Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reconstruction of chronic collateral ligament injuries to fingers by use of suture anchors.

AIM To evaluate the effectiveness of suture anchors in the reconstruction of chronic collateral ligaments of fingers. METHODS We treated 8 patients, 6 with chronic instability of the collateral ligament of the thumb and 2 with the instability of the fifth finger, using the Statak suture anchor. A stable joint was achieved in each case, with no recurrent instability or pain within a mean of 14 months of the follow up. RESULTS Postoperatively, each patient returned to his or her original job, their daily activities, and sports. There was no significant difference on manual stress testing measurements between operated and uninjured fingers. Mean pinch strength and range of motion were 90% (range, 78-104%) and 94% (range, 70-100%), respectively, compared to uninjured fingers. CONCLUSION Suture anchor technique can be recommended as a simple and effective method of repairing the collateral ligament of fingers.
Statistical Multiscale Image Segmentation via Alpha-Stable Modeling

This paper presents a new statistical image segmentation algorithm, in which the texture features are modeled by symmetric alpha-stable (SalphaS) distributions. These features are efficiently combined with the dominant color feature to perform automatic segmentation. First, the image is roughly segmented into textured and nontextured regions using the dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DT-CWT) with the sub-band coefficients modeled as SalphaS random variables. A mul-tiscale segmentation is then applied to the resulting regions, according to the local texture characteristics. Finally, a novel statistical region merging algorithm is introduced by measuring the Kullback-Leibler distance (KLD) between estimated SalphaS models for the neighboring segments. Experiments show that our algorithm achieves superior segmentation results in comparison with existing state-of-the-art image segmentation algorithms.
The Oxford handbook of lifelong learning

Amid fluctuations in today's job markets and economies, the importance of learning across the lifespan has become a point of emphasis for governments and employers throughout the world. The Oxford Handbook of Lifelong Learning is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of the theory and practice of lifelong learning, encompassing perspectives from human resources development, adult learning, psychology, career and vocational learning, management and executive development, cultural anthropology, the humanities, and gerontology. Individual chapters address the most relevant topics on the subject, including: - continuous learning as it relates to technological, economic, and organizational changes - developmental theories and research, models of lifelong learning, and the neurological bases for learning across the lifespan - examples of learning programs, tools, and technologies, with a focus on corporate programs and business education - international perspectives on lifelong learning and learning across cultures - assessment of learning needs and outcomes This comprehensive and forward-thinking handbook is an important resource - both personal and professional - for students, scholars, and for practitioners in the fields of training and development, human resource management, continuing education, instructional technology, professional development, and organizational psychology.
Accountability and the 3 R's.

I began my remarks to staff at the beginning of this school year as follows: "This year is the 'moment of truth' for the Basic Competencies Program adopted by the Board of School Trustees in 1974; a policy which stipulates that Students not mentally handicapped shall by examination show that they are (1) able to read, speak, and understand ordinary English; (2) write a simple, correct, intelligible paragraph; (3) perform with reasonable mastery fundamental mathematical processes. ' "For the first time, beginning with the June, 1977 class, seniors to receive a diploma will be required to demonstrate proficiency in the 3 R's. I have been impressed with the manner in which this new policy has been implemented, and by the response to it. It has brought about a degree of student, parent and staff accountability and has had a very positive impact on the entire system. " The issue of shared responsibility alluded to in the final sentence is a key one. One reason teachers have responded negatively to the notion of accountability is that it has been presented in a way which points an accusing finger at them alone. This is as unfair as the "blame the victim" syndrome which holds students completely answerable for their academic progress. The matter is not so easily resolved. Teaching and learning is a complex interaction over which no one person can wave a magic wand, and whose course no individual can dictate completely. One of the reasons the Basic Competencies Program in Gary has not run aground on the accountability issue is that there has been continual emphasis on the concept of shared responsibility. Parents, students, and teachers are part of the process. Increasingly they recognize that while each is part of the problem, in concert they can provide the solution. How this has come about requires some consideration of how the competency program itself has developed. Long before the School Board's action in September, 1974, there were numerous meetings among staff about the problem of extensive underachievement in our schools. About 10% of our 2,500 high
Fluorometric polymerase chain reaction (PCR) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for quantification of immuno-PCR products in microplates.

