Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
External loading of the knee joint during running and cutting maneuvers.

PURPOSE To investigate the external loads applied to the knee joint during dynamic cutting tasks and assess the potential for ligament loading. METHODS A 50-Hz VICON motion analysis system was used to determine the lower limb kinematics of 11 healthy male subjects during running, sidestepping, and crossover cut. A kinematic model was used in conjunction with force place data to calculate the three-dimensional loads at the knee joint during stance phase. RESULTS External flexion/extension loads at the knee joint were similar across tasks; however, the varus/valgus and internal/external rotation moments applied to the knee during sidestepping and crossover cutting were considerably larger than those measured during normal running (P < 0.05). Sidestepping tasks elicited combined loads of flexion, valgus, and internal rotation, whereas crossover cutting tasks elicited combined loads of flexion, varus, and external rotation. CONCLUSION Compared with running, the potential for increased ligament loading during sidestepping and crossover cutting maneuvers is a result of the large increase in varus/valgus and internal/external rotation moments rather than any change in the external flexion moment. The combined external moments applied to the knee joint during stance phase of the cutting tasks are believed to place the ACL and collateral ligaments at risk of injury, particularly at knee flexion angles between 0 degrees and 40 degrees, if appropriate muscle activation strategies are not used to counter these moments.
The Short Side of 130/30 Investing

Many long-only investment managers are looking for ways to offer 130/30 strategies and other “enhanced long strategies” or “constrained long-short portfolios. ” Conservative portfolio managers with little or no experience in short-selling can use sector evaluations from their firms' investment process to add alpha with short positions in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). While individual stock selection has the greatest potential to add value on the short side as well as on the long, differences in performance among various domestic sectors come in a close second. The dispersion in sector performance combined with some advantages of using ETFs to implement short sector positions makes sector ETFs to establish the short side of a 130/30 position a compelling choice for investment managers without fully integrated long-short stock portfolios. Some sector ETFs are easy to trade, easy to borrow, and easy to integrate as the short side of a long-short portfolio.
Clinical implication of 14-3-3 epsilon expression in gastric cancer.

AIM To evaluate for the first time the protein and mRNA expression of 14-3-3ε in gastric carcinogenesis. METHODS 14-3-3ε protein expression was determined by western blotting, and mRNA expression was examined by real-time quantitative RT-PCR in gastric tumors and their matched non-neoplastic gastric tissue samples. RESULTS Authors observed a significant reduction of 14-3-3ε protein expression in gastric cancer (GC) samples compared to their matched non-neoplastic tissue. Reduced levels of 14-3-3ε were also associated with diffuse-type GC and early-onset of this pathology. Our data suggest that reduced 14-3-3ε may have a role in gastric carcinogenesis process. CONCLUSION Our results reveal that the reduced 14-3-3ε expression in GC and investigation of 14-3-3ε interaction partners may help to elucidate the carcinogenesis process.
Industry perceptions of solar energy policy in the American southwest

The American southwest has among the best solar resources in the world. For this reason, the solar industry monitors the progress of solar energy development there closely. Yet, meaningful adoption has been slow, particularly in the state with the richest resource, Arizona. This article reports on the results of internet surveys and personal interviews to explain why this is true. We focused on identifying industry-perceived barriers to solar adoption. We asked three questions: (1) Which industry factors slow the speed of adoption of solar energy in Arizona? (2) Are there unmet workforce needs that slow adoption in Arizona? (3) Which policy incentives are needed to accelerate solar development? We identified a need for the following steps: establish financial security for projects with newly created and targeted statutory instruments, develop standardized college-level solar curriculum to train a local workforce, and provide conspicuous government support and supportive policy commitments that are sustainable. A systematic and integrated effort with government, industry, educational, and public representation is needed to make solar energy a significant contributor to the future economic vitality of the state, thereby helping to advance such adoption in other places with similar opportunities for solar energy development.
Enhancement of Spine Fusion Using Combined Gene Therapy and Tissue Engineering BMP-7-Expressing Bone Marrow Cells and Allograft Bone

