Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physician and patient benefit–risk preferences from two randomized long-acting injectable antipsychotic trials

Purpose To quantify clinical trial participants’ and investigators’ judgments with respect to the relative importance of efficacy and safety attributes of antipsychotic treatments for schizophrenia, and to assess the impact of formulation and adherence. Methods Discrete-choice experiment surveys were completed by patients with schizophrenia and physician investigators participating in two phase-3 clinical trials of paliperidone palmitate 3-month long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotic. Respondents were asked to choose between hypothetical antipsychotic profiles defined by efficacy, safety, and mode of administration. Data were analyzed using random-parameters logit and probit models. Results Patients (N=214) and physicians (N=438) preferred complete improvement in positive symptoms (severe to none) as the most important attribute, compared with improvement in any other attribute studied. Both respondents preferred 3-month and 1-month injectables to oral formulation (P<0.05), irrespective of prior adherence to oral antipsychotic treatment, with physicians showing greater preference for a 3-month over a 1-month LAI for nonadherent patients. Physicians were willing to accept treatments with reduced efficacy for patients with prior poor adherence. The maximum decrease in efficacy (95% confidence interval [CI]) that physicians would accept for switching a patient from daily oral to 3-month injectable was as follows: adherent: 9.8% (95% CI: 7.2–12.4), 20% nonadherent: 25.4% (95% CI: 21.0–29.9), and 50% nonadherent: >30%. For patients, adherent: 10.1% (95% CI: 6.1–14.1), nonadherent: the change in efficacy studied was regarded as unimportant. Conclusion Improvement in positive symptoms was the most important attribute. Patients and physicians preferred LAIs over oral antipsychotics, with physicians showing a greater preference for 3-month over 1-month LAI. Physicians and patients were willing to accept reduced efficacy in exchange for switching a patient from an oral formulation to a LAI.
International Business Management

An Australasian perspective providing a broad coverage of the many facets of the topic. 'International Business Management' is a fresh and original book written from an Australasian perspective providing a broad coverage of the many facets of the topic. It is aimed at students in business and commerce at undergraduate and postgraduate levels as well as those with broad interests in international relations, political science and humanities. It is aimed at stimulating debate and inquiry; and policy makers, legislators, administrators and community leaders will also find the style of the book useful to their understanding of the contemporary international business environment.
A New Constrained Multiobjective Optimization Algorithm Based on Artificial Immune Systems

This paper proposes a new constrained multiobjective optimization algorithm based on artificial immune systems (AIS). To deal with constrained multiobjective optimization problems, the constrained AlS-based multiobjective optimization algorithm is developed by integrating a proposed constraint-handling technique with the unconstrained AIS-based multiobjective optimization algorithm named MOAIS (Xiao and Zu, 2006). We propose the constraint-handling technique by extending a single-objective constraint-handling technique called stochastic ranking (Runarsson and Yao, 2000) to multiobjective optimization process. Two scenarios of the multiobjective version of stochastic ranking are suggested. Thereafter, we develop the constrained MOAIS named MOAIS+SR by integrating the two scenarios with MOAIS. A comparative study is performed quantitatively to assess the performance of MOAIS+SR on a constrained test function suite called CTP test problems. In the comparative study, MOAIS+SR is compared against two other constrained multiobjective algorithms. The simulation results show that the proposed multiobjective stochastic ranking outperforms the constrained-dominance principle (Deb et al., 2000) in handling constraints. Furthermore, we show that the proposed MOAIS+SR achieves the best overall performance among the three algorithms under consideration on the CTP test problems. This study demonstrates that the proposed MOAIS+SR is highly competitive with other state-of-the-art algorithms in constrained multiobjective optimization.
GDF11 does not rescue aging-related pathological hypertrophy.

