Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does the Serum Testosterone Level Have a Relation to Coronary Artery Disease in Elderly Men?

Background. The low serum level of testosterone in the elderly subjects may contribute to coronary artery disease (CAD). Our aim is to study serum levels of free testosterone in elderly men with CAD. Subjects and Methods. This study was conducted on 100 elderly males with CAD, one half of them was presented with ACS (with mean age 69.6 ± 2.44 year), and the other half was presented with stable CAD (with mean age 69.42 ± 2.14 year), in addition to 50 apparently healthy elderly males (with mean age 69.06 ± 1.64 year) as a control group. We detected the levels of serum free testosterone, cortisol, fibrinogen, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1(PAI-1), high sensitive C-reactive protein(hsCRP), interleukin-6(IL-6). Results. Cases with CAD had significant lower values of free testosterone and HDL-c, but they had significant higher values of cortisol, fibrinogen, PAI-1, IL-6, hsCRP, in comparison to control group. Cases with ACS had significant higher values of cortisol, hsCRP, IL-6, fibrinogen, PAI-1, total cholesterol and BMI more than those with stable CAD. The free testosterone had significant negative correlation with fibrinogen, PAI-1, hsCRP and IL-6 in both groups of patients. Conclusion. The lower value of serum free testosterone in elderly male subjects may contribute to CAD.
Dirty interference cancellation for Gaussian broadcast channels

The state-dependent broadcast channel with a helper is investigated, in which a transmitter wishes to send messages to two receivers via a broadcast channel. The channel is corrupted by an independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) state sequence which is known to neither the transmitter nor the receivers. A helper that knows the state sequence noncausally assists the broadcast transmission to cancel state interference. Two scenarios are studied. In scenario 1, the transmitter sends one message to both receivers, and in scenario II, the transmitter sends two private messages respectively to two receivers. Our focus is on the Gaussian channel with additive state. Inner and outer bounds are derived for both scenarios. By comparing the inner and outer bounds, capacity/capacity region are characterized under various ranges of channel parameters. Practical impact of the model and results are discussed.
Clinical Ophthalmology Dovepress Dovepress Visual, Aberrometric, Photic Phenomena, and Patient Satisfaction after Myopic Wavefront-guided Lasik Using a High-resolution Aberrometer

hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the visual, refractive, and aberrometric outcomes as well as the level of patient satisfaction and photic phenomena after myopic laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) surgery using wavefront-guided (WFG) ablations based on measurements obtained with a high-resolution aberrometer. Patients and methods: This study was a prospective analysis including 253 eyes of 127 patients (aged between 19 years and 54 years) undergoing WFG LASIK using the STAR S4 IR Excimer Laser System combined with the iDesign System and iFS Femtosecond Laser. Visual, refractive, and aberrometric outcomes during a 2-month follow-up as well as patient satisfaction and photic phenomena were evaluated by means of a questionnaire. Results: A total of 85% (215/253) and 99% (251/253) of eyes achieved a postoperative (Postop) uncorrected distance visual acuity of 20/16 and 20/20, respectively, and all eyes achieved an uncorrected distance visual acuity of 20/25. Postop spherical equivalent values were within ±0.25 D and ±0.50 D in 97% and 100% of eyes, respectively. Likewise, manifest cylinder was ,0.25 D in 97% (245/253) of eyes. A statistically significant reduction was found in the total root mean square (P,0.001) and in the level of primary spherical aberration (P=0.001). Postop difficulties related to vision were graded as minimal, with low levels of photic phenomena and high levels of patient satisfaction. The level of difficulty to perform daily activities and the level of glare perceived by patients while driving car were significantly decreased (P,0.001). Conclusion: WFG LASIK surgery using the technology evaluated is predictable and effective for the correction of myopia and leads to high levels of patient satisfaction.
Sexual desire and sexual arousal in Malaysian women: are they of the same entity?

