Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preliminary Validity Study of the Pain Disability Index

The Pain Disability Index was designed to measure the extent to which chronic pain interferes with a person's ability to engage in various life activities (Pollard, 1981). For each of seven categories of life activity (Family/Home Responsibility, Recreation, Social Activity, Occupation, Sexual Behavior, Selfcare, and Life Support Activity), patients are asked to rate their level of disability on a graphic rating scale ranging from 0 (-no disability) to 10 (total disability). An over-all disability score is determined by summing the numerical ratings of the seven categories of life activity (range = 0 to 70). The present investigation assessed whether scores on the index could discriminate between two groups of patients with chronic ( 6 mo. or longer) low back pain designated on the basis of external criteria as either highly or minimally disabled. Nine post-surgical patients with low back pain completed the index within 1 wk. after discharge from the hospital; they were designated as the group with high disability. Their scores were compared with those of nine patients classified as low disability; people who reported chronic low back pain but had been working full-time for a minimum of one year and had not sought professional treatment for chronic pain for at least six months. Three women and five men were in each group. The groups were matched by age (range = 22 to 70 yr.). The mean number of years of education was 14.33 (range = 10 to 20 yr.) in the high-disability group and 14.67 (range = 13 to 17 yr.) in the low-disability group. Mean scores on the index for the groups of high and low disability were 48.89 (SD = 14.1; range = 22 to 66) and 16.78 (SD = 10.29; range = 3 to 34), respectively. The obtained 32-point difference between the means of the two groups was statistically significant ( t = 5.52, p < .001) and provides preliminary support for the validity of the index. However, the generalizability of the results of this pilot study cannot be determined until additional research with larger numbers of subjects has been conducted. In addition, further assessment of the ability of this index in making finer distinctions between groups of patients at various levels of disability is needed.
Contracting Out of the Fiduciary Duty of Loyalty: An Empirical Analysis of Corporate Opportunity Waivers

For centuries, the duty of loyalty has been the hallowed centerpiece of fiduciary obligation, widely considered one of the few “mandatory” rules of corporate law. That view, however, is no longer true. Beginning in 2000, Delaware dramatically departed from tradition by granting incorporated entities a statutory right to waive a crucial part of the duty of loyalty: the corporate opportunities doctrine. Other states have since followed Delaware’s lead, similarly permitting firms to execute “corporate opportunity waivers. ” Surprisingly, more than fifteen years into this reform experiment, no empirical study has attempted to measure either the corporate response to these reforms, or to evaluate the implications of that response.This Article presents the first broad empirical investigation of the area. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we find that hundreds of public corporations have adopted waivers – often with capacious scope and reach. We thus establish a central empirical fact that is an important baseline for further discussion: public corporations have an enormous appetite for contracting out of the duty of loyalty when freed to do so. Our analysis further sheds light on the high-stakes normative debate around the relationship between fiduciary principles and freedom of contract. What types of corporations choose to contract around default rules? When they do so, do such measures tend to bolster or thwart shareholder welfare? We develop an efficient contracting approach to explain why corporations – and their shareholders – might favor tailoring the duty of loyalty, and provide empirical evidence that Delaware’s experiment has generally been a success.
Epidemiological aspects of dengue in Aracaju, State of Sergipe, Brazil.

INTRODUCTION The dengue fever remains to be a disease of serious public health concern, and its incidence has increased in the past decades. This study aimed to characterize the epidemiological incidence of dengue in the period 2001-2010. METHODS This is an epidemiological study of dengue in the municipality of Aracaju, state of Sergipe, in the period between 2001 and 2010, whose data were obtained from the Information System of Diseases Notifications. A descriptive analysis of the number of confirmed cases of dengue, according to year, semester, sanitary district, age, and sex, was performed. RESULTS There were 16,462 confirmed cases, especially in 2008, which obtained the highest incidence of the disease, with 10,485 confirmed cases. The first semester obtained the highest registration of cases during the years of research; this was predominated by females between 15 and 49 years old. With regard to the territorial distribution, the second district of the municipality obtained the highest number of cases. CONCLUSIONS In 2008, in the City of Aracaju, SE, a significant increase in the proportion of dengue cases compared with other years was verified. However, a fast decline in the other years was observed, possibly because of the intensification of preventive actions to combat the mosquito that transmits the dengue virus.
Fine structural evaluation of the iris after unilateral treatment with latanoprost in patients undergoing bilateral trabeculectomy (the Mainz II study).

