Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Univariate and multivariate models for the prediction of life-threatening complications in 586 cases of deep neck space infections: retrospective multi-institutional study

Abstract Objective: To identify deep neck infection factors related to life-threatening complications. Methods: This retrospective multi-institutional study comprised 586 patients treated for deep neck infections between 2002 and 2012. The statistical significance of variables associated with life-threatening complications of deep neck infections was assessed. Results: During treatment, life-threatening complications occurred in 60 out of 586 cases. On univariate analysis, life-threatening complications were linked to: dyspnoea, neck movement disturbance and dysphonia (all p < 0.001); and parapharyngeal, anterior visceral or pretracheal deep neck involvement (all p < 0.002). Aetiology was significantly linked to tonsils (p < 0.001). Regarding infection type, fasciitis was a significant factor (p < 0.001). Candida albicans was a significant bacterial culture (p < 0.001). A multivariate step-wise model disclosed fewer significant variables: retropharyngeal space (p = 0.005) and major blood vessels area (p = 0.006) involvement, and bacterial culture C albicans (p < 0.001). Conclusion: It can be predicted that patients with deep neck infections, with neck movement disturbances, dysphonia, dyspnoea and swelling of the external neck, accompanied by severe pain, and inflammatory changes in the retropharyngeal space and large vessel areas, with culture-confirmed infection of C albicans, are likely to develop life-threatening complications.
Which Digital Currency is Best Fit for Purpose?

This paper is based on a public submission to the Australian Senate Committee “Inquiry into Digital Currency” announced on October 2, 2014. The committee is to report to Parliament in March 2015. A framework is established that identifies ten reasons why digital Australian dollars are not fit for purpose as a medium of exchange and unit of account/value. To provide a reference unit of value to compare Bitcoins and the other types of crypto and digital currencies, a hypothetical negative interest-rate tethered currency described as $Z is introduced. Twenty benefits of accepting $Z are identified to support their introduction as a supplementary official currency and a more attractive alternative to Bitcoins in the event of another financial crisis. The paper recommends that regulators accept $Z like currencies and for the government to establish the technology to collect taxes and issue $Z like money through mobile phones to finance welfare and infrastructure without increasing debt or taxes.
Leukocytes May Have 2 Opposing Effects in Intravenous rtPA Treatment for Ischemic Stroke

We hypothesized that leukocytes have 2 opposing effects on patients with ischemic stroke treated with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA). Patients with ischemic stroke treated with rtPA were divided into 2 groups using the peripheral leukocyte count: high leukocyte group (HLG) and low leukocyte group (LLG) and were evaluated with the National Institutes of Health stroke scale (NIHSS) during the first 24 hours. We defined significant improvement (SI) as NIHSS improving by more than 50% from the baseline, and deterioration following improvement (DFI) as the achievement of SI within 24 hours but its subsequent loss at 24 hours. Fifty-three patients were enrolled, and the rate of SI within 24 hours was higher in HLG than in LLG (85.2% vs 42.3%, P = .0011). However, the rate of DFI was significantly higher in HLG than in LLG (29.6% vs 7.7%, P = .0413). We found that leukocytes might have not only deleterious but also beneficial effects in intravenous rtPA treatment.
Content Analysis and Spatial Analysis: A Case Study of Public Satisfaction of Indonesia National Health Insurance

