Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Painful rib syndrome (or Cyriax syndrome). Study of 100 patients].

OBJECTIVE To analyse clinical expression and outcome of painful rib syndrome in a large series of 100 cases. METHODS From 1978 to 1993, 100 consecutive patients with chronic anterior chest pain or supramesocolic abdominal pain of unknown origin underwent complete physical examination, laboratory tests and complementary explorations as required. RESULTS Among the first 100 patients the sex ratio was 3.34 and mean age 50.6 years (21-80). Chronic pain had persisted for an average 41.2 months (15 days-30 years), predominantly on the right (81%) and exceptionally bilaterally (1%). No evidence of a cause could be identified from laboratory tests or complementary explorations. A past history of direct trauma was found in 71 patients and indirect trauma in 21. Seventy-three patients were given 1% lidocaine infiltrations (20 to 40 ml) including 14 who received 2 or 3 infiltrations. Six patients underwent surgical resection of a luxated cartilage with curative effect in 5. CONCLUSION The diagnosis of painful rib syndrome is based solely on the presence of pain upon applying pressure to the anteroinferior border of the rib cage and is related to often neglected or forgotten trauma.
Expected Fertility and Educational Investment: Evidence from the One-Child-Policy in China

How does future expected fertility affect current educational investment? Theory suggests that expected fertility can impact both returns to education and the resources available for parental consumption. Using policy data about varying eligibility criteria for second child permits during the One-Child-Policy in China, I investigate the effect of eligibility status on fertility and education. In the 1990s, second child permits increased the likelihood of having a second child by 11 percentage points. Being allowed to have a second child increased schooling by 0.7 years on average, an effect that is likely concentrated in the subset of individuals for whom the permit constraint is binding.
An investigation of feature combinations of time-domain power spectral descriptors feature extraction for myoelectric control of hand prostheses

Upper limb prostheses controlled with Pattern Recognition (PR) and myoelectric signals have great promise for amputees who lost an upper limb since it can control large number of movements intuitively. One of the existing challenges with such PR systems include the need to develop new feature extraction techniques to facilitate clinical implementation of PR systems to satisfy amputees' needs. In this paper, the features of newly proposed Time Domain Power-Spectral Descriptors (TD-PSD) feature extraction method will be investigated in order to find the best feature set to classify eight hand and finger movement. Two congenital female transradial amputees were recruited and the myoelectric signals which are also known as Electromyography (EMG) signals, were collected from different surface EMG sensors when the two participants performed eight finger and hand movements. Results showed that a subset of four TD-PSD features achieved similar performance to that of the full set of TD-PSD features, with average error rates of the classification being equal to approximately 7% which is within the acceptable error rates of a usable PR system where it should be below 10%.
Effect of follicularity on autologous transplantation for large-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

PURPOSE This study evaluated the outcomes of patients who received high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) and autologous hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) for large-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and the effect of a follicular versus a diffuse histology. PATIENTS AND METHODS The prognostic factors in 289 patients who underwent HDC and ASCT for large-cell NHL between May 1983 and December 1996 were analyzed. RESULTS With a median follow-up duration of 24 months for surviving patients (range, 3 to 131 months), 112 of 289 (39%) were alive and 82 of 289 (28%) were failure-free. In a multivariate analysis, the factors associated with a poorer failure-free survival (FFS) included a lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) level greater than normal (P < .0001), three or more prior chemotherapy regimens received (P < .01), a mass > or = 10 cm at transplant (P < .01), and diffuse histology at the time of transplant (P = .026). Patients who received HDC and ASCT for large-cell NHL in the good-prognosis category (normal LDH, < three prior chemotherapy regimens, no large mass, and not chemotherapy-resistant) had a 5-year survival rate of 45%. Within the good-prognosis group, patients with diffuse large-cell NHL had a 5-year survival rate of 42% compared with 58% for patients with follicular large-cell (FLC) lymphoma (P = .05). CONCLUSION Good-prognosis patients with FLC histology who receive HDC and ASCT have an improved survival compared with good-prognosis patients with a diffuse large-cell histology.
African American Students’ Attitudes and Beliefs about Ethnic and Racial Diversity at a Predominantly White Public University in the Mid-West

Following an incident which involved gunshots and fighting at a private party in a Mid-Western city, where a predominantly white public university is located, several discussions were held at various fora on campus on the issue of race. During the discussions, many African American students complained that they were not being treated fairly at the university. The purpose of this study was to assess the cultural attitudes and climate at the Mid-Western University (abbreviated in this paper as MWU). The research question examined is: What are the attitudes and beliefs of African American students about racial and ethnic diversity at the Mid-Western University? the results of the study as reflected in the participants’ answers is at best mixed, some students expressed a level of comfort with the climate, while others thought the university was not doing enough in terms of diversity. It’s also clear from the responses that the campus climate is not compatible with the experiences of African American students and that in turn affected their perception. The study also offers opportunities for campus administrators to address the issues raised by the students as reflected in the recommendations of the authors.
Reiterative median cascaded canceler for robust adaptive array processing

