Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preoperative risk factors for aneurysm sac expansion caused by type 2 endoleak after endovascular aneurysm repair

Purpose The objective of this study was to investigate the preoperatively definable risk factors which predict the aneurysm sac expansion caused by persistent type 2 endoleak after endovascular aneurysm repair. Methods Between 2008 and 2014, retrospective analysis was performed to examine the predictive risk factors for aneurysm sac enlargement caused by persistent type 2 endoleak, which was defined as a continuous endoleak present for more than six months. Aneurysm sac expansion was diagnosed if the maximum transverse diameter increased by 5 mm or more compared with the preoperative measurement. Results During the study period, endovascular aneurysm repair was performed in 211 patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm and common iliac artery aneurysm. Sac enlargement for type 2 endoleaks was observed in 20 patients (9.5%). The presence of more than five patent lumbar arteries flowing into aneurysm sac in the preoperative computed tomography (hazard ratio, 3.37; 95% confidence interval, 1.24–10.8; p = 0.017) was a predictive factor for sac expansion caused by persistent type 2 endoleak on Cox regression analysis. The presence of a patent inferior mesenteric artery was not associated with the sac expansion caused by persistent type 2 endoleak. Conclusions The presence of more than five lumbar arteries flowing into the aneurysm sac was a preoperative risk factor for sac expansion caused by persistent type 2 endoleak.
Do wheezy infants recovering from bronchiolitis respond to inhaled salbutamol?

Wheezy infants, less than 6 months of age, were given either inhaled salbutamol or saline in a double‐blind study. A significant change in maximal flow at functional residual capacity (VmaxFRC) was defined as being greater than twice the coefficient of variation of the baseline measurements. There was no difference in the infants' response to saline or salbutamol. Wheezy infants, less than 6 months of age, do not have an increase in VmaxFRC following a single dose of inhaled salbutamol. Pediatr Pulmonol 1991; 10:36–39.
Impact of Stakeholders on Implementation of Strategic Plans in Tanzania’s Public Sector

The study investigated the impact of stakeholders on implementation of strategic plans in Tanzania’s public sector. Organisations fail not due to bad formulation of strategies, but the execution of strategies is vital to their failure or demise; and hence implementation process remains a challenge towards achieving organisation objectives. The main objective of the study was to investigate the impact of stakeholders on implementation of Strategic Plans in public sector. Seven (7) executive agencies which made 26% of all 27 executive agencies in Tanzania were randomly drawn using simple random sampling. Then, stratified random sampling was used to obtain a sample size of one hundred eighty-eight (188) respondents which was 30% of the target populations (632 employees) in the headquarters of sampled executive agencies. The study found that there was weak positive relationship (R = 0.236) between role of stakeholders and execution of strategic plans; although was statistically significant at alpha = 0.000. Also, = 0.056 at significance level of 0.05 indicated that, 5.6% of the total variations in implementation of strategic plans is influenced by stakeholders and 94.4% is contributed by other factors which were not considered in this study. The study concluded that stakeholders do influence implementation of strategic plans in public sector. In line with findings, the study recommended that management in public sector should pay more attention on stakeholders if they have to benefit from, otherwise may negatively influence implementation process of strategic plans in public sector.
Origin of Concentric Banding in the Spines of the Tropical Echinoid Heterocentrotus

THE CONCENTRIC BANDS or rings which are evident in transverse sections of echinoid spines have attracted the interest of biologists for more than a hundred years. First, the basic cause of ring formation remains obscure although at least two controversial hypotheses have been proposed, and elucidation of the ring-forming mechanism is important to a better understanding of the general processes involved in growth. Second, there is a practical aspect to the "growthring problem" because, if the number of rings in a spine is closely and directly related to the age of the animal, killing the urchin for age determination is obviated, thus facilitating ecological, population, and other practical studies in marine research. According to one hypothesis (Carpenter, 1870; Swan, 1952; Deutler, 1926; G. P. Moore, 1966; and others), the prominent banding in echinoid spines is analogous to annual ring formation in trees caused by seasonal variation in growth, although the authors cited above might not necessarily agree that the period recorded by each successive band is actually one year. In some cases there is evidence for yearly banding since the number of rings is about the same as the number of years, or age of the animal, as determined by other means (H. B. Moore, 1935). McRae (1959), in reporting a study of Evechintls chloroticus, stated that it is very tempting to regard the rings as annual phenomena. For some urchins there is a positive correlation between the number of rings in the spines and other growth indicators, such as the volume, diameter, or weight of the test (e.g., Moore, 1966; Ebert, 1967). The correlation, however, is usually not as good as might be expected if the relationship between these two
GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE DAN PENGARUHNYA TERHADAP NILAI PERUSAHAAN MELALUI CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY DISCLOSURE

