Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biopsychosocial function analyses changes the assessment of the ability to work in patients on long-term sick-leave due to chronic musculoskeletal pain: The role of undiagnosed mental health comorbidity

Aims: To study the prevalence of somatic and mental health comorbidity and the use of opioid medication among patients on long-term sick-leave due to chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP); to compare an orthopaedic-based assessment of ability to work with a team assessment; to investigate the relationship between intensity of pain and psychosocial characteristics in this group. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out with 174 consecutive patients on sick-leave for a mean of 21 months. All were referred from the Social Insurance Office for orthopaedic evaluation and assessment of the ability to work. Of them, only 83/174 patients were referred by the Office for psychiatric evaluation. Results: Neck pain was the main cause of disability. Patients with neck pain often suffered pain in more than two sites, and greater intensity of pain. Thirty-four percent of all participants had been prescribed opioid medication before consultation. Degrees of disability, unemployment, low degree of education and to be an immigrant were related to intensity of pain. Unrecognized psychiatric disorders changed the main cause of inability to work in 69% of patients who underwent both orthopaedic and psychiatric evaluation. Conclusions: An evaluation based on biopsychosocial function is valuable in reaching an accurate assessment of the patient’s diagnosis, and ability to work in CMP. Ability to work and degree of sick-leave in patients on long-term sick-leave is determined to a large extent by undiagnosed mental health comorbidities, and not solely somatic complaints.
Regulation of Monocyte Chemotactic Protein-1 Expression in Human Endometrial Endothelial Cells by Sex Steroids: A Potential Mechanism for Leukocyte Recruitment in Endometriosis

The main aim of this study is to describe the in vivo temporal and spatial expression of monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1) in human endometrial endothelial cells (HEECs) and to compare the in vitro regulation of MCP-1 expression by sex steroids in HEECs from women with or without endometriosis. Eutopic endometrial tissues and endometriosis implants were grouped according to the menstrual cycle phase and were examined by immunohistochemistry for MCP-1 expression. No significant difference was observed for MCP-1 immunoreactivity in the endothelial cells of eutopic endometrium of women with endometriosis when compared to endometrium of women without endometriosis and to endometriosis implants. For in vitro studies, the purity of cultured HEECs (90%-95%) was confirmed by immunocytochemistry using endothelium-specific markers CD31 and CD146. The effects of estradiol (5 × 10— 8 mol/L), progesterone (10—7 mol/L), or both on MCP-1 messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels were analyzed by reverse transcriptase—polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis and enzyme-linked immunosorbent serologic assay (ELISA), respectively. Sex steroids did not have significant effect on MCP-1 mRNA and protein expression in HEECs from women without endometriosis. However, we observed that the sex steroid treatment stimulated MCP-1 mRNA and protein expression in HEECs from women with endometriosis (P < .05). We postulate that the stimulation of chemokine expression by sex steroids in the endometrial endothelial cells in women with endometriosis may play a central role in recruiting mononuclear cells, therefore contributing to the inflammatory aspect of endometriosis.
Private Investment Demand Function in Bangladesh: An ARDL Approach

Investment, as an addition to the existing physical stock of capital, contributes to the growth of Bangladesh economy in a decisive way. Therefore, factors that determine the private investment need to be studied in order to frame policies to manage them so as to achieve the desired capital stock for the economy to accomplish the much higher GDP growth objective in coming years. The study, thus, is an attempt to estimate the private investment demand function of Bangladesh. It employees the ARDL bounds testing approach to investigate the relationship between private investment spending and its regressors, namely, real income, rental cost of capital, foreign direct investment and exchange rate relying on data for the period 1980-2017. The study identifies a long-run equilibrium relationship between private investment spending and its determinants. The determinants are found to have conventional signs- while a rise in real income boosts private investment spending, a rise in the rental cost of capital hurts it. While most of the earlier studies compared the relative role of public and private investment in economic growth of Bangladesh, studies on the factors that determine the countries investment spending is very few. Moreover, majority of the studies in the latter group focuses on determinants of gross investment in Bangladesh, while the study focuses on the domestic private investment taking most recent years’ data in the sample period. JEL Classification Codes: E20, E22
Acute kidney function and morphology following topload administration of recombinant hemoglobin solution

