Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pharmacokinetics and safety of plasma‐derived factor XIII concentrate (human) in patients with congenital factor XIII deficiency

Congenital factor XIII (FXIII) deficiency is a rare condition with substantial risk for life‐threatening bleeding. Replacement of deficient FXIII with plasma‐derived FXIII concentrate is a treatment option. The current 12‐week study evaluated the steady‐state pharmacokinetic (PK) and safety profile of prophylactic infusions of FXIII concentrate (human) in patients with congenital FXIII deficiency. Patients received FXIII concentrate (human) 40 IU kg−1 on Days 0, 28, and 56. FXIII levels were assessed before and after each infusion; steady‐state PK parameters were assessed up to 28 days after the infusion on Day 56. Treatment effectiveness in maintaining trough FXIII activity levels ≥5% over 28 days and safety parameters were also assessed. Fourteen patients received FXIII concentrate (human) and 13 completed the study. Post‐infusion, FXIII activity levels increased to within the range found in patients without congenital FXIII deficiency without reaching supra‐therapeutic levels. Non‐baseline‐adjusted trough FXIII activity levels were maintained at or above 10% at all post‐baseline visits in all patients. Steady‐state PK parameters were baseline‐adjusted; maximum FXIII activity was 87.7% at 1.72 h post‐infusion, subsequently declining to a minimum of 5.0%. The half‐life was 6.6 days. FXIII concentrate (human) was generally well tolerated. Two patients had possibly treatment‐related adverse events. There were no reports of thromboembolism, viral transmission, bleeding events or treatment‐related hypersensitivity. These findings support use of FXIII concentrate (human) 40 IU kg−1 every 28 days as an appropriate regimen for routine, long‐term prophylaxis in children and adults with congenital FXIII deficiency. Clinical trial registration: www.clinicaltrials. gov/ct2/show/NCT00883090.
Order Imbalance, Liquidity, and Returns of the U.S. Treasury Market

Previous studies have documented the informational role of order imbalances in price discovery of the Treasury market. In this paper, we explore the liquidity dimension of order imbalances. Through our research, we find evidence which indicates that order imbalances affect Treasury market liquidity. More importantly, order imbalances have significant effects on Treasury market returns and volatility, consistent with the contention that order imbalances can cause an inventory problem of marketwide concern. Results suggest that a significant portion of the effect of order imbalances on price and quoted spread is associated with the inventory premium that compensates market participants for providing liquidity to uninformed traders. The effects of order imbalances on market liquidity, returns and volatility are stronger for two- and five-year notes and Treasury bills. Furthermore, there is commonality in order imbalances. Sensitivity of order imbalances individual bonds to marketwide order imbalances varies across securities.
Physical attractiveness stereotypes and service quality in customer–server encounters

Characteristics of service providers such as gender and physical attractiveness (PA) play a significant role in customer–server encounters. This study explored whether various service quality conditions and PA stereotypes would affect perceptions of service quality in customers of fine dining restaurants in Taiwan. This research also identified the moderating effects of server PA stereotype and PA in-group bias on perceived service quality. A total of 480 subjects participated in the study, which had a 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial design: scenarios of service quality (favourable vs. unfavourable) and appearances of server (attractive vs. average). The results showed that the customers' perceptions of service quality were enhanced with attractive servers compared with those of average appearances. In addition, the server PA stereotype influenced the customers' perceptions of service quality with regard to responsiveness and assurance dimensions under favourable and unfavourable service quality conditions.
Stressful life events preceding the first onset of psychosis. An explorative study

The aim of the study was to investigate the frequency and types of psychologically stressful life events preceding first episode psychoses. In a defined urban area, all first-episode psychosis patients aged 18–45, without signs of organic brain disorder or heavy abuse, were investigated and followed-up during 2–3 years. In the majority of cases, significant releasing factors could be depicted. The need to understand the specific, private meaning of the preceding events is illustrated by case vignettes. A stressful life situation may not be regarded as the "cause" of the psychosis but as a more or less important boosting factor. This is a complicated interaction between biological and psychological vulnerability factors. It seems important that the patients after the acute phase are given opportunities to talk about the events and how to manage them in the future.
Intake and digestion of low-, medium-, and high-quality grass hays by lambs receiving increasing levels of corn supplementation.

