Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants of Online Shopping Influencing Thai Consumer’s Buying Choices

Abstract With the ease and availability of high-speed Internet service, online shopping is increasing rapidly. Consumers are moving to more intensive use of the Internet as the technology becomes more accessible, the availability of information increases, and the ability to interact through the Internet evolves. The success of online businesses relies heavily upon its ability to attract customers to complete purchase transactions on their websites. Even though the number of people who use the Internet every day and visit various shopping sites increases daily, it is interesting to note that quite a few of them still hesitate to purchase online. This study intends to examine what factors play a crucial role in encouraging or discouraging consumers in Thailand from shopping online. The findings from this study should help online businesses better understand the mindset of Thai consumers and find ways to improve websites in order to attract more customers.
Sexual function after surgery for early-stage cervical cancer: is there a difference in it according to the extent of surgical radicality?

INTRODUCTION Approximately 15% of all cervical cancers are found in women under the age of 40. Sexual function is a matter of great importance for these women. However, the impact of the surgical radicality for cervical cancer on sexual function has not been established. AIMS The aim of this study is to estimate the difference in postoperative sexual function in women with surgically treated early-stage cervical cancer according to the extent of surgical radicality. METHODS One hundred and five women with early-stage cervical cancer treated by cervical conization (CC), radical trachelectomy (RT), and radical hysterectomy (RH) between January 2006 and December 2009 were asked to answer a validated questionnaire, the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE FSFI score. RESULTS Eighty-one completed questionnaires from 39 (48.2%) women in the CC group, 18 (22.2%) in the RT group, and 24 (29.6%) in the RH group were studied. The FSFI total score for the CC group was 30.72 ± 3.39, suggesting no sexual dysfunctioning. The FSFI total score for the RT and RH groups (21.78 ± 4.17 and 22.40 ± 4.09, respectively) demonstrated a globally compromised sexuality, based on a FSFI total score of 26.55 as the clinical cut-off for sexual dysfunction. The FSFI total scores in the RT and RH groups were significantly decreased compared to the CC group (P < 0.001). However, there were no significant differences between the RT and RH groups. CONCLUSIONS The RT and RH groups, unlike the CC group, had compromised sexual function after the treatment of early-stage cervical cancer.
The Challenges of Shariah Compliance in the Islamic Banking Practices: Whether Ibn-Al Qayyim’s Principles of Muamalat be the Panacea?

The practices of Islamic banks under diverse economic and legal system across the world constitute challenges to its shariah compliance regime which is the hallmark of its uniqueness. This study presents some of the factors that militate against the shariah compliance requirement and it proposes the standardization of Ibn Qayyim’s principles of al-Muamalat as the mechanism for the surmounting of the challenges. The focused areas in the study include; the challenges of conflicting of al-Fatwa, the quandary of the dominance of the civil law, the subjugation of the Islamic banks to the adjudication of the civil court, the supremacy of the International Monetary laws and regulatory bodies. Each of the challenges was discussed vis-à-vis of the principle that is proposed for its resolution. The study concludes that the Ibn Qayyim’s principles of al-Muamalat are tested in the past generations by mufti(s) of his time and proved to be viable. It is, therefore, believed that the adoption and adaptation of the principles into the guidelines of shariah decision making for the practices of Islamic banking and finance will contribute immensely to the resolution of the challenges of shariah compliance management. It is suggested for future work on this topic to look into the possibility of universal adaptation of the adaptation of the principle in shari’ah guideline across the world.
Determinants of Coronary Artery Reactivit in Premenopausal Female Cynomolgus Monkeys With Diet‐Induced Atherosclerosis

