Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hemodynamic mechanisms responsible for reduced subendocardial coronary reserve in dogs with severe left ventricular hypertrophy.

BACKGROUND Reduced subendocardial coronary reserve is a hallmark of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). The goal of this study was to determine whether hemodynamic, as opposed to structural, mechanisms were responsible for the reduced subendocardial coronary reserve. METHODS AND RESULTS The effects of near-maximal vasodilation with adenosine were examined in 10 conscious dogs with LVH (79% increase in ratio of LV weight to body weight) induced by aortic banding in puppies with and without preload reduction. At baseline, LV end-diastolic pressure, LV end-diastolic circumferential and compressive radial wall stresses, and LV myocardial blood flow were similar in dogs with LVH and sham-operated controls, while LV end-systolic circumferential wall stress tended to be greater in the LVH group compared with the control group. In control dogs, adenosine reduced LV circumferential end-systolic and end-diastolic wall stresses and compressive radial subendocardial wall stress; LV subendocardial blood flow increased (from 1.41 +/- 0.16 to 3.58 +/- 0.27 mL.min-1.g-1) and the ratio of subendocardial to subepicardial blood flow decrease from 1.30 +/- 0.07 to 0.69 +/- 0.05. In dogs with LVH, during adenosine infusion, LV circumferential end-systolic and end-diastolic wall stresses and LV radial subendocardial wall stresses remained elevated, the increase in LV subendocardial blood flow was significantly smaller (from 1.11 +/- 0.11 to 2.27 +/- 0.24 mL.min-1.g-1, P < .05), and the subendocardial/epicardial ratio fell to a lower level (from 1.22 +/- 0.17 to 0.35 +/- 0.03, P < .05). When LV wall stresses during adenosine were reduced in a subgroup of 5 dogs with LVH, the endocardium/epicardium ratio during adenosine infusion was no longer different from that in control dogs (0.63 +/- 0.11), nor was the level of subendocardial blood flow different (3.42 +/- 0.60 mL.min-1.g-1). CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that hemodynamic factors, eg, compressive forces, are an important component of the reduced subendocardial coronary reserve as opposed to structural alterations, even in the presence of severe LVH.
Changes in farming and in stakeholder concern for animal welfare

The present chapter aims to describe and discuss the socio-economic developments and the related scientific advancements that formed the background and context of the Welfare Quality project. This project was clearly a ‘child of its time’. In the last decades animal welfare issues have attracted growing public attention and research in this area has grown to become a mature scientific discipline that is capable of addressing the new societal, political and market demands for more animal friendly types of production. This chapter specifically addresses the changes in animal farming that have occurred in the last fifty years as well as the emergence of animal welfare science. It then examines EU policy and legislation on the protection of farm animal welfare and changes in farmers’ attitudes and stakeholders’ concerns regarding animal welfare in Europe. The final section is dedicated to the analysis of the rise of public concern for farm animal welfare as well as the conditions for the emergence of consumer demand for animal friendly products.
Effectiveness of nurse-led early discharge planning programmes for hospital inpatients with chronic disease or rehabilitation needs: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To compare the effectiveness of nurse-led early discharge planning programmes to standard care for inpatients with chronic disease or rehabilitation needs. BACKGROUND Nurse-directed early discharge planning could shorten inpatient stays and reduce medical costs; however, it is not known whether the development of discharge planning programmes is effective for inpatients with chronic disease nor how such programmes might be optimally organised. DESIGN Systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS The PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and Cochrane Library were searched for randomized controlled trials assessing nurse-directed discharge planning for inpatients with chronic disease or rehabilitation needs. Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed risk of bias. Meta-analyses were conducted for the eligible studies by RevMan 5.2. 6. Data were pooled using a fixed-effect or random effects model. Where meta-analysis was not possible, narrative analysis was reported. RESULTS Ten randomized controlled trials and 3438 participants were included. Meta-analysis demonstrated that, compared to standard care, early discharge planning programmes are effective in reducing hospital readmission rates, duration of inpatient readmissions and all-cause mortality. However, no reduction in the length of stay of the index admission was demonstrated. Narrative analysis suggested that discharge planning may reduce total and readmission costs, as well as improving patients' satisfaction and overall quality of life. CONCLUSIONS Compared to standard care, nurse-led early discharge planning programmes have a positive impact on several aspects of care for inpatients with chronic disease and rehabilitation requirements, including reducing readmission, readmission length of stay and mortality and improving quality of life. These findings should be taken into account in future health service policy development. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE These findings are relevant to clinical and managerial staff in formulating and implementing discharge planning programmes for inpatients with chronic disease or rehabilitation needs.
Sharing The Fire: The igniting role of transformational leadership on the relationship between public managers’ and employees’ organizational commitment