OBJECTIVE To investigate by masked electron microscopy whether 6 months of topical latanoprost caused pathological changes in the peripheral iris of patients with glaucoma. METHODS Seventeen patients with bilateral primary open-angle glaucoma requiring trabeculectomy were recruited for this study. The iridectomy taken during surgery on the first eye served as a control. The second test eye was treated topically with latanoprost for 6 months before its trabeculectomy. Fourteen patients completed the treatment arm of the study, and 1 of these underwent marked color change. As a result, 31 iridectomy specimens were fixed, coded, and evaluated. RESULTS The specimens were evaluated for evidence of stromal inflammation, vascular alterations, and stromal and posterior epithelial degeneration. None of these features was evident in any of the 31 iridectomy specimens. There was evidence of the incidence of free melanin granules in the stroma, melanin turnover, abundance of stromal clump cells, atypical cellular features in melanocytes, and prominence of the anterior border. After code breaking, it was evident that none of these features distinguished the test from the fellow irises in our group. The patient with color change in the test iris did not stand out from the others in this analysis. Qualitative reexamination of further sections after unmasking gave the impression of increased melanin granule numbers in the melanocytes of the anterior border region. CONCLUSIONS The ultrastructure of the iridectomies from the latanoprost-treated eyes and the fellow eyes conformed to published standards for normal iris. There was no evidence of early ultrastructural changes, which might have been the harbingers of latanoprost-induced iris abnormality.
Topology Optimization of Optical Waveguide Devices Based on Beam Propagation Method With Sensitivity Analysis

We present a gradient-based topology optimization method of optical waveguide devices using the beam propagation method (BPM). Efficient topology optimization of an optical waveguide is available by using our approach because it utilizes the adjoint variable method for sensitivity analysis, and the BPM for numerical propagation analysis. In this paper, a way of evaluating sensitivities for a design of longitudinally varying waveguides is newly described in the case that a density method and finite difference BPM are employed. In addition, the validity and availability of our proposed method are verified by optimizing an S-bend and a Y-branch waveguides.
Combating Security Breaches and Criminal Activity in the Digital Sphere

Note: The chapters are grouped into four different sections with a particular scope in each. Hence, a small re numbering of the chapters was done. The following is the list of chapters with the new chapter numbers. (The already assigned chapter numbers are strike-off, for easy follow-up). In the IGI manuscript portal also, the chapters are re-numbered. The preface is written with this newly assigned chapter no. Ch. 3: Cloud crime and fraud-a study of challenges for cloud security and forensics (280515-053257) Ch. 9: Classification of cyber crimes and punishments under the information technology act, 2000 (271115-045426)
On lattices in semi-stable representations: a proof of a conjecture of Breuil

Abstract For p≥3 an odd prime and a nonnegative integer r≤p−2, we prove a conjecture of Breuil on lattices in semi-stable representations, that is, the anti-equivalence of categories between the category of strongly divisible lattices of weight r and the category of Galois stable $\mathbb {Z}_p$-lattices in semi-stable p-adic Galois representations with Hodge–Tate weights in {0,…,r}.
Rates of Surficial Rock Creep on Hillslopes in Western Colorado

The average rate of downslope movement of rock fragments on shale hillslopes is directly proportional to the sine of the slope angle or that component of the gravitational force which acts parallel to the hillslope. The rates of surficial rock creep range from a few millimeters per year on a 3degree slope to almost 70 millimeters per year on a 40-degree slope, but these rates vary with natural variations in soil characteristics and microclimate, as well as with accidental disturbances.
The Influence of Human Resource Management Practices on Career Satisfaction: Evidence from Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between human resource management practices (training and development, compensation and benefit, performance management) and career satisfaction. Data was collected through questionnaire from 80 employees of various banks in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The results of the regression analysis showed that training and development and compensation and benefit were significantly related to employee career satisfaction. The findings suggested that training and development is the most important factor that influence career satisfaction followed by compensation and benefits. Performance management was found to be not significant in predicting career satisfaction.
Developing Individual Level Outcome Measures in the Context of Knowledge Management Success

Success of organizational level knowledge management initiatives depends on how effectively individuals implementing these initiatives use their knowledge to bring about outcomes that add value in their work. To facilitate assessment of individual level outcomes in the knowledge management context, this research provides a model of interrelationships among individual level knowledge management success measures which include conceptual knowledge, contextual knowledge, operational knowledge, innovation, and performance. The model was tested using structural equation modeling based on data collected from managerial and professional knowledge workers. The results suggest that conceptual knowledge enhances operational and contextual knowledge. Contextual knowledge improves operational knowledge and is also a key predictor of innovations. The innovativeness of an individual’s work along with operational knowledge enhances work performance. The results support the proposed model. This model can potentially be used for measuring knowledge management success at the individual level. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-709-6.ch007
Private equity buyouts in Norway : inferring company valuations from public financial statements, and an analysis of the Norwegan buyout market

