Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical trial with inactivated hepatitis A vaccine and recommendations for its use.

OBJECTIVE--To compare the reactogenicity and immunogenicity of an inactivated hepatitis A vaccine in two different immunisation schedules. DESIGN--Randomised trial. SETTING--One London teaching hospital. SUBJECTS--104 healthy adult volunteers (71 men, 33 women aged 19-60). INTERVENTIONS--Hepatitis A vaccine to group 1 (54 volunteers) at 0, 1, and 2 months and to group 2 (50) at 0, 1, and 6 months. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Symptoms at and after each dose; liver function, hepatitis A virus specific serum immune response; and responses in saliva and parotid fluid in immunised volunteers and subjects with natural immunity. RESULTS--The vaccine was well tolerated; 97% (96/99) and 100% of those immunised developed serum antibody after one and two doses of vaccine respectively. Geometric mean titres increased progressively after each dose and were significantly higher in men but not women in group 2 after the third dose (ratio between geometric mean titres 0.265, 95% confidence interval 0.18 to 0.39; p less than 0.001). At one year this group-sex interaction was absent; geometric mean titres for both sexes were significantly higher in group 2 (ratio 0.330, 0.227 to 0.478; p less than 0.0001). Antibody responses were not significantly different between the groups at two years. Compared with naturally infected subjects immunised volunteers developed poor or undetectable virus specific IgG and IgA responses in saliva and parotid fluid. CONCLUSIONS--The vaccine was safe and highly immunogenic, and the differences in the immune responses in saliva and parotid fluid are unlikely to affect its efficacy.
Governance and management in universities: the way we live now

Although all British universities are now subject to much greater external regulation, mainly by the state and its subordinate agencies, simple generalizations cannot be drawn from the complex evolution of their management and governance. Instead a variety of organizational cultures is developing. Some, predominantly but not exclusively in the more academically successful universities with stronger traditions of collegial government, will diffuse (if not resist) the managerialism typical of the post-Dearing era; others will embrace it, fashioning tightly focused teams of executive managers; many, perhaps most, will lie between these extremes.
Vision Target Tracker Based on Incremental Dictionary Learning and Global and Local Classification

Based on sparse representation, a robust global and local classification algorithm for visual target tracking in uncertain environment was proposed in this paper. The global region of target and the position of target would be found, respectively by the proposed algorithm. Besides, overcompleted dictionary was obtained and updated by biased discriminate analysis with the divergence of positive and negative samples at current frame. And this over-completed dictionary not only discriminates the positive samples accurately but also rejects the negative samples effectively. Experiments on challenging sequences with evaluation of the state-of-the-art methods show that the proposed algorithm has better robustness to illumination changes, perspective changes, and targets rotation itself.
Relationship between severity of coronary artery disease and apolipoprotein E gene polymorphism.