Thirty wether lambs (52.5 +/- 1.5 kg) were used in a replicated 3 x 5 factorial treatment arrangement and four periods to determine dietary intake and digestibility of three ground forages with increasing levels of supplemental ground corn. Forages were a mature, low-protein grass hay (LQH; 5.2% CP), an immature, medium-protein grass hay (MQH; 10.2% CP), and an immature, high-protein grass hay (HQH; 14.2% CP). Supplementation treatments were no supplement (NS), a protein supplement (PS), protein plus . 25% BW of corn (LC), protein plus . 5% BW of corn (MC), and protein plus . 75% BW of corn (HC). Crude protein intake (1.4 g/kg BW) from supplements was equalized with soybean meal and corn gluten meal. Lambs were housed in metabolism crates. Supplements were fed at 0700 each morning after orts from the previous day's feeding were removed. Hay was subsequently offered at approximately the previous day's consumption plus 25%. Each of the four periods lasted 21 d. Sixteen days were allowed for diet adaptation. Feces were collected with fecal bags during d 17 to 21. Lambs receiving LQH and PS had higher forage (P < .04) and total DMI (P < .001) than lambs fed LQH and NS. Corn supplementation decreased forage intake (quadratic effect; P = .08), total intake (quadratic effect; P = .08), and increased apparent DM digestibility (linear effect; P < .04) with lambs receiving LQH. Protein supplementation did not affect forage or total DMI (P > .11), and corn supplementation did not affect total DMI (P > .20) with either MQH or HQH. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Advances in service networks research

Networks are an important area of study for the services industries. The guest editors of this volume contend that networks are indeed a fundamental feature of services – services intangibility makes service providers heavily dependent on the recommendations of others to direct customers to a particular business; makes acquisition of knowledge about customers and competitors more difficult and often leads to exchange of information through knowledge networks. Fluctuations in services demand are perhaps more difficult to deal with as the ‘product’ cannot be stockpiled, but one strategy to deal with this is to work within a referral network to cater to demand peaks. Services require people to be engaged in their production. This leads to an increased proportion of smaller firms in the service industries because scaling up volume is more difficult with people involved. These are just a few of the reasons why networks in the service industries are important. This introduction to the special issue on advances in service network research concludes that firstly, many of the concepts of central concern for service researchers, especially those interested in inter-organisational relationships, are related to concepts that have been developed from, and studied using, the network perspective. Secondly, there is a need to move to the use of more quantitative techniques for network analysis and lastly, recent developments in network research show much promise in the use of complex systems mathematical techniques to simulate and model networks and the effect of interventions. Thus it is possible to provide suggestions as to how a network may evolve over time and inform those involved within networks as to the relative advantages of alternative modes of action. Overall this collection of papers indicates that there are significant opportunities for further research in this emergent field of study.
Biochemical markers in preclinical models of osteoporosis

Abstract Although several treatments for osteoporosis exist, further understanding of the mode of action of current treatments, as well as development of novel treatments, are of interest. Thus, preclinical models of osteoporosis are very useful, as they provide the possibility for gaining knowledge about the cellular mechanisms underlying the disease and for studying pharmaceutical prevention or intervention of the disease in simple and strictly controlled systems. In this review, we present a comprehensive collection of studies using biochemical markers of bone turnover for investigation of preclinical models of osteoporosis. These range from pure and simple in vitro systems, such as osteoclast cultures, to ex vivo models, such as cultures of embryonic murine tibiae and, finally, to in vivo models, such as ovariectomy and orchidectomy of rats. We discuss the relevance of the markers in the individual models, and compare their responses to those observed using ‘golden standard’ methods.
Combined endoscopic third ventriculostomy and choroid plexus cauterization as primary treatment of hydrocephalus for infants with myelomeningocele: long-term results of a prospective intent-to-treat study in 115 East African infants.

