Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fasciotomy Closure Using Simultaneous Vacuum-Assisted Closure and Hyperbaric Oxygen

Fasciotomies performed for compartment syndrome and ischemic vascular disease often requires closure in 2 to 4 weeks by skin graft. This leaves the patient with an unsightly scar and a limb with reduced strength. The use of vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) quickly reduce the edema and permit earlier closure with adjacent skin. A study of three trauma patients with compartment syndrome, fasciotomies, and the use of the VAC and HBOT to close the fasciotomy wounds with adjacent skin is presented. The pathophysiology of compartment syndrome and ischemia-reperfusion syndrome is discussed. These patients had closure of the fasciotomy wounds in 3 to 18 days. The simultaneous use of HBOT and VAC accelerates the reduction of edema in a synergistic fashion, permitting early closure of fasciotomy wounds.
Adverse pregnancy outcomes in snuff users.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of smokeless tobacco use during pregnancy. STUDY DESIGN We examined birth weight, preterm delivery, and preeclampsia in women who were delivered of singleton, live-born infants in Sweden from 1999 through 2000. For each snuff user, 10 cigarette smokers and 10 tobacco nonusers were selected randomly. RESULTS After exclusions, 789 snuff users, 11,240 smokers, and 11,495 nonusers remained. Compared with nonusers, adjusted mean birth weight was reduced in snuff users by 39 g (95% CI, 6-72 g) and in smokers by 190 g (95% CI, 178-202 g). Preterm delivery was increased in snuff users and smokers (adjusted odds ratios, 1.98 [95% CI, 1.46-2.68] and 1.57 [95% CI, 1.38-1.80], respectively). Preeclampsia was reduced in smokers (adjusted odds ratio, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.53-0.75) but increased in snuff users (adjusted odds ratio, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.09-2.27). CONCLUSION Snuff use was associated with increased risk of preterm delivery and preeclampsia. Snuff does not appear to be a safe alternative to cigarettes during pregnancy.
Characteristics of clinic , CT and immunohistochemistry in duodenal gastrointestinal stromal tumors

Objective: To investigate the characteristics of clinic, CT and immunohistochemistry in duodenal gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), and to identify the evaluation in predicting prognosis for patients with duodenal GISTs. Methods: Retrospectively analyzed the characteristics of clinic, CT imaging and pathological data in 11 patients with duodenal GISTs confirmed by operation and pathology. Results: 6 patients were with gastrointestinal hemorrhage (54.5%), 2 were with pain in upper abdomen (18.2%), and 3 were with tumor by physical examination (27.3%). There were 7 patients with tumor in the descending part of duodenum, 3 were in the horizontal part of duodenum, and one was in the rising part of duodenum. 8 patients were with extra cavity growing and 3 were transmural growing. The maximum diameter was between 1.7 and 14 cm, average 6.9 cm. There were 3 lesions appearing round or oval in shape, and 8 irregular or lobular shapes. After enhancement, 4 cases appeared significantly homogeneous enhancement, while 7 cases appeared significantly heterogeneous enhancement with necrosis. The results of immunohistochemistry showed that there were 8 cases with differentiating to smooth muscle (72.7%), 2 cases lacking of differentiated characteristics (18.2%), and 1 with differentiating to nerve (9.1%). Conclusions: GISTs appeared the characteristics of CT image and clinic and pathology, which helped to increase the diagnostic accuracy of GISTs.
Induced Abortions and Births: Trends in Seven Counties, Norway, 1972–1983

This paper discusses the changes in the frequencies of induced abortions and births according to changes in the abortion legislation in Norway during the 1970s. The study material consists of women aged 15–44 years having undergone induced abortion or giving birth in seven Norwegian counties during the period 1972–83. Since the liberalization of the abortion legislation in 1976 and later when the law on abortion on women's request came into force in January 1979, the number of induced abortions per 1000 women 15–44 years of age has decreased by 20%, until December 31, 1983. For no age group has the number of induced abortions per 1000 women increased since the liberalization of the abortion legislation. While the number of terminations of pregnancy per 1000 women below the age of 25 has remained unchanged since 1975, the number of abortions per 1000 women aged 25–29 has decreased by nearly 18% and for women aged 30–44, by 34%. The number of terminated pregnancies per 1000 women of fertile age has shown a decrease corresponding to the reduction in births per 1000 women. Thus the liberalization of the abortion law cannot account for the decreased number of births after 1975.
Accrual Accounting and Periodicity in Performance Measurement

