial pains were associated with similar signal intensity decreases within the contralateral M1 that continued to decrease for the entire scanning period. Isotonic saline did not evoke pain or changes in M1 signal intensity. CONCLUSION The transient contralateral M1 signal intensity increase during orofacial muscle pain may underlie escape-like motor patterns. However, once the initial threat has subsided, longer-term reductions in M1 activity and/or excitability may occur to aid in minimizing movement of the affected part, an effect consistent with the general proposals of the Pain Adaptation Model.
Prostate cancer cells use genetic and epigenetic mechanisms for progression to androgen independence

Studies on the genetic basis of prostate cancer (PCa) have lead to mixed results with the only consensus being that PCa is a complex disease. Our goal was to gain insight into potential events involved in the acquisition of the androgen‐refractory phenotype in PCa cells regardless of DNA‐change dependence. To this end, we examined two LNCaP PCa cell line models of progression—one developed in vivo and one developed in vitro—using molecular cytogenetic and microarray gene expression analyses and extended this investigation of specific events into PCa tumors. The chromosomal changes observed in both in vivo and in vitro androgen‐independent cell lines are similar to those seen in PCa during tumor progression. Correspondingly, gene expression analysis showed significant heterogeneity in the genes expressed among androgen‐independent cells, but with some common gene expression changes that correlated with the acquired androgen‐independent phenotype. Thus, growth conditions under which the cells progress appeared to impact the mechanisms used for progression, albeit within tumor‐type‐specific pathways. Our findings suggest that a dynamic and adaptable combination of epigenetic and DNA‐change‐dependent events can be used by PCa cells for the acquisition of the androgen‐independent phenotype. This article contains Supplementary Material available at http://www.interscience. wiley.com/jpages/1045‐2257/suppmat. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effect of acid-etching on the enamel bond of two self-etching systems.

PURPOSE To evaluate enamel bond strengths of self-etching primer systems with and without the use of phosphoric acid etching. MATERIALS AND METHODS The enamel of sixteen bovine incisors was ground with wet 600-grit SiC paper, and specimens were divided into seven groups. Group SE and group ABF were bonded with Clearfil SE Bond (Kuraray) and an experimental self-etching primer system ABF (Kuraray) in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. The enamel of groups SE+AC and ABF+AC was acid-etched (AC) prior to application of the primers. The enamel of groups AC+SE-P and AC+ABF-P was acid-etched and the bonding resin was applied without primer. All of these groups were restored with Clearfil AP-X (Kuraray). For the control group (SB), enamel was etched and bonded with Single Bond (3M) according to manufacturer's instructions and restored with Z-250 (3M). After 24 h of water storage, the teeth were sectioned into 0.7-mm-thick slabs, trimmed for microtensile bond testing and subjected to tensile forces at a cross-head speed of 1 mm/min. After testing, all samples were analyzed with SEM. Data were evaluated by one-way ANOVA and Fisher's PLSD (alpha = 0.05). RESULTS Acid etching prior to application of the self-etching primer produced higher bond strengths to enamel than self-etching priming only. Omission of the primer step provided bond strengths similar to the other acid-etched groups. SEM analysis revealed that when the acid was applied prior to the self-etching primers, an increase in failure within enamel occurred. CONCLUSION Since high bond strength to enamel is critical for good margins and seal of the restorations, applying the etching step should be considered in case of restorations that rely mainly on enamel bonding.
Beyond national models: Civic integration policies for immigrants in Western Europe

This article argues that, instead of diverging in terms of national models, Western European states' policies on immigrant integration are increasingly converging. One convergent trend is examined in detail, obligatory civic integration courses and tests for newcomers. While a comparison of the Netherlands, France and Germany reveals considerable national variation in implementing civic integration, this variation tends to be incompatible with traditional national model assumptions. Moreover, more noteworthy than variation is the shared feature of civic integration that liberal goals are pursued with illiberal means, making it an instance of repressive liberalism.
MetaZipf. A dynamic meta-analysis of city size distributions

