Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Validity and reliability of Thai version of the International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Form.

BACKGROUND Self-administered questionnaires have become an important aspect for clinical outcome assessment of knee-related surgery. The International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) Subjective Knee Form is a knee-specific questionnaire that is widely used and translated to many languages. The purposes of the present study were: (1) to translate the questionnaire into Thai; and (2) to assess the validity and reliability of the Thai version of the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) Subjective Knee Form. MATERIAL AND METHOD The IKDC Subjective Knee Form was translated into Thai using forward-backward translation protocol. Afterward, reliability and validity were tested The responses of 55 consecutive patients on two questionnaires, the Thai IKDC Subjective Knee Form and the Short Form-36, were used. The validity was tested by correlating the scores from both questionnaires. The reliability was adopted by measuring the test-retest reliability and internal consistency. RESULTS The Thai IKDC Subjective Knee Form showed good correlations with the physical functioning and bodily pain domains of the SF-36 (Pearson's correlation coefficient = 0.75 and 0.76 respectively). The reliability proved excellent with an intra-class correlation coefficient of 0.92 for test-retest. The internal consistency was strong (Cronbach alpha = 0.92). CONCLUSION The Thai version of IKDC Subjective Knee Form showed good value to retain the characteristic of the original version. In addition, it was a reliable evaluation instrument for patients with knee-related problems.
Foreign Direct Investment Inflow, Volatility, and Domestic Investment in West Africa

This study empirically examined the effect of foreign direct investment inflow and its volatility on domestic investment in the ECOWAS region as FDI inflow is theoretical recognized as an important catalyst to bridge the Savings gap. The recent Panel Data Cointegration technique of estimation was employed in the study given the possibilities of panel data based studies to be associated with unit root problems as shown by experts in the methodology. Data for the study covered the period 1970-2008 and were extracted from the UN statistics data base and the World Development Indicator, 2009. The results of the empirical analysis revealed that foreign direct investment inflow substituted domestic investment in the West African region. FDI volatility was also found to hamper domestic investment in the region. From policy perspective, since most of the West African countries are faced with poor investment climate and low technical know on the part of the citizenry to harness the spillover effects of FDI inflow, it is therefore recommended that bolstering the investment climate and proper manpower training and development are vital to securing the gains from FDI inflow couple with efforts geared towards attracting FDI to manufacturing sector that is less prone to world price volatility.
Body Size and Social Self-Image Among Adolescent African American Girls

Social psychologists have amassed a large body of work demonstrating that overweight African American adolescent girls have generally positive self-images, particularly when compared with overweight females from other racial and ethnic groups. Some scholars have proposed that elements of African American social experience may contribute to the maintenance of these positive self-views. The article evaluates these arguments using data drawn from a panel study of socioeconomically diverse African American adolescent girls living in Iowa and Georgia. The article analyzes the relationship between body size and social self-image over three waves of data, starting when the girls were 10 years of age and concluding when they were approximately 14. The findings show that heavier respondents hold less positive social self-images; however, the findings also show that being raised in a family that practices racial socialization moderates this relationship.
The emergence of ‘new’ spatial coalitions in the pursuit of functional regions of governance

In contrast with prevailing international trends and the European Union orthodoxy, the English regional map, a prominent feature of strategic development policy during 2000–2010, has since been expunged. This paper examines ‘functional’ spatial coalitions and their choice as the intended surrogates for formal regions. Informed by a mixed-method research methodology, the paper challenges the claim that this mosaic of voluntaristic public-private coalitions represents plausible realizations of functional regions. Indeed, the research reveals a noteworthy correlation with geographical antecedents, emphasizing the importance of the legacy of past sub-national forms of governance maintained by some enduring spatial coalitions. Flowing from this analysis, the implications for policy are discussed.
Mandatory Retirement and Older Worker Employment

In this paper we take advantage of differences in the legal status of mandatory retirement in Canada across jurisdictions and over time to assess its impact on the share of older people working. The results suggest that making mandatory retirement illegal would have little effect on the size of the older workforce, and therefore such a policy alone would do little to alleviate problems associated with an aging population and the consequent decline in the share of the population employed.
Prospective Randomized Crossover Study of a New Closed-loop Control System versus Pressure Support during Weaning from Mechanical Ventilation

