Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ALS patients and caregivers communication preferences and information seeking behaviour

To evaluate information preferences and information seeking behaviour in ALS patients and caregivers. Sixty ALS patients and caregivers couples were interviewed using a structured questionnaire about the content of diagnosis communication and their information seeking behaviour. The patients (35 men and 25 women) had a mean age of 63.4 years (SD 9.5). The caregivers (21 men and 39 women) had a mean age of 53.3 years (SD 14.9). The overall satisfaction with bad news communication and the impression that the physician had understood their feelings were higher amongst patients. Both parties indicated that the most important aspects to be informed were current researches, disease‐modifying therapies and ALS outcome. Approximately 55% of patients and 83.3% of caregivers searched for information from sources outside the healthcare system. The most frequently checked source was internet, although its reliability was rated low. The caring neurologist should better attune the content of communication to patients’ and caregivers’ preferences, trying to understand what they want to know and encouraging them to make precise questions. Health professionals should be aware that ALS patients and caregivers often use internet to obtain information and should help them to better sort‐out and interpret the news they found.
Effect of Zona Pellucida Removal on DNA Methylation in Early Mouse Embryos1

Abstract Removal of the zona pellucida is known to affect mouse development to term. Zygotes were recovered immediately after fertilization and their zona pellucida removed by exposure to pronase before culture and comparison with zona-intact embryos. The effect of removing the zona pellucida was assessed in terms of embryo development to blastocyst, DNA methylation, histone acetylation, and expression of three developmentally regulated genes. No significant differences were seen in percentage of embryos that developed to the blastocyst stage. However, zona-free embryos showed a significant reduction in the DNA methylation level at two-cell and four-cell stages, but no differences at pronuclear, morula, and blastocyst stages, as observed by immunofluorescence. Mechanical or enzymatic removal of the zona pellucida showed similar DNA methylation staining patterns at the two-cell stage. The time when the zona pellucida was removed appears to influence the levels of DNA methylation. When zona removal was delayed for 8 h, there was no difference in DNA methylation levels between zona-free and zona-intact two-cell embryos, indicating that the critical time is early on, between 1 and 8 h postfertilization. In contrast, when immunofluorescence analysis of histone acetylation was performed, no significant differences were seen between zona-free and zona-intact embryos at any of the developmental stage. Similarly, no differences were found regarding the onset of transcription of Dnmt1s, Nanog, and Fgf4 genes.
Physical distribution service quality in online retailing

Purpose – Many traditional retailers use the internet as a complementary business channel while “pure player” retailers only sell products via the internet. The question of who is better at offering electronic physical distribution service quality (e‐PDSQ) is open to debate. But, despite e‐PDSQ's importance there are few empirical studies and most have focused on general service quality of internet shopping or web site design. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and empirically test a conceptual framework for e‐PDSQ from the consumer's perspective.Design/methodology/approach – This paper follows a two‐stage paradigm for scale and construct development, which is presented in a framework based on the concept of order fulfilment as a key driver in e‐PDSQ. Consumer postal surveys were conducted in Edinburgh, UK.Findings – The consumer survey confirmed the appropriateness of the adopted e‐PDSQ framework. The finding that price is the most important online purchasing criteria is in accordance with Verdict w.
Spiritual-Religious Coping – Health Services Empowering Patients’ Resources

It is known that health is determined by physical, mental, social, and spiritual factors. During the last decades there has been a considerable increase in the number of studies showing positive associations between spirituality-religiosity and health. The most important works in that area began it be deeds in the 1980 decade and are increasing worldwide. Scientific literature have recorded that spiritual well-being is associated with better physical and mental health, according to psycho-neuro-immune models of health. Spirituality and religion can help patients, their families and caregivers dealing with illness and other stressful life events.
Gender differences in adolescent coping behaviors and suicidal ideation: findings from a sample of 73,238 adolescents

Suicide among adolescents is an emerging global public health problem as well as a socioeconomic problem. Stress-coping strategies have been shown to be associated with suicidal ideation. We examined coping behaviors related to suicidal ideation and gender differences in adolescents using the data from the 2010 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey (ages 12–19 years; N = 73,238). Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate associations between suicidal ideation and specific coping behaviors while controlling for potentially confounding variables. In both male and female groups, the coping behavior “drinking alcoholic beverages” and “smoking cigarettes” were positively associated with suicidal ideation. “Watching TV,” “playing online/mobile games,” and “sleeping” were negatively associated with suicidal ideation in both groups. In males, “engaging in sports” was negatively related to suicidal ideation. In females, “venting by talking to others” and “eating” were negatively related to suicidal ideation. The results indicate that there are gender differences in the effects of coping behaviors on adolescent suicidal ideation, and that developing adaptive coping strategies may function to reduce suicidality. Future studies are needed to examine whether improving coping skills can reduce suicidal ideation in a gender-specific manner.
Thinking and feeling on the World Wide Web: the impact of product type and time on World Wide Web advertising effectiveness

