Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anatomic consideration of caudal epidural space: A cadaver study

The knowledge of sacral hiatus anatomy is imperative in clinical situations requiring caudal epidural block for various diagnostic and therapeutic procedures of the lumbosacral spine to avoid failure and dural injury. In this study, a detailed anatomic study of the sacral region was carried out on 49 male adult Indian cadavers. Dorsal surface of sacral region was dissected to study sacral cornua, sacral hiatus, and the dimensions of triangle formed by the right and left posterosuperior iliac spines with apex of the hiatus. Midsagittal sections were subjected for various anatomical measurements. The angle of needle insertion and the depth of caudal space were noted. Cornu was not palpable bilaterally in 7 (14.3%) and palpable unilaterally in 12 (24.5%) specimens. Mean (standard deviation) distance between apex of hiatus and coccyx tip was 57.5 (8.7) mm and length of sacrococcygeal ligament was 34.2 (7.4) mm. The dimensions of the triangle were found to be interchangeable in 25 cadavers. Once the needle is introduced into the canal after penetrating the sacrococcygeal ligament, it should not be advanced >5 mm to prevent dural puncture. The level of maximum curvature of sacrum was S3 in 34 (69.4%) of cases. The dural sac was found to terminate at S2 in 41 (83.6%). The mean (SD) angle of depression of the needle was 65.7 (5.5) (range 58–78). The measurements described for the identification of the sacral hiatus, optimal angle of depression, and depth of the needle may improve the safety and reliability of a caudal epidural block. Clin. Anat. 22:730–737, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Kv7/KCNQ/M and HCN/h, but not KCa2/SK channels, contribute to the somatic medium after‐hyperpolarization and excitability control in CA1 hippocampal pyramidal cells

In hippocampal pyramidal cells, a single action potential (AP) or a burst of APs is followed by a medium afterhyperpolarization (mAHP, lasting ∼0.1 s). The currents underlying the mAHP are considered to regulate excitability and cause early spike frequency adaptation, thus dampening the response to sustained excitatory input relative to responses to abrupt excitation. The mAHP was originally suggested to be primarily caused by M‐channels (at depolarized potentials) and h‐channels (at more negative potentials), but not SK channels. In recent reports, however, the mAHP was suggested to be generated mainly by SK channels or only by h‐channels. We have now re‐examined the mechanisms underlying the mAHP and early spike frequency adaptation in CA1 pyramidal cells by using sharp electrode and whole‐cell recording in rat hippocampal slices. The specific M‐channel blocker XE991 (10 μm) suppressed the mAHP following 1–5 APs evoked by current injection at −60 mV. XE991 also enhanced the excitability of the cell, i.e. increased the number of APs evoked by a constant depolarizing current pulse, reduced their rate of adaptation, enhanced the afterdepolarization and promoted bursting. Conversely, the M‐channel opener retigabine reduced excitability. The h‐channel blocker ZD7288 (4‐ethylphenylamino‐1,2‐dimethyl‐6‐methylaminopyrimidinium chloride; 10 μm) fully suppressed the mAHP at −80 mV, but had little effect at −60 mV, whereas XE991 did not measurably affect the mAHP at −80 mV. Likewise, ZD7288 had little or no effect on excitability or adaptation during current pulses injected from −60 mV, but changed the initial discharge during depolarizing pulses injected from −80 mV. In contrast to previous reports, we found that blockade of Ca2+‐activated K+ channels of the SK/KCa type by apamin (100–400 nm) failed to affect the mAHP or adaptation. A computational model of a CA1 pyramidal cell predicted that M‐ and h‐channels will generate mAHPs in a voltage‐dependent manner, as indicated by the experiments. We conclude that M‐ and h‐channels generate the somatic mAHP in hippocampal pyramidal cells, with little or no net contribution from SK channels.
Efficient Korean text summarization based on key phrase extraction

Language big data explosion causes a severe divergence of people's attention and a serious scarcity of people's time. This paper addresses the problem of Korean text summarization (KTS) and presents a flexible multi-plugin framework. Within the framework, we design a novel KTS algorithm based on key phrase extraction. Supported by the pluggable components of word stemming and part of speech tagging, the key-phrase-extraction-based KTS algorithm can complete text summarization efficiently. The experimental results show that our KTS algorithm with MMR plugin component can achieve the perfect performance in the Korean summarization task.
Anthropometric measurement standardization in the US‐affiliated pacific: Report from the Children's Healthy Living Program

