Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Helicobacter pylori second‐line rescue therapy with levofloxacin‐ and bismuth‐containing quadruple therapy, after failure of standard triple or non‐bismuth quadruple treatments

The most commonly used second‐line Helicobacter pylori eradication regimens are bismuth‐containing quadruple therapy and levofloxacin‐containing triple therapy, both offering suboptimal results. Combining bismuth and levofloxacin may enhance the efficacy of rescue eradication regimens.
Port Regionalisation from a Relational Perspective: The Rise of Venlo as Dutch International Logistics Hub

The rise of global supply chain systems and geographical dispersion of related inland logistics centres has led to a new phase in the evolution of port systems, referred to as port regionalisation. While this process largely results from the decisions of shippers and logistics providers, the scope of public policy can also shape it. This includes the strategic capacity of stakeholders to couple not only locally available assets with the needs of global flows, but also to provide meaning through the constitution of symbols, frames and discourses. We propose the application of a relational perspective to port regionalisation, which allows us to analyse how various actors engage strategically in actor-networks and coalitions across scales to stimulate growth based on logistics. This is accomplished by presenting the rise of Venlo in the Netherlands as an inland logistics hub within the corridor of the port of Rotterdam.
Temped Out? Industry Rhetoric, Labor Regulation and Economic Restructuring in the Temporary Staffing Business

The article develops a conceptualization of the role of the temporary staffing industry (TSI) in the wider economy, with particular reference to the 'home'of temping, the USA. It is suggested that the TSI should be understood as an active agent of labor-market deregulation and restructuring, contrary to the industry's selfrepresentation as a neutral intermediator in the job market and as a mere facilitator of more efficient and flexible employment systems. The article draws attention to the active steps that the industry has taken to establish (and defend) the legally ambiguous 'triangular' employment relationship upon which its very viability depends and, more generally, to make and grow its markets in segments as diverse as light assembly and construction work, health care, accountancy, teaching and a range of clerical occupations. The article argues also for a more finely grained analysis of the ways in which the temporary staffing business has itself transformed and restructured - as an inventive and energetic vendor of labor flexibility in what has been an expanding market since the industry's take-off in the 1970s. In fact, the American TSI has experienced a series of distinctive stages of growth over the past three decades, during which time it has searched but failed to find alternatives to the established business model of narrow margins, price competition and commodification. If there are limits to this industry's growth, then, these may well prove to be internal ones.
Data-Retention Characteristics Comparison of 2D and 3D TLC NAND Flash Memories

Data-retention characteristics of 3-dimensional (3D) NAND flash memory have been evaluated with the optimal Vref (read reference voltage) shift in comparison with 2-dimentional (2D) (1Xnm) NAND flash memory. Bit-error rate (BER) of data-retention and write/erase (W/E) cycling in 3D NAND flash are much smaller than that in 2D NAND flash. Also, in 3D NAND flash, BER of Bottom Word-line is 1.9-times higher than Top Word-line, due to wider Vth distribution width. The data-retention lifetime of 3D NAND flash is estimated to about 10 years at 85degC, W/E=1&#126;300 cycles by the Vth distribution margin evaluation without considering the inter-block, inter-wafer and inter-lot variations and process/voltage/temperature (PVT) variations of the read reference voltage circuit. On the other hand, the data-retention lifetime of 2D NAND flash is estimated 1000 years in W/E=1 and is rapidly degraded to 1 year in W/E=300. Therefore, 3D NAND flash is suitable to apply to Cold Flash with a few hundred times update and data center SSD with many times update. 2D NAND flash is suitable for digital archive: millennium memory with only one time write.
Antibiotic prescribing in primary care by international medical graduates and graduates from Swedish medical schools.