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to identify determinants of coronary artery reactivity among premeno-pausal female monkeys. Estrogen replacement therapy in postmenopausal females modulates reactivity of atherosclerotic coronary arteries. However, no studies have evaluated the factors that modulate coronary artery reactivity among premenopausal females. Methods and ResultsTwenty-five adult premenopausal female monkeys were fed an atherogenic diet for 32 months. During this time, monkeys were housed in small social groups and determined to be socially dominant (associated with normal ovarian function) or subordinate (associated with impaired ovarian function). After 32 months, coronary artery vasomotor responses to intracoronary acetylcholine, nitroglycerin, and serotonin were assessed by computer-assisted quantitative coronary angiography. Coronary arteries of dominant monkeys dilated (+9±2%), whereas those of subordinate monkeys constricted (−6±2%) in response to acetylcholine (P<.05). There was no effect of social status on vascular response to nitroglycerin or serotonin (P>.10). Vascular responses to acetylcholine were independent of social status effects on plasma lipids, blood pressure, and atherosclerosis extent. The correlation between acetylcholine responses and plasma estradiol concentration measured on the day of angiography was r=. 7 (P= <.01). Furthermore, dilation occurred only if plasma estradiol concentrations were greater than 60 pg/mL. ConclusionsPsychosocial factors and endogenous estrogen production are important modulators of acetylcholine-mediated dilation of atherosclerotic coronary arteries among pre-menopausal female monkeys.
Food safety in China from North American and European perspectives

ABSTRACT Food safety crises have constituted a persistent challenge for the Chinese government and people. Because of international trade, consumers’ concern regarding the safety of food products imported from China is increasing in many countries. Yet, no systematic investigation has examined the perception of Western respondents regarding the safety of food imports coming from China. This study, based on an online survey (n = 289) between April and May 2017, is an initial attempt to investigate the perception of consumers in Europe and North America regarding different food safety issues and regulations in the People’s Republic of China and their attitudes towards food products imported from China. Our results show that socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and the influence of different types of media were not related to the perceptions and attitudes towards food safety. But, we found a strong relationship between the perception of the food safety regulations in China and the personal consumption of food products imported from China. In addition, a positive relationship was discovered between having been to China and the purchase of food products imported from China. Our findings suggest that investments in the promotion of the knowledge of food safety regulations implementation in China would lead to an increase in the export of food products. Also, the positive relationship between having been to China and the purchase of food products imported from China should be further investigated to consider the implications for tourism and food trade in China.
Use of a telenursing triage service by Victorian parents attending the emergency department for their child's lower urgency condition

The Victorian Nurse‐On‐Call (NOC) service has been in use for over 8 years, though little research has been conducted investigating the service. The present study aimed to explore whether parents in Victoria presenting with their child to the ED for lower urgency conditions use the NOC before ED arrival and whether the advice given impacts their decision to attend the ED.
Studies on the nonmevalonate terpene biosynthetic pathway: Metabolic role of IspH (LytB) protein

Isopentenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate serve as the universal precursors for the biosynthesis of terpenes. Although their biosynthesis by means of mevalonate has been studied in detail, a second biosynthetic pathway for their formation by means of 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate has been discovered only recently in plants and certain eubacteria. Earlier in vivo experiments with recombinant Escherichia coli strains showed that exogenous 1-deoxy-d-xylulose can be converted into 1-hydroxy-2-methyl-2-(E)-butenyl 4-diphosphate by the consecutive action of enzymes specified by the xylB and ispCDEFG genes. This article describes the transformation of exogenous [U-13C5]1-deoxy-d-xylulose into a 5:1 mixture of [U-13C5]isopentenyl diphosphate and [U-13C5]dimethylallyl diphosphate by an E. coli strain engineered for the expression of the ispH (lytB) gene in addition to recombinant xylB and ispCDEFG genes.
Herding behavior in cryptocurrency markets

There are no solid arguments to sustain that digital currencies are the future of online payments or the disruptive technology that some of its former participants declared when used to face critiques. This paper aims to solve the cryptocurrency puzzle from a behavioral finance perspective by finding the parallelism between biases present in financial markets that could be applied to cryptomarkets. Moreover, it is suggested that cryptocurrencies' prices are driven by herding, hence this study test herding behavior under asymmetric and symmetric conditions and the existence of different herding regimes by employing the Markov-Switching approach.
Performance analysis for two-level parallel transient stability constrained optimal power flow