A new robust adaptive processor based on reiterative application of the median cascaded canceler (MCC) is presented and called the reiterative median cascaded canceler (RMCC). It is shown that the RMCC processor is a robust replacement for the sample matrix inversion (SMI) adaptive processor and for its equivalent implementations. The MCC, though a robust adaptive processor, has a convergence rate that is dependent on the rank of the input interference-plus-noise covariance matrix for a given number of adaptive degrees of freedom (DOF), N. In contrast, the RMCC, using identical training data as the MCC, exhibits the highly desirable combination of: 1) convergence-robustness to outliers/targets in adaptive weight training data, like the MCC, and 2) fast convergence performance that is independent of the input interference-plus-noise covariance matrix, unlike the MCC. For a number of representative examples, the RMCC is shown to converge using ~ 2.8N samples for any interference rank value as compared with ~ 2N samples for the SMI algorithm. However, the SMI algorithm requires considerably more samples to converge in the presence of outliers/targets, whereas the RMCC does not. Both simulated data as well as measured airborne radar data from the multichannel airborne radar measurements (MCARM) space-time adaptive processing (STAP) database are used to illustrate performance improvements over SMI methods.
Identification of Unconventional Intestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli Isolates Expressing Intermediate Virulence Factor Profiles by Using a Novel Single-Step Multiplex PCR

ABSTRACT Intestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli represents a global health problem for mammals, including humans. At present, diarrheagenic E. coli bacteria are grouped into seven major pathotypes that differ in their virulence factor profiles, severity of clinical manifestations, and prognosis. In this study, we developed and evaluated a one-step multiplex PCR (MPCR) for the straightforward differential identification of intestinal pathotypes of E. coli. The specificity of this novel MPCR was validated by using a subset of reference strains and further confirmed by PCR-independent pheno- and genotypic characterization. Moreover, we tested 246 clinical E. coli isolates derived from diarrhea patients from several distinct geographic regions. Interestingly, besides strains belonging to the defined and well-described pathotypes, we identified five unconventional strains expressing intermediate virulence factor profiles. These strains have been further characterized and appear to represent intermediate strains carrying genes and expressing factors associated with enteropathogenic E. coli, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, enterotoxigenic E. coli, and enteroaggregative E. coli alike. These strains represent further examples of the extraordinary plasticity of the E. coli genome. Moreover, this implies that the important identification of specific pathotypes has to be based on a broad matrix of indicator genes. In addition, the presence of intermediate strains needs to be accounted for.
Polish physicians’ cooperation with the pharmaceutical industry and its potential impact on public health

Objective This article aims to describe how Polish physicians cooperate with the pharmaceutical industry and show how this relationship may pose a threat to public health. Methods It considers the results of an online survey of 379 physicians. The survey was hosted by surveymonkey.com with links from a Polish physicians’ website (Medycyna Praktyczna) between 29 October 2013 and 31 December 2013. The sample was purposive, respondents having to be physicians working in Poland. Results The majority of respondents (96.8%) said that they had talked with pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSRs) in their practice, with 85% saying that they had had regular contact with them. Despite the existing legal ban in Poland, 35% of respondents admitted that they had usually met with PSRs in their office during working hours. As many as 81.8% of surveyed doctors said that they had taken part in an educational meeting organized by the pharmaceutical industry at least once during the 12 months preceding the study. A majority of the respondents (72.3%) said they trusted the information provided by PSRs. Over one third of respondents (36.4%) claimed that Polish doctors accepted gifts of a type that they should not accept according to Polish law. Conclusions The study showed that Polish physicians cooperate in different ways with pharmaceutical companies and have frequent contact with them. This can influence their knowledge and doctors whose knowledge of drugs is based mainly on information from pharmaceutical industry materials may prescribe medicines in a biased way, possibly exposing their patients to sub-optimal treatments and burdening both their patients and the state budget with unnecessary costs. Lack of trust in doctors and pharmaceutical companies have other implications too: there may be a decline of faith in the efficacy of therapy and patients may be encouraged to engage in self-diagnosis and self-treatment. For these reasons it is necessary to increase transparency and strengthen the ethical guidelines surrounding the physician–pharmaceutical industry relationship in Poland. The present findings also have implications for public health policy.
Persuasive Technologies for Sustainable Mobility: State of the Art and Emerging Trends