BACKGROUND Studies of antibiotic prescribing related to diagnosis comparing prescribers trained abroad with those trained in Sweden are lacking. OBJECTIVES To determine whether general practices (GPs) and GP residents trained abroad had different prescribing patterns for antibiotics for common infections than those trained in Sweden using retrospective data from electronic patient records from primary health care in Kalmar County, Sweden. METHODS Consultations with an infection diagnosis, both with and without the prescription of antibiotics to 67 GPs and residents trained in Western Europe outside Sweden and other countries, were compared with a matched control group trained in Sweden. RESULTS For 1 year, 44101 consultations of patients with an infection diagnosis and 16276 prescriptions of antibiotics were registered. Foreign-trained physicians had 20% more visits compared with physicians trained in Sweden. The prescription of antibiotics per visit and physician in the respective groups, and independent of diagnosis, did not significantly differ between groups, when scaled down from number of consultations to number of prescribing physicians. CONCLUSIONS There were minor and non-significant differences in antibiotic prescribing comparing GPs and residents trained abroad and in Sweden, most likely the result of an adaptation to Swedish conditions. Nevertheless, no group prescribed antibiotics in accordance to national guidelines. The results suggest that interventions are needed to reduce irrational antibiotic prescribing patterns, targeting all physicians working in Swedish primary health care.
Re-resection with brachytherapy for locally recurrent soft tissue sarcoma arising in a previously radiated field.

PURPOSE The use of further radiotherapy among patients with soft tissue sarcoma that recurs in a previously irradiated area is controversial. Presented is a review of our 7-year experience with brachytherapy for recurrent soft tissue sarcoma. METHODS A retrospective review was performed of 26 patients who underwent perioperative brachytherapy between 1990 and 1997 for recurrent soft tissue sarcoma. In all cases, the sarcoma recurred within a previously irradiated field. After-loading brachytherapy catheters were placed at the time of surgical extirpation of the sarcoma within a single-plane implant by use of 1-cm intercatheter spacing. Insertion of the radioactive 192Ir wire was delayed until the fifth to seventh postoperative day to allow initial wound healing. The prescribed dose rate for the 192Ir wire ranged between 50 and 80 cGy an hour, and the dose was specified at 0.5 cm from the plane of the implant. The anatomic locations treated included lower extremity (N = 10), upper extremity (N = 7), trunk (N = 7), and head and neck (N = 2). RESULTS Total tumor extirpation, confirmed by negative frozen section margins, was accomplished in all cases. The mean dose of external-beam irradiation received before brachytherapy was 55.6 Gy +/- 1.8 Gy (range, 30.0 to 70.3 Gy). The mean dose of radiation prescribed at the implant procedure was 47.2 Gy +/- 1.6 Gy (range, 11.0 to 50.0 Gy). A tissue transfer flap was placed over the bed of resection in 13 cases. Complications occurred in five patients including, three with wound breakdown, one with osteonecrosis, and with neuralgia. Operative intervention was required in four of the five patients with complications; each of the patients requiring operative intervention for wound-related complications had undergone primary wound closure without tissue transfer. Recurrence of disease occurred in 13 patients: nine local and four distant metastases. The median follow-up was 16 months (range, 2 to 73 months). The 5-year local recurrence-free, distant recurrence-free, disease-free, and overall survival rates after brachytherapy were 52%, 75%, 33%, and 52%, respectively. CONCLUSION Re-irradiation of recurrent soft tissue sarcoma by brachytherapy in conjunction with resection can be performed with acceptable complication rates. Local control can be achieved for the majority of patients who would otherwise require more radical surgical procedures.
Increased incidence of atypical Papanicolaou tests from ThinPreps of postmenopausal women receiving hormone replacement therapy

The authors noticed a significant increase in the rate of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) diagnoses in postmenopausal women receiving hormone replacement therapy with ThinPrep (monolayer) Papanicolaou (Pap) tests (8.3%) as compared with conventional Pap tests (2.3%; P = 0.025). The purpose of this study was to correlate these morphologic changes with human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA detection by in situ hybridization and clinical outcome.
Is Africa's Economy at a Turning Point?

