Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Serum Transaminases in Children with Wilson’s Disease

Objectives: The response of serum transaminase levels to penicillamine and zinc treatment in Wilson’s disease is poorly understood. The aim of this multicenter retrospective study was to evaluate transaminase levels after penicillamine and zinc treatment in children with Wilson’s disease. Patients and Methods: One hundred and nine patients with Wilson’s disease (median age at diagnosis, 7.2 years; range, 1 to 18 years), treated for at least 12 months and observed in the last 20 years at 11 Paediatric Departments were studied. Clinical, laboratory and histologic features at diagnosis and initial treatment were recorded. Efficacy parameters were normalization of serum transaminase level and improved clinical and/or laboratory signs. One hundred and two patients had clinical or laboratory signs of liver disease. Results: Fifty-six of 87 patients (64%) given penicillamine normalized serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels within a median of 17 months (range, 2 to 96 months). Of the 29 patients with persistent hyper-ALT, 17 (59%) switched to zinc; only four of these normalized ALT on zinc within a median period of 38 months (range, 7 to 48 months). Eleven (50%) of the 22 patients given zinc alone normalized ALT within a median period of 6 months (range, 1 to 36 months). Of the 11 patients with persistent hyper-ALT, five switched to penicillamine. Three of the five normalized ALT within a median period of 6 months (range, 6 to 9 months). Overall, in penicillamine-treated and zinc-treated patients with persistent hypertransaminasemia, ALT decreased from a basal median of 236 IU/L (range, 54 to 640 IU/L) to a median of 78 (range, 46 to 960 IU/L) at the end of follow-up (P = 0.0245). Poor compliance was suspected in only 10% of cases. No predictive factor of persistent hypertransaminasemia was identified. Liver disease did not worsen in any patient during the study. Conclusions: Although the efficacy of penicillamine and zinc is well documented, it is notable that a subset of children with Wilson’s disease-related liver disease (36%) had hypertransaminasemia despite appropriate treatment with penicillamine or zinc.
EFFECTS OF CONCENTRIC DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGIES ON GROWTH OF COSMETIC FIRMS IN NAKURU COUNTY, KENYA

Diversification enhances firm performance and shareholder value. This study assessed the effects of concentric diversification strategies on the growth of the cosmetic firms in Nakuru County. The objectives were Product and market diversification. Descript ive research design was adopted with a target population of 210 cosmetic firm owners. 68 participants were randomly sampled and administered with semi-structured questionnaires. Collected data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings established that offering unique products enhances competitive advantage (mean=4.486), cosmetic product features determines differentiation level (mean=4.086), market penetration and competition have drastically increased (mean=4.571), cosmetic firms regularly adopt new strategies because of uncertainty (mean=3.657), cosmetic firms have not invested adequately on innovation (mean=3.486), functional diversification vary because of strategic differences (mean=3.829). The study established significant relationships between product diversification (r=0.608), market diversification (r=0.713) and growth of cosmetic firms. The study concluded that related diversification increases growth of cosmetic firms, offering unique products enhances competitive advantage, diversifying into new lines gains new market share, cosmetic firms are always adopting new diversification strategies. Thus, cosmetic firms International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, United Kingdom Licensed under Creative Common Page 917 should focus more on diversifying into related product lines; risk analysis should be conducted before implementing market diversification, follow ups and after sales services should be boosted.
THE ANALYSIS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF CHANGE IN NET INCOME ON CONVENTIONAL BANKS IN INDONESIA

The purposes of this research include : (1) to examine the determinants of the NPL to changes in the net income of a conventional bank in Indonesia, (2) to examine the determinants of the IRR to changes in the net profit of conventional banks in Indonesia, (3) to examine the determinants of LDR to changes in net profit of the conventional bank in Indonesia, (4) to examine the determinants of ROA to changes in the net profit of conventional banks in Indonesia, (5) to examine the determinants of NIM to changes in the net profit of conventional banks in Indonesia, (6) to examine the determinants of ROA to changes in the net profit of conventional banks in Indonesia, and (7) to examine the determinants of the CAR to changes in the net profit of conventional banks in Indonesia. The Data used in this research is secondary data. The population in this study were all conventional banks listed in Bank Indonesia period 2011-2017. Using the purposive sampling method as the sampling technique. A total sample of 82 conventional bank. Data analysis method used is multiple linear regression analysis. The results of the test and data analysis performed with SPSS 21 shows that: NPL, IRR, ROA, and NIM is the determinant of the change in net income of the public bank, however, LDR, OER, and CAR is not a determinant of change in net income of the public bank in Indonesia. JEL: G21, G24, E64 Article visualizations:
Drinking motives among heavy-drinking veterans with and without posttraumatic stress disorder

