Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
2011–12 Seasonal Influenza Vaccines Effectiveness against Confirmed A(H3N2) Influenza Hospitalisation: Pooled Analysis from a European Network of Hospitals. A Pilot Study

Background Influenza vaccination strategies aim at protecting high-risk population from severe outcomes. Estimating the effectiveness of seasonal vaccines against influenza related hospitalisation is important to guide these strategies. Large sample size is needed to have precise estimate of influenza vaccine effectiveness (IVE) against severe outcomes. We assessed the feasibility of measuring seasonal IVE against hospitalisation with laboratory confirmed influenza through a network of 21 hospitals in the European Union. Methods We conducted a multicentre study in France (seven hospitals), Italy (one hospital), and Navarra (four hospitals) and Valencia (nine hospitals) regions in Spain. All ≥18 years hospitalised patients presenting an influenza-like illness within seven days were swabbed. Cases were patients RT-PCR positive for influenza A (H3N2); controls were patients negative for any influenza virus. Using logistic regression with study site as a fixed effect we calculated IVE adjusted for potential confounders. We restricted the analyses to those swabbed within four days. Results We included, 375 A(H3N2) cases and 770 controls. The overall adjusted IVE was 24.9% (95%CI–1.8;44.6). Among the target group for vaccination (N = 1058) the adjusted IVE was 28.8% (95%CI:2.8;47.9); it was respectively 36.8% (95%CI:−48.8; 73.1), 42.6% (95%CI:−16.5;71.7), 17.8%(95%CI:−40.8; 52.1) and 37.5% (95%CI:−22.8;68.2) in the age groups 18–64, 65–74, 75–84 and more than 84 years. Discussion Estimation of IVE based on the pooling of data obtained through a European network of hospitals was feasible. Our results suggest a low IVE against hospitalised confirmed influenza in 2011–12. The low IVE may be explained by a poor immune response in the high-risk population, imperfect match between vaccine and circulating strain or waning immunity due to a late season. Increased sample size within this network would allow more precise estimates and stratification of the IVE by time since vaccination and vaccine types or brands.
Spectra and leading directions for differential-algebraic equations

The state of the art in the spectral theory of linear time-varying differential-algebraic equations (DAEs) is surveyed. To characterize the asymptotic behavior and the growth rate of solutions, basic spectral notions such as Lyapunovand Bohl exponents, and Sacker-Sell spectra are discussed. For DAEs in strangeness-free form, the results extend those for ordinary differential equations, but only under additional conditions. This has consequences concerning the boundedness of solutions of inhomogeneous equations. Also, linear subspaces of leading directions are characterized, which are associated with spectral intervals and which generalize eigenvectors and invariant subspaces as they are used in the linear time-invariant setting.
Heuristics for the Identification of Class Integration Order in Object-Oriented Software Testing

Dependency cycles among components (classes) represent a practical challenge when identifying the class integration order in object-oriented software testing. Classical approaches, such as “top-down” or “bottom-up” integration (or their combination) become less useful due to their acyclic characteristics. Some OO integration testing strategies explore the principle of breaking these dependency cycles, but broken dependencies imply that the target class will have to be stubbed when integrating and testing the source class, which increases the testing effort. This paper describes an integration testing strategy that guides software engineers to identify the class integration order with the minimum number of implemented stubs. This strategy can be directly applied to high level OO design (UML class) diagrams allowing the reduction of extra construction efforts related to additional classes needed in other strategies. The results from experimental studies have indicated its feasibility and effectiveness. The use of such integration testing strategy can be supported by a case tool, also described in this paper.
The Internationalization of Small High-Technology Firms

This study of 196 small high-technology firms embraces the areas of the internationalization of entrepreneurially led firms and the early stages of the international growth and development of high-technology firms. The author's conceptual stance is that the early internationalization of small firms should be viewed as an holistic process, that is, one in which interrrelated and even integrated decisions and processes combine to accomplish a firm's individual pattern of internationalization. The study explores firms’ patterns of international development through their establishment of cross-border activity in key value chains and associated service activities.
Do Legal Immigrants and Natives Compete in the Labour Market? Evidence from Catalonia