Transient stability constrained optimal power flow (TSCOPF) is one the most computational-intensive applications in power systems. Research efforts were made to utilize high performance computing (HPC) technology to parallelize and accelerate TSCOPF solving process, but challenges still exist in performance analysis to identify bottlenecks and improve efficiency on practical HPC platforms such as Beowulf clusters. Based on first two authors' previous work [8, 12] - two-level parallel TSCOPF with reduced-space interior point method (RIPM), a systematic performance analysis approach is demonstrated in this paper. Comprehensive performance analysis procedures - wall time analysis, MPI/OpenMP profiling and tracing - is employed in order to discover performance bottlenecks. State-of-the-art performance analysis software are employed to generate and visualize performance data, providing guidelines for parallel performance enhancement. Numerical results on a 2746-bus system show effectiveness of the proposed approach and relative low overhead in solving large-scale multi-contingency TSCOPF on a Beowulf cluster.
Adjuvant therapies in extended pancreatectomy for ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas.

BACKGROUND/AIMS The poor prognosis after pancreatic cancer resection is attributed to a high incidence of locoregional recurrence and hepatic metastasis. The present study was carried out in order to determine whether adjuvant therapies improve patient survival. METHODOLOGY Preoperative irradiation and postoperative liver perfusion chemotherapy have been added to the extended pancreatectomy procedure, and a retrospective analysis of 111 patients was performed. RESULTS Preoperative irradiation (n = 17) significantly decreased the incidence of locoregional recurrence but increased the incidence of hepatic metastasis, with no improvement in the 5-year survival rate (from 27% to 23%). In contrast, postoperative liver perfusion chemotherapy (n = 27) succeeded in improving the 5-year survival rate to 39% by significantly decreasing the incidence of hepatic metastasis. CONCLUSION These data suggest that the patients' survival rate may be increased when these two types of adjuvant therapy are combined with extended pancreatectomy.
Prediction of Systemic-to-Pulmonary Artery shunt surgery outcomes using administrative data

Systemic-to-Pulmonary Artery (SPA) shunt surgery, one of the most common cardiac surgical procedures in the newborn period, provides a means to palliate children with limited pulmonary blood flow, such as in Tetralogy of Fallot. Despite the simplicity of the procedure, it is associated with significant morbidity (such as need for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), and long post-operative length of stay (PLOS) in the hospital following surgery) and mortality. These outcomes are known to be impacted by a number of complex factors (including patient specific and procedure specific factors, perioperative related factors, etc.), whose relative importance in clinical decision making remains the domain of clinical judgment. The increasing availability of multi-modal data on patient care and outcomes opens up the opportunity to assess clinical practices from a more data-driven perspective. In this paper, we report results from a study of 1036 patients (from 44 children's hospitals across the US) during 2009-2014 that applies a machine learning approach to predicting post-operative outcomes for patients in the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) database. We demonstrate that it is feasible to achieve significant prediction benefits using a standard machine learning approach (random forests) on a carefully constructed dataset, showing the value of applying machine learning even with noisy administrative databases. The methods we describe can be used to identify potential important variables that lead to good clinical judgment as defined by desirable clinical outcomes.
Police Violence and the Underreporting of Crime

This paper examines the relationship between police violence and the reporting of crime. Utilizing original data from a largeâ€ scale household survey conducted in Costa Rica from October 2013 to April 2014 (nÂ =Â 4,200), we find that the observation of police violence significantly reduces citizensâ€™ willingness to report crime. The implications of this finding are explored using a gameâ€ theoretic model of crime, crime reporting, and police misconduct. The model reveals that although the prospect of police violence against criminals may generate a degree of deterrence for criminal behavior, permissiveness toward police violence also raises expectations about the likelihood of police abuse against lawâ€ abiding citizens. Consistent with our empirics, this reduces citizensâ€™ propensity to report crime, thereby fostering a climate of impunity for criminal activity.
Ampicillin-Resistant Non-β-Lactamase-Producing Haemophilus influenzae in Spain: Recent Emergence of Clonal Isolates with Increased Resistance to Cefotaxime and Cefixime