This thesis presents a framework to infer prices paid for companies from public financial statements. It shows that prices and valuations can be estimated accurately, as long as the buyout is done using common stock and that the company’s debts at the time of the transaction are not very different from the balance at year-end. Using this framework, a novel dataset of 44 buyouts in Norway from 1999-2012 is constructed and analyzed. Summary statistics of average valuations, valuation multiples, changes in capital structure and the use of equity instruments other than common stock are presented. Two findings from the literature are tested to see if they also hold for Norwegian data: Axelson et al.’s analysis on how access to credit affects the valuation of companies acquired by buyout funds, and Gompers and Lerner’s analysis of how fundraising to venture capital funds affects valuations of the companies acquired by venture capital funds. The credit spread does not seem to have affected pricing of companies acquired by Private Equity funds in Norway, contrary to the findings of Axelson et al. I am also not able to recreate the results of Gompers and Lerner on the effect of fundraising to the industry; however this seems to be caused by a combination of a small sample size and low data quality on fundraising. More research is therefore needed to conclude on this subject.
Utility‐based optimization of phase II/III programs

Phase II and phase III trials play a crucial role in drug development programs. They are costly and time consuming and, because of high failure rates in late development stages, at the same time risky investments. Commonly, sample size calculation of phase III is based on the treatment effect observed in phase II. Therefore, planning of phases II and III can be linked. The performance of the phase II/III program crucially depends on the allocation of the resources to phases II and III by appropriate choice of the sample size and the rule applied to decide whether to stop the program after phase II or to proceed. We present methods for a program‐wise phase II/III planning that aim at determining optimal phase II sample sizes and go/no‐go decisions in a time‐to‐event setting. Optimization is based on a utility function that takes into account (fixed and variable) costs of the drug development program and potential gains after successful launch. The proposed methods are illustrated by application to a variety of scenarios typically met in oncology drug development. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Psychosocial issues near the end of life

End-of-life care has received increasing attention in the last decade; however, the focus continues to be on the physical aspects of suffering and care to the virtual exclusion of psychosocial areas. This paper provides an overview of the literature on the intra- and interpersonal aspects of dying, including the effects that psychosocial variables have on end-of-life decision-making; common diagnosable mental disorders (e.g., clinical depression, delirium); other types of personal considerations (e.g., autonomy/control, grief); and interpersonal/environmental issues (e.g., cultural factors, financial variables). Six roles that qualified mental health professionals can play (i.e., advocate, counselor, educator, evaluator, multidisciplinary team member, and researcher) are also outlined. Because psychosocial issues are ubiquitous and can have enormous impact near the end of life, properly trained mental health professionals can play vital roles in alleviating suffering and improving the quality of life of people who are dying.
Unifying unit selection and hidden Markov model speech synthesis

This paper presents a framework which can accommodate the two most widely used contemporary speech synthesis techniques, namely unit selection and hidden Markov models (HMMs). This is achieved by building a very general HMM where we have a network of states, each representing a single frame for a single unit. This network exactly mimics the behaviour of a unit selection system and is effectively memorising the data as an HMM. From this, we can merge states in the network so as to produce a synthesis system of any desired size. The paper discusses this technique as well as a statistical formulation of the join cost and a number of ways to represent the acoustic observations of the states. index terms speech synthesis, unit selection, hidden markov models
The Effect of Environmental, Social and Governance Consistency on Economic Results

This study aims to explore how environmental, social and governance (ESG) consistency impacts the firm performance, specifically, the relationship between ESG performance and economic performance (EP). This study posits that the company’s commitment and effectiveness towards the creation of consistent competitive advantage in environmental, social and governance dimensions constitutes an intangible value that leads improvements in corporate performance. This work uses a panel dataset for listed firms of the EU-15 countries during the period 2002 to 2011 and applies Generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator system in order to address the potential unobserved heterogeneity and dynamic endogeneity. The main results reveal that the global effect of ESG performance on EP for those firms that present interdimensional consistency is greater than the rest, except for higher levels of ESG performance.
New record of Aedes vittatus and Culiseta subochrea (Diptera: Culicidae) and their distribution from Shadegan Wetland, South Western Iran

