Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Breast vascular calcification and risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and heart failure.

OBJECTIVE Vascular calcification holds promise as a useful cardiovascular risk maker. Our objective was to examine the association between breast vascular calcification and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes. METHODS A cohort study was performed among 12,761 women, 40-79 years of age at baseline (1968-1973), who attended multiphasic health checkups that included mammography. The outcome measures included coronary heart disease (CHD), ischemic stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIA), hemorrhagic stroke, and heart failure, ascertained using discharge diagnosis codes and death records through December 31, 2000 (median follow-up, 24.8 years). RESULTS Breast vascular calcification was present in 424 (3%) women. It was independently and positively associated with age, high parity, and diabetes and inversely associated with education level and current cigarette smoking. After adjustment for age, education level, race, cigarette smoking, alcohol use, body mass index (BMI), serum total cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, parental history of myocardial infarction (MI), parity, and hormone replacement therapy (HRT), breast vascular calcification was associated with a 1.32-fold increased risk of CHD (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.08-1.60), a 1.41-fold increased risk of ischemic stroke (95% CI 1.11-1.78), and a 1.52-fold increased risk of heart failure (95% CI 1.18-1.98). CONCLUSIONS Breast vascular calcification detected as part of a screening mammogram was an independent risk factor for multiple cardiovascular outcomes among women. The value of mammography in cardiovascular risk stratification deserves further investigation.
Complaints, doctors and older people.

Complaints about patient care take up much time and may still not be satisfactorily resolved [1]. Complaints may have different meanings to different people: employers have business and clinical governance objectives, and may perceive things differently from the clinician and the person making the complaint. The quality of service in hospitals is subjective, personal and intangible, yet there is a tendency to manage service organizations by focusing on what is most tangible, such as numbers of patients served, the cost of providing the service and the revenues generated [2]. These indicators of performance provide evidence of activity, not quality. By focusing on what is measurable, they may lead to incentives for steadily poorer standards of quality by staff, who are increasingly overworked, underpaid and under-appreciated [2]. This tendency towards mediocrity changes in the business world only when a new competitor enters the market place; competition in health is unlikely in those countries where health care is mainly provided by the state. In a genuinely competitive environment, complaints must be taken seriously: 91% of customers who have had a bad experience do not return and, on average, tell 10 acquaintances of their experience [3]. On the other hand, when complaints have been handled well, the customer is more likely to return for repeat business than if there had been no problem in the ®rst place [3].
Quantitative studies on cancer dissemination.

Summary This paper describes an approach to estimating in a quantitative way the cancer cells present in blood and tissues of tumor-bearing animals. By using two transplantable tumors of mice, i.e., Ehrlich carcinoma and Sarcoma 180, in the ascites form, a relationship compatible with linearity was observed between the logarithm of cancer cells and either the weight of the tumor or the probit of the percent of tumor take. The number of cells necessary to obtain 50% of takes was considerably different when the cancer cells were included in fragments of different tissues or in the blood clot. The number of cancer cells present at 7 and 12 days after transplantation in the blood and lung of mice bearing an intracerebral tumor was calculated by using the proposed method.
The Influence of Job Satisfaction towards Employee Performance on the Antecedent of Competencies and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

This study aims to describe the competence, OCB, job satisfaction and employee performance, analyze the effect of competence and OCB towards employee satisfaction, analyze the effect of competence and OCB towards employee performance, analyze the influence of job satisfaction towards employee performance, competence and OCB , analyze the influence of performance towards employee satisfaction. Type of research was including explanatory research with no design quantitative approach. The population of this study is all employees of the National Trafic management Center (NTMC) of National Police Traffic Corps (Korlantas) of Indonesian National Police (Polri) consisted of police officers and civil servants as many as 135 people. The analysis technique used was descriptive analysis and Analysis of Structural Equation Modeling. The results of the analysis show that the Competence and OCB affected on job satisfaction. Competence and OCB have influence over the employee performance. Job satisfaction has influence over the employee performance and it also mediates the influence of competence and OCB towards employee performance.
The Influence Of Cultural Thinking Style On Consumer Cognitive Complexity Underlying Wine Purchase Decisions

Drawing on the cultural priming paradigm, the purpose of this research is to investigate how cultural differences in cognition affect consumers’ hierarchical cognitive structures underlying wine purchase decision-making process. Means-end chain analyses of French and Korean wine consumers were conducted both at a chronic cultural difference level and at an experimental level in which either analytic or holistic thinking tendency is primed. The results show that the holistic thinking-primed consumers consider broader connections between the key perceptual elements of the means-end chain, resulting in more complex structures of interconnected motives than the analytic thinking-primed consumers. This study provides support for the dynamics of culture-specific thinking styles as the driver of cultural variations in wine consumers’ cognitive complexity in the decision-making process. Important practical implications for international food marketing managers stem from our cross-cultural findings.
The process of customer brand engagement in interactive contexts: Prerequisites, conceptual foundations, antecedents, and outcomes

