Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vestibulo-ocular reflex in patients with superior semicircular canal benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV)

Abstract Conclusion: The function of all the semicircular canals in patients with idiopathic benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) in whom otoconial debris is located in the superior semicircular canal (SSC) is normal. Objective: BPPV of SSC is an infrequent entity in which otoconial debris evokes vertigo and nystagmus in the head-hanging position and during anterior flexion of the patient. Methods: We studied the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) in 12 patients with this particular type of BPPV. The reflex was evoked by rapid head impulses in the plane of the three semicircular canals in the affected and the normal ear. The reflex was evaluated with a video system that analyzes the head and eye velocity: the gain (the relation between both magnitudes) was the objective measure. Results: The mean gain of VOR was within normal limits for the six semicircular canals and there were no significant differences between the same canals on each side of patients with BPPV in whom canalolithiasis was located in the SSC. However, gain asymmetry was different for each pair of canals.
Measles surveillance: guidelines for laboratory support.

Following the commitment by all provinces and territories to eliminate measles by the year 2005, a two-dose measles vaccine schedule has been adopted across the country, augmented by mass vaccination “catch-up” programs in almost all jurisdictions. As the number of cases of measles declines, the importance of surveillance will become even greater. It will be more and more crucial that all suspected cases of measles be reported, and samples from sporadic cases be submitted for full laboratory investigation.
Pavlov's Methodological Behaviorism as a Pre-Socratic Contribution of the Melding of the Differential and Experimental Psychology

The differential/experimental distinction that Cronbach specified is important because any adequate account of psychological phenomena requires the recognition of the validity of both approaches, and a meaningful melding of the two. This paper suggests that Pavlov's work in psychology, based on earlier traditions of inquiry that can be traced back to the pre-Socratics, provides a potential way of achieving this melding, although such features as systematic rather than anecdotal methods of observation need to be added. Pavlov's methodological behaviorist approach is contrasted with metaphysical behaviorism (as exemplified explicitly in Watson and Skinner, and implicitly in the computer-metaphorical, information-processing explanations employed by current “cognitive” psychology). A common feature of the metaphysical approach is that individual-differences variables like sex are essentially ignored, or relegated to ideological categories such as the treatment of sex as merely a “social construction. ” Examples of research both before and after the “cognitive revolution” are presented where experimental and differential methods are melded, and individual differences are treated as phenomena worthy of investigation rather than as nuisance factors that merely add to experimental error. La distinción diferencial/experimental que especificó Cronbach es importante porque una explicación adecuada del fenómeno psicológico requiere que reconozcamos la validez de los dos enfoques, a la par que una combinación de los mismos. Este trabajo trata de mostrar que la obra de Pavlov en psicología, basada en las primeras tradiciones investigadoras que se remontan hasta los presocráticos, proporciona una posible forma de conseguir esta combinación, aunque se deban añadir métodos de observación sistemática frente a la meramente anecdótica. Se contrasta el enfoque conductual metodológico de Pavlov con el conductismo metafísico, ejemplificado explícitamente en Watson y Skinner e implícitamente en las explicaciones del procesamiento de la información o de la metáfora computacional, empleadas por la psicología “cognitiva” actual. Una característica del enfoque metafísico es que variables diferenciales individuales como el sexo son básicamente ignoradas o relegadas a categorías ideológicas, como ocurre cuando se considera el sexo como mera “construcción social”. Se presentan ejemplos de investigaciones, antes y después de la “revolución cognitiva”, en los que los métodos experimental y diferencial se combinan, apareciendo las diferencias individuales como fenómenos dignos de investigación más que como factores molestos que meramente acrecientan el error experimental.
Effect of Corporate Governance on Cash Holding: The Role of Product Market Competition

Corporate cash holding is among the fundamental areas in corporate finance. Recently, corporate cash holding has gained critical attention due to the dynamic business environment. Both practitioners and academicians have focused on the firms’ cash holding decisions in the recent era. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of corporate governance on cash holding and to check the role of product market competition on corporate governance and cash holding relationship. The research investigated that whether product market competition plays substitution role for corporate governance in a relationship with cash holding. Substitution effect argument claims that external market discipline is enough to resolve agency problem between managers and shareholders even firm level governance is weak. For this study, unbalanced panel data of 196 companies from the year 2006 to 2014 is selected. All models include time dummies and industry fixed effect with standard error cluster to the firm. The results show that corporate governance has a significant negative effect on corporate cash holding which supports flexibility hypotheses. Moreover, product market competition has substitution role for corporate governance in relationship with corporate cash holding.
Etude et modélisation mathématique de réseaux de régulation génétique et métabolique