Anthropometric standardization is essential to obtain reliable and comparable data from different geographical regions. The purpose of this study is to describe anthropometric standardization procedures and findings from the Children's Healthy Living (CHL) Program, a study on childhood obesity in 11 jurisdictions in the US‐Affiliated Pacific Region, including Alaska and Hawai‘i.
Assessing impact of mandatory CSR on food industry

India is the only country in the world which has now made CSR spending mandatory. Food industry is not an exception to this requirement. In a developing country like India, food industry has a larger social purpose, for food and nutrition are inextricably linked to hunger and health. At the same time, however, food firms are not philanthropic institutions either. We address the issue of whether or not making CSR activity mandatory has impacted the food industry negatively. Events that are expected to affect an industry negatively get reflected in significant lowering of firms’ stock prices, for they capture the current and future profitability of firms. We conduct an event analysis by considering stock prices of food firms around two important events – passing of the CSR bill in two houses of parliament. We find that stock prices of select top performing food firms and select food firms that barely qualify for the CSR norms have not been adversely impacted by the two events. This means that food firms can turn mandatory CSR activities into an opportunity to build brand value. Using their core competence, they could spend on delivering nutrition-rich packaged foods, drinks, potable water, and neutraceuticals to disadvantaged communities.
Business process reengineering in a British company: a case study

A case study conducted in a British company (Company A) on reengineering business processes is presented. It gives an example on how a case study ought to be written in order to go beyond the standard for writing an industrial report to one that is acceptable by academic peers. A good case study ought to contain information that readers can use in replicating the experiences gained and lessons learnt in future endeavours under similar settings. When a collection of good case studies is available to a practitioner or researcher he could formulate his plan for the future and avoid “re‐inventing the wheel”. This is most important to research in operations management because it lends a hand in the building up of a theory in POM to make an impact in its natural settings.
Improving data workflow systems with cloud services and use of open data for bioinformatics research

&NA; Data workflow systems (DWFSs) enable bioinformatics researchers to combine components for data access and data analytics, and to share the final data analytics approach with their collaborators. Increasingly, such systems have to cope with large‐scale data, such as full genomes (about 200 GB each), public fact repositories (about 100 TB of data) and 3D imaging data at even larger scales. As moving the data becomes cumbersome, the DWFS needs to embed its processes into a cloud infrastructure, where the data are already hosted. As the standardized public data play an increasingly important role, the DWFS needs to comply with Semantic Web technologies. This advancement to DWFS would reduce overhead costs and accelerate the progress in bioinformatics research based on large‐scale data and public resources, as researchers would require less specialized IT knowledge for the implementation. Furthermore, the high data growth rates in bioinformatics research drive the demand for parallel and distributed computing, which then imposes a need for scalability and high‐throughput capabilities onto the DWFS. As a result, requirements for data sharing and access to public knowledge bases suggest that compliance of the DWFS with Semantic Web standards is necessary. In this article, we will analyze the existing DWFS with regard to their capabilities toward public open data use as well as large‐scale computational and human interface requirements. We untangle the parameters for selecting a preferable solution for bioinformatics research with particular consideration to using cloud services and Semantic Web technologies. Our analysis leads to research guidelines and recommendations toward the development of future DWFS for the bioinformatics research community.
Development and characterization of microsatellite primers for Zanthoxylum schinifolium (Rutaceae)1

Premise of the study: Polymorphic microsatellite markers of Zanthoxylum schinifolium (Rutaceae), a promising medicinal plant with effective antibacterial, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory compounds, were developed and evaluated for further genetic studies based on genetic variation among individuals or populations. Methods and Results: Following the selective hybridization method, microsatellite-enrichment libraries were constructed. Using these libraries, we obtained 15 polymorphic and three monomorphic microsatellite markers for Z. schinifolium. The number of alleles observed in each of the 15 polymorphic loci ranged from two to eight, and the observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.070 to 0.677 and from 0.093 to 0.688, respectively. Eleven of these developed markers were successfully amplified for Z. piperitum, a related species. Conclusions: These microsatellite markers can be valuable tools for further genetic studies of Z. schinifolium, such as genetic resource conservation for maintaining breeding material and individual identification for breeding program improvement and variety management.
A Doubly Hierarchical MoM for High-Fidelity Modeling of Multiscale Structures