RATIONALE Growth differentiation factor 11 (GDF11) is a member of the transforming growth factor-β super family of secreted factors. A recent study showed that reduced GDF11 blood levels with aging was associated with pathological cardiac hypertrophy (PCH) and restoring GDF11 to normal levels in old mice rescued PCH. OBJECTIVE To determine whether and by what mechanism GDF11 rescues aging dependent PCH. METHODS AND RESULTS Twenty-four-month-old C57BL/6 mice were given a daily injection of either recombinant (r) GDF11 at 0.1 mg/kg or vehicle for 28 days. rGDF11 bioactivity was confirmed in vitro. After treatment, rGDF11 levels were significantly increased, but there was no significant effect on either heart weight or body weight. Heart weight/body weight ratios of old mice were not different from 8- or 12-week-old animals, and the PCH marker atrial natriuretic peptide was not different in young versus old mice. Ejection fraction, internal ventricular dimension, and septal wall thickness were not significantly different between rGDF11 and vehicle-treated animals at baseline and remained unchanged at 1, 2, and 4 weeks of treatment. There was no difference in myocyte cross-sectional area rGDF11 versus vehicle-treated old animals. In vitro studies using phenylephrine-treated neonatal rat ventricular myocytes, to explore the putative antihypertrophic effects of GDF11, showed that GDF11 did not reduce neonatal rat ventricular myocytes hypertrophy, but instead induced hypertrophy. CONCLUSIONS Our studies show that there is no age-related PCH in disease-free 24-month-old C57BL/6 mice and that restoring GDF11 in old mice has no effect on cardiac structure or function.
Prevalence of faecal carriage of Enterobacteriaceae with NDM-1 carbapenemase at military hospitals in Pakistan, and evaluation of two chromogenic media.

OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae among hospitalized patients and outpatients attending two military hospitals in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and to compare the performance of two chromogenic culture media for the isolation of these organisms. METHODS Stool samples from 200 distinct patients were cultured on MacConkey agar and subsequently on two chromogenic media-Colorex KPC and a prototype chromogenic medium, ID Carba-designed for the isolation of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae. All Gram-negative isolates growing on either chromogenic medium were investigated for carbapenemases by phenotypic and molecular methods. Producers were subjected to susceptibility testing with 40 antimicrobials by VITEK 2 or agar dilution. RESULTS In total, 64 NDM-1-positive isolates of Enterobacteriaceae, belonging to seven distinct species, were recovered from 37 (18.5%) of the stool samples. No other carbapenemase types were confirmed. Nineteen positive samples were identified among 70 from inpatients (prevalence 27.1%) and there were 18 positive samples among 130 from outpatients (prevalence 13.8%). Fifty-six isolates (87.5%) harbouring the NDM-1 enzyme were recovered on ID Carba compared with 41 isolates (64.1%) on Colorex KPC (P = 0.012). Multidrug resistance was prevalent, but no pan-resistant isolates were found, with most isolates susceptible in vitro to colistin (97%), mecillinam (95%), fosfomycin (94%), tigecycline (89%) and nitrofurantoin (78%). CONCLUSIONS This study shows a high prevalence of multidrug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae with the NDM-1 enzyme in Rawalpindi. The new chromogenic medium, ID Carba, was more sensitive than Colorex KPC and has potential as a screening medium for isolation of Enterobacteriaceae harbouring the NDM-1 enzyme.
Differential Regulation of MAPK Phosphorylation in the Dorsal Hippocampus in Response to Prolonged Morphine Withdrawal-Induced Depressive-Like Symptoms in Mice

Depression is one of the most frequent neuropsychiatric comorbidities associated with opiate addiction. Mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) and MAPK phosphatase (MKP) are involved in drug addiction and depression. However, the potential role of MAPK and MKP in depression caused by morphine withdrawal remains unclear. We utilized a mouse model of repeated morphine administration to examine the molecular mechanisms that contribute to prolonged withdrawal induced depressive-like behaviors. Depressive-like behaviors were significant at 1 week after withdrawal and worsened over time. Phospho-ERK (extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase) was decreased and MKP-1 was elevated in the hippocampus, and JNK (c-Jun N-terminal protein kinase), p38 (p38 protein kinase) and MKP-3 were unaffected. A pharmacological blockade of MKP-1 by intra-hippocampal sanguinarine (SA) infusion prevented the development of depressive-like behaviors and resulted in relatively normal levels of MKP-1 and phospho-ERK after withdrawal. Our findings support the association between hippocampal MAPK phosphorylation and prolonged morphine withdrawal-induced depression, and emphasize the MKP-1 as an negative regulator of the ERK phosphorylation that contributes to depression.
Women in Contemporary Mexican Politics

