Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prominent Determinants of Consumer-Based Brand Equity Regular Paper

In this paper we investigate the most prominent drivers of brand equity, from a consumer‐ based point of view. We present a new approach for measuring brand equity, which can be applied regardless of the brand sector and is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process. This approach has the main advantage of allowing for comparisons to be made between non‐directly measurable elements and also has the advantage of enabling the ranking of intangible criteria, such as consumers’ feelings or purchase intentions. We focus on the fashion industry, since we believe in the higher value of our approach when applied to brands which offer products with less tangible characteristics. Thanks to a case study – which involved about 250 interviewees – we succeed in finding and prioritizing the elements which can have an impact on the brand value. We also provide a global ranking for three apparel brands: Gap, H&M and Zara. The results from our model are consistent with other popular ratings and can be extremely useful for brand managers.
Surveillance as an Intervention in the Care of Stroke Patients

Background: The term surveillance describes nurses’ cognitive work to identify and prevent patient complications. Surveillance involves frequent assessment of patients, attention to cues, and recognition of complications. Surveillance serves to prevent the phenomenon “failure to rescue,” which is defined as the inability to recognize a complication that results in the loss of a patient’s life. Previous research has focused on differences between novices and experts during simulated tasks such as developing a plan of care. More recently, attention has focused on the early recognition of patient complications. Little research has been conducted on surveillance, especially with respect to the intervention during the delivery of care. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the nursing intervention of surveillance in the care of stroke patients. Methods and Design: A descriptive exploratory design using think-aloud was employed. The study focused on 10 nurses working on a medical neurology unit and their patients in a large Midwestern academic health center. While providing care to a stroke patient, the nurse was prompted to think aloud as they (1) received report, (2) performed an initial assessment of the patient, and (3) concluded the work shift. Data analysis was conducted using content analysis to define the cues and information processing strategies used by these nurses during the delivery of care to stroke patients. Findings and Conclusion: The findings suggest that nurses in this study used surveillance. Using cues from change-of-shift handoff information, a mental image of what the patient would look/be like was formed. This mental image served as a baseline for the evaluation of the patient’s current state.
Incorporation of waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into concrete using statistical mixture design

This thesis investigated the incorporation of waste Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) into concrete as a replacement for natural fine aggregate and found an optimal combination of components that produces a useful concrete product. Six components were considered: cement, water, coarse aggregate, fine aggregate, superplasticizer, and waste PET. A total of 31 mixes were prepared based on a statistical mixture design approach. The responses of these mixtures were workability, compressive strength, and splitting tensile strength. The waste PET was first reduced in volume by shredding and then combined with the rest of the components. The responses from the experiments were statistically analyzed and a model fitted to each response. Linear models were found to fit the responses best. Using the desirability function approach, four optimal options were selected and then verified in the lab by comparing the experimental with the predicted values. Except for one, all the values fell within the 95% prediction interval. The option that best fulfilled the workability and strength requirements was found. The average response values obtained with this combination were: (1) compressive strength of 23.8 MPa; (2) slump 123 mm, and (3) splitting tensile strength of 3.33 MPa. This mix can be used in basements foundation walls or slabs, inside buildings not exposed to freezing temperatures. It is recommended that future work should consider method of mixing, time of mixing, volume of mix, curing conditions, and other responses to further understand the characteristics of incorporating waste PET into concrete.
A Framework for Opportunistic Allocation of Wireless Resources

Wireless multi-hop, mesh networks are being considered as a candidate to backhaul data traffic from access networks to the wired Internet. To enhance system performance, scheduling algorithms for wireless mesh networks are desirable to take advantage of multi-user diversity resulted from time-varying channel condition and space-varying path loss. Although many existing scheduling algorithms or medium access protocols have been adopted for the wireless mesh networks, they do not perform well, given that the algorithms are devised for wireless access. In this paper, we study the computational complexity in finding the optimal schedule for a mesh network with time-division-duplexing (TDD) operations. We propose a novel heuristic distributed scheduling framework for wireless mesh networks with open definitions of utility function. Performance analysis shows that our proposed framework is of polynomial-time complexity. Simulation results compare our framework with the tree-structural approach, and reveal that our proposed framework is highly capable of selecting and scheduling links with high utility in a fully distributed manner.
Prescription Opioid Craving: Relationship With Pain and Substance Use-Related Characteristics

