Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modified osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis for treatment of corneal blindness: long-term anatomical and functional outcomes in 181 cases.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate long-term anatomical and functional outcomes of a modified osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP) technique for treatment of corneal blindness from various etiologies. METHODS Two-hundred three patients (224 eyes) underwent modified OOKP surgery between 1973 and 1999. Of the original cohort, 181 patients (98 men and 83 women; mean [SD], age 54.3 [15] years) in whom a standardized 2-step surgical procedure was performed were included in the study. Preoperative diagnoses were dry eye (n = 70) due to ocular pemphigoid (n = 39), Sjögren syndrome (n = 11), trachoma (n = 8), Lyell syndrome (n = 6), Stevens-Johnson syndrome (n = 4), and graft-vs-host disease (n = 1) and congenital lid coloboma (n = 1), severe corneal burns (n = 68), bullous keratopathy (n = 13), keratitis sequelae (n = 15), and bullous keratopathy secondary to antiglaucoma surgery (n = 15). Several innovations were made to the original Strampelli technique. Median follow-up duration was 12 years (range, 1-25 years). RESULTS Anatomical complications leading to OOKP loss were found in 11 (6.07%) of 181 patients. Survival analysis estimated that 18 years after surgery, the probability of retaining an intact OOKP was 85% (95% confidence interval, 79.3%-90.7%). Pooling patient groups, mean (SD) best postoperative visual acuity was 0.76 (0.34). Mean (SD) final acuity at the end of follow-up declined slightly (0.69 [0.39]) but significantly (P<.01). In individual diagnostic groups, mean acuity decline reached statistical significance (P<.05) only in the pemphigoid (1 line), trachoma (1 line), and bullous keratopathy secondary to antiglaucoma surgery (2 lines) groups. Survival analysis estimated that 18 years after surgery, the probability of retaining best postoperative visual acuity (within 2 lines) was mean (SD) 55.5% (12.9%). CONCLUSION Modified OOKP surgery for corneal blindness of different etiologies may provide, in the long-term, anatomically stable corneal prosthesis as well as an effective, rehabilitating recovery in visual acuity.
Viral and Non-viral Vectors in Gene Therapy: Technology Development and Clinical Trials

Gene therapy as part of modern molecular medicine holds great promise for the treatment of both acute and chronic diseases and has the potential to bring a revolutionary era to cancer treatment. Gene therapy has been named the medicine of the future. For the past 10 years various viral and non-viral vectors have been engineered for improved gene and drug delivery. Although various diseases have been targeted, cancer therapy has been addressed to a large extent because of the straight forward approach. Delivery of toxic or immunostimulatory genes by viral and non-viral vectors has been investigated and encouraging results have been obtained in animal models. A large number of clinical trials have been conducted with some highly promising outcome. We propose that combinations of viruses with lipo-somes or polymers will solve the problem of systemic viral delivery and tumor targeting, bringing a revolution in molecular medicine and in applications of gene therapy in humans.
Predicting regime switches in the VIX index with macroeconomic variables

In this article, we investigate the role of US macroeconomic variables as leading indicators of regime shifts in the VIX index using a regime-switching approach. We find that there are three distinct regimes in the VIX index during the 1990 to 2010 period: tranquil regime with low volatility, turmoil regime with high volatility and crisis regime with extremely high volatility. We also show that the regime shift from the tranquil to the turmoil regime is significantly predicted by lower term spreads.
Welfare Loss of Wetlands Disintegration: A Louisiana Study

This study estimates the loss in welfare of projected Louisiana coastal wetlands disintegration. Various programs have initiated costly projects to terminate this disintegration process. But can these projects succeed, and will their benefits exceed their costs? This study addresses the benefits issues and estimates reductions in incomes and consumption opportunities and increases in costs that would be avoided if restoration and enhancement projects are successful. Estimated welfare losses that would be avoided do not include non‐user and lifestyle losses, which may be very important, and they do not include the costs of dismantling coastal infrastructure. These exclusions make the estimates of this study minimum estimates of welfare losses. Future economic welfare losses represent a 1990 present value in a range between $5.9 and $24.3 billion, depending upon discount rates and whether low or high loss estimates are used. In order to make these estimates more meaningful, the implied wetlands values were calculated on a per acre basis. These values ranged from $8,437 to $15,763 per acre.
Money, Financial Innovation and Financial Instability: A Story of the Present Financial Crisis

