Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Levels of Cobalt and Chromium in Cigarette Smokers , Khartoum State

Metals in tobacco smoke are of public health concern because of their potential toxicity and carcinogenicity. This is a case-control study carried out in Khartoum State from November to March 2015. Three ml of venous blood were collected from study population; serum cobalt and chromium were estimated using absorption spectrophotometer. The study results revealed that the mean age of smokers was (26.4±4.1) year and for non smokers was (25.7±3.0) year. The mean ± SD of serum cobalt and chromium in smokers respectively were (0.79±.23 and 0.09±.0) μg/L. The mean ±SD of serum cobalt and chromium in non-smokers were (.09±.05 and.2 ±.10)μg/L respectively. There was a highly significant difference in serum chromium between smokers and non-smokers (p value 0.000, <0.05). The mean of serum chromium was significantly lower 8.8 fold in non-smokers compared to smoker’s group. Serum cobalt was significantly lower 3.5 times in no-smokers compared to smokers group. There was positive correlation between serum cobalt and smoking duration (r= -0.471, p=0.001). There was a significant relationship between smokers duration of smoking and no. of cigarettes per day and the serum cobalt level (p< 0.05). Duration of smoking is useful as apredictor of smokers for serum cobalt. This study concluded that; levels of serum chromium and serum cobalt are increased in cigarette smokers. The increased in level of serum cobalt affected by the duration of smoking, but not affected by number of cigarettes and the difference in age.
Auditory and Visual Executive Functions in Children and Response to Methylphenidate: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess auditory and visually based executive functions (EFs) and the effect of methylphenidate (MPH) in children with ADHD. Methods: Thirty-six boys between the ages of 8.3 and 9.7 years with ADHD and 36 matched controls were included. The study group was randomized into MPH and placebo for 7 days each in a crossover design. A Cued Choice Reaction Time (CCRT) test that included incongruent cuing was administered at baseline and following 1 and 2 weeks. Results: The difference between the study and control groups was more evident with visual cues and incongruent cuing. Increased gains by children with predominantly hyperactive–impulsive\combined (HI\C) type of ADHD were observed under MPH. Conclusions: The differences between children with ADHD and typical children are more pronounce under incongruent auditory cuing . The gains attributable to MPH are more specific to tasks involving auditory and visual EFs and in children with HI\C type ADHDs.
Do Sustainable Stocks Offer Diversification Benefits for Conventional Portfolios? An Empirical Analysis of Risk Spillovers and Dynamic Correlations

This paper explores the potential diversification benefits of socially responsible investments for conventional stock portfolios by examining the risk spillovers and dynamic correlations between conventional and sustainability stock indexes from a number of regions. We observe significant unidirectional volatility transmissions from conventional to sustainable equities, suggesting that the criteria applied for socially responsible investments do not necessarily shield these securities from common market shocks. While significant dynamic correlations are observed between sustainable and conventional stocks, particularly in Europe, the analysis of both in- and out-of-sample dynamic portfolios suggests that supplementing conventional stock portfolios with sustainable counterparts improves the risk/return profile of stock portfolios in all regions. The findings overall suggest that sustainable investments can indeed provide diversification gains for conventional stock portfolios globally.
Effect of plasma-volume expansion on portal hypertension.

THE expansion of blood volume in patients with portal hypertension occasionally precipitates hemorrhage from esophageal varices.1 2 3 4 The increased blood volume is believed to result in distention of the splanchnic venous circulation, thereby increasing portal pressure and producing hemorrhage. Previous studies have demonstrated a relation between plasma-volume expansion and portal-pressuree elevations in patients with ascites and portal hypertension.5 6 It is not known if this reduced capacity for splanchnic-bed expansion is a property of all patients with obstruction to splanchnic blood flow or if it represents a restriction in blood-volume redistribution that is unique to patients forming ascites. This study was undertaken .
The proportion of cancellous bone as predictive factor for early marginal bone loss around implants in the posterior part of the mandible.