Seminal articles on organizational commitment in public organizations have assumed that employees reciprocate the attitudes of their peers, but recent studies suggest that the impact of managers’ organizational commitment on employees’ organizational commitment depends on how leaders convey their organizational commitment. In this study we investigate how transformational leadership moderates the relationship between mangers’ and employees’ organizational commitment. Multilevel data from surveys of 68 principals and 1,349 teachers in the area of upper secondary education show that there is no direct relationship between principals’ and teachers’ organizational commitment, but that transformational leadership moderates the relationship.
Employment Flexibility and Human Resource Management: The Case of Three American Electronics Plants

This paper critically examines management's recruitment of temporary labour at three U.S. electronics firms operating in the Republic of Ireland. Recent discussions around the flexible firm and human resource management models would suggest that the recruitment of a secondary labour force is a strategic and advantageous practice. This paper is critical of these assumptions. It was found that management's reliance on temporary employees gave rise to a number of contradictions and tensions, and in the end was considered to be disadvantageous. This paper is also critical of the flexibility literature's neglect of employees' response to these initiatives. This paper corrects this shortcoming. The counterposing of `flexibility' and `rigidity' as opposites is also criticised.
Two-photon immunofluorescence characterization of the trabecular meshwork in situ.

PURPOSE To develop an in situ model to study biological responses and glaucoma pathology in the human trabecular meshwork (TM). Characteristic TM cell- and glaucoma-associated markers were localized in situ in relation to the tissue's autofluorescent structural extracellular matrix (ECM) by two-photon excitation fluorescence optical sectioning (TPEF). METHODS Human donor corneoscleral (CS) tissue containing the intact aqueous drainage tract was incubated with dexamethasone (Dex) or TGF-β1, and immunostained for epifluorescence (EF) microscopy with antibodies to myocilin and alpha smooth muscle (α-SMA). Separate specimens were labeled for Type-IV collagen and fibronectin. Nuclei were stained with Hoechst 33342. Multimodal TPEF was used to visualize EF, intravital dyes, and autofluorescence (AF) in situ. Three-dimensional (3D) localization of fluorescence within the TM was analyzed using reconstruction software. RESULTS Autofluorescent beams, perforated sheets, and fibers, consistent with the uveal (UV), CS, and juxtacanalicular (JCT) meshwork, respectively, were captured at different depths of the TM. Type-IV collagen EF distinctly outlined the AF beams in a location consistent with basement membrane. Fibronectin EF showed a diffuse reticular pattern throughout the TM. TGF-β1-induced α-SMA expression, which was distributed perinuclearly in cells among autofluorescent structures. Dex-induced myocilin expression had both cytosolic and extracellular distributions. CONCLUSIONS The authors have localized markers that are characteristic of TM cells and relevant to glaucoma pathogenesis in situ using multimodal TPEF without conventional histological embedding and sectioning. Protein expression was inducible in situ and could be analyzed with respect to cells and the ECM within the 3D environment of the human TM.
Multiuser transmit beamforming under total transmit power constraint

We consider a wireless downlink multiuser multiple-input single-output (MISO) system and we investigate the problem of jointly optimal beamforming and power allocation. In particular, under a total transmit power budget constraint and either exact or second-order statistics knowledge of the channel of all users we find the optimum set of beam vectors and associated power values such that the sum-rate between the base station and the end users is maximized. Then, we formulate and solve two variations of the above optimization problem as a low and high signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) approximation, respectively. To solve all optimization problems, we invoke the theory of uplink-downlink duality and derive computationally simple, coupled iterative procedures with guaranteed convergence
Effect of genetic variants GSTA1 and CYP39A1 and age on busulfan clearance in pediatric patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

BACKGROUND Busulfan is used in preparative regimens prior to stem cell transplantation in pediatric patients. There is significant interpatient variability in busulfan pharmacokinetics (PK) and exposure is related to outcome. To date, only polymorphisms in genes encoding for glutathione-S-transferases were studied, but could only explain a small portion of the variability in PK. AIM To investigate the effect of seven genetic markers on busulfan clearance and the effect of ontogenesis on these genetic variants in a pediatric population. MATERIALS & METHODS In an earlier study of our group seven genetic markers in GSTA1, CYP2C19, CYP39A1, ABCB4, SLC22A4 and SLC7A8 were associated with busulfan clearance in adult patients. Eighty four pediatric patients were genotyped for these markers and genotype was associated with busulfan clearance. RESULTS & CONCLUSION GSTA1 and CYP39A1 were found to be associated with busulfan clearance. When combined, the two haplotypes explained 17% of the variability in busulfan clearance. Furthermore, the effect of GSTA1 haplotype on clearance was dependent on age.
Quasi-elliptic 150 GHz highly selective LTCC filter