OBJECT Shunt dependence is more dangerous for children in less developed countries. Combining endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) with choroid plexus cauterization (CPC) was previously shown to treat hydrocephalus more effectively than ETV alone in infants < 1 year of age. The goal of this prospective study was to evaluate the effectiveness of ETV-CPC as primary treatment of hydrocephalus in infants with myelomeningocele. METHODS One hundred fifteen consecutive East African infants with myelomeningocele requiring treatment for hydrocephalus were intended for primary management using ETV-CPC. Patient information was prospectively entered into a database. Outcomes were evaluated by life table analysis. Potential predictors for treatment failure were evaluated using multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS Ninety-three patients had a completed ETV-CPC with > 1 month of follow-up. The ETV-CPC procedure was successful in 71 patients (76%), with a mean and median follow-up of 19.0 months. Treatment failures occurred before 6 months in 86% of the patients, and none occurred after 10 months. The operative mortality rate was 1.1%, and there were no infections. Life table analysis suggested that 72% of the patients would be successfully treated using a single ETV-CPC and 78% would remain shunt-independent with reopening of a closed ETV stoma. Multivariate logistic regression showed scarring of the cistern (p = 0.021) or choroid plexus (p = 0.026) as predictors of failure, but age at the time of surgery was not a significant predictor. CONCLUSIONS Using ETV-CPC appears to successfully provide a more durable primary treatment of hydrocephalus for infants with spina bifida than does shunt placement. These results support ETV-CPC as the better treatment option for these children in developing countries.
Analysis and Design of Tradable Credit Schemes under Uncertainty

Market-based instruments for congestion mitigation can be generally classified into two groups: price-based and quantity-based. The former, widely known as congestion pricing, charges tolls to influence travelers' decisions; the latter directly regulates congestion. More specifically, credits or permits are first distributed by a government agency, and travelers are then required to pay a certain number of credits to access transportation facilities. The credits can be traded between travelers, and the price is determined by the market through free trading. In this study the identity between congestion pricing and tradable credit schemes in managing network mobility is formally established. A numerical example demonstrates how the identity falls apart when uncertainty is associated with transportation supply or demand. A sensitivity analysis of the coupled network and market equilibrium is then conducted to predict how credit price varies with respect to the perturbation associated with the supply or demand. A safety-valve policy is investigated to balance regulation success and price volatility under uncertainty.
Estimating the Payoff to Schooling Using the Vietnam-Era Draft Lottery

Between 1970 and 1973 priority for military service was randomly assigned to draft-age men in a series of lotteries. Many men who were at risk of being drafted managed to avoid military service by enrolling in school and obtaining an educational deferment This paper uses the draft lottery as a natural experiment to estimate the return to education and the veteran premium. Estimates are based on special extracts of the Current Population Survey for 1979and 1981-85. The results suggest that an extra year of schooling acquired in response to the lottery is associated with6.6 percent higher weekly earnings. This figure is about 10 percent higher than the OLS estimate of the return to education in this sample, which suggests there is omitted-variable bias in conventional estimates of the return to education. Our findings are robust to a variety of assumptions about the effect of veteran status on earnings.
Leadership practices that encourage strategic thinking

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to define and then investigate the incidence of organizational leadership practices that encourage a culture of strategic thinking.Design/methodology/approach – Discussions with 400 US healthcare executives attending focused educational seminars identified 18 leadership practices that encourage strategic thinking and 117 participants in subsequent seminars completed a survey assessing their use of the practices. Central tendencies, patterns across high and low users, and demographic differences were analyzed.Findings – The two most frequently used practices involved reactions to crises. Executives using most of the practices employed long time horizons and made investments in human resource development and organizational learning. Industry suppliers and those responsible for parts of organizations were more likely to formally develop subordinates' strategic thinking ability.Research limitations/implications – While the study used a convenience sample with self‐rating.
Evaluation of baseline cortisol, endogenous ACTH, and cortisol/ACTH ratio to monitor trilostane treatment in dogs with pituitary-dependent hypercortisolism.

