Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Geometry of Torsional Malalignment Syndrome: Trochlear Dysplasia but Not Torsion Predicts Lateral Patellar Instability

Background: The clinical impact of increased torsion on patellar instability and patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) has been suggested by several studies. Hypothesis: The hypotheses of this study were that (1) torsional malalignment (TM) is characterized by a positive correlation between different malalignment parameters that represent an overall picture of the malalignment syndrome and (2) an increase in overall torsion is the underlying difference between patellar instability and isolated patellofemoral pain. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: Between April 2015 and July 2017, a total of 428 patients were treated for lateral patellar dislocation (LPD), and 333 patients were treated for PFPS. Sixty-two patients (14.5%) with patellar instability (LPD group) and 29 patients (8.7%) with patellofemoral pain (PFPS group) had additional TM and were included in this study. All patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging for torsional alignment and patellar tracking, including femoral antetorsion, tibial torsion, knee rotation, tibial tuberosity–trochlear groove (TT-TG) distance, tibial tuberosity–posterior cruciate ligament (TT-PCL) distance, Dejour classification of trochlear dysplasia, lateral trochlear inclination (LTI) angle, and patellar height. Results: The LPD and PFPS groups differed significantly in terms of trochlear dysplasia (P < .001), LTI angle (P < .001), and TT-TG distance (P = .0167) but did not differ in terms of femoral antetorsion (20.02° ± 8.80° vs 20.03° ± 7.91°, respectively; P = .8545), tibial torsion (39.53° ± 9.23° vs 41.24° ± 7.28°, respectively; P = .3616), or knee rotation (10.42° ± 5.16° vs 8.48° ± 7.81°, respectively; P = .0163). Only measures of TT-TG distance and TT-PCL distance and measures of TT-TG distance and knee rotation were positively correlated. Trochlear dysplasia (type B-D) was identified as the only significant predictor of patellar instability. Conclusion: TM in patients with either PFPS or LPD does not appear to be characterized by a fixed constellation of different malalignment parameters. Between groups, the parameters differed significantly only in terms of trochlear dysplasia and the TT-TG distance, and trochlear dysplasia (type B-D) (but not torsion) was identified as a predictor of lateral patellar instability.
Assessing the Impacts of Correlated Variability with Dissociated Timescales

Abstract Despite the profound influence on coding capacity of sensory neurons, the measurements of noise correlations have been inconsistent. This is, possibly, because nonstationarity, i.e., drifting baselines, engendered the spurious long-term correlations even if no actual short-term correlation existed. Although attempts to separate them have been made previously, they were ad hoc for specific cases or computationally too demanding. Here we proposed an information-geometric method to unbiasedly estimate pure short-term noise correlations irrespective of the background brain activities without demanding computational resources. First, the benchmark simulations demonstrated that the proposed estimator is more accurate and computationally efficient than the conventional correlograms and the residual correlations with Kalman filters or moving averages of length three or more, while the best moving average of length two coincided with the propose method regarding correlation estimates. Next, we analyzed the cat V1 neural responses to demonstrate that the statistical test accompanying the proposed method combined with the existing nonstationarity test enabled us to dissociate short-term and long-term noise correlations. When we excluded the spurious noise correlations of purely long-term nature, only a small fraction of neuron pairs showed significant short-term correlations, possibly reconciling the previous inconsistent observations on existence of significant noise correlations. The decoding accuracy was slightly improved by the short-term correlations. Although the long-term correlations deteriorated the generalizability, the generalizability was recovered by the decoder with trend removal, suggesting that brains could overcome nonstationarity. Thus, the proposed method enables us to elucidate the impacts of short-term and long-term noise correlations in a dissociated manner.
Tim-3/galectin-9 pathway and mMDSC control primary and secondary resistances to PD-1 blockade in lung cancer patients