The paper develops an accrual-basis performance measurement rule that enables incentive-compatible compensation contracts in an agency setting with hidden actions and information, non-time-separable investment payoffs, and actors with limited horizons. Although interdependence of investments across time makes the value contribution by managerial decisions in a specific period ambiguous, there exist targeted accrual adjustments to realized cash flows that, when employed as a performance metric for the manager, prevent overor underinvestment. The magnitude of these adjustments depends on the degree to which the information the manager observes on the job resolves uncertainty about future outcomes. Due to the actors’ limited horizons, the resulting incentive contract attains better outcomes than transferring ownership to the manager. The optimal organizational design in this model therefore involves the separation of ownership and control.
Are Lemna spp. Effective Phytoremediation Agents

Lemna spp. of the family Lemnaceae have been widely studied for their potential application in phytoremediation. A few Lemna species are already being adopted to enhance natural attenuation for both organic and inorganic pollution in polishing ponds of wastewater treatment facilities, and constructed wetland designed for decontamination of metal pollution. In view of this growing interest, we review in this article the potency and limitation of Lemna species as effective phytoremediation agents. We find that Lemna species have many unique properties ideal for phytoremediation plants species: they are have fast growth and primary production; high bioaccumulation capacity; ability to transform or degrade contaminants; ability to regulate chemical speciation and bioavailability of some contaminant in their milieu; resilient to extreme contaminant concentration; and can be applied on multiple pollutants simultaneously. In addition, they have properties significant for public health likewise livestock production and aquaculture, and ecological function. However, we also find a few important limitations of Lemna as an ideal phytoremediation agent. The plants are small in size and floating in nature. Hence, they are easily blown off the water surface resulting in transferring contamination to uncontaminated sites because Lemna biomass degrades easily thereby readily releasing the contaminant back into the water pathway. This also results in both low sedimentation and contribution to humic material in the benthic. Further, Lemna has very high wet-dry biomass ratios which may be deceiving to believe that they have high bioaccumulation on one hand, while on the other, the energy required to dewater the biomass may be equivalent to conventional treatment plants. Nevertheless, Lemna species remain one of excellent plants for studying process in phytoremediation, and a good phytoextraction agent for application in shallow and small polishing ponds.
A Tunable Bandpass Filter With Modified Parallel-Coupled Line

A tunable bandpass filter with a wide tuning range is presented in this letter. The proposed filter is composed of two modified parallel-coupled lines and one varactor-loaded stub. Particularly, the modified parallel-coupled line is realized by a varactor connected to one end of the coupled line with asymmetric feeding and an open stub added to the coupled line's other end. Moreover, the varactor-loaded stub is introduced to control the transmission zero around the lower/higher passband skirt. The measured results show that a broad tuning range of 41.7%, from 0.95 to 1.45 GHz, was achieved. Within the tuning range, the insertion loss is from 2.4 to 2.9 dB and the return loss is greater than 15 dB.
Origins of Wage Inequality in an Information Society: The Case of Taiwan

Many researchers have noted the growing wage disparity in information societies. The reasons for this wage inequality, however, are still in dispute. This article explores the sources of wage inequality and the reasons for its rise during Taiwan's transition to an information society. Applying the Theil index for measuring economic inequality, this analysis is able to shed light on the sources of inequality.
Complex streamed instructions: introduction and initial evaluation

An architectural paradigm intended to improve the performance of streaming operations is introduced. The proposed complex streamed instructions perform setting, controlling and executing vector operations simultaneously. That is, each of the instructions has the capability of sectioning a vector in addition to performing complex memory accesses and SIMD execution. To provide an initial validation, a video compression application is considered. We identify 5 streamed operations and perform simulations using the SimpleScalar toolset. The experiments show the following: the cycle count diminishes by a factor of 3.1, the number of executed instructions reduces by a factor of 3.0 to 3.2, and the CPI stays about the same. These results show that substantial performance improvements can be expected when complex streamed instructions are employed.
Active participation of Mg ion in the reaction coordinate of RNA self-cleavage catalyzed by the hammerhead ribozyme.