As firms give priority to social media, a deeper understanding of people’s motivations to engage in brand-related social media activities is imperative. This study identified user mode differences in consumer behavior; gratifications and motivations for social media use differed in interpersonal and brand relationship contexts. An initial exploratory study 1 (n = 42) identified different gratifications charactering interpersonal and brand relationships. Further, studies 2 (n = 300) and 3 (n = 961) show that people are motivated more by socialization, sharing, and entertainment in an interpersonal than in a brand relationship. Study 2 show that brand relationships are primarily instrumental, motivated by empowerment, remuneration, and information collection, but that people can develop close relationships with particular brands, showing their self–brand connection through social media.
Alterations in p53 and p16INK4 expression and telomere length during spontaneous immortalization of Li-Fraumeni syndrome fibroblasts

Normal cells have a strictly limited growth potential and senesce after a defined number of population doublings (PDs). In contrast, tumor cells often exhibit an apparently unlimited proliferative potential and are termed immortalized. Although spontaneous immortalization of normal human cells in vitro is an extremely rare event, we observed this in fibroblasts from an affected member of a Li-Fraumeni syndrome kindred. The fibroblasts were heterozygous for a p53 mutation and underwent senescence as expected at PD 40. In four separate senescent cultures (A to D), there were cells that eventually recommenced proliferation. This was associated with aneuploidy in all four cultures and either loss (cultures A, C, and D) or mutation (culture B) of the wild-type (wt) p53 allele. Loss of wt p53 function was insufficient for immortalization, since cultures A, B, and D subsequently entered crisis from which they did not escape. Culture C has continued proliferating beyond 400 PDs and thus appears to be immortalized. In contrast to the other cultures, the immortalized cells have no detectable p16INK4 protein. A culture that had a limited extension of proliferative potential exhibited a progressive decrease in telomere length with increasing PD. In the culture that subsequently became immortalized, the same trend occurred until PD 73, after which there was a significant increase in the amount of telomeric DNA, despite the absence of telomerase activity. Immortalization of these cells thus appears to be associated with loss of wt p53 and p16INK4 expression and a novel mechanism for the elongation of telomeres.
Origins of vascular disease: is fat where it's at?

in 1980, Furchgott and Zawadski ([5][1]) revolutionized our understanding of vascular biology with the simple observation that what had been considered a simple antithrombotic lining in blood vessels, the endothelium, was in fact a major determinant of vascular function. The subsequent discovery of
Effect of Task Practice Order on Motor Skill Learning in Adults With Parkinson Disease: A Pilot Study

Background and Purpose: Random practice of motor tasks has been shown to enhance motor learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of task practice order (random, blocked) on motor learning in adults with Parkinson disease (PD). Subjects: Twenty adults with mild PD and 20 age-matched adults (controls) participated in the study. Methods: Participants in both groups (PD and control) practiced 3 movement tasks with either a blocked or a random practice order. This 2 participant group × 2 practice order design resulted in 4 experimental groups. The Trail Making Test was administered to all participants to determine task-switching capability. Motor performance on the arm movement tasks was quantified on the basis of the root-mean-square error difference between the goal movement task and each participant's response. Results: The task-switching capability of the control group was superior to that of the PD group. For acquisition, in general, participants in the control group performed with significantly less error than participants in the PD group. For retention, participants in the control group who practiced with a random order performed more accurately than participants in the control group who practiced with a blocked order. However, for the PD group, the findings were reversed; participants who practiced with a blocked order performed more accurately than participants who practiced with a random order. These findings resulted in a group × practice order interaction. Discussion and Conclusion: These pilot study data suggest that, contrary to the findings for age-matched control learners, for learners with mild PD, a blocked practice order may be better than a random practice order for motor learning.
Governance and accountability issues in Nigerian parastatals : the case of Ajaokuta Steel

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Apakah Ukuran, Profitabilitas, dan Praktik Manajemen Laba Memengaruhi Tingkat Pelaksanaan dan Pelaporan Islamic Social Reporting Pada Perbankan Syariah Di Indonesia?

