Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ergonomic methods for assessing exposure to risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders.

BACKGROUND This review provides an overview of the range of methods that have been developed for the assessment of exposure to risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders. METHODS Relevant publications and material on exposure assessment techniques have been gathered for inclusion in this review. RESULTS The methods have been categorized under three main headings: (1) self-reports from workers can be used to collect data on workplace exposure to both physical and psychosocial factors by using methods that include worker diaries, interviews and questionnaires; (2) observational methods that may be further subdivided between (a) simpler techniques developed for systematically recording workplace exposure that enable an observer to assess and record data on a number of factors using specifically designed pro-forma sheets for establishing priorities for workplace intervention; and (b) advanced techniques developed for the assessment of postural variation for highly dynamic activities that record data either on videotape or are computer analysed using dedicated software; (3) direct measurements using monitoring instruments that rely on sensors attached directly to the subject for the measurement of exposure variables at work. CONCLUSIONS The choice between the methods available will depend upon the application concerned and the objectives of the study. General, observation-based assessments appear to provide the levels of costs, capacity, versatility, generality and exactness best matched to the needs of occupational safety and health practitioners (or those from related professions) who have limited time and resources at their disposal and need a basis for establishing priorities for intervention.
Firm Fundamentals and Realized Factor Betas

Firm fundamentals, in particular firm size, help explain variation in factor loadings (betas) for the market, size and value factor. Surprisingly, however, they are dominated in terms of explanatory power by an unobserved time-invariant component. This leads to surprisingly stable factor loadings: stocks with high (low) factor loadings tend to remain as such for over a decade. Our models work best in explaining market betas (r-squares up to 64%) and worst in explaining value betas (r-squares up to 35%). These results are robust to different estimation techniques of factor betas and also hold up when we limit the sample to firms with statistically significant betas.
Improvement of Content Uniformity of d-α-Tocopheryl Acetate as an Oily Drug in Granules by Emulsification

ABSTRACT To elucidate the effects of an oily drug emulsification on its content uniformity in granules obtained by wet granulation with a high-shear mixer, d-α-tocopheryl acetate (VE) was emulsified with hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC-L) solution (mean diameter of the VE droplets was 1.3 μm). When VE was added to the mixing powder as the emulsion, nuclei rich in VE were not formed and then the content of VE was fairly uniform throughout the granules even at 2 min granulation. We found that the oily drug poor content uniformity could be improved significantly by adding an emulsified drug to the powder in granulation process.
C5 Blockade with Conventional Immunosuppression Induces Long‐Term Graft Survival in Presensitized Recipients

We explored whether a functionally blocking anti‐C5 monoclonal antibody (mAb) combined with T‐ and B‐cell immunosuppression can successfully prevent antibody‐mediated (AMR) and cell‐mediated rejection (CMR) in presensitized murine recipients of life‐supporting kidney allografts. To mimic the urgent clinical features of AMR experienced by presensitized patients, we designed a murine model in which BALB/c recipients were presensitized with fully MHC‐mismatched C3H donor skin grafts one week prior to C3H kidney transplantation. Presensitized recipients demonstrated high levels of circulating and intragraft antidonor antibodies and terminal complement activity, rejecting grafts within 8.5 ± 1.3 days. Graft rejection was predominantly by AMR, characterized by interstitial hemorrhage, edema and glomerular/tubular necrosis, but also demonstrated moderate cellular infiltration, suggesting CMR involvement. Subtherapeutic treatment with cyclosporine (CsA) and LF15–0195 (LF) did not significantly delay rejection. Significantly, however, the addition of anti‐C5 mAb to this CsA/LF regimen prevented terminal complement activity and inhibited both AMR and CMR, enabling indefinite (>100 days) kidney graft survival despite the persistence of antidonor antibodies. Long‐term surviving kidney grafts expressed the protective proteins Bcl‐xS/L and A‐20 and demonstrated normal histology, suggestive of graft accommodation or tolerance. Thus, C5 blockade combined with routine immunosuppression offers a promising approach to prevent graft loss in presensitized patients.
Does National Culture Matter? An Exploratory Study on The Relationship of National Competitiveness and National Culture

