Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Meta-analysis of the therapeutic effects of various methods for the treatment of chronic atrial fibrillation

The aim of this study was to analyze the therapeutic effects of various methods for the treatment of chronic atrial fibrillation (AF). Randomized controlled trials (RCT) concerning drug therapy and catheter ablation for the treatment of chronic AF were retrieved. The RevMan 5.1 software package was used for the meta-analysis. A total of 20 papers were assessed in this study. The results of the analysis indicated that the success rate was lower [odds ratio (OR), 8.94; 95% confidence interval (CI), 4.70–17.02; P<0.0001] and the relapse rate was higher (OR, 0.07, 95% CI, 0.05–0.10; P<0.0001) for drug therapy compared with that for catheter ablation. With regard to different catheter ablation procedures, the success rate for pulmonary vein antrum isolation (PVAI) was lower compared with that for PVAI plus complex fractionated atrial electrogram (CFAE; OR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.37–0.78; P=0.0001). Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) plus left atrial ablation (LAA) had a higher success rate compared with PVI alone (OR, 2.79; 95% CI, 1.59–4.88, P=0.0003). There was not identified to be a significant difference in the success rates between PVAI and CFAE (OR, 2.05; 95% CI, 0.06–205.74; P=0.76) or between PVI and circumferential pulmonary vein isolation (CPVI; OR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.29–3.00; P=0.91). All the funnel plots of publication bias were essentially symmetrical. In conclusion, the success rate was higher and the relapse rate was lower for catheter ablation compared with drug therapy. Among the different procedures of catheter ablation, there were no significant differences in success rate between two single procedures; however, the success rates were higher for the combined methods compared with those for the single methods.
How Online Social Interactions Affect Consumers' impulse Purchase on Group Shopping Websites?

This paper explores how online social interactions may influence consumers’ impulse purchase when they browse online group shopping websites. We develop a research model based on the stimulus-organism-response framework and prior research on online social interactions. We propose that social interaction factors may serve as stimulating cues. In specific, opinion-based social interaction (i.e., review quality and source credibility) and behavior-based social interaction (i.e., observational learning) may affect perceived usefulness and positive affect (organism), which further lead to consumers’ urge to buy impulsively (response). We empirically test our model using an online survey method. The results show that both source credibility and observational learning positively influence perceived usefulness and positive affect. Meanwhile, review quality has a significant impact on perceived usefulness, but not on positive affect. Perceived usefulness is found to posit a significant impact on positive affect, which influences urge to buy impulsively. We believe that these findings have important implications for both research and practice. We provide new insights to understand online impulse buying by incorporating the perspective of online social interactions. We also expect that new e-business strategies can be developed for online retailers regarding how to evoke consumers’ impulse purchase urges.
Second-generation Chinese New Zealanders’ Experience of Negotiating Between Two Cultures: a Qualitative Study

This practice research project examines the lived experiences of second-generation Chinese New Zealanders by focusing on their experiences of navigating between two cultural worlds. The research project employs the interpretative phenomenological analysis framework and draws on data collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with four secondgeneration Chinese Kiwi living in Auckland. This practice research project is the first in New Zealand to examine the experiences of people with dual cultural identities and to provide an insight into their worldview. The practice research project found that second-generation Chinese Kiwis identify as bicultural. Additionally, second-generation Chinese Kiwis can struggle with a sense of not belonging when interacting with Chinese peers, but they are able to navigate the feelings adaptively due to their strong bicultural identity. Finally, second-generation Chinese Kiwis experience the most difficulty while trying to navigate and negotiate differences between Kiwi and Chinese values and traditions, but they are able to adapt their behaviour to fit the environmental context. SECOND-GENERATION CHINESE NEW. ii ATTESTATION OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge, it contains no material previously published or written by another person (except where explicitly defined), nor material which to a substantial extent has been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma of a university or other institution of higher learning. Signed: _____________________________ Dated: 09 November 2018 SECOND-GENERATION CHINESE NEW. iii
Design of non binary LDPC codes using their binary image: algebraic properties

In this paper, we develop algebraic properties of regular (2, t r, N) non binary LDPC codes designed using their binary image. First, we characterize the algebraic properties of optimized rows of the parity check matrix H associated with a code, and then we study the algebraic properties of cycles and stopping sets associated with the underlaying Tanner graph
WAVELET-NETWORK BASED ON L1-NORM MINIMISATION FOR LEARNING CHAOTIC TIME SERIES

En este articulo se presenta una red neuronal-wavelet basada en la minimizacion de la norma L1 para aprendizaje de series de tiempo caoticas. El metodo propuesto, el cual se basa en un analisis multi-resolucion, utiliza wavelets como funciones de activacion en la capa oculta de la red neuronal-wavelet. Se propone utilizar la norma L1, en lugar de la tradicional norma L2, debido a que la norma L1 es superior a la norma L2 cuando la senal tiene distribuciones sesgadas o de colas pesadas. Se presenta una comparacion del metodo propuesto con esquemas reportados previamente utilizando series de tiempo caoticas conocidas. Los resultados de simulacion revelan que la red neuronal-wavelet basada en la norma L1 tiene una mejor eficiencia que la red neuronal con propagacion hacia atras y la red neuronal-wavelet basada en la tradicional norma L2 cuando se aplica a datos sinteticos.
Occurrence of Listeria species in meat, chicken products and human stools in assiut city, Egypt with PCR use for rapid identification of Listeria monocytogenes.