Cette these est consacree a la modelisation mathematique de reseaux de regulation genetique et metabolique. Une etude detaillee d'un reseau particulier, l'operon lactose, nous permet de mettre en evidence les principales difficultes de la modelisation quantitative de tels systemes. Dans ce domaine, la theorie des systemes hybrides constitue un outil de modelisation pertinent, qui nous permet de proposer un modele de l'operon lactose reproduisant les principales caracteristiques de son comportement telles qu'elles sont connues aujourd'hui. Deux approches qualitatives sont ensuite envisagees. Une approche discrete, basee sur la theorie des reseaux d'automates booleens, est tout d abord presentee. Nous abordons dans ce cadre la question de l'identification de reseaux, en proposant notamment une preuve ainsi qu'une implementation de l'algorithme d'inference de reseaux booleens REVEAL. Nous faisons egalement une analyse de la complexite et de l'efficacite de cet algorithme. Enfin, nous proposons l'etude d une classe de systemes differentiels comportant des lois de puissance, les S-systemes. Ces systemes presentent des proprietes interessantes d'approximation locale de systemes provenant des sciences du vivant. Nous proposons un algorithme iteratif base sur les S-systemes dont le but est de trouver les points d'equilibre positifs d'un systeme dynamique quelconque, ainsi qu'une approximation locale de ce systeme autour de ces points d'equilibre. Cette approximation sous forme de lois de puissance offre une alternative a la technique classique de linearisation. Nous appliquons cet algorithme a l'etude d'une partie d'un systeme metabolique chez la plante Arabidopsis thaliana.
Co-Creation Experience: Measurement Development and Influence on Value in Sharing Economy

Since its introduction, an increasing attention has been paid to the scholarly discussion of value co-creation. One of the most essential problems in value co-creation is the development of comprehensive conceptualizations and measurement scales of value co-creation. However, most existing scales concentrate on co-creation behavior instead of co-creation experience and the development of a valid and reliable measurement scale of co-creation experience has been regarded as a top research priority. Meanwhile, the emergence of shared experience in tourism and hospitality has raised great attention from both academics and industry practitioners. Tourist shared experience such as participating in peer-to-peer accommodation inherently generate cocreation experience. Nevertheless, extremely limited literature exists in discussing peer-to-peer accommodation experience together with value co-creation. As a result, the purpose of the current study was to explore and understand co-creation experience by developing a comprehensive conceptualization and a measurement scale in the context of peer-to-peer accommodation. The study also examined the relationships between cocreation experiences, customer values in peer-to-peer accommodation, satisfaction of overall peer-to-peer accommodation experience and intention of future peer-to-peer accommodation usage. The current study adopted a mixed-method approach involving both qualitative and quantitative research methods to investigate the nature of co-creation experience and its theoretical relationships with other constructs. A sample of 1200 American tourists who have used and have actively co-created their peer-to-peer accommodation experience was recruited. The multi-stage scale development procedure generated a valid and reliable measurement scale of co-creation experience containing six reflective dimensions consistent with the initial conceptualization (i.e. authenticity, autonomy, control, learning, personalization, and connection). The developed scale captured the full conceptual domain of co-creation experience with the six underlying dimensions collectively constituting the measurement of the higher-order latent factor of co-creation experience. The results showed that all the dimensions exhibited significant and high factor loadings, supporting the proposed conceptualization. Further, the current study assessed a structural model using co-creation experience as an independent variable (i.e. a second-order latent factor), guest satisfaction and intention as dependent variables, and customer values in peer-to-peer accommodation as partial mediators between co-creation experience and guest satisfaction. Overall, the model fit exceeded the suggested satisfactory level and most of the proposed theoretical paths exhibited significant and positive empirical relationships. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed.
Analytic solution of a two-dimensional hydrogen atom. I. Nonrelativistic theory.

In this paper, we derive the exact analytic solution for the relativistic (2+1)-dimensional hydrogen atom, both with and without the Chern-Simons field. The atomic spectra without the Chern-Simons field is expanded in powers of the fine-structure constant and compared to the nonrelativistic spectra with the fine-structure splitting, while the Chern-Simons spectrum is investigated in detail for different anomalous angular-momentum values. Fractional statistics and charge are a natural consequence of the Chern-Simons eigenfunctions. The semion (particle with exotic statistical phase factor {plus minus}{ital i}) ground state for such a hydrogen atom collapses.
Insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease.

