Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Paracetamol suppositories after cardiac surgery.

fibrosis patients using intraoesophageal pH monitoring is prevented by ethical considerations, but in a small study of 10 newly diagnosed infants with cystic fibrosis, Dab and Malfroot found significant gastrooesophageal reflux in all IO. ' These authors suggest that as reflux was documented even in those patients without respiratory symptoms it could not be blamed on chronic cough, and may even represent a primary defect of oesophageal motility in cystic fibrosis. Published data about oesophageal motility in cystic fibrosis are scanty, but there is some evidence that transient relaxations of the lower oesophageal sphincter, which are not accompanied by oesophageal peristalisis, and therefore deemed inappropriate, are commoner in cystic fibrosis patients with gastro-oesophageal reflux than in reflux patients without cystic fibrosis (data presented by F Santamaria et al at the 10th International Cystic Fibrosis Congress in Sydney, 1988). The importance of coughing and physiotherapy in inducing reflux in cystic fibrosis is probably underestimated. The statement by Professor Simpson and Dr Hampton that 'although large swings in intrapleural pressure induced by respiratory efforts have been thought to favour increased gastro-oesophageal reflux, there is little evidence that this actually occurs . ' may not be true in cystic fibrosis patients. From our knowledge of the pathophysiology of gastro-oesophageal reflux, forced expiration and coughing undertaken during chest physiotherapy may cause a risein the thoracoabdominal pressure gradient sufficient to overcome the antireflux barrier of the lower oesophageal sphincter, and the antigravity effect of postural drainage in the 'head down' position would also be expected to exacerbate reflux. In a study in 10 young patients4with cystic fibrosis investigated with 24 hour oesophageal pH monitoring during which all underwent three periods of chest physiotherapy, eight were found to have pathological reflux, and in six physiotherapy provoked reflux.5 Although in my experience intraoesophageal pH monitoring is not well tolerated by patients with cystic fibrosis with established pulmonary disease, this is an area which merits further study.
The development of spatial‐frequency selectivity in kitten striate cortex.

1. Single units were recorded in the striate cortex of kittens aged between 2 and 12 weeks. Contrast sensitivity measurements made using moving sinusoidal gratings were used to construct spatial‐frequency tuning curves. 2. In young kittens cells had low sensitivities, responded only to low spatial frequencies and were unselective for spatial frequency. In addition 30% of the cells recorded in the youngest kittens were unresponsive to visual stimuli. 3. Sensitivity improved to near‐adult values within 5‐6 weeks. 4. Best spatial frequency improved more gradually, so that even in the oldest kittens best spatial frequencies were lower than adult values. 5. Selectivity for spatial frequency, considered both in terms of the numbers of selective cells and the narrowness of their tuning curves, improved rapidly, and reached adult values within the first 6 weeks. 6. These results are discussed in relation to other developmental studies.
Physiological and photosynthetic response of quinoa to drought stress

Water shortage is a critical problem touching plant growth and yield in semi-arid areas, for instance the Mediterranean region. For this reason was studied the physiological basis of drought tolerance of a new, drought tolerant crop quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) tested in Morocco in two successive seasons, subject to four irrigation treatments (100, 50, and 33%ETc, and rainfed). The chlorophyll a fluorescence transients were analyzed by the JIP-test to transiate stress-induced damage in these transients to changes in biophysical parameter's allowing quantification of the energy flow through the photosynthetic apparatus. Drought stress induced a significant decrease in the maximum quantum yield of primary photochemistry (Φpo = Fv/Fm), and the quantum yield of electron transport (Φeo). The amount of active Photosystem II (PSII) reaction centers (RC) per excited cross section (RC/CS) also decreased when exposed to the highest drought stress. The effective antenna size of active RCs (ABS/RC) increased and the effective dissipation per active reaction centers (DIo/RC) increased by increasing drought stress during the growth season in comparison to the control. However the performance index (PI), was a very sensitive indicator of the physiological status of plants. Leaf area index, leaf water potential and stomatal conductance decreased as the drought increased. These results indicate that, in quinoa leaf, JIP-test can be used as a sensitive method for measuring drought stress effects.
Medical Sociology and Technology: Critical Engagements

In this selective review of the literature on medical sociology’s engagement with technology, we outline the concurrent developments of the American Sociological Association section on medicine and advances in medical treatment. We then describe theoretical and epistemological issues with scholars’ treatment of technology in medicine. Using symbolic interactionist concepts, as well as work from the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies, we review and synthesize critical connections in and across sociology’s intellectual relationship with medical technology. Next, we discuss key findings in these literatures, noting a shift from a focus on the effects of technology on practice to a reconfiguration of human bodies.We also look toward the future, focusing on connections between technoscientific identities and embodied health movements. Finally, we call for greater engagement by medical sociologists in studying medical technology and the process of policy-making—two areas central to debates in health economics and public policy.
Neurotoxic effects of gadopentetate dimeglumine: behavioral disturbance and morphology after intracerebroventricular injection in rats.

