Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The in vitro effects of niacin on platelet biomarkers in human volunteers

Summary Niacin is a natural pyridine derivative, proven to favorably modulate the blood lipid profile by increasing levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and by reducing total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, and Lp (a) lipoprotein concentrations. Considering that platelet activity is important in predicting vascular outcomes, and that HDL heavily constitutes platelet cellular membranes, we sought to evaluate the effect of niacin on human platelet activity indices. The blood obtained from 30 aspirin-naïve volunteers was preincubated with escalating concentrations of niacin in vitro. Platelet tests included whole blood and plasma aggregometry, rapid cartridgebased analyser, expression of major surface receptors by flow cytometry, and plasma prostaglandins by ELISA. Preincubation of blood with niacin at 0.3, 1.0 and 3.0 mM resulted in significant inhibition of maximal adenosine diphosphate (ADP)- (p=0.03), and collagen-induced platelet aggregation (p=0.01), and reduced activity by VerifyNow™ (p=0.007) bedside analyser. Surface platelet PAR-1 (MoAb WEDE-15; p=0.04), and vitronectin (CD51/CD61; p=0.02) receptors were up-regulated. Niacin was associated with a two- to three-fold increase of thromboxane B2, prostaglandins D2, and E2. Formation of platelet-monocyte microparticles (CD14+CD151), and expression of PECAM-1 (CD31), thrombospondin (CD36), GP IIb/IIIa (CD41a) antigen, and activity with MoAb PAC-1, GPIb (CD42b), P-selectin (CD62p), LAMP-3 (CD63), LAMP-1 (CD107a), CD40-ligand (CD154), GP37 (CD165), were not affected by niacin, suggesting no effect on prostacyclin release. In conclusion, niacin in vitro affects platelet activity by mildly inhibiting aggregation, and stimulating significant prostaglandin release, with mostly intact major platelet receptor expression. The effect of niacin is unique, differs from other known antiplatelet agents, and suggests potential opportunities for therapeutic combination, particularly in patients with low levels of HDL-C. These preliminary data, while intriguing, require confirmation in subjects receiving orally dosed extended-release niacin in order to determine whether these findings are clinically relevant.
Age-Specific Helicobacter pylori Seropositivity Rates of Children in an Impoverished Urban Area of Northeast Brazil

ABSTRACT We determined age-specific Helicobacter pylori seropositivity rates of 166 children and 39 mothers in an urban shantytown in northeast Brazil. Seropositivity rates increased from 23.1% at 0 to 11 months of age to only 39.3% by 96 to 131 months of age and were 82.1% at maturity. We observed no correlation between the seropositivity of the mothers and the seropositivity of their children.
Laparoscopic Management of Hepatic Cysts

The present study describes the technique and evaluation of postsurgical results, hospital stay, and follow-up of patients who underwent hepatic cyst surgical treatment by laparoscopic access. Twelve patients presenting liver cystic disease were included in this research. Clinical conditions, laboratorial and radiologic examinations, surgical technique, complications, and postoperative follow-up were discussed. In our series, the morbidity rate was 25%. No mortality was observed in the postoperative period. Conversion to open surgery was necessary in 1 case, owing to hemorrhage. No recurrence was found and patients remain asymptomatic in their current follow-up. Laparoscopic resection of hepatic cyst proved to be efficient in the regression of the cysts and resulted in disappearance of symptoms.
Teamwork a Key Driver in Organizations and Its Impact on Job Satisfaction of Employees in Indian Public and Private Sector Organizations

Despite an increasing number of studies on teamwork, no unifying work is focused on the measurement of the degree of difference in teamwork in a public sector organization and a private sector organization in the Indian context. Teamwork decreases job satisfaction, motivation and performance, and increases absenteeism and turnover intensions. We hypothesized that there is a significant difference in the degree of teamwork in public sector and private sector organization. Data were collected from 250 employees consisting of managerial and non-managerial staff from both public sector and private sector organizations. The results showed that employees in public sector organizations have a greater degree of teamwork in comparison to private sector employees. In addition job satisfaction increases or decreases with the increase or decrease in teamwork. The purpose of this study is to invoke teamwork in private sector organizations. Obtained results were in the line of the hypotheses. In terms of teamwork, a significant difference is noticed between public sector and private sector organizations. As expected, public sector employees have exhibited a higher degree of teamwork as compared to private sector employees. Most importantly, salary satisfaction is being proven as the catalyst for enhancing the job satisfaction level of employees.
Structural unempolyment in Australia