ABSTRACT Background: Craving is associated with prescription opioid use in opioid-addicted pain patients. Objectives: This study evaluated the relationship between craving for prescription opioids and selected pain and substance use characteristics. Method: In this cross-sectional study, patients (N = 106) being treated for opioid dependence were recruited from one of three sites from December 2012 to April 2013. Participants completed the multi-dimensional Desire for Drugs Questionnaire to assess craving, and other questionnaires to assess pain, substance use, and demographic characteristics. Data were analyzed using Pearson product-by-moment correlations, ANOVAs, and multiple linear regressions. Results: At the bivariate level, desire-and-intention to use prescription opioids and craving for relief from negative states were positively associated with both pain severity and interference. Linear regression analyses revealed significant positive associations between Desire-and-Intention subscale scores and obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors associated with prescription opioids and pain severity. Negative Reinforcement subscales scores were positively associated with obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors associated with prescription opioids and the outcome expectancies of pain reduction, but not pain severity. Conclusions/Importance: This study extended previous research assessing the link between pain and craving by demonstrating that desire-and-intention, but not craving for the negative reinforcing effects are associated with pain severity after considering various substance use characteristics. Additional research is needed to clarify the relationship between pain and aspects of craving while also considering pain-specific covariates. This study highlights that the multi-dimensionality of craving is an important aspect to consider when clinicians and researchers evaluate the relationship between pain and craving.
Membrane Efflux and Influx Modulate both Multidrug Resistance and Virulence of Klebsiella pneumoniae in a Caenorhabditis elegans Model

ABSTRACT Cross-resistance to cefoxitin (FOX), chloramphenicol (CMP), and quinolones (nalidixic acid [NAL]) related to a putative efflux system overexpression has recently been reported for Klebsiella pneumoniae. The potential impact of this multidrug resistance (MDR) on the virulence of K. pneumoniae was evaluated in the Caenorhabditis elegans model. For 2 of the 3 MDR clinical isolates studied, a significant increase in acrB transcription was found in comparison with their antibiotic-susceptible revertants. ATCC 138821 and MDR, revertant, and derivative strains with altered porin expression were studied. Strains proved or suspected to overexpress an efflux system were significantly more virulent than the ATCC and revertant strains (time to kill 50% of nematodes [LT50] in days: 3.4 to 3.8 ± 0.2 versus 4.1 to 4.4 ± 0.3, P < 0.001). Inversely, strains with altered porin expression were significantly less virulent, independently of the expression level of efflux system (LT50 = 5.4 to 5.6 ± 0.2, P < 0.001). Altered porin expression did not change MICs of CMP and NAL but did those of FOX (4 to 16× MIC) and ertapenem (16 to 64× MIC). The strains with a normally or an overexpressed efflux system that received the β-lactamase CTX-M-15 became more widely resistant without modification of their virulence potential, suggesting that balance between resistance and virulence is dependent on the type of resistance mechanisms. In conclusion, this study shows that the expression of both efflux systems and porins is a key factor not only for antibiotic resistance but also virulence potential in K. pneumoniae.
A diffusion regime with non-degenerate slowdown Rami Atar

