Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transition covering tests for systems with queues

This paper introduces a method to cover transitions of a concurrent system under test through a context consisting of infinite‐capacity queues. Concurrent systems have many important applications, but they are very difficult and expensive to test. One of the difficulties in testing concurrent systems is caused by the fact that queues in the test context can distort the behaviour of a concurrent system under test and can cause state explosion in test derivation. The proposed method derives transition covering tests directly from the specification of a concurrent system, not its composition with queues. As transition coverage is an important industrial metric of test quality, the results of the paper have practical applications. A case study is presented to illustrate one of the applications. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Strategies, Performance, Sustainability and Competitiveness Model: Small and Medium Construction Services Industries in Indonesia

Abstract:Some previous researchers had conducted a study on the relationship of competency management,resources and company capabilities, strategy, performance, sustainability and competitiveness variables. Thisstudy focused on analyzing the relationship model of strategy, performance, sustainability and competitivenessof small and medium construction services companies in Indonesia. The survey was conducted throughinterviews using a Likert scale (1-5) questionnaire. The population and study sample are a group ofconstruction services companies that had been certified for business entities and already had at least five yearsexperience. The respondents consisted of leaders or owners of a small or medium construction servicescompany in Indonesia. A combination ofstratified, proportional and purposive sampling methodwas used.SEM (Smart PLS) was used to test the validity and reliability of the model as the data analysis technique. Theresearch concludes that the competitiveness of small and medium construction services companies wereinfluenced by corporate sustainability, which influenced by firm performance, which influenced by the strategy,competency management, resources and capabilities of the company.Key words: Construction services Sustainability Performance Strategies Competitiveness.
The Effect of Service Price Increases on Customer Retention

This study examines the impact of actual price increases on customer retention in a service context and how the effect of a price increase is moderated by both tenure and breadth of the customer's relationship. The study finds that tenure is associated with lowered customer sensitivity to price increases as well as having a favorable direct effect on customer retention rates. The study also finds that relationship breadth can exacerbate the adverse effect of price increases on customer retention. Finally, relationship breadth is found to have a favorable direct effect on retention rates only among newer customers. The managerial implication is that marketers must pay extra attention to short-tenure and broad-breadth customers when implementing price increases. The study represents a unique contribution to the service marketing literature, which to date reports little research examining the effect of actual price changes on consumer behavior.
The History and Economics of Safe Assets

Safe assets play a critical role in an(y) economy. A “safe asset” is an asset that is (almost always) valued at face value without expensive and prolonged analysis. That is, by design there is no benefit to producing (private) information about its value. And this is common knowledge. Consequently, agents need not fear adverse selection when buying or selling safe assets. Safe assets can easily be used to exchange for goods or services or to exchange for another asset. These short-term safe assets are money or money-like. A long-term safe asset can store value over time or be used as collateral. Much of human history can be written in terms of the search for and production of safe assets. But, the most prevalent, privately-produced short-term safe assets — bank debt, are subject to runs and this has important implications for macroeconomics and for monetary policy.
Detection of human papillomavirus in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma: Systematic review and meta‐analysis

Recent studies have reported a human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence of 20% to 30% in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), although clinical data on HPV involvement remain largely inconsistent, ascribed by some to differences in HPV detection methods or in geographic origin of the studies.
Consumption of children's wear in a big city in Central China: Zhengzhou

The paper examines the purchase behaviour (performed by adults) in relation to children's wear in the 0‐14 age group. The importance of product attributes of children's wear was investigated. Data were gathered from both interviews and a questionnaire survey conducted in Zhengzhou, a large city in central China. Two attributes, quality and style, were identified as the most important attributes for children's wear consumers. It was also found that branding had a limited impact on the choice of children's wear. The marketing implication of the results are discussed.
Consumer switching behavior in the Asian banking market

