Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preoperative MRI Analysis of Patients With Idiopathic Scoliosis: A Prospective Study

Study Design. A prospective trial of preoperative MRI study in patients with “idiopathic” scoliosis. Objectives. To investigate the prevalence of neural axis malformations and the clinical relevance of MRI in the evaluation of patients with idiopathic scoliosis undergoing surgical intervention. Summary of Background Data. With the development of MRI, neural axis abnormalities such as syringomyelia or Chiari malformations are increasingly being found in patients with “idiopathic” scoliosis. The risk of neurologic complications during correction of scoliosis without prior decompression surgery for syringomyelia has been documented; however, there have been no prospective studies for identifying the risk of neurologic complications as a result of scoliosis surgery in patients with asymptomatic neural axis malformations. Methods. A total of 250 patients who were classified as having “idiopathic” scoliosis at first presentation and admitted for spinal surgery were evaluated. All patients were examined for neural axis abnormalities using MRI. The presence of neurologic symptoms and abnormal neurologic signs was also examined before and after surgical intervention. Neurologic complications during scoliosis surgery were reviewed in patients with neural axis abnormalities. Results. There were 44 (18%) patients (13 males and 31 females) who had neural axis abnormalities on MRI, including syringomyelia with Chiari malformations in 22 patients, syringomyelia with tonsillar ectopia in 2, Chiari malformations in 13, tonsillar ectopia in 6, and low conus medullaris in 1. On clinical examination, 44 (18%) patients had abnormal neurologic signs and 26 (7%) patients complained of headache or back pain. There were significant differences between patients with and without neural axis abnormalities regarding the age at first visit, gender, curve pattern, sagittal profile of thoracic spine, presence of neurologic deficit, and complaint of pain. Only 12 of 44 patients needed neurosurgical treatment for foramen magnum decompression before correction of scoliosis. Neurologic status temporarily worsened in 3 patients, including 2 patients with neurosurgical treatment and 1 patient without neurosurgical treatment; however, there were no permanent neurologic complications as a result of scoliosis surgery. All patients without neurologic deficits or complaints of pain did not receive neurosurgical treatment, while they had no permanent neurologic complications. Conclusions. Foramen magnum decompression for neural axis malformations could prevent permanent neurologic complications during scoliosis surgery. There is little risk of neurologic complications in patients with “idiopathic” scoliosis whose neurologic status is normal, even if these patients have a neural axis malformation on MRI.
Diversity and stability of coral endolithic microbial communities at a naturally high pCO2 reef

The health and functioning of reef‐building corals is dependent on a balanced association with prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbes. The coral skeleton harbours numerous endolithic microbes, but their diversity, ecological roles and responses to environmental stress, including ocean acidification (OA), are not well characterized. This study tests whether pH affects the diversity and structure of prokaryotic and eukaryotic algal communities associated with skeletons of Porites spp. using targeted amplicon (16S rRNA gene, UPA and tufA) sequencing. We found that the composition of endolithic communities in the massive coral Porites spp. inhabiting a naturally high pCO2 reef (avg. pCO2 811 μatm) is not significantly different from corals inhabiting reference sites (avg. pCO2 357 μatm), suggesting that these microbiomes are less disturbed by OA than previously thought. Possible explanations may be that the endolithic microhabitat is highly homeostatic or that the endolithic micro‐organisms are well adapted to a wide pH range. Some of the microbial taxa identified include nitrogen‐fixing bacteria (Rhizobiales and cyanobacteria), algicidal bacteria in the phylum Bacteroidetes, symbiotic bacteria in the family Endozoicomoniaceae, and endolithic green algae, considered the major microbial agent of reef bioerosion. Additionally, we test whether host species has an effect on the endolithic community structure. We show that the endolithic community of massive Porites spp. is substantially different and more diverse than that found in skeletons of the branching species Seriatopora hystrix and Pocillopora damicornis. This study reveals highly diverse and structured microbial communities in Porites spp. skeletons that are possibly resilient to OA.
Prevention, early intervention, and harm reduction of substance use in adolescents

