Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The influence of growth and E. coli endotoxaemia on amoxicillin pharmacokinetics in turkeys

ABSTRACT 1. This experiment aimed to determine if the pharmacokinetics of amoxicillin (AMO) was affected by rapid growth or intravenous (i.v.) injection of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS). 2. Turkeys of 2.0, 5.5 and 12.0 kg were administered i.v. or orally with AMO sodium at the dose of 15 mg/kg. Another group (5.7 kg) was treated with LPS prior to i.v. AMO administration. Plasma drug concentrations were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography and pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated using a non-compartmental model. To assess the haemodynamic effects of endotoxaemia, turkeys were subjected to echocardiography. 3. During growth from 2.0 to 5.5 kg, the area under the drug concentration-time curve after i.v. AMO administration increased from 9.37 ± 2.43 to 21.29 ± 5.49 mg×h/ml. Total body clearance decreased from 1.72 ± 0.55 to 0.75 ± 0.12 l/h/kg. Growth to 12.0 kg did not further affect these parameters. Mean residence time and elimination half-life gradually increased. Pharmacokinetics of orally administered drug followed a similar pattern. LPS injection affected stroke volume, heart rate and resistance index. However, it did not affect the pharmacokinetic profile of AMO in survivors. 4. It is concluded that rapid growth in turkeys affects AMO pharmacokinetics. Endotoxaemia, on the other hand, does not affect AMO elimination if compensatory mechanisms develop.
Media use and relational closeness in long-term friendships: interpreting patterns of multimodality

Although most friendships use a variety of media to stay in touch, many studies have ignored the multimodality of social life. This study uses media niche theory to consider: changes in patterns of media use across time, which modalities tend to be used in association with other modalities; and the association between specific modalities and relational closeness. Data assessing modality usage and degree of friendship closeness were collected on best friendship pairs in 1987 and 2002. The results suggest that postal mail use has declined between 1987 and 2002, telephone contact has become a particularly potent predictor of relational closeness, and face-to-face contact is a less stable indicator of closeness. Intimacy and efficiency or convenience emerge as two potentially important constructs for understanding how modalities are used for maintaining relational closeness.
Market momentum, macroeconomic factors, and investor sentiment: Using the VAR model to evidence from Taiwan stock exchange

Abstract While the VAR models further considers the effect of the lagged variables and examines the interactions among the macro economy, investor sentiment, and momentum. The results which show the existence of the interactions support our predictions, implying that the pricing of stocks or firms should take account of future macroeconomic situation and investor sentiment to get an optimal price. The evidence indicates that the market momentum is affected by exchange rate and oil price. This effect can be possibly attributed to the US dollar fluctuation aroused by the volatility of the oil prices, and in turn affecting the consumers’ aspiration level. The changes in the consumers’ aspiration will further influence market momentum. Suggesting that the momentum can be attributed to investor sentiment, our conclusion supports the argument of Baker and Wurgler (2006).
State Control and the Delivery of Health Care: A Preliminary Study in Eleven European Countries

The author's thesis is; in health systems primarily controlled by the state there is an emphasis on (primary) general care and less on (secondary level) specialised services, both in supply of medical staff and in facilities. The opposite is predicted for health systems with less state control and more room for control by the medical profession. Empirical support is found for this thesis, but it needs to be underlined that this conclusion is preliminary, because much work needs to be done to get more and better data.
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of spironolactone on carotid intima-media thickness in nondiabetic hemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Hemodialysis patients (HD) display high rates of cardiac diseases and mortality. In chronic kidney disease, vascular injury leads to coronary artery disease, heart failure, and stroke. Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) measurements are currently widely used in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to study the efficacy of interventions. An RCT was designed for the assessment of the safety and effectiveness of spironolactone to inhibit the progression of CIMT in HD patients as a primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included measurements of plasma potassium. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS HD patients were randomly assigned to receive 50 mg spironolactone or placebo thrice weekly after dialysis. In between dialysis sessions, plasma potassium concentrations were measured every month. Ultrasonographic measurements of CIMT were done at the beginning of the study and after 2 years. RESULTS Fifty-three age- and sex-adjusted patients (30 with drug and 23 with placebo) successfully completed the trial. There were no significant differences between the two groups in all profiles studied at baseline. Measurements of CIMT after 2 years showed a progression in the placebo group, whereas in the spironolactone group a significant decrease or even reversed CIMT was observed. Progression rates (mm/yr) were: common carotid, placebo: 0.06 +/- 0.07, spironolactone: 0.01 +/- 0.04; carotid bifurcation, placebo: 0.15 +/- 0.27, spironolactone: 0.0001 +/- 0.01; internal carotid, placebo: 0.10 +/- 0.12, spironolactone: -0.10 +/- 0.15. No episodes of hyperkalemia were observed, but a slight increase in plasma potassium was found in the spironolactone group. CONCLUSIONS Fifty milligrams of spironolactone thrice weekly significantly reduced the progression of CIMT in HD patients.
Lessons on knowledge creation in supply chain management