ABSTRACT Nivolumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting PD-1, is currently approved for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC) treatment after failure of first-line chemotherapy. However, only a quarter of patients benefit from this therapy with objective clinical response. In this context, there is an unmet need for improved understanding of resistance mechanisms. Thus, we studied a prospective cohort of mNSCLC (n = 61) treated in second or third-line with nivolumab. We analyzed various blood myeloid and lymphoid markers by flow cytometry (176 variables) at baseline, and after 15 and 30 days of therapy. By attempting to link the evolution of peripheral lymphoid, myeloid cells and anti-PD-1 response, we observed that accumulation of lymphoid cells and monocytic MDSC (mMDSC) expressing, respectively, Tim-3 and galectin-9 is implicated in resistance to PD-1 blockade both for patients with primary or acquired secondary resistance to anti-PD-1. In vitro, anti-Tim-3 blocking antibody reverses resistance to anti-PD-1 in PBMC from lung cancer patients and high levels of blood mMDSC negatively impact on anti-PD-1 efficacy. Together, these data underline that the galectin-9/Tim-3 pathway and mMDSC are key mechanisms of primary or secondary resistance to anti-PD-1 and could be a new target for immunotherapy drug combinations.
Self-Defeating Work Behavior in Wood Industry: An Empirical Investigation

Self-defeating work behavior will become more common if human resources exploitation continues. A good organization practice needs to be performed to avoid employees’ self-defeating work behavior. Our research is among the first to examine the organizational antecedents of self-defeating work behavior. The purpose of this research is to test whether perceived CSR initiatives, implementation of high-performance working practices, and authentic leadership are the antecedents of self-defeating work behavior. Questionnaires are distributed to 204 employees of 19 wood companies in Central Java. Regression analysis is used to test the connection between the variables. The result shows that perceived CSR initiative and authentic leadership negatively affect self-defeating work behavior. It also reveals that high-performance work system does not significantly affect self-defeating work behavior. It is recommended that practitioners employ good CSR in social environment and apply authentic leadership to maintain the employees’ positive behavior
Influence of Multiple Types of Proximity on the Degree of Visual Crowding Effects Within a Single Gap Detection Task

The visual system cannot recognize an object (target) in peripheral vision when presented with neighboring similar stimuli (flanker). This object recognition disability is known as crowding. Studies have shown that various types of proximity, such as spatial distance or semantic category, affect the degree of crowding. However, thus far, these effects have mostly been studied separately. Hence, their underlying similarities and differences are still unknown. In this study, we developed a novel gap detection task and tested whether the effect of three different types of proximity in crowding (the relative position between target gap and nearest flanker edge, the flanker location compared with the target location, and the semantic category of the target) can be measured within a single task. A psychometric function analysis revealed that two of the assumed types of proximity affected the degree of crowding within a single task.
Validation of Fertilizer Requirement Map for bread wheat at Lume District, East Shewa Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Fertilizer recommendations in Ethiopia in general and Lume district, in particular, are of blanket type for bread wheat production and are based on soil color characteristics rather than on soil test results and crop requirements. Hence Batu Soil Research Center was produced fertilizer requirement map and field experiments were carried out on nine peasant associations of Lume district to validate the quality of fertilizer requirement map on some yield components and yield of bread wheat crop. The treatments consisted of Control (unfertilized plot), Blanket (100/100 NPS/Urea), P-map (phosphorus applied from fertilizer requirement map) and P-required (Pc-P0)*Pf ) were laid out with simple adjacent plots and replicated over nine location (Peasant association). The Analysis of Variance indicates that Bread wheat grain Yield, Biomass and Harvest index were highly significantly (P<0.01) influenced by treatment applied. P-required (Pc-P0)*Pf) gave the highest (4039 kg ha) grain yield and (9964 kg ha ) Biomass yield except (47.33%) harvest index which was recorded by P-map (phosphorus applied from fertilizer requirement map). While the lowest (1072 kg ha) grain yield and (3294 kg ha ) Biomass and (32.03%) harvest index were recorded by unfertilized plot. However, the economic analysis revealed that for a treatment to be considered as worthwhile to farmers (100% marginal rate of return) application of P-map (phosphorus applied from fertilizer requirement map) is profitable for Bread wheat crop production and recommended for farmers in Lume district.
Relationship between Clinical Features of Diabetic Retinopathy and Systemic Factors in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Type II Diabetes Mellitus

