Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DNN-based prediction model for spatio-temporal data

Advances in location-acquisition and wireless communication technologies have led to wider availability of spatio-temporal (ST) data, which has unique spatial properties (i.e. geographical hierarchy and distance) and temporal properties (i.e. closeness, period and trend). In this paper, we propose a Deep-learning-based prediction model for Spatio-Temporal data (DeepST). We leverage ST domain knowledge to design the architecture of DeepST, which is comprised of two components: spatio-temporal and global. The spatio-temporal component employs the framework of convolutional neural networks to simultaneously model spatial near and distant dependencies, and temporal closeness, period and trend. The global component is used to capture global factors, such as day of the week, weekday or weekend. Using DeepST, we build a real-time crowd flow forecasting system called UrbanFlow1. Experiment results on diverse ST datasets verify DeepST's ability to capture ST data's spatio-temporal properties, showing the advantages of DeepST beyond four baseline methods.
Burden of cardiovascular risk factors of a rural population in South India using the WHO multivariable risk prediction algorithm

Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) account for almost half of all non-communicable disease related deaths and are now the leading cause of death in low- and middle-income countries including India. There is no published data on multivariable risk prediction for cardiovascular disease from rural India. Aims & Objective: Determine the cardiovascular risk profile and the 10 year risk of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular event in a rural population. Materials and Methods: A community based cross sectional study was done in 47 villages of Karnataka over a period of 3 years. A total of 3780 adults were screened for CVD risk factors. Various risk stratification criteria including the WHO 10 year risk of fatal/ non-fatal CVD event were used to study the magnitude of individual and aggregated risk factors for CVD. Results: The study reveals a high prevalence of CVD risk factors despite using three different risk stratification methods. The prevalence of at least one modifiable CVD risk factor in the population was 98.5%. An alarming 15.2% of the population had a high risk (>30%) of getting fatal or non-fatal MI or stroke in 10 years. Older age, lack of education, physical inactivity and family history of MI/ stroke were associated with high risk for CVD. Conclusion: The prevalence of CVD risk factors as well as the probability of a fatal or non-fatal cardiovascular event is very high in this rural population. This warrants strategies that would improve awareness and promote healthy life-styles to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in this population.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with increased mortality in Chinese patients receiving curative surgery for colon cancer.

BACKGROUND We investigated the association between diabetes mellitus (DM) and the prognosis of patients with early colon cancer who had undergone curative surgery. METHODS From three national databases of patients in Taiwan, we selected a cohort of colon cancer patients who had been newly diagnosed with stage I or stage II colon cancer between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2008 and had undergone curative surgery. We collected information regarding DM (type 2 DM only), the use of antidiabetic medications, other comorbidities, and survival outcomes. The colon cancer-specific survival (CSS) and the overall survival (OS) were compared between patients with and without DM. RESULTS We selected 6,937 colon cancer patients, among whom 1,371 (19.8%) had DM. The colon cancer patients with DM were older and less likely to receive adjuvant chemotherapy but had a similar tumor stage and grade, compared with colon cancer patients without DM. Compared with colon cancer patients without DM, patients with DM had significantly shorter OS (5-year OS: 71.0% vs. 81.7%) and CSS (5-year CSS: 86.7% vs. 89.2%). After adjusting for age, sex, stage, adjuvant chemotherapy, and comorbidities in our multivariate analysis, DM remained an independent prognostic factor for overall mortality (adjusted hazards ratio: 1.32, 95% confidence interval: 1.18-1.49), but not for cancer-specific mortality. Among the colon cancer patients who had received antidiabetic drug therapy, patients who had used insulin had significantly shorter CSS and OS than patients who had not. CONCLUSION Among patients who receive curative surgery for early colon cancer, DM is a predictor of increased overall mortality.
Decay, Shock, and Renewal: Operational Routines and Process Entropy in the Pharmaceutical Industry

