Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endoscopic palliative treatment of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a significant clinical challenge worldwide. Despite advances in surgical techniques and new chemotherapy drugs less than 5% of all patients survive past 5 years and at the time of diagnosis almost 85% of patients are unsuitable candidates for curative resection of the tumor. Thus, most of them will need palliative treatment. Endoscopic palliative treatment of pancreatic cancer is primarily directed at relief of obstructive jaundice and duodenal obstruction. Obstructive jaundice occurs in the vast majority of patients with unresectable pancreatic carcinoma and endoscopic palliation is considered now as the method of choice for all the cases that are not candidates for possible curative resection. On the other hand, endoscopic placement of an expandable metal enteral stent in cases with duodenal obstruction due to pancreatic cancer, is a relatively new technique that must be performed in selected patients with advanced disease. Key words: pancreatic cancer, endoscopic palliation, obstructive jaundice, duodenal obstruction, stent, endoprosthesis
Negentropy and Kurtosis as Projection Pursuit Indices Provide Generalised ICA Algorithms

We develop a generalised form of the independent component analysis (ICA) algorithm introduced by Bell and Sejnowski [1], Amari et al [2] and lately by Pearlmutter and Parra [3] and also MacKay [4]. Motivated by information theoretic indices for exploratory projection pursuit (EPP) we show that maximisation by natural gradient ascent of the divergence of a multivariate distribution from normality, using the negentropy as a distance measure, yields a generalised ICA. We introduce a form of nonlinearity which has an inherently simple form and exhibits the Bussgang property [30] within the algorithm. We show that this is sufficient to perform ICA on data which has latent variables exhibiting either unimodal or bimodal probability density functions (PDF) or both. Kurtosis has been used as a moment based projection pursuit index and as a contrast for ICA [5, 6, 7]. We introduce a simple adaptive nonlinearity which is formed by on-line estimation of the latent variable kurtosis and demonstrate the removal of the standard ICA constraint of latent variable pdf modality uniformity.
The Influence of Repetitions Maximum on GH Release Following the Back Squat and Leg Press in Trained Men: Preliminary Results

This pilot project compared the hGH release patterns of the back squat to the leg press following 3 workloads to determine whether lifting mechanics could influence hormonal output. Subjects, 3 experienced male weight lifters (25.3 ± 0.3 yrs), performed 3 back squat and 3 leg press trials using repetition workloads of 3-, 10-, and 25-RM. Blood samples (3 ml) taken preexercise and at 4, 8, and 16 min postexercise were analyzed for hGH and lactic acid. The hGH response indicates that the 10-RM workload gave the greatest significant hGH output (1.67 µg/L above baseline by 4 min) of the 3 leg press trials, whereas the 25-RM workload of the back squat (1.25 µg/L above pre by 4 min) was the most effective in that lift. Only the 10- and 25-RM workloads produced a significant increase in lactic acid in the back squat or leg press trials. The results indicate that the hGH response to these exercises is not the same, probably due to the mechanics of the lift.
Teachers' Views Concerning Individualized Intervention and Support Roles Within Developmentally Appropriate Preschools

A national mail survey of preschool teachers (N = 500) employed by programs accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) was conducted to gain information about teachers' views on (a) the importance of individualized teaching on specific child learning goals, (b) appropriate ways of providing any needed intervention, (c) preferred special educator support roles, and (d) preferred forms of assistance from a special educator. Results indicated a majority of teachers view individualized intervention on specific goals to be important for all children, that they would like to receive all of the listed forms of assistance from a special educator, and that they want special educators to be involved in active collaborative roles in their classrooms.
A comparison of the effects of toothbrushing and handpiece prophylaxis on retention of sealants.

BACKGROUND Tooth surface cleaning before acid etching is considered to be an important step in the retention of resin-based pit-and-fissure sealants. METHODS The authors reviewed and summarized instructions for cleaning tooth surfaces from five manufacturers of 10 unfilled resin-based sealants marketed in the United States. The authors also searched electronic databases for studies that directly compared the effects of different surface-cleaning methods on sealant retention and for systematic reviews of the effectiveness of sealants. They explored the association between surface-cleaning methods and sealant retention in the studies included in the systematic reviews. They calculated the summary weighted retention rates for studies that used either a handpiece or toothbrush prophylaxis. RESULTS All of the sealant manufacturers' instructions for use (IFU) recommended cleaning the tooth before acid etching. None of the IFU directly stated that a handpiece was required to perform the cleaning, but five IFU implied the use of handpiece prophylaxis. None of the IFU recommended surface-altering procedures in caries-free teeth. Direct evidence from two clinical trials showed no difference in complete sealant retention between surfaces cleaned mechanically with pumice or prophylaxis paste and those cleaned with air-water syringe or dry toothbrushing. Indirect evidence from 10 studies found that weighted summary retention by year after sealant placement in studies that used toothbrush prophylaxis was greater than or equivalent to values for studies that used handpiece prophylaxis. CONCLUSIONS Levels of sealant retention after surface cleaning with toothbrush prophylaxis were at least as high as those associated with hand-piece prophylaxis. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS This finding may translate into lower resource costs for sealant placement.
Survey of the Adequate Descriptor for Content-Based Image Retrieval on the Web: Global versus Local Features

