Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lost to follow-up in a hip prosthesis register: Experience of R.I.P.O.

Patients undergoing hip arthroplasty are frequently lost to follow-up due to the generally good outcome of surgery. The lost to follow-up rate in local registers ranges from 5% (Berry et al. 1997) to 15% (Fender et al 2000). In survival analysis it is commonly assumed that ‘lost to follow-up patients’ have the same outcome as those regularly checked. This hypothesis  ts well with National Registers (Havelin 1999, Herberts and Malchau 2000, Lucht 2000), where the percentage of lost to follow-up is close to zero, but can be debated when applied to local registers. The hypothesis was for the  rst time proposed by Dorey (Dorey and Amstutz 1989), but other authors did not agree, as they proved that patients lost to follow-up had an inferior outcome than those that continue to be assessed (Murray et al. 1997), also in different orthopaedic scenarios such as shoulder surgery. (Wildner 1995). At Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute there is a register of all total hip arthroplasty (THA) operations that goes back to 1990 (Stea et al. 2001). The register was set up in 1997, and data was collected retrospectively from 1990. Since then the register has been kept up to date. The data collected for each operation include personal information, essential clinical data, antibiotic and antithromboembolic prophylaxis, main data on surgery and complications, stick-label-based description of implant components and  xation. Both primary and revision operations are registered. In 11 years’ practice, the percentage of lost to follow-up has been very high (51.1% patients or 50.3% hips). This is mainly due to two reasons: Lost to follow-up in a hip prosthesis register
Technology acceptance toward e‐government initiative in Royal Thai Navy

Purpose – This paper aims to show how the adopted technology acceptance model (TAM) is used to measure the acceptance of internet use by naval officers in the Naval Department for the e‐government initiative in Thailand.Design/methodology/approach – The study used two research methodologies for gathering data: the TAM questionnaire and interview. The TAM questionnaire was used to measure naval finance officers' perceptions on the internet and to find the relationship between the 12 external factors (independent factors) and dependent factors within the research framework of the study. The interview was used to explore internet use acceptance in a public organization, and to discover how government officers at one public organization felt about the e‐government initiative and internet usage within their organization.Findings – The study analysis shows that the external factors influencing naval officers' perception on internet use acceptance were: prior experience, job relevance, commitment, trust, and aut.
Runt-related Transcription Factor 1 (RUNX1T1) Suppresses Colorectal Cancer Cells Through Regulation of Cell Proliferation and Chemotherapeutic Drug Resistance.

BACKGROUND/AIM Altered expression of runt-related transcription factor 1 (RUNX1T1) has been observed in several human cancer types; however, the exact role for RUNX1T1 in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS The GSE21510 CRC and our previously published datasets were utilized in this study. Gene-expression profiling was conducted using the Agilent microarray platform, while data normalization and bioinformatics were conducted using GeneSpring software. AlamarBlue assay was used to assess cell viability in vitro. RESULTS The expression of RUNX1T1 was severely down-regulated in primary CRC and cell lines. Lentiviral-mediated re-expression of RUNX1T1 inhibited CRC cell growth, and global gene-expression analysis revealed the cell cycle, DNA replication, and DNA damage as the pathways most affected by RUNX1T1. Forced expression of RUNX1T1 induced a significant reduction in cellular proliferation and sensitized CRC cells to 5-flurouracil. CONCLUSION Our data revealed a novel role for RUNX1T1 as a tumor-suppressor gene in CRC through modulation of multiple cellular pathways.
Poverty Porn as a Sign of a Postcolonial Wall Between "Us" and "Them"

