Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Management Decision Emerald Article: Solving business problems using a lateral thinking approach

Purpose – Basing one’s business decision on an approach that relies on experience may work sometimes. Experience is a useful part of the process, but it may also lock the decision maker into a method that cannot lead to an innovative solution. An alternative to this experience-based (linear) way of problem solving is a certain skillful way of thinking known as lateral thinking. This paper aims to present a simple alternative approach to managerial decision making. Design/methodology/approach – Here lateral thinking is defined as methods of thinking concerned with changing concepts and perception. Various tests are suggested that show how it might be measured. These tests were originally developed to identify creative thinking ability. One of these tests is used in an illustrative decision aid to reduce a common decision-making “bias” labeled “hindsight bias”. Findings – The simple decision aid reduced the hindsight effect for those decision makers who were deemed to be limited in their lateral thinking ability. Those who could already think laterally were not affected by the decision aid. The decision aid was decision-making neutral for them. Originality/value – Often, when attempting to improve decision making, the focus is on providing better information or models. Rarely is the cognitive ability of the manager specifically considered. Here, a simple decision aid has been suggested that appears to help managers adopt a different perception of the decision situation. For managers and organizations this is a low cost opportunity to achieve better results.
Baseline characteristics and the association between hyponatraemia and pulmonary embolism prognosis.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of hyponatraemia on pulmonary thromboembolism mortality rates. METHODS The retrospective study was conducted at the Cumhuriyet University Medicine Faculty's Emergency Department, and involved the analysis of records related to all patients who were diagnosed with acute pulmonary thromboembolism between January 2005 and June 2011. Diagnoses were confirmed by pulmonary angiography, multi-slice computed tomography or high-probablity ventilation/perfusion scintigraphy. All patients (n=260) were over 16 years of age. SPSS 14 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS Plasma sodium level, platelet count and hospitalisation time were significiantly lower among those who died (n=16; 6.29) (p<0.005, p<0.035, p<0.035). Pearson correlation analysis found a negative correlation between plasma sodium level and C-reactive protein, white blood cells and pulmonary artery pressure (r = -0.238, p<0.001; r = -0.222, p<0.001; r = -0.444, p<0.018 respectively). A positive correlation was found between plasma sodium level and hospitalisation time (r=0.130; p<0.039). CONCLUSION While mortality rates in hyponatraemic pulmonary thromboembolism patients increases, low plasma sodium is an easy parameter that should be kept in mind for the prognosis of pulmonary thromboembolism disease.
The musical art of infant conversation: Narrating in the time of sympathetic experience, without rational interpretation, before words

Infants, like adults and many animals, move with rhythmic gestures that express motive states and changes of emotion and mood. But the communications of babies have a special creativity and message power. Infants are ready at birth to take turns in a “dialogue” of movements with a loving parent. They are attracted to extended engagement with human gestures, and sympathetic to many emotions — resonating to the impulses and qualities of movement; imitating, seeking to play an active part in proto-conversations or playful duets of agency (Trevarthen, 1999). When the expressive forms are examined in detail, infant and partner are found to be sharing a subtle “musicality” of communication (Malloch, 1999). Very soon the early musical games become the habits or conventions of a mini-culture, improvised creations of meaning for each pair, of the kind that Maya Gratier calls a “proto-habitus” (Gratier, 2007). They become treasured memories of a special relationship.
The Effect of Marriage on Male and Female Homicides in the United States

Abstract Employing data from the 1979–85 National Longitudinal Mortality Study, this research examines the buffering effects of marriage, family size, and living arrangements on homicide victimization in the United States. Multivariate hazards models were fitted to a 1979–81 population cohort of adults aged 15–44 years, whose mortality (survival) experiences were followed until 1985. The results of the proportional and non-proportional hazards analyses indicate that marriage offers significant immunity against homicide victimization, especially for males. After controlling for such sociodemographic characteristics as age, race and Hispanic origin, education, occupation, family income, and place and region of residence, married males were found to have a 38% lower risk of homicide victimization than their non-married counterparts. Married females, on the other hand, were 46% more likely to become homicide victims than their non-married counterparts. Furthermore, the beneficial effect of marriage on the ris.
Subgraph Enumeration in Large Social Contact Networks Using Parallel Color Coding and Streaming

