Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Framework for the adoption of online banking

Information technology represents the most important tool for any business to grow and increase profits in this century. Online banking represents one type of business change due to revolutionary changes in technology. There are limited studies for adoption of online banking in Saudi Arabia which is one of the largest economies in the world. For that reason my study focused on the adoption of online banking by countries in general and particularly in Saudi society. In many situations there is a gap between business and information technology. In particular there is a crimson between online bank users and technology. It is necessary to bridge this gap In order to achieve online banking targets. My study investigated the different reasons for the gap its formation (between online banking and information technology) and how to bridge it. This research is focused on the different factors that enhance the adoption of online banking services through general users. This framework was established by drawing from several theoretical studies. The proposed research framework contains the most important factors for online banking. These include the following hypotheses; (H1) personal information, (H2) personal experience, (H3) disposition to trust, (H4) reputation, (5)trusting belief, (H6)structural i Tagreed Alsulimani assurance and (H7)perceived site quality. These hypotheses were tested experimentally through a questionnaire which was analyzed using SPSS Version 14 program. The results showed that (H1) personal information, (H2) personal experience, (H3) disposition to trust, (H4)reputation, (H5) trusting belief, (H6) structural assurance and (H7)perceived site quality are positive factors affecting customer adoption of online banking. There was a significant correlation between the different online banking adoption factors or hypotheses and the personal information (age, gender and education) with P values of <0.005 in most of cases. ii Tagreed Alsulimani
Crises financières, accumulation de dette et défaut souverain

Cette these contribue a la litterature sur le defaut souverain en offrant une nouvelle approche d'analyse, reconciliant les approches statistiques et structurelles. Avec comme fil rouge le lien entre crises financieres, accumulation de dette et defaut souverain, ce travail repond a trois questions principales.En premier lieu, quand les pays font-ils defaut ? En posant un simple regard sur les principales variables macroeconomiques et les composantes cycliques des defauts souverains, je montre que le defaut se produit quand le pays subit un retournement brutal de croissance, ajoute a un large choc discontinu sur son ratio de dette sur PIB, apporte en majorite par une crise de change ou une crise bancaire.En second lieu, en quoi le risque souverain au sein d'une zone monetaire (par exemple la zone euro) differe de celui d'une petite economie ouverte en change flexible, majoritairement decrit dans la litterature ? Je construis un modele DSGE neo-keynesien dans lequel j'introduis du risque souverain ; je mets l'accent sur le role cle des comportements de consommation, a la fois dans la preference pour l'union monetaire et dans la decision de defaut. Je regarde egalement l'efficacite de certaines politiques fiscales sur la reduction du risque souverain dans une zone monetaire.Enfin, les instruments de politique monetaire ont-ils ete efficaces pendant la crise pour reduire les taux souverains ? J'evalue la transmission de la politique monetaire de la BCE, a la fois conventionnelle et non-conventionnelle, aux taux et aux volumes d'emissions de titres souverains pour les quatre plus importantes economies europeennes. Je montre que seule la transmission du taux directeur vers les taux souverains a ete effective ; les instruments non-conventionnels ont eu des resultats contrastes et essentiellement sur les taux d'interet.
Evaluation of proximal femoral geometry in plain anterior-posterior radiograph in eastern-Indian population.

