Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Screw Size and Insertion Technique Compared With Removal Rates for Calcaneal Displacement Osteotomies

Background: The calcaneal displacement osteotomy is frequently used by foot and ankle surgeons to correct hindfoot angular deformity. Headed compression screws are often used for this purpose, but a common complication is postoperative plantar heel pain from prominent hardware. We evaluated hardware removal rates after calcaneal displacement osteotomies and analyzed technical factors including screw size, position, and angle. We hypothesized that larger screws placed more plantarly would have been removed more frequently. We also believed that although 2 smaller screws cost more initially, when removal rates and cost are accounted for, savings would be demonstrated with this technique. Methods: We retrospectively collected data on type of fixation, cost of fixation, and frequency of removal. After exclusions we had 30 patients in our screw removal cohort and 119 in our screws retained cohort. A basic cost analysis and statistical analysis was performed. Results: The small screw group had a hardware removal rate of 9% (4/43) compared to 25% (26/104) of the larger screw group (P = .032). While the cost of 2 smaller screws is more than that of 1 larger screw, when the cost of removal and the rates of doing so are considered, the smaller screws resulted in substantial cost savings. Conclusion: Technical considerations for the medial displacement calcaneal osteotomy, including the use of multiple smaller screws, provided for a lower rate of hardware removal and likely decreased long-term costs. Level of Evidence: Level III, comparative series.
Immigration, community composition, and local public goods ∗

The paper uses county-level data from California to test whether community composition is systematically related to spending on local public goods. The focus of the paper is the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, which brought roughly 400,000 new immigrants to California. This reform created exogenous variation in the ethnicity and legal status of residents of California counties and had the greatest impact in counties with the most demand for agricultural labor. In a similar fashion, IRCA changed the share of revenues from property taxes in these counties since farm workers typically pay less in property taxes than sales taxes. Differences in IRCA treatment intensity across counties allow us to address concerns that Tiebout sorting may be the cause of observed change in spending on local public goods. The econometric estimates indicate that the IRCA reforms resulted in an eight percent decline in local public good spending per capita on average, which is about equal to county average spending on public health services and a similar fall in the fraction of revenue from property taxes. Using an instrumental variables strategy, a one percent decline in the largest ethnic group’s population share is estimated to result in a five percent decline in per capita spending on local public goods, controlling for income.
Incidence of gestational trophoblastic disease in Tokat province, Turkey.

OBJECTIVE This study investigated the incidence of gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) in Tokat province, Turkey. MATERIAL AND METHODS The medical records of patients who had been diagnosed and treated at one university hospital, six government hospitals, and one specialist hospital in Tokat province between January 2005 and December 2012 were evaluated retrospectively. RESULTS During the study period, there were 59,754 births and GTD was diagnosed in 73 cases. The calculated GTD incidence was 1.22/1000. The mean age of the patients diagnosed with GTD was 28.6±7.3 (range 17-51) years. In GTD, complete moles occurred in 26%, partial moles in 74%, and no invasive moles, choriocarcinomas, or placental site trophoblastic tumours were found. Only two patients received chemotherapy (methotrexate). There was no mortality associated with the disease during follow-up. CONCLUSION The incidence of GTD in Tokat province was 1.2 per 1000 births. Early diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up play a critical role in preventing the morbidity and mortality associated with disease. The incidence of GTD, which has a high recovery rate with adequate treatment and follow-up, can be determined from regional and community-based research.
Listing and Delisting Thresholds under the Endangered Species Act

Abstract We consider the case where a species provides a flow of economic benefits, is at risk of extinction, and is being considered for addition to the Endangered Species List. Listing a species as endangered is costly but increases the flow of social benefits and reduces the likelihood of extinction. If the species recovers sufficiently, additional costs can be incurred to subsequently delist the species. By treating listing and delisting as a pair of linked investment options, we provide an alternative to current practice for listing and delisting decisions that maximizes the return from public conservation investments. Under this alternative framework, we show that economic considerations may actually afford greater protection for at‐risk species if these decisions are initiated early. However, biological sources of uncertainty may cause those species most in need of protection to be passed over in favor of more stable species that represent a “sure bet” for species preservation.
Solid dispersions, Part I: recent evolutions and future opportunities in manufacturing methods for dissolution rate enhancement of poorly water-soluble drugs

