Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of increased erythrocyte osmotic resistance with haematological and histopathological findings in dogs with a congenital extrahepatic portosystemic shunt

The aim of the study was to investigate changes in erythrocyte osmotic resistance in relation to haematological and histological changes in dogs with a congenital portosystemic shunt. Osmotic fragility tests with complete blood counts and liver histological examinations were performed in 12 dogs with single extrahepatic portosystemic shunt confirmed by surgical exploration. Laboratory results were compared with those from 30 healthy dogs. Dogs with portosystemic shunt had a significantly increased erythrocyte osmotic resistance (P < 0.01) with 5%, 50% and 90% haemolysis corresponding to 0.45%, 0.35% and 0.30% NaCl solution, respectively. Statistical analyses revealed no correlation between haematological indicators and the osmotic fragility test results. Increased osmotic resistance was significantly associated with hepatic lipogranulomas. Based on these results, dogs with a congenital portosystemic shunt have a significantly increased erythrocyte osmotic resistance suggesting impaired red blood cell deformability. Osmotic resistance test that until now was not studied in canine hepatopathies seems to be independent of routinely performed haematological tests. Portosystemic vascular anomaly, osmotic fragility, liver biopsy, canine
A “Triple A” Typology of Responding to Negative Consumer-Generated Online Reviews

Increasingly, consumers are posting online reviews about hotels, restaurants, and other tourism and hospitality providers. While some managers are responding to these reviews, little is known about how to respond and how to do so effectively. Drawing on the service recovery, justice, and electronic word-of-mouth literatures, we developed a typology of management responses to negative online reviews of hotel accommodation. An initial version of the typology was verified through interviews with eight industry experts. The final “Triple A” typology comprised 19 specific forms of managerial responses subsumed within the three higher-level categories of acknowledgements, accounts, and actions. The typology was tested on a sample of 150 conversations drawn from the website, TripAdvisor. Most responses included an acknowledgement of the dissatisfying event, an account (explanation) for its occurrence, and a reference to action taken. Responses differed between top- and bottom-ranked hotels. Propositions for extending this area of research are provided.
uture deforestation in the Amazon and consequences for South merican climate

Ongoing agricultural expansion in Amazonia and the surrounding areas of Brazil is expected to continue over the next several decades as global food demand increases. The transition of natural forest and savannah ecosystems to pastureland and agricultural crops is predicted to create warmer and drier atmospheric conditions than the native vegetation. Using a coupled ecosystem regional atmospheric model (EDBRAMS) we investigate the expected impacts of predicted future land use on the climate of South America. The climate response in the model simulations is generally consistent with expectations from previous global modeling simulations with drier conditions resulting from deforestation, however the changes in precipitation are relatively small (on order of a few percent). Local drying is driven primarily by decreases in evapo-transpiration associated with the loss of forest, and concomitant increases in runoff. Significant changes in convectively available potential energy (CAPE) and convective inhibition (CIN) during the transition to the wet season indicate that the decrease in surface latent heat flux is indeed leading to a drier atmosphere, however these changes occur around a mean climatological state that is already very favorable for convection, and thus lead to relatively small changes in precipitation. If, however, these land use changes were to occur under a background state of drier conditions, such as those predicted for the future global climate model experiments, this additional atmospheric drying may be sufficient to decrease precipitation more substantially.
Insomnia in Cancer--Associations and Implications.

BACKGROUND Insomnia is a common condition in cancer patients. In spite of the high prevalence its associations have not been well studied. Existing data suggests that insomnia is related to depression and pain. However, the impact of ongoing chemotherapy on sleep is not investigated. AIM To study the relationship between insomnia and chemotherapy after analysing confounding variables. MATERIALS AND METHODS Consecutive patients who visited New England Oncology Clinic in Tamworth were recruited. Insomnia was assessed with the Bergen insomnia scale. The Montgomery Asberg Depression rating scale was used to measure depression. Pain was assessed with the Brief Pain inventory. Chronic medical conditions, type of cancer, side effects to chemotherapy, role of steroids and other drugs were studied as confounders. RESULTS A total of 56 patients participated in the study. Age ranged from 33 to 83 years (mean: 63.6, SD=10.97). There were 29 men and 27 women. 42 patients received at least one form of chemotherapy and 15 were receiving radiotherapy at the time of assessment. Mean insomnia score was significantly higher in those receiving chemotherapy than in those without chemotherapy (8.92 vs 17.2, two tailed p=0.005, 95% CI=2.63-13.71). There was no significant variation in insomnia scores in terms of chronic medical condition, type of cancer, psychiatric history, use of steroids or adverse effects of chemotherapy. However, total insomnia score was correlated with depression rating score (Pearson correlation, r=0.39, p=0.003) and magnitude of pain (r=0.37, p=0.006). On regression analysis only pain was found to be predictive of insomnia. CONCLUSIONS Insomnia in patients with cancer is found to be associated with concurrent chemotherapy and correlated with degree of depression and pain. Identifying factors related to insomnia in cancer population has implications in its management and patient education.
Connexin46fs380 causes progressive cataracts.

