Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The use of fibrin sealant as a glue for septoplasty and conchotomy.

OBJECTIVE The aim of our study was to investigate glue properties of a fibrin sealant in cases of septoplasty and conchotomy. DESIGN Double-blind prospective randomized study. MATERIALS AND METHODS A study of 146 patients (80 M, 66 F) who underwent septoplasty and conchotomy was performed in Assaf Harofeh Medical Center Tzrifin, Israel. The patients were divided randomly into two groups: Group I (n = 74) underwent septoplasty with transseptal suturing, and conchotomy with glue as a haemostatic. Group II (n = 72) underwent septoplasty and conchotomy with glue as a haemostatic as well as septal cartilage and mucoperichodrial flaps sealant (no transseptal suturing). The glue was based on a concentrate of human clottable proteins and purified native human thrombin. RESULTS Our results showed complete healing in both groups without significant differences. One late postoperative nasal bleeding occurred in group I, and none in group II. CONCLUSION We conclude that the use of second-generation glue in endonasal surgery is well suited to stop nasal bleeding and seal intranasal flaps. Moreover, it might help to avoid transseptal suturing.
A Review of Dietary Zinc Recommendations

Background: Large discrepancies exist among the dietary zinc recommendations set by expert groups. Objective: To describe the basis for the differences in the dietary zinc recommendations set by the World Health Organization, the US Institute of Medicine, the International Zinc Nutrition Consultative Group, and the European Food Safety Agency. Methods: We compared the sources of the data, the concepts, and methods used by the 4 expert groups to set the physiological requirements for absorbed zinc, the dietary zinc requirements (termed estimated and/or average requirements), recommended dietary allowances (or recommended nutrient intakes or population reference intakes), and tolerable upper intake levels for selected age, sex, and life-stage groups. Results: All 4 expert groups used the factorial approach to estimate the physiological requirements for zinc. These are based on the estimates of absorbed zinc required to offset all obligatory zinc losses plus any additional requirements for absorbed zinc for growth, pregnancy, or lactation. However, discrepancies exist in the reference body weights used, studies selected, approaches to estimate endogenous fecal zinc (EFZ) losses, the adjustments applied to derive dietary zinc requirements that take into account zinc bioavailability in the habitual diets, number of dietary zinc recommendations set, and the nomenclature used to describe them. Conclusions: Estimates for the physiological and dietary requirements varied across the 4 expert groups. The European Food Safety Agency was the only expert group that set dietary zinc recommendations at 4 different levels of dietary phytate for adults (but not for children) and as of yet no tolerable upper intake level for any life-stage group.
Successes of Modelling Parkinson Disease in Drosophila 235 2 . The Drosophila approach to model human disease

Over one hundred years of innovative experimentation with the “common fruit fly” or Drosophila melanogaster has placed this remarkable organism at the forefront of contemporary biological research. Whether we consider the implications of modern genetic technologies and comprehensive genomic research, or we are interested in leading-edge aspects of molecular and cellular biology or complex developmental biology systems, or our studies range from the pin-point accuracy of proteomics to the large-scale questions of population biology, research with fruit flies has made very significant contributions to our understanding of the basic and complex functions of life. Although research into a wide range of biological questions has benefited greatly from experimentation with Drosophila, it never fails to surprise how often an approach that uses this model organism is undervalued or ignored. Any experimental system can be and should be criticized; however the opportunity to explore the biological basis of disease should never be missed. One shining example of this point is our understanding of Parkinson disease which has expanded through and continues to benefit from basic research into the biology of Drosophila, a model organism whose genome has been so thoroughly understood as to make it indispensable for medical research. These recent advances provide significant support for the use of Drosophila melanogaster models in the study of the biological basis of many human diseases and disorders. Parkinson disease is the most common movement disorder and the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. Most apparent to even the most casual of observers is the fact that patients with Parkinson disease present with symptoms that are related to locomotion and motor control. These symptoms include resting tremor, slowness of movement, rigidity and postural instability. As the common underlying source that gives rise to these movement difficulties, Parkinson disease is most often associated with and distinguished by the degeneration of neurons, especially the dopamine-producing, or dopaminergic, neurons in the substantia nigra of the midbrain and the subsequent loss of dopamine (Dauer & Przedborski, 2003). Associated with these degenerating neurons is the appearance in many cases of the disease of large aggregates of proteins that are often referred to as the Lewy bodies. Often ignored are the additional non-motor symptoms, where non-dopaminergic neurons including olfactory and brain stem neurons, can frequently deteriorate before the dopaminergic neurons show signs of loss (Braak et al., 2003). Additional Parkinson disease symptoms are common and comprise a number of behavioural symptoms that include
Environmental Effects of Ozone Depletion and its Interactions with Climate Change: 2010 Assessment