We propose a novel doubly hierarchical method of moments for the analysis of large and multiscale structures. A reciprocal multilevel matrix compression method (rMLMCM) is combined with the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA), and they are used for the small-scale and large-scale cluster interactions, respectively. The resulting system is preconditioned following the hierarchical multiresolution-incomplete LU approach, which has proven successful for solving multiscale complex structures. The proposed method is applied to electromagnetic compatibility analysis of the real life, complex structures. Numerical results demonstrate the proposed preconditioned rMLMCM/MLFMA is effective also for large structures with strongly nonuniform discretization.
A Compact and Autoclavable System for Acute Extracellular Neural Recording and Brain Pressure Monitoring for Humans

One of the most difficult tasks for the surgeon during the removal of low-grade gliomas is to identify as precisely as possible the borders between functional and non-functional brain tissue with the aim of obtaining the maximal possible resection which allows to the patient the longer survival. For this purpose, systems for acute extracellular recordings of single neuron and multi-unit activity are considered promising. Here we describe a system to be used with 16 microelectrodes arrays that consists of an autoclavable headstage, a built-in inserter for precise electrode positioning and a system that measures and controls the pressure exerted by the headstage on the brain with a twofold purpose: to increase recording stability and to avoid disturbance of local perfusion which would cause a degradation of the quality of the recording and, eventually, local ischemia. With respect to devices where only electrodes are autoclavable, our design permits the reduction of noise arising from long cable connections preserving at the same time the flexibility and avoiding long-lasting gas sterilization procedures. Finally, size is much smaller and set up time much shorter compared to commercial systems currently in use in surgery rooms, making it easy to consider our system very useful for intra-operatory mapping operations.
Optical excitation of Er centers in GaN epilayers grown by MOCVD

In this paper we present results of photoluminescence (PL), photoluminescence excitation (PLE), and time resolved PL spectroscopy of the 4I13/2 → 4I15/2 transition in Er optical centers in GaN epilayers grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. Under resonance excitation via the higher-lying inner 4f shell transitions and band-to-band excitation of the semiconductor host, the PL and PLE spectra reveal an existence of two types of Er optical centers from isolated and the defect-related Er centers in GaN epilayers. These centers have different PL spectra, local defect environments, decay dynamics, and excitation cross-sections. The isolated Er optical center, which can be excited by either excitation mechanism, has the same decay dynamics, but possesses a much higher cross-section under band-to-band excitation. In contrast, the defect-related Er center can only be observed through band-to-band excitation but has the largest crosssection. Our results indicate pathways for efficient optical excitation of Er-doped GaN semiconductors.
Fine Structure of Cryptococcus neoformans Grown In Vitro as Observed by Freeze-Etching

Cryptococcus neoformans grown on culture media was observed by the freeze-etching technique. In the capsule, short fibrils were seen when freezeetched. This organism was unique in the appearance of the cell wall, which showed two strata. The outer one was dense with particles of about 20 nm in diameter, whereas the inner one was sparse in particles. The appearance of the cell membrane of this organism differed distinctly depending on the culture media. When grown on glycerol medium, the cell membrane possessed, as do other yeasts, clear but somewhat longer and curved invaginations. The membrane of cells grown on nonglycerol medium exhibited, however, only a few invaginations of irregular shape. Instead, characteristically of this organism, the cell membrane showed round depressions of 40 to 200 nm in diameter which were the surface view of the paramural bodies. In cross-fractured cells, both types of paramural bodies were found. Some of them contained a single vesicle of about 50 nm in diameter. These seem to play a role in secreting the cytoplasmic vesicles. Data suggesting the existence of multivesicular bodies in the cytoplasm and multivesicular lomasomes were also obtained. Some of the baglike paramural bodies showed multilayered membrane. These are thought to be plasmalemmasomes. This organism was similar to other yeasts reported in other respects.
Call Centre Work for Women: Career or Stopgap?

Abstract Much of the international literature asserts that call centres are workplaces characterised by high levels of stress, worker burnout, limited career paths and high staff turnover. The position of women is also portrayed negatively with many researchers finding women still face a number of barriers that prevent their promotion to management within a predominantly female workforce. This research contests the claim that there are limited career trajectories for women in call centres. Exploratory research with key informants in New Zealand suggests that the call centre work experience provides product or company knowledge and skills, which may assist women to gain promotion to management positions, internally or externally. The New Zealand call industry is dominated by smaller call centres and government sector call centres. This may explain why the preliminary research findings for New Zealand on women and call centre work are different to those found in the international literature. Based on case study research on five best practice companies chosen to represent the shape and diversity of the New Zealand call centre industry, this paper discusses initial findings and concerns affecting women and their career opportunities in call centres.
Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics Scatterplots : Tasks , Data , and Designs