Introduction The Feminization of Mexican Public Life, and a Note on MethodologyChapter 1 Participation, Representation, and Democracy: How the Personal Becomes the Political for Women in Contemporary MexicoChapter 2 The Social, Economic, and Political Identity of Mexican Women: Negotiating Private and Public SpacesChapter 3 The Women's Movement in Mexico: From Suffrage to the Institutionalization of Gender Chapter 4 Women in Public Office: Building Alliances, Getting Things Done Chapter 5 Women and the Electoral Process: Shifting Gears in the Mexican Political MachineChapter 6 Reframing Mexican Democracy: What Does the Future Hold for Women? NotesBibliography
The Recent Brazilian Disinflation Process and Costs

This work revisits the recent disinflation process in Brazil and finds that solely the agents' perception that a policy rupture could occur is capable of triggering a change in the way firms and households used to behave in their pricing and consuming decisions. This change was captured by structural breaks in the parameters of a generalized hybrid Phillips curve, following the 2002 inflation shock. The paper also shows that such parameter changes led to an increase in the disinflation cost evidenced by a free market inflation gain that would have been observed should the coefficients on the Phillips curve have not changed. The paper finds that, maintaining the occurred paths for interest rates, output gap, nominal exchange rates, administered price inflation and exogenous shocks, the free market inflation would have been significantly lower in the absence of such structural break in the underlying inflation process, since mid 2002.
The Macroeconomic Impact of Basel III on the Italian Economy

This paper provides an assessment of the costs of complying with Basel III for the Italian economy. The main findings are the following. For each percentage point increase in the capital ratio implemented over an eight-year horizon, the level of GDP would decline by 0.00-0.33% (0.03-0.39% if credit rationing is also accounted for), corresponding to a reduction of annual output growth in the transition period of 0.00-0.04 percentage points (0.00-0.05 percentage points if credit rationing is considered as well). Compliance with the new liquidity standards causes an additional slowdown of annual GDP growth of at most 0.02 percentage points. If banks felt forced to speed up the transition to the new capital rules by the beginning of 2013, the fall in output would be larger and would take place beforehand. Long-run costs of achieving the new capital standards are even lower, slightly less than 0.2%; those needed to comply with the target liquidity ratio are of a similar size. The above estimates suggest that the economic costs of Basel III are not huge and become negligible if compared with the potential benefits that can be reaped from reducing the frequency of systemic crises and the amplitude of boom-bust cycles.
The Effects of Computed Tomography with Iterative Reconstruction on Solid Pulmonary Nodule Volume Quantification

Background The objectives of this study were to evaluate the influence of iterative reconstruction (IR) on pulmonary nodule volumetry with chest computed tomography (CT). Methods Twenty patients (12 women and 8 men, mean age 61.9, range 32–87) underwent evaluation of pulmonary nodules with a 64-slice CT-scanner. Data were reconstructed using filtered back projection (FBP) and IR (Philips Healthcare, iDose4-levels 2, 4 and 6) at similar radiation dose. Volumetric nodule measurements were performed with semi-automatic software on thin slice reconstructions. Only solid pulmonary nodules were measured, no additional selection criteria were used for the nature of nodules. For intra-observer and inter-observer variability, measurements were performed once by one observer and twice by another observer. Algorithms were compared using the concordance correlation-coefficient (pc) and Friedman-test, and post-hoc analysis with the Wilcoxon-signed ranks-test with Bonferroni-correction (significance-level p<0.017). Results Seventy-eight nodules were present including 56 small nodules (volume<200 mm3, diameter<8 mm) and 22 large nodules (volume≥200 mm3, diameter≥8 mm). No significant differences in measured pulmonary nodule volumes between FBP, iDose4-levels 2, 4 and 6 were found in both small nodules and large nodules. FBP and iDose4-levels 2, 4 and 6 were correlated with pc-values of 0.98 or higher for both small and large nodules. Pc-values of intra-observer and inter-observer variability were 0.98 or higher. Conclusions Measurements of solid pulmonary nodule volume measured with standard-FBP were comparable with IR, regardless of the IR-level and no significant differences between measured volumes of both small and large solid nodules were found.
Living with Flexible Exchange Rates: Issues and Recent Experience in Inflation Targeting Emerging Market Economies