The purpose of the study is to examine empirically the relationship between national competitiveness and national culture. The study applied exploratory research design with national culture and national competitiveness treated as two independent variables. Hofstede’s national culture categorization namely masculinity, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and long-term orientation was adopted. Cultural Index by GLOBE study and Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) by the World Economic Forum were used for the measurement. Descriptive statistic along with bivariate correlation analysis was used in this study. A number of samples involved in this study was 58 countries. The study concludes that national competitiveness is positively and significantly associated with national culture namely long-term orientation, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism. National competitiveness has a negative association with power distance national culture. However, national competitiveness was indicated no association with masculine national culture. The findings conclude that in general, national culture is a factor that explains why there are differences in national competitiveness among countries around the world. A suggestion for future similar research is that control variable such national income as well as the application of more sophisticated statistical analysis method should be included. Keywords: exploratory study, global competitiveness index, national culture; national competitiveness; national culture index
Oleander intoxication in New World camelids: 12 cases (1995-2006).

OBJECTIVE To characterize the clinical and clinicopathologic effects and evaluate outcome associated with oleander toxicosis in New World camelids. DESIGN Retrospective case series. ANIMALS 11 llamas and 1 alpaca. PROCEDURES Medical records from a veterinary medical teaching hospital from January 1, 1995, to December 31, 2006, were reviewed. Records of all New World camelids that had detectable amounts of oleandrin in samples of serum, urine, or gastrointestinal fluid were included in the study. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the history, physical examination findings, clinicopathologic data, and outcome of affected camelids. RESULTS 11 llamas and 1 alpaca met the inclusion criteria of the study. Either oleander plants were present where the camelids resided (n = 7) or oleander plant material was identified in the hay fed to the camelids (5). One llama was dead on arrival at the hospital, and another was euthanized upon admission because of financial concerns. Of the 10 treated camelids, 9 had evidence of acute renal failure, 7 had gastrointestinal signs, and 4 had cardiac dysrhythmias on initial evaluation. The overall mortality rate was 25%, but the mortality rate for the 10 camelids that were medically treated was 10%. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE In New World camelids, oleander intoxication was associated with a triad of clinical effects (ie, renal, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular dysfunction). Oleander intoxication often represented a herd problem but carried a fair to good prognosis if treated promptly. Oleander toxicosis should be considered a differential diagnosis in sick camelids.
Fatty acid composition of serum lipid fractions in relation to gender and quality of dietary fat.

UNLABELLED The fatty acid compositions of serum lipid fractions are believed to reflect the quality of dietary fat, but only a few cross-sectional studies have examined these relationships in a representative free-living population. We related the composition of dietary fat obtained by 7-day food records from 84 free-living middle-aged married couples, on their habitual diets, to gas chromatographic analyses of the percentage compositions of fatty acids in three lipid fractions of fasting sera. Dietary polyunsaturated fat had Pearson's correlation coefficients of 0.63, 0.73 and 0.44 with n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in serum cholesteryl esters, triglycerides and phospholipids, respectively. Intake of fish showed correlations of 0.60, 0.36 and 0.52 with the percentage of eicosapentaenoate in the respective fractions. Dietary saturated fat had correlations of 0.57 and 0.54 with saturated fatty acids in serum cholesteryl esters and triglycerides, respectively. Dietary monounsaturated fat did not correlate positively with monounsaturated fatty acids in any serum lipid fraction. There were some small but significant gender differences in the serum fatty acid compositions. CONCLUSIONS of the three serum lipid fractions, triglycerides appear to be the best reflectors of dietary polyunsaturated and saturated fat, but the intake of monounsaturated fat is poorly reflected in all serum lipid fractions. Intake of fish is mirrored in all serum lipid fractions, best in cholesteryl esters and phospholipids.
Calcium dependent positive inotropic effects of low phorbol ester concentrations in isolated rat hearts.