Traditional scatterplots fail to scale as the complexity and amount of data increases. In response, there exist many design options that modify or expand the traditional scatterplot design to meet these larger scales. This breadth of design options creates challenges for designers and practitioners who must select appropriate designs for particular analysis goals. In this paper, we help designers in making design choices for scatterplot visualizations. We survey the literature to catalog scatterplot-specific analysis tasks. We look at how data characteristics influence design decisions. We then survey scatterplot-like designs to understand the range of design options. Building upon these three organizations, we connect data characteristics, analysis tasks, and design choices in order to generate challenges, open questions, and example best practices for the effective design of scatterplots.
Performance Evaluation of Service Centers for a Servitizing Company

Equipment manufacturers are launching ever more extensive maintenance services for the machines they sell. We find evidence that such a servitization strategy does not only add customer value but can also enable higher operational efficiency and profitability. To be successful in a servitization strategy proper performance evaluation of the service centers is required. We show that Data Envelopment Analysis is a suitable technique for benchmarking in field services. The developed model copes with the frequently encountered problems of zero weights and insufficient discriminative power, while incorporating the strategic directive of servitization. Our approach is applied at a case study company in the compressed air industry.
Preparation and properties of a pH sensitive carrier based on three kinds of polymer blend to control the release of 5-amino salicylic acid

Abstract Context: High concentration of 5-amino salicylic acid (5-ASA) in the distal ileum and colon is necessary for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The control of small molecules, drugs, released from a polymeric matrix remains a great challenge. Objective: To study the preparation and properties of a pH-sensitive carrier for targeting delivery of 5-ASA. Materials and methods: The carrier was prepared by ternary blends method based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), sodium alginate (SA) and polylactic acid. It was characterized by infrared spectrometry and scanning electronic microscopy. The adsorption and release of 5-ASA in different pH media were investigated. Results: We found out the best ratio of the materials for synthetic carrier. The vector exhibited good performance by the controlled release of the target drug experiment. The adsorption capacity of the carrier for 5-ASA was 70.34% in phosphate buffer saline at pH 1.00, and the release rate was 100.49% in phosphate buffer solution at pH 6.80. Discussion and conclusion: PVA is vector backbone of the carrier, and SA plays key role in its pH performance. It is a promising material to effectively deliver 5-ASA to the specific sites of IBD.
A Critique of Competitive Advantage

Despite its ubiquity, the concept of competitive advantage is surprisingly under-defined. At its worst, it is nothing more than a tautology: successful firms are successful because they have competitive advantage, which in turn cannot be defined in any other way than as a quality that brings about success. Defining the possession in terms of the outcome it produces presents ontological difficulties: both in cases when competitive advantages is posited ex ante and in situations where the chain of causality is contestable.
New device for control of female urinary incontinence.

pain, gave increasing doses of mnorphine to a moribund patient, he knew that the patient would die from respiratory failure. Technically, therefore, he was guilty of murder. With advances in medicine, however, potent analgesics might be found which did not depress respiration. If, then, a doctor gave increasing doses of morphine to a patient with an incurable or terminal illness, he was open to prosecution and possibly a prison sentence. Under these circumstances doctors might want euthanasia legalized. Professor Williams agreed that patients who were severely ill, or in acute pain or discomfort, and who were unlikely to recover, should be offered euthanasia. Legislation could be introduced for a short period only in order to assess its effects. Safeguards, however, would be necessary, since old people who were a burden to others might be induced to sign away their lives, or a patient who gave consent might not have been of sound mind at the time. Forgery and coercion were also possible.
Analysis of the Reflectance Spectral Characteristics of the Greenhouse Cucumber under Different Water and Nitrogen Conditions

The correlation of the cucumber reflectance spectrum characteristics under different water and nitrogen conditions were studied. The results indicate that the spectral reflectance rate of greenhouse cucumber leaves decreases in the visible light band, while increasing in the near-infrared band with the rise of water and nitrogen supply levels. In the picking period, the red trough reflectance rate of cucumber is negatively correlated with the leaf photosynthesis rate under high water condition (W1) while having a positive correlation with the latter under a low water condition (W2). Spectral indices such as WI1 /NDVI (675, 1050) have an extremely evident correlation with such indices as leaf water potential. The analysis indicate that reflectance spectral technology can be used to monitor the water and nitrogen supply levels of plants in greenhouse and forecast the leaf photosynthesis rate and water shortage.