Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Organizational learning perspective on continuous improvement and innovation in product realization

This paper investigates a development process of prototype a continuous improvement and innovation (CII) program that improves Engineer-To-Order (ETO) processes. Research for this paper comprises an in-depth description of development of a CII-program in a probe-and-learn process. The study applies action research in collaboration with a Smalland Medium-sized Enterprise (SME), applying prototypes of a CII-program on cross-functional challenges in ETO processes. Findings from the development process show that practitioners gain increased insight into cross-functional ETOprocesses and the improvement
Isolation and Identification of Nonoral Pathogenic Bacteria in the Oral Cavity of Patients with Removable Dentures

Aims and Objectives: Dentures in the oral cavity may act as a reservoir of microorganisms, which may be related to systemic infections. The aim of this study was to investigate the nonoral pathogenic bacteria in the oral cavity of patients with removable dentures in Shiraz, Southern Iran. Materials and Methods: The bacterial flora of saliva samples from 50 men and 50 women with removable dentures and 100 age- and sex-matched controls with normal dentate were compared using culture, Gram staining, and API20E Kit methods. All data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: Except for Enterobacter cloacae isolate (P = 0.03), there was no significant difference between both groups for the presence of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, nonfermenting Gram-negative bacilli, Raoultella ornithinolytica, Raoultella planticola, Kluyvera spp. , and Enterobacter aerogenes. No significant correlation was noticed between age and presence of bacteria in the oral cavity. The Gram-negative rod bacteria were more in males, but the difference was not significant. When a total of Gram-negative rods were considered, there was a significant difference between case and control groups (P = 0.004). Conclusions: Based on our findings that nonoral pathogenic bacteria are detected from the saliva of the denture wearers, general and oral health measures in patients with removable dentures should be adopted to decrease the risk of cross infection.
A revival of the intra-organizational perspective

The IMP tradition highlights business relationships and their importance for the company’s access to resources as well as how interactions within relationships contribute to knowledge development in companies. However, in spite of an early recognition of the role of individuals, for instance in the interaction approach model (IMP Group, 1982), most research addresses the company level of relationship development regarding organizations as homogeneous actors. We argue however, that an intra-organizational perspective needs to be reintroduced into the analysis of interaction processes in relationship development. Intraorganizational power struggles between actors within a company may have an impact on its relationship development processes with other companies. The constellations of individuals may vary depending on the issue at stake and may include direct as well as indirect interaction involving also external actors. Consequently, we suggest a revival of the intra-organizational dimension of relationship development processes and do so by further developing the interaction model regarding this dimension and the relationship between the company and the external environment. Our arguments are illustrated with a case where a company initiated relationship development with another company in spite of resistance from a group of actors within the intended partner, including several board members. In the case, opponents as well as proponents of the relationship engaged media as well as other external actors in order to affect the outcome of the process.
Lead content of calcium supplements.

CONTEXT Substantial quantities of lead have been reported in some over-the-counter calcium supplement preparations, including not only bone-meal and dolomite, but also over-the-counter natural and refined calcium carbonate formulations. Examination of this issue is warranted given recent increases in physician recommendations for calcium supplements for prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. OBJECTIVES To determine the lead content of calcium supplements and to quantify the lead exposure from popular brands of calcium in dosages used for childhood recommended daily allowance, osteoporosis, and phosphate binding in dialysis patients. DESIGN AND SETTING Analysis of lead content in 21 formulations of nonprescription calcium carbonate (including 7 natural [ie, oyster shell] and 14 refined), 1 brand of prescription-only calcium acetate, and 1 noncalcium synthetic phosphate binder conducted in March 2000. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Lead content, assayed using electrothermal atomic absorption, expressed as micrograms of lead per 800 mg/d of elemental calcium, per 1500 mg/d of calcium, and for a range of dosages for patients with renal failure. Six microg/d of lead was considered the absolute dietary limit, with no more than 1 microg/d being the goal for supplements. RESULTS Four of 7 natural products had measurable lead content, amounting to approximately 1 microg/d for 800 mg/d of calcium, between 1 and 2 microg/d for 1500 mg/d of calcium, and up to 10 microg/d for renal dosages. Four of the 14 refined products had similar lead content, including up to 3 microg/d of lead in osteoporosis calcium dosages and up to 20 microg/d in high renal dosages. No lead was detected in the calcium acetate or polymer products. Lead was present even in some brand name products from major pharmaceutical companies not of natural oyster shell derivation. CONCLUSIONS Despite increasingly stringent limits of lead exposure, many calcium supplement formulations contain lead and thereby may pose an easily avoidable public health concern. JAMA. 2000;284:1425-1429.
Corticosteroid‐free immunosuppression with daclizumab in HCV+ liver transplant recipients: 1‐year interim results of the HCV‐3 study

