Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dronedarone Therapy in Atrial Fibrillation: A Summary of Recent Controlled Trials

Dronedarone is a new multichannel blocker, structurally related to amiodarone but free of iodine and less lipophilic and so expected to be free of iodine-related organ toxicity and tissue accumulation. The drug was developed for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). The phase II Dronedarone Atrial FibrillatioN study after Electrical cardioversion (DAFNE) study established 400 mg twice-daily dosing (bid) as the standard dose for dronedarone in the maintenance of sinus rhythm. In the pivotal phase III European Trial In Atrial Fibrillation Or Flutter Patients Receiving Dronedarone For The Maintenance of Sinus Rhythm/ American-Australian-African Trial With Dronedarone In Atrial Fibrillation/flutter Patients For The Maintenance of Sinus Rhythm (EURIDIS/ADONIS) studies in patients with paroxysmal/persistent AF and atrial flutter, dronedarone significantly prolonged the mean time to first AF/flutter recurrence. Although dronedarone proved to be safe in these AF studies, a trial in patients with severe congestive heart failure was prematurely stopped because of excess mortality in the dronedarone relative to the control group. This finding prompted the conduct of a large randomized study in more than 4600 patients with nonpermanent AF, which used the primary end point of time to first cardiovascular (CV) hospitalization or death. Dronedarone significantly reduced the incidence of the primary as well as several secondary end points among which CV mortality was the most significant one. The results of this development program led to the approval of dronedarone for use in patients with AF in several jurisdictions. This article provides a short summary of the most important findings during the clinical development of dronedarone.
Do Government Tools Influence Organizational Performance?

This article explores whether the multiple tools used by government to implement social policy influence organizational performance. This analysis focuses on three tools—grants, contracts, and vouchers—and their use in the field of early childhood care and education. Through analysis of a field-based study of 22 organizations, the authors explore qualitative evidence and examine the relative consequences of each tool using multivariate modeling. The authors conceptualize organizational performance along four dimensions—management capacity, management outcomes, program capacity, and program outcomes—to better explore how government tools influence organizations delivering publicly funded services. Findings reveal that the different tools the government uses to implement early childhood programs have distinct consequences; grants have the most significant, positive consequences on a variety of desirable outcomes.
Hyperthermic effect on exponential and plateau ascites tumor cells in vitro dependent on environmental pH1.

Colony formation of tumor cells obtained from asynchronous exponential and plateau growth PNJ ascites tumors were studied after hyperthermic treatment (42/sup 0/C) at pH 6.4 and 7.2 under normal oxygen tension. The study revealed that at pH 7.2 plateau cells were more sensitive to heat than exponential cells. A pronounced increase in hyperthermic cell killing of exponential cells was found when the pH was changed from 7.2 to 6.4. Also, plateau cells were more sensitive to heat at pH 6.4 then at 7.2 but the relative decrease in cell survival was considerably less than in exponential cells. At pH 6.4 the plateau cells were still slightly more sensitive to heat than similarly treated exponential PNJ cells. Thus, an essential cause of the different effect of moderate hyperthermia on cells from exponential and plateau growth PNJ ascites tumors seems to be the different environment acidity but the possibility of a slightly increased heat sensitivity of plateau phase cells per se cannot be excluded.
Mobilising female labour market reserves: What promotes women’s transitions from part-time to full-time work?

Considering the high female part-time rates in Norway, one may envisage a sizeable additional labour supply if more part-time working women would switch to full time. In view of an ageing population and increased demand for labour in the future, we investigate this issue by studying married and cohabiting women's transitions from part-time to full-time work based on panel data from 2003-2009. Contrary to evidence from other countries with well-established support for working mothers, we find that young children in the household still restrain Norwegian women's mobility to full-time work. On the other hand, there is a strong trend of higher full-time transition rates over our study period, which may reflect a vast expansion of the day care sector with more and cheaper day care, as well as a booming economy. Part timers who work in typical female occupations such as nursing, and sales and services are also less likely to switch to full time. Whether this is a result of true preferences or constraints is difficult to say, but previous research suggest that involuntary part time may be substantial. Voluntariness may further be a matter of degree, and "chosen" part timers may also switch to full time if conditions were right.
Shakeout: A New Regularized Deep Neural Network Training Scheme

