Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Islamic Reform, the Family, and Knowledge Networks Linking Mecca to Southeast Asia in the Nineteenth Century

Through a study of over 1,300 previously unanalyzed Malay Islamic manuscripts, this article examines the role of the Patani community in the construction of transoceanic knowledge networks between Mecca and Southeast Asia in the nineteenth century. Set against the backdrop of the destruction of prevailing symbols of authority, as well as the displacement and scattering of the community after 1200/1786, the present study investigates the manner by which scholars established new cultural unities for the community and addressed social concerns by translating and spreading Islamic writings, teachings, and schools. With its spiritual leadership centered now in Mecca, influential members of the community began producing works that were contingent upon political circumstances, but also directed at the problems facing the refugee community. Of foremost importance were the place and definition of the family, and related issues such as inheritance, divorce, and visible social actions, including ritual purity, fasting, almsgiving, and criminal punishments.
Achievement and opportunity gaps in mathematics education in Turkey compared to European Union countries

Achievement and Opportunity Gaps in Mathematics Education in Turkey Compared to European Union Countries. (December 2010) Zeynep Ebrar Yetkiner, B.S., Marmara University Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Yeping Li Dr. Bruce Thompson One of the main purposes of this dissertation was to examine genderand socioeconomic status (SES)-related mathematics achievement gaps among Turkish middle-school students compared to achievement gaps in European Union (EU) countries. A further purpose of the present study was to investigate qualified mathematics teachers’ distribution in relation to student SES among Turkish middle schools. Finally, relationships between mathematics teacher quality indicators and students’ mathematics achievement within Turkish middle-school classrooms were explored. In this dissertation, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2007 data were used. Sample countries were Turkey, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, and Slovenia. Achievement gaps by gender and SES were examined using Cohen’s d effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals. Relationships between mathematics teacher quality and students’ mathematics achievement were investigated using hierarchical linear modeling.
Evaluation of Disk Diffusion Method for Determining Posaconazole Susceptibility of Filamentous Fungi: Comparison with CLSI Broth Microdilution Method

ABSTRACT The disk diffusion method was evaluated for determining posaconazole susceptibility against 78 strains of molds using two culture media in comparison with the CLSI (Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute) broth microdilution method (M38-A). A significant correlation between disk diffusion and microdilution methods was observed with both culture media.
Assessment of Genotypic Diversity of Antibiotic-Producing Pseudomonas Species in the Rhizosphere by Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis

ABSTRACT The genotypic diversity of antibiotic-producing Pseudomonas spp. provides an enormous resource for identifying strains that are highly rhizosphere competent and superior for biological control of plant diseases. In this study, a simple and rapid method was developed to determine the presence and genotypic diversity of 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG)-producing Pseudomonas strains in rhizosphere samples. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of 350-bp fragments of phlD, a key gene involved in DAPG biosynthesis, allowed discrimination between genotypically different phlD+ reference strains and indigenous isolates. DGGE analysis of the phlD fragments provided a level of discrimination between phlD+ genotypes that was higher than the level obtained by currently used techniques and enabled detection of specific phlD+ genotypes directly in rhizosphere samples with a detection limit of approximately 5 × 103 CFU/g of root. DGGE also allowed simultaneous detection of multiple phlD+ genotypes present in mixtures in rhizosphere samples. DGGE analysis of 184 indigenous phlD+ isolates obtained from the rhizospheres of wheat, sugar beet, and potato plants resulted in the identification of seven phlD+ genotypes, five of which were not described previously based on sequence and phylogenetic analyses. Subsequent bioassays demonstrated that eight genotypically different phlD+ genotypes differed substantially in the ability to colonize the rhizosphere of sugar beet seedlings. Collectively, these results demonstrated that DGGE analysis of the phlD gene allows identification of new genotypic groups of specific antibiotic-producing Pseudomonas with different abilities to colonize the rhizosphere of sugar beet seedlings.
Magnetic Resonance Neurographic and Clinical Long-Term Results After Oberlin's Transfer for Adult Brachial Plexus Injuries

