Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring the role of employees in the delivery of the brand: a case study approach

Purpose – Employees are now viewed as playing a crucial role in brand management as they facilitate the interface between the organization and the market. This study, therefore, seeks to examine the role of employees in the delivery of the brand and, in doing so, further one's understanding of an area that, to date, has received little empirical attention from an operational management perspective.Design/methodology/approach – This study demonstrated the use of a qualitative methodological approach to inductively and holistically understand the operational management perspective in a context‐specific situation. A case study approach was adopted and data were gathered via semi‐structured interviews with managers of a customer‐focused organization.Findings – Several themes were identified from the interviews, namely, control, foundation, internal marketing (IM), management role, direction, employee satisfaction, enhancers and element of control. As such, these themes provide the foundation for the discussio.
Headliner : An integrated headline suggestion system

Headline generation is a short-form variant of document summarization that has been studied in natural language processing. This paper presents a case study examining the application of several different headline generation models at The Washington Post. Currently for individual news articles, multiple different headlines are manually written in order to target different platforms such as the web site and social media networks. To reduce the amount of effort from the newsroom, our strategy is to automatically propose variable-length headlines for news stories during the process of article posting. After exploring several methods, we present promising initial results. We also describe the challenges encountered in this process and future directions needed for full application of the method.
6q deletion in Waldenström macroglobulinemia is associated with features of adverse prognosis

Fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) is an effective technique for the cytogenetic analysis of Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM), but the potential impact of molecular cytogenetics on disease evolution and as a prognostic marker is still unknown. Deletion of the long arm of chromosome 6 (6q−) is the most frequent cytogenetic abnormality in WM. This study analysed the prevalence of this aberration in 102 WM patients, and correlated it with disease characteristics. The incidence of 6q21 deletion was 7% by conventional cytogenetics and 34% when analysed by FISH (54% when cytoplasmic immunoglobulin M‐FISH was used). Patients with deletion of 6q displayed features of adverse prognosis, such as higher levels of β2‐microglobulin and monoclonal paraprotein and a greater tendency to display anaemia and hypoalbuminemia. Interestingly, there was a correlation between the presence of 6q deletion and the International Staging System prognostic index (incidence of 6q− among patients stratified in stages 1, 2 and 3 was 24%, 42% and 67% respectively). Those patients diagnosed with smouldering WM who displayed the abnormality showed a trend to an earlier requirement of treatment. Finally, the survival analysis did not show differences between the two groups of patients, probably due to the short follow up of our series.
Factors influencing discharge location after hospitalization resulting from a traumatic fall among older persons.

OBJECTIVE To identify significant demographic, clinical, and nonclinical factors among elderly persons influencing the discharge location after hospitalization resulting from a traumatic fall. METHODS Population-based case-only study with use of data from the 2003 National Trauma Data Bank. The study analysis included 47,234 subjects admitted to 1 of 405 hospitals in the United States between 1989 and 2003, and aged between 65 and 89 years. Demographic characteristics, clinical factors, and discharge location were obtained from the database. RESULTS Eighty-three percent were discharged to home, 7% to a nursing home, and 10% to a rehabilitation facility. Female patients and white patients were more likely discharged to a nursing home or a rehabilitation facility than to home. Compared with commercial insurance, a patients who had Medicare was more likely discharged to a nursing home (odds ratio = 20.9; 95% confidence interval: 18.2-23.9) or a rehabilitation facility (odds ratio = 5.39; 95% confidence interval: 4.86-5.96) than to home. A patient who was injured in the face or neck, thorax, or abdomen was less likely discharged to a nursing home or a rehabilitation facility than to home when compared with a patient injured in an upper and lower extremity. A patient with an injury to the spine was more likely discharged to a rehabilitation facility than to home when compared with a patient injured in any other body region. CONCLUSION Gender, race, payment type, body region injured, Injury Severity Score, physiologically based Emergency Department Revised Trauma Score, and need for intensive care unit care were significant predictors of discharge location. Understanding and addressing the factors found in this study can improve the discharge planning process and posttreatment management.
Recent changes in therapeutic approaches and association with outcomes among patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism on chronic hemodialysis: the DOPPS study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Elevated parathyroid hormone levels may be associated with adverse clinical outcomes in patients on dialysis. After the introduction of practice guidelines suggesting higher parathyroid hormone targets than those previously recommended, changes in parathyroid hormone levels and treatment regimens over time have not been well documented. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS Using data from the international Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study, trends in parathyroid hormone levels and secondary hyperparathyroidism therapies over the past 15 years and the associations between parathyroid hormone and clinical outcomes are reported; 35,655 participants from the Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study phases 1-4 (1996-2011) were included. RESULTS Median parathyroid hormone increased from phase 1 to phase 4 in all regions except for Japan, where it remained stable. Prescriptions of intravenous vitamin D analogs and cinacalcet increased and parathyroidectomy rates decreased in all regions over time. Compared with 150-300 pg/ml, in adjusted models, all-cause mortality risk was higher for parathyroid hormone=301-450 (hazard ratio, 1.09; 95% confidence interval, 1.01 to 1.18) and >600 pg/ml (hazard ratio, 1.23; 95% confidence interval, 1.12 to 1.34). Parathyroid hormone >600 pg/ml was also associated with higher risk of cardiovascular mortality as well as all-cause and cardiovascular hospitalizations. In a subgroup analysis of 5387 patients not receiving vitamin D analogs or cinacalcet and with no prior parathyroidectomy, very low parathyroid hormone (<50 pg/ml) was associated with mortality (hazard ratio, 1.25; 95% confidence interval, 1.04 to 1.51). CONCLUSIONS In a large international sample of patients on hemodialysis, parathyroid hormone levels increased in most countries, and secondary hyperparathyroidism treatments changed over time. Very low and very high parathyroid hormone levels were associated with adverse outcomes. In the absence of definitive evidence in support of a specific parathyroid hormone target, there is an urgent need for additional research to inform clinical practice.
Innate and Adaptive Immune Responses in Hepatitis B Virus Infection

