Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Postoperative Adjuvant 5-Fluorouracil plus Levamisole Chemotherapy for Stage III Colon Carcinoma : 7-Year Experience in a Single Institution CC Law

Objectives: To determine the therapeutic efficacy and toxicity of 5-fluorouracil plus levamisole as postoperative adjuvant therapy for stage III colon carcinoma, and to identify prognostic variables. Materials and Methods: A retrospective review was undertaken of 168 patients registered in our institution from January 1991 to December 1997 with completely resected stage III colon adenocarcinoma, who received postoperative adjuvant 5-fluorouracil plus levamisole. Data regarding demographics, pathological characteristics, relapse pattern, survival, and treatment toxicity were compiled and analysed. Results: With a median follow-up of 48 months, 72/168 stage III colon carcinoma patients relapsed. Distant metastasis was the predominant mode of failure, with liver being the most common site. 90% of relapses occurred within 3 years of diagnosis. Five-year disease-free survival was 54%. and overall survival was 71%. Grade 3 chemotherapy toxicity was apparent in 0 to 1.8% of patients. No grade 4 toxicity was noted. The most common adverse effect was nausea, followed by thrombocytopenia and diarrhoea. Number of involved nodes and bowel obstruction were independent predictors for disease-free survival. Tumour site, number of involved nodes, and bowel obstruction were independent variables predictive of overall survival. Conclusion: Postoperative adjuvant therapy with 5-fluorouracil plus levamisole is well tolerated and produces favourable outcomes for patients with stage III colon carcinoma. Less nodal involvement and the absence of bowel obstruction are independent positive predictors of disease-free or overall survival, in addition to
Effect of the type of cigarette smoked on bladder cancer risk

The relationship between the type of cigarette smoked and bladder cancer risk was examined in data from a hospital‐based case‐control study. Information on smoking, including filtered and nonfiltered cigarette use, was available for 899 male and 427 female patients and 2713 male and 1243 female age‐matched controls interviewed in 20 hospitals from nine cities in the US between 1969 and 1984. Smokers of filtered cigarettes had a slightly reduced risk of bladder cancer relative to smokers of nonfiltered cigarettes (odds ratio 0.64, 95% confidence interval 0.38 to 1.10 among male smokers; odds ratio 0.74, 95% confidence interval 0.37 to 1.48 among female smokers). In both sexes there was no statistically significant reduction in risk among switchers from nonfiltered to filtered cigarettes compared with lifetime nonfiltered cigarette smokers (odds ratio 0.93, 95% confidence interval 0.71 to 1.24 among male smokers; odds ratio 0.76, 95% confidence interval 0.40 to 1.46 among female smokers). The causal implications of these findings, in particular a possible initiation effect of tobacco smoke on bladder carcinogenesis, are discussed.
Do phthalates act as obesogens in humans? A systematic review of the epidemiological literature

Abstract Introduction: Phthalates, a class of commonly used compounds with widespread human exposure, have been described as obesogens, or chemicals that disrupt lipid metabolism and produce metabolic changes leading to increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). This communication provides a systematic review of the available epidemiologic evidence on associations between phthalate ester metabolites in urine or blood and various health endpoints related to overweight/obesity, DM or CVD. Methods: We followed the current methodological guidelines for systematic reviews to identify, retrieve and summarize the relevant epidemiological literature on the relation between phthalates and overweight/obesity, DM, CVD or related biomarkers. Each eligible paper was summarized with respect to methods and results with particular attention to study design and exposure assessment. As quantitative meta-analysis was not feasible, the study results were assessed qualitatively for inter- and intra-study consistency. Results: We identified 26 publications of epidemiologic studies that assessed associations between either urinary or serum phthalate metabolites and outcomes of interest. These studies represented 18 independent data sources. We found no inter- or intra-study consistency for any phthalate metabolite for any of the indicators of overweight/obesity, DM or CVD in children or adults. Most reported associations were not statistically significantly different from the null, some were positive, and others were inverse. All studies except two used cross-sectional analyses and for this reason could not be used to test causal hypotheses. Conclusion: The current epidemiological data do not support or refute the hypothesis that phthalates act as obesogens in humans.
Proteome analysis of conditioned medium from mouse embryonic fibroblast feeder layers which support the growth of human embryonic stem cells