This study seeks to identify the types of incidents which cause consumers to switch between banks, the weighting of each incident on the switching decision, whether single or multiple incidents influence switching decisions, and the extent to which switchers explain the problems they have faced prior to exiting. The key findings show that bank switching is strongly influenced by three types of incident: service failures, pricing and inconvenience, with pricing being more influential. Seventy‐five percent of bank switching is caused by more than one incident, and some 7 percent of respondents said they had spoken to bank staff in the period before exiting. The implications of these findings are presented.
A Design on Security Governance Framework for Industry Convergence Environment

According to arriving convergence environment which can create new value-added converged between industry and ICT technology, It has made economic growth and improve the quality of life. However this convergence environment provide not only advantage but also various security problems resulting from generating converged security threats. For resolving this security problem, we need to approach to security problem in the integrated view not the fragmentary view which cover only technical approach. So This study developed security governance framework which can manage trustful security governance in multidimensional view which cover strategy, m anagerial / operational and technical view. Therefore this framework can construct trustful security management system which can help top management team to engage in security management directly and organizational member to perform security activities and have responsibility for themselves as suggesting single standard for security management
Radiotherapy Alone is Associated with Improved Outcomes Over Surgery in the Management of Solitary Plasmacytoma.

BACKGROUND A moderate dose of radiation is the recommended treatment for solitary plasmacytoma (SP), but there is controversy over the role of surgery. Our study aimed at comparing different treatment modalities in the management of SP. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data from 38 consecutive patients with solitary plasmacytoma, including 16 with bone plasmacytoma and 22 with extramedullary plasmacytoma, were retrospectively reviewed. 15 patients received radiotherapy alone; 11 received surgery alone, and 12 received both. The median radiation dose was 50Gy. All operations were performed as radical resections. Local progression-free survival (LPFS), multiple myeloma-free survival (MMFS), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were calculated and outcomes of different therapies were compared. RESULTS The median follow-up time was 55 months. 5-year LPFS, MMFS, PFS and OS were 87.0%, 80.9%, 69.8% and 87.4%, respectively. Univariate analysis revealed, compared with surgery alone, radiotherapy alone was associated with significantly higher 5-year LPFS (100% vs 69.3%, p=0.016), MMFS (100% vs 51.4%, p=0.006), PFS (100% vs 33.7%, p=0.0004) and OS (100% vs 70%, p=0.041). CONCLUSIONS Radiotherapy alone can be considered as a more effective treatment for SP over surgery. Whether a combination of radiotherapy and surgery improves outcomes requires further study.
Construction of a Green Power Virtual Machine Management Method on OpenStack

Due to the popularity of cloud computing and the increase of cloud-service requests, the demand for building better cloud infrastructure is huge. However, many services that need to be provided by a cloud infrastructure are not currently available. Efficient power consumption is an example. On the other hand, the usage of some cloud services is low. But their servers keep online and working, causing unnecessary power consumption. To avoid this, in this paper, a green power management scheme will be proposed to determine how many physical machines need to be online. Open Stack is used to build cloud environments and PDU is employed to record the power consumption information. We believe that the scheme can more effectively utilize hardware resources and reduce unnecessary power consumed.
Impact of Firm Specific Factors on Cash Dividend Payment Decisions: Evidence from Bangladesh

This study aims to explore the impact of firm specific factors on cash dividend payment decisions for a sample of 41 non financial firms listed in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) in Bangladesh during 2007-2011. This study tests a null hypothesis that none of the firm specific factors namely profitability, size, liquidity, growth, earnings volatility, and managerial ownership has significant effects on cash dividend payments using fixed-effect regression model under the assumption that intercepts vary for each firm and the slope coefficients are constant across firms. Checking multicollinearity, cross-sectional dependence, autocorrelation and controlling heteroskedasticity in the regression analysis it is found that profitability has statistically significant positive effects on cash dividend payments. This study has discovered a significant negative effect of earnings volatility and managerial ownership on dividend payments which were unfolded before this study. On the other hand, size, growth and liquidity were not found to be significant explanatory variables of dividend payments. Thus, profitability, earnings volatility and managerial ownership are functioning as the key determinants of cash dividend payments in Bangladesh.
A Meta-Analysis of Neuropsychological Functioning in Patients with Early Onset Schizophrenia and Pediatric Bipolar Disorder