OBJECTIVE The aim was to examine the cardiac effects of phorbol esters over a wide concentration range and to determine if the effects are related to Ca2+ availability. METHODS Studies were carried out using isolated rat hearts exposed for 60 min either to phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA, 10(-11) to 10(-6) M) or phorbol 12,13-dibutyrate (PDBu, 10(-12) to 10(-7) M) in the presence of either 1.25 or 2.50 mM CaCl2. Experiments were also done to assess the effect of BAY K8644, a Ca2+ agonist, on phorbol ester effects. After treatment, hearts were freeze clamped for later analysis of energy products. RESULTS At the lowest concentrations studied, both PMA and PDBu produced positive inotropic effects, whereas higher concentrations resulted in a loss of contractile force in hearts perfused with 1.25 mM CaCl2. Doubling the CaCl2 concentration or the presence of BAY K8644 had little effect on the negative inotropic influence of either phorbol ester but reversed the positive inotropic effect to a negative inotropic one. Neither treatment had any effect on the coronary constricting effects of phorbol esters. Increases in resting tension and reductions in high energy phosphate content were evident only with the highest phorbol ester concentrations and were unaffected either by changes in CaCl2 concentrations or the presence of BAY K8644. CONCLUSIONS At picomolar and nanomolar concentrations phorbol esters produce positive inotropic actions which are probably mediated by enhanced Ca2+ influx. Although higher concentrations produce negative inotropic effects, these are not influenced by [Ca2+]o nor are they related to disturbances in energy metabolism except at the highest concentrations. We conclude that phorbol esters produce complex concentration dependent cardiac effects which are not mediated by a single mechanism of action.
A polycatenated DNA scaffold for the one-step assembly of hierarchical nanostructures

A unique DNA scaffold was prepared for the one-step self-assembly of hierarchical nanostructures onto which multiple proteins or nanoparticles are positioned on a single template with precise relative spatial orientation. The architecture is a topologically complex ladder-shaped polycatenane in which the “rungs” of the ladder are used to bring together the individual rings of the mechanically interlocked structure, and the “rails” are available for hierarchical assembly, whose effectiveness has been demonstrated with proteins, complementary DNA, and gold nanoparticles. The ability of this template to form from linear monomers and simultaneously bind two proteins was demonstrated by chemical force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and confocal fluorescence microscopy. Finally, fluorescence resonance energy transfer between adjacent fluorophores confirmed the programmed spatial arrangement between two different nanomaterials. DNA templates that bring together multiple nanostructures with precise spatial control have applications in catalysis, biosensing, and nanomaterials design.
Multihop hierarchical routing protocol for large wireless sensor networks under the non-ideal connectivity conditions

The hierarchical routing protocols are considered as a suitable and energy efficient for wireless sensor networks applications that demand frequent and periodic data gathering. Many routing protocols for two-layer (single-hop), tree-layer (dual-hop) and multiple-layer (multi-hop) architectures are developed based on the hierarchical LEACH protocol. In this paper we propose a novel concept for the energy efficient multi-hop routing, with a simple procedure that assigns hierarchical levels to sensor nodes and sets necessary data for routing while the cluster head election process as in LEACH is used. Here proposed multi-hop protocol possess inherent resilience to packet loss due to the non-ideal network connectivity. Performance analysis under ideal and nonideal connectivity conditions showed that here proposed multihop routing protocol outperforms LEACH-based single-hop and dual-hop protocols that were previously proposed with the goal of performance improvement in a case of non-ideal connectivity.
Validity and reliability of acoustic analysis of respiratory sounds in infants

