Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of price fluency and duration framing in price advertisements

Abstract We examined how the perceptual fluency of prices would interact with the time framing of discount durations and, thereby, affect consumer responses to price advertisements. We propose that consumers would perceive a fit or unfit from the relation between fluency and time framing because both concepts relate to consumer construal and consumer mindsets. Our two experiments supported the positive impact of fit on consumers, showing that when the discount duration was presented either in a small unit (i.e. days) or in an expansive time frame (i.e. anytime), participants showed a higher intention to buy the product if prices were fluent (vs. disfluent) to process. In contrast, when the duration was expressed in a large unit (i.e. week) or in a restrictive time frame (i.e. only), participants’ purchase intention was higher if prices were disfluent (vs. fluent). Moreover, in Experiment 2, participants experienced more positive emotions when a fit (vs. unfit) existed between price fluency and duration framing, leading them to perceive the product to be of greater value.
Utilization of urethral plate in hypospadias surgery

Purpose Recognition the urethral plate comprises tissues that normally should have created the urethra was an important milestone in hypospadias surgery, giving rise to new operative repairs - most notably the tubularized incised plate technique. This article reviews the current state of the art for hypospadias repair using tubularized, incised plate (TIP). Materials and Methods Personal experience and literature reports were reviewed to summarize use of TIP urethroplasty for distal, proximal, and re-operative hypospadias repairs. Results The TIP can be used to correct all distal and most proximal hypospadias. The major contraindication is ventral curvature that leads to urethral plate transection for straightening, which is only necessary in some proximal cases. Reoperations can also be performed using TIP provided the urethral plate has been maintained and is not grossly scarred. Complication rates are comparable to previously used techniques, while cosmetic appearance after TIP is considered superior to other available procedures. Conclusions Recognition of the urethral plate and its incorporation into the neourethra has revolutionized hypospadias repair. The most commonly used operative procedure today is TIP.
Synthesis of a Virtual Urban Soundscape

The main research question addressed in this article is to find out to what extent it is possible to predict statistical noise levels such as L5 and L95 on an urban public square, based on the information about the square’s functionality, the activities going on, and the architecture of the surrounding buildings. The same information is also exploited to auralize the soundscape on the virtual square, in order to assess the disturbance perceived by people of the traffic noise by means of laboratory listening tests, which are based on binaural sound recordings acquired in situ and incorporated in simulations to evoke typical acoustical situations. Auralizations were carried out by two calculation algorithms (ray-tracing and image source method) and two acoustic scenarios (an anechoic situation and a virtually reconstructed square in Odeon®). The statistical noise levels, calculated from the auralized soundscapes, compare well with measurements in situ. The listening test results also show that there are significant differences in people’s perception of traffic noise, depending on their origin.
Sequential combination of flavopiridol and docetaxel reduces the levels of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis and AKT proteins and stimulates apoptosis in human LNCaP prostate cancer cells

Clinical trials have shown that chemotherapy with docetaxel combined with prednisone can improve survival of patients with androgen-independent prostate cancer. It is likely that the combination of docetaxel with other novel chemotherapeutic agents would also improve the survival of androgen-independent prostate cancer patients. We investigated whether the combination of docetaxel and flavopiridol, a broad cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, can increase apoptotic cell death in prostate cancer cells. Treatment of DU 145 prostate cancer cells with 500 nmol/L flavopiridol and 10 nmol/L docetaxel inhibited apoptosis probably because of their opposing effects on cyclin B1–dependent kinase activity. In contrast, when LNCaP prostate cancer cells were treated with flavopiridol for 24 hours followed by docetaxel for another 24 hours (FD), there was a maximal induction of apoptosis. However, there was greater induction of apoptosis in DU 145 cells when docetaxel was followed by flavopiridol or docetaxel. These findings indicate a heterogeneous response depending on the type of prostate cancer cell. Substantial decreases in X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (XIAP) protein but not survivin, both being members of the IAP family, were required for FD enhanced apoptosis in LNCaP cells. Androgen ablation in androgen-independent LNCaP cells increased activated AKT and chemoresistance to apoptosis after treatment with FD. The proteasome inhibitor MG-132 blocked FD-mediated reduction of XIAP and AKT and antagonized apoptosis, suggesting that the activation of the proteasome pathway is one of the mechanisms involved. Overall, our data suggest that the docetaxel and flavopiridol combination requires a maximal effect on cyclin B1–dependent kinase activity and a reduction of XIAP and AKT prosurvival proteins for augmentation of apoptosis in LNCaP cells. [Mol Cancer Ther 2006;5(5):1216–26]
Modélisation de la combustion turbulente par le modèle de flamme cohérente couplé à une méthode de réduction de cinétique chimique en vu de la prédiction de l'émission des polluants