Despite the nosological distinction between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, there is increasing evidence that these conditions share phenomenological characteristics. To examine the similarities in their patterns of cognitive impairment, we conducted a meta-analysis from 12 studies of Early Onset Schizophrenia (EOS) and 12 studies of Pediatric Bipolar Disorder (PBD). We found that individuals with PBD suffer from cognitive deficits (e.g., verbal learning and memory, processing speed, or executive control) that are milder but similar in nature to those of patients with EOS. Qualitative similarities between the neuropsychological profiles produced by these groups of patients might represent a “continuum of psychosis” or reflect some degree of genetic biological overlap.
Health Literacy Instrument in Family Medicine: The “Newest Vital Sign” Ease of Use and Correlates

Background: Health literacy has been defined as the ability to obtain, process, and understand the basic information needed to make appropriate health decisions. Half of adults lack the health literacy skills needed for our complex health care environment. In 2005, Weiss et al introduced the Newest Vital Sign (NVS), an instrument that can be used to quickly assess health literacy. The purpose of this study was to determine the acceptability and timeliness of using the NVS to measure the level of health literacy in various suburban, urban, and rural primary care settings. A secondary purpose was to determine the influence of taking a health class on one's level of health literacy. Methods: In this cross-sectional design, adults were recruited from 4 primary care settings and student athletes were recruited during preparticipation sports physicals. The NVS was administered and health literacy rates were compared with known trends. A subset of 50 patients was timed during test administration, and refusals were logged throughout. The adults and the athletes were analyzed separately. Results: One thousand fourteen patients (including athletes) agreed to participate (response rate, 97.5%). Average time needed to complete the NVS was 2.63 minutes. Of the adults tested, 48.1% demonstrated adequate health literacy. In logistic regression analysis, younger age, more formal education, health class participation, and body mass index were positive predictors of adequate health literacy among adults. An interaction term was used for gender/race, with white women used as the comparator. The gender/race odds ratio negatively affected literacy, with white men at 0.497 (95% CI, 0.328–0.753), non-white women at 0.177 (95% CI, 0.111–0.282), and non-white men at 0.210 (95% CI, 0.110–0.398). Among the participating middle- and high-school athletes, 59.7% had adequate health literacy. In logistic regression of this population, body mass index was a positive predictor whereas gender/race was a negative predictor. Conclusion: The NVS revealed health literacy status in less than 3 minutes, was widely accepted, and provided results comparable to more extensive literacy tests. Particularly, taking a health education class was associated with higher levels of health literacy among adults.
Expression of Regeneration and Tolerance Factor Correlates Directly with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection and Inversely with Hepatitis C Virus Infection

ABSTRACT Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cause two of the most prevalent debilitating viral infections. HIV appears to induce a skewing toward a Th2 response, while in HCV infection a Th1 response appears to dominate. Regeneration and tolerance factor (RTF) may participate in driving or sustaining a Th2 cytokine response. The expression of RTF on CD3+ T cells of HIV-seropositive (HIV+) individuals is increased. The purpose of this study was to compare the expression of RTF during HIV infections with that during HCV infections. Three-color flow-cytometric analysis of peripheral blood collected from HIV+HCV-seropositive (HCV+), HIV- and HCV-seropositive (HIV+ HCV+), and HIV- and HCV-seronegative (HIV− HCV−) individuals was performed. Levels of RTF expression on T-lymphocyte subsets from these groups were compared, as were levels of RTF expression on activated T cells expressing CD38 and HLA-DR, to determine the relationship of RTF expression to these infections. We demonstrated that the expression of RTF on surfaces of T cells from HIV+ individuals is upregulated and that its expression on T cells from HCV+individuals is downregulated. A twofold increase in the mean channel fluorescence of RTF on CD3+ T cells was seen in both HIV+ and HIV+ HCV+ individuals compared to HIV− HCV− individuals. HCV+ individuals had lower levels of RTF expression than HIV− HCV− individuals (P < 0.005 for CD4+; P < 0.0005 for CD8+). In terms of percentages of T cells expressing RTF, the groups were ranked as follows: HIV+ > HIV+ HCV+ > HIV−HCV− > HCV+. The results indicate that RTF expression correlates with HIV-associated immune activation and may be associated with Th2-type responses.
Bulimia and bulimic behaviour in middle adolescence: more common than thought?