This research explained the relationship between Good Corporate Governance mechanism to company’s value, and the extent disclosure of Corporate Social Responsibility as moderation variable. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine modernization impact in the relationship between dependent and independent variable. Sample gathering was undertaken from 2012 to 2014. Tobin’s Q was used to assess the company’s value. Whereas Good Corporate Governance mechanism that was proxy by the number of managerial ownership and institutional ownership quantity was taken from ownership scale existed in company financial report. Extent measurement of Corporate Social Responsibility expressing was carried out by calculating each company’s CSR Index. This research used 44 samples of manufacturing companies meeting the criteria of purposive sampling. The testing of moderation effect and the main effect in the research was done using hierarchical regression analysis. The result showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between GCG mechanism and company value, whereas between CSR extent disclosure and company value there was an insignificant result. For examining the moderation impacts, CSR extent disclosure succeeded to moderate the relationship between managerial ownership and company value, but the extent of CSR expression did not succeed in moderating the relationship between institutional ownership and company value.
Severe Respiratory Failure, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, and Intracranial Hemorrhage*

Objectives: For patients supported with veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, the occurrence of intracranial hemorrhage is associated with a high mortality. It is unclear whether intracranial hemorrhage is a consequence of the extracorporeal intervention or of the underlying severe respiratory pathology. In a cohort of patients transferred to a regional severe respiratory failure center that routinely employs admission brain imaging, we sought 1) the prevalence of intracranial hemorrhage; 2) survival and neurologic outcomes; and 3) factors associated with intracranial hemorrhage. Design: A single-center, retrospective, observational cohort study. Setting: Tertiary referral severe respiratory failure center, university teaching hospital. Patients: Patients admitted between December 2011 and February 2016. Intervention: None. Measurements and Main Results: Three hundred forty-two patients were identified: 250 managed with extracorporeal support and 92 managed using conventional ventilation. The prevalence of intracranial hemorrhage was 16.4% in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation patients and 7.6% in conventionally managed patients (p = 0.04). Multivariate analysis revealed factors independently associated with intracranial hemorrhage to be duration of ventilation (d) (odds ratio, 1.13 [95% CI, 1.03–1.23]; p = 0.011) and admission fibrinogen (g/L) (odds ratio, 0.73 [0.57–0.91]; p = 0.009); extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was not an independent risk factor (odds ratio, 3.29 [0.96–15.99]; p = 0.088). In patients who received veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, there was no significant difference in 6-month survival between patients with and without intracranial hemorrhage (68.3% vs 76.0%; p = 0.350). Good neurologic function was observed in 92%. Conclusions: We report a higher prevalence of intracranial hemorrhage than has previously been described with high level of neurologically intact survival. Duration of mechanical ventilation and admission fibrinogen, but not exposure to extracorporeal support, are independently associated with intracranial hemorrhage.
Corporate financialization in South Africa: From investment strike to housing bubble

This article reveals the processes of financialization in the South African economy by tracing the sources and destinations of non-financial corporations’ liquidity. The paper argues that rather than the volume of non-financial corporations’ financial investment, the composition of financial assets is crucial to assess corporate financialization in the country. Non-financial businesses in South Africa fundamentally transformed their investment behaviour during the 1990s, shifting from more productive uses such as trade credit towards highly liquid and potentially innovative (and therefore risky) financial investment. Following the direction of financial flows the article shows that companies’ financial operations – fuelled by foreign capital inflows – are linked to the price inflation in South African property markets.
Actin filament distribution in blocked and developing pig embryos