There is urgent need for novel immunotherapeutic strategies which, combined with current anti-viral therapy, may facilitate viral control and remove the need for long-term suppressive therapy in patients who have chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. To achieve this, it is critical to better understand mechanisms of innate and adaptive immune dysfunction and pathways of liver pathology. Here, we summarise recent advances pertaining to early immune events during acute HBV infection in an unusual cohort of patients sampled in the pre-clinical phase, and describe mechanisms of CD8 T cell attrition that apply to patients with chronic HBV infection. Furthermore, we describe a novel pathway of hepatocyte death mediated by innate natural killer (NK) cells. These pathways together provide novel pathogenic mechanisms for impaired viral control and liver damage during chronic HBV infection.
Red pigment production by Penicillium purpurogenum GH2 is influenced by pH and temperature

The combined effects of pH and temperature on red pigment production and fungal morphology were evaluated in a submerged culture of Penicillium purpurogenum GH2, using Czapek-Dox media with d-xylose as a carbon source. An experimental design with a factorial fix was used: three pH values (5, 7, and 9) and two temperature levels (24 and 34 °C) were evaluated. The highest production of red pigment (2.46 g/L) was reached with a pH value of 5 and a temperature of 24 °C. Biomass and red pigment production were not directly associated. This study demonstrates that P. purpurogenum GH2 produces a pigment of potential interest to the food industry. It also shows the feasibility of producing and obtaining natural water-soluble pigments for potential use in food industries. A strong combined effect (p<0.05) of pH and temperature was associated with maximal red pigment production (2.46 g/L).
ALCN : Adaptive Local Contrast Normalization for Robust Object Detection and 3 D Pose Estimation

To be robust to illumination changes when detecting objects in images, the current trend is to train a Deep Network with training images captured under many different lighting conditions. Unfortunately, creating such a training set is very cumbersome, or sometimes even impossible, for some applications such as 3D pose estimation of specific objects, which is the application we focus on in this paper. We therefore propose a novel illumination normalization method that lets us learn to detect objects and estimate their 3D pose under challenging illumination conditions from very few training samples. Our key insight is that normalization parameters should adapt to the input image. In particular, we realized this via a Convolutional Neural Network trained to predict the parameters of a generalization of the Difference-of-Gaussians method. We show that our method significantly outperforms standard normalization methods and demonstrate it on two challenging 3D detection and pose estimation problems.
Detection of immunoglobulin A1 protease-induced Fab alpha fragments on dental plaque bacteria

The mechanisms by which immunoglobulin A1 (IgA1) protease activity may enable bacteria to evade the effect of specific secretory IgA (S-IgA) antibodies are not clear. A possibility which has received indirect experimental support is that bacteria, as a consequence of the protease activity, become coated with incompetent Fab alpha fragments instead of with intact antibody molecules. Using a combination of nonreducing sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting, we detected Fab alpha fragments not only on oral streptococci (Streptococcus sanguis and Streptococcus gordonii) incubated in saliva but also on the bacteria in incipient dental plaque. These results are of relevance to our previous observation that IgA1 protease activity may neutralize the ability of S-IgA antibodies to inhibit the adherence of oral streptococci to saliva-coated hydroxyapatite.
Studies with bromocriptine