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to convey lessons learned from a long-term research project and present a coherent approach for researching relevant areas, ranging from ontology to quality. Design/methodology/approach – A PhD process is used as a case to present conceptual ideas on performing research in logistics/supply chain management (SCM). Findings – The research integrates different views on knowledge and the world and how to perform research in logistics/SCM. Models explaining micro and macro abduction, and the relationship between research, the context and researcher subjectivity are suggested. Research limitations/implications – Knowledge on why and how critical realism can be used in logistics/SCM research is advanced. Abduction is presented as a micro/macro process, which should not have any specific “finish line”, and is supported with both ontological and epistemological arguments. Practical implications – Research in logistics/SCM can be improved by connecting different aspects of vie.
CSR as crisis risk: expanding how we conceptualize the relationship

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a crisis risk. The bulk of the current research on CSR and crisis examined the role of CSR as an asset in a crisis. CSR as crisis risk is a direct function of CSR’s increasingly important role in reputation management. CSR has become an important aspect of corporate reputations – it is one of the dimensions used to assess a corporation’s crisis. The value of CSR to reputations is illustrated in the RepTrak reputation measure from the Reputation Institute and the value it places upon CSR. If stakeholders can challenge CSR claims by arguing a corporation is acting irresponsibly, the stakeholders can erode the corporation’s reputational assets by creating a challenge crisis. A CSR-based challenge occurs when stakeholders redefine a corporation’s current practices as irresponsible. The CSR-based challenge can be risk because it can damage reputational assets and potentially escalate into a crisis. CSR become.
Why Consistency of Accounting Standards Matters: A Contribution to the Rules-Versus-Principles Debate in Financial Reporting

A cross-firm consistent application of accounting standards is sought in all major accounting regimes. Since many transactions and events are only vaguely or not explicitly addressed in the standards managers must often use judgment when applying accounting standards to particular transactions or events. This analysis concludes that a consistent application of accounting standards can only be ensured if the accounting standards themselves are internally consistent. By contrast, inconsistent standards—in the absence of clear guidance—permit managers to (more or less arbitrarily) choose between different accounting methods. Moreover, it is found that a consistent application presupposes the existence of specific guidance (‘rules’) in order to frame management's judgment. It is argued that the reliance on principles only—as requested by many in the accounting literature—fails to ensure a consistent application because it allows management to exert judgment differently in identical cases. The assessment includes arguments and propositions from the international discussion in the accounting literature and also refers to other related fields of research, such as legal theory.
Firm Performance and Executive Compensation in the Savings and Loan Industry

Previous empirical analyses of the relationship between executive compensation and firm performance are often interpreted as suggesting that this relationship is weak. Although an absolute term like "weak" is ambiguous in this context, relative terms, such as "stronger," are meaningful. We argue that a stronger relationship can be found if a more appropriate specification is used in estimation. Specifically, an implicit assumption in the previous literature is that all firms use the same compensation scheme. Theoretically, this is a difficult assumption to accept. Moreover, we show that it is rejected empirically as well. When we allow different compensation schemes, we indeed find a relationship between executive pay and firm performance that is about 2.8 times larger than that found using previous methods.
Understanding nurses’ work: Exploring the links between changing work, labour relations, workload, stress, retention and recruitment

This article enhances our understanding of nurses’ work as they see it, in an exploration of the links between changing work, the labour relations climate, workload, stress, retention and recruitment. Conventionally separate bodies of literature on occupational health and safety, public sector industrial relations and human resource management informed the design and implementation of the study. Interviews with nurses revealed a high level of commitment but also indicated clear links between the labour relations climate, work intensification leading to high stress and poor work–life balance, retention and recruitment. The study concludes that working conditions must be improved to gain a healthy workplace and because wage increases on their own are not enough to make nursing more attractive.
Peak Load Pricing with a Diverse Technology

This paper examines simultaneously the effects of a diverse technology (i.e., multiple plant types), stochastic demand, and rationing costs on the pricing policy of a welfare maximizing public utility where peak loads are present. Optimal pricing and operating policies are derived where the technology fulfills certain convexity conditions. The approach shows the efficiency of peak load pricing under stochastic demand conditions which contrasts with the results of earlier writers. Bounds on prices are derived. Comparisons with the deterministic demand case are made, and a numerical example shows the effects of changes in various parameters on prices and capacity.
SAW parameters for langasite at high temperatures

