Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pectoralis major tendon transfers above or underneath the conjoint tendon in subscapularis-deficient shoulders. An in vitro biomechanical analysis.

BACKGROUND Different operative techniques for transfer of the pectoralis major tendon have been proposed for the treatment of irreparable ruptures of the subscapularis tendon. The objective of this study was to compare the effects of two techniques of transferring the pectoralis major tendon (above or underneath the conjoint tendon) on glenohumeral kinematics during active abduction in a biomechanical model of a subscapularis-deficient shoulder. METHODS Six shoulder specimens were tested with a custom dynamic shoulder testing apparatus. After the kinematics of the intact shoulder were recorded, a complete tear of the subscapularis tendon was simulated surgically. A transfer of the clavicular portion of the pectoralis major muscle to the lesser tuberosity was then performed with the transferred tendon placed either above (tendon-transfer 1) or underneath (tendon-transfer 2) the conjoint tendon. For each condition, the maximum abduction angle as well as the external rotation angle and the superoinferior and anteroposterior humeral translations at the maximum abduction angle were recorded. RESULTS With the rotator cuff intact, the mean maximum glenohumeral abduction angle (and standard error of the mean) was 86.3 degrees +/- 2.1 degrees and the mean amount of external rotation at the maximum abduction angle was 5.5 degrees +/- 7.6 degrees . A complete tear of the subscapularis tendon decreased the mean maximum abduction angle to 40.8 degrees +/- 2.4 degrees (p < 0.001) and increased the mean external rotation to 91.8 degrees +/- 4.8 degrees (p < 0.001). The mean humeral translations in the anterior and superior directions (+3.4 +/- 0.5 and +6.3 +/- 0.3 mm, respectively) at the maximum abduction angle were also increased (p < 0.01 and p < 0.001) when compared with those in the intact shoulder. Significant differences were found in the mean maximum abduction angle as well as the mean external rotation angle and humeral translations (anterior and superior) at maximum abduction between the tendon-transfer-1 condition (63.2 degrees +/- 13.5 degrees , 82.4 degrees +/- 6.6 degrees , 4.0 +/- 1.8 mm, and 3.3 +/- 1.9 mm, respectively) and tendon-transfer-2 condition (89.5 degrees +/- 12.3 degrees , 45.7 degrees +/- 22.5 degrees , -0.6 +/- 2.0 mm, and 0.5 +/- 2.3 mm, respectively). The tendon-transfer-2 condition restored glenohumeral kinematics that were closer to those in the intact shoulder than were those resulting from the tendon-transfer-1 condition. CONCLUSIONS Transfer of the pectoralis major tendon in subscapularis-deficient shoulders partially restored the glenohumeral kinematics of the intact shoulder. One possible explanation for the superior effect of the tendon-transfer-2 condition is that, with a pectoralis major tendon transfer underneath the conjoint tendon, the line of action of the transferred tendon is closer to that of the subscapularis muscle.
SOCIO-RELIGIOUS HARMONY INDEX INSTRUMENT INDICATORS FOR MALAYSIA

The subject of inter-religious relationship among different religious adherents is crucial in determining social peace and harmony in a multi religious country like Malaysia. The question to what extend the society is susceptible to religious issues remains uncertain. This study will contribute in understanding the Malaysian socio-religious harmony status among the multi-religious adherents through development of the social religious index. To suffice part of this effort, the aim of this study was to develop the socio-religious harmony index instrument which is viable to measure socio-religious harmony level in Malaysia. However, the development of a reliable and valid instrument relies heavily on the quality of the variables or the indicators to be used to measure the index. Hence, the instrument was developed using key informants’ input via experts’ panelist which included selected stakeholders from various backgrounds such as academics, ministry officers, policy makers, non-government organization members, and head or representative of religious groups. To effectively manage the input from the expert panelists, the study adopted Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM) as main methodology to determine the indicators and sub-indicators (quantitative indicators) to be included in the index instrument questionnaires. Fuzzy Delphi was conducted in two rounds: FDM round 1 to determine the main indicators and FDM 2 to determine the sub-indicators to measure each main indicators. Based on the experts’ consensus, the findings of FDM 1 proposed 22 socio-religious harmony indicators. For FDM 2, based on the indicators, the experts proposed 53 sub-indicators as quantitative indicators to measure each indicators. These indicators and their respective sub-indicators will be used to form the index instrument.
Grammaticalization of auxiliaries and parametric changes

