Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Incidence of spinal epidural abscess after epidural analgesia: a national 1-year survey.

EPIDURAL analgesia is most often used for postoperative pain relief, whereas it is no longer so commonly used for long-term treatment of pain from malignant diseases. For perioperative use, the epidural catheter is most frequently inserted before induction of anesthesia while the patient is awake, although there has recently been some debate as to whether regional techniques should or should not be performed during general anesthesia. Side effects of epidural analgesia are common, but the majority are innocuous and well known to anesthesiologists. However, two serious complications of epidural analgesia may result in severe morbidity: the spinal epidural hematoma and the spinal epidural abscess. In a recent editorial, the incidence of spinal epidural hematoma after epidural analgesia in association with the use of low-molecular-weight heparin was estimated to vary from 1:1,000 to 1:10,000 epidural procedures, which is much higher than previously thought. The incidence of spinal epidural abscess after epidural analgesia remains unknown but has been reported to vary widely. No cases of epidural abscess were found in a large Swedish study of 9,232 epidural procedures, whereas there were two cases of abscess formation among 13,000 epidural procedures in a German report, and 3% of the patients in a smaller North American study developed epidural abscess after long-term epidural treatment of chronic pain. The incidence has also been reported to vary from 0.6 to 0.77 per 1,000 catheter days. The present study was undertaken to estimate the incidence of epidural abscess after epidural analgesia in Denmark during a 1-yr period and to evaluate the overall use of epidural analgesia during the same period. We further wished to analyze the treatment and outcome in patients with spinal epidural abscess.
The impact of group membership on knowledge sharing in Russia and China

Purpose – To explore the contention that, contrary to earlier research suggesting that people in transition economies such as Russia and China have a propensity not to share knowledge, Russians' and Chinese' may in fact be more inclined to share knowledge than people in Western, industrialised countries but that this willingness to share knowledge is highly influenced by group membership.Design/methodology/approach – Our argument is based on reviews of previous literature and cases and the authors' own semi‐structured interview research conducted with Western and local managers and employees in Russia and China over the past decade.Findings – The research finds that the extent to which group membership influences the processes of knowledge sharing and whether it is impeded or facilitated in Russia and China is determined by both cultural and institutional factors.Practical implications – The paper has important practical implications in providing guidelines on the initiatives that international businesses.
Mental health and the psychosocial consequences of natural disasters in Asia

This article presents an overview of natural disasters in Asia, as well as mental disorders and psychosocial interventions related to disasters. Although most of the top ten worst natural disasters occurred in Asia over the past century, little is known about the mental health and psychosocial aspects. After the tsunami incident in 2004, research reports in international journals related to Asian disasters have been growing. The prevalence rate of post-traumatic stress disorder related to natural disasters is currently between 8.6% and 57.3% depending on assessment methodologies, instruments and timing. Cognitive behaviour therapy has been found to be effective with Asian survivors but needs to be adapted for cultural and local sensitivities. Further research is needed in the areas of epidemiology for mental disorders and suitable psychosocial interventions for disaster survivors in Asia.
IMPROVING MATING PERFORMANCE OF MASS-REARED STERILE MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLIES (DIPTERA: TEPHRITIDAE) THROUGH CHANGES IN ADULT HOLDING CONDITIONS: DEMOGRAPHY AND MATING COMPETITIVENESS