The experiences from 2007-2010 reveal the fact that globalization associated with financial innovation on the interconnected markets determines a rapid shocks spread. An increasing debt amplifies the vulnerabilities in the financial system. Panic is the key element for failure and comes along with a price drop, a lack of confidence and important losses. The aim of this paper is to create o connection between the concept of financial instability and financial innovation in terms of money dimension. Starting with the theories of the financial instability developed by the economists, we proposed to underline the gap between expectations and real effects of financial innovation, the role of money and their importance. To conclude, we summarize possible lessons and the impact over the financial world, including the psychological potential of the financial behavior.
Aerobic wastewater treatment under high and varying temperatures : thermophilic process performance and effluent quality

Suvilampi, Juhani Aerobic wastewater treatment under high and varying temperatures – thermophilic process performance and effluent quality Jyvaskyla: University of Jyvaskyla, 2003, 60 p. (Jyvaskyla Studies in Biological and Environmental Science, ISSN 1456-9701;119) ISBN 951-39-1425-9 Yhteenveto: Jatevesien kasittely korkeissa ja vaihtelevissa lampotiloissa. Diss. Industries, such as the pulp and paper industry, generate high-temperature process waters and wastewaters. Biological treatment at high temperatures may be an attractive option for the treatment of hot or concentrated wastewaters. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of thermophilic aerobic wastewater treatment in laboratory experiments, in which thermophilic processes were compared with mesophilic processes. A combined thermophilic-mesophilic treatment was used to improve thermophilic effluent quality. Also the performance of a pilot thermophilic aerobic suspended carrier biofilm process (SCBP) treating groundwood mill circulation water (GWM) was studied on mill premises. Thermophilic and mesophilic activated sludge processes (ASPs) were compared under different hydraulic retention times (HRTs) 18-8 h and volumetric loading rates (VLRs) 2.5-6 kg CODfilt m-3d-1. In thermophilic ASPs total COD (CODtot) and GFA-filtered COD (CODfilt) removals were lower (65-75%) than in the mesophilic (85-90%). Both ASPs gave similar CODsol (0.45 m-filtrated COD) removals (90%), whereas effluents from the thermophilic ASPs had notably higher CODcol (calculated COD between 0.45-1.6 m) values (460 170 mg l-1) than mesophilic effluents (6 5 mg l-1). The increased CODcol was due to the high density of dispersed particles, which were unable to aggregate and settle under thermophilic conditions. These bacteria were mostly non-viable gram-positive, whereas small (<1 m) thermophilic gram-negative bacteria were dominant in the settled flocs. Combined thermophilic-mesophilic treatment had CODfilt removals of 8085% with HRTs from 36 to 18 h. Thermophilic treatment removed CODsol (90%), whereas mesophilic post-treatment removed free bacteria from the thermophilic effluent, measured as 90-100% CODcol removals. Between HRTs of 12-18 h the thermophilic ASP and SCBP removed 60 13% and 62 7% of CODfilt, respectively, whereas with HRT of 7-8 h the removals were 48 1% and 69 4%. A two-stage thermophilic SCBP produced 49-77% dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removals at VLRs of 3-14 kg CODfilt m-3d-1 and HRTs of 2-8 h, whereas the single reactor produced 40-67% DOC removals at VLRs of 7-28 kg CODfilt m-3d-1 and HRTs of 1-4 h. The twostage thermophilic process was particularly resistant to process upsets. In conclusion, thermophilic aerobic wastewater treatment proved operable under varying parameters and yielded CODsol removals comparable to those obtained from mesophilic treatment. Increased temperature reduced CODtot and CODfilt removals.
The impact of quality on store loyalty: A contingency approach