Background We investigated the relationship between clinical features of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and systemic factors in patients with newly diagnosed type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods Retrospective review of newly diagnosed T2DM-patients who underwent complete ophthalmic examinations at the time of T2DM diagnosis were conducted. We reviewed DM related systemic factor data and investigated systemic factors related to the presence of DR at T2DM diagnosis. In DR patients, the relationship between DR severity and systemic factors was analyzed. Results Of 380 patients, forty (10.53%) patients had DR at the initial ophthalmologic examination. Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), urine albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR), and urine microalbumin level were significantly higher in DR patients than in patients without DR. In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, high HbA1C was a significant risk factor for the presence of DR at new T2DM diagnosis (odds ratio, 2.372; P < 0.001). HbA1C, FPG, UACR, and urine microalbumin level showed significantly positive correlations with DR severity . Conclusion In patients with newly diagnosed T2DM, 10.53% have DR at initial ophthalmologic examination and high HbA1C, FPG, UACR and urine microalbumin levels. These factors are significantly positively correlated with DR severity. Therefore, more careful fundus examination is needed for newly diagnosed T2DM patients with high HbA1C, FPG, UACR, and urine microalbumin levels.
Indications for blood and blood products transfusions among children in a semi-urban tertiary hospital in Nigeria

Background: Anaemia is prevalent among children in our environment, often necessitating blood transfusions. The knowledge of the common indications for blood transfusion and the required preventive measures is likely to reduce the transfusion rates. Objective: To determine the disease conditions requiring blood transfusion in post-neonatal age children at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria. Methods: The hospital records of all children aged 1 month to 18 years admitted into the post-neonatal ward who received blood transfusions over 18 months (1st July 2015to31st December 2016) were reviewed. Results: There were 710 paediatric admissions out of which 82 (11.6%) received blood transfusions. Ninety transfusions were carried out amongst 82 children, at a ratio of 1.1 transfusions per child. Severe malaria (28.1%), sickle cell anaemia (19.5%) and septicaemia (18.3) were the most common disease conditions requiring blood transfusions. The leading blood products transfused included packed red cells (64.5%) and whole blood (30.0%). Conclusion: Blood transfusion is frequently indicated in the paediatric population in our setting, largely due to severe malaria and sickle cell anaemia problems. Intensifying efforts on the use of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets and environmental control may reduce the prevalence of severe malaria, while improved nutrition, adequate hydration, regular malaria prophylaxis, prompt treatment of infections and regular use of haematinics may minimize the need for blood transfusions among children with sickle cell anaemia.
Privacy-Preserving Multi-Keyword Top-$k$ k Similarity Search Over Encrypted Data

Cloud computing provides individuals and enterprises massive computing power and scalable storage capacities to support a variety of big data applications in domains like health care and scientific research, therefore more and more data owners are involved to outsource their data on cloud servers for great convenience in data management and mining. However, data sets like health records in electronic documents usually contain sensitive information, which brings about privacy concerns if the documents are released or shared to partially untrusted third-parties in cloud. A practical and widely used technique for data privacy preservation is to encrypt data before outsourcing to the cloud servers, which however reduces the data utility and makes many traditional data analytic operators like keyword-based top- $k$ k document retrieval obsolete. In this paper, we investigate the multi-keyword top- $k$ k search problem for big data encryption against privacy breaches, and attempt to identify an efficient and secure solution to this problem. Specifically, for the privacy concern of query data, we construct a special tree-based index structure and design a random traversal algorithm, which makes even the same query to produce different visiting paths on the index, and can also maintain the accuracy of queries unchanged under stronger privacy. For improving the query efficiency, we propose a group multi-keyword top- $k$ k search scheme based on the idea of partition, where a group of tree-based indexes are constructed for all documents. Finally, we combine these methods together into an efficient and secure approach to address our proposed top- $k$ k similarity search. Extensive experimental results on real-life data sets demonstrate that our proposed approach can significantly improve the capability of defending the privacy breaches, the scalability and the time efficiency of query processing over the state-of-the-art methods.
Efficacy of ivermectin and Tarantula cubensis extract in the treatment of bovine teat papillomatosis

The objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of ivermectin and Tarantula cubensis extract in the treatment of teat papillomas in cattle. The present clinical study was conducted on 12 cows with papillomatosis. The animals were divided in to two groups of six animals each and were treated with ivermectin and Tarantula cubensis extract respectively. Three animals in group I and six animals in group II responded well to the treatment. The results of the study revealed that Tarantula cubensis extract was found to be efficacious in the treatment of bovine papillomatosis than ivermectin with no occurrence for a period of 6 months.
The miR-183/182/96 cluster functions as a potential carcinogenic factor and prognostic factor in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma

Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) is the most common type of renal cell carcinoma. While a number of treatments have been developed over the past few decades, the prognosis of patients with KIRC remains poor due to tumor metastasis and recurrence. Therefore, the molecular mechanisms of KIRC require to be elucidated in order to identify novel biomarkers. MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) have been studied as important regulators of gene expression in a variety of cancer types. In the present study, a bioinformatics analysis of differentially expressed miRNAs in KIRC vs. normal tissues was performed based on raw miRNA expression data and patient information downloaded from the The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Furthermore, the clinical significance of differentially expressed miRNAs was evaluated, and their target genes and biological effects were further predicted. After applying the cut-off criteria of an absolute fold change of ≥2 and P<0.05, 127 differentially expressed miRNAs between KIRC and normal tissues were identified. The product of the miR-183/182/96 gene cluster, namely miR-183, miR-96 and miR-182, was revealed to be associated with multiple clinicopathological features of KIRC and to have a significant predictive and prognostic value. Subsequent functional enrichment analysis indicated that the target genes of the three miRNAs are associated with various Panther pathways, including the α-adrenergic receptor signaling pathway, metabotropic glutamate receptor group I pathway, histamine H1 receptor-mediated signaling pathway and thyrotropin-releasing hormone receptor signaling pathway. In addition, major enriched gene ontology terms in the category biological process included the intracellular signaling cascade, cellular macromolecule catabolic process and response to DNA damage stimulus. Taken together, the present study suggested that miR-183, miR-96 and miR-182 may function as potential carcinogenic factors in KIRC and may be utilized as prognostic predictors.
PINK1 regulates mitochondrial morphology via promoting mitochondrial fission in porcine preimplantation embryos

Phosphatase and tensin homolog–induced kinase 1 (PINK1) on the outer membranes of impaired mitochondria promotes mitophagy and regulates mitochondrial morphology. Mammalian oocytes and early embryos are mitochondria rich, but mitochondrial dynamics during preimplantation embryo development is not well‐studied. To investigate whether PINK1 is required for mitochondrial dynamics in porcine preimplantation embryos, gene knockdown and inhibitors were used, and mitochondrial dynamics were observed by transmission electron microscopy. PINK1 knockdown significantly impaired blastocyst formation and quality, induced mitochondrial elongation and swelling, and reduced mitochondrial DNA copy number. PINK1 knockdown–induced mitochondrial elongation caused mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and ATP deficiency, significantly increasing autophagy and apoptosis. Profission dynamin‐related protein 1 overexpression prevented PINK1 knockdown–induced impairment of embryo development, mitochondrial elongation, and dysfunction. Thus, PINK1 promotes mitochondrial fission in porcine preimplantation embryos. —Niu, Y. ‐J., Nie, Z. ‐W. , Shin, K. ‐T. , Zhou, W. , Cui, X. ‐S. PINK1 regulates mitochondrial morphology via promoting mitochondrial fission in porcine preimplantation embryos. FASEB J. 33, 7882–7895 (2019). www.fasebj. org
Sex differences in pacing during half-marathon and marathon race