Abstract This paper looks at constructions with non-clitic auxiliaries in Old Romanian, which precede the generalized option for clitic auxiliaries in the same language. We argue that non-clitic auxiliaries belong to a grammar with genuine SVO, scrambling to Spec, AspP, and subject-auxiliary inversion (SAI as AUX-to Fin). The generalization of the clitic auxiliary entails the loss of these properties, while triggering a parametric shift in word order to VSO, discourse oriented fronting of constituents (to CP only instead of Spec, AspP), and Long Head Movement (LHM through V-to-Focus) instead of SAI. Implicitly, this analysis supports the distinction between A (AUX-to-Fin) and A-bar (V-to-Focus) head movement of verbal elements, and further refines it by showing that these two types of movement do not concern two specific types of heads (i.e., operator for the C domain versus non-operator for the T domain; Roberts 2001, Head movement. In Mark Baltin & Chris Collins (eds.), The handbook of contemporary syntactic theory, 113–147. Oxford: Blackwell), but can affect either of them.
Signal Transfer from GPCRs to G Proteins

Catalysis of nucleotide exchange in heterotrimeric G proteins (Gαβγ) is a key step in cellular signal transduction mediated by G protein-coupled receptors. The Gα N terminus with its helical stretch is thought to be crucial for G protein/activated receptor (R*) interaction. The N-terminal fatty acylation of Gα is important for membrane targeting of G proteins. By applying biophysical techniques to the rhodopsin/transducin model system, we studied the effect of N-terminal truncations in Gα. In Gαβγ, lack of the fatty acid and Gα truncations up to 33 amino acids had little effect on R* binding and R*-catalyzed nucleotide exchange, implying that this region is not mandatory for R*/Gαβγ interaction. However, when the other hydrophobic modification of Gαβγ, the Gγ C-terminal farnesyl moiety, is lacking, R* interaction requires the fatty acylated Gα N terminus. This suggests that the two hydrophobic extensions can replace each other in the interaction of Gαβγ with R*. We propose that in native Gαβγ, these two terminal regions are functionally redundant and form a microdomain that serves both to anchor the G protein to the membrane and to establish an initial docking complex with R*. Accordingly, we find that the native fatty acylated Gα is competent to interact with R* even in the absence of Gβγ, whereas nonacylated Gα requires Gβγ for interaction. Experiments with N-terminally truncated Gα subunits suggest that in the second step of the catalytic process, the receptor binds to the αN/β1-loop region of Gα to reduce nucleotide affinity and to make the Gα C terminus available for subsequent interaction with R*.
Global fast terminal sliding mode control for robotic manipulators

A Global Fast Terminal Sliding Mode Controller (GFTSMC) is proposed for n-link robotic manipulators by employing the Fast Terminal Sliding Mode (FTSM) control concept in both the reaching phase and the sliding phase. Under the control, the system states will reach FTSM in desired finite time and then converge to the origin along the FTSM in specified finite time, resulting in a reduced steady tracking error in comparison with the conventional sliding mode controller. The proposed controller is continuous and therefore chattering-free. An example is presented to demonstrate its effectiveness.
The fate of killed, radioiodinated Brucella abortus injected into mice.