We report results from combined quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) free energy simulations to explore metal-assisted phosphoryl transfer and general acid catalysis in the extended hammerhead ribozyme. The mechanisms considered here assume that the 2′OH group of C17 has already been activated (i.e., is deprotonated) and acts as a nucleophile to go on an in-line attack to the adjacent scissile phosphate, passing through a pentavalent phosphorane intermediate/transition state, followed by acid-catalyzed departure of the O5′ leaving group of C1.1. A series of six two-dimensional potential of mean force profiles are reported in this study, requiring an aggregate of over 100 ns of QM/MM simulation. The simulations employ the AM1/d-PhoT semiempirical quantum model and linear-scaling QM/MM-Ewald method and explore mechanistic pathways for the self-cleavage. Results support the plausibility of a cleavage mechanism where phosphoryl transfer and general acid catalysis are stepwise, and where the catalyt.
Evaluation of different machine learning methods for land cover mapping of a Mediterranean area using multi-seasonal Landsat images and Digital Terrain Models

Land cover monitoring using digital Earth data requires robust classification methods that allow the accurate mapping of complex land cover categories. This paper discusses the crucial issues related to the application of different up-to-date machine learning classifiers: classification trees (CT), artificial neural networks (ANN), support vector machines (SVM) and random forest (RF). The analysis of the statistical significance of the differences between the performance of these algorithms, as well as sensitivity to data set size reduction and noise were also analysed. Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper data captured in European spring and summer were used with auxiliary variables derived from a digital terrain model to classify 14 different land cover categories in south Spain. Overall, statistically similar accuracies of over 91% were obtained for ANN, SVM and RF. However, the findings of this study show differences in the accuracy of the classifiers, being RF the most accurate classifier with a very simple parameterization. SVM, followed by RF, was the most robust classifier to noise and data reduction. Significant differences in their performances were only reached for thresholds of noise and data reduction greater than 20% (noise, SVM) and 25% (noise, RF), and 80% (reduction, SVM) and 50% (reduction, RF), respectively.
Analysis of Familial Aggregation in Total, Against-The-Rule, With-The-Rule, and Oblique Astigmatism by Conditional and Marginal Models in the Tehran Eye Study

Purpose: The purpose was to determine the familial aggregation of the total, against-the-rule (ATR), with-the-rule (WTR), and oblique astigmatism by conditional and marginal models in the Tehran Eye Study. Materials and Methods: Total, ATR, WTR, and oblique astigmatism were studied in 3806 participants older than 5 years from August 2002 to December 2002 in the Tehran Eye Study. Astigmatism was defined as a cylinder worse than or equal to −0.5 D. WTR astigmatism was defined as 0 ± 19°, ATR astigmatism was defined as 90 ± 19°, and oblique when the axes were 20–70° and 110–160°. The familial aggregation was investigated with a conditional model (quadratic exponential) and marginal model (alternating logistic regression) after controlling for confounders. Results: Using the conditional model, the conditional familial aggregation odds ratios (OR) (95% confidence interval) for the total, WTR, ATRs, and oblique astigmatism were 1.49 (1.43–1.72), 1.91 (1.65–2.20), 2.00 (1.70–2.30), and 1.86 (1.37–2.54), respectively. In the marginal model, the marginal OR of the parent-offspring and sib-sib in the total astigmatism were 1.35 (1.13–1.63) and 1.54 (1.13–2.11), respectively; WTR 1.53 (1.06–2.20) and 1.94 (1.21–3.13) and; ATR 2.13 (1.01–4.50) and 2.23 (1.52-3.30). The model was statistically significant in sib-sib relationship only for oblique astigmatism with OR of 3.00 (1.25–7.20). Conclusion: The results indicate familial aggregation of astigmatism in the population in Tehran adjusted for age, gender, cataract, duration of education, and body mass index, so that the addition of a new family member affected with astigmatism, as well as having a sibling or parents with astigmatism, significantly increases the odds of exposure to the disease for all four phenotypes. This aggregation can be due to genetic and/or environmental factors. Dividing astigmatism into three phenotypes increased the odds ratios.
Differential regulation by cyclic AMP of starvation protein synthesis in Escherichia coli