OBJECTIVE To explore the possible contribution of the apolipoprotein (apo) E polymorphisms to the extent and severity of coronary artery disease (CAD) related to lipid metabolism. METHODS Overall, 53 Turkish patients, aged 54+/-11 years defined by coronary angiography were included in this cross-sectional study. Reardon's coronary artery scoring was used. Serum lipids were measured with enzymatic colorimetric methods. Apolipoproteins were measured with nephelometry. Apolipoprotein E gene polymorphisms were determined by the reverse hybridization method. Statistical analyses were performed using one-way ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis and Chi- square tests. RESULTS The genotype frequencies were 7.5% for E2/E3, 77.4% for E3/E3 and 15.1% for E3/E4. The E2 allele frequency was slightly lower than E4 allele. There were no significant differences between apo E2/E3, E3/E3 and E3/E4 genotypes for severity scorings (26, 41 and 32 respectively, p=0.30) and extent scorings (3.2, 5.5, 4.5, p=0.17). It was found that the most of patients who had E2/3 and E3/4 alleles had low severity scores. On the other hand, there were no significant score difference for patients who had E3/3 alleles. Lipids were not significantly different among the different genotypes. The E3 allele was associated with high apo B levels compared with E2 and E4 genotypes. It was found that severity and extent of disease were not related with lipid metabolism. CONCLUSION We concluded that there were no statistically significant differences between genotypes for extent and severity scorings, but the apo E3 allele is associated with more severe disease than E2 allele. These associations with severity were mediated not only by changes in lipid metabolism but may be also by other mechanisms in CAD patients.
Gender differences in sexual behaviour among people living with HIV in Chennai, India.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Risky sexual behaviour is usually the focus of HIV prevention programmes and little attention has been given to sexual behaviour patterns among HIV positive individuals. In order to ensure that people with HIV receive high quality sexual and mental health services, providers must have a comprehensive understanding of the issues and challenges faced by men and women with HIV. This study was conducted to gain insight into the gender differences in sexual behaviour patterns among HIV seropositive men and women in south India. METHODS This descriptive cross-sectional study on a cohort of 203 seropositive patients (102 women and 101 men) attending outpatient clinics in the Tuberculosis Research Centre and the STD clinic of the Government General Hospital, Chennai, India. A semi-structured interview schedule was administered to collect information from the respondents. RESULTS Fifty three per cent of the women were discontented with the sexual relationship with their spouse as compared to 23 per cent of the men (P<0.001). Thirty two of the 54 women who refused sex said that their spouses reacted violently to their refusal. More men than women reported to having extramarital relationships most often with a commercial sex worker or a friend, without condoms and usually under the influence of alcohol. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION There are gender differences in sexual behaviour patterns among men and women. Understanding these differences is important to plan gender based intervention strategies in order to ensure that people living with HIV have a better quality of life, addressing their sexual concerns both within and outside of marriage. The findings will also help in advocacy and prevention programmes aimed at HIV/AIDS control.
Comparison of the effects of erdosteine and N‐acetylcysteine on apoptosis regulation in endotoxin‐induced acute lung injury

This study was carried out to investigate comparatively the frequency of apoptosis in lung epithelial cells after intratracheal instillation of endotoxin [lipopolysaccharide (LPS)] in rats and the role of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐α) on apoptosis, and the effects of erdosteine and N‐acetylcysteine on the regulation of apoptosis. Female Wistar rats were given oral erdosteine (10–500 mg kg−1) or N‐acetylcysteine (10–500 mg kg−1) once a day for 3 consecutive days. Then the rats were intratracheally instilled with LPS (5 mg kg−1) to induce acute lung injury. The rats were killed at 24 h after LPS administration. Lung tissue samples were stained with hematoxylin‐eosin for histopathological assessments. The apoptosis level in the lung bronchial and bronchiolar epithelium was determined using the TUNEL (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase‐mediated dUTP nick endlabelling) method. Cytoplasmic TNF‐α was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Pretreatment with erdosteine and pretreatment with N‐acetylcysteine at a dose of 10 mg kg−1 had no protective effect on LPS‐induced lung injury. When the doses of drugs increased, the severity of the lung damage caused by LPS decreased. It was found that as the pretreatment dose of erdosteine was increased, the rate of apoptosis induced by LPS in lung epithelial cells decreased and this decrease was statistically significant in doses of 300 mg kg−1 and 500 mg kg−1. Pretreatment with N‐acetylcysteine up to a dose of 500 mg kg−1 did not show any significant effect on apoptosis regulation. It was noticed that both antioxidants had no significant effect on the local production level of TNF‐α. These findings suggest that erdosteine could be a possible therapeutic agent for acute lethal lung injury and its mortality. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Influence of Outside Directors' Stock-Option Compensation on Firms' R&D

Using a sample of S&P 1500 firms between 1997 and 2000, this paper examines the effects of outside directors' stock-option compensation on firms' R&D intensity. Results suggest that including stock options in outside directors' compensation enhances firms' R&D. Moreover, stock-option compensation moderates the relationship between board composition and R&D intensity. These results suggest that outside directors' compensation schemes do matter. The results also highlight the need to re-evaluate previous findings that addressed the effects of board composition on both firms' performance and strategic decisions.
Leverage and IPO under‐pricing: high‐tech versus low‐tech IPOs