Identifying motifs (or commonly occurring subgraphs/templates) has been found to be useful in a number of applications, such as biological and social networks; they have been used to identify building blocks and functional properties, as well as to characterize the underlying networks. Enumerating subgraphs is a challenging computational problem, and all prior results have considered networks with a few thousand nodes. In this paper, we develop a parallel subgraph enumeration algorithm, ParSE, that scales to networks with millions of nodes. Our algorithm is a randomized approximation scheme, that estimates the subgraph frequency to any desired level of accuracy, and allows enumeration of a class of motifs that extends those considered in prior work. Our approach is based on parallelization of an approach called color coding, combined with a stream based partitioning. We also show that ParSE scales well with the number of processors, over a large range.
Molecular Pharmacology of δ-Opioid Receptors

Opioids are among the most effective analgesics available and are the first choice in the treatment of acute severe pain. However, partial efficacy, a tendency to produce tolerance, and a host of ill-tolerated side effects make clinically available opioids less effective in the management of chronic pain syndromes. Given that most therapeutic opioids produce their actions via µ-opioid receptors (MOPrs), other targets are constantly being explored, among which δ-opioid receptors (DOPrs) are being increasingly considered as promising alternatives. This review addresses DOPrs from the perspective of cellular and molecular determinants of their pharmacological diversity. Thus, DOPr ligands are examined in terms of structural and functional variety, DOPrs’ capacity to engage a multiplicity of canonical and noncanonical G protein–dependent responses is surveyed, and evidence supporting ligand-specific signaling and regulation is analyzed. Pharmacological DOPr subtypes are examined in light of the ability of DOPr to organize into multimeric arrays and to adopt multiple active conformations as well as differences in ligand kinetics. Current knowledge on DOPr targeting to the membrane is examined as a means of understanding how these receptors are especially active in chronic pain management. Insight into cellular and molecular mechanisms of pharmacological diversity should guide the rational design of more effective, longer-lasting, and better-tolerated opioid analgesics for chronic pain management.
Study of salinity effect on germination of tomato(Lycopersicon esculentum L.) genotypes

The response of tomato genotypes [Cal-ji, Flat Ch irani, Chef Flat Americ, Primo Earily and Chef] a against five salinity levels [distilled water as control, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mM] were studied at germination and early seedling stages. An experiment with conducted by using a factorial based complete randomize design with three replications. the following data were recorded, Shoot and root length, shoot and root fresh weight, germination percentage and rate measured 14 days after germination. Results obtained in this study indicated that interaction of salt × genotype had significant effect on growth indices in all the cases [P < 0.05]. With increase in salinity level, germination percentage was significantly decreased. Concerning germination percentage, there was no difference between Chef and Cal ji cultivars across all the salt levels; however, in the salt level of 25 mM the two cultivars were significantly different from primo early and chef flat amrica. In the salt level of 25mM cultivar primo early showed 66.27% germination whereas the germination percentage of chef and cal ji was 62.13 and 77.68 respectively. indicates that increased salt level results in reduction of plumule fresh weight indices of flat ch irani, cal ji and chef flat amrica cultivar; however the fresh weight of plumule was not significantly different between cal ji and flat ch irani.
A Statistical Trap Associated with Family Size

A recent paper published in this journal (Poole & Kuhn, 1973) has reported that ‘a relatively large family appeared to be no impediment to the educational achievements of middle-class children’. This finding, however, is based upon an analysis which fell into a relatively unknown statistical trap. Poole & Kuhn are only the latest in a long line of victims of this trap and some of their predecessors are reviewed below.
EBP50, a β‐catenin–associating protein, enhances Wnt signaling and is over‐expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma

Wnt signaling mediated by β‐catenin plays crucial roles in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma and other cancers such as colorectal cancer. β‐Catenin associates with T‐cell factor (TCF) transcription factors and functions as a transcriptional activator in the nucleus. By protein interaction screening, we identified EBP50, a cytoplasmic protein with 2 PDZ domains, as a β‐catenin‐associating molecule. EBP50 interacted with β‐catenin through its carboxyl‐PDZ domain in vitro and in vivo. Northern blot and RT‐PCR analysis revealed an increase of EBP50 messenger RNA (mRNA) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines and surgical specimens of human HCC. Over‐expression of EBP50 protein with focal nuclear localization was detected in human HCC. In human HCC and colorectal cancer cell lines, EBP50 enhanced β‐catenin/TCF‐dependent transcription in a dose‐dependent manner. In an HCC cell line, over‐expression of the carboxyl PDZ domain resulted in a decrease of endogenous β‐catenin/TCF transactivation. EBP50 promoted β‐catenin‐mediated transactivation only in cells in which β‐catenin was already stabilized, suggesting that EBP50 may work with stabilized β‐catenin for transcriptional regulation. In conclusion, the EBP50/β‐catenin complex promotes Wnt signaling, and over‐expression of EBP50 may work cooperatively with β‐catenin in the development of liver cancer.
Bovine Immune Factors Underlying Tick Resistance: Integration and Future Directions

The mechanisms underlying tick resistance within and between cattle breeds have been studied for decades. Several previous papers on bovine immune parameters contributing to tick resistance discussed findings across DNA, RNA, protein, cellular, and tissue levels. However, the differences between bovine host species, tick species and the experimental layouts were not always taken into account. This review aims to (a) give a comprehensive summary of studies investigating immune marker differences between cattle breeds with varying degrees of tick resistance, and (b) to integrate key findings and suggest hypotheses on likely immune-regulated pathways driving resistance. Experimental issues, which may have skewed conclusions, are highlighted. In future, improved experimental strategies will enable more focused studies to identify and integrate immune markers and/or pathways. Most conclusive thus far is the involvement of histamine, granulocytes and their associated pathways in the tick-resistance mechanism. Interestingly, different immune markers might be involved in the mechanisms within a single host breed in contrast to between breeds. Also, differences are evident at each tick life stage, limiting the level to which datasets can be compared. Future studies to further elucidate immune molecule dynamics across the entire tick life cycle and in-depth investigation of promising markers and pathways on both molecular and cellular level are in dire need to obtain a scientifically sound hypothesis on the drivers of tick resistance.
Drug scene roles and HIV risk.

AIMS Drug scenes (social and spatial drug-using and drug-selling environments) have complex role structures. Many drug injectors earn money or drugs as drug or syringe sellers, hit doctors (people who help others to inject) commercial sex workers, or in other roles. This paper aims to measure "role behaviors" of drug injectors; describe which drug injectors are more likely to engage in such role behaviors; and to determine whether roles are related to elements of HIV risk. DESIGN Cross-sectional study of drug injectors. SETTING Bushwick, a section of Brooklyn, New York, a major location for injection drug use and drug sales. PARTICIPANTS Seven hundred and sixty-seven street-recruited drug injectors. MEASUREMENTS Participants were interviewed about their roles, behaviors, socio-demographics and risk networks; sera were collected and assayed for HIV and hepatitis B core antibody. FINDINGS Socio-demographic variables are related to role-holding in complex ways. Economic need is generally associated with engaging in drug-scene role behaviors. Holders of these roles are at greater behavioral and network risk for HIV and other blood-borne infections than are other drug injectors. They also engage in extensive communication with other drug users, including discussion of HIV risk reduction. CONCLUSION Role behaviors can be measured in quantitative studies, and seem to be related to HIV risk. Role-holders may be strategic targets for risk-reduction campaigns. It seems feasible and advisable to measure drug scene role-holding in research on drug users.
Relative risk factors analysis of 3,922 cases of gallbladder cancer.