This overview paper examines two main issues. The first is why the exchange rate matters, especially for emerging market economies. The second is under what circumstances and how countries have dealt with the challenges posed by the exchange rate in recent years in the context of inflation targeting. We find that emerging market economies, being more exposed to the influence of the exchange rate, are likely to accord the exchange rate a bigger role in policy assessment and decision-making. However, even with the greater emphasis on the exchange rate, the emerging market economies under review have not attended to the exchange rate in a manner that contradicted their announced inflation commitments. Furthermore, recent experience shows that having to keep an eye on the exchange rate is also a fact of life in industrial economies, inflation targeting or not.
How Resource Challenges Can Improve Firm Innovation Performance: Identifying Coping Strategies

Researchers recently suggested that challenges in the form of adversities and constraints can actually promote individuals, teams and firms. However, it remains unclear how such challenges elicit positive innovation performance. Moreover, we still cannot distinguish between the conditions under which challenges enhance or hinder firm innovation performance. In this paper, we review the literature on coping with a specific and central type of challenge – resource challenge, such as a lack of financial or human resources – and propose an underlying mechanism through which firms can benefit from resource challenges. The paper presents an integrative conceptual framework and looks at the key constructs that explain the effects of resource challenges on firm innovation performance. Further, it proposes two key strategies for coping with resource challenges: simplification‐focus and compensation.
The Sources of the Great Moderation: A Survey

The decades preceding the outbreak of the financial crisis in August of 2007 were a period of exceptional stability for the US economy. A number of studies over the past decade proposed different theoretical rationales and underpinning empirical evidence to explain the so-called Great Moderation. These explanations can be categorized in three main groups: good luck; good policy; and good practice. This study reviews and evaluates the growing literature on the sources of the Great Moderation. We find that substantial debate still surrounds the underlining causes of reduction in output volatility, and suggests new aspects to expand the existing studies.
Dental Age and Tooth Development in Orthodontic Patients with Agenesis of Permanent Teeth

Objective. To compare the development of permanent teeth in a group of children with the congenitally missing permanent teeth (CMPT) and corresponding nonaffected group. Methods. The formation stages of all developing permanent teeth were determined on 345 panoramic radiographs (OPTs) by the method of Haavikko (1970), and dental age was calculated. The paired samples t-test was used to compare the differences between dental age (DA) and chronological age (CA) in those with CMPT and those not affected. Spearman test was used to evaluate the correlation between DA-CA and the number of missing teeth. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare the development of the teeth adjacent to the place of the agenesis with matched pair in corresponding nonaffected group. Results. Dental age was significantly delayed in CMPT children compared to the nonaffected group (p < 0.001). The mean differences were −0.57 ± 1.20 years and −0.61 ± 1.23 years in males and females, without difference between sexes (p = 0.763). The number of missing teeth affected the delay only in females (p = 0.024). Only mesial teeth in females were significantly delayed in development when compared to the nonaffected group (p = 0.007). Conclusion. Our findings show that the development of the permanent teeth is delayed when compared to the nonaffected group of the same sex and age.
Public Provision of Private Goods and Equilibrium Unemployment

