Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Disseminated Histoplasmosis in the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome: Clinical Findings, Diagnosis and Treatment, and Review of the Literature

Histoplasmosis is a serious opportunistic infection in patients with AIDS, often representing the first manifestation of the syndrome. Most infections occurring within the endemic region are caused by exogenous exposure, while those occurring in nonendemic areas may represent endogenous reactivation of latent foci of infection or exogenous exposure to microfoci located within those nonendemic regions. However, prospective investigations are needed to prove the mode of acquisition. The infection usually begins in the lungs even though the chest roentgenogram may be normal. Clinical findings are nonspecific; most patients present with symptoms of fever and weight loss of at least 1 month's duration. When untreated, many cases eventually develop severe clinical manifestations resembling septicemia. Chest roentgenograms, when abnormal, show interstitial or reticulonodular infiltrates. Many cases have been initially misdiagnosed as disseminated mycobacterial infection or Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Patients are often concurrently infected with other opportunistic pathogens, supporting the need for a careful search for co-infections. Useful diagnostic tests include serologic tests for anti-H. capsulatum antibodies and HPA, silver stains of tissue sections or body fluids, and cultures using fungal media from blood, bone marrow, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and other tissues or body fluids suspected to be infected on clinical grounds. Treatment with amphotericin B is highly effective, reversing the clinical manifestations of infection in at least 80% of cases. However, nearly all patients relapse within 1 year after completing courses of amphotericin B of 35 mg/kg or more, supporting the use of maintenance treatment to prevent recurrence. Relapse rates are lower (9 to 19%) in patients receiving maintenance therapy with amphotericin B given at doses of about 50 mg weekly or biweekly than with ketoconazole (50-60%), but controlled trials comparing different maintenance regimens have not been conducted. Until results of such trials become available, our current approach is to administer an induction phase of 15 mg/kg of amphotericin B given over 4 to 6 weeks, followed by maintenance therapy with 50 to 100 mg of amphotericin B given once or twice weekly, or biweekly. If results of a prospective National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease study of itraconazole maintenance therapy document its effectiveness, alternatives to amphotericin B may be reasonable.
Does the "qualification” in an auditor’s report matter in the presence of going concern uncertainties?: evidence from Australia

Research conducted on the information content of going concern “modified” reports in the United States and United Kingdom indicate that a modified audit report does not appear to have information content to users once the going concern contingency is disclosed in the notes to the financial statements. This raises the question as to whether any form of qualification is necessary since readers appear not to give additional credence to the auditor’s report once the going concern contingency is reported. In this study we provide evidence from Australia. We examine whether modification/ qualification by an auditor in Australia (an “emphasis of matter” and an “except for” report respectively) has information content to a user. The results indicate that, if the company is in a state of financial distress, the qualification, in either form, does not appear to significantly enhance either perceptions of risk or decision making. While the auditor’s report was perceived to be useful in that it helped loan officers to focus on matters raised in the report, the qualification appears not to have incremental information content. While one could expect the emphasis of matter report to not communicate any additional information (as the information addressed in the emphasis of matter section has already been disclosed as a note in the financial statements), a similar finding with respect to the except for report (which is issued due to lack of appropriate disclosure) is surprising. The conclusion is that, even in the presence of inadequate disclosure, if the numbers in the financial statements appear to indicate financial distress, the communication in the auditor’s report is not given additional credence.
Competencies and firm performance: examining the causal ambiguity paradox

Resource‐based theory argues that resources must be valuable, rare, inimitable, and lack substitutes to confer competitive advantage. Inimitability is a lynchpin of resource‐based theory and central to understanding the sustainability of competitive advantage. Although scholars recognize a positive relationship between causal ambiguity and inimitability, the relationship among critical resources called competencies, causal ambiguity, and firm performance remains an unresolved conundrum. One perspective suggests that causal ambiguity regarding competencies and performance is necessary among internal and external managers for sustainable competitive advantage because it severely limits imitation. Causal ambiguity, therefore, enhances firm performance. Another view holds that causal ambiguity places a constraint on the transfer and leveraging of these competencies within a firm. In this case, causal ambiguity may adversely influence firm performance. This paper takes a resource‐based view to develop and test hypotheses that relate managers' perceptions of causal ambiguity to their firm's performance. The hypotheses examine relationships between firm performance and (1) causal ambiguity regarding the link between competencies and competitive advantage, and (2) causally ambiguous characteristics of competencies. Research involving 224 executives in 17 organizations provides valuable insights into the relationships between causal ambiguity and firm performance. A model is then developed based on these findings. Particular consideration is given to the differing ways top and middle managers in a firm may experience causal ambiguity and to how these differences may be understood and managed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A study of the relationship among experiential marketing, experiential value and customer satisfaction