The precondition for labour-market competition between immigrants and natives is that both are willing to accept jobs that do not differ in quality. To test this hypothesis, in this paper we compare the working conditions between immigrants and natives in Catalonia. Comparing immigrants' working conditions in relation to their native counterparts is not only a useful analysis for studying the extent to which immigrants and low-skilled native workers are direct competitors in the labour market, but also allows us to contribute to the literature on this issue by moving away from the conventional approach used in previous studies. Our results indicate that: i) natives and immigrants display a different taste for job (dis)amenities; ii) Catalan-born workers might be in direct competition with EU15 immigrants, while non-Catalan Spanish workers might be competing with Latin American immigrants, and; iii) African-born immigrants are the group in the Catalan workforce that by far face the worst working conditions.
The neural basis of central proprioceptive processing in older versus younger adults: An important sensory role for right putamen

Our sense of body position and movement independent of vision (i.e., proprioception) relies on muscle spindle feedback and is vital for performing motor acts. In this study, we first sought to elucidate age‐related differences in the central processing of proprioceptive information by stimulating foot muscle spindles and by measuring neural activation with functional magnetic resonance imaging. We found that healthy older adults activated a similar, distributed network of primary somatosensory and secondary‐associative cortical brain regions as young individuals during the vibration‐induced muscle spindle stimulation. A significant decrease in neural activity was also found in a cluster of right putamen voxels for the older age group when compared with the younger age group. Given these differences, we performed two additional analyses within each group that quantified the degree to which age‐dependent activity was related to (1) brain structure and (2) a behavioral measure of proprioceptive ability. Using diffusion tensor imaging, older (but not younger) adults with higher mean fractional anisotropy were found to have increased right putamen neural activity. Age‐dependent right putamen activity seen during tendon vibration was also correlated with a behavioral test of proprioceptive ability measuring ankle joint position sense in both young and old age groups. Partial correlation tests determined that the relationship between elderly joint position sense and neural activity in right putamen was mediated by brain structure, but not vice versa. These results suggest that structural differences within the right putamen are related to reduced activation in the elderly and potentially serve as biomarker of proprioceptive sensibility in older adults. Hum Brain Mapp, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Human Factors ’ Impact Leveraging Cloud based Applications Adoption

Cloud computing as the latest trend in the area of Information Technology and has gained a major attention during the last couple of years. Adoption of cloud based applications in the field of IT and technology and identification of key factors influencing this adoption process is of high importance. Currently, dedicated studies on the phase of adoption process in educational domains based on the cloud based applications was not paid attention, and works in this domain are very limited. On the other hand, the major studies for adoption of cloud based applications are dedicated to technological and non-human factors and few works on the human factors have been made. This study focuses on the adoption of cloud based applications in the higher education setting, and the acceptance of cloud-base applications by students in universities will be discussed respectively. In this research work, it was tried to identify the human factors influencing the cloud based applications adoption in higher education setting thorough modified version of the common Technology Acceptance Model and Actor Network Theory. The findings of this study indicate that some human factors such as Social Interaction (e.g. Exposure, Motivation) and Self efficiency can have high impact to the adoption process significantly. The results also revealed useful information in terms of literature review, comparative studies and useful methodological theories for addressing this issue.
2 0 Fe b 20 00 Geometry without Topology

The proper Euclidean geometry is considered to be metric space and described in terms of only metric and finite metric subspaces (σ-immanent description). Constructing the geometry, one does not use topology and topological properties. For instance, the straight, passing through points A and B, is defined as a set of such points R that the area S(A,B,R) of triangle ABR vanishes. The triangle area is expressed via metric by means of the Hero’s formula, and the straight appears to be defined only via metric, i.e. without a reference to (topological) concept of curve. (Usually, the straight is defined as the shortest curve, connecting two points A and B). Such a construction of geometry is free from such restrictions as continuity and dimensionality of the space which are generated by a use of topology but not by the geometry in itself. At such a description all information on the geometry properties (such as uniformity, isotropy, continuity and degeneracy) is contained in metric. The Riemannian geometry is constructed by two different ways: (1) by conventional way on the basis of metric tensor, (2) as a result of modification of metric in the σ-immanent description of the proper Euclidean geometry. The two obtained geometries are compared. The convexity problem in geometry and the problem of collinearity of vectors at distant points are considered. The nonmetric definition of curve is shown to be a concept of the proper Euclidean geometry which is inadequate to any non-Euclidean geometry
Gender differences in functional health: latent curve analysis assessing differential exposure.

