Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationships between contaminant levels in marine sediments and their biological effects on embryos of oysters, Crassostrea gigas

Surface sediment samples from 10 coastal locations were analyzed with respect to their physical and chemical characteristics as well as their biological quality. The toxicity of the decanted fresh and freeze‐dried sediments and of their elutriates was assessed by bioassays with embryos of the oysters Crassostrea gigas. The concentration inhibiting normal embryogenesis in 20% of the larvae (EC20) was used as a measure of toxicity and compared with the physical and chemical properties of the sediments and elutriates by principal components analysis. Decanted whole sediments were one to four orders of magnitude more toxic than their elutriates because the latter have lower contaminant concentrations. The biological effects of decanted whole sediment depended mostly on the levels of heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), while in the case of the elutriates, the toxicity was mainly correlated with the concentrations of total ammonia and of dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Freeze‐dried sediments and their elutriates were up to one order of magnitude more toxic than fresh sediments and elutriates, respectively, presumably because the freeze‐drying procedure increases pollutant bioavailability or causes a release of unidentified organic compounds having toxic effects.
Influence of esterified-glucomannan on performance and organ morphology, serum biochemistry and haematology in broilers exposed to individual and combined mycotoxicosis (aflatoxin, ochratoxin and T-2 toxin)

1. A study was conducted to evaluate the individual and combined effects of aflatoxin B 1 (AF), ochratoxin A (OA) and T-2 toxin (T-2) on performance, organ morphology, serum biochemistry and haematology of broiler chickens and the efficacy of esterified-glucomannan (E-GM), a cell wall derivative of Saccharomyces cerevisiae 1026 in their counteraction. 2. Two dietary inclusion rates of AF (0 and 0.3 mg/kg), OA (0 and 2 mg/kg), T-2 (0 and 3 mg/kg) and E-GM (0 and 1 g/kg) were tested in a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 factorial manner on a total of 960 broiler chickens from 1 to 35 d of age in an open sided deep litter pen house. 3. Body weight and food intake were depressed by all the mycotoxins, OA being the most toxic during early life. 4. Weights of kidney and adrenals were increased by AF and OA. Liver weight was increased by AF (17.8%), while OA increased gizzard weight (14.6%) and reduced bone ash content (8.1%). T-2 toxin showed no effect on these variables. 5. Serum cholesterol content was decreased and activity of serum gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) was increased by AF and OA while serum protein content was decreased by AF. These effects were more pronounced at 21 d than at 35 d of age. Inconsistent responses were seen in the other variables: blood urea nitrogen (BUN) content, activities of serum alanine amino transferase and aspertate amino transferase. Blood haemoglobin content was depressed by AF and T-2, whereas blood coagulation time was prolonged by OA. 6. Significant interactions were observed between any 2 toxins for their additive effects on body weight, food intake, bone ash content and serum GGT activity at 21 d. Conversely, antagonistic interactions were observed among any 2 of the toxins for their effects on variables such as serum protein and serum cholesterol content. Simultaneous feeding of all 3 mycotoxins did not show increased toxicity above that seen with any 2. 7. Esterified-glucomannan increased body weight (2.26%) and food intake (1.6%), decreased weights of liver (32.5%) and adrenals (18.9%) and activity of serum GGT (8.7%), and increased serum protein (14.7%), cholesterol (21.9%), BUN (20.8%) and blood haemoglobin (3.1%) content, indicating its possible beneficial effect on mycotoxicosis in broiler chickens.
Hypocaloric Parenteral Nutrition Support in Elderly Obese Patients

Hypocaloric nutritional support has been successfully used to achieve positive nitrogen balance in obese patients. However, advanced age is associated with changes in substrate metabolism. To evaluate the efficacy of this practice in elderly patients, we retrospectively reviewed 30 obese patients requiring parenteral nutrition support. Total caloric requirements (TCR) were calculated on the basis of the Harris-Benedict equation. Patients were given a minimum of 1.5 g/kg/day protein, 75 per cent of TCR when current body weight was >120 and ≤150 per cent of ideal body weight (IBW), and 60 per cent of TCR if current body weight was >150 per cent of IBW. The patients were divided into two groups: Group I (N = 18) patients were age <60 and Group II (N = 12) patients were ≥60 years of age. Only one of the Group I patients (143.2 ± 25.7% IBW, received 18.2 ± 3.7 kcal/kg/day and 1.6 ± 0.4 g/kg/day protein), but five of the Group II patients (141.3 ± 14.4% IBW, received 18.3 ± 2.6 kcal/kg/day and 1.7 ± 0.3 g/kg/day protein), had negative nitrogen balance (P = 0.025). Apparently, elderly obese patients have limited capacity to mobilize their fat stores as energy sources and may continue to undergo protein catabolism with hypocaloric high-protein nutrition support. Therefore, this form of nutritional support should be used with caution in elderly obese patients.
A valued partner or a mere support function : the role of marketing in Software-as-a-Service SMEs

