Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of knowledge and plaque scores in school children before and after health education

Background: Health education is a process of transmission of knowledge and skills necessary for improvement in quality of life. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the oral hygiene related knowledge and plaque scores of 12-year-old school children in Belgaum city before and after health education. Methods: Three schools of Belgaum city were randomly selected and assigned into one of three health educational groups – group I (audiovisual aids), group II (chalk and blackboard) and group III (no health education). Oral health related knowledge and plaque scores were assessed in all the groups before and after health education. Results: The mean knowledge score before intervention in group I was 7.94, in group II was 7.86 and in group III was 7.74 (P=0.86). After intervention, the mean knowledge score was 14.42 in group I, 12.7 in group II and 9.58 in group III (P<0.001). Plaque scores in the three groups were similar and statistically nonsignificant at baseline. After the oral health education, the mean plaque scores were 0.627 in group I, 0.8826 in group II and 1.0156 in group III. Within the group comparisons revealed a statistically improved oral hygiene with decreased plaque scores in all the three groups. Conclusion: Health education by audiovisual aids could be an effective preventive measure against plaque-related oral diseases.
Mode of Action: Disruption of Brain Cell Replication, Second Messenger, and Neurotransmitter Systems During Development Leading to Cognitive Dysfunction—Developmental Neurotoxicity of Nicotine

Developmental exposure to nicotine in rats results in neurobehavioral effects such as reduced locomotor and cognitive function. Key events in the animal mode of action (MOA) include binding to the nicotinic cholinergic receptor during prenatal and/or early postnatal development. This leads to premature onset of cell differentiation at the expense of cell replication, which leads to brain cell death or structural alterations in regional brain areas. Other events include an initial increase followed by a decrease in adenyl cyclase activity, as well as effects on the noradrenergic, dopaminergic, and serotonergic neurotransmitter systems. Because the nicotine receptor is also present in the developing human brain and the underlying biology for DNA synthesis and cell signaling is comparable, this MOA is likely to be relevant for humans. Although the effects of nicotine exposure in developing humans is not well documented, nicotine exposure as a result of cigarette smoking during pregnancy is associated with several physiological and behavioral outcomes that are reminiscent of the effects of nicotine alone in animal models. As data become available with the advent of the use of the nicotine patch in pregnant humans, the question as to the relative importance of smoking per se versus nicotine alone may be determined.
Structural characterization of the 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ion pair using ab initio methods.

Ab initio theoretical methods are used to investigate the gas-phase ion pairs of the ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride. Multiple stable conformers with the chloride anion positioned (in-plane) around the imidazolium ring or above the C2-H bond are determined. The relative energy ordering of the conformers is examined at the B3LYP, MP2, and CCSD(T) levels. Zero-point energies, BSSE, and basis set effects are examined. For accurate results, correlation (dispersion) effects must be included. The most stable conformers are essentially degenerate and have the chloride H-bonding to, or lying above, the C2-H bond. Other conformers are found to lie approximately 30 and approximately 60 kJ mol(-1) higher in energy. Results are compared with those from recent simulations and experimental studies. The effect of the chloride anion on rotation of the butyl chain is investigated and found to lower some rotational barriers while enhancing others. The origin of the rotational barriers is determined. The number and type of hydrogen bonds formed between the imidazolium cation and chloride anion is found to vary significantly among conformers. No evidence of a possible intra C(alkyl)-H.pi interaction is obtained; however, hints of a Cl.pi interaction are found. The vibrational spectrum of each conformer is examined, and the origin of multiple (H-bonding) features in the vibrational spectrum of the ionic liquid explained.
Revisiting the Cross Entropy Method with Applications in Stochastic Global Optimization and Reinforcement Learning

