Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Making decisions for surgical intervention in neonates with necrotizing enterocolitis and the selection of appropriate surgical intervention

Objective: Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is one of the most common conditions requiring surgical intervention in the neonatal period. The decision for surgical intervention in NEC is difficult and the surgical procedures differ according to the condition of the patient. This study assesses the decision for surgical intervention in patients being followed with a preliminary diagnosis of NEC and the appropriate surgical procedure. Material and Method: The files of patients undergoing surgery with a diagnosis of NEC at the Marmara University Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit between 15.07. 2013- 15.07. 2015 were studied retrospectively. Patients were evaluated for the following: gestational age, birth weight, gender, time of onset of symptoms, abdominal distention, tenderness, presence of abdominal erythema, hypotension, acidosis, thrombocytopenia, radiological findings, surgical timing and post-operative follow up. Results: A total of 10 neonates (7 boys, 3 girls) were treated surgically with an NEC diagnosis. The average gestational age of the patients was 27.6 weeks (22-37 weeks), and the median birth weight was 710 grams (400-3750). Average onset of symptoms was found to be 8.1 days (2-30) postnatal. Abdominal distention and tenderness (10), hypotension (4), and abdominal erythema (3) were observed in patients upon physical examination. Acidosis (7), thrombocytopenia (6) was observed in patients in laboratory findings. Free fluid (4), thickening of the intestinal wall ans (3), pneumatosis intestinalis (1), portal venous gas (1) was observed in patients during the assessment of the abdominal ultrasonography (US). 3 patients whose direct x-ray evaluations were grade III underwent peritoneal drainage. The drain site of one of these patients closed by itself, and there was no need for further surgery for the patient. Laparotomy was carried out a day after clinical stabilization was achieved. Our third patient, the lowest birth weight in our series, was lost immediately following the peritoneal drainage process. Peritoneal drainage was planned in two other grade III patients based on the radiological findings. However, due to the appearance of necrotic bowel segments from the incision site, they underwent bowel resection and ileostomy during a bedside laparotomy. One of these patients improved clinically, but the other patient was lost in the early stages. Due to the deterioration seen in the clinical findings of 5 patients who were radiologically grade II, the decision for laparotomy was made initially. All of these 5 patients were discharged after an uneventful postoperative period. Conclusion: In patients who are grade II radiologically, the decision for surgical intervention in an operating room can be made according to clinical deterioration. In infants who are grade III, and whose clinical condition is poor, bedside surgical intervention in the neonatal intensive care unit is preferable.
China's Migrant Workers: How Far from Being Citizens?

Hundreds of millions of farmers have become permanent urban residents. But they do not enjoy the corresponding benefits as citizens. Migration of rural population and labor mobility have become one of the primary elements driving China’s economic growth, but migrant workers have to face economic, social, political and cultural challenges and barriers before becoming real citizens. These changes and barriers include unemployment and poverty of landless farmers, labor resource integration, social inclusion and government administration and so on, among which, the reform and improvement of household registration system, land system, labor system and social security system is becoming urgent for the Chinese government. Thus the migrant workers still have a long way to go before obtaining full citizenship.
The herbivorous insect fauna of a submersed weed, Hydrilla verticillata (Alismatales: Hydrocharitaceae).

Although relatively few insects have been reported to feed on submersed aquatic plants, field surveys on Hydrilla verticillata (L. F.) Royle for biological control agents have demonstrated that insect herbivores should be expected when surveying submersed aquatic plants in the native ranges. Beetles, or Coleoptera, especially the weevils (Curculionidae), are important herbivores. Weevils attack submersed plant species both when water is present and when water is absent during dry periods which leave the plants exposed. Pupal success appears to be the major determinant of weevil life cycle strategies. Donaciine leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae) attack the roots or crowns of submersed species, but their feeding and damage is difficult to determine. Leaf-mining Hydrellia flies (Diptera: Ephydridae) are diverse and common on submersed species. Other flies, the midges (Chironomidae), are also common on submersed species, but many utilize the plants only for shelter. However, midge larvae ate the apical meristems on the tips of hydrilla stems. Aquatic caterpillars (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) are the herbivores most easily observed on submersed species because of their large size and conspicuous damage, but their host ranges might be too broad for use as biological control agents. More research is needed on the field biologies of aquatic insect herbivores. Field surveys should be conducted on submersed aquatic weeds even in the absence of literature reports of insect herbivores. Until a reasonable database of herbivores and their host plants is assembled, it is difficult to evaluate the suitability of biological control for a submersed aquatic weed.
Gender, resource use and technical efficiency among rice farmers in the Ashanti Region, Ghana