Objective: To investigate the correlation between sexual desire and sexual arousal among Malaysian women in a primary care setting. Methods: The Malay Version of Female Sexual Function Index (MVFSI) was used to assess low sexual desire and lack of sexual arousal among the respondents. A total of 230 married women aged 18 – 70 years old participated in this study. Their sociodemographic, marital profiles and correlation between low sexual desire and lack of sexual arousal were examined. Results: More than 60% respondents with low sexual desire have co-exist low sexual arousal and 94.4% respondents with high sexual desire do have high sexual arousal ( χ²= 79.6, p <0.001 ), with correlation of r = 0.852. Conclusions: The strong correlation between sexual desire and arousal has both diagnostic and therapeutic indications, and may also strongly support the circular model (Basson-inspired model) of sexual response among women.
The Evolution of Income-Related Inequalities in Health Care Utilization in Switzerland Over Time

This study investigates equity in access to health care in Switzerland over time, using nationwide representative survey data from 1982, 1992, 1997 and 2002. Both simple quintile distributions and concentration indices are used to assess horizontal equity, i.e. the extent to which adults in equal need for medical care appear to have equal rates of medical care utilization. Looking at each of the four survey years separately the results indicate that by and large, there is little or no inequity in use except with respect to specialist visits which are clearly pro rich distributed as in most other OECD countries. We neither find much significant variation over time despite the fact that the share of health care has grown from close to 8% to more than 11% over this period and that a major reform of the health care system has taken place in 1996.
EVALUATION OF FACTORS INFLUENCING ADOPTION OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEM BY SMALL TO MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN CHINHOYI

ABSTRACT The study investigated factors that influence non adoption of computerized accounting information system by small to medium enterprises. The descriptive survey method provided an accurate description of the variables in the problem model. A sample size of 72 SMEs was chosen from a population of 100SMEs using the stratified sampling followed by random sampling. Questionnaires and interviews were used for data collection. The research findings indicated that cost benefit analysis , lack of government support, financial constraints, complexity of AISs strongly influence non adoption of AISs by SMEs whereas ignorance about AISs as well as reluctance are weak predicators of non adoption by SMEs. Findings also reveal that AISs is not associated with company size. The researcher recommended government intervention through providing finance, subsidies as well as collateral security to SMEs through both the Ministry of Small to Medium Enterprises as well as Ministry of Information Technology for easy adoption.
FusedCache: A Naturally Inclusive, Racetrack Memory, Dual-Level Private Cache

We propose FusedCache, a two-level set-associative Racetrack memory (RM) cache design that utilizes RM's high density for providing fast uniform access at one level, and non-uniform access at the next. FusedCache is well suited for private L1/L2 caches enforcing alignment of L1 data with the RM access points with the remaining non-aligned data serving as L2. It uses traditional LRU eviction for L1 misses. Promotion and demotion between L1 and L2 are performed through shifts and, when necessary, background swap operations. These swap operations do not require physical stores or loads, making accesses both faster and more energy efficient. Further, unlike a traditional inclusive cache hierarchy, fused L1 cache lines naturally exist in L2 avoiding duplicated storage and tag structures, promotions, and evictions. L1 status on each track is strictly enforced by track LRU maintenance and background swapping. Our results demonstrate that compared to an iso-area L1 SRAM cache replacement, FusedCache improves application performance by 7 percent while reducing cache energy by 33 percent. Compared to an iso-capacity two level (L1/L2) SRAM cache replacement, FusedCache provides similar performance with a dramatic 69 percent cache energy reduction. Compared to a TapeCache L1 scheme, FusedCache gains a 7 percent performance improvement with a 6 percent cache energy saving which translates to a 13 percent improvement in energy-delay product.
Pathogenicity of and plant immunity to soft rot pectobacteria

Soft rot pectobacteria are broad host range enterobacterial pathogens that cause disease on a variety of plant species including the major crop potato. Pectobacteria are aggressive necrotrophs that harbor a large arsenal of plant cell wall-degrading enzymes as their primary virulence determinants. These enzymes together with additional virulence factors are employed to macerate the host tissue and promote host cell death to provide nutrients for the pathogens. In contrast to (hemi)biotrophs such as Pseudomonas, type III secretion systems (T3SS) and T3 effectors do not appear central to pathogenesis of pectobacteria. Indeed, recent genomic analysis of several Pectobacterium species including the emerging pathogen Pectobacterium wasabiae has shown that many strains lack the entire T3SS as well as the T3 effectors. Instead, this analysis has indicated the presence of novel virulence determinants. Resistance to broad host range pectobacteria is complex and does not appear to involve single resistance genes. Instead, activation of plant innate immunity systems including both SA (salicylic acid) and JA (jasmonic acid)/ET (ethylene)-mediated defenses appears to play a central role in attenuation of Pectobacterium virulence. These defenses are triggered by detection of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or recognition of modified-self such as damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and result in enhancement of basal immunity (PAMP/DAMP-triggered immunity or pattern-triggered immunity, PTI). In particular plant cell wall fragments released by the action of the degradative enzymes secreted by pectobacteria are major players in enhanced immunity toward these pathogens. Most notably bacterial pectin-degrading enzymes release oligogalacturonide (OG) fragments recognized as DAMPs activating innate immune responses. Recent progress in understanding OG recognition and signaling allows novel genetic screens for OG-insensitive mutants and will provide new insights into plant defense strategies against necrotrophs such as pectobacteria.
Improving packet delivery efficiency using multi-radio diversity in wireless LANs