Abstract Mass rearing conditions affect the mating behavior of Mediterranean fruit flies (medflies) Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann). We evaluated the effect of slight changes in the adult holding conditions of adult flies maintained for egg production on their mating performance. Colonization was initiated from wild flies collected as larvae from infested coffee berries (Coffea arabica L.). When pupae were close to adult emergence, they were randomly divided into 3 groups and the emerging adults were reared under the following conditions: (1) Metapa System (MS, control), consisting of 70 × 45 × 15 cm aluminum frame, mesh covered cages, with a density of 2,200 flies per cage and a 1:1 initial sex ratio; (2) Insert System (IS), with the same type of cage, and the same fly density and sex ratio as in the MS treatment, but containing twelve Plexiglas® pieces (23 × 8.5 cm) to provide additional horizontal surface areas inside the cage; and (3) Sex-ratio System (SS), same as IS, but in this case the initial male: female ratio was 4:1. Three d later, newly emerged females were introduced, so the ratio became 3:1 and on the 6th d another group of newly emerged females was added to provide a 2:1 final sex ratio, at which the final density reached 1,675 flies per cage. The eggs collected from each of the 3 treatments were reared independently following standard procedures and the adults were held under the same experimental conditions. This process was repeated for over 10 to 13 generations (1 year). The experiment was repeated 3 times in 3 consecutive years, starting each replicate with a new collection of wild flies. Life tables were constructed for each treatment at the parental, 3rd, 6th, and 9th generations. Standard quality control parameters (pupation at 24 h, pupal weight, adult emergence, and flight ability), were estimated for each treatment every third generation in the third year. For the last generation each year, mating competitiveness was evaluated in field cage tests with wild flies. As colonization progressed, life expectancy and fecundity rates increased in the 3 rearing systems. There was no significant difference in standard quality control parameters among the 3 rearing systems. Wild males always achieved more matings than any of the mass reared males. Mating competitiveness of males from the IS, although surprisingly not from the SS, was significantly greater than that of males from the MS. Our results indicate that these slight changes in the adult holding conditions can significantly reduce the harmful effects of mass rearing on the mating performance of sterile flies.
Nuclear-to-cytoplasmic Relocalization of the Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) during Differentiation Involves a Chromosome Region Maintenance 1 (CRM1)-dependent Export and Is a Prerequisite for PCNA Antiapoptotic Activity in Mature Neutrophils*

Background: PCNA is exclusively cytoplasmic in neutrophils and inhibits their apoptosis. Results: Nuclear export of PCNA is mediated by a CRM1-dependent nuclear export sequence (NES) and is pivotal for its antiapoptotic activity in mature neutrophils. Conclusion: Cytoplasmic relocalization of PCNA is part of the terminal differentiation of neutrophils. Significance: This process might be relevant to modulate neutrophil survival in inflammation or neutropenia. Neutrophils are deprived of proliferative capacity and have a tightly controlled lifespan to avoid their persistence at the site of injury. We have recently described that the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), a nuclear factor involved in DNA replication and repair of proliferating cells, is a key regulator of neutrophil survival. In neutrophils, PCNA was localized exclusively in the cytoplasm due to its nuclear-to-cytoplasmic relocalization during granulocytic differentiation. We showed here that leptomycin B, an inhibitor of the chromosome region maintenance 1 (CRM1) exportin, inhibited PCNA relocalization during granulocytic differentiation of HL-60 and NB4 promyelocytic cell lines and of human CD34+ primary cells. Using enhanced green fluorescent protein fusion constructs, we have demonstrated that PCNA relocalization involved a nuclear export signal (NES) located from Ile-11 to Ile-23 in the PCNA sequence. However, this NES, located at the inner face of the PCNA trimer, was not functional in wild-type PCNA, but instead, was fully active and leptomycin B-sensitive in the monomeric PCNAY114A mutant. To test whether a defect in PCNA cytoplasmic relocalization would affect its antiapoptotic activity in mature neutrophils, a chimeric PCNA fused with the SV40 nuclear localization sequence (NLS) was generated to preclude its cytoplasmic localization. As expected, neutrophil-differentiated PLB985 cells expressing ectopic SV40NLS-PCNA had an increased nuclear PCNA as compared with cells expressing wild-type PCNA. Accordingly, the nuclear PCNA mutant did not show any antiapoptotic activity as compared with wild-type PCNA. Nuclear-to-cytoplasmic relocalization that occurred during myeloid differentiation is essential for PCNA antiapoptotic activity in mature neutrophils and is dependent on the newly identified monomerization-dependent PCNA NES.
A market microstructure analysis of the Canadian dollar depreciation episodes in the 1990s

