Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Different effects of indomethacin on healing of shaft and metaphyseal fractures

Background and purpose — NSAIDs are commonly used in the clinic, and there is a general perception that this does not influence healing in common types of human fractures. Still, NSAIDs impair fracture healing dramatically in animal models. These models mainly pertain to fractures of cortical bone in shafts, whereas patients more often have corticocancellous fractures in metaphyses. We therefore tested the hypothesis that the effect of an NSAID is different in shaft healing and metaphyseal healing. Methods — 26 mice were given an osteotomy of their left femur with an intramedullary nail. 13 received injections of indomethacin, 1 mg/kg twice daily. After 17 days of healing, the femurs were analyzed with 3-point bending and microCT. 24 other mice had holes drilled in both proximal tibias, to mimic a stable metaphyseal injury. A screw was inserted in the right tibial hole only. After 7 days of indomethacin injections or control injections, screw fixation was measured with mechanical pull-out testing and the side without a screw was analyzed with microCT. Results — In the shaft model, indomethacin led to a 35% decrease in force at failure (95% CI: 14–54). Callus size was reduced to a similar degree, as seen by microCT. Metaphyseal healing was less affected by indomethacin, as no effect on pull-out force could be seen (95% CI: –27 to 17) and there was only a small drop in new bone volume inside the drill hole. The difference in the relative effect of indomethacin between the 2 models was statistically significant (p = 0.006). Interpretation — Indomethacin had a minimal effect on stable metaphyseal fractures, but greatly impaired healing of unstable shaft fractures. This could explain some of the differences found between animal models and clinical experience.
Analysis of Spatio-temporal Urban Growth using GIS Integrated Urban Gradient Analysis; Colombo District, Sri Lanka

More than one half of the world’s population live in urban areas, which comprise the cities and their surroundings. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep on accommodating the burgeoning population due to the limited extent of urban spaces. Urban growth gradually spreads outward from the city to the fringe areas in an even or uneven manner and controlling it has proved to be a very challenging task. This spatial expansion can be observed as a physical process that occurs over a long period, showing continuous spatial changes in a temporal manner. Analysing and calculating this spatial process, is a significant matter. Most urban scholars use Landscape Expansion Index combined with urban gradient analysis to quantify urban growth. This research aims to quantify spatio-temporal urban growth in the Colombo District, Sri Lanka using GIS integrated urban gradient analysis.
Organizational expatriates and self-initiated expatriates: who adjusts better to work and life in Japan?

Expatriates are often presented in the cross-cultural adjustment literature as a homogeneous, broad population. However, recent research that makes a distinction between organizational expatriates (OEs), those who are dispatched by their home companies to international posts, and self-initiated expatriates (SIEs), those who themselves make the decision to live and work abroad, has identified differences between the two groups. The present study compares the cross-cultural adjustment of these two groups of expatriates. Survey results of 179 expatriates in Japan show that SIEs are better adjusted to general aspects of their host country and interactions with host-country nationals than OEs. Suggestions for practice are provided.
Receptor editing-inspired negative selection algorithm

Inspired by theory of biological immune receptor editing, this paper proposes and implements a receptor editing-inspired negative selection algorithm (RENSA). Using directional receptor editing for identifying same nearest selves, the algorithm can simultaneously adjust the position and radius of detectors to expand coverage of non-self space. Theoretical analysis and experimental verification show that the algorithm obtains better detection performance compared with RNS algorithm with fixed detection radius and V-detector algorithm with variable detection radius respectively.
Analysis of digenic epistatic effects andQE interaction effects QTL controlling grain weight in rice

Immortalized F2 population of rice (Oryza sativa L.) was developed by randomly mating F1 among recombinant inbred (RI) lines derived from (Zhenshan 97B × Minghui 63), which allowed replications within and across environments. OTL (quantitative trait loci) mapping analysis on kilo-grain weight of immortalized F2 population was performed by using newly developed software for QTL mapping, QTLMapper 2.0. Eleven distinctly digenic epistatic loci included a total of 15 QTL were located on eight chromosome. QTL main effects of additive, domainance, and additive × additive, additive × domainance, and dominance × dominance interactions were estimated. Interaction effects between QTL main effects and environments (QE) were predicted. Less than 40% of single effects, most of which were additive effects, for identified QTL were significant at 5% level. The directional difference for QTL main effects suggested that these QTL were distributed in parents in the repulsion phase. This should make it feasible to improve kilo-grain weight of both parents by selecting apprents in the repulsion phase. This should make it feasible to improve kilo-grain weight of both parents by selecting appropriate new recombinants. Only few of theQE interaction effects were significant. Application prospect for QTL mapping achievements in genetic breeding was discussed.
Multiobjective Value Analysis of Army Basic Training

Basic combat training is the first course in initial entry training for U.S. Army enlisted soldiers. The training may be considered a portfolio of training tasks. A small number of tasks were suspected to be of lesser quality. Multiobjective decision analysis was employed to evaluate the tasks using stakeholder groups from various organizational levels. The results identified areas for improvement and also provided insight about how personnel at various levels of the training organization viewed the tasks and their training value differently. The decision maker adopted a number of recommendations and the valuation exercise provided a useful process for eliciting informal feedback from organization members. Several lessons learned from the study should be useful to others, including the benefit of examining stakeholders vertically in an organization and techniques that were helpful in gaining acceptance of decision analysis as the approach of choice.
Developing a Gait Enhancing Mobile Shoe to alter over-ground walking coordination

This paper presents a Gait Enhancing Mobile Shoe (GEMS) that mimics the desirable kinematics of a split-belt treadmill except that it does so over ground. Split-belt treadmills, with two separate treads running at different speeds, have been found useful in the rehabilitation of persons with asymmetric walking patterns. Although in preliminary testing, beneficial after-effects have been recorded, various drawbacks include the stationary nature of the split-belt treadmill and the inability to keep a person on the split-belt treadmill for an extended period of time. For this reason, the after-effects for long-term gait training are still unknown. The mobile ability of the GEMS outlined in this paper enables it to be worn in different environments such as in one's own house and also enables it to be worn for a longer period of time since the GEMS is completely passive. Healthy subject testing has demonstrated that wearing this shoe for twenty minutes can alter the wearer's gait and will generate after-effects in a similar manner as a split-belt treadmill does.
Icodextrin-induced peritonitis: study of five cases and comparison with bacterial peritonitis.

BACKGROUND An epidemic of aseptic peritonitis related to the presence of peptidoglycan contaminant in some batches of icodextrin solution (Extraneal, Baxter Healthcare Corporation) occurred in Europe in the first six months of 2002. METHODS By case-control study we examined the clinical and biologic features of 5 patients with icodextrin-induced peritonitis (group AP) and compared them with 7 patients with bacterial peritonitis (group BP) recruited in our clinical center between January and June 2002. RESULTS Diagnosis of icodextrin-induced peritonitis was confirmed in all cases by a positive reintroduction test with contaminated batches of icodextrin. No recurrence was observed on re-exposure to icodextrin free of peptidoglycan. Skin tests were positive with contaminated icodextrin in 2 of 5 patients, while they were negative with icodextrin solution free of peptidoglycan (<0.6 ng/mL). During peritonitis, serum level of C-reactive protein (CRP) was lower in group AP (42.4 +/- 34 mg/L) than in group BP (135 +/- 59 mg/L) (P= 0.01). Leukocyte number in peritoneal dialysis effluent was lower in group AP (284 +/- 101/mm3), with a lower neutrophil/monocyte ratio (N/M = 0.67) than in group BP (1410 +/- 973/mm3; N/M = 4) (P < 0.05). A low number of peritoneal fluid eosinophilia (11 +/- 8%) was detected in group AP. CONCLUSION Icodextrin-induced peritonitis was associated with a burst of intraperitoneal cytokines. The phenotype of peritoneal neutrophils was different between aseptic and bacterial peritonitis, indicating that inflammatory stimuli that activate neutrophils in both types of peritonitis are clearly distinct. Finally, peritoneal injury measured by weight gain, peritoneal permeability, and CA125 concentration seemed to be less severe during icodextrin-induced peritonitis than during bacterial peritonitis.
Logistic Regression for Single Trial EEG Classification

We propose a novel framework for the classification of single trial ElectroEncephaloGraphy (EEG), based on regularized logistic regression. Framed in this robust statistical framework no prior feature extraction or outlier removal is required. We present two variations of parameterizing the regression function: (a) with a full rank symmetric matrix coefficient and (b) as a difference of two rank=1 matrices. In the first case, the problem is convex and the logistic regression is optimal under a generative model. The latter case is shown to be related to the Common Spatial Pattern (CSP) algorithm, which is a popular technique in Brain Computer Interfacing. The regression coefficients can also be topographically mapped onto the scalp similarly to CSP projections, which allows neuro-physiological interpretation. Simulations on 162 BCI datasets demonstrate that classification accuracy and robustness compares favorably against conventional CSP based classifiers.
Dominance measures for multi-objective simulated annealing

Simulated annealing (SA) is a provably convergent optimiser for single-objective (SO) problems. Previously proposed MO extensions have mostly taken the form of an SO SA optimising a composite function of the objectives. We propose an MO SA utilising the relative dominance of a solution as the system energy for optimisation, eliminating problems associated with composite objective functions. We also propose a method for choosing perturbation scalings promoting search both towards and across the Pareto front. We illustrate the SA's performance on standard test problems. The new SA is shown to promote rapid convergence to the true Pareto front with a good coverage of points across it.
Dynamic Response of a High Arctic Glacier to Melt and Runoff Variations

The dynamic response of High Arctic glaciers to increased runoff in a warming climate remains poorly understood. We analyze a 10‐year record of continuous velocity data collected at multiple sites on Nordenskiöldbreen, Svalbard, and study the connection between ice flow and runoff within and between seasons. During the melt season, the sensitivity of ice motion to runoff at sites in the ablation and lower accumulation zone drops by a factor of 3 when cumulative runoff exceeds a local threshold, which is likely associated with a transition from inefficient (distributed) to efficient (channelized) drainage. Average summer (June–August) velocities are found to increase with summer ablation, while subsequent fall (September–November) velocities decrease. Spring (March–May) velocities are largely insensitive to summer ablation, which suggests a short‐lived impact of summer melt on ice flow during the cold season. The net impact of summer ablation on annual velocities is found to be insignificant.
An Effective Termination Criterion for the Rudin-Osher-Fatemi Algorithm for Image Restoration

The Rudin-Osher-Fatemi (ROF) algorithm for de-noising and de-blurring of still digital images is well known to offer excellent image restoration performance. However, application of the ROF algorithm in the past has indicated that one can get the best results from the algorithm only when one terminates the algorithm at the "right time" which turns out to be way before the corresponding parabolic partial differential equation converges to its steady-state solution, and the determination of that right time for terminating the algorithm becomes a key issue for the best utilization of the algorithm. In this paper, a simple yet effective termination criterion for the ROF algorithm is proposed. Performance results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed criterion when it is incorporated with the ROF algorithm.
Yesquel: scalable sql storage for web applications

Web applications have been shifting their storage systems from sql to nosql systems. nosql systems scale well but drop many convenient sql features, such as joins, secondary indexes, and/or transactions. We design, develop, and evaluate Yesquel, a system that provides performance and scalability comparable to nosql with all the features of a sql relational system. Yesquel has a new architecture and a new distributed data structure, called YDBT, which Yesquel uses for storage, and which performs well under contention by many concurrent clients. We evaluate Yesquel and find that Yesquel performs almost as well as Redis---a popular nosql system---and much better than mysql Cluster, while handling sql queries at scale.
Changes in Wildlife Damage Management in Alabama: 1990 to 2011

Author(s): Armstrong, James B. | Abstract: Over the past 20 years, the issues and species involved in wildlife damage management have changed in nature and magnitude. I present a compilation of wildlife damage data collected from Alabama Cooperative Extension System agents in 1990 and 2011. In 1990, snakes and commensal rodents were the cause of most wildlife damage complaints. While these two groups were still listed in 2011, armadillos, gray squirrels, white-tailed deer, and wild pigs (previously unranked) took the top four rankings. The nature of complaints within a species category showed some changes with traditionally rural/agricultural species now being of concern in suburban/urban situations. Documentation of these changes in species and types of complaints provides us with information to predict future issues related to wildlife damage.
Nurse Staffing and Mortality for Medicare Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction

ContextRecent hospital reductions in registered nurses (RNs) for hospital care raise concerns about patient outcomes. ObjectiveAssess the association of nurse staffing with in-hospital mortality for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Design, Setting, and Patients.Medical record review data from the 1994–1995 Cooperative Cardiovascular Project were linked with American Hospital Association data for 118,940 fee-for-service Medicare patients hospitalized with AMI. Staffing levels were represented as nurse to patient ratios categorized into quartiles for RNs and for licensed practical nurses (LPNs). Main Outcome Measures.In-hospital mortality. ResultsFrom highest to lowest quartile of RN staffing, in-hospital mortality was 17.8%, 17.4%, 18.5%, and 20.1%, respectively (P < 0.001 for trend). However, from highest to lowest quartile of LPN staffing, mortality was 20.1%, 18.7%, 17.9%, and 17.2%, respectively P < 0.001). After adjustment for patient demographic and clinical characteristics, treatment, and for hospital volume, technology index, and teaching and urban status, patients treated in environments with higher RN staffing were less likely to die in-hospital; odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of quartiles 4, 3, and 2 versus quartile 1 were 0.91 (0.86–0.97), 0.94 (0.88–1.00), and 0.96 (0.90–1.02), respectively. Conversely, after adjustment, patients treated in environments with higher LPN staffing were more likely to die in-hospital; odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of quartiles 4, 3, and 2 versus quartile 1 were 1.07 (1.00–1.15), 1.02 (0.96–1.09), and 1.00 (0.94–1.07), respectively. ConclusionsEven after extensive adjustment, higher RN staffing levels were associated with lower mortality. Our findings suggest an important effect of nurse staffing on in-hospital mortality.
Intermittent swimming in live sea urchin sperm

Sperm of the sea urchin Tripneustes gratilla repeatedly start and stop swimming when suspended in seawater and observed by dark-field microscopy. While in the quiescent state, which usually lasts about a second, the sperm assume s shape resembling a cane, with a sharp bend of approximately 3.4 rad in the proximal region of the flagellum and very little curvature in the rest of the flagellum except for a slight curve near the tip. The occurrence of quiescence requires the presence of at least 2 mM Ca2+ in the seawater, and the percentage of sperm quiescent at any one time increases substantially when the sperm are illuminated with blue light. With intense illumination, close to 100% of the sperm become quiescent, and this percentage decreases gradually to approximately 0.3% over a 10(4)-fold decrease in light intensity. An increased concentration of K+ in the seawater also increases the percentage of quiescence, with a majority of the sperm being quiescent in seawater containing 80 mM KCl. The induction of quiescence by light or by increased KCl is completely inhibited by 10 micrometers chlorpromazine, and approximately 90% inhibited by 1 mM procaine or sodium barbital. Sperm treated with the divalent-cation ionophore A23187 swim quite normally, although for a relatively short period, in artificial seawater lacking divalent cations, but are abruptly arrested upon addition of 0.04--0.2 mM free Ca2%. The flagellar waveform of these arrested sperm is almost identical to that of light-induced quiescence in the live sperm. The results support the hypothesis that quiescence is induced by a rise in intracellular Ca2%, perhaps as a consequence of a membrane depolarization, and that it is similar to the arrest response in cilia.
The pineal and its hormones in the control of reproduction in mammals.

