Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Healing with a Thousand Bandages

had a surplus in the balance on current account, and now we have a $150-160 billion trade deficit expected for 1985. That is a mind-boggling number. The other day I was asked to give a lecture in Holland and I was trying to illustrate how large these numbers really are so that foreigners can comprehend them. So the Dutch could make comparisons, I pointed out that our trade deficit, evaluated at current exchange rates, is bigger than the entire Dutch GNP.
Non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD): why you should care, when you should worry, what you should do

For the diabetologist, non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is important at both ends of its spectrum. It is an early warning sign of future risk of metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease. It may also lead to late life‐threatening sequela of diabetes mellitus in the event of progression to liver failure or hepatocellular carcinoma. This review will highlight the recent progress in understanding the natural history of non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease and in developing a rational approach to its diagnosis, staging, and management. The pandemic prevalence of non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease in Western countries necessitates both a high index of suspicion to identify cases and a non‐invasive approach to staging, which is best achieved with clinical/biochemical panels and transient elastography. Lifestyle modification is the cornerstone of management. Recent clinical trials provide support for pharmacologic therapies directed at the metabolic syndrome and at protecting the liver but more data are needed. Bariatric surgery is appropriate for high‐risk patients who fail conservative management. Patients with liver failure or hepatocellular carcinoma may be candidates for liver transplantation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Do work factors modify the association between chronic health problems and sickness absence among older employees?

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to (i) assess how common chronic health problems and work-related factors predict sickness absence and (ii) explore whether work-related factors modify the effects of health problems on sickness absence. METHODS A one-year longitudinal study was conducted among employed persons aged 45-64 years from the Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation (N = 8984). The presence of common chronic health problems and work-related factors was determined at baseline and self-reported sickness absence at one-year follow-up by questionnaire. Multinomial multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess associations between health, work factors, and sickness absence, and relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI) techniques were used to test effect modification. RESULTS Common health problems were related to follow-up sickness absence, most strongly to high cumulative sickness absence (> 9 days per year). Baseline psychological health problems were strongly related to high sickness absence at follow-up [odds ratio (OR) 3.67, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 2.80-4.82]. Higher job demands at baseline increased the likelihood of high sickness absence at follow-up among workers with severe headaches [RERI 1.35 (95% CI 0.45-2.25)] and psychological health problems [RERI 3.51 (95% CI 0.67-6.34)] at baseline. Lower autonomy at baseline increased the likelihood of high sickness absence at follow-up among those with musculoskeletal [RERI 0.57 (95% CI 0.05-1.08)], circulatory [RERI 0.82 (95% CI 0.00-1.63)], and psychological health problems [RERI 2.94 (95% CI 0.17-5.70)] at baseline. CONCLUSIONS Lower autonomy and higher job demands increased the association of an array of common chronic health problems with sickness absence, and thus focus should be placed on altering these factors in order to reduce sickness absence and essentially promote sustainable employability.
The use of 2,4,5,2',4',5'-hexachlorobiphenyl (6-CB) as an unmetabolizable lipophilic model compound.

2,4,5,2',4'5'-Hexachlorobiphenyl (6-CB)--a polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congener resistant to metabolism in most species--has become a major residue in the biosphere including human adipose tissue. Its use as a model of unmetabolizable lipophilic compounds and as a tool in toxicokinetics in the last two decades is reviewed. This extremely water-insoluble compound is transported in plasma by albumin and lipoproteins. Binding to these plasma proteins appears to be important for uptake and release processes in different tissues. The redistribution kinetics of 6-CB as well as its pronounced adipose tissue storage and a very slow excretion with the faeces has been established in long-term animal studies. Excretion is strongly influenced by an increasing or diminishing adipose storage compartment size. Other minor pathways of elimination, e.g., via hair, become also important in the absence of metabolism and renal excretion. 6-CB has revealed the possibility of an almost quantitative transfer of the maternal body burden to the offspring via milk. The use of 6-CB in studies with tissue preparations in vitro is providing insight into transport mechanisms of uptake and release.
Population Attributable Fraction of Mortality Associated with Tobacco Smoking in Japan: A Pooled Analysis of Three Large-scale Cohort Studies