OBJECTIVE To make clear the relationship between gallstones and gallbladder cancer, the relationship between the size of gallstones and gallbladder cancer, the course of gallbladder cancer, and the relationship among adenoma and carcinoma of gallbladder and ascariasis in the biliary tract. METHODS A total of 3,922 cases of gallbladder cancer from 28 provinces in china from 1986 to 1998 were reviewed, according to a standard protocol called "the clinical epidemiological list of gallbladder cancer". RESULTS Gallbladder cancer accounted for 0.4% - 3.8% of bile tract disease in the same period, averaging 1.53%. Gallbladder cancer accounted for 0.1% - 1.1% of abdominal surgery in the same period. Gallstones were found in 46.7% of the cases of gallbladder cancer, the related risk (RR) of gallbladder cancer with gallstones was 13.7. The average course with gallstones was 10 - 15 years. The gallstone in gallbladder was 3 cm or above in diameter. The ratio of the progression from adenoma to carcinoma of gallbladder was 1.5%. Only 4 cases of ascariasis was reported. CONCLUSIONS Gallbladder cancer and gallstones are closely associated. Patients with gallstone of 3 cm or above in diameter and a course of 10 - 15 years are usually at an increased risk for cancer. We found the adenoma and carcinoma of gallbladder are closely related, and there is no relationship between gallbladder cancer and ascariasis in our group.
Commonality in teachers' and pupils' perceptions of effective classroom learning

This paper reports preliminary findings of a qualitative study of teachers' and year 7 pupils' perceptions of effective classroom learning in English and in history. The focus of this paper is the extent of commonality between teacher and pupil perceptions. The findings indicate that there is a high level of commonality between teacher and pupil perspectives of what constitutes effective teaching. Of particular interest is the richness of pupils' accounts of the associations between teaching methods and learning strategies. The findings point to the value of constructivist theories of learning.
Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo of Posterior Semicircular Canal: Results in 160 Cases Treated with Semont's Maneuver

One hundred sixty patients affected by benign paroxysmal positional vertigo of the posterior semicircular canal were treated with Semont's maneuver. Complete recovery after only one session was achieved in more than 50% of cases. After a maximum of five sessions, almost all patients had recovered; only 8 needed another kind of rehabilitation. No drug therapy was required for any patient.
Factorial Invariance of the DASS-21 Among Adolescents in Four Countries

The use of scales to measure constructs in populations or contexts other than that in which they were established is highly controversial. Despite this, the use of scales without reference to “local” psychometric data is still widespread. In this study we examined the factor structure of the short 21-item form of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS-21), when it was applied to adolescent samples recruited from high schools in Australia (N = 371), Chile (N = 448), China (N = 558), and Malaysia (N = 388). Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the purported three-factor structure of the DASS-21 was supported in each location with structural invariance across locations. While convergent and divergent validity studies are required to support this finding, the DASS-21 appears to be suitable for use with adolescents in these locations.
Effects of Alprazolam on Cortical Activity and Tremors in Patients with Essential Tremor

