Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Useful Tips for Skin Grafts

Skin grafting is a common operative procedure that is widely used in plastic, reconstructive, and aesthetic surgery. Beyond mere graft survival, however, the goals of surgery include good matching of texture and color and minimizing donor morbidity. These factors and optimal donor sites require careful consideration in each patient. We have found that the recommen‐ dations offered below can help achieve these goals.
The Genetic Architecture of Arsenic Metabolism Efficiency:A SNP-Based Heritability Study of Bangladeshi Adults

Background Consumption of arsenic-contaminated drinking water adversely affects health. There is interindividual variation in arsenic metabolism efficiency, partially due to genetic variation in the arsenic methyltransferase (AS3MT) gene region. Objectives The goal of this study was to assess the overall contribution of genetic factors to variation in arsenic metabolism efficiency, as measured by the relative concentration of dimethylarsinic acid (DMA%) in urine. Methods Using data on genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and urinary DMA% for 2,053 arsenic-exposed Bangladeshi individuals, we employed various SNP-based approaches for heritability estimation and polygenic modeling. Results Using data on all participants, the percent variance explained (PVE) for DMA% by all measured and imputed SNPs was 16% (p = 0.08), which was reduced to 5% (p = 0.34) after adjusting for AS3MT SNPs. Using information on close relatives only, the PVE was 63% (p = 0.0002), but decreased to 41% (p = 0.01) after adjusting for AS3MT SNPs. Regional heritability analysis confirmed 10q24.32 (AS3MT) as a major arsenic metabolism locus (PVE = 7%, p = 4.4 × 10–10), but revealed no additional regions. We observed a moderate association between a polygenic score reflecting elevated DMA% (composed of thousands of non-AS3MT SNPs) and reduced skin lesion risk in an independent sample (p < 0.05). We observed no associations for SNPs reported in prior candidate gene studies of arsenic metabolism. Conclusions Our results suggest that there are common variants outside of the AS3MT region that influence arsenic metabolism in Bangladeshi individuals, but the effects of these variants are very weak compared with variants near AS3MT. The high heritability estimates observed using family-based heritability approaches suggest substantial effects for rare variants and/or unmeasured environmental factors. Citation Gao J, Tong L, Argos M, Scannell Bryan M, Ahmed A, Rakibuz-Zaman M, Kibriya MG, Jasmine F, Slavkovich V, Graziano JH, Ahsan H, Pierce BL. 2015. The genetic architecture of arsenic metabolism efficiency: a SNP-based heritability study of Bangladeshi adults. Environ Health Perspect 123:985–992; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1408909
OperationCheckpoint: SDN Application Control

One of the core properties of Software Defined Networking (SDN) is the ability for third parties to develop network applications. This introduces increased potential for innovation in networking from performance-enhanced to energy-efficient designs. In SDN, the application connects with the network via the SDN controller. A specific concern relating to this communication channel is whether an application can be trusted or not. For example, what information about the network state is gathered by the application? Is this information necessary for the application to execute or is it gathered for malicious intent? In this paper we present an approach to secure the northbound interface by introducing a permissions system that ensures that controller operations are available to trusted applications only. Implementation of this permissions system with our Operation Checkpoint adds negligible overhead and illustrates successful defense against unauthorized control function access attempts.
Late Development of Hagfish Vertebral Elements

It has been demonstrated recently that hagfishes, one of two groups of extant jawless vertebrates, have cartilaginous vertebral elements. Embryological and gene expression analyses have also shown that this group of animals develops a sclerotome, the potential primordium of the axial skeleton. However, it has not been shown unequivocally that the hagfish sclerotome truly differentiates into cartilage, because access to late-stage embryos and information about the cartilaginous extracellular matrix (ECM) are lacking for these animals. Here we investigated the expression patterns of the biglycan/decorin (BGN/DCN) gene in the inshore hagfish, Eptatretus burgeri. The homologue of this gene encodes the major noncollagenous component of the cartilaginous ECM among gnathostomes. We clearly identified the expression of this gene in adult vertebral tissues and in embryonic mesenchymal cells on the ventral aspect of the notochord. Taking into account that the sclerotome in the gnathostomes expresses BGN/DCN gene during the chondrogenesis, it is highly expected the hagfish BGN/DCN-positive mesenchymal cells are derived from the sclerotomes. We propose that hagfishes and gnathostomes share conserved developmental mechanisms not only in their somite differentiation, but also in chondrogenesis of their vertebral elements. J. Exp. Zool. (Mol. Dev. Evol.) 320B:129–139, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Sacroiliac Joint Fusion: One Year Clinical and Radiographic Results Following Minimally Invasive Sacroiliac Joint Fusion Surgery