Objective: To investigate the validity and reliability of computerised acoustic analysis in the detection of abnormal respiratory noises in infants. Methods: Blinded, prospective comparison of acoustic analysis with stethoscope examination. Validity and reliability of acoustic analysis were assessed by calculating the degree of observer agreement using the κ statistic with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: 102 infants under 18 months were recruited. Convergent validity for agreement between stethoscope examination and acoustic analysis was poor for wheeze (κ = 0.07 (95% CI, −0.13 to 0.26)) and rattles (κ = 0.11 (−0.05 to 0.27)) and fair for crackles (κ = 0.36 (0.18 to 0.54)). Both the stethoscope and acoustic analysis distinguished well between sounds (discriminant validity). Agreement between observers for the presence of wheeze was poor for both stethoscope examination and acoustic analysis. Agreement for rattles was moderate for the stethoscope but poor for acoustic analysis. Agreement for crackles was moderate using both techniques. Within-observer reliability for all sounds using acoustic analysis was moderate to good. Conclusions: The stethoscope is unreliable for assessing respiratory sounds in infants. This has important implications for its use as a diagnostic tool for lung disorders in infants, and confirms that it cannot be used as a gold standard. Because of the unreliability of the stethoscope, the validity of acoustic analysis could not be demonstrated, although it could discriminate between sounds well and showed good within-observer reliability. For acoustic analysis, targeted training and the development of computerised pattern recognition systems may improve reliability so that it can be used in clinical practice.
Performance evaluation of network coding-aware neighbor based topology control protocols in MANETs

Much attention has been paid to reduce the redundancy of broadcasting in MANETs. Since broadcasting produces many redundant packets, it will create a broadcast storm problem. Recently, many researchers are using network coding to reduce the number of transmissions in wireless networks. In this paper, we apply network coding technology into neighbor based topology control protocols to further reduce the number of transmissions. We evaluated the performance of the network coding based protocols. Our simulation results show the energy gain of the network coding-aware neighbor based topology control protocols. We also evaluated the impact of coding delays involved in network coding.
Target selective tilt-after effect during texture learning.

In texture learning, observers are presented with repeated stimulations, resulting in within-day threshold elevation, as well as between day threshold reductions. Within-day deteriorations were shown to be location and orientation specific (Mednick et. al., 2002; Ofen et al., 2007). Accordingly, the declined performance was suggested to reflect sensory adaptation. Here we test whether extensive training produces adaptation dependent tilt after-effects (TAE). Six observers were trained for 5 days on the texture discrimination task (Karni & Sagi, 1991), 800-1000 trials/day. The target (40ms) was composed of 3 lines of 22.5o orientation, stacked vertically or horizontally (2AFC task), embedded in a background of -22.5o lines. The target was followed by a variable blank interval and a mask (100ms). Multiple tests of perceived vertical (PV) were carried out prior and after each daily session to evaluate TAE at four locations, corresponding to: a target line, +22.5o on all trials (T+); both target and background lines, balanced, either +22.5o or -22.5o (T0); and the two background locations, near (BN) and far from the target (BF). Results showed learning across days, with within-day deterioration that varied across days. There was a significant TAE immediately following TDT training at both target's locations, at T+ (-1.6°±0.3, mean±SEM; p< 0.01) and, more surprisingly, at T0 (-0.8°±0.2; p=0.03) but not at background locations (BN, 0.3°±0.3; BF, 0.3°±0.1). The persistence of the TAE varied across days, as indicated by successive PV tests; decaying faster at location T+ (p=0.02), while persisting longer at location T0 (p=0.02). Here we show that texture training induces a localized target-selective TAE, which in return has a training-dependent component. The absence of background TAE and the target-biased TAE at the balanced location indicate that aftereffects are not determined by stimulus statistics, but rather by experience-dependent task-relevance. This supports mutual interactions between sensory adaptation and perceptual learning. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.
[Expression of galectin-1 in carcinogenesis of oral mucosal epithelium].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the expression of galectin-1 in oral squamous cell carcinoma(OSCC) and its clinical significance. METHODS Detection of the mRNA and protein expression of galectin-1 in the in vitro cellular carcinogenesis model of OSCC, OSCC cell lines and tissue specimens from 30 primary OSCC patients were performed using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Western blotting and immunohistochemistry, respectively. RESULTS The value of galectin-1 mRNA and protein level in human immortalized oral epithelia cell (HIOEC) cell was 0.071 ± 0.023, 0.118 ± 0.046, Compared with the HIOEC, galectin-1 mRNA level and protein expression were increased significantly in all the cell lines (0.141 ± 0.049, 0.504 ± 0.33) (P < 0.01). The levels of mRNA and protein expression of galectin-1 were significantly higher in the cancerous tissue (0.059 ± 0.034, 1.5 ± 0.68) than in the normal adjacent tissues (0.029 ± 0.012, 0.4 ± 0.56) (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS The expression of galectin-1 gene up-regulated in carcinogenesis process of OSCC significantly may be related to the tumorigenesis and development of OSCC, which illustrates its potential clinical application as tumor marker for early diagnosis.
INCOME-BASED EFFECTIVE TAX RATES AND CHOICE-OF-ENTITY CONSIDERATIONS UNDER THE 2017 TAX ACT