Indonesia as a country has an obligation to ensure the wellbeing of its citizen by administering protection for each and every one of its citizen from all backgrounds. Said protection should not only accommodate security and legal protection; However, it should also incorporate health protection in the form of healthcare. Based on this premise, a national scale program called Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (JKN) was established. This then led to the forming of the JKN organization called Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial (BPJS), which has been running since January 2014. Overall, citizens have benefited from the initiation ever since it started operation. Nevertheless, an opinion poll conducted by Kompas in 2015, indicates that there are 42.9% unsatisfied BPJS users, 39.1% satisfied BPJS users, while the remaining have no answers. On the grounds that two years have passed since the poll, a new research is necessary in effort to examine deeper on the citizens' sentiments about this healthcare program. This research uses a content analysis approach to determine the portion of opinions relating to the user experience and sentiment in order to illustrate the user's opinion on the service quality that Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial (BPJS) provides. The program used in this research works based on the principle of Automated Content Analyses. The Twitter reviews by BPJS users are utilized to represent opinions from different provinces. Consequently, the result of this sentiment analyses reveals that the areas related to reliability, tangibles, access to payment, and medical services are still dominated by negative responses. The result of this assessment can be integrated into the evaluation process towards improving the quality of BPJS as one of the supporting aspects of the Indonesian citizens' health
A Comparison of the mismatch negativity and a differential waveform response

A mismatch negativity response (MMN) and a new differential waveform were derived in an effort to evaluate a neural refractory or recovery effect in adult listeners. The MMN was elicited using oddball test runs in which the standard and deviant stimuli differed in frequency. To derive the differential waveform, the same standard and deviant stimuli were presented alone. MMN responses were obtained by subtracting the averaged responses to standards from the deviants. The differential waveforms were obtained by subtracting the averaged responses to standards presented alone from deviants presented alone. Scalp topography for the MMN and differential waveforms were similar. A significant (p<.05) positive and negative correlation was found between the earlier and later components of the bimodal MMN and the N1 and P2 component of the differential waveform, respectively. Further, N1 and P2 of the differential waveform were significant (p<.05) predictor variables of early and late peak amplitudes of the MMN. These results suggest that refractory effects may overlay/modify the morphology of the MMN waveform. Sumario Se obtuvo una respuesta de negatividad desigual (MMN) y una nueva onda “diferencial” en un esfuerzo por evaluar un efecto neural refractario o de recuperación en sujetos adultos. La MMN fue generada utilizando cursos peculiares de prueba en los que el estimulo estándar y el alterado tenían frecuencias diferentes. Para derivar la onda diferencial, se presentaron el mismo estímulo estándar y el alterado en forma aislada. Las respuestas MMN se obtuvieron restando las respuestas promediadas estándar de las alteradas. Las formas de onda diferenciales se obtuvieron restando las respuestas promediadas a estímulos estándar presentados aisladamente, de los estímulos alterados presentados también en forma aislada. La topografía craneana de los MMN y las onda diferenciales fueron similares. Se encontraron correlaciones positivas y negativas significativas (p<.05) entre los componentes tempranos y tardíos de la MMN bi-modal y de los componentes N1 y P2 de la onda diferencial, respectivamente. Más aún, los componentes N1 y P2 de la onda diferencial fueron variables de predicción significativas (p<.05) de los picos tempranos y tardíos de amplitud de las MMN. Estos resultados sugieren que los efectos refractarios pueden cubrir/modificar la morfología de las onda de la MMN.
A New Tool for Testing Ossicular Mobility During Middle Ear Surgery: Preliminary Report of Four Cases

Objective: We developed an ossicular vibration tester for the objective and quantitative assessment of ossicular mobility, which is one of the most critical factors affecting postoperative hearing after tympanoplasty. Methods: Our device consists of three components: a probe shaft with a curved tip to be attached to the target ossicle, a vibration exciter to activate the probe, and a piezoelectric sensor to detect vibrations of the probe. These components are encased in a stainless steel holder, allowing easy hand manipulation during ear surgery. The probe is activated with an electric signal at around 1,600 Hz. The system is controlled with a laptop computer, and the results are presented as the ratio of the ossicular resistance (ROR) to a reference value as a percentage. One measurement takes 10 ms. The device was applied in four selected patients during ear surgery. Results: Several measurements in two of the cochlear implantees showed a greater difference in the RORs of the stapes (15-20% in Case 1 and 35-45% in Case 2), whereas the RORs of the malleus and incus were within the same range. This was thought to correspond to the partial cochlear calcification noted in Case 2. In Case 3, who underwent surgery because of otosclerosis, the ROR of the stapes was high, ranging from 70 to 80%. When measured for the malleus-incus fixation anomaly (Case 4), the ROR of the malleus and incus was in the range of 60 to 70%. Owing to the limited surgical view, the ROR of the stapes could not be measured. No problems related to the measurements with this device were noted. Conclusion: The design, principles, measuring procedures, and preliminary results of our new tool for testing ossicular mobility are reported. Measuring the ossicular mobility during surgery may provide important information for deciding the surgical procedures.
Does Appellate Precedent Matter? Stock Price Responses to Appellate Court Decisions of FCC Actions

