Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pneumonia and pneumonia related mortality in patients with COPD treated with fixed combinations of inhaled corticosteroid and long acting β2 agonist: observational matched cohort study (PATHOS)

Objective To investigate the occurrence of pneumonia and pneumonia related events in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) treated with two different fixed combinations of inhaled corticosteroid/long acting β2 agonist. Design Observational retrospective pairwise cohort study matched (1:1) for propensity score. Setting Primary care medical records data linked to Swedish hospital, drug, and cause of death registry data for years 1999-2009. Participants Patients with COPD diagnosed by a physician and prescriptions of either budesonide/formoterol or fluticasone/salmeterol. Main outcome measures Yearly pneumonia event rates, admission to hospital related to pneumonia, and mortality. Results 9893 patients were eligible for matching (2738 in the fluticasone/salmeterol group; 7155 in the budesonide/formoterol group), yielding two matched cohorts of 2734 patients each. In these patients, 2115 (39%) had at least one recorded episode of pneumonia during the study period, with 2746 episodes recorded during 19 170 patient years of follow up. Compared with budesonide/formoterol, rate of pneumonia and admission to hospital were higher in patients treated with fluticasone/salmeterol: rate ratio 1.73 (95% confidence interval 1.57 to 1.90; P<0.001) and 1.74 (1.56 to 1.94; P<0.001), respectively. The pneumonia event rate per 100 patient years for fluticasone/salmeterol versus budesonide/formoterol was 11.0 (10.4 to 11.8) versus 6.4 (6.0 to 6.9) and the rate of admission to hospital was 7.4 (6.9 to 8.0) versus 4.3 (3.9 to 4.6). The mean duration of admissions related to pneumonia was similar for both groups, but mortality related to pneumonia was higher in the fluticasone/salmeterol group (97 deaths) than in the budesonide/formoterol group (52 deaths) (hazard ratio 1.76, 1.22 to 2.53; P=0.003). All cause mortality did not differ between the treatments (1.08, 0.93 to 1.14; P=0.59). Conclusions There is an intra-class difference between fixed combinations of inhaled corticosteroid/long acting β2 agonist with regard to the risk of pneumonia and pneumonia related events in the treatment of patients with COPD. Trial registration Clinical Trials.gov NCT01146392.
Interfaces with Other Disciplines Impact of demand correlation on the value of and incentives for information sharing in a supply chain

Research on information sharing partnerships between manufacturers and retailers in a supply chain is relatively recent. The research has generally focused on models involving a single retailer or multiple retailers with independent demands. We analyze the value of demand information sharing in a one manufacturer–N retailer model in which demands at the retailers during a time period may be correlated. We use the well known Shapley value concept from game theory to analyze the expected manufacturer and retailer shares of the surplus generated from information sharing. We find that demand correlation affects the magnitude and shape of the surplus function, which, in turn, impacts the relative incentives of the manufacturer and retailers to form such partnerships. Higher correlation increases (reduces) the manufacturer (retailer) surplus. However, the declining marginal manufacturer surplus under high correlation condition may induce the manufacturer to limit the number of retailer partners. The impact of correlation among retailer demands on the value of and incentives for information sharing can be explained using the substitutable and complementary nature of demand information when they are highly and weakly correlated respectively. 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Specialization, Productivity and Financing Constraints

We analyze financial contracting when the specificity of investments is endogenous. Specialization decreases the liquidation value of assets, but it also improves a firm's long term productivity. While the first effect is known to make financing more difficult, we show that the second effect can ease financing constraints by improving an entrepreneur's incentive to pay. An entrepreneur's inability to commit to a given level of specialization introduces inefficiencies and may result in over or under specialization depending on which of the above effects dominates. The tradeoff we identify persists across various forms of specialized investments and generates new predictions. For example, we show that investment in human capital introduces a strategic incentive to specialize since entrepreneurs benefit from their investments even under liquidation.
Design and performance evaluation of a cache assist to implement selective caching

Conventional cache architectures exploit locality, but do so rather blindly. By forcing all references through a single structure, the cache's effectiveness on many references is reduced. This paper presents a cache assist namely the annex cache which implements a selective caching scheme. Except for filling a main cache at cold start, all entries come to the cache via the annex cache. Items referenced only rarely will be excluded from the main cache, eliminating several conflict misses. The basic premise is that an item deserves to be in the main cache only if it can prove its right to exist in the main cache by demonstrating locality. The annex cache combines the features of Jouppi's (1990) victim caches and McFarling's (1992) cache exclusion schemes. Extensive simulation studies for annex and victim caches using a variety of SPEC programs are presented in the paper. Annex caches were observed to be significantly better than conventional caches, better than victim caches in certain cases, and comparable to victim caches in other cases.
Knowledge , networking and innovation : Developing the process perspective