The results from urban scaling in recent years have held the promise of increased efficiency to the societies who could actively control the distribution of their cities’ size. However, little evidence exists as to the factors which influence the level of urban unevenness, as expressed by the slope of the rank-size distribution, partly because the diversity of results found in the literature follows the heterogeneity of analysis specifications. In this study, I set up a meta-analysis of Zipf’s law which accounts for technical as well as topical factors of variations of Zipf’s coefficient. I found 86 studies publishing at least one empirical estimation of this coefficient and recorded their metadata into an open database. I regressed the 1962 corresponding estimates with variables describing the study and the estimation process as well as socio-demographic variables describing the territory under enquiry. A dynamic meta-analysis was also performed to look for factors of evolution of city size unevenness. The results of the most interesting models are presented in the article, whereas all analyses can be reproduced on a dedicated online platform. The results show that on average, 40% of the variation of Zipf’s coefficients is due to the technical choices. The main other variables associated with distinct evolutions are linked to the urbanisation process rather than the process of economic development and population growth. Finally, no evidence was found to support the effectiveness of past planning actions in modifying this urban feature.
PRICING FOR GEOMETRIC MARKED POINT PROCESSES UNDER PARTIAL INFORMATION: ENTROPY APPROACH

The problem of the arbitrage-free pricing of a European contingent claim B is considered in a general model for intraday stock price movements in the case of partial information. The dynamics of the risky asset price is described through a marked point process Y, whose local characteristics depend on some unobservable jump diffusion process X. The processes Y and X may have common jump times, which means that the trading activity may affect the law of X and could be also related to the presence of catastrophic events. Risk-neutral measures are characterized and in particular, the minimal entropy martingale measure is studied. The problem of pricing under restricted information is discussed, and the arbitrage-free price of the claim B w.r. t. the minimal entropy martingale measure is computed by using filtering techniques.
Ethnic Bargaining in the Shadow of Third-Party Intervention

Relatively weak ethnic groups mobilize and rebel against their governments just as frequently (or infrequently) as strong ones. However, such seemingly irrational behavior is not inconsistent with a rationalist approach to ethnic separatism. A bargaining model that treats all the relevant actors as strategic players suggests that power disparities between an ethnic minority and the state—including those based on a group's access to third-party intervention—should affect how the state treats the group but not the likelihood that the group rebels against the state. Greater mistreatment by the state should not be correlated with greater external intervention on a group's behalf. New empirical support for the model is drawn from the Minorities at Risk data set, and the discussion has implications for the field of international relations beyond ethnic conflict to extended deterrence more generally.
An Experimental Examination of the Simultaneous Determination of Input Prices and Output Prices

This paper involves a test of the competitive equilibrium as a model of the interdependence that exists between input and output markets. The test was motivated by the questions of skeptical students who were just learning the details of the competitive model. It was also motivated as a natural extension of existing results. In essence, the interdependence between input and output markets has been observed in several laboratory studies in which arbitrage could occur in markets separated by space or by time [6, 599-624; 5; 8, 1063-1071; 3, 223-241; 1, 537-567; 2, 955- 981; 7, 106-127; 9, 1-33]. Goods acquired by an arbitrager or by a speculator can be viewed as inputs taken from one market and then when sold by the same agent in a spatially separated or a temporarily separated market, they can be viewed as outputs resulting from a simple production process. Thus, all experiments in which such market activity exists can be viewed as having involved production. However, in all cases studied to date the market interdependence was rather transparent and the production technology was linear. In this study, the problem posed for the multiple markets is not transparent and the technology is nonlinear.
Engaging Customers for Loyalty in the Restaurant Industry: The Role of Satisfaction, Trust, and Delight