Study Design. Prospective study to assess the enhancement of spine fusion using a tissue engineering construct consisting of bone marrow cells genetically modified by adenovirus (Ad) vector-encoding bone morphogenetic protein-7 (BMP-7) seeded onto an allograft scaffold in a rat model. Objectives. To evaluate Ad transgene expression at the fusion site and the effect of AdBMP-7-treatment on fusion rates, mechanical stability, microscopic anatomy, and bone formation rates. Summary of Background Data. Nonunion is a major complication of spine fusion. Gene transfer may be an effective method for locally overexpressing BMP-7, a gene important for bone formation and regeneration to enhance allograft spine fusion. Materials and Methods. Bone marrow cells were treated with AdBMP-7 or Ad&bgr;gal (encoding the marker gene &bgr;-galactosidase), AdNull (with no gene), or no vector and implanted with allograft in a site of posterior spine fusion. Marker gene expression was assessed up to 14 days after administration. Fusions were evaluated at 8 weeks. Results. Ad gene expression was maximal on day 3, waning to background levels by 14 days. With AdBMP-7 treatment, radiographic fusion rate was 70% and mechanical fusion rate was 80%versus 0% by either parameter in control groups. Fused AdBMP-7-treated spines had a 2.5-fold to 3.0-fold lower range of motion and 1.7-fold to 1.9-fold lower hysteresis than controls. Fusion masses of AdBMP-7-treated spines had the microscopic appearance of normal trabecular bone and showed a 23-fold higher uptake of fluorochrome indicating increased bone formation. Conclusions. Addition of AdBMP-7-modified marrow cells can enhance allograft spine fusion.
The Impact of Business Strategies on Online Sustainability Disclosures

With increasing attention being paid to corporate sustainability, pressure from stakeholders, especially customers, is forcing companies to implement sustainability strategies and practices that express their commitment to sustainable development, and engage with stakeholders through voluntary sustainability disclosure. To better understand the sustainability disclosure mechanisms from a business strategy perspective, this study investigates the influence of business strategy, formulated by customer groups, on online sustainability disclosure. It provides empirical observation of Malaysian public-listed companies based on the combined lens of stakeholder and legitimacy theory. Despite the comparatively low level of corporate sustainability disclosure in Malaysia, this content analysis of online sustainability information disclosure reveals that the companies with more diversified product lines disclose more sustainability information, and that the corporate sustainability effort is significantly related to brand name. Hence, companies should be encouraged to proactively improve their sustainability performance and disclose more sustainability information in order to strengthen their brand names. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
Options on Foreign Exchange and Exchange Rate Expectations

This paper tests alternative assumptions concerning the time-series behavior of foreign exchange rates. Data for about 20,000 individual trades on foreign exchange options for dollar exchange rates against six major currencies carried out from February 1983 to June 1985 are analyzed. The tests carried out suggest that, judging from the predictions of a model of options prices based on the assumption that exchange rates follow a diffusion process, market participants paid too high a price for call options that would have been profitable only if the dollar depreciated substantially within a short time period. An alternative model which allows for discrete jumps in exchange rates is found to be more consistent with the data.
Transformational leadership and branding behavior in Taiwanese hotels.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the messages delivered by transformational leaders to front‐line employees to build an organizational brand climate and encourage employees' branding behaviors, to attain better company performance within the Taiwanese hotel industry.Design/methodology/approach – Survey data were obtained from 34 human resource managers and 326 customer contact employees working in Taiwanese hotels.Findings – Transformational leadership was found to have both direct and indirect positive influences on the development of organizational brand climate and employees' branding behavior.Practical implications – Results suggest that transformational leaders may facilitate employees' branding behaviors by developing an organizational brand climate to distinguish the organization from its competitors and develop long‐term customer relationships.Originality/value – This study advances the knowledge of antecedents and outcomes of the organizational brand climate by applying a mul.
Lawyers and the rule of law in an era of globalization

1. "Introduction: Lawyers, Law, and Society" Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth Part 1: Law Embedded in Social Capital and Converted into Legal and Political Capital 2. "Greasing the Squeaky Wheel of Justice: Lawyers, Social Networks and Dispute Processing in Venezuela" Manuel A. Gomez 3. "Lawyers, Political Embeddedness, and Institutional Continuity in China's Transition from Socialism" Ethan Michelson 4. "The Classic Model and its Transformation" Maria Malatesta Part 2: Imported Know-How and Local Know-Who 5. "Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Argentina. Transnational Advocacy Networks and the Transformation of the National Legal Field" Virginia Vecchioli 6. Criminal Procedure Reform in Chile: New Agents and the Restructuring of a Field. " Daniel Palacios Munoz 7. "The US and the EU in East European Legal Reform"Ole Hammerslev 8. "Judicial Reform and the Transnational Construction of the Rule of Law in Latin America: The Return of Law and Development" Cesar Rodriguez-Garavito Part 3: Testing Rule-of-Law Hypotheses in the Context of the Largest Asian Economies 9. Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, "The Reform of the Profession of Lawyers in Japan: Impact on the Role of Law" Kaywah Chan 10. Hanyang University, Korea, "The Democratization and Internationalization of Korean Legal Field" Seong-Hyun Kim 11. Oxford/La Trobe, "Searching for Political Liberalism in all the Wrong Places: The Legal Profession in China as the Leading Edge of Political Reform? " Randall Peerenboom 12. "Conclusion. How to Convert Social Capital into Legal Capital and Transfer Legitimacy Across the Major Practice Divide" Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth
Tracking and counting vehicles in traffic video sequences using particle filtering

