Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Original Research: Quality of Sleep among Hypertensive Patients in a Semi-Urban Nigerian Community: A Prospective Study

Abstract Background: Sleep complaints are common in patients with chronic medical disorders; however, the prevalence of “poor sleep” in patients with chronic hypertension is not yet known in Nigeria. In the general population, insomnia negatively impacts quality of life. Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the quality of sleep among Nigerian hypertensive patients. The study aimed to measure the prevalence of “poor sleep” in hypertensive patients and to examine the association between quality of sleep and the severity of hypertension in this population. Methods: Quality of sleep was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) in chronic hypertensive patients attending a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. This was compared with normal control subjects. Results: The mean age of the hypertensive patients was 58.15 ± 9.65 years (range, 19–76 years). This did not differ from the controls at 58.7 ± 10.8 years. A total of 80 (60.6%) respondents were females with a mean age of 58.3 ± 12.2 years while 52 (39.4%) were males with a mean age of 58.8 ± 11.7 years. The mean body mass index (BMI) was 26.42 ± 4.13 kg/m2 (range, 18.9–36.4 kg/m2), with 63.1% of the respondents being either overweight or obese. The mean systolic blood pressure was 167.4 ± 21.8 mm Hg (range, 100–210 mm Hg) while the mean diastolic blood pressure was 96.7 ± 14.9 mm Hg (range, 60–130 mm Hg). Fifty-six (42.4%) hypertensive subjects were “poor sleepers” (global PSQI > 5), with a global mean PSQI of 5.03 ± 3.28. This was significantly more than 17.3% of control subjects, with a mean global PSQI of 3.10 ± 0.83. Among the hypertensives, there was no statistically significant relationship between the global PSQI and the age (P = 0.653), sex (P = 0.710), BMI (P = 0.253), systolic (P = 0.145), and diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.827). Conclusions: Poor sleep is common in hypertensive patients and may be associated with lower health-related quality of life. Large-scale, prospective, longitudinal studies on quality of sleep in hypertensive patients are needed to confirm the high prevalence of impaired quality of sleep in this population and to examine the association between severity of hypertension and quality of sleep while controlling for potential confounding variables. We hypothesize that severity of hypertension directly influences quality of sleep, and poor quality of sleep may worsen hypertensive conditions.
Practicing servant‐leadership

The term servant-leadership was first coined by Greenleaf (1904– 1990) in a 1970 essay titled “The Servant as Leader. ” Since that time, more than half a million copies of his books and essays have been sold worldwide. Greenleaf spent most of his organizational life in the field of management research, development, and education at AT&T. Following a 40-year career at AT&T, Greenleaf enjoyed a second career that lasted 25 years, during which time he served as an influential consultant As many small trickles of water feed the mightiest of rivers, the growing number of individuals and organizations practicing servant-leadership has increased into a torrent, one that carries with it a deep current of meaning and passion.
Fast fashion companies coping with internationalization: driving the change or changing the model?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the fast fashion formula and the process of firm internationalization. Possible answers are sought to the following research question: does the fast fashion formula drive the internationalization process (driving the change), or does the internationalization process change the model (changing the model). Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents and discusses the data collected during a ten‐year longitudinal case analysis of an Italian fast fashion company. Three main steps in the firm's international expansion are identified, and the firm's strategies for managing its fast model in each are then discussed.Findings – The findings highlight how the process of internationalization has exerted pressure on the firm's business model. In particular, the case reveals that the company's international development has had a strong impact on three main components of its fast fashion model.Originality/value – The paper contributes to.
From surgical to molecular scalpel: ERJ lung cancer series for 2009

Despite progress in tobacco control, at least in industrialised countries, lung cancer will remain the leading killer among cancers for the next decade. However, translation of molecular carcinogenesis discoveries to the clinical setting gives realistic hope of major improvements in early diagnosis and will, furthermore, enable therapy to be tailored thus reducing the mortality rate. Tobacco exposure accounts for 85–90% of lung cancer deaths 1. This range corresponds to 16,000–24,000 lung cancer deaths in the USA that are not attributable to tobacco carcinogens. Lung cancer in nonsmokers could, therefore, rank among the seven to nine most fatal cancers in the USA 2. An important study, of more than 630,000 people for incidence and 1.8 million people for mortality, has highlighted the major role of tobacco in lung cancer as its primary result and showed neither a temporal trend in favour of an increased incidence of lung cancer in nonsmokers nor a higher incidence in females, but supported claims that the death rate in males is higher than that in females; it also showed that further studies into the high incidence of lung cancer among females in Pacific Rim countries are necessary 2. If tobacco exposure remains the main cause, lung …
Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of the Revised Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA-R) in a Sample of Continuation High School Students

It is now presumed that youth do not move directly from adolescence to adulthood, but rather pass through a transitional period, “emerging adulthood. ” The Revised Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA-R) is a self-report instrument developed to examine the attributes of this period. “At-risk” youth appear to enter emerging adulthood developmental tasks at a slightly earlier age than general population youth. In the present study, a 21-item version of the IDEA was administered to a sample of 1676 “at-risk” continuation (alternative) high school students in Southern California. Principal component factor analysis with orthogonal rotation revealed three factors the authors labeled “Identity Exploration,” “Experimentation/Possibilities,” and “Independence. ” Overall, the measure demonstrated high internal consistency. Construct validity analyses indicated that the measure was correlated with demographics, risk behaviors, and psychological measures. The authors conclude that the IDEA-R is a useful instrument for measuring emerging adulthood in at-risk populations.
The impact of transit-oriented development (TOD) on residential property prices: the case of Box Hill, Melbourne