This study examined the differences in re source use and technical efficiency between male female rice farmers in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The stocha stic production frontier model was used to a sse ss the technical efficiency of the rice farmers. Female rice farmers were found to be producing at high levels of inefficiency. The predicted efficiencies differed substantially from between 2 and 85 %, with mean efficiency of 24%. The low mean efficiency index is an indication of inefficiencies in resource use. Also, female headed farms recorded a mean technical efficiency of 16.5% with a range of between 2 and 66%. The male headed farms, on the other hand, showed a mean technical efficiency of 30.8 %, and a range between 2 and 85%. The re sults imply that on the average, female rice farmers are relatively technically inefficient than their male counterparts. The paper concludes that since women farmers contribute about 60% of domestic food supply in Ghana, it is important that efforts should be made to build the capacity of women farmers to produce efficiently.
Obesity and CRP, Adiponectin, Leptin, and Lipid Profile in Saudi Arabian Adolescent Females

Overweight and obesity are increasing tremendously in female Saudi Arabian adolescents. Overweight and obesity lead to many medical risks and affects the immune system. In this study, the effects of obesity on the immune system of 100 Saudi female adolescent students were investigated. Using a blood sample from each subject, the following immune related parameters were determined: concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP), adiponectin and leptin hormones, and the complete lipid profile. Finally, to assess the body weight status of the subjects and to categorize them, the weight, height, and the waist and hip circumferences were measured to calculate the body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and the waist circumference (WC). Results show highly significant increases for the CRP and leptin and a highly significant decrease of adiponectin with increasing body weight measured by the three methods. As for the lipid profile, both triglycerides and LDL increased while HDL decreased as body weight increased. Cholesterol did not change with changing body weight measured by the three methods. The findings indicate that obesity seriously affects the immune systems of the subjects and confirm the finding of other researchers that obesity is an inflammatory disease, which explains some health complications associated with obesity.
Bomb Radiocarbon Dating of Animal Tissues and Hair

Initially, radiocarbon dating by bomb 14C was used to check vintages of wine and whisky and to estimate the turnover times of carbon in various biological tissues. However, this technique has never been widely used for routine dating, although it has a wide field of application in geriatric medicine and forensic investigations. Fifteen years' experience in this field has shown the potential and limits of this technique. Taking into account the decisive biological factors, such as growth and aging, a complicated picture is obtained. Recent human bones cannot be dated with a constant precision. Despite an incomplete understanding of the process of incorporation of 14C into human bones, the present dating technique is still more precise than most estimates by geriatric experts, for conventional 14C dating follows that 14C dates of bone collagen represent the years of the termination of puberty rather than those of death. Another application is the identification of furs of illegally hunted animals on the “Red List of threatened species” of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). For court cases, the year the animals were killed must be precisely determined. Due to the long and variable turnover time of more than one year of leather hair is the best dating material for animals.
Audit Committee Adoption and Effectiveness on Internal Control Weaknesses

This study applies Heckman two-stage approach to investigate whether the adoption of an audit committee and its effectiveness could mitigate the incidence of internal control weaknesses (hereafter ICWs) for firms listed in Taiwan. The empirical results reveal that the incidence of ICW problems could be depressed by adopting the audit committee voluntarily. The findings also show that effective audit committees result in greater depression of the likelihood of ICWs of Taiwanese firms.
Semiconductor II-VI Quantum Dots with Interface States and Their Biomedical Applications

Nanocrystals of group II-VI semiconductors, known as quantum dots (QDs), in which electrons and holes are three dimensionally confined within the exciton Bohr radius of the material, are characterized by the exceptional optical properties, such as broad absorption and sharp emission bands as well as size-tunable photoluminescence in the visible spectral range. The most popular are CdSe/ZnS QDs due to their bright and unique emission with the wide excitation spectra and narrow emission bandwidths (Bailey et al., 2004; Dybiec et al., 2007; Jamieson et al., 2007; Kune et al., 2001; Norris et al., 1996; Tessler et al., 2002). The II-VI QDs have been investigated in versatile photonic applications including solar cells (Choi et al., 2006; Kongkanand et al., 2008; Lopez-Luke et al., 2008), optical fibre amplifiers (Liu et al., 2007), color displays using light-emitting diode arrays (Huang et al., 2008: Klude et al., 2002; Zhao et al., 2006), optical temperature probes (Liang et al., 2006; Walker et al., 2003), as well as in biology and medicine (Alivisatos et al., 2005; Grodzinski et al., 2006; Hoshino et al., 2007; Murcia et al., 2008; Portney & Ozkan, 2006; Wang et al., 2007). Note that metal, semiconductor, polymer and ceramic nanoparticles in general have gained essential interest for biological and medical applications (Brigger, et al., 2002). Polymer and ceramic nanoparticles have been widely used as drug carriers, whereas metal nanoclusters and semiconductor QDs have been applied mainly for imaging and therapy. Among various nanoparticles, semiconductor QDs attracted much attention due their exceptional optical properties. In comparison with organic dyes and fluorescent proteins, the semiconductor quantum-confined core/shell nanostructures, such as CdSe/ZnS QDs, are brighter, more stable against photo bleaching, have multicolor emission in dependence on core sizes and can be excited for this emission with a single light source. The size-tunable properties allow one to choose an emission wavelength that is well suited to experimental conditions and to synthesize the QD-based probe by using an appropriate semiconductor materials and nanocrystal sizes. In biology and medicine the semiconductor QDs have been used: for the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) analysis (Bailey et al., 2004; Jamieson et al., 2007; Zhang et al., 2005), in gene technology (Gerion et al., 2002; Han et al., 2001; Pathak et al., 2001), fluorescent labeling of cellular proteins (Dubertret et al., 2002; Dubertret et al., 2003; Hanaki
THE BUYER POWER OF MULTIPRODUCT RETAILERS: COMPETITION WITH ONE-STOP SHOPPING

