Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Surgical and Nonsurgical Management of Sciatica Secondary to a Lumbar Disc Herniation: Five-Year Outcomes From the Maine Lumbar Spine Study

Study Design. A prospective cohort study. Objective. To assess 5-year outcomes for patients with sciatica caused by a lumbar disc herniation treated surgically or nonsurgically. Summary of Background Data. There is limited knowledge about long-term treatment outcomes of sciatica caused by a lumbar disc herniation, particularly the relative benefits of surgical and conservative therapy in contemporary clinical practice. Methods. Eligible, consenting patients recruited from the practices of orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, and occupational medicine physicians throughout Maine had baseline interviews with mailed follow-up questionnaires at 3, 6, and 12 months and annually thereafter. Clinical data were obtained at baseline from a physician questionnaire. Outcomes included patient-reported symptoms of leg and back pain, functional status, satisfaction, and employment and compensation status. Results. Of 507 patients initially enrolled, 5-year outcomes were available for 402 (79.3%) patients: 220 (80%) treated surgically and 182 (78.4%) treated nonsurgically. Surgically treated patients had worse baseline symptoms and functional status than those initially treated nonsurgically. By 5 years 19% of surgical patients had undergone at least one additional lumbar spine operation, and 16% of nonsurgical patients had opted for at least one lumbar spine operation. Overall, patients treated initially with surgery reported better outcomes. At the 5-year follow-up, 70% of patients initially treated surgically reported improvement in their predominant symptom (back or leg pain) versus 56% of those initially treated nonsurgically (P < 0.001). Similarly, a larger proportion of surgical patients reported satisfaction with their current status (63%vs. 46%, P < 0.001). These differences persisted after adjustment for other determinants of outcome. The relative advantage of surgery was greatest early in follow-up and narrowed over 5 years. There was no difference in the proportion of patients receiving disability compensation at the 5-year follow-up. The least symptomatic patients at baseline did well regardless of initial treatment, although function improved more in the surgical group. Conclusions. For patients with moderate or severe sciatica, surgical treatment was associated with greater improvement than nonsurgical treatment at 5 years. However, patients treated surgically were as likely to be receiving disability compensation, and the relative benefit of surgery decreased over time.
Toll-like receptor 5 engagement modulates tumor development and growth in a mouse xenograft model of human colon cancer.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Toll-like receptor (TLR)-dependent signaling was proposed as immunotherapeutic targets against invading pathogens and tumorigenesis. Here, we investigated whether TLR5-dependent signaling modulates colonic tumor development in mouse xenograft model of human colon cancer. METHODS The expression of myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) or TLR5 was stably knocked down in human colon cancer cells (DLD-1). Nude mice were subcutaneously implanted with MyD88-knocked down (KD), TLR5-KD, or control cells (n = 16) to examine the pathophysiology of tumor xenografts. Protein microarray assessed the differential expression of cytokines in these tumors. Leukocyte infiltration and tumor angiogenesis were assessed by immunohistochemistry with antibodies against neutrophil (Gr-1, 7/4) or macrophage-specific antigens (CD68, F4-80) and the vascular endothelial cell marker CD31, respectively. Tumor xenografts from DLD-1 cells were treated with flagellin (5.0 microg/kg, 1 injection/every 2 days for 3 weeks), and tumor regression and histopathology were examined. RESULTS Lack of MyD88 or TLR5 expression dramatically enhanced tumor growth and inhibited tumor necrosis in mouse xenografts of human colon cancer. In contrast, TLR5 activation by peritumoral flagellin treatment substantially increased tumor necrosis, leading to significant tumor regression. Tumors from MyD88-KD or TLR5-KD cells revealed the reduced production of neutrophil attracting chemokines (epithelial cell-derived neutrophil-activating peptide-78, macrophage-inflammatory protein alpha, and interleukin-8). Consequently, neutrophil infiltration was dramatically diminished in MyD88- or TLR5-KD xenografts, whereas tumor-associated macrophage infiltration or angiogenesis was not changed. CONCLUSIONS TLR5 engagement by flagellin mediates innate immunity and elicits potent antitumor activity, indicating that TLR5-dependent signaling could be a potential immunotherapeutic target to modulate colonic tumors.
KB-R7943 block of Ca(2+) influx via Na(+)/Ca(2+) exchange does not alter twitches or glycoside inotropy but prevents Ca(2+) overload in rat ventricular myocytes.