Introduction: In recent years, the number of active pharmaceutical ingredients with high therapeutic impact, but very low water solubility, has increased significantly. Thus, a great challenge for pharmaceutical technology is to create new formulations and efficient drug-delivery systems to overcome these dissolution problems. Areas covered: Drug formulation in solid dispersions (SDs) is one of the most commonly used techniques for the dissolution rate enhancement of poorly water-soluble drugs. Generally, SDs can be defined as a dispersion of active ingredients in molecular, amorphous and/or microcrystalline forms into an inert carrier. This review covers literature which states that the dissolution enhancement of SDs is based on the fact that drugs in the nanoscale range, or in amorphous phase, dissolve faster and to a greater extent than micronized drug particles. This is in accordance to the Noyes–Whitney equation, while the wetting properties of the used polymer may also play an important role. Expert opinion: The main factors why SD-based pharmaceutical products on the market are steadily increasing over the last few years are: the recent progress in various methods used for the preparation of SDs, the effect of evolved interactions in physical state of the drug and formulation stability during storage, the characterization of the physical state of the drug and the mechanism of dissolution rate enhancement.
Processing of facial emotional expression: spatio‐temporal data as assessed by scalp event‐related potentials

Event‐related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in 10 adult volunteers, who were asked to view pictures of faces with different emotional expressions, i.e. fear, happiness, disgust, surprise and neutral expression [Ekman, P. & Friesen, W.V. (1975). Pictures of Facial Affect. Consulting Psychologist Press, Palo Alto, CA]. ERPs were recorded during two different tasks with the same stimuli. Firstly, subjects were instructed to pay attention to the gender of the faces by counting males or females. Secondly, they had to focus on facial expressions by counting faces who looked surprised. The classical scalp ‘face‐related potentials’, i.e. a vertex‐positive potential and a bilateral temporal negativity, were recorded 150 ms after the stimulus onset. Significant differences were found, firstly between late‐latency ERPs to emotional faces and to neutral faces, between 250 and 550 ms of latency and, secondly, among the ERPs to the different facial expressions between 550 and 750 ms of latency. These differences appeared only during the expression discrimination task, not during the gender discrimination task. Topographic maps of these differences showed a specific right temporal activity related to each emotional expression, some particularities being observed for each expression. This study provides new data concerning the spatio‐temporal features of facial expression processing, particularly a late‐latency activity related to specific attention to facial expressions.
Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) activity in serum, follicular fluid and seminal plasma of sheep.

This work aimed to describe the activity of paraoxonase 1 (PON1) in serum, follicular fluid and seminal plasma of sheep. Average serum PON1 activity was 286.8 ± 96.2 U/ml in females and 237.6 ± 18.9 U/ml in males. There was a positive correlation between PON1 activity in serum and follicular fluid in females, being twice higher in serum than in follicular fluid (148.8 ± 15.7 U/ml). PON1 activity in males' serum was 10-fold higher than in seminal plasma (21.18 ± 14.2 U/ml), and there was no correlation between PON1 activity in both compartments. Finally, this work suggests that PON1 activity of in sheep is higher compared to other mammalian species, and there is an association between PON1 in serum and follicular fluid only.
5-HT2A receptor antagonist increases circulating adiponectin in patients with type 2 diabetes

We compared the levels of plasma adiponectin, platelet activation markers (P-selectin, CD63, PAC-1, annexin V, and platelet-derived microparticles), and endothelial injury markers (soluble E-selectin and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1) in 53 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus to investigate potential contributions to diabetic vascular complications. In addition, we administered serotonin antagonist (sarpogrelate hydrochloride) to type 2 diabetes patients who had increased soluble E-selectin levels. The concentrations of platelet activation markers and endothelial injury markers in diabetic patients were significantly higher than those in normal subjects. However, levels of adiponectin were lower in type 2 diabetes patients than in control subjects. A total of 32 patients had high-soluble E-selectin levels (soluble E-selectin ≥ 62 ng/ml); a subset of patients that also had significant elevation of platelet activation and endothelial injury markers compared with patients without high soluble E-selectin. In addition, both platelet-P-selectin and platelet-derived microparticle levels negatively correlated with the adiponectin level. Patients with high soluble E-selectin exhibited significant improvement of all markers after sarpogrelate hydrochloride treatment. These findings suggest that there is a link between vascular change in type 2 diabetes and activated platelets, endothelial dysfunction, and an adiponectin abnormality.
A Comparative Study of Gender Roles in Tea Sector in Embu and Murang’a Counties, Kenya: A Case Study of Smallholder Tea Farmers

