Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Meniscectomy Have Any Advantage Over Conservative Treatment of Degenerative Medial Meniscus Posterior Root Tear?

Background: This study aimed to compare the clinical and radiological outcomes of arthroscopic meniscectomy and conservative treatment for degenerative MMPRT.Methods: From January 2007 to December 2014, 146 patients (Meniscectomy group, 90; Conservative group, 56) were evaluated. Clinical outcomes were assessed using the Visual Analog Scale, International Knee Documentation Committee subjective scoring scale, Tegner activity scale, and Lysholm knee scoring scale at the final follow-up. Radiologic outcomes evaluated the progression of osteoarthritis according to the K-L classification. We compared the hip-knee-ankle angle, medial proximal tibial angle, tibial posterior slope angle, and width of medial joint space. After an average follow-up of 6.3 years, the survivorship was analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier method. Results: Although all clinical outcomes had significantly improved in both groups after treatment, the VAS score (p=0.07), IKDC subjective score (p=0.18), Tegner activity scale score (p=0.08), and Lysholm knee score (p=0.53) showed no significant differences between the two groups at the final follow-up. The progression of OA according to the K-L classification, HKAA and width of medial joint space was significantly advanced in the meniscectomy group (p=0.03, 0.04, 0.03, respectively). The 10-year survival rates in the meniscectomy and conservative groups were 87% and 88%, respectively. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that both conservative treatment and meniscectomy provided symptomatic relief. However, it was confirmed that OA progression was more severe in the meniscectomy. We conclude that arthroscopic meniscectomy had no advantage over conservative treatment in terms of clinical outcomes and OA progression.
Consequences of Long-term Exposure to Increased Salinity on the Amphibian Skin Bacterium Erwinia Toletana

Amphibian’s skin bacterial community may help them to cope with several types of environmental perturbations, including osmotic stress caused by increased salinity. This work aimed at assessing if an amphibian skin bacterium could increase its tolerance to NaCl after a long-term exposure to this salt. A strain of Erwinia toletana, isolated from the skin of Pelophylax perezi, was exposed to two salinity scenarios (of 18g/L of NaCl): (i) long-term exposure (for 46 days; Et-NaCl) and (ii) long-term exposure followed by a recovery period, (exposure for 30 days to NaCl and then to LB medium for 16 days; Et-R). After exposure, the sensitivity of E. toletana clonal populations to NaCl was assessed by testing 6 NaCl concentrations (LB medium spiked with NaCl) plus a control (LB medium). Genotypic alterations were assessed by PCR-based molecular typing method (BOX-PCR). Results shown that tolerance of E. toletana to NaCl slightly increased after the long-term exposure, EC50 for growth were: 22.5g/L (8.64-36.4) for Et-LB; 30.3g/L (23.2-37.4) for Et-NaCl, and 26.1g/L (19.3-32.9) for Et-R. Differences in metabolic activity were observed between Et-LB and Et-R and Et-NaCl and Et-R suggesting the use of different substrates by this bacterium when exposed to salinized environments. NaCl-induced genotypic alterations were not detected. This work suggests that E. toletana exposed to low levels of salinity, activate different metabolic pathways to cope with osmotic stress. Which may be further explored to be used in bioaugmentation procedures in natural populations of amphibians exposed to salinization.
Setting with the Sun: The Impacts of Renewable Energy on Conventional Generation

Policies supporting investment in renewable electricity have been a cornerstone of climate policy in many parts of the world. While previous empirical work explores the economic and environmental impacts of renewable production, the focus has been on the short-run impacts of expanding renewable supply. In this paper, we shed light on the potential longer-run impacts of renewable expansions. Focusing on California’s electricity market, we estimate how wholesale electricity prices have responded to a dramatic increase in utility-scale solar capacity. While an overall decline in daily average prices can be attributed to the solar expansion, this reduction in the average price masks a substantial decrease in midday prices combined with an increase in shoulder hour prices. These results imply that short-term power markets are responding to the renewable expansion in a fashion that could sustain more flexible conventional generation, while undermining the economic viability of traditional baseload generation technologies.
From competition to social interaction: a mobile team-based competition approach to promoting students’ professional identity and perceptions