In this study, we examine decay in adherence to operational routines over time. Our empirical setting is the worldwide pharmaceutical industry, and we focus on operational routines used to maintain product quality. Based on an analysis of longitudinal data from U.S. Food and Drug Administration FDA inspections, we find that the tendency of operational routines to decay is widespread. Our results also illustrate that FDA inspections act as external renewals that halt decay in adherence to routines. In addition, manufacturing plants are found to vary significantly in their level of decay. Using data on mergers and acquisitions affecting these plants, we find that mergers appear to cause decay in adherence to routines. However, acquisitions appear to serve as renewals and halt such decay. Based on our overall findings, we present theoretical implications for research in organizational routines and practical insights for companies and regulatory authorities.
Escaping the Prior Knowledge Corridor: What Shapes the Number and Variety of Market Opportunities Identified Before Market Entry of Technology Start-ups?

The choice of the firm's market environment is one of the fundamental decisions of firm founders. We study the pre-entry generation of founders' market choice sets by investigating their search for market opportunities in which the firm's technological resources, as embodied in a product or service, can be commercialized. Analyzing data collected through personal interviews with founders of 496 technology ventures, we find that founding teams with more diverse industry experience and more diverse external knowledge sourcing relationships identify not only a larger number of but, in particular, more varied distant market opportunities. However, the extent to which strategic variety of such opportunities is identified depends on the founders' technological expertise, whereas technological expertise is less relevant in identification of the number of opportunities. Furthermore, by showing that the extent and nature of the firm's pre-entry opportunity set has a significant effect on the likelihood of subsequent firm diversification, we document how initial constraints in founders' choice sets can have a lasting impact on the growth potential that the new firm exploits over time. We discuss the implications of our findings for the literatures on organizational learning and innovation, entrepreneurship, as well as the strategy literature examining firm growth, diversification, and value creation.
IMMUNOLOGIC PRODUCTION OF ANTIANGIOTENSIN

The parenteral administration of benzoylangiotensin II-azo-BGG to rabbits produced an antiserum with antiangiotensin activity. Antiangiotensin inhibited the biological action of p-aminobenzoylangiotensin II, valine5-angiotensin II (free acid form), isoleucine5-angiotensin II and valine5-angiotensin II (amide form), but it was totally inert towards angiotensin 1. Antiangiotensin activity was distinguished from that of serum angiotensinase by the following observations: (a) an angiotensinase-free γ-globulin fraction contained antiangiotensin, (b) angiotensinase inactivated angiotensin II (both the amide and free acid forms) and angiotensin I in contrast to the remarkable specificity for angiotensin II exhibited by antiangiotensin. Serological demonstration of antiangiotensin included: (a) a comparison of its precipitin reaction with the angiotensin BGG complex with the reaction with BGG alone, (b) the partial inhibition of the precipitin reaction with the angiotensin BGG complex by angiotensin II, (c) a precipitin reaction with a different angiotensin II protein complex (cat serum). Angiotensin II administered parenterally as the free polypeptide was not antigenic.
Efecto del tiempo de cocimiento y reposo del grano de maíz (Zea mayz l.) nixtamalizado, sobre las características fisicoquímicas, reológicas, estructurales y texturales del grano, masa y tortillas de maíz