This innovative volume explores empirical legal issues around the world. While legal studies have traditionally been worked on and of letters and with a normative bent, in recent years quantitative methods have gained traction by offering a brand new perspective of understanding law. That is, legal scholars have started to crunch numbers, not letters, to tease out the effects of law on the regulated industries, citizens, or judges in reality. In this edited book, authors from leading institutions in the U.S., Europe, and Asia investigate legal issues in South Africa, Argentina, the U.S., Israel, Taiwan, and other countries. Using original data in a variety of statistical tools (from the most basic chi-square analysis to sophisticated two-stage least square regression models), contributors to this book look into the judicial behaviours in Taiwan and Israel, the determinants of constitutional judicial systems in 100 countries, and the effect of appellate court decisions on media competition. In addition, this book breaks new ground in informing important policy debates. Specifically, how long should we incarcerate criminals? Should the medical malpractice liability system be reformed? Do police reduce crime? Why is South Africa’s democratic transition viable? With solid data as evidence, this volume sheds new light on these issues from a road more and more frequently taken―what is known as "empirical legal studies/analysis. " This book should be useful to students, practitioners and professors of law, economics and public policy in many countries who seek to understand their legal system from a different, and arguably more scientific, perspective
Treatment of neuroendocrine carcinomas with combined etoposide and cisplatin. Evidence of major therapeutic activity in the anaplastic variants of these neoplasms

Forty‐five patients with metastatic neuroendocrine tumors were treated with a regimen of etoposide 130 mg/m2/d for 3 days plus cisplatin 45 mg/m2/d on days 2 and 3. Both drugs were given by continuous intravenous infusion. Among 27 patients with well‐differentiated carcinoid tumors or islet cell carcinomas, only two partial objective tumor regressions were observed (7%). Among 18 patients prospectively classified as having anaplastic neuroendocrine carcinomas, however, there were nine partial regressions and three complete regressions, an overall regression rate of 67%. For anaplastic disease, the median duration of regression was 8 months (range to 21 months). Tumor response was unrelated to primary site, endocrine hyperfunction, or prior therapy experience. The median survival of all patients with anaplastic tumors was 19 months; this seemed favorable when considering the small experiences with these rare tumors reported in the literature. Toxicity, which was severe for most patients, consisted primarily of vomiting, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, anemia, alopecia, and neuropathy. The anaplastic neuroendocrine tumor is strongly responsive to therapy with combined etoposide and cisplatin. Patients with undifferentiated carcinomas, originating in typical neuroendocrine tumor sites (small and large bowel, pancreas, and stomach) or of unknown origin, who have consistent histologic findings by light microscopy should be evaluated for this possibility with appropriate immune staining or electron microscopy.
Multifractal Volatility Measure of China's Stock Market and Its Validity

According to the multifractal theory,a new multifractal volatility measure of financial market,Sα,is presented in this paper.In comparison with conventional volatility measure Δα,Sα uses more statistical information about market volatility characteristics included in multifractal analysis.Empirical research on China's stock market shows that Sα provides more accurate measure to market volatility and is closer to real volatility than Δα after appropriate scale adjustment.
Breaking the Cycles of Hatred: Memory, Law, and Repair