The need for efficient content-based image retrieval has increased hugely. Two meth- ods are recognized for describing the content of images: using global features and using local features. In this paper, we propose two methods for image retrieving based on visual similarity. The first one characterizes images by global features, when the second is based on local fea- tures. In the global descriptor attributes are computed on the whole image, whereas in the local descriptor attributes are computed on regions of the image. The aim of this paper is to compare global features versus local features for Web images retrieval. RESUME. On reconnait actuellement, dans les systemes de recherche d'image par contenu, deux methodes pour la description du contenu des images : a travers des attributs locaux ou a travers des attributs globaux. Dans ce papier, nous proposons deux methodes pour la recherche d'image qui sont basees sur la similitude visuelle. La premiere caracterise les images par des attributs globaux, alors que la seconde est basee sur les attributs locaux. Concernant le descripteur global, les attributs sont calcules sur l'ensemble de l'image, alors que pour le descripteur local, les attributs sont definis sur les regions de l'image. L'objectif de ce papier est d'evaluer les performances des attributs locaux contre les attributs globaux pour la recherche des images Web par contenu.
Constitutive Activation of PrfA Tilts the Balance of Listeria monocytogenes Fitness Towards Life within the Host versus Environmental Survival

PrfA is a key regulator of Listeria monocytogenes pathogenesis and induces the expression of multiple virulence factors within the infected host. PrfA is post-translationally regulated such that the protein becomes activated upon bacterial entry into the cell cytosol. The signal that triggers PrfA activation remains unknown, however mutations have been identified (prfA* mutations) that lock the protein into a high activity state. In this report we examine the consequences of constitutive PrfA activation on L. monocytogenes fitness both in vitro and in vivo. Whereas prfA* mutants were hyper-virulent during animal infection, the mutants were compromised for fitness in broth culture and under conditions of stress. Broth culture prfA*-associated fitness defects were alleviated when glycerol was provided as the principal carbon source; under these conditions prfA* mutants exhibited a competitive advantage over wild type strains. Glycerol and other three carbon sugars have been reported to serve as primary carbon sources for L. monocytogenes during cytosolic growth, thus prfA* mutants are metabolically-primed for replication within eukaryotic cells. These results indicate the critical need for environment-appropriate regulation of PrfA activity to enable L. monocytogenes to optimize bacterial fitness inside and outside of host cells.
Executive Equity Compensation and Incentives: A Survey

Stock and option compensation and the level of managerial equity incentives are aspects of corporate governance that are especially controversial to shareholders, institutional activists, and government regulators. Similar to much of the corporate finance and corporate governance literature, research on stock-based compensation and incentives has not only generated useful insights, but also produced many contradictory findings. Not surprisingly, many fundamental questions remain unanswered. In this study, the authors synthesize the broad literature on equity-based compensation and executive incentives and highlight topics that seem especially appropriate for future research.
Xpos're: A Tool for Rich Internet Publications

Internet technologies are gradually reshaping the function of traditional scholarly publications. There is a growing tendency in some disciplines to publish a digital paper together with supplements such as images, videos, 3D-models and underlying data. More information requires a better usability in terms of overview and finding information, which has led to new features in journals and thus to modifying and extending this genre. These so-called enhanced publications or rich internet publications have various physical forms: PDF documents with embedded interactive models, HTML files enriched with hyperlinks to contextual information and with facilities to highlight information in the text, or aggregations of documents and other resources linked together through metadata which make them findable for semantic search engines. However, many of the originally print-based journals, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, are still rather conservative in format and offer hardly any opportunities for enhanced publishing, which leaves room for some form of self-publishing, perhaps as addition to a regular journal article. In this paper we introduce the Xpos’re tools for authoring and displaying an interactive multimedia scholarly publication, which may be created as a digital companion to a regular journal paper and published, for example, on the author or institution’s website in order to share related research products and to achieve greater visibility. We also report about practical experiences with this software in a few research projects. The Xpos’re software (see: http://xposre.nl/software/) comprises a Flash-based document reader and a set of extensions (plug-ins) that extend the basic functionality of this text browser. The extensions are used to display specific types of multimedia that provide additional functionality, such as viewing images, videos and interactive maps. The input text is XML based, which not only guarantees a durable and flexible encoding of content, but also allows automatic rendering in different formats according to the preferences of users and the limitations of their hardware. In addition, the XML source can be easily transformed to an RDF resource map to meet the requirements of the semantic web. The document reader generates output in HTML, in two flavors, namely a slide based version that uses JavaScript, and a plain HTML text (single page), which is most suitable for printing and which can be used to create e-books. This plain HTML text can also be displayed in a format similar to that of scientific journals through the Xpos’re HTML Reader, which has more features than the automatically generated slides and which can be highly customized by the user.
Health and Subjective Well-Being in Later Adulthood: Different Health States—Different Needs?