This paper concerns public provision of a private good in a two-type model with optimal nonlinear income taxation. We assume that the wage rates are determined by bargaining between unions and firms, meaning that the equilibrium is characterized by unemployment. We show that, if the labor market is imperfectly competitive, additional mechanisms arise via the self-selection constraint, which may justify either more or less public provision of the private good than under perfect competition. Furthermore, public provision of private goods becomes a tool to influence the employment.
Haematophagus Mites in Poultry Farms of Iran

Background: Blood sucking mites are important avian ectoparasites which being found on bird species worldwide. Their presence are problematic for the producers either through potential direct effects on weight gain, egg production, sperm production in roosters or as nuisance pests on worker handle hens and eggs. The aim of this study was pointing out of the status of haematophagus mites. Methods: Eight caged layer and four breeder flocks were visited, monitoring for the presence of chicken mites performed by removing and examining debris from poultry house, infested nesting material collected into zip lock plastic bags and at least 20 birds were also randomly selected to examine the presence of chicken mites. Mites obtained from each population were mounted in Hoyer’s medium on microscope slides and identified. All eight caged layer and four breeder flocks were inspected, which were infested with chicken blood feeding mites. Results: Massive infestations of Dermanyssus gallinae were common with huge numbers of parasites on birds, cages and the conveyor belts for egg. Only one farm from Mazandaran Province was infested to Ornithonyssus bursa. Conclusion: Dermanyssus gallinae was the most prevalent blood feeder mite in the breeder and caged layer flocks in Iran, while O. bursa was reported as a first record, which found only in a breeder flock in Mazanderan Province. It seems that its presence is limited into the area which affected by both warm and humid environmental conditions.
The determinants of savings in the third pension pillar

The paper analyses participation in and contributions to the third pillar of the pension system by Belgian households. This pillar represents individual saving for retirement and has been growing rapidly. A detailed dataset of tax declarations over the period from 1993 until 2003 was used to analyse the possible determinants of saving in the third pillar. Firstly, this dataset makes an analysis from a macroeconomic point of view possible, showing an apparent increase in total contributions to the third pillar by 39 p.c. in real terms between 1993 and 2003. This increase is mainly due to a rise in the participation rate (29 p.c. in 1993 and 40 p.c. in 2003). A detailed analysis is provided across the age groups, which further shows the influence of the demographic evolution, the average income of the participants in the third pillar and the contribution rate. The dataset also helps point up a wide number of possible microeconomic determinants of saving for retirement, such as age, income, professional status, civil status, region of residence, property ownership, employment situation, participation in second pillar pension schemes, number of dependents, etc. Moreover, the database allows a distinction to be made between the two forms in the third pillar : pension saving and life insurance. From such a microeconomic point of view, the analysis sheds some light on the major determinants of participation to the third pillar. The main findings show that older households are more likely to opt for a third pillar pension scheme. Furthermore, it appears that households consider the two forms of the third pillar as being complementary rather than substitutes for each other : households that participate in pension saving schemes are also more likely to take out life insurance and vice versa. Besides age, the other determinants that have a positive impact on participation in the third pillar of the pension system are : having higher income, being self-employed, getting an early retirement pension, being a home owner, being married and living in Flanders rather than Brussels or Wallonia.
Gates of Injustice: The Crisis in America's Prisons

Preface to the Second Edition xi Preface to the First Edition xiii Acknowledgments xvii Chapter 1: The Second Toughest Sheriff in America 1 Chapter 2: Becoming a Prison Nation 11 Chapter 3: Entering the Gates 31 Chapter 4: The Vulnerable 63 Chapter 5: The Sanity of the System 81 Chapter 6: An Unhealthy Situation 103 Chapter 7: Women Behind Bars 131 Chapter 8: Supermax 153 Chapter 9: Short-Term Problems 181 Chapter 10: Money, Money, Money 201 Chapter 11: After Prison 219 Chapter 12: Some Modest Suggestions 231 Endnotes 243 Index 265