Acknowledgments vii Introduction: Memory, Law, and Repair by NANCY L. ROSENBLUM 1 1. Breaking the Cycles of Hatred 14 Memory and Hate: Are There Lessons from Around the World? 14 Regulating Hatred: Whose Speech, Whose Crimes, Whose Power? 31 Between Nations and Between Intimates: Can Law Stop the Violence? 56 by MARTHA MINOW 2. Justice and the Experience of Injustice by NANCY L. ROSENBLUM 77 3. Righting Old Wrongs by MARC GALANTER 107 4. Reluctant Redress: The U.S. Kidnapping and Internment of Japanese Latin Americans by ERIC K. YAMAMOTO 132 5. Memory, Hate, and the Criminalization of Bias-Motivated Violence: Lessons from Great Britain by FREDERICK M. LAWRENCE 140 6. Collective Memory, Collective Action, and Black Activism in the 1960s by FREDRICK C. HARRIS 154 7. Beyond Memory: Child Sexual Abuse and the Statute of Limitations by ROSS E. CHEIT AND CAREY JAROS 170 8. Peace on Earth Begins at Home: Reflections from the Women's Liberation Movement by JUDITH LEWIS HERMAN 188 9. The Thin Line between Imposition and Consent: A Critique of Birthright Membership Regimes and Their Implications by AYELET SHACHAR 200 10. When Memory Speaks: Remembrance and Revenge in Unforgiven by AUSTIN SARAT 236 11. Power, Violence, and Legitimacy: A Reading of Hannah Arendt in an Age of Police Brutality and Humanitarian Intervention by IRIS MARION YOUNG 260 Notes on Contributors 289 Index 291
NMR structure of the Streptomyces metalloproteinase inhibitor, SMPI, isolated from Streptomyces nigrescens TK-23: another example of an ancestral beta gamma-crystallin precursor structure.

The Streptomyces metalloproteinase inhibitor, SMPI, isolated from Streptomyces nigrescens TK-23, is a proteinaceous metalloproteinase inhibitor, and consists of 102 amino acid residues with two disulfide bridges. SMPI specifically inhibits metalloproteinases such as thermolysin. In the present work, the solution structure of SMPI was determined on the basis of 1536 nuclear Overhauser enhancement derived distance restraints and 52 dihedral angle restraints obtained from three-bond spin coupling constants. The final ensemble of 20 NMR structures overlaid onto their mean coordinate with backbone (N, Calpha, C') r.m.s.d. values of 0. 45(+/-0.11) A and 0.57(+/-0.18) A for residues 6 to 99 and the entire 102 residues, respectively. SMPI is essentially composed of two beta-sheets, each consisting of four antiparallel beta-strands. The structure can be considered as two Greek key motifs with 2-fold internal symmetry, a Greek key beta-barrel. One unique structural feature found in SMPI is in its extension between the first and second strands of the second Greek key motif. Interestingly, this extended segment is known to be involved in the inhibitory activity of SMPI. In the absence of sequence similarity, the SMPI structure shows clear similarity to both domains of the eye lens crystallins, both domains of the calcium sensor protein-S, as well as the single-domain yeast killer toxin. The yeast killer toxin structure was thought to be a precursor of the two-domain beta gamma-crystallin proteins, because of its structural similarity to each domain of the beta gamma-crystallins. SMPI thus provides another example of a single-domain protein structure that corresponds to the ancestral fold from which the two-domain proteins in the beta gamma-crystallin superfamily are believed to have evolved.
A new control strategy for single-phase PWM boost-type inverters

This paper proposes a control strategy for single-phase PWM boost-type inverters. The idea in this strategy is to have feedforward and feedback terms in the control variable. It is shown that the output voltage follows its reference without any error when there is a perfect match between estimated and actual filter capacitance. However, there exists a steady-state error in the output voltage due to the mismatch between estimated and actual filter capacitance. It is shown that this error can be minimized considerably if the controller gain is chosen as large as possible. The feasibility and the performance of the proposed control strategy has been tested and verified by simulations and experiments under linear and nonlinear loads.
Diversity and Specificity of Frankia Strains in Nodules of Sympatric Myrica gale, Alnus incana, andShepherdia canadensis Determined by rrsGene Polymorphism