ABSTRACT For professional development programs, students’ professional identity and learning perceptions and earning performances have been recognized as important educational objectives. Scholars have indicated that engaging students in social interactions facilitates their deep and diverse thinking, and hence to promoting their learning outcomes. However, in traditional instruction, students generally learn in an individual learning mode and hesitate to interact with peers and teachers. To address this problem, a mobile team-based competition approach to situate students in social interactions was proposed. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted in a college curriculum design course. 88 students in a teacher education program participated in the experiment, including 42 in the experimental group learning with the proposed approach, and 46 in the control group learning with the conventional mobile individual competition approach. The results showed that the proposed approach outperformed the mobile individual competition approach in terms of learning attitude, collaborative learning tendency and professional identity. It is found that the students generally perceived the proposed learning approach to be an effective way to encourage knowledge sharing, promote collaboration awareness and improve learning attitudes and motivation.
Curating Local Knowledge: Experimental Evidence from Small Retailers in Indonesia

Can best practices of successful business peers influence the efficiency and growth of small-scale enterprises? Does it matter how this information is disseminated? This paper conducts a field experiment among urban retail shop owners in Indonesia to address these research questions. Through extensive baseline quantitative and qualitative assessments, we develop a handbook of local best practices that associates specific business practices with performance and provides detailed implementation guidance informed by exemplary local shop owners. The handbook is distributed to a randomly selected sample of shop owners and is complemented with three experiential learning modules: one group is invited to watch a documentary video on experiences of highly successful peers, another is offered light in-shop assistance on the implementation of the handbook, and a third group is offered both. Eighteen months after the intervention, we find no effect of offering the handbook alone, but significant impact on practice adoption when the handbook is coupled with experiential learning. On business performance we find sizable and significant improvements as well, up to a 35% increase in profits and 16.7% in revenues. The types of practices adopted map these performance improvements to efficiency gains rather than other channels. The analysis suggests these interventions are simple, scalable, and highly cost-effective.
Formation of co-racemic uranyl chromate constructed from chiral layers of different topology

Four new inorganic uranyl chromates were obtained by evaporation and hydrothermal methods: [(CH3)2NH2]2[(UO2)2(CrO4)3(H2O)](H2O) (1), K(Rb0.6K0.4)[(UO2)2(CrO4)3(H2O)](H2O)3 (2) [(CH3)3CNH3]2[(UO2)2(CrO4)3H2O] (3), [(CH3)2NH2]4[(UO2)2(CrO4)3H2O]2(H2O) (4). Their structures are based on two-dimensional chiral or achiral units with the composition [(UO2)2(CrO4)3(H2O)]2− and two types of topologies (A or/and B). The structural architecture of (4) is unique amongst all known uranyl-based structures, and unusual among hybrid organic/inorganic structures in general as it contains layers of identical composition, but of different topology. The unique structural configurations and non-centrosymmetry in (1) and (4) is governed by selective formation of hydrogen bonding rather than by the formation of hydrophobic and hydrophilic zones in the organic interlayer. It is shown that chiral architectures in uranyl systems may form from achiral building units as observed in (3) and (4). This is somewhat analogous to certain organic compounds, where achiral molecules are also able to form chiral layers. Within the concept of such an interpretation the structure of (3) can then be described as a racemate consisting of two A and A′ chiral layers. In a similar approach the structure of (4) can be interpreted as being formed by four chiral layers. Layer pairs AA′ and BB′ can then be considered as racemic pairs and the whole structure is a co-racemate built by a combination of two racemates. Two-stage formation can be suggested for (4).
Corruption and Corporate Cash Holdings

ABSTRACT In this study, we examine the relation between corruption and corporate cash holding policy using data from 35,288 firms in 44 countries. The results indicate a non-linear relation between corruption and corporate cash holdings with a negative coefficient of the cubic term of corruption. Specifically, in developed (frontier) countries with low (high) level of corruption, we find a negative relation, whereas in emerging countries with moderate level of economic development and corruption, we find a positive relation. Thus, we suggest that corruption is an important variable that affects corporate cash holding policy by the level of economic development.
Debt maturity structure of private lodging firms