In this paper, we provide a new algorithm for the problem of stochastic global optimization where only noisy versions of the objective function are available. The algorithm is inspired by the well known cross entropy (CE) method. The algorithm takes the shape of a multi-timescale stochastic approximation algorithm, where we reuse the previous samples based on discounted averaging, and hence it saves the overall computational and storage cost. We provide proof of the stability and the global optimization property of our algorithm. The algorithm shows good performance on the noisy versions of global optimization benchmarks and outperforms a state-of-the-art algorithm for non-linear function approximation in reinforcement learning.
Antecedents of Store Footfall and Loyalty: An Investigation from an Integrated Perspective

With retailing landscape becoming more competitive and shoppers emerging as more enlightened and demanding customers, it becomes imperative for the retail store management to be cognizant of factors that impact customers' visits and loyalty to retail stores. In view of past studies lacking a holistic antecedent-consequence perspective, the present paper proposes an integrated framework for examining direct as well as indirect effects of variables explored in the past studies. It also reports findings emerging from the empirical study carried out by the authors in this connection. The paper ends with providing managerial implications and directions for future research in the area.
Single-chain Fv-streptavidin substantially improved therapeutic index in multistep targeting directed at disialoganglioside GD2.

UNLABELLED Multistep targeting can improve the therapeutic index of antibody-based targeting, particularly relevant to pediatric tumors where acute toxicity and late effects of treatment are major concerns. Neuroblastoma is uniquely suited for such investigations because of its abundance of surface ganglioside GD2. METHODS 5F11scFv (scFv = single-chain variable fragment) was constructed from the variable regions of the heavy (V(H)) and kappa-light (V(L)) chain complementary DNA (cDNA) of anti-GD2 IgM hybridoma 5F11 and ligated to full-length streptavidin cDNA for expression in Escherichia coli. Purified 5F11-scFv-streptavidin (5F11-scFv-SA) was a homotetramer and showed comparable avidity to 5F11 IgM and a 30-fold improvement over monomeric scFv. Biodistribution of 5F11-scFv-SA was studied in nude mice xenografted with neuroblastoma LAN-1. Twenty-four hours after intravenous injection of 300-900 microg 5F11-scFv-SA, 150-450 microg of a thiogalactoside-containing clearing agent, (Gal-NAc)(16)-alpha-S-C(5)H(10)-NH-LC-N-Me-biotin (molecular weight, 8652), were administered intravenously, followed by approximately 2.5 microg (1.85-3.7 MBq) (111)In-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid-biotin ((111)In-DOTA-biotin) intravenously 4 h later and clocked as time 0. RESULTS Tumor uptake (percentage of injected dose per gram [%ID/g]) at 2 h was 7 %ID/g and decayed with a half-life of 72 h, whereas blood %ID/g rapidly decreased to <1/500 of that of tumor after the first 24 h. The tumor-to-nontumor (T/NT) ratio at 72 h was high (median, 106; range, 3.4 [kidney] to 1660 [blood]). When the area under the radioactivity curve was computed, the T/NT organ ratio was favorable (4.8 for kidney and 162 for blood). When human and murine tumors were surveyed, the T/NT ratio of (111)In-DOTA-biotin uptake correlated with their levels of GD2 expression as assayed by flow cytometry. Biotinylated polypeptides (bovine serum albumin and vasointestinal peptides) achieved selective tumor targeting when the multistep strategy was applied. CONCLUSION Improvement in the T/NT ratio using pretargeting strategy may increase the efficacy and safety of scFv-based approaches in cancer therapy. Additionally, since biotinylated polypeptides can be rendered tumor selective, a large repertoire of agents can potentially be explored.
Risks of Prostitution: When the Person Is the Product

In the traditional model of consumer risk, the product that is consumed is understood to be the agent that is imbued with risks. In prostitution, it is the woman who is being consumed as a commodity who is at great risk, in spite of the fact that prostitution is sometimes (erroneously) described as “sex between consenting adults. ” Prostitution occurs because the person being consumed as product would not consent to sex with the buyer unless he paid for it. Thus, the notion that it is the consumer who is at risk for harm via consumption of a product is sometimes inappropriate and the model itself needs to be reframed. This is the case with prostitution, where the prostituted person is at far greater risk than the sex buyer or the pimp.
Management Control and Employee-Driven Innovation