PURPOSE To determine the neurotoxic potential of gadopentetate dimeglumine in an animal model that allowed the agent to avoid the blood-brain barrier. Gadopentetate dimeglumine is known to produce functional changes when injected into the cerebrospinal fluid, and we hypothesized that such changes might be associated with morphologic damage. METHODS Conscious rats, surgically prepared with a lateral ventricular cannula, were given a slow injection of gadopentetate dimeglumine into the lateral ventricle, and behavioral and neuropathologic changes were noted. RESULTS Gadopentetate dimeglumine produced signs of acute neurotoxicity over several hours (stereotyped movements and myoclonus), medium-term signs over several days (ataxia and tremor), and neuropathologic changes over 24 hours, with reactive changes persisting for 42 days. All of the above were dose-dependent over the range of 2.5 to 15 mumol/g brain. The lowest dose producing morphologic or behavioral changes was 5 mu mol/g brain. Iso-osmotic, isovolumetric injections of sucrose produced no such effects. Focal lesions occurred within the thalamus, brain stem, and spinal cord, with necrosis of glia, loss of myelin, and, usually, sparing of neurons and nerve fibers. Persisting ataxia was always associated with brain stem or spinal cord lesions. CONCLUSION Intraventricular administration of contrast medium allows toxicity to be evaluated in areas such as the spinal cord that are not accessible by osmotic opening. While it is unlikely that these toxic effects would be seen at the doses used for clinical imaging by the intravenous route, gadopentetate dimeglumine clearly has some neurotoxic and neuropathologic potential. Although the acute excitation could be attributed to a transiently high local concentration of the agent at the injection site, the lesions were widely distributed through the brain and spinal cord and may reflect a region-specific neurotoxic action, possibly related to central pontine myelinolysis.
Rates of unemployment and incidence of police-initiated examinations for involuntary hospitalization in Florida.

OBJECTIVE This study tested the hypothesis that contraction of regional economies affects the incidence of involuntary admissions to psychiatric emergency services by reducing community tolerance for persons perceived as threatening to others. METHODS This hypothesis was tested with time-series analyses of the relationship between initial claims for unemployment in Florida between July 4, 1999, and June 28, 2003, and the weekly number of men and women presented by police to be examined for involuntary psychiatric hospitalization because of danger to others. The analyses controlled for admissions presented by mental health professionals because of danger to others and for admissions presented by police because of neglect or disability. RESULTS When the analyses controlled for autocorrelation and other covariates, claims for unemployment insurance were significantly associated with the number of men presented by police for danger to others. During the study period, police presented 5,897 men for examination because of danger to others. Increased unemployment claims were associated with approximately 309 more men being presented for examination than expected from prior presentation rates and from the number presented by mental health professionals for danger to others and by police for neglect or disability. No such association was found for women. CONCLUSIONS Consistent with theory, this study found that presentations for involuntary admission to psychiatric services increased after contractions in the labor market. Combining the methods of this study with econometric forecasting may allow providers to anticipate better the need for psychiatric services.
An Empirical Analysis of Capital Structure on Firms’ Performance in Nigeria

This paper examines the optimum level of capital structure through which a firm can increase its financial performance using annual data of ten firms spanning a five-year period. The results from Im, Pesaran & Shine unit root test show that all the variables were non-stationary at level. The study hypothesized negative relationship between capital structure and operational firm performance. However, the results from Panel Least Square (PLS) confirm that asset turnover, size, firm’s age and firm’s asset tangibility are positively related to firm’s performance. Findings provide evidence of a negative and significant relationship between asset tangibility and ROA as a measure of performance in the model. The implication of this is that the sampled firms were not able to utilize the fixed asset composition of their total assets judiciously to impact positively on their firms’ performance. Hence, this study recommends that asset tangibility should be a driven factor to capital structure because firms with more tangible assets are less likely to be financially constrained. Keywords: Capital structure, Corporate finance, Firms, Performance, Regression Nigeria.
Relative effects of precipitation variability and warming on tallgrass prairie ecosystem function