We study a diffusion regime, earlier considered by Gurvich, Mandelbaum, Shaikhet and Whitt in the case of the M/M/N queue, that is, in a sense that we make precise, a midpoint between two well-known heavy traffic diffusion regimes, the conventional and the quality and efficiency driven regimes. Unlike the other two, this regime, that we call the non-degenerate slowdown regime, enjoys the property that delay and service time are of the same order of magnitude, a property that is often desirable from a modeling viewpoint. Our main result is that in the case of heterogeneous exponential multi-server systems, this regime gives rise to new limit processes for the sojourn time. In particular, the joint limit law of the delay and service time processes is identified as a reflected Brownian motion and an independent process, whose marginal is a size-biased mixture of exponentials. Our results also motivate the formulation and study of new diffusion control problems, based on sojourn time cost. AMS subject classifications: 60K25, 60J60, 60F17, 90B22, 68M20
Impact of medical academic genealogy on publication patterns: An analysis of the literature for surgical resection in brain tumor patients

“Academic genealogy” refers to the linking of scientists and scholars based on their dissertation supervisors. We propose that this concept can be applied to medical training and that this “medical academic genealogy” may influence the landscape of the peer‐reviewed literature. We performed a comprehensive PubMed search to identify US authors who have contributed peer‐reviewed articles on a neurosurgery topic that remains controversial: the value of maximal resection for high‐grade gliomas (HGGs). Training information for each key author (defined as the first or last author of an article) was collected (eg, author's medical school, residency, and fellowship training). Authors were recursively linked to faculty mentors to form genealogies. Correlations between genealogy and publication result were examined. Our search identified 108 articles with 160 unique key authors. Authors who were members of 2 genealogies (14% of key authors) contributed to 38% of all articles. If an article contained an authorship contribution from the first genealogy, its results were more likely to support maximal resection (log odds ratio = 2.74, p < 0.028) relative to articles without such contribution. In contrast, if an article contained an authorship contribution from the second genealogy, it was less likely to support maximal resection (log odds ratio = −1.74, p < 0.026). We conclude that the literature on surgical resection for HGGs is influenced by medical academic genealogies, and that articles contributed by authors of select genealogies share common results. These findings have important implications for the interpretation of scientific literature, design of medical training, and health care policy. Ann Neurol 2016;79:169–177
Sudden death in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Assessment of patients at high risk.

T he incidence of sudden death in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is 2-4% a year in adults and 4-6% a year in children and adolescents.1 These data have been generated from referral cardiac centers and may reflect a bias to the more severe patients.2 The identification and management of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who are at increased risk of sudden death remains a major problem, particularly in younger patients.
ATF3‐Mediated NRF2/HO‐1 Signaling Regulates TLR4 Innate Immune Responses in Mouse Liver Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury

Activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3) is a stress‐induced transcription factor that has been shown to repress inflammatory gene expression in multiple cell types and diseases. However, little is known about the roles and mechanisms of ATF3 in liver ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI). In warm and cold liver IRI models, we showed that ATF3 deficiency significantly increased ischemia/reperfusion (IR)‐stressed liver injury, as evidenced by increased serum alanine aminotransferase levels, histological liver damage, and hepatocellular apoptosis. These may correlate with inhibition of the intrahepatic nuclear factor erythroid‐derived 2‐related factor 2/heme oxygenase‐1 (NRF2/HO‐1) signaling pathway leading to enhancing Toll‐like receptor 4/nuclear factor kappa beta (TLR4/NF‐κB) activation, pro‐inflammatory programs and macrophage/neutrophil trafficking, while simultaneously repressing anti‐apoptotic molecules in ischemic liver. Interestingly, activation of NRF2/HO‐1 signaling using an NRF2 activator, oltipraz (M2), during hepatic IRI‐rescued ATF3 anti‐inflammatory functions in ATF3‐deficient mice. For in vitro studies, ATF3 ablation in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐stimulated bone marrow‐derived macrophages (BMMs) depressed levels of NRF2/HO‐1 and PI3K/AKT, resulting in enhanced TLR4/NF‐κB activation. Pretreatment of LPS‐stimulated BMMs with M2 increased NRF2/HO‐1 expression, promoted PI3K/AKT, which in turn suppressed TLR4/NF‐κB‐mediated proinflammatory mediators. Thus, our results first demonstrate ATF3‐mediated NRF2/HO‐1 signaling in the regulation of TLR4‐driven inflammatory responses in IR‐stressed livers. Our findings provide a rationale for a novel therapeutic strategy for managing IR‐induced liver injury.
Multi-scale geophysical data analysis using the eigenimage discrete wavelet transform