Human embryonic stem (ES) cells are pluripotent cells with the potential to differentiate into a variety of cell types, which could be used for cell transplantation therapies as well as drug discovery studies. However, the large‐scale culture of undifferentiated human ES cells is currently limited by their dependency on mouse embryonic fibroblast feeder layers. The proteomics approach was employed to characterize the environment that supports the growth of undifferentiated human ES cells and to identify factors critical for their independent growth. Conditioned medium from mouse embryonic fibroblast feeder layers, STO cell line, was concentrated and subjected to analyses by two‐dimensional electrophoresis mass spectrometry. In total, 136 unique protein species were identified which included some that are known to participate in cell growth and differentiation, extracellular matrix formation and remodeling, in addition to the unexpected but interesting finding of many nominally intracellular proteins. This approach has thus revealed the complexity of the environment provided by the feeder cells and provides a useful starting point for future studies. Moreover, candidates from the initial list of identified proteins can be further investigated for their effects on the growth and differentiation of human ES cells in a defined culture environment.
Social sustainability implementation in global supply chains

Managing change in suppliers is a challenging issue for firms. In particular, there is a lack of understanding of how to manage organisational change amongst distant suppliers based in developing countries. One such organisational change management process that has become an area of growing interest is the implementation of socially sustainable practices. The consequences of failure to effectively implement socially sustainable practices in the supply chain were highlighted by the recent collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh in April 2013, which killed 1,229 workers of factories supplying apparel to Western retailers like Primark and Benetton. The thesis contributes to this emerging research area by taking a significant step forward in understanding the implementation of socially sustainable practices in a complex, dynamic supply chain context. The overarching research question asked is: “How are socially sustainable practices implemented in complex global supply chains? ” To answer this, three inter-related papers are presented: (i) a systematic literature review on upstream social sustainability issues; (ii) an exploratory study on the implementation of socially sustainable practices in developing country suppliers; and, (iii) a theory building, in-depth longitudinal case study, where the implementation of socially sustainable practices is examined over time in relation to critical industry events in the Bangladeshi apparel industry by incorporating the view-points of various institutional actors. The three studies complement each other and, together, provide a comprehensive understanding of the change management issues faced by multinational firms trying to implement socially sustainable practices in suppliers based in a developing country with a challenging institutional environment. By using the Transaction Cost Economics and Institutional Theory lenses, the thesis offers rich insights into the pressures, enablers and barriers to implementing social sustainability initiatives, including the reasons for the disconnect between formal adoption and actual implementation.
Foreign Direct Investment in Pakistan: Policy Issues and Operational Implications

Given its fragile balance of payments position and urgent need to boost industrial production, Pakistan needs to significantly increase its mobilization of foreign resources. However, long-term official assistance will become increasingly scarce, while promoting large portfolio investments is not a proper market policy option due to Pakistan's underdevloped and narrow capital market. Significant increases in commercial borrowings are also not desirable. It is therefore crucial to accord high priority to foreign direct investment (FDI).
Classification of Mental Task EEG Signals Using Wavelet Packet Entropy and SVM

This paper address on the classification of mental task EEG signals, which is one of the key issues of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). We proposed a method using wavelet packet entropy and Support Vector Machine (SVM). First, we apply 7 levels wavelet packet decomposition to each channel of EEG with db4. After extraction four spectrum bands (delta,thetas,alpha, beta), an entropy algorithm was performed on each bands. The resulting entropy vectors are then used as inputs to SVM to train and test. We test the method on EEG signals during 5 mental tasks collected by 2 subjects. The accuracy on 2-class classification for subject 1 is averaged 93.0%, and 87.5% for subject 2. The results also show that our method outperforms the classical methods for multi-class problems.
Evaluation of 6 remote First Nations community-based buprenorphine programs in northwestern Ontario: Retrospective study.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate established opioid addiction treatment programs that use traditional healing in combination with buprenorphine-naloxone maintenance treatment in 6 First Nations communities in the Sioux Lookout region of northwestern Ontario. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Six First Nations communities in northwestern Ontario. PARTICIPANTS A total of 526 First Nations participants in opioid-dependence treatment programs. INTERVENTION Buprenorphine-naloxone substitution therapy and First Nations healing programming. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Retention rates and urine drug screening (UDS) results. RESULTS Treatment retention rates at 6, 12, and 18 months were 84%, 78%, and 72%, respectively. We estimate that the rate at 24 months will also be more than 70%. The UDS programming varied and was implemented in only 1 community. Initially urine testing was voluntary and it then became mandatory. Screening with either method found the proportion of urine samples with negative results for illicit opioids ranged between 84% and 95%. CONCLUSION The program's treatment retention rates and negative UDS results were higher than those reported for most methadone and buprenorphine-naloxone programs, despite a patient population where severe posttraumatic stress disorder is endemic, and despite the programs' lack of resources and addiction expertise. Community-based programs like these overcome the initial challenge of cultural competence. First Nations communities in other provinces should establish their own buprenorphinenaloxone programs, using local primary care physicians as prescribers. Sustainable core funding is needed for programming, long-term aftercare, and trauma recovery for such initiatives.
The Effects of Sport Involvement, Sponsor Awareness and Corporate Image on Intention to Purchase Sponsors' Products

