Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Primary Radial Nerve Palsy in Patients With Acute Humeral Shaft Fractures

Objective: The primary aim was to report on the recovery of radial nerve function in patients with acute closed humeral shaft fractures and associated primary radial nerve palsy. The secondary aim was to report on the long-term functional outcome and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with this specific injury. Setting: Six major hospitals in Stockholm County. Design: Descriptive study. Retrospective assessment of radial nerve recovery and fracture healing. Prospective assessment of functional outcome and HRQoL. Patients: Thirty-three patients with acute radial nerve palsy and a closed humeral shaft fracture in a population of 358 patients with 361 humeral shaft fractures. Intervention: Nonoperative or operative treatment as per decision of the attending orthopedic surgeon. Main Outcome Measurements: Recovery of the radial nerve, fracture healing, functional outcome according to the Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment (SMFA) and the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH). HRQoL according to Short Form 36 (SF-36). Results: Among the 18 patients treated nonoperatively, 16 (89%) displayed a complete recovery from their radial nerve palsy while 2 (11%) presented minor sequelae. In 11 (73%) of the 15 patients treated primarily operatively, the nerve function recovered completely while 2 patients (13%) had minor sequelae and 2 (13%) had major sequelae, i.e. 1 partial nerve palsy and 1 total radial nerve palsy. Sixteen patients (48%) were available for assessment of the long-term functional outcome and HRQoL at a mean of 7 years (range, 6 to 8 years). The range of motion and the muscular strength of the injured arm, the functional outcome according to the SMFA, and HRQoL according to the SF-36 showed results comparable to those previously reported for patients with healed humeral shaft fractures without associated radial nerve palsy. Conclusion: This study confirms the high spontaneous recovery rate of primary radial nerve palsies in patients with closed humeral shaft fractures. Primary radial nerve palsy should not be regarded as an isolated indication for primary surgical intervention.
The epidermal growth factor receptor pathway mediates resistance to sequential administration of radiation and chemotherapy in primary human glioblastoma cells in a RAS-dependent manner.

Resistance to conventional adjuvant therapies (i.e., chemotherapy and radiation) has been well documented in malignant gliomas. Unlike many other tumor types, combined modality therapy involving radiation and chemotherapy has failed to appreciably enhance outcome for glioblastoma patients compared with radiation alone. In vitro, we have observed an actual antagonistic effect between sequential administration of radiation and 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU) chemotherapy in three primary human glioblastoma cell lines (referred as the GBME3-5 cell lines), which also happen to demonstrate strong expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Upon inhibition of EGFR with the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, AG1478, it was found that this cross-resistance between sequential administration of radiation and BCNU was abrogated. To dissect which of these pathways may be responsible for the observed antagonism, known EGFR-regulated downstream signaling pathways including RAS, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-K), mitogen-activated protein kinase (p44/p42), and protein kinase C were inactivated with both pharmacological inhibitors and transient transfection experiments with dominant-negative and constitutively active constructs in the presence of exogenous EGF stimulation. It was found that BCNU inhibited radiation-induced apoptosis through EGFR-mediated activation of PI3-K/AKT via RAS. On the other hand, radiation was found to inhibit BCNU-induced apoptosis through EGFR-mediated activation of both PI3-K and mitogen-activated protein kinase (p44/p42) pathways, also via RAS. Inhibition of either EGFR or RAS activity appears to not only abrogate the observed antagonism between sequentially administered radiation and chemotherapy but actually results in a greater enhancement of apoptosis in the setting of combined modality therapy than when administered with either radiation or chemotherapy as single agents. Therefore, these findings suggest that strategies to inactivate EGFR or RAS signaling may be critical to improving not only the efficacy of single-agent therapy but also of combined modality therapy in gliomas.
The Effects of Moderate Exercise Training on Natural Killer Cells and Acute Upper Respiratory Tract Infections