This work is a 1‐yr interim analysis of a prospective, randomized, multicenter trial evaluating the effect of corticosteroid‐free immunosuppression on hepatitis C virus–positive (HCV+) liver transplant recipients following liver transplantation (LT). Patients received tacrolimus and corticosteroids (Arm 1; n = 80); tacrolimus, corticosteroids, and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) (Arm 2; n = 79); or daclizumab induction, tacrolimus, and MMF (Arm 3; n = 153). At 1 yr, 64.1%, 63.4%, and 69.4% of patients achieved the composite primary endpoint of freedom from rejection, freedom from HCV recurrence, and freedom from treatment failure, respectively. Excellent patient and graft survival did not differ significantly among treatment arms. Freedom from HCV recurrence at 1 yr was 61.8 ± 6.2%, 60.1 ± 6.1%, and 67.0 ± 4.3% in Arms 1, 2, and 3, respectively (P = not significant). Freedom from rejection was significantly higher in Arm 3 compared to Arm 1 (93.0 ± 2.2% vs. 81.9 ± 4.4%; P = 0.011). Multivariate analysis identified acute rejection (hazard ratio = 2.692; P = 0.001) and donor age (hazard ratio = 1.015; P = 0.001) as significant risk factors for HCV recurrence. HCV recurrence was not influenced by recipient demographics, HCV genotype, or immunosuppression. In conclusion, these results suggest that a corticosteroid‐free regimen of tacrolimus and MMF following daclizumab induction is safe and effective in HCV+ liver transplant recipients. Liver Transpl 13:1521–1531, 2007. © 2007 AASLD.
Technology in the Hands of Managers: Email Use by Australian and Hong Kong Managers

Since communication plays an important role in the work of managers they are likely to be significant users of e-mail in their daily work. Managers are also influential in technology acceptance and in policy formation. Thus investigating e-mail use by managers is particularly relevant to advance the understanding of organisational efforts to maximize benefits and to minimize problems with e-mail communication. This paper reports on the findings of a survey of managerial use of e-mail within Australian and Hong Kong. The results suggest that while the primary use of e-mail is currently for inter-organisational communication, e-mail is consuming large amounts of managerial time, particularly for more senior managers. A significant proportion of e-mail received did not appear to contribute to productivity, with both personal e-mails and marketing emails constituting a significant proportion of received e-mails. The study suggests that email use will grow as individual and organisational experience increases. We suggest that managers need to consider the time demands caused by the growing use of e-mail.
Comparative immunohistochemical staining for desmin and muscle-specific actin. A study of 576 cases.