Radioiodinated Brucella abortus injected into the peritoneal cavity of the mouse are partly phagocytosed in the cavity and partly transported to the blood stream, from which they are removed mainly by the liver and spleen. The final distribution of the bacteria appears to be determined by the extent of the phagocytosis taking place in the peritoneal cavity. A significant proportion of the engulfed brucellae are carried to the mesenteric lymph glands. Therefore, any factor enhancing phagocytosis, such as the presence of a peritoneal exudate, the stimulation of RES or the injection of Brucella antiserum, will increase the radioactivity in the mesenteric glands. The radioactivity in the spleen and liver will be consequently reduced. Factors decreasing phagocytosis in the cavity (such as levan) have an opposite effect. Several hundred antibody molecules per bacterium are sufficient to sensitize the brucellae to increased phagocytosis in the peritoneal cavity. The labeled brucellae can be used as a sensitive indicator of inflammatory activity in the abdominal cavity of the mouse.
An empirical study to investigate oral health problems in Egypt: The case of Alexandria University

Internet users have increased dramatically in Egypt in all services provided specifically in health area. Patients now tend to surf the Internet for medical information just to avoid long queues and reduce cost while visiting physicians. However, the increasing number of patients complaining from oral dental problems, insufficient number of dental clinics and ignorance towards general and oral dental health reveals the clear need for investigating and evaluating the dental problems in Egypt.
Local power-sharing institutions and interreligious violence in Nigeria

News reports of clashes between Muslims and Christians in countries such as Nigeria are increasingly common. Yet, interreligious violence erupts only in some communities but not others. Under what conditions does religious identity become the fault line of communal violence? We argue that informal power-sharing institutions on the communal level are essential in shaping the incentives of potential perpetrators. We provide both qualitative and quantitative evidence for our claim that districts in which informal power-sharing agreements exist are less likely to experience interreligious violence. We conducted interviews with community leaders in 38 Nigerian districts to trace the process by which local power-sharing institutions exert influence on actors’ incentives to engage in religious violence. We complement this with quantitative analyses of a new dataset capturing interreligious violence on a subnational level. The analyses show that the overall degree of interreligious violence is significantly lower in districts with power-sharing than in those without. We also identify two causal mechanisms through which informal power-sharing institutions operate. First, these institutions affect the incentives of elites to appeal for cooperation. We show that the rhetoric of elites in districts with power-sharing is significantly more conciliatory. Second, power-sharing affects the general population’s perception of the interreligious tensions. Individuals living in districts with power-sharing institutions are less likely to experience religious diversity as threatening. Local-level informal power-sharing institutions are therefore an important foundation for communal peace and interreligious cooperation.
Two- and three-stimuli auditory oddball ERP tasks and neuropsychological measures in aging

The purpose of this study was to decide whether the P300 from an auditory three-stimuli oddball task is more sensitive to aging than the P300 from a two-stimuli task, and to investigate the relationship between neuropsychological tests and the different ways of eliciting the P300. Thirty-one adults (21.8–94.7 years) completed five neuropsychological tests and two ERP tasks. The way P300 was elicited did not influence its relationship to aging or neuropsychological scores, and the correlations between the two paradigms were strong for amplitude, but rather weak for latency. The main conclusion is that the P300 from an auditory three-stimulus paradigm is sensitive to aging and neuropsychologically valid.
Alternative asymptotics for cointegration tests in large VARs

Johansen's (1988, 1991) likelihood ratio test for cointegration rank of a Gaussian VAR depends only on the squared sample canonical correlations between current changes and past levels of a simple transformation of the data. We study the asymptotic behavior of the empirical distribution of those squared canonical correlations when the number of observations and the dimensionality of the VAR diverge to infinity simultaneously and proportionally. We find that the distribution almost surely weakly converges to the so-called Wachter distribution. This finding provides a theoretical explanation for the observed tendency of Johansen's test to find "spurious cointegration". It also sheds light on the workings and limitations of the Bartlett correction approach to the over-rejection problem. We propose a simple graphical device, similar to the scree plot, for a preliminary assessment of cointegration in high-dimensional VARs.
Development and pilot testing of a decision aid for surrogates of patients with prolonged mechanical ventilation*