Background:Intellivent is a new full closed-loop controlled ventilation that automatically adjusts both ventilation and oxygenation parameters. The authors compared gas exchange and breathing pattern variability of Intellivent and pressure support ventilation (PSV). Methods:In a prospective, randomized, single-blind design crossover study, 14 patients were ventilated during the weaning phase, with Intellivent or PSV, for two periods of 24 h in a randomized order. Arterial blood gases were obtained after 1, 8, 16, and 24 h with each mode. Ventilatory parameters were recorded continuously in a breath-by-breath basis during the two study periods. The primary endpoint was oxygenation, estimated by the calculation of the difference between the PaO2/FIO2 ratio obtained after 24 h of ventilation and the PaO2/FIO2 ratio obtained at baseline in each mode. The variability in the ventilatory parameters was also evaluated by the coefficient of variation (SD to mean ratio). Results:There were no adverse events or safety issues requiring premature interruption of both modes. The PaO2/FIO2 (mean ± SD) ratio improved significantly from 245 ± 75 at baseline to 294 ± 123 (P = 0.03) after 24 h of Intellivent. The coefficient of variation of inspiratory pressure and positive end-expiratory pressure (median [interquartile range]) were significantly higher with Intellivent, 16 [11–21] and 15 [7–23]%, compared with 6 [5–7] and 7 [5–10]% in PSV. Inspiratory pressure, positive end-expiratory pressure, and FIO2 changes were adjusted significantly more often with Intellivent compared with PSV. Conclusions:Compared with PSV, Intellivent during a 24-h period improved the PaO2/FIO2 ratio in parallel with more variability in the ventilatory support and more changes in ventilation settings.
Which Types of Institutional Investors Constrain Abnormal Accruals?

Manuscript Type. Empirical. Research Question/Issue. This study analyses which type of institutional investors constrains accruals management using a sample of UK listed firms in the period of 1997–2010. Research Findings/Results. Empirical results show that block‐holding levels, investment strategies, and investment durations influence institutional investors' role in constraining accruals management of the investee firms. Institutional investors with 10–20 percent ownership, adopting an active investment strategy, and having moderate investment duration significantly decrease the probability of income‐inflating abnormal accruals but increase the probability of income‐deflating abnormal accruals. In addition, these three aspects have a significant joint impact on accruals management. Even after considering the interaction among the three aspects of institutional investors, 10–20 percent block‐holding and moderate investment duration remain as significant driving forces on the constraint of accruals management by institutional investors. Further tests are conducted for sub‐sample periods of 2001–2005 and 2007–2009. Institutional investors with an active investment strategy and moderate investment duration are better motivated to constrain accruals management of UK firms during 2001–2005 when there were vigorous regulatory changes in corporate governance. Institutional investors with a passive investment strategy and short investment duration encouraged accruals management during the recent financial crisis (2007–2009). Theoretic/Academic Implications. The findings of the paper provide some much needed clarity to the mixed evidence in the extant literature on the role of institutional investors in constraining accruals management. Block‐shareholding level, investment strategies, and the actual investment duration are valid dimensions to reflect their heterogeneous incentives in monitoring managerial discretions in accruals management. Institutional investors are a complex group of diverse types of financial institutions and would be more appropriately analyzed with multiple dimensions in future research on their monitoring of managerial discretion. Practitioner/Policy Implications. This study underpins the concern of UK policymakers over the short‐term investment orientation of institutional investment by showing that institutional investors with less than one year investment duration significantly encourage accruals manipulations. Policymakers may pay attention to the three aspects, as identified in the present paper, of institutional investors in terms of enhancing shareholder engagement with their investee firms.
Simplifying the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare: methodology, data sources and a case study for the Netherlands

The compilation of the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) requires a large amount of data on a wide range of topics. Gathering these data is a very difficult task that has undoubtedly put off researchers in the past. First, this paper puts forward a Simplified ISEW (SISEW) that includes in its methodological framework only the quantitatively most important items. Reducing the number of items in the methodological framework of the ISEW does not only allow for an easier compilation of the index, also it indicates which items require most attention in the debate that will lead to an internationally agreed upon set of valuation methods. Next, the impact of working with the SISEW instead of the original ISEW is investigated for the studies on Belgium, the UK and Australia. Afterwards, the specific data needs for the items that satisfied the quantitative significance criterion are looked into and possible data sources for each item are reviewed. Finally, the SISEW is calculated for The Netherlands in order to see how readily available the data needed to compile the simplified index are in practice.
An exploratory study of manufacturing practice and performance interrelationships: Implications for capability progression