For three cuts of langasite with Euler angles (0°,138.5°,27°), (0°,22°,31°), and (0°,22°,90°) the temperature dependencies of SAW parameters - velocities, reflection coefficients and propagation loss were determined experimentally up to 800°C. For this, the test structures - delay lines and resonators, operating in the frequency range from 200 MHz up to 600 MHz, were designed and fabricated using Pt metallization. The influence of a passivation layer of Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> was investigated. The perspective for the use of the STW cut is discussed.
Declaring Bankruptcy on Educational Inequity

The authors consider Ladson-Billings’ (2006) charge to reframe the way the ‘achievement gap’ is viewed, and put forth the metaphor of “bankruptcy” as a way to acknowledge the educational debt and educational inequity and move towards debt forgiveness in public education. Specifically, the bankruptcy metaphor is used to examine the debt embedded in the historical progression of federal school reform policy including the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act. Acknowledging this debt requires valuing and supporting children and their families through educational policy that supports equity. The authors assert that reconciliation of the debt requires working across disciplines and agencies to address the larger community issues surrounding educational inequities.
The Impact of Historical Districts on Residential Property Values

Interest in promoting neighborhood revitalization has led local governments and community groups to propose the establishment of historic districts. By creating a historic district, and by imposing land use controls, they hope to foster increased demand for the properties. However, the restrictions may prove burdensome and the additional information may have no value. Using a hedonic pricing model for housing sales for Elgin and Aurora, Illinois, the authors test for the effect on sales prices of location in a historic district and find it positively, but weakly, related to sales price in Elgin and positively related to location in a low-income area in the historic district in Aurora.
The Response of Hours of Work to Increases in the Minimum Wage

This paper examines the effect of minimum wage increases on the hours of work of teenagers (ages 16 to 19) using monthly data from the Current Population Survey. Our findings are consistent with the prediction from neoclassical theory that minimum wage increases have a negative effect on labor demand. However, the estimates we provide here for the elasticity of hours of teen labor demanded with respect to the minimum wage suggest that alternative estimates based on aggregate employment consistently understate the total impact of minimum wage increases on teenage labor utilization.
Comparative genomics of rhizobia nodulating soybean suggests extensive recruitment of lineage-specific genes in adaptations

The rhizobium–legume symbiosis has been widely studied as the model of mutualistic evolution and the essential component of sustainable agriculture. Extensive genetic and recent genomic studies have led to the hypothesis that many distinct strategies, regardless of rhizobial phylogeny, contributed to the varied rhizobium–legume symbiosis. We sequenced 26 genomes of Sinorhizobium and Bradyrhizobium nodulating soybean to test this hypothesis. The Bradyrhizobium core genome is disproportionally enriched in lipid and secondary metabolism, whereas several gene clusters known to be involved in osmoprotection and adaptation to alkaline pH are specific to the Sinorhizobium core genome. These features are consistent with biogeographic patterns of these bacteria. Surprisingly, no genes are specifically shared by these soybean microsymbionts compared with other legume microsymbionts. On the other hand, phyletic patterns of 561 known symbiosis genes of rhizobia reflected the species phylogeny of these soybean microsymbionts and other rhizobia. Similar analyses with 887 known functional genes or the whole pan genome of rhizobia revealed that only the phyletic distribution of functional genes was consistent with the species tree of rhizobia. Further evolutionary genetics revealed that recombination dominated the evolution of core genome. Taken together, our results suggested that faithfully vertical genes were rare compared with those with history of recombination including lateral gene transfer, although rhizobial adaptations to symbiotic interactions and other environmental conditions extensively recruited lineage-specific shell genes under direct or indirect control through the speciation process.
The advantage of short paper titles

Vast numbers of scientific articles are published each year, some of which attract considerable attention, and some of which go almost unnoticed. Here, we investigate whether any of this variance can be explained by a simple metric of one aspect of the paper's presentation: the length of its title. Our analysis provides evidence that journals which publish papers with shorter titles receive more citations per paper. These results are consistent with the intriguing hypothesis that papers with shorter titles may be easier to understand, and hence attract more citations.
Pilot study comparing SPECT perfusion scintigraphy with CT pulmonary angiography in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension

Background and objective: The management of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is dependent on the extent of pulmonary artery obstruction, which is usually evaluated by planar perfusion scanning and CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA). We previously reported that SPECT perfusion scanning is more sensitive than planar scanning for detecting vascular obstruction in CTEPH. The purpose of this study is to compare SPECT with CTPA for detecting segmental pulmonary artery obstruction in CTEPH.
Computer-aided detection of kidney tumor on abdominal computed tomography scans

