Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
KRAS Mutation as the Biomarker of Response to Chemotherapy and EGFR-TKIs in Patients With Advanced Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer: Clues For Its Potential Use in Second-Line Therapy Decision Making

Objetive:In patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), knowledge of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation status is fundamental for selecting the treatment involving EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs). Little information is available regarding the response and progression-free survival (PFS) in platinum-based chemotherapy (CT) versus EGFR-TKIs in the presence or absence of KRAS mutation, particularly in patients without EGFR mutation. Methods:From 2007 to 2010, 353 patients with NSCLC were treated with first-line CT, EGFR-TKIs were used in the second or third line of treatment. Tests were performed for EGFR and KRAS mutation and the results of the mutations were obtained 3 to 4 months after the start of the treatment. We analyzed clinical characteristics, mutation profile, response and PFS to CT and EGFR-TKIs, and overall survival. The protocol is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01023828. Results:Presence of the wild-type (WT) KRAS was independently associated with increased response rate to first-line CT when compared with KRAS mutation (41.4% vs. 14.7%; P=0.001). The EGFR mutation (57.8% vs. 11.7%; P<0.001) and WT-KRAS (39.6% vs. 3.3%; P=0.001) were associated with the EGFR-TKIs response. PFS of patients with WT-EGFR and KRAS mutation treated with EGFR-TKIs was shorter when compared with patients with WT-EGFR and WT-KRAS (P<0.001). Conclusions:KRAS mutation status is a good biomarker for response to EGFR-TKIs in patients with NSCLC. KRAS mutational status could impact the decision to give CT or EGFR-TKIs as a second line of treatment to patients with NSCLC, particularly in patients with WT-EGFR.
Viral hepatitis in health care personnel at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. The seroprevalence of and risk factors for hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus infection.

BACKGROUND Health care personnel are at increased risk of occupational acquisition of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. While effective vaccination for HBV is widely available, the prevalence of HBV and vaccine acceptance in hospital personnel have not been recently assessed. In addition, hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a newly recognized cause of parenterally acquired hepatitis, and the risk of HCV transmission to health care personnel remains unclear. METHODS From April to December 1991, health care personnel at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Md, were offered anonymous testing for HBV and HCV and were asked to complete a confidential questionnaire. Serum samples were tested for HBV surface antigen and antibodies to HBV core antigen, HBV surface antigen, and HCV. Seroprevalence rates were compared with those detected in local blood donors during the same year. RESULTS Antibodies to HBV core antigen were found in 59 (6.2%) of 943 health care workers compared with 1879 (1.8%) of 104,239 local blood donors (P < .001). In contrast, antibodies to HCV were found in seven (0.7%) of 943 health care workers and 0.4% of local blood donors (P = .10). Infection with HBV was associated with age (> or = 33 years) (P < .001), black race (P < .001), type of health care worker (nurse) (P = .02), 10 ore more years of clinical employment (P = .003), and lack of HBV vaccination (P < .001). After logistic regression, only absence of HBV vaccination was independently associated with HBV infection (P < .001). CONCLUSION These data suggest that the prevalence of HCV infection in health care personnel at The Johns Hopkins Hospital is similar to that observed in local blood donors, and that HBV may be more efficiently transmitted than HCV in the health care setting. Efforts to vaccinate health care personnel against HBV should be vigorously pursued since 23% remain unvaccinated after 9 years of HBV vaccine availability.
Success and Performance: A UK SMES Perspective

There is a growing need to understand of Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) goals so as to assess their performance and sustainability for SMEs, governments and funders. This qualitative research explores the views of SMEs about success and the factor which influence success. The paper reviews the relevant literature associated with success. It then using depth interviews with 25 SMEs in the service sector explores the SMEs views on success and performance. Success is defined broadly by SMEs covering financial and non-financial aspects, this is consisted with the literature. Yet financial success is primarily seen in terms of viability. In terms of factors affecting success the SMEs highlighted three aspects: employees’ performance, customer relationships and networking to achieve sustainability. These were explored to indicate the specific features which may aid success.
KINERJA KEUANGAN DAN EFISIENSI TERHADAP RETURN SAHAM PERBANKAN DI BURSA EFEK INDONESIA PERIODE 2007-2011