From midlife on, health problems become more prevalent. Health is one of the key determinants of subjective well-being (SWB), but examining the relation between health and SWB in later adulthood is complicated by the clustering of multiple illnesses. This article proposes Latent Class Analysis (LCA) for a parsimonious description of adult health. This article compares SWB in health classes and examines the relative importance of socioeconomic resources, pain and coping (flexible goal adjustment) for SWB. Data stem from a nation-wide representative sample of adults aged 40–85 (German Ageing Survey, DEAS; N = 3,084). LCA was used to examine different configurations of health. Multiple regression analyses in latent classes were conducted to examine predictors of SWB. LCA generated four distinct classes of health conditions: No disease (n = 807), cardiovascular diseases (n = 405), joint problems (n = 1,612) and multiple illnesses (n = 258). As expected, only small mean differences in SWB indicators were found, whereas discontinuous predictors of SWB were detected: Coping was more strongly associated with SWB in individuals with higher illness burden. LCA can be applied to describe health in later adulthood. Differential prediction patterns suggest distinct factors for SWB depending on individual health status.
The Real World Management Preoccupations of Primary School Heads.

The role of the primary school headteacher has undergone significant changes since the Education Reform Act (1988). The purpose of this article is to explore the real time issues arising from the change of role of primary heads and also seeks to contribute to a greater understanding of the real world preoccupations of primary heads. The article is based on the results of a 2-year qualitative study of 12 primary headteachers and explores key issues for primary heads. The following key issues were identified by the heads: an increase in management; the role of the deputy head; relationships with school governors; parental involvement and the role of the headteacher as social worker; role overload and stress; professional support and the role of the advisers.
Excess Single-Stranded DNA Inhibits Meiotic Double-Strand Break Repair

During meiosis, self-inflicted DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are created by the protein Spo11 and repaired by homologous recombination leading to gene conversions and crossovers. Crossover formation is vital for the segregation of homologous chromosomes during the first meiotic division and requires the RecA orthologue, Dmc1.We analyzed repair during meiosis of site-specific DSBs created by another nuclease, VMA1-derived endonuclease (VDE), in cells lacking Dmc1 strand-exchange protein. Turnover and resection of the VDE-DSBs was assessed in two different reporter cassettes that can repair using flanking direct repeat sequences, thereby obviating the need for a Dmc1-dependent DNA strand invasion step. Access of the single-strand binding complex replication protein A, which is normally used in all modes of DSB repair, was checked in chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments, using antibody against Rfa1. Repair of the VDE-DSBs was severely inhibited in dmc1Δ cells, a defect that was associated with a reduction in the long tract resection required to initiate single-strand annealing between the flanking repeat sequences. Mutants that either reduce Spo11-DSB formation or abolish resection at Spo11-DSBs rescued the repair block. We also found that a replication protein A component, Rfa1, does not accumulate to expected levels at unrepaired single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) in dmc1Δ cells. The requirement of Dmc1 for VDE-DSB repair using flanking repeats appears to be caused by the accumulation of large quantities of ssDNA that accumulate at Spo11-DSBs when Dmc1 is absent. We propose that these resected DSBs sequester both resection machinery and ssDNA binding proteins, which in wild-type cells would normally be recycled as Spo11-DSBs repair. The implication is that repair proteins are in limited supply, and this could reflect an underlying mechanism for regulating DSB repair in wild-type cells, providing protection from potentially harmful effects of overabundant repair proteins.
Leadership style, self-sacrifice, and team identification

Leadership is a group feature that directly impacts on team identification. Effective leaders are especially capable of fostering group cohesiveness and promoting efficacy in goal attainment. We assessed the relationship between transactional and transformational leadership style, team identification, and leader self-sacrifice. Participants were 186 call center employees who were headed by a leader who operated with either a transactional or a transformational leadership style. The employees reported their level of team identification and leader self-sacrifice. Results show how, in either the transactional or transformational leadership condition, levels of leadership and self-sacrifice were related to team identification, as well as the interaction effect between transactional leadership level and leader self-sacrifice. Our findings demonstrate how different leadership styles play a diverse role in this relationship.
Effect of combining dexmedetomidine and morphine for intravenous patient-controlled analgesia.