One of the problems that people were trying to overcome for years is poverty. Almost half of the population lives on $2.50 a day. However, it appears that poverty could also be seen as the symbolic resource rather than a financial state. So called “poverty porn” is being widely used by NGOs for marketing purposes as a tool for fundraising. This research presents the analysis of poverty porn through postcolonial lens, narrative theory and own reflection upon colonialism imprints in marketing of poverty. The aim of this research is to uncover the problems of social marketing such as a stereotyped representation of poverty that is being widely used by NGOs for fundraising purposes. The research question addresses two issues: firstly, it highlights necessity to analyze how poverty is being used for marketing purposes and, secondly, it addresses a need to define consumer attitudes and responses towards it. By examining these two aspects we aim to address poverty marketing from a reflexive perspective since we perform analysis from both researchers’ and consumers’ perspective. Consequently it enables us to perform a qualitative research which contributes to optimization of marketing practices so it could stand in line with objectives of social marketing. The issue of poverty marketing and poverty porn was addressed in this qualitative study by critically analyzing three cases and eight interviews through applying narrative and postcolonialism theory. As a result we have identified various positions towards poverty marketing such as sadness, happiness, mistrust, neutrality, shock, savior, empowerment, survivor, disguise and many more. The research shows that poverty porn practice appears to be reinforcing the distinction between the West and the non-West since the advertisements are directed towards the representation of “the inferior other” and is more likely to provoke financial donations rather than social involvement. In other words, poverty porn plays a major role in positioning the West as more superior and empowered as they are the ones who can “save the other”. The roles of the superior West are basically being exaggerated in the advertisements. Thus one could say that such poverty marketing does not stand in line with social marketing and its intention to transform society for a common good. The outcome of the study is that there are definite pros and cons of a current marketing of poverty; however, it has to be adjusted to make sure it reaches original objectives of social marketing. The contribution of the research can be presented in four points since (1) this is a critical reflexive study, (2) which addresses notion of “poverty porn”, and (3) is analyzed from a postcolonial perspective by (4) the use of a qualitative research method.
Gender Integration Into The Military: A Meta-Analysis Of Norway, Canada, Israel, And The United States

Over the past 15 years, the Global War on Terrorism has necessitated an examination of the military’s practices and the way that they meet the complexities of new and different types of war and tactics. Vital to this examination are policies related to the inclusion and deployment of women in combat. Burba stated war is not a setting for social testing, but the American Military must embrace the social subtleties of gender differences in an effort to meet the Armed Services requirement for an ever-changing asymmetrical battlefield. This study compares and contrasts the American current policy divergent to three other countries’ policies that have successfully integrated women into combat: Norway, Canada, and Israel. Through this examination, an opportunity to recognize gaps in training and procedural information that are most important to the successful implementation in the United States is revealed. The scientific data, although supporting the fact that physiological differences exist between men and women, were not supported in the argument that all women should be excluded from combat units. In all case studies, it was found that women who volunteered for combat assignments performed equally as well as their male counterparts without degradation of operational readiness or a lower unity of cohesion. However, I was not surprised that the leaders of the three counties observed that the successful integration of women into combat units is not about changing a culture. It is simply a leadership issue. iii University of New England Doctor of Education Educational Leadership This dissertation was presented by
Valuation of an Eco-Friendly Hiking Trail Using the Contingent Valuation Method: An Application of Psychological Ownership Theory

The purpose of this study is to apply the conceptual framework of psychological ownership (PO) theory to an outdoor recreation context and to estimate hikers' willingness to pay (WTP) for preservation of a hiking resource. In order to calculate visitors' WTP, an adjusted version of the contingent valuation method (CVM) is employed. Since the general CVM method has been critiqued due to exaggeration bias, this study employs a more conservative CVM approach suggested by Johannesson et al. (1998) that helps reduce the hypothetical bias by reaffirming visitors' responses. Results reveal that a sense of PO positively affects WTP and the conservative CVM contributes to obtaining more error-reduced WTP.
A quasi-optimal stabilizing control of power systems with dual-excited machines

A quasi-optimum feedback control strategy for stabilizing doubly-excited machines in a power system is proposed. The control strategy depends only on local information pertaining to each machine in the system. The strategy was tested via simulation on a single machine as well as a multimachine system. It has been observed that the addition of the quasi-optimal control on the quadrature axis field winding provides a much better transient response than when it is applied to the direct axis field winding only. The control strategy is relatively easy to implement because it requires local information pertaining to each generator. <<ETX>>
Navigating difficult waters : learning for career and labour market transitions

Work by Cedefop has shown that participation in training has a positive effect on the probability of finding a job. This study adds to such results by showing that learning can support labour market transitions of adult workers by increasing their adaptability to a changing environment. The study offers a colourful mosaic of life and career patterns, and intends to increase awareness of the importance of the various policies – guidance, counselling, and participation in education and training – that can effectively support adults in making better career decisions.
Scheduling in hybrid clouds

Schedulers for cloud computing determine on which processing resource jobs of a workflow should be allocated. In hybrid clouds, jobs can be allocated on either a private cloud or a public cloud on a pay per use basis. The capacity of the communication channels connecting these two types of resources impacts the makespan and the cost of workflow execution. This article introduces the scheduling problem in hybrid clouds presenting the main characteristics to be considered when scheduling workflows, as well as a brief survey of some of the scheduling algorithms used in these systems. To assess the influence of communication channels on job allocation, we compare and evaluate the impact of the available bandwidth on the performance of some of the scheduling algorithms.
After Anarchy: Legitimacy and Power in the United Nations Security Council