Objective: Shared decision making is inadequate in intensive care units. Decision aids can improve decision making quality, though their role in an intensive care units setting is unclear. We aimed to develop and pilot test a decision aid for shared decision makers of patients undergoing prolonged mechanical ventilation. Setting: Intensive care units at three medical centers. Subjects: Fifty-three surrogate decision makers and 58 physicians. Design and Interventions: We developed the decision aid using defined methodological guidelines. After an iterative revision process, formative cognitive testing was performed among surrogate–physician dyads. Next, we compared the decision aid to usual care control in a prospective, before/after design study. Measurements and Main Results: Primary outcomes were physician–surrogate discordance for expected patient survival, comprehension of relevant medical information, and the quality of communication. Compared to control, the intervention group had lower surrogate–physician discordance (7 [10] vs. 43 [21]), greater comprehension (11.4 [0.7] vs. 6.1 [3.7]), and improved quality of communication (8.7 [1.3] vs. 8.4 [1.3]) (all p < .05) post-intervention. Hospital costs were lower in the intervention group ($110,609 vs. $178,618; p = .044); mortality did not differ by group (38% vs. 50%, p = .95). Ninety-four percent of the surrogates and 100% of the physicians reported that the decision aid was useful in decision making. Conclusion: We developed a prolonged mechanical ventilation decision aid that is feasible, acceptable, and associated with both improved decision-making quality and less resource utilization. Further evaluation using a randomized controlled trial design is required to evaluate the decision aid’s effect on long-term patient and surrogate outcomes.
CD95 Stimulation Results in the Formation of a Novel Death Effector Domain Protein-containing Complex*

Stimulation of CD95 (APO-1/Fas) by its natural ligand CD95L (APO-1L/FasL) leads to the formation of the death-inducing signaling complex. Here we report that upon CD95 stimulation in several T and B cell lines, a novel signaling complex is formed, which we term complex II. Complex II is composed of the death effector domain proteins as follows: procaspase-8a/b, three isoforms of c-FLIP (c-FLIPL, c-FLIPS, c-FLIPR), and FADD. Notably, complex II does not contain CD95. Based on our findings we suggest that CD95 signaling includes two steps. The first step involves formation of the death-inducing signaling complex at the cell membrane. The second step involves formation of the cytosolic death effector domain protein-containing complex that may play an important role in amplification of caspase activation.
Clinical outcome in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after living-donor liver transplantation.

AIM To investigate risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) and efficacy of various criteria. METHODS From October 2000 to November 2011, 233 adult patients underwent LDLT for HCC at our institution. After excluding nine postoperative mortality cases, we analyzed retrospectively 224 patients. To identify risk factors for recurrence, we evaluated recurrence, disease-free survival (DFS) rate, survival rate, and various other factors which are based on the characteristics of both the patient and tumor. Additionally, we developed our own criteria based on our data. Next, we compared our selection criteria with various tumor-grading scales, such as the Milan criteria, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) criteria, TNM stage, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage and Cancer of the Liver Italian Program (CLIP) scoring system. The median follow up was 68 (6-139) mo. RESULTS In 224 patients who received LDLT for HCC, 37 (16.5%) experienced tumor recurrence during the follow-up period. The 5-year DFS and overall survival rates after LDLT in all patients with HCC were 80.9% and 76.4%, respectively. On multivariate analysis, the tumor diameter {5 cm; P < 0.001; exponentiation of the B coefficient [Exp(B)], 11.89; 95%CI: 3.784-37.368} and alpha fetoprotein level [AFP, 100 ng/mL; P = 0.021; Exp(B), 2.892; 95%CI: 1.172-7.132] had significant influences on HCC recurrence after LDLT. Therefore, these two factors were included in our criteria. Based on these data, we set our selection criteria as a tumor diameter ≤ 5 cm and AFP ≤ 100 ng/mL. Within our new criteria (140/214, 65.4%), the 5-year DFS and overall survival rates were 88.6% and 81.8%, respectively. Our criteria (P = 0.001), Milan criteria (P = 0.009), and UCSF criteria (P = 0.001) showed a significant difference in DFS rate. And our criteria (P = 0.006) and UCSF criteria (P = 0.009) showed a significant difference in overall survival rate. But Milan criteria did not show significant difference in overall survival rate (P = 0.137). Among stages 0, A, B and C of BCLC, stage C had a significantly higher recurrence rate (P = 0.001), lower DFS (P = 0.001), and overall survival rate (P = 0.005) compared with the other stages. Using the CLIP scoring system, the group with a score of 4 to 5 showed a high recurrence rate (P = 0.023) and lower DFS (P = 0.011); however, the overall survival rate did not differ from that of the lower scoring group. The TNM system showed a trend of increased recurrence rate, decreased DFS, or survival rate according to T stage, albeit without statistical significance. CONCLUSION LDLT is considered the preferred therapeutic option in patients with an AFP level less than 100 ng/mL and a tumor diameter of less than 5 cm.
Trypanosoma cruzi in the cerebrospinal fluid during the acute stage of Chagas' disease.

