Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cement Spacers With Antibiotics for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Infected Nonunions and Bone Defects of the Upper Extremity

Treatment of patients with posttraumatic infected nonunions or highly contaminated open fractures with segmental bone loss of the long bones of the upper extremity is demanding. The use of a 2-stage reconstruction technique, being the first stage characterized by thorough debridement, copious lavage, soft tissue coverage, and placement of a cement spacer with antibiotics at the infected site, and the second stage by cement spacer removal, internal fixation, and placement of bone graft with local antibiotics, is presented. We carried out this technique in 20 cases, in 12 cases the cement was molded to fit the defect and placed as a solid interposition mass, in 3 cases it was placed lateral to the affected bone, and in the remaining 5 cases a Rush nail covered with a cement mantle was used. Follow-up averaged 18 months. All nonunions and fractures healed after an average of 5 months. Disabilities of the arm, shoulder, and hand (DASH) score at last follow-up in nonunions averaged 14 points and 21 points in bone losses. Although generally 2 surgical procedures are needed, 1 to cure or prevent infection and another to achieve bony union, this approach for complex open fractures with segmental bone loss and for infected nonunions of the long bones of the upper extremity represents a valid treatment alternative.
Combating the Cold Start User Problem in Model Based Collaborative Filtering

For tackling the well known cold-start user problem in model-based recommender systems, one approach is to recommend a few items to a cold-start user and use the feedback to learn a profile. The learned profile can then be used to make good recommendations to the cold user. In the absence of a good initial profile, the recommendations are like random probes, but if not chosen judiciously, both bad recommendations and too many recommendations may turn off a user. We formalize the cold-start user problem by asking what are the $b$ best items we should recommend to a cold-start user, in order to learn her profile most accurately, where $b$, a given budget, is typically a small number. We formalize the problem as an optimization problem and present multiple non-trivial results, including NP-hardness as well as hardness of approximation. We furthermore show that the objective function, i.e., the least square error of the learned profile w.r. t. the true user profile, is neither submodular nor supermodular, suggesting efficient approximations are unlikely to exist. Finally, we discuss several scalable heuristic approaches for identifying the $b$ best items to recommend to the user and experimentally evaluate their performance on 4 real datasets. Our experiments show that our proposed accelerated algorithms significantly outperform the prior art in runnning time, while achieving similar error in the learned user profile as well as in the rating predictions.
Economics for a Warming World

It is the ultimate challenge for public policy: the fate of the earth quite literally depends upon how society, in this generation, responds to the threat of climate change. As temperatures and sea levels continue their inexorable rise, as increasingly violent extremes of weather besiege communities and ecosystems, as accelerating environmental degradation threatens future supplies of food, water, and other necessities of life, how should the appropriate policies be chosen and implemented? What theories and analytical frameworks offer effective guidance for these crucial decisions? Economics seeks to provide systematic approaches to developing public policies; climate change is the final exam, the test that counts for any theory of policy formation. So far, unfortunately, the discipline is not headed for a very impressive grade. This paper argues that new assumptions and analyses are needed in economics in order to comprehend and respond to the problem of climate change. Part I briefly introduces the reasons why climate change requires new and different policy analyses. Part II examines the ways in which aspects of established economic theory impede rather than encourage solutions to climate change. Part III concludes with recommendations for a revised approach to public policy. 1. The Problem(s) of Climate Change Current patterns of fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, and other causes of greenhouse gas emissions will, within 50 to 100 years (if not sooner), cause massive melting of glaciers and ice sheets, extinctions of many climate-sensitive species, widespread droughts in (at least) South Asia, Africa and western North America, declines in global food production (even as population grows well beyond today's levels), and more destructive extreme weather events along the lines of the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005 and the European heat wave of 2003. And the news will only continue to worsen as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise. Three fundamental features of the climate problem challenge traditional assumptions and require new approaches in economics. Each is involved, to some extent, in other contemporary policy problems, but each is central to an understanding of climate change. The urgency of the climate problem, the ever-increasing scientific certainty that " business as usual " will lead to irreversible, unacceptable outcomes, undermines the deep-and Economics for a Warming World, " forthcoming in Harvard Law and Policy Review (2007). 2 post-autistic economics review, issue no. 44 seated analytical presumption in favor of the status quo. What climate science tells us, above all, is that the …
Subunit interactions in bovine papillomavirus

Papillomaviruses, members of a group of dsDNA viruses associated with epithelial growths and tumors, have compact capsids assembled from 72 pentamers of the protein L1. We have determined the structure of bovine papillomavirus by electron cryomicrosopy (cryoEM), at ∼3.6 Å resolution. The density map, obtained from single-particle analysis of ∼4,000 particle images, shows the trace of the L1 polypeptide chain and reveals how the N- and C-terminal “arms” of a subunit (extensions from its β-jelly-roll core) associate with a neighboring pentamer. Critical contacts come from the C-terminal arm, which loops out from the core of the subunit, forms contacts (including a disulfide) with two subunits in a neighboring pentamer, and reinserts into the pentamer from which it emanates. This trace corrects one feature of an earlier model. We discuss implications of the structure for virion assembly and for pathways of infectious viral entry. We suggest that it should be possible to obtain image reconstructions of comparable resolution from cryoEM images of asymmetric particles. From the work on papillomavirus described here, we estimate that such a reconstruction will require about 1.5 million images to achieve the same number of averaged asymmetric units; structural variability will increase this number substantially.
A Power Consumption Estimation Approach for Embedded Software Design Using Trace Analysis

With the explosion of advanced power control knobs such as dynamic voltage frequency scaling, mastering energy constraints in embedded systems is becoming challenging for software developers. Several power estimation techniques have been proposed over the past years, from electrical level to more abstract models such as SystemC/TLM. They offer various tradeoffs between performance and accuracy, but suffer from a number of shortcomings. They are expensive and time-consuming, requiring intricate models of the architecture and finally, fail to be applied from the software developer perspective. In this paper, we propose a lightweight and cost-effective approach suitable for software developers. It relies on trace analysis and high-level modeling of architectures to perform quick and efficient power consumption estimations without loosing accuracy. This approach is fully supported by a tool and is validated using a simple thermal mitigation case study and checked against physical measurements. We show that, for our case study, the relative error between our tool and real values is 8% in average.
The crystal structure of NS5A domain 1 from genotype 1a reveals new clues to the mechanism of action for dimeric HCV inhibitors

New direct acting antivirals (DAAs) such as daclatasvir (DCV; BMS‐790052), which target NS5A function with picomolar potency, are showing promise in clinical trials. The exact nature of how these compounds have an inhibitory effect on HCV is unknown; however, major resistance mutations appear in the N‐terminal region of NS5A that include the amphipathic helix and domain 1. The dimeric symmetry of these compounds suggests that they act on a dimer of NS5A, which is also consistent with the presence of dimers in crystals of NS5A domain 1 from genotype 1b. Genotype 1a HCV is less potently affected by these compounds and resistance mutations have a greater effect than in the 1b genotypes. We have obtained crystals of domain 1 of the important 1a NS5A homologue and intriguingly, our X‐ray crystal structure reveals two new dimeric forms of this domain. Furthermore, the high solvent content (75%) makes it ideal for ligand‐soaking. Daclatasvir (DCV) shows twofold symmetry suggesting NS5A dimers may be of physiological importance and serve as potential binding sites for DCV. These dimers also allow for new conformations of a NS5A expansive network which could explain its operation on the membranous web. Additionally, sulfates bound in the crystal structure may provide evidence for the previously proposed RNA binding groove, or explain regulation of NS5A domain 2 and 3 function and phosphorylation, by domain 1.
Design of an active fault tolerant control for nonlinear systems described by a multi-model representation

In this paper, a new active fault tolerant control (FTC) strategy is developed to nonlinear systems described by multiple linear models to prevent the system deterioration by the synthesis of adapted controllers. When a fault is detected by the fault detection and diagnosis scheme, the reconfigurable controller is designed automatically using a robust gain scheduling strategy. The main contribution concerns the design of state feedback gains through LMI both in fault-free and faulty cases in order to preserve the system performances over a wide operating range. For each separate actuator with which the system is robustly stabilizable, a robust pole placement is designed by pole clustering. The effectiveness and performances of the method have been illustrated in simulation considering a classical nonlinear benchmark
The Differing Roles of the Classical and Mannose-Binding Lectin Complement Pathways in the Events following Skeletal Muscle Ischemia-Reperfusion1

Complement is an important mediator of the injuries observed after skeletal muscle ischemia and subsequent reperfusion. Although the classical pathway had been assumed to be the major pathway of activation leading to injury, the mannose-binding lectin (MBL) pathway might also play a contributing role. In this study, we found that MBL-deficient mice had significant protection after skeletal muscle reperfusion injury compared with wild-type, classical pathway-specific C1q-deficient mice, or MBL-deficient mice reconstituted with recombinant human MBL. MBL-deficient mice, however, were not protected from permeability edema or secondary lung injury after ischemia-reperfusion. These data indicate that blockade of the classical pathway alone (C1q) is protective against permeability edema and remote pulmonary injury but not protective against histologic muscle injury. In contrast, blocking the MBL pathway alone protects against histological injury but is not protective against permeability edema or lung injury. Thus, the activation of both pathways is likely responsible for the full spectrum of injuries observed after skeletal muscle reperfusion injury.
Research Commentary: Rethinking "Diversity" in Information Systems Research

Three types of diversity have been prominent in the Information Systems discipline for over a decade: a diversity in the problems addressed; b diversity in the theoretical foundations and reference disciplines used to account for IS phenomena; and c diversity in the methods used to collect, analyze, and interpret data. History has played a major part in encouraging IS researchers to use diversity as a means of countering criticisms of their discipline and increasing their research rigor and productivity. In particular, frequent recourse to reference disciplines has underpinned much of the research that has been undertaken since the early 1980s. There are now signs, however, that the level of diversity that currently exists in IS research may be problematic. In this paper, we consider some of the benefits and costs of allowing diversity to reign in the IS discipline. We also propose a structure that we hope will facilitate discourse on the benefits and costs of diversity and on the role that diversity should now play in the IS discipline.
An Augmented LKF Approach Involving Derivative Information of Both State and Delay

An augmented Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (LKF) approach is presented to derive sufficient conditions for the existence, uniqueness, and globally exponential stability of the equilibrium point of a class of cellular neural networks with time-varying delays. By dividing the variation interval of the time delay into several subintervals with equal length, a novel vector LKF is introduced and new conditions are obtained based on the homeomorphism mapping principle, free-weighting matrix method, and linear matrix inequality techniques. Since the criteria are involving derivative information of both state and delay, the obtained results are less conservative than some previous ones. Two examples are also given to show the effectiveness of the presented criteria.
Restricted $p$ -Isometry Properties of Nonconvex Matrix Recovery

Recently, a nonconvex relaxation of low-rank matrix recovery (LMR), called the Schatten- p quasi-norm minimization (0 <; p <; 1), was introduced instead of the previous nuclear norm minimization in order to approximate the problem of LMR closer. In this paper, we introduce a notion of the restricted p-isometry constants (0 <; p ≤ 1) and derive a p -RIP condition for exact reconstruction of LMR via Schatten-p quasi-norm minimization. In particular, we determine how many random, Gaussian measurements are needed for the p-RIP condition to hold with high probability, which gives a theoretical result that it needs fewer measurements with small p for exact recovery via Schatten-p quasi-norm minimization than when p=1.
A Self-Tuning Multicast Flow Control Scheme Based on Autonomic Technology

With the increase of multicast data applications, research interests have focused on the design of congestion control schemes for multicast communications. This paper describes a novel control-theoretic multicast congestion control scheme, which is based on the distributed self-tuning proportional plus integrative (SPI) controller. The control parameters can be designed to ensure the stability of the control loop in terms of source rate. The distributed explicit rate SPI overcomes the vulnerability that suffers from the heterogeneous multicast receivers. It is suggested that the congestion controller is located at the multipoint-to-multipoint multicast source to regulate the transmission rate. We further analyze the theoretical aspects of the proposed algorithm, and show how the control mechanism can be used to design a controller to support multicast transmissions. Simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed scheme in terms of system stability and fast response of the buffer occupancy, as well as controlled sending rates, low packet loss, and high scalability
Quantitative methods in linguistics

The book under review comprises seven chapters and is designed as an introduction to quantitative methods in linguistics. The target audience – although this is not explicitly mentioned – are students of linguistics and others who are interested in the application of quantitative/statistical methods in linguistics in a ‘‘. relatively representative and usable introduction to quantitative research across many different subdisciplines within linguistics’’ (p. x). After a short discussion of the author’s motivation for writing such a textbook (‘‘. . . not happy with the available [but not further specified: EK, JM] textbooks’’ (p. 1)) the conceptual design of the book is presented. This consists of three parts:
Speaker Clustering of Stereophonic Speech Signal Using Spatial and Sequential Gathering

database called DB15, which is composed of 15 scenarios of about 3.5 mn each. Every scenario contains the speech of two or three speakers who are speaking sequentially in the meeting room. Experimental results show the large superiority of the energy differential technique in term of precision and speed over the statistical sequential clustering, especially for short speech segments.
Effects of mutations on the C-terminus of protegrin-1: a molecular dynamics simulation study

In this work the effects of the charge of the C-terminus of protegrin-like peptides on activity and toxicity are examined by molecular dynamics simulations. Simulations are done in sodium dodecylsulphate and dodecylphosphocholine micelles, bacterial and mammalian membrane mimics, respectively. Three protegrin mutants are examined and it is found that while the peptides interact in different ways, the peptides all insert into the SDS micelles equally as deep, in agreement with their equal activities as determined by previous experimental work. There are clear differences in the interactions with the DPC micelles and it is demonstrated that simulations with DPC micelles can predict levels of toxicity of such peptides. We also see that removing the positive charge from the sequence of protegrin-1 does not have positive effects on the resulting peptide's toxicity, but that replacing the positive charge with a negative charge reduces the toxicity.
3D Nanofocusing plasmonic waveguide