Cette these s'inscrit dans le cadre d'une collaboration entre le laboratoire EM2C du CNRS et de l'ECP et l'industriel verrier Saint-Gobain. Nous nous sommes interesses a la modelisation de la combustion turbulente et des emissions de polluants. Pour cela, nous avons developpe un modele de combustion turbulente base sur le couplage entre le modele de flamme coherente CFM et la chimie detaillee. Le choix du modele CFM repose sur sa capacite a decrire l'interaction entre le front de flamme et les structures turbulentes de l'ecoulement dans lequel il evolue. Nous avons realise son couplage avec la chimie detaillee en utilisant des methodes de tabulation de la cinetique chimique. Nous avons, ensuite, developpe un modele de traitement d'oxydes d'azote et plus particulierement de NO thermique puisque les modeles existants se basent sur des hypotheses grossieres qui ne permettent pas d'estimer les NOx produits de maniere precise. Nous avons alors propose une modelisation de la formation des NOx basee sur la chimie detaillee limitant ainsi les hypotheses requises. Pour tester ces modeles, nous avons realise des simulations numeriques sur deux configurations 2D de laboratoire et une configuration 3D d'un bruleur de four verrier et ce sur les trois modes de combustion : premelangee, partiellement premelangee et non premelangee. Les resultats obtenus sont tres prometteurs et ont montre la capacite du modele developpe a decrire la combustion turbulente en y integrant la chimie detaillee. De plus, le modele de NOx a montre un comportement coherent en fonction des principaux parametres du probleme. Il reste, toutefois, a etre valide par des donnees experimentales.
Improved Anti-Collision Algorithm for Tag Identification in Future Internet of Things

The most important research in the world in these days, research that looking at the internet of thing's (IoT) topics and their applications. Most of these applications depend on RFID system, which includes RFID readers and tags. The important issues in RFID system or network are how we can reduce anti-collision between readers to identify and read tags data. In these paper, we suggest an Improved anti-collision protocol, which can be used to connect RFID readers with RFID tags and reduce the number of RFID tag's collisions. The simulation shows that an Improved Class-1 Generation 2 algorithm is better than Slotted Aloha, Class-1 Generation-2 (Number of Tags Known), Class-1 Generation-2 (Number of Tags Unknown) algorithms.
The Effect of Allocation of Dividend of the Regional Government-Owned Enterprises and the Empowerment Efforts on the Revenue of Regional Government: The Case of Indonesia