This paper presents a systematic review on the effectiveness of prevention, early intervention, and harm reduction including treatment of substance abuse among adolescents for tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs. Taxation, public consumption bans, restriction on advertisements, and minimum legal age for consumption, are effective measures to reduce the use of tobacco and alcohol. School-based prevention and skill-training interventions are effective tools to reduce substance use among adolescents. Social norms and intervention to reduce substance use in adolescents do not have strong evidence of effectiveness. Road-side testing and reduction of injection related harm are effective. However, further research is needed to support it. Moreover, the available research evidence comes from the Western countries with questionable applicability in Indian setting. Research is needed to increase the evidence base on interventions that aim to reduce the high burden of substance use in adolescents in India.
Effects of loaded voluntary wheel exercise on performance and muscle hypertrophy in young and old male C57Bl/6J mice

This study compared the capacity of young and old male C57Bl/6J mice to exercise with increasing resistance over 10 weeks, and its impact on muscle mass. Young mice (aged 15–25 weeks) were subjected to low (LR) and high (HR) resistance exercise, whereas only LR was used for old mice (107–117 weeks). Weekly patterns of voluntary wheel activity, food consumption and body weights were measured. Running patterns changed over time and with age, with two peaks of activity detected for young, but only one for old mice: speed and distance run was also less for old mice. The mass for six limb muscles was measured at the end of the experiment. The most pronounced increase in mass in response to exercise was for the soleus in young and old mice, and also quadriceps and gastrocnemius in young mice. Soleus and quadriceps muscles were analyzed histologically for myofiber number and size. A striking feature was the many small myofibers in response to exercise in young (but not old) soleus, whereas these were not present after exercise in young or old quadriceps. Overall, there was a striking difference in response to exercise between muscles and this was influenced by age.
The association between earnings quality and firm-specific return volatility: Evidence from Japan

Purpose - This paper examines the association between earnings quality and firm-specific return volatility for a large sample of Japanese manufacturing firms. Design/methodology/approach - This archival research employs idiosyncratic volatility and asynchronicity as two analogous proxies for firm-specific return volatility to investigate its association with earnings quality. Findings - Using idiosyncratic volatility and asynchronicity as two comparable proxies for firm-specific return volatility, the author finds contradictory results. The author relates this contradiction to another debate in accounting and finance literature about whether firm-specific return volatility captures firm-specific information or noise. Initially, the author obtains conflicting results because the systematic risk, one of the components of asynchronicity, is highly correlated with earnings quality. After controlling for the systematic risk, the author finds that higher earnings quality is associated with lower firm-specific return volatility. This finding is consistent with the noise-based explanation of firm-specific return volatility. The author also separates earnings quality into innate component driven by economic fundamentals and discretionary component driven by managerial discretionary behavior and finds that both components have significant impact on firm-specific return volatility but innate component has significantly stronger effect than discretionary component. Originality/value - This is the first research study presenting evidence on the association between earnings quality and firm-specific return volatility in the Japanese setting. The findings of this paper are likely to contribute to the resolution of a well-known debate on whether firm-specific return volatility captures more firm-specific information being impounded in stock prices or noise in stock prices.
Smoking and low back pain. A systematic literature review of 41 journal articles reporting 47 epidemiologic studies.