A randomly controlled 15-wk exercise training (ET) study (five 45-min sessions/wk, brisk walking at 60% heart rate reserve) with a group of 36 mildly obese, sedentary women was conducted to investigate the relationship between improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness, changes in natural killer (NK) cell number and activity, and acute upper respiratory tract infection (URI) symptomatology. The study was conducted using a 2 (exercise and nonexercise groups) x 3 (baseline, 6-, and 15-wk testing sessions) factorial design, with data analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA. No significant change in NK cell number occurred as a result of ET as measured by the CD16 and Leu-19 monoclonal antibodies. ET did have a significant effect on NK cell activity (E:T 50:1) especially during the initial 6-wk period [F(2.68) = 12.34, p less than 0.001]. Using data from daily logs kept by each subject, the exercise group was found to have significantly fewer URI symptom days/incident than the nonexercise group (3.6 +/- 0.7 vs 7.0 +/- 1.4 days, respectively, p = 0.049). Improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness was correlated significantly with a reduction in URI symptom days/incident (r = 0.37, p = 0.025) and a change in NK cell activity from baseline to six but not 15 wks (r = 0.35, p = 0.036). In summary, moderate ET is associated with elevated NK cell activity after six but not 15 weeks, and reduced URI symptomatology in comparison to a randomized, sedentary control group.
Special Education and English Language Learner Students in Boston Charter Schools: Impact and Classification

The question of whether and how well charter schools serve special education and English Language Learners1 remains one of most controversial in the charter school debate. This paper uses admissions lotteries to estimate the effects of Boston’s charter school enrollment on student achievement and classification for special needs students. Charter attendance boosts achievement similarly for special needs and non-special needs students. Charters also increase the likelihood that special needs students meet high school graduation requirements and earn a state merit scholarship. Even the most disadvantaged special needs students benefit from charter attendance. Charter schools reduce the likelihood of special needs classifications and move special education students into more inclusive classrooms at a substantially higher rate than do traditional public schools. Differences in charter classification practices are largely unrelated to charter gains, suggesting that special needs classification is not essential for students with special needs to make progress. ∗Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Email: esetren@mit.edu. I am grateful to Joshua Angrist, Parag Pathak, and Amy Finkelstein for their guidance and support. I also thank Sarah Cohodes, Peter Hull, Sydnee Caldwell, and the participants in the MIT Public Finance Lunch and MIT Labor Lunch for their comments. Special thanks go to Carrie Conaway, Cliff Chuang, and the staff of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for data, suggestions, and assistance. Thanks also to Annice Correia for administrative support and Anthony Yu, Alex Jucta, Xialing Zhang, Veronica Salazar, and Hazal Can for assistance preparing the lottery records. This work was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. 1I will refer to special education and English Language Learners as special needs students. Special Education and English Language Learner Students in Boston Charter Schools: Impact and Classification Elizabeth Setren* School Effectiveness and Inequality Initiative Discussion Paper #2015.05 December 2015
What works: Case studies in the practice of foresight

What Works furthers the practice of foresight in organizations, institutions, cities and nations. Divided into three parts, What Works moves from theorizing the future to case studies of foresight in action and concludes with innovative futures methods. The first part introduces futures studies — its principles, theories and methods. The second and main part of the book presents case studies. Chapters include: Deep inclusion in a digital era: democratic governance Asia 2030 Leap-frogging the West: e-health futures in Bangladesh From the lecturer to the murabbi: the alternative futures of higher education in Malaysia Leveraging development: the alternative scenarios for BRAC University Transforming agriculture: from salinity research to greening the desert Cities as agents of change: emerging issues and case studies Going beyond the thin blue line: the futures of international policing From the collection to co-creation: the futures of libraries and librarians From crops to care: the changing nature of health care in rural Australia The third and final section focuses on methodological innovation. These chapters explore the implications of forecasting the long-term future, the use of the Sarkar game in foresight workshops, and how causal layered analysis has been used to transform personal and institutional stories. The conclusion evaluates the use of futures thinking for strategy development.
A Hybrid Simulated Annealing Algorithm for Nonslicing VLSI Floorplanning