Background: Recalcitrant sacroiliac joint pain responds well to minimally-invasive surgical (MIS) techniques, although long-term radiographic and fusion data are limited. Objective: To evaluate the one-year clinical results from a cohort of patients with chronic sacroiliac (SI) joint pain unresponsive to conservative therapies who have undergone minimally invasive SI joint fusion. Methods: SI joint fusion was performed between May 2011 and January 2014. Outcomes included radiographic assessment of fusion status, leg and back pain severity via visual analog scale (VAS), disability via Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and complication rate. Outcomes were measured at baseline and at follow-up appointments 6 months and 12 months post-procedure. Results: Twenty minimally invasive SI joint fusion procedures were performed on 18 patients (mean age: 47.2 (14.2), mean BMI: 29.4 (5.3), 56% female). At 12 months, the overall fusion rate was 88%. Back and leg pain improved from 81.7 to 44.1 points (p<0.001) and from 63.6 to 27.7 points (p=0.001), respectively. Disability scores improved from 61.0 to 40.5 (p=0.009). Despite a cohort containing patients with multiple comorbidities and work-related injuries, eight patients (50%) achieved the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) in back pain at 12 months, with 9 (69%) patients realizing this improvement in leg pain and 8 (57%) realizing the MCID in ODI scores at 12 months. No major complications were reported. Conclusion: Minimally invasive SI joint surgery is a safe and effective procedure, with a high fusion rate, a satisfactory safety profile and significant improvements in pain severity and disability reported through 12 months post-procedure.
Union Wage Strategies and International Trade

In this paper, we analyze the relationship between wage outcomes and the nature of international trade and economic integration when labour markets are unionized and a homogeneous product market is characterized by intra-industry trade. We characterize the full set of possible trade regimes for different combinations of wages and derive unions' wage reaction functions. We show that a unions' choice between a high and a low-wage strategy will depend on the value of the trade costs. We find that: (i) compared to a non-union setting, unions reduce the prohibitive trade cost and that (ii) this rules out trade in that region of trade costs over which, in the non-union model. welfare falls as trade costs fall, (iii) in any trade equilibrium, falling trade costs lead monopoly unions to set higher wages, (iv) there is a range of trade costs for which equilibrium is non-existent and (v) the characterization of the union wage-setting as a Prisioners' Dilemma and hence the incentives for international union coordination of wage demands, depend upon the extent of trade costs.
EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION - AT A GLANCE

The manufacturing and chemical industries have undergone significant changes during the past 15 years due to the increased cost of energy and increasingly stringent environmental regulations. Modification of both plant design procedures and plant operating conditions have been implemented in order to reduce costs and meet the constraints. Most industry observers believe that the emphasis in the near future will be on improving efficiency and increasing profitability of existing plants rather than on plant expansion. One of the most important engineering tools that can be employed in such activities is optimization. As computers have become more powerful, the size and complexity of problems which can be simulated and solved by optimization techniques, have correspondingly expanded. Most of the traditional optimization techniques based on gradient methods have the possibility of getting trapped at local optimum depending upon the degree of non-linearity and initial guess. Hence, these traditional optimization techniques do not ensure global optimum and also have limited applications. In the recent past, non traditional search and optimization methods based on natural phenomenon (Evolutionary Computation) such as Simulated Annealing (SA) (Kirkpatrick et al., 1983), Genetic Algorithms (GA) (Goldberg, 1989), and Differential Evolution (DE) (Price & Storn, 1997), to name a few, have been developed to overcome this problem.
Classification of moving objects using active vision

An offline system that is capable to detect the moving object and classify it into three classes: “Human, Vehicle and Animal” is presented. The detection of the target based on Background Subtraction technique. The classification makes use of both static and dynamic features of the moving objects. All features are sequentially arranged to improve the classification significantly.
An interaction model for consumer-retailer relationships

Repurchasing is one of the crucial marketing areas that has recently occupied the attention of both researchers and marketing managers of retailers. While most consumer-retailer relationship studies concern the behaviour of either retailer or consumer, this article develops a notion of the relationship as an interactive phenomenon that needs an integrative approach in which the characteristics and behaviour of both parties are taken into consideration. By using the relationship theory to expose the repurchasing behaviour of consumers, the attempt is to further enlarge the understanding of relationship interdependencies between retailers and consumers. The discussion put forward in this article is based on a research proposal and application that formed the starting ground for a larger research project at the Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University. The research project involves four senior staff and three doctoral candidates and was started in 2003. The purpose of this article is to develop an interaction model for relationships between consumers and retailers based on earlier research in the area, thereby opening up a new research field. This model will in future years be used for empirical studies of both a qualitative and a quantitative nature, which may further revise and / or confirm the statements made here.
Do House Prices Impact Consumption and Interest Rate