Abstract There is a 0.138% incidence of adverse reactions related to blood transfusion. Transfusion-related acute lung injury, immunosuppression, fever, pathogen transmission, and hemolytic transfusion reactions are the most common ones. Synthetic oxygen carriers have been developed to deal with blood shortages and for use in the field where stored blood was not available. They were also designed to be pathogen free, including unknown viruses. In this study, we used Male Golden Syrian Hamsters implemented with a dorsal window chamber to determine how infusion of three different, genetically crosslinked recombinant acellular hemoglobin (rHb) solutions with different oxygen affinities and nitric oxide kinetics affect mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), kidney function, and kidney structure. We found that the administration of all three rHb solutions caused mild hypertension and bradycardia 30 minutes after infusion. However, acute changes in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) were not detected, even though histological analysis was performed 72 hours after treatment revealed some structural changes. All the rHb solutions resulted in hypertension 30 minutes after a 10% topload administration. Regardless of their properties, the presence of acellular Hb causes significant alterations to kidney tissue.
Structure and stability of noble gas bound 
 EX3+ compounds (E = C, Ge, Sn, Pb; X = H, F, Cl, Br)

It has been analyzed at the MP2/def2‐QZVPPD level whether EX3+ (E = C‐Pb; X = H, F‐Br) can bind noble gas atoms. Geometrical and electronic structures, dissociation energy values, thermochemical parameters, natural bond order, electron density, and energy decomposition analyses highlight the possibility of such noble gas bound EX3+ compounds. Except He and Ne, the other heavier congeners of this family make quite strong bonds with E. In fact, the dissociations of Ar‐Rn bound analogues turn out to be endergonic in nature at 298 K, except in the cases of ArGe Cl3+ , Ar/KrGeBr3+ , and ArSnBr3+ . GeH3+ and EF3+ (E = Ge‐Pb) can even bind two Ng atoms with reasonably high dissociation energy. As the pz orbital of the E center in EX3+ plays a crucial role in its binding with the noble gas atoms, the effect of the π back‐bonding causing X → E electron transfer ought to be properly understood. Due to the larger back‐donation, the Ng binding ability of EX3+ gradually decreases along F to Br. EH2+ and the global minimum HE+…H2 (E = Sn, Pb) complexes are also able to bind Ar‐Rn atoms quite effectively. The NgE bonds in Ar‐Rn bound CH3+ , GeH3+ , and EF3+ (E = Ge‐Pb) and Xe/RnE bonds in NgECl3+ and NgEBr3+ (E = Ge, Sn) are mainly of covalent type. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Noise figure optimization of wide-band inductively-degenerated CMOS LNAs

This paper presents the design and measurement results of a wide-band inductively-degenerated 0.18-mum CMOS LNA targeted for the square kilometer array (SKA) radio telescope. A noise figure optimization procedure is discussed that allows selection of an optimum power consumption resulting in the lowest noise figure given the required bandwidth. The noise optimization procedure accounts for the parasitic resistances of both the transistor's gate fingers and the gate inductor. Measured results of a single-stage 700 MHz-1400 MHz LNA are discussed. The LNA, designed in 0.18-mum CMOS, achieves noise figures better than 0.57 dB, gain (S21) of at least 15 dB, input return loss of greater than 16 dB, output P1dB of 6 dBm, and output IP3 of 14.5 dBm while consuming 50 mW of power from a 1.5-V supply.
Microbial enzymes for the recycling of recalcitrant petroleum‐based plastics: how far are we?