Floorplanning in very large scale integrated-circuit (VLSI) design is the first phase in the process of designing the physical layout of a chip. This makes the floorplanning problem of paramount importance, since it determines the performance, size, yield, and reliability of VLSI chips . From the computational point of view, the VLSI floorplanning is an NP-hard problem. In this paper, we present a hybrid simulated annealing algorithm (HSA) for nonslicing VLSI floorplanning. The HSA uses a new greedy method to construct an initial B*-tree, a new operation on the B*-tree to explore the search space, and a novel bias search strategy to balance global exploration and local exploitation. Experimental results on Microelectronic Center of North Carolina (MCNC) benchmarks show that the HSA can quickly produce optimal or nearly optimal solutions for all the tested problems.
Identification and decentralized control of a dual-actuator hard disk drive system

The dual-actuator hard disk drive with two voice coil motor actuators mounted in the diagonal corners of the baseplate allows faster data access with relatively slow spindle speed. However, the mechanical interaction between the actuators tends to affect the head positioning accuracy. In this paper, we use the circle-fit modal testing method to identify the dual-input dual-output frequency response model of the dual-actuator plant. We discuss the decentralized control scheme for the dual-actuator tracking servo. The servo loop decomposition reveals that the interaction induces narrow-band vibrations near the crossover frequency. We propose a phase-lead interaction filter with a slight change to the loop stability to suppress the vibrations. Experimental results on a dual-actuator prototype show that the position error signal 6/spl sigma/ value due to interaction vibrations is reduced by 61% with the interaction filter in combination with the decentralized control scheme.
A Reponse to Maliniak, Powers, and Walter

I thank the PS editors for the opportunity to respond to the reply by Daniel Maliniak, Ryan Powers, and Barbara Walter. 1. The evidence of fraud and non-replicated results mentioned in my article’s introduction relate to reporting flexibility because each reduces the trust that social science deserves. 2. My article concerned the potential for politically biased estimates due to selective reporting in a politically imbalanced field. I suggested preregistration and preacceptance to address this concern because these mechanisms can be adopted immediately to directly reduce or eliminate selective reporting for results presented as confirmatory in applicable studies. I did not call for mechanisms to increase ideological diversity because, among other reasons, I do not think that increased ideological diversity would be an efficient or particularly effective mechanism for reducing political bias in research reporting. For an analogy, sentencing matrices that eliminate sentencing discretion would be a more efficient and effective mechanism than increased racial diversity among judges for reducing racial bias in criminal sentencing, in the aggregate and in individual cases. 3. Table 4 in Maliniak et al. ( 2013 ) reported results for 10 models estimating the gender gap in citations to international relations articles, with each successive model including additional controls. Maliniak et al. ( 2013 ) noted that gender in their kitchen sink model “remains.statistically significant” (p. 905), but my reanalysis indicated that the p-value for that model is 0.223 when including articles from 2007. This omission of 2007 articles from the kitchen sink model is the referent regarding Maliniak et al. ( 2013 ) in the passage: “[p]reviouslydiscussed examples are consistent with a preference for statistically-significant results” (Zigerell, this issue). Maliniak et al. ( 2013 ) indicating that the gender gap coefficient is not statistically significant in certain subsets of years does not make the omission of 2007 articles from their key model inconsistent with a preference for statistically-significant results. 4. Maliniak et al. found it odd that I did not report results for their other table 4 models when including articles from 2007. But none of these other models control for the journal that an article was published in. The journal provides information about article quality and visibility, which are theoretically related to the number of citations an article receives. I did not think it necessary to discuss models that omit such a theoretically-important control, either for illustrating reporting flexibility (this issue) or for a substantive discussion of the gender citation gap (Zigerell 2015 ). My reanalysis volunteered a model that added theoretically-relevant controls (Zigerell 2015 , Figure 1), with a gender gap estimate larger and a p-value smaller (p=0.027) than in the Maliniak et al. ( 2013 ) kitchen sink model, which provides better information about the gender citation gap than a model omitting available data for relevant controls would.
Loss of Heterozygosity of Tumor Suppressor Genes (p16, Rb, E-cadherin, p53) in Hypopharynx Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Objective. Microsatellite alterations, especially those that cause loss of heterozygosity (LOH), have recently been postulated as a novel mechanism of carcinogenesis and a useful prognostic factor in many kinds of malignant tumors. However, few studies have focused on a specific site, hypopharynx. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between LOH and hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPSCC). Study Design. Laboratory-based study. Setting. Integrated health care system. Subjects and Methods. Matched normal and cancerous tissues from 30 patients with HPSCC were examined for LOH in 4 tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) (p16, Rb, E-cadherin, and p53) at loci 9p21, 13q21, 6q22, and 17p13, respectively, using microsatellite markers amplified by polymerase chain reaction. The results for each loci were compared with clinicopathological features. Results. Among the 30 cases, 26 (86.7%) exhibited LOH, with the most common alteration being LOH at p53 (52.6%). Significantly higher rates of LOH detection were seen in Rb, p53, and the LOH-high group (cases where 2 or more loci with LOH were found) in cases of lymph node metastasis. Compared with stage I and II carcinoma, tumors of stages III and IV had significantly higher frequencies of LOH in Rb, p53, and the LOH-high group. However, the presence of LOH was not significantly correlated with survival. Conclusion. These results suggest that LOH in TSGs such as Rb and p53 may contribute to the development and progression of HPSCC. The presence of LOH in the primary tumor may also be predictive of lymph node metastasis.
U.S. Patriotism and Ideologies of Group Dominance: A Tale of Asymmetry