La tortilla es uno de los alimentos mas importantes en Mexico y algunos paises de Centroamerica. La gran mayoria de las tortillas consumidas en Mexico se elaboran con masa de maiz procesado por el metodo tradicional de nixtamalizacion, el cual incluye las etapas de cocimiento y reposo. Durante estas etapas las propiedades fisicoquimicas y estructurales del grano se ven fuertemente afectadas, provocando cambios en las propiedades de la tortilla producida. En este trabajo se evaluaron los cambios en la humedad, viscosidad maxima, almidon danado y cristalinidad en grano, masa y tortillas; adhesion y perdida de peso en masas; y rolabilidad, elasticidad y fuerza al corte en tortillas, en funcion del tiempo de cocimiento y reposo, manteniendo constantes las condiciones de molienda y cocimiento de la tortilla. Se observo que la humedad del grano aumento hasta 42 g/100g durante el tiempo total de cocimiento (45 min), y alcanzo un maximo (52-53 g/100 g) al someterlo a reposo durante 4 h. Las tortillas de todos los tratamientos mostraron buena rolabilidad. Todos los parametros evaluados presentaron altos coeficientes de correlacion con las propiedades de textura, medidas objetivamente, de las tortillas. El almidon danado, fue la variable que mejor se correlaciono con el resto de las propiedades evaluadas, presentando altos coeficientes (R>0,92, p<0,01) con la humedad, viscosidad maxima y perdida de peso, del grano, masa y tortillas producidas. Las tortillas con mejores caracteristicas fueron las elaboradas con nixtamal con las siguientes caracteristicas: humedad, nixtamal, 42-44 g/100 g, tortilla, 43-44 g/100 g; adhesividad de masa, 30-50 g; viscosidad maxima, nixtamal, 860-880 cp, tortilla, 490510 cp; almidon danado, nixtamal 14 g/100 g, tortilla, 35-37 g/100 g y perdida de peso de masa a tortilla, 16 g/100 g .
The Autonomy Paradox: The Implications of Mobile Email Devices for Knowledge Professionals

Our research examines how knowledge professionals use mobile email devices to get their work done and the implications of such use for their autonomy to control the location, timing, and performance of work. We found that knowledge professionals using mobile email devices to manage their communication were enacting a norm of continual connectivity and accessibility that produced a number of contradictory outcomes. Although individual use of mobile email devices offered these professionals flexibility, peace of mind, and control over interactions in the short term, it also intensified collective expectations of their availability, escalating their engagement and thus reducing their ability to disconnect from work. Choosing to use their mobile email devices to work anywhere/anytime—actions they framed as evidence of their personal autonomy—the professionals were ending up using it everywhere/all the time, thus diminishing their autonomy in practice. This autonomy paradox reflected professionals’ ongoing navigation of the tension between their interests in personal autonomy on the one hand and their professional commitment to colleagues and clients on the other. We further found that this dynamic has important unintended consequences—reaffirming and challenging workers’ sense of themselves as autonomous and responsible professionals while also collectively shifting the norms of how work is and should be performed in the contemporary workplace.
Poor response to treatment with Peg-IFN containing regimens in patients coinfected with hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus.

Background and Aims: To investigate the clinical charcteristics and treatment response of patients with chronic coinfection of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). Methods: The study included nine consecutive patients with chronic HBV/HCV coinfection. Diagnosis was performed by liver biopsy and/or clinical and laboratory evaluation. Six patients received 48 weeks of pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN) monotherapy or combination therapy with Peg-IFN plus ribavirin according to the dominant virus. Results: The dominant infection was hepatitis C in six cases. Of the four patients who completed the treatment and follow-up period, only one had a sustained viral response (SVR) to HCV, but unfortunately, this was accompanied by a reactivation of HBV-DNA without flaring of hepatitis. No patient had an HBV-DNA response. Another two patients are still in the follow-up period. One of these patients had an undetectable level of HCV-RNA, and the other had an undetectable level of HBV-DNA at baseline. At the end of treatment, both HBV-DNA and HCV-RNA were negative in these patients. The HBV-DNA-negative patient showed a transient HBV-DNA positivity after clearance of HCV-RNA. Conclusions: In the majority of HBV/HCV coinfected cases in our sample, HCV was the dominant virus. Currently, the standard treatment regimens are not effective for clearance of HBV and/or HCV. HCV clearance may induce HBV
Innovation and Design in Africa

This panel discussion will explore what the current situation of innovation and design in a variety of African countries are. A number of innovation and design labs as well as community innovation initiatives have appeared in numerous countries across Africa. Higher Education Institutions also drive this innovation and design revolution through establishing innovation and design hubs in their universities that incubates among others tech start-ups. The panelists will share their insights and explore innovation and design on the continent and how technology enables it.
Diastolic Dysfunction Occurs Early in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Patients Treated Concurrently With Radiation Therapy and Trastuzumab.