The present research was conducted to check the presence of Listeria spp. in some meat and chicken products purchased from retail supermarkets in Assiut (Egypt). A total of 100 samples including 25 samples each of minced frozen beef, luncheon, frozen chicken legs and frozen chicken breast fillets were collected over a 7-month period between January and July 2009 and analyzed for the presence of Listeria spp. In addition, 28 stool cultures examined for Listeria spp. from hospitalized children resident in Assiut Pediatric University Hospital with diarrhea or fever. Out of the total 100 meat samples examined, Listeria spp. were detected in 8 (32%) of minced frozen beef, 8 (32%) of luncheon, 13 (52%) of frozen chicken leg and 14 (56%) of frozen chicken fillet samples analyzed, respectively. Regarding the examined 28 stool cultures from hospitalized children with underlying disease in Assiut Univ. hospital, 2 (7.14%) were found positive for Listeria spp. For identification of L. monocytogenes using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), two primers were selected to detect 217-pb fragment ofthe prfA (transcriptional activator of the virulence factor) gene for L. monocytogenes. 13 selected Listeria isolates displayed beta-haemolysis on sheep blood agar and positive CAMP test were further identified using PCR. PCR results showed that L. monocytogenes were confirmed in one of minced imported frozen meat examined, two of luncheon samples and two of frozen chicken legs with the total incidence of 5 isolates (5%) from the total 100 examined food samples. This suggests the presence of a significant public health hazard linked to the consumption of these meat and chicken products sold in Assiut city contaminated with L. monocytogenes. The public health significance of these pathogens as well as recommended sanitary measures was discussed.
Fate of Diffusion Restricted Lesions in Acute Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Background Diffusion-restricted lesions on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) are detected in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). In this study, we aimed to determine the fate of DWI lesions in ICH patients and whether the presence of DWI lesions is associated with functional outcome in patients with ICH. Methods This prospective study enrolled 153 patients with acute ICH. Baseline MRI scans were performed within 2 weeks after ICH to detect DWI lesions and imaging markers for small vessel disease (SVD). Follow-up MRI scans were performed at 3 months after ICH to assess the fate of the DWI lesions. We analyzed the associations between the characteristics of DWI lesions with clinical features and functional outcome. Results Seventeen of the 153 patients (11.1%) had a total of 25 DWI lesions. Factors associated with DWI lesions were high initial systolic and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) at the emergency room, additional lowering of MAP within 24 hours, and the presence of white matter hyperintensity and cerebral microbleeds. Thirteen of the 25 DWI lesions (52%) were not visible on follow-up T2-weighted or fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images and were associated with high apparent diffusion coefficient value and a sharper decease in MAP. The regression of DWI lesions was associated with good functional outcome. Conclusions More than half of the DWI lesions in the ICH patients did not transition to visible, long-term infarction. Only if the DWI lesion finally transitioned to final infarction was a poor functional outcome predicted. A DWI lesion may be regarded as an ischemic change of SVD and does not always indicate certain cerebral infarction or permanent tissue injury.
Retinal blood vessel segmentation based on fractal dimension in spatial-frequency domain

Vessel segmentation is very important in an automatic screening system for fundus images. Vessels are often segmented and removed from retinal images before the other residual lesions are detected. Incomplete vessel removal usually causes a false positive in lesion detection, especially for Microaneurysms detection. Segmenting vessels in spatial image domain makes miss detection due to non illumination and noises in retinal images. Non-illumination problem can be disregarded by segmenting the vessels in spatial-frequency domain, which invariant subbands can be ignored. This paper presents a new retinal blood vessel segmentation method based on fractal dimension in spatial-frequency domain of retinal images. The fractal dimension value of each pixel is computed in order to extract the vessels from their retinal background. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated and compared with the experts' diagnosis in the STARE database.
Morpho-syntactic Information for Automatic Error Analysis of Statistical Machine Translation Output