ABSTRACT The sequence of the ftsI gene encoding the transpeptidase domain of penicillin-binding protein 3 (PBP 3) was determined for 354 nonconsecutive Haemophilus influenzae isolates from Spain; 17.8% of them were ampicillin susceptible, 56% were β-lactamase nonproducing ampicillin resistant (BLNAR), 15.8% were β-lactamase producers and ampicillin resistant, and 10.4% displayed both resistance mechanisms. The ftsI gene sequences had 28 different mutation patterns and amino acid substitutions at 23 positions. Some 93.2% of the BLNAR strains had amino acid substitutions at the Lys-Thr-Gly (KTG) motif, the two most common being Asn526 to Lys (83.9%) and Arg517 to His (9.3%). Amino acid substitutions at positions 377, 385, and 389, which conferred cefotaxime and cefixime MICs 10 to 60 times higher than those of susceptible strains, were found for the first time in Europe. In 72 isolates for which the repressor acrR gene of the AcrAB efflux pump was sequenced, numerous amino acid substitutions were found. Eight isolates with ampicillin MICs of 0.25 to 2 μg/ml showed changes that predicted the early termination of the acrR reading frame. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis demonstrated that most BLNAR strains were genetically diverse, although clonal dissemination was detected in a group of isolates presenting with increased resistance to cefotaxime and cefixime. Background antibiotic use at the community level revealed a marked trend toward increased amoxicillin-clavulanic acid consumption. BLNAR H. influenzae strains have arisen by vertical and horizontal spread and have evolved to adapt rapidly to the increased selective pressures posed by the use of oral penicillins and cephalosporins.
The impact of Web-delivered education on preceptor role self-efficacy and knowledge in public health nurses.

OBJECTIVE Preceptors are an essential component in preparing student nurses to become practicing public health nurses. Preparation for the preceptor role is important for achieving a quality learning experience for students. This study was conducted to explore the relationship between completion of a Web-delivered preceptor education program and both knowledge of the preceptor role and self-efficacy to perform in the preceptor role. DESIGN AND SAMPLE This study used a pretest-posttest, quasi-experimental design. The participants were experienced public health nurses (n=31) working in one state in the United States. MEASURES Pretest and posttest Web-delivered survey using the preceptor self-efficacy questionnaire and an instrument assessing knowledge gain. INTERVENTION A Web-delivered preceptor education program tailored for public health nurses. RESULTS The program was associated with improved self-efficacy scores at both the immediate and the 3-month posttest, and with increased knowledge of the preceptor role evident at the immediate posttest only. Self-efficacy scores were independent of knowledge scores. Preceptor age was not correlated with self-efficacy or knowledge scores. Nurses with higher levels of education demonstrated higher self-efficacy scores in all 3 measurements. CONCLUSIONS Web-delivered continuing education targeted to public health nurse preceptors is an effective method to increase confidence and knowledge for the preceptor role.
Association between implementation of a medical team training program and surgical mortality.