This paper presents a new method to track and count vehicles in video traffic sequences. The proposed method uses image processing, particle filtering, and motion coherence to group particles in videos, forming convex shapes that are analyzed for potential vehicles. This analysis takes into consideration the convex shape of the objects and background information to merge or split the groupings. After a vehicle is identified, it is tracked using the similarity of color histograms on windows centered at the particle locations.
A New Simple Technique for 3‐Dimensional Sonographic Assessment of the Pelvic Floor Muscles

The purpose of this study was to assess the reproducibility of a new technique for 3‐dimensional (3D) pelvic floor sonography: OmniView combined with Volume Contrast Imaging (VCI; GE Healthcare, Kretz Ultrasound, Zipf, Austria) for pelvic hiatal area measurement. In addition, we aimed to study the intermethod agreement between the new technique and the standard 3D rendering method.
Categorical Municipal Expenditures with a Focus on the Flypaper Effect

Using data for Wisconsin cities and villages the effects of grants in aid from state government on 10 categories of municipal expenditures are examined. We build on the traditional grants in aid public finance literature by looking for evidence of the flypaper effect. By focusing on the Wisconsin state shared revenues program, a pure grant of considerable size for many Wisconsin municipalities, we offer a clean test of the flypaper effect. We find a positive flypaper effect on 8 of the 10 categorical expenditures. We also find the impact of unconditional grants on categorical expenditures is stronger on nonessential "luxury" goods (e.g., parks and recreation, culture, and educational services) than on essential "normal" municipal goods (e.g., police and fire protection).
On the Equivalence of Walrasian and Non-Walrasian Equilibria in Contract Markets: The Case of Complete Contracts

This paper explores two models of an economy in which contracts are exchanged. In the first model contracts are exchanged on a competitive market in which traders expectations concerning conditions that prevail within specific markets adjust until markets "clear" In the second model contract designers compete directly against one another by offering alternate contracts. It is shown that Walrasian allocations correspond with the equilibrium allocations in the model with direct competition when the number of traders is made large. Furthermore, the expectational assumptions that drive the Walrasian analysis coincide with off the equilibrium path conjectures in the problem with direct competition.
First admissions for psychiatric disorders

ABSTRACT– Historical accounts emphasize a high rate of mental morbidity in the Faroe Islands compared with Denmark. As prerequisites for a comparative investigation are now present, we have compared a 10‐year period of first admission rates in both areas. We found a lower rate for the Faroes generally, in particular for women, for the age group 30–64, and also for the majority of diagnostic groups. The group manic‐depressive psychosis come closest to Danish conditions, followed by reactive psychosis and alcohol and drug abuse. The greatest difference was found for the groups personal disorders, neuroses, and schizophrenia.
Testing the Proposed Linkage between Organizational Citizenship Behaviours and an Innovative Organizational Climate

This study investigates the link between an innovative organizational climate and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). OCB is discretionary individual behaviour that is not directly rewarded and that promotes organizational functioning. The genesis of OCB is Barnard's innovative and spontaneous behaviours instrumental for effective organizational functioning, yet innovation has not been part of the OCB construct development. Using employees of a financial services firm in the Midwest, we examine the relationship between an organizational climate conducive to innovation and OCB using the Climate for Innovation Questionnaire (CIQ) and Van Dyne et al.'s OCB scale, which assesses the dimensions of organizational Obedience, Loyalty and Participation. The CIQ was reduced to three dimensions (context, ideas and risk) via factor analysis. Our results indicate that OCB is not linked to an Innovative Organizational Context. The Participation dimension of citizenship behaviour was positively linked to Innovative Ideas. Loyalty OCB was negatively linked to Risk, and Obedience OCB was negatively linked to Ideas. Results suggest the need to re‐examine the OCB construct. Pragmatic implications include examining the organizational characteristics when innovation is desired. Additionally, managers should be cautious with interventions designed to increase OCB, as the available evidence indicates a generally negative OCB–innovative climate relationship.
Code, Nudge, or Notice?

Laws can be hard to pass and easy to ignore. Regulators are increasingly turning to alternatives to law to influence citizen behavior. This Essay compares three methods that have particularly captured the imagination of scholars and officials in recent years. Much has been written about each method in isolation. This Essay considers them together in order to generate a novel normative insight about the nature of regulatory choice.The first alternative method, known colloquially as architecture or “code,” occurs where regulators change a physical or digital environment to make undesirable conduct difficult. Speed bumps provide a classic example. The second method, libertarian paternalism or “nudging,” refers to leveraging human bias to guide us toward better policy outcomes. For instance, the state might attempt to increase organ donation by moving to an opt-out system because people disproportionally favor the status quo. Finally, mandatory disclosure or “notice” works by requiring organizations to provide individuals with information about their practices or products. Examples include everything from product warnings to privacy policies. These methods feel more distinct than they actually are. The timely example of graphic warnings on cigarettes illustrates how hard it can be to characterize a given intervention, and why categories matter. The issue — which the Supreme Court seems likely to hear — turns on whether the Food and Drug Administration intended for the warnings to change smoker behavior, or merely to provide information. Indeed, whether regulators employ code, nudge, or notice, there is almost always the deeper choice between helping citizens and hindering them. This Essay argues that regulators should choose “facilitation” over “friction” where possible, especially in the absence of the usual safeguards that accompany law.
Oral tramadol, a mu-opioid agonist and monoamine reuptake-blocker, and morphine for strong cancer-related pain.