Discrete wavelet transforms are useful in a number of signal-processing applications. When non-stationary noise spans most wavelet scales, simple rejection of certain scales in the wavelet domain often fails to achieve the desired effect because of strong intra-scale coupling effects. To improve the scale resolution, a joint function of time, scale and eigenvalue that describes the energy density or intensity of a signal simultaneously in the wavelet and eigenimage domains is constructed. A hybrid method, which decomposes eigenimages in the wavelet domain, is developed and tested on field data with a variety of noise types. Several illustrative examples examine the ability of wavelet transforms to resolve features at several scales and the feasibility of combining these transforms with eigenstructure seismic interference cancelling techniques. Successful applications to time-lapse seismic reservoir monitoring are presented. In reservoir monitoring, the scale-dependent properties of the eigenstructure of the 4D data covariance matrix enable us to extract the low-frequency time-lapse signal that is the result of internal diffusive losses caused by fluid flow. The method also gives excellent results in coherent or random noise attenuation, wavefield separation, low-frequency processing, optimal velocity smoothing, data upscaling, and integration of well logs and seismic data. Particular benefits are due to trace matching for multiple subtraction and 4D cross-equalization that extracts subtle variations due to changes in reservoir properties from a signal whose spectral density is not stationary.
Alterations of calcium homoeostasis in cultured rat astrocytes evoked by bioactive sphingolipids

In the brain, alterations in sphingolipid metabolism contribute to several neurological disorders; however, their effect on astrocytes is largely unknown. Here, we identified bioactive sphingolipids that affect intracellular free calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i), mobility of peptidergic secretory vesicles, signalling pathways involved in alterations of calcium homoeostasis and explored the relationship between the stimulus‐evoked increase in [Ca2+]i and attenuation of vesicle mobility.
Thermal Debinding Process of SS 17-4 PH in Metal Injection Molding Process with Variation of Heating Rates, Temperatures, and Holding Times

Generally, metal injection molding (MIM) method utilizes SS 17-4 PH as material for application of orthodontic bracket. One of the process of MIM is thermal debinding, which binder is eliminated by thermal energy. In this study, thermal debinding process is conducted with variation of temperature, i.e. 480, 510, and 540°C, holding time, i.e. 0.5, 1 and 2 hours, heating rate, i.e. 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2°C/min.The effect of temperature shows that the increased temperature will result in the mass reduction percentage due to formation of oxide on the sample, which will be proven through TGA testing. The highest mass reduction was 6.4137 wt% which was obtained at 480°C. For the variation of holding time, the longer the holding time will result in increased mass reduction and the highest mas reduction was 6.255 wt% which was obtained during 2 hours of holding time. For the heating rate, the slower the heating rate will result in increased mass reduction and decreased the presence of crack formation. The best variable was obtained at heating rate of 0.5°C/min, which resulted mass reduction of 6.2488 wt% and less crack formation.
Pelvic floor dysfunction: assessment with combined analysis of static and dynamic MR imaging findings.