Evaluation of machine translation output is an important but difficult task. Over the last years, a variety of automatic evaluation measures have been studied, some of them like Word Error Rate (WER), Position Independent Word Error Rate (PER) and BLEU and NIST scores have become widely used tools for comparing different systems as well as for evaluating improvements within one system. However, these measures do not give any details about the nature of translation errors. Therefore some analysis of the generated output is needed in order to identify the main problems and to focus the research efforts. On the other hand, human evaluation is a time consuming and expensive task. In this paper, we investigate methods for using of morpho-syntactic information for automatic evaluation: standard error measures WER and PER are calculated on distinct word classes and forms in order to get a better idea about the nature of translation errors and possibilities for improvements.
A Human RNA Polymerase II Complex Containing Factors That Modify Chromatin Structure

ABSTRACT We have isolated a human RNA polymerase II complex that contains chromatin structure remodeling activity and histone acetyltransferase activity. This complex contains the Srb proteins, the Swi-Snf complex, and the histone acetyltransferases CBP and PCAF in addition to RNA polymerase II. Notably, the general transcription factors are absent from this complex. The complex was purified by two different methods: conventional chromatography and affinity chromatography using antibodies directed against CDK8, the human homolog of the yeast Srb10 protein. Protein interaction studies demonstrate a direct interaction between RNA polymerase II and the histone acetyltransferases p300 and PCAF. Importantly, p300 interacts specifically with the nonphosphorylated, initiation-competent form of RNA polymerase II. In contrast, PCAF interacts with the elongation-competent, phosphorylated form of RNA polymerase II.
Empirical essays in NSW auctions

This thesis empirically examines why an agent, a seller or a buyer, will choose to hold or attend one particular sales mechanism over another. I examine this question using housing sales data and government bond auction data from the Australian State of NSW. In Chapter one I test whether auction or private treaty achieves higher revenue for a seller of a house in NSW, using an hedonic framework of house valuations. I hypothesise that auctions perform better when the value of the object is more dispersed. My results show that auctions do achieve higher revenue, and that more unique properties benefit even more from auctions over private treaty. In Chapter two I test whether a certain type of buyer or seller can achieve a better bargaining outcome through auction and private treaty sale. I use a regression model that explains the bargaining outcome with reference to a combination of property-related characteristics. I find that certain seller types do achieve better bargaining outcomes for private treaty sales, but there is no significant advantage for auction sales. Chapters three through five test whether discriminatory price government bond auctions achieve higher revenue than uniform-price auctions in NSW. I use a resampling method to estimate bidder valuations. I find that on average, discriminatory-price auctions achieve lower revenue than a counterfactual auction. But I then extend the analysis to include secondary market prices in the estimation of bidder valuations. When I account for the presence of secondary markets, I find that the original result is reversed and revenue raised using discriminatory-price auctions is higher than could be achieved in a counterfactual auction.
CXCL9: evidence and contradictions for its role in tumor progression

Chemokines are a group of low molecular weight peptides. Their major function is the recruitment of leukocytes to inflammation sites, but they also play a key role in tumor growth, angiogenesis, and metastasis. In the last few years, accumulated experimental evidence supports that monokine induced by interferon (IFN)‐gamma (CXCL9), a member of CXC chemokine family and known to attract CXCR3‐ (CXCR3‐A and CXCR3‐B) T lymphocytes, is involved in the pathogenesis of a variety of physiologic diseases during their initiation and their maintenance. This review for the first time presents the most comprehensive summary for the role of CXCL9 in different types of tumors, and demonstrates its contradictory role of CXCL9 in tumor progression. Altogether, this is a useful resource for researchers investigating therapeutic opportunities for cancer.
Chapter 1 Progress and Problems in Large-Scale Atmospheric Dynamics

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Distributed under Creative Commons Cc-by 4.0 Spatio-temporal Monitoring of Deep-sea Communities Using Metabarcoding of Sediment Dna and Rna

We assessed spatio-temporal patterns of diversity in deep-sea sediment communities using metabarcoding. We chose a recently developed eukaryotic marker based on the v7 region of the 18S rRNA gene. Our study was performed in a submarine canyon and its adjacent slope in the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea, sampled along a depth gradient at two different seasons. We found a total of 5,569 molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs), dominated by Metazoa, Alveolata and Rhizaria. Among metazoans, Nematoda, Arthropoda and Annelida were the most diverse. We found a marked heterogeneity at all scales, with important differences between layers of sediment and significant changes in community composition with zone (canyon vs slope), depth, and season. We compared the information obtained from metabarcoding DNA and RNA and found more total MOTUs and more MOTUs per sample with DNA (ca. 20% and 40% increase, respectively). Both datasets showed overall similar spatial trends, but most groups had higher MOTU richness with the DNA template, while others, such as nematodes, were more diverse in the RNA dataset. We provide metabarcoding protocols and guidelines for biomonitoring of these key communities in order to generate information applicable to management efforts.
A new approach to realizing fault-tolerant multiprocessor scheduling by exploiting implicit redundancy