The need for innovation is frequently cited as a major reason for the emergence of network forms of organisation. However, little research has addressed the diverse roles played by networks and networking alike in processes of innovation. This paper draws on a historically grounded analysis of the development, diffusion and implementation of Computer Aided Production Management (CAPM) technology to develop an exploratory framework which links networking activities and knowledge flows to episodes in the innovation process. Although schematic, the framework allows a comparison of different episodes of the innovation process in terms of networking, networks and knowledge transmission. By reviewing the whole circuit of innovation from development and diffusion to implementation, the paper is able to explore the interactions between the different types of network and networking implicated in the innovation process.
Asking and Answering Queries Semantically

In this paper we propose a new method, called SEMQUERY, for querying information sources whose data are organized according to different schemata. The method is based on the idea of semantic elicitation, namely a process which takes in input the structural part of a query (e.g. the XPath part of an XQuery) and returns an expression in a logical language which represent the meaning of the query in a form which ideally is independent from its original syntactic formulation. Since the same process of elicitation can be performed on any path of schemata used to organize data, the decision on whether there is any logical relation between a query and a path in the schema is made via logical reasoning.
Worldview Orientations in Close Relationships: Development and Initial Validation of the Contract-Covenant Continuum

Christian approaches to close relationships in North America have been understood in covenantal terms between married persons, dating couples, and close friends, and have been contrasted with contractual or ego-based ones. Covenantal approaches value the dyad, interdependence, faith community involvement, and communication strategies to engender long-term commitment whereas contractual approaches value self, independence, negotiation for personal needs, and freedom to exit relationships when costs outweigh benefits. The authors gathered survey data among 713 subjects over three studies in order to develop a 22-item scale to measure covenantal and contractual worldview dimensions in close relationships. Scale items were examined for inter-item reliability, factor structure, evidence for construct validity, and predictive power of relational satisfaction. The resulting Contract-Covenant Continuum showed good reliability and multi-dimensionality. Evidence was also gathered to support concurrent, construct, and criterion validity as well as the scale's capacity to predict relational satisfaction and equity.
Sketch and run: a stroke-based interface for home robots

Numerous robots have been developed, and some of them are already being used in homes, institutions, and workplaces. Despite the development of useful robot functions, the focus so far has not been on user interfaces of robots. General users of robots find it hard to understand what the robots are doing and what kind of work they can do. This paper presents an interface for the commanding home robots by using stroke gestures on a computer screen. This interface allows the user to control robots and design their behaviors by sketching the robot's behaviors and actions on a top-down view from ceiling cameras. To convey a feeling of directly controlling the robots, our interface employs the live camera view. In this study, we focused on a house-cleaning task that is typical of home robots, and developed a sketch interface for designing behaviors of vacuuming robots.
Empowering Women Under Social Constraints: Evidence from a Field Intervention in Rural Egypt

Women in the MENA region are economically and socially disempowered. High youth unemployment rates together with discriminatory social norms drive them to limit their investment in human capital. We evaluate a large-scale intervention attempting to relax human capital constraints for women by offering vocational, business and life skills training in 30 villages in rural Egypt. Relative to women in the control villages, the intervention increased the likelihood of treated women engaging in income-generating activities, driven by an increase in self-employment. Treated women also became more likely to have future business aspirations. However, their intra-household decision-making and gender equality attitudes were not affected by the intervention. We show that these results mask heterogeneous effects in terms of background characteristics and initial levels of social empowerment. We find no evidence of positive spillover effects for the program within treated villages and, more importantly, no evidence of different pre-trends in employment between the treated and control groups prior to the intervention.
Meta-Analysis of Combined Therapy with Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists versus ACE Inhibitors Alone in Patients with Heart Failure