Background Quantitative measures of the burden of tobacco smoking in Asian countries are limited. We estimated the population attributable fraction (PAF) of mortality associated with smoking in Japan, using pooled data from three large-scale cohort studies. Methods In total, 296,836 participants (140,026 males and 156,810 females) aged 40-79 years underwent baseline surveys during the 1980s and early 1990s. The average follow-up period was 9.6 years. PAFs for all-cause mortality and individual tobacco-related diseases were estimated from smoking prevalence and relative risks. Results The prevalence of current and former smokers was 54.4% and 25.1% for males, and 8.1% and 2.4% for females. The PAF of all-cause mortality was 27.8% [95% confidence interval (CI): 25.2-30.4] for males and 6.7% (95% CI: 5.9-7.5) for females. The PAF of all-cause mortality calculated by summing the disease-specific PAFs was 19.1% (95% CI: 16.0-22.2) for males and 3.6% (95% CI: 3.0-4.2) for females. The estimated number of deaths attributable to smoking in Japan in 2005 was 163,000 for males and 33,000 for females based on the former set of PAFs, and 112,000 for males and 19,000 for females based on the latter set. The leading causes of smoking-attributable deaths were cancer (61% for males and 31% for females), ischemic heart diseases and stroke (23% for males and 51% for females), and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and pneumonia (11% for males and 13% for females). Conclusion The health burden due to smoking remains heavy among Japanese males. Considering the high prevalence of male current smokers and increasing prevalence of young female current smokers, effective tobacco controls and quantitative assessments of the health burden of smoking need to be continuously implemented in Japan.
The learning of nascent entrepreneurs from a business plan competition

This doctoral research explored extracurricular university-based Business Plan Competition (BPC) participation as an entrepreneurial learning experience for the nascent entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial learning is vital to nascent entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial process. As a mode of entrepreneurship education, the BPC has been widely proffered as a mechanism for the supply of entrepreneurial learning, primarily on account of its affordance of experience and necessary knowledge, skill and mind-set development. An enduring presence of BPCs on university campuses globally reflects such an entrepreneurial learning rhetoric. However, despite the ready espousal of the BPC as a relevant and valuable learning experience it can be observed that there is a lack of evidence to substantiate such a view, particularly from the perspective of the nascent entrepreneur participants and their experiences of participation but also in light of sustained scepticism toward the business plan within entrepreneurship contexts. Underpinned by a constructivist paradigm, the study responded to the aforementioned research problem through a Longitudinal Qualitative Research design. In-depth interviews were carried out with the same sample of nascent entrepreneur participants at the start, end and six months after their participation in a UK-based extracurricular BPC. The narratives of participation generated were thematically analysed at the end of each wave of data collection and then longitudinally at the conclusion of the nine month data collection period. This enabled the identification of ‘know-why’, ‘know-what & how’ and ‘know-who’ as conceptual themes. These themes signified change identified in the participant with regards to whether BPC participation was viewed and realised as an entrepreneurial learning experience. The research found that entrepreneurial learning featured strongly within the participant’s initial rationale for competition participation. However, there was generally limited application of the competition experience and learning afforded within continued venture implementation. This was indicative of a narrowing relevance of the BPC as an entrepreneurial learning experience, and the knowledge, skills and attitudes afforded, as the nascent entrepreneur moved from a business plan-led to effectual approach to entrepreneurial new venturing. The implication is that the espoused role, scope and usefulness of the BPC as an entrepreneurial learning experience is undermined and therefore in need of a rethink. Through presenting a new understanding of the BPC as an entrepreneurial learning experience from the perspective of the nascent entrepreneur participant, this study makes a timely and original contribution to the theory and practice of BPC provision and methods for exploration of impact.
A Platform for Analysing Stream and Historic Data with Efficient and Scalable Design Patterns

Social media is an increasingly popular method for people to share information and interact with each other. Analysis of social media data has the potential to provide useful insights in a wide range of domains including social science, advertising and policing. Social media information is produced in real-time, and so analysis that can give insights into events as they occur can be particularly valuable. Similarly, analytics platforms providing low latency query responses can improve the user experience for ad-hoc data exploration on historic data sets. However, the rate at which new data is generated makes it a real challenge to design a system that can meet both of these challenges. This paper describes the design and evaluation of such a system. Firstly, it describes how a meta-analysis of the types of questions that were being asked of Twitter data led to the identification of a small set of queries that could be used to answer the majority of them. Secondly, it describes the design of a scalable platform for answering these and other queries. The architecture is described: it is cloud-based, and combines both continuous query, and noSQL database technology. Evaluation results are presented which show that the system can scale to process queries on streaming data arriving at the rate of the full Twitter firehose. Experiments show that queries on large repositories of stored historic data can also be answered with low latency. Finally, we present the results of queries that combine both streaming and historic data.
DYSLEXIA IN MALAYSIA