The establishment and maintenance of enduring customer–provider relationships remains a primary objective for many service providers. In addition to providing satisfying experiences, customer loyalty is likely to be earned through relational determinants such as trust, customer delight, commitment, and involvement within the service relationship. Despite this, few studies have explored how these constructs combine to engage customers and determine customer loyalty over time. Through this research the authors examine the effect of these constructs on loyalty using a structural equation modeling approach and a sample of 474 service consumers in the restaurant industry. They also examine the extent to which service experience moderates the effect of these relational determinants on loyalty. The results indicate that satisfaction, trust, and delight ultimately generate customer loyalty in the restaurant industry. Interestingly the salience of the relational determinants in the development of loyalty did not differ significantly based on the customer's level of relationship experience. The findings of the authors in this research have important strategic implications for restaurateurs managing the customer–provider relationship, and for service managers who predominantly rely on the measurement of satisfaction to monitor customer loyalty.
Revealing Talent: Informal Skills Intermediation as an Emergent Pathway to Immigrant Labor Market Incorporation

In today's fast-changing urban labor markets, skill formation is crucial to long-term income security and occupational advancement. While most studies emphasize the skills that workers acquire through formal training and educational programs, a less understood but equally important concern is how workers acquire skills through informal means and then how they demonstrate and defend skills for which they have no formal credentials. This is especially important when considering the labor market participation of less-educated immigrant workers with limited formal training and credentialing support. How do these immigrant workers develop, demonstrate, and defend their skills in receiving community labor markets? What factors facilitate or hinder these processes? How might skill formation be institutionalized in order to enhance immigrant labor market incorporation? In this paper we examine these questions through a study of Latino immigrant workers in North Carolina's construction industry. In particular, we focus on the role that immigrant skills intermediation, and the informal learning processes it supports, play in the formation of emergent pathways for developing, demonstrating, and defending immigrant talent in mainstream labor markets. We conclude that informal intermediation by established immigrant workers can facilitate immigrant skill development and demonstration in mainstream labor markets and thus provides an important pathway for advancing the labor market status of less-educated immigrant workers.
Characterization of a comparative model of the extracellular domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor

The Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) receptor is a tyrosine kinase that mediates the biological effects of ligands such as EGF and transforming growth factor alpha. An understanding of the molecular basis of its action has been hindered by a lack of structural and mutational data on the receptor. We have constructed comparative models of the four extracellular domains of the EGF receptor that are based on the structure of the first three domains of the insulin‐like growth factor‐1 (IGF‐1) receptor. The first and third domains of the EGF receptor, L1 and L2, are right‐handed beta helices. The second and fourth domains of the EGF receptor, S1 and S2, consist of the modules held together by disulfide bonds, which, except for the first module of the S1 domain, form rod‐like structures. The arrangement of the L1 and S1 domains of the model are similar to that of the first two domains of the IGF‐1 receptor, whereas that of the L2 and S2 domains appear to be significantly different. Using the EGF receptor model and limited information from the literature, we have proposed a number of regions that may be involved in the functioning of the receptor. In particular, the faces containing the large beta sheets in the L1 and L2 domains have been suggested to be involved with ligand binding of EGF to its receptor.
A Comparison of Humanoid and Non-humanoid Robots in Supporting the Learning of Pupils with Severe Intellectual Disabilities

Previous research has shown that the humanoid NAO robot can enhance learning as well as improve communication in children with intellectual disabilities. However, most special needs schools cannot afford the humanoid NAO robot due to high costs. Could a cheaper non-humanoid Lego Mindstorm robot be an alternative way of achieving the same learning objectives as the humanoid NAO robot? A single case study experimental ABAB design was used consisting of 16 sessions over 5 weeks: eight with the humanoid and eight with the non-humanoid robot. All sessions were video recorded and analysed for percentage engagement and percentage errors made by each of four students. For each student individually, these outcome measures were then compared between the two conditions. The teachers were interviewed at the end of the study. Three out of four students were significantly more engaged with the non-humanoid robot than the humanoid robot, whilst one student was found to be equally engaged with both robots. There was no significant difference between the two robots in terms of percentage errors for all four participants who managed to complete the study.
Intangible resources as performance drivers in European hospitals