BACKGROUND The effectiveness of trilostane treatment is currently monitored by regular ACTH stimulation tests, which are time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, a monitoring system without a stimulation protocol and with less client expense would be preferable. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES The aim of our study was to evaluate if baseline cortisol, endogenous ACTH (ACTH) concentration or the baseline cortisol to ACTH ratio (cortisol/ACTH ratio) could replace the ACTH stimulation test. ANIMALS Forty trilostane-treated dogs with pituitary-dependent hypercortisolism (PDH) were included in this prospective study. METHODS A total of 148 ACTH stimulation tests and 77 ACTH concentrations and cortisol/ACTH ratios were analyzed. Control of cortisol release was classified according to cortisol concentration after ACTH administration as excessive (<1.5 μg/dL; group 1), adequate (1.5-5.4 μg/dL; group 2), or inadequate (>5.4 μg/dL; group 3). RESULTS Baseline cortisol concentrations had considerable overlap between excessively, adequately, and inadequately controlled dogs. Only baseline cortisol >4.4 μg/dL (in 12% of tests) was a reliable diagnosis of inadequate control. Endogenous ACTH concentrations did not differ between groups. The overlap of the cortisol/ACTH ratio between groups was large. Correct classification was only possible if the cortisol/ACTH ratio was >15, which occurred in 4% of tests. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE To monitor trilostane treatment the ACTH stimulation test cannot be replaced by baseline cortisol, ACTH concentration, or the cortisol/ACTH ratio.
Short- and Long-Term Efficacy of Modified Directly Observed Antiretroviral Treatment in Mombasa, Kenya: A Randomized Trial

Objectives:To determine short- and long-term efficacy of modified directly observed therapy (m-DOT) on antiretroviral adherence. Design:Randomized controlled trial. Setting and Analytic Approach:From September 2003 to November 2004, 234 HIV-infected adults were assigned m-DOT (24 weeks of twice weekly health center visits for nurse-observed pill ingestion, adherence support, and medication collection) or standard care. Follow-up continued until week 72. Self-reported and pill-count adherence and, secondarily, viral suppression and body mass index measures are reported. Generalized estimating equations adjusted for intraclient clustering and covariates were used. Results:During weeks 1-24, 9.1% (9/99) of m-DOT participants reported missing doses compared with 19.1% (20/105) of controls (P = 0.04) and 96.5% (517/571) of m-DOT pill-count measures were ≥95% compared with 86.1% (445/517) in controls [adjusted odds ratio = 4.4; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.6 to 7.5; P < 0.001. Adherence with m-DOT was 4.8 times greater (95% CI = 2.7 to 8.6; P < 0.001) with adjustment for depression and HIV-related hospitalization. In weeks 25-48, adherence with m-DOT (488/589) was similar to controls (507/630). Viral suppression at 48 weeks was 2.0 times (95% CI = 0.8 to 5.2; P = 0.13) as likely in m-DOT participants as controls. M-DOT patients had larger body mass index increases at 24 weeks (2.2 vs 1.4 kg/m3; P = 0.014). Viral suppression was more likely at week 48 (21/25 vs 13/22; P = 0.057) and week 72 (27/30 vs 15/23; P = 0.027) among depressed participants receiving m-DOT. Conclusions:M-DOT increased adherence, most notably among depressed participants.
Pharmacokinetic evidence for the induction of lopinavir metabolism by efavirenz.

