Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of obesity and smoking on psoriasis presentation and management.

OBJECTIVE To study the impact of obesity and smoking on psoriasis. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING University of Utah Department of Dermatology clinics. PATIENTS A case series of patients with psoriasis enrolled in the prospective Utah Psoriasis Initiative (UPI) (which carefully performs phenotyping of patients with psoriasis) was compared with 3 population databases: the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System of the Utah population, the 1998 patient-member survey from the National Psoriasis Foundation, and 500 adult patients who attend our clinics and do not have psoriasis (non-psoriatic population). RESULTS The prevalence of obesity in patients within the UPI population was higher than that in the general Utah population (34% vs 18%; P<.001) and higher than that in the non-psoriatic population attending our clinics. Assessment of body image perception with a standardized diagram in the UPI group resulted in the median body image score of normal weight at 18 years of age and the onset of psoriasis, but it changed to overweight at the time of enrollment in the UPI. Thus, obesity appears to be the consequence of psoriasis and not a risk factor for onset of disease. We did not observe an increased risk for psoriatic arthritis in patients with obesity; furthermore, obesity did not positively or negatively affect the response or the adverse effects of topical corticosteroids, light-based treatments, and systemic medications. The prevalence of smoking in the UPI population was higher than in the general Utah population (37% vs 13%; P<.001) and higher than in the non-psoriatic population (37% vs 25%; P<.001). We found a higher prevalence of smokers in the obese population within the UPI than in the obese population within the Utah population (25% vs 9%; P<.001). CONCLUSIONS Patients with psoriasis attending the University of Utah Dermatology Clinics were more likely to be obese and to smoke compared with non-psoriatic patients and more likely to be obese compared with other large cohorts with psoriasis. Smoking appears to have a role in the onset of psoriasis, but obesity does not. The high prevalence of obesity and smoking in a psoriasis cohort has not been previously noted; if confirmed, it supports the prediction that a significant portion of patients with psoriasis will have the comorbid conditions and public health issues of those with obesity and smoke.
Extremely Low-Delay Coding of Gaussian Sources with Side Information at the Decoder

One of the innovations brought about by the emerging and thriving of wireless sensor networks is Wyner-Ziv (WZ) coding, in other words, lossy source coding with side information at the decoder. While previous work mostly focuses on using capacity-achieving codes to approach the Wyner-Ziv bound, which naturally introduces huge block lengths and huge delay, we study extremely low-delay Wyner-Ziv coding of Gaussian sources. Three related but distinct problems are considered. The first involves scalar quantization and scalar noiseless coding of the quantization indices when only decoder has access to side information. Under high-resolution assumptions and appropriately defined decodability constraints, the optimal quantization level density is conjectured to be periodic. The performance of variable-length coding with uniform quantization is also characterized. The results are then incorporated in predictive Wyner-Ziv coding for Gaussian sources with memory, and optimal prediction filters are numerically designed so as to strike a balance between maximally exploiting both temporal and spatial correlation and limiting the propagation of distortion due to occasional decoding errors. Finally, zero-delay schemes are also employed in transform coding with small block lengths, where the Gaussian source and side information are transformed separately with the premise that corresponding transform coefficient pairs exhibit good spatial correlation and minimal temporal correlation. For the specific source-side information pairs studied, it is shown that transform coding, even with a small block-length, outperforms predictive coding. In the second part, we study the zero-delay joint source-channel coding (JSCC) problem of transmitting a Gaussian source over a Gaussian channel in Wyner-Ziv scenario. To achieve zero-delay, after applying scalar quantization to the source, the properly scaled analog information, namely the quantization error, is superimposed on the scaled digital information, i.e., the quantized source, and then transmitted. At the decoder, several decoding schemes are proposed. It is shown that all the schemes, when optimized over all related parameters, are superior to pure analog transmission for high enough correlation between source and side information. The robustness of one of the proposed Hybrid Digital Analog (HDA) schemes against varying channel and side information conditions is also compared with that of the purely analog scheme. Since JSCC WZ problem is intimately related with JSCC without side information but with bandwidth expansion factor 2, in the third part we investigated the mapping method from 1-D source space to 2-D channel space which integrates HDA schemes into spiral mapping or pure analog mapping. The performance comparison with existing coding algorithms is also presented.
Safety of intravitreally administered recombinant erythropoietin (an AOS thesis).