Muscle-specific actin (MSA) and desmin are considered to be sensitive and specific markers for muscle differentiation. The authors compared staining patterns for these markers in 576 samples of normal, reactive, and neoplastic tissues. The standard avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex technique was performed with the use of two commercial antibodies against MSA (HHF35; Enzo Biochemical, Inc., New York, NY) and desmin (DER11; DAKO Corporation, Santa Barbara, CA), respectively, on consecutive paraffin-embedded tissue sections from these cases. Both MSA and desmin were found in all 80 normal muscle samples. Although MSA appeared diffusely in all vascular smooth muscle samples, desmin was demonstrated focally in vascular smooth muscle cells in 100 of 196 samples. MSA but not desmin always was found in myoepithelial cells (25 samples), pericytes (286 samples), and decidual cells (7 samples). Among 76 cases of myofibroblast-containing lesions, 14 and 54 were found to have desmin and MSA, respectively. MSA and desmin were found in 4 of 4 cardiac rhabdomyomas, 34 of 34 rhabdomyosarcomas, and 5 of 6 leiomyomas. Among 22 leiomyosarcomas, 7 displayed either MSA or desmin and 7 showed both markers. In general, more tumor cells showed staining for MSA than desmin, but the reverse was true in some cases. Tissue fixed in Zenker's solution seemed to show a significant decrease in MSA immunoreactivity, but no significant change for desmin staining was observed. None of the 154 normal tissues and 22 benign nonmyogenic tumors expressed MSA or desmin. Among 133 malignant nonmyogenic tumors, positive staining for both desmin and MSA was found in 3 of 8 cases of glioblastoma multiforme, 1 of 10 malignant schwannomas, and 1 of 14 malignant fibrous histiocytomas; staining for only MSA was found in 3 of 14 malignant fibrous histiocytomas, 1 of 10 malignant schwannomas, 6 of 6 fibromatoses, 1 of 1 mammary myofibroblastoma, and 1 of 7 malignant mesotheliomas; and staining for desmin only was seen in 1 of 7 malignant mesotheliomas. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Analisis Kinerja Keuangan

Tujuan Penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui kinerja keuangan CV Karunia Jaya pada tahun 2015 sampai dengan tahun 2016 ditinjau dari rasio keuangan Likuiditas, Solvabilitas dan Profitabilitas. Alat analisis yang digunakan berupa rasio keuangan yang terdiri dari rasio Likuiditas, Solvabilitas, dan Profitabilitas. Data Penelitian merupakan data sekunder yang diperoleh dari laporan keuangan. Metode penelitian menggunakan metode deskriptif komparatif. Berdasarkan hasil analisis yang diperoleh yaitu Rasio likuiditas dari tahun 2015 sampai dengan tahun 2016 mengalami penurunan. Current ratio dari tahun 2015 ke 2016 meningkat sebesar 0,5%. Quick ratio dari tahun 2015 ke tahun 2016 meningkat sebesar 0,95%. Semakin tinggi current ratio , quick ratio , dan cash ratio maka semakin besar kemampuan perusahaan untuk melunasi hutang-hutangnya. Rasio solvabilitas untuk debt to total asset ratio tahun 2015 ke tahun 2016 menurun sebesar 7,2%, Debt to equity ratio mengalami penurunan di tahun 2015 ke 2016 sebanyak 0,27%. Keadaan ini merugikan bagi perusahaan, yang dimana semakin besar jumlah pinjaman yang digunakan. Rasio profitabilitas, kemampuan perusahaan juga efisien karena pada tahun 2015 ke tahun 2016 untuk return on equty dan return on asset meningkat, untuk return on equty sebesar 17,28% dan return on asset 0,18% .
Established foreign subsidiary attitudes to the environment: an Australian perspective

This article identifies the environmental factors that impact on established foreign subsidiaries operating in Australia. A survey of 356 foreign Multinational Enterprise (MNE) subsidiaries from North America, Europe and Japan operating in Australia revealed that infrastructure, agglomeration, investment location image, government support, input costs, government costs, safe environment and market size were the critical factors that impact on subsidiary attitudes to the environment in which they operate. Attitudes to the Australian environment revealed that the foreign MNE subsidiaries consider Australia to have a safe environment for investment. However MNEs subsidiaries had a negative attitude towards government costs and the degree of post investment government support being received. Discernable differences were evident in these attitudes among Japanese subsidiaries and those subsidiaries involved in manufacturing. The key considerations for Australian governments is to highlight the safe environment Australia offers, alleviate high taxes and bureaucratic hurdles for conducting business, and provide more government support post the initial investment. Paper presented at the annual EIBA Conference in, Oslo, Norway 10-13 December 2005 DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES I S S N 1 3 2 7 – 5 2 1 6
An empirical evidence on the effect of women board representation on firm performance of companies listed in Iraq Stock Exchange