Organizations increasingly empower their employees to conduct local experimentation and generate innovation ideas. The aim of this dissertation is to understand the role of management control mechanisms in motivating and managing employee-driven innovation. Specifically, I provide empirical evidence – both quantitative and qualitative – on the specific channels and mechanisms through which employee-driven innovation is facilitated within real-world settings. The first chapter of my dissertation is a field study in a gaming company where I examine how innovation ideas are generated and selected. I provide details on the various channels through which employee-driven innovation occurs, as well as the management control mechanisms used to manage employee-driven innovation. The rich descriptive evidence enabled me to uncover important themes in the management control mechanisms that balance innovation and execution. The second chapter is based on my job market paper (“Boss, Cut Me Some Slack: Control and Innovation in a Multitasking Environment”) which examines the problem of motivating innovation in the presence of existing execution tasks. Using employeeand project-level data from a software company, I examine the relationship between reduced time pressure on execution tasks and employee-level innovation by exploiting variations in the extent to which
A novel DDPG method with prioritized experience replay

Recently, a state-of-the-art algorithm, called deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG), has achieved good performance in many continuous control tasks in the MuJoCo simulator. To further improve the efficiency of the experience replay mechanism in DDPG and thus speeding up the training process, in this paper, a prioritized experience replay method is proposed for the DDPG algorithm, where prioritized sampling is adopted instead of uniform sampling. The proposed DDPG with prioritized experience replay is tested with an inverted pendulum task via OpenAI Gym. The experimental results show that DDPG with prioritized experience replay can reduce the training time and improve the stability of the training process, and is less sensitive to the changes of some hyperparameters such as the size of replay buffer, minibatch and the updating rate of the target network.
Total and coronary heart disease mortality in relation to major risk factors--Quebec cardiovascular study.

The relationships of blood pressure, smoking, serum cholesterol and education levels on total and coronary artery disease (CAD) mortality were evaluated in 4576 Quebec men aged 35 to 64 years, free from overt CAD at entry and followed for 12 years. From January 1974 to January 1986, there were 417 deaths, 131 due to CAD. A progressive increase in total and CAD mortality was observed from quintile 3 to 5 for both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. In comparison to quintile 1, the adjusted relative risks of quintiles 4 and 5 for systolic blood pressure were significantly elevated (2 P less than 0.01), being 1.5 and 2.0 for total mortality, and 2.6 and 3.5 for CAD mortality, respectively. The relative risks of quintiles 4 and 5 for diastolic blood pressure were also significantly elevated (2 P less than 0.04), being 1.5 and 1.6 for total mortality and 1.9 and 2.7 for CAD mortality, respectively. In comparison to those who never smoked, the relative risks of smoking one to 20, and 21 and more cigarettes per day, were 2.1 (2 P less than 0.003) and 3.1 (2 P less than 0.0001) for overall mortality, and 2.2 (2 P less than 0.08) and 3.5 (2 P less than 0.002) for CAD mortality. Men who had discontinued smoking at least one year before the study, had a relative risk not different from those who had never smoked. Serum cholesterol and education levels were not significantly associated with total or CAD mortality. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Retention strategies and predictors of attrition in an urban pediatric asthma study