STUDY DESIGN A systematic review of the epidemiologic literature on smoking and low back pain. OBJECTIVES To establish whether smoking causes low back pain and whether cessation of smoking reduces the incidence and/or prevalence of low back pain. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA It seems to have become increasingly commonly accepted that smoking causes low back pain and that abstinence from smoking is an effective means for its prevention and treatment. Does the evidence in the epidemiologic literature support this concept? METHODS Forty-one original research reports reporting 47 studies, published between 1974 and 1996, were systematically reviewed for strength of association, dose-response correlation, temporality, reduction of symptoms with smoke cessation, and consistency of findings. In addition, the presence of positive findings was viewed in light of definition of low back pain, representativeness of the study sample, sample size, and in relation to whether the prime objective had been to study the smoking-low back pain issue. Two reviews were performed by the author, blindly and separated by a 2-month interval. RESULTS There was no consistency of statistically significant positive associations between smoking and low back pain. The association, when present, was usually weak and clearly apparent only in large study samples. No other study characteristics had an effect on the frequency of positive associations. Additional analyses were therefore performed only on studies with large samples. In general, these did not contain consistent positive findings in relation to dose-response, temporality, or reversibility. Signs of causality were consistently evident only in the study with the largest sample (n > 30,000). CONCLUSIONS Presently, smoking should be considered a weak risk indicator and not a cause of low back pain.
Children were the age group at the highest risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2011

In 2011, 27.0 % of children (aged 0-17) in the EU-27 were at risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) compared to 24.3 % of adults (18-64) and 20.5 % of the elderly (65 or over). Concerning types of households with dependent children, single parents (49.8 %), two adults with three or more dependent children (30.8 %) and three adults or more with dependent children (28.4 %) had the highest AROPE rates. With respect to monetary poverty, more than 45.0 % of low to very low work intensity households with dependent children were at risk of poverty. Moreover, 49.2 % of children whose parents’ highest level of education was low were at risk of poverty compared to 7.5 % of children whose parents’ highest level of education was high. Children with a migrant background were at a greater risk of poverty than children whose parents were native born. As regards living conditions, 18.4 % of single parent households were severely materially deprived compared to 9.6 % households with dependent children.
Label Embedding Network: Learning Label Representation for Soft Training of Deep Networks

We propose a method, called Label Embedding Network, which can learn label representation (label embedding) during the training process of deep networks. With the proposed method, the label embedding is adaptively and automatically learned through back propagation. The original one-hot represented loss function is converted into a new loss function with soft distributions, such that the originally unrelated labels have continuous interactions with each other during the training process. As a result, the trained model can achieve substantially higher accuracy and with faster convergence speed. Experimental results based on competitive tasks demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, and the learned label embedding is reasonable and interpretable. The proposed method achieves comparable or even better results than the state-of-the-art systems. The source code is available at \url{this https URL}.
Evidence against perturbative QCD from polarized deep-inelastic scattering.

Regge phenomenology is used to infer the positivity of certain helicity-dependent quark distribution functions with their low-x behavior subtracted out. These forms adequately describe the data for muon scattering from polarized protons but violate the Ellis-Jaffe sum rule, casting doubt on the reliability of perturbative QCD. Predictions made earlier with the theory of quark geometrodynamics are in agreement with the data.
Role Of Clamping Tube Thoracostomy Prior To Removal In Non-Cardiac Thoracic Trauma.

BACKGROUND The frequently encountered thoracic trauma in surgical emergencies is a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Eighty percent of thoracic trauma can be managed by simple insertion of tube thoracostomy. Though guidelines for insertion are comprehensively explained in literature, an ideal algorithm for discontinuation is not available. A standard and safe defined protocol would eliminate hesitancy in confident removal among general surgeons. The objective of this study was to determine role of clamping trial prior to removal in terms of frequency of recurrent pneumothorax. METHODS This study was conducted in department of Surgery Combined military hospital/Military Hospital Rawalpindi from April 2013 to March 2014. Total 180 patients with blunt or penetrating thoracic trauma were included in the study. Chest tube (28-36 Fr) was inserted in Trauma centre under strict asepsis. Tubes were then connected to under water seal for minimum six hours. Patients were randomly divided in two equal groups (90 in each). In Group A, Clamping trial was given before attempting removal while in Group B, tube was removed immediately without clamping trial. Patients of both groups were observed two hourly for development of recurrent pneumothorax. Data was analysed using SPSS-18. RESULTS The comparison of frequency of recurrent pneumothorax in Group A (9 patients, 10%) and in Group B (4 patients, 4.5%) was not found to be statistically significant. (p-value 2.073). CONCLUSIONS Clamping trial is unnecessary prior to removal of tube thoracostomy in blunt and penetrating non-cardiac thoracic trauma in terms of recurrent pneumothorax.
Cytomegalovirus in transplantation – challenging the status quo