This quadrennial Assessment was prepared by the Environmental Effects Assessment Panel (EEAP) for the Parties to the Montreal Protocol. The Assessment reports on key findings on environment and health since the last full Assessment of 2006, paying attention to the interactions between ozone depletion and climate change. Simultaneous publication of the Assessment in the scientific literature aims to inform the scientific community how their data, modeling and interpretations are playing a role in information dissemination to the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, other policymakers and scientists.
An Ontology for Language Service Composability

Fragmentation and recombination is a key to create customized language environments for supporting various intercultural activities. Fragmentation provides various language resource components for the customized language environments and recombination builds each language environment according to user’s request by combining these components. To realize this fragmentation and recombination process, existing language resources (both data and programs) should be shared as language services and combined beyond mismatch of their service interfaces. To address this issue, standardization is inevitable: standardized interfaces are necessary for language services as well as data format required for language resources. Therefore, we have constructed a hierarchy of language services based on inheritance of service interfaces, which is called language service ontology. This ontology allows users to create a new customized language service that is compatible with existing ones. Moreover, we have developed a dynamic service binding technology that instantiates various executable customized services from an abstract workflow according to user’s request. By using the ontology and service binding together, users can bind the instantiated language service to another abstract workflow for a new customized one.
Functional Defects of a Muscle-specific Calpain, p94, Caused by Mutations Associated with Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy Type 2A*

p94 (calpain3), a muscle-specific member of the calpain family, has been shown to be responsible for limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2A (LGMD2A), a form of autosomal recessive and progressive neuromuscular disorder. To elucidate the molecular mechanism of LGMD2A, we constructed nine p94 missense point mutants found in LGMD2A and analyzed their p94 unique properties. All mutants completely or almost completely lose the proteolytic activity against a potential substrate, fodrin. However, some of the mutants still possess autolytic activity and/or connectin/titin binding ability, indicating these properties are not necessary for the LGMD2A phenotypes. These results provide strong evidence that LGMD2A results from the loss of proteolysis of substrates by p94, suggesting a novel molecular mechanism leading to muscular dystrophies.
Palliative Care at Home: Reflections on HIV/AIDS Family Caregiving Experiences

This study explored the day-to-day experiences of family members providing care at home for their dying loved one with HIV/AIDS. In-depth interviews with seven caregivers were analyzed using grounded theory qualitative methods. A conceptualization of the family caregiving experience portrays HIV/AIDS caregiving as an intense, emotional, and powerful experience filled with pride and enrichment, and conversely, with anger and disillusionment. Findings reflected a significant need for interventions designed to provide direct and effective support for family members caring for a loved one with HIV/AIDS.
Has the Pendulum Swung Too Far? The Impact of Missed Abdominal Injuries in the Era of Nonoperative Management

Nonoperative management for traumatic injuries has significantly influenced trauma care during the last decade. We undertook this study to assess the impact of nontherapeutic laparotomies for suspected abdominal injuries compared with delayed laparotomies for questionable abdominal injuries for patients with abdominal trauma. The records of patients admitted to the trauma service between 2002 and 2007 who underwent laparotomies deemed nontherapeutic or delayed were retrospectively reviewed. Demographics, severity of injury, management scheme, and outcome data were analyzed. Sixteen patients underwent delayed laparotomies, whereas 26 patients incurred nontherapeutic laparotomies. Injury severity scores, Glasgow coma scale scores, abdominal abbreviated injury scale score (AIS), and age were similar for both populations. Delayed laparotomies occurred an average of 7 ± 9 days postinjury. Intensive care unit length of stay (26 ± 24 vs 10 ± 6 days), hospital length of stay (40 ± 37 vs 11 ± 10 days), ventilator days (31 ± 29 vs 11 ± 10), and number of abdominal operative procedures (1.9 ± 1.5 vs 1 ± 0) were significantly higher in the delayed laparotomies group versus the nontherapeutic laparotomies group, respectively. Delayed diagnosis of intra-abdominal injuries yielded a significantly increased morbidity and mortality. During the evolving era of technological imaging for traumatic injuries, we must not allow the nonoperative pendulum to swing too far.
The research on usability evaluation of e-learning systems