Background There is insufficient evidence whether the benefit of adding angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) to angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors outweighs the increased risk of adverse effects in patients with heart failure. Methodology/Principal Findings Two independent reviewers searched and abstracted randomized controlled trials of ARBs and ACE inhibitors compared to ACE inhibitor therapy alone in patients with heart failure reporting mortality and hospitalizations having a follow-up of at least 6 months identified by a systematic literature search. Eight trials including a total of 18,061 patients fulfilled our inclusion criteria. There was no difference between patients treated with combination therapy and ACE inhibitor therapy alone for overall mortality, hospitalization for any reason, fatal or nonfatal MI. Combination therapy was, however, associated with fewer hospital admissions for heart failure (RR 0.81, 95%CI 0.72–0.91), although there was significant heterogeneity across trials (p-value for heterogeneity = 0.04; I2 = 57% [95%CI 0–83%]). Patients treated with combination therapy had a higher risk of worsening renal function and symptomatic hypotension, and their trial medications were more often permanently discontinued. Lack of individual patient data precluded the analysis of time-to-event data and identification of subgroups which potentially benefit more from combination therapy such as younger patients with preserved renal function and thus at lower risk to experience worsening renal function or hyperkalemia. Conclusions/Significance Combination therapy with ARBs and ACE inhibitors reduces admissions for heart failure in patients with congestive heart failure when compared to ACE inhibitor therapy alone, but does not reduce overall mortality or all-cause hospitalization and is associated with more adverse events. Thus, based on current evidence, combination therapy with ARBs and ACE inhibitors may be reserved for patients who remain symptomatic on therapy with ACE inhibitors under strict monitoring for any signs of worsening renal function and/or symptomatic hypotension.
A variability-aware OpenMP environment for efficient execution of accuracy-configurable computation on shared-FPU processor clusters

We propose a tightly-coupled, multi-core cluster architecture with shared, variation-tolerant, and accuracy-reconfigurable floating-point units (FPUs). The resilient shared-FPUs dynamically characterize FP pipeline vulnerability (FPV) and expose it as metadata to a software scheduler for reducing the cost of error correction. To further reduce this cost, our programming and runtime environment also supports controlled approximate computation through a combination of design-time and runtime techniques. We provide OpenMP extensions (as custom directives) for FP computations to specify parts of a program that can be executed approximately. We use a profiling technique to identify tolerable error significance and error rate thresholds in error-tolerant image processing applications. This information guides an application-driven hardware FPU synthesis and optimization design flow to generate efficient FPUs. At runtime, the scheduler utilizes FPV metadata and promotes FPUs to accurate mode, or demotes them to approximate mode depending upon the code region requirements. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach (in terms of energy savings) on a 16-core tightly-coupled cluster with eight shared-FPUs for both error-tolerant and general-purpose error-intolerant applications.
Whistle while you work? A review of the effects of music in the workplace

Abstract The effects of music on human performance have been studied across many disciplines. Music has been shown to impact task performance, organizational citizenship behaviors, and learning (i.e., training), but the implications of the study of music in the workplace have not yet been fully realized. Therefore, we conduct an interdisciplinary review of research on music relevant to the field of management. We also offer a solution to the lack of theoretical grounding in previous work by applying activation theory to understand the effects of music in the workplace. Taken together, the literature shows that music works through the mediator of mood and emotion. Findings also illustrate the consequences of extraversion, task complexity, and listening autonomy in relation to individual affective reactions to music. While the evidence suggests music may potentially have significant value in the workplace, more research is needed to understand how music might be effectively utilized by organizations.
Incidence of Wolbachia in aquatic insects

Abstract Wolbachia is a genus of intracellular bacteria typically found within the reproductive systems of insects that manipulates those systems of their hosts. While current estimates of Wolbachia incidence suggest that it infects approximately half of all arthropod species, these estimates are based almost entirely on terrestrial insects. No systematic survey of Wolbachia in aquatic insects has been performed. To estimate Wolbachia incidence among aquatic insect species, we combined field‐collected samples from the Missouri River (251 samples from 58 species) with a global database from previously published surveys. The final database contained 5,598 samples of 2,687 total species (228 aquatic and 2,459 terrestrial). We estimate that 52% (95% CrIs: 44%–60%) of aquatic insect species carry Wolbachia, compared to 60% (58%–63%) of terrestrial insects. Among aquatic insects, infected orders included Odonata, Coleoptera, Trichoptera, Ephemeroptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, and Plecoptera. Incidence was highest within aquatic Diptera and Hemiptera (69%), Odonata (50%), and Coleoptera (53%), and was lowest within Ephemeroptera (13%). These results indicate that Wolbachia is common among aquatic insects, but incidence varies widely across orders and is especially uncertain in those orders with low sample sizes such as Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera.
Adaptive dimensions of health research among indigenous Siberians

