Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of first 99 vitreoretinal cases operated by a beginner surgeon independently in an advanced VR set up in a tertiary centre

Purpose: Analysis of first 99 vitreoretinal cases operated by a beginner surgeon independently in an advanced vitreoretinal set up in a tertiary centre. Design :Retrospective interventional study. Materials and Methods: Retrospective analysis who had undergone vitreoretinal surgery was done. Beginner surgeon is defined. The cases were divided into 8 groups based upon their etiology. The categories having the maximum number of cases were found out. Outcome of surgeries were found in terms of Visual acuity at presentation, Ist day and 42nd postoperative day and anatomical integrity. The complications if any were noted. Results: There were 99 eyes for analysis. Retinal detachment were 18, open globe injuries 15, endophthalmitis 16 , proliferative diabetic retinopathy and tractional retinal detachment 16, Vitreous haemorrhage 12 ,nucleus drop 5, other minor procedures 17.3 eyes were one eyed.1(6%) patient of the retinal detachment surgery did not improve due to the macular hole developing later.3(13%) in the open globe group and 3(19%) in endophthalmitis group each had phthisis bulbi.Only one (9%) case of proliferative diabetic retinopathy and tractional retinal detachment had redetachment and undergone siliconoil exchange. No patients had redetachment after silicon oil removal. The nonimprovingvision in 15 cases were because of the severity at presentation. Anatomical success was 100% in the retinal detachment and nucleus drop group. Paired-t test was significant in retinal detachment (P= 0.001), open globe (P= 0.001), endophthalmitis (P= 0.001), proliferative diabetic retinopathy and tractional retinal detachment (P = 0.001)and vitreous haemorrhage group (P=0.001). Conclusion: Beginner performed vitreoretinal procedures in different groups with good outcome in terms of visual acuity and anatomical outcome with lesser complications related to the surgery.
Some Area-Time Tradeoffs for VLSI

Area-time bounds on VLSI circuits for context-free language recognition, for the evaluation of propositional calculus formulae and for set equality and disjointness questions, are considered. In all cases, a lower bound $AT^{2\alpha } = \Omega (n^{1 + \alpha } )$ is proved, where A is the chip area, T the execution time, and $0 \leqq \alpha \leqq 1$. Similar results were known for computations with $\Omega (n)$-bit outputs, but the computations considered here have only 1-bit outputs. Upper bounds are also discussed.
Web Applications Development and Software Process Improvement in Small Software Firms： A Review

The web development industry worldwide is dominated by a myriad of small firms. This presents a challenge in terms of determining the current practices of industry participants, and in devising improvement initiatives which are feasible for small firms. Currently, the level of adoption of best practice among web developers is unknown. To help improve the web industry, it is necessary to determine the current status of use of practices and techniques. Furthermore, the effectiveness of assessment-based software process improvement for small firms needs to be evaluated. In the last couple of years, one of the major trends for software development organizations was the move towards web application systems. Their processes usually are immature and ad-hoc. Often this is coupled with a less than positive attitude towards software engineering practices and, especially, software process improvement initiatives and software metrics collection. In particular, code metrics (such as lines of code, code complexity etc.) and process improvements standards (such as the Capability Maturity Model) are often viewed as obsolete and assessing processes and metrics.
Parent-Child Interactions During the Initial Weeks Following Brain Injury in Young Children.

OBJECTIVE To understand how traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects parent-child interactions acutely following injury. PARTICIPANTS Young children hospitalized for TBI (n = 80) and orthopedic injuries (OI; n = 113). METHOD Raters coded videotaped interactions during free play and structured tasks for parental warmth/responsiveness and negativity and child warmth, behavior regulation, and cooperation. Raters also counted parental directives, critical/restricting statements, and scaffolds. RESULTS Parents of children with TBI exhibited less warm responsiveness and made more directive statements during a structured task than parents in the OI group. Children with TBI displayed less behavior regulation than children with OI. Parental warm responsiveness was more strongly related to child cooperativeness in the OI group than in the TBI group. Child behavior also mediated group differences in parental responsiveness and directiveness. TBI accounted for as much variance in parental behaviors as or more than did sociodemographic factors. CONCLUSION TBI-related changes in child behavior may negatively influence parent-child interactions and disrupt the reciprocity between parent and child.
Evolution of neural crest and placodes: amphioxus as a model for the ancestral vertebrate?

Recent studies of protochordates (ascidian tunicates and amphioxus) have given insights into possible ancestors of 2 of the characteristic features of the vertebrate head: neural crest and placodes. The neural crest probably evolved from cells on either side of the neural plate–epidermis boundary in a protochordate ancestral to the vertebrates. In amphioxus, homologues of several vertebrate neural crest marker genes (BMP2/4, Pax3/7, Msx, Dll and Snail) are expressed at the edges of the neural plate and/or adjacent nonneural ectoderm. Some of these markers are also similarly expressed in tunicates. In protochordates, however, these cells, unlike vertebrate neural crest, neither migrate as individuals through embryonic tissues nor differentiate into a wide spectrum of cell types. Therefore, while the protochordate ancestor of the vertebrates probably had the beginnings of a genetic programme for neural crest formation, this programme was augmented in the earliest vertebrates to attain definitive neural crest. Clear homologues of vertebrate placodes are lacking in protochordates. However, both amphioxus and tunicates have ectodermal sensory cells. In tunicates these are all primary neurons, sending axons to the central nervous system, while in amphioxus, the ectodermal sensory cells include both primary neurons and secondary neurons lacking axons. Comparisons of developmental gene expression data suggest that the anterior ectoderm in amphioxus may be homologous to the vertebrate olfactory placode, the only vertebrate placode with primary, not secondary, neurons. Similarly, biochemical, morphological and gene expression suggest that amphioxus and tunicates also have homologues of the adenohypophysis, one of the few vertebrate structures derived from nonneurogenic placodes. In contrast, the origin of the other vertebrate placodes is very uncertain.
Retrospective study of mycophenolate mofetil treatment in IgA nephropathy with proliferative pathological phenotype

Background Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and cyclophosphamide (CTX) are widely used in treating various kidney diseases. However, whether they are effective and which one is better for treating IgA nephropathy patients with proliferative pathological phenotype in renal diseases, such as endocapillary proliferation, cellular crescents, and/or capillary loops fibrinoid necrosis is still unknown. We, therefore, initiated a study to compare the effects of MMF and CTX in treating IgA nephropathy with the above pathological lesions. Methods One hundred and nineteen patients with IgA nephropathy who had at least one of the three aforementioned lesions were enrolled. All patients were treated with prednisone; 48 patients received prednisone only (Pred group), 40 received MMF and prednisone (MMF + Pred group), and 31 were treated with CTX and prednisone (CTX + Pred group). The median time of follow‐up was 30 months (maximum: 96 months). The primary endpoint was defined as renal survival. The incidence of remission of proteinuria was the secondary endpoint. Results Serum creatinine in all groups declined significantly at different follow‐up times (P=0.002), and the differences among the three groups were significant (P<0.001). At 24 months of follow‐up, the decline rates were 12.35%, 32.95%, and 24.14% in the Pred, MMF + Pred, and CTX + Pred groups respectively. For urine protein excretion, the decline rates were 49.12% (Pred), 73.67% (MMF + Pred), and 63.53% (CTX + Pred) respectively at 24 months of follow‐up. The differences among the three groups were not significant (P=0.714). Renal survival (the primary endpoint) was significantly different (P=0.027); however, the sencondary endpoint was similar for all the three groups (P=0.100). Conclusions For IgA nephropathy patients with endocapillary proliferation, cellular crescents, and/or fibrinoid necrosis of capillary loops, prednisone combined with MMF was more effective in lowering the serum creatinine than with CTX. Combined MMF and prednisone treatment led to a better renal survival compared to that of prednisone with CTX.
Design of a 5.8 GHz Narrow Band-pass Filter with Second Harmonic Suppression Using the Open Stubs

In this paper, integration of bandstop filter with the flexible narrow bandwidth of bandpass filter with lambdag/2 open stubs by microstrip line on duroid substrate is presented. This kind of filter shows flexible bandwidth with variation of the position of the open stubs using the external quality factor, Qe without changing the impedance value at microwave range. On the other hand, by replacing the series quarter-wavelength connecting lines with the equivalent T-shaped line, one could have compact stub bandpass filter with second harmonic suppression. This filter shows the insertion loss of 1.2 dB and the return loss of 21.9 dB at the center frequency of 5.8 GHz.
Determination of PM10 Emission Rates from Street Sweepers

ABSTRACT The use of street sweepers to clean paved roads, particularly after high-wind events, has been proposed as a PM10 control method. Using an artificial tunnel, the emission rates for several street sweepers were quantified under actual operating conditions. The tunnel was a tent enclosure, 6.1 × 4.3 × 73 m, open on both ends. PM10 concentrations were measured at the inlet and outlet while a sweeper removed sand deposited along the length. Measurements were made using a specialized low-volume filter sampler and an integrating nephelometer. The volume of air passing through the tunnel was measured by releasing an inert tracer, sulfur hexafluoride, at the inlet and measuring its concentration at the outlet. A large difference in emission rates between vacuum-type sweepers was observed, with rates varying from 5 to 100 mg m-1 swept. For the cleanest sweepers, the background rates (collected by sweeping clean pavement) were about half of the total PM10 emission rate. These background emission rates likely were from diesel exhaust; background rates for the single gasoline-powered sweeper were below detection. Particle light scattering data confirmed the filter collection results. The artificial tunnel approach would be useful in measuring total emissions from other mobile and stationary sources.
GSTM1 polymorphism does not affect hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer age of onset.

Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) is a syndrome of familial malignancies, presenting most frequently as colorectal or endometrial cancer ([1][1]). Carriers of mutations in mismatch repair (MMR) genes, especially in hMLH1 and hMSH2 , are predisposed to HNPCC-related cancers ([2][2]).
The magnetic field dependence of proton spin relaxation in tissues

The magnetic field dependence of water‐proton relaxation is reported for a simple protein solution, a cross‐linked protein solution, and a series of rat tissues, fresh, dried and rehydrated. The shape of the magnetic field dependence associated with water proton relaxation in tissues is accounted for by magnetic dipole‐dipole interactions between the mobile water spins and the immobile spin populations of the nonrotating components of the tissue coupling the behavior of the immobilized spin system to that of the mobile water spin system. The effect of this coupling is to impart the field dependence of the relaxation associated with the immobilized spin population to that of the mobile water spins that are observed in most relaxation and imaging experiments. © 1991 Academic Press, Inc.
Epidemiological evidence in law: a comment on Supreme Court Decision 2011Da22092, South Korea

This paper offers a commentary on three aspects of the Supreme Court’s recent decision (2011Da22092). First, contrary to the Court’s finding, this paper argues that epidemiological evidence can be used to estimate the probability that a given risk factor caused a disease in an individual plaintiff. Second, the distinction between specific and non-specific diseases, upon which the Court relies, is shown to be without scientific basis. Third, this commentary points out that the Court’s finding concerning defect of expression effectively enables tobacco companies to profit from the efforts of epidemiologists and others involved in public health to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking.
Prognostic prediction following radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer using conventional as well as molecular biological approaches

Although radical prostatectomy has been the mainstay of treatment for men with clinically organ‐confined prostate cancer, a certain proportion of men undergoing radical prostatectomy fail to achieve a complete cure of this disease; that is, postoperative biochemical recurrence develops in approximately 30% of men, some of whom will ultimately die of disease progression. A number of studies, therefore, have been carried out to identify factors reflecting prognostic outcomes following radical prostatectomy, which would be potentially helpful for properly counseling individual patients undergoing this surgery. Furthermore, various types of model systems using multiple clinicopathological parameters, such as the nomogram, look‐up table and artificial neural network, have been shown to have better performance in postoperative prognostic prediction than the opinions of expert clinicians. However, there have not been any standard models uniformly applied to postoperative prognostic prediction, which could be explained, at least in part, by the use of conventional clinicopathological parameters alone, suggesting the need for the additional evaluation of molecular markers simultaneously considering the unique biological features of prostate cancer. In this review, a search of the literature was carried out focusing on the significance of prognostic models following radical prostatectomy, and it is suggested that these models could be promising tools to provide accurate information on the postoperative clinical course of prostate cancer patients. To widely introduce such models into clinical practice, it is necessary to further improve currently available models and develop more reliable, flexible, simple and easily accessible tools by incorporating conventional clinicopathological factors as well as molecular biomarkers.
Distinction between Epstein-Barr virus type A (EBNA 2A) and type B (EBNA 2B) isolates extends to the EBNA 3 family of nuclear proteins

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigens EBNA 3a, 3b, and 3c have recently been mapped to adjacent reading frames in the BamHI L and E fragments of the B95.8 EBV genome. We studied by immunoblotting the expression of the family of EBNA 3 proteins in a panel of 20 EBV-transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) carrying either type A (EBNA 2A-encoding) or type B (EBNA 2B-encoding) virus isolates. Certain human sera from donors naturally infected with type A isolates detected the EBNA 3a, 3b, and 3c proteins in all type A virus-transformed LCLs (with a single exception in which EBNA 3b was not detected) but detected only EBNA 3a in LCLs carrying type B isolates. These results were confirmed with human and murine antibodies with specific reactivity against sequences of the type A EBNA 3a, 3b, or 3c expressed in bacterial fusion proteins. Conversely, selected human sera from donors naturally infected with type B strains of EBV identified the EBNA 3a encoded by both types of isolates plus two novel EBNAs present only in type B, and not in type A, virus-transformed LCLs; these novel proteins appear to be the type B homologs of EBNA 3b and 3c. The distinction between type A and type B EBV isolates therefore extends beyond the EBNA 2 gene to the EBNA 3 family of proteins. This has important implications with respect to the evolutionary origin of these two EBV types and also places in a new light recent studies which identified differences between type A and type B transformants in terms of growth phenotype (A. B. Rickinson, L. S. Young, and M. Rowe, J. Virol. 61:1310-1317, 1987) and of detection by EBV-specific cytotoxic T cells (D. J. Moss, I. S. Misko, S. R. Burrows, K. Burman, R. McCarthy, and T. B. Sculley, Nature [London] 331:719-721, 1988).
The Quantified Lumbar Flexion-Relaxation Phenomenon Is a Useful Measurement of Improvement in a Functional Restoration Program

Study Design. A prospective cohort study evaluating the quantitative lumbar flexion-relaxation phenomenon (QLFRP), measured with surface electromyographic (SEMG) signals from the erector spinae during trunk flexion pre- and postrehabilitation, in patients with chronic disabling occupational lumbar disorders (CDOLD). Objectives. To assess the responsiveness of the QLFRP in documenting change in functional performance during a functional restoration program for CDOLD patients. Summary of Background Data. A recent theoretical construct suggests that QLFRP is responsive to change in lumbar range of motion (ROM) during rehabilitation, with high sensitivity and specificity for abnormal QLFRP predicting ROM. Methods. A cohort of normal subjects was tested for QLFRP correlated to inclinometric lumbar ROM measures. The cutoff score was applied to a group of CDOLD patients entering a functional restoration program (N = 135), and to program completers (N = 104). Pain and functional self-report scores were compared with SEMG and ROM measures. Results. The CDOLD group averaged 23.7 months off work. Surgical treatment was provided prerehabilitation to 51% of patients, with 29% receiving lumbar fusions. From pre- to post-treatment, achievement of QLFRP rose from 31% to 74% of patients, while normal ROM rose from 8% to 63% of patients. Compared to the 16% of patients still demonstrating both abnormal QLFRP and ROM, the other groups showed significantly greater improvement in self-reported pain and function, with the best improvements occurring in patients showing normal ROM and QLFRP. The QLFRP showed high sensitivity, but only modest predictive validity and specificity for predicting ROM postrehabilitation. Improvement in sensitivity and predictive validity occur when surgical cases were excluded from the analysis. Conclusion. A majority of patients in an interdisciplinary functional restoration program failed to demonstrate either the QLFRP or normal ROM on admission to the program. A majority of program completers, however, achieved both normal ROM and QLFRP and another 30% demonstrated either normal QLFRP or normal ROM. Both QLFRP and ROM measures were responsive to relevant self-report scales.
A Novel Technique for Open-Stopband Suppression in 1-D Periodic Printed Leaky-Wave Antennas