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of intangible resources in the performance management of European hospitals. The extent of the awareness of intangible resources as performance drivers is examined in five different European hospitals, from both the private and the public sector.Design/methodology/approach – An inductive approach was taken based on open ended, semi‐structured interviews with key informants.Findings – Research results indicate that hospitals' managers realise the importance of intangible resources. In particular these relate to three different areas, namely the management of hospitals' human resources, the creation of relationships within and outside the organisation, and the measurement of individual performance.Research limitations/ implications – This research is exploratory in nature. Further and deeper research is needed which focuses on the identification of the most relevant resources in hospitals and their impact on performance. Both will then justify the in.
Competitive Equilibria in Markets with a Continuum of Traders and Incomplete Preferences

Abstract : It is shown that a market with a continuum of traders possesses a competitive equilibrium even when the preferences are not complete. This generalizes further a result of Aumann, ('Econometrica'; 32: 39-50 (1964); 34: 1-17(1966)) who showed that the convexity assumption may be dispensed within the presence of a continuum of traders. The proof is inspired by the Arrow-Debreu ('Econometrica; 22: 265-290(1954)) proof for the finite case. (Author)
Primacy Implementation of Environmental Policy in the U.S. States

Environmental regulation is frequently implemented through a system that allows states to choose whether to assume primary authority, or "primacy," for implementation and enforcement. This study looks at what causes states to assume this authority in two important areas of environmental policy: air and water pollution. It finds that in each policy area, primacy assumption is unrelated to the "greenness" of state environmental policy generally and negatively related to indicators of policy innovation within that area. Rather than being driven by commitment to the environment, primacy assumption appears to be driven predominately by other factors, which differ substantially across the air and water policy arenas. These findings call into question the widely held view that primacy assumption is an indicator of state environmentalism and indicate that a more nuanced view of what causes states to assume primacy is necessary to fully understand the dynamics of intergovernmental policy implementation. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.
The contextual nature of lobbying: Explaining lobbying success in the European Union

Why are some interest groups able to lobby political decisions successfully whereas others are not? This article suggests that the issue context is an important source of variation because it can facilitate or hamper the ability of interest groups to lobby decision-makers successfully. In order to test the effect of issue characteristics, this article draws on a new, unprecedented data set of interest group lobbying in the European Union. Using quantitative text analysis to analyse Commission consultations, this article studies lobbying success across 2696 interest groups and 56 policy issues. The findings indicate that lobbying success indeed varies with the issue context, depending on the relative size of lobbying coalitions and the salience of policy issues, whereas individual group characteristics do not exhibit any systematic effect.
Comprehensive Variant Screening of the UGT Gene Family

Purpose UGT1A1, UGT2B7, and UGT2B15 are well-known pharmacogenes that belong to the uridine diphosphate glucuronyltransferase gene family. For personalized drug treatment, it is important to study differences in the frequency of core markers across various ethnic groups. Accordingly, we screened single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of these three genes and analyzed differences in their frequency among five ethnic groups, as well as attempted to predict the function of novel SNPs. Materials and Methods We directly sequenced 288 subjects consisting of 96 Korean, 48 Japanese, 48 Han Chinese, 48 African American, and 48 European American subjects. Subsequently, we analyzed genetic variability, linkage disequilibrium (LD) structures and ethnic differences for each gene. We also conducted in silico analysis to predict the function of novel SNPs. Results A total of 87 SNPs were detected, with seven pharmacogenetic core SNPs and 31 novel SNPs. We observed that the frequencies of UGT1A1 *6 (rs4148323), UGT1A1 *60 (rs4124874), UGT1A1 *93 (rs10929302), UGT2B7 *2 (rs7439366), a part of UGT2B7 *3 (rs12233719), and UGT2B15 *2 (rs1902023) were different between Asian and other ethnic groups. Additional in silico analysis results showed that two novel promoter SNPs of UGT1A1 -690G>A and -689A>C were found to potentially change transcription factor binding sites. Moreover, 673G>A (UGT2B7), 2552T>C, and 23269C>T (both SNPs from UGT2B15) changed amino acid properties, which could cause structural deformation. Conclusion Findings from the present study would be valuable for further studies on pharmacogenetic studies of personalized medicine and drug response.
Innovation statistics for the European service sector

• A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers.