Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unilateral or single-session bilateral surgery for correction of medial patellar luxation in small dogs: short and long-term outcomes

Summary Objective: To compare complication rates as well as the short and long-term function of surgical limbs in small dogs with bilateral medial patellar luxation (MPL) undergoing unilateral or single-session bilateral surgery. Methods: Dogs weighing less than 12 kg with bilateral MPL that underwent unilateral (group U) or single-session bilateral surgery (group B) were retrospectively analysed. Data analysed included signalment, grades of luxation, surgical procedures, duration of surgery and anaesthesia, use of antibiotic medications, hospitalization time, complications, function at short-term follow-up, bone healing, and long-term assessment of function by means of a questionnaire. Results: Twenty-four dogs were included in group U and 27 in group B. Groups were similar in signalment and procedures performed. No significant difference was found in overall, minor, and major complication rates between Group U and Group B, nor in the short and long-term function of surgical limbs. Nine out of 21 dogs developed clinical signs on the contralateral stifle in Group U, of which only three underwent corrective surgery. Clinical significance: Single-session bilateral surgery could be offered for dogs with bilateral MPL with complication rates and function of operated limbs similar to unilateral surgery.
Principal-agent problems in implementation of Ghana’s health insurance scheme

Principal-agent relationship exists between health service providers and their authority and clients. It asserts that health service providers as ‘imperfect agents’ of the authority and clients will take actions that aim to maximise profits at the expense of authority and clients (principal). The situation is possible when reimbursement is based on fee-for-service or a diagnosis-related groups. It looks at relationships between health service providers as agents and health insurance authority, and clients as principals in areas of provision of health services, supply of drugs, medicines and reimbursement. Results showed the private health service providers prescribed more drugs and medicines for clients towards profit maximisation (agency) than their public counterparts. Also, it was found that the public health service providers continued to provide health services and drugs despite health insurance authority indebtedness to them exhibiting more stewardship towards health insurance authority. It recommends strict regulations in tariffs/vetting claims and prompt reimbursement.
Research on the factors influencing the price of commercial housing based on support vector machine (SVM)

With the gradual maturity of the real estate market in China, urban housing prices are also better able to reflect changes in market demand and the commodity property of commercial housing has become more and more obvious. Many scholars in our country have made a lot of research on the factors that affect the price of commercial housing in the city and the number of related research papers increased rapidly. These scholars’ research results provide valuable wealth to solve the problem of urban housing price changes in our country. However, due to the huge amount of literature, the vast amount of information is submerged in the library and cannot be fully utilized. Text mining technology has been widely concerned and developed in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences in recent years. But through the text mining technology to obtain the influence factors on the price of urban commercial housing is still relatively rare. In this paper, the research results of the existing scholars were excavated by text mining algorithm based on support vector machine in order to further make full use of the current research results and to provide a reference for stabilizing housing prices.
Gray Box Optimization for Mk Landscapes (NK Landscapes and MAX-kSAT)

This article investigates Gray Box Optimization for pseudo-Boolean optimization problems composed of M subfunctions, where each subfunction accepts at most k variables. We will refer to these as Mk Landscapes. In Gray Box Optimization, the optimizer is given access to the set of M subfunctions. We prove Gray Box Optimization can efficiently compute hyperplane averages to solve non-deceptive problems in time. Bounded separable problems are also solved in time. As a result, Gray Box Optimization is able to solve many commonly used problems from the evolutional computation literature in evaluations. We also introduce a more general class of Mk Landscapes that can be solved using dynamic programming and discuss properties of these functions. For certain type of problems Gray Box Optimization makes it possible to enumerate all local optima faster than brute force methods. We also provide evidence that randomly generated test problems are far less structured than those found in real-world problems.
Postnatal maturation of mossy fibre excitatory transmission in mouse CA3 pyramidal cells: a potential role for kainate receptors

Kainate receptors (KARs) are abundantly expressed in the central nervous system at a period of intense synaptogenesis and might participate in the maturation of neural networks. We have described the postnatal development of mossy fibre excitatory synaptic transmission in CA3 pyramidal cells and we have explored the potential role of KARs in synaptic maturation. In CA3 pyramidal cells, mossy fibre stimulation evokes EPSCs as early as postnatal day 3 (P3). At this early stage, mossy fibre (MF)‐EPSCs are fully blocked by GYKI 53655, an AMPA receptor (AMPAR) antagonist. A postsynaptic KAR component can only be detected from P6. Thus, AMPAR‐EPSCs precede KAR‐EPSCs during postnatal maturation at this synapse. All MF‐EPSCs display a KAR component after P10. A key issue of the present work is that between P6 and P9, the presence of a postsynaptic KAR component tightly coincides with AMPAR‐mediated EPSCs of large amplitude, and with the onset of low frequency facilitation (from 0.1 Hz to 1 Hz), a presynaptic form of short‐term synaptic plasticity. In addition, mice lacking functional KARs throughout postnatal development display MF‐EPSCs of significantly smaller amplitude at stages of maturation where synaptic KARs are normally present, due to both pre‐ and postsynaptic impairment of synaptic transmission. These data suggest a role for KARs in the maturation of mossy fibre synapses.
Strategies for improving minority healthcare quality.

Organization: Johns Hopkins University Evidence-based Practice Center Author: Beach, Mary Catherine Author: Cooper, Lisa A. Author: Robinson, Karen A. Author: Price, Eboni G. Author: Gary, Tiffany L. Author: Jenckes, Mollie W. Author: Gozu, Aysegul Author: Smarth, Carole Author: Palacio, Ana Author: Feuerstein, Carolyn J. Author: Bass, Eric B. Author: Powe, Neil R. Published Date: 2004 http://www.ahrq. gov/clinic/tp/minqualtp.htm [1]
The Pricing Performance of Market Advisory Services in Wheat Over 1995-2004

The purpose of this research report is to evaluate the pricing performance of market advisory services for the 1995-2004 wheat crops. Explicit marketing assumptions are applied to the track records in order to produce consistent and comparable results across the different advisory programs. Each of the assumptions are made in order to reflect “real-world” marketing conditions encountered by a representative southwestern Illinois soft red winter wheat producer or a southwest Kansas hard red winter wheat producer. Several key assumptions are: i) with few exceptions, the marketing window for a crop year runs from June 1st before harvest through May 31st following harvest, ii) commercial physical storage costs, as well as interest opportunity costs, are charged to post-harvest sales, iii) brokerage costs are subtracted for futures and options transactions, and iv) Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) marketing loan recommendations made by advisory programs are followed where possible. Following these and other assumptions, the net price received by a subscriber to a market advisory program is calculated for the 1995-2004 wheat crops. Market and farmer benchmarks are developed for the performance evaluations. The results from this study are similar to those obtained by the AgMAS Project in the analysis of market advisory service performance in corn and soybeans.
PKD2 Interacts and Co-localizes with mDia1 to Mitotic Spindles of Dividing Cells

Mutations in pkd2 result in the type 2 form of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, which accounts for ∼15% of all cases of the disease. PKD2, the protein product of pkd2, belongs to the transient receptor potential superfamily of cation channels, and it can function as a mechanosensitive channel in the primary cilium of kidney cells, an intracellular Ca2+ release channel in the endoplasmic reticulum, and/or a nonselective cation channel in the plasma membrane. We have identified mDia1/Drf1 (mammalian Diaphanous or Diaphanous-related formin 1 protein) as a PKD2-interacting protein by yeast two-hybrid screen. mDia1 is a member of the RhoA GTPase-binding formin homology protein family that participates in cytoskeletal organization, cytokinesis, and signal transduction. We show that mDia1 and PKD2 interact in native and in transfected cells, and binding is mediated by the cytoplasmic C terminus of PKD2 binding to the mDia1 N terminus. The interaction is more prevalent in dividing cells in which endogenous PKD2 and mDia1 co-localize to the mitotic spindles. RNA interference experiments reveal that endogenous mDia1 knockdown in HeLa cells results in the loss of PKD2 from mitotic spindles and alters intracellular Ca2+ release. Our results suggest that mDia1 facilitates the movement of PKD2 to a centralized position during cell division and has a positive effect on intracellular Ca2+ release during mitosis. This may be important to ensure equal segregation of PKD2 to the daughter cell to maintain a necessary level of channel activity. Alternatively, PKD2 channel activity may be important in the cell division process or in cell fate decisions after division.
Renal dysfunction after thoracic aortic surgery requiring deep hypothermic circulatory arrest: definition, incidence, and clinical predictors.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate renal dysfunction (RD) after thoracic aortic surgery (TAS) requiring deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA), to determine the influence of definition on RD after TAS-DHCA, to determine univariate predictors of RD after TAS-DHCA, and to determine multivariate predictors for RD TAS-DHCA. RD was defined in 3 ways: (1) >25% reduction in creatinine clearance, (2) >50% increase in serum creatinine, and (3) >50% increase in serum creatinine with an abnormal peak serum creatinine (>1.3 mg/dL for men and >1.0 mg/dL for women). STUDY DESIGN Retrospective and observational. STUDY SETTING Single large university hospital. PARTICIPANTS All adults requiring TAS-DHCA in 2000 and 2001. MAIN RESULTS The cohort size was 144. Antifibrinolytic exposure was 100%: aprotinin 66% and aminocaproic acid 34%. The incidence of RD TAS-DHCA was 22.9% to 38.2%, depending on the definition. The incidence of renal replacement therapy was 2.8%. Multivariate predictors for RD after TAS-DHCA were sepsis, aprotinin exposure, preoperative hypertension, age, and donor exposures. CONCLUSIONS Although RD after TAS-DHCA varies substantially because of definition, it is still very common. Its multivariate predictors merit further focused research to enhance perioperative protection of the kidney.
Real time is real money: the effectiveness of RTM as a strategy to increase the sharing of brand tweets

Twitter timelines are increasingly populated with brand tweets that are linked to public events, a practice that is also known as real-time marketing (RTM). In two studies, we examine whether RTM is an effective strategy to boost sharing behavior, and if so, what event- and content-related characteristics are likely to contribute to its effectiveness. A content analysis of brand tweets from Nielsen’s top-100 advertisers (n=1500) shows that not all events are equally effective. RTM is only a more effective strategy (vs. no real-time marketing), when brand messages are linked with unpredictable events but not when brand messages are linked with predictable events. In a follow-up study, we examined what content characteristics improve the shareability of predictable RTM messages. A content analysis of RTM messages (n=143) from the Forbes top-100 brands showed that predictable events yield more retweets when the event is visually integrated in the brand tweet (vs. not visually integrated). The presence of event-driven hashtags did not lead to more retweets. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Quantification of DOX bioavailability in biological samples of mice by sensitive and precise HPLC assay

Abstract Context: Doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded folate-targeted poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyoctanoate) [P(HB-HO)] nanoparticles [DOX/FA-PEG-P(HB-HO) NPs] were prepared by the W1/O/W2 solvent extraction/evaporation method for applications in cancer treatment. However, the biodistribution, pharmacokinetics, and targeting of the nanoparticles (NPs) have not yet been studied. Objective: The biodistribution, pharmacokinetics, and targeting of DOX/FA-PEG-P(HB-HO) NPs were evaluated in female BALB/c nude mice bearing HeLa tumors. Materials and methods: Three DOX formulations were injected into the tail vein of the mice at a dosage of 5 mg/kg. At each time point, blood and various tissues were collected. All samples were then processed and analyzed by a validated high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method. Results: The t1/2 values of DOX/P(HB-HO) NPs and DOX/FA-PEG-P(HB-HO) NPs were 2.7- and 3.5-times higher than that of free DOX. No significant difference (p > 0.05) was found in Cmax between the NPs and free DOX. The Tmax values of the two NPs were prolonged from 0.25 to 1 h. The AUC0–t values were 1.55- and 3.05-folds higher than that of free DOX, and MRT increased to 15.99 h for DOX/P(HB-HO) NPs and 25.14 h for DOX/FA-PEG-P(HB-HO) NPs. For DOX/FA-PEG-P(HB-HO) NPs, the DOX content in the tumors were 10.81- and 3.33-times higher than those for free DOX and DOX/P(HB-HO) NPs at 48 h, respectively. Discussion and conclusions: DOX/FA-PEG-P(HB-HO) NPs displayed reduced cardiac toxicity and improved bioavailability. Moreover, the NPs exhibited a significant extent of DOX accumulation in the tumors, thus suggesting that folate-targeted NPs could effectively transport into HeLa tumors with satisfying targeting.
Efficient Evaluation of Maximizing Range Sum Queries in a Road Network

SUMMARY Given a set of positive-weighted points and a query rect-angle r (speciﬁed by a client) of given extents, the goal of a maximizing range sum (MaxRS) query is to ﬁnd the optimal location of r such that the total weights of all points covered by r is maximized. In this paper, we address the problem of processing MaxRS queries over road network databases and propose two new external memory methods. Through a set of simulations, we evaluate the performance of the proposed methods.
Aspect Based Sentiment Analysis Using Data Mining Techniques Within Irish Airline Industry

Irish airline transport has created several distinct and significant types of economic benefit and income. Principal benefits have been created for clients; the passengers land the shipper, who uses air transport services. In addition, the airline industry has created connections between cities and markets globally that represent an important infrastructure asset which has lead to generating benefits such as foreign direct investment, business clusters, increased specialization and increase in the countrys economy productivity capacity. This project applies the aspect-based sentimental analysis approach and techniques to investigate whether these techniques can provide meaningful insights to enhance the performance of the Irish industry. In addition by analyzing twits and reviews, the project tackles the question of to what extend can analyzing of sentiments with respect to aspects become beneficial from customers perspective for them to be able to choose better airline service. The results of analyzed literature review are also presented. Based on identified gaps, several aspect based sentiment models are developed.
Copper interconnections for high performance and fine pitch flip chip digital applications and ultra-miniaturized RF module applications

Copper is an excellent candidate material for next generation of chip-package interconnections because of its high electrical and thermal conductivities, good mechanical properties at assembly and operating temperatures and well-established infrastructure to integrate with back-end processes with electroplating technology downscalable to nanoscale. This technology can also accommodate the increasing I/O density of future microprocessors with the best electrical and mechanical performance. In addition, embedment of active components with chip-last approach being proposed by Georgia Tech PRC can also be realized with the shortest interconnections resulting in performance and miniaturization comparable to chip-first approach. There is an increasing trend to replace solders with copper because of these advantages. In this paper, we describe the current status of copper bumping and copper interconnection and assembly technologies and show our future strategy
A spatial-temporal visual mid-level ontology for GIF sentiment analysis

With the progress of social medias, an increasing number of dynamic multimedia, such as video clips (GIF), were used in Internet. Many of them show the subjective sentiment of users. GIF sentiment analysis is important for political election predication and economic indicator evaluation. Unfortunately, such task is quite challenging because the users' sentiment hinges on spatial-temporal visual concepts. And the relationship between such concepts and overall sentiment polarity remains unknown. In this paper, dedicated to build a bridge to exploring such relationship, we proposed a SentiPair Sequence based spatial-temporal visual sentiment ontology. The ontology serves as a mid-level representation of GIF sentiment analysis. In order to analyze sentiment polarity, we first constructed a Synset Forest to define the semantic tree structure of visual sentiment concepts. Then, through the Synset Forest, we organically select and combine sentiment label elements to form a mid-level visual sentiment representation. Our experiments indicate that SentiPair outperforms Adjective Noun Pairs which is a state-of-art visual sentiment ontology for image. We also released our dataset (GSO-2015) to the research community. GSO-2015 contains more than 6,000 manually labeled GIFs and 40,000 unlabeled GIFs. Each is labeled with both sentiment and SentiPair Sequence.
Clustering of monosialyl-Gb 5 initiates downstream signalling events leading to invasion of MCF-7 breast cancer cells

Invasion is a complex process controlled by secretion and activation of proteases, alteration of integrin levels and GSL (glycosphingolipid) patterns. Differential organization of GSLs with specific membrane proteins and signal transducers in GEMs (GSL-enriched microdomains), initiates signalling events to modify cellular phenotype. Although the GSL monosialyl-Gb5 has been linked with invasion, its functional role in invasion is poorly described and understood. To investigate this problem, we induced the invasion of human breast cancer cells and subsequently explored the underlying mechanism. In the present study, the invasion of human MCF-7 breast cancer cells is highly dependent on clustering of monosialyl-Gb5, and the subsequent activation of monosialyl-Gb5-associated focal adhesion kinase and cSrc in GEM leading to the downstream activation of extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (ERK). As a result, we observed increased expression levels and activity of matrix metalloproteinases-2 and -9, which correlated with decreased expression of integrins α1 and β1. Together these results suggest that the organization of crucial molecules in GEMs of MCF-7 cells is critical for their invasive properties.
Engaging within zones of proximal development on Facebook : the case of using Facebook to support learning and mentoring on a NQF Level 5 environmental education, training and development practices learnership

I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . II LIST OF TABLES . VI LIST OF FIGURES . VI HYPERLINKS USED IN THIS THESIS . VII CHAPTER 1. 1 THE RISE OF THE CYBORG – POSITIONING AND INTRODUCING THE STUDY . 1 1.
Percentile curves for body-mass index of Punjabi infants.

OBJECTIVE To study percentile distance growth pattern of Body Mass Index (BMI) of Punjabi male and female infants. DESIGN Longitudinal. SETTING Growth Clinic. SUBJECTS 154 Punjabi infants (Male 86; Female 68), aged birth-12 months. FOLLOW-UP Nude body weight and crownheel length of all babies at birth and whereafter, were measured at monthly age intervals with time tolerance to +/-3 days by the same investigator upto 12 months of life. RESULTS Mean (+/- SD) values for BMI measured 12.2 +/- 1.40 kg/m2 and 16.5 +/- 1.40 kg/m2 at birth and 12 months, respectively in male infants. The corresponding figures for female infants were 12.5 +/- 1.60 kg/ m2 and 16.5 +/- 1.50 kg/m2. A rapid increase in BMI values amongst infants of both sexes between birth to about six months followed by flattening of curves upto 12 months of age indicates an age dependent nature of BMI during first half of infancy in comparison to latter half during which these demonstrated stable trend. These findings are in contrast to those of the western infants who showed a regular increase in BMI throughout the first year of life. Sex differences were not significant at majority of the age levels. CONCLUSIONS Percentile grids presented for BMI represent a normal, healthy and well-nourished infant population which can be used to assess the adiposity status of infants of the two sexes during the first year of life.
The Use of Presence Data in Modelling Demand for Transportation

We consider the applicability of the data from operators of cellular systems to modelling demand for transportation. While individual-level data may contain precise paths of movement, stringent privacy rules prohibit their use without consent. Presence data aggregate the individual-level data to information on the numbers of transactions at each base transceiver station (BTS) per each time period. Our work is aimed at demonstrating value of such aggregate data for mobility management while maintaining privacy of users. In particular, given mobile subscriber activity aggregated to short time intervals for a zone, a convex optimisation problem estimates most likely transitions between zones. We demonstrate the method on presence data from Warsaw, Poland, and compare with official demand estimates obtained with classical econometric methods.