Abstract Objective: This study examined patterns of drinking motives endorsed by heavy drinking veterans who either did or did not meet criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Method: Data were collected from 69 veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom or Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) who had screened positive for hazardous drinking. The sample was 91.3% male and 65.2% Caucasian. Based on a structured interview, 58% of the sample met criteria for PTSD. Results: The PTSD group scored higher than the non-PTSD group on scales measuring drinking to cope with anxiety and depression and similarly to the non-PTSD group on scales measuring social, enhancement and conformity motives. Coping and social motives were significantly correlated with adverse alcohol consequences. Overall, the PTSD group showed stronger relations between coping scales and aspects of alcohol misuse, relative to the non-PTSD group. Conclusion: These findings suggest first, that among heavy drinking OEF/OIF veterans there is a high base rate of PTSD. Second, coping motives are frequently reported in this population, and they seem to be related to a more severe pattern of alcohol-related consequences. These findings underscore the importance of assessing the interplay between PTSD and substance abuse in trauma-exposed samples.
Imatinib Mesylate Pharmacokinetics Before and After Sleeve Gastrectomy in a Morbidly Obese Patient with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Imatinib is widely used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia and gastrointestinal stromal tumors. The agent, administered orally, has approximately 98% oral bioavailability, achieves maximum plasma concentration approximately 2–4 hours after ingestion, and has a plasma half‐life of approximately 18 hours. As maintaining an adequate plasma imatinib concentration is essential to achieving a favorable therapeutic response, it is important to determine whether gastrointestinal surgery, pathologic conditions, or anatomic changes negatively affect imatinib absorption, and thereby result in subtherapeutic plasma imatinib concentrations. We describe a 36‐year‐old, morbidly obese woman with chronic myeloid leukemia who received treatment with α‐interferon and cytarabine over 5 years. Her chemotherapy was then switched to imatinib 400 mg/day because she failed to achieve a molecular response with the other two agents. A complete molecular response was achieved with imatinib. Four years later, she underwent a sleeve gastrectomy while receiving imatinib. Imatinib plasma pharmacokinetic values were assessed before and on four occasions during the year after the sleeve gastrectomy. The patient's trough plasma concentration before surgery (1558 ng/ml) was consistent with those found in the literature (≤ 1000 ng/ml), whereas her trough concentrations after surgery were 46–60% lower (629–836 ng/ml) than the preoperative value. Despite this, the patient remained in complete molecular remission for 1 year after surgery. Monitoring plasma imatinib concentrations is recommended in morbidly obese patients with chronic myeloid leukemia or gastrointestinal stromal tumors who undergo gastric procedures. Additional pharmacokinetic studies, however, are needed in these patients.
Méthode et modèle DFM pour le choix des procédés et l'intégration des contraintes de fabrication vers l'émergence de la solution produit

Le travail propose dans ce memoire s’inclut dans un cadre general d’ingenierie simultanee. Nous avons adopte en particulier une demarche de conception integree et plus particulierement de conception pour la fabrication DFM qui permet, en plus de la simultaneite des activites, une integration de contraintes de fabrication. Ce travail est motive par un besoin de creer des outils d’aide a la conception qui explorent les solutions de conception et identifient les modifications et les specifications a apporter pour etre en conformite avec les contraintes du cycle de vie du produit et ceci au moment meme de la conception. Dans ce cadre general, nous presentons une demarche de choix des procedes et d’integration des contraintes de fabrication. Cette demarche se base sur deux elements : une methode de choix des procedes et d’integration de leurs contraintes et un modele du produit. Ce modele est nomme modele d’interface produit-procedes. Il utilise les entites peau et squelette et permet la gestion simultanee des donnees du produit et des procedes de fabrication et de leurs contraintes. En resultat, nous avons l’emergence d’un ensemble de solutions du produit qui ne comportent pas uniquement des donnees geometriques telles que la forme et la variation de la forme mais aussi d’autres donnees du produit comme la rugosite et l’intervalle de tolerance. Cette approche permet de reellement justifier les donnees et la geometrie du produit a partir de l’expertise fabrication
Information bias and trust in bitcoin speculation