Author Riikka Pakarinen Title A valued partner or a mere support function – Marketing in Software-as-aService SMEs Subject Marketing Type of degree Master’s Thesis Time of publication August 2017 Number of pages 80 + APPENDIX Abstract Software business has undergone dramatic changes in the 21st century as the new technologies and innovations have been born and spread with a rapid pace. The buzzword of the industry is cloud computing and the Software-as-aService (SaaS) -based solutions are especially entering the mainstream. Majority of the new cloud computing firms are small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs), which have a unique way of planning and practicing marketing. The role of marketing has been argued, as the traditional theories and models of big companies are not applicable with smaller and younger counterparts and the departments are under a constant pressure to prove their value to the firm. Also, according to the prior studies, the limited or totally lacking resources and the dominating role of the owner-manager affect heavily to the marketing function and its operations in SMEs. The objective of this research was to explore the importance and role of marketing in SaaS SMEs. In addition, the study investigates how companies plan and implement marketing practices and how much of an impact does the owner-manager have in marketing decision-making. On top of this the research takes part in the discussion of servitization.Software business has undergone dramatic changes in the 21st century as the new technologies and innovations have been born and spread with a rapid pace. The buzzword of the industry is cloud computing and the Software-as-aService (SaaS) -based solutions are especially entering the mainstream. Majority of the new cloud computing firms are small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs), which have a unique way of planning and practicing marketing. The role of marketing has been argued, as the traditional theories and models of big companies are not applicable with smaller and younger counterparts and the departments are under a constant pressure to prove their value to the firm. Also, according to the prior studies, the limited or totally lacking resources and the dominating role of the owner-manager affect heavily to the marketing function and its operations in SMEs. The objective of this research was to explore the importance and role of marketing in SaaS SMEs. In addition, the study investigates how companies plan and implement marketing practices and how much of an impact does the owner-manager have in marketing decision-making. On top of this the research takes part in the discussion of servitization. The empirical data was collected conducting five semi-structured theme interviews. All of the interviewees were marketing professionals or ownermanagers of the small or medium sized companies, which provide SaaS solution in B2B market. The main finding of this study suggests that marketing is an appreciated function in cloud computing SMEs, but its’ value and worth is linked to the outcomes of the sales department.
The Chondroitin Sulfate A-binding Site of the VAR2CSA Protein Involves Multiple N-terminal Domains

Malaria during pregnancy is a major health problem for African women. The disease is caused by Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites, which accumulate in the placenta by adhering to chondroitin sulfate A (CSA). The interaction between infected erythrocytes and the placental receptor is mediated by a parasite expressed protein named VAR2CSA. A vaccine protecting pregnant women against placental malaria should induce antibodies inhibiting the interaction between VAR2CSA and CSA. Much effort has been put into defining the part of the 350 kDa VAR2CSA protein that is responsible for binding. It has been shown that full-length recombinant VAR2CSA binds specifically to CSA with high affinity, however to date no sub-fragment of VAR2CSA has been shown to interact with CSA with similar affinity or specificity. In this study, we used a biosensor technology to examine the binding properties of a panel of truncated VAR2CSA proteins. The experiments indicate that the core of the CSA-binding site is situated in three domains, DBL2X-CIDRPAM and a flanking domain, located in the N-terminal part of VAR2CSA. Furthermore, recombinant VAR2CSA subfragments containing this region elicit antibodies with high parasite adhesion blocking activity in animal immunization experiments.
HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES AND EMPLOYEES ’ INTENTION TO STAY IN THE KUALA LUMPUR HOTEL INDUSTRY

The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of human resource practices and employees’ intention to stay in the KL hotel industry. Seven human resource practices; namely recruitment and selection, training, the compensation system, performance appraisal, job security, employee empowerment, and communication were used as variables to predict such intention. A total of 340 questionnaires were distributed to employees who were currently working in two, three and four stars rating hotels. Data were analyzed by using SPSS and results indicated that all practices have significant positive relationships with employees’ intention to stay. It was also found that practices that are commonly being carried out in the KL hotel industry were communication, training, recruitment and selection, teamwork, and performance appraisal. It is hoped that the findings of this study will help hotel managers to implement these practices so that their employees remain working with them and maximize the employees’ intention to stay.
Prevalence of markers of hepatitis B in the adult German population