The purpose of this study is to find out the factors influencing the increase in the dividend of the Regional Government-Owned Enterprises (BUMD) in North Sumatera Province. In addition, it is also to determine the steps and efforts in empowering and improving the capacity of BUMD in increasing the allocation of dividend to the Regional Government of North Sumatera. It is an explanatory survey study, a study which justifies the relationship between the independent and dependent variables and explains the relationship. This study used survey for its research design. The data used in this study are primary and secondary data. The population of this study is the Regional Government-Owned Enterprises of North Sumatera Province. The samples were taken by using purposive sampling method with the stakeholders of the Regional Government-Owned Enterprises of North Sumatera Province being PT. Bank Sumut, PT. Kawasan Industri Medan, PT Perkebunan Sumut, PT. Askrida and PT. Dirga Surya as the respondents, 66 in total. The method used in this study is the Descriptive Quantitative method with Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) by using AMOS as the analytical tool. For the analysis of perception, this study used SPSS for the statistics. This study concluded that (1) The factors of Equity Capital (Penyertaan Modal) and Other Legitimate Local/Regional Government Revenue of Provinces and Districts/Cities can increase the sources of Local/Regional Government Revenue. (2) Strategic moves taken which can increase the dividend of Regional Government-Owned Enterprises including Enterprise Cultivating Strategy, Enterprise Growing Strategy and Enterprise Restructuring Strategy.
An Overlapping Nonmatching Grid Mortar Element Method for Maxwell's Equations

In this paper, a new finite element mortar approach with moving nonmatching overlapping grids is introduced. The bidirectional transfer of information between the fixed and moving subdomains is realized for each new position of the moving part. Two numerical examples are presented to support the theory: 1) an electrostatic problem with known solution, to state the optimality of the method and 2) an eddy current nondestructive testing configuration, to underline the flexibility and efficiency of the proposed approach.
Risk factors for antidepressant-related switch to mania.

OBJECTIVE Treatment of bipolar depression with antidepressants is strongly debated on the basis of the methodologically poor and insufficient data supporting their use and the widely held belief that antidepressants can induce new episodes of abnormal mood elevation or accelerate the rate of cycling. The present study aimed at identifying clinical risk factors for switch into hypomania, mania, or mixed states, within 8 weeks after introduction of an antidepressant or after increasing its dosage, in a prospective, longitudinal design. METHOD 221 consecutive DSM-IV-TR depressed bipolar I and II disorder patients were treated with antidepressants, which were added to previously prescribed mood stabilizers and/or atypical antipsychotics. No patient was on antidepressant monotherapy. The patients were enrolled from October 2005 through January 2010. The primary outcome was the assessment of switch to mania or hypomania within 8 weeks after the introduction or dose increase of an antidepressant. Both groups were compared with analysis of variance and χ² procedures. RESULTS Treatment-emergent affective switch was detected in 54 patients (24.4%) (switch group) while 167 patients (75.6%) (nonswitch group) did not experience a treatment-related switch. The main clinical differences significantly associated with the occurrence of an antidepressant-related switch, after performing logistic regression analysis, were higher rate of previous switches (P < .001) in the switch versus the nonswitch group, lower rate of responses to antidepressants (P < .001) in the switch versus the nonswitch group, and earlier age at onset (P = .026) in the switch versus the nonswitch group. DISCUSSION Bipolar patients with an earlier age at onset and an illness course characterized by lower rate of response to antidepressants and higher rate of switches into mania or hypomania were found to be the ones with higher switch risk. Nevertheless, a greater number of previous antidepressant exposures was not associated with the occurrence of an antidepressant-associated switch. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01503489.
The impact of the corporate governance on firm performance: A study on financial institutions in Sri Lanka

Now corporate governance issues have received wide attention of researchers for more than three decades due to the increasing economic crisis around the world. This research study consider the impact of corporate governance on the performance of listed financial institutions in Sri Lanka as main objective and recommend a suitable corporate governance practices for improving performance of listed financial institutions. To achieve these objectives, the researcher use Return on equity, Return on assets, as the key variables that defined the performance of the firm. On the other hand, Board size, Meeting frequency and audit committee of the company are used as variables to measure the corporate governance. Twenty five listed financial institutions were selected as sample size for the sample period of 2008–2012. The data will be collected by using the secondary sources. According to the analysis, variables of corporate governance significantly, impact on firm's performance and board size and audit committee size have positive impact on, firm's performance. However, meeting frequency has negatively impact on firm's performance.
Take-off mechanisms in parasitoid wasps