This article focuses on the effectiveness of banner advertisements.Drawing from theory on functional versus expressive products and wear in versus wear out it argues that product type and time are important factors in World Wide Web (WWW) advertising. The results from a large empirical study are reported and show that responses to banner advertisements differ between functional and expressive products and over time. Functional product banner advertisements have higher initial click-throughs that quickly deteriorate and they have no effect through advertisement impressions. Expressive products need time to wear in as both click-through rates and positive brand attitudes from advertisement impressions increase with repeated exposures. These differences in consumer response are conceptualized as thinking and feeling on the WWW,thereby providing important implications for advertisers.
Regenerative Nodules in Hepatic Cirrhosis

To evaluate the accuracy of surface coil gradient-echo (GRE) imaging in the detection of regenerative nodules of hepatic cirrhosis, 53 patients with diffuse liver disease, among whom 31 had cirrhosis, were prospectively investigated. Three GRE sequences acquired with a surface coil were used in the study: a T2*-weighted, a T1-weighted, and a gadopentetate-enhanced sequence. ROC analysis showed that two surface coil GRE sequences were superior to conventional T2-weighted spin-echo imaging acquired with a body coil for the detection of regenerative nodules. The detection of regenerative nodules was also more accurate for the diagnosis of cirrhosis than the measurement of the caudate-to-right lobe ratio. These results suggest that there could be a potential for surface coil GRE imaging in the assessment of the characteristic macroscopic alterations of cirrhosis.
Employment Law and the Labor Market

Legal rules governing the employer-employee relationship are many and varied. Economic analysis has illuminated both the efficiency and the effects on employee welfare of such rules, as described in this paper. Topics addressed include workplace safety mandates, compensation systems for workplace injuries, privacy protection in the workplace, employee fringe benefits mandates, targeted mandates such as medical and family leave, wrongful discharge laws, unemployment insurance systems, minimum wage rules, and rules requiring that employees receive overtime pay. Both economic theory and empirical evidence are considered.
Affective Sensegiving, Trust-Building, and Resource Mobilization in Start-Up Organizations

Based on a four-year field study of six new ventures, we investigate whether and how founders of new firms engaged in affective sensegiving with diverse stakeholders; namely investors, board members, customers and employees. Affective sensegiving refers to founders' integrating affect in their verbal statements and actions to influence stakeholders' understanding of aspects of their young firms (including themselves). We found a subset of affective sensegiving actions - called emotional assuring - that seeks to generate stakeholders' understanding of the young firms or their leaders as displaying: 1) socially valued entrepreneurial characteristics; 2) personal caring, and 3) transparent or inclusive organizing. We show how stakeholders interpret these founders' sensegiving actions and suggest that they are likely to mobilize resources when they feel emotionally assured because they perceive trustworthiness. Our study enriches the sensegiving literature - which has mainly focused on cognition - by identifying a range of sensegiving actions that include affect and build trust. It also extends the trust literature by specifying managerial actions that build, sometimes simultaneously, cognitive as well as affective trust in the challenging context of creating new firms. Lastly, it contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by unpacking the social construction of start-up organizations through founders' use of affective sensegiving actions.
State of Corporate Governance in Arab Countries: An Overview

The purpose of this paper is to assess the state of corporate governance as a major factor affecting the growth performance of the private sector in MENA countries. For this purpose both country-specific assessments, carried out by World Bank-IMF teams (so-called ROSC’s assessments) and focus-group discussions that took place in four regional conferences have been synthesized. Strengths and weaknesses of corporate governance in selected Arab countries have been highlighted. One major key finding is that the legal and regulatory frameworks of the assessed Arab countries are largely compliant with the OECD Principles of corporate governance. However, practices are not. The difficulty of the assessments is to reflect properly the discrepancies between the letter of the law and compliance. It should be emphasized that the World Bank-IMF assessments focus on listed companies. No-listed firms, especially SME, family-owned firms and State-owned enterprises that make up to 98% of all firms, are not subject to assessments. Another key finding that emerged from our reviewing of the regional conferences on corporate governance is that corporate governance issues have not been ignored in public debates in the MENA region. Practitioners from capital markets, banks, public and private sector representatives and other civil society groups have accepted the need to address corporate governance reforms as one of the crucial topics affecting the economic growth and development of firms, industries and whole economies in their region. Several meetings and conferences at the national and regional level have taken place. Appropriate and up-to-date recommendations regarding corporate governance reform in the MENA region have been adopted in those events. It is now up to the decision makers at all levels to implement those recommendations
FIRM-SPECIFIC FACTORS AND THE MARKET REACTION TO DIVIDEND CHANGE ANNOUNCEMENTS: EVIDENCE FROM EUROPE