This paper reports the research and practice on the usability assessment of e-learning systems and is intended to enhance the process of knowledge acquisition in daily classroom settings. The applied scenario-based usability evaluation, as a combination of behavior and opinion based measurements, enabled to quantify usability in terms of userspsila (teacherspsila and studentspsila) performance and satisfaction. According to the achieved results, the main directions for interface redesign are offered.
Efectos del uso de sulfito sódico para estimar el contenido y degradabilidad ruminal de la fibra neutro detergente y su N asociado en diferentes tipos de alimentos

Chemical analysis show that to use sodium sulphite is of interest to reduce protein contamination of NDF in some feeds, but in other might have even the opposite effect. Changes in the neutral detergent insoluble-N (NDIN) due to the sulphite use were associated with variations in the same way in the effective degradability of NDIN. Effective degradability of NDF may be also affected by the use of sulphite. Therefore, caution should be done in the interpretation of results obtained using sodium sulphite.
Retrieving the Baby from the Bathwater: Slum Upgrading in Sub-Saharan Africa

Drawing on project experiences over a thirty-year period and academic literature, this paper focuses on the question: what has worked in slum upgrading in Africa? We find that efforts to regularize land titles to confer de jure security of tenure have not been encouraging. By contrast, infrastructure investment efforts have performed better—they have conferred de facto security of tenure and also ameliorated living conditions. Over time project-based learning and microlevel innovations have helped improve upgrading performance. To create broader and sustainable benefits, however, upgrading needs to go to scale. We propose an upgrading strategy with the following elements—a programmatic approach that links slums to citywide systems, is channelled through government, and combines a community-demand and participation approach with supply-side constraints and rules of access.
Rate Efficient Authentication over a Wiretap Channel

Message authentication is an interactive procedure that allows Alice to send messageM to Bob such that the latter is assured of its authenticity. Toward this, they usually shar e a secret key K. It is known that if the communication is noiseless, then after l times of authentication, an adversary can succeed in an attack with probability 2− H(K) l+1 , which quickly approaches 1 with l. Lai et al. studied the authentication problem over a wiretap channel and presented a protocol that allows Alice to authen ticate many messages without significantly increasing an attacker ’s success probability. Under their protocol, M is protected. In this paper, we consider the setting whereM is not protected and is transmitted over a noiseless channel that can be seen and tampered by an attacker. Under this setting, we study the authentication framework which transmits a tag over a wiretap channel (besides sendingM over the noiseless channel). We regard the transmission over the wiretap channel as an expen sive resource and define two efficiency measures: authentication rate ρauth and channel coding rateρchan. Improving both measures can improve the channel efficiency. With the secrecy capacit y Cs of Csisźar and Körner in mind, one can trivially achieve ρchan = Cs, which seems also the best possible result. However, we present a scheme withρchan > Cs when the main channel is less noisy. Our crucial point for this is that Bob does not nee d to recover the tag (as he can compute it fromM and K) and so the protection for the tag is only to defeat the attack. ρauth in our scheme employs purely cryptographic techniques and h as very good performance.
Performance of (quasi-)cyclic LDPC codes in noise bursts on the EPR4 channel

We consider in this paper the possibility of a cyclic or quasi-cyclic LDPC code as the complete error control system in a magnetic recording channel. Thus, we compare the performance of selected LDPC codes with two Reed-Solomon (RS) code schemes on an EPR4 channel, with particular emphasis on their performance in noise bursts (induced by thermal asperities). We find some very promising initial results in that the LDPC codes are very robust against large noise burst (128 bits long), and are superior to the RS schemes examined in the measurable error rate region. The extent to which they are superior depends on the particular LDPC scheme involved, and the results provide motivation for further investigation in this area.
Structure and function of the rat basilar artery during chronic nitric oxide synthase inhibition.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Nitric oxide is an important regulator of vascular tone and may also be implicated in the modulation of vascular growth and structure. This study presents the effects of chronic nitric oxide inhibition, with or without antihypertensive treatment, on the structure and function of the basilar artery in rats. METHODS Rats were treated for 6 weeks with N omega-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (50 mg/kg per day) alone or in combination with verapamil (100 mg/kg per day) or with trandolapril (1 mg/kg per day). Untreated rats served as controls. The structure and reactivity of perfused and pressurized basilar arteries were analyzed in vitro using a video dimension analyzer. RESULTS Systolic arterial pressure increased only in the nitro-arginine-treated group, as did the media-to-lumen ratio of the basilar artery. This structural alteration, which was prevented by verapamil and trandolapril, was mainly due to remodeling and not to growth. Chronic inhibition of the L-arginine pathway increased the response of the basilar artery to serotonin, while the opposite was found for endothelin. Verapamil and trandolapril prevented these functional alterations that seemed related to the changes in the vascular structure. CONCLUSIONS The remodeling and functional alterations of the basilar artery seem to depend mainly on the elevation of arterial pressure with little contribution of the L-arginine pathway. Furthermore, nitric oxide does not seem to be implicated in the modulation of normal cerebral vascular growth in vivo. However, hypertension-induced changes in vascular reactivity and structure could alter cerebral blood flow and eventually contribute to the development of stroke in this model of hypertension.
The relationship between self-concept and eating disorder symptomatology in adolescent schoolgirls

