Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling economic implications of alternative treatment strategies for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections

Abstract Objective: The economic implications from the US Medicare perspective of adopting alternative treatment strategies for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSIs) are substantial. The objective of this study is to describe a modeling framework that explores the impact of decisions related to both the location of care and switching to different antibiotics at discharge. Methods: A discrete event simulation (DES) was developed to model the treatment pathway of each patient through various locations (emergency department [ED], inpatient, and outpatient) and the treatments prescribed (empiric antibiotic, switching to a different antibiotic at discharge, or a second antibiotic). Costs are reported in 2012 USD. Results: The mean number of days on antibiotic in a cohort assigned to a full course of vancomycin was 11.2 days, with 64% of the treatment course being administered in the outpatient setting. Mean total costs per patient were $8671, with inpatient care accounting for 58% of the costs accrued. The majority of outpatient costs were associated with parenteral administration rather than drug acquisition or monitoring. Scenarios modifying the treatment pathway to increase the proportion of patients receiving the first dose in the ED, and then managing them in the outpatient setting or prescribing an oral antibiotic at discharge to avoid the cost associated with administering parenteral therapy, therefore have a major impact and lower the typical cost per patient by 11–20%. Since vancomycin is commonly used as empiric therapy in clinical practice, based on these analyses, a shift in treatment practice could result in substantial savings from the Medicare perspective. Conclusions: The choice of antibiotic and location of care influence the costs and resource use associated with the management of ABSSSIs. The DES framework presented here can provide insight into the potential economic implications of decisions that modify the treatment pathway.
The silencing of cathepsin K used in gene therapy for periodontal disease reveals the role of cathepsin K in chronic infection and inflammation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Periodontitis is a severe chronic inflammatory disease and one of the most prevalent non-communicable chronic diseases that affects the majority of the world's adult population. While great efforts have been devoted toward understanding the pathogenesis of periodontitis, there remains a pressing need for developing potent therapeutic strategies for targeting this dreadful disease. In this study, we utilized adeno-associated virus (AAV) expressing cathepsin K (Ctsk) small hairpin (sh)RNA (AAV-sh-Ctsk) to silence Ctsk in vivo and subsequently evaluated its impact in periodontitis as a potential therapeutic strategy for this disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS We used a known mouse model of periodontitis, in which wild-type BALB/cJ mice were infected with Porphyromonas gingivalis W50 in the maxillary and mandibular periodontium to induce the disease. AAV-sh-Ctsk was then administrated locally into the periodontal tissues in vivo, followed by analyses to assess progression of the disease. RESULTS AAV-mediated Ctsk silencing drastically protected mice (> 80%) from P. gingivalis-induced bone resorption by osteoclasts. In addition, AAV-sh-Ctsk administration drastically reduced inflammation by impacting the expression of many inflammatory cytokines as well as T-cell and dendritic cell numbers in periodontal lesions. CONCLUSION AAV-mediated Ctsk silencing can simultaneously target both the inflammation and bone resorption associated with periodontitis through its inhibitory effect on immune cells and osteoclast function. Thereby, AAV-sh-Ctsk administration can efficiently protect against periodontal tissue damage and alveolar bone loss, establishing this AAV-mediated local silencing of Ctsk as an important therapeutic strategy for effectively treating periodontal disease.
Postal survey of approaches to learning among Ontario physicians: implications for continuing medical education

Abstract Objectives: To understand the approaches to learning of practising physicians in their workplace and to assess the relation of these approaches to their motivation for, preferred methods of, and perceived barriers to continuing medical education. Design: Postal survey of 800 Ontario physicians. Participants: 373 physicians who responded. Main outcome measures: Correlations of approaches to learning and perceptions of workplace climate with methods, motives, and barriers to continuing medical education. Results: Perceived heavy workload was significantly associated with the surface disorganised (r=0.463, P<0.01) and surface rational approach (r=0.135, P<0.05) to learning. The deep approach to learning was significantly correlated with a perception of choice-independence and a supportive-receptive climate at work (r=0.341 and 0.237, P<0.01). Physicians who adopt a deep approach to learning seem to be internally motivated to learn, whereas external motivation is associated with surface approaches to learning. Heavy workload and a surface disorganised approach to learning were correlated with every listed barrier to continuing medical education. The deep approach to learning was associated with independent learning activities and no barriers. Conclusions: Perception of the workplace climate affects physicians' approaches to learning at work and their motivation for and perceived barriers to continuing medical education. Younger, rural, family physicians may be most vulnerable to feeling overworked and adopting less effective approaches to learning. Further work is required to determine if changing the workplace environment will help physicians learn more effectively. What is already known on this topic Throughout their careers physicians face enormous challenges in managing the growth of medical knowledge Students who perceive choice, independence, and good teaching at university take a deep, integrative approach to learning whereas those who feel overworked or overwhelmed tend to learn by rote What this study adds Feeling overwhelmed at work is associated with a disorganised and superficial approach to learning and perception of many barriers to continuing medical education Physicians who believe they have choice, independence, and support in their work take a deep approach to learning, are internally motivated, and use independent learning methods Younger, rural, and family physicians are most likely to feel overworked
The generation and propagation of the human alpha rhythm