AIM This study envisaged to explain early marginal bone loss (first years of function) around implants in the posterior area of the mandible by the local bone quality (ratio cortical vs. cancellous bone). MATERIAL AND METHODS Four hundred and twenty-three Brånemark MKIII implants inserted in the posterior region of the mandible were examined, retrospectively, on intra-oral radiographs taken at abutment connection, and 1 and 3-4 years after loading. The quality of the bone was assessed on cone beam or multi-slice CTs. The bone quality was determined by the relative proportions of cortical and trabecular bone at the insertion site. Cortical bone was defined as a clearly white structure without a trabecular pattern. Trabecular bone was defined as the structure between the two cortical plates. The width of both structures was measured at 1, 3, 5, and 7 mm away from the crest of the alveolar bone and converted in to relative proportions. Other parameters (smoking, history of periodontitis, dehiscence, pre-tapping, submerged healing, etc.) were retrieved from the patients record. RESULTS At abutment connection, the mesial and distal marginal bone level was located 0.7 (±0.7) and 0.8 (±0.7) mm apically to the implant-abutment junction. At 1 year and 3-4 years of loading implants placed in a mandible consisting of <30% of cancellous bone had lost 1.49 and 1.83 mm, respectively. Implants placed in jawbone consisting of more than 60% of cancellous bone lost 0.74 and 0.91 mm after 1 year and 3-4 years of loading. The bone-level changes (both first year as well as after 3-4 years) were significantly less when the implant was placed in sites with a higher proportion of cancellous bone. Other parameters were significantly less important. CONCLUSIONS Very cortical bone could jeopardize the long-term stability of the marginal bone surrounding implants placed in the posterior region of the mandible. A correlation between marginal bone loss and the proportion of cortical bone was demonstrated around Brånemark implants. At present, no comparable studies are available, and therefore, it cannot be excluded that similar events take place around other implant systems.
Transformational Leadership and Depressive Symptoms in Germany: Validation of a Short Transformational Leadership Scale

Objectives: The objective of the present study was to validate a shortened transformational leadership (TL) scale (12 items) comprising core TL behaviour and to test the associations of this shortened TL scale with depressive symptoms. Methods: The study used cross-sectional data from 1632 employees of the overall workforce of a middle-sized German company (51.6% men; mean age, 41.35 years; standard deviation, 9.4 years). TL was assessed with the German version of the Transformational Leadership Inventory and depressive symptoms with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The structural validity of the core TL scale was assessed with confirmatory factor analysis. Associations with depressive symptoms were estimated with structural equation modelling and adjusted logistic regression. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling showed better model fit for the core TL than for the full TL score. Logistic regression revealed 3.61-fold (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.20 to 5.93: women) to 4.46-fold (95% CI, 2.86 to 6.95: men) increased odds of reporting depressive symptoms (HADS score >8) for those in the lowest tertile of reported core TL. Conclusions: The shortened core TL seems to be a valid instrument for research and training purposes in the context of TL and depressive symptoms in employees. Of particular note, men reporting poor TL were more likely to report depressive symptoms.
SGD Learns Over-parameterized Networks that Provably Generalize on Linearly Separable Data

Neural networks exhibit good generalization behavior in the over-parameterized regime, where the number of network parameters exceeds the number of observations. Nonetheless, current generalization bounds for neural networks fail to explain this phenomenon. In an attempt to bridge this gap, we study the problem of learning a two-layer over-parameterized neural network, when the data is generated by a linearly separable function. In the case where the network has Leaky ReLU activations, we provide both optimization and generalization guarantees for over-parameterized networks. Specifically, we prove convergence rates of SGD to a global minimum and provide generalization guarantees for this global minimum that are independent of the network size. Therefore, our result clearly shows that the use of SGD for optimization both finds a global minimum, and avoids overfitting despite the high capacity of the model. This is the first theoretical demonstration that SGD can avoid overfitting, when learning over-specified neural network classifiers.
MODNet: Moving Object Detection Network with Motion and Appearance for Autonomous Driving