This article analyses two sudden depreciations of the Canadian dollar in the 1990s: July/August 1998 and November/December 1994. It is found that a nonparametric exchange rate model based on a combination of fundamental and microstructure (order flow) variables can be used not only to explain, but to also predict such excessive currency movements. During the depreciation periods, the forecast accuracy of the model is significantly superior to that of the linear model. The results provide an illustrative example that order flow variables have a substantial explanatory power for a very short-run exchange rate prediction.
A Value for n-person Games

Introduction At the foundation of the theory of games is the assumption that the players of a game can evaluate, in their utility scales, every “prospect” that might arise as a result of a play. In attempting to apply the theory to any field, one would normally expect to be permitted to include, in the class of “prospects,” the prospect of having to play a game. The possibility of evaluating games is therefore of critical importance. So long as the theory is unable to assign values to the games typically found in application, only relatively simple situations—where games do not depend on other games—will be susceptible to analysis and solution. In the finite theory of von Neumann and Morgenstern difficulty in evaluation persists for the “essential” games, and for only those. In this note we deduce a value for the “essential” case and examine a number of its elementary properties. We proceed from a set of three axioms, having simple intuitive interpretations, which suffice to determine the value uniquely. Our present work, though mathematically self-contained, is founded conceptually on the von Neumann—Morgenstern theory up to their introduction of characteristic functions. We thereby inherit certain important underlying assumptions: (a) that utility is objective and transferable; (b) that games are cooperative affairs; (c) that games, granting (a) and (b), are adequately represented by their characteristic functions.
Plasma Cytokines and Future Risk of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL): A Case-Control Study Nested in the Italian European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition

Background: Recently, biological markers related to the immune system such as cytokines have been studied to further understand the etiology of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL). However, to date, there are no studies that have studied cytokine levels prospectively in relation to NHL risk in the general population. Methods: Using bead-based immunoassays, plasma levels of 11 cytokines, 4 chemokines, and 1 adhesion molecules were measured in prediagnostic blood samples of 86 NHL cases and 86 matched controls (average time between blood collection and diagnosis, 4.5 y). Conditional logistic regression adjusted for body mass index and alcohol consumption was used to analyze the association between individual plasma cytokine levels and the risk of developing NHL. Results: In multivariate models, excluding cases diagnosed within 2 years after inclusion, we observed a significant association for interleukin 2 (IL2; P trend = 0.004), interferon (IFN)-γ (P trend = 0.05), and intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM) (P trend = 0.04). Subanalyses of B-cell NHL patients showed a significant association with IL2 (P trend = 0.003), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α; P trend = 0.03), and ICAM (P trend = 0.04) and a borderline association with IL5 (P trend = 0.07) and IFN-γ (P trend = 0.08). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest, in a prospective setting, a possible association between plasma levels of IL2, ICAM, IFN-γ, and TNF-α with NHL risk and provide some evidence that risk of NHL might be related to a downregulation of T helper 1 cytokines. Impact: Identification of subtle changes in immune response regulation quantified by plasma cytokine levels possibly provides new insights in the etiology of NHL. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 19(6); 1577–84. ©2010 AACR.
Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for resectable esophageal carcinoma: a meta-analysis.