This study examined theoretical relationships between key variables of sponsorship effectiveness that include sponsor awareness, corporate image and future purchase intention. Involvement in the sport of soccer was also examined as a key consumer variable. Results suggested that favourable purchase intentions were more likely to occur when consumers held a positive image of the sponsoring companies and had a high level of sports involvement; and that consumers' sports involvement positively influenced sponsor awareness, corporate image and purchase intention.
Why do private firms adopt IFRS?

Do private firms voluntarily adopt IFRS? If so, why? Answers to these questions have been very limited so far, mainly due to the absence of financial data on private firms. In this paper, I exploit the German setting where the financial statements of private firms are widely available. I estimate multi-period logit regressions on the choice between national GAAP and IFRS for the consolidated financial statements of nearly 3000 German private firms with more than 14,000 firm-years in the period 1998–2010. My results suggest that the expected net benefits of IFRS adoption vary substantially across the group of private firms, depending on their financing needs, governance system, and organizational and informational complexity. Specifically, I find that private firms using IFRS have more growth opportunities, are more leveraged, are externally rated, seek to raise external capital by issuing public bonds or equity, are registered as a stock corporation, are characterized by private equity (PE) involvement, have more international sales and operations, and have a Big Five auditor. These insights should be of great interest to both preparers and regulators in the current debate about the future of financial reporting in private firms.
Midlife cardiovascular risk factors and risk of dementia in late life

Objective: To evaluate if midlife cardiovascular risk factors are associated with risk of late-life dementia in a large, diverse cohort. Method: The authors conducted a retrospective cohort study of 8,845 participants of a health maintenance organization who underwent health evaluations from 1964 to 1973 when they were between the ages of 40 and 44. Midlife cardiovascular risk factors included total cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension, and smoking. Diagnoses of dementia were ascertained by medical records from January 1994 to April 2003. Results: The authors identified 721 participants (8.2%) with dementia. Smoking, hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes at midlife were each associated with a 20 to 40% increase in risk of dementia (fully adjusted Cox proportional hazards model: HR 1.24, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.48 for hypertension, HR 1.26, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.47 for smoking, HR 1.42, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.66 for high cholesterol, and HR 1.46, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.79 for diabetes). A composite cardiovascular risk score was created using all four risk factors and was associated with dementia in a dose-dependent fashion. Compared with participants having no risk factors, the risk for dementia increased from 1.27 for having one risk factor to 2.37 for having all four risk factors (fully adjusted model: HR 2.37, 95% CI 1.10 to 5.10). Conclusion: The presence of multiple cardiovascular risk factors at midlife substantially increases risk of late-life dementia in a dose dependent manner.
An Empirical Investigation of Use of Information Technology among Small and Medium Business Organizations: A Bruneian Scenario

In the last two decades issues regarding management of Information Technology (IT) within organizations have gained due consideration. The heavy reliance on IT has caused difficulties for chief executives’ officers (CEOs) to optimize their computing resources. A survey of fifty‐four small and medium sized organizations was conducted to investigate the degree of IT usage in Brunei Darussalam. The study attempts to assess the depth and breadth of IT usage in business. The parameters such as organizational (size, sale or profitability and type of business) and chief executives (educational level and computer literacy, ownership of PC and computer experience) are studied. The study highlights how sales figures of the organizations; type of business and CEO computer literacy contributes toward the use of IT. None of the other variables were found to be significant.
Measuring quality of life in dementia: purposes, goals, challenges and progress

The choice of outcomes in clinical research should be influenced by a linkage between the targeted symptom or disorder and the outcome being measured, the clinical meaningfulness of the outcome, and the ability to measure the outcome accurately. Dementia, defined as a syndrome consisting of disorders that impair two or more distinct cognitive capacities, occur in clear consciousness, and begin in adulthood, presents unique challenges in the choice of appropriate outcomes for treatment trials.
The Determinants of Output Per Contributor in Open Source Projects: An Empirical Examination