In recent years, persuasive interventions for inducing sustainable mobility behaviours have become an active research field. This review paper systematically analyses existing approaches and prototype systems as well as field studies and describes and classifies the persuasive strategies used for changing behaviours in the domain of mobility and transport. We provide a review of 44 papers on persuasive technology for sustainable transportation aiming to (i) answer important questions regarding the effectiveness of persuasive technology for changing mobility behaviours, (ii) summarize and highlight trends in the technology design, research methods, strategies and theories, (iii) uncover limitations of existing approaches and applications, and (iv) suggest directions for future research.
Assessment of Semantic Similarity between Proteins Using Information Content and Topological Properties of the Gene Ontology Graph

The semantic similarity between two interacting proteins can be estimated by combining the similarity scores of the GO terms associated with the proteins. Greater number of similar GO annotations between two proteins indicates greater interaction affinity. Existing semantic similarity measures make use of the GO graph structure, the information content of GO terms, or a combination of both. In this paper, we present a hybrid approach which utilizes both the topological features of the GO graph and information contents of the GO terms. More specifically, we 1) consider a fuzzy clustering of the GO graph based on the level of association of the GO terms, 2) estimate the GO term memberships to each cluster center based on the respective shortest path lengths, and 3) assign weightage to GO term pairs on the basis of their dissimilarity with respect to the cluster centers. We test the performance of our semantic similarity measure against seven other previously published similarity measures using benchmark protein-protein interaction datasets of <italic>Homo sapiens</italic> and <italic>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</italic> based on sequence similarity, Pfam similarity, area under ROC curve, and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$F_1$</tex-math> <alternatives> <inline-graphic xlink:href="basu-ieq1-2689762.gif" xlink:type="simple"/></alternatives></inline-formula> measure.
Regional resilience and global production networks in China: An open political economy perspective

The article examines regional resilience in China using the case study of the Xiamen regional economy. The open political economy perspective posited builds on three strands; the structural dimensions related to underpinning drivers and the mobility of capital; the multiscalar nature of the institutions in which firms are embedded and the agency of firms and their cognitive capacities in the (re)constitution of reorganizing production networks. The data comprise in-depth interviews with 20 firms in a cross section of sectors to examine how firms are innovating to change their position in value chains and mode of integration with the global economy.
Analysis of chromosomal abnormalities in testicular and epididymal spermatozoa from azoospermic ICSI patients by fluorescence in-situ hybridization.

BACKGROUND An increased incidence of numerical chromosomal abnormalities has been reported in the ejaculated spermatozoa of infertile patients. However, there are few cytogenetic studies of testicular and epididymal spermatozoa, and their results are still controversial. METHODS Fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) analysis of chromosomes 13, 18, 21, X and Y was performed on seven testicular samples and two epididymal samples from patients with obstructive azoospermia (OA), and on 13 testicular samples from patients with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA). Five ejaculated sperm samples from normozoospermic fertile donors were evaluated as a control group. RESULTS Both epididymal sperm samples showed normal FISH results for the parameters analysed when compared with those of the control group. FISH results were abnormal in 29% (two of seven) of testicular samples from OA patients and in 54% (seven of 13) of those from NOA patients, although this difference was not statistically significant. Testicular samples from OA patients showed a significant increase of disomy for sex chromosomes (P<0.01), whereas NOA patients displayed significantly higher rates of diploidy (P<0.0001) and disomy for chromosomes 13 (P<0.0001), 21 (P<0.001) and sex chromosomes (P<0.0001) than the control group. CONCLUSIONS Testicular spermatozoa from azoospermic patients present increased rates of chromosomal abnormalities, mainly of the sex chromosomes, which are particularly high in NOA patients.
The Role of IL-10 in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: "Of Mice and Men"

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a generic term typically used to describe a group of idiopathic inflammatory intestinal conditions in humans that are generally divided into Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Although the etiology of these diseases remains unknown, a number of rodent models of IBD have recently been identified, all sharing the concept that the development of chronic intestinal inflammation occurs as a consequence of alterations in the immune system that lead to a failure of normal immunoregulation in the intestine. On the basis of these models, it has been hypothesized that the development of IBD in humans may be related to a dysregulated immune response to normal flora in the gut. Immunodeficient scid mice injected with CD4+ CD45RBhigh T cells and mice deficient in interleukin (IL)-10 (IL-10-/-) are among the rodent models of IBD. In both models, there is inflammation and evidence of a Th1-like response in the large intestine, characterized by CD4+ T-cell and macrophage infiltrates, and elevated levels of interferon-γ. Because IL-10 is an immunomodulatory cytokine that is capable of controlling Thl-like responses, the role of IL-10 was investigated in these models. IL-10 was shown to be important in regulating the development of intestinal inflammation in both models. These results provided key data that supported initiation of clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of IL-10 in patients with IBD.
The Incidence of Recurrence after Endoscopic Carpal Tunnel Release