Recent years have witnessed the success of deep neural networks in dealing with a plenty of practical problems. The invention of effective training techniques largely contributes to this success. The so-called "Dropout" training scheme is one of the most powerful tool to reduce over-fitting. From the statistic point of view, Dropout works by implicitly imposing an L2 regularizer on the weights. In this paper, we present a new training scheme: Shakeout. Instead of randomly discarding units as Dropout does at the training stage, our method randomly chooses to enhance or inverse the contributions of each unit to the next layer. We show that our scheme leads to a combination of L1 regularization and L2 regularization imposed on the weights, which has been proved effective by the Elastic Net models in practice.We have empirically evaluated the Shakeout scheme and demonstrated that sparse network weights are obtained via Shakeout training. Our classification experiments on real-life image datasets MNIST and CIFAR-10 show that Shakeout deals with over-fitting effectively.
Nutritional assessment of elderly patients on dialysis: pitfalls and potentials for practice

The chronic kidney disease (CKD) population is aging. Currently a high percentage of patients treated on dialysis are older than 65 years. As patients get older, several conditions contribute to the development of malnutrition, namely protein energy wasting (PEW), which may be compounded by nutritional disturbances associated with CKD and from the dialysis procedure. Therefore, elderly patients on dialysis are vulnerable to the development of PEW and awareness of the identification and subsequent management of nutritional status is of importance. In clinical practice, the nutritional assessment of patients on dialysis usually includes methods to assess PEW, such as the subjective global assessment, the malnutrition inflammation score, and anthropometric and laboratory parameters. Studies investigating measures of nutritional status specifically tailored to the elderly on dialysis are scarce. Therefore, the same methods and cutoffs used for the general adult population on dialysis are applied to the elderly. Considering this scenario, the aim of this review is to discuss specific considerations for nutritional assessment of elderly patients on dialysis addressing specific shortcomings on the interpretation of markers, in addition to providing clinical practice guidance to assess the nutritional status of elderly patients on dialysis.
Student Perceptions of the Ethics of Professors

Ethical violations are becoming common in the business world. Teaching proper ethical behavior can begin in college. In this study, we surveyed 350 students to determine what affects students’ perceptions of the ethics of professors and to determine whether or not taking a course in ethics changes this perception. The most important factor in determining whether or not a professor is ethical is “fairness in grading. ” Surprisingly, there was no statistically significant difference between students who took a course in ethics and those who did not in their perception of what makes a professor ethical or unethical. There were some differences, however, between males and females in these perceptions. By learning ethical principles at the college-level, there may be an impact on ethical behavior when in the business world.
An Empirical Examination of Stability, Predictability, and Volatility of Middle Eastern and African Emerging Stock Markets

This paper examines the stability, predictability, volatility, time varying risk premiums and persistence of shocks to volatility in the ten Middle Eastern and African (ME&A) emerging stock markets. Although the majority of ME&A markets only recently gained emerging status, one finds that five out of the ten ME&A emerging markets have stable returns over time. On the issue of predictability in the ME&A emerging markets, three different tests have been employed to draw conclusions. It was found that by using the three different tests, one receives slightly different results on predictability. In general, one finds ME&A markets to be unpredictable. The findings on volatility in the emerging market indicate that eight out of the ten markets show evidence of volatility clustering, but in these eight ME&A markets the shocks are not explosive. On persistence of shocks to volatility, one finds only one market to have permanent shocks; and the volatility movement affects the stock market returns. In summary, eight emerging markets have volatility clustering and one market shows positive and significant time varying risk premiums. Overall, the results fail to indicate time varying risk premium in nine of the ten ME&A markets. Although many of the emerging markets in ME&A regions are in the formative stage, it is felt that ME&A equity markets are where investors may find a good return for the investment, considering the trade-off between risk and return. In particular, the correlation is found to be low, which provides investors with the opportunity for diversification.
A Stochastic Model of Consumer Behavior and Optimal Advertising

A stochastic consumer behavior model is constructed transforming Nicosia's Nicosia, F. M. , 1966. Consumer Decision Processes. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. postulates into probability hypotheses. Nicosia's deterministic model is obtained in the mean evolutions and variance-covariances, defined by a system of linear differential equations obtained. This system, forming together with mean evolutions a closed system of five simultaneous differential equations is studied for stability, to devise optimal communication strategies and for suggesting an estimation technique.
The impact of cross‐sectional data aggregation on the measurement of vertical price transmission: An experiment with German food prices

