Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biological dressings as a substitutes of the skin in the treatment of burn wounds.

The skin is a tissue which is the most exposed to external factors. It is formed by numerous specialized cells and performs mainly protective functions. Due to its special properties such as: resistance, elasticity and semipermeability, it protects our body from mechanical injuries, infections, loss of physiological fluids as well as harmful radiation (1, 2). The human skin is formed of multi-layer squamous epithelium; epidermis and dermis. It is the largest organ in our body in terms of the occupied space. Patients who lose a large percentage of their skin’s surface as a result of thermal traumas face life threatening complications particularly connected with infections and loss of body fluids (3). Extensive and frequently very deep wounds resulting from burning require specialist treatment. The primary method of choice in the management of full-thickness burn traumas (third degree burns) is skin grafting with the use of the patient’s own skin (autologous split-thickness skin graft) (4, 5, 32). The first attempts to close wounds using the skin as a biological dressing date back to the beginning of the 19th century. At first, these were experiments which were not successful, but which gave rise to the search for effective treatment methods of burns and chronic wounds. In 1803, Baronio was one of the first who claimed that the skin might be grafted from one site of the body to another (tested on sheep). Reverdin, in 1869, performed the first autograft of the epidermis in people. In 1871, Pollock performed the first allograft of his own skin mixed with the skin of the patient. Finally, in 1881, Girdner dressed a large wound with the skin obtained from a cadaver and described graft rejection (6). Autologous split-thickness skin graft constitutes a treatment method which presents certain constraints. The main limitation of this technique is insufficient amount of healthy, uninjured skin – donor site deficit, in patients with severe burns (4, 7). Donor sites are areas from which the split-thickness skin is removed and used to cover burn wounds. Unfortunately, in the case of massive and extensive burns encompassing numerous body areas, the lack of donor sites frequently renders the removal of the skin and, consequently, the autograft impossible. On other occasions, it may happen that the extent of burn wounds is so large that the amount of the skin removed from the donor sites is insufficient to cover the whole area of burning. The situations mentioned above prompt the search for other methods to treat burn wounds with the use of other available biological dressings.
Sarcoidosis: epidemiology and prognosis. A 15-year European study.

A 15-year study of patients with sarcoidosis is presented. In most patients, the disease was discovered at a general health screening examination. The mean total incidence among persons 15 yr of age or older was 19 per 100,000 per year (21.7 for women and 16.5 for men). There was a peak incidence in both sexes between the ages of 20 and 34, and in older women, there was a second but lower and broader peak. The frequency of symptoms was greater in older women than in other patients. The accumulated lifetime risk of sarcoidosis was 1.3% for women and almost 1% for men. Patients with Stage I sarcoidosis, i.e., with bilateral hilar adenopathy alone, had the best prognosis, with 50% of the patients showing a normal radiographic picture 15 months after the discovery of the disease. Among patients with Stage II sarcoidosis (both bilateral hilar adenopathy and pulmonary infiltration), it was 36 months before 50% returned to normal radiographically. Resolution of all radiographic evidence of the disease could still occur many years after the first pathologic findings were made on chest films.
Indications for Brain Computed Tomography Scan After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Trauma to the head may cause damage to the brain parenchyma. This intracranial damage is more probable in severe than mild forms of head trauma. Despite this knowledge, physicians could not disregard the risk of brain injury in mild forms; thus, in many cases of head trauma, computed tomography (CT) scans are performed to detect possible intracranial injuries. This excessive CT scanning could cause unnecessary radiation exposure for patients, many cases of which are children and impose a heavy burden on the society. Different studies tried to decrease unnecessary CT scans by establishing clinical rules to predict possible injuries. These rules will help clinicians to safely recognize at risk patients with clinical signs and symptoms and perform CT scans when it is really necessary. The need for these rules is more prominent in mild forms of traumatic brain injury, where patients usually come with normal level of consciousness. This chapter will introduce different clinical studies related to indications for brain CT scan after Mild traumatic brain injury.
A sourcing strategy for the middle offices in financial institutions

This article examines the strategies of sourcing the middle office functions in financial institutions. While some functions, in particular the back office functions in financial institutions are popularly and successfully outsourced or co-sourced, it may not be appropriate to do so for sourcing the functions of middle offices. Outsourcing or co-sourcing of the middle offices implies contracting out the risk management function of a financial institution partially or completely. This may reduce the effectiveness of risk management implementation and may potentially expose the institution to great risk. This article compares different strategies, namely outsourcing, co-sourcing, and shared services; and shows that shared services has many advantages over the other two strategies.
Profilin Functions in Cytokinesis, Nuclear Positioning, and Stomatogenesis in Tetrahymena thermophila