Petroleum‐based plastics have replaced many natural materials in their former applications. With their excellent properties, they have found widespread uses in almost every area of human life. However, the high recalcitrance of many synthetic plastics results in their long persistence in the environment, and the growing amount of plastic waste ending up in landfills and in the oceans has become a global concern. In recent years, a number of microbial enzymes capable of modifying or degrading recalcitrant synthetic polymers have been identified. They are emerging as candidates for the development of biocatalytic plastic recycling processes, by which valuable raw materials can be recovered in an environmentally sustainable way. This review is focused on microbial biocatalysts involved in the degradation of the synthetic plastics polyethylene, polystyrene, polyurethane and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Recent progress in the application of polyester hydrolases for the recovery of PET building blocks and challenges for the application of these enzymes in alternative plastic waste recycling processes will be discussed.
A Novel Method for Osteometric Reassociation Using Hamiltonian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) Simulation

Traditional osteometric reassociation uses an error-mitigation approach, which seeks to eliminate possible matches, rather than a predictive approach, where possible matches are directly compared. This study examines the utility of a Bayesian approach for resolving commingling by using a probabilistic framework to predict correct matches. Comparisons were grouped into three types: paired elements, articulating elements, and other elements. Ten individuals were randomly removed from the total sample ( N = 833), acting as a small-scale, closed-population commingled assemblage. One element was chosen as the independent variable, with the ten possible matching elements representing the dependent variable. A Bayesian regression model was constructed using the remaining total sample, resulting in a distribution of possible values that were smoothed into a probability density, and probabilities were calculated. The element with the highest posterior probability was considered the best match. This process was repeated 500 times for each comparison. The correct match was identified 51.60% of the time. Paired elements performed the best, at 80.76%, followed by 42.10% for articulating and 33.63% for other comparisons. These results suggest that metric analysis of commingled assemblages is complex and that both elimination-based and prediction-based approaches have a role in resolving commingling. In this regard, the strength of a Bayesian approach is versatility, allowing for prediction of the correct match and elimination of possible matches, as well as integration of independent lines of evidence within one cohesive model.
On polymorphic gradual typing

We study an extension of gradual typing—a method to integrate dynamic typing and static typing smoothly in a single language—to parametric polymorphism and its theoretical properties, including conservativity of typing and semantics over both statically and dynamically typed languages, type safety, blame-subtyping theorem, and the gradual guarantee—the so-called refined criteria, advocated by Siek et al. We develop System FG, which is a gradually typed extension of System F with the dynamic type and a new type consistency relation, and translation to a new polymorphic blame calculus System FC, which is based on previous polymorphic blame calculi by Ahmed et al. The design of System FG and System FC, geared to the criteria, is influenced by the distinction between static and gradual type variables, first observed by Garcia and Cimini. This distinction is also useful to execute statically typed code without incurring additional overhead to manage type names as in the prior calculi. We prove that System FG satisfies most of the criteria: all but the hardest property of the gradual guarantee on semantics. We show that a key conjecture to prove the gradual guarantee leads to the Jack-of-All-Trades property, conjectured as an important property of the polymorphic blame calculus by Ahmed et al.
Complex motion selectivity in PMLS cortex following early lesions of primary visual cortex in the cat

In the cat, the analysis of visual motion cues has generally been attributed to the posteromedial lateral suprasylvian cortex (PMLS) (Toyama et al., 1985; Rauschecker et al., 1987; Rauschecker, 1988; Kim et al., 1997). The responses of neurons in this area are not critically dependent on inputs from the primary visual cortex (VC), as lesions of VC leave neuronal response properties in PMLS relatively unchanged (Spear & Baumann, 1979; Spear, 1988; Guido et al., 1990b). However, previous studies have used a limited range of visual stimuli. In this study, we assessed whether neurons in PMLS cortex remained direction-selective to complex motion stimuli following a lesion of VC, particularly to complex random dot kinematograms (RDKs). Unilateral aspiration of VC was performed on post-natal days 7–9. Single unit extracellular recordings were performed one year later in the ipsilateral PMLS cortex. As in previous studies, a reduction in the percentage of direction selective neurons was observed with drifting sinewave gratings. We report a previously unobserved phenomenon with sinewave gratings, in which there is a greater modulation of firing rate at the temporal frequency of the stimulus in animals with a lesion of VC, suggesting an increased segregation of ON and OFF sub-regions. A significant portion of neurons in PMLS cortex were direction selective to simple (16/18) and complex (11/16) RDKs. However, the strength of direction selectivity to both stimuli was reduced as compared to normals. The data suggest that complex motion processing is still present, albeit reduced, in PMLS cortex despite the removal of VC input. The complex RDK motion selectivity is consistent with both geniculo-cortical and extra-geniculate thalamo-cortical pathways in residual direction encoding.
High Accuracy Resonant Pressure Sensor With Balanced-Mass DETF Resonator and Twinborn Diaphragms