Purpose: To implement a computer-aided detection system for kidney segmentation and kidney tumor detection on abdominal computed tomography (CT) scans. Material and Methods: Abdominal CT images were digitized with a film digitizer, and a gray-level threshold method was used to segment the kidney. Based on texture analysis performed on sample images of kidney tumors, a portion of the kidney tumor was selected as seed region for start point of the region-growing process. The average and standard deviations were used to detect the kidney tumor. Starting at the detected seed region, the region-growing method was used to segment the kidney tumor with intensity values used as an acceptance criterion for a homogeneous test. This test was performed to merge the neighboring region as kidney tumor boundary. These methods were applied on 156 transverse images of 12 cases of kidney tumors scanned using a G.E. Hispeed CT scanner and digitized with a Lumisys LS-40 film digitizer. Results: The computer-aided detection system resulted in a kidney tumor detection sensitivity of 85% and no false-positive findings. Conclusion: This computer-aided detection scheme was useful for kidney tumor detection and gave the characteristics of detected kidney tumors.
Stock Prices and Fundamentals

We consider a variety of fundamentals-based explanations for the recent stock price run-up, including changes in preferences, dividend growth rates, and the extent of risk sharing. In a calibrated OLG model we focus on two aspects of risk sharing-the market participation rate and the degree of diversification. We conclude that the relatively small changes in participation that have occurred over this decade are unlikely to be a major part of the explanation. Increased portfolio diversification, however, is likely to have had a larger effect. There is empirical evidence that households have significantly diversified their portfolios, selling individual stocks and buying mutual funds. An important difference between poorly diversified portfolios and investment in a market index is the reduced likelihood of catastrophic outcomes. When this is reflected in model parameters, the expected equity premium falls by more than 4%. More generally, we construct scenarios that are loosely consistent with the data in which the required return on stocks falls by 2%. Using a calibrated Gordon growth model, we find that this change in expected returns goes at least halfway towards justifying the current high level of the price-dividend ratio in the U.S. stock market.
Contributions of vascular flow and pulmonary capillary pressure to ventilator-induced lung injury

Objective:To evaluate the influence of vascular flow on ventilator-induced lung injury independent of vascular pressures. Design:Laboratory study. Setting:Hospital laboratory. Subjects:Thirty-two New Zealand White rabbits. Interventions:Thirty-two isolated perfused rabbit lungs were allocated into four groups: low flow/low pulmonary capillary pressure; high flow/high pulmonary capillary pressure; low flow/high pulmonary capillary pressure, and high flow/low pulmonary capillary pressure. All lungs were ventilated with peak airway pressure 30 cm H2O and positive end-expiratory pressure 5 cm H2O for 30 mins. Measurements and Main Results:Outcome measures included frequency of gross structural failure (pulmonary rupture), pulmonary hemorrhage, edema formation, changes in lung compliance, pulmonary vascular resistance, and pulmonary ultrafiltration coefficient. Lungs exposed to high pulmonary vascular flow ruptured more frequently, displayed more hemorrhage, developed more edema, suffered larger decreases in compliance, and had larger increases in vascular resistance than lungs exposed to low vascular flows (p < .05 for each pairwise comparison between groups). Conclusions:These findings suggest that high pulmonary vascular flows might exacerbate ventilator-induced lung injury independent of their effects on pulmonary vascular pressures.
The genetic and economic impact of the CIMMYT wheat breeding program on local producers in the Yaqui Valley, Sonora Mexico

This article quantifies the productivity gain from CIMMYT-released semidwarf bread wheat ("Triticum aestivum") cultivars over time, using test plot data from Mexico's Yaqui Valley. Previous studies have shown a deceleration in irrigated wheat yield growth since the 1980s, which could be due to slowing increase in genetic potential. Our results suggest that CIMMYT cultivars contributed a 0.46% annual increase (about 38 kg/ha annually) to wheat yields in the Yaqui Valley, which raised local wheat producers' revenue by an average of $4 million annually for the period 1990 to 2002, and by approximately $9 million in 2002. Copyright (c) 2010 International Association of Agricultural Economists.
Middle-Class and Slum-Based Collective Action in Bangalore

This article contributes to further our understanding of factors shaping collective action in urban India. Based primarily on fieldwork conducted in slums and middle-class neighbourhoods in Bangalore, the article strengthens the case against a dualistic reading of collective action by identifying some important convergences between actions of middle-class and slum-based associations. It argues that new urban governance initiatives have been worked by slum-based associations to make claims in ways that are reminiscent of the ‘insurgent citizenship’ observed among middle-class associations. The article also highlights how slum-based mobilizations are driven not merely by patron–client political networks or the politics of stealth, but also inspired from larger identity-based movements. Middle-class associations, on the other hand, reveal increasingly deeper engagement with formal politics, a realm that the ‘new politics’ had not earlier engaged with.