Abstract: Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection of solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients causes both ‘‘direct’’ and ‘‘indirect’’ effects including allograft rejection, decreased graft and patient survival, and predisposition to opportunistic infections and malignancies. Options for CMV prevention include pre‐emptive therapy, whereby anti‐CMV agents are administered based on sensitive viral assays, or universal prophylaxis of all at‐risk patients. Each approach has advantages and disadvantages in terms of efficacy, costs, and side effects. Standards of care for prophylaxis have not been established.
Analysis of outcomes and prognostic factors of acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients treated by MCP841 protocol: A regional cancer center experience

Background: A dramatic improvement in the survival of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients in the last three decades has been observed. MCP 841 protocol is an old but effective tool with tolerable toxicities. The objective of this study was to estimate the relapse-free survival of ALL patients treated uniformly with MCP 841 protocol on the basis of various prognostic factors. Materials and Methods: The study design was retrospective and it was conducted in a regional cancer center of Northwest India. Three hundred and ten ALL patients who underwent treatment with MCP 841 protocol and regular follow-up for up to 5 years were selected for this study. Relapse-free survival was calculated by Kaplan–Meier analysis and Cox regression analysis was used to calculate the hazards ratio (HR) using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software for windows version 20.0. Results: Fifty-four percent patients were <15 years of age and 69% were males. 53.2% patients were in remission at the end of 5 years of starting the treatment. Relapse-free survival at 5 years by Kaplan–Meir analysis for B-cell ALL was 62% [HR 0.67 {95% confidence interval (CI) 0.47-0.95}] with patients with unknown lineage taken as reference] while for T cell it was 28% [HR 1.41 (95% CI 1.19-1.63), P 0.001]. Patients with total leukocyte count (TLC) <1 lakh/cmm at presentation, relapse-free survival was 68% and those with TLC >1 lakh/cmm had 41% survival [HR 2.14 (1.76-2.48) with, P < 0.001]. Conclusion: MCP 841 protocol is a useful tool for the treatment of ALL in children when more aggressive protocols can not be used.
Analysis of the relationship between sources of knowledge and innovation performance in family firms

This paper has two objectives related to two gaps identified in the literature. The first objective is to extend research on the impact of using different knowledge sources on the innovation performance of firms in the family business context. The second objective is to study the moderating effect of family characteristics on these relationships. We adopted items from Community Innovation Surveys to collect data on Spanish family firms. Our results primarily show a positive effect of internal and collaboration sources on firms’ innovation performance specifically with respect to innovations that are new to the firm. Regarding the moderating effect of family characteristics on the relationship between the use of knowledge sources and innovation performance, the results suggest that CEO tenure, CEO founder duality and family involvement exert negative moderating effects. Thus, the family firm dimension tends to attenuate the positive effects of using various types of knowledge sources on innovation performance.
Comparing ectopic bone growth induced by rhBMP‐2 on an absorbable collagen sponge in rat and rabbit models