Purpose – The extant literature on initial public offerings (IPOs) generally assumes that a high degree of pre‐IPO leverage serves as a positive signal of firm quality as it forces a firm's managers to adhere to tough budget constraints. The purpose of this paper is to question the validity of this assumption when it is indiscriminately applied to all firms, while other potentially important determinants of a firm's optimal capital structure are ignored. High‐tech versus low‐tech firms are specifically focused on.Design/methodology/approach – Multivariate regression controlling is used for various firm and offer characteristics, market and industry returns, and potential endogeneity between investment bank rankings, price revisions, and under‐pricing.Findings – It is found that debt only serves as a signal of better firm quality for low‐tech IPOs, as reflected in smaller price revisions and lower under‐pricing. For high‐tech IPOs, the effect of leverage is reversed: for these firms, higher leverage is ass.
The Determinants of Real Exchange Rate in Nigeria

In this paper, an attempt is made to investigate the determinants of the real exchange rate in Nigeria. The objective of the study has been to present a dynamic model of real exchange rate determination and empirically test the implications of changes in possible determinants of the real exchange in Nigeria. With data covering 1970-2010, the parsimonious ECM result shows amongst others that the ratio of government spending to GDP, terms of trade and technological progress are not important determinants of the real effective exchange rate in Nigeria. The result showed that capital flow, price level and nominal effective exchange rate are important determinants of the real effective exchange rate in Nigeria. The paper suggests that the Dutch Disease syndrome holds in Nigeria. The Johansen cointegration test suggests a long relationship among the variables. It is thus recommended amongst others that policies have to be put in place to stabilize the problem of inflation.
Verification of model predictive control laws using weispfenning's quantifier elimination by virtual substitution algorithm

A method based on a quantifier elimination algorithm is suggested for obtaining explicit model predictive control (MPC) laws for linear time invariant systems with quadratic objective and polytopic constraints. The structure of the control problem considered allows Weispfenning's `quantifier elimination by virtual substitution' algorithm to be used. This is applicable to first order formulas in which quantified variables appear at most quadratically. It has much better practical computational complexity than general quantifier elimination algorithms, such as cylindrical algebraic decomposition. We show how this explicit MPC solution, together with Weispfenning's algorithm, can be used to check recursive feasibility of the system, for both nominal and disturbed systems. Extension to cases beyond linear MPC using Weispfenning's algorithm is part of future work.
Psychotherapy and the Cultural Concept of the Person

Psychotherapies are distinguished from other forms of symbolic healing by their emphasis on explicit talk about the self. Every system of psychotherapy thus depends on implicit models of the self, which in turn, are based on cultural concepts of the person. The cultural concept of the person that underwrites most forms of psychotherapy is based on Euro-American values of individualism. This individualistic and egocentric concept of the person can be contrasted with more sociocentric, ecocentric or cosmocentric views, which understand the person in relation to the social world, the environment, and the cosmos. Intercultural psychotherapy must consider the cultural concept of the person implicit in therapeutic discourse and practice to determine how well it fits or conflicts with the concepts, values and way of life of the patient.
Reintegrating Government in Third Generation Reforms of Australia and New Zealand

Public sector reform has persisted for a sufficient length of time in several countries to examine patterns over the longer term. Australia and New Zealand are both early and long-term reforming countries that display distinctive features as well as being Anglophone countries identified with new public management. As third generation reformers, the products of more than two decades of reform activity are becoming clearer: the starker manifestations of new public management have less prominence now and a set of distinctive trends has emerged with commonalities across the two countries. The synthesis of elements in the third generation suggests that system integration and performance are central to the prevailing approach and that an emergent model is best represented in the mid-2000s as integrating governance. The article explores the constituent elements and significance of the new model and its relationship to earlier models.
Mechanical behavior of two hamstring graft constructs for reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament

We compared the mechanical behavior of two common hamstring graft constructs that are frequently used for reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament—Graft A: quadrupled semitendinosus tendon fixed with titanium button/polyester tape and suture/screw post, and Graft B: a double semitendinosus and double gracilis tendon fixed with a cross pin and two screws over washers. The experimental protocol used to evaluate each graft construct included stress relaxation (with and without preconditioning), cyclic loading, and a tensile load‐to‐failure test. The amount of stress relaxation without preconditioning was 60.6% for Graft A and 53.8% for Graft B. With preconditioning, it significantly decreased (p < 0.05) to 48.7 and 42.3%. respectively. Elongation of the graft construct in response to 100 cycles of loading (20–150 N) was 1.8 and 0.6% of the original length for Grafts A and B. respectively. However, after a series of five cyclic loading tests, the residual permanent elongation for each construct was 3.8 ± 1.2 and 0.3 ± 0.2 mm, a significant difference (p < 0.05) between the two graft constructs. Further analysis found more than 90% of the permanent elongation in the proximal and distal regions of Graft A, which consisted of polyester tape tied to a titanium button (proximal) and sutures tied around a screw post (distal). The tensile load‐to‐failure tests also revealed significant differences (p < 0.05) between the two graft constructs. Linear stiffness was 32 ± 1 and 119 ± 19 Nmm and ultimate load was 415 ± 36 and 658 ± 128 N for Grafts A and B, respectively. For Graft A, the polyester tape consistently failed; for Graft B, slippage or tearing from the washers was the mode of failure. We conclude that a quadruple‐hamstring graft fixed over a cross pin proximally and with metal washers distally (Graft B) has less permanent elongation in response to cyclic loading and has structural properties superior to those of a graft construct that includes suture and tape material (Graft A). The large permanent elongation following repetitive loading of a graft construct with tape and suture material during the early postoperative period is of concern.
“Labouring to learn”: organisational learning and mutual gains

Research on organisational learning is limited in three ways; in terms of the type of organisation and the type of employees which are seen to benefit from a learning culture; and in terms of the consensual assumptions made about the nature of learning within the workplace, assumptions which contradict the reality of the workplace for most people. Other researchers have attempted to form a typology of learning; they are narrowly constructed and often internal to the enterprise; learning is often de‐contextualised from other organisational processes. In response to these criticisms, we have framed and measured a holistic concept of learning that more readily takes account of organisational context. This paper presents data on learning within two traditional companies operating in the food and drinks sector. In particular it is concerned with long‐term organisational learning in light of discussions of the mutual gains workplace, reflecting more general concerns about organisational behaviour.
The turn‐of‐the‐month effect in real estate investment trusts (REITs)

Purpose – This study seeks to examine the market returns of five domestic real estate investment trust (REIT) indices to determine whether they exhibit a turn-of-the-month (TOM) effect. Design/methodology/approach -A test is carried out for the TOM effect by employing a battery of parametric and non-parametric statistical tests that address the concerns of distributional assumption violations. An OLS regression model compares the TOM returns with the rest-of-the-month (ROM) returns and an ANOVA model examines the TOM period while controlling for monthly seasonalities. A non-parametric t-test examines whether the TOM returns are greater than the ROM returns and a Wilcoxon signed rank test examines the matched-pairs of TOM and ROM returns. Findings -A TOM effect in all five domestic REIT indices is found: real estate 50 REIT, all-REIT, equity REIT, hybrid REIT, and mortgage REIT. More specifically, the six-day TOM period, on average, accounts for over 100 per cent of the monthly return for the three non-mortgage REITs, while the ROM period generates a negative return. Additionally, the TOM returns are greater than the ROM returns in 75 per cent of the months. Research limitations/implications - The data are limited to five-years of daily returns and five different indices. Thus, the results could be biased on the selected time period. Practical implications -These results are important to REIT portfolio managers and investors. Domestic REIT markets experience a TOM effect from which investors and portfolio managers can benefit. Originality/value -The daily returns of all five major domestic REIT indices are examined. Data are evaluated which include daily returns after the passage of the REIT Modernization Act of 1999 that resulted in numerous changes for REITs. Whether the TOM effect can be detected with both parametric and non-parametric tests is examined.
Use of complementary medicines for osteoarthritis—a prospective study