BACKGROUND Perioperative use of dexmedetomidine is associated with reduction in postoperative analgesic requirements. This study examined whether dexmedetomidine added to i.v. patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) morphine could improve analgesia while reducing opioid-related side-effects. METHODS In this double-blinded, randomized, controlled study, 100 women undergoing abdominal total hysterectomy were allocated to receive either morphine 1 mg ml(-1) alone (Group M) or morphine 1 mg ml(-1) plus dexmedetomidine 5 microg ml(-1) (Group D) for postoperative i.v. PCA, which was programmed to deliver 1 ml per demand with a 5 min lockout interval and no background infusion. Cumulative PCA requirements, pain intensities, cardiovascular and respiratory variables, and PCA-related adverse events were recorded for 24 h after operation. RESULTS Compared with Group M, patients in Group D required 29% less morphine during the 0-24 h postoperative period and reported significantly lower pain levels from the second postoperative hour onwards and throughout the study. Whereas levels of sedation were similar between the groups at each observational time point, decreases in heart rate and mean blood pressure from presurgery baseline at 1, 2, and 4 h after operation were significantly greater in Group D (by a range of 5-7 beats min(-1) and 10-13%, respectively). The 4-24 h incidence of nausea was significantly lower in Group D (34% vs 56.3%, P<0.05). There was no bradycardia, hypotension, oversedation, or respiratory depression. CONCLUSIONS The addition of dexmedetomidine to i.v. PCA morphine resulted in superior analgesia, significant morphine sparing, less morphine-induced nausea, and was devoid of additional sedation and untoward haemodynamic changes.
The Influence of Delivery Time on Online Impulse Buying of Chinese Customer

The author explored the influence of delivery time on online impulse buying of Chinese customer. Through the depth interview to some online buyer author learned that the delivery time would probably block the online impulse buying for delaying buyers' immediate desire as well as customers' anticipatory emotions to confirm the products they bought would partly lessen this influence. Three experiments were done to validate these hypotheses by online order data in the simulated internet store.
Applications of Item Response Theory to the Examination of the Psychometric Properties and Differential Item Functioning of the Comprehensive Assessment and Referral Evaluation Dementia Diagnostic Scale among Samples of Latino, African American, and White Non-Latino Elderly

Item response theory was used to examine the psychometric properties of a cognitive screening measure used in several epidemiological surveys among Latino, African American, and White non-Latino elderly. Estimates of precision (reliability) examined across several values of Θ (the estimate of degree of cognitive impairment) were good (.70s to .90s) in the range representing most respondents. Overall reliability, although adequate, was lower among the White non-Latino and high-education subgroups relative to other racial/ethnic and education subgroups. Differential item functioning (DIF) was examined using several area- and model-based tests. Tests of the magnitude of DIF showed the measure to be relatively free of DIF for the racial/ethnic subgroup and education subgroups examined. However, one item related to remembering the telephone number was more difficult for Latinos than for other racial/ethnic subgroups. Several other items evidenced mild DIF, and one (difficulty remembering words or names) was a poorly discriminating item. The subjective memory items, intended to provide additional information at the earlier, “borderzone” stages of cognitive impairment, did provide more information at the mild to moderate levels of impairment, although maximum information was not provided at these borderzone ranges.
The Left Side of Psychological Capital

A recent meta-analysis suggests since 2005 there have been dozens of studies with positive psychological capital (PsyCap) predicting optimal individual performance, behaviors (e.g., citizenship, deviance), and attitudes (e.g., satisfaction, commitment, well-being, turnover intentions). However, in reviewing this literature there is an obvious silence as to the antecedents of PsyCap. Outside the examination of developmental interventions, very little is known about how and why an individual reaches and stabilizes at a given level of PsyCap. To address this gap, this study seeks to better understand the antecedents of individual-level PsyCap. In a field study of 1,264 engineers and technicians, a categorical perspective on PsyCap antecedents is tested. In a second study of 529 Chinese technology employees, the results from Study 1 are replicated with less overall variance explained raising measurement and cultural boundary conditions of current tools employed for empirical research on PsyCap. Implications for managerial practices conclude the article.