PurposeThis paper is an exploratory investigation of manufacturing practices, dimensions of manufacturing performance, and their relationships via an empirical study, in an effort to develop new insights into operations strategy.Design/methodology/approachBy examining manufacturing data gathered from 58 of “America's Best Plants”, we investigate an extended core set of manufacturing practices that we use to characterize the plants. Using cluster analysis, we classified each of the plants into one of four groups.FindingsThe analysis of the practices‐performance relationships for these clusters implies a progression of capabilities linked to specific performance gains.Research limitations/implicationsWe develop the notion of “strategic capability progression”, and discuss its implications for operations strategy. The results of this exploratory study accord well with existing studies in operations strategy.Practical implicationsThe findings have broad implications for manufacturing managers regarding effective deployments of resources aimed at improving operating capabilities and manufacturing plant performance.Originality/valueThe findings point to new and promising avenues for enriching and elaborating contemporary theories of operations strategy.
Transcriptional patterns in both host and bacterium underlie a daily rhythm of anatomical and metabolic change in a beneficial symbiosis

Mechanisms for controlling symbiont populations are critical for maintaining the associations that exist between a host and its microbial partners. We describe here the transcriptional, metabolic, and ultrastructural characteristics of a diel rhythm that occurs in the symbiosis between the squid Euprymna scolopes and the luminous bacterium Vibrio fischeri. The rhythm is driven by the host’s expulsion from its light-emitting organ of most of the symbiont population each day at dawn. The transcriptomes of both the host epithelium that supports the symbionts and the symbiont population itself were characterized and compared at four times over this daily cycle. The greatest fluctuation in gene expression of both partners occurred as the day began. Most notable was an up-regulation in the host of >50 cytoskeleton-related genes just before dawn and their subsequent down-regulation within 6 h. Examination of the epithelium by TEM revealed a corresponding restructuring, characterized by effacement and blebbing of its apical surface. After the dawn expulsion, the epithelium reestablished its polarity, and the residual symbionts began growing, repopulating the light organ. Analysis of the symbiont transcriptome suggested that the bacteria respond to the effacement by up-regulating genes associated with anaerobic respiration of glycerol; supporting this finding, lipid analysis of the symbionts’ membranes indicated a direct incorporation of host-derived fatty acids. After 12 h, the metabolic signature of the symbiont population shifted to one characteristic of chitin fermentation, which continued until the following dawn. Thus, the persistent maintenance of the squid–vibrio symbiosis is tied to a dynamic diel rhythm that involves both partners.
Nonlinearity of EHG signals used to distinguish active labor from normal pregnancy contractions

Labor prediction using the electrohysterogram has immediate clinical applications and has been the aim of several studies in recent years. Studies using various linear methods such as classic spectral analysis do not give clinically useful results. In this paper we present the use of two methods that investigate nonlinearity to predict normal labor. We show the comparison between a linear method that is known from the literature (mean power frequency) and two nonlinear methods (approximate entropy and time reversibility) using ROC analysis. The comparison indicates that the best method for pretreatment to classify pregnancy and labor signals is time reversibility. The results indicate that time reversibility is a very promising tool for distinguishing between labor and physiological contractions during pregnancy. This could be the first step in developing a clinical application method to predict preterm labor.
Lack of α-Xylosidase Activity in Arabidopsis Alters Xyloglucan Composition and Results in Growth Defects1[W][OA]

Xyloglucan is the main hemicellulose in the primary cell walls of most seed plants and is thought to play a role in regulating the separation of cellulose microfibrils during growth. Xylose side chains block the degradation of the backbone, and α-xylosidase activity is necessary to remove them. Two Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) mutant lines with insertions in the α-xylosidase gene AtXYL1 were characterized in this work. Both lines showed a reduction to undetectable levels of α-xylosidase activity against xyloglucan oligosaccharides. This reduction resulted in the accumulation of XXXG and XXLG in the liquid growth medium of Atxyl1 seedlings. The presence of XXLG suggests that it is a poor substrate for xyloglucan β-galactosidase. In addition, the polymeric xyloglucan of Atxyl1 lines was found to be enriched in XXLG subunits, with a concomitant decrease in XXFG and XLFG. This change can be explained by extensive exoglycosidase activity at the nonreducing ends of xyloglucan chains. These enzymes could thus have a larger role than previously thought in the metabolism of xyloglucan. Finally, Atxyl1 lines showed a reduced ability to control the anisotropic growth pattern of different organs, pointing to the importance of xyloglucan in this process. The promoter of AtXYL1 was shown to direct expression to many different organs and cell types undergoing cell wall modifications, including trichomes, vasculature, stomata, and elongating anther filaments.
Does the Privatization of State Companies Improve Their Performance? Evidence from the Brazilian Case

Abstract In this study, a number of economic-financial indicators were compared for 59 Brazilian state companies during the years of 1990 to 1997 before and after they were privatized. of these, 43 were federal companies and the rest were from various states. Thirty represented sales of control and the remaining were sales of minority positions in the companies. The tests performed confirmed the results of earlier empirical studies. The companies became more efficient and profitable after the privatization with the best performance concentrated in the subgroups where control was divested which is consistent with the idea that privatization improves the incentives for workers and administrators of the organization.
Causes and effects of FDI by the Norwegian maritime industry