BACKGROUND The Na(+)/Ca(2+) exchange (NCX) extrudes Ca(2+) from cardiac myocytes, but it can also mediate Ca(2+) influx, load the sarcoplasmic reticulum with Ca(2+), and trigger Ca(2+) release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum. In ischemia/reperfusion or digitalis toxicity, increased levels of intracellular [Na(+)] ([Na(+)](i)) may raise levels of intracellular [Ca(2+)] ([Ca(2+)](i)) via NCX, leading to cell injury and arrhythmia. METHODS AND RESULTS We used KB-R7943 (KBR) to selectively block Ca(2+) influx via NCX to study the role of NCX-mediated Ca(2+) influx in intact rat ventricular myocytes. Removing extracellular Na(+) caused [Ca(2+)](i) to rise, due to Ca(2+) influx via NCX, and this was blocked by 90% with 5 micromol/L KBR. However, KBR did not alter [Ca(2+)](i) decline due to NCX. Thus, we used 5 micromol/L KBR to selectively block Ca(2+) entry but not efflux via NCX. Under control conditions, 5 micromol/L KBR did not alter steady-state twitches, Ca(2+) transients, Ca(2+) load in the sarcoplasmic reticulum, or rest potentiation, but it did prolong the late low plateau of the rat action potential. When Na(+)/K(+) ATPase was inhibited by strophanthidin, KBR reduced diastolic [Ca(2+)](i) and abolished the spontaneous Ca(2+) oscillations, but it did not prevent inotropy. CONCLUSIONS In rat ventricular myocytes, Ca(2+) influx via NCX is not important for normal excitation-contraction coupling. Furthermore, the inhibition of Ca(2+) efflux alone (as [Na(+)](i) rises) may be sufficient to cause glycoside inotropy. In contrast, Ca(2+) overload and spontaneous activity at high [Na(+)](i) was blocked by KBR, suggesting that net Ca(2+) influx (not merely reduced efflux) via NCX is involved in potentially arrhythmogenic Ca(2+) overload.
Knowledge, behavior and beliefs related to cervical cancer and screening among Turkish women.

OBJECTIVE The aims of this study were to explore Turkish women's knowledge, behavior and beliefs related to cervical cancer and screening. METHODS The study was performed in two cities in the East of Turkey between September 2009 and April 2010, with a sampling group of 387 women. Data were collected by means of an interview form with the Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer and Pap Smear Test - Turkish Version. RESULTS Women in the research group were found to have poor knowledge, inadequate health behavior and low/medium level false beliefs regarding cervical cancer screening. There was relation between health beliefs and characteristics of women and particularly education (F = 10.80, p = 0.01). Similarly, it was found that Pap smear barriers were influenced by demographic characteristics and that women with low-level education (p = 0.001), divorced women (p = 0.05), women with low-income(p = 0.05), women who gave their first birth when they were 18 or younger (p = 0.05) and women not applying any contraceptive method at all (p = 0.01) were determined to have negative Pap smear barriers. CONCLUSIONS Primarily the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of women in the target group should be evaluated to increase their participation in cervical cancer screening and to prepare effective education strategies.
Magnetic Fluid-Infiltrated Anti-Resonant Reflecting Optical Waveguide for Magnetic Field Sensing Based on Leaky Modes

A magnetic fluid (MF)-infiltrated antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide has been fabricated for the magnetic field sensing based on resonant leaky modes. In a hollow core photonic crystal fiber, the MF is selectively infiltrated into one hollow hole in the air cladding. A Fabry-Perot resonator can be formed between the MF and the silica cladding. Both the resonant condition and the reflectivity of the Fabry-Perot resonator are changed under different magnetic field, which can be measured through the wavelength shift and transmission power at the dip wavelength. The sensitivities of up to 109 pm/Oe and 0.064 dB/Oe are achieved for methods of wavelength shift and transmission power at the dip wavelength. The antiresonant reflecting optical waveguides are widely used for the accurate measurement of magnetic field in the fields of transportation, medicine, smart grids, and so on.
Multi-band Wavelet-Based Spectrum Agile Communications for cognitive radio secondary user communication