Abstract Expression of the actin-binding protein profilin was disrupted in the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila by an antisense ribosome method. In cells with the antisense disruption no profilin protein was detected. Cultures of cells with the antisense disruption could be maintained, indicating that profilin was not essential for cytokinesis or vegetative growth. Disruption of the expression of profilin resulted in many cells that were large and abnormally shaped. Formation of multiple micronuclei, which divide mitotically, was observed in cells with a single macronucleus, indicating a defect in early cytokinesis. Some cells with the antisense disruption contained multiple macronuclei, which in Tetrahymena may indicate a function late in cytokinesis. The lack of profilin also affected cytokinesis in the cells that could divide. Normal-sized and normal-shaped cells with the antisense disruption took significantly longer to divide than control cell types. The profilin disruption revealed two new processes in which profilin functions. In cells lacking profilin, micronuclei were not positioned at their normal site on the surface of the macronucleus and phagocytosis was defective. The defect in phagocytosis appeared to be due to disruption of the formation of oral apparatuses (stomatogenesis) and a possible failure in the internalization of phagocytic vacuoles.
Provider and peer selection in the evolving internet ecosystem

The Internet consists of thousands of autonomous networks connected together to provide end-to-end reachability. Networks of different sizes, and with different functions and business objectives, interact and co-exist in the evolving “Internet Ecosystem. ” The Internet ecosystem is highly dynamic, experiencing growth (birth of new networks), rewiring (changes in the connectivity of existing networks), as well as deaths (of existing networks). The dynamics of the Internet ecosystem are determined both by external “environmental” factors (such as the state of the global economy or the popularity of new Internet applications) and the complex incentives and objectives of each network. These dynamics have major implications on how the future Internet will look like. How does the Internet evolve? What is the Internet heading towards, in terms of topological, performance, and economic organization? How do given optimization strategies affect the profitability of different networks? How do these strategies affect the Internet in terms of topology, economics, and performance? In this thesis, we take some steps towards answering the above questions using a combination of measurement and modeling approaches. We first study the evolution of the Autonomous System (AS) topology over the last decade. In particular, we classify ASes and inter-AS links according to their business function, and study separately their evolution over the last 10 years. Next, we focus on enterprise customers and content providers at the edge of the Internet, and propose algorithms for a stub network to choose its upstream providers to maximize its utility (either monetary cost, reliability or performance). Third, we develop a model for interdomain network formation, incorporating the effects of economics, geography, and the provider/peer selections strategies of different types of networks. We use this model to examine the “outcome” of these strategies, in terms of the topology, economics and performance of the resulting internetwork. We also investigate the effect of external factors, such as the nature of the interdomain traffic matrix, customer preferences in provider selection, and pricing/cost structures. Finally, we focus on a recent trend due to the increasing amount of traffic flowing from content providers (who generate content), to access providers (who serve end users). This has led to a tussle between content providers and access providers, who have threatened to prioritize certain types of traffic, or charge content providers directly - strategies that are viewed as violations of “network neutrality”. In our work, we evaluate various pricing and connection strategies that access providers can use to remain profitable without violating network neutrality.
National Accounting Culture and Empirical Evidence on the Application of Conservatism

Prudence in accounting is a corner-stone concept which has shaped accounting theory, as well as ordinary financial reporting, sometimes in obscure and perverse ways. The qualitative nature of our contribution is apparent in the critical analysis of the degree of conservatism as a fundamental attribute of any national accounting culture. We classified the 17 European countries in our sample in three groups according to how domestic standards recognize and measure provisions for risks and charges, in comparison with IFRS. Thus, the companies in our sample belong to the following accounting environments: IFRS-compliant (147 firms), conservative (179) and liberal (62). On the quantitative side of the study, we developed a proxy for accounting conservatism, namely the degree of uncertainty associated with the settling of a company’s obligations. To this purpose, we hand-collected accounting data for 388 business groups from 17 European countries. The companies are representative for the main industrial and consumer sectors, excluding financial institutions. For these companies we computed the provisions-to-liabilities ratio (PLR) and performed several group tests, according to the following original classification of national accounting cultures. The results indicate that companies incorporated in countries that are classified as ‘conservative’ do assign a significantly higher degree of uncertainty to their total amount of liabilities. If we take into account that all the companies in our sample prepare their annual accounts in compliance with IFRS, we can conclude that national accounting culture – when classified as prudent – exhibits a significant influence on the IFRS policies that companies apply with regard to the recognition and measurement of provisions.
E-Cash Payment Protocols