The impact of cross-sectional aggregation over individual retail stores on the estimation and testing of vertical price transmission between the wholesale and retail levels is investigated using a unique data set of individual retail prices in Germany. Systematic differences between the results of estimations using aggregated data on the one hand, and disaggregated data on the other, are discussed theoretically and confirmed empirically. The results suggest that estimation with aggregated data can generate misleading conclusions about price transmission behavior at the level of the individual units (i.e., retail stores) that underlie these aggregates. lJEL classifications: C22, L11, D40r © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 505-522, 2006.
Taking Intermediation Seriously

Many modern approaches to macroeconomics attach no significance to financial intermediation. This is true despite the fact that various measures of banking activity are strongly correlated both with long-run real economic activity and with what happens during business cycles. Of course, the failure to attach significance to the macroeconomic consequences of financial intermediation could be rationalized if it had been shown that these correlations arose in a context where intermediary activity changed primarily in response to (or, in other words, was “caused by”) changes in real activity. However, this interpretation of the facts does not seem justified for a variety of reasons. For example, in a large literature on financial intermediation and long-run growth, Cameron (1967), Goldsmith (1969), King and Levine (1993a, 1993b), Atje and Jovanovic (1993), Demirguc-Kunt and Levine (1996), and Levine, Loayza, and Beck (2000) have demonstrated that measures of private intermediary lending are strongly positively correlated with real long-run growth (or with the long-run level of real activity). Indeed, King and Levine argue that measures of financial intermediary activity are the only variables that bear a robustly significant relationship to longrun growth experience. Interestingly, Gurley and Shaw (1955) had argued at a very early point that growth in real activity promoted growth in financial activity and conversely—and that both real growth and financial development were endogenously and jointly determined. This seems like a useful conceptual framework. But, perhaps even more interestingly, the only formal empirical tests, of which I am aware, that attempt to discuss whether real growth affects financial intermediation causally and conversely are by Levine, Loayza, and Beck (2000). They argue that financial development causes growth, but that there is no empirical causality in the opposite direction. With respect to business cycles, as a very young economist influenced by real business cycle theory, I once asked Robert Lucas what the evidence was that monetary factors were important for business cycles. He cited Friedman and
From private organizations to democratic infrastructure: Political parties and the state in Estonia

Estonia, one of the first former Soviet republics to regain independence, had to start the processes of party and state development from scratch, beginning with the development of a legal framework for political parties, establishing a regime of public party financing, and training and deploying elites in party and state administrations. In the case of the last element, a variety of career patterns has emerged as individuals have moved between political and administrative roles. The question of the neutrality of county governors and administrative department secretaries-general has been particularly contentious in what has become a close and strengthening relationship between parties and the state. This is visible in the legal status of parties, their growing reliance on public subsidies, and the substantial circulation of people between administrative and political echelons. This can partly be explained by patronage and the particular legacies of communism and state-building, but the small size of the country may have had an independent effect.
Empirical Tests for Stochastic Dominance Efficiency

We derive empirical tests for the stochastic dominance efficiency of a given portfolio with respect to all possible portfolios constructed from a set of assets. The tests can be computed using straightforward linear programming. Bootstrapping techniques and asymptotic distribution theory can approximate the sampling properties of the test results and allow for statistical inference. Our results could provide a stimulus to the further proliferation of stochastic dominance for the problem of portfolio selection and evaluation. Using our tests, the Fama and French market portfolio is significantly inefficient relative to benchmark portfolios formed on market capitalization and book-to-market equity ratio.
The Role of Human Capital in Loan Officers’ Decision Policies

Using a human–capital perspective and the similarity–attraction paradigm, we examine the role of general and specific human capital in the decision policies of 114 Swedish loan officers in their assessments of small–business loan requests. We found that human capital characteristics had marginal impact on decision policy contingencies and that specific human capital had no significant influence on the probability of loan approval. However, we did find that the similarity between the loan officers’ human capital and the applicants’ human capital was a significant indicator of loan approval. The findings offer interesting insight into the heterogeneity of loan decision processes and outcomes and future research opportunities are suggested.
The relationship between economic value added and the stock market performance of agribusiness firms.

