Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fibrin D-Dimer Concentration, Deep Vein Thrombosis Symptom Duration, and Venous Thrombus Volume

Introduction: To determine the relationship between fibrin D-dimer levels, symptom duration, and thrombus volume, consecutive patients with incident deep venous thrombosis (DVT) were evaluated. Methods: In a cross-sectional study design, patient symptom onset was determined by careful patient questioning. Venous thrombosis was confirmed by compression duplex ultrasonography. Thrombus volume was estimated based on patient’s femur length using a forensic anthropology method. Fibrin D-dimer was measured by latex immunoassay. Results: 72 consecutive patients with confirmed leg DVT agreed to participate. The median symptom duration at the time of diagnosis was 10 days. The median D-dimer concentration was 1050 ng/dL. The median thrombus volume was 12.92 cm3. D-Dimer levels correlated with estimated thrombus volume (P < .0006 CI 0.12-0.41; R2 adjusted = .15) but not symptom duration, patient’s age, or gender. Conclusions: Despite varying symptom duration prior to diagnosis, fibrin D-dimer remains a sensitive measure of venous thrombosis and correlates with thrombus volume.
Determinants of compliance in the emissions compensation program in Santiago, Chile

The Emissions Compensation (EC) Program in Santiago, Chile, has been affected from the beginning by the incidence of individual violations of maximum-emission capacity permits. Based on information at the individual source level, in this paper we develop and estimate a model explaining the individual compliance decision with emission capacity permits. Our results indicate that the compliance behavior of sources during the period 1993–1999 do in fact depend on their individual characteristics. Among other factors, type of equipment used, industrial sector to which the source belongs, fuel type used, the initial allocation of emission capacity permits to the source, and population density as well as average income in the area where the source is located, turn out to be relevant. Furthermore, the evidence does not allow us to reject the presence of structural change in the individual decision to comply with permit holdings because of the introduction of natural gas in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago at the end of 1997.
An Unbalanced Multi-industry Growth Model with Constant Returns: A Turnpike Approach

Recent industry-based empirical studies among countries demonstrate that individual industry's per capita capital stock and output grow at industry's own steady state growth rate. The industry growth rate is highly correlated to industry's technical progress measured by total factor productivity TFP) of the industry. Let us refer to this phenomenon as "unbalanced growth among industries. " Very few research concerned with this phenomenon has been done yet. Some exceptions are Echevarria (1997), Kongsamut, Rebelo and Xie (2001), and Acemoglu and Guerrieri (2008) among others. However their models and analytical methods are different from mine. Applying the theoretical method developed by McKenzie and Scheinkman in turnpike theory, I now construct a multi-sector optimal growth model with a industry specific Hicks-neutral technical progress and show that each sector's per capita capital stock and output grow at the rate of the sector's technical progress.
Truncating Neurotrypsin Mutation in Autosomal Recessive Nonsyndromic Mental Retardation

A 4–base pair deletion in the neuronal serine protease neurotrypsin gene was associated with autosomal recessive nonsyndromic mental retardation (MR). In situ hybridization experiments on human fetal brains showed that neurotrypsin was highly expressed in brain structures involved in learning and memory. Immuno-electron microscopy on adult human brain sections revealed that neurotrypsin is located in presynaptic nerve endings, particularly over the presynaptic membrane lining the synaptic cleft. These findings suggest that neurotrypsin-mediated proteolysis is required for normal synaptic function and suggest potential insights into the pathophysiological bases of mental retardation.
Crystal structure of UvrB, a DNA helicase adapted for nucleotide excision repair

Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a highly conserved DNA repair mechanism. NER systems recognize the damaged DNA strand, cleave it on both sides of the lesion, remove and newly synthesize the fragment. UvrB is a central component of the bacterial NER system participating in damage recognition, strand excision and repair synthesis. We have solved the crystal structure of UvrB in the apo and the ATP‐bound forms. UvrB contains two domains related in structure to helicases, and two additional domains unique to repair proteins. The structure contains all elements of an intact helicase, and is evidence that UvrB utilizes ATP hydrolysis to move along the DNA to probe for damage. The location of conserved residues and structural comparisons allow us to predict the path of the DNA and suggest that the tight pre‐incision complex of UvrB and the damaged DNA is formed by insertion of a flexible β‐hairpin between the two DNA strands.
Cloning and characterization of a conjugated bile acid hydrolase gene from Clostridium perfringens

The gene encoding a conjugated bile acid hydrolase (CBAH) from Clostridium perfringens 13 has been cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli, and its nucleotide sequence has been determined. Nucleotide and predicted amino acid sequence analyses indicated that the gene product is related to two previously characterized amidases, a CBAH from Lactobacillus plantarum (40% identity) and a penicillin V amidase from Bacillus sphaericus (34% identity). The product is apparently unrelated to a CBAH from C. perfringens for which N-terminal sequence information was determined. The gene product was purified from recombinant E. coli and used to raise antibody in rabbits. The presence of the protein in C. perfringens was then confirmed by immunoblot analysis. The protein was shown to have a native molecular weight of 147,000 and a subunit molecular weight of 36,100, indicating its probable existence as a tetramer. Disruption of the chromosomal C. perfringens CBAH gene with a chloramphenicol resistance cartridge resulted in a mutant strain which retained partial CBAH activity. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by enzymatic activity staining and immunoblotting indicated that the mutant strain no longer expressed the cloned CBAH (CBAH-1) but did express at least one additional CBAH (CBAH-2). CBAH-2 was immunologically distinct from CBAH-1, and its mobility on native polyacrylamide gels was different from that of CBAH-1. Furthermore, comparisons of pH optima and substrate specificities of CBAH activities from recombinant E. coli and wild-type and mutant C. perfringens provided further evidence for the presence of multiple CBAH activities in C. perfringens.
What makes employees stay

Purpose – Business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in India is progressing with an unparalleled velocity. Although, much research has taken place time and again elaborating on attrition, which is a menace to this industry, not much of work has been done on retention. The present study aims to explore the dimensions of retention in a comprehensive manner. The paper identifies the main factors that lead to retention, compares these dimensions across various demographic characteristics and develops a regression model to find out the contribution of the factors to the long term sustenance of employees in a BPO. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was completed by 500 BPO employees located in the National Capital region of India. It measured their perception towards the importance of factors that are responsible for their sustenance in the organization. Data was analyzed using tests like factor analysis, descriptive stats, correlation and regression. Findings – Four major dimensions of retention w.
Dynamics of the global competitiveness of Chinese industries

Using a two-dimensional multi-variable approach, this article investigates the competitiveness and dynamics of Chinese industries from the perspective of the international marketplace. The study reveals the step-by-step transformation of the degree of global competitiveness across 97 Chinese industries during the last decade. A new metric is applied to map the competitiveness of this sample of industries in 1996 and 2008. Comparison of the two metrics reveals the evolution of industries in terms of their degree of global competitiveness. Additionally, a number of representative industries are, by way of case studies, analysed in greater detail. From these cases we learn how the degree of global competitiveness of these industries changed over a 13-year period.
Management Union Bargaining Under Minimum Wage Regulation in Less Developed Countries

We examine the impact of changes in minimum wages regulation on unionized workers. The bargaining process between the management and the union is modeled as an alternating-offers bargaining game over employment and wage. We find that the equilibrium wage is equal to the minimum wages and that an increase in minimum wages decreases the income of the employer, as well as the level of employment and hence of output. Moreover if the marginal product of labour is inelastic, then the income of the union declines as well. Thus our results seriously question the validity of indiscriminate increases in minimum wages.
What can experience add to early medical education? Consensus survey

Abstract Objective To provide a rationale for integrating experience into early medical education (“early experience”). Design Small group discussions to obtain stakeholders' views. Grounded theory analysis with respondent, internal, and external validation. Setting Problem based, undergraduate medical curriculum that is not vertically integrated. Participants A purposive sample of 64 students, staff, and curriculum leaders from three university medical schools in the United Kingdom. Results Without early experience, the curriculum was socially isolating and divorced from clinical practice. The abruptness of students' transition to the clinical environment in year 3 generated positive and negative emotions. The rationale for early experience would be to ease the transition; orientate the curriculum towards the social context of practice; make students more confident to approach patients; motivate them; increase their awareness of themselves and others; strengthen, deepen, and contextualise their theoretical knowledge; teach intellectual skills; strengthen learning of behavioural and social sciences; and teach them about the role of health professionals. Conclusion A rationale for early experience would be to strengthen and deepen cognitively, broaden affectively, contextualise, and integrate medical education. This is partly a process of professional socialisation that should start earlier to avoid an abrupt transition. “Experience” can be defined as “authentic human contact in a social or clinical context that enhances learning of health, illness or disease, and the role of the health professional. ”
Adolescent Blood Pressure Survey: Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1987 to 1989

The study goals were to document the incidence of elevated blood pressure (BP) values in public high school students in Tulsa, Oklahoma; to determine whether age and sex are risk factors; and to encourage adolescents with abnormal screening BP values to seek medical care. Over a 2-year period, 5537 adolescents aged 14 to 19 years were evaluated by a mass screening method. Blood pressure was measured once between 8:30 and 9:30 AM, with the students seated. Korotkoff phases 1 and 5 were recorded as systolic and diastolic BP. According to the criteria of the Second Task Force on Hypertension in Children and Adolescents, 334 students had elevated BP values (either systolic, diastolic, or both) (an incidence of 6%). Boys had an incidence of elevated systolic BP of 5.8%, while girls had a 2.8% incidence, a difference that might have been expected because of the generally higher incidence among men in the adult population. The incidence of elevated diastolic BP was 2.8% in boys and 2.1% in girls. Statistically significant differences between boys and girls mean systolic and diastolic elevations were found, but were not considered clinically significant. An instructional mailing was done in an effort to stimulate follow-up medical care for those with abnormal findings, but its effect was not measured.
A New Implementation of Deep Neural Networks for Optical Character Recognition and Face Recognition

The automatic analysis and recognition of off-line handwritten characters from images is an important area in many applications. Even with the important progress of recent research in optical character recognition, few problems still wait to be solved specially for Arabic characters. The use of Deep Neural Networks may solve these problems. We present a deep neural network for the handwritten OCR problem. The method we used shows favorable performance (accuracy 98.46% on MNIST dataset) with a simple architecture that can be installed on a normal PC. Face recognition of still images is also another important application due to security concerns. Convolutional neural network (CNN) models have demonstrated that they can extract the important features of the face for recognition without extensive preprocessing or feature engineering steps. We present the results of applying a deep CNN on a data collected at the University of Jordan, UJ Face dataset. The method performance was perfect classification after just 80 epochs. The programming environments were TensorFlow and Keras. We showed the importance of regularization on the performance of deep networks.
Single-unit responses of serotonergic dorsal raphe neurons to 5-HT1A agonist and antagonist drug administration in behaving cats.