This study's prime interest is to assist retail managers in deciding where they are likely to get the greatest response to their expenditures on quality improvement. An empirical test involving 287 consumers reporting on a wide array of stores assesses whether the relationship between three quality dimensions (technical quality, functional quality and relational quality) and store loyalty is moderated by age, gender and store size. The structural equation model indicates that relational quality is the prime driver of store loyalty, seemingly overruling the impact of technical quality and functional quality. Most importantly, the results suggest that older consumers are relatively more strongly affected by technical quality than younger consumers. Another interesting finding is that retailers reap more benefits from their quality investments if they offer relational quality to female as opposed to male consumers. Store size was not found to mitigate the impact of the quality dimensions investigated.
Wavelet Based Exchange Rate Forecasting with Improved Instance Based

In this paper we present a novel wavelet based exchange rate forecast model integrating wavelet filters for denoising and Improved Instance Based Learning(IIBL) approach. The proposed model implements a novel technique that extends the nearest neighbor algorithm to include the concept of pattern matching so as to identify similar instances thus implementing a nonparametric regression approach.The work demonstrates the feasibility of integrating with suitable non-redundant orthogonal wavelet filters at the preprocessing stage to achieve accurate forecasting. The multi-scaling property of the wavelet transform enhances the prediction with high accuracy for volatile time series. The impact of using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) has been systematically illustrated in the preprocessing stage on the accuracy of forecasting. The analysis of simulations demonstrate that the proposed wavelet based IIBL model results in accurate predictions and encouraging results for exchange rate series when compared with the conventional neural network, wavelet and wavelet denoising methods.
Systems Immunology Reveals Markers of Susceptibility to West Nile Virus Infection

ABSTRACT West Nile virus (WNV) infection is usually asymptomatic but can cause severe neurological disease and death, particularly in older patients, and how individual variations in immunity contribute to disease severity is not yet defined. Animal studies identified a role for several immunity-related genes that determine the severity of infection. We have integrated systems-level transcriptional and functional data sets from stratified cohorts of subjects with a history of WNV infection to define whether these markers can distinguish susceptibility in a human population. Transcriptional profiles combined with immunophenotyping of primary cells identified a predictive signature of susceptibility that was detectable years after acute infection (67% accuracy), with the most prominent alteration being decreased IL1B induction following ex vivo infection of macrophages with WNV. Deconvolution analysis also determined a significant role for CXCL10 expression in myeloid dendritic cells. This systems analysis identified markers of pathogenic mechanisms and offers insights into potential therapeutic strategies.
Environmental implications of rural policies in China: a multi-agent model at the level of agricultural households

We analyzed the socioeconomic and environmental changes in rural China from the perspective of agricultural households and developed a multi-agent agricultural household model for rural environmental management (MAREM). The MAREM model consists of four submodules: the agricultural household production module, the consumption module, the labor supply module, and the environmental assessment module. In the model, virtual agricultural households exist in a hypothetical village. Farmers follow a self-adaptive approach to learn and understand policy variations, in order to make relevant decisions. The model has been validated through simulation of actual trends (the based-on-reality scenario). On the basis of this scenario, we further analyzed possible future trends in rural environmental pollution in China. Our results reflect that China may enter a period of farmer income stagnation accompanied by a rapid deterioration in rural environmental quality. Ammonia emission from livestock production may become the primary agricultural source of air pollution, and eutrophication is calculated to be the major water pollution issue for the long term. Synthetic fertilizer application is projected to be the dominant source of total nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in aquatic system (contributing to about 64% and 46% of the total discharge, respectively). Our study shows that MAREM is an effective tool to analyze the interactions between agricultural households' behavior and environmental consequences under specific policies in China.
An Investigation of the Long-Run and Causal Relationships between Economy Performance, Investment and Port Sector Productivity in Cote d'Ivoire