Kaltiala‐Heino R, Rissanen A, Rimpelä M, Rantanen P. Bulimia and bulimic behaviour in middle adolescence: more common than thought? Acta Psychiatr Scand 1999: 100: 33–39. © Munksgaard 1999.
Effect of Preslaughter Shackling on Stress, Meat Quality Traits, and Glycolytic Potential in Broilers

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of preslaughter shackling durations on some blood parameters, breast and thigh meat quality traits, and muscle metabolites in broilers. The effects of shackling were determined in a group of Ross 308 broilers (240 birds) aged 42 days. Four shackling treatments were used in experimental tests: shackling of broilers for 10 (Group G 10 ; as control), 30 (G 30 ), 60 (G 60 ), and 120 seconds (G 120 ). Results showed that corticosterone (CORT) level (2314.79 pg ml -1 ) at 120 seconds shackling group increased (P< 0.01). Results indicated that kinase (CK) activity was the highest (2265.69 U I -1 ) in the 120 seconds shackling group while it was the lowest (1970.64 U I -1 ) in 10 s group according to the shackling duration (P< 0.05). The breast meat redness value increased due to increase in shackling duration (P< 0.05). It was revealed that shackling duration had decreased breast muscle glycogen level in all treatment groups (P< 0.001). Conversely, breast lactate level increased according to increase in shackling duration (P< 0.05). It was revealed that there was a negative relationship (r= 0.466) between breast meat ultimate pH and cooking loss (CL) value in male broilers (P< 0.01). These results indicated that the preslaughter shackling procedure might be a considerably stressful procedure for broilers, particularly exceeding 60 s. This study suggested that broilers could be at disadvantage due to more struggle during long duration shackling and accelerated postmortem glycolysis, which is detrimental to the quality of breast meat.
Oral Vaccination with Attenuated Salmonella enterica Strains Encoding T-Cell Epitopes from Tumor Antigen NY-ESO-1 Induces Specific Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Responses

ABSTRACT Bacterial fimbriae can accept foreign peptides and display them on the cell surface. A highly efficient gene replacement method was used to generate peptide vaccines based on Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium SL3261. The T-cell epitopes (NY-ESO-1 p157-165 and p157-167) from NY-ESO-1, which is a promising target antigen in patients for the specific immune recognition of cancer, were incorporated into the gene encoding AgfA (the major subunit protein of thin aggregative fimbriae of Salmonella) by replacing an equal length of the DNA segment. To improve cytotoxic T-lymphocyte recognition, both termini of the peptide were flanked by double alanine (AA) residues. Immunofluorescence microscopy with AgfA-specific antiserum verified the expression of chimeric AgfA, which was also proved by a Congo red binding assay. Oral immunizations of HLA-A*0201 transgenic mice with recombinant SL3261 strains encoding NY-ESO-1 p157-165 or p157-167 induced NY-ESO-1 p157-165-specific CD8+ T cells, detected by an HLA-A*0201 pentamer, and induced a T-cell response detected by an enzyme-linked immunospot assay. The Salmonella fimbrial display system was efficient at the induction of an antitumor cellular immune response in vivo, providing a new strategy for the development of efficient cancer vaccinations.
The Negro and American Advertising, 1946–1965