We propose a novel multi-task learning system that combines appearance and motion cues for a better semantic reasoning of the environment. A unified architecture for joint vehicle detection and motion segmentation is introduced. In this architecture, a two-stream encoder is shared among both tasks. In order to evaluate our method in autonomous driving setting, KITTI annotated sequences with detection and odometry ground truth are used to automatically generate static/dynamic annotations on the vehicles. This dataset is called KITTI Moving Object Detection dataset (KITTI MOD). The dataset will be made publicly available to act as a benchmark for the motion detection task. Our experiments show that the proposed method outperforms state of the art methods that utilize motion cue only with 21.5% in mAP on KITTI MOD. Our method performs on par with the state of the art unsupervised methods on DAVIS benchmark for generic object segmentation. One of our interesting conclusions is that joint training of motion segmentation and vehicle detection benefits motion segmentation. Motion segmentation has relatively fewer data, unlike the detection task. However, the shared fusion encoder benefits from joint training to learn a generalized representation. The proposed method runs in 120 ms per frame, which beats the state of the art motion detection/segmentation in computational efficiency.
Targeted depletion of an MDSC subset unmasks pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma to adaptive immunity

Background Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is characterised by a robust desmoplasia, including the notable accumulation of immunosuppressive cells that shield neoplastic cells from immune detection. Immune evasion may be further enhanced if the malignant cells fail to express high levels of antigens that are sufficiently immunogenic to engender an effector T cell response. Objective To investigate the predominant subsets of immunosuppressive cancer-conditioned myeloid cells that chronicle and shape the progression of pancreas cancer. We show that selective depletion of one subset of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) in an autochthonous, genetically engineered mouse model (GEMM) of PDA unmasks the ability of the adaptive immune response to engage and target tumour epithelial cells. Methods A combination of in vivo and in vitro studies were performed employing a GEMM that faithfully recapitulates the cardinal features of human PDA. The predominant cancer-conditioned myeloid cell subpopulation was specifically targeted in vivo and the biological outcomes determined. Results PDA orchestrates the induction of distinct subsets of cancer-associated myeloid cells through the production of factors known to influence myelopoiesis. These immature myeloid cells inhibit the proliferation and induce apoptosis of activated T cells. Targeted depletion of granulocytic MDSC (Gr-MDSC) in autochthonous PDA increases the intratumoral accumulation of activated CD8 T cells and apoptosis of tumour epithelial cells and also remodels the tumour stroma. Conclusions Neoplastic ductal cells of the pancreas induce distinct myeloid cell subsets that promote tumour cell survival and accumulation. Targeted depletion of a single myeloid subset, the Gr-MDSC, can unmask an endogenous T cell response, disclosing an unexpected latent immunity and invoking targeting of Gr-MDSC as a potential strategy to exploit for treating this highly lethal disease.
Epidemiology and Outcomes of Lisfranc Injuries Identified at the National Football League Scouting Combine