This paper examines whether structural unemployment increased in Australia over the last two decades. A simple regression model has been considered for testing the hypothesis of increase in unemployment of several segment of the labour force over time. Six dimensions of the labour force, namely age, sex, region, duration of unemployment, occupation and industry, have been taken into account. Analysis of the regression results reveals that the structural unemployment problem is substantial with respect to age, sex, duration of unemployment occupation and industry. Regarding region the evidence for structural symptom is not very strong.
A user-specific integrated approach for designing knowledge-based e-learning

Higher educational institutions (HEIs) have witnessed a high proliferation of e-learning systems especially in the last decade. Most of these virtual learning environments (VLEs) are centred on information transmission through improved communication, delivery and access to structured content and learning resources without much emphasis on user-specific content and pedagogical framework peculiar to the teaching and learning needs of the local HEI. The major concern has been the lack of flexibility of these VLEs in adapting to the existing variety of teaching and learning methods employed by various HEIs. To address this challenge, we have proposed a user-specific integrated approach for the design of knowledge-based e-learning systems. Using this approach, we developed a framework for the faculty of computing, Univeristi of Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Our focus was on three vital areas of e-learning: the delivery method, learning approaches, and learning strategies. The major contribution of this paper would be to aid educators understand how to design learning activities themselves that could facilitate their pedagogical use in different contexts.
Colorectal cancer screening in Asia.

INTRODUCTION The incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer are rapidly rising in several countries in Asia. However, screening guidelines are lacking. SOURCES OF DATA Review of literature and local data published in peer review journals. AREAS OF AGREEMENT The incidence, anatomical distribution and mortality of colorectal cancer among Asian populations are comparable to those in Western countries. Flat and depressed colonic lesions are not uncommon. Male gender, smoking, obesity, metabolic syndrome and family history are risk factors for colorectal cancer. Certain ethnic groups in Asia have increased susceptibility to colorectal cancer. Faecal occult blood test, flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy are recommended options for colorectal cancer screening in Asia. Regular screening should start at the age of 50 years. AREAS OF CONTROVERSY The optimal screening method in Asia remains unclear. Faecal immunochemical test has been suggested as the first choice of screening test in countries with limited resources. The role of nurse endoscopists in performing endoscopic procedures for colorectal cancer screening in Asia has not been defined. GROWING POINTS There is low public awareness and little support by health authorities for screening and prevention of this emerging disease. AREAS TIMELY FOR DEVELOPING RESEARCH Screening for colorectal cancer should be a national health priority in most Asian countries. Studies on barriers to screening, education of the public and engagement of family physicians are important strategies in promoting colorectal cancer screening. With more health-care support, increased public acceptance and better access to the general population, colorectal cancer screening in Asia can be rewarding.
How Automatically Do Readers Infer Fictional Characters' Emotional States?

We propose that reading stories, such as a narrative about a character who takes money from a store where his best friend works and who later learns that his best friend has been fired, stimulates readers to activate the knowledge of how the character feels when he finds out that his best friend has been fired from a job for something he did. In other words, we propose that readers infer fictional character's emotional states. In this article, we first review two series of laboratory experiments (Gernsbacher, Goldsmith, & Robertson, 1992; Gernsbacher & Robertson, 1992) that empirically tested this hypothesis by measuring participants' reading times to target sentences that contained emotion words that matched (e.g., guilt) or mismatched (e.g., pride) the implied emotional state. We then present a third series of laboratory experiments that tested how automatically such knowledge is activated by using a divided-attention task (tone-identification, per-sentence memory load, or cumulative memory load) and by comparing target-sentence reading time when the emotional state is explicitly mentioned versus only implicit.
Where The Global Needs The Local: Variation in Enablers in the Knowledge Management Process

Abstract Knowledge management (KM) is a focus for knowledge-intensive businesses and organisations, irrespective of the size and geographical location. While it is important to make the local knowledge become global, the efforts to manage the knowledge processes and the specific impact of the enablers require thorough understanding of the local factors to ensure its success and sustainability. Most of the previous models and frameworks of KM do not consider the differences in regions and countries and the specific local organisational factors that could affect KM. We conducted an empirical study of six research organisations in sub-Saharan Africa to understand the particular local context in which the KM occurs. We identified variations in factors such as the local cultures and beliefs, the persistent underfunding, and the operating environment influences in these organisations. Based on these, we argue for the importance of a context specific model of KM.
The Effect of Tax-Transfer Policies on Fertility in Canada, 1921-88