This paper proposes a novel technique for the opportunistic, secondary user, communication using wavelet domain processing to aid agile spectrum re-use. Deploying cognitive radio (CR) principles, the paper investigates the joint operation of direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) modulation and discrete wavelet packet transforms (DWPT) for signal shaping. Specifically, wavelet-based spectrum agile communication (WBSAC) is introduced where the detection of the primary user spectrum is carried out in the DWPT domain, and the insertion of the secondary user signal into opportunistic spectrum locations is carried out using spreading sequences and DWPT signal shaping. Simulation results are presented for different primary user spectrum occupancies and secondary user performance metrics to document the impact of different parameters in the wavelet domain on the overall performance of WBSAC.
The Association between Perceived Social Support and Self-Efficacy of Turkish Elementary School Children / Povezanost percepcije društvene podrške i samoučinkovitosti kod učenika osnovnih škola u Turskoj

Abstract Positive power is very important for adolescents' physical and mental health. The sample for the study was composed of a total of 760 students in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades from 7 elementary schools. The sociodemographic data form, the “Child-Adolescent Social Support Scale” (CASSS) for measuring the social support perceived and the “Middle School Self-efficacy Scale” for measuring self-efficacy were used. This study was conducted to examine the relationship between the social support perceived and elementary school students' self-efficacy and the variables that influence perceived social support and self-efficacy. A positive relationship was determined between the CASSS and point averages on the sub-scales, the Middle School Self-efficacy Scale and the sub-scales of the students (p<0.001). It was established that the perceived social support in adolescents has affected their self-efficacy skills. It is recommended that professionals dealing with adolescent health should guide the adolescents by using social support and health self-efficacy on gaining skills for health protection, promotion and to take over the responsibility of their own health. Key words: adolescents; health promotion; primary schools; self-efficacy; social support; sports participant. --- Sažetak Vrlo je važno da adolescenti imaju pozitivan utjecaj na vlastito fizicko i mentalno zdravlje. Uzorak u istraživanju cinilo je 760 ucenika u sestom, sedmom i osmom razredu iz sedam osnovnih skola. U istraživanju su upotrijebljeni drustveno-demografski podaci iz obrasca Skale CASS (Child-Adolscent Social Support Scale) za mjerenje percepcije drustvene podrske i Skale za mjerenje samoucinkovitosti za vise razrede osnovne skole (Middle School Self-efficacy Scale). Istraživanje je provedeno kako bi se istražila povezanost percepcije drustvene podrske i samoucinkovitosti ucenika u osnovnoj skoli i varijabla koje utjecu na percepciju drustvene podrske i samoucinkovitost. Pozitivan odnos uocen je između Skale CASS i prosjecnih bodova podskala, kao i Skale za mjerenje samoucinkovitosti u visim razredima i podskala za ucenike (p<0.001). Zakljuceno je da je percepcija drustvene podrske kod adolescenata utjecala na njihove vjestine samoucinkovitosti. Preporuca se da strucnjaci koji se bave zdravljem adolescenata vode svoje adolescente koristeci se drustvenom podrskom i zdravom samoucinkovitoscu kako bi stekli vjestine zastite zdravlja, promidžbe zdravoga života i odgovornosti za vlastito zdravlje. Kljucne rijeci: adolescenti; drustvena podrska; osnovne skole; promidžba zdravog življenja; samoucinkovitost; sudionik u sportu
Eco-friendly Oxidative Iodination of Various Arenes with Sodium Percarbonate as the Oxidant†

Six easy laboratory procedures are presented for the oxidative iodination of various aromatics, mostly arenes, with either molecular iodine or potassium iodide (used as the sources of iodinating species, I+ or I3+), in the presence of sodium percarbonate (SPC), a stable, cheap, easy to handle, and eco-friendly commercial oxidant.
Speaker identification for whispered speech based on frequency warping and score competition