Background: Lisfranc injuries are challenging to treat and may have a detrimental effect on athletic performance. Purpose: (1) Determine the epidemiological characteristics of Lisfranc injuries at the annual National Football League (NFL) Scouting Combine, (2) define player positions at risk for these injuries, and (3) evaluate the impact that these injuries and radiographic findings have on NFL draft position and performance. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: All players who sustained a Lisfranc injury prior to Combine evaluation between 2009 and 2015 were evaluated. The epidemiological characteristics, player positions affected, treatment methods, and number of missed collegiate games were recorded. Radiographic outcomes were analyzed via Combine radiograph findings, while NFL performance outcomes were assessed for all Lisfranc injuries (2009-2013) compared with matched controls in the first 2 years of play. Results: A total of 41 of 2162 (1.8%) Combine participants were identified with Lisfranc injuries, of whom 26 of 41 (63.4%) were managed operatively. Players who underwent surgery were more likely to go undrafted compared with players managed nonoperatively (38.5% vs 13.3%, operative vs nonoperative management, respectively; P = .04) and featured a worse NFL draft pick position (155.6 vs 109; P = .03). Lisfranc-injured players when compared with controls were noted to have worse outcomes in terms of NFL draft position (142 vs 111.3, Lisfranc-injured players vs controls, respectively; P = .04), NFL career length 2 years or longer (62.5% vs 69.6%; P = .23), and number of games played (16.9 vs 23.3; P = .001) and started (6.8 vs 10.5; P = .08) within the first 2 years of their NFL career. Radiographs demonstrated that 17 of 41 (41.5%) athletes had residual Lisfranc joint displacement greater than 2 mm compared with the contralateral foot. Lisfranc-injured athletes with greater than 2 mm residual displacement, when compared with matched controls, had worse draft position (156.9 vs 111.2 for Lisfranc-injured players vs controls, respectively; P = .009) and fewer games played (14.4 vs 23.3; P = .001) and started (3.1 vs 10.5; P = .03). Moreover, athletes with greater than 2 mm residual displacement featured worse outcomes across all assessed NFL variables versus athletes with residual displacement of 2 mm or less. Conclusion: Lisfranc injuries identified at the NFL Combine have an adverse effect on an NFL athlete’s draft status, draft position, and overall play during initial NFL seasons. In particular, residual displacement of the Lisfranc joint has a detrimental effect on the first 2 seasons of NFL play and may lead to long-lasting negative effects on the athlete’s career.
The Role of Time Preferences and Exponential-Growth Bias in Retirement Savings

There is considerable variation in retirement savings within income, age, and educational categories. Using a broad sample of the U.S. population, we elicit time preference parameters from a quasi-hyperbolic discounting model, and perceptions of exponential growth. We find that present bias (PB), the tendency to value utility in the present over the future in a dynamically inconsistent way, and exponential-growth bias (EGB), the tendency to neglect compounding, are prevalent and distinct latent variables. PB, EGB, and the long-run discount factor are all highly significant in predicting retirement savings, even while controlling for measures of IQ and general financial literacy as well as a rich set of demographic controls. We find that lack of self-awareness of these biases has an additional independent negative impact on retirement savings. We assess potential threats to a causal interpretation of our results with a hypothetical choice experiment and several robustness exercises. Finally, we explore potential mechanisms for our findings. If the relationship we estimate is causal, our estimates suggest that eliminating PB and EGB would be associated with an increase in retirement savings of 12%, or as high as 70% using estimates that account for classical measurement error.
Magnetic resonance angiography for preoperative evaluation of potential kidney donors.

BACKGROUND Careful evaluation of the renovascular anatomy for living kidney donors is essential to optimize donor and recipient outcomes. Arteriography has been the standard for delineating the renovascular anatomy. However, this procedure is invasive. Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is an attractive, noninvasive alternative. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of MRA in potential living kidney donors. METHODS A retrospective comparison of the preoperative MRA results with the intraoperative anatomy was performed in 189 living kidney donors. RESULTS MRA interpretations correctly identified the vascular anatomy of the donor kidneys in 173 donors (91.5%). In the remaining 16 patients (8.5%), the MRA interpretation was inaccurate. In 10 patients, the MRA reported fewer arteries than the number encountered during the donor operation, whereas in six patients MRA reported more arteries than what found during operation. In seven patients, MRA supplied additional important anatomical information, including kidney size disparity, the presence of nephrolithiasis, the presence of a renal cyst, and renal artery stenosis. All kidneys were successfully transplanted. The misinterpretation of the MRA did not adversely affect the recipient outcome. CONCLUSION The noninvasive MRA evaluation of donor renovascular anatomy is an acceptable substitute for traditional angiography.
Pediatric neurocritical care in the 21st century: from empiricism to evidence