Recombinant human Bone Morphogenetic Protein‐2 (rhBMP‐2) is currently employed as an autograft replacement for spinal fusion. The morphogen is incorporated onto its carrier, an absorbable collagen sponge (ACS), in the operating room. Although the effectiveness of the rhBMP‐2/ACS implant in stimulating bone formation in human subjects has now been well established, further investigations of its use are necessary to deepen our understanding of its performance. The objective of the present study was to determine whether fluid released from the rhBMP‐2/ACS implant could induce bone growth in tissue sites away from the implant site. We first measured the amount of protein in the fluid released from the rhBMP‐2‐soaked ACS during intraoperative handling. Variables included soak time and degree of compression. In the compression group that most closely approximated intraoperative conditions, more than 95% of the rhBMP‐2 protein was retained by the ACS following a 15‐min. soak time. This in vitro study was followed by an in vivo ectopic implant experiment using rat and rabbit models. The animal investigation compared the amount of bone induced by rhBMP‐2 solution alone versus the de novo bone formation induced by rhBMP‐2/ACS implants with varying concentrations of rhBMP‐2. No ossicles were found at the sites where rhBMP‐2 solution was injected in either animal species. Twenty‐two of the 24 subcutaneous sites in the rats implanted with the rhBMP‐2/ACS constructs displayed the presence of the typical 4‐ and 12‐week ossicle. There were no noticeable differences in the size and shape of the ossicles after 4 and 12 weeks. There was a greater percentage of implant sites without ossicles in the rabbits, compared to the rats. © 2006 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 24:1660–1669, 2006
Genomic organization of the mouse plunc gene and expression in the developing airways and thymus.

Few genes have been isolated which display specific expression in the proximal airways. A recently identified mouse cDNA, plunc, appears to be confined to the upper airways and nasopharyngeal epithelium, and may prove a useful marker for these regions. We now report the genomic cloning and characterization of the mouse plunc gene as well as its developmental expression in the nasal and airway epithelium. We also report the novel finding that plunc is also expressed in the medullary compartment of the murine thymus. The mouse gene contains nine exons and the intron-exon boundaries are conserved with those in the human homologue. At e14.5 plunc is expressed in the nasal epithelium and several days later is seen in the thymic lobes, but not in the lining of the tracheobronchial tree. Expression in the trachea and main-stem bronchi first appears at 1--2 days after birth. Tracheobronchial expression persists at high levels throughout adulthood, as do regional areas of nasal and thymic expression. Finally, we show that the human homologue is expressed in bronchial epithelium, suggesting a transcript that is evolutionarily conserved in the mammalian airway.
Stability of SARS coronavirus in human specimens and environment and its sensitivity to heating and UV irradiation.

OBJECTIVE The causal agent for SARS is considered as a novel coronavirus that has never been described both in human and animals previously. The stability of SARS coronavirus in human specimens and in environments was studied. METHODS Using a SARS coronavirus strain CoV-P9, which was isolated from pharyngeal swab of a probable SARS case in Beijing, its stability in mimic human specimens and in mimic environment including surfaces of commonly used materials or in household conditions, as well as its resistance to temperature and UV irradiation were analyzed. A total of 10(6) TCID50 viruses were placed in each tested condition, and changes of the viral infectivity in samples after treatments were measured by evaluating cytopathic effect (CPE) in cell line Vero-E6 at 48 h after infection. RESULTS The results showed that SARS coronavirus in the testing condition could survive in serum, 1:20 diluted sputum and feces for at least 96 h, whereas it could remain alive in urine for at least 72 h with a low level of infectivity. The survival abilities on the surfaces of eight different materials and in water were quite comparable, revealing reduction of infectivity after 72 to 96 h exposure. Viruses stayed stable at 4 degrees C, at room temperature (20 degrees C) and at 37 degrees C for at least 2 h without remarkable change in the infectious ability in cells, but were converted to be non-infectious after 90-, 60- and 30-min exposure at 56 degrees C, at 67 degrees C and at 75 degrees C, respectively. Irradiation of UV for 60 min on the virus in culture medium resulted in the destruction of viral infectivity at an undetectable level. CONCLUSION The survival ability of SARS coronavirus in human specimens and in environments seems to be relatively strong. Heating and UV irradiation can efficiently eliminate the viral infectivity.