This article examines the relationship between economic value added (EVA) and the stock market performance of 17 publicly traded companies in the Canadian food processing sector. The research is motivated by the increased popularity of EVA in corporate finance and by the claims that high EVA causes incremental gains in share price values. Using1996 annual reports to compute EVA, and daily stock prices for 1994 through 1998, we attempt to correlate EVA with a variety of measures including accounting return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), share price, the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) returns and risk, and others. Results find little support for the conjecture that high-EVA firms lead to higher shareholder value, however, because the management logic that has popularized EVA is so logical and fundamental to common practices in corporate finance that we resist dismissing EVA as a valued paradigm. Rather, we suggest that market volatility and other factors mask the short-run increments to shareholder wealth from EVA-implemented strategies. lEconLit citations: G30, Q13.r © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Loads on the lumbar trunk during level walking

The goal of this study was to estimate the loads internal to the lumbar trunk that arise during level walking. To do this, (a) trunk muscle activities were calibrated in terms of muscle contraction force levels in a set of isometric exertions; (b) trunk muscle myoelectric activities were measured during level walking; and then (c) the muscle contraction forces that arose during walking were calculated from these measurements and calibrations. Lumbar trunk muscle myoelectric activities were quantified in 10 healthy young males. Myoelectric activities were monitored using eight bipolar surface electrode pairs placed around the trunk at the level of the third lumbar vertebrae. The subjects first performed four static weight‐resisting tasks to calibrate muscle force/activity relationships. They then traversed a 8.25 m walkway three times each at cadences of 72 and 120 steps/min. A biomechanical model incorporating 22 lumbar trunk muscles was used to predict muscle contraction forces for the calibration tasks. Predicted forces were linearly correlated with the measured myoelectric activities for these tasks. The regression equations were then interpolated to estimate the muscle contraction forces from the myoelectric data during gait. Peak contraction forces for the iliocostalis muscles were calculated to be approximately 55 N per side, corresponding to total erector spinae peak contractions on the order of 140 N per side. For the other six muscles that were monitored, contraction forces were less than 15 N per side. This suggests that peak net reaction moments and peak spine compressions on the lumbar trunk during these walking tasks were on the order of 15 Nm and 1.2 times body weight, respectively.
Regional differences in organic composition of submicron and single particles during INTEX-B 2006

Organic functional group and elemental concentrations were measured with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) from an aircraft platform as part of the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment – Phase B (INTEX-B) conducted over the eastern Pacific and western North America. Single particle spectra were obtained using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy-near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectrometry (STXM-NEXAFS). Organic mass (OM) concentrations ranged from 1 to 7 μg m−3 and averaged 2.4-4.1 μg m−3. Alkane functional groups were the largest fraction of OM, averaging 1.9-2.1 μg m−3 or 50-76% of OM. Alcohol functional groups comprised the second largest fraction of OM (0.350.39 μg m−3, 9-14%). Organic and elemental concentrations are compared within and among geographical air mass regions: “Pacific” free troposphere, “Continental” free troposphere, “Seattle” metropolitan region, and the California “Central Valley”. OM concentrations were highest and most variable in the Central Valley (3.5±2 μg m−3). Alcohol functional group concentrations were highest in the Continental and Central Valley and lowest in the Pacific and Seattle air masses. Oxygen-to-carbon ratios were relatively constant in the Central Valley but variable for the Continental air masses. Most elemental concentrations did not show large variations among or within air mass categories. Overall, the OM concentrations showed greater variability within air mass categories as compared to averages among them, suggesting sampled air mass regions included a variety of sources, processing, and losses of organic aerosol. Single particle spectra obtained by STXM-NEXAFS were classified into metaclasses associated with different sources and atmospheric processing. Particles with spectra indicative of secondary organic aerosol production and combustion sources were found at several locations and a range of altitudes. At lower altitudes, particles with spectra resembling soil dust and biomass burning fingerprints were commonly observed. Single particle spectra provided evidence that condensation and surface-limited oxidation contributed to particle growth.
A collaborative Data Chat: Teaching summative assessment data use in pre-service teacher education

Abstract As the quality of educational outputs has been problematized, accountability systems have driven reform based upon summative assessment data. These policies impact the ways that educators use data within schools and subsequently, how teacher education programs may adjust their curricula to teach data-driven decision-making to inform instruction. This study explores the outcomes of an instructional intervention that taught data understanding, comprehension, and data use with pre-service teacher candidates. The intervention was based on the premise that using data for professional purposes is becoming a necessary proficiency for teacher education graduates and that teacher education curricula must explicitly address that need. Pre-service teacher candidates participated in a Data Chat where they collaboratively analyzed standardized testing and end-of-course assessment data and structured instructional interventions based upon determined strengths and weakness areas in student learning. Data were collected from two academic years. The results from Year 1 suggest that pre-service teacher candidate participants perceived an expanded sense of comfort with the data literacy behaviors (DLBs) following the intervention. Year 2 results validated the earlier finding of perceptions of self-efficacy with using summative assessment data and also identified specific DLBs needing more attention. Implications of the intervention for teacher education are discussed.