BACKGROUND Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is used routinely to monitor cardiac dysfunction associated with breast cancer treatment. In this study the prevalence of early left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) and its relationship to the dose-volume of the heart irradiated were evaluated in HER2-positive breast cancer patients undergoing concurrent trastuzumab and adjuvant radiotherapy (RT). MATERIALS AND METHODS Data from 40 breast cancer patients treated with concurrent trastuzumab and left-sided adjuvant RT between September 2011 and October 2012 were collected prospectively. For comparison, 32 patients treated with concurrent trastuzumab and right-sided adjuvant RT and 71 patients treated with left-sided RT alone were collected retrospectively. Echocardiography was obtained before RT, immediately following RT, and 3 and 6 months after RT. Doses to the heart and left ventricle (LV) were quantified. RESULTS Prior to RT with concurrent trastuzumab, 11 of 29 (left) and 8 of 25 (right) patients with normal baseline left ventricular diastolic function (LVDF) developed LVDD. In patients receiving left-sided RT alone, 12 of 61 patients with normal baseline LVDF developed LVDD. Dmean, D15-D40, D60-D70, and V3-V10 of the LV were significantly higher in patients who developed LVDD after concurrent trastuzumab and left-sided RT. In contrast, only two patients developed grade 1 LVEF decrease after both concurrent treatment and left-sided RT alone. CONCLUSION Changes in LVDF compared with LVEF are more sensitive for early detection of cardiotoxicity. The dose-volume of the heart contributes significantly to the risk of LVDD in patients with left-sided breast cancer treated concurrently with trastuzumab. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE Abnormalities in diastolic function are more sensitive than changes in the left ventricular ejection fraction for detecting acute cardiotoxicity and are related to the dose-volume of the heart irradiated in patients with left-sided breast cancer receiving radiotherapy concurrently with trastuzumab. This result highlights the importance of decreasing the dose-volume of heart irradiated as a protective strategy in the treatment setting of concurrent trastuzumab and radiotherapy. Diastolic dysfunction may serve as a more sensitive tool for the early detection of cardiac damage and should be incorporated as a routine parameter in the functional monitoring of cardiotoxicity.
The Rejuvenation of Inventors Through Corporate Spinouts

This article focuses on corporate spinouts as a strategy that can rejuvenate the inventive efforts of inventors with a long tenure in the same company. We rely on an unbalanced panel of 5,604 inventor-year observations to study a matched sample of 431 inventors employed by the Xerox Corporation and find evidence in support of three predictions. First, inventors who join a spinout increase the extent of exploration in their inventive activities. Second, they decrease the extent to which they rely on the parent organization's knowledge. Third, because long-tenured employees, through socialization, tend to progressively adopt more exploitative behavior than short-tenured members, they benefit relatively more from the spinout experience. These results are robust to several econometric specifications that try to account for the endogeneity of the inventors' decision to join the spinout, for the fact that spinouts' inventive activity may be intrinsically different from that of the parent company, and for the possible presence of novel external stimuli for those who join spinouts. The data provide large-sample evidence consistent with the idea that socialization reduces opportunities for organizational learning; we discuss the implications for theory and practice.
Social Network Ties, Transactive Memory, and Performance in Groups

In a longitudinal quasi-field setting, we develop and test a compensatory process model of social network closure over time on the development of a transactive memory system (TMS) in groups. Although a great deal of research examines the effects of closure on organizational outcomes, that research does not describe the microprocesses that explain when, and under what conditions, closure is beneficial or detrimental. Results from our analysis of the microprocesses associated with TMSs revealed a negative direct effect of closure over time on TMS development and a simultaneous positive indirect effect of closure over time on TMS development driven by a transitive triadic social network structure. It is important to note that the mediating effect of the number of transitive triads on the relationship between closure and a TMS was predictive of subsequent group performance. Results from our study suggest that closure may be a double-edged sword and that the microprocesses associated with TMS development can explain closure’s disparate performance consequences.
A study on some psychological health effects of cell-phone usage amongst college going students