This article presents a content analysis of ads that have used Negro models or actors in selected mass circulation magazines over a 20-year period—a communications research technique seldom used in marketing. Results indicate that the frequency of using Negroes has not increased over the 20-year period. Instead it decreased in 1956, and by 1965 it merely reached the 1946 level. The Negro's occupational status, however, has risen significantly, but he is still seldom found in conventional middle-class settings.
Personal and Social Responsibility for Health

Everyone wants to be healthy, but many of us decline to act in healthy ways. What bearing, if any, should these choices have on the ethics of clinical practice and health policy? Should risk-takers have the same claim on scarce resources, such as organs for transplant, as those whose plight is due to no choices of their own? And is there any reason not to impose fees and taxes on risk-takers, be they smokers or mountain climbers, to defray the added expense of the care they may need? In health resource allocation aimed at reducing the burden of disease, should we regard certain burdens as individual responsibilities: for example, dealing with stigma, or caretaking for family members? Socioeconomic status (SES) and health expectancy are strongly linked. To the extent that this results from risk-taking by the poor, is reduction of SES-linked health inequalities a morally important social goal? International public health aims at improving health on a population level. The World Health Organization has been criticized for failing to distinguish genuine health risks from personal lifestyle choices, as when it speaks of a tobacco-related “epidemic” as if cigarette use were a contagious disease like malaria. Should personal responsibility for health be taken into account in setting the agenda for global public health, and in measuring progress by countries in improving health. This paper addresses applications of the notions of personal and social responsibility for health. It also looks at the vulnerability of the notion of personal responsibility for health to intentional manipulation by self-interested parties in health policy debates.
Complex genetic response of human cells to sublethal levels of pure nitric oxide.

NO is a biologically generated free radical that serves diverse roles in mammalian cell signaling and immune-mediated cell killing. Because mammalian cells might be exposed to varying levels of NO, we tested for possible defense genes and proteins induced upon treatment of cells with sublethal fluxes of pure NO. Two-dimensional gel analysis was performed for human embryonic lung fibroblasts (IMR-90) exposed for 90 min to pure NO at approximately 280 nM/s, which revealed the reproducible induction of at least 12 proteins. Among these, a prominent polypeptide had Mr approximately 32,000, similar to the well-known oxidative stress protein heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1). Northern blot analysis of IMR-90 and HeLa cells demonstrated the NO-mediated induction of HO-1 mRNA up to 70-fold over the levels in untreated cells. HO-1 induction depended on the NO dose and subsequent expression time and was maximal 3-5 h after a 1-h exposure to NO at a constant flux of approximately 280 nM/s. The mRNA encoding a tyrosine/threonine phosphatase (CL100/MKP-1) was also NO inducible (approximately 20 fold), whereas there was no increase in expression of the mRNA encoding manganese-containing superoxide dismutase. Induction of HO-1 mRNA was independent of the guanylate cyclase signaling pathway; addition of the analogue 8-bromo-cyclic GMP did not induce the HO-1 transcript, and the soluble guanylate cyclase inhibitor LY-83583 did not block HO-1 induction by NO in IMR-90 cells. Luciferase reporter constructs containing up to 4.7 kb of DNA upstream of the HO-1 transcription start site showed < or = 2.5-fold induction in IMR-90 or HeLa cells exposed to NO. However, HO-1 mRNA was dramatically stabilized after exposure of IMR-90 cells to NO. Even a transient NO exposure produced elevated levels of HO-1 protein for > or = 10 h, whereas continuous low-level NO treatment (35 nM/s) maintained elevated HO-1 mRNA expression for > or = 8 h. These results reveal a complex mammalian response to NO that involves a new level of posttranscriptional control in response to this radical.