Of the 30 carbon starvation proteins whose induction has been previously shown to be important for starvation survival of Escherichia coli, two-thirds were not induced in cya or crp deletion mutants of E. coli at the onset of carbon starvation. The rest were induced, although not necessarily with the same temporal pattern as exhibited in the wild type. The starvation proteins that were homologous to previously identified heat shock proteins belonged to the latter class and were hyperinduced in delta cya or delta crp mutants during starvation. Most of the cyclic AMP-dependent proteins were synthesized in the delta cya mutant if exogenous cyclic AMP was added at the onset of starvation. Furthermore, beta-galactosidase induction of several carbon starvation response gene fusions occurred only in a cya+ genetic background. Thus, two-thirds of the carbon starvation proteins of E. coli require cyclic AMP and its receptor protein for induction; the rest do not. The former class evidently has no role in starvation survival, since delta cya or delta crp mutants of either E. coli or Salmonella typhimurium survived starvation as well as their wild-type parents did. The latter class, therefore, is likely to have a direct role in starvation survival. This possibility is strengthened by the finding that nearly all of the cya- and crp-independent proteins were also induced during nitrogen starvation and, as shown previously, during phosphate starvation. Proteins whose synthesis is independent of cya- and crp control are referred to as Pex (postexponential).
Impact of Isothermal Aging and Sn Grain Orientation on the Long-Term Reliability of Wafer-Level Chip-Scale Package Sn–Ag–Cu Solder Interconnects

The interaction between isothermal aging and the long-term reliability of wafer-level chip-scale packages with Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (wt%) solder ball interconnects is investigated. On isothermally aging at 100 and 150°C for 500 h and then thermally cycling from 0 to 100°C with 10 min of dwell time, the lifetime of the package is reduced by approximately 29%, depending on the aging condition. The microstructural evolution is observed during thermal aging and thermal cycling using orientation image microscopy. A Sn grain orientation structure transformation is observed. Different mechanisms after aging at various conditions are identified, and their impacts on the fatigue life of solder joints discussed.
The Effect of Flunarizine and Ryanodine on Acquired Torsades de Pointes Arrhythmias in the Intact Canine Heart

Flunarizine and Ryanodine in Acquired TdP. Introduction: Ryanodine, a specific blocker of the Ca2+ release channel of the sarcoplasmic reticulum, and flunarizine, a[Ca2+], overload blocker, possess antiarrhythmic effects against delayed after depolarizations (DADs) and DAD‐dependent arrhythmias. In vitro controversy exists about their effect on early after depolarizations (EADs): no effect was reported on cesium‐induced EADs, while ryanodine did prevent EADs induced by isoproterenol. To study the possible role of intracellular Ca2+ overload in acquired EAD‐dependent torsades de pointes (TdP) arrhythmias, we tested the effects of flunarizine and ryanodine in our animal model of TdP.
Ascorbate Reacts with Singlet Oxygen to Produce Hydrogen Peroxide

Abstract Singlet oxygen is a highly reactive electrophilic species that reacts rapidly with electron-rich moieties, such as the double bonds of lipids, thiols, and ascorbate (AscH−). The reaction of ascorbate with singlet oxygen is rapid (k = 3 × 108 M−1 s−1). Here we have investigated the stoichiometry of this reaction. Using electrodes to make simultaneous, real-time measurements of oxygen and hydrogen peroxide concentrations, we have investigated the products of this reaction. We have demonstrated that hydrogen peroxide is a product of this reaction. The stoichiometry for the reactants of the reaction (11O2 + 1AscH− → 1H2O2 + 1dehydroascorbic) is 1:1. The formation of H2O2 results in a very different oxidant that has a longer lifetime and much greater diffusion distance. Thus, locally produced singlet oxygen with a half-life of 1 ns to 1 μs in a biological setting is changed to an oxidant that has a much longer lifetime and thus can diffuse to distant targets to initiate biological oxidations.
Asymptotic Spectral Efficiency Analysis of the DS/CDMA Amplify and Forward Relay Channel