E-cash is a payment system designed and implemented for making purchases over open networks such as the Internet. Need of a payment system which enables the electronic transactions are growing at the same time that the use of Internet is growing in our daily life. Present days electronic payment systems have a major problem, they cannot handle the security and the users anonymity and at the same time these systems are secure on the cost of their users anonymity. This paper shows the payment protocols for digital cash and discusses how a digital cash system can be formed by presenting a few of the present days digital cash systems in details. We also provide a comparison and determine them together to see which one of them fulfils the properties for digital cash and the required security level.
Cognitive performance following premature awakening from zolpidem or melatonin induced daytime sleep.

BACKGROUND The hypnotic zolpidem and the hormone melatonin were evaluated and directly compared for their effects on performance when subjects sleeping under their influence were prematurely awakened from daytime sleep. METHOD Non-sleep deprived volunteers (eight men and five women) received single oral doses of 5 or 10 mg melatonin (Mel-5; Mel-10), 10 or 20 mg zolpidem (Zol-10; Zol-20), or placebo immediately before retiring at 13:00. Performance testing and subjective evaluations occurred prior to dosing and following forced awakening at 15:00, 2 h after dosing. RESULTS Compared with placebo, on being awakened under Zol-20, significant performance decrements were prevalent on 9 of 10 cognitive tasks, including grammatical reasoning, mathematical processing, and word memory. Recovery required up to 6 h post-awakening for the more complex tasks. Loss of coordination and nausea were also present on awakening under Zol-20. On being awakened under Zol-10, significant but relatively less severe and shorter duration performance decrements occurred for 4 of the 10 tasks and recovered by 4 h post-awakening. Under Mel-5 or Mel-10, performance decrements seldom occurred and were considerably less severe, briefer, and less systematic than for zolpidem. CONCLUSION Findings indicated that when operational personnel sleeping with the aid of either 10 or 20 mg zolpidem are prematurely awakened, it would be prudent to evaluate their general well-being and possible need for assistance prior to their being permitted to depart crew-rest or to perform tasks and duties. In contrast, we found little to no evidence of deteriorated well-being or need for assistance when awakened while sleeping under the influence of melatonin.
How Performance Expectations Affect Managerial Replacement Decisions

We empirically investigate how performance expectations affect top manager replacements. We do so by approximating performance expectations based on professional bookmaker betting odds in professional soccer, thus capturing the effect on the dismissal probability of team coaches. Controlling for team performance and unobserved team heterogeneity, we show that a one-standard-deviation increase of performance expectations nearly doubles the coach’s dismissal probability. Our study represents a strong test for the impact of performance expectations on managerial replacements because accurate performance measures are available at frequent intervals in the controlled field environment of professional soccer. The limitations of transferability are also discussed.
System dynamics model of public emergencies evolution

Combining with the theory of chaos and dissipative structure, this paper analyzed the development and evolution process to public emergencies from the point of dissipative structure. According to the three dimensions, disaster hardness, degree of stricken and management level, equation of state was built here. This paper solved the latent root, analyzed the characteristic of event system balance point and the interaction of the three dimensions, and discussed the development and evolution of public emergencies. Based on the system dynamics model, decision makers can understand deeply the public emergencies from the point of internal characteristic, therefore, and improve the capability to response.
Hr professionals technology proponent competency: a review

Technological advancements of the 21st century have transformed the approach of how HR professionals reason and execute their responsibilities, which has made the HR technology proponent competency a critical factor for organizational performance. This paper therefore tries to examine and bring to the fore, the relevance and input of the technology proponent competency of HR professional, and how HR professionals utilize the knowledge of this competency in today’s global market of severe competition. The methodology employed in this study is the principles of inductive categorization, which ensured a systematic content analysis of selected relevant literature from previous studies as retrieved from online databases. Findings from the review of extant literature in the area of review show that the acquisition of certain basic technological competencies have influenced and enhanced HR work output, which has made HR professionals more efficient in the delivery of HR administrative functions like payroll processing, benefits, healthcare costs, and other administrative services.
Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States