Immuno-polymerase chain reaction (immuno-PCR) allows the detection of protein amounts as low as a few hundred molecules. This enhanced sensitivity is useful for a variety of applications in analytical and biomedical sciences. Application of this technique as a routine method requires the rapid quantification of the PCR products, preferably as an automated readout by microplate-based assays. Here, three methods are compared for detecting such amplified products, i. e. , direct staining with a fluorescent intercalating dye, an enzymatic assay utilizing doubly hapten-labeled products, and gel electrophoresis. The enzymatic assay, carried out with either chromogenic or fluorogenic substrate for enzymatic signal amplification, was found to be the most sensitive method. The optimized assay was tested in direct immuno-PCR assays for detecting immunoglobulins (IgG) from mouse and rabbit as well as in a sandwich immuno-PCR assay for detecting recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen (rec. HBsAg). Sensitivity limits were found to be as low as 15 fg (10(-19) mol) IgG, representing a 1000-fold enhancement compared to enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay detection, and about 70 fg (2 x 10(-18) mol) rec. HBsAg, improving the detection limit of currently available methods by a factor of about 700. The well-reproducible enzymatic amplification signal further enhances the sensitivity of immuno-PCR and should render the method suitable for routine laboratories.
Modulation of protein A binding allows single-step purification of mouse bispecific antibodies that retain FcRn binding

ABSTRACT The increased number of bispecific antibodies (BsAb) under therapeutic development has resulted in a need for mouse surrogate BsAbs. Here, we describe a one-step method for generating highly pure mouse BsAbs suitable for in vitro and in vivo studies. We identify two mutations in the mouse IgG2a and IgG2b Fc region: one that eliminates protein A binding and one that enhances protein A binding by 8-fold. We show that BsAbs harboring these mutations can be purified from the residual parental monoclonal antibodies in one step using protein A affinity chromatography. The structural basis for the effects of these mutations was analyzed by X-ray crystallography. While the mutation that disrupted protein A binding also inhibited FcRn interaction, a bispecific mutant in which one subunit retained the ability to bind protein A could still interact with FcRn. Pharmacokinetic analysis of the serum half-lives of the mutants showed that the mutant BsAb had a serum half-life comparable to a wild-type Ab. The results describe a rapid method for generating panels of mouse BsAbs that could be used in mouse studies.
[Reproductive toxicity of formaldehyde to adult male rats and the functional mechanism concerned].

OBJECTIVE To assess the reproductive toxicity exerted by formaldehyde to adult male rats and the functional mechanism therein in volved. METHODS Forty adult male rats were randomLy divided into 4 groups. One group served as control. The other 3 groups as exposure groups were intraperitoneally injected with formaldehyde at the dose of 0.10 mg/kg x d, 1.00 mg/kg x d, 10 mg/kg x d respectively and continuously for 14 days. The weight and morphology of testis, the quality and amount of sperm, and the serum hormone were examined. In addition, the apoptosis rate of testis tissue was examined by TUNEL and the expression of Fas gene in testis tissue by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS Compared with control, the weight of testis in the high-dose formaldehyde exposure group significantly decreased (P < 0.05); the convoluted tubules became atrophied, the layers of seminiferous epithelium decreased, the arrangement of seminiferous epithelium was in disorder in the medium- and high-dose formaldehyde exposure groups; the sperm count and sperm motility significantly decreased (P < 0.05), the percent of abnormal sperm significantly increased (P < 0.05)in the medium- and high-dose formaldehyde exposure groups; the serum testosterone content mildly decreased and the serum FSH and LH content mildly increased in the formaldehyde exposure groups, but no statistically significant difference was observed. Moreover, in comparison with control, the apoptosis rate and the expression of Fas gene increased in the testicular tissue of rats in the medium- and high-dose formaldehyde exposure groups (P < 0.05). The apoptosis rate was significantly correlated with the expression of Fas gene (r = 0.8832, P < 0. 05). CONCLUSION Formaldehyde exerts reproductive toxicity to adult male rats, and Fas-mediated apoptosis may be one of the functional mechanisms involved in the reproductive toxicity of formaldehyde.
Nerve Growth Factor Facilitates Regeneration across Nerve Gaps: Morphological and Behavioral Studies in Rat Sciatic Nerve

The rat sciatic nerve does not possess a high potential for regeneration through silastic tubes when the interstump nerve gap is greater than 10 mm. In this study, the effect of NGF treatment on regeneration of the rat sciatic nerve in 10- and 15-mm silastic chambers was compared. In addition, regeneration in 15-mm silastic chambers was compared to regeneration in 15-mm semipermeable chambers. Sections of tubing were implanted and filled with NGF or a control solution of cytochrome C (Cyt. C). Tube implants were removed at various postoperative times and regeneration was assessed histologically and behaviorally. NGF treatment promoted regeneration success rate. It enhanced the initial outgrowth of nonneuronal cells and neuronal fibers into the chamber producing more cellular, organized regenerates. At 2 weeks, in 10-mm chambers, NGF-treated regenerates had fourfold more unmyelinated fibers than controls. At 3 weeks, NGF-treated regenerates possessed threefold more myelinated fibers than controls. After 4 weeks all regenerates had similar numbers of myelinated nerves at the chamber's midpoint. This initial "head start" was sustained peripherally as indicated by the earlier return of sensory function (response to a noxious temperature stimulus) in NGF-treated animals. Finally, regeneration success rate in 15-mm semipermeable tubes is greater than that in 15-mm silastic chambers (NGF and Cyt. C). However, regenerates in silastic chambers possessed twofold more myelinated fibers than regenerates in semipermeable chambers. The positive effects of NGF on neural regeneration and recovery of sensory function provide support for the potential use of NGF in treating peripheral nerve injuries.
Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase Is Required for TLR2 and TLR4-Induced TNF, but Not IL-6, Production1

Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (Btk), the gene mutated in the human immunodeficiency X-linked agammaglobulinemia, is activated by LPS and is required for LPS-induced TNF production. In this study, we have investigated the role of Btk both in signaling via another TLR (TLR2) and in the production of other proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8. Our data show that in X-linked agammaglobulinemia PBMCs, stimulation with TLR4 (LPS) or TLR2 (N-palmitoyl-S-[2, 3-bis(palmitoyloxy)-(2R)-propyl]-(R)-cysteine) ligands produces significantly less TNF and IL-1β than in normal controls. In contrast, a lack of Btk has no impact on the production of IL-6, IL-8, or the anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-10. Our previous data suggested that Btk lies within a p38-dependent pathway that stabilizes TNF mRNA. Accordingly, TaqMan quantitative PCR analysis of actinomycin D time courses presented in this work shows that overexpression of Btk is able to stabilize TNF, but not IL-6 mRNA. Furthermore, using the p38 inhibitor SB203580, we show that the TLR4-induced production of TNF, but not IL-6, requires the activity of p38 MAPK. These data provide evidence for a common requirement for Btk in TLR2- and TLR4-mediated induction of two important proinflammatory cytokines, TNF and IL-1β, and reveal important differences in the TLR-mediated signals required for the production of IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10.
Freshwater shrimp–sponge association from an ancient lake

Shrimp–sponge associations occur frequently in marine ecosystems, serving as model systems for the evolution of eusociality. Here, we describe the first known instance of such association in freshwater from an ancient lake in Indonesia. The shrimp Caridina spongicola forms an exclusive and probably commensal association with a yet undescribed spongillinid sponge. Phylogenetic and ecological data suggest a comparatively recent origin of both taxa. Climatic fluctuations may have facilitated speciation and occasional hybridization of the shrimp species, which is derived from a rock-dwelling ancestor. Their extremely localized occurrence in an increasingly disturbed area makes both taxa a conservation priority.
Knowing History in Mexico: An Ethnography of Citizenship

While much has been written about national history and citizenship, anthropologist Trevor Stack focuses on the history and citizenship of towns and cities. Basing his inquiry on fieldwork in west Mexican towns near Guadalajara, Stack begins by observing that people talked (and wrote) of their towns' history and not just of Mexico's. Key to Stack's study is the insight that knowing history can give someone public status or authority. It can make someone stand out as a good or eminent citizen. What is it about history that makes this so? What is involved in knowing history and who is good at it? And what do they gain from being eminent citizens, whether of towns or nations? As well as academic historians, Stack interviewed people from all walks of life--bricklayers, priests, teachers, politicians, peasant farmers, lawyers, and migrants. Resisting the idea that history is intrinsically interesting or valuable--that one simply must know the past in order to understand the present--he explores the very idea of "the past" and asks why it is valued by so many people.
CROSSING THE BORDERS THAT DEFINE DIFFERENCE: THE CULTURE, POLITICS, AND PRACTICE OF SOLIDARITY IN TWO HIGH SCHOOLS

Title of dissertation: CROSSING THE BORDERS THAT DEFINE DIFFERENCE: THE CULTURE, POLITICS, AND PRACTICE OF SOLIDARITY IN TWO HIGH SCHOOLS Beth A. Douthirt Cohen, Doctor of Philosophy 2013 Dissertation directed by: Professor Barbara Finkelstein Department of Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership This multi-sited ethnography explores the experiences of high school students in the United States as they enact solidarity across various identity borders including race, gender, socioeconomic status, sexuality, and mental/physical ability. Specifically, the study focuses on relatively privileged young people in two distinctly different schools—an urban coeducational public school and a suburban all-boys private school. The students entered into solidarity across difference in order to protest the marginalization of minority groups. Using observations and in-depth interviews, this study documents the process of how, when, and why these students came to enact solidarity as a tool to alter systems of power and privilege. For these students, their journeys towards enacting solidarity began with a discovery of the borders that maintain inequality. These discoveries included a process of 1) experiencing or witnessing marginalization, 2) questioning the borders that maintain systems of power and privilege, 3) re-imagining identity categories, 4) integrating new ways of interacting across difference into their sense of self and sense of the world, and 5) seeking out opportunities to learn new ways of thinking about “others. ” In an attempt to alter the borders that maintain inequality, the students took on the roles of helpers, messengers, advocates, and activists. They enacted solidarity in different ways at different moments based on their skills, capacities, perceived risks, and on their own understandings of justice, inequality, power, and social change. Over time, the student’s enactments of solidarity became dynamic and fluid, while navigating various pitfalls such as paternalism. They employed various forms of solidarity, including human, social, and civic solidarities, and sought to build what this study calls “cultural solidarity” in their schools and communities in order to achieve social, political, and, perhaps most prominently, cultural change. The findings suggest that the agency of relatively privileged students is an effective tool that educators and scholars can harness in interrupting inequality in schools. Dynamic and less rigid conceptions of solidarity better reflect how young people enact solidarity in their daily lives. Through curricular, philosophical, and pedagogical choices, high schools can enable or limit the manner in which students approach difference across groups.
ILM facial performance capture