This paper considers an amplify and forward DS/CDMA cooperative relay system with half-duplex relays. Given different receive structures for this scenario, the asymptotic spectral efficiency is analyzed assuming that the spreading factor and the information block length go to infinity at the same rate. The objective of this analysis is to identify the cases where transmission diversity, introduced by the relays, compensates for the physical-rate loss caused by the fact that the source terminal remains silent during the relay transmission. Results show that, provided that the source-destination channel amplitude is sufficiently low, there exists an optimum assignment of transmission time between source and relays.
Evidence of Brucella infection in marine mammals in the North Atlantic Ocean

Between 1983 and 1996 a total of 1386 samples of serum were taken from four species of seal and three species of whale in the waters west of Iceland, the area of pack-ice north-west of Jan Mayen, the northern coast of Norway and the Kola Peninsula, the waters west of Svalbard, and the Barents Sea; they were tested for the presence of anti-Brucella antibodies with an indirect ELISA (protein G conjugate). The positive sera were re-tested with classical brucellosis serological tests, such as the serum agglutination test, the EDTAmodified serum agglutination test, the Rose Bengal test, and the complement fixation test, as well as an anti-complement ELISA. Anti-Brucella antibodies were detected in all the species investigated, except for the bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus), with the following prevalences: hooded seals (Cystophora cristata) 35 per cent; harp seals (Phoca groenlandica) 2 per cent; ringed seals (Phoca hispida) 10 per cent; minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) 8 per cent; fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) 11 per cent; and sei whales (Balaenoptera borealis) 14 per cent. An isolate belonging to the genus Brucella was obtained from the liver and spleen of one of the seropositive minke whales. The findings suggest that antibodies against the surface lipopolysaccharide of Brucella species are widely distributed among marine mammals in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Electrophysiological changes in laterodorsal tegmental neurons associated with prenatal nicotine exposure: implications for heightened susceptibility to addict to drugs of abuse

Prenatal nicotine exposure (PNE) is a risk factor for developing an addiction to nicotine at a later stage in life. Understanding the neurobiological changes in reward related circuitry induced by exposure to nicotine prenatally is vital if we are to combat the heightened addiction liability in these vulnerable individuals. The laterodorsal tegmental nucleus (LDT), which is comprised of cholinergic, GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons, is importantly involved in reward mediation via demonstrated excitatory projections to dopamine-containing ventral tegmental neurons. PNE could lead to alterations in LDT neurons that would be expected to alter responses to later-life nicotine exposure. To examine this issue, we monitored nicotine-induced responses of LDT neurons in brain slices of PNE and drug naive mice using calcium imaging and whole-cell patch clamping. Nicotine was found to induce rises in calcium in a smaller proportion of LDT cells in PNE mice aged 7–15 days and smaller rises in calcium in PNE animals from postnatal ages 11–21 days when compared with age-matched control animals. While inward currents induced by nicotine were not found to be different, nicotine did induce larger amplitude excitatory postsynaptic currents in PNE animals in the oldest age group when compared with amplitudes induced in similar-aged control animals. Immunohistochemically identified cholinergic LDT cells from PNE animals exhibited slower spike rise and decay slopes, which likely contributed to the wider action potential observed. Further, PNE was associated with a more negative action potential afterhyperpolarization in cholinergic cells. Interestingly, the changes found in these parameters in animals exposed prenatally to nicotine were age related, in that they were not apparent in animals from the oldest age group examined. Taken together, our data suggest that PNE induces changes in cholinergic LDT cells that would be expected to alter cellular excitability. As the changes are age related, these PNE-associated alterations could contribute differentially across ontogeny to nicotine-mediated reward and may contribute to the particular susceptibility of in utero nicotine exposed individuals to addict to nicotine upon nicotine exposure in the juvenile period.