Malaysia is a relatively young nation, having gained independence from the British in 1957. It is a multi-ethnic society with a population of 23 million people. The Malays form the majority group (13.5 million). This is followed by the Chinese (5.6 million), Indians (1.6 million) and others (0.75 million) (Malaysia Yearbook of Statistics, 2000). About onefifth of the Malaysian population are children: 2,931,847 attend primary schools while 1,999,371 are studying in secondary schools. Education plays a vital role in achieving the country’s vision of developing the full potential of the individual and fulfilling the aspiration of the Malaysian nation. Compulsory education is implemented from the ages of 6 to 17. The 1996 Education Act ensures the access to pre-school education of all children between the ages of 5 and 6. The primary school level covers a period of six years from Standard 1 to Standard 6. This is followed by three years of lower secondary school (Form 1–Form 3) and two years of upper secondary school (Form 4–Form 5). At the end of Form 5, students sit their O levels, after which students can choose to take their education to the post-secondary level which comprises another two years of formal education (Lower 6 and Upper 6). Having completed their A levels in Upper 6, students can apply for tertiary education at colleges and universities based on the criteria determined by the Education Ministry.
A new method for sex estimation from maxillary suture length in a Thai population

Sex estimation is one of the crucial procedures in the biological profile identification of human skeletal remains. Knowing sex of unknown case can lead to accurate and appropriate methods for predicting age, stature, ancestry, or even personal identification. Skull is one of the most reliable one among other skeletons and it is usually retained for both archaeological and forensic contexts. Although many morphological features and metric measurements of skull have been studied for sexing, but to the best of our knowledge is no study on maxillary suture length for sex estimation. Therefore, this study aims to develop a new sex estimation method for a Thai population by determining three maxillary suture lengths: anterior, transverse, and posterior maxillary suture, by computerizing amount of pixel obtained from photographs of these sutures. The present study was conducted on 190 Thai bone samples of which 96 were males and 94 were females. Independent t test revealed statistically significant difference (P<0.01) between males and females in all maxillary suture measurements. Equations derived from prediction model, which required three maxillary suture lengths gave 76.8421% accuracy from the leave-one-out cross validation in estimating sex percentage accuracies in predicting sex from these equations, which were relatively moderate. This study provides a novel and objective sex estimation method for Thais. It suggests that maxillary suture length can be applied for sex estimation. The new computerized technique will contribute basis knowledge and method for sex estimation, especially when only base of skull is available in forensic circumstance.
The human lung during the embryonic period: vasculogenesis and primitive erythroblasts circulation

Vascularization and blood cell circulation are crucial steps during lung development. However, how blood vessels are generated and when lung circulation is initiated is still a matter of debate. A morpho‐functional analysis of pulmonary vasculature was done using human lung samples between 31 and 56 days post‐fertilization (pf). The immunolocalization and expression of CD31, CD34, FLT‐1, KDR and the vascular growth factor (VEGF) were investigated. The results showed that at day 31 pf, a capillary plexus is already installed, and a few primitive erythroblasts were seen for the first time within the lumen of some blood vessels. Around day 45 pf, an increase in the amount of primitive erythroblasts was detected in the parenchyma surrounding the distal segment of the bronchial tree. The expression of FLT‐1, KDR, CD31 and CD34 was observed in endothelial cells of the capillary plexus and the VEGF was detected in the endodermal epithelium. Our results support the hypothesis that the initial formation of the capillary plexus around the tip of the growing airway bud occurs by vasculogenesis, probably regulated by VEGF and KDR. We also showed a very early onset of blood circulation, starting from day 34 pf, concomitant with the generation of new lung buds. In addition, the increasing number of primitive erythroblasts from week 6 onward, associated with a change in the shape of the blood vessels, suggests a remodeling process and that the generation of new distal vessels at the tip of the lung bud occurs mainly by a process of angiogenesis.
A novel slot-coupling feeding technique for circularly polarized patch antennas

In this paper a novel slot-coupling feeding technique is used to feed a circularly polarized patch antenna. The antenna is fed through two microstrip lines which are excited 90° out-of-phase and coupled to a square patch by means of a square ring slot realized in the feeding network ground plane. Design procedure and simulation results are shown for a 2×2 array working in the WiMax 3.3–3.8 GHz frequency band. Due to both the symmetry properties of the novel slot-coupling feeding technique and the implementation of a sequential rotation technique, excellent axial ratio performance is achieved in a wide frequency band where return loss is greater than 10dB and axial ratio is less than 3dB for any direction in the antenna main beam.
The New Systems Competition: YRJÖ Jahnsson Lectures

Competition between companies tends to be beneficial for the general public, but is this also true for competition between States in a world with global financial markets, low transport costs, and increasing migration? In this book, Sinn provides a solid economic analysis of the competitive forces at work and addresses how we should organize competition between systems so they will enhance the efficiency of these systems, as opposed to acting destructively on them. Provides a thorough economic analysis of the competitive forces at work between nations and governments. Analyzes a wide range of state activities, including taxation, public goods provision, income redistribution, environmental policy, safety standards, and competition policy. Addresses ways to organize competition so it will enhance the efficiency of these systems.
Do ethnic networks influence circular migration? Evidence from the UK