The prevalence of hepatitis B virus markers was investigated in 5305 individuals considered to be representative for the adult German population. After adjustment of the data according to the age and sex distribution in the whole German population an anti‐HBc prevalence of 8.71% (95% confidence interval, 7.94–9.48%) and an HBsAg carrier rate of 0.62% (95% confidence interval, 0.40–0.84%) were calculated. Anti‐HBc prevalence increased with age from 4.12% in the youngest group to 15.66% in the 61–70‐year‐old. The percentage of HBsAg carriers showed a maximum of 1.12% in the 41–50‐year‐old individuals and decreased significantly in the older age groups. 1.40% (95% confidence interval, 1.08–1.72%) of individuals had anti‐HBc only. There was a trend to higher rates of this pattern in males than in females; a significantly higher percentage of persons with anti‐HBc only was found in anti‐HBc‐positive individuals below 31 years than in older individuals. Five participants with anti‐HBc only (7.7%, or about 0.1% of the whole population) showed HBV‐DNA despite the absence of HBsAg. 3.1% of anti‐HBc positive individuals where also positive for anti‐HCV, that was significantly higher than the percentage of anti‐HCV‐positives among persons without any HBV marker (0.46%). This study provides a comprehensive picture of the current hepatitis B situation in Germany, showing new data especially on the distribution of HBsAg in the general population and on the subgroup of individuals with anti‐HBc only. J. Med. Virol. 63:96–102, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Transport via SLC 5 A 8 ( SMCT 1 ) Is Obligatory for 2-Oxothiazolidine-4-Carboxylate to Enhance Glutathione Production in Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells

METHODS. SLC5A8-mediated transport of OTC was monitored in Xenopus laevis oocytes by electrophysiological means. Saturation kinetics, Na -activation kinetics, and inhibition by ibuprofen were analyzed by monitoring OTC-induced currents as a measure of transport activity. Oxidative stress was induced in ARPE-19 cells and primary RPE cells isolated from wild type and Slc5a8 mouse retinas using H2O2, and the effects of OTC on cell death and intracellular glutathione concentration were examined.
The first 100 thrombolysis cases in a novel Scottish mesh telestroke system

Stroke thrombolysis has been a major driver for change within stroke services. However, until recently its widespread application has been limited to tertiary centres. Transfer to tertiary care can lead to significant delays in thrombolysis. We developed a novel mesh telestroke network, which allows stroke specialists to make videoconference-based thrombolysis decisions either from one of three stroke units or from home. We report data on the first 100 patients treated using this model and retrospectively review the first 100 strokes thrombolysed with tissue plasminogen activator across three stroke units. Prospectively collected data were extracted from the Stroke Audit In Lanarkshire database. Case notes were retrieved for clarification when necessary. Outcome measures were timings from symptom onset to infusion, post-thrombolysis symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage and death. Fifty-one percent of cases were assessed by telestroke link. Median symptom onset to thrombolysis was 160 min (IQR 125–190). There were two symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhages, both in patients assessed face-to-face. Overall mortality was 14%. Our experience of tissue plasminogen activator is comparable to UK data extracted from SITS-MOST in overall timings and complication rates. This model of telemedicine could be replicated to provide safe thrombolysis to areas with challenging infrastructure, geography or insufficient stroke specialist cover.
The trend odds model for ordinal data

Ordinal data appear in a wide variety of scientific fields. These data are often analyzed using ordinal logistic regression models that assume proportional odds. When this assumption is not met, it may be possible to capture the lack of proportionality using a constrained structural relationship between the odds and the cut‐points of the ordinal values. We consider a trend odds version of this constrained model, wherein the odds parameter increases or decreases in a monotonic manner across the cut‐points. We demonstrate algebraically and graphically how this model is related to latent logistic, normal, and exponential distributions. In particular, we find that scale changes in these potential latent distributions are consistent with the trend odds assumption, with the logistic and exponential distributions having odds that increase in a linear or nearly linear fashion. We show how to fit this model using SAS Proc NLMIXED and perform simulations under proportional odds and trend odds processes. We find that the added complexity of the trend odds model gives improved power over the proportional odds model when there are moderate to severe departures from proportionality. A hypothetical data set is used to illustrate the interpretation of the trend odds model, and we apply this model to a swine influenza example wherein the proportional odds assumption appears to be violated. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
EXPLORING TECHNIQUES FOR OPTIMAL FEATURE AND CLASSIFIER SELECTION FOR PROTEIN MODELING, FUNCTION, AND FOLD RECOGNITION