Abstract The primary goal of the surgical treatment of upper brachial plexus injuries is to restore active elbow flexion. Accordingly, Oberlin's transfer has been frequently performed since 1994 and has influenced the development of other nerve transfers. However, the window of opportunity for nerve transfers remains a subject of controversy. The objective of this study was to assess magnetic resonance (MR) neurographic, clinical and electrophysiological long-term results after Oberlin's transfer. For this purpose, we performed a retrospective follow-up study. Six patients with upper brachial plexus or musculocutaneous nerve injuries were assessed; 2 were iatrogenic nerve injuries following shoulder arthroscopy or neurofibroma resection. Direct and indirect signs of neuropathy were objectified with MR neurography. Moreover, clinical and electrodiagnostic follow-up was performed and all patients completed the Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder and Hand score. Mean follow-up was 48 ± 21.9 (range, 20–73) months. Mean age was 40 ± 11.3 years and mean delay to surgery was 9 ± 3.2 months. All patients were satisfied with the functional results and the median Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder and Hand score was 21 (range, 1–57). Biceps strength was improved in 5 patients from Medical Research Council grade M0 to M4-5 and in one patient to M2-3. The donor nerve showed normal motor and sensory action potentials. Follow-up MR neurography demonstrated biceps reinnervation. Taken together, this study reports good long-term results after Oberlin's transfer. MR neurography represents an excellent, noninvasive preoperative planning tool and can be of high value in selected postoperative cases. The combined evaluation of nerves and muscles may help to indicate nerve transfers in delayed cases.
Healthcare utilization and cost of Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis management in Thailand

Background: Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) are life-threatening dermatologic conditions. Although, the incidence of SJS/TEN in Thailand is high, information on cost of care for SJS/TEN is limited. This study aims to estimate healthcare resource utilization and cost of SJS/TEN in Thailand, using hospital perspective. Methods: A retrospective study using an electronic health database from a university-affiliated hospital in Thailand was undertaken. Patients admitted with SJS/TEN from 2002 to 2007 were included. Direct medical cost was estimated by the cost-to-charge ratio. Cost was converted to 2013 value by consumer price index, and converted to $US using 31 Baht/ 1 $US. The healthcare resource utilization was also estimated. Results: A total of 157 patients were included with average age of 45.3±23.0 years. About 146 patients (93.0%) were diagnosed as SJS and the remaining (7.0%) were diagnosed as TEN. Most of the patients (83.4%) were treated with systemic corticosteroids. Overall, mortality rate was 8.3%, while the average length of stay (LOS) was 10.1±13.2 days. The average cost of managing SJS/TEN for all patients was $1,064±$2,558. The average cost for SJS patients was $1,019±$2,601 while that for TEN patients was $1,660±$1,887. Conclusions: Healthcare resource utilization and cost of care for SJS/TEN in Thailand were tremendous. The findings are important for policy makers to allocate healthcare resources and develop strategies to prevent SJS/TEN which could decrease length of stay and cost of care.
Assessment of Nutritional Status of Adolescent College Girls at Rawalpindi

Objectives: To assess the nutritional status of adolescent college girls by assessing the dietary intake in terms of carbohydrates, proteins, Estimating the hemoglobin levels in the study group and studying the clinical signs of malnutrition with special emphasis to vitamin A, iron and iodine deficiency. Design of Study: A cross-sectional study. Settings: Two Post-Graduate women colleges of Rawalpindi. Study Duration: 9 Months (From Jan 2006 to September 2006). Materials and Methods: Nutritional status of 508 adolescent girls was assessed with a questionnaire, clinical examination and biochemical estimation (hemoglobin). The data thus collected was analyzed in July 2006 on computer with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Excel. Results: Results revealed that 20%of girls were having BMI <18.5, 77% above 18.5% and 3% were obese. 57.09% of the girls had goiter out of which 52.96% had palpable goiter and 4.13% had visible goiter. Pallor conjunctiva was seen in 1% girls. No clinical signs of Vitamin A deficiency were seen. Biochemical results indicated that 32.87% of the girls was suffering from Iron deficiency anemia. Conclusions: Large longitudinal and cross-sectional studies, regarding nutrient consumption, dietary habits and nutritional intervention are required in the adolescent girls. These studies can be thought provoking for the policy maker at the government level. Nutritional education and health promotion can be used as tool to improve the health status of the nation. Key Words: Adolescent Health, Nutrition, Nutritional Assessment.
Successive passaging of a plant-associated microbiome reveals robust habitat and host genotype-dependent selection