Significance The alpha rhythm dominates the electroencephalogram during quiet wakefulness, but the brain structures which generate it are not known. Using rare intracranial recordings in epilepsy patients, we find that alpha rhythms propagate toward the back of the brain and that alpha waves in cortex (particularly superficial layers) lead alpha oscillations in the thalamus. These findings shed light on how the human alpha rhythm coordinates activity throughout the brain. The alpha rhythm is the longest-studied brain oscillation and has been theorized to play a key role in cognition. Still, its physiology is poorly understood. In this study, we used microelectrodes and macroelectrodes in surgical epilepsy patients to measure the intracortical and thalamic generators of the alpha rhythm during quiet wakefulness. We first found that alpha in both visual and somatosensory cortex propagates from higher-order to lower-order areas. In posterior cortex, alpha propagates from higher-order anterosuperior areas toward the occipital pole, whereas alpha in somatosensory cortex propagates from associative regions toward primary cortex. Several analyses suggest that this cortical alpha leads pulvinar alpha, complicating prevailing theories of a thalamic pacemaker. Finally, alpha is dominated by currents and firing in supragranular cortical layers. Together, these results suggest that the alpha rhythm likely reflects short-range supragranular feedback, which propagates from higher- to lower-order cortex and cortex to thalamus. These physiological insights suggest how alpha could mediate feedback throughout the thalamocortical system.
Effect of pH and NaCl on growth from spores of non‐proteolytic Clostridium botulinum at chill temperature

The effect of combinations of temperature (2°, 3°, 4°, 5°, 8° and 10°C), pH (5·0–7·2) and NaCl (0·1–5·0% w/w) on growth from spores of non‐proteolytic Clostridium botulinum types B, E and F was determined using a strictly anaerobic medium. Inoculated media were observed weekly for turbidity, and tests were made for the presence of toxin in conditions that approached the limits of growth. Growth and toxin production were detected at 3°C in 5 weeks, at 4°C in 3/4 weeks and at 5°C in 2/3 weeks. The resulting data define growth/no growth boundaries with respect to low temperature, pH, NaCl and incubation time. This is important in assessment of the risk of growth and toxin production by non‐proteolytic Cl. botulinum in minimally processed chilled foods.
The Performance of Family Firms After Going Public

The aim of this study is to investigate the pre and post going public process of the operational, social, and financial and dividend policy performance of twenty five Portuguese family companies in most of sectors of economic activity that went public through public share offering and direct sale. In a family firm, the business belongs to a family, in which, most of family members work. This investigation develops a framework to conclude if the decision to open the capital by the traditional family firms to the investors, in general, had caused or not, improvements on the economic and financial health of those firms. On the economic side, we find relevant declines in profitability, operating efficiency and activity levels and an increase in capital investment and real output. On the social side, we document an irrelevant decline on employment. On the financial side, we observe that the financial equilibrium of firms after going public was negatively affected. On the dividend side, we document an increase of the dividend payout. Lastly, our results are generally robust surviving the partition of the dataset into various sub-samples.
Privatisation and management accounting change in a Brazilian electricity distribution company.

The main objective of this study is to explain how the management accounting information system of a privatised Brazilian electricity distribution company was shaped by both inter and intra organisational factors. As a consequence, this thesis seeks to explore the key factors that influenced the dynamics of management accounting change in the privatised company. In so doing, there is a great interest in understanding the complex interaction of both intra-organisational factors (e.g. organisational culture and power relations within the company) and interorganisational factors (e.g. the electricity sector regulation system) which influenced the process of change in management accounting practices. This study adopts an interpretive case study as research method to analyse the changes in management accounting that occurred in the case company over a period of 8 years, that is, from 2000 (the privatisation year) to 2007. Face-to-face interviews semi-structured in design constitute the primary method of data collection in this study. For its theoretical framework the study draws upon institutional theory and its extensions, as well as structuration theory to explain the process of management accounting change in the case study organisation. More specifically, this study uses three theoretical frameworks that explain changes in organisations, namely: Dillard et al (2004); Seo and Creed (2002) and Bums and Scapens (2000). By combining these three frameworks, this thesis provides a new theoretical framework to understand the process of management accounting change. The analysis of this case indicates that there were profound changes in the case company's management accounting systems after the process of privatisation. In particular changes were evident in the budgetary system; the performance measurement system; and in the way that managers use the management accounting information. It was also identified that the Balanced Scorecard system played a ceremonial role in the organisation. This study also explores the regulator's role in the process of management accounting change in the case company as a source of coercive isomorphism.
New insights into remyelination failure in multiple sclerosis: implications for glial cell transplantation