ABSTRACT This study tests the signalling and liquidity risk hypotheses about the choice of debt maturity structure in the context of private lodging firms. We find a positive and significant relationship between the Z-score (as a proxy for firm quality) and the proportion of short-term debt. This finding supports the signalling hypothesis that low-quality firms prefer to issue long-term debt, while high-quality firms issue short-term debt. However, we find no evidence consistent with the liquidity risk hypothesis. We further find that the most influential factor affecting debt maturity is firm size, followed by Z-scores and then firm age. Our findings are robust to alternative estimation specifications and endogeneity concerns. Overall, our study contributes to expanding our understanding of the debt maturity structure in private firms.
Microhabitat selection of the poorly known lizard Tropidurus lagunablanca (Squamata: Tropiduridae) in the Pantanal, Brazil

Understanding how different environmental factors influence species occurrence is a key issue to address the study of natural populations. However, there is a lack of knowledge on how local traits influence the microhabitat use of tropical arboreal lizards. Here, we investigated the microhabitat selection of the poorly known lizard Tropidurus lagunablanca (Squamata: Tropiduridae) and evaluated how environmental microhabitat features influence animal’s presence. We used a Resource Selection Function approach, in a case/control design where we analyzed the effect of substrate temperature and tree’s diameter at breast height (DBH) in the probability of presence of lizards using mixed Conditional Logistic Regression. We found that T. lagunablanca uses trees with DBH from 0.40 m to 4 m and substrate temperatures ranging from 25.9℃ to 42℃. Moreover, we showed that thickness of the trees and substrate temperatures significantly increased the probability of presence of T. lagunablanca individuals, being the probability of presence higher than 50% for trees up to 1.5 m DBH and temperature of substrate up to 37.5℃. Our study probed that T. lagunablanca individuals choose trees non-randomly, selecting thicker and warmer tree trunks. This information advances the knowledge of the spatial ecology of Neotropical arboreal lizards and is relevant for conservation, putting an emphasis on preserving native vegetation in the Pantanal.
The Negative Impact of Biomass Burning and the Orinoco Low-Level Jet on the Air Quality of the Orinoco River Basin

Biomass burning (BB) is a common activity in developing countries and has been identified as a serious air pollution threat. The present work evaluates the air quality of the largest town in the extensive Colombian savannas (250,000 km2) for the first time, from measurements over three consecutive years (2017-2020). Although the air quality in Villavicencio is good in terms of PM10 and O3 for most of the year, the pollution levels for both pollutants exceed the World Health Organization recommended limits during the dry season (February to April). The combination of the Orinoco low-level jet (OLLJ) with the BB emissions from the Venezuelan and the Colombian savannas was identified as the main cause of the poor air quality episodes during the dry season in this city. Organic carbon derived from reanalysis was identified as the main component of the high PM10 concentrations during the dry season. However, mineral dust and sea salt particles were also found to play an important role in the poor air quality observed in Villavicencio and likely along the Orinoco river basin region. Finally, between November and March, the OLLJ was found to be an efficient mechanism for the transport of air pollutants from the Atlantic Ocean and the savannas regions in the Orinoco River Basin in Venezuela and Colombia towards southern regions of Colombia, and in some cases, Ecuador.
Combined Aerobic and Resistance Training Lowers Body Fat Percentage in Rural Black South African Women