The Internet pervades modern life, offering up opportunities to connect, inform and be informed. As the range and number of sources for information online explode, how people select and interpret information has become a pertinent area for study, not least in light of the prevalence of fake-news. People are well known to act upon information they believe to be trustworthy and where the decision to act incurs risk, an inability to accurately select and assess the credibility of information presents a challenge. Bitcoin, the nascent crypto-currency, presents a domain within which profound financial risk abounds. Even for those armed with experience and knowledge there are numerous challenges to assessing risk, especially as sources of Bitcoin information can be observed to be partisan and of questionable accuracy. Within the domain of bitcoin speculation, this thesis asks the central research question of: are people able to select and correctly evaluate information they might rely upon to make decisions? In addressing this research question, this thesis offers - through the application of a psychological model of informational trust to bitcoin speculators - two fundamental contributions: Firstly, that these users are able to identify relevant news without a reliance upon confirmation bias. Secondly, that a notable percentage of users are not evaluating the credibility of online news by expertly interpreting the fundamentals of information but, rather deferring their trust to either the source news website or a more broad trust of information on the Internet. For these users, chance or luck may mean that they are basing their decisions upon factually accurate news. But this is a position which makes them particularly vulnerable to fake-news where it is spread via sources which they might trust. This position of susceptibility provides evidence to support further security research of both the prevalence of, and counter-measures for fake-news.
Does IFRS Adoption Enhance the Accounting Comparability of Emerging Market

The purpose of this study is to examine the comparability level of accounting information for Indonesian firms before and after accounting standards change during IFRS convergence in this country. This study compares the periods before and after significant revisions of the accounting standards, by examining the reported financial information from 2005 to 2012. To analyze the change of accounting comparability level, this study measures the similarity of accounting functions using De Franco et al. (2011) model and the similarity of information content using Yip and Young (2012) model. From the test of using those models, this study finds that the period after recent revisions of accounting standards does not have a significant different of the accounting comparability level, relatively compared with the previous period. The accounting comparability measured as similarity of accounting functions does not improve significantly after recent revisions of the accounting standards. Similarly, the measurement based on the similarity of accounting information content provides evidence that the latter period does not have a better level of accounting comparability. Index Terms IFRS convergence; accounting information comparability; Indonesia.
Modulation and function of the autaptic connections of layer V fast spiking interneurons in the rat neocortex

Neocortical fast‐spiking (FS) basket cells form dense autaptic connections that provide inhibitory GABAergic feedback after each action potential. It has been suggested that these autaptic connections are used because synaptic communication is sensitive to neuromodulation, unlike the voltage‐sensitive potassium channels in FS cells. Here we show that layer V FS interneurons form autaptic connections that are largely perisomatic, and without perturbing intracellular Cl− homeostasis, that perisomatic GABAergic currents have a reversal potential of −78 ± 4 mV. Using variance–mean analysis, we demonstrate that autaptic connections have a mean of 14 release sites (range 4–26) with a quantal amplitude of 101 ± 16 pA and a probability of release of 0.64 (Vcommand=−70 mV, [Ca2+]o= 2 mm, [Mg2+]o= 1 mm). We found that autaptic GABA release is sensitive to GABAB and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, but not a range of other classical neuromodulators. Our results indicate that GABA transporters do not regulate FS interneuron autapses, yet autaptically released GABA does not act at GABAB or extrasynaptic GABAA receptors. This research confirms that the autaptic connections of FS cells are indeed susceptible to modulation, though only via specific GABAergic and cholinergic mechanisms.
Medically adaptive role based access control model (MAR-BAC)

The development of technology gives opportunity to reach information in a reasonably short amount of time. Ease of access to information does not only create positive consequences, but also provides an easy way to access to information by unauthorized parties. As a result, the requirement of protecting data from different aspects of security turns into a significant issue of the information systems. Another issue in such systems is safeguarding the access permissions in order not to allow public accesses to private data. Protecting the data from disclosure, tempering or destruction as well as prevention of unauthorized use of any resource are important aspects of the security in medical environments since the medical data is private data. In this thesis, we introduce a novel access control mechanism in order to safeguard privacy of medical data of patients in dynamic environments. Our access control model, called MAR-BAC (Medically Adaptive Role Based Access Control), takes advantages from role-based access control (RBAC) and criticality-aware access control (CAAC). Our original approach allows the medical professionals with di erent roles to be granted access to medical records of patients automatically and without explicit request in case of a medical emergency. In this context, we design secure and privacy aware protocols from initial login to patients' medical data transmission and retrieval by the medical professionals. We mostly take a formal approach in our access control model definitions and procedures. The medical awareness feature of our MAR-BAC model comes from the fact that medical data of the patients are analysed in near real-time. Each such analysis yields automatic updates in the access control rules for the sake of urgent medical attention. We carry out simulation based performance evaluation to determine the delay characteristics of our MAR-BAC model. We also analyse the scalability of the system. Our results show that MAR-BAC scales linearly under moderate system load. Again under moderate load and in a hospital with 500 inpatients, the maximum end-to-end delay to react a medical emergency is less than 12 seconds.
Measurement of diabetic wounds with optical coherence tomography-based air-jet indentation system and a material testing system.