Caffeine was administered to six patients with idiopathic parkinsonism in an attempt to potentiate the therapeutic response of bromocriptine, a dopamine (DA) receptor agonist, by inhibition of phosphodiesterase. In a double-blind study at doses of 1,000 mg daily, caffeine failed to enhance the antiparkinsonian action of bromocriptine (40 mg daily) given concomitantly. Although effective in potentiating the action of levodopa and other agonists in animal models of parkinsonism, caffeine is inactive in parkinsonism in man.
A Cross Sectional Study of Field Independence and United States Military Air Traffic Control Specialists

Abstract : This study examined whether samples of active duty military Air Traffic Control Specialists (ATCSs) from the United States Air Force (USAF) and the United States Navy (USN) contained a greater number of participants who possessed the underlying ability or trait, of field independence than those participants who were in the control group of non-ATCS military personnel. The Embedded Figures Test (EFT) is one test that measures field dependence. Three groups of active duty military personnel were administered the EFT. The first sample consisted of 19 active duty USAF ATCSs. The second consisted of 19 active duty USN ATCSs, and the third group consisted of 19 active duty military non-ATCS personnel. The hypothesis was that participants who were active duty military ATCS (with ATC experience), would be more field independent than those in other specialties. Results indicated that a significant statistical difference existed between the EFT scores of the USAF ATCSs and the control group.
Hospital admissions for asthma and chronic obstructive airways disease in East London hospitals and proximity of residence to main roads

We describe a matched case-control study investigating the association between respiratory illness and proximity of residence to main roads. The study was carried out in response to previously inconsistent reports on this question1-3; the null hypothesis was of no association of traffic related air pollution to respiratory illness, hospital admissions for asthma and chronic obstructive airways disease. The study focused on Tower Hamlets, East London where hospital admissions for asthma are 80% above national rates.1 2 The cases were extracted from the medical summaries of sequential emergency medical admissions through the casualty departments at The Royal London Hospitals in 1991–1992. Patient records with a diagnosis of asthma or chronic obstructive airways disease, and resident in Tower Hamlets, were identified. Individually matched controls (also obtained from emergency medical admissions through the casualty departments) with a non-chest related illness were selected based on sex, year of admission and consultant team. The selection method of these controls precludes surgical, orthopaedic or trauma cases. Overall, 82% of the pairs were matched to within five years, the remainder to within 10 years. For each case and control, address, ethnic group, whether there had been treatment in intensive therapy, and whether there had been any re-admission during that year, were extracted. Smoking data were too incomplete to be used. Using the Address-point software the addresses of cases and controls were expressed as a grid reference for all but eight participants. This software allows each postal address to be located to the “front …
Prevalence of Human Papillomavirus Infection in Women in Portugal: The CLEOPATRE Portugal Study

Objective: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is responsible for a range of diseases, including cervical cancer. The primary objectives of the CLEOPATRE Portugal study were to estimate the overall and age-stratified prevalence of cervical HPV infection and to assess HPV prevalence and type-specific distribution by cytological results among women aged 18 to 64 years, who reside in mainland Portugal. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional population-based study recruited women aged 18 to 64 years, according to an age-stratified sampling strategy, who attended gynecology/obstetrics or sexually transmitted disease clinics across the 5 regional health administrations in mainland Portugal between 2008 and 2009. Liquid-based cytology samples were collected and analyzed centrally for HPV genotyping (clinical array HPV 2 assay) and cytology. Prevalence estimates were adjusted for age using 2007 Portuguese census data. Results: A total of 2326 women were included in the study. The overall prevalence of HPV infection in the study was 19.4% (95% confidence interval, 17.8%-21.0%), with the highest prevalence in women aged 18 to 24 years. High-risk HPV types were detected in 76.5% of infections, of which 36.6% involved multiple types. The commonest high-risk type was HPV-16. At least 1 of the HPV types 6/11/16/18 was detected in 32.6% of infections. The HPV prevalence in normal cytology samples was 16.5%. There was a statistically significant association between high-risk infection and cytological abnormalities (P < 0.001). Conclusions: This is the first population-based study to quantify and describe cervical HPV infection in mainland Portugal. This study provides baseline data for future assessment of the impact of HPV vaccination programs.
Elimination of Harmonics in Multilevel Converters Using Stochastic Newton Method

This paper presents a stochastic Newton method to compute the switching angles in multilevel converters so as to produce the required fundamental voltage while at the same time not generate higher order harmonics. For Newton method, a good initial guess which should be very close to exact solution patterns is necessary, so using stochastic techniques gives a new way to find possible initial values, such as the beginning process of particle swarm optimization (PSO). This synthetic method is called stochastic Newton method (SNM), which is applied to multilevel inverters with any number of levels. All sets of solutions are found for eleven and nineteen levels converters to show the simplicity, effectiveness, and easy implementation of SNM.
Capsaicin‐sensitive nerve fibers: A potential extra‐ACTH mechanism participating in adrenal regeneration in rats