According the dividend signalling hypothesis, it is expected a positive relationship between dividend change announcements and the subsequent share price reactions. However, empirical results are not consensual. This study investigates whether firm-specific factors contribute to explain negative market reaction to dividend change announcements, contributing to the scarce analysis of firm-specific factors explaining the inverse share price reaction to dividend change announcements. The study applies the panel data approach to three European markets. The results show that the market reaction to dividend change announcements is negatively associated with the firm size. We find that the negative market reaction to dividend increase announcements is associated with firms that have, on average, lower dividend changes and higher growth opportunities. Moreover, the results suggest that a high percentage of dividend negative changes, decreases the likelihood that the market reacts positively to a dividend decrease announcement. Globally, we find some evidence for the dividend signalling hypothesis. Key Words: Cash Dividends, Signalling Hypothesis, Firm-Specific Factors
Bioluminescent Mycobacterium aurum expressing firefly luciferase for rapid and high throughput screening of antimycobacterial drugs in vitro and in infected macrophages.

The slow growth and highly infectious nature of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a limiting factor in its use as test organism in high throughput screening for inhibitory compounds. To overcome these problems, use of surrogate strains and reporter genes have been considered. In this study, we have investigated the application of a fast growing nonpathogenic M. aurum expressing firefly luciferase in rapid screening of antituberculosis compounds in vitro and in infected macrophages using bioluminescence assay. The assay is based on luminescence determination using luciferin as substrate. Inhibition of bioluminescence was obtained with frontline antimycobacterial drugs like streptomycin, rifampicin, isoniazid, ethambutol, ofloxacin, and sparfloxacin at their reported MICs. Inhibition could be observed as early as 2 h in vitro and within 24 h in infected macrophages. The system can reliably be used in high throughput screening.
Economic effects of financial integration for developing countries

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Active immunization with IL‐1 displayed on virus‐like particles protects from autoimmune arthritis

IL‐1 is an important mediator of inflammation and a major cause of tissue damage in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Therapeutic administration of recombinant IL‐1 receptor antagonist (IL‐1Ra) is efficacious in reducing clinical symptoms of disease, but suffers from several drawbacks, including the need for frequent administrations of large amounts. Here, we show that immunization of mice with either IL‐1α or IL‐1β chemically cross‐linked to virus‐like particles (VLP) of the bacteriophage Qβ elicited a rapid and long‐lasting autoantibody response. The induced Ab efficiently neutralized the binding of the respective IL‐1 molecules to their receptors in vitro and their pro‐inflammatory activities in vivo. In the collagen‐induced arthritis model, both vaccines strongly protected mice from inflammation and degradation of bone and cartilage. Moreover, immunization with either vaccine showed superior efficacy than daily administrations of high amounts of IL‐1Ra. In the T and B cell‐independent collagen Ab transfer model, immunization with the IL‐1β vaccine strongly protected from arthritis, whereas immunization with the IL‐1α vaccine had no effect. Our results suggest that active immunization with IL‐1α, and especially IL‐1β conjugated to Qβ VLP, might become an efficacious and cost‐effective new treatment option for RA and other systemic IL‐1‐dependent inflammatory disorders.
The five Vs ‐ a buyer’s perspective of the marketing mix

Advances the case for a new marketing paradigm: a paradigm that is driven by the needs of the market, rather than the organization. Examines the notion of targeting, from the perspective of the buyer, a concept labelled by the author as “buyer disposition” ‐ the process undertaken by buyers when sourcing a product or service. Argues that the disposition of the buyer towards a product or service, or supplier, during the sourcing process can be represented by five criteria, termed the “five Vs”: value, viability, volume, variety and virtue. Proposes that the five Vs can be used in conjunction with the marketing mix to enable a supplier or provider to achieve a more detailed understanding of the buying process, and ultimately of product/service adoption. Argues that a fundamental understanding of buyers’ needs and wants, through the eyes of the buyer, will help to generate a stronger and more strategic focus on the achievement of marketing objectives.
More Probability Models for the NCAA Regional Basketball Tournaments