ONLY A LITTLE over a decade ago, any discussion of the function of the pineal gland included qualifying adjectives such as alleged, supposed, and putative. In the same vein, since it connoted a hormonal function, rather than referring to the pineal as a gland, the phrase pineal organ was usually employed to describe this portion of the epithalamus. However, this is no longer the case, at least in mammals. By the usual criteria in endocrinology, the pineal now fulfills all the qualifications of an organ of internal secretion. Several major discoveries revolutionized ideas concerning the function of the pineal gland. Certainly, as noted frequently in other reviews, the isolation and identification of N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine (melatonin), a pineal hormone, from bovine pineal tissue by Lerner et al. (1, 2) provided a strong impetus for subsequent investigations on this sometimes exasperating organ. At least as important as this discovery, however, were the observations that light and darkness govern both .
Semantic and Contextual Knowledge Representation for Lexical Disambiguation: Case of Arabic-French Query Translation

We present in this paper, an automatic query translation system in cross-language information retrieval (Arabic-French). For the lexical disambiguation, our system combines between two resources: a bilingual dictionary and a parallel corpus. To select the best translation, our method is based on a correspondence measure between two semantic networks. The first one represents the senses of ambiguous terms of the query. The second one is a semantic network contextually enriched, representing the collection of sentences responding to the query. This collection forms the knowledge base of our disambiguation method and it is obtained by alignment with the relevant sentences in Arabic. The evaluation of the proposed system shows the advantage of the contextual enrichment on the quality of the translation. We obtained a high precision, relatively proportional to the precision provided by the used alignment. Finally, our translation demonstrates its potential by comparing its Bleu score with that of Google translate.
Dihydropyridine Receptors as Voltage Sensors for a Depolarization-evoked, IP3R-mediated, Slow Calcium Signal in Skeletal Muscle Cells

The dihydropyridine receptor (DHPR), normally a voltage-dependent calcium channel, functions in skeletal muscle essentially as a voltage sensor, triggering intracellular calcium release for excitation-contraction coupling. In addition to this fast calcium release, via ryanodine receptor (RYR) channels, depolarization of skeletal myotubes evokes slow calcium waves, unrelated to contraction, that involve the cell nucleus (Jaimovich, E., R. Reyes, J.L. Liberona, and J.A. Powell. 2000. Am. J. Physiol. Cell Physiol. 278:C998–C1010). We tested the hypothesis that DHPR may also be the voltage sensor for these slow calcium signals. In cultures of primary rat myotubes, 10 μM nifedipine (a DHPR inhibitor) completely blocked the slow calcium (fluo-3-fluorescence) transient after 47 mM K+ depolarization and only partially reduced the fast Ca2+ signal. Dysgenic myotubes from the GLT cell line, which do not express the α1 subunit of the DHPR, did not show either type of calcium transient following depolarization. After transfection of the α1 DNA into the GLT cells, K+ depolarization induced slow calcium transients that were similar to those present in normal C2C12 and normal NLT cell lines. Slow calcium transients in transfected cells were blocked by nifedipine as well as by the G protein inhibitor, pertussis toxin, but not by ryanodine, the RYR inhibitor. Since slow Ca2+ transients appear to be mediated by IP3, we measured the increase of IP3 mass after K+ depolarization. The IP3 transient seen in control cells was inhibited by nifedipine and was absent in nontransfected dysgenic cells, but α1-transfected cells recovered the depolarization-induced IP3 transient. In normal myotubes, 10 μM nifedipine, but not ryanodine, inhibited c-jun and c-fos mRNA increase after K+ depolarization. These results suggest a role for DHPR-mediated calcium signals in regulation of early gene expression. A model of excitation-transcription coupling is presented in which both G proteins and IP3 appear as important downstream mediators after sensing of depolarization by DHPR.