Significance There is great interest in selecting for host-associated microbiomes that confer particular functions to their host, and yet it remains unknown whether selection for a robust and stable microbiome is possible. Here, we use a microbiome passaging approach to measure the impact of host-mediated selection on the tomato phyllosphere (above-ground plant surfaces) microbiome. We find robust community responses to selection across replicate lines that are shaped by plant host genotype in early passages, but are genotype-independent in later passages. Work such as ours is crucial to understanding the general principles governing microbiome assembly and adaptation and is widely applicable to both sustainable agriculture and microbiome-related medicine. There is increasing interest in the plant microbiome as it relates to both plant health and agricultural sustainability. One key unanswered question is whether we can select for a plant microbiome that is robust after colonization of target hosts. We used a successive passaging experiment to address this question by selecting upon the tomato phyllosphere microbiome. Beginning with a diverse microbial community generated from field-grown tomato plants, we inoculated replicate plants across 5 plant genotypes for 4 45-d passages, sequencing the microbial community at each passage. We observed consistent shifts in both the bacterial (16S amplicon sequencing) and fungal (internal transcribed spacer region amplicon sequencing) communities across replicate lines over time, as well as a general loss of diversity over the course of the experiment, suggesting that much of the naturally observed microbial community in the phyllosphere is likely transient or poorly adapted within the experimental setting. We found that both host genotype and environment shape microbial composition, but the relative importance of genotype declines through time. Furthermore, using a community coalescence experiment, we found that the bacterial community from the end of the experiment was robust to invasion by the starting bacterial community. These results highlight that selecting for a stable microbiome that is well adapted to a particular host environment is indeed possible, emphasizing the great potential of this approach in agriculture and beyond. In light of the consistent response of the microbiome to selection in the absence of reciprocal host evolution (coevolution) described here, future studies should address how such adaptation influences host health.
Vecuronium for Rapid‐Sequence Intubation for Cesarean Section

Because succinylcholine may occasionally be contraindicated for rapid-sequence induction in parturients, we studied the use of vecuronium in 21 patients having elective cesarean sections. Eleven patients (group 1) received 10 μg/kg vecuronium as a priming dose, followed 4–6 min later by 100 μg/kg. Ten patients (group 2) received 200 μg/kg vecuronium as a bolus. Onset, the time from the injection of vecuronium to maximal twitch suppression, and clinical duration, the time between vecuronium administration and return to 25% of the control twitch height, were recorded. Umbilical and maternal venous blood samples at delivery were analyzed for vecuronium concentrations. One-minute and 5-min Apgar scores and 1− and 24-h Neurologic and Adaptive Capacity Scores (NACS) were recorded. Individual tests of passive and active tone within the overall NACS profile were compared to evaluate further any residual vecuronium effects in the infants. Onset of neuromuscular blockade was 177 s in group 1 and 175 s in group 2. The corresponding clinical durations were 73 and 115 min. Maternal and umbilical venous vecuronium concentrations were 515 and 73 ng/mL in group 1 and 838 and 107 ng/mL in group 2. Seventy percent of neonates in group 1 had Apgar scores greater than 7 at 1 min, with 100% greater than 7 at 5 min. Corresponding values in group 2 infants were 50% and 80%. Fifty percent of group 1 infants had NACS of 35–40 at 1 h, and 70% at 24 h. Corresponding values in group 2 infants were 50% and 80%. These data suggest that the priming dose regimen for vecuronium administration may be a useful alternative for rapid-sequence induction for cesarean section when succinylcholine is contraindicated. However, the onset and clinical duration were longer than desired, and the NACS data suggested residual effects in the infants.
Local Information using Stereo Camera in Artiﬁcial Potential Field based Path Planning

—Generally, a robot acquires environment data from the sensor that is attached to the robot itself and merely obtains local information. Artiﬁcial Potential Field (APF) is designed as the path planning with global information. Therefore, local information becomes one of the issues in the APF based path planning. This paper proposes an approach to handle the local information in the APF using framework transformation. With integration of image processing, clustering, and framework transformation, the initial, goal, and obstacles from the real world coordinate can be determined in the APF environment scenario. Transformation of the two-dimensional image is used to generate the APF path planning. The local optima in the local information is set as waypoint for the global optimum in whole environment scenario. In order to test performance of the algorithm, local data set is used. Two scenarios are used in this research, i.e. static environment and dynamic environment with a moving obstacle. The results show that the proposed method can be applied in the real time implementation.
The (Surprising) Efficacy of Academic and Behavioral Intervention with Disadvantaged Youth from a Randomized Experiment in Chicago (WP-14-03)

There is growing concern that improving the academic skills of disadvantaged youth is too difficult and costly, so policymakers should instead focus either on vocationally oriented instruction for teens or else on early childhood education. Yet this conclusion may be premature given that so few previous interventions have targeted a potential fundamental barrier to school success: “mismatch” between what schools deliver and the needs of disadvantaged youth who have fallen behind in their academic or non-academic development. This paper reports on a randomized controlled trial of a twopronged intervention that provides disadvantaged youth with non-academic supports that try to teach youth social-cognitive skills based on the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and intensive individualized academic remediation. The study sample consists of 106 male 9th and 10th graders in a public high school on the south side of Chicago, of whom 95% are black and 99% are free or reduced price lunch eligible. Participation increased math test scores by 0.65 of a control group standard deviation(SD) and 0.48 SD in the national distribution, increased math grades by 0.67 SD, and seems to have increased expected graduation rates by 14 percentage points (46%). While some questions remain about the intervention, given these effects and a cost per participant of around $4,400 (with a range of $3,000 to $6,000), this intervention seems to yield larger gains in adolescent outcomes per dollar spent than many other intervention strategies. 1
Inflammatory bowel disease in Bahrain: single-center experience