BACKGROUND Opioid and spinal monoaminergic agonists have distinct analgesic properties, which may potentiate each other. Tramadol has both opioid and monoaminergic agonist actions. This initial study compared the analgesic and toxic effects of tramadol and morphine in patients with strong cancer pain. PATIENTS AND METHODS Pain control and side-effects with tramadol and morphine were compared in 20 cancer patients hospitalised for the treatment of strong pain. Doses of oral solutions of tramadol or morphine were individually titrated in the double-blind, randomized, cross-over study. Cross-over was after day 4, the day of statistical evaluation. RESULTS The mean pain intensity (+/- SD) on a verbal rating scale (0 = none, 4 = unbearable) was similar with morphine (1.6 +/- 1.2, n = 17) and with tramadol (1.5 +/- 1.3, n = 16) on the fourth day of dosing. The mean daily doses on day 4 were 101 +/- 58 mg of morphine and 375 +/- 135 mg of tramadol, indicating a relative potency of 4:1 with oral dosing. The total number of side-effects per person was lower on the fourth day with tramadol (p < 0.05), as was the severity of nausea (p < 0.05) and constipation decreased with tramadol (p < 0.05). Three patients dropped out of the morphine group due to side-effects and 4 out of the tramadol group due to inadequate analgesia. Overall, 8 patients (40%) preferred morphine, 3 (15%) favoured tramadol and 9 (45%) expressed no distinct choice. Nurses rated pain control better with morphine (p < 0.03), but the tolerability of tramadol was judged superior (p < 0.002). CONCLUSIONS In certain cancer patients with strong pain, tramadol achieved good pain control with fewer side-effects than morphine. The non-opioid mode of action may result in a different spectrum of analgesia and side-effects. Longterm studies are required to confirm this study of brief duration.
Made in America? the us auto industry, 1955-95

This paper examines the production and political responses of the Big Three auto assemblers to the penetration of the North American market by Japanese auto assemblers over the 1955-95 period, using the technological competition model to analyze three successive challenges faced by the Big Three: import competition (1955-73), surplus capacity (1973-83), and transplant production (1983-95). We argue that the US auto makers first responded with intensification strategies and then by rationalizing production. These production strategies, together with lobbying for favorable US government policies, were unsuccessful in stemming import penetration. It was only after the Japanese firms began onshore production that the Big Three understood the competitive challenge-the need to shift from mass to lean production-and began to transform their auto operations.
Double Stranded RNA in Human Seminal Plasma

Recently, human semen was shown to contain cell-free nucleic acids, such as DNA, long single stranded RNA, and small RNAs–miRNA and piRNA. The RNAs have been suggested to have potential biological roles as communication molecules between cells and in the temporal and spatial regulation of gene expression in the male reproductive system. Here we demonstrate that human seminal plasma contains a variety of cell-free dsRNAs, describe a robust method to isolate this type of nucleic acid in preparative amounts, and discuss the potential biological roles of these molecules in inheritance. dsRNA plays a role in a variety of biological processes, including gene regulation, is extremely stable and can gain access to cells from the extracellular medium. We suggest that one of the possible functions of dsRNA in human seminal plasma may be to influence human oocytes and therefore, influence the offspring. It also remains possible that these dsRNAs might have potential use as biomarkers for the study of human physiopathological conditions and genetic variation.
Point cloud registration from local feature correspondences—Evaluation on challenging datasets

Registration of laser scans, or point clouds in general, is a crucial step of localization and mapping with mobile robots or in object modeling pipelines. A coarse alignment of the point clouds is generally needed before applying local methods such as the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm. We propose a feature-based approach to point cloud registration and evaluate the proposed method and its individual components on challenging real-world datasets. For a moderate overlap between the laser scans, the method provides a superior registration accuracy compared to state-of-the-art methods including Generalized ICP, 3D Normal-Distribution Transform, Fast Point-Feature Histograms, and 4-Points Congruent Sets. Compared to the surface normals, the points as the underlying features yield higher performance in both keypoint detection and establishing local reference frames. Moreover, sign disambiguation of the basis vectors proves to be an important aspect in creating repeatable local reference frames. A novel method for sign disambiguation is proposed which yields highly repeatable reference frames.