Abstract Using a random sample (N = 405) of White and Latino Americans from Los Angeles County, the authors explored whether there is an asymmetrical relationship between U.S. patriotism and two different dimensions of social dominance orientation: group antiegalitarianism and group dominance. Although there was no evidence of asymmetry in the relationship between U.S. patriotism and group antiegalitarianism, there was evidence of consistent asymmetry in the relationship between U.S. patriotism and group dominance. Among Whites (the dominant North American ethnic group) and depending on demographic variables such as age, education, income, and gender, the greater the respondents' tendency to subordinate “inferior groups,” the greater their level of U.S. patriotism. In contrast, among Latino Americans (the major subordinate group in Southern California), the opposite trend was found. Here, higher levels of group dominance orientation were associated with lower levels of U.S. patriotism. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
Bladder and rectal toxicity of BeamCath application in radiotherapy of prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND Patient-reported toxicity in two radiotherapy regimens for early stage prostate cancer was investigated. In 2003, the Swedish BeamCath technique was adapted for Northern Norway. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ninety men underwent radiotherapy for early-stage prostate cancer in February 2002 to March 2005. They were invited to participate in a telephone interview employing a questionnaire guide focusing on bladder, intestinal and sexual function. RESULTS Eighty patients responded, which represents 89% of all patients. The treatment group (23 patients) had received 76 Gy with the BeamCath technique and the control group (57 patients) received 70 Gy employing a conformal technique. The BeamCath technique was associated with a lower median rectal (p=0.004; 50.6 Gy versus 56.2 Gy) and bladder dose (p=0.017; 48.5 Gy versus 61.5 Gy). There were no differences in scores on masculinity and sexual function. In conclusion, the BeamCath technique did not increase rectal or bladder toxicity.
Evidence for a central mode of action for etoricoxib (COX-2 inhibitor) in patients with painful knee osteoarthritis