In certain situations, talkers will intentionally use whisper instead of neutral speech for the sake of privacy or conﬁdentiality, which severely degrades the performance of speaker identiﬁcation systems trained with only neutral speech. There are considerable differences in the spectral structure between whisper and neutral speech due to an absence of voice harmonic excitation. This study introduces a new feature based on frequency warping and score competition for the task of speaker identiﬁcation for whisper. The proposed feature method is evaluated on a corpus of male speakers in both neutral and whisper. Closed set speaker ID results show an absolute 27% improvement in accuracy when compared with a traditional MFCC feature based system. The result conﬁrms a viable approach to improving speaker ID performance between neutral and whisper speech condition.
Neologisms detection in a overlapping topical complex network

Neologism is a new word or new interpretation of an old word to describe and explain reality in a new way. As the root of knowledge, the detection work for neologism is essential but challenging. This paper presents a novel strategy for neologism detection from youngsters by an overlapping community detection method based on complex network which constructed by social texts. We pre-process our corpus of 600 thousands recorders from social texts (weibo.com) and model them with a topical complex network. And overlapping community detection work is realized with well-established algorithm EAGLE. For linguistics in social texts are productive and limited in dynamic pragmatics. We defined time coefficient and correlation coefficient and did some adaptive testing for the network construction. Experiments show that we can extract a topical network and obtain topic neologisms well in the real corpus. In the network, neologisms can be explained by topic words in the community of network.
Genetic Engineering of Snake Toxins

Using site-directed mutagenesis, we previously identified some residues that probably belong to the site by which Erabutoxin a (Ea), a sea snake toxin, recognizes the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AcChoR) (Pillet, L., Trémeau, O., Ducancel, F. Drevet, P., Zinn-Justin, S., Pinkasfeld, S., Boulain, J.-C., and Ménez, A. (1993) J. Biol. Chem. 268, 909-916). We have now studied the effect of mutating 26 new positions on the affinity of Ea for AcChoR. The mutations are F4A, N5V, H6A, Q7L, S9G, Q10A, P11N, Q12A, T13V, T14A, K15A, T16A, ΔS18, E21A, Y25F, Q28A, S30A, T35A, I36R, P44V, T45A, V46A, K47A, P48Q, I50Q, and S53A. Binding affinity decreases upon mutation at Gln-7, Gln-10 and to a lesser extent at His-6, Ser-9 and Tyr-25 whereas it increases upon mutation at Ile-36. Other mutations have no effect on Ea affinity. In addition, new mutations of the previously explored Ser-8, Asp-31, Arg-33, and Glu-38 better explain the functional role of these residues in Ea. The previous and present mutational analysis suggest that the “functional” site of Ea covers a homogeneous surface of at least 680 A2, encompassing the three toxin loops, and includes both conserved and variant residues. The variable residues might contribute to the selectivity of Ea for some AcChoRs, including those from fish, the prey of sea snakes.
Muscular Performance Assessment of Trunk Extensors: A Critical Appraisal of the Literature

Despite growing research efforts, non-specific low back pain (LBP) remains a major public health burden throughout the industrialized world. Epidemiological data indicate a point prevalence ranging from 19% (Hillman et al., 1996) to 27% (Picavet & Schouten, 2003) and a lifetime prevalence of about 60% (Hillman et al., 1996). Costs to society stem mainly from chronic forms, which account for only 5–10% of cases (Nachemson et al., 2000).
La parenté radiographiée

Les choix matrimoniaux ne sauraient etre traites comme des elements isoles. Ils n’acquierent leur signification que par la maniere dont ils se distribuent et se combinent pour former des agencements complexes dont l’etude est difficilement envisageable sans recours a un traitement informatique. Si l’ordinateur a ete introduit il y a une quarantaine d’annees dans les etudes de la parente, on manquait encore d’un instrument rendant possible un recensement matrimonial complet d’un reseau de parente. Le logiciel Puck (Program for the Use and Computation of Kinship Data) remedie a ce manque. Cet article presente les principales applications de ce logiciel, en precisant les enjeux theoriques et les choix methodologiques qui ont preside a son elaboration.
Strongly absolute stability of Lur'e-type discrete-time descriptor systems: Strict LMI-based popov criterion

This paper considers strongly absolute stability of Lur'e-type discrete-time descriptor systems and proposes a strict LMI-based popov criterion. By constructing a Lur'e-type Lyapunov function, a new popov criterion is established for strongly absolute stability of Lur'e-type discrete-time descriptor systems. It is further shown that the Popov criterion leads to a less conservative robust stability analysis method for a class of uncertain linear discrete-time descriptor systems. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained results.
[EFFECTS OF TOURNIQUET USE ON PERIOPERATIVE OUTCOME IN TOTAL KNEE ARTHROPLASTY].