ABSTRACT The main aim of the present study was to examine differences in pacing between half-marathon and marathon in men and women. A total of 17,525 finishers in the marathon (n = 4807 men; n = 1278 women) and half-marathon race (n = 7624 men; n = 3816 women) in Vienna 2017 were considered. Their pacing was assessed through five race segments (0–23.7%, 23.7–47.4%, 47.4–71.1%, 71.1–94.8% and 94.8–100%) of the race. Compared to marathon (where absolute average change of speed [ACS] was 5.46% and 4.12% in men and women, respectively), a more even pacing was observed in half-marathon in both sexes (ACS = 3.60% and 3.36% in men and women, respectively). The more even pacing in women previously observed in marathon races was verified in half-marathon, too. However, the sex difference in pacing was smaller in half-marathon than in marathon. Since men and women endurance runners participate in both races, sport practitioners would have great benefit from these results since they could establish sex-based personalized race strategies and training programmes.
Low intensity exercise in the prevention of cardiac insulin resistance-related inflammation and disturbances in NOS and MMP-9 regulation in fructose-fed ovariectomised rats.

Exercise is important nonpharmacological treatment for improvement of insulin sensitivity in menopause. However, its effect on menopausal cardiac insulin resistance is needing further research. We investigated protective effects of low intensity exercise on cardiac insulin signaling, inflammation, regulation of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) in ovariectomised (OVX) Wistar rats, submitted to 10% fructose solution during 9 weeks. OVX rats were divided into control, sedentary fructose and exercise fructose group. Measurements of physical and biochemical characteristics were carried out to evaluate metabolic syndrome development. mRNA and protein levels and phosphorylation of cardiac insulin signaling molecules, endothelial and inducible NOS (eNOS and iNOS), p65 subunit of nuclear factor κB (NFκB), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), suppressor of cytokine signalling 3 (SOCS3) and MMP-9 were analysed. Fructose increased insulin level, HOMA index and visceral adipose tissue weight, while low intensity exercise prevented insulin level and HOMA index increase. Fructose also decreased cardiac pAkt (Ser473), peNOS (Ser1177) and increased insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1) phosphorylation at Ser307, pNFκB (Ser276) and NFκB and MMP-9 content, without effects on iNOS, protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1B, TNF-α and SOCS3. Exercise prevented changes in pIRS1 (Ser307), pAkt (Ser473), peNOS (Ser1177), pNFκB (Ser276) and NFκB expression. In addition, exercise increased pIRS1 (Tyr632), pAkt (Thr308) and eNOS expression. The low intensity exercise prevented cardiac insulin signaling disarrangement in fructose-fed OVX rats and therefore eNOS dysfunction, as well as pro-inflammatory signaling activation, without effect on tissue remodeling, suggesting physical training as a tool for reduction of cardiovascular risk.
The Importance of ICT Adoption in Manufacturing Sector: An Empirical Evidence on SME Business Performance

Information and communication technologies (ICT) adoption is considered as one of the intangible resources of the organization and needs to be carefully managed to maintain the firm's growth in business performance. Specifically, the objective of this study is to determine the relationship between the ICT adoption and SMEs business performance. According to Resource-based View Theory, technology resources are fundamental drivers to performance. A sample of 155 SMEs data successfully collected through survey. Data collected was analysed using Regression Analysis. The findings revealed that ICT adoption had significant correlation and relationship with business performance of SMEs. The study also suggested that the adoption of ICT is a major factor affecting the SMEs business performance as reported by SME Corporation Malaysia.