This study aims to examine the effect of size, profitability, and earnings management on implementation and disclosure of Islamic Social Reporting in Islamic banks in Indonesia. The samples are Indonesian General Islamic Banks (Bank Umum Syariah) which published an annual report within the past three years from 2009 to 2013. Measurement of Islamic Social Reporting was perfomed with reference to the research Haniffa (2002). The hypothesis testing employs multiple regression analysis techniques. The results of this study reveal that the size of banks as measured by total assets has positive effect on the level of implementation and disclosure of Islamic Social Reporting by Islamic banks. However, profitability as measured by return on eearnings (ROE) and earnings management as measured by Healy model (1996) do not show the effect on the level of implementation and disclosure of Islamic Social Reporting by Islamic banks. For more detail descriptions of this study results are presented in discussion section.
Fuzzy Constrained Min-Max Model Predictive Control Based on Piecewise Lyapunov Functions

This paper proposes two novel stable fuzzy model predictive controllers based on piecewise Lyapunov functions and the min-max optimization of a quasi-worst case infinite horizon objective function. The main idea is to design state feedback control laws that minimize the worst case objective function based on fuzzy model prediction, and thus to obtain the optimal transient control performance, which is of great importance in industrial process control. Moreover, in both of these predictive controllers, piecewise Lyapunov functions have been used in order to reduce the conservatism of those existent predictive controllers based on common Lyapunov functions. It is shown that the asymptotic stability of the resulting closed-loop discrete-time fuzzy predictive control systems can be established by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities. Moreover, the controller designs of the closed-loop control systems with desired decay rate and input constraints are also considered. Simulations on a numerical example and a highly nonlinear benchmark system are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed fuzzy predictive controllers.
The effect of tobacco smoking on subjective symptoms of inadequacy (“not holding”) of methadone dose among opiate addicts in methadone maintenance treatment

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between subjective symptoms of inadequacy of methadone dose (not feeling “held”) and tobacco smoking in patients in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT). This was a cross‐sectional study of smoking behaviour, investigating subjective, physiological and psychological symptoms. The study took place in a community‐based methadone maintenance clinic of a psychiatric teaching hospital in South London. Fifty adult opiate addicts (37 males and 13 females) were on a stable daily methadone dose; the number of cigarettes smoked during the day and previous day of investigation, salivary cotinine measurements and carbon monoxide (CO) from expired air were measured. The Methadone Symptom Checklist (MSC) was used to score withdrawal symptoms encountered in patients not feeling “held” during MMT The Hamilton Anxiety Score was also used. The prevalence of tobacco‐smoking was high (98%), with two‐thirds (68%) smoking self‐fabricated cigarettes (“roll‐ups”). Scores from rating scales measuring symptoms of not being “held” correlated with number of cigarettes smoked the previous day (p < 0.05). A similar correlation was found with the Hamilton Anxiety Score. However, there was no correlation between rating scale scores and either salivary cotinine concentration or CO from expired air. Methadone patients who smoke more are significantly more likely to report problems of not feeling “held” by their methadone dose and they also show a higher level of anxiety. However, this increased cigarette consumption is not reflected in increased salivary continine levels or levels of CO in expired air, and it may be that the raised level of anxiety leads to a smoking‐pattern consisting of frequent lighting‐up of cigarettes or “roll‐ups” which are consumed incompletely and/or not smoked by inhalation.
Determinants and impact of the natriuretic response to diuretic therapy in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and volume overload

Objective The objective of this study was to investigate determinants of the natriuretic response to diuretics in decompensated heart failure (HF) and the relationship with decongestion, neurohumoral activation and clinical outcome in the contemporary era of HF management. Methods and results In this prospective, single-centre cohort study, consecutive patients with decompensated HF (n = 54) and left ventricular ejection fraction ≤ 45% received protocol-driven diuretic therapy until complete disappearance of congestion signs. Urine was collected during three consecutive 24-h intervals. Natriuretic response was defi ned as absolute natriuresis (mmol) per mg of intravenous bumetanide administered. Natriuresis was 146 mmol (76-206 mmol), 74 mmol (37-167 mmol) and 74 mmol (53-134 mmol) per mg intravenous bumetanide administered during the fi rst, second and third 24-h interval, respectively. Diastolic blood pressure (β = 23.048) 10.788; P-value = 0.036), plasma aldosterone (β= – 25.722) 11.560; P-value = 0.029), and combination therapy with acetazolamide (β= 103.241) 40.962; P-value = 0.014) were independent predictors of the natriuretic response. Patients with a stronger natriuretic response demonstrated more pronounced decreases in plasma NT-proBNP levels (P-value = 0.025), while a weaker response was associated with higher peak plasma aldosterone levels (P-value = 0.013) and plasma renin activity (P-value = 0.033). Natriuresis per loop diuretic dose predicted freedom from all-cause mortality or HF readmissions, independently of baseline renal function (HR 0.40, 95%CI 0.16-0.98; P-value = 0.045). Conclusions More eff ective natriuresis in decompensated HF patients with reduced ejection fraction and volume overload is associated with better decongestion, less neurohumoral activation and predicts favourable clinical outcome independently from renal function per se. Acetazolamide warrants further evaluation in large prospective trials to increase the natriuretic response to loop diuretics.
Characterization of cadmium-resistant bacteria for its potential in promoting plant growth and cadmium accumulation in Sesbania bispinosa root