AIM To compare neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and surgery with surgery alone for resectable esophageal carcinoma. METHODS We used MEDLINE and EMBASE databases to identify eligible studies and manual searches were done to ensure no studies were missed. Trial validity assessment was performed and a trial quality score was assigned. RESULTS Eleven randomized controlled trials (RCTs) including 1308 patients were selected. Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy significantly improved the overall survival compared with surgery alone. Odds ratio (OR) [95% confidence interval (CI), P value], expressed as neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and surgery vs surgery alone, was 1.28 (1.01-1.64, P = 0.05) for 1-year survival, 1.78 (1.20-2.66, P = 0.004) for 3-year survival, and 1.46 (1.07-1.99, P = 0.02) for 5-year survival. Postoperative mortality increased in patients treated by neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (OR: 1.68, 95% CI: 1.03-2.73, P = 0.04), but incidence of postoperative complications was similar in two groups (OR: 1.14, 95% CI: 0.88-1.49, P = 0.32). Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy lowered the local-regional cancer recurrence (OR: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.41-0.99, P = 0.04), but incidence of distant cancer recurrence was similar (OR: 0.94, 95% CI: 0.68-1.31, P = 0.73). Histological subgroup analysis indicated that esophageal squamous cell carcinoma did not benefit from neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, OR (95% CI, P value) was 1.16 (0.85-1.57, P = 0.34) for 1-year survival, 1.34 (0.98-1.82, P = 0.07) for 3-year survival and 1.41 (0.98-2.02, P = 0.06) for 5-year survival. CONCLUSION Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy can raise the survival rate of patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma.
Evaluating Data Resilience in CNNs from an Approximate Memory Perspective

Due to the large volumes of data that need to be processed, efficient memory access and data transmission are crucial for high-performance implementations of convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Approximate memory is a promising technique to achieve efficient memory access and data transmission in CNN hardware implementations. To assess the feasibility of applying approximate memory techniques, we propose a framework for the data resilience evaluation (DRE) of CNNs and verify its effectiveness on a suite of prevalent CNNs. Simulation results show that a high degree of data resilience exists in these networks. By scaling the bit-width of the first five dominant data subsets, the data volume can be reduced by 80.38% on average with a 2.69% loss in relative prediction accuracy. For approximate memory with random errors, all the synaptic weights can be stored in the approximate part when the error rate is less than 10--4, while 3 MSBs must be protected if the error rate is fixed at 10--3. These results indicate a great potential for exploiting approximate memory techniques in CNN hardware design.
The Relationship between Financial Market Development and Foreign Direct Investment in Latin American Countries

The main purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of financial market development on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Latin American countries. Financial market development and FDI are two important sources of efficient economic resource allocation in the region. We use banking sector and stock market indicators to capture financial market development. By giving greater consideration to the short-run and long-run effects of financial market development on FDI, this paper presents empirical results from a time series model of 14 Latin American countries. We find financial market development link is both short-run and long-run phenomena in majority of countries. Furthermore, our result of the causality test shows that link between FDI and banking sector development is uni-directional and the link between FDI and stock market development is bi-directional.
Causes and effects of discretionary asset write-offs

This paper provides evidence on the causes and shareholder wealth effects of discretionary asset write-offs. We use the term "write-off" to refer to both complete and partial downward asset revaluations, and we describe our sample write-offs as discretionary because over the 1989-92 period covered by the study, there was little authoritative guidance on the accounting for most types of asset impairments, other than inventory. The absence of explicit guidance for many assets permitted substantial management discretion about amounts and timing of write-offs. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants urged the Financial Accounting Standards Board in 1980 to examine the asset impairment issue because they believed that the variety of practices, terminology, and valuation methods in use reduced the comparability and consistency of financial statements. These concerns, echoed by the Emerging Issues Task Force, the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Committee, the Financial Executives Institute, and the National Association of Accoun-
Attributes, consequences, and consumer values

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify consumer‐dining values for each restaurant segment (fast food restaurants, casual restaurants, and fine dining restaurants) using a means‐end approach and to suggest useful information for restaurant operators to develop differential marketing strategies for each segment.Design/methodology/approach – This study applied a means‐end chain approach to identify underlying consumer values across three different restaurant segments. The participants responded to questions in a one‐on‐one interview procedure regarding attributes of restaurants, consequences, and values. Based on the responses, hierarchical value maps were developed to better understand consumer value patterns across the three restaurant segments.Findings – The results suggested that attributes of fast food restaurants were largely associated with convenience, success, and economic values; attributes of casual dining restaurants were related to emotional and belonging values; and attributes provi.
The effects of currency appreciation on share market return: ARDL approach