PURPOSE Although many connexin46 (Cx46) mutants have been linked to inherited human cataracts, there are no adequate animal models for their study. The current experiments were designed to characterize the consequences of expression of one such mutant, Cx46fs380, in the mouse lens. METHODS Mice expressing Cx46fs380 were generated by a knockin strategy. Levels and distribution of specific proteins were analyzed by immunoblotting and immunofluorescence. RESULTS Dark-field microscopy revealed that lenses of young heterozygous and homozygous Cx46fs380 mice did not have opacities, but they developed anterior nuclear cataracts that became more severe with age. Immunofluorescence and immunoblotting showed that Cx46 was severely reduced in both heterozygous and homozygous Cx46fs380 lenses at 1 month of age, whereas immunoreactive connexin50 (Cx50) was moderately decreased. The reduction in Cx50 became more severe in older lenses. The solubilities of crystallins from young wild-type and fs380 mice were similar, but older fs380 lenses exhibited abnormalities of abundance, solubility, and modification of some crystallins. CONCLUSIONS Major decreases in connexin levels precede the development of cataracts. These mice represent a useful model for elucidation of the progression of lens abnormalities during cataractogenesis especially as caused by a mutant connexin.
CAPACITY AND PRODUCTION DECISIONS IN STOCHASTIC MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS: AN ASYMPTOTIC OPTIMAL HIERARCHICAL APPROACH

We present a new paradigm of hierarchical decision making in production planning and capacity expansion problems under uncertainty. We show that under reasonable assumptions, the strategic level management can base the capacity decision on aggregated information from the shopfloor, and the operational level management, given this decision, can derive a production plan for the system, without too large a loss in optimality when compared to simultaneous determination of optimal capacity and production decisions. The results are obtained via an asymptotic analysis of a manufacturing system with convex costs, constant demand, and with machines subject to random breakdown and repair. The decision variables are purchase time of a new machine at a given fixed cost and production plans before and after the purchase. The objective is to minimize the discounted costs of investment, production, inventories, and backlogs. If the rate of change in machine states such as up and down is assumed to be much larger than the rate of discounting costs, one obtains a simpler limiting problem in which the random capacity is replaced by its mean. We develop methods for constructing asymptotically optimal decisions for the original problem from the optimal decisions for the limiting problem. We obtain error estimates for these constructed decisions.
Public Regulatory Reform and Management Earnings Forecasts in a Low Private Litigation Environment

We examine the impact of continuous disclosure regulatory reform on the likelihood, frequency and qualitative characteristics of management earnings forecasts issued in New Zealand’s low private litigation environment. Using a sample of 720 earnings forecasts issued by 94 firms listed on the New Zealand Exchange before and after the reform (1999–2005), we provide strong evidence of significant changes in forecasting behaviour in the post-reform period. Specifically, firms were more likely to issue earnings forecasts to pre-empt earnings announcements and, in contrast to findings in other legal settings, those earnings forecasts exhibited higher frequency and improved qualitative characteristics (better precision and accuracy). An important implication of our findings is that public regulatory reforms may have a greater benefit in a low private litigation environment and thus add to the global debate about the effectiveness of alternative public regulatory reforms of corporate requirements.
In search of balance – managing the dualities of HRM: an overview of the issues

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the human resource management (HRM) literature that builds up to our current concern with dualities, paradoxes, ambiguities, and balance issues; and to introduce the six papers in this special issue on managing the dualities in HRM.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a literature review taking a historical look at the development of the HR field up to the present awareness of the complexity of the concept and practice of HRM.Findings – Almost 30 years on, is being found now increasing evidence of the dualities, paradoxes, and ambiguities entailed in HRM.Research limitations/implications – The literature review starts with the personnel management (PM)‐HRM and industrial relations‐HRM debates in the 1980s. Earlier work on traditional PM is not debated in this paper.Practical implications – After reading this general review practitioners might gain more insights in the potential tensions, ambiguities, and conflicts of interest tha.
Competition Necessarily Tends to Produce Excess: The Experience of Free Banking in Switzerland