Abstract The health tourism industry has become a fashion along with the increasing demand by global travelers. Physical and mental health activities have become popular to participate in while people are traveling. To provide operational references for health tourism industry administrators and help them enhance product competitiveness, a LISREL empirical analysis is conducted. The health tourism medical consumption experience scale proposed in this study can comprehensively illustrate the relationship between a tourist’s experience, experience value, and post-experience behavior. This provides medical organizations with a scale to measure and compare each tourist’s experience and degree of satisfaction with regards to their medical and cosmetology services.
Looking back at the 20 years of retailing change in Poland

This article looks at the structural and behavioural changes in Poland's retailing since 1989 in the context of the country's economic and social transformation. The retailing changes are discussed using a three-phase model of the evolution of retailing. The phases include: 1) privatization and decentralization; 2) intensive internationalization; and 3) concentration and consolidation of retail trade. The phases capture a dramatic transformation of the retail sector in Poland over the past 20 years: from a ‘disorderly’, fragmented retailing system in the early 1990s, to the emergence and spread of Western-style large retail formats and chains in the late 1990s, to the expansion and consolidation of the chains, leading to a progressive concentration of retailing, in the 2000s. A fourth stage, being on the horizon, is also identified as that of innovation and modernization of retailing. The phases do not necessarily have a clear-cut start and end dates but rather tend to merge into each other. A description of the phases is followed by the authors' assessment of research into retailing change in Poland. Both English- and Polish-language publications on retailing over the 20-year period are reviewed and main research themes, as well as research gaps, are recognized. Many aspects of Poland's retailing change, identified in the study as under-researched, provide opportunities for future scholarly investigation.
Linking Training to Organizational Performance: An Absorptive Capacity-Based View. Case Study Method in Spanish Family Businesses

Even though there is a plethora of studies that analyze the effects of training on organizational performance, it is not clear how this transfer process of training to results takes place. The absorptive dynamic capability could be the core concept, which could help explain this transfer process of training translates into results. The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to determine whether absorptive capacity mediates the connection between training and performance in Spanish family businesses (Absorptive Capacity-Based View). We illustrate our point by means of six case studies of Spanish family businesses, through the case study method.
The Impact of Capital Inflows on Emerging East Asian Economies: Is Too Much Money Chasing Too Little Good?

In recent years, emerging East Asian economies have experienced large capital inflows-especially a surge in portfolio inflows-and an appreciation of asset prices such as equities, land, and both nominal and real exchange rates. The paper reviews why a surge in capital inflows can increase asset prices, and then empirically investigates the effects by employing a panel vector autoregression (VAR) model. The empirical results suggest that capital inflows have indeed contributed to the asset price appreciation in this region, although capital inflow shocks explain a relatively small part of asset price fluctuations. How to manage these capital inflows is also discussed.
Familial adenomatous polyposis‐associated and sporadic pyloric gland adenomas of the upper gastrointestinal tract share common genetic features

Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is a hereditary cancer predisposition syndrome caused by a germline APC mutation. A recent study showed the enrichment of pyloric gland adenomas (PGAs) of the stomach, in addition to fundic gland polyps (FGPs) and foveolar‐type adenomas (FAs), in patients with FAP. In the present study, we analysed the genetic alterations in these FAP‐associated gastric lesions.
CRM: conceptualization and scale development

Purpose – To develop a reliable and valid measuring scale for customer relationship management (CRM). Design/methodology/approach – A series of studies were conducted for the development and validation of multiple measures for the dimensions of CRM. Once the dimensions of CRM were identified, data from study 1 (n=150 business executives attending a part‐time MBA program) were used to select items based on factor analysis. Then, confirmatory factor analyses was used on data obtained from a mail survey of Hong Kong financial firms in study 2 (n=215) to examine factor structure, as well as to provide evidence of dimensionality, scale reliability and validity. Finally, in study 3, data from 276 business executives attending a seminar on CRM were used to test the scale generalizability of CRM measures in various industries.Findings – A reliable and valid scale was developed to measure the four dimensions of CRM: key customer focus, CRM organization, knowledge management and technology‐based CRM.Research limitat.
Cell-Produced α-Synuclein Is Secreted in a Calcium-Dependent Manner by Exosomes and Impacts Neuronal Survival