OBJECTIVE Material testing system is a conventional but destructive method for measuring the biomechanical properties of wound tissues in basic research. The recently developed optical coherence tomography-based air-jet indentation system is a non-destructive method for measuring these properties of soft tissues in a non-contact manner. The aim of the study was to examine the correlation between the biomechanical properties of wound tissues measured by the two systems. METHOD Young male Sprague-Dawley rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetic were wounded by a 6 mm biopsy punch on their hind limbs. The biomechanical properties of wound tissues were assessed with the two systems on post-wounding days 3, 7, 10, 14, and 21. Wound sections were stained with picro-sirius red for analysis on the collagen fibres. Data obtained on the different days were charted to obtain the change in biomechanical properties across the time points, and then pooled to examine the correlation between measurements made by the two devices. Qualitative analysis to determine any correlation between indentation stiffness measured by the air-jet indentation system and the orientation of collagen fibres. RESULTS The indentation stiffness is significantly negatively correlated to the maximum load, maximum tensile stress, and Young's modulus by the material testing system (all p<0.05). The orientation of collagen changes with the indentation stiffness over time. CONCLUSION Our findings support the use of optical coherence tomography-based air-jet indentation system to evaluate the biomechanical properties of wounds in a non-contact manner. It is a potential clinical device to examine the biomechanical properties of chronic wounds in vivo in a repeatable manner.
Cognitive impulsivity and the development of delinquency from late childhood to early adulthood: Moderating effects of parenting behavior and peer relationships

Abstract Cognitive impulsivity may increase children's risk of developing delinquent behavior. However, the influence of cognitive impulsivity may depend on social environmental risk factors. This study examined the moderating effect of late childhood parenting behaviors and peer relations on the influence of children's cognitive impulsivity on delinquency development across adolescence and early adulthood, while taking possible interactions with intelligence also into account. Delinquent behavior of 412 boys from the Pittsburgh Youth Study was measured annually from ages 13 to 29 years with official arrest records. Cognitive impulsivity (neurocognitive test scores) and intelligence were assessed at age 12–13. Parenting behaviors (persistence of discipline, positive reinforcement, and parental knowledge), peer delinquency, and peer conventional activities were assessed between ages 10 and 13 years. Results showed that, while controlling for intelligence, the influence of youths' cognitive impulsivity on delinquency depended on their parents' behaviors. An interaction was found among cognitive impulsivity, intelligence, and peer delinquency, but instead of cognitive impulsivity, the effect of intelligence on delinquency was particularly moderated. Overall, findings suggest that when there was moderation, high cognitive impulsivity and low intelligence were associated with an increased probability for engaging in delinquency predominantly among boys in a good social environment, but not in a poor social environment.
Financial performance enhancing strategies: Small family firms vs. small non-family firms

Advancing prior research on the key determinants of firm financial performance, we identify the internal performance-enhancing strategies (i.e., raising employee commitment and investment in employee training) and external performance-enhancing strategies (i.e., boosting the learning orientation and adopting an emphasis on marketing). We argue that these performance-enhancing strategies will be positively associated with sales and profits, for both small family firms and small non-family firms, yet the effect will be stronger for family firms that often lag behind in these management domains. We test our hypotheses on a sample including 36 family firms and 28 non-family firms. While some hypotheses received support (e.g., investment in employee training was positively associated with sales in family firms), other hypotheses did not receive support (e.g., employee commitment was not associated with sales in family firms, and emphasis on marketing was negatively associated with sales in family firms). We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our study and outline directions for future research on firm financial performance.
Endogenous dynamics of institutional change

A parsimonious set of mechanisms explains how and under which conditions behavioral deviations build into cascades that reshape institutional frameworks from the bottom up, even if institutional innovations initially conflict with the legally codified rules of the game. Specifically, we argue that this type of endogenous institutional change emerges from an interplay between three factors: the utility gain agents associate with decoupling from institutional equilibria, positive externalities derived from similar decoupling among one’s neighbors, and accommodation by state actors. Where endogenous institutional change driven by societal action is sufficiently robust, it can induce political actors to accommodate and eventually to legitimize institutional innovations from below. We provide empirical illustrations of our theory in two disparate institutional contexts—the rise of private manufacturing in the Yangzi delta region of China since 1978, focusing on two municipalities in that region, and the diffusion of gay bars in San Francisco in the 1960s and 1970s. We validate our theory with an agent-based simulation.