Purpose of reviewApproximately one in five children admitted to a pediatric ICU have a new central nervous system injury or a neurological complication of their critical illness. The spectrum of neurologic insults in children is diverse and clinical practice is largely empirical, as few randomized, controlled trials have been reported. This lack of data poses a substantial challenge to the practice of pediatric neurocritical care (PNCC). PNCC has emerged as a novel subspecialty, and its presence is expanding within tertiary care centers. This review highlights the recent advances in the field, with a focus on traumatic brain injury (TBI), cardiac arrest, and stroke as disease models. Recent findingsVariable approaches to the structure of a PNCC service have been reported, comprising multidisciplinary teams from neurology, critical care, neurosurgery, neuroradiology, and anesthesia. Neurologic morbidity is substantial in critically ill children and the increased use of continuous electroencephalography monitoring has highlighted this burden. Therapeutic hypothermia has not proven effective for treatment of children with severe TBI or out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. However, results of studies of severe TBI suggest that multidisciplinary care in the ICU and adherence to guidelines for care can reduce mortality and improve outcome. SummaryThere is an unmet need for clinicians with expertise in the practice of brain-directed critical care for children. Although much of the practice of PNCC may remain empiric, a focus on the regionalization of care, creating defined training paths, practice within multidisciplinary teams, protocol-directed care, and improved measures of long-term outcome to quantify the impact of such care can provide evidence to direct the maturation of this field.
Formation of Magnetic Nanoparticles by Annealing Continuous CoFeB/Cu Bilayer Thin Films

This paper reports a novel yet simple maskless method for fabricating monodisperse submicrometer magnetic islands by annealing continuous CoFeB/Cu bilayer films. Annealing drives the diffusion of Co and Fe into the Cu underlayer, causing them to aggregate into submicrometer islands at the Cu grain boundaries. This was established by in situ Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), along with scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution atomic and magnetic force microscopy, to determine the surface composition at various stages of preparation. The composition of the magnetic clusters was established by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Our results indicate that Co and Fe are coalesced, with their relative ratio remaining similar to the starting composition of the sputtering target, while boron is dissociated from the magnetic species. Also, the areal density of the islands was found to be strongly dependent on the Cu thickness and annealing temperature, while the size of magnetic particles was only weakly dependent. This feature was utilized to control the distribution of monosized magnetic islands.
LINKING INFORMATION , KNOWLEDGE AND EVOLUTIONARY GROWTH : A MULTILEVEL INTERPLAY BETWEEN NATURAL SELECTION AND INFORMED INTERVENTION

This article illustrates a formal link between economic growth and longstanding quantitative measures of information and knowledge. The link is found by relating two concepts from evolutionary theory, namely the Price equation and bet-hedging (stochastic switching). The first part of the article uses a Price-equation like evolutionary multilevel decomposition to conceptualize the fact that that uncertainty about the future environment is a main impediment for growth. The second part of the article illustrates how knowledge and information about the uncertain future environment can be used to overcome this constraint. Fisher’s-, Shannon’s-, Kolmogorov’s-, Massey’sand Kullback-Leibler’s information metrics emerge naturally from our evolutionary equations. These longstanding, renowned and formal metrics allow us to turn the amount of information into a quantifiable ingredient of growth. The amount of information about the uncertain future is exactly equal to the achievable increase in the long term growth rate. The result is a Maxwell’s demon-like logic in which information about the environment can be used to extract fitness. A fourth-digit classification of international trade items of ten large exporting economies is employed to empirically quantify these notions on multiple levels of economic activity. It is shown how growth can be optimized through a mix of informed intervention (often on lower levels of multi-level populations) and blind natural selection (often on more uncertain higher levels). Word count: 13,100 (main text)