This study was conducted in Shadegan International wetland area, south western Iran. Mosquito larvae were collected from an urban site in the east of the wetland, using dipping method in December 2011. Mosquito larvae were identified using the morphology-based keys. The water quality parameters were measured during mosquito larvae collection using HQ40d Portable Multi-Parameter Meter, titration method and turbidity meter from the late October to late December 2011. A total of 1071 larvae were collected. Four species belonging to four genera including Aedes vittatus (Bigot), Culex pipiens Linnaeus, Culiseta subochrea (Edwards) and Ochlerotatus (=Aedes) caspius (Pallas) sensu lato were identified and their distribution and some other aspects were reviewed and discussed. Recorded parameters in the present study indicated that the water quality of the studied area was in a poor condition according to Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization water quality standards (p < 0.05). As per the authors’ knowledge, this was a new record for the studied area and Khuzistan province regarding the occurrence of Ae. vittatus and Cs. subochrea.
An 8GB/s quad-skew-cancelling parallel transceiver in 90nm CMOS for high-speed DRAM interface

In high-speed wireline communication, full-rate clocking for chip-to-chip interface has been widely adopted since it eliminates clock-induced deterministic jitter. Design with standard digital CMOS technologies, however, often limits the maximum frequency of circuit operation. The increase in power and circuit complexity in full-rate clocking makes the problem even worse in the design of a parallel transceiver whose clock tree travels through long interconnects. As an alternative to the full-rate clocking, frequency generation with a multiphase PLL has been also considered to relax the tight requirements of operating frequency of oscillator and flip-flops. DRAM interface, as a representative of high-speed parallel links, has adopted quadruple data rate (QDR) schemes for high-speed graphic applications [1-2]. However, as the data rate of DRAM interface increases up to multi-Gb/s range, skew in quadrature clock phases presents one of the most serious performance degradation factors.
Predicting Research Productivity in International Evaluation Journals across Countries

Background: Progress in evaluation research depends on the continuous generation of scholarly knowledge and its dissemination in the community. One way of disseminating findings is to publish in scientific journals and researchers, institutions, and even whole countries are assessed by their output in these journals. Particularly with regard to countries, there is an uneven distribution of research productivity in evaluation journals. A viable model for predicting countries’ research output in international evaluation journals, however, has not yet been developed. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop and test a model for the prediction of countries’ research output in international evaluation journals by predictors from the research, economic, and social/political system. Setting: NA Intervention: NA Research Design: A cross-sectional design was used for predicting research output in evaluation journals across countries. Data Collection and Analysis: Our sample consists of 65 countries that made contributions to ten international peer-reviewed evaluation journals. We collected data for the period from 2009 to 2013 and predicted the number of authorships across countries by using boosted regression trees, a machine learning procedure. Findings: Our model provided accurate predictions of countries’ research output. Research productivity in the social sciences had the strongest effect, followed by economic prosperity, control of corruption, and age of evaluation society. The model was generalizable to another period of time with only marginal loss in predictive accuracy.
ATP-sensitive potassium channel mediates delayed ischemic protection by heat stress in rabbit heart.

Heat shock protects against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury possibly via increased expression of heat shock proteins. The direct evidence of heat shock protein protection in vivo remains circumstantial, and no other new mechanism of protection has been proposed. Recent studies suggest that opening of ATP-sensitive K+ channels (KATP channels) plays an important role in ischemic preconditioning; however, it is not known whether this channel is also important in delayed protection conferred by heat shock. Anesthetized rabbits underwent heat shock treatment by raising core temperature to 42 degrees C for 15 min. Twenty-four hours later, the animals were reanesthetized and subjected to regional ischemia-reperfusion. The specific KATP channel blockers glibenclamide (0.3 mg/kg i.p.) and sodium 5-hydroxydecanoate (5HD; 5 mg/kg i.v.) were used to block the channel function. The drugs were administered at two different times, either pre-heat stress or preischemia. Infarct size was determined by triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining. The 72-kDa heat shock protein (HSP 72) was measured by Western blots. Our results show that heat shock produced a marked reduction in infarct size (39.4 +/- 8.1 to 14.3 +/- 2.5% of risk area, P < 0.05). Glibenclamide and 5HD completely abolished heat shock-induced reduction in infarct size (42.3 +/- 0.32 and 33.7 +/- 4.8%) when given before ischemia-reperfusion; however, these antagonists failed to block protection when administered before the onset of heat shock. Furthermore, the enhanced expression of HSP 72 in heat shock groups was not diminished by glibenclamide or 5HD, suggesting a lack of a direct role of this protein in conferring cardiac protection by heat shock. The complete blockade of cardiac protection by glibenclamide and 5HD strongly suggests that opening of this channel is a very important component of heat shock-induced ischemic protection in rabbit hearts.