ABSTRACT The cadmium (Cd) resistant bacteria were isolated from soils of Damanganga river, Vapi, and identified 11 potential Cd resistant bacteria based on 16S rDNA sequences. The Cd resistant bacteria belonged to four different genera: Providencia spp. , Morganella sp. , Stenotrophomonas sp. , and Bacillus spp. The assessment of plant growth-promoting (PGP) parameters revealed that the Cd tolerant bacteria showed one or more PGP properties. Further, a pot experiment was conducted to elucidate the effects of Cd resistant bacteria on the plant growth and the uptake of Cd by Sesbania bispinosa. The bacterized seedlings recorded 36.0–74.8% and 21.2–32.9% higher root and shoot lengths, respectively, in Cd amended soil compared with control. The Cd mobilization in the root of S. bispinosa by microbial inoculants ranged from 0.02 ± 0.01 to 1.11 ± 0.06 ppm. The enhanced concentrations of Cd accumulation in S. bispinosa roots correspond to the effect of the bacterial strains on metal mobilization in soil. The present observations showed that the Cd resistant strains protect the plants against the inhibitory effects of Cd, probably due to the production of PGP properties. The present results provided a new insight into the phytoremediation of Cd contaminated soil.
The effect of gender diversity on corporate cash policy

This paper examines how gender diversity in corpora tions affects financial policy of the firm. Using a large set of European listed companies, we study the impact of the number of women both in the board of directors as well or in execut ive positions on the level of cash holdings. Our results show that the impact of gender diversit y differs depending on whether women are represented in the board or in the management. Firm s with female mangers have higher cash buffers because of the increased importance of the precautionary motive in cash policy. Gender diversity in the board of director on the ot her hand influences cash policy not through risk aversion but through increased board effective ness. Both effects remain after controlling for other cash policy determinants as well as corpo rate governance quality. * Frederiek Schoubben (corresponding author): KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business, Department of Financial Management, Korte Nieuwstraat 33, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium; email: frederiek.schoubben@kuleuven.be Steve Van Uytbergen: KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business, Department of Financial Management, Korte Nieuwstraat 33, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium; email: steve.vanuytbergen@kuleuven.be
Efficacy of Echinacea purpurea in Patients with a Common Cold

Common colds are one of the most frequent acute illnesses with major economical impact. Echinaceae purpureae herba (Echinacin, EC31J0) has shown promising results in the relief of common cold symptoms and the time taken to improvement compared to placebo. This study was aimed to confirm these findings by performing a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. A total of 80 adult male or female patients with first signs of a cold were recruited. The number of days of illness with a complete picture of the common cold (defined by the modified Jackson score of at least 5 points and experience of rhinorrhea and/or a subjective sensation of having a cold) was the primary end-point. In the verum group the median time of illness was 6.0 days compared to 9.0 days in the placebo group, assigning zero time for patients without a complete picture (one-sided p = 0.0112). EC31J0 was well tolerated and clinically effective in alleviating symptoms more rapidly than placebo in patients with a common cold.
Partial discharge signal propagation characteristics inside the winding of oil-immersed power transformer using the equivalent circuit of winding model in the oil

The technical soundness of an oil-immersed power transformer under an operating voltage is evaluated in partial discharge (PD) test of long-duration ac withstand voltage test. To establish clear control criteria for this PD test, it is necessary to study PD propagation characteristics inside the transformer windings. In this paper, an analysis model was constructed using constants in the oil for a 500 kV-class transformer to analytically obtain PD signal propagation characteristics. For this analysis model, a circuit model for high frequencies up to several MHz was used in order to obtain the characteristics of highfrequency PD propagating inside the winding in detail. Using this model, PD propagation characteristics were investigated in terms of the PD occurrence position, measurement position, and front time as parameters. As a result, it emerged that the propagation pattern was determined by the winding constants as viewed from the PD injection position and the terminal conditions. When the charge amount was the same, the steeper the PD signal front time, the higher the peak voltage value was likely to be because the waveform became more oscillatory. Conversely, assuming an actual test using the ERA device (PD detector developed by Electrical Research Association), it was found that the front time had little impact on the charge amount measured because the oscillatory high-frequency components were removed. As with the previous studies, it emerged that the PD signal transmission rate was lowest when a PD occurred between sections and the signal was detected as one significantly damped to a level of several percent depending on the conditions.