Using a unique dataset, we examine empirically which factors explain output per contributor in open source projects. We find that the output per contributor of open source programmes is much higher when licenses are less restrictive. Further examination suggests that the difference in output per contributor is in large part due to many more contributors for projects that employ restrictive licenses. The results suggest a status/signaling or ideological motivation for participation in open source projects with restrictive licenses.
Bank Capital and Lending: Evidence from Syndicated Loans

Using within-loan estimations to remove the impact of demand-side factors, we find that the capital levels of banks participating in the same syndicated loan are positively associated with the banks’ contributions to the loan. Consistent with the argument that higher capital reduces the cost of uninsured debt, the positive effect of bank capital on lending is stronger among banks that rely more on wholesale funding. Furthermore, we find that banks increase their contributions to syndicated loans after receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funding. Taken together, we provide new evidence on the importance and causal effect of bank capital on lending.
When Do Joint Ventures Create Value?

Analysis of a sample of 253 joint venture announcements suggests that joint ventures tend to be announced when the parent firms' performance is deteriorating. However, the parent firms earn positive abnormal returns around the announcement date. There is considerable cross-sectional variation in the stock market reaction to joint venture announcements. We identify three drivers of stock market reaction--strategic considerations, managerial misalignment, and signaling. The stock market reacts positively to joint ventures that involve pooling of complementary resources. Joint ventures that are carried out by firms with high levels of free cash flow are received negatively, indicating that the stock market penalizes joint ventures that are susceptible to managerial misalignment. Small firms that enter into joint ventures with larger firms earn significant positive abnormal returns, because the joint ventures acts signals of the small firm's value.
An Evaluation of Some Dihydrogenated Alkaloids of Ergot in the Management of Chronic Peripheral Vascular Diseases

dihydrogenated alkaloids of ergot in the management of chronic peripheral vascular diseases. This study covered a 2 year period. The diseases treated were arteriosclerosis obliterans, thromboangiitis obliterans, vasospastic disorders comprising Raynaud’s disease and Raynaud’s syndrome and obstructive edema of the extremities. The following hydrogenated ergot alkaloids, dihydroergocristine (DCS 90), dihydroergocorinine (DHO 180) and dihydroergokryptine (DHK 135) were used in an equimixture known as CCK 1’79. j’ This report augments an earlier publication by this author (1). Crude ergot has been used as a medicine for centuries. It was known early for its oxytocic properties. The fundamental studies were first made by Dale (2) in 1906 who recognized 2 active principles in ergot. The action of the first principle
Morphogenesis of the human lacrimal gland

The aim of this study was to determine the main stages of the lacrimal gland's developmental process in humans and to establish its precise morphogenetic timetable. Its onset is generally assumed to take place at O’Rahilly's stage 21, arising from an epithelial thickening of the superior extreme of the temporary conjunctival fornix. However, the present study points to a prior stage in the process: the presence of epithelial–mesenchymal changes in embryos at O’Rahilly's stage 19. The study was performed using light microscopy on serial sections of 37 human specimens: 23 embryos and 14 fetuses ranging from 15 to 137 mm crown–rump length (7–116 weeks of development). Three stages in lacrimal gland morphogenesis were identified: (1) the presumptive glandular stage, O’Rahilly's stages 19–20, characterized by a thickening of the superior fornix epithelium together with surrounding mesenchymal condensation; (2) the bud stage, generally assumed to be the first manifestation of glandular origin, characterized initially by the appearance of nodular formations in the region of the superior conjunctival fornix and concluding with the appearance of lumina within the epithelial buds; and (3) the glandular maturity stage, weeks 9–16, the period in which the gland begins to take on the morphology of adulthood.
Students' Types of Argumentative Knowledge Construction Process in Social Collaborative Learning Environment

With the rapid expansion of computer usage technology, working in social collaborative learning environment has been a common teaching and learning techniques to students. Working collaboratively can trigger deeper discussion which may lead into an argumentative debate and the development of knowledge construction in argumentation. This process is known as argumentative knowledge construction and essentially beneficial in understanding the level of students' thinking skills. However, experiencing the process is important before thinking skills can be related to it. In this study, we combine model of online discussion, argumentative knowledge construction process and 3A interaction model to see the types of argumentative knowledge construction process occur in the students' discussion in a social collaborative learning environment. Data are collected from Facebook group discussion and analyzed using content analysis technique. It is hoped that this model can illustrate a pathway to instructor on how to facilitate students' argumentative knowledge construction process especially in social collaborative learning environment and indirectly lead students' thinking skills towards the highest degree.