α-Synuclein is central in Parkinson's disease pathogenesis. Although initially α-synuclein was considered a purely intracellular protein, recent data suggest that it can be detected in the plasma and CSF of humans and in the culture media of neuronal cells. To address a role of secreted α-synuclein in neuronal homeostasis, we have generated wild-type α-synuclein and β-galactosidase inducible SH-SY5Y cells. Soluble oligomeric and monomeric species of α-synuclein are readily detected in the conditioned media (CM) of these cells at concentrations similar to those observed in human CSF. We have found that, in this model, α-synuclein is secreted by externalized vesicles in a calcium-dependent manner. Electron microscopy and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry proteomic analysis demonstrate that these vesicles have the characteristic hallmarks of exosomes, secreted intraluminar vesicles of multivesicular bodies. Application of CM containing secreted α-synuclein causes cell death of recipient neuronal cells, which can be reversed after α-synuclein immunodepletion from the CM. High- and low-molecular-weight α-synuclein species, isolated from this CM, significantly decrease cell viability. Importantly, treatment of the CM with oligomer-interfering compounds before application rescues the recipient neuronal cells from the observed toxicity. Our results show for the first time that cell-produced α-synuclein is secreted via an exosomal, calcium-dependent mechanism and suggest that α-synuclein secretion serves to amplify and propagate Parkinson's disease-related pathology.
Matrilysin‐1 (MMP7) cleaves galectin‐3 and inhibits wound healing in intestinal epithelial cells

Background: Galectin‐3 is an animal lectin that has been implicated in wound healing and is decreased in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Matrix metalloproteinase‐7 (MMP7), also known as matrilysin‐1, a protease shown to cleave extracellular matrix proteins, is highly expressed in IBD tissues, especially at the leading edge of gastrointestinal ulcers. The ability of MMP7 to cleave galectin‐3 and influence wound healing has not been reported previously. The aim was to determine whether MMP7 cleaves galectin‐3 and modulates wound healing in intestinal epithelial cells. Methods: The cleaved fragments of galectin‐3 were identified by N‐terminal sequencing and mass spectrometry. Western blotting was used to detect the cleaved galectin‐3 products in a colonic epithelial cell line (T84 cells). Cell migration was studied by the in vitro scratch method. Results: We demonstrate for the first time that MMP7 cleaves galectin‐3 in vitro, resulting in three cleaved fragments (20.2 kDa, 18.9 kDa, and 15.5 kDa). Exogenous treatment of T84 cells with recombinant MMP7 resulted in the appearance of secreted galectin‐3 cleavage fragments in the supernatant. MMP7 inhibited cell migration and resulted in wound retraction and the addition of MMP7 to galectin‐3 abrogated the wound healing and cell migration induced by galectin‐3. Conclusions: We have demonstrated that galectin‐3 is a substrate for MMP7. Cleavage of galectin‐3 may be one mechanism by which MMP7 inhibits wound healing. This study has significance in understanding delayed wound healing in chronic intestinal diseases like intestinal ulcers and IBD, where MMP7 protein expression is elevated with a decreased galectin‐3 protein expression. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2011;)
Diagnosis of neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions and prediction of submucosal invasion of early cancer during colonoscopy

Magnifying chromoendoscopy is an exciting new tool that allows detailed analysis of the morphological archi- tecture of mucosal crypt orifices. In this review, we principally describe the efficacy of magnifying chromoen- doscopy and magnifying colonoscopy with narrow band imaging (NBI) for differential diagnosis of colorectal lesions, including distinction between non-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions, and also between endoscopically treatable early invasive cancers and untreatable cancers, based on a review of the literature. We have con- ducted a prospective study showing that a combination of magnifying colonoscopy and chromoendoscopy is currently a more reliable method than conventional endoscopy and chromoendoscopy for separating non-neo- plastic from neoplastic lesions of the colon and rectum. Magnifying colonoscopy with NBI is convenient and as accurate as chromoendoscopy with magnification. We principally use only magnifying colonoscopy with NBI, rather than chromoendoscopy, to routinely distinguish neoplastic from non-neoplastic polyps. Colonoscopists can predict the depth of invasion of early colorectal cancer by magnifying chromoendoscopy, magnifying colonoscopy with NBI and the non-lifting sign. Among these approaches, magnifying chromoendoscopy is diagnostically the most reliable, with an accuracy, sensitivity, and specificitiy of 98.8%, 85.6%, and 99.4%, respectively. Although its reliability depends on the skill of magnifying observation, widespread applications of the magnification technique could influence the indications for biopsy sampling during colonoscopy and the indications for mucosectomy.
Antecedents of Customers' Desired Value Change in a Business-to-Business Context: Theoretical Model and Empirical Assessment