Present evidence suggests that modern humans were the first hominid species to successfully colonize high‐latitude environments (≥55°N). Given evidence for a recent (<200,000 years) lower latitude naissance of modern humans, the global dispersal and successful settlement of arctic and subarctic regions represent an unprecedented adaptive shift. This adaptive shift, which included cultural, behavioral, and biological dimensions, allowed human populations to cope with the myriad environmental stressors encountered in circumpolar regions. Although unique morphological and physiological adaptations among contemporary northern residents have been recognized for decades, human biologists are only now beginning to consider whether biological adaptations to regional environmental conditions influence health changes associated with economic modernization and lifestyle change. Recent studies have documented basal metabolic rates (BMRs) among indigenous Siberian populations that are systematically elevated compared to lower latitude groups; this metabolic elevation apparently is a physiological adaptation to cold stress experienced in the circumpolar environment. Important health implications of metabolic adaptation are suggested by research with the Yakut (Sakha), Evenki, and Buriat of Siberia. BMR is significantly positively correlated with blood pressure, independently of body size, body composition, and various potentially confounding variables (e.g., age and smoking). Further, this research has documented a significant negative association between BMR and LDL cholesterol, which remains after controlling for potential confounders; this suggests that high metabolic turnover among indigenous Siberians has a protective effect with regard to plasma lipid levels. These results underscore the importance of incorporating an evolutionary approach into health research among northern populations. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 19:165–180, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Correlation function of clusters of galaxies and the amplitude of mass fluctuations in the Universe

We show that if a sample of galaxy clusters is complete above some mass threshold, then hierarchical clustering theories for structure formation predict its autocorrelation function to be determined purely by the cluster abundance and by the spectrum of linear density fluctuations. Thus if the shape of the initial fluctuation spectrum is known, its amplitude $\sigma_8$ can be estimated directly from the correlation length of a cluster sample in a way which is independent of the value of $\Omega_0$. If the cluster mass corresponding to the sample threshold is also known, it provides an independent estimate of the quantity $\sigma_8\Omega_0^{0.6}$. Thus cluster data should allow both $\sigma_8$ and $\Omega_0$ to be determined observationally. We explore these questions using N-body simulations together with a simple but accurate analytical model based on extensions of Press-Schechter theory. Applying our results to currently available data we find that if the linear fluctuation spectrum has a shape similar to that suggested by the APM galaxy survey, then a correlation length $r_0$ in excess of $20\mpch$ for Abell clusters would require $\sigma_8>1$, while $r_0<15\mpch$ would require $\sigma_8<0.5$. With conventional estimates of the relevant mass threshold these imply $\Omega_0\la 0.3$ and $\Omega_0\ga 1$ respectively.
Older people in a community gospel choir: Musical engagement and social connection

This research explores the role of community music in the lives of older Australians. This qualitative case study investigated the meanings and understandings ascribed by participants to their musical engagement in the South of the River Community Gospel Choir. This mixed a cappella SATB choir was formed in 2002 in Melbourne. The choir began with a repertoire of African-American Gospel music and South African Freedom Songs. With time their musical choices have transitioned to include more contemporary Australian composed works. The choir sings in diverse community settings such as high security prisons, palliative care, hospitals and the more common range of gigs such as community events, private events and folk festivals. Data were gathered from individual and focus group semistructured interviews undertaken in 2016 with the members of the choir and with the Musical Director. Data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis and reported under the themes of Musical engagement and Social connection, Performing and Outreach. The findings confirmed the pivotal musical and social importance of the Music Director; the importance of performance opportunities that support both socialising and community outreach; and the role of ensemble membership in fostering and maintaining understandings of self-worth and self-esteem.
Molecular cloning and analysis of the ptsHI operon in Lactobacillus sake

The ptsH and ptsI genes of Lactobacillus sake, encoding the general enzymes of the phosphoenolpyruvate: carbohydrate phosphotransferase system (PTS), were cloned and sequenced. HPr (88 amino acids), encoded by ptsH, and enzyme I (574 amino acids), encoded by ptsI, are homologous to the corresponding known enzymes of other bacteria. Nucleotide sequence and mRNA analysis showed that the two genes are cotranscribed in a large transcript encoding both HPr and enzyme I. The transcription of ptsHI was shown to be independent of the carbon source. Four ptsI mutants were constructed by single-crossover recombination. For all mutants, growth on PTS carbohydrates was abolished. Surprisingly, the growth rates of mutants on ribose and arabinose, two carbohydrates which are not transported by the PTS, were accelerated. This unexpected phenotype suggests that the PTS negatively controls ribose and arabinose utilization in L. sake by a mechanism different from the regulation involving HPr described for other gram-positive bacteria.