This review considers aspects of remyelination that require further clarification if successful strategies are to be devised to enhance remyelination in multiple sclerosis (MS). We speculate, based on our understanding of the rate with which oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) repopulate OPC-depleted tissue in adult rats, that OPC depletion during the demyelination process could explain why remyelination fails in MS. We show that loss of OPCs in the context of large areas of demyelination would have serious consequences for remyelination as the rates of colonization of tissue by adult OPCs would lead to a situation where the cellular events associated with demyelination become uncoupled from the interaction of OPCs with demyelinated axons. Experimental studies indicate that transplanted neonatal OPCs would be able to repopulate large areas of demyelination with much greater efficiency than endogenous OPCs. This suggests that cell transplantation will have considerable potential to achieve remyelination in situations where the endogenous repair process is failing due to concurrent death of oligodendrocytes and OPCs. However, we suggest that for this approach to be effective, it will be critical that the environment is permissive for remyelination.
Bank Specific and Macroeconomic Determinants of Bank Profitability

This study investigated the profitability of the banking sector in Pakistan. It evaluated the effects of both internal (bank-specific) and external (macroeconomic) factors on bank’s profitability from 2006 to 2013 period. The data of 34 commercial banks operating in Pakistan has collected. The data was balanced panel data and analyzed by random effect panel data regression analysis. Results confirmed that bank size and non-interest income had positive significant relationship on banking profitability. Deposit had negative significant relationship with banking profitability because of maintaining high liquidity, which increased cost of holding asset that ultimately, decrease profitability. As major participant, banks of Pakistan banking sector were small size banks so most important factor out of significant factors were income from non-interest facilities provided by these commercial banks. By increasing such facilities increased the bank’s customer base, which ultimately increased bank’s profitability. Macro-economic factors showed no significant effect on bank’s profitability.
Analisis Pengaruh Produk, Harga, Distribusi, Dan Promosi Terhadap Keputusan Pembelian Serta Implikasinya Pada Kepuasan Pelanggan

The purpose of this study to determine how the product, price, distribution, promotion, purchasing decisions, and customer satisfaction and how much influence the product, the price, the distribution, and promotions on consumer purchasing decisions and how much the influence purchasing decisions to satisfaction. This research is a census, the number of objects in a population of 48. The research method used in this research is descriptive analysis method. The data analysis technique used is the technique of correlation analysis and path analysis techniques. Correlation analysis techniques to determine the relationship between variables, while the technique of path analysis to determine how much influence the independent variables on the dependent variable. The software used to process and analyze the data of this study was SPSS version 19.0. The results showed that the variable conditions of the product, price, distribution, promotion and purchasing decisions included in both categories, while customer satisfaction variables included in the category quite well. The final result showed the product, the price, the distribution, and promotion of the variable purchase decisions by 25.95%, 21.37%, 19.02% and 18.36%. Simultaneous effect of products, pricing, distribution, and promotion of the purchase decision variable is 84.70%. While variables influence the purchase decision of the customer satisfaction is at 87.60%.
Real Earnings Management and Subsequent Stock Returns

Real earnings management (REM) practices are related to subsequent stock returns. Specifically, stocks of firms with abnormally low (high) levels of operating cash flows underperform (outperform) in the subsequent year, whereas stocks of firms with abnormally low (high) levels of production costs outperform (underperform) in the subsequent three years. This relation is stronger among firms with greater likelihood of earnings management and does not exist for the normal levels of operating cash flows and production costs. Quintile spread portfolios based on either REM measures yield factor-adjusted annual abnormal returns of about 6%, with more than 40% of which being realized over the subsequent four earnings announcements. Further tests show that the return predicting power of the REM measures is likely due to mispricing rather than systematic risks.
MEGH: A New Affine Invariant Descriptor