Industrial Light & Magic utilized facial capture technology on a massive scale to bring more than two dozen computer-generated characters to life in the new Warcraft, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Star Wars films. Here we present our flexible proprietary facial capture system which was used to faithfully translate all the subtle nuances, lip movements, and saccades of over 1200 facial performances onto editable, artist-friendly animation rigs, and ultimately the big screen.
State Intervention and Childhood Multiple Personality Disorder

Multiple personality disorder is a mental disorder caused, in part, by childhood trauma, most usually severe and sustained physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. Although the disorder is usually diagnosed in adults, evidence shows that it develops during childhood, with the first personality split typically occurring before the age of eight. Using a criterion of harm, this article argues that the diagnosis of multiple personality in a child ought serve as prima facie evidence for child abuse, even if compelling physical evidence is lacking. Medical, social, and legal problems raised by the diagnosis of childhood multiple personality disorder are discussed.
A Resilient Mutual Exclusion Algorithm for Computer Networks

The authors present an extension to the work of I. Suzuki and T. Kasami (see Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. Distributed Compact Syst., p.365-70 (1982)), where a mutual exclusion algorithm uses a message called a token to transfer the privilege of entering a critical region among the participating sites. The proposed algorithm checks whether the token is lost during network failure, and regenerates it if necessary. The mutual exclusion requirement is satisfied by guaranteeing regeneration of only one token in the network. Failures in a computer network are classified into three types: processor failure, communication controller failure, and communication link failure. To detect failures, a time-out mechanism based on message delay is used. The execution of the algorithm is described for each type of failure; each site follows a rather simple execution procedure. Each site is not required to observe the failure of other sites or communication links. >
Private inference control

Access control can be used to ensure that database queries pertaining to sensitive information are not answered. This is not enough to prevent users from learning sensitive information though, because users can combine non-sensitive information to discover something sensitive. Inference control prevents users from obtaining sensitive information via such "inference channels", however, existing inference control techniques are not private - that is, they require the server to learn what queries the user is making in order to deny inference-enabling queries. We propose a new primitive - private inference control (PIC) -which is a means for the server to provide inference control without learning what information is being retrieved. PIC is a generalization of private and symmetrically-private information retrieval (PIR/SPIR). While it is straightforward to implement access control using PIR (simply omit sensitive information from the database), it is nontrivial to implement inference control efficiently. We measure the efficiency of a PIC protocol in terms of its communication complexity, its round complexity, and the work the server performs per query. Under existing cryptographic assumptions, we give a PIC scheme which is simultaneously optimal, up to logarithmic factors, in the work the server performs per query, the total communication complexity, and the number of rounds of interaction. We also present a scheme requiring more communication but sufficient storage of state by the server to facilitate private user revocation. Finally, we present a generic reduction which shows that one can focus on designing PIC schemes for which the inference channels take a particularly simple threshold form.
Using mixture models for collaborative filtering

A collaborative filtering system at an e-commerce site or similar service uses data about aggregate user behavior to make recommendations tailored to specific user interests. We develop recommendation algorithms with provable performance guarantees in a probabilistic mixture model for collaborative filtering proposed by Hoffman and Puzicha. We identify certain novel parameters of mixture models that are closely connected with the best achievable performance of a recommendation algorithm; we show that for any system in which these parameters are bounded, it is possible to give recommendations whose quality converges to optimal as the amount of data grows.All our bounds depend on a new measure of independence that can be viewed as an L1-analogue of the smallest singular value of a matrix. Using this, we introduce a technique based on generalized pseudoinverse matrices and linear programming for handling sets of high-dimensional vectors. We also show that standard approaches based on L2-spectral methods are not strong enough to yield comparable results, thereby suggesting some inherent limitations of spectral analysis.