Background Essential tremor (ET) is characterised by postural and action tremors with a frequency of 4–12 Hz. Previous studies suggest that the tremor activity originates in the cerebello-thalamocortical pathways. Alprazolam is a short-acting benzodiazepine that attenuates tremors in ET. The mechanisms that mediate the therapeutic action of alprazolam are unknown; however, in healthy subjects, benzodiazepines increase cortical beta activity. In this study, we investigated the effect of alprazolam both on beta and tremor-related cortical activity and on alterations in tremor presentation in ET patients. Therefore, we characterised the dynamics of tremor and cortical activity in ET patients after alprazolam intake. Methods We recorded hand tremors and contralateral cortical activity in four recordings before and after a single dose of alprazolam. We then computed the changes in tremors, cortico-muscular coherence, and cortical activity at the tremor frequency and in the beta band. Results Alprazolam significantly attenuated tremors (EMG: 76.2±22.68%), decreased cortical activity in the tremor frequency range and increased cortical beta activity in all patients (P<0.05). At the same time, the cortico-muscular coherence at the tremor frequency became non-significant (P<0.05). We also found a significant correlation (r = 0.757, P<0.001) between the reduction in tremor severity and the increased ratio of cortical activity in the beta band to the activity observed in the tremor frequency range. Conclusions This study provides the first quantitative analysis of tremor reduction following alprazolam intake. We observed that the tremor severity decreased in association with an increased ratio of beta to tremor-related cortical activity. We hypothesise that the increase in cortical beta activity may act as a blocking mechanism and may dampen the pathological oscillatory activity, which in turn attenuates the observed tremor.
From Dialogue to Action: The Impact of Cross-Race Intergroup Dialogue on the Development of White College Students as Racial Allies

Institutions of postsecondary education are poised to leverage the presence of racial diversity to educate for social change. The purpose of this study was to examine how a race/ethnicity intergroup dialogue facilitates the development of confidence and frequency of white college students’ engagement in actions that are congruent with the development of white racial allies. Participants were part of the Multiversity Intergroup Dialogue Research (MIGR) project that included nine college and universities. Using an experimental design with stratified random assignment, MANCOVA analyses were used to determine the differences in outcomes of confidence and frequency of taking actions between experimental dialogue participants and paired waitlist control groups. Covariates included pretest responses, repeated survey measures, and college involvement variables. Multivariate analyses revealed that dialogue participants reported higher levels of confidence and frequency of engagement, whereas univariate analyses revealed higher levels of frequency for engagement of dialogue participants when compared to waitlist control groups.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in HIV-infected patients referred to a metabolic clinic: prevalence, characteristics, and predictors.

BACKGROUND The prevalence and predictors of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected highly active antiretroviral therapy-experienced patients and the association of NAFLD with risk of cardiovascular disease and subclinical atherosclerosis are unknown. METHODS We performed a cross-sectional observational study. NAFLD was defined by liver-spleen attenuation values of <1.1 on computed tomography in persons who had neither evidence of chronic viral hepatitis nor a significant history of alcohol consumption. RESULTS We enrolled 225 patients; 163 (72.4%) were men. Mean (+/-SD) HIV infection duration was 145 +/- 60 months, and mean (+/-SD) body mass index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters) was 23.75 +/- 3.59. NAFLD was diagnosed in 83 patients (36.9% of the total cohort). The following variables were significantly associated with NAFLD in univariate analyses: sex, waist circumference, body mass index, cumulative exposure to nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors, visceral adipose tissue, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance index, serum alanine and aspartate aminotransferase levels, and ratios of total serum cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Coronary artery calcium scores and a diagnosis of diabetes were not associated with NAFLD. In multivariable logistic regression analyses, factors associated (P<0.001) with NAFLD were higher serum alanine to aspartate ratio (odds ratio, 4.59; 95% confidence interval, 2.09-10.08), male sex (odds ratio, 2.49; 95% confidence interval, 1.07-5.81), greater waist circumference (odds ratio, 1.07; 95% confidence interval, 1.03-1.11), and longer nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor exposure (odds ratio, 1.12 per year of exposure; 95% confidence interval, 1.03-1.22). CONCLUSIONS NAFLD is common among HIV-infected persons who have the traditional risk factors for NAFLD (elevations in serum alanine level, male sex, and increased waist circumference) apparent. Exposure to nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors was an independent risk factor for NAFLD, with an 11% increase in the odds ratio for each year of use.