This paper estimates the effect on fertility of the personal tax exemption for children, child tax credit, family allowances, and maternity leave benefits in Canada using time-series data from 1921 to 1988. It is found that the exemption, child tax credit, and family allowances all have significant and positive effects on fertility; the results are robust to a variety of specifications including first-differencing. While the three tax-transfer programs seem to be very distinct, the null hypothesis that they have no differential effects on fertility can hardly be rejected. All the results also hold for the cumulative effect of the three tax-transfer programs. The estimates predict that a large increase in the value of the tax-transfer programs would be needed to increase fertility to the replacement level.
The Impact of Visa-free Entry on Outbound Tourism: A Case Study of South Korean Travellers Visiting Japan

Abstract Although visa-free entry is important to tourism flows across borders there has been limited academic research into the effects of this arrangement on international tourism demand. Using the ARIMA, the ARIMA intervention, Winters Exponential Smoothing and the Stepwise Autoregressive models, this study examined the effect of visa-free entry on tourism demand between South Korea and Japan, and estimated the impact of this visa-free travel on tourism numbers and receipts. The results showed that for Koreans visiting Japan, introducing visa-free travel was statistically significant with a positive sign. In the first year tourists increased by 12.1 percent and receipts by $US246 million and in the second year tourists increased by 25 percent and receipts by $US792 million. The key finding is that in a market with strong effective demand, the influence of a change to visa-free entry could be greater than 20 percent. However, as individual, national and external reasons modulate each context, further research into the influence of visa controls on various established tourism markets is recommended.
Preparation of Graphene/Polypyrrole Composite Film via Electrodeposition for Supercapacitors

Graphene/polypyrrole (PPy) composite film was prepared by simple electrodeposition of graphite oxide and pyrrole mixture under acid conditions. The morphology, composition, and electronic structure of the composites were characterized by using transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Based on the fast redox property of PPy and high conductivity of graphene, the prepared composite film could be constructed to a supercapacitor device directly. The electrochemical performances of the supercapacitor were investigated by cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The composites showed better electrochemical performances than the individual components. A high specific capacitance of 335 F·g-1 was obtained with the capacitance retention of 85% after 1000 cycles at a current density of 1 A·g-1 by charge-discharge analysis between 0 and +1.0 V. The enhanced specific capacitance and cycling life implied a synergistic effect of graphene and PPy.
Development of time-trend model for analysing and predicting case pattern of dog bite injury induced rabies-like-illness in Liberia, 2014-2017.

OBJECTIVE The post-civil war records of dog bite injuries (DBI) and rabies-like-illness (RLI) among humans in Liberia is a vital epidemiological resource for developing a predictive model to guide the allocation of resources towards human rabies control. Whereas DBI and RLI are high, they are largely under-reported. The objective of this study was to develop a time model of the case-pattern and apply it to derive predictors of time-trend point distribution of DBI-RLI cases. METHODS A retrospective 6 years data of DBI distribution among humans countrywide were converted to quarterly series using a transformation technique of Minimizing Squared First Difference statistic. The generated dataset was used to train a time-trend model of the DBI-RLI syndrome in Liberia. An additive detenninistic time-trend model was selected due to its performance compared to multiplication model of trend and seasonal movement. Parameter predictors were run on least square method to predict DBI cases for a prospective 4 years period, covering 2014-2017. RESULTS The two-stage predictive model of DBI case-pattern between 2014 and 2017 was characterised by a uniform upward trend within Liberia's coastal and hinterland Counties over the forecast period. CONCLUSION This paper describes a translational application of the time-trend distribution pattern of DBI epidemics, 2008-2013 reported in Liberia, on which a predictive model was developed. A computationally feasible two-stage time-trend permutation approach is proposed to estimate the time-trend parameters and conduct predictive inference on DBI-RLI in Liberia.
Monetary Mystique: Secrecy and Central Banking

The paper contains a theoretical discussion of the role of secrecy in the implementation of monetary policy. It documents the Federal Reserve's defense of secrecy as argued in a recent Freedom of Information Act suit. The Federal Reserve's arguments are evaluated on the basis of economic theory. Theoretical papers related to the secrecy issue are reviewed. The discussion highlights a number of potential benefits and costs of central banking secrecy, and identifies some conditions under which secrecy could be socially beneficial.
Microfinance : a reader