Pituitary‐derived factors, including ACTH, have been widely implicated in initiating adrenal regeneration. However, recent work has demonstrated that adrenal regeneration is also modulated by adrenal nerves that extensively reinnervate the regenerating adrenal. Moreover, transection of the splanchnic nerve removes sensory calcitonin gene‐related peptide (CGRP) and preganglionic sympathetic vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT)‐positive fibers from the regenerating gland and delays regeneration. However, it is not known whether the splanchnic nerve effects on adrenal regeneration are mediated by the CGRP‐positive or VAChT‐positive innervation. The present studies use the drug capsaicin, a neurotoxin selective for a subset of primary afferent neurons, to specifically remove CGRP‐positive fibers from the adrenal gland and assess subsequent effects on the recovery of adrenal mass and function after surgical enucleation. Male, Sprague‐Dawley rats were anesthetized and treated with capsaicin (vs. vehicle) periaxonally to the thoracic splanchnic nerve (33 mM, 15 minutes) or systemically (30–100 mg/kg for 4 days, s.c.). After 7–12 days of recovery, rats received right adrenalectomy and left adrenal enucleation. At 14 and 21 days postenucleation, prestress and poststress plasma and adrenals glands were collected; adrenals were weighed and fixed for immunolabeling of CGRP‐positive nerve fibers. Periaxonal capsaicin treatment decreased adrenal CGRP content prior to surgical enucleation; however, reinnervation by CGRP‐positive fibers was not prevented and regeneration was not affected. Systemic capsaicin treatment attenuated the reinnervation by CGRP‐positive fibers and increased the rate, but not extent, of adrenal regeneration. These results support the hypothesis that adrenal innervation represents an extra‐ACTH mechanism to modulate the rate of adrenal regeneration. Microsc. Res. Tech. 61:252–258, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Pre-Colonial Culture, Post-Colonial Economic Success? The Tswana and the African Economic Miracle

Cultural explanations of economic phenomena have recently enjoyed a renaissance among economists. This article provides further evidence for the salience of culture through an in-depth case study of one of the fastest-growing economies in the world during the last 50 years-Botswana. The unique culture that developed among the Tswana before and during the early days of colonialism, which shared many features with those of western nation-states, appears to have contributed significantly to the factors widely seen as determinants of Botswana's post-colonial economic success: state legitimacy, good governance and democracy, commercial traditions, well-established property rights, and inter-ethnic unity. Neighbouring Southern African cultures typically did not exhibit these traits.
Occupational performance and the transition to powered mobility: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE This quantitative study describes the transition from manual to powered mobility and its influence on occupational performance (organization of daily tasks, assumption of responsibility, roles, interests) and feelings of competence, adaptability, and self-esteem. METHOD The Occupational Performance History Interview (OPHI) was used with a convenience sample of 8 participants with both static and progressive conditions to measure retrospectively changes in occupational performance after the change from a manual wheelchair to a powered mobility device (PMD). The Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Device Scale (PIADS) was used to measure participants' perceptions of the impact of the PMD on their competence, adaptability, and self-esteem. RESULTS A comparison of the pretest and posttest means on the OPHI scores showed a significant improvement in occupational performance (p = .001) after the introduction of PMDs. The PIADS scores showed a positive impact of 2 or greater for 75% of the participants on 19 of 26 items. Scores were similar to scores in a PIADS database of persons with comparable conditions. No significant relationship between occupational performance and psychosocial impact was demonstrated. CONCLUSION Results suggest that the transition to a PMD enhances occupational performance, competence, adaptability, and self-esteem for persons with severe mobility impairments.
Developmental and gender influences on executive function following concussion in youth hockey players

Abstract Background: Concussion is the most common athletic injury in youth who are simultaneously undergoing rapid developmental changes in the brain, specifically the development of executive functions (EF). The developing brain is more vulnerable to concussive injury with a protracted and different trajectory of recovery than that of adults. Thus, there is a critical need to enhance understanding of how concussion affects EF in youth. Objective: To investigate the effects of age, gender and concussion history (i.e. concussion incidence, recency, severity) on EF in youth hockey players. Methods: This 3-year cross-sectional and longitudinal multiple cohort study examined data from 211 hockey players of 8–15 years of age. Mixed-effects modelling was used to examine the influence of age, gender and concussion on EF in youth athletes. Findings: Baseline analyses revealed significant age and gender effects on measures of EF. Multiple effects of concussion history on measures of cognitive flexibility (F = 2.48, p = 0.03) and psychomotor speed (F = 2.59, p = 0.04) were found. Implications: This study highlights the impact of age, gender and concussion on EF in youth. These findings provide foundational knowledge to better manage cognitive sequelae following sports-related concussion.