Abstract According to McCulloch, Longfield and Loyd, a free banking system is always prone to overissues of bank notes. Their view is supported by the free banking era in Switzerland (1826-1907), where, due to competitive pressures within the banking community and the absence of note-brand loyalty on the part of the general public, overissues (causing a rise in the foreign exchange rates above the upper gold and silver points) finally became permanent. Free competition, therefore, had to give way to collusive action and, in 1907 (with the open consent of the issuing banks), to the establishment of the Swiss National Bank.
Minimum wage systems and earnings inequalities: Does institutional diversity matter?

This article explores how the diversity of minimum wage systems affects earnings inequalities within European countries. It relies on the combination of harmonized microdata from household surveys, data on national statutory minimum wages and coverage rates and information on minimum rates compiled from more than 1100 sectoral-level agreements across Europe. The analysis covers 18 countries over the period 2007–2009. Empirical results confirm the intuition of many practitioners that the combination of sectoral minima and high collective bargaining coverage can be regarded as a functional equivalent of a binding statutory minimum wage, at least for earnings inequalities. Regression results suggest indeed that both a national statutory minimum and, in countries with sectoral minima, higher collective bargaining coverage is significantly associated with lower levels of (overall and inter-industry) wage inequalities and a smaller fraction of workers paid below prevailing minima. Several robustness checks confirm these findings.
Impact of Past Crises on Current Crisis Communication

Previous research based on Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) suggests that an organization’s past crises history affects the reputational threat posed by a current crisis when that crisis results from intentional acts by the organization. The study reported on in this article provides a wider test of crisis history to better assess its role in crisis communication. Results from the present investigation showed that a history of similar crises intensified the reputational threat of a current crisis even when the crisis arose from the victimization of the organization or from an accident, rather than from the organization’s intentional acts. The threat to reputation was primarily direct, rather than indirect, through perceived responsibility for the crisis. There was little difference in the perceptions of organizations identified as having had no history of past similar crises versus those for whom no information about past crises was provided. Perception of an organization’s responsibility was negatively correlated with the perceived impact on reputation. Implications for the practice of crisis communication and further development of SCCT are discussed.
Chemotherapy versus best supportive care for extensive small cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND Combination chemotherapy has been the mainstay of treatment for extensive stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC) over the last 25 years even though it only gives a short prolongation in median survival time. The main goal for these patients, if their survival prognosis is limited, should be adequate palliation with the aim of improving their quality of life. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effectiveness of chemotherapy in extensive SCLC compared with best supportive care (BSC) or placebo treatment. SEARCH STRATEGY Medline (1966-Jan 2003), Embase (1974-Jan 2003), Cancerlit (1993-Jan 2003) and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, Issue 4, 2002) were searched. In addition experts in the field were contacted to identify further studies not found by electronic searches. SELECTION CRITERIA Randomised controlled trials in which any chemotherapy treatment was compared with a placebo group or best supportive care in patients with extensive stage SCLC. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Data extraction and quality assessment were undertaken independently by two reviewers and disagreements were resolved by a third author. Additional information on the included studies was obtained from the author of the original studies. MAIN RESULTS Only two studies (the first published in 1977 and the second in 1982) met the inclusion criteria of the review. A total of 65 patients with extensive disease (33 in the first study and 32 in the second) were randomised to received either placebo treatment or ifosfamide. In the second study a third arm of comparison included ifosfamide plus CCNU. Ifosfamide gave an extra 78.5 days survival (mean survival time) compared with the placebo group. Partial tumour response was greater with the active treatment. Toxicity was only seen in the chemotherapy group. Pooled analysis was not possible because only mean survival time was reported in both studies for patients with extensive disease. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS Chemotherapeutic treatment prolongs survival in comparison with placebo in patients with advanced SCLC. Nevertheless the impact of chemotherapy on quality of life and in patients with poor prognosis is unknown. Well-designed, controlled trials are needed to further evaluate the risks and benefits of different chemotherapeutic schedules in patients with advanced small cell lung cancer.
A Unified Hypothesis for the Complex Genetics of HLA Associations With IDDM