Preface vii Chapter One: Introduction 1 LEGITIMACY IN THEORY Chapter Two: A Theory of Legitimacy 29 Chapter Three: Legitimacy, Rationality, and Power 66 LEGITIMACY IN PRACTICE Chapter Four: San Francisco, 1945 83 Chapter Five: Blue Helmets and White Trucks 111 Chapter Six: Libya and the Sanctions 137 CONCLUSIONS Chapter Seven: Legitimacy and Sovereignty 173 Epilogue 194 References 197 Index 213
Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) will pave the way for a new era of underwater monitoring and actuation applications. The envisioned landscape of UWSN applications will help us learn more about our oceans, as well as about what lies beneath them. They are expected to change the current reality where no more than 5% of the volume of the oceans has been observed by humans. However, to enable large deployments of UWSNs, networking solutions toward efficient and reliable underwater data collection need to be investigated and proposed. In this context, the use of topology control algorithms for a suitable, autonomous, and on-the-fly organization of the UWSN topology might mitigate the undesired effects of underwater wireless communications and consequently improve the performance of networking services and protocols designed for UWSNs. This article presents and discusses the intrinsic properties, potentials, and current research challenges of topology control in underwater sensor networks. We propose to classify topology control algorithms based on the principal methodology used to change the network topology. They can be categorized in three major groups: power control, wireless interface mode management, and mobility assisted–based techniques. Using the proposed classification, we survey the current state of the art and present an in-depth discussion of topology control solutions designed for UWSNs.
Small Sample Bias in Panel Data

There exists a small sample bias in predictive regressions, when a rate of return is regressed on a lagged stochastic regressor, and the regression disturbance is correlated with the regressors’ innovations. Although this bias can be a serious concern in time-series predictive regressions, it is not significant in panel data setting. By using simulations and stock level data, we document that as the number of cross sections used in the panel data increases the bias in coefficient estimates becomes negligible.
Bertrand-edgeworth oligopoly in large markets

The relation between perfectly competitive and monopolistically competitive equilibria is analysed for a Bertrand-Edgeworth model of a single market in which capacity constrained firms choose prices as strategies. The market always has a Nash equilibrium in pure or mixed strategies. As the number of firms increases, the corresponding equilibria converge in distribution to a perfectly competitive price. This result provides a justification for perfect competition that is based on an explicit account of price formation. However, monopoly prices persist with a positive but vanishing probability. Regularity or well defined inverse demand functions are not required.
The incremental usefulness of other comprehensive income items to the Egyptian investor

We examine whether the incremental usefulness of the other comprehensive income (OCI) items relative to net income changed or not after the issuance of the Egyptian Accounting Standard number 1 (post-EAS 1). We also seek to depict inferences concerning which component(s) of OCI is more useful to the Egyptian investor. For the non-financial firms in the post-EAS 1 period, the aggregated OCI has a significant usefulness in explaining the following period's cash flows. Regarding financial firms in the period before the issuance of the Egyptian Accounting Standard number 1 (pre-EAS 1) and non-financial firms in the post-EAS 1, it was observed that foreign currency adjustments has significant usefulness in explaining the following period' cash flows. Regarding the financial firms, foreign currency adjustments component is significantly useful in explaining stock returns. Marketable securities adjustments are significantly useful in explaining stock returns for the non-financial firms in the post-EAS 1 period.
Critical success factors in small and medium enterprises: Survey results

Studies, to date, on critical success factors (CSFs) for total quality management (TQM) implementation have largely centred on the experiences and perceptions of large companies rather than small and medium enterprises (SMEs). They could very well be similar for both sectors, but it is diYcult to say without any concrete evidence. This paper discusses the results of a survey (in the form of a postal questionnaire( on CSFs, conducted in UK automotive SMEs. The paper begins with general descriptive statistics of the respondents, the quality initiatives implemented, and the level of understanding and knowledge of TQM that they have. It is followed by reliability and validity tests conducted on the CSF instrument. The ® nal section presents an analysis of the perception of level of importance and extent of practices of the CSFs. Tests of signi® cance were performed to investigate any diVerences between the levels of importance and practice, and on the level of importance and practices of companies accredited to QS 9000 against those that were not. The paper culminates with a discussion and the general conclusions from the survey together with some proposed future research directions.
Thought Disorder and Executive Dysfunction in Patients with Schizophrenia

Although, impairment of executive functioning is often reported in schizophrenia, its association with thought disorder has not been fully determined. The present study examined the relationships between positive thought disorder assessed using the Harrow's Thought Disorder Scale (Harrow's scale) and executive function by Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) in 27 inpatients with schizophrenia. Age at onset exhibited a significant negative correlation with Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale comprehension test score of Harrow's scale and a significant positive correlation with percentage of perseverative errors on the WCST. No significant correlations were found between parameters of positive thought disorder and executive function. Thought disorder and executive function may play different roles in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.
The dynamics of delinking in industrial emissions: The role of productivity, trade and R&D