The present. study sought to determine whether the self-concept deficits that h a x been demonstrated in eating disorder patients are related to eating disturbances in a nonclinical, "normal" sample. The Offer Self-Image Questionnaire (OSIQ) and the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EM-2) were administered to 273 senior high-school females. Poor functioning in several aspects of self-concept was found to be related to the attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors associated with anorexia and bulimia nervosa. A multiple regression of the EDI-2 subscales "Drive For Thinness" and "Bulimia" on the OSIQ scales identified the self-concept areas of Body Image and Psychopathology as strong predictors for both subscales. "Drive For Thinness" was also strongly predicted by Social Relationships self-concept, while hpu1se Control and Emotional Tone contributed greatly to e nor could I do justice witn an expression of my love. Thanks also to our dariing daughter Ava (my greatest accomplishment and joy), who provided much-needed relief with her smile, her laughter, and her perfect love. Finally, a heartfelt thank you to my mother, Patricia, my father, Bengiman, my sister, Lori, and my Grandmother, Mary Kraychy, as well as to all of my family and friends, whose encouragement and love have given me the tenacity to pursue my dreams.
Pollination Value of Male Bees: The Specialist Bee Peponapis pruinosa (Apidae) at Summer Squash (Cucurbita pepo)

ABSTRACT Male bees can be abundant at flowers, particularly floral hosts of those bee species whose females are taxonomic pollen specialists (oligolecty). Contributions of male bees to host pollination are rarely studied directly despite their prevalence in a number of pollination guilds, including those of some crop plants. In this study, males of the oligolectic bee, Peponapis pruinosa Say, were shown to be effective pollinators of summer squash, Cucurbita pepo L. Seven sequential visits from male P. pruinosa maximized squash fruit set and growth. This number of male visits accumulated during the first hour of their foraging and mate searching at flowers soon after sunrise. Pollination efficacy of male P. pruinosa and their abundances at squash flowers were sufficient to account for most summer squash production at our study sites, and by extrapolation, to two-thirds of all 87 North American farms and market gardens growing squashes that were surveyed for pollinators by collaborators in the Squash Pollinators of the Americas Survey. We posit that the substantial pollination value of male Peponapis bees is a consequence of their species' oligolecty, their mate seeking strategy, and some extreme traits of Cucurbita flowers (massive rewards, flower size, phenology).
Profiles in discouragement: two studies of variability in the time course of smoking withdrawal symptoms.

Research has suggested that the time course of the smoking withdrawal syndrome is fairly invariant across smokers and that smoking withdrawal symptoms are weakly related to relapse. Withdrawal data from 2 clinical trials of the nicotine patch were analyzed to evaluate these characterizations. In both studies, patients were clustered according to the shapes of their withdrawal profiles across 8 weeks of treatment. In each study, 3 clusters with distinct temporal patterns of withdrawal symptomatology emerged. Clusters included both abstinent and lapsing patients, and patch dose was unrelated to cluster membership. Patients with "atypical" patterns of smoking withdrawal (e.g., late symptomatic elevations) were more likely to relapse than patients who showed a gradual elimination of withdrawal. Withdrawal shape, duration, and severity all contributed significantly to the prediction of relapse. Measures of negative affect closely tracked withdrawal symptoms over time within clusters. Topics for future smoking withdrawal research are discussed.
New relay station addition scheme in multi-hop relay networks based on path loss

In this paper, we present a new relay station addition scheme in relay-based 802.16j multi-hop relay networks. A data chain has been established in the transmission information from the new relay station to base station. The path loss has been considered as the key element in this scheme. By calculating the path loss recorded in the data chain of each path, we got the optimal path selection for the new relay station. This mode could serve a better solution scheme for adding new relay station to a complex 802.16j multi-hop relay network environment.
Testing large software products

Software testing becomes more and more difficult the larger the software system gets. Operating systems and very large programming products often have special testing considerations that most application programs do not have. This paper describes a testing methodology with focus on system testing operating systems as implemented in an area of IBM's large systems software development - Myers Corners Laboratory, Poughkeepsie, New York. It also gives an overview of large-scale software manufacturing.