Background The Urban Environment and Childhood Asthma (URECA) study is a multicenter prospective birth cohort study designed to examine factors related to the development of childhood asthma and allergies in an inner-city population. The retention of these participants has been challenging due to high mobility, inconsistent phone service, custody issues, and stressful life situations. Purpose In this article, we describe the specific retention challenges we encountered during the first 2 years of follow-up in URECA and the strategies we utilized to address them. We also examine how selected maternal characteristics and other factors are related to retention and missed study visits. Methods Strategies implemented to engage participants included: collecting updated and alternative contact information, after-hours phone calls to participants, culturally competent staff, flexible study event scheduling, clinic visit transportation, quarterly newsletters, retention events, drop-in home visits, and cell phone reimbursements. An internally developed web-based data management system enabled close monitoring by site teams and the coordinating center. The rate of deactivations was calculated using survival analysis. Characteristics of active and deactivated participants were compared using the chi-squared test with a Cochran—Mantel — Haenszel adjustment for study site. The proportion of missed visits of the total expected in the first 2 years was calculated and compared by family characteristics using an ANOVA model or a trend test controlling for study site. All analyses were performed using SAS version 9.1 (Cary, NC). Results The 2-year retention rate was 89%. Participation in the first study event predicted subsequent engagement in study activities. Mothers who did not complete the first visit were more likely to miss future events (46.1% vs. 8.9%, p<0.0001) and to be deactivated (38.5% vs. 4.5%, p<0.0001). Mothers under 18 years of age were more likely to leave the study compared to older mothers (22.7% vs. 10.1%, p = 0.02). Also, mothers who were married missed fewer events than those not married (8.8% vs. 15.6%, p = 0.01). In addition, deactivations were more common when the child had entered daycare by 3 months of age (10.9% vs. 3.6%, p = 0.05). Limitations The URECA population is predominantly minority, thus our findings might not be generalizable to other populations. Furthermore, we may not be able to observe the effects that might exist in a more diverse population. For example, 86% of the mothers are unmarried, making it difficult to reliably examine the effect of marital status. Conclusion In research, successfully engaging and retaining participants is essential for achieving the study objectives. Identifying factors related to missed visits and deactivations are the initial step in recognizing the potential at-risk participants and can enable the design of targeted strategies to retain participants. Clinical Trials 2010; 7: 400—410. http://ctj.sagepub. com
Using multiplication to evaluate HCI degradation in HV-SOI devices

In this work we present an alternative Hot Carrier Injection (HCI) characterisation technique for SOI based HV devices based on the analysis of the avalanche current at sub-threshold gate bias as a function of applied drain voltage (multiplication). This technique is shown to enable an accurate extraction of the electrical field distribution within the device which, when used during HCI stress, pinpoints the exact location of the charge injection without need of extra contacts, field plates or special measurement structures.
Women’s Inheritance Rights and Bargaining Power: Evidence from Kenya

This paper investigates the human capital effects of a legal reform granting Kenyan women equal inheritance rights. I employ a difference-in-differences strategy, exploiting variation in prereform inheritance rights across religious groups. I find that women exposed to the reform are more educated, less likely to undergo genital mutilation, and more likely to receive prenatal care and that they delay marriage and childbearing. They also tend to participate more in family decisions, suggesting improved bargaining power as the main channel. These findings suggest that legal recognition of women’s inheritance rights can be beneficial for women even in the context of poor enforcement.
Optimal power allocation for channel estimation in spatial modulation

This work investigates the impact of power allocation for channel estimation (CE) in spatial modulation (SM). SM is a unique single-stream multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission technique that achieves spatial multiplexing gains. While SM completely avoids inter-channel interference, a single active antenna leads to a challenge for CE, i.e., all transmit antennas have to be activated sequentially to send the pilot signal. More time as well as energy is therefore consumed for CE. Driven by this motivation, we propose a closed-form optimal power allocation (OPA) for SM in this paper. Regardless of the SM transceiver structure, the optimal solution only depends on the pilot sequence length and the ratio between the number of pilots and the number of total symbols. Simulations results show that the bit error ratio performance of OPA-based SM tightly approaches the case of perfect channel state information with a gap of less than 0.8 dB.
Scanning electron microscopy and fungal culture of hoof horn from horses suffering from onychomycosis.