PURPOSE This study investigated the safety and potential retinal toxicity of intravitreally administered erythropoietin (EPO) in a rodent animal model. METHODS Forty-two healthy Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into one of 7 groups (N = 6 per group): control, sham injection, vehicle injection, and EPO injections of 50 ng (5 U), 100 ng (10 U), 250 ng (25 U), and 625 ng (62.5 U). Only the right eye was treated in each animal. Standard full-field dark- and light-adapted electroretinography (ERG) was obtained at 1 day prior to injection and then on postinjection days 3, 7, 14, and 21. Intraocular pressure (IOP) was measured at the conclusion of each ERG recording. Animals were sacrificed and the eyes underwent histologic examination with light microscopy and hematoxylin-eosin staining. RESULTS Rod peak, scotopic, and photopic responses (amplitude and latency) were not statistically different in the animals receiving 50 to 100 ng EPO. In the 250-ng group, the photopic b-wave amplitude at day 21 was elevated (P <.05), whereas in the 625-ng group, the scotopic OP3 latency ratio was higher at baseline (P <.05). No significant histologic abnormalities were noted except for one animal (625-ng group) with qualitative differences in retinal layer thickness and cellular density. CONCLUSIONS Intravitreal administration of EPO (at doses up to 625 ng) does not cause adverse effects on retinal function as assessed by ERG. Moreover, single intravitreal dosing does not appear to elicit retinal neovascularization. Further investigation is warranted to assess fully the potential of this neuroprotective cytokine as a treatment for glaucoma.
Effect assessment of demand response on nodal prices by types of classes

This paper evaluates the effect assessment of demand respond (DR) programs on nodal prices considering customers' electricity contracts by differentiating multiple types of classes based on the desired risk level, n-1 and n-2 element outage. Load elasticity information reported in demand response projects is adopted to evaluate the dispatchable load reduction due to dynamic pricing.
Quality management effects in certified Serbian companies producing food of animal origin

The purpose of this paper was to analyse the implemented quality management systems (QMSs) based on International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 in the production/service sector, operating only with food of animal origin. The research covered the analysis of the rationale for the implementation of QMSs, the quality tools used in interviewed food companies and achieved effects and outputs. The survey comprised 59 Serbian food business operators holding ISO 9001 certificates. The obtained results revealed that the implementation of QMSs resulted in the improvement of food conformity in both of its dimensions – food quality and food safety. Results indicated improvements towards customer satisfaction and strengthening of their competitiveness, including an increase in the sales and market share. However, none of the surveyed companies recorded any QMS improvement. Companies confirmed efforts made in product improvement but most of them did not improve their processes or confirm higher levels of effectiveness and efficiency of their systems.
Competency development for chief executive officers in YMCAs

Leisure services agencies are seeing a significant shift in the workforce due to a large number of retirements. As a result, succession planning is becoming an important management issue in the profession. In order to develop an effective succession plan, job competencies are needed. The purpose of this paper is to determine the competencies needed by chief executive officers (CEOs) in YMCAs. A Delphi technique was used to identify the competencies that formed the nonprofit competency framework (NCF). This framework consists of six general competency categories including business acumen, communication, community relations, leadership and management, professional practice, and volunteer/board management. Within these general competency categories there are 70 specific competencies. The NCF was compared with public parks and recreation competencies and nongovernmental organization sector competencies. It was determined that YMCA CEOs have competencies that match these two groups and do not necessarily identify with one, more so than the other.
The sustainable company: new challenges and strategies for more sustainability

The sustainability becomes a model of development only if countries, industries, businesses and citizens become sustainable. The contribution of the business to a promising future should come from a fully integrated sustainability in its DNA and strategies. This paper focuses on the needed sustainable strategies for scaling up the contribution of the companies to sustainable development in the future. At the beginning, we analyze the main theoretical points of view on sustainability. Then, we explain how companies could achieve the sustainability by following the steps of a difficult process and the present performances in sustainability of large companies around the world. Finally, we suggest four strategies that businesses could design and implement in order to scaling up their sustainability in the future. The research has two important conclusions on sustainability in business. One is that the sustainability pays off if it is integrated in the DNA of the companies. The other conclusion says that the companies will succeed to make the needed transformation for achieving a better sustainability in the future only if they design and perform strategies focused on improving sustainability.
Experimental Infection of Domestic Pigs with African Swine Fever Virus Lithuania 2014 Genotype II Field Isolate

&NA; An experimental infection was conducted to evaluate horizontal transmission, clinical, virological and humoral response induced in domestic pigs infected with African swine fever (ASF) genotype II virus circulating in 2014 into the European Union (EU). Ten naive pigs were placed in contact with eight pigs experimentally inoculated with the Lithuanian LT14/1490 ASF virus (ASFV) responsible for the first ASF case detected in wild boar in Lithuania in January 2014. Clinical examination and rectal temperature were recorded each day. Blood sampling from every animal was carried out twice weekly. Blood samples were examined for presence of ASF virus‐specific antibodies and for determining the ASFV viral load. From the obtained results, it was concluded that the Lithuanian ASFV induced an acute disease which resulted in 94, 5% mortality. The disease was easily detected by real‐time PCR prior to the onset of clinical signs and 33% of the animals seroconverted. All findings were in accordance with observations previously made in domestic pigs and wild boar when infected with ASF genotype II viruses characterized by a high virulence. One in‐contact pig remained asymptomatic and survived the infection. The role of such animals in virus transmission would need further investigation.
Oblique Ulnar Shortening Osteotomy With a New Plate and Compression System