Abstract The COX-2 inhibitor etoricoxib modulates the peripheral and central nociceptive mechanisms in animals. This interaction has not been studied in patients with pain. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 2-way crossover, 4-week treatment study investigated the pain mechanisms modulated by etoricoxib in patients with painful knee osteoarthritis. Patients were randomized to group A (60 mg/d etoricoxib followed by placebo) or B (placebo followed by 60 mg/d etoricoxib). The quantitative, mechanistic pain biomarkers were pressure pain thresholds, temporal summation (TS), and conditioning pain modulation. Clinical readouts were Brief Pain Inventory, WOMAC, painDETECT questionnaire (PD-Q), and time and pain intensity during walking and stair climbing. Etoricoxib as compared with placebo significantly modulated the pressure pain thresholds (P = 0.012, localized sensitization) at the knee and leg (control site) (P = 0.025, spreading sensitization) and TS assessed from the knee (P = 0.038) and leg (P = 0.045). Conditioning pain modulation was not modulated. The Brief Pain Inventory (pain scores), PD-Q, WOMAC, and walking and stair climbing tests were all significantly improved by etoricoxib. Based on a minimum of 30% or 50% pain alleviation (day 0-day 28), responders and nonresponders were defined. The nonresponders showed a significant association between increased facilitation of TS and increased pain alleviation. None of the other parameters predicted the degree of pain alleviation. Generally, a responder to etoricoxib has the most facilitated TS. In conclusion, etoricoxib (1) modulated central pain modulatory mechanisms and (2) improved pain and function in painful osteoarthritis. Stronger facilitation of TS may indicate a better response to etoricoxib, supporting the central mode-of-action of the drug.
Spatiotemporal organization of simple-cell receptive fields in the cat's striate cortex. II. Linearity of temporal and spatial summation.

1. We have tested the hypothesis that simple cells in the cat's visual cortex perform a linear spatiotemporal filtering of the visual image. To conduct this study we note that a visual neuron behaves linearly if the responses to small, brief flashes of light are mathematically related, via the Fourier transform, to the responses elicited by sinusoidal grating stimuli. 2. We have evaluated the linearity of temporal and spatial summation for 118 simple cells recorded from the striate cortex (area 17) of adult cats and kittens at ages 4 and 8 wk postnatal. These neurons represent a subset of the population of cells for which we have described the postnatal development of spatiotemporal receptive-field structure in the preceding paper. Spatiotemporal receptive-field profiles are constructed, with the use of a reverse correlation technique, from the responses to random sequences of small bar stimuli that are brighter or darker than the background. Fourier analysis of spatiotemporal receptive-field profiles yields linear predictions of the cells' spatial and temporal frequency tuning. These predicted responses are compared with spatial and temporal frequency tuning curves measured by the use of drifting, sinusoidal-luminance grating stimuli. 3. For most simple cells, there is good agreement between spatial and temporal frequency tuning curves predicted from the receptive-field profile and those measured by the use of sinusoidal gratings. These results suggest that both spatial and temporal summation within simple cells are approximately linear. There is a tendency for predicted tuning curves to be slightly broader than measured tuning curves, a finding that is consistent with the effects of a threshold nonlinearity at the output of these neurons. In some cases, however, predicted tuning curves deviate from measured responses only at low spatial and temporal frequencies. This cannot be explained by a simple threshold nonlinearity. 4. If linearity is assumed, it should be possible to predict the direction selectivity of simple cells from the structure of their spatiotemporal receptive-field profiles. For virtually all cells, linear predictions correctly determine the preferred direction of motion of a visual stimulus. However, the strength of the directional bias is typically underestimated by a factor of about two on the basis of linear predictions. Consideration of the expansive exponential nonlinearity revealed in the contrast-response function permits a reconciliation of the discrepancy between measured and predicted direction selectivity indexes. 5. Overall, these findings show that spatiotemporal receptive-field profiles obtained with the use of reverse correlation may be used to predict a variety of response properties for simple cells. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)