The Iraqi stock price index performance has been on the decline which indicates a deteriorating performance of the listed companies which is mostly associated with weak corporate governance practices. Despite that fact that Iraq has gone very far in the liberalization of women, Iraqi board of directors is still dominated by men. However, gender diversity is one of the largest concepts of board diversity and a major issue within corporate governance where several studies seek to discover the influence of diversity on firm performance. Considering the inconsistencies in the results of previous studies concerning gender diversity and firm performance relationship, this lack of consensus permit for further research as it is important to investigate the factors in board processes that are crucial to board effectiveness. This article aims at examining the effect of women representation on firm performance of Iraqi listed firms using panel regression analysis. The empirical results of this paper provide evidence of a positive and significant relationship between female directors and firm performance as measured by Return on Assets while no relationship with Tobin’s q. The important policy implication of this finding is that the Iraqi Stock Exchange and Iraqi Security Commission should incorporate gender diversity in corporate governance practices and encourage women directorship in Iraq. Finally, this study provided some suggestions for future researchers.
Assuring Quality Care: Exploring Strategies of Medicaid E&D Waiver Providers

ABSTRACT Implementing quality assurance (QA) programs in unregulated non-institutional settings remains a challenge for home- and community-based service providers. A sample of 65 Elderly and Disabled (E&D) Waiver providers were presented with eight problem scenarios commonly found in homecare services. Each of the respondents was able to identify strategies they would use to recognize and address each problem. Findings suggest providers currently use multiple mechanisms as part of their overall QA program. Discussion focuses on the strengths of using multiple approaches and on increasing provider awareness of complementary QA strategies and reducing the reliance on staff report as a major QA strategy.
Metabolic Control in Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus: Factors Associated With Patient Outcomes

We conducted a cross-sectional study to assess the association of various demographic and medical-care variables with metabolic outcomes in non-insulin-dependent diabetic subjects. The study population was representative of the diagnosed care-seeking diabetic population of a defined geographic community on the Navajo reservation in Arizona. The dependent variable metabolic control was measured as the mean of all random plasma glucose values obtained only at scheduled diabetes clinic visits over 2yr. Multivariate analysis of the data showed that better metabolic control was most strongly associated with compliance with scheduled appointments. Mode of treatment was also associated with metabolic control. Other variables tested, including source of care, age, sex, duration of diabetes, presence of complications, and weight change, were not associated with metabolic control. The strongest analysis of covariance model with demographic and medical-care variables accounted for 39% of the variance in metabolic control. The analysis suggests that other variables, possibly including several psychosocial variables, need to be assessed for their contribution to metabolic control.
How Skilled Are Security Analysts?

The majority of security analysts are identified as skilled when the cross‐section of analyst performance is modeled as a mixture of multiple skill distributions. Analysts exhibit heterogeneous skill—some are high‐type, and some are low‐type. On average, the recommendation revisions of both types exhibit positive abnormal returns. The heterogeneity stems from differential ability to produce new information; all analysts can profitably process news. Top analysts outperform because more of their recommendations are influential (i.e., associated with statistically significant returns) and both their influential and noninfluential recommendations are more informative. A majority of research firms are also identified as skilled.
Apraxia in Parkinson's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy and neuroleptic-induced parkinsonism.