Abstract In this department The American Statistician publishes articles, reviews, and notes of interest to teachers of the first mathematical statistics course and of applied statistics courses. The department includes the Accent on Teaching Materials section; suitable contents for the section are described under the section heading. Articles and notes for the department, but not intended specifically for the section, should be useful to a substantial number of teachers of the indicated types of courses or should have the potential for fundamentally affecting the way in which a course is taught.
The international commitment of late‐internationalizing Brazilian entrepreneurial firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of international commitment of entrepreneurial firms from an emerging economy to their foreign operations. Specifically, it intends to help bridge an existing gap in the literature by focusing on the international commitment of established small entrepreneurial firms, a topic that has been largely overlooked; investigating small‐firm commitment to foreign investments whereas most studies focus on exporting; combining the different research streams that studied international commitment; and using the resource‐based view (RBV) to explore the interplay between resource allocation and commitment in the foreign investments of small entrepreneurial firms.Design/methodology/approach – The study adopts an abductive approach to theory development and uses the case method of investigation. Three case studies were developed from primary and secondary sources. A total of 153 pieces of documentation were used to reconstruct past events, in addit.
An optimization approach to predicting protein structural class from amino acid composition

Proteins are generally classified into four structural classes: all‐α proteins, all‐β proteins, α+β proteins, and α/β proteins. In this article, a protein is expressed as a vector of 20‐dimensional space, in which its 20 components are defined by the composition of its 20 amino acids. Based on this, a new method, the so‐called maximum component coefficient method, is proposed for predicting the structural class of a protein according to its amino acid composition. In comparison with the existing methods, the new method yields a higher general accuracy of prediction. Especially for the all‐α proteins, the rate of correct prediction obtained by the new method is much higher than that by any of the existing methods. For instance, for the 19 all‐α proteins investigated previously by P.Y. Chou, the rate of correct prediction by means of his method was 84.2%, but the correct rate when predicted with the new method would be 100%! Furthermore, the new method is characterized by an explicable physical picture. This is reflected by the process in which the vector representing a protein to be predicted is decomposed into four component vectors, each of which corresponds to one of the norms of the four protein structural classes.
Corporate Governance Data and Measures Revisited

Researchers in accounting, corporate finance, economics, and law regularly evaluate the impact of corporate governance provisions on firm performance and managerial actions. Many of these studies rely on publicly available governance summaries developed by the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC). These summaries have been coded and used in a variety of influential studies, including analyses that assess whether corporate governance practices impact shareholder value. This paper reexamines the coding of the IRRC summaries for the 1990s and early 2000s. We find that the IRRC coding and one commercial source of corporate governance data disagree significantly for several important governance indicators. Our own review of source documents uncovered measurement errors in the IRRC summaries, especially for golden parachutes and supermajority voting provisions. We also find that the IRRC’s definitions do not always clearly represent managerial entrenchment or the difficulty of a (hostile) takeover, as many researchers have assumed. To understand whether these issues matter for corporate governance research, we investigate the striking conclusion of prior work that finds that a hedge portfolio composed of a long (short) position in firms with few (many) anti-takeover provisions produces annual excess returns of six to twelve percent per annum from 1990 to 1999. We find that governance data corrected for errors and definitional concerns do not predict excess returns. We conclude researchers should exercise caution using IRRC data from this period, and that much more attention needs to be devoted to measuring corporate governance practices.
The effect of methyl jasmonate and light irradiation treatments on the stilbenoid biosynthetic pathway in Vitis vinifera cell suspension cultures

Abstract Grape stilbenes are a well-known family of plant polyphenolics that have been confirmed to have many biological activities in relation to health benefits. In the present study, we investigated the effect of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) elicitor at four different concentrations (25, 50, 100 and 200 μM) in combination or not with high-level light irradiation (10,000 LUX) on a cell line obtained from the pulp of Vitis vinifera cv. Shahani. Our results showed that the stilbene synthesis pathway is inhibited by high-light conditions. A concentration of 50 μM MeJA was optimum for efficient production and high accumulation of total phenolics and total flavonoids as well as total stilbenoids. Furthermore, we showed that there is a significant negative correlation between the production of these metabolites and cell growth. These data provide valuable information for the future scale-up of cell cultures for the production of these very high value compounds in bioreactor system.