ABSTRACT The identity of Frankia strains from nodules ofMyrica gale, Alnus incana subsp. rugosa, andShepherdia canadensis was determined for a natural stand on a lake shore sand dune in Wisconsin, where the three actinorhizal plant species were growing in close proximity, and from two additional stands with M. gale as the sole actinorhizal component. Unisolated strains were compared by their 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) restriction patterns using a direct PCR amplification protocol on nodules. Phylogenetic relationships among nodular Frankia strains were analyzed by comparing complete 16S rDNA sequences of study and reference strains. Where the three actinorhizal species occurred together, each host species was nodulated by a different phylogenetic group of Frankia strains. M. gale strains from all three sites belonged to an Alnus-Casuarina group, closely related to Frankia alni representative strains, and were low in diversity for a host genus considered promiscuous with respect to Frankia microsymbiont genotype.Frankia strains from A. incana nodules were also within the Alnus-Casuarina cluster, distinct fromFrankia strains of M. gale nodules at the mixed actinorhizal site but not from Frankia strains from twoM. gale nodules at a second site in Wisconsin.Frankia strains from nodules of S. canadensisbelonged to a divergent subset of a cluster ofElaeagnaceae-infective strains and exhibited a high degree of diversity. The three closely related local Frankiapopulations in Myrica nodules could be distinguished from one another using our approach. In addition to geographic separation and host selectivity for Frankia microsymbionts, edaphic factors such as soil moisture and organic matter content, which varied among locales, may account for differences in Frankiapopulations found in Myrica nodules.
An integrated RF energy harvester for UHF wireless powering applications

A RF energy harvester comprised of an integrated differential RF-DC converter and a differential PCB custom antenna is presented for wireless powering applications in the UHF band. The RF-DC converter, based on a reconfigurable voltage rectifier directly connected to a matched PCB antenna, is designed for high efficiency and sensitivity. Prototypes of the RF-DC converter realized in CMOS 130nm technology show a -16dBm sensitivity and a 60% peak efficiency. The RF-DC converters operate within the -16dBm÷0dBm input power range with an efficiency which remains above the 40% for more than 10dB. The RF energy harvester operates on the 840MHz-975MHz band thanks to the ad-hoc designed wide-band differential antenna.
Analysis of packaging and delivery operation in a cucumber packaging factory using Lean Six Sigma

The paper is aimed at analysing and improving the sorting, packaging and delivery operations at a cucumber packaging industry. Packaging operation of a farm in Mpumalanga, South Africa has been studied in detail and possible areas of improvement are proposed. It is a usual practice for farms in South Africa to have packaging centre where farm produce is been sorted, packaged and delivered for various customers across the country. Perishable farm produce requires special handling, care and timely delivery to end users or consumers so as to keep to the limit of it shelf life. The farm under consideration has been having a lot of damages as a result of improper and poor packaging operation. Therefore, the study makes use of Lean Six Sigma tools to analyse and quantify the efficiency of the current packaging system and proffers a better and profitable approach in minimising waste. The result shows that simple changes in system arrangement and concepts can significantly reduce the damages, increase number of deliveries and improve system performance measures.
Estimating Top Income Shares Without Tax Return Data: Mexico Since the 1990s

This study estimates the income of individuals in the top part of the income distribution in Mexico since 1992. Mexico is the only OECD country that does not publicly report income from fiscal sources. To circumvent this problem we use income information from household surveys but adjust the misrepresentation of top earners using national accounts data. We then estimate incomes of the very rich using interpolations based on a Pareto distribution. Once we correct for the misrepresentation of top earners in the survey, we find that the income share of the top decile has increased in the last two decades. Our findings contradict the conclusion that is usually obtained solely from household survey information. We also find that the income share of top 1 percent earners in Mexico is close to 25 percent, placing Mexico as one of the countries where the rich take the largest share of total income. Moreover, we find that inequality among the rich in Mexico is larger than in most countries where information is available.