In this paper we propose a new approach to fault-tolerant multiprocessor scheduling by exploiting implicit redundancy, which is originally introduced by task duplication. In the new scheduling algorithm, we adopt two strategies: (1) Some processing elements (PEs) are reserved only for realizing fault-tolerance, and thus are not used for original task scheduling (reserved-scheduling). (2) A set of tasks is partitioned into several disjoint small subsets, and to each subset the algorithm is applied incrementally (phased-scheduling). By this unique device, toe can ensure that the finish times of schedules are small even in tile case of a single PE failure. Then we apply the new scheduling algorithm to practical task graphs (LU-decomposition and Laplace equation solver). The experimental results show that the obtained schedules can tolerate a single PE failure at the cost of small degree of time redundancy.
Improving the Success of Information Systems by Evaluation

Information systems can offer companies various possibilities for increasing their revenues. The systems are often strategic in nature and may have a central role in developing the business functions of the company. In today’s turbulent business environment managers should have proper tools for identifying the possibilities offered by information system investments and assessing their value to the company. This paper aims at analyzing the efforts of developing information systems evaluation practices in companies. Furthermore, we investigate whether developing the evaluation practices has lead to an increase in frequency or thoroughness of IS evaluation. Moreover, we investigate the perceived satisfaction with the evaluation practice. The Organizational Learning approach is emphasized in our research framework. A surprising result was found in the category where evaluation practices had been changed and the frequency or thoroughness of evaluation had increased. In this category there were as many companies who were satisfied as who were dissatisfied with the evaluation practices of information systems in the company; when the companies in this category are not satisfied with the evaluation practice it might be interpreted as a double loop learning failure.
Discordance between cerebral spinal fluid and plasma HIV replication in patients with neurological symptoms who are receiving suppressive antiretroviral therapy.

OBJECTIVE We report data on 11 patients with neurological symptoms and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) viremia contrasting with suppressed plasma HIV RNA during receipt of combined antiretroviral therapy. DESIGN We retrospectively identified instances of central nervous system (CNS) symptoms in patients who had been receiving stable combination antiretroviral therapy. Discordance between plasma and CSF HIV RNA levels was defined by any detectable CSF HIV RNA level >200 copies/mL while plasma levels were <50 copies/mL or by a CSF HIV RNA level that was 1 log greater than the plasma HIV RNA level. RESULTS Eleven patients had experienced acute or subacute neurological symptoms. All but one patient had CSF pleocytosis and/or elevated protein levels. The median CSF HIV RNA level was 880 copies/mL (range, 558-12,885 copies/mL). Patients had been receiving stable combination antiretroviral therapy for a median of 13 months (range, 10-32 months). Eight of 11 patients had a plasma HIV RNA level <50 copies/mL, and 3 had plasma HIV RNA blips with their CSF HIV RNA level >1 log higher than their plasma HIV RNA level. Resistance-associated mutations were detected in 7 of 8 CSF HIV RNA genotypic strains. The median number of resistance-associated mutations was 6 (range, 2-8) to nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors and 3 (range, 1-9) to protease inhibitors. One patient had a virus harboring nonnucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor mutations. The median central nervous system penetration-effectiveness (CPE) rank was 2 (range, 1-3), and 5 patients had a CPE 1.5. After antiretroviral therapy optimization based on genotypes and CPE, all patients clinically improved, with normalization of CSF. CONCLUSIONS Despite successful suppression of plasma viremia with antiretroviral therapy, HIV may replicate in CSF, with development of CSF HIV resistance resulting in acute or subacute neurological manifestations.
The knowledge, attitude and behaviours of nurses about pharmacovigilance, adverse drug reaction and adverse event reporting in a state hospital

OBJECTIVE: With the use of any drug comes the possibility of unintended consequences which when harmful are referred to as adverse drug reactions (ADRs). The development of national pharmacovigilance systems is the responsibility of all health workers. The aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge of nurses about pharmacovigilance and attitudes about ADR and adverse event reporting. METHODS: This descriptive-cross sectional study was performed in 112 nurses working in a public hospital. The questionnaire was applied about pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reactions. The knowledge, attitudes and practices about adverse drug reactions were asked. RESULTS: The 74.1% of the nurses definition of “severe adverse effect” of drug therapy. The ratio of participants who knew that ADRs are reported to contact person responsible from pharmacovigilance was 34.9%. Although 70.5% of nurses knew the necessity of ADR reporting, the 8% of the nurses knew Turkish Pharmacovigilance Center (TÜFAM). Only 8% of nurses reported ADRs in their professionality. CONCLUSION: Although most of the participants knew the importance of ADR event reporting, event reporting was low. Thiese results showed that there is a lack of knowledge about pharmacovigilance. Futher studies with different settings and healthcare staff are needed to improve awareness about pharmacovigilance.