Ulnocarpal abutment or the ulnocarpal impaction syndrome occurs when excessive loads exist between the distal ulna and ulnar carpus. This overloading occurs as a result of the distal ulnar articular surface being more distal than the ulnar articular surface of the distal radius. This situation has been termed positive ulnar variance, and it can quickly lead to ulnar-sided wrist degenerative changes and functional losses. Patients often have vague, ulnar-sided complaints of chronic pain and swelling with an insidious onset that does not correlate with any specific traumatic event. Many procedures have been developed to alleviate this condition, but the gold standard for correcting positive ulnar variance is the ulnar shortening osteotomy. The goals of the shortening procedure are to relieve pain and prevent arthritis by reestablishing a neutral or slightly negative ulnar variance. We describe a new plate and compression system in which an oblique ulnar diaphyseal osteotomy is both completed and stabilized through the same jig-based system.
Realizing the Potential of Migrant "Earn, Learn, and Return" Strategies: Does Policy Matter?

The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank dedicated to the study of the movement of people worldwide. The Institute provides knowledge-based analysis, development, and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national, and international levels. Additional information on migration and development can be found on the Migration Information Source, MPI’s web-based resource for current and accurate migration and refugee data and analysis at www.migrationinformation. org.
Investment and cash flow: evidence for asymmetries in European manufacturing

An ‘excess sensitivity’ of investment to internal funds (cash flow) is typically interpreted as evidence for the presence of financing constraints. Building on this, we empirically investigate the possibility of an asymmetric response of investment to the availability of internal funds across expectation states. According to our results the impact of cash flow on investment spending is exacerbated during periods of ‘pessimism’. Finally, allowing for both potential sources of asymmetries (across different states of expectations and the business cycle) our results indicate that both sources are significant, with the expectations-driven asymmetry being significantly deeper highlighting the paramount role of expectations.
Gel‐free IEF in a membrane‐sealed multicompartment cell for proteome prefractionation

A minidevice for performing gel‐free proteome prefractionation via conventional IEF in soluble carrier ampholyte buffers is reported here. It consists of a compact block of polyoxymethylene in which eight samples and two electrode chambers are machined. Each of the eight sample chambers can be filled with up to 120 μL of sample and has the following size: 7 mm width, 3 mm depth and 10 mm height. The anodic and cathodic compartments have the same width and height as the sample chambers, but with a depth of 6 mm, thus accepting up to 250 μL of electrodic solutions. Focusing is in general accomplished in 2 h with a voltage gradient of up to 1000 V (7 cm electrode distance). Easy fractionation and collection of the content of the eight chambers is achieved by simply pressing a rubber diaphragm against the edges of the thin walls separating each well, this automatically breaking liquid continuity. The performance of this device has been tested by subfractionating total cell lysates of a human cancer cell line (U2Os) and of Escherichia coli bacterial cells, and by analysing the content of each chamber by mono‐dimensional SDS‐PAGE and 2‐D maps.
Cryptosporidium Dose‐Response Studies: Variation Between Hosts

The issue of variation is highly important in dose‐response analysis: variation among genetically related pathogens infecting the same host, but also variation among hosts, in susceptibility to infection by the same pathogen. This latter issue is addressed here for the protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium parvum, the causative agent for many outbreaks of water‐borne gastrointestinal illness. In human feeding studies, infectivity has been shown to be low in subjects with high preexisting anti‐Cryptosporidium IgG‐levels. Here we adapt the hit theory model of microbial infection to incorporate covariables, characterizing the immune status of the susceptible host. The probability of any single oocyst in the inoculum to cause infection appears to depend on preexisting IgG‐levels. This does not necessarily imply direct protection by the humoral immune system; high IgG‐levels may reflect a recent episode of infection/illness, and be an epi‐phenomenon associated with other protective responses. The IgG‐dependence of the dose‐response relation can be easily applied in quantitative risk analysis. The distribution of anti‐Cryptosporidium IgG levels in the general population is accessible by analyzing serum banks, which are maintained in many Western countries. Using such an approach provides first insights into the variation of susceptibility to infection in the general population.
Influence of Battery Downsizing and SOC Operating Window on Battery Pack Performance in a Hybrid Electric Vehicle