This study employs the ARDL cointegrating approach to examine the impact of financial liberalization on the relationships between three Chinese main bilateral exchange rates and its share market performance. We discovered that a long-term equilibrium relationship measured by cointegration has emerged between the exchange rate of the RMB against the Japanese Yen and, to a lesser extent, the exchange rate against both the US dollar and Hong Kong dollar and the Shanghai Composite Index since 2005 when the Chinese exchange rate regime changed from a peg system to a more flexible managed floating system. We found that the exchange rate actually influenced stock price with a positive correlation instead of a negative one as suggested by the goods market theory for an export-oriented economy. We documented that after local currency appreciation, 'hot money' flowing from foreign funds into the local markets followed by local investors' speculations on markets pushed the market into a high level based on the expectation of the local currency's further appreciation.
Knowledge production within the innovation system: a case study from the United Kingdom

This paper focuses on a key issue for university managers, educational developers and teaching practitioners: that of producing new operational knowledge in the innovation system. More specifically, it explores the knowledge required to guide individual and institutional styles of teaching and learning in a large multi-disciplinary faculty. The case study presented outlines a sustainable approach for achieving quality enhancement of teaching and learning and producing new operational knowledge. Sustainability is achieved by linking to, and being sympathetic to, the innovative activity-led concept of learning reported in this paper. This leads to the identification of elements of evaluation that are appropriately aligned to the teaching and learning behaviours, attitudes and approaches that are critical for the innovation to be successful. Such context-sensitive evaluation elements allow meaningful feedback for the purposes of creating new operational knowledge that may then be applied and tested for on-going refinement and learning.
On Testing Convexity and Submodularity

Submodular and convex functions play an important role in many applications, and in particular in combinatorial optimization. Here we study two special cases: convexity in one dimension and submodularity in two dimensions. The latter type of functions are equivalent to the well known Monge matrices. A matrix V = {vi,j}i,j=0i=n1, j=n2 is called a Monge matrix if for every 0 ? i < r ? n1 and 0 ? j < s ? n2, we have vi,j + vr,s ? vi,s + vr,j. If inequality holds in the opposite direction then V is an inverse Monge matrix (supermodular function). Many problems, such as the traveling salesperson problem and various transportation problems, can be solved more efficiently if the input is a Monge matrix.In this work we present a testing algorithm for Monge and inverse Monge matrices, whose running time is O ((log n1 ? log n2)/? ), where ? is the distance parameter for testing. In addition we have an algorithm that tests whether a function f : [n] ? R is convex (concave) with running time of O ((log n)/? ).
DIFFERENTIATION AMONG POPULATIONS WITH MIGRATION, MUTATION, AND DRIFT: IMPLICATIONS FOR GENETIC INFERENCE

Abstract Populations may become differentiated from one another as a result of genetic drift. The amounts and patterns of differentiation at neutral loci are determined by local population sizes, migration rates among populations, and mutation rates. We provide exact analytical expressions for the mean, variance, and covariance of a stochastic model for hierarchically structured populations subject to migration, mutation, and drift. In addition to the expected correlation in allele frequencies among populations in the same geographic region, we demonstrate that there is a substantial correlation in allele frequencies among regions at the top level of the hierarchy. We propose a hierarchical Bayesian model for inference of Wright's F-statistics in a two-level hierarchy in which we estimate the among-region correlation in allele frequencies by substituting replication across loci for replication across time. We illustrate the approach through an analysis of human microsatellite data, and we show that approaches ignoring the among-region correlation in allele frequencies underestimate the amount of genetic differentiation among major geographic population groups by approximately 30%. Finally, we discuss the implications of these results for the use and interpretation of F-statistics in evolutionary studies.