Background: Cell phones have come to stay. Their use without any knowledge of their harmful effects like cancers and other health effects is not ‘quite’ safe. Studies on cancers due to electromagnetic radiations from cell phones are available but there is a need to research on the detrimental physical and psychological effects esp. on rampant users like college-goers. This study focused on certain psychological or mental health effects of cell phone usage amongst students pursuing professional courses in colleges in a big city. Materials and methods: Students of both sexes in the age group 17-23 yrs from urban and rural backgrounds were selected at random and administered a pre- tested questionnaire which included aspects related to few common adverse psychological health signs and symptoms attributed to cell phone over-usage. Results: Headache was found to be the commonest symptom (51.47%) followed by irritability/anger (50.79%). Other common mental symptoms included lack of concentration and academic performance, insomnia, anxiety etc. Suggestions: This study confirms that the younger generation, who are the most frequent cell phone users, needs to be aware about the adverse health effects of cell phone usage esp. the mental aspects and take preventive measures to minimize and control the same. Less dependence on the device, a curtailing time period spent on talking, communicating more by texting, etc. are some of the practical measures suggested.
Is there a role for oral or intravenous ascorbate (vitamin C) in treating patients with cancer? A systematic review.

BACKGROUND Many cancer patients receive supplemental ascorbate (vitamin C) in the belief that it synergizes the anticancer effects of chemotherapy and reduces its toxicity. METHODS A systematic review was performed to evaluate the antitumor effects and toxicity of ascorbate treatment. Medline (1946 to March 2014), EMBASE (1947 to March 2014), and the Cochrane central register (1993 to March 2014) were searched for randomized and observational studies. RESULTS Of 696 identified records, 61 full-text articles were screened and 34 were included. In total, 5 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) (n = 322), 12 phase I/II trials (n = 287), 6 observational studies (n = 7,599), and 11 case reports (n = 267) were identified. Because of study heterogeneity, no meta-analyses were performed. No RCTs reported any statistically significant improvements in overall or progression-free survival or reduced toxicity with ascorbate relative to control arm. Evidence for ascorbate's antitumor effects was limited to case reports and observational and uncontrolled studies. CONCLUSION There is no high-quality evidence to suggest that ascorbate supplementation in cancer patients either enhances the antitumor effects of chemotherapy or reduces its toxicity. Given the high financial and time costs to patients of this treatment, high-quality placebo-controlled trials are needed.
Alliance Partners and Firm Capability: Evidence from the Motion Picture Industry

Interfirm alliances have long been identified as channels for learning and acquiring partners’ knowledge and capability. In this study, we offer a new perspective on the influence of alliance partners on a focal firm’s capability by focusing on “link” alliances that are motivated by the prospect of exploiting complementarities rather than acquiring partners’ capabilities. Specifically, we consider the case of alliances between resource-rich and resource-poor firms and examine the capability development opportunities and threats that face the resource-poor focal firm as by-products of a link alliance. We use data on the population of independent motion picture production studios in the United States and their alliances with the major studios during 1990–2010 to test our proposed theory. The results show that the number of major partners exhibits an inverted U-shaped effect on an independent studio’s capability. We also find contingent effects: both an independent studio’s alliance experience with major partners and its level of specialization intensify (positively moderate) this relationship. Contrary to our expectation, we find no support for the contingency of major partner turnover. In addition to offering a new perspective on the role of alliances in a firm’s capability development process, our study highlights some of the key contingencies surrounding the benefits resource-poor firms receive from their resource-rich partners.