In this paper, and for the first time to the best of our knowledge, a very challenging 4-pole quasi-elliptic filter in the submillimetric wave range is studied and fabricated by the LTCC technology. The proposed 4-pole filter, centered at 150 GHz with 2 GHz band pass, is described and the coupling apertures used to provide the required positive and negative couplings are studied. The measured response is in very good agreement with the predicted behavior with a central frequency of 149.7 GHz (0.2% variation) and a 2.02 GHz band pass. The obtained manufactured filter is compact in size (3.32 mm x 2.36 mm x 0.6 mm), has a high performance with 5.5 dB insertion loss at the central frequency and a transmission attenuation over 20 dB for fo ± 1.6 GHz. Index Terms Low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC), quasi-elliptic filter, resonant cavity, submillimeter wave range.
Composing Variable Structure Models - A Revision of COMO

Component-based approaches aim at facilitating the storage, exchange, and reuse of components and their compositions. For this, components provide interfaces that formulate contracts composition can be based upon. Variable structure models imply the change of compositions, couplings, and even interfaces in terms of ports. Thus, combining variable structure models with a component-based approach poses specific challenges. We present a revision of the model composition framework COMO taking the specifics of variable structure models into account, e.g., by specifying interfaces as sets of parameters and supersets of ports, defining couplings intensionally, and introducing supersets of components as part of the compositional description. As target for generating executable simulation models the formalism ML-DEVS has been selected.
Efficiency of the cross‐over design: an empirical estimation

The aim of the present study is to estimate the relative efficiency of cross‐over clinical trials as compared to the corresponding parallel designs. A MEDLINE ‘full text’ search covering years 2000–2003 over the word ‘cross‐over’ identified 40 true cross‐over studies with the parametric approach published in leading medical journals.
Neighbourhood ethnic composition and outcomes for low-income Latino and African American children

The paper investigates the impact of ethnic segregation on the life chances of low-income African American and Latino children, focusing on whether it is the ethnic composition of the neighbourhood per se that matters or other, correlated aspects of the residential environment. The approach links the consequences of segregation and neighbourhood effects literatures by arguing that metropolitan segregation forces directly shape children’s intra-neighbourhood ethnic exposure and indirectly shape their exposure to non-ethnic aspects of neighbourhood. Associations between a wide range of neighbourhood characteristics and children’s health, exposure to and engaging in violence, educational and fertility outcomes are quantified using a natural experiment, thereby permitting valid causal inferences. Data analysed come from a retrospective survey of Denver (CO) Housing Authority (DHA) residents. The analysis avoids parental geographic selection bias because DHA’s assignment of households to neighbourhoods mimics a random process. Logit models stratified by ethnicity show that growing up amid concentrations of African American residents is associated with a variety of adverse outcomes for low-income Latino and (especially) African American children, though outcomes associated with concentrations of Latino residents are more mixed. Virtually all of the negative associations disappear, however, when other aspects of the residential context are controlled, and several positive ones persist. The adverse developmental consequences of ethnic segregation appear to be generated primarily in Denver by concentrating minority children in neighbourhoods with higher rates of property crime and lower occupational prestige.
Excitotoxic motoneuron disease in chick embryo evolves with autophagic neurodegeneration and deregulation of neuromuscular innervation

In the chick embryo, in ovo application of NMDA from embryonic day (E) 5 to E9 results in selective damage to spinal cord motoneurons (MNs) that undergo a long‐lasting degenerative process without immediate cell death. This contrasts with a single application of NMDA on E8, or later, which induces massive necrosis of the whole spinal cord. Chronic MN degeneration after NMDA implies transient incompetence to develop programmed cell death, altered protein processing within secretory pathways, and late activation of autophagy. Chronic NMDA treatment also results in an enlargement of thapsigargin‐sensitive Ca2+ stores. In particular MN pools, such as sartorius‐innervating MNs, the neuropeptide CGRP is accumulated in somas, peripheral axons and neuromuscular junctions after chronic NMDA treatment, but not in embryos paralyzed by chronic administration of curare. Intramuscular axonal branching is also altered severely after NMDA: it usually increases, but in some cases a marked reduction can also be observed. Moreover, innervated muscle postsynaptic sites increase by NMDA, but to a lesser extent than by curare. Because some of these results show interesting homologies with MN pathology in human sporadic ALS, the model presented here provides a valuable tool for advancing in the understanding of some cellular and molecular processes particularly involved in this disease. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Conservatism and Equity Ownership of the Founding Family