BACKGROUND The morphologic features of the proximal femur are used in preoperative planning prior to total hip arthroplasty. The standard commercially available marketed prostheses sometimes may not be the best fit to all subjects because of the large anatomic variation among different population. Orthopaedic surgeons always stress the need for a proper implant-patient match in hip joint replacements to avoid post-operative complication of mismatch which may affect the ultimate outcome of the operation. AIM The present study was undertaken to measure the important parameters of upper end of femur in elderly Eastern Indian population which will help the prosthetist to manufacture ideal implant for the local population. This will also help the orthopaedic surgeons while positioning the implants during total hip replacement (THR) procedure in this population. MATERIALS AND METHODS Measurements were made on both sides, left and right from anterior-posterior radiograph of 102 subject (>50yrs, 42 male and 60 females) using AGFA software. Three parameters femoral head diameter (FHD), neck-shaft angle (NSA) and horizontal off-set (HO) were measured. RESULTS SPSS software used for data analysis. Gender- wise no significant differences were found in NSA and FHD, but HO was significantly lower in female than that of male (p<.05). The values on both sides didn't differ significantly. CONCLUSION Improved knowledge of the morphology of the proximal femora will assist the surgeon in restoring the geometry of the proximal femur during total hip arthroplasty and the data could be used as a guideline to design a more suitable implant for Eastern Indian population.
Neuroendocrine carcinoma of the esophagus: clinical characteristics and prognostic evaluation of 49 cases with surgical resection.

BACKGROUND The clinicopathological features and optimum treatment of esophageal neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) are hardly known due to its rarity. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective study to analyze the clinical characteristics and prognosis of patients with surgically resected esophageal NEC. METHODS We collected clinicopathological data on consecutive limited disease stage esophageal NEC patients who underwent esophagectomy with regional lymphadenectomy in West China Hospital from January 2007 to December 2013. RESULTS A total of forty-nine patients were analyzed retrospectively. The mean age of the patients was 58.4±8.2 years with male predominance. Fifty-five percent of the esophageal NEC were located in the middle thoracic esophagus. Histologically, 28 (57.1%) patients were found to be small cell NECs. Fifty-one percent of the patients were found to have lymph node metastasis. According to the 2009 American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, 9 patients were at stage I, 21 patients stage II, and 19 patients stage III. Twenty-six patients (53.1%) received adjuvant therapy. After a median follow-up of 44.8 months [95% confidence interval (CI), 35.2-50.4 months], the median survival time of the patients was 22.4 months (95% CI, 14.0-30.8 months). The 1-year and 3-year survival rates for the whole cohort patients were 74.9% and 35.3%, respectively. In univariate analysis, TNM staging, lymph node metastasis and adjutant therapy significantly influenced survival time. In multivariate analysis, TNM staging was the only independent prognostic factor. CONCLUSIONS Esophageal NEC has a poor prognosis. The 2009 AJCC TNM staging system for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma may also fit for esophageal NEC. Surgery combined with adjuvant therapy may be a good option for treating limited disease stage esophageal NEC. Further prospective studies defining the optimum therapeutic regimen for esophageal NEC are needed.
Performing school nursing: Narratives of providing support to children and young people.

Child and adolescent mental health is an important public health issue within the U.K. Providing support to young people to help them cope with everyday life is a key aspect of the school nurse's role. Yet there is a paucity of published research within the U.K. and internationally about how this support is provided. Using a narrative inquiry approach this study set out to address the following research question, 'How do school nurses provide support to young people? ' Stories were gathered from 11 school nurses identified through purposive sampling to explore their experiences of providing support to young people. Poetic representations were used to tell the stories of individual school nurses; an approach seen to be innovative within school nursing research. Spatiality theory was used as a framework to explore different spaces used when providing support to young people. This study extends the current school nursing literature about what it means to provide support. The importance of regular support and building trusting relationships is identified Yet challenges exist in terms of the amount of emotional investment required by the nurses, as well as a lack of workforce capacity and organisational demands.
Signal Transduction and Mechanical Stress