Single-unit activity of serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus was recorded in free-moving cats in response to i.v. administration of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)1A agonist and antagonist drugs. The 5-HT1A agonist drugs 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin (8-OH-DPAT), ipsapirone, buspirone and 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine produced a rapid, dose-dependent inhibition of neuronal activity. 8-OH-DPAT (ED50 = 1.5 micrograms/kg) was approximately 45 times more potent than ipsapirone, buspirone or 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (ED50 range = 6.0-6.8 micrograms/kg) in producing inhibition, and all drugs were more effective when cats were inactive (e.g., drowsiness) than during periods of behavioral arousal (e.g., active waking). Administration of the 5-HT1A autoreceptor antagonist spiperone (0.25 and 1 mg/kg) produced a rapid, dose-dependent increase in the firing rate, suggesting that under physiological conditions serotonergic neurons are controlled by tonic feedback inhibition. This effect was evident during wakefulness (a period of relatively high neuronal activity), but not during sleep (a period of relatively low neuronal activity). Spiperone also blocked the inhibitory action of 8-OH-DPAT in a dose- and time-dependent manner. There was a strong positive correlation between the magnitude of spiperone-induced neuronal activation and blockade of 8-OH-DPAT-induced neuronal suppression. These effects of spiperone cannot be attributed to its dopaminergic D2 or serotonergic 5-HT2 antagonist properties, because administration of haloperidol and ritanserin produced no increase in neuronal activity and did not block the action of 8-OH-DPAT. These results confirm the marked sensitivity of serotonergic dorsal raphe nucleus neurons to selective 5-HT1A agonist compounds in unanesthetized animals and suggest that 5-HT1A somatodendritic autoreceptors exert a tonic inhibitory influence on the firing rate of these neurons during periods of behavioral activation, but not during periods of behavioral quiescence.
Essays on Conflict, Institutions, and Ethnic Diversity

Article history: Received 25 March 2008 Revised 22 September 2008 Accepted 23 September 2008 Available online 4 October 2008 Is social capital a substitute or a complement to formal institutions for achieving economic growth? A number of recent micro studies suggest that interpersonal trust has its greatest impact on economic performancewhen court institutions are relatively weak. The conventional wisdom from most macro studies, however, is that social capital is unconditionally good for growth. On the basis of themicro evidence, we outline an investment game between a producer and a lender in an incomplete-contracts setting. A key insight is that social capital will have the greatest effect on the total surplus from the game at lower levels of institutional strength and that the effect of social capital vanishes when institutions are very strong. When we bring this prediction to an empirical cross-country growth regression, it is shown that the marginal effect of social capital (in the form of interpersonal trust) decreases with institutional strength. Our results imply that a one standard deviation rise in social capital in weakly institutionalized Nigeria should increase economic growth by 1.8 percentage points, whereas the same increase in social capital only increases growth by 0.3 percentage points in strongly institutionalized Canada. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: O17 O43 O57
Durable Good Monopolies with Rational Expectations and Replacement Sales

A monopoly producer of a durable good is examined under the (previously uninvoked) assumption that the good depreciates, and hence that replacement sales must occur if a fixed stock of the good is to be maintained. We find two ways in which the no-depreciation result, that the monopoly will always (at least eventually) produce a stock equal to that produced by a competitive market, may not hold. If the length of the trading period is nonzero, the limiting stock produced by the firm will be lower than the competitive stock, to ensure the profitability of future replacement sales. If the firm is able to constrain its production capacity, it may choose a constraint that always binds in the sense that it will be impossible for the firm to achieve a stock equal to the competitive stock.
Eccentric training for the rehabilitation of a high level wrestler with distal biceps tendinosis: a case report.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Distal biceps brachii tendinosis is a relatively uncommon clinical diagnosis seen by physical therapists. As a result, there is little evidence guiding clinical decisions regarding best practice or effective treatment options to restore individuals to their previous level of function. The purpose of this case report is to describe the use of eccentric training as the primary intervention in the rehabilitation of a patient with distal biceps tendinosis. CASE DESCRIPTION A 41-year-old male electrician and collegiate wrestling coach presented to a university outpatient physical therapy clinic with a two month duration of pain in the right antecubital space which occurred when the patient was performing close-grip body weight curl ups for the first time. Sharp pain was noted in the right arm during the lowering phase of the exercise. Following the examination, distal biceps tendinosis appeared to be the likely diagnosis. The patient was educated in eccentric exercise principles and was prescribed eccentric loading exercises for the distal biceps brachii tendon in two different positions of elbow flexion. OUTCOMES The patient was seen in physical therapy for three visits over the course of four weeks. Following eccentric training, the patient reported decreased pain, demonstrated increased right elbow flexion and forearm supination strength, was no longer tender to palpation of the distal biceps tendon and showed clinically significant improvement in QuickDASH scores. DISCUSSION Given the lack of available research on the rehabilitation of distal biceps tendinosis, eccentric training showing benefits with other upper quarter tendinoses and the positive outcomes in this case, it may be appropriate for physical therapists to employ eccentric training for patients with distal biceps tendinosis. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 5 (Single case report).
A Method to Support Variability of Enterprise Services on the Cloud