The design and fabrication of a resonant pressure sensor based on balanced-mass double-ended tuning fork resonator with twinborn diaphragms are described. It is shown that the thermal stress and the out-of-plane displacement of the vibrating beams of the resonator could be significantly reduced by adopting some appended structures. The simulation results of the frequency versus pressure relationship of the sensor also match the theoretical analysis over the full scale very well. The sensor is fabricated by dry/wet etching and silicon bonding technology with 4’ <100> silicon structure layer and 7740 glass cap. System in packaging is performed with cuboid glass tube to isolate thermal stress. The vacuum packaged sensor is electrostatically excited to vibration, which yields a high $Q$ -factor of 22 795. To compensate and calibrate the sensor under temperature influence, the polynomial algorithm is used. Under self-excited oscillation via an automatic gain control circuit, the sensor is characterized of an experimental maximum error of 0.021%FS over the range 20–185 kPa. Measurements also show a pressure sensitivity larger than 20 Hz/kPa and a zero-load resonant frequency of about 34 kHz. As such, the resonant pressure sensor can be applied in high accuracy pressure measurements. [2015-0294]
The role of context in the processing of alcohol‐relevant cues

In line with learning theories of drug addiction, drug‐related cues may be viewed as important motivators of continued drug use. They may be differentially effective depending on the context and motivational significance. The present study aimed to test the significance of different contexts in modulating alcohol‐related cue reactivity. Pictures depicting alcohol intake or its paraphernalia and pictures without any relation to alcohol intake were varied to depict physical and social contexts or different consumptive contexts associated with full/half‐full/empty alcohol beverage containers. We obtained ratings of craving, valence and arousal of the cues as well as skin conductance responses (SCRs) and startle reflex modulation measures from 21 abstinent alcohol‐dependent patients, recruited from an addiction treatment center, and 21 matched healthy controls. Social scenes and full glasses or bottles were rated as more pleasant and arousing compared with neutral drinking situations and empty glasses or bottles in patients. Furthermore, we found a decreased startle reflex magnitude to social compared with neutral drinking situations, and both higher SCRs and decreased startle reflex magnitude to full compared with empty glasses or bottles in patients versus controls. These results show that both physical and social and consumptive contexts differentially influence cue reactivity in abstinent alcohol‐dependent patients with both social and pub‐related physical contexts, and the initial consumptive context eliciting the most appetitive and arousing responses. These data have not only important implications for our understanding of the role of learning in drug dependence but also for treatment, which needs to take these factors into account.
Combination therapy with adriamycin and interleukin 2 augments immunity against murine renal cell carcinoma.