Horn samples were taken from the hooves of eight horses with clinical signs of equine onychomycosis in at least one hoof capsule. None of the horses had a documented mycological history. The predominant alterations of the horn capsules were sand cracks, white line disease, brittleness (especially around the nail holes), parakeratosis and bruising. The horn samples were stored in sterile tubes for transportation and transferred onto Sabouraud Dextrose Agar and dermatophyte test agar for mycological examination within 6 h. Fungal cultures were incubated for 30 days at room temperature. Fungal identification was based on colonial morphology and microscopic examination of conidia. Horn samples were also stored at -80°C until used for scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The fungal culture revealed that the hoof horn from all eight horses was infected with keratinophilic fungi. The keratinopathogenic fungi Trichophyton spp and Scopulariopsis brevicaulis were also detected in six horses. SEM revealed severe alterations of the horn structure in horn samples infected with keratinopathogenic fungi compared to horn samples from a sound hoof. The most evident changes were deterioration of the tubular structure of the horn wall, disruption of the horny layers, superficial lysis of cornified cells and the presence of fungal elements. Samples without dermatophyte or Scopulariopsis infection, in contrast, were similar to healthy hoof horn.
Alternatively spliced Spalax heparanase inhibits extracellular matrix degradation, tumor growth, and metastasis

Heparanase is an endoglycosidase that degrades heparan sulfate (HS) at the cell surface and in the extracellular matrix. Heparanase is expressed mainly by cancer cells, and its expression is correlated with increased tumor aggressiveness, metastasis, and angiogenesis. Here, we report the cloning of a unique splice variant (splice 36) of heparanase from the subterranean blind mole rat (Spalax). This splice variant results from skipping part of exon 3, exons 4 and 5, and part of exon 6 and functions as a dominant negative to the wild-type enzyme. It inhibits HS degradation, suppresses glioma tumor growth, and decreases experimental B16–BL6 lung colonization in a mouse model. Intriguingly, Spalax splice variant 7 of heparanase (which results from skipping of exon 7) is devoid of enzymatic activity, but unlike splice 36 it enhances tumor growth. Our results demonstrate that alternative splicing of heparanase regulates its enzymatic activity and might adapt the heparanase function to the fluctuating normoxic–hypoxic subterranean environment that Spalax experiences. Development of anticancer drugs designed to suppress tumor growth, angiogenesis, and metastasis is a major challenge, of which heparanase inhibition is a promising approach. We anticipate that the heparanase splicing model, evolved during 40 million years of Spalacid adaptation to underground life, would pave the way for the development of heparanase-based therapeutic modalities directed against angiogenesis, tumor growth, and metastasis.
STRATEGIC PLANNING AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT FOR PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN SULAWESI, INDONESIA; QUANTITATIVE APPROACH

The purpose of the study is to examine the real process of strategic planning and performance measurement within public universities in Sulawesi, Indonesia. The specific objective is to focus on strategic planning, performance measurement and associate the findings with the objectives of Higher Education Long Term Strategy from Indonesian Directorate General Higher Education. Quantitative methodology approach with an empirical survey was conducted based on questionnaires. The findings revealed that the process of strategic planning in public universities was consistent with the Higher Education Long Term Strategy guidelines. However, public universities faced challenges to their achievement of all targets. The relationships between strategic planning and performance measurement were positively related, however, the organisational performance could be improved if programs in strategic planning could be more fully implemented. This influenced the refinement of the balanced scorecard approach into a performance measurement model for public universities. The study culminated in the development of a performance measurement model.
Impact of Institutional Investors’ Holding Ratio on R&D and Corporate Innovation Ability—Based on Empirical Research of Growth Enterprise Market

This article is intended to explore the influence of institutional investors’ holding ratio on enterprises’ innovation, considering RD pressure-resistance institutional shareholders’ holdings ratio had the significant positive influence on corporate RD the pressure-sensitive institutional investors have no significant impacts on corporate RD the current R&D intensity has no significant effect on the one-period lag innovation ability of the enterprise.