This paper provides a parametric study for (1) downsizing a battery pack (reducing the number of battery cells), potentially reducing cost and weight; and (2) lowering the nominal operating SOC to reduce degradation. The downsized pack design with shifted SOC window is evaluated in a light- duty hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) where the power demanded by the battery pack is specified prior to downsizing. A calibrated electro-thermal model and a semi-empirical capacity fade model are used to capture voltage, state-of-charge, temperature and capacity loss of the downsized battery. The capacity fade model is developed based on a novel set of experiments designed to clarify the influence of nominal operating SOC on battery degradation. The parametric study shows that the pack size could be reduced from 76 to 64 cells while shifting nominal operating SOC from 50% to 35% without experiencing battery power denials. This would result in a 20% increase in energy utilization per cell, with only a 0.4% increase in capacity fade.
Dispersed generation modeling for object-oriented distribution load flow

The interest in dispersed generation (DG) is world-widely increasing. The connection of small generating units affects the operation of distribution systems and classical modeling and analyzing techniques must be revised. Recently, a novel approach to the distribution load-flow problem has been proposed: the object-oriented (OO) paradigm has been applied both to the system modeling and to the Newton-Raphson solving algorithm in the cases of radial and weakly meshed distribution systems. In this paper, the OO load-flow modeling and algorithm are extended to account for the inclusion of DG. The OO paradigm allows easily introducing accurate models of DG interfacing to the network by various electric devices (synchronous generators, induction machines, power electronics converters). Numerical applications are presented to evidence the features of the algorithm evaluating the effects of DG on the operation of two test systems.
Ordered rippling of polymer surfaces by nanolithography: influence of scan pattern and boundary effects

We demonstrate how AFM nanolithography, with a proper choice of scan pattern, can induce an exceptionally ordered alignment of ripples on the surface of polymer films on the first scan. By analogy with the manipulation of nanoparticles, the orientation of the ripples is determined by the material flow, which is ultimately fixed by the direction of motion of the probing tip. This makes a raster scan pattern the best choice for orienting the ripples, as opposed to the zigzag scan pattern commonly adopted by most AFM setups. Our hypothesis is substantiated by a series of measurements on a solvent-enriched ultrathin film of PET, which allowed ripple formation on the first scan. We also show how the ripple orientation is significantly modified by the boundary conditions appearing when nanolithography is performed on circular, triangular and L-shaped areas on the polymer surface.
Discovery of rare causal knowledge from financial statement summaries

What would happen if temperatures were subdued and result in a cool summer? One can easily imagine that air conditioner, ice cream or beer sales would be suppressed as a result of this. Less obvious is that agricultural shipments might be delayed, or that sound proofing material sales might decrease. The ability to extract such causal knowledge is important, but it is also important to distinguish between cause-effect pairs that are known and those that are likely to be unknown, or rare. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a method for extracting rare causal knowledge from Japanese financial statement summaries produced by companies. Our method consists of three steps. First, it extracts sentences that include causal knowledge from the summaries using a machine learning method based on an extended language ontology. Second, it obtains causal knowledge from the extracted sentences using syntactic patterns. Finally, it extracts the rarest causal knowledge from the knowledge it has obtained.
Acrylic bone cement in total joint arthroplasty: A review

Acrylic bone cement has a variety of applications in orthopedic surgery. Primary uses in total arthroplasties are limited to prostheses fixation and antibiotic delivery. With the large number of total joint arthroplasties expected to continue to rise, understanding the role bone cement plays in the success of total joint arthroplasty can have a significant impact on daily practice. The literature is inconclusive on whether cemented or cementless fixation technique is superior, and choice of fixation type is mainly determined by surgeon preference and experience. Surgeons should understand that if poor techniques exist, short‐term outcomes of the replaced joint may be at risk. Statement of clinical significance: This article attempts to clarify some points of bone cement use through a review of the mechanical properties related to bone cement, a comparison to alternative materials, influence of additives, and the effects on surgical outcomes. © 2016 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 34:737–744, 2016.
The Impact of Shared IT on Efficiency and Learning

ABSTRACT A growing percentage of enterprises around the world are implementing technologies and systems to support exchanges with suppliers. Through public and private networks, enterprises worldwide, particularly large enterprises, are increasingly connected to their suppliers. However, the role played by information systems and technologies in the context of exchanges with suppliers is not well known. Information technology (IT) has been presented as both a means for diminishing the importance of relationships with suppliers and as a means of enabling new forms of collaboration. We believe this apparent contradiction can be resolved by focusing on the impact of shared IT on firms' two key objectives: efficiency and learning. We hypothesize that shared IT increases both efficiency and learning, but through different mechanisms and under different conditions.