OBJECTIVES To examine gender difference in trajectories of functional limitations among middle-aged and older adults using a comprehensive set of predictors and method not previously used to examine this topic. METHOD Two-part latent curve models were used to analyze data from the Health and Retirement Study. These models differentiate the occurrence of limitations from the number of limitations at both baseline and over time. RESULTS Females had 3.70 times greater odds of having any limitations and had 28% more limitations at baseline compared with males, but there was no gender difference in the onset of limitations over time or in the number of limitations over time. Differences in employment status, income, wealth, depressive symptoms, arthritis, cancer, and eyesight partially explained the gender gap. DISCUSSION Females are disadvantaged in terms of occurrence and number of limitations at baseline but the gender gap remains stable over time, suggesting differences occur before late-middle and old age. Females' lack of full-time employment, and lower levels of income and wealth translate into worse functional health. It is important to improve the socioeconomic status of females while also addressing the health conditions that contribute to functional limitations for males and females.
A Local Weighted Nearest Neighbor Algorithm and a Weighted and Constrained Least-Squared Method for Mixed Odor Analysis by Electronic Nose Systems

A great deal of work has been done to develop techniques for odor analysis by electronic nose systems. These analyses mostly focus on identifying a particular odor by comparing with a known odor dataset. However, in many situations, it would be more practical if each individual odorant could be determined directly. This paper proposes two methods for such odor components analysis for electronic nose systems. First, a K-nearest neighbor (KNN)-based local weighted nearest neighbor (LWNN) algorithm is proposed to determine the components of an odor. According to the component analysis, the odor training data is firstly categorized into several groups, each of which is represented by its centroid. The examined odor is then classified as the class of the nearest centroid. The distance between the examined odor and the centroid is calculated based on a weighting scheme, which captures the local structure of each predefined group. To further determine the concentration of each component, odor models are built by regressions. Then, a weighted and constrained least-squares (WCLS) method is proposed to estimate the component concentrations. Experiments were carried out to assess the effectiveness of the proposed methods. The LWNN algorithm is able to classify mixed odors with different mixing ratios, while the WCLS method can provide good estimates on component concentrations.
Gravitino production after inflation

We investigate the production of gravitinos in a cosmological background. Gravitinos can be produced during preheating after inflation due to a combined effect of interactions with an oscillating inflaton field and absence of conformal invariance. In order to get insight on conformal properties of gravitino we reformulate phenomenological supergravity in SU(2,2|1)-symmetric way. The Planck mass and F- and D-terms appear via the gauge-fixed value of a superfield that we call conformon. We find that in general the probability of gravitino production is not suppressed by the small gravitational coupling. This may lead to a copious production of gravitinos after inflation. Efficiency of the new non-thermal mechanism of gravitino production is very sensitive to the choice of the underlying theory. This may put strong constraints on certain classes of inflationary models.
Efficiency droop in nitride‐based light‐emitting diodes

Nitride‐based light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) suffer from a reduction (droop) of the internal quantum efficiency with increasing injection current. This droop phenomenon is currently the subject of intense research worldwide, as it delays general lighting applications of GaN‐based LEDs. Several explanations of the efficiency droop have been proposed in recent years, but none is widely accepted. This feature article provides a snapshot of the present state of droop research, reviews currently discussed droop mechanisms, contextualizes them, and proposes a simple yet unified model for the LED efficiency droop.
Optimal Compensation for Changes in Task-Relevant Movement Variability

Effective movement planning should take into account the consequences of possible errors in executing a planned movement. These errors can result from either sensory uncertainty or variability in movement planning and production. We examined the ability of humans to compensate for variability in sensory estimation and movement production under conditions in which variability is increased artificially by the experimenter. Subjects rapidly pointed at a target region that had an adjacent penalty region. Target and penalty hits yielded monetary rewards and losses. We manipulated the task-relevant variability by perturbing visual feedback of finger position during the movement. The feedback was shifted in a random direction with a random amplitude in each trial, causing an increase in the task-relevant variability. Subjects were unable to counteract this form of perturbation. Rewards and penalties were based on the perturbed, visually specified finger position. Subjects rapidly acquired an estimate of their new variability in <120 trials and adjusted their aim points accordingly. We compared subjects' performance to the performance of an optimal movement planner maximizing expected gain. Their performance was consistent with that expected from an optimal movement planner that perfectly compensated for externally imposed changes in task-relevant variability. When exposed to novel stimulus configurations, aim points shifted in the first trial without showing any detectable trend across trials. These results indicate that subjects are capable of changing their pointing strategy in the presence of externally imposed noise. Furthermore, they manage to update their estimate of task-relevant variability and to transfer this estimate to novel stimulus configurations.
Gender Inequality in Product Markets: When and How Status Beliefs Transfer to Products