ABSTRACT High-speed video analyses of the natural behaviour of parasitoid wasps revealed three strategies used to launch the insects into the air. Which strategy is the most energy efficient? In Pteromalus puparum, 92% of take-offs by were propelled entirely by movements of the middle and hind legs, which were depressed at their coxo-trochanteral and extended at their femoro-tibial joints. The front legs left the ground first, followed by the hind legs, so that the middle legs provided the final propulsion. Second, in other species of a similar mass, Cotesia glomerata and Leptopilina boulardi, all take-offs were propelled by a mean of 2.8 and 3.8 wingbeats, respectively, with little or no contribution from the legs. The first strategy resulted in take-off times that were four times shorter (5 versus 22.8 ms) and take-off velocities that were four times faster (0.8 versus 0.2 m s−1). Calculations from the kinematics indicate that propulsion by the legs was the most energy-efficient strategy, because more energy is put into propulsion of the body, whereas in take-off propelled by repetitive wing movements energy is lost to generating these movements and moving the air. In heavier species such as Netelia testacea and Amblyteles armatorius, take-off was propelled by the combined movements of the middle and hind legs and wingbeats. In A. armatorius, this resulted in the longest mean take-off time of 33.8 ms but an intermediate take-off velocity of 0.4 m s−1. In all three strategies the performance could be explained without invoking energy storage and power amplification mechanisms. Summary: Parasitoid wasps use three strategies to take off: propulsion by rapid leg movements, propulsion by flapping wing movements and a combination of the two. Leg movements provide the most energy-efficient mechanism.
Targeted molecular-genetic imaging and ligand-directed therapy in aggressive variant prostate cancer

Significance Aggressive variant prostate cancer (AVPC) is a clinically defined tumor with neuroendocrine or small-cell differentiation, visceral metastases, low prostate-specific antigen, androgen receptor insensitivity, and poor/brief responses to androgen-deprivation or platinum-based chemotherapy. AVPC incidence has markedly increased, yielding an unmet diagnostic/therapeutic need. Here we adapted a patient-derived xenograft model and tumor samples to demonstrate ligand-directed theranostics of AVPC in vivo. We engineered human Herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase type-1 as a noninvasive imaging reporter/suicide transgene into adeno-associated virus/phage (AAVP) particles displaying motif ligands to cell surface-associated glucose-regulated protein 78kD (GRP78), toward a clinic-ready system. Although individual components of the AAVP system have been extensively investigated, this study is evidence of successful application in relevant preclinical models of untreatable and hard to diagnose aggressive tumor variants. Aggressive variant prostate cancers (AVPC) are a clinically defined group of tumors of heterogeneous morphologies, characterized by poor patient survival and for which limited diagnostic and treatment options are currently available. We show that the cell surface 78-kDa glucose-regulated protein (GRP78), a receptor that binds to phage-display-selected ligands, such as the SNTRVAP motif, is a candidate target in AVPC. We report the presence and accessibility of this receptor in clinical specimens from index patients. We also demonstrate that human AVPC cells displaying GRP78 on their surface could be effectively targeted both in vitro and in vivo by SNTRVAP, which also enabled specific delivery of siRNA species to tumor xenografts in mice. Finally, we evaluated ligand-directed strategies based on SNTRVAP-displaying adeno-associated virus/phage (AAVP) particles in mice bearing MDA-PCa-118b, a patient-derived xenograft (PDX) of castration-resistant prostate cancer bone metastasis that we exploited as a model of AVPC. For theranostic (a merging of the terms therapeutic and diagnostic) studies, GRP78-targeting AAVP particles served to deliver the human Herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase type-1 (HSVtk) gene, which has a dual function as a molecular-genetic sensor/reporter and a cell suicide-inducing transgene. We observed specific and simultaneous PET imaging and treatment of tumors in this preclinical model of AVPC. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of GPR78-targeting, ligand-directed theranostics for translational applications in AVPC.
The Impact of Work Stress on Employee Productivity: Based in the Banking sector of Faisalabad, Pakistan