THE extent of Central-nervous-system involvement in Chagas' disease is not known.1 The only well recognized neurologic complication during the acute infection is meningoencephalitis. In patients so affected the cerebrospinal fluid contains excess protein and lymphocytes,2 and intracellular Trypanosoma cruzi can be found in the brain and in the reticular cells of the leptomeninges.3 When neurologic manifestations are absent during acute infection, the cerebrospinal fluid has been reported to be normal,4 normal except for the presence of antibody to T. cruzi, 5 or as showing elevated levels of protein and increased numbers of lymphocytes.6 In these cases direct examination revealed no T.
The Participation of Mental Health Service Users in Ontario, Canada: A Canadian Application of the Consumer Participation Questionnaire

Background: Ontario mental health policy calls for the participation of service users in mental health organizations, but no studies have examined the extent to which this is occurring. Aims: This study measures the extent to which service users participate in Ontario, Canada community mental health organizations and measures the attitudes toward service user participation in planning and in employment. Methods: Members of the Ontario Federation of Community Mental Health and Addictions Programs were invited to participate in a modified form of the Consumer Participation Questionnaire, created by Kent and Read (1998) for New Zealand. Results: Participation in Ontario community mental health organizations was present in this order: planning, membership on boards of directors, attendance at staff training, policy, staff hiring, and teaching at staff training. Compared with New Zealand, the prevalence of participation was higher in Ontario, but attitudes toward participation were similar. The role with the highest prevalence of participation, planning, was the same for both locations. Conclusions: An updated New Zealand study is called for, as is a more continuous method that includes various voices for measuring participation.
Maternal-fetal disparity in HLA class II alloantigens and the pregnancy-induced amelioration of rheumatoid arthritis.

BACKGROUND Rheumatoid arthritis frequently remits during pregnancy, for unknown reasons. Since an immune response to paternally inherited fetal HLA can occur during normal pregnancy and since rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder with a known HLA class II antigen association, we tested the hypothesis that maternal-fetal disparity in HLA alloantigens might be associated with the pregnancy-induced remission of rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS We studied 57 pregnancies of 41 women with rheumatoid arthritis, 18 prospectively and 39 retrospectively. Serologic and DNA techniques were used to study HLA class I and II antigens. For newborns, typing was performed from cord-blood samples obtained at delivery. For four young children, typing was performed from DNA extracted from hair samples. RESULTS We found significantly more maternal-fetal disparity in HLA-DR and DQ antigens in pregnancies characterized by the remission or improvement of rheumatoid arthritis than in pregnancies characterized by active disease. Further studies using DNA-typing techniques to define allelic variants of HLA-DR and DQ antigens confirmed this observation. Maternal-fetal disparity in alleles of HLA- DRB1, DQA, and DQB occurred in 26 of 34 pregnancies characterized by remission or improvement (76 percent), as compared with 3 of 12 pregnancies characterized by active arthritis (25 percent) (odds ratio, 9.7; P = 0.003). The difference between the two groups was most marked for alleles of HLA-DQA. CONCLUSIONS Amelioration of rheumatoid arthritis during pregnancy is associated with a disparity in HLA class II antigens between mother and fetus. These findings suggest that the maternal immune response to paternal HLA antigens may have a role in the pregnancy-induced remission of rheumatoid arthritis.