An affine invariant descriptor is proposed, which is able to well represent the affine covariant regions. Estimating main orientation is still problematic in many existing method, such as SIFT (scale invariant feature transform) and SURF (speeded up robust features). Instead of aligning the estimated main orientation, in this paper ellipse orientation is directly used. According to ellipse orientation, affine covariant regions are firstly divided into 4 sub-regions with equal angles. Since affine covariant regions are divided from the ellipse orientation, the divided sub-regions are rotation invariant regardless the rotation, if any, of ellipse. Meanwhile, the affine covariant regions are normalized into a circular region. In the end, the gradients of pixels in the circular region are calculated and the partition-based descriptor is created by using the gradients. Compared with the existing descriptors including MROGH, SIFT, GLOH, PCA-SIFT and spin images, the proposed descriptor demonstrates superior performance according to extensive experiments.
Sources of health insurance for the self employed: does differential taxation make a difference?

: Health insurance obtained through employment has enabled many workers to take advantage of the favorable tax treatment of employer contributions to these benefits. However, the full deductibility of such employer payments as a business expense and their exemption from income taxation are not available to self-employed owners of unincorporated businesses. We identify the sources of health insurance for the self employed and examine how this disparity in tax treatment is associated with health insurance status. Analyses of data from the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey reveal that the differential taxation of the unincorporated self employed is associated with lower rates of employment-related coverage for themselves and their workers.
KCNE4 is an inhibitory subunit to the KCNQ1 channel

KCNE4 is a membrane protein belonging to a family of single transmembrane domain proteins known to have dramatic effect on the gating of certain potassium channels. However, no functional role of KCNE4 has been suggested so far. In the present paper we demonstrate that KCNE4 is an inhibitory subunit to KCNQ1 channels. Co‐expression of KCNQ1 and KCNE4 in Xenopus oocytes completely inhibited the KCNQ1 current. This was reproduced in mammalian CHO‐K1 cells. Experiments with delayed expression of mRNA coding for KCNE4 in KCNQ1‐expressing oocytes suggested that KCNE4 exerts its effect on KCNQ1 channels already expressed in the plasma membrane. This notion was supported by immunocytochemical studies and Western blotting, showing no significant difference in plasma membrane expression of KCNQ1 channels in the presence or absence of KCNE4. The impact of KCNE4 on KCNQ1 was specific since no effect of KCNE4 could be detected if co‐expressed with KCNQ2‐5 channels or hERG1 channels. RT‐PCR studies revealed high KCNE4 expression in embryos and adult uterus, where significant expression of KCNQ1 channels has also been demonstrated.
Event sponsorship and event marketing: brand and performance-related outcomes and the moderating effects of brand orientation and organisational innovativeness

In the present study, event sponsorship and event marketing are identified as two distinct event-related marketing communications tools. As a research field, sponsorship and event sponsorship has experienced continuous research interest for the last four decades. This in clear contrast to event marketing, which only within the last 10 years has attracted research interest from marketing scholars. However, little research has been carried out in the field of (event-) sponsorship from an organisational perspective. Thus, to the author s knowledge, the present study is the first of its kind investigating both event formats, event sponsorship and event marketing, from an organisational perspective in one study. A literature review that spans the domains of branding, signalling theory and hedonic consumption helped to differentiate between the two event formats, and to provide a theoretical grounding of the two event formats. The present study evaluates the impact of event sponsorship and event marketing on the brand and performance dimensions of brand awareness, brand attitude, brand performance and financial performance. Furthermore, brand orientation and organisational innovativeness moderate the relationship between independent and dependent variables. Moreover, this research study was undertaken from an organisational perspective. There is little evidence within the field of event sponsorship and event marketing as to how organisations evaluate the performance impact of event sponsorship and event marketing. Similarly, the more established sponsorship outcomes of brand awareness and brand attitude have yet to receive research attention within an organisational research setting. This research study follows a cross-sectional research design. A conceptual model is developed on the basis of the literature review, and is tested through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The data for this study was collected via an online survey which resulted in 226 responses. The findings indicate a negative relationship between event sponsorship and brand performance. Furthermore, organisational innovativeness was identified as moderating the event sponsorship brand performance relationship, whereas brand orientation is found to moderate the event marketing financial performance relationship.
Chapter 9 The Extent of Disclosure of Corporate Social Responsibility in Malaysia

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept that extends the traditional focus of business in achieving bottom-line results to triple bottom-line results and the concept of sustainability that focus on economic, environmental and social performance. The Bursa Malaysia CSR Framework (2006) defined CSR as open and transparent business practices that are based on ethical values and respect for the community, employees, the environment, shareholders and other stakeholders. This CSR framework was designed to deliver sustainable value to the society at large.