In this paper, Arbache, Go, and Page examine the recent acceleration of growth in Africa. Unlike the past, the performance is now registered broadly across several types of countries-particularly the oil-exporting and resource-intensive countries and, in more recent years, the large- and middle-income economies, as well as coastal and low-income countries. The analysis confirms a trend break in the mid-1990s, identifying a growth acceleration that is due not only to favorable terms of trade and greater aid, but also to better policy. Indeed, the growth diagnostics show that more and more African countries have been able to avoid mistakes with better macropolicy, better governance, and fewer conflicts; as a result, the likelihood of growth decelerations has declined significantly. Nonetheless, the sustainability of that growth is fragile, because economic fundamentals, such as savings, investment, productivity, and export diversification, remain stagnant. The good news in the story is that African economies appear to have learned how to avoid the mistakes that led to the frequent growth collapses between 1975 and 1995. The bad news is that much less is known about the recipes for long-term success in development, such as developing the right institutions and the policies to raise savings and diversify exports, than about how to avoid economic bad times.
The Entrepreneurship of the Good Samaritan: A Development Framework to Understand Social Entrepreneurship Using Insights from Qualitative Study

Traditional theories of entrepreneurship have been about risk-oriented profit-seeking individuals who identify market opportunities and exploit them to earn profits. Though useful to understand a large part of entrepreneurial activities in modern economies, the focus on profit as the underlying motive of entrepreneurs is not helpful in understanding the activities of social entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurship refers to the creation of viable socio-economic structures, relations, institutions, organizations and practices that yield and sustain social benefits (Fowler, 2000). Extant entrepreneurship research offers little guidance to understand the motivations, mechanisms and outcomes that are central to social entrepreneurship. In this paper, we attempt to advance understanding in this area by developing a framework that is grounded in the theory of prosocial behavior and validated by field observations of social entrepreneurs in Western India. This framework of social entrepreneurship developed from grounded theory methods such as semi structured interviews and document analysis with social entrepreneurs from nine pioneering social organizations incorporates both behavioral as well as situational factors.
RULE CHANGES AND COMPETITIVE BALANCE IN JAPANESE PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL

Does 'competitive balances' in professional baseball improve with a change in the rules for allocating new players? Using data from Japan's two professional baseball leagues, the authors investigate how the change from an open-bidding regime to a player draft regime affected competitive balance between 1958 and 1993. They find evidence that the change to the player draft in 1965 increased competitive balance over time in both leagues and within seasons for one of the two leagues. The authors' results are similar to those previously found using North American Major League Baseball data. Copyright 1999 by Oxford University Press.
Voriconazole is a safe and effective anti-fungal prophylactic agent during induction therapy of acute myeloid leukemia

Abstract Background: Antifungal prophylaxis (AFP) reduces the incidence of invasive fungal infections (IFIs) during induction therapy of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Posaconazole is considered the standard of care. Voriconazole, a generic cheaper alternative is a newer generation azole with broad anti-fungal activity. There is limited data on the use of voriconazole as a prophylactic drug. Materials and Methods: A single-center, prospective study was performed during which patients with AML undergoing induction chemotherapy received voriconazole as AFP (April 2012 to February 2014). Outcomes were compared with historical patients who received fluconazole as AFP (January 2011-March 2012, n = 66). Results: Seventy-five patients with AML (median age: 17 years [range: 1-75]; male:female 1.6:1) received voriconazole as AFP. The incidence of proven/probable/possible (ppp) IFI was 6.6% (5/75). Voriconazole and fluconazole cohorts were well-matched with respect to baseline characteristics. Voriconazole (when compared to fluconazole) reduced the incidence of pppIFI (5/75, 6.6% vs. 19/66, 29%; P < 0.001), need to start therapeutic (empiric + pppIFI) antifungals (26/75, 34% vs. 51/66, 48%; P < 0.001) and delayed the start of therapeutic antifungals in those who needed it (day 16 vs. day 10; P < 0.001). Mortality due to IFI was also reduced with the use of voriconazole (1/75, 1.3% vs. 6/66, 9%; P = 0.0507), but this was not significant. Three patients discontinued voriconazole due to side-effects. Conclusion: Voriconazole is an effective and safe oral agent for IFI prophylaxis during induction therapy of AML. Availability of generic equivalents makes this a more economical alternative to posaconazole.
Primary Care Providers’ HIV Prevention Practices Among Older Adults