ABSTRACT Anticipating the value that key customers will want in future becomes a matter of survival in an increasingly dynamic environment. An essential part of predicting customers' desired value change (CDVC) involves identifying the reasons behind the phenomenon. In the present study, we examine CDVC antecedents by developing and empirically testing a conceptual model in a business-to-business context involving professional services in the field of information and communication technology (ICT). Grounded on a “top-down” view of the customer value hierarchy (Woodruff 1997), our results show that changes in customers' desired end-states are concomitant with changes in both desired consequences and desired attributes. We further observe that end-state desires shift even more as customer firms make more organizational changes and their financial performance declines. Lastly, our results show that organizational changes are a mediating variable between changes in the external environment (i.e. dynamism) and changes in desired end-states. This study is meant as further theoretical and empirical support for the outcomes of previous exploratory research on CDVC.
International marketing adaptation versus standardisation of multinational companies.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to position multinational companies on a linear continuum indicating their overall attitude towards standardisation/adaptation, examines the reasons influencing multinational companies' tactical (7Ps – marketing mix) behaviour towards it, and finally presents the underlying managerial implications of the results.Design/methodology/approach – A rating scale Rasch model is used in order to place the multinational companies' attitude towards standardisation and adaptation on a linear continuum. Structural equation modelling is subsequently used in order to investigate the relationship between the adaptation and standardisation variable against other variables. An extensive literature review is also undertaken to provide the theoretical foundation.Findings – The paper corroborates the findings of past research by placing multinational companies on a linear continuum; by identifying their overall attitude towards adaptation/standardization; and by describing the relations.
Does Hiring a New CFO Change Things? An Investigation of Changes in Discretionary Accruals

The recent spate of fraudulent financial reporting in the U.S. has drawn attention to the fact that the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has a substantial amount of control over a firm's reported financial results. This paper examines the changes in discretionary accruals surrounding the appointment of a new CFO. Using a sample of 712 companies that appointed a new CFO in the period 1994 to 2000, we find that discretionary accruals decreased significantly following the appointment of a new CFO. Our tests indicate that this reduction is significantly greater for our group of CFO‐hiring firms than for a control group of non‐hiring firms, and that the changes are not driven by a concurrent appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). We also find that our results are largely driven by firms that hire a new CFO from outside the company. Our study extends earlier research by providing empirical evidence that individuals in CFO positions wield significant influence over the firm's reported financial results.
GenderMag experiences in the field: The whole, the parts, and the workload

Recent research has reported numerous studies bringing into question the gender inclusiveness of many kinds of software. Inclusiveness of software (gender or otherwise) matters because supporting diversity matters - it is well-known that the more diverse a group of problem-solvers, the higher the quality of the solution. To help software creators identify features within their software that are not gender-inclusive, we recently created a method known as GenderMag. In this paper, we investigate the experience of teams of software professionals using GenderMag to find problems with software they are building. Our results show a high engagement with GenderMag personas - more than twice that of other personas research - and a very high degree of accuracy (93%) most of the time. Finally, our results pinpointed situations that we term “detours” that were especially prone to errors, with teams 6 times more likely to make errors in detours than they did otherwise.
The Relationship between Seats and Votes in Two-Party Systems

An enduring fact of life in democratic electoral systems is that the party winning the largest share of the votes almost always receives a still larger share of the seats. This paper tests three models describing the inflation of the legislative power of the victorious party and then develops explanations of the observed differences in the swing ratio and the partisan bias of an electoral system. The “cube law” is rejected as a description, since it assumes uniformity (which is not observed in the data) across electoral systems. Explanations for differences in swing ratio and bias are found in variations in turnout over districts, the extent of the “nationalization” of politics, and, most importantly, in who does the districting or reapportionment. The measures of swing ratio and partisan bias appear useful for the judicial evaluation of redistricting schemes and may contribute to the reduction of partisan and incumbent gerrymandering.