I RESISTANCE describes an impaired biological response to insulin (1–4). In the early states of insulin resistance there is a compensatory increase in insulin concentrations. Although hyperinsulinemia may compensate for resistance to some biological actions of insulin, it may result in overexpression of actions in tissues that retain normal or minimally impaired sensitivity to insulin. Also, high concentrations of insulin can act through receptors for insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) (5–8). Thus, accentuation of some actions of insulin with concurrent resistance to other actions gives rise to diverse clinical manifestations and sequelae of the insulin resistance syndrome. In general, insulin resistance can be due to a prereceptor, receptor, or postreceptor abnormality (1). One signaling pathway for insulin and IGF-I is the phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase (PI3 -kinase) system. Upon binding to their receptors, there is autophosphorylation of the b-subunit, which mediates noncovalent but stable interactions between the receptor and cellular proteins (1). Several proteins are then rapidly phosphorylated on tyrosine residues by ligandbound insulin receptors, including insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) (1). IRS docking proteins bind strongly to the enzyme PI3 -kinase (1), a heterodimer consisting of a p85 regulatory subunit and a p110 catalytic subunit, via SH-2 domain interaction with the p85 subunit (1). Insulin and IGF-I stimulation increases the amount of PI3 -kinase associated with IRS, and the binding process is associated with increased activity of the enzyme. Activation of the enzyme is crucial for transducing the actions of these peptides in cardiovascular (CV) tissue (9–14) as well as conventional insulin-sensitive tissues (1). The interruption of this pathway creates a resistance to the actions of insulin/IGF-I in stimulating vascular nitric oxide (NO) production (9, 10), CV cation transport mechanisms (11–15), as well as glucose transport (1, 6) (Fig. 1) in classically sensitive tissues such as muscle and adipose tissue. PI3-kinase mediates the increases in NO, Na pump, K channel, and calcium (Ca) myofilament sensitivity by increasing the trafficking and translocation of NO synthase and cation pump units as well as glucose transporters (1, 9, 16) (Fig. 2). Therefore, resistance to the actions of insulin and IGF-I in these tissues occurs whenever there is reduced PI3 -kinase activation (Fig. 2).
Country or origin, product innovation and relationship quality: The role of brand equity assets as mediator

Brand equity is firm’s superior customer value that essentially intangible offered to the customers.In nowadays’ competitive market, brand equity become one of the crucial firm’s strategy as higher brand equity achievement is able to provide benefits such as competitive differentiation, premium prices, higher in sales volumes, and greater security of demand that create best guarantee for firm’s survival. This study investigated the role of brand equity assets which referring to brand awareness, brand image, brand leadership and brand loyalty as a mediator. Particularly, this study examined the role of brand equity assets as mediator in the relationship between country of origin (COO) and product innovation (PI) on relationship quality (RQ) in Malaysia Consumers’ Passenger Cars context.The study is based on survey method. The self administered questionnaires are randomly distributed among passenger car users in North region of Malaysia. The study showed interesting result due to some of brand equity assets such as brand awareness and brand image are found to be a mediator in the relationship between PI and RQ. Also, majority of the brand equity assets such as brand awareness, brand image and brand loyalty revealed important role as mediator toward the relationship between COO and RQ.
Prediction of visibility and aerosol within the operational Met Office Unified Model. I: Model formulation and variational assimilation

The formulation and performance of the Met Office visibility analysis and prediction system are described. The visibility diagnostic within the limited‐area Unified Model is a function of humidity and a prognostic aerosol content. The aerosol model includes advection, industrial and general urban sources, plus boundary‐layer mixing and removal by rain. The assimilation is a 3‐dimensional variational scheme in which the visibility observation operator is a very nonlinear function of humidity, aerosol and temperature. A quality control scheme for visibility data is included. Visibility observations can give rise to humidity increments of significant magnitude compared with the direct impact of humidity observations. We present the results of sensitivity studies which show the contribution of different components of the system to improved skill in visibility forecasts. Visibility assimilation is most important within the first 6‐12 hours of the forecast and for visibilities below 1 km, while modelling of aerosol sources and advection is important for slightly higher visibilities (1‐5 km) and is still significant at longer forecast times. © Crown Copyright 2008. Reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A novel llama antibody targeting Fn14 exhibits anti-metastatic activity in vivo

Expression of fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-inducible 14 (Fn14), a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily, is typically low in healthy adult organisms, but strong Fn14 expression is induced in tissue injury and tissue remodeling. High Fn14 expression is also observed in solid tumors, which is why this receptor is under consideration as a therapeutic target in oncology. Here, we describe various novel mouse-human cross-reactive llama-derived recombinant Fn14-specific antibodies (5B6, 18D1, 4G5) harboring the human IgG1 Fc domain. In contrast to recombinant variants of the established Fn14-specific antibodies PDL192 and P4A8, all three llama-derived antibodies efficiently bound to the W42A and R56P mutants of human Fn14. 18D1 and 4G5, but not 5B6, efficiently blocked TNF-like weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK) binding at low concentrations (0.2–2 µg/ml). Oligomerization and Fcγ receptor (FcγR) binding converted all antibodies into strong Fn14 agonists. Variants of 18D1 with enhanced and reduced antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity were further analyzed in vivo with respect to their effect on metastasis. In a xenogeneic model using human colon carcinoma cancer cells, both antibody variants were effective in reducing metastasis to the liver. In contrast, only the 18D1 variant with enhanced ADCC activity, but not its ADCC-defective counterpart, suppressed lung metastasis in the RENCA model. In sum, this suggests that Fn14 targeting might primarily act by triggering of antibody effector functions, but also by blockade of TWEAK-Fn14 interaction in some cases.
An early predictor of the outcome of patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia.