This study used the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds testing approach and Toda-Yamamoto Non-granger causality test to analyze respectively the long-run and causal relationships among economy performance, foreign direct investment, domestic investment and port sector production output in Cote d’Ivoire over the period 1980-2013. The empirical results illustrate that economy performance, foreign direct investment and domestic investment are significant in explaining the productivity of port sector. Therefore, the study suggests focusing on investment strategies that involve private (foreign and domestic) participation in projects dedicated to improve the safety, quality of operations in the sector and transport connectivity.
Age–productivity patterns in talent occupations for men and women: a decomposition

One could expect that in the so-called talent occupations, while access to these professions may differ between men and women, the gender wage gap should actually be smaller owing to the high relevance of human capital quality. Wage regressions typically suggest an inverted U-shaped age–productivity pattern. However, such analyses confuse age, cohort and year effects. Deaton decomposition allows us to disentangle these effects. We apply this method to investigate the age–productivity pattern for the so-called ‘talent’ occupations. Using data from a transition economy (Poland) we find that talent occupations indeed have a steeper age–productivity pattern. However, gender differences are larger for talent occupations than for general occupations.
A Comprehensive Surveillance of Adamantane Resistance among Human Influenza a Virus Isolated from Mainland China between 1956 and 2009

Background Adamantane-derived drugs have been used for treatment and prophylaxis of influenza A virus infection for many years worldwide. Rapid surveillance of antiviral drug resistance is important for appropriate clinical guideline development. Here, we retrospectively assessed adamantane resistance among different influenza A subtypes (H1N1, H3N2 and H5N1) over 53 years (1956–2009) in mainland China. Methods A total of 1,451 viruses, including 773 H3N2 viruses, 647 H1N1 viruses and 31 human H5N1 viruses, were analysed by matrix gene sequencing and assayed for drug resistance. Results Our results show that the prevalence of adamantane- resistant H3N2 viruses was low between 1956 and 2002, but substantially increased in 2003 to the extent that since 2006 all H3N2 viruses have been drug resistant. The percentage of adamantane- resistant H1N1 viruses also increased from 50.0% in 2004 to 98.7% in 2007; however, this decreased to 46.7% in 2009. Only three adamantane-resistant H5N1 viruses have been detected since 2003, when the first case of human H5N1 virus infection was detected in mainland China. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the increase of adamantane-resistant isolates was caused by point mutations or intrasubtype reassortment instead of intersubtype reassortment. Conclusions Because of the high percentage of adamantane- resistant H3N2 and H1N1 viruses in mainland China, the use of amantadine and rimantadine drugs for prophylaxis and treatment of current seasonal influenza A infection is not recommended.
Structural physiology based on electron crystallography

There are many questions in brain science, which are extremely interesting but very difficult to answer. For example, how do education and other experiences during human development influence the ability and personality of the adult? The molecular mechanisms underlying such phenomena are still totally unclear. However, technological and instrumental advancements of electron microscopy have facilitated comprehension of the structures of biological components, cells, and organelles. Electron crystallography is especially good for studying the structure and function of membrane proteins, which are key molecules of signal transduction in neural and other cells. Electron crystallography is now an established technique to analyze the structures of membrane proteins in lipid bilayers, which are close to their natural biological environment. By utilizing cryo‐electron microscopes with helium cooled specimen stages, which were developed through a personal motivation to understand functions of neural systems from a structural point of view, structures of membrane proteins were analyzed at a resolution higher than 3 Å. This review has four objectives. First, it is intended to introduce the new research field of structural physiology. Second, it introduces some of the personal struggles, which were involved in developing the cryo‐electron microscope. Third, it discusses some of the technology for the structural analysis of membrane proteins based on cryo‐electron microscopy. Finally, it reviews structural and functional analyses of membrane proteins.
Optimal centralized ordering policies in multi-echelon inventory systems with correlated demands