ABSTRACT This article identifies ethnic network effects among temporary migrants in the UK. Using microdata from Understanding Society and the UK Census, the empirical results show that ethnic networks change the individual probability for circular migration. These effects are strong and significant only for some ethnicities, when controlling for a set of socio-economic characteristics and when adding spatial variability
Cancer-stellate cell interactions perpetuate the hypoxia-fibrosis cycle in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Although both cancer and stellate cells (PSCs) secrete proangiogenic factors, pancreatic cancer is a scirrhous and hypoxic tumor. The impact of cancer-PSCs interactions on angiogenesis was analyzed. METHODS Expression of periostin, CD31, and alpha-smooth muscle actin was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Human PSCs and cancer cells were cultivated under normoxia and hypoxia alone, or in coculture, to analyze the changes in their angiogenic and fibrogenic attributes, using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, immunoblot, and quantitative polymerase chain reaction analyses and growth of cultured endothelial cells in vitro. RESULTS On the invasive front of the activated stroma, PSCs deposited a periostin-rich matrix around the capillaries in the periacinar spaces. Compared with the normal pancreas, there was a significant reduction in the microvessel density in chronic pancreatitis (five-fold, P < .001) and pancreatic cancer (four-fold, P < .01) tissues. In vitro, hypoxia increased PSCs' activity and doubled the secretion of periostin, type I collagen, fibronectin, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Cancer cells induced VEGF secretion of PSCs (390 +/- 60%, P < .001), whereas PSCs increased the endostatin production of cancer cells (210 +/- 14%, P < .001) by matrix metalloproteinase-dependent cleavage. In vitro, PSCs increased the endothelial cell growth, whereas cancer cells alone, or their coculture with PSCs, suppressed it. CONCLUSIONS Although PSCs are the dominant producers of VEGF and increase endothelial cell growth in vitro, in the peritumoral stroma, they contribute to the fibrotic/hypoxic milieu through abnormal extracellular matrix deposition and by amplifying endostatin production of cancer cells.
Thyroid plasmacytoma mimicking medullary carcinoma: A potential pitfall in aspiration cytology

Extramedullary plasmacytoma (EMP), a malignant neoplasm of the soft tissues composed of plasma cells, may occur either as a solitary plasma‐cell tumor (primary EMP) or as a manifestation of multiple myeloma (secondary EMP). We report on the aspiration cytology findings of an intriguing case of EMP of the thyroid that was initially misinterpreted as medullary carcinoma on clinical and cytologic examination. A major contributing cause for the cytologic misinterpretation was the presence of amyloid in the aspirate and the clinical impression of a “thyroid mass. ” Based on this experience, we suggest that EMP should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a neck mass that yields discohesive cells associated with amyloid/amyloid‐like material. Clinical correlation and immunocytochemistry are crucial in avoiding pitfalls in this situation. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2000;23:354–358. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Analytical matched filter bound for M-QAM hierarchical constellations with diversity reception in multipath rayleigh fading channels

In this paper, we derive matched filter bound (MFB) expressions for the performance of hierarchical quadrature amplitude modulations (M-HQAM) over time-discrete multipath Rayleigh fading environments with diversity. The expressions are valid for multipath environments where different paths and antennas can be correlated. Since hierarchical constellations are usually employed to achieve unequal bit error protection, the MFB expressions are given in terms of the individual bit error rate (BER) for the different bit streams. Although typically the MFB is obtained assuming slow time varying channels, fast varying channels are also considered in this paper.
Influence of joint position on synergistic muscle activity after fatigue of a single muscle head

Introduction: We investigated synergistic muscle activity after fatigue of a single muscle in different joint positions. Methods: Two experimental groups (n = 12 each) performed maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs) before and after fatiguing the gastrocnemius lateralis (GL), using neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES). Neuromuscular tests, including muscle activity during MVC, H‐reflex, and twitch interpolation, were performed. One group completed the experiment in a knee‐extended position with the second group in a knee‐flexed position. Results: In the knee‐flexed position, the muscle activity increased in non‐stimulated synergistic muscles. In contrast, in the knee‐extended position, muscle activity of the synergistic muscles remained unaltered. The MVC force remained unaltered in the flexed position and decreased in the extended position. Conclusions: Synergistic muscles compensate for the fatigued muscle in the flexed position but not in the extended position. Compensation mechanisms seem to depend on joint position. Muscle Nerve 51: 259–267, 2015