Precipitation and temperature drive many aspects of terrestrial ecosystem function. Climate change scenar- ios predict increasing precipitation variability and temper- ature, and long term experiments are required to evaluate the ecosystem consequences of interannual climate variation, increased growing season (intra-annual) rainfall variability, and warming. We present results from an experiment ap- plying increased growing season rainfall variability and year round warming in native tallgrass prairie. During ten years of study, total growing season rainfall varied 2-fold, and we found 50-200 % interannual variability in plant growth and aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP), leaf carbon assimilation (ACO2 ), and soil CO2 efflux ( JCO2 ) despite only 40 % variation in mean volumetric soil water content (0- 15 cm, 215). Interannual variation in soil moisture was thus amplified in most measures of ecosystem response. Dif- ferences between years in 215 explained the greatest por- tion (14-52 %) of the variation in these processes. Exper- imentally increased intra-annual season rainfall variability doubled the amplitude of intra-annual soil moisture varia- tion and reduced 215 by 15 %, causing most ecosystem pro- cesses to decrease 8-40 % in some or all years with increased rainfall variability compared to ambient rainfall timing, sug- gesting reduced ecosystem rainfall use efficiency. Warming treatments increased soil temperature at 5 cm depth, partic- ularly during spring, fall, and winter. Warming advanced canopy green up in spring, increased winter JCO2 , and re- duced summer JCO2 and forb ANPP, suggesting that the ef- fects of warming differed in cooler versus warmer parts of the year. We conclude that (1) major ecosystem processes in this grassland may be substantially altered by predicted changes in interannual climate variability, intra-annual rain- fall variability, and temperature, (2) interannual climate vari- ation was a larger source of variation in ecosystem function than intra-annual rainfall variability and warming, and (3) effects of increased growing season rainfall variability and warming were small, but ecologically important. The relative effects of these climate drivers are likely to vary for different ecosystem processes and in wetter or drier ecosystems.
HRIS Practices in Universities: An Exploratory Study on the Private Universities In Bangladesh

The study aims at finding the application of Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) in the private universities of Bangladesh. The paper is based on primary data collected through structured questionnaire from the HR personnel of 35 out of 61 Private Universities of Bangladesh. A five scale Likert technique has been used to investigate the interviewees’ opinion. The study reveals that only 22.9 % universities studied are using HRIS in full extent while 42.9% use HRIS to some extent. In 34.3% universities there is very limited applications of HRIS. Again, the highest use of HRIS is observed in recruiting and selection in private universities which is 80%. 74.3% universities use HRIS in their payroll system while the least use of HRIS is found in training and development of employees as only 14 (40%) universities apply HRIS technique for need assessment and train their employees. The paper explored that there is a gap between expected application of HRIS and present level of use in the selected private universalities. Among the main reasons of such gap Lack of infrastructure and high cost are found vital. The other reasons are lack of expertise in this field and insufficient training of the employees.
Predictors of Remission and Recovery in a First-Episode Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder Sample: 2-Year Follow-up of the OPUS Trial

Objective: To examine the frequency and predictors of good outcome for patients with first-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD). Method: We conducted a 2-year follow-up of a cohort of patients (n = 547) with first-episode SSD. We evaluated the patients on demographic variables, diagnosis, duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), premorbid functioning, psychotic and negative symptoms, substance abuse, adherence to medication, and service use. ORs were calculated with logistic regression analyses. Results: A total of 369 patients (67%) participated in the follow-up interview. After 2 years, 36% remitted and 17% were considered fully recovered. Full recovery was associated with shorter DUP, better premorbid adjustment, fewer negative symptoms at baseline, no substance abuse at baseline, and adherence to medication and OPUS treatment. Conclusions: Several predictive factors were identified, and focus should be on potentially malleable predictors of outcome, for example, reducing DUP and paying special attention to patients who are unlikely to achieve good outcome, for example, patients with a substance abuse problem and poor premorbid adjustment.
Evaluation model of variable message signs information service

The stated preference(SP) questionnaire survey to the road traffic information service system of Beijing is studied in this research.First,the survey of different types of vehicle drivers and different regions is analyzed.The major results are: first,the drivers’ response behavior to variable message signs(VMS) is affected by several factors;second,a multinomial Logit model for drivers’ response under guidance information is built.According to the model,the paper analyzes the effect of traffic guidance information to drivers with the VMS traffic information services.Finally,the paper evaluates VMS information service based on the multinomial Logit model.The model is tested by using the traffic ? ow data on the road network.Results with and without the VMS information service are compared and analyzed.
Towards automated firearm identification based on high resolution 3D data: rotation-invariant features for multiple line-profile-measurement of firing pin shapes