Background: Patients with osteoarthritis commonly use complementary and alternative medicines (CAM), either as an adjunct to or in place of conventional analgesics. Objectives: To undertake a prospective investigation of the prevalence of CAM use for osteoarthritis and the direct costs incurred. Methods: The subjects were 341 patients with osteoarthritis of the knee or hip drawn from central and northern Sydney, Australia, and comprising 83 community based patients and 258 awaiting joint replacement. Information on CAM use was obtained from prospective three monthly diaries. Variables of interest included health related quality of life scores. Prospective out of pocket costs were recorded over a 12 month follow up period. Results: The prevalence of CAM use was 40%, which falls within the range of previous studies. Average annual expenditure on CAM was A$32.25 (range 0 to 603.30). CAM users were more likely to be female (odds ratio (OR) 1.8 (95% confidence interval, 1.1 to 3.0)), reported a higher level of bodily pain (OR 0.97 (0.95 to 0.99)), and were less likely to purchase conventional analgesics (OR 3.3 (1.6 to 7.0)), either prescribed or over the counter. Vitamin supplementation was the most common CAM reported, followed by celery extract, fish oils, and garlic extracts. Conclusions: There are no good quality clinical trials to support the use of most preparations purchased by patients with osteoarthritis. There is a need for patient education on the risks and benefits of complementary medicine in osteoarthritis.
Rice and wheat production in Pakistan with Effective Microorganisms

There is a growing interest in the use of soil microbial inoculants as an alternative biological approach to a) improve soil quality, b) enhance the growth, yield and quality of crops, and c) reduce the inputs of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture worldwide. One such product that has received considerable attention, is Effective Microorganisms or EM; it consists of mixed cultures of beneficial microorganisms. A long-term field experiment was conducted at Faisalabad, Pakistan to determine the agronomic and economic merits of EM in a rice-wheat cropping system. Treatments were applied in a randomized complete block design that included: control (untreated); recommended chemical fertilizer (NPK); green manure (GM); farmyard manure (FYM); Effective Microorganisms (EM) alone; NPK + EM; GM + EM; and FYM + EM. Significantly higher grain and straw yields for both crops were obtained with NPK alone, with other treatments in the following order: NPK > GM > FYM > EM. However, when fertilizer and organic amendments were combined with EM, higher grain and straw yields were obtained for each crop following the same order, i.e., NPK+EM > GM+EM > FYM+EM. The GM+EM treatment produced grain and straw yields for each crop that approached those for NPK alone. In all cases, the grain and straw yields from EM alone were higher than the controls. With few exceptions, EM applied in combination with NPK, GM and FYM caused a significant increase in nutrient uptake by the grain and straw of each crop. The uptake of NPK by both crops was higher for EM alone than for the controls. A comparative economic analysis of the treatments showed a significantly higher net return due to EM. The average net profit from rice and wheat production using EM was $44.90 ha −1 and $62.35 ha −1 , respectively. The study indicates that EM can enhance maximum economic yields in a rice-wheat rotation and also improve soil productivity when applied with organic amendments.
The Copenhagen Traffic Model and its Application in the Metro City Ring Project

Abstract In June 2007, the Danish Parliament passed an act to finance the construction of the Metro City Ring in Copenhagen. The assessment project is based on the passenger patronage forecasts for 2015 from the Copenhagen traffic model. In this paper we show how the model forecasts for this particular infrastructure project can be explained through detailed knowledge of model structure and model validation.