Data transmissions in Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) often suffer front bit errors that arise front the notoriously complex and time-varying signal propagation characteristics of the wireless medium. A number of physical factors such as attenuation and multi-path are prevalent indoors and can lead to high bit-error rates at the link layer. These in turn lead to packet losses, low throughput, and higher and more variable packet latencies observed at higher layers, degrading the performance of many delay-sensitive and traffic-intensive wireless applications such as games, file-sharing, voice-over-IP, and streaming video. We use the notion of path diversity to develop an approach that improves data delivery efficiency and throughput in presence of transmission errors. Path diversity relies on multiple access points (APs) covering a given area or multiple radios on the user's device (or both). The hypothesis underlying this system is as follows: because frame errors are often path-dependent (e.g., due to multi-path fading), location-dependent (e.g., clue to noise), and statistically independent between different transmitting radios, transmissions are likely to succeed from at least one of the available transmitters (transmit diversity). Likewise, multiple radios that all receive versions of the same transmission may together be able to correctly recover a frame, even when any given individual radio is not (receive diversity). Using these principles, we design and implement the Multi-Radio Diversity (MRD) system, which leverages the properties of path diversity at the transmitter and receiver to reduce frame loss rates in the link-layer, leading to increased throughput and packet delivery efficiency. We introduce several techniques that make path selection, retransmission, and rate adaptation work efficiently in a MRD system based on the 802.11 MAC. We used commodity PCs and wireless interfaces to build a MRD system and conducted a wide range of indoor experiments. Our experiments measured throughput gains up to three times over conventional schemes without consuming much extra wireless bandwidth. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
Enactment supports unitisation of action components and enhances the contribution of familiarity to associative recognition

ABSTRACT Memory for actions is usually better following subject-performed tasks (SPT) than verbal tasks (VT). We hypothesised that enactment unitises the components of actions such that familiarity can support associative recognition following SPT. To examine this hypothesis, participants studied verb–object pairs in a SPT or VT condition. During testing, they discriminated between intact, recombined and new items and made Remember/Know judgments; additionally, their EEGs were recorded. Associative recognition was better following SPT than VT. Early frontal event-related potentials (ERPs) were graded according to the item status following SPT, but no such effects were found after VT. Similarly, the late parietal ERPs were graded following SPT, whereas these effects were smaller and did not differ between intact and recombined items following VT. We conclude that enactment unitised the action and object so that familiarity could contribute to associative recognition and that recollection became sensitive to the amount of the matching associative information.
Transcriptional Profile of Bacillus subtilis sigF-Mutant during Vegetative Growth

Sigma factor F is the first forespore specific transcription factor in Bacillus subtilis and controls genes required for the early stages of prespore development. The role of sigF is well studied under conditions that induce sporulation. Here, the impact of sigF disruption on the transcriptome of exponentially growing cultures is studied by micro-array analysis. Under these conditions that typically don’t induce sporulation, the transcriptome showed minor signs of sporulation initiation. The number of genes differentially expressed and the magnitude of expression were, as expected, quite small in comparison with sporulation conditions. The genes mildly down-regulated were mostly involved in anabolism and the genes mildly up-regulated, in particular fatty acid degradation genes, were mostly involved in catabolism. This is probably related to the arrest at sporulation stage II occurring in the sigF mutant, because continuation of growth from the formed disporic sporangia may require additional energy. The obtained knowledge is relevant for various experiments, such as industrial fermentation, prolonged experimental evolution or zero-growth studies, where sporulation is an undesirable trait that should be avoided, e.g by a sigF mutation.
HIV and Sexually Transmissible Infections among Money Boys in China: A Data Synthesis and Meta-Analysis