This paper provides new empirical evidence on delinking / Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC) for greenhouse gases and other air pollutant emissions in Italy. We analysed a panel dataset based on the Italian NAMEA for 1990-2005 with a specific focus on industry. We integrated the emission-income NAMEA with data on trade openness and R&D expenditures. The highly disaggregated dataset provides a large heterogeneity and can help to overcome the shortcomings of the usual approach to EKC based on cross-country data. We use in this paper CO2, SOx, NOx and PM10 as objects of investigation. We use as empirical models of reference both a standard EKC model and a STIRPAT/IPAT model. Our results show that looking at sector evidence, both decupling and then eventually re-coupling trends could emerge along the path of economic development. The analysis of how stagnation periods affect environmental performances is also of interest.
Employer Characteristics and Practices as Drivers of Unfilled IT Vacancies

This paper assesses the nature and magnitude of recruitment difficulties currently experienced by Northern Ireland information technology firms. The empirical results provide tentative support for the view that demand-side influences such as employer characteristics and practices are important in understanding the occurrence of unfilled vacancies, with human resources management practices a major driver of current recruitment difficulties. However, recruitment practices and perceptions of firms cannot be assumed to be independent of supply-side inadequacies. Restrictive human resources management practices appear to be entirely rational, given that many firms have serious concerns relating to the technical competencies of new entrants from the educational sector and there is evidence to suggest that there exists a productivity cost associated with employing high numbers of new graduates. These findings suggest that any deficiencies currently existing in educational supply tend to be centred on quality as opposed to quantity.
The impact of nursing education and job characteristics on nurse's perceptions of their family nursing practice skills

BACKGROUND Implementing family system nursing in clinical settings is on the rise. However, little is known about the impact of graduate school education as well as continuing education in family systems nursing (FSN) on nurses' perceptions of their family nursing practice. AIMS To evaluate the level of nursing education, having taken a continuing hospital educational course in family system nursing (FN-ETI programme), and the impact of job characteristics on nurses' perceptions of their family nursing practice skills. DESIGN AND METHODS Participants were 436 nurses with either a BSc degree or graduate degree in nursing. The Job Demand, Control and Support model guided the study (R. Karasek and T. Theorell, 1992, Healthy Work: Stress, Productivity, and the Reconstruction of Working Life, Basic Books, New York, NY). Scores for the characteristics of job demands and job control were created to categorise participants into four job types: high strain (high demand, low control), passive (low demand, low control), low strain (low demand, high control) and active (high demand, high control). RESULTS Nurses with a graduate education who had taken the FN-ETI programme scored significantly higher on the Family Nursing Practice Scale than nurses with an undergraduate education. Nurses who were characterised as low strain or active scored significantly higher on the Family Nursing Practice Scale than the nurses who were characterised as high strain. Further, the interaction of education by job type was significant regarding family nursing practice skills. Hierarchical regression revealed 25% of the variance in family nursing practice skills was explained by job control, family policy on the unit, graduate education and employment on the following divisions: Maternal-Child, Emergency, Mental Health or Internal Medicine. CONCLUSION Graduate education plus continuing education in FSN can offer nurses increased job opportunities more control over one's work as well as increased skills working with families in clinical settings.
On the Long-Run Performance of IPOs: The Effect of Pre-IPO Management Decisions

We propose that the long-run performance of IPOs is a function of pre-IPO factors, including managerial decisions and the firm's performance prior to going public. We relate long-run performance to a much richer set of explanatory factors than in the previous literature. Using a number of variables, we provide empirical evidence in support of this proposition. The manner in which a company is run before it is listed on the stock exchange gives a strong signal of how its shares will perform in its first few years of coming to the market. Using a UK data set, we find that the percentage of equity issued and the degree of multinationality are key predictors of IPO performance. A revised version of this paper is forthcoming in Managerial Finance, Vol. 33, No. 6, pp. 401-419, 2007.
The Style Drift Score

A quantitative measure of style drift measures the variability of a portfolio's effective asset mix as determined by return-based style analysis around the portfolio's average effective asset mix. A style drift score eliminates examination of countless rolling-window asset allocation graphs and rolling-window style maps; it quantifies the style drift of a portfolio in a single statistic. A style drift score is ideal for screening thousands of portfolios, comparing the style consistency of portfolios, and monitoring drift in a portfolio's style.