Our understanding of the role of HLA genes associated with insulin-dependentdiabetes mellitus (IDDM) is in disarray, despite recent improvements in the definition ofspecific alleles and haplotypes. Some genes are highly associated with IDDM, other genes are associated with resistance to IDDM, and some highly associated susceptibility genes are markedly influenced by trans-associated synergistic effects (DR3/4 heterozygotes) or protective effects (DR2/4 heterozygotes). This plethora of genetic associations has spawned the notion that there are many contributing susceptibility genes, which, in turn, has led to the search for shared structural features among different genes on IDDM-associated haplotypes. From a more mechanistic point of view, however, the wide range of variable IDDM associations, with both cis- and trans-encoded protective and/or synergistic effects, suggests a different approach. This article proposes a hypothesis in which the different HLA associations with IDDM can be simply explained by a single unifying concept: a hierarchy of affinities determines the interaction between a diabetogenic peptide and different class II molecules, and an individual is susceptible to IDDM if the class II molecule in that individual with the highest affinity for such a peptide is a DQβ susceptibility gene. The explicit formulation of this proposal and its genetic implications provide an explanation for HLA-encoded dominant “protection” and for some of the more subtle genetic observations related to cis and trans influences in IDDM susceptibility.
Associations among obesity, acute weight gain, and response to treatment with olanzapine in adolescent schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate associations between body weight and illness characteristics, including weight gain and therapeutic efficacy, in adolescents with schizophrenia. METHODS Adolescents ages 13-17 years (n = 107) with American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. (DSM-IV) schizophrenia enrolled in a 6 week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial comparing olanzapine and placebo. Therapeutic response was assessed by the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for Children (BPRS-C). Secondary outcomes included the Clinical Global Impressions-Severity (CGI-S) scale and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Obesity was defined as sex-/age-adjusted body mass index (BMI) ≥ 95th percentile. Linear regression was used to analyze the relationship between weight gain and psychiatric symptom improvement; logistic regression was conducted to identify predictors of baseline obesity. RESULTS Weight gain was significantly correlated with greater BPRS-C reduction among olanzapine-treated subjects (r = -0.31, p<0.01), whereas a trend was observed among placebo-treated subjects (r = -0.31, p = 0.08). However, this relationship became nonsignificant when analyses were controlled for duration of olanzapine treatment (p=0.12), and a treatment by weight gain interaction did not emerge in a repeated-measures mixed model analysis that included time in the study (t = 1.27, p = 0.21). Additionally, weight gain ≥ 7% was not significantly associated with response or remission. Among 17 adolescents (16%) with obesity at study entry, obesity was not significantly associated with endpoint BPRS-C illness severity. However, girls (p = 0.03), individuals hospitalized within the past year (p = 0.02), and those with less severe overall (p = 0.03) and negative symptoms (p = 0.003) according to the CGI-S and PANSS negative subscale, respectively, were more likely to be obese at baseline. CONCLUSION Baseline obesity was associated with lower illness severity, which could be mediated by greater treatment adherence, leading to more weight gain. Olanzapine-related weight gain was not independently associated with symptomatic outcome when controlling for treatment duration. Additional studies are needed to extend these findings to other disorders and medications.
HIGHER EDUCATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE University Of California, Los Angeles RESEARCH REPORT, No. 3 Examining the Pre-college Attributes and Values of Latina/o College Graduates

The dramatic growth of the Latina/o population in the U.S. is evident, as demographic trends project that in the next 50 years this group will account for over half of the population growth, increasing to one-fourth of the entire U.S. population (Llagas & Snyder, 2003). Latinas/os, however, continue to have the lowest rates of educational attainment in comparison to other racial/ethnic groups, and their college degree completion rates have not kept pace with their overall enrollment numbers (Harvey, 2003).
The Role of ESOPs in Takeover Contests

This article examines both the shareholder wealth effects of employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) announced by firms subject to takeover pressure and the takeover incidence of targets with and without ESOPs. Although we do not find that defensive ESOPs significantly reduce shareholder wealth on average, we identify two factors - the change in managerial and employee ownership due to the ESOP and the simultaneous announcement of other defensive tactics - that are associated with negative stock price reactions. We find that ESOPs are strong deterrents to takeover. ESOP targets that are acquired earn higher returns than targets without ESOPs, but the difference is not statistically significant. Copyright 1994 by American Finance Association.