We have demonstrated experimentally a highly efficient on-chip three-dimensional (3D) linearly tapered metal-insulator-metal (MIM) nanoplasmonic photon compressor (3D NPC) with a final aperture size of 14 × 80 nm2. An optimized and linearly tapered MIM gap plasmon waveguide could theoretically reduce the excessive losses that would occur during nanofocusing processes. In simulation study, this approach could enable nanofocusing into a 2 × 5 nm2 area with the coupling loss and maximum E2 enhancement of 2.5 dB and 3.0 × 104, respectively. We fabricated the 3D NPC on a chip employing electron beam-induced deposition and demonstrated its highly localized light confinement using a two-photon photoluminescence (TPPL) technique. From the TPPL measurements, we experimentally estimated an intensity enhancement of 400 within a 14 × 80 nm2 cross-sectional area and a coupling efficiency of -1.3 dB (or 74% transmittance).
IL-17RA Signaling Amplifies Antibody-Induced Arthritis

Objective To investigate the role of IL-17RA signaling in the effector phase of inflammatory arthritis using the K/BxN serum-transfer model. Methods Wild-type and Il17ra−/− mice were injected with serum isolated from arthritic K/BxN mice and their clinical score was recorded daily. Mice were also harvested on days 12 and 21 and ankles were analyzed for cytokine and chemokine mRNA expression by qPCR on day 12 and for bone and cartilage erosions by histology on day 21, respectively. The induction of cytokine and chemokine expression levels by IL-17A in synovial-like fibroblasts was also analyzed using qPCR. Results Il17ra−/− mice were partially protected from clinical signs of arthritis and had markedly fewer cartilage and bone erosions. The expression of several pro-inflammatory mediators, including the chemokines KC/CXCL1, MIP-2/CXCL2, LIX/CXCL5 MIP-1γ/CCL9, MCP-3/CCL7, MIP-3α/CCL20, the cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, RANKL and the matrix metalloproteinases MMP2, MMP3, and MMP13 were decreased in the ankles of Il17ra−/− mice compared to wild-type mice. Many of these proinflammatory genes attenuated in the ankles of Il17ra−/− mice were shown to be directly induced by IL-17A in synovial fibroblasts in vitro. Conclusions IL-17RA signaling plays a role as an amplifier of the effector phase of inflammatory arthritis. This effect is likely mediated by direct activation of synovial fibroblasts by IL-17RA to produce multiple inflammatory mediators, including chemokines active on neutrophils. Therefore, interrupting IL-17RA signaling maybe a promising pharmacological target for the treatment of inflammatory arthritis.
Sparse denoising of audio by greedy time-frequency shrinkage

Matching Pursuit (MP) is a greedy algorithm that iteratively builds a sparse signal representation. This work presents an analysis of MP in the context of audio denoising. By interpreting the algorithm as a simple shrinkage approach, we identify the factors critical to its success, and propose several approaches to improve its performance and robustness. We present experimental results on a wide range of audio signals, and show that the method is able to yield results thats are competitive with other audio denosing approaches. Notably, the proposed approach retains a small percentage of the transform signal coefficients in building a denoised representation, i.e., it produces very sparse denoised results.
THE OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PHENOMENON: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON SOCIAL NETWORK THEORY

The OSS movement is a phenomenon that challenges many traditional theories in economics, software engineering, business strategy, and IT management. Thousands of software programmers are spending tremendous amounts of time and effort writing and debugging software, most often with no direct monetary compensation. The programs, some of which are extremely large and complex, are written without the benefit of traditional project management, change tracking, or error checking techniques. Since the programmers are working outside of a traditional organizational reward structure, accountability is an issue as well. A significant portion of internet e-commerce runs on OSS, and thus many firms have little choice but to trust mission-critical e-commerce systems to run on such software, requiring IT management to deal with new types of socio-technical problems. A better understanding of how the OSS community functions may help IT planners make more informed decisions and develop more effective strategies for using OSS software. We hypothesize that open source software development can be modeled as self-organizing, collaboration, social networks. We analyze structural data on over 39,000 open source projects hosted at SourceForge.net involving over 33,000 developers. We define two software developers to be connected — part of a collaboration social network — if they are members of the same project, or are connected by a chain of connected developers. Project sizes, developer project participation, and clusters of connected developers are analyzed. We find evidence to support our hypothesis, primarily in the presence of power-law relationships on project sizes (number of developers per project), project membership (number of projects joined by a developer), and cluster sizes. Potential implications for IT researchers, IT managers, and governmental policy makers are discussed.