Purpose: To explore primary care providers’ HIV prevention practices for older adults. Primary care providers’ perceptions and awareness were explored to understand factors that affect their provision of HIV prevention materials and HIV screening for older adults. Design and Method: Data were collected through 24 semistructured interviews with primary care providers (i.e., physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners) who see patients older than 50 years. Results: Results reveal facilitators and barriers of HIV prevention for older adults among primary care providers and understanding of providers’ HIV prevention practices and behaviors. Individual, patient, institutional, and societal factors influenced HIV prevention practices among participants, for example, provider training and work experience, lack of time, discomfort in discussing HIV/AIDS with older adults, stigma, and ageism were contributing factors. Furthermore, factors specific to primary and secondary HIV prevention were identified, for instance, the presence of sexually transmitted infections influenced providers’ secondary prevention practices. Implications: HIV disease, while preventable, is increasing among older adults. These findings inform future research and interventions aimed at increasing HIV prevention practices in primary care settings for patients older than 50.
Murphy's Law and Market Anomalies

Many researchers have uncovered empirical regularities in stock market returns. If these regularities persist, investors can expect to achieve superior performance. Unfortunately, nature can be perverse. Once an apparent anomaly is publicized, only too often it disappears or goes into reverse. The latter seems to have happened to the small-firm premium. The authors show that after the U.K. size premium was documented and disseminated, the historical small-cap premium of 6% was replaced by a small-cap discount of around 6%. The authors present evidence of and some explanations for the disappearance of the small-firm premium.
The Optimal Size of a Tax Collection Agency

This paper addresses the optimal degree of law enforcement regarding tax evasion. It derives the conditions that characterize the optimal size of a tax collection agency, and then provides a simple interpretation of the conditions in terms of excess burden.The paper clarified earlier findings that suggest that the optimal size should be set higher than a simple cost-benefit calculation would indicate. It concludes with a numerical example that illustrates the optimality condition and demonstrates that a policy based on a naive cost-benefit analysis of the tax collection agency could result in a substantial overcommitment of resources.
Twinning the Goals: How Can Promoting Shared Prosperity Help to Reduce Global Poverty?

In 2013, the World Bank adopted two goals: First, reduce global extreme poverty to 3 percent by 2030. Second, promote shared prosperity defined as the income growth of the bottom 40 percent of the population within a country. This paper simulates the global poverty headcount under three growth scenarios for the bottom 40 percent up to 2030. The analysis deploys a set of"shared prosperity premiums,"in which the bottom 40 percent in each country grows at a differential rate from the projected growth in the mean. With no distributional change, the global headcount reaches between 6.7 and 4.7 percent in 2030, depending on the average growth scenario used for the simulations. However, if the incomes of the bottom 40 percent grow 2 percentage points faster than the mean, the World Bank's poverty goal is achieved with the global poverty falling to below 3 percent in 2030 in the scenarios which average growth rates are extrapolated from the early 2000s. While such a"shared prosperity premium"is not unprecedented in recent growth spells, maintaining it over 20 years in every country is optimistic. The paper shows that in the baseline growth scenario, the global poverty rate could either reach the 3 percent target, or be close to 10 percent, depending on the"shared prosperity premium. "
Ischemia‐modified albumin as a biochemical marker in children with neuroblastoma and soft tissue sarcomas