This is an analysis of characteristics of the Asian American and Pacific Islander populations of the United States and is one in a series of monographs based primarily on data from the 1980 census. The first eight chapters are concerned with Asian Americans and cover such topics as immigration population size and growth place of birth citizenship fertility mortality age and sex distribution residence and migration family and households educational status employment and occupations and incomes. Chapter 9 is concerned with Pacific Islanders. (ANNOTATION)
Is Corporate Bond Market Performance Connected with Stock Market Performance

Stock markets and bond markets are known to interact. Specifically, the common stock market trend (i.e., business cycle also termed market/ systematic risk) impacts the common corporate bond market trend (i.e.,credit cycle). First, we disentangle the common latent component from total stock returns, namely the common systematic/unobserved stock market component. Second, we extract the common latent component from total bond returns, namely the common unobserved/systematic corporate bond component.Then, we estimate the dynamic relationship between systematic total stock returns and systematic total bond returns over time (i.e., co- and antimonotonicity risk). We characterize therefore the time-varying correlation risk (i.e., correlation risk structure) between stock performance and corporate bond performance. Results are instructive in a dynamic risk management prospect with regard to equity- and corporate bond-based portfolios.
Evaluation of Information Transfer between Beef Producers and Extension Agents in West Virginia

Evaluation of Information Transfer between Beef Producers And Extension Agents in West Virginia Travis J. Cullen The purpose of this study was to determine how information passes between beef producers and Extension Agents in West Virginia in the areas of teaching methods and program advertisement. A descriptive research design was used to collect the data for this study. The target population was all beef producers and the Agriculture and Natural Resource Extension Agents in West Virginia. The study found that beef producers and Extension Agents tend to be in agreement on both the methods of advertising and teaching. However, the programs beef producers desire differs from those the West Virginia University Extension Service offers.
The international payments and monetary system in the integration of the socialist countries

Economic cooperation between the CMEA countries is implemented according to the monetary and financial regulations worked out collectively. The regulations cover the organizational structure of international settlements; the choice of currency for settlements; the principles of international credit transactions; the determination ofthe exchange rate of the currency used in international settlements to national currencies and to convertible currencies outside the CMEA; the principles and rules ofinternational exchange and transfers; mIes for the currency allotments of citizens (roles of international transfers for citizens). The regulations also contain provisions for international settlements and credit transactions which are concluded through an independent international bank or banks. These regulations, the instruments and institutions together, form the international payments and monetary system of the CMEA. * The financial and monetary regulations of the CMEA community were formed in several stages, depending on the prevailing. conditions and the targets to be attained. In the years between 1949 and 1963 the general form of economic cooperation and of international settlements was the bilateral clearing agreement. In the bilateral agreements which the Soviet Union concluded with the other CMEA countries the currency of settlements was the Soviet rouble. The prices applied in foreign trade were not the internal producer prices of the Soviet Union, but world market prices (main international market prices) expressed in roubles, with the he]p ofthe exchange rate ofthe Soviet rouble to the US dollar, as quoted in the Soviet Union. "
Reduced Frequency of Severe Hypoglycemia and Coma in Well-Controlled IDDM Patients Treated With Insulin Lispro

OBJECTIVE Several studies have suggested that use of the short-acting insulin analog, insulin lispro, in multiple injection therapy may reduce the risk of hypoglycemia in comparison with regular insulin. This effect might be more pronounced in well-controlled patients, since intensive treatment of IDDM increases the rate of severe hypoglycemic events. This study evaluated the effects of insulin lispro on glycemic control and hypoglycemia rates in well-controlled IDDM patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This was an open, randomized, 6-month crossover study of 199 IDDM patients. Glycemic control was evaluated by HbA1c, home blood glucose measurements, and rate and timing of hypoglycemic events. At the end of the study, patients completed an evaluation form regarding therapy-related quality of life. RESULTS HbA1c remained constant at ∼ 7.3% throughout the study. Meal-related glucose excursions were significantly lower with insulin lispro compared with regular insulin (mean −0.8 ± 1.7 vs. 1.1 ± 1.6 mmol/l, P < 0.001), as was the within-day variability (M value 27.7 ± 19.7 vs. 30.2 ± 23.1, P = 0.007). The incidence of severe hypoglycemic events (58 vs. 36, P = 0.037) including coma (16 vs. 3, P = 0.004) was significantly lower with insulin lispro than with regular insulin. Patients felt that insulin lispro increased flexibility and freedom of lifestyle. CONCLUSIONS In well-controlled IDDM patients, insulin lispro is associated with a lower risk of severe hypoglycemia and coma.