Summary Actin filaments play an important role in cell division. The present study was designed to examine the relationship between actin filament distribution and pig embryo development. When in vivo matured and fertilised pig oocytes were cultured in TCM 199 or NCSU 23, in various proportions, 45–65% of inseminated oocytes developed to the 2- to 4-cell stages but blastocyst development was observed only in NCSU 23 (34%) or NCSU 23 containing 10% TCM 199 (7%). Supplementation of NCSU 23 medium with 20% or more TCM 199 resulted in no blastocyst formation. Examination of actin filaments indicated that microfilaments were distributed in the cortex, at the junction of blastomeres and in the perinuclear area in the embryos cultured in NCSU 23, but perinuclear actin filaments were not observed in embryos cultured in TCM 199. When 2- to 4-cell stage embryos obtained from TCM 199 were transferred to NCSU 23 medium at 36 h after in vivo fertilisation, 57% of the cleaved embryos developed to blastocysts, which was no different from the proportion obtained after culture in NCSU 23 alone (56%). In addition, when 2- to 4-cell stage embryos obtained from TCM 199 were transferred to NCSU 23, most embryos showed perinuclear actin filaments within 6 h. The results indicate that the composition of the culture medium plays an important role in the polymerisation of actin filaments, which in turn influences embryo development. It is possible that pig embryo development was blocked by some components in TCM 199 which prevented actin filament polymerisation.
New CEOS and their Collaborators: Divergence and Convergence between the Strategic Leadership Constellation and the Top Management Team

Research Summary: An important challenge that new CEOs face is establishing a group of immediate collaborators, which we call the “strategic leadership constellation. ” Drawing on a comparative case study, we show that due to constraints on the CEO to change the top management team (TMT), the composition of the strategic leadership constellation initially tends to differ from that of the TMT: in some cases, it consists of a subgroup of the TMT; in others, it also comprises individuals outside the TMT such as staff members or lower‐level managers. We show that the discrepancies between the strategic leadership constellation and the TMT lead to tensions that trigger a process of convergence between these two bodies, particularly as the constraints on TMT change decrease and the CEO's needs evolve. Managerial Summary: A major challenge that new CEOs face is establishing a group of close collaborators, which we call the “strategic leadership constellation. ” Our study shows that due to different constraints on changing the executive team, the composition of the strategic leadership constellation initially tends to differ from that of the executive team: in some cases, it consists of a subgroup of the executive team; in others, it also comprises individuals outside the executive team, such as staff members or lower‐level managers. We show that the discrepancies between the strategic leadership constellation and the executive team lead to tensions that trigger a process of convergence between these two bodies, particularly as the constraints on changing the executive team decrease and the CEO's needs evolve.
A new transmission risk index for human African trypanosomiasis and its application in the identification of sites of high transmission of sleeping sickness in the Fontem focus of southwest Cameroon

A new index for the risk for transmission of human African trypanosomiasis was developed from an earlier index by adding terms for the proportion of tsetse infected with Trypanosoma brucei gambiense group 1 and the contribution of animals to tsetse diet. The validity of the new index was then assessed in the Fontem focus of southwest Cameroon. Averages of 0.66 and 4.85 Glossina palpalis palpalis (Diptera: Glossinidae) were caught per trap/day at the end of one rainy season (November) and the start of the next (April), respectively. Of 1596 tsetse flies examined, 4.7% were positive for Trypanosoma brucei s.l. midgut infections and 0.6% for T. b. gambiense group 1. Among 184 bloodmeals identified, 55.1% were from pigs, 25.2% from humans, 17.6% from wild animals and 1.2% from goats. Of the meals taken from humans, 81.5% were taken at sites distant from pigsties. At the end of the rainy season, catches were low and similar between biotopes distant from and close to pigsties, but the risk for transmission was greatest at sites distant from the sties, suggesting that the presence of pigs reduced the risk to humans. At the beginning of the rainy season, catches of tsetse and risk for transmission were greatest close to the sties. In all seasons, there was a strong correlation between the old and new indices, suggesting that both can be used to estimate the level of transmission, but as the new index is the more comprehensive, it may be more accurate.
Wage Theft in Australia: Findings of the National Temporary Migrant Work Survey

The National Temporary Migrant Work Survey is the most comprehensive study of wage theft and working conditions among international students, backpackers and other temporary migrants in Australia. The survey draws on responses from 4,322 temporary migrants across 107 nationalities of every region in the world, working in a range of jobs in all states and territories. Its unprecedented scope indicates the breadth, depth and complexity of non-compliance with Australian labour law.
Assessing communication strategies in argumentation-based negotiation agents equipped with belief revision