This research analysis of the factors that affect stock returns of banks listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during the period 2007-2011. This study applies panel data regression model to measure the effect of the two groups of independent variables of financial performance, and efficiency of the bank. The financial performance variables consisted of capital adequacy ratio (CAR), non-performing loans (NPL), return on equity (ROE), loans deposit ratio (LDR) and a net interest margin (NIM), while the variable banks efficiency, are operating expenses and operating income (BOPO), and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) of the bank stock returns. The empirical results showed variable CAR, NPL, ROE, LDR, and NIM as an indicator of financial performance affects bank stock returns are negative and significant. While variable ROA ratio as an indicator of the efficiency of banks affect bank stock returns are negative and significant. Variable of DEA as an indicator of the efficiency of banks, affects bank stock returns positively and significantly. Financial variables are proxied by the ratio of CAR, NPL, ROE, NIM, and LDR, and bank efficiency variable proxied by ROA ratios and DEA methods significantly affect jointly return of bank stocks listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. These empirical findings are partly consistent with the hypothesis of the study, while t different with the hypothesis of the study
Timely Loan Loss Recognition in the Banking System and Firms’ Debt Structure

In this paper, we examine how the timeliness of loan loss recognition within the banking system affects borrowers’ debt structure. Using data from 55 countries, we find that more timely loan loss recognition reduces firms’ reliance on bank debt, consistent with firms relying less on bank debt due to more costly monitoring by banks. In addition, we find that this negative impact is more pronounced when there is stringer regulatory supervision of banks and among financially constrained and opaque firms. We further find that the negative impact is more pronounced in countries with more developed bond markets, consistent with such markets facilitating a switch from bank debt when banks impose more costly monitoring on firms.
The Non-Financial Information Directive: An Assessment of Its Impact on Corporate Social Responsibility

A Directive to be introduced on 6 December 2016 will place a mandatory requirement on designated undertakings to disclose information on certain matters relating to corporate social responsibility. These include environmental, social and employee, anti-corruption and bribery matters. This article, through an analysis of the requirements of the Directive and a comparison with non-financial reporting in the UK, seeks to evaluate the impact the Directive will have on corporate social responsibility in the European Union.
Strategic priorities for exploiting Bahrain’s medical tourism potential

Purpose Medical tourism offers many opportunities to diversify Bahrain’s economy and foster economic development and prosperity. This study aims to holistically investigate the potential of developing Bahrain as a medical tourism destination and create a strategic roadmap to help government decision makers and other key private sector players to realize that potential. Design/methodology/approach This study is primarily based on quantitative research methods. Data were collected from medical service providers in the Kingdom of Bahrain using a questionnaire and subsequently analyzed using quantitative analysis techniques. Findings Overall findings indicate that Bahrain has the potential to attain competitiveness in the medical tourism sector. This can be achieved through a combination of industry-specific management strategies which facilitate effective public–private partnerships, reinvent healthcare legislation and encourage investment in medical tourism infrastructure. Practical implications This study will help determine best practice, prioritize improvement opportunities and enhance performance relative to stakeholders’ expectations and responsible tourism development. Originality/value Studies assessing medical tourism competitiveness of various countries are difficult to obtain. This study fills an existing gap by providing a distinct and comprehensive evaluation method of such competitiveness through a structured analysis of relevant market data in Bahrain. This study can be further extended to include a wider range of stakeholders, namely, private enterprise and the government sector.
Factors Influencing Consumers Intention for Online Grocery Shopping – A Proposed Framework

Nowadays, Internet is one of the most popular platforms for people to do online shopping including grocery items. Many studies have been conducted to investigate the determinants of customer intentions for online grocery shopping. Till now, there is no consensus on what are the factors that actually influencing people to shop grocery items through Internet. This paper aims to explore the factors such as social influences, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivations, perceived risk and perceived trust that influence the consumer intention to purchase grocery online. Questionnaires will be the main instrument of the study and they will be distributed to target respondents using Internet survey. Respondents of the study will be selected using convenience sampling. After data collection, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) will be employed for data analysis. Overall, the result of the study is important to retailers to identify the important factors in increasing their customers’ intention to purchase grocery online.
Thermal tolerances of sea turtle embryos: current understanding and future directions

ABSTRACT: Developing sea turtle embryos only successfully hatch within a relatively narrow temperature range, rendering this immobile life stage vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change. To accurately predict the potential impact of climate change on sea turtle egg mortality, we need to fully understand the thermal tolerance of developing embryos. We reviewed the literature on this topic, and found that published studies interpret the primary literature and subsequent reviews very differently. Based on early literature reviews, the maximum thermal tolerance of sea turtle embryos is frequently cited as either 33 or 35°C. In many sea turtle populations, however, nest temperatures often exceed 35°C by up to several degrees (usually just prior to hatchling emergence) and eggs still hatch successfully. Mean incubation temperatures up to 35°C generally produce hatchlings, although leatherback and olive ridley turtle embryos may be less tolerant of high incubation temperatures than green and loggerhead turtle embryos. Sea turtle embryos are likely to be more sensitive to the duration of time spent at potentially stressful temperatures than to the temperature alone. To complicate matters, developing embryos may change their thermal tolerance as they grow. Overall, we are only beginning to understand how exposure to high temperatures experienced in the field influences embryonic development and hatchling production. This knowledge gap is hampering our ability to predict the impacts of climate change on sea turtle populations, and future work should focus on understanding how temperature and other climatic variables influence embryonic development and, thus, crucial population attributes such as hatchling production.
Optimal Precoding for a QoS Optimization Problem in Two-User MISO-NOMA Downlink