This paper illustrates how, in local retail markets, a multiproduct retailer may gain buyer power when some consumers are one-stop shoppers (multi-product shop-pers). We consider a model where independent suppliers negotiate terms of trade with a large multiproduct retailer and a group of smaller single product retailers, respectively. We find that an increase in the share of one-stop shoppers intensifies the degree of competition between the retailers, and hence reduces the overall industry profit –while at the same time enabling the multiproduct retailer to obtain discounts from its suppliers, in the form of lower fixed fees. We also show that the presence of a large retailer may positively affect the suppliers’incentives to invest in product quality or cost reductions.
FATTY ACID COMPOSITION OF ACID, BIOLOGICAL AND ENZYMATIC FISH SILAGE

The use of the fish silage as an ingredient in feed for aquatic organisms is an alternative to solve sanitary and environmental problems caused by the lack of an adequate destination for the residues generated by the fishing industry. It would also lower the costs with feed, and consequently the fish production costs, since the expenses with the feed account for approximately 60% of the total cost. The objective of this study was to evaluate the fatty acid composition of the acid silage (AS), biological silage (BS) and enzymatic silage (ES) produced from discardings of the culture and from processing residues of the Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ). The values found for lipids (dry matter basis) were: 12.45; 12.25 and 12.17 g 100 g -1 for BS, AS, and ES, respectively. The fatty acids present in the lipid fraction of the silages are predominantly unsaturated. Oleic acid was present in larger amounts (30.49, 28.60 and 30.60 g 100 g -1 of lipids for BS, AS and ES, respectively). Among saturated fatty acids, palmitic and stearic acids were present in larger amounts. Only traces of eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) fatty acids were found. The silages produced from discardings of the culture and processing residues of the Nile tilapia are not a good source of EPA and DHA for fish feeds.
Thoracic endometriosis syndrome at University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital

Background Endometriosis is defined as the presence of endometrial tissue (stroma and functional glands) outside the uterine cavity in women of reproductive age. Ectopic sites are frequently located in the pelvis; extrapelvic sites have been reported in the gastrointestinal tract and thoracic cavity. Thoracic manifestation of endometriosis constitutes thoracic endometriosis syndrome (TES). Objectives To examine the presentation pattern and outcome of in the management of TES. Methods This study is a retrospective review of medical records of patients diagnosed with endometriosis at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital over a 3.5-year period from January 2014 to June 2017. Results A total of 21 patients presented with endometriosis, of whom 8 (38.1%) presented with TES. The most common variety of TES was catamenial pleural effusion (CPE) accounting for 75%, followed by catamenial chest pain (37.5%). Two patients (25%) each presented with catamenial pneumothorax and catamenial haemoptysis, while 1 (12.5%) had catamenial surgical emphysema. Closed thoracostomy tube drainage plus chemical pleurodesis was the most frequent intervention technique, accounting for 62.5%. Conclusion TES remains an uncommon entity, despite being the most common extrapelvic manifestation of endometriosis. CPE appeared to be the most common variant of TES in our environment. Currently available treatment options need to be improved, and more use made of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery.
Modeling of cytochrome P 450 ( Cyt P 450 , CYP ) channels ∗

The precise location of a substrate in cytochrome P450 (CYP) governs the orientation of the oxidation position. Such information is generally obtained from biochemical data, but modeling approaches have also been used to explain these locations. We used X-ray data and modeling techniques to distinguish between the series of putative linear or curved channels which lead the substrate from the outer side of the protein to the inner, and then into the heme pocket; these techniques were also used to identify the largest such channels. Two new methods for precisely determining the 3-D structure of proteins using X-ray crystallography were proposed in order to identify these channels: first, the use of both straight and curved channels, and second, the sphere method. These data are compared with Poulos channels, and with Caver (or Mol on line) modeling methodologies. Our methods were developed from studies of the interaction between cytochrome P450CAM (CYP101) from Pseudomonas putida (as expressed in Escherichia coli) and the indolic base β-carboline. Apart from the identification of potential access channels leading to the heme-containing active site, a new explanation was advanced for the substrate’s hydroxylation position. The sphere method seems to have potential to become a general and direct method for prediction of substrate access channels from reducedor low-resolution crystallographic data.
Explorer Able but not willing ?