Background: Obesity is currently one of the most dominating diseases affecting younger adults in South Africa. This is commonly caused by a poor lifestyle, which may lead to an increased risk of non-communicable diseases. Objectives: The aim of the study was to examine if a six-week concurrent resistance and aerobic training program could elicit body composition and cardiorespiratory changes in rural black college women. Methods: Forty sedentary black females (aged 18 - 25 years) were randomly assigned to a combined resistance and aerobic training (COM) group (n = 20) or a control group (n = 20). The COM group participated in four times weekly aerobic and resistance training. Aerobic training consisted of 30 minutes a session (week 1 - 3: cycling for 3 minutes at 60% heart rate reserve (HRR), followed by 2 minutes at 50% HRR; week 4 - 6: 3 minutes at 70% HRR, followed by 2 minutes at 60% HRR). Resistance training consisted of participants training at 50% of their one-repetition maximum (1-RM) for week 1 - 3, doing 3 sets of 15 repetitions; for week 4 - 6 at 60% 1-RM, doing 3 sets of 15 repetitions. Results: Following the intervention, the COM group significantly (P ≤ 0.05) decreased their body fat percentage when compared to the control group (P = 0.006; d = 0.9), while no significant changes were observed in waist-to-hip ratio (P = 0.223) and cardiorespiratory endurance (P = 0.260) in either group. Conclusions: Although body composition (especially waist circumference and body fat percentage) and cardiorespiratory fitness are recommended as the main targets of physical activity programs aimed at preventing CVD in college students, this study demonstrated that a six-week concurrent program improved body fat percentage, and not WHR and cardiorespiratory fitness, in sedentary rural college-aged females. Further, these findings suggest that one method of program design does not fit all populations and that exercise prescription should be targeted and not generalized.
Varying combinations of Lactobacillus species: impact on laying hens’ performance, nitrogenous compounds in manure, serum profile, and uric acid in the liver

Abstract This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of various combinations of Lactobacillus species (L. rhamnosus, L. paracasei, and L. plantarum) on closely associated variables of production of laying hens, nitrogenous compounds in manure, the serum concentration of specific chemicals, and liver uric acid (UA) concentrations at peak lay. White Leghorns W-36 (32-week-old) were randomly assigned to five treatments for 8 weeks. Treatments were T1, the Control, a commercial feed; T2, the Control + L. paracasei + L. plantarum; T3, the Control + L. paracasei + L. rhamnosus; T4, the Control + L. plantarum + L. rhamnosus and T5, the Control + L. paracasei + L. plantarum + L. rhamnosus. Each bacterial species was included at 3.33 × 1011cfu/kg feed for a total of 6.66 x 1011 cfu/kg feed for T2–T4 and a total of 1.0 × 1012 cfu/kg feed for T5. Major effects among combinations of probiotics on production were not noted. The interaction of Probiotics by Week (Probiotics*Time) affected feed intake (P = 0.0007) and feed conversion ratio (FCR, P = 0.0049) due to fluctuation by week. Significant effects of time were also recorded for a gradual increase in body weight (BW, P = 0.0007); lowest and greatest feed intake at weeks 2 and 7, respectively (P < 0.0001); an increase in egg production (P = 0.0007) and maximum FCR at week 7 (P < 0.0001). Ammonia (NH3) concentration, ammonium nitrogen (NH4–N), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), and total nitrogen remained unaffected at P < 0.05. Although there were fluctuations, a trend emerged for the reduction of TKN. Combinations of probiotics did not affect NH3, UA, total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), creatine kinase (CK), and UA in the liver. Temporal (Time as a fixed effect) effects were noted for all nitrogenous compounds present in manure. For ammonia, temporal effects were significant due to fluctuation over time. Week 0 had the lowest value followed by weeks 4 and 8. Week 6 had the greatest value. For ammonium nitrogen, week 8 had the lowest value followed by week 0 and 4 with the next highest value. Week 6 had the greatest value. For TKN, week 4 had the lowest value followed by weeks 6 and 8. Week 0 had the greatest value. For TN, weeks 4, 6, and 8 had similar and lowest values followed by week 0 having the greatest value. However, an overall reduction in NH4-N, TKN, and TN was noted. Fluctuations in NH3 (P = 0.0033) and CK (P = 0.0085) were noted for Time. There was also a trend (P = 0.0706) for the increase of UA in serum. Two or more species of probiotics with yeast should be investigated. If the combination is applicable for increasing production measurements and reducing nitrogenous and serum compounds, the most appropriate time to feed the probiotics from day 1 to the end of production should be investigated.
Identification of saponins detoxification genes in I. mors-panacis G3B inducing root rot of Panax notoginseng by RNA-Seq