This article uses a simple simulation to graphically present the effective tax rates at various income levels for small businesses (those with taxable income of $1,000,000 or less) under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) and compares them to effective tax rates at various income levels for small businesses prior to the TCJA. The graphical presentation reveals that the various tax rates under the TCJA complicate choice-of-entity analyses and undermine general rule-of-thumb concepts that drove choice-of-entity decisions prior to the TCJA. Under the TCJA, choice-of-entity preferences will likely be highly situational and may feature combinations of various entities. Using a typical business situation, this article illustrates how different types of entity can cause the effective tax rate on business income at the $1,000,000 level to vary from 21.36 to 34.60 percent. The most favorable effective rate results from an entity structure that combines a C corporation and passthrough entity. Rate variations based upon entity combinations portend subtle, carefully calculated, shifts in choice-of-entity actions following the TCJA.
Carotid plaque morphology and composition: initial comparison between 1.5- and 3.0-T magnetic field strengths.

PURPOSE To prospectively compare the interpretation and quantification of carotid vessel wall morphology and plaque composition at 1.5-T with those at 3.0-T magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty participants (mean age, 69.8 years [standard deviation] +/- 10.5; 75% men) with 16%-79% carotid stenosis at duplex ultrasonography were imaged with 1.5-T and 3.0-T MR imaging units with bilateral four-element phased-array surface coils. This HIPAA-compliant study was approved by the institutional review board, and all participants gave written informed consent. Protocols designed for similar signal-to-noise ratios across platforms were implemented to acquire axial T1-weighted, T2-weighted, intermediate-weighted, time-of-flight, and contrast material-enhanced T1-weighted images. Lumen area, wall area, total vessel area, wall thickness, and presence or absence and area of plaque components were documented. Continuous variables from different field strengths were compared by using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and repeated measures analysis. The Cohen kappa was used to evaluate agreement between 1.5 T and 3.0 T on compositional dichotomous variables. RESULTS There was a strong level of agreement between field strengths for all morphologic variables, with ICCs ranging from 0.88 to 0.96. Agreement in the identification of presence or absence of plaque components was very good for calcification (kappa = 0.72), lipid-rich necrotic core (kappa = 0.73), and hemorrhage (kappa = 0.66). However, the visualization of hemorrhage was greater at 1.5 T than at 3.0 T (14.7% vs 7.8%, P < .001). Calcifications measured significantly (P = .03) larger at 3.0 T, while lipid-rich necrotic cores without hemorrhage were similar between field strengths (P = .9). CONCLUSION At higher field strengths, the increased susceptibility of calcification and paramagnetic ferric iron in hemorrhage may alter quantification and/or detection. Nevertheless, imaging criteria at 1.5 T for carotid vessel wall interpretation are applicable at 3.0 T.