A novel technique for the elimination of the open stopband in one-dimensional periodic printed leaky-wave antennas is presented. A quarter-wave transformer, or alternatively a matching stub, is introduced into the unit cell of the antenna, which forces the Bloch-wave impedance of the structure to remain real and non-zero at broadside. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is first demonstrated on a printed periodic microstrip leaky-wave antenna consisting of a single radiating stub per unit cell, which exhibits a significant stopband at broadside. The technique is then also applied to a structure consisting of two radiating stubs per unit cell, which is capable of mitigating, but not eliminating, the open stopband. In both cases the open stopband at broadside is completely suppressed.
Characterization of Growth and Reproduction Performance, Transgene Integration, Expression, and Transmission Patterns in Transgenic Pigs Produced by piggyBac Transposition-Mediated Gene Transfer

ABSTRACT Previously we successfully produced a group of EGFP-expressing founder transgenic pigs by a newly developed efficient and simple pig transgenesis method based on cytoplasmic injection of piggyBac plasmids. In this study, we investigated the growth and reproduction performance and characterized the transgene insertion, transmission, and expression patterns in transgenic pigs generated by piggyBac transposition. Results showed that transgene has no injurious effect on the growth and reproduction of transgenic pigs. Multiple copies of monogenic EGFP transgene were inserted at noncoding sequences of host genome, and passed from founder transgenic pigs to their transgenic offspring in segregation or linkage manner. The EGFP transgene was ubiquitously expressed in transgenic pigs, and its expression intensity was associated with transgene copy number but not related to its promoter DNA methylation level. To the best of our knowledge, this is first study that fully described the growth and reproduction performance, transgene insertion, expression, and transmission profiles in transgenic pigs produced by piggyBac system. It not only demonstrates that piggyBac transposition-mediated gene transfer is an effective and favorable approach for pig transgenesis, but also provides scientific information for understanding the transgene insertion, expression and transmission patterns in transgenic animals produced by piggyBac transposition.
The process of lubrication impairment and its involvement in temporomandibular joint disc displacement: a theoretical concept.

PURPOSE This article re-evaluates the chain of events leading to temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disc displacement. The joint lubrication system and the process of its breakdown are clarified and an attempt is made to evaluate the possible effect of increased friction between the disc and fossa on the anterior displacement of the disc. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study is based on the author's accumulated clinical data and results obtained from laboratory investigations regarding TMJ lubrication and its possible breakdown, coupled with pertinent information culled from the literature. RESULTS Translation of the disc in the TMJ is enabled due to the presence of phospholipids and hyaluronic acid, which constitute an efficient lubrication system. This system may break down in the presence of uncontrolled free radicals. In the absence of lubricants, the articular surfaces are smooth, elastic in texture, and possess strong surface energy. Such opposing planes, especially in the presence of a thin fluid film (sub-boundary lubrication) tend to generate high friction while the disc is sliding against the fossa. Such friction is probably the prime mover in loosening the disc attachments to the condyle, with subsequent disc displacement. CONCLUSIONS Increased friction of the contiguous parts may well be a major causative factor in displacement of the articular disc. This should be taken into account in considering the appropriate treatment approach. It also raises some doubts regarding the validity of using repositioning techniques.