The mechanism(s) through which combination treatment with Adriamycin and recombinant interleukin 2 (rIL2) affects murine renal cell carcinoma was investigated. A single dose of Adriamycin (ADM) administered 1 day after implantation of tumor cells s.c. delayed the formation of tumor and significantly extended the median survival time. About 40% of the treated mice remained tumor free for more than 6 months. Treating mice with a similar dose of ADM 12 to 16 days after implantation of tumor caused complete regression of established tumors within 10 to 12 days in more than 90% of the mice. However, after a transient tumor free period of 15 to 20 days recurrence of tumor was observed in all treated mice. In contrast, a regimen that included treating tumor bearing mice with a single dose of ADM followed by a daily i.p. injection of rIL2 5 x 10(4) units for 10 days delayed the recurrence of tumors and significantly prolonged the survival time compared to the median survival time of mice treated with ADM alone. About 20 to 30% tumor bearing mice remained tumor free for 4 months following treatment with ADM and rIL2. Treatment with rIL2 alone produced no antitumor response. In addition, rIL2 itself was not inhibitory for tumor cell growth nor did it modulate the cytotoxic response of renal cell carcinoma cells to ADM in vitro. Mice that were cured following treatment with ADM and rIL2 were resistant to a rechallenge with viable tumor cells, and cured mice also expressed a tumor specific T-cell mediated delayed hypersensitivity reaction. The immune cells that mediate tumor rejection were identified as Thy-1.2+ T-cells. Taken together, these results indicate that antitumor activity of combined Adriamycin/rIL2 treatment is at least partly attributable to the production of tumor specific immunity.
Moving human detection algorithm based on Gaussian mixture model

In order to realize accurate detection of moving human in complex and cluttered scene and eliminate the influences of moving shadow, an adaptive moving human detection algorithm based on Gaussian mixture model is presented. This algorithm employs Gaussian mixture distribution in modeling background of each pixel and an on-line approximation to update the model. The moving human region is detected by background subtraction. The shadow detection and elimination is implemented in the HSV space, and finally morphological operations are introduced to eliminate noise and reconstruct moving human regions. The results show that the method models stable background, eliminates shadow, and has a good detection result.
Analysis of production risk and technical efficiency amongst smallholder livestock farmers in Botswana

Achieving full efficiency is what every farmer desires to attain however due to constraints that they are faced with this is usually not possible. This study uses cross-section data to identify the shocks or risks that Botswana’s smallholder livestock producers are exposed to as well as their coping strategies. At the outset a sample of 540 observations which includes large and small beef producers are used but the econometric model estimated in the thesis is only limited to small beef producers. Furthermore, the study seeks factors that determine technical efficiency amongst small beef producers. The preliminary estimation of the Just-Pope production function did not lead to interpretable econometric results and for this reason, a change had to be made in the adopted empirical model. An alternative stochastic production model has been implemented empirically and estimated using a maximum likelihood (ML) estimation approach. The empirical results show that herd size and off-farm income reduce technical efficiency, an increase rainfall and household size were found to increase inefficiency. Moreover, production risk increases with an increase in maximum temperature but reduces with an increase in rainfall. The mean technical efficiency for the study area is 0.837.
Diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy via high-resolution melting analysis symmetric polymerase chain reaction without probe: a screening evaluation for SMN1 deletions and intragenic mutations.

AIM Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a well-defined autosomal recessive neuromuscular disorder caused by mutations in the survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. The most frequently observed mutation is a deletion of exon 7, which has been documented in >95% of SMA patients. A novel technique for detecting mutations known as high-resolution melting analysis (HRMA) has rapidly become the tool of choice for screening pathogenic genetic variants. In the present study, we attempt to validate the applicability of HRMA to the detection of exon 7 deletions and other intragenic mutations in SMN1. RESULTS Three primer sets were adopted in our HRMA screening for deletion of SMN1 exon 7. In screening attempts utilizing two primer sets, the results of HRMA were not compatible with those obtained by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Therefore, we applied a modified protocol using revised primer sets, which resulted in an absolute compatibility of results between HRMA and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. With regard to screenings for intragenic mutations in SMN1 exon 3, two primer sets were adopted for use in HRMA. In the initial HRMA screening using the first primer set, we failed to identify any intragenic mutations; however, when using a revised primer set, HRMA successfully detected the presence of a c.275G>C mutation. CONCLUSION HRMA is a simple but versatile tool to add to the existing arsenal of diagnostic techniques that could aid clinicians/researchers in diagnosing SMA. However, as we demonstrate in the present study, the design and selection of primers is of monumental importance in ensuring the successful application of HRMA to screening for pathogenic variants.