Abstract:This paper develops and evaluates a theory of status belief transfer, the process by which gender status beliefs differentially affect the evaluations of products made by men and women. We conduct three online experiments to evaluate this theory. In Study 1, we gathered 50 product categories from a large online retailer and had participants rate each product's association with femininity and masculinity. We find evidence of the pervasiveness of gender-typing in product markets. In Studies 2 and 3, we simulate male-typed and female-typed product markets (craft beer and cupcakes, respectively). In the male-typed product market, a craft beer described as produced by a woman is evaluated more negatively than the same product described as produced by a man. Consistent with our predictions, we further find that if the beer is conferred external status via an award, the evaluation of the beer made by a woman improves by a greater magnitude than the same beer made by a man. In the female-typed product market of cupcakes, the producer's gender does not affect ratings. Together, the two studies provide evidence of an asymmetric-negative bias: products made by women are disadvantaged in male-typed markets, but products made by men are not disadvantaged in female-typed markets. These studies also provide compelling evidence of status belief transfer from producers to their products. We draw out the implications of these findings and suggest ways that gender biases in product markets can be reduced.
"Moving One Seat Over": Division I Women's Basketball Female Assistant Coaches' Views of Head Coaching

iv Introduction.1 Declines in Female Head Coaches: Reasons for Concern.3 Women’s Interest in Head Coaching Jobs.7 Conceptual Framework for Examining Female Assistant Coaches Views.9 Social Cognitive Career Theory.9 Social Role Theory.10 Belongingness Theory.11 Present Study.12 Method.14 Qualitative Design.14 Participants and Setting.14 Table 1. Overview of Partcipants.15 Role of the Researcher.16 Data Collection.17 Data Analysis.18 Data Credibility.19 Results and Discussion.20 The Power of Same-Sex Role Models.20 Gender Differences and Whether They Matter.22 Title IX Collateral Damage: “It’s Nothing but The Money”. 25 Gender-Related Obstacles.27 Preparation for “Moving One Seat Over” . 31 Variations in Coaches' Responding Across Years of Experience.34 Conclusions.36 References.40 Appendix A. IRB Form.45 Appendix B. Interview Guide.46 Appendix C. Higher-Order Theme Chart.48 Vita.51
Value Creation Through Entrepreneurial Activity: A Multiple Constituency Approach

While both business press and scholarly research largely portray entrepreneurship within well-established companies as inherently good, empirical evidence for positive performance implications based on rigorous research is scarce. This paper empirically assesses whether and for whom entrepreneurial activity creates value in a large traditional firm. In contrast to previous research I adopt a less "heroic" view and emphasize day-to-day entrepreneurship -"getting things done in an entrepreneurial way"- instead of focusing on grand entrepreneurship, i.e. new venture creation or new product development. Furthermore, I consider the perspectives of multiple constituencies to assess performance implications over time, and acknowledge the value creation potential at the sub-unit level. In the empirical part of the paper I analyze entrepreneurial activities of 121 middle managers in a large European financial services firm and their effect on changes in economic performance, customer satisfaction, and subordinate satisfaction. I combine subjective (survey) data on entrepreneurial activity and objective data on performance collected over three consecutive years (1997-2000). My results show that entrepreneurial activities of middle managers are positively and significantly related to change in economic results, measured in terms of profit growth. Non-significant results linking entrepreneurial activities and changes in customer or subordinate satisfaction suggest that entrepreneurial activities hardly connote a "quick fix" in these dimensions. The results furthermore accentuate the importance of personal characteristics of middle managers for the development of economic performance. My data, e.g., suggest that female middle managers and managers holding lower-level educational degrees do significantly better in achieving profit growth.
Microglia-conditioned medium promotes locomotor recovery and neuroprotection after rat spinal cord injury

This work examines whether microglia-conditioned medium (MCM) is beneficial in stressed spinal cord cells or tissues. MCM was separated into two fractions by 50 kDa molecular cut-off centrifugation. MCM not only promoted survival of neuronal and oligodendroglial cells but effectively reduced LPS stimulation in spinal cord cultures. We further utilized the NYU weight-drop device to induce contusive spinal cord injury (SCI) in rats. Immediately after dropping the impactor from a height of 25 mm onto thoracic spinal segment, MCM was intrathecally administered. At 6 weeks post-injury, SCI rats receiving MCM > 50 kDa treatment showed significant hind-limb improvement over MCM 50 kDa, of microglia was neuroprotective against spinal cord injury.