In this study, the levels of ischemia‐modified albumin (IMA) in pediatric oncology patients with soft tissue sarcomas (STSs) and neuroblastoma (NB) were analyzed. To date, there have been no studies concerning IMA in these groups of patients. Ninety‐nine children with STSs and NB were analyzed from 2006 to 2009, and 30 healthy children were also enrolled in the study. IMA levels were measured throughout treatment in all patients. The levels of IMA in all cancer patients (mean 116.8±39.3 U/ml), in patients with STSs (mean 119.8±27.5 U/ml), and in patients with NB (mean 114.6±36.6 U/ml) were significantly higher than in the control patients (mean 87.3±38.3 U/ml; P=0.0013, 0.0066, and 0.0164, respectively). IMA levels increased before and during the treatment compared with levels in the controls. The determination of IMA levels in pediatric oncology patients with poor prognoses from STSs and NB may play an important role in predicting response to therapy and overall outcome. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 25:255–258, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Organizational Type and Efficiency in the Costa Rican Coffee Processing Sector

Abstract Data envelopment analysis techniques are used to calculate and decompose cost efficiency for the Costa Rican coffee processing sector. An unbalanced panel of 16 investor-owned firms and 28 cooperative firms covering the period from 1988–1989 to 1992–1993 is constructed. Seemingly unrelated regression models are used to analyze the impact on efficiency of organizational type, location, firm size, farm size, competition, time, and a bumper crop dummy. Findings show that organizational type matters in explaining the performance of the sector. Cooperatives are found to be no less cost and allocatively efficient than investor-owned firms but the former are less scale efficient than the latter. J. Comp. Econ., June 2002, 30(2), pp. 296–316. University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 00680. © 2002 Association for Comparative Economic Studies. Published by Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: L23, D23, P13.
Fuzzy information retrieval in WWW: a survey

Information retrieval has been an integral domain of storage and retrieval of meaningful information from the early age of computing. The last 15 years has seen a drastic shift of paradigm from classical database retrieval to web-based information retrieval. The WWW has established itself as one of the primary mode of information storage, sharing and searching. The size of the WWW and its users has made the retrieval and retrieval systems much more complicated as well as sophisticated and thus posed a grand challenge to the researchers and developers to design the modern information retrieval system which can return the query result as per user's requirement effectively and efficiently. This survey paper is an attempt to find some of the challenges faced by modern retrieval system in effective retrieval of information and different methodologies of fuzzy logic trying to make this mammoth and complex task simpler.
Effects of Firm Size, Financial Leverage and R&D Expenditures on Firm Earnings: An Analysis Using Quantile Regression Approach

As documented in the literature, the effects of firm size, financial leverage, and R&D expenditures on firm earnings are inclusive. Our hypothesis is that the inconsistent empirical results of such effects may be driven by the regression models implemented in data analysis. Using the quantile regression (QR) approach developed by Koenker and Basset (1978), this study analyses S&P 500 firms from 1996 to 2005. We find that the effects of firm size, financial leverage and R&D expenditures on firm earnings differ considerably across earnings quantiles. Comparing the results from the QR approach with those from the ordinary least squares (OLS) and least absolute deviation (LAD) methods, this study further explains the puzzling relationship between firm size, financial leverage, R&D expenditures and firm earnings.
Competition, Globalization, and the Decline of Inflation

We investigate theoretically and empirically the competitive effects of increased trade on prices, productivity and markups. Using disaggregated data for EU manufacturing over the period 1988-2000 we find increased openness exerts a negative and significant impact on sectoral prices. Increased openness lowers prices by both reducing markups and raising productivity. In response to an increase in openness, markups show a steep short run decline, which partly reverses later, while productivity rises in a manner that increases over time. Our estimates suggest that EU manufacturing prices fell by 2.3%, productivity rose by 11% and markups fell by 1.6% in response to the observed increase in manufacturing imports. The direct price restraint caused by greater imports, assuming unchanged monetary policy, can explain a fall in inflation of up to 0.14% per annum. The most substantial impact on inflation arises, however, from the role of lower markups in reducing the inflation bias of monetary policy. Our results suggest that increased trade could account for as much as a quarter of European disinflation over this period.