This paper analyses foreign direct investments (FDI) in Asia by the Norwegian maritime industry. It focuses on three topics: (1) Why do Norwegian maritime companies invest abroad? (2) What are the effects of maritime foreign direct investments on the Norwegian maritime milieu? (3) What are the effects of these investments on the host country? By analysing specific Norwegian maritime companies, it was found that the FDIs have partly been induced by the instability of the Norwegian policy towards this sector. Several firms also point at the importance of being closer to the Asian market as a significant reason for FDI, and the Norwegian ship equipment industry tends to ‘follow’ the shipping companies abroad. The domestic effects of FDI are uncertain, and are likely to depend on the motivation behind the investments. Finally, using Singapore as an example, it is argued that the host country effects of FDI tend to be positive.
Design and Implementation of a Takagi–Sugeno Fuzzy Speed Regulator for a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor

In this paper, a fuzzy speed regulator, as well as a fuzzy load torque observer, for a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) is designed based on the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy approach. In terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), sufficient conditions for the existence of the regulator and the observer are derived. LMI parameterizations of the gain matrices are given. LMI conditions for the existence of the fuzzy speed regulator and the fuzzy load torque observer guaranteeing various performance criteria are also derived. The proposed load-torque-observer-based fuzzy speed regulator system is implemented by using a TMS320F28335 floating-point digital signal processor, and simulation and experimental results are given to verify that the proposed method can be successfully used to control a PMSM under model parameter and load torque variations.
FUTURES PRICES AS FORECASTS OF COMMODITY SPOT PRICES: LIVE CATTLE AND WOOL*

In this paper the foundations on which the predictive interpretation of futures prices rests are discussed, and possible reasons for the differential predictive performance of futures prices as between different commodity markets examined. The predictive performances of futures, and spot prices themselves, are tested empirically, using Australian data for wool (a continuous inventory commodity) and finished live beef cattle (virtually a non-storable commodity), by means of instrumental variables estimation.
‘Undercultivation’ and intensification in the Transkei: a case study of historical changes in the use of arable land in Nompa, Shixini

The large areas of abandoned arable fields in the communal areas of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu‐Natal are often interpreted as evidence that rural people are no longer interested in farming and largely rely on off‐farm sources of income for their survival. However, this case study of land‐use practices in one village shows that farmers in the Transkeian coastal belt have not abandoned cultivation, but have shifted from the extensive cultivation of maize in distant fields to the intensive intercropping of maize and other food crops in fenced gardens adjacent to homesteads. Studies of yields from fields and gardens indicate that this has been an effective intensification strategy adopted by rural households to maintain yields in the face of shrinking resources and increasing risks. Evidence of changing land‐use practices is presented and the reasons for these changes identified and evaluated.
Diversity and Representation in the U.S. Federal Government: Analysis of the Trends of Federal Employment

This article aims to describe the trends in the current federal employment with regard to diversity and representation. To do so, it examines the diversity and representation of federal employee populations by agency and by pay or grade level. While the federal government has been successful in diversifying its employee populations by employing women and minorities, their employment still appears to be concentrated on the lower- and middle-level positions, resulting in large underrepresentation at the higher managerial and executive levels. This study, by analyzing the 2004 demographic data of federal employees by agency and by grade level, evaluates the horizontal and vertical integration of women and minorities in the federal government. The findings show that while race or gender groups in the federal government are equally represented across federal agencies, women and minorities are still underrepresented at the higher echelons. This article provides insight into improving the representation of women and minorities in the federal government.
The End of Lawyers?: Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services

Introduction 1. The beginning of the end The challenge for lawyers Four thoughts A journey The Future of Law Progress over the last decade The flow of this book 2. The evolution of legal service The path to commoditisation The pull of the market Shedding light on various conundra Decomposing legal service Resourcing the evolution Two case studies 3. Trends in technology Exponential growth Information satisfaction Community and collaboration The net generation Clicks and mortals Disruptive technologies 4. Disruptive legal technologies Document assembly Online community e-learning Personalised alerting The electronic market Online legal guidance Embedded legal content 5. The client grid The asymmetry of lawyers and clients The law firm grid The client grid Three possible models Meeting clients' challenges The role of clients 6. Resolving and dissolving disputes Litigation support revisited Electronic disclosure Electronic filing Case management Online dispute resolution Dispute avoidance 7. Access to law and to justice Public information policy Critique Current systems Promulgation A law unto itself? AFTERWORD