This paper treats a depot-warehouse system in which demand occurs at the warehouse or retail level. This work differs from a number of other studies in that we allow item demands to be correlated both across warehouses and also correlated in time. Our motivation for this generalization arises from our experience with an actual system of this type used by a major national producer and distributor of consumer products. We observed both high correlations between successive monthly demands around 0.7 and correlations between demands for an item at different locations also about 0.7 in a given time period. We derive an explicit expression for the optimal safety stock as a function of the level of correlation through time. The analysis requires two assumptions: 1 the allocation assumption and 2 the equal coefficient of variation assumption. Similar assumptions have been used by other researchers. Finally, numerical evaluations are included to illustrate the impact of the various magnitudes of correlation.
CURRENT TRENDS OF OPINION MINING AND SENTIMENT ANALYSIS IN SOCIAL NETWORKS

Sentiment analysis is currently treated as a famous topic as well as in the area of research with significant applications in both industry and academia. This paper represents the importance and applications of opinion mining and sentiment analysis in social networks. We have described the basic concepts, challenges and comprehensive study in different sections in this paper. This paper reflects as an overview of opinion mining and sentiment analysis in social networks.
Outcomes Associated With the Nationwide Introduction of Rapid Response Systems in The Netherlands*

Objective:To describe the effect of implementation of a rapid response system on the composite endpoint of cardiopulmonary arrest, unplanned ICU admission, or death. Design:Pragmatic prospective Dutch multicenter before-after trial, Cost and Outcomes analysis of Medical Emergency Teams trial. Setting:Twelve hospitals participated, each including two surgical and two nonsurgical wards between April 2009 and November 2011. The Modified Early Warning Score and Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation instruments were implemented over 7 months. The rapid response team was then implemented during the following 17 months. The effects of implementing the rapid response team were measured in the last 5 months of this period. Patients:All patients 18 years old and older admitted to the study wards were included. Measurements and Main Results:In total, 166,569 patients were included in the study representing 1,031,172 hospital admission days. No differences were observed in patient demographics between periods. The composite endpoint of cardiopulmonary arrest, unplanned ICU admission, or death per 1,000 admissions was significantly reduced in the rapid response team versus the before phase (adjusted odds ratio, 0.847; 95% CI, 0.725–0.989; p = 0.036). Cardiopulmonary arrests and in-hospital mortality were also significantly reduced (odds ratio, 0.607; 95% CI, 0.393–0.937; p = 0.018 and odds ratio, 0.802; 95% CI, 0.644–1.0; p = 0.05, respectively). Unplanned ICU admissions showed a declining trend (odds ratio, 0.878; 95% CI, 0.755–1.021; p = 0.092), whereas severity of illness at the moment of ICU admission was not different between periods. Conclusions:In this study, introduction of nationwide implementation of rapid response systems was associated with a decrease in the composite endpoint of cardiopulmonary arrests, unplanned ICU admissions, and mortality in patients in general hospital wards. These findings support the implementation of rapid response systems in hospitals to reduce severe adverse events.
Dubai Debt Crisis: A Legal Analysis of the Nakheel Sukuk

On November 25, 2009, the financial world was shocked when Dubai World requested a restructuring of its debts. Much disturbance in capital markets was caused. The main concern of the ‘Dubai Debt Crisis’ was the delay in repayment of a the Nakheel Sukuk, an Islamic financial instrument. This article discusses the legal structure of these Islamic financial instruments (sukuk), followed by a case study of the Nakheel Sukuk. Several impediments of the legal structure of the Nakheel Sukuk and of the legal system of the UAE will be discussed. All of this will lead to the conclusion that the legal implications of the Nakheel Sukuk were not connected to the legal structure of Islamic financial instruments as such, but they were inherent to the legal structure of this particular transaction and to the legal environment in which it was set up.
Galaxie: a P2P based EDSOA platform for cloud services

SOA and cloud service platform have been widely used in recent years. However, due to centralized network topology, these platforms remain some limitations such as complex routing and suffering impacts by the changes of nodes and services. Based on P2P and EDA, we propose a P2P based EDSOA prototype system named Galaxie and apply it to provide cloud services. Employed with P2P topology, event/service mapping, event hashing and decentralized business process, this system is a better solution for cloud service platform.