In this letter, based on the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) concept, a quality-of-service optimization problem for two-user multiple-input-single-output broadcast systems is considered, given a pair of target interference levels. The minimal power and the optimal precoding vectors are obtained by considering its Lagrange dual problem and via Newton's iterative algorithm, respectively. Moreover, the closed-form expressions of the minimal transmission power for some special cases are also derived. One of these cases is termed quasi-degraded, which is the key point and will be discussed in detail in this letter. Our analysis further figures out that the proposed NOMA scheme can approach nearly the same performance as optimal dirty paper coding, as verified by computer simulations.
Brain inflammation accompanies amyloid in the majority of mild cognitive impairment cases due to Alzheimer’s disease

See Kreisl (doi:10.1093/awx151) for a scientific commentary on this article.Subjects with mild cognitive impairment associated with cortical amyloid-β have a greatly increased risk of progressing to Alzheimer's disease. We hypothesized that neuroinflammation occurs early in Alzheimer's disease and would be present in most amyloid-positive mild cognitive impairment cases. 11C-Pittsburgh compound B and 11C-(R)-PK11195 positron emission tomography was used to determine the amyloid load and detect the extent of neuroinflammation (microglial activation) in 42 mild cognitive impairment cases. Twelve age-matched healthy control subjects had 11C-Pittsburgh compound B and 10 healthy control subjects had 11C-(R)-PK11195 positron emission tomography for comparison. Amyloid-positivity was defined as 11C-Pittsburgh compound B target-to-cerebellar ratio above 1.5 within a composite cortical volume of interest. Supervised cluster analysis was used to generate parametric maps of 11C-(R)-PK11195 binding potential. Levels of 11C-(R)-PK11195 binding potential were measured in a selection of cortical volumes of interest and at a voxel level. Twenty-six (62%) of 42 mild cognitive impairment cases showed a raised cortical amyloid load compared to healthy controls. Twenty-two (85%) of the 26 amyloid-positive mild cognitive impairment cases showed clusters of increased cortical microglial activation accompanying the amyloid. There was a positive correlation between levels of amyloid load and 11C-(R)-PK11195 binding potentials at a voxel level within subregions of frontal, parietal and temporal cortices. 11C-(R)-PK11195 positron emission tomography reveals increased inflammation in a majority of amyloid positive mild cognitive impairment cases, its cortical distribution overlapping that of amyloid deposition.
FSN Analysis for Inventory Management – Case Study of Sponge Iron Plant

An inventory management is technique which is generally used to manage the company effectively. The company wants to control their inventory cost, material cost, labor cost etc. There are several inventory techniques used in company such as FSN, XYZ, ABC, HML, VED and S-OS. In this study we shall focus on FSN analysis. In FSN analysis the items are classified into F, S and N classes based on Based on Turnover ratio. Data collection is mainly of 1 year through the general store manager of sponge iron plant. In these analysis only generally used items is used for FSN analysis.
SOCIAL animal.

That is the central problem dealt with in three very different books about being with others. Matthew Lieberman approaches the issue from the perspective of his pioneering field of social cognitive neuroscience, the study of how the brain responds to the social world; Joshua Greene looks at it through the lens of moral philosophy and psychology; and Martha Nussbaum brings political philosophy to the party, infusing her discussion with her trademark blend of aesthetic and historical analysis.
Lightness Effects in Delboeuf and Ebbinghaus Size-Contrast Illusions

We examined lightness effects observed in Delboeuf and Ebbinghaus size-contrast illusions. Results of four experiments are reported. Experiment 1 was conducted with Delboeuf-like stimuli and shows that the disk that appears bigger appears either lighter or darker than the disk that appears smaller, depending on the contrast polarity between disks and background. Experiment 2 shows that the direction of these lightness effects is not influenced by the luminance of the size-contrast inducers. Experiment 3 shows that a similar lightness effect is also observed in modified Ebbinghaus size-contrast displays. Experiment 4 tested the presence of the size-contrast illusion in the stimuli used in experiments 2 and 3.
Shareholders’ Value Creation and Market Price of Share: A Study in Indian Context