Understanding and evaluation of potential evidence, as well as evaluation of automated systems for forensic examinations currently play an important role within the domain of digital crime scene analysis. The application of 3D sensing and pattern recognition systems for automatic extraction and comparison of firearm related tool marks is an evolving field of research within this domain. In this context, the design and evaluation of rotation-invariant features for use on topography data play a particular important role. In this work, we propose and evaluate a 3D imaging system along with two novel features based on topography data and multiple profile-measurement-lines for automatic matching of firing pin shapes. Our test set contains 72 cartridges of three manufactures shot by six different 9mm guns. The entire pattern recognition workflow is addressed. This includes the application of confocal microscopy for data acquisition, preprocessing covers outlier handling, data normalization, as well as necessary segmentation and registration. Feature extraction involves the two introduced features for automatic comparison and matching of 3D firing pin shapes. The introduced features are called ‘Multiple-Circle-Path’ (MCP) and ‘Multiple-Angle-Path’ (MAP). Basically both features are compositions of freely configurable amounts of circular or straight path-lines combined with statistical evaluations. During the first part of evaluation (E1), we examine how well it is possible to differentiate between two 9mm weapons of the same mark and model. During second part (E2), we evaluate the discrimination accuracy regarding the set of six different 9mm guns. During the third part (E3), we evaluate the performance of the features in consideration of different rotation angles. In terms of E1, the best correct classification rate is 100% and in terms of E2 the best result is 86%. The preliminary results for E3 indicate robustness of both features regarding rotation. However, in future work these results have to be validated using an enlarged test set.
The Impact of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 on Electric Utilities and Coal Mines: Evidence from the Stock Market

If new environmental regulation imposes significant costs on firms, it should be detected in their stock prices. We use event study methodology to analyze whether President George H. Bush? s Clean Air Act Amendment (CAAA) proposals of June 1989, which were quite different from what had been expected, depressed stock prices in affected electricity generating and coal mining companies. We find that shares of 35 electric generating companies owning Phase I power plants did not noticeably fall in value after the Bush June 1989 announcement, nor after three other possibly relevant events during the preceding year. In fact, these shares increased in value during June and July of 1989. In contrast, stock prices of 11 of the 12 coal mining companies fell after Bush announced his proposals, while stock prices of a large majority of these coal companies fell after two of the other three events (although significance levels make these results not entirely conclusive). We argue that expected profits of electric generating companies did not fall because the regulated price of electricity was typically allowed to increase with costs. In the electricity industry, the costs of the CAAA were expected to be borne entirely by consumers in the form of higher prices.
The Effect of Brand Portfolio Characteristics on Consumer Evaluations of Brand Extensions

A growing number of brands are becoming associated with a portfolio of different product categories. Although concerns have been raised that adding products to a brand may weaken it, there is a paucity of research exploring the effects of brand portfolio characteristics on brand strength. Using two laboratory experiments and a survey, the authors examine the effects of several brand portfolio characteristics on consumers’ confidence in and favorability of their evaluations of subsequent brand extensions. The experiment-based findings reveal a positive relationship between the number of products affiliated with a brand and consumers’ confidence in and favorability of their evaluations of extension quality. These results were not replicated in the survey. However, in both methods, the authors found that as portfolio quality variance decreases, a positive relationship between number of products affiliated with a brand and consumers’ confidence in their extension evaluations emerges. Implications of these and other findings for both the theory and practice of brand management are discussed.
Web banking layout effects on consumer behavioural intentions

Purpose – Elaborating on earlier research by Vrechopoulos et al., this paper aims to investigate web banking store layout effects on user‐consumer behaviour and to report on a laboratory experimental investigation into user acceptance of three different layout types.Design/methodology/approach – A web banking store was developed in three versions equal to the number of the alternative layouts manipulated by the laboratory experimental design. Two layout types were transformed from conventional banking and one type was designed by incorporating users' preferences and suggestions. The relationships in technology acceptance model (TAM) in the three treatments are tested separately, and then the subjects' evaluations on TAM constructs are compared.Findings – The findings imply that store layout affects online consumer behaviour, confirming the findings of Vrechopoulos et al. in a different sector. The study also confirms the TAM relationships in all treatments and indicates that layout has an effect on user a.
The Origins of Social Contracts: Attitudes toward Taxation in Urban Nigeria*

How do social contracts come into being? This paper argues that norm adoption plays an important and neglected role in this process. Using novel data from urban Nigeria, we examine why individuals adopt norms favoring a citizen obligation to pay tax where state enforcement is weak. We find that public goods delivery by the state produces the willingness to pay tax, but community characteristics also have a strong and independent effect on both social contract norms and actual tax payment. Individuals are less likely to adopt pro-tax norms if they have access to community provision of security and other services. In conflict-prone communities, where “self-help” provision of club goods is less effective, individuals are more likely to adopt social contract norms. Finally, we show that social contract norms substantially boost tax payment. This paper has broad implications for literatures on state formation, taxation, clientelism, and public goods provision.