OBJECTIVE To clarify the effects of tourniquet use on pain, early rehabilitation, blood loss, incidence rate of thrombosis in primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) through a randomized controlled trial. METHODS Between Janurary 2014 and August 2015, 168 patients with knee osteoarthritis undergoing primary TKA were randomly allocated to tourniquet group (n = 84) or non-tourniquet group (n = 82). There was no significant difference in gender, age, body mass index, affected side, osteoarthritis grading, disease duration, preoperative range of motion (ROM), visual analogue scale (VAS), Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) score, and hemoglobin (Hb) between 2 groups (P > 0.05). The operation time, hospitalization time, 90° knee flexion time, straight leg lifting time, and ambulation time were compared between 2 groups. Intraoperative blood loss, Hb decrease, postoperative VAS score, HSS score, ROM, and postoperative complications were recorded and compared. RESULTS There was no significant difference in operation time (t = -1.353, P = 0.178). The patients were followed up 3-20 months (mean, 12 months) in tourniquet group, and 3-22 months (mean, 13 months) in non-tourniquet group. No significant difference was found in Hb decrease (t = -1.855, P = 0.066) and transfusion rate (23.81% of tourniquest group vs. 25.61% of non-tourniquest group) (χ² = 0.072, P = 0.788) between 2 groups. Significant difference was found in the incidence rate of thrombosis between tourniquet and non-tourniquet groups (10.71% vs. 2.44%) (χ² = 4.592, P = 0.032), and the intraoperative blood loss of tourniquet group was significantly less than that of non-tourniquet group (t = -16.066, P = 0.000). The 90° knee flexion time, straight leg lifting time, ambulation time, and hospitalization time of tourniquet group were significantly later than those of non-tourniquet group (P < 0.05). The tourniquet group had significantly higher VAS score at 3, 5, 7, and 14 days after operation (P < 0.05) and lower HSS score at 28 days after operation (t = -4.192, P = 0.000) than non-tourniquet group, but there was no significant difference in the ROM between 2 groups (t = 0.676, P = 0.500). CONCLUSION The use of a tourniquet during TKA will increase knee pain and thrombotic events, but can not decrease total blood loss and transfusion rate. A tourniquet use during TKA is unfavorable for early rehabilitation progress.
Discrete sequence elements control posterior pole accumulation and translational repression of maternal cyclin B RNA in Drosophila.

The concentration of cyclin B transcripts at the posterior pole of the Drosophila oocyte occurs at a late stage of oogenesis and is dependent on the sequence in the 3′ untranslated part of the RNA. These transcripts become incorporated into the pole cells of the developing embryo and persist through a subsequent period of embryogenesis in which these cells are not dividing. We show that RNA injected into the posterior cytoplasm of syncytial embryos accumulates in the pole cells if it contains sequences present in the 3′ untranslated region of maternal cyclin B transcripts. The injected RNA is not translated until a point prior to the resumption of mitosis by these cells, once they have become incorporated into the gonads. Zygotic transcription directed from the cyclin B promoter does not begin in the pole cells until the first instar larva has hatched. Deletion of a small sequence element from the 3′ untranslated region of an epitope tagged cyclin B RNA does not affect its posterior accumulation but results in its premature translation.
Specialization, Gravity, and European Trade in Final Goods

We suggest that bilateral gravity equations augmented by ad hoc measures of absolute supply-side country differences are misspecified. Building on Haveman and Hummels (2004), we develop and test an alternative specification rooted in incomplete specialization that views bilateral gravity equations as statistical relationships constrained on countries’ multilateral specialization patterns. According to our results, specialization incentives seem not to play much of a role in the average European bilateral final goods trade relationship. However, this aggregate view conceals that trade in final goods between Western and Eastern Europe is driven by countries’ multilateral specialization incentives, as expressed by supply-side country differences relative to the rest of the world, fully compatible with incomplete specialization models. This indicates that many of the final goods traded between Western and Eastern Europe are still different, rather than differentiated, products.