Shareholders’ value creation has become a matter of concern in the world of financial management in recent times. Shareholders’ value creation refers to the net value addition for the shareholders. In the present corporate scenario, financial managers do not concentrate only on profit generation but also on value creation for their shareholders, to ensure the survival of the business in the long run. It has been observed that shareholders’ value creation is related to market price of share. In this paper, an attempt has been taken to measure shareholders’ value creation by five different approaches selecting few sample companies. The approaches are- Market Value to Book Value Ratio approach, Economic Value Added (EVA) approach, Market Value Added (MVA) approach, Shareholders’ Value Added (SVA) approach and Shareholders’ View Point approach. Further, we quantify the degree of association that exists between shareholders’ value creation and market price of share. The data analysis reveals that shareholders’ value per share and market value per share are positively correlated to a considerable extent.
The relationship of intelligence and cerebral mantle in treated infantile hydrocephalus. (IQ potential in hydrocephalic children).

Hydrocephalus in early life can often be so successfully treated as to allow children to live and grow with normal intelligence. Whereas untreated hydrocephalus allows only unpredictable intelligence when arrested, a far better prognosis holds for treated hydrocephalus. In an analysis of 147 patients with hydrocephalus treated by valveregulated ventriculovenous shunt, IQ can be related to ultimate frontal cerebral mantle. We have sought to correlate late IQ with the nature of the presenting abnormality, the age at which treatment was instituted, and the adequacy of control of the hydrocephalus as reflected in growth of cerebral mantle. This analysis indicates that in certain specific situations, prognosis for good IQ is predictable. At the same time, the study suggests guidelines for adequacy of shunting and the urgency for early shunting to allow for maximum benefits.
AURELIA: A randomized phase III trial evaluating bevacizumab (BEV) plus chemotherapy (CT) for platinum (PT)-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer (OC).

LBA5002^ Background: In three phase III trials in OC (2 front line, 1 PT-sensitive recurrent), BEV + CT → BEV significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) vs CT alone. AURELIA is the first randomized trial of BEV in PT-resistant OC. METHODS Eligible patients (pts) had OC (measurable by RECIST 1.0 or assessable) that had progressed ≤6 mo after ≥4 cycles of PT-based therapy. Pts with refractory OC, history of bowel obstruction, or >2 prior anticancer regimens were ineligible. After CT selection by the investigator (pegylated liposomal doxorubicin [PLD], topotecan [TOP], or weekly paclitaxel [PAC]), pts were randomized to CT either alone or with BEV (10 mg/kg q2w or 15 mg/kg q3w depending on CT) until progression (PD), unacceptable toxicity, or withdrawal of consent. Pts in the CT-alone arm could cross over to BEV monotherapy at PD. The primary endpoint was PFS by RECIST. Secondary endpoints included objective response rate (ORR), overall survival, safety, and quality of life. The design provided 80% power to detect a PFS hazard ratio (HR) of 0.7 with 2-sided log-rank test and α=0.05 after 247 events, assuming median PFS of 4.0 mo with CT and 5.7 mo with CT + BEV. RESULTS Between Oct 2009 and Apr 2011, 361 pts were randomized to receive selected CT (PLD: 126; PAC: 115; TOP: 120) alone or with BEV. Median follow-up after 301 PFS events was 13.5 mo. CONCLUSIONS In PT-resistant OC, BEV + CT provides statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in PFS and ORR vs CT alone. Strict inclusion criteria minimized the incidence of BEV AEs. This is the first phase III trial in PT-resistant OC to show benefit with a targeted therapy and improved outcome with a combination vs monotherapy. [Table: see text].
Blockchain Technology Adoption Status and Strategies

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the acceptance and future use of blockchain technology. Given the rapid technological changes, this paper focuses on a managerial overview and framework of how the blockchain, including its implementations such as Bitcoin have advanced and how blockchain can be utilized in large-scale, enterprise environments. The paper begins with a technological overview that covers the history of the technology, as well as describing the computational, cryptographic theory that serves as the basis for its notable security features. This paper also covers several key application areas such as finance, accounting, and marketplaces where blockchain technology is seeing major investments from some of the world’s largest organizations. Analysis Methods: Triangulation is utilized for this paper, which combines multiple methodologies, such as qualitative and quantitative methods, as complementary components for improving research study accuracy. The triangulation methods chosen for this paper include a secondary data environment analysis, a text analysis, and financial analysis in order to successfully manage and review the adoption diffusion of innovative technologies like blockchain. The blockchain stands to disrupt many areas of society with the proper application and thus it is important to examine its use with as many viewpoints as possible. Contributions and Conclusion: The contribution this paper describes the potential drivers and drawbacks of blockchain technology in real world applications and highlights the managerial implications of its use. This paper also expands the theoretical contributions for identifying blockchain technology progress on the diffusion of innovation curve. As it stands, the blockchain is within the innovation