This paper investigates the existence of significant spillovers from the housing sector onto the wider economy for the seven major OECD countries using Uhlig's (2005) agnostic identification procedure. This method allows a housing demand shock to be identified in a six-variable VAR model by imposing sign restrictions on the impulse responses of consumer prices, residential investment, real house prices and mortgage loans, while private consumption and nominal interest rate responses are left unrestricted. The results suggest that consumption responds positively and significantly to a house price shock in Canada, France, Japan and the UK. A significant positive delayed response of nominal interest rates follows a house price shock in Germany, Japan, the UK and the US, suggesting that while central banks do not seem to respond instantly and systematically to a housing demand shock, their repercussions on the economy tend to translate into higher policy rates after a few quarters.
Frequency domain estimation of time varying channels in OFDMA systems: An EM approach

OFDM modulation combines advantages of high achievable data rates and relatively easy implementation. However, for proper recovery of input, the OFDM receiver needs accurate channel information. Most algorithms proposed in literature perform channel estimation in time domain which increases computational complexity in multi-access situations where the user is only interested in part of the spectrum. In this paper, we propose a frequency domain algorithm for channel estimation in OFDMA systems. The algorithm performs eigenvalue decomposition of channel autocorrelation matrix and approximates channel frequency response seen by each user using the first few dominant eigenvectors. In a time variant environment, we derive a state space model for the evolution of the eigenmodes that help us to track them. This is done using a forward backward Kalman filter. The performance of the algorithm is further improved by employing a data-aided approach (based on expectation maximization).
The Cognitive and Behavioural Profile of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Application of the Consensus Criteria

Objective: The study aims to assess the spectrum of cognitive and behavioural disorders in patients affected by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) according to the recent consensus criteria [9]. The study also intends to assess the impact of physical disability on cognitive and behavioural abnormalities. Methods: Detailed neurological, neuropsychological and neurobehavioral evaluations were administered to 23 ALS patients, 11 Lower Motor Neuron Disease (LMND) patients and 39 healthy controls. Strong et al.’s criteria [9] were applied to diagnose the presence of cognitive/behavioural impairment. Clinical and neuropsychological scores were used for group comparisons and correlation analyses. Results: In comparison with LMND and controls, a subgroup of ALS patients (∼30%) manifested executive dysfunction, which was severe enough to classify them as cognitively impaired. Action naming difficulties and short-term memory deficits were also observed. Aspontaneity, disorganization and mental rigidity reached clinical relevance in 20% of ALS patients. A small percentage of ALS patients (13%) also had comorbid dementia. The cognitive or behavioural status was not related to the clinical features of ALS. Conclusion: The use of consensus criteria for cognitive and behavioural impairment and the comparison with the LMND group proved useful in defining the spectrum of non-motor manifestations of ALS.
Using Fast and Accurate Simulation to Explore Hardware/Software Trade-offs in the Multi-Core Era

Writing well-performing parallel programs is challenging in the multi-core processor era. In addition to achieving good per-thread performance, which in itself is a balancing act between instruction-level parallelism, pipeline effects and good memory performance, multi-threaded programs complicate matters even further. These programs require synchronization, and are affected by the interactions between threads through sharing of both processor resources and the cache hierarchy. At the Intel Exascience Lab, we are developing an architectural simulator called Sniper for simulating future exascale-era multi-core processors. Its goal is twofold: Sniper should assist hardware designers to make design decisions, while simultaneously providing software designers with a tool to gain insight into the behavior of their algorithms and allow for optimization. By taking architectural features into account, our simulator can provide more insight into parallel programs than what can be obtained from existing performance analysis tools. This unique combination of hardware simulator and software performance analysis tool makes Sniper a useful tool for a simultaneous exploration of the hardware and software design space for future high-performance multi-core systems.
Incremental radiosity: an extension of progressive radiosity to an interactive image synthesis system

Traditional radiosity methods can compute the illumination for a scene independent of the view position. However, if any part of the scene geometry is changed, the radiosity process will need to be repeated from scratch. Since the radiosity methods are generally expensive computationally, the traditional methods do not lend themselves to interactive uses where the geometry is constantly changing. This paper presents a new radiosity algorithm to incrementally render scenes with changing geometry and surface attributes. In other words, the question to be asked is "What is the minimum recomputation I need to do if I turn off a light source, change the color of a surface, add or move an object? " Because a modeling change generally exhibits some coherence and affects only parts of an image, the proposed method may drastically reduce the rendering time and therefore allow interactive manipulation. In addition, since the method is conducted incrementally and view-independently, the rendering process can start before the modeling process is completed. The traditional paradigm of modeling-then-rendering is changed to rendering-while-modeling. This approach not only gives the user better visual feedback but also effectively utilizes CPU time otherwise wasted in the modeling process.
A neuro-fuzzy collaborative filtering approach for Web recommendation