Men and women perform different roles within the household and in agricultural sector. However, women’s roles are more strenuous and more pronounced and they work extra hours in providing the much needed labour on the tea farms than the men counterpart. But in spite of women’s much involvement in agricultural sector, they undergo discrimination in all aspects not only related to land ownership but also kept out when it comes to control and access to the benefits accrued from tea farming. This study therefore sought to determine gender roles in tea production in Embu and Murang’a counties and also to assess the accessibility and control over the benefits accrued from tea farming by gender. Stratified random sampling; simple random sampling and Purposive sampling techniques were used to sample 276 respondents from estimated target population of 18,000 tea growers from the two counties under study. The study established that women perform more roles in tea plantation than their male counterparts. The findings clearly demonstrated that the most tedious and difficult roles that took long hours to accomplish were assigned to the women for instance, the plucking of tea, taking green leaves to the buying centre and collecting/receiving pay slips from the factory or buying centre was majorly done by the women but it’s men who goes to the bank to earn bonus and monthly payments for the work didn’t participate and also attending annual general meetings (AGMs) or any meetings at the factory or buying centre and even organized educational forums and surveys since they knew that at the end of it they would either receive certificate of participation and more importantly sitting allowance. The finding further revealed that, men were assigned themselves roles that lighter duties that might require bit of skills such as pruning of tea bushes and nursery establishment. On the other hand women are unable to attend the forums or meetings because of numerous roles waiting for them ranging from household chores to agricultural production. Although conflicts have been in arise over the control of proceeds of tea sales because men receive the benefits and women who worked for them do not seem to benefit much, this gender discrimination had negatively affected tea production and by extension resulted in decline of tea yields and neglected tea bush. This study recommends that Kenya tea development agency to increase its sensitization forums and conducts regular workshops to educate the tea growers on gender balance in regards to distribution of proceeds from tea sales, access to and control over tea benefits. This could not only help to empower and motivate women but also demystify the gender stereotypes that men have about women and therefore eliminate gender discrimination in tea growing communities.
Analisis Efisiensi Usahatani Padi di Kabupaten Lampung Tengah

An effort to increase rice production through agricultural extension in Central Lampung regency is difficult. This is because of the limited land that can be used as new planning areas and high competition for land use as non-agricultural activities. Therefore, the increase in rice production through production efficiency becomes the most important alternative. The objectives of this study are to analyze the level of technical efficiency, allocative efficiency, and economic efficiency of rice farming in Central Lampung district and identified the factors that influence it. The results of the analysis using stochastic frontier production function shows that rice farming in the study area has been efficient. Average efficiency level of technical efficiency is 0,94, allocative efficiency is 0,93, and economic efficiency is 0,88. The land area is the most responsive variable in an effort to increase rice production. Variables expected to affect the degree of technical efficiency of rice farming is the number of family members of farmers, rice farming experience, acces farmers to agricultural financing, and number of agricultural extension.
Foreign Institutional Investment, Ownership, and Liquidity: Real and Informational Frictions

The literature widely documents the negative liquidity impact of foreign participation in firms that permit high foreign institutional ownership. This paper employs a unique setting for the limited participation of qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) in China's A-share market and examines how this impacts on stock liquidity in emerging markets. Contrary to the findings in the literature, foreign investor participation helps enhance the liquidity of affected stocks by promoting trade activities and price discovery. The improvement in liquidity does not occur through the information friction channel, but rather the real friction channel. Our results are robust to endogeneity issue and the possible influence of the global financial crisis, industry effects and the stock exchange. Further, the liquidity improving effects of QFII are even stronger when the analysis is performed on a subsample of QFII firms.
Inability to suppress salient distractors predicts low visual working memory capacity

Significance Humans can remember the features of three or four visual objects for short periods of time. Individual differences in this working memory capacity, which accurately predict fluid intelligence and performance in numerous cognitive tasks, have been hypothesized to reflect variations in attentional processes that govern access to the memory system. However, the specific attention mechanism that differentiates high- and low-capacity individuals is unknown. Here, we show that differences in working memory capacity are specifically related to distractor-suppression activity in visual cortex. Our electrophysiological measures reveal that although high-capacity individuals are able to actively suppress distractors, low-capacity individuals cannot suppress them in time to prevent distractors from capturing attention. According to contemporary accounts of visual working memory (vWM), the ability to efficiently filter relevant from irrelevant information contributes to an individual’s overall vWM capacity. Although there is mounting evidence for this hypothesis, very little is known about the precise filtering mechanism responsible for controlling access to vWM and for differentiating low- and high-capacity individuals. Theoretically, the inefficient filtering observed in low-capacity individuals might be specifically linked to problems enhancing relevant items, suppressing irrelevant items, or both. To find out, we recorded neurophysiological activity associated with attentional selection and active suppression during a competitive visual search task. We show that high-capacity individuals actively suppress salient distractors, whereas low-capacity individuals are unable to suppress salient distractors in time to prevent those items from capturing attention. These results demonstrate that individual differences in vWM capacity are associated with the timing of a specific attentional control operation that suppresses processing of salient but irrelevant visual objects and restricts their access to higher stages of visual processing.
Valproate and risk of fracture in Rett syndrome