Bone undergoes a constant process of remodeling in which mass is retained or lost in response to the relative activity of osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Weight-bearing exercise—which is critical for retaining skeletal integrity—promotes osteoblast function, whereas a lack of mechanical stimulation, as seen during spaceflight or prolonged bed rest, can lead to osteoporosis. Thus, understanding mechanotransduction at the cellular level is key to understanding basic bone biology and devising new treatments for osteoporosis. Various mechanical stimuli have been studied as in vitro model systems and have been shown to act through numerous signaling pathways to promote osteoblast activity. Here, we examine the various types of stress and the sequential response of transduction pathways that result in changes in gene expression and the ensuing proliferation of osteoblasts. Bone undergoes a constant process of remodeling in which mass is retained or lost depending on the relative activity of osteoblasts, which build bone, and osteoclasts, which break bone down. Weight-bearing exercise—which is critical for retaining skeletal integrity—promotes osteoblast function, whereas a lack of mechanical stimulation, as seen during spaceflight or prolonged bed rest, can lead to osteoporosis. Thus, understanding how mechanical stimuli are perceived by osteoblasts and translated into enhanced activity is key to understanding basic bone biology and devising new treatments for osteoporosis. In this STKE Review, we examine the various types of stress and the sequential response of transduction pathways that result in changes in gene expression and, in turn, osteoblast proliferation.
Law and Innovation: Evidence from State Trade Secrets Laws

Abstract Here, I study the effect of state enactment of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) on R&D among U.S. businesses between 1979 and 1998. Using a new index of the legal protection of trade secrets, I find that the UTSA was associated with higher R&D among larger companies and those in high-tech industries. For the average company in the respective industry, the UTSA was associated with 3.2% more R&D in pharmaceuticals and 3.1% more R&D in computers and office equipment, as contrasted with no significant change in soaps and cleaners, and industrial machinery and equipment.
[Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST): factors predictive of survival after R0-cytoreduction].

OBJECTIVE To analyze the different factors predictive of survival associated with optimal R0-cytoreduction in c-kit-positive gastrointestinal stromal tumors. METHODS Thirty-five patients were operated on in our Oncological Surgery Department from January 2002 to February 2007 because of CD117/c-kit-positive gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and an optimal surgical cytoreduction was obtained without macroscopical residual disease. Demographic, anatomical, clinical, pathological, and immunohistochemical variables were analyzed from a specific database. Survival and multivariate analyses were developed using Kaplan-Meier and multiple Cox regression models, respectively. RESULTS Five-year overall survival was 77% with a mean survival of 52 months. Risk of malignant behaviour according to Fletcher s classification and tumor size higher than 10 cm had a significantly negative influence on overall survival in the univariate analysis (p < 0.05). Proliferative Ki-67 activity higher than 50% was the only statistically significant variable in the multivariate analysis. Twenty percent of tumors recurred. Only 3 patients with metastatic disease received adjuvant treatment with imatinib mesylate, all of them with Ki-67 > 50% and currently alive. CONCLUSIONS The poliferative Ki-67 index could represent an excellent predictive factor for survival in patients with c-kit-positive stromal gastrointestinal tumors. Confirmation and an adequate cut-off level should be the main objectives for future prospective studies, mostly focused on the appropriate selection of optimal candidates to imatinib-mesylate-based treatment.
Concomitant temozolomide and radiotherapy versus radiotherapy alone for treatment of newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme.

PURPOSE To study the efficacy and safety of radiotherapy (RT) with concomitant and subsequent temozolomide in comparison to RT alone in the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) after brain surgical intervention. METHODS Twenty patients received cranial fractionated RT (60 Gy total dose: 2 Gy/day, 5 days/week, for 6 weeks) with concomitant oral temozolomide (75 mg/m(2)/day x 7 days/ week, for 6 weeks) followed by temozolomide monotherapy (200 mg/m(2)/day × 5 days every 28 days for 6 cycles). Another 20 patients received only cranial RT (Co-60 teletherapy, 60 Gy in 30 fractions). RESULTS At the end of the study the median time to progression free survival (PFS) was 13 months in the temozolomide plus RT treatment group and 5 months in the RT-alone group (p=0.0001). Median overall survival (OS) in the temozolomide plus RT and the RT-alone group was 19 and 11.5 months, respectively (p=0.0264). The main side effect in the temozolomide plus RT group was myelosuppression. Concomitant treatment resulted in grade 3 hematologic toxicity in 6 patients. CONCLUSION These data show that the combination of temozolomide, concomitant and subsequent to RT seems more effective than RT alone in patients with newly diagnosed GBM and that multimodality treatment is safe and well tolerated.
A time-stepping method for relay systems-Decision and Control, 2000. Proceedings of the 39th IEEE Conference on