Identification of the tertiary structure (three dimensional structure) of a protein is a fundamental problem in biology which helps in identifying its functions. Predicting a protein’s structural class and its fold type is considered to be an intermediate step for identifying the tertiary structure of a protein. Computational methods have been applied for this application by assembling information from its structural, physicochemical and/or evolutionary properties. In this study, various schemes are discussed for improving protein structural class and fold recognition. A feature extraction technique is explored that extracts probabilistic expressions of amino acid dimers, which have varying degree of spatial separation in the primary sequences of proteins, from the Position Specific Scoring Matrix. The explored techniques have been evaluated using benchmarked datasets. In addition to identifying the tertiary structure for proteins, protein subcellular localization is an important topic in proteomics since it is related to a proteins overall function, help in the understanding of metabolic pathways, and in drug design and discovery. This study also explores the applicability of a basic approximation technique called the linear interpolation smoothing for predicting protein subcellular localizations. The proposed approach extracts features from syntactical information in protein sequences to build probabilistic profiles using dependency models, which are used in linear interpolation to determine the likelihood of a sequence to belong to a particular subcellular location.
Evaluation of conventional & serological methods for rapid diagnosis of cryptococcosis.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Cryptococcosis is a chronic infective condition affecting the central nervous system. Unless diagnosed early and specific treatment instituted it can be fatal. There is an urgent need for a rapid and specific diagnostic tool for better management of the patients. Conventional methods such as culture and India ink are specific but cumbersome and time consuming. Serological methods of detection are rapid but have problems of false positivity and cross-reactivity with other micro-organisms. We carried out this study to compare and evaluate the conventional methods with serological methods of detection of cryptococcal meningitis. METHODS A comparative evaluation of conventional methods (India ink and culture) with LAT (latex agglutination test) and EIA (enzyme immunoassay) was done in 127 CSF samples using culture and EIA as reference separately. RESULTS India ink was positive for Cryptococcus in 72.4 per cent of the samples; 56 per cent were culture positive; LAT positive were 85 per cent and 79.5 per cent were positive by EIA. When culture was positive, all other tests were in agreement to it. However, when culture was negative there was significant difference between the pair of discordance of various diagnostic tests. Culture was 83.46 per cent in agreement to India ink, 76.3 per cent to EIA and 70.8 per cent to LAT. EIA was 92.9 per cent in agreement to India ink and LAT; 6.3 per cent showed false positive by LAT. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION EIA is valuable in establishing diagnosis when culture is negative for cryptococcosis. EIA is more specific and has potential advantages over LAT as it gives clear discrimination of positive from negative results. Thus, EIA may be used as a simple, rapid, and reliable serological test for early detection of cryptococcal antigen in clinical samples like CSF in routine laboratories.
Spending by primary care practices - does it show what we expect?

BACKGROUND Over recent years, a number of policies and financial incentives in primary care have been proposed to tackle issues such as deprivation and health outcomes. This article investigates the association between healthcare spending, deprivation and outcomes. It argues that individual practice data are analysed before blanket application and acceptance that one size fits all in a local area. METHODS Financial data were analysed alongside key outcome data, including quality and outcomes framework (QOF) indicators for a large urban primary care trust (PCT) in the UK. The PCT had a large population and number of practices, including single-handed practices and an average list size in excess of 5000. The PCT will remain anonymous. RESULTS There was no relationship between primary care investment and the practices' deprivation score. There was a strong statistically significant negative correlation between QOF payments and deprivation, (correlation = -0.46, p < 0.001). There were only weak links between primary care investment and health outcomes. There was no relationship between high emergency spending and health outcome. CONCLUSIONS The data presented suggest that one size does not necessarily fit all - in terms of providing the appropriate incentives in primary care, nor do national incentives and policies always have the desired effect.
Word of mouth communication: A mediator of relationship marketing and customer loyalty

Abstract A cross-sectional and quantitative study design, with the aim of explaining the relationship between relationship marketing and customer loyalty, and the mediating role of word of mouth in this relationship was undertaken. A sample of 384 was determined from a population of the mobile telecommunication users based on Krejcie & Morgan sampling framework. The study utilized 384 questionnaires. The authors conducted confirmatory factor, correlation, regression, mediation and SEM for analysis, interpretation and results. While trust, relationship satisfaction and reciprocity components of relationship marketing have been found to be significant predictors of customer loyalty in other studies, our study findings reveal contrasting results. This is a unique finding in our study. However, in line with earlier studies, our findings indicate a positive significant relationship between relationship marketing components of communication, commitment and customer loyalty. The study also finds a significant positive relationship between the relationship marketing components of communication and commitment and word of mouth and a significant positive relationship between word of mouth and customer loyalty. Telecommunication companies should pay attention to relationship encounters that build commitment, should develop targeted communication channels which build positive word of mouth communication. This will ultimately create loyal customers for mobile telecommunication companies.