AIMS The influence of efavirenz on lopinavir pharmacokinetics was investigated using a population approach. METHODS Forty-five HIV patients treated with lopinavir/ritonavir plus efavirenz (A) and 24 patients treated with lopinavir/ritonavir plus nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (B) were studied. RESULTS A relationship (P < 0.01) was established between the elimination rate constant of lopinavir (k(10)) and treatment with efavirenz. Mean k(10) was higher in group A than in group B (0.3838 vs 0.2810 h(-1)) (P < 0.001, 95% confidence interval for difference between means 0.1004, 0.1052). CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that lopinavir metabolism is induced by efavirenz.
Frequency Space Correlation Between REITs and Capital Market Indices

Several studies have examined real estate investment trust (REIT) co-movement with stocks or bonds using traditional time domain based methods, such as linear regression or correlation. Results of these studies have produced inconsistent statistical model parameters. The erratic behavior of the models may have resulted from the different time periods in the studies, the REITs included in a study or the market indices. Another factor contributing to the variation of the models comes from the compression of cyclical information over a study? s time period by time domain based techniques. Cross-spectral analysis provides a frequency space method of examining the coherency (i.e., frequency space correlation) between two time series across all frequencies. This article contains an examination of the coherency between REITs and stock market indices and REITs and U.S. Treasury debt indices for the period 1989-95. Results of the coherency spectra show significant co-movement between REITs and stock market indices, while debt instruments show very few frequencies with significant coherency. Furthermore, phase spectra provide evidence of contemporaneous movement between REITs and stock indices at all frequencies.
Customer Integration during Innovation Development

Previous research has shown that though customer integration during innovation development can enhance companies' innovation performance, it can also harm innovativeness. A possible reason for these contradicting findings is that innovation development is a dynamic process that requires different tasks. Thus, a more fine‐grained picture of how customer‐oriented companies engage in customer integration throughout the entire innovation development process is necessary. This article contributes to the innovation and marketing literature by providing insights into how companies co‐create knowledge about customer needs relevant for innovation development. Using a multiple case study design, this study examines four substantive cases that illustrate the activities logistics service providers undertake to integrate customers during the process of idea generation, development and implementation. The results show that companies focus on both proactive and reactive customer integration during idea generation and implementation but refrain from reactive customer integration during development.
The effect of electrode material and semicon bonding on space charge dynamics of XLPE

This study sets out to explore the space charge characteristics of high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable grade crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) using different electrode materials and configurations, ranging from sputtered gold to thermally bonded semi-conducting materials. The existence of both homo and hetero charges in HVDC cables is well known; however, the role of semi-conducting materials and the formation of space charge is critical and required more attention. Space charge accumulation at high electric stress was monitored using the pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) technique. Experimental results have shown that charge injection processes take place in all cases and the amount of charge and polarity of the dominated injected charge has significant dependence on the electrode material under the same applied electric field.
Impact of empirical antimicrobial therapy on the outcome of critically ill patients with Acinetobacter bacteremia

Rationale: Empirical antimicrobial therapy (EAT) for Acinetobacter infections may not be appropriate as it tends to be multidrug-resistant. This study evaluated the relationship between appropriate EAT and the outcomes of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients with Acinetobacter bacteremia. Methods: This is a retrospective study of patients admitted to a medical-surgical ICU (2005-2010) and developed Acinetobacter bacteremia during the stay. Patients were categorized according to EAT appropriateness, defined as administration of at least one antimicrobial agent to which the Acinetobacter was susceptible before susceptibility results were known. The relation between EAT appropriateness and outcomes was evaluated. Results: Sixty patients developed Acinetobacter bacteremia in the 6-year period (age = 50 ± 19 years; 62% males; Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score = 28 ± 9; 98.3% with central lines; 67% in shock and 59% mechanically ventilated) on average on day 23 of ICU and day 38 of hospital stay. All isolates were resistant to at least three of the tested antimicrobials. Appropriate EAT was administered to 60% of patients, mostly as intravenous colistin. Appropriate EAT was associated with lower ICU mortality risk (odds ratio: 0.15; 95% confidence interval: 0.03-0.96) on multivariate analysis. Conclusions: In this 6-year cohort, Acinetobacter bacteremia was related to multidrug-resistant strains. Appropriate EAT was associated with decreased ICU mortality risk.