In this paper we will analyze a time-stepping method for the numerical simulation of dynamical systems containing Coulomb friction or relay characteristics. Time-stepping techniques replace the original dynamical system by a sequence of algebraic problems, that have to be solved for each time-step. For relay systems the one-step problem can be reformulated as a linear complementarity problem for which a wide range of solution algorithms already exists. As the event times at which the relay switches are “overstepped,” the consistency of the method in the sense of the convergence of a sequence of approximations to an actual solution of the relay system can be put into question. However, in this paper we show that the proposed method is consistent even in the case that the event times accumulate (Zeno behavior). By an example we will illustrate how the method deals with Zen0 trajectories.
Use of leverage to improve adherence to psychiatric treatment in the community.

OBJECTIVES A variety of tools are being used as leverage to improve adherence to psychiatric treatment in the community. This study is the first to obtain data on the frequency with which these tools are used in the public mental health system. Patients' lifetime experience of four specific forms of leverage-money (representative payee or money handler), housing, criminal justice, and outpatient commitment-was assessed. Logistic regression was used to examine associations between clinical and demographic characteristics and receipt of different types of leverage. METHODS Ninety-minute interviews were conducted with approximately 200 adult outpatients at each of five sites in five states in different regions of the United States. RESULTS The percentage of patients who experienced at least one form of leverage varied from 44 to 59 percent across sites. A fairly consistent picture emerged in which leverage was used significantly more frequently for younger patients and those with more severe, disabling, and longer lasting psychopathology; a pattern of multiple hospital readmissions; and intensive outpatient service use. Use of money as leverage ranged from 7 to 19 percent of patients; outpatient commitment, 12 to 20 percent; criminal sanction, 15 to 30 percent; and housing, 23 to 40 percent. CONCLUSIONS Debates on current policy emphasize only one form of leverage, outpatient commitment, which is much too narrow a focus. Attempts to leverage treatment adherence are ubiquitous in serving traditional public-sector patients. Research on the outcomes associated with the use of leverage is critical to understanding the effectiveness of the psychiatric treatment system.
TLQP-21, a VGF-derived peptide, increases energy expenditure and prevents the early phase of diet-induced obesity

The vgf gene has been identified as an energy homeostasis regulator. Vgf encodes a 617-aa precursor protein that is processed to yield an incompletely characterized panel of neuropeptides. Until now, it was an unproved assumption that VGF-derived peptides could regulate metabolism. Here, a VGF peptide designated TLQP-21 was identified in rat brain extracts by means of immunoprecipitation, microcapillary liquid chromatography–tandem MS, and database searching algorithms. Chronic intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of TLQP-21 (15 μg/day for 14 days) increased resting energy expenditure (EE) and rectal temperature in mice. These effects were paralleled by increased epinephrine and up-regulation of brown adipose tissue β2-AR (β2 adrenergic receptor) and white adipose tissue (WAT) PPAR-δ (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor δ), β3-AR, and UCP1 (uncoupling protein 1) mRNAs and were independent of locomotor activity and thyroid hormones. Hypothalamic gene expression of orexigenic and anorexigenic neuropeptides was unchanged. Furthermore, in mice that were fed a high-fat diet for 14 days, TLQP-21 prevented the increase in body and WAT weight as well as hormonal changes that are associated with a high-fat regimen. Biochemical and molecular analyses suggest that TLQP-21 exerts its effects by stimulating autonomic activation of adrenal medulla and adipose tissues. In conclusion, we present here the identification in the CNS of a previously uncharacterized VGF-derived peptide and prove that its chronic i.c. v. infusion effected an increase in EE and limited the early phase of diet-induced obesity.
Analysis of Plasma-Loaded Noncorrugated and Triangular Corrugated Coaxial Cavity