Due to the growing variety and quantity of information available on the Web, there is urgent need for developing web-based applications capable of adapting their services to the needs of the users. This is the main rationale behind the flourishing area of Web recommendation, that finds in Soft Computing techniques a valid tool to handle uncertainty in web usage data and develop web-based applications tailored on users preferences. In this context, we propose a neuro-fuzzy strategy that combines soft computing techniques to develop a Web recommendation system that dynamically suggests interesting URLs for the current user. As a preliminary step, user access logs are analyzed to identify user sessions. Then, groups of users which exhibit a common browser behavior (i.e. user profiles) are discovered by applying a fuzzy clustering algorithm to the user sessions. Finally, a knowledge extraction process is carried out to derive associations between user profiles and relevant Web pages to be suggested to users. In particular, a hybrid approach based on the combination of the fuzzy reasoning and the connectionist paradigm is proposed in order to derive knowledge from session data and represent it in the comprehensible form of fuzzy rules. The derived knowledge is ultimately used to dynamically suggest links to Web pages judged interesting for the current user.
Partial uracil–DNA–glycosylase treatment for screening of ancient DNA

The challenge of sequencing ancient DNA has led to the development of specialized laboratory protocols that have focused on reducing contamination and maximizing the number of molecules that are extracted from ancient remains. Despite the fact that success in ancient DNA studies is typically obtained by screening many samples to identify a promising subset, ancient DNA protocols have not, in general, focused on reducing the time required to screen samples. We present an adaptation of a popular ancient library preparation method that makes screening more efficient. First, the DNA extract is treated using a protocol that causes characteristic ancient DNA damage to be restricted to the terminal nucleotides, while nearly eliminating it in the interior of the DNA molecules, allowing a single library to be used both to test for ancient DNA authenticity and to carry out population genetic analysis. Second, the DNA molecules are ligated to a unique pair of barcodes, which eliminates undetected cross-contamination from this step onwards. Third, the barcoded library molecules include incomplete adapters of short length that can increase the specificity of hybridization-based genomic target enrichment. The adapters are completed just before sequencing, so the same DNA library can be used in multiple experiments, and the sequences distinguished. We demonstrate this protocol on 60 ancient human samples.
Intelligibility of Speech from Phase Spectrum

A weapon system including a main gun using link fed ammunition and a co-axially mounted machine gun mounted in a turret rotatably positionable in an armored vehicle. The spent links for the main gun and the spent machine gun links and brass are ejected through the trunnion bearing on which the rotor for the main gun rotates and into a compartment which communicates with the exterior of the vehicle. The linked ammunition for the main gun is stored in a rectangular shaped ammunition box positioned diametrically in the turret basket. The manual trigger and main gun elevation assembly includes a mechanical connection between the trigger and the trigger switch which does not rotate with the trigger and handwheel. The link eject chutes for the main gun, which can be a dual fed 25 millimeter gun, include guide strips for guiding the tab members of the links through the chute channels and thereby preventing jamming.
NO‐ARBITRAGE PRICING UNDER SYSTEMIC RISK: ACCOUNTING FOR CROSS‐OWNERSHIP

We generalize Merton’s asset valuation approach to systems of multiple financial firms where cross‐ownership of equities and liabilities is present. The liabilities, which may include debts and derivatives, can be of differing seniority. We derive equations for the prices of equities and recovery claims under no‐arbitrage. An existence result and a uniqueness result are proven. Examples and an algorithm for the simultaneous calculation of all no‐arbitrage prices are provided. A result on capital structure irrelevance for groups of firms regarding externally held claims is discussed, as well as financial leverage and systemic risk caused by cross‐ownership.
Comparative study of adaptive beam-steering and adaptive modulation-assisted dynamic channel allocation algorithms

A range of dynamic channel allocation (DCA) algorithms, namely, distributed control and locally distributed control assisted DCA arrangements, are studied comparatively. The so-called locally optimized least interference algorithm (LOLIA) emerges as one of the best candidates for future mobile systems, supporting more than twice the number of subscribers in comparison to conventional fixed channel allocation (FCA). It can also cope with unexpected large increases in teletraffic demands while requiring no tedious frequency planning. This is achieved at the cost of more complex call setup and control, and the requirement of fast backbone networks for base station-base station signalling. Adaptive antennas are shown to significantly enhance the capacity of both the LOLIA and FCA-based networks, especially when used in conjunction with adaptive modulation techniques.