The study investigated the impact of work stress on employee productivity. The study sought to find out how work-related stress could affect the productivity of banking staff of Faisalabad, Pakistan. In addition, it identified certain factors which contribute to work stress among banking. The target populations comprised all employees from the five to six bank of Faisalabad city (Bank AL Habib, Faysal limited bank, MCB, Meezan Bank, J.S Bank, Bank Al-Falah). The stratified random sampling technique was used to select 50 participants for the study. Questionnaire was the instrument used to elicit information from the respondents. Descriptive statistic of table and percentage were used to answer the research questions raised to guide the study while regression and correlation method was adopted to analyze the research hypotheses generated for the study. To check the impact of work stress, the stress related variables are impact of workload, impact of role ambiguity, impact of role conflict. The findings of this study revealed that there is significant relationship between work stress and employee’s productivity in banking sector.
Yield and complications of flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy in a teaching hospital.

OBJECTIVE To assess the diagnostic yield and safety of flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FFB). METHODS A retrospective review of bronchoscopy reports and corresponding patients charts over 3 years from January 2004 - December 2006 in King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Indication for procedure, suspected diagnosis, final diagnosis, and complications were reported. RESULTS Out of 720 patients, 707 (98.2%) patients had a full follow up. Five hundred and ninety-two (83.7%) underwent FFB for diagnostic purposes and 115 (16.3%) for therapeutic purposes. The mean age was 42 -/+ 18 years. Infection, including mycobacterium tuberculosis, and malignancy were the 2 main indications for FFB (35.9% and 25.9%). The overall diagnostic yield was 58%. Tuberculosis was diagnosed in 67% of suspected cases, whereas bacterial pneumonia was diagnosed in 40.5%. Malignancy was confirmed in 61.2% of suspected cases. Bronchoscopy diagnosed 37 (43%) of 86 patients with interstitial lung disease. The diagnostic yield was 57% for sarcoidosis, 40% for usual interstitial pneumonia and 88% for bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia. The overall complication rate was 5%; pneumothorax occurred in 0.56% and was associated exclusively with transbronchial biopsy. No mortality was observed. CONCLUSION Flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy is a useful diagnostic tool with a low rate of complications. The diagnostic yield in our institution is similar to that reported in Western series.
An update on biomarkers of heart failure in hypertensive patients

Biomarkers should have high sensitivity, specificity, reproducibility, be cost-effective, and provide incremental predictive or diagnostic utility over standard risk factors or tests. Despite numerous studies investigating biomarkers in heart failure (HF), there are only a few that predict HF in hypertensive patients. This article summarizes data from numerous studies concerning possible biomarkers of HF in hypertensive patients such as: serum uric acid (SUA), interleukins, monocyte chemoattractant protein one (MCP-1), cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1), carboxy-terminal propeptide of procollagen type I (PICP), type I collagen telopeptide (CITP) and N-terminal propeptide of type III procollagen (PIIINP), metalloproteinases (MMPs), B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and its derivatives, glycoprotein CA125 and cystatin C. Early detection of patients of increased risk of hypertensive heart disease may result in early implementation of effective preventive strategies. Therefore, there is need to identify newer biomarkers, if they can improve risk prediction, identifying patients, in which earlier or more aggressive intervention will improve clinical outcomes.
Eosinophilic CNS vasculitis can mimic demyelinating disease of the brain and spinal cord

A 61-year-old man developed progressive ascending sensory loss to T8 and paraparesis over 4 weeks. MRI revealed ovoid T2-hyperintense lesions in juxtacortical and periventricular areas, and in the T7-T10 spinal segment, with varying degrees of peripheral gadolinium enhancement (figure 1). He received 5 days of high-dose corticosteroids and plasmapheresis for presumed demyelination, without clinical response. Brain biopsy showed vasculitis involving small arteries with transmural inflammatory cell infiltrates including numerous eosinophils (figure 2). Eosinophilic vasculitis can cause ischemic strokes1; it rarely involves the spinal cord.2 Our case illustrates that it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of CNS demyelination.