A field analysis of plasma-loaded noncorrugated coaxial cavity and plasma-loaded triangular corrugated cavities for megawatt-class gyrotrons has been undertaken. The presence of magnetic field in plasma changes its characteristics to an anisotropic media. In plasma waveguide, three families of modes can exist: plasma modes (space charge modes), cyclotron modes, and waveguide EH and HE modes. The modes present in the plasma are hybrid modes with all six nonzero field components. The presence of the low-density plasma in a gyrotron cavity leads to the coupling of these families of modes and causes a shift in the eigenvalue of the operating (desired) mode. In this paper, the dispersion relation for a plasma-loaded noncorrugated and triangular corrugated coaxial cavity has been derived. For the gyrotron case, where the cyclotron frequency of the plasma is approximately equal to the operating frequency and the operating frequency is near mode cutoff frequency in the cavity, the desired HE mode couples with the cyclotron mode. This coupling leads to shift in the eigenvalue of the HE mode.
Emergency Obstetric Hysterectomy: a review of 69 cases -

Objective: To determine the frequency, indications, types and outcomes of emergency obstetric hysterectomy. Material and Method: This retrospective review was undertaken in the Department of obstetrics and Gynecology Unit III of Civil Hospital Karachi from July 2002 to December 2007. Data regarding frequency of hysterectomy, maternal age, parity, causes of hemorrhage, type of hysterectomy and its complications, was retrieved from yearly maintained Registers / proformas of obstetrical hysterectomy and analyzed by computer software, SPSS version 13. Results: Total number of deliveries during the study period was 10,127 and 69 emergency obstetric hysterectomies were undertaken; frequency being 0.68% (1 in 150 deliveries). Only 2 16% of women were booked. The three most common causes were ruptured uterus in 24 women (35%), uterine atony in 16 women (23%) and morbidly adherent placenta in 14 women (20%). Total hysterectomy was undertaken in 65% of women and subtotal in 35%. Thirteen women died; with mortality of 19%. Morbidity related to type of hysterectomy was not significantly different except for risk of salpingo-oophorectomy (20% for total compared to 12.5% for subtotal) Conclusion: Emergency obstetric hysterectomy, although a frequent life saving operation, was associated with significant maternal mortality, mostly due to the effects of massive hemorrhage. The most frequent indication was ruptured uterus followed by uterine atony and morbidly adherent placenta. (Rawal Med J 2009;34:75-78)
An Empirical Investigation into Blended Learning Effects on Tertiary Students and Students Perceptions on the Approach in Botswana

The aim of the research was to conduct an empirical investigation into blended learning (BL) effects on tertiary students and students’ perceptions on the approach. This purpose was objective driven, following three objectives which were identified as 1) to assess the impact of BL on students enrolled in Tertiary institutions; 2) to assess tertiary students’ perceptions on the BL mode; and lastly 3) to establish the extent to which BL is accepted in a typical institution or university learning environment. An extensive literature review exercise was carried out which led to identification of two research questions to be used to meet the objectives and the purpose of the study. The research questions were 1) Does blended learning (BL) transform learners’ attitudes towards learning and improves results? 2) Does blended learning (BL) revolutionizes learners’ critical thinking levels and dispositions? Through the research the authors were specifically trying to elucidate and understand the BL mode and the effects it has on students, and their perceptions on it. The researcher followed the quantitative approach with the aid of using a questionnaire to further understand the effects of BL mode on students and their perceptions on the same, after reviewing several literatures. The findings indicated that the BL mode has a positive impact on the students, and students’ perceptions on the BL mode were also positive. These findings led to positive conclusions on the BL mode, substantiating the literature review findings on the same. In the light of the findings, and the objectives of the study, the authors concluded the study by proposing a framework which could be used for monitoring BL effects on tertiary students and students’ perceptions on the approach, as the results from the study indicated a positive outlook on the BL mode.