&NA; Endoscopic carpal tunnel release has been used to decompress the median nerve in carpal tunnel syndrome for over the past decade, with an advantage (over the traditional “open” release) being decreased pain in the postoperative period. The goals of this study were to attempt to define the recurrence rate after endoscopic carpal tunnel release and to determine if it differs from that of open technique. The charts of 191 consecutive carpal tunnel syndrome patients treated operatively at the University of Missouri were reviewed. For this study, recurrent carpal tunnel syndrome was defined as documented cases in which the symptoms had resolved following surgical release but subsequently recurred, requiring surgical rerelease of the carpal tunnel. All endoscopic releases were performed using the Chow two‐portal technique. Statistical analysis was performed using Fisher's exact test. A total of 103 patient hands had open carpal tunnel releases; 88 were endoscopically released. Total follow‐up time (from the initial release) averaged 29 months for the open group and 22 months for the endoscopic group. There were no recurrences in the open group and six recurrences in the endoscopic group (7 percent, p = 0.008). All six recurrences were in worker's compensation patients. The median time between endoscopic release and rerelease was 8.5 months. There seems to be a statistically higher incidence of recurrence of carpal tunnel syndrome after endoscopic release compared with the traditional “open” release in our cases. Although the pathogenesis of this increased rate of recurrence is not clear, this should be considered when planning surgical release of the volar carpal ligament for carpal tunnel syndrome. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 105: 1662, 2000.)
Evaluating Indian economy’s vulnerability to currency crisis

This paper examines India’s exposure to currency crisis for the period 1986 to 2015 using KLR (Kaminsky, Lizondo and Reinhart) methodology. Focus of the study is on evaluating currency crises and building an Early Warning System (EWS) to anticipate future crises. Using KLR methodology we explain the phenomenon of currency crises over three stages – identification of the crises periods, selection of the variables causing the crisis based on previous literature and economic structure, and estimating indicators’ ability to forecast the crisis. The following are identified as crisis periods: 1991, 2008-2009 and 2012. Among these crises, 1991 crisis was attributed to fiscal mismanagement, global financial crisis caused the 2008 currency slump whereas 2012 crisis occurred due to domestic macroeconomic imbalances. A surprising finding is that there were no common indicators issuing signals in these three spells of crises.
Evaluating user-generated content in social media: an effective approach to encourage greater pro-environmental behavior in tourism?

ABSTRACT Appealing to tourists’ intrinsic interest for high-quality tourism environments, and thus encouraging them to act with a greater sense of personal responsibility toward the environment, could be critical to promoting sustainable tourism. Proliferating media channels makes the choice, style and delivery of pro-environmental messages a key issue for tourism marketers and management. Social media has become a recognized important channel for tourism information, with user-generated content (UGC) being more trusted than official channels, yet there is little knowledge about its potential role in activating pro-environmental norms. This study investigates that issue. Focusing on the conjoining aspects of personal and social norms for the first time, we propose a hypothetical model to explain the direct and indirect effects of pro-environmental UGC in activating tourists’ pro-environmental behavioral intentions. Working in a Chinese context, where social media plays an increasing role, the research, using a web-based sample (N = 1043), UGC-linked pro-environmental knowledge and awareness, was found to have a strong role in activating pro-environmental norms, creating a pro-environment online community, and increasing tourists’ level of engagement in pro-environmental social media activity. The study highlights the effectiveness of social media channels with UGC providing persuasive communications able to impact sustainable behaviors.
Hepatobiliary MR imaging with gadolinium‐based contrast agents

The advent of gadolinium‐based “hepatobiliary” contrast agents offers new opportunities for diagnostic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and has triggered great interest for innovative imaging approaches to the liver and bile ducts. In this review article we discuss the imaging properties of the two gadolinium‐based hepatobiliary contrast agents currently available in the U.S., gadobenate dimeglumine and gadoxetic acid, as well as important pharmacokinetic differences that affect their diagnostic performance. We review potential applications, protocol optimization strategies, as well as diagnostic pitfalls. A variety of illustrative case examples will be used to demonstrate the role of these agents in detection and characterization of liver lesions as well as for imaging the biliary system. Changes in MR protocols geared toward optimizing workflow and imaging quality are also discussed. It is our aim that the information provided in this article will facilitate the optimal utilization of these agents and will stimulate the reader's pursuit of new applications for future benefit. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2012;35:492‐511. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.