Background Commercial sex workers within the population of men who have sex with men (MSM) in China, known as ‘money boys’ (MBs), are perceived to be at higher risk for HIV and other sexually-transmissible infections (STIs). Methods We conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses from peer-reviewed literature accessed in two English (PubMed and Embase) and three Chinese databases (CNKI, CQVIP, Wanfang data). A data synthesis exercise was carried out to determine the extent and patterns of behaviours and HIV/STI epidemics. Pooled estimates, with 95% confidence intervals, for each study variable were calculated. Results Thirty-two eligible articles (9 in English and 23 in Chinese) were identified. Our analysis indicated that Chinese MBs are generally young, currently employed, at low literacy levels and highly mobile. The prevalence of HIV, syphilis and co-infection among MBs were estimated to be 6.0% (4.2–8.5%), 12.4% (9.9–15.3%) and 2.2% (1.1–4.1%) over the period of 2004–2011. Level of condom use among MBs is generally higher than the broader MSM population (69.2% at last act, and 48.5% consistently over the past 6 months). One-third of the Chinese MBs identified themselves as bisexual and 8.7% (5.6–13.5%) are currently married to a female. Further, 40.9% (34.5–47.7%) of MBs participated in group sex in the past 12 months and 14.8% (10.6–20.3%) concurrently use illicit drugs. Conclusions HIV/STI epidemics have affected Chinese MBs but the evidence suggests that the extent of infections is not greater than among other MSM in China.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEVELOPMENTS OF MANAGERS’ ETHICAL BEHAVIOR WITH ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH

Background and aim : The purpose of the study was investigating the relationship between development of managers’ ethical behavior in work environment and organizational health. Method: The method of research was descriptive correlation. Statistical population was all employees of Azad and state universities of Mazandaran province (5083 people). Statistical sample was 346 people that were selected by simple random method based on Krejcie and Morgan table. Measurement tools were standard organizational health questionnaire with 21 questions and researcher made ethical behavior development questionnaire with 35 questions. Reliability of questionnaires reviewed with Cronbach alpha that was 0/92 for organizational health questionnaire and 0/94 for ethical behavior development questionnaire. Data was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistic including Pearson correlation coefficient, Fisher and Regression. Findings: Findings revealed that there was significant linear correlation between teaching ethical principles, selecting employees with ethical potential capacity, promoting ethical rules and codes, managers’ adherence to ethical standards and at last ethical behavior development with organizational health. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this research it was revealed that there is a relationship between development of ethical behavior in work environment and organizational health. Thus, in order to maintain the organizational health it is recommended that people with clean records who are known for good behavior take management positions and an ethical charter based on ethical regulations and codes expressing what must be done and what must not be done in an organization should be designed and all staff should be informed about it. Also, reviewing the codes and their ethical policies should be done by participation of the staff themselves. Please cite this article as: Zameni F. The relationship between developments of managers’ ethical behavior with oganizational health. Iran J Bioethics 2016; 6(20): 47-66.
Mixed methods designs in marketing research

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to determine the uses of mixed method research designs published in major marketing journals.Design/methodology/approach – This study involved a content analysis of 2,166 articles published between 2003 and 2009 in nine prominent marketing journals.Findings – A total of 34 mixed method studies implemented data‐collection procedures sequentially (79 percent), eight implemented them concurrently (19 percent) and one combined both sequential and concurrent procedures (2 percent). On the whole, priority was skewed more toward quantitative strands, with 27 articles prioritizing quantitative data (63 percent), three articles prioritizing qualitative data (7 percent), and 13 articles prioritizing both equally (30 percent). Research limitations/implications – It is clear that marketing scholars recognize the benefit of mixing qualitative and quantitative research; however, as a discipline we are not demonstrating knowledge of the mixed method literature or procedures, as on.
Suburban Bliss or Disillusionment - Why Do Terrorists Quit?

This study explores the explanatory value of two theories of desistance – the cessation of criminal behavior – in explaining why 27 individuals left the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS). The article focuses specifically on jihadists that turned away from ISIS after March 2011, asking why individuals desist from ISIS and choose to leave the caliphate. A dataset of 27 narratives of desistance was analysed to answer the question to what extent desistance from ISIS by jihadists can be explained by the Laub & Sampson’s life course theory and by Altier, Thorogughood & Horgan’s model of push and pull factors . The primary pathways for desistance are coded according to the two theories. The results show that of the 27 individuals, the majority desisted from the caliphate because of their perception of the excessive use of force by ISIS and their inability to cope with the effects. A minority desisted because of their perception of alternative options outside the terrorist group or because of important life events that happened ‘at home’. Thus, the article concludes that the push and pull factors model is valid in the explanation of desistance from the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq whereas life course theory does not hold explanatory value