We studied 45 non-demented patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), 12 with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), 10 with multiple system atrophy (MSA) and 12 with neuroleptic-induced parkinsonism (NIP) for the presence of apraxia. Our aim was to determine whether a standard comprehensive assessment of different praxic functions would demonstrate specific types of errors not attributable to bradykinesia, rigidity, tremor or any other abnormal elementary motor deficit. PD patients on chronic levodopa treatment were examined in the 'on' and 'off' (treatment) states. Based on apraxia assessment scores, bilateral ideomotor apraxia for transitive movements was found in eight (75%) and 12 (27%) of PSP and PD patients, respectively. Ideomotor apraxia was mainly characterized by spatial errors (i.e., external and internal configuration, body-part-as-object and trajectory). Four PSP but no PD patients exhibited ideomotor apraxia for intransitive movements. PSP as well as PD patients with ideomotor apraxia also had difficulties in imitating hand and finger postures, but none of them failed on pantomime comprehension and pantomime recognition/discrimination. Some PSP patients exhibited, in addition, a limbkinetic type of apraxia and a minority of them displayed deficits on tasks involving multiple steps. Neither MSA nor NIP patients showed any disturbance of praxic functions. There were no differences in age, disease duration, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Unified Parkinson's disease Rating Scale and Hoehn-Yahr scores between apraxic and non-apraxic PD patients, and ideomotor apraxia scores were similar in the 'on' and 'off' states. A correlation was found between ideomotor apraxia scores in PD patients and deficits in frontal lobe-related neuropsychological tasks such as the Tower of Hanoi, verbal fluency and the Trail Making Test. Furthermore, PD patients with apraxia showed higher Hamilton depression scores than non-apraxic PD patients. In PSP patients, ideomotor apraxia scores correlated significantly with cognitive deficit as measured with MMSE. The presence or absence of cortical involvement, and its severity and distribution might determine the presence and type of apraxia in PD and PSP. Apraxia in these conditions would therefore reflect combined cortico-striatal dysfunction.
Genetics of post‐traumatic stress disorder: Informing clinical conceptualizations and promoting future research

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of genetic research involving post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). First, we summarize evidence for genetic influences on PTSD from family investigations. Second, we discuss the distinct contributions to our understanding of the genetics of PTSD permitted by twin studies. Finally, we summarize findings from molecular genetic studies, which have the potential to inform our understanding of underlying biological mechanisms for the development of PTSD. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Development of an EMG-ACC-Based Upper Limb Rehabilitation Training System

This paper focuses on the development of an upper limb rehabilitation training system designed for use by children with cerebral palsy (CP). It attempts to meet the requirements of in-home training by taking advantage of the combination of portable accelerometers (ACC) and surface electromyography (SEMG) sensors worn on the upper limb to capture functional movements. In the proposed system, the EMG-ACC acquisition device works essentially as wireless game controller, and three rehabilitation games were designed for improving upper limb motor function under a clinician’s guidance. The games were developed on the Android platform based on a physical engine called Box2D. The results of a system performance test demonstrated that the developed games can respond to the upper limb actions within 210 ms. Positive questionnaire feedbacks from twenty CP subjects who participated in the game test verified both the feasibility and usability of the system. Results of a long-term game training conducted with three CP subjects demonstrated that CP patients could improve in their game performance through repetitive training, and persistent training was needed to improve and enhance the rehabilitation effect. According to our experimental results, the novel multi-feedback SEMG-ACCbased user interface improved the users’ initiative and performance in rehabilitation training.
The type and timing of social information alters offspring production

The acquisition and use of information are essential for decision-making in an uncertain world. The use of social information, or information from the behaviour of others, may be a common and efficient mechanism to improve estimates of resource quality by animals. According to theory, social information cues with higher information content should have a greater influence on decision-making, and current information should be weighed more than prior information. However, experimental tests of these hypotheses remain scarce. We exposed female cactus bugs (Chelinidea vittiger) to different types of social information (the presence of conspecific eggs or nymphs) presented at different times (current or prior to egg laying) to determine the influence of social information on offspring production. We found that social information substantially altered the number of eggs produced. The presence of conspecific eggs, regardless of timing, consistently increased egg production, whereas nymphs only increased egg production when present during egg laying. We conclude that the type and timing of social information may have an important, yet unappreciated, influence on reproductive allocation.