Purpose – China is the world’s largest user market for digital technologies and experiencing unprecedented rates of rural-urban migration set to create the world’s first “urban billion”. This is an important context for studying nuanced adoption behaviours that define a digital divide. Large-scale studies are required to determine what behaviours exist in such populations, but can offer limited ability to draw inferences about why. The purpose of this paper is to report a large-scale study inside China that probes a nuanced “digital divide” behaviour: consumer demographics indicating ability to pay by electronic means but behaviour suggesting lack of willingness to do so, and extends current demographics to help explain this. Design/methodology/approach – The authors report trans-national access to commercial “Big Data” inside China capturing the demographics and consumption of millions of consumers across a wide range of physical and digital market channels. Focusing on one urban location we combine traditional demographics with a newmeasure that reflecting migration: “Distance from Home”, and use data-mining techniques to develop a model that predicts use behaviour. Findings – Use behaviour is predictable. Most use is explained by value of the transaction. “Distance from Home” is more predictive of technology use than traditional demographics. Research limitations/implications – Results suggest traditional demographics are insufficient to explain “why” use/non-use occurs and hence an insufficient basis to formulate and target government policy. Originality/value – The authors understand this to be the first large-scale trans-national study of use/non-use of digital channels within China, and the first study of the impact of distance on ICT adoption.
Genetic variants of Interleukin-18 promoter gene in coronary artery disease

Background & objectives: Heart disease is impacted by ecological and inherited factors. Interleukin-18 (IL-18) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that stimulates the immune reaction and induces the formation of atherosclerotic plaques. The aim of this study was to determine the relation between IL-18 promoter variants at (607C/A) and (137G/C) sites and coronary artery disease (CAD). Subjects & Methods: A sum of one hundred and twenty Egyptian patients (Sixty with CAD and sixty without CAD) and fifty healthy controls were consolidated into the study. Genotyping of IL18 promoter gene was investigated by PCR - Specific Sequence primer (PCR-SSP) technique . Results: The outcomes demonstrated that a significant association between lipid profiles and risk for CAD. At position-137, the recurrence of GG genotype was fundamentally connected with CAD. No qualifications in the genotypic and allelic frequencies amongst cases and controls were found for IL-18 (607C/A) promoter gene. Conclusion: A relationship between IL-18 (137G/C) promoter gene and vulnerability to CAD was proposed and it might serve as susceptibility biomarkers in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.
M ay 2 01 7 Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor turbulence

The turbulent Rayleigh–Taylor system in a rotating reference frame is investigated by direct numerical simulations within the Oberbeck-Boussinesq approximation. On the basis of theoretical arguments, supported by our simulations, we show that the Rossby number decreases in time, and therefore the Coriolis force becomes more important as the system evolves and produces many effects on Rayleigh–Taylor turbulence. We find that rotation reduces the intensity of turbulent velocity fluctuations and therefore the growth rate of the temperature mixing layer. Moreover, in presence of rotation the conversion of potential energy into turbulent kinetic energy is found to be less effective and the efficiency of the heat transfer is reduced. Finally, during the evolution of the mixing layer we observe the development of a cyclone-anticyclone asymmetry.
Years, Months, and Days versus 1, 12, and 365: The Influence of Units versus Numbers

Quantitative changes may be conveyed to consumers using small units (e.g., change in delivery time from 7 to 21 days) or large units (1-3 weeks). Numerosity research suggests that changes are magnified by small (vs. large) units because a change from 7 to 21 (vs. 1-3) seems larger. We introduce a reverse effect that we term unitosity: changes are magnified by large (vs. small) units because a change of weeks (vs. days) seems larger. We show that numerosity reverses to unitosity when relative salience shifts from numbers to units (study 1). Then, arguing that numbers (units) represent a low-level (high-level) construal of quantities, we show this reversal when mind-set shifts from concrete to abstract (studies 2-4). These results emerge for several quantities--height of buildings, time of maturity of financial instruments, weight of nutrients, and length of tables--and have significant implications for theory and practice.