Purpose The number of newly diagnosed inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) cases such as ulcerative colitis (UC), Crohn’s disease (CD), and indeterminate colitis (IC) is rapidly increasing in Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and prevalence of IBD in patients who have attended the Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain, between the years 1984 and 2014. Patients and methods All patients who had attended the Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain, and had been diagnosed with UC, CD, or IC, between the years 1984 and 2014, were included in the analysis. Data collected were: patient demographics, symptoms, clinical signs, complications, surgical interventions, extent of disease, endoscopic findings, histopathology, and lab measurements. Results A total of 187 cases were included; 61 had CD, 123 had UC, and a further 3 cases presented with IC. A clear increase in the incidence and prevalence of IBD can be seen in this cohort. The prevalence of IBD was calculated to be 26.25/105 cases. The average number of IBD cases increased from 3 cases (average for the years 1984–2001) to 12 cases (average for the years 2002–2014). A number of factors correlate positively or negatively with CD and UC. In the current study, a link between gastrointestinal complications in CD cases and the use of steroids as a treatment was noted (p-value −0.02). Age also had a significant influence on the need for surgery in CD cases (p-value −0.04), and a family history of UC was statistically linked to surgical intervention (p-value −0.05). Conclusions IBD can no longer be considered a rare disease in Bahrain. The incidence of both UC and CD is steadily increasing. There is a need for increasing awareness of the Bahraini public to IBD in order for proper medical care to be given.
A cooperative approach among methods for photometric redshifts estimation: an application to KiDS data

Photometric redshifts (photo-z) are fundamental in galaxy surveys to address different topics, from gravitational lensing and dark matter distribution to galaxy evolution. The Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS), i.e. the European Southern Observatory (ESO) public survey on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), provides the unprecedented opportunity to exploit a large galaxy data set with an exceptional image quality and depth in the optical wavebands. Using a KiDS subset of about 25000 galaxies with measured spectroscopic redshifts, we have derived photo-z using (i) three different empirical methods based on supervised machine learning; (ii) the Bayesian photometric redshift model (or BPZ); and (iii) a classical spectral energy distribution (SED) template fitting procedure (le phare). We confirm that, in the regions of the photometric parameter space properly sampled by the spectroscopic templates, machine learning methods provide better redshift estimates, with a lower scatter and a smaller fraction of outliers. SED fitting techniques, however, provide useful information on the galaxy spectral type, which can be effectively used to constrain systematic errors and to better characterize potential catastrophic outliers. Such classification is then used to specialize the training of regression machine learning models, by demonstrating that a hybrid approach, involving SED fitting and machine learning in a single collaborative framework, can be effectively used to improve the accuracy of photo-z estimates.
Prevalence and distribution of sesamoid bones and accessory ossicles of the foot as determined by digital tomosynthesis

We previously reported that digital tomosynthesis (DTS) is a reliable tool for evaluating bony structures of the hand. The current study aimed to identify the prevalence and distribution of sesamoid bones and accessory ossicles of the foot using DTS and to compare the results to those of conventional radiography (CR). Foot images (DTS, 213; CR, 44) of 213 patients taken at a tertiary hospital were retrospectively reviewed. Sesamoid bones were identified in the metatarsaophalangeal (MTP), distal interphalangeal (DIP) and interphalangeal (IP) joints of the great (I), second (II), third (III), fourth (IV), and fifth (V) toes. Accessory ossicles were observed in the midfoot and hindfoot. The mean number of sesamoid bones and accessory ossicles was 3.9 ± 1.3 for the left foot and 3.7 ± 1.0 for the right foot on CR; and 3.9 ± 1.4 for the left foot and 3.9 ± 1.3 for the right foot on DTS. Sesamoid bones were observed in MTP I (100%), MTP II (5%), MTP III (2%), MTP IV (2%), MTP V (14%), and IP (68%) on CR. Sesamoid bones were observed in MTP I (100%), MTP II (8%), MTP III (1%), MTP IV (2%), MTP V (25%), and IP I(65%) on DTS. Among accessory ossicles, the most common bone identified was os tibiale externum (23% on CR and 33% on DTS) andos peroneum (14% on CR and 21% on DTS), and os trigonum (32% on CR and 0.5% on DTS). DTS was useful for finding sesamoid bones and accessory ossicles, although there were some limitations in observing the hindfoot. Clin. Anat. 30:1072–1076, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.