The importance of negotiation has increased in the last years as a relevant interaction to solve conflicts in multiagent systems. Although there are many different scenarios, a typical negotiating situation involves two cooperative agents that cannot reach their goals by themselves because they do not have some resources needed to reach such goals. Therefore, a way to improve their mutual benefit is to start a negotiation dialogue, taking into account that they might have incomplete or incorrect beliefs about the other agent’s goals and resources. The exchange of arguments during the negotiation gives them information that makes it possible to update their beliefs and consequently they can offer proposals which are closer for reaching a deal. In order to formalize their proposals in a negotiation setting, the agents must be able to generate, select and evaluate arguments associated with such offers, updating their mental state accordingly. We situate our work on this kind of scenarios with two argumentation-based negotiation agents equipped with belief revision operations in the generation and interpretation of arguments. It has been proved that those agents that take advantage of belief revision during the negotiation achieve an overall better performance. Because the belief revision process depends on the information the agents exchange in their utterances, in this paper we focus on different communication strategies the agents may implement and the impact that they have in the negotiation process. For this purpose, we present a negotiation protocol where the messages are extended to include a critique to the last proposal received and a counterproposal. Also, we define proposals that may be more or less informative containing different justifications. An intentional agent architecture is proposed and following this model different kind of negotiating agents are created using diverse communication strategies. To assess the impact these strategies have in the negotiation process some simulations are conducted, analyzing the results obtained.
Migratory orientation of first-year white storks (Ciconia ciconia): inherited information and social interactions

SUMMARY We used satellite tracking to study the migratory orientation of juvenile white storks from the population in the Kaliningrad Region (Russia) during their first autumn migration. Two series of experiments were performed. In the first series of experiments, several groups of first-year storks were raised in an aviary, kept there until all free-living conspecifics had left the area and then released. These birds had to select their migratory route on the basis of the inherited directional information they possessed, without any chance of being guided by their experienced conspecifics. In the second series of experiments, several groups of juveniles were displaced from the Kaliningrad Region to the Volga area and to Western Siberia. Both areas lie outside the breeding range of the white stork so the displaced birds also had to rely on their innate migratory program. Results from the differently designed experiments did not match. Nor did they match with the results of earlier experiments on the delayed departure of juvenile white storks as reported by several authors. We suggest that naïve white storks (and maybe other soaring migrants) rely on social interactions when selecting their autumn migratory route to a much greater extent than do passerine long-distance migrants.
Three classes of mammalian transcription activation domain stimulate transcription in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Representatives of three distinct classes of mammalian protein domain activating RNA polymerase II were fused to the yeast GAL4p DNA‐binding domain. The resulting fusion proteins were tested in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe for their ability to activate transcription of different reporter constructs containing GAL4‐binding sites in positions close to or far from the TATA box. The acidic‐rich activation domain of VP16 stimulates transcription in S.pombe from proximal and distal positions, suggesting that the mechanism of activation is conserved from man to budding and fission yeasts. Unlike in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the glutamine‐rich activation domains of Sp1, Oct1 and Oct2 activate transcription in S.pombe when tested in a proximal TATA box context. Similarly to mammalian cells, these domains are inactive or weakly active when tested in a distal position. Moreover, the proline‐rich activation domains of AP‐2 and CTF/NF1 display strong transcriptional activities from a TATA box‐proximal position, and weak activities when tested in a remote position. Consequently, proline‐rich and glutamine‐rich activation domains act differently in S.cerevisiae and mammalian cells, but similarly in S.pombe and mammalian cells.
Special Collection: Social and Collaborative Networks and their Applications Using social network analysis to identify stakeholders’ influence on energy efficiency of housing

Energy-efficient housing is a product that integrates various stakeholders’ tasks throughout the different stages of its life cycle. The relationships between these stakeholders impact on the degree of knowledge sharing and informed decisionmaking and can potentially enhance or lower the energy efficiency of the product – the house. This article uses a social network analysis (SNA) approach to visualize the social networks of the stakeholders of a number of owner-occupied housing case studies in Australia. The aim is to analyse, contrast and quantify the degrees of connectivity and centrality of the housing stakeholders to identify which groups have more connectivity in the stakeholders’ network of energyefficiency housing and consequently more potential to influence the energy efficiency outcomes and which practices are more likely to enhance transparency and information sharing that is essential for producing energy-efficient housing.