Objectives Some associations between antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) and fracture risk have been reported in the general population. This study investigated the relationships between fracture risk and commonly used AEDs in Rett syndrome, a genetic disorder associated with intellectual and physical disability. Study design Cases (n=233) were sourced from the population-based Australian Rett Syndrome Database and longitudinal data were used. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to analyse relationships between fracture and prescribed AEDs, mobility, epilepsy diagnosis and genotype. Results After controlling for mobility, epilepsy diagnosis and genotype, use of valproate increased the risk of fracture threefold after at least 1 year (HR 3.56; 95% CI 1.85 to 6.82) and after 2 or more years (HR 3.02; 95% CI 1.90 to 4.80). There was a lesser increased risk (HR 1.99; 95% CI 0.99 to 4.02) with lamotrigine in the first year of use but not for subsequent years of use. Carbamazepine slightly decreased the risk (HR 0.60; 95% CI 0.35 to 1.02) after 2 or more years of use. Conclusions The effect of valproate on bone health should be considered when managing epilepsy in Rett syndrome. Multiple mechanisms could be contributing to this effect.
Cyclin-Dependent Kinase-Associated Protein Cks2 is Associated with Bladder Cancer Progression

In this observational retrospective study, expression of possible cancer-related genes was measured in patients with a pathological diagnosis of superficial bladder cancer. Further measurements were made in those who subsequently developed muscle-invasive cancer. Seven of the 45 patients with superficial bladder cancer progressed to muscle-invasive cancer. Expression of fatty acid binding protein 5 (FABP5), poly(A) binding protein cytoplasmic 1 (PABPC1), DEAD box polypeptide 5 (DDX5), splicing factor 3b subunit 1 (SF3B1), murine mammary tumour integration site 6 (EIF3S6), tropomyosin 2β (TPM2), transgelin (TAGLN) and cyclin-dependent kinase-associated protein (Cks2) genes was measured in bladder samples using real-time reverse transcription—polymerase chain reaction. FABP5, PABPC1, DDX5, SF3B1, EIF3S6 and Cks2 expression levels were significantly increased, and TPM2 and TAGLN were significantly decreased, in superficial bladder cancer compared with normal bladder tissue. In patients who developed muscle-invasive cancer, the Cks2 gene showed significantly increased expression after, compared with before, invasion. The Cks2 gene may have potential as a biomarker for predicting superficial bladder cancer progression to muscle-invasive cancer.
Using Peer Crowds to Segment Black Youth for Smoking Intervention

Studies of peer crowds show promise for enhancing public health promotion and practice through targeting. Distinct images, role models, and social norms likely influence health behaviors of different peer crowds within health disparity groups. We describe peer crowds identified by Black young people and determine whether identification with them is associated with smoking. Data from Black young people aged 13 to 20 years in Richmond, Virginia, were collected via interview and online survey (N = 583). We identified the number and type of peer crowds using principal components analysis; associations with smoking were analyzed using Pearson chi-square tests and logistic regression. Three peer crowds were identified—“preppy,” “mainstream,” and “hip hop. ” Youth who identify with the hip hop peer crowd were more likely to smoke and have friends who smoke and less likely to hold antitobacco attitudes than those identifying with preppy or mainstream crowds. Identifying with the hip hop crowd significantly increased the odds of smoking, controlling for demographic factors (odds ratio = 1.97; 95% confidence interval = 1.03-3.76). Tobacco prevention efforts for Black youth and young adults should prioritize the hip hop crowd. Crowd identity measures can aid in targeting public health campaigns to effectively engage those at highest risk.
The Stationary of Productivity Shocks: Evidence from 25 OECD and Big 7 Countries

We apply the panel covariate augmented Dickey–Fuller test to test stationarity of the productivity series for the OECD and Big-7 economies. The approach takes cross-sectional dependence into account. Using hours-worked per worker, we find that the series is non-stationary for the 25 OECD countries; but for the Big-7 the results are mixed. So, this paper achieves a battery of panel unit root tests to examine the stationarity properties of the series named hours worked per employee. The study period covers 1960-2012 for the OECD and the Big-7 countries. The tests we use account for cross-sectional dependence and those that do not account for such dependence. Our results suggest that an analyst might infer that hours worked fall after a positive technology shock, when it may go up in a true data-generating process. The findings also suggest that although in a true data-generating process, the series may go up from a positive technology shock, analysts may infer a fall. The stationarity of the series is relevant in determining the effect of positive technology shock on productivity.