Microfinance has become an important component of development, poverty reduction and economic regeneration strategy around the world. By the early twenty first century tens of millions of people in more than 100 countries were accessing services from formal and semi-formal microfinance institutions (MFIs). Much of the initial attention on microcredit came through work on Bangladesh’s much-lauded Grameen Bank but, there are now many different ‘models’ for microfinance and many countries have substantial microfinance sectors. This timely book, written by one of the major players in the UK in development economics explores, amongst others, topics such as: microfinance and poverty reduction microfinance, gender and social development microinsurance regulating and supervising microfinance institutions. Topical and insightful, this important text examines what has become a vast global industry employing hundreds of thousands of people and attracting the attention of large numbers of governments, banks, aid agencies, non-governmental organizations and consultancy firms.
The HR quadriad: a framework for the analysis of HRM in project-based organizations

This paper introduces the idea of the ‘HR quadriad’ as a framework for the analysis of HRM as a collective, configurational, and complementary system of roles and practices. The framework highlights the interplay between HR specialists, line managers, project managers, and project workers in the implementation of HR practices. On the basis of a multiple case study comprising six project-based organizations, two organizational factors are singled out as important for the design of the HR quadriad: (1) the nature of project work as either intra-functional or inter-functional, and (2) project participation as either focused or fragmented. The paper gives empirical support to recent research on HRM favoring the synergic integration of the elements of HRM systems designed in a way that acknowledges internal coherence and organizational conditions.
Hospital Market Structure and Cost Performance: A Case Study

Prior research on the nonprice theory of hospital competition uses data prior to the mid-1980s when third party payers were insensitive to hospital prices. Moreover, existing studies fail to test this theory for the different types of hospital ownership. In response to these issues, this research employs a more current data set and examines this theory for three distinct samples of nonprice theory of hospital competition only for nonprofit institutions. Conversely, costs for public and for-profit hospitals are found to be unaffected by market structure.
The Impact of Human Resource Management on State Government IT Employee Turnover Intentions

This study analyzes the impact of human resource management on state government IT employee turnover intentions. The results of a survey of state government IT employees show that promotion and advancement opportunities, training and development, supervisory communications, pay and reward satisfaction, and family-friendly policies are all significant variables affecting turnover intentions among state government IT employees. The availability of diverse family-friendly policies was the most significant factor affecting female IT employees' turnover intentions. The data strongly suggest that executive leaders, managers of IT departments, and human resource managers need to acknowledge these factors when addressing the issues of employee voluntary turnover and turnover intentions.
Supervisor Relationships, Teamwork, Role Ambiguity and Discretionary Power: Nurses in Australia and the United Kingdom

This paper reports comparative research comparing the relationship between supervisor-subordinate relationships, teamwork, role ambiguity and discretionary power for nurses working in public and private sector hospitals in Australia and the UK. The findings indicate that the four factors accounted for approximately a quarter of the variance for nurses in the UK and almost a fifth of the variance for nurses working in public sector hospitals. Moreover, the findings identify a significant difference across all variables for nurses working in public sector hospitals compared with private sector with nurses in the private sector having higher satisfaction levels and perceiving lower levels of role ambiguity. There were fewer differences for nurses working in Australian hospitals compared with UK hospitals with nurses in Australia perceiving a better supervisor-subordinate relationship and nurses in the UK perceiving greater satisfaction with teamwork.
Preferential Tariff Formation  The Case of the United States

In this article, we address the impact of multilateral trade liberalization (MTL) on the preferential tariffs granted by the United States, which is one of the largest traders and one of the biggest contributors to MTL. We empirically address two important questions. First, if the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) tariff for a product is higher, does it lead to a higher or lower preferential tariff? Second, the US being a large trading partner in such agreements, does reciprocity matter for giving meaningful preferential access? For a given MFN tariff, we model the preferential tariff with a simple linear functional form. We take the US MTL as known to the world by the end of Uruguay Round in 1994 and estimate the impact of MTL on preferential tariff negotiations of the US during 1995 to 2007. Here use a three-dimensional panel data, which takes into account the partner, product and time variation of the data-set. To complete our data-set, we codify eight Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) legal agreements. We draw three important conclusions. First, the products that are highly protected do not get high preferential access even at the regional level. Second, reciprocity plays only a limited role in granting better preferential access. Third, irrespective of development level of the partner, the non-reciprocal Generalized System of Preference (GSP) preferences always matter.
The relationship between private transfers and household income with regard to the assumptions of altruism, exchange and risk sharing: an empirical analysis applied to Russia

This article examines the impact of household income on private transfers in Russia, based on the assumptions of altruism, exchange and risk sharing. Econometric investigations using data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey 2002 show that the fact of giving or receiving transfers does not relate to altruism but rather suggests reciprocity. Notably, some informal assistance networks would develop among the poorest households on the basis of risk sharing, while the richest households' gifts would rather be guided by a search for compensation, thus showing the predominance of self-interest.