Saponins are kinds of antifungal compounds produced by P. notoginseng to resist invasion by pathogens. I. mors-panacis G3B was the dominant pathogen inducing root rot of P. notoginseng, and the abilities to detoxify saponins were the key to infect P. notoginseng successfully. To research the molecular mechanisms of detoxifying saponins in I. mors-panacis G3B, we used high-throughput RNA-Seq to identify 557 and 1519 differential expression genes (DEGs) in I. mors-panacis G3B with saponins treatments for 4 H and 12 H compared with no saponins treatments, respectively. Among these DEGs, we found 93 genes which were simultaneously highly expressed in I. mors-panacis G3B with saponins treatments for 4 H and 12 H, they mainly belong to genes encoding transporters, glycoside hydrolases, oxidation-reduction enzymes, transcription factors and so on. In addition, there were 21 putative PHI (Pathogen-Host Interaction) genes out of those 93 up-regulated genes. In this report, we identified virulence associated genes in I. mors-panacis G3B which may be related to detoxifying saponins to infect P. notoginseng successfully. They provided an excellent starting point for in-depth study on pathogenicity of I. mors-panacis G3B and developed appropriate root rot disease management strategies in the future.
When Disasters Hit Civil Wars: Natural Resource Exploitation and Rebel Group Resilience

Existing literature on the relationship between natural disasters and conflicts provides mixed findings. In this article, we argue that whether natural disasters hurt rebel group resilience depends on their funding source and the mode of resource extraction. Rebel groups that obtain their funding from natural resources are more susceptible to natural disasters because this funding source could be easily disrupted by rapid-onset disasters. How rebel groups exploit natural resource wealth also conditions the effect of natural disasters on rebel group resilience. Rebel groups that depend on extorting resource production, despite having a seemingly stable revenue stream, are more likely to face funding cuts after a severe natural disaster. In contrast, rebel groups that rely on smuggling natural resources, due to a higher level of flexibility and mobility, are more likely to survive natural disasters. We test our arguments using data on armed groups, natural disasters, and rebel contraband, and the results of the logit models with interaction terms support our hypotheses. Our findings bridge the environmental conflict literature and the resource curse literature, and offer important policy implications.
Pengaruh Modal Kerja,Total Hutang,Tingkat Inflasi dan Penjualan Bersih Terhadap Laba Bersih

The purpose of this research is to examine and analyze the effect of working capital, total debt, inflation rate, and net sales on net income in retail trading companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange 2015-2018 period. The research of this population was 27 retail trading companies listed on the IDX for the 2015-2018 period. With the purposive sampling technique, the number of research samples that meet the criteria is 9 companies, while the research method is descriptive quantitative research. The data collection method uses secondary data from financial reports while the data analysis model is multiple regression. The results of the F test research, namely working capital, total debt, inflation rate, and net sales have an effect on net income in retail trading companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2015-2018. Partially working capital has no effect on net income, partially total debt and inflation rate have a negative and significant effect on net income, while net sales have a positive and significant effect on net income. The coefficient of determination found R2 value of 0.313 (31.3%). The independent variable affects net income by 31.3% and the remaining 68.7% is affected by other variables. The conclusion from the results of this test is that of the 4 variables tested, there is 1 variable, namely working capital which does not affect net income.
Factors influencing the credibility of performance measurement in nonprofits

ABSTRACT Whereas a lot of resources have been devoted to performance measurement in the nonprofit sector, the measurement efforts have been hindered by the concerns over credibility of measurement. In this study, the author uses path analysis to investigate the direct and indirect influences of six predictors on the credibility of performance measurement in nonprofits. Research findings indicate that stakeholder involvement, developmental culture, level of performance measurement adoption, professionalism, and financial stability significantly affect the measurement credibility. By understanding the catalysts for measurement credibility, nonprofit leaders can promote the effectiveness of performance measurement.