CONTEXT There is insufficient information about the effectiveness of medical team training on surgical outcomes. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) implemented a formalized medical team training program for operating room personnel on a national level. OBJECTIVE To determine whether an association existed between the VHA Medical Team Training program and surgical outcomes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A retrospective health services study with a contemporaneous control group was conducted. Outcome data were obtained from the VHA Surgical Quality Improvement Program (VASQIP) and from structured interviews in fiscal years 2006 to 2008. The analysis included 182,409 sampled procedures from 108 VHA facilities that provided care to veterans. The VHA's nationwide training program required briefings and debriefings in the operating room and included checklists as an integral part of this process. The training included 2 months of preparation, a 1-day conference, and 1 year of quarterly coaching interviews MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE The rate of change in the mortality rate 1 year after facilities enrolled in the training program compared with the year before and with nontraining sites. RESULTS The 74 facilities in the training program experienced an 18% reduction in annual mortality (rate ratio [RR], 0.82; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76-0.91; P = .01) compared with a 7% decrease among the 34 facilities that had not yet undergone training (RR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.80-1.06; P = .59). The risk-adjusted mortality rates at baseline were 17 per 1000 procedures per year for the trained facilities and 15 per 1000 procedures per year for the nontrained facilities. At the end of the study, the rates were 14 per 1000 procedures per year for both groups. Propensity matching of the trained and nontrained groups demonstrated that the decline in the risk-adjusted surgical mortality rate was about 50% greater in the training group (RR,1.49; 95% CI, 1.10-2.07; P = .01) than in the nontraining group. A dose-response relationship for additional quarters of the training program was also demonstrated: for every quarter of the training program, a reduction of 0.5 deaths per 1000 procedures occurred (95% CI, 0.2-1.0; P = .001). CONCLUSION Participation in the VHA Medical Team Training program was associated with lower surgical mortality.
Managerial Ability and the Quality of Firms’ Information Environment

In this study, we examine the relation between managerial ability and the quality of a firm’s information environment. An emerging stream of research has identified managerial ability as an important determinant of accruals quality and management forecast quality. However, our understanding of the impact of managerial ability on a firm’s broader information environment is incomplete because it captures more than these specific financial reporting disclosures. Using a composite index based on various proxies for a firm’s information environment, we find a positive relation between managerial ability and a firm’s information environment. Consistent with our argument that managers’ equity incentives improve disclosure quality, we find that the quality of a firm’s information environment improves when managers have higher levels of equity incentives. We contribute to the literature by providing more complete and conclusive evidence about the impact of managerial ability on a firm’s broader information environment.
Exposure to the Three Structurally Different PCB Congeners (PCB 118, 153, and 126) Results in Decreased Protein Expression and Altered Steroidogenesis in the Human Adrenocortical Carcinoma Cell Line H295R

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), synthetic, persistent organic pollutants (POP), are detected ubiquitously, in water, soil, air, and sediments, as well as in animals and humans. PCB are associated with range of adverse health effects, such as interference with the immune system and nervous system, reproductive abnormalities, fetotoxicity, carcinogenicity, and endocrine disruption. Our objective was to determine the effects of three structurally different PCB congeners, PCB118, PCB 126, and PCB 153, each at two concentrations, on the steroidogenic capacity and proteome of human adrenocortical carcinoma cell line cultures (H295R) . After 48 h of exposure, cell viability was monitored and estradiol, testosterone, cortisol and progesterone secretion measured to quantify steroidogenic capacity of the cells. Two-dimensional (2D) gel-based proteomics was used to screen for proteome alterations in H295R cells in response to the PCB. Exposure to PCB 118 increased estradiol and cortisol secretion, while exposure to PCB 153 elevated estradiol secretion. PCB 126 was the most potent congener, increasing estradiol, cortisol, and progesterone secretion in exposed H295R cells. Seventy-three of the 711 spots analyzed showed a significant difference in normalized spot volumes between controls (vehicle only) and at least one exposure group. Fourteen of these protein spots were identified by liquid chromatography with mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS). Exposure to three PCB congeners with different chemical structure perturbed steroidogenesis and protein expression in the H295R in vitro model. This study represents an initial analysis of the effects on proteins and hormones in the H295R cell model, and additional studies are required in order to obtain a more complete understanding of the pathways disturbed by PCB congeners in H295R cells. Overall, alterations in protein regulation and steroid hormone synthesis suggest that exposure to PCB disturbs several cellular processes, including protein synthesis, stress response, and apoptosis.