Abstract We investigate the impact of founding family ownership on accounting conservatism. Family ownership is characterised by large, under-diversified equity stake and long investment horizon. These features give family owners both the incentives and the ability to implement conservative financial reporting to reduce legal liability and mitigate agency conflicts with other stakeholders. Since CEOs can have different incentives towards conservatism, we focus on ownership of non-CEO founding family members in our investigation. We find that conservatism increases with non-CEO family ownership, supporting our prediction. This relationship becomes insignificant in family firms with founders serving as CEOs, either due to founder CEOs' incentives to implement more conservative financial reporting or their power to thwart non-CEO family owners' demand for conservatism. Overall, our paper adds to the literature on the impact of founding family ownership on firms' financial reporting policy. Our findings are consistent with the recent evidence in the family-firm literature that founding families exhibit substantial incentives to reduce agency and litigation costs and to maximise firm value.
Long–Term Orientation in Publicly Traded Family Businesses: Evidence of a Dominant Logic

Drawing from the behavioral theory of the firm, we examine the role of a long–term orientation in decision making at publicly traded, family–influenced firms (FIFs). We advance a view of the family as part of a firm's dominant coalition and the resulting effects of a family–influenced coalition on the FIF's decision making. Using a sample of publicly traded firms, our findings indicate that FIFs’ decision making reflects a focus on a long–term orientation, manifested in the greater accumulation of slack resources, less strategic risk taking, and lower bankruptcy risk than non–FIF firms.
Improved Online Monitoring Method for Transformer Winding Deformations Based on the Lissajous Graphical Analysis of Voltage and Current

Power transformers have important roles as voltage converters in substations, which directly affect the safe operation of power grids. Online monitoring of winding deformation, which is one of the most common transformer faults, is crucial in protecting transformers from damage, particularly those induced by short-circuit current failures, and ensuring their safe operation. This study proposes an improved online monitoring method for winding deformations based on the Lissajous graphical analysis of voltage and current. A practical measurement system is also presented and discussed in this paper. A load normalization method is proposed to solve the problem of Lissajous diagrams changing as load varies. Finally, transformer and winding experiments are performed to verify the validity of the proposed load normalization method and the feasibility of the proposed monitoring method in distinguishing winding deformations with different degrees and locations.
Housing Supply and Housing Bubbles

Like many other assets, housing prices are quite volatile relative to observable changes in fundamentals. If we are going to understand boom-bust housing cycles, we must incorporate housing supply. In this paper, we present a simple model of housing bubbles that predicts that places with more elastic housing supply have fewer and shorter bubbles, with smaller price increases. However, the welfare consequences of bubbles may actually be higher in more elastic places because those places will overbuild more in response to a bubble. The data show that the price run-ups of the 1980s were almost exclusively experienced in cities where housing supply is more inelastic. More elastic places had slightly larger increases in building during that period. Over the past five years, a modest number of more elastic places also experienced large price booms, but as the model suggests, these booms seem to have been quite short. Prices are already moving back towards construction costs in those areas.
Oversight and Delegation in Corporate Governance: Deciding What the Board Should Decide

American boards of directors increasingly treat their delegation of authority to management as a careful and self-conscious decision. Numerically dominated by non-executives, boards recognize that they cannot run the company, and many are now seeking to provide stronger oversight of the company without crossing the line into management. Based on interviews with informants at 31 major companies, we find that annual calendars and written protocols are often used to allocate decision rights between the board and management. Written protocols vary widely, ranging from detailed and comprehensive to skeletal and limited in scope. While useful, such calendars and protocols do not negate the need for executives to make frequent judgement calls on what issues should go to the board and what should remain within management. Executives still set much of the board's decision-making agenda, and despite increasingly asserting their sovereignty in recent years, directors remain substantially dependent upon the executives' judgement on what should come to the board. At the same time, a norm is emerging among directors and executives that the latter must be mindful of what directors want to hear and believe they should decide. Copyright (c) 2006 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Stock Splits: Evidence from Mutual Funds

Mutual fund splits occur in high-priced funds after unusually high returns. Split factors are related to the deviation of a fund's price from the mean of all fund prices. Post-split prices are below the mean of other funds' prices. Post-split numbers of shareholders and assets do not increase compared with funds having similar rates of asset growth. However, I find evidence that mutual fund splits bring per account shareholdings back up to normal levels. I argue that signaling, liquidity, and tick size theories do not apply to mutual fund splits. Copyright The American Finance Association 1998.
A birth process model for association football matches

Data from over 4000 recent association football (soccer) matches from the main English competitions show clear evidence that the rate of scoring goals changes over the course of a match. This rate tends to increase over the game but is also influenced by the current score. We develop a model for a soccer match that incorporates parameters for both the attacking and the defensive strength of a team, home advantage, the current score and the time left to play. This model treats the number of goals scored by the two teams as interacting birth processes and shows a satisfactory fit to the data. We also investigate football cliches and find evidence that contradicts the cliche that a team is more vulnerable just after it has scored a goal. Our model has applications in the football spread betting market, where prices are updated during a match, and may be useful to both bookmakers and bettors.