Web-business platforms offer business capabilities as enterprise services hosted in a multi-tenant cloud environment. Often there is a need to create heavyweight variants of these enterprise services to support: inherent variability in the underlying business process, industry-specific requirements, globalization concerns and customer-specific requirements. These variability concerns affect both the service interface and the service provider implementation and hence are crosscutting in nature. In this paper, we use principles of aspect-oriented software development to modularize these variability concerns. We also provide an aspect specification scheme to specify these concerns. We propose an approach to create heavyweight service variants centered on a Service Kernel, which forms a common service core across tenants. Heavyweight service variants are created by weaving aspects into the service kernel. Our approach provides improved governance for the provider while offering maximum flexibility for the consumers.
Validation of an HPV16-mediated carcinogenesis mouse model.

BACKGROUND/AIM Human papillomavirus Type 16 (HPV16) infection is a necessary but alone insufficient cause of invasive cervical cancer (ICC) and likely causes other genital cancers. Individual genetic variability influences the natural history of the neoplasm. Developing a variety of animal models to investigate HPV16-mediated carcinogenesis is important to Phase 1 trials for human cancer treatments. MATERIALS AND METHODS C57BL/6 mice expressing the HPV16-E7 transgene were treated with 100 nmoles of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) on dorsal-thoracolumbar skin for ≤20 weeks. RESULTS Transgenic-HPV16E7 mice showed more tumors (14.11±1.49 vs. 7.2±0.73) that more quickly reached maximal size (17.53±0.53 vs. 28.75±0.67 weeks) than syngeneic controls. CONCLUSION DMBA topically-treated C57BL/6-HPV16E7 mice developed chronic inflammation as well as benign and malignant lesions, many of which ulcerated. Histology showed that the HPV16-E7 transgene more than doubled the effect of complete carcinogenesis against a C57BL/6 background alone, strongly influencing the number, size, and time-to-maximal tumor burden for DMBA-exposed transgenic-C57BL/6 mice.
Multiple spatially resolved reflection spectroscopy to monitor cutaneous carotenoids during supplementation of fruit and vegetable extracts in vivo

A nutrition rich in fruit and vegetables and a healthy lifestyle become more and more important in the industrial countries to counteract oxidative stress and promote health. For many years, it has been possible to control human cutaneous carotenoids noninvasively by resonance Raman spectroscopic systems and by spatially resolved reflectance spectroscopy.
Gravity currents produced by lock exchange

The dynamics of gravity currents are believed to be strongly influenced by dissipation due to turbulence and mixing between the current and the surrounding ambient fluid. This paper describes new theory and experiments on gravity currents produced by lock exchange which suggest that dissipation is unimportant when the Reynolds number is sufficiently high. Although there is mixing, the amount of energy dissipated is small, reducing the current speed by a few percent from the energy-conserving value. Benjamin (J. Fluid Mech. vol. 31, 1968, p. 209) suggests that dissipation is an essential ingredient in gravity current dynamics. We show that dissipation is not important at high Reynolds number, and provide an alternative theory that predicts the current speed and depth based on energy-conserving flow that is in good agreement with experiments. We predict that in a deep ambient the front Froude number is 1, rather than the previously accepted value of $\sqrt 2$. New experiments are reported for this case that support the new theoretical value.