PURPOSE To prospectively analyze static and dynamic magnetic resonance (MR) images simultaneously to determine whether stress urinary incontinence (SUI), pelvic organ prolapse (POP), and anal incontinence are associated with specific pelvic floor abnormalities. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study had institutional review board approval, and informed consent was obtained from all participants. There were 59 women: 15 nulliparous study control women (mean age, 25.6 years) and 44 patients (mean age, 43.4 years), who were divided into four groups according to chief symptom. Static T2-weighted turbo spin-echo images were used in evaluating structural derangements; functional dynamic (cine) balanced fast-field echo images were used in detecting functional abnormalities and recording five measurements of supporting structures. Findings on both types of MR images were analyzed together to determine the predominant defect. Analysis of variance and the Bonferroni t test were used to compare groups. RESULTS In the four patient groups, POP was associated with levator muscle weakness in 16 (47%) of 34 patients, with level I and II fascial defects in seven (21%) of 34 patients, and with both defects in 11 (32%) of 34 patients. SUI was associated with defects of the urethral supporting structures in 25 (86%) of 29 patients but was not associated with bladder neck descent. Levator muscle weakness may lead to anal incontinence in the absence of anal sphincter defects. Measurements of supporting structures were significant (P < .05) in the identification of pelvic floor laxity. CONCLUSION Combined analysis of static and dynamic MR images of patients with pelvic floor dysfunction allowed identification of certain structural abnormalities with specific dysfunctions.
Motivators for uptake and maintenance of exercise: perceptions of long-term stroke survivors and implications for design of exercise programmes

Abstract Purpose: Exercise-after-stroke programmes are increasingly being provided to encourage more physical exercise among stroke survivors, but little is known about what motivates people with stroke to participate in them. This research aimed to identify factors that motivate long-term stroke survivors to exercise, and the implications for programme design. Methods: In two separate studies, focus groups and individual interviews were used to investigate the views of long-term stroke survivors on exercise and participating in exercise programmes. Their data were analysed thematically, and the findings of the studies were synthesised. Results: Eleven stroke survivors and two partners took part in two focus groups; six other stroke survivors (one with a partner) were interviewed individually. Factors reported to influence motivation were the psychological benefits of exercise, a desire to move away from a medicalised approach to exercise, beliefs about stroke recovery, and on-going support to sustain commitment. A number of potential implications of these themes for exercise programme design were identified. Conclusions: A range of personal beliefs and attitudes and external factors may affect the motivation to exercise, and these vary between individuals. Addressing these factors in the design of exercise programmes for long-term stroke survivors may enhance their appeal and so encourage greater engagement in exercise. Implications for Rehabilitation Exercise programmes may be more attractive to long-term stroke survivors if the psychological well-being benefits of participation are emphasised in their promotion. Some participants will be more attracted by programmes that are de-medicalised, for example, by being located away from clinical settings, and led by or involving suitably-trained non-clinicians. Programmes offered in different formats may attract stroke survivors with different beliefs about the value of exercise in stroke recovery. Programmes should provide explicit support strategies for on-going engagement in exercise.
Efficient algorithms for computing disjoint QoS paths

Networks are expected to meet a growing volume of requirements imposed by new applications such as multimedia streaming and video conferencing. Two essential requirements are support of quality of service (QoS) and resilience to failures. In order to satisfy these requirements, a common approach is to use two disjoint paths between the source and the destination nodes, the first serving as a primary path and the second as a restoration path. Such approach, referred to as path restoration, has several advantages, the major one being the ability to switch promptly from one path to another in the event of a failure. A major issue in this context is how to identify two paths that satisfy the QoS constraints imposed by network applications. Since network resources, e.g., bandwidth, are allocated along both primary and restoration paths, we need to consider also the overall network performance. Accordingly, in this paper we study the fundamental problem of finding two disjoint paths that satisfy the QoS constraints at minimum cost. We present approximation algorithms with provable performance guarantees for this fundamental network problem.
Phaeoisaria clematidis as a Cause of Keratomycosis

ABSTRACT We report the first case of human infection by Phaeoisaria clematidis. This fungus caused a corneal ulcer in a Brazilian man who had previously suffered an eye injury. Diagnosis was established by positive direct examination and repeated cultures. The isolate was clearly resistant in vitro to the six antifungal agents tested.