BACKGROUND Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) contributes to high mortality, prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stay and increased costs of health care. Reports of early predictors of death in patients with VAP are rare. Our study was designed to determine early predictors of poor outcome in patients with VAP. METHODS A total 838 patients with nosocomial lower respiratory tract infection in a tertiary medical center from January, 2004 to June, 2006 were retrospectively reviewed. Forty-two patients had VAP and were enrolled in the study. The age, sex, underlying diseases, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, end-stage renal disease, congestive heart failure/coronary artery disease, and collagen vascular disease, diagnosis at admission, Acute Physiological Assessment and Chronic Health Evaluation II score (APACHE II score), Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score (CPIS), time between intubation and ICU admission, time between intubation and development of VAP, risk factors for multi-drug resistant pathogens, time to adequate therapy, initial antibiotics regimen, bacterial cultures, mortality rate from VAP, 28-day mortality rate and in-hospital mortality rate were compared between the mortality group and non-mortality group. RESULTS The VAP, 28-day and in-hospital mortality rates were 23.8% (10/42), 40.5% (17/42) and 50% (21/42), respectively. The APACHE II score (p=0.002) and CPIS (p=0.048) at the onset of VAP, inadequate initial antibiotics treatment (p=0.007) and concomitant bacteremia (p=0.008) were the only parameters which were significantly different between groups. The independent risk factors for VAP mortality in multivariable analysis were the APACHE II score at the onset of VAP (p=0.018), inadequate initial antibiotics treatment (p=0.032) and concomitant bacteremia (p=0.034). An APACHE II score>27 at VAP onset was an independent and early predictor of the mortality. (ROC AUC: 0.841; Sensitivity: 70%; Specificity: 90.6%; p=0.001). CONCLUSION A high APACHE II score (>27) at VAP onset was an independent and early predictor of mortality due to VAP.
Glycolipid-independent Sorting of a Secretory Glycoprotein to the Apical Surface of Polarized Epithelial Cells*

Proteins attached to the membrane by a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchor cluster together with glycolipids in detergent-insoluble complexes at the site of sorting in the trans-Golgi network. This process has been shown to be critical for the targeting of these proteins to the apical cell surface in polarized epithelial cells. We show in this study that gp80 (clusterin), an apically secreted glycoprotein, is not included in detergent-insoluble complexes in Madin-Darby canine kidney cells. Furthermore in Fisher rat thyroid cells, which target GPI-anchored proteins preferentially to the basolateral cell surface, gp80 is secreted apically. Together these results suggest that this secretory glycoprotein and GPI-linked proteins use different mechanisms to reach the apical membrane.
Mixed cryoglobulinemia: a role for parvovirus b19 infection.

the incidence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci infection in a medical intensive care unit, which would seem to support the claim that clothes are a potential fomite for NI. NI accounted for 1.7 million infections in 2002, which resulted in 99,000 deaths in the United States, and it is estimated to cost $6.7 billion per year [19, 20]. With such a significant impact from NIs, it is understandable that preventing them is a desirable outcome; however, the AMA took the appropriate position in recommending more research before implementing resolutions or guidelines on the removal of white coats or implementing a bare below the elbows policy in the United States.
Principal component analysis of factors influencing pricing decisions of building materials in Ghana

Abstract The key factors that greatly affect the selection of building materials are the cost and other related factors such as properties of the materials. The aim of this study was to identify the factors that influence the pricing decisions in determining the price level of building materials in Ghana. Self-administered questionnaires were sent to both construction practitioners and building material merchants to collect data in Kumasi metropolis, Accra metropolis and Sunyani municipal assembly in Ghana. Factor analysis was performed to identify the main factors that influence pricing decisions of building materials. Six main factors were identified: market-, producer-, production-, economic-, political- and environmental-related factors. It is recommended that the identified factors should be controlled by stakeholders who are concerned with the identified factors that contribute to prices of the building materials in order to prevent the increased prices of building material. The study contributes to the literature in the area of building materials management.