Transit-oriented design (TOD) – an increase in density around transit stations – has arisen in many of Australia’s capital cities as a way to encourage mass transit ridership as well as to efficiently utilize the increase in foot and vehicle traffic that transit stations create. However, the implementation of TODs in Melbourne has faced strong opposition due to residents’ perception that the disamenities of a TOD will outweigh the benefits resulting in negative impacts on property prices. This research analyzes the relationship between proximity to a TOD and residential home prices. Results indicate that proximity to a TOD is positively related to property prices, even after controlling for neighborhood factors such as street connectivity and overall land use mix. By testing a variety of transformations of distance, we find that the benefits of TOD proximity extend approximately 1250 m from the Box Hill station. From a methodological standpoint, we find that more flexible treatments of distance variables in spatial autoregressive and spline models produce better model fit and lead to results more in line with urban economic theory.
An earth-flattening transformation for waves from a point source

An earth-flattening transformation is developed for wave-propagation problems that can be formulated in terms of uncoupled scalar Helmholtz equations. Through the transformation, wave problems in isotropic, spherically symmetric media with a specified radial heterogeneity can be expressed in terms of a flat geometry with a suitably vertical heterogeneity. The transformation is exact for homogeneous (no source) problems and is useful for normal mode studies. When a point source of waves is present, the earth-flattening transformation together with the Watson transform converts the reflected wave field from a sum over discrete, spherical eigenfunctions to an integral over continuous wave numbers in a flat geometry. The far-field form of this integral shares many properties with the Weyl integral and is useful for body-wave studies in a spherical earth.
Does corporate governance matter to technical, commercial and economic success?

This study examines how corporate governance influences the technical, commercial, and economic success of a firm’s R&D activity. We use a sample of Taiwanese electronics firms which made investments in R&D in the study period. We find that in the presence of innovation, corporate governance does not equally influence the technical, commercial and economic success of firms’ R&D investments. We affirm that higher levels of corporate governance are positively associated with technical success, but in the presence of technical success innovative activity, higher levels of corporate governance do not impact sales growth that represents commercial success. Overall, our study demonstrates that corporate governance essentially plays a contributory role in enhancing the value for an innovative firm. Key words: Commercial success, corporate governance, economic success, technical success.
Association of Proton Pump Inhibitors With Risk of Dementia: A Pharmacoepidemiological Claims Data Analysis.

IMPORTANCE Medications that influence the risk of dementia in the elderly can be relevant for dementia prevention. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are widely used for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases but have also been shown to be potentially involved in cognitive decline. OBJECTIVE To examine the association between the use of PPIs and the risk of incident dementia in the elderly. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS We conducted a prospective cohort study using observational data from 2004 to 2011, derived from the largest German statutory health insurer, Allgemeine Ortskrankenkassen (AOK). Data on inpatient and outpatient diagnoses (coded by the German modification of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision) and drug prescriptions (categorized according to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System) were available on a quarterly basis. Data analysis was performed from August to November 2015. EXPOSURES Prescription of omeprazole, pantoprazole, lansoprazole, esomeprazole, or rabeprazole. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The main outcome was a diagnosis of incident dementia coded by the German modification of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision. The association between PPI use and dementia was analyzed using time-dependent Cox regression. The model was adjusted for potential confounding factors, including age, sex, comorbidities, and polypharmacy. RESULTS A total of 73,679 participants 75 years of age or older and free of dementia at baseline were analyzed. The patients receiving regular PPI medication (n = 2950; mean [SD] age, 83.8 [5.4] years; 77.9% female) had a significantly increased risk of incident dementia compared with the patients not receiving PPI medication (n = 70,729; mean [SD] age, 83.0 [5.6] years; 73.6% female) (hazard ratio, 1.44 [95% CI, 1.36-1.52]; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE The avoidance of PPI medication may prevent the development of dementia. This finding is supported by recent pharmacoepidemiological analyses on primary data and is in line with mouse models in which the use of PPIs increased the levels of β-amyloid in the brains of mice. Randomized, prospective clinical trials are needed to examine this connection in more detail.
Comparative Study of the Structural and Vibroelectronic Properties of Porphyrin and Its Derivatives

Density functional theory (DFT and time-dependent-DFT (TD-DFT) were employed to investigate the vibroelectronic structural properties of porphyrin and some derivatives: unsubstituted porphyrin (TPyr), meso-tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP), meso-tetrakis(p-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (TSPP), protonated-TPyr (H2TPyr), deuterated-H2TPyr (D4TPyr), protonated-TPP (H2TPP) and deuterated-H2TPP (D4TPP), protonated TSPP (H2TSPP), deuterated-H2TSPP (D4TSPP), dicationic TSPP (H6TSPP) and deuterated-H6TSPP (D8TSPP). The possible internal conversion (IC) and intersystem crossing (ISC) processes of these compounds were investigated. Finally, the relaxed ground state potential energy surface (PES) (S0), and singlet (Sn, n = 1–24) and triplet (Tn) excited state PESs of the TSPP molecule were calculated as function of the dihedral angle (Cα-Cm-Cϕ-C(ph)) rotation. The results of the calculations indicated that while the meso-substitutions caused a significant shift in frequencies when the meso-carbons within the parent-porphine (or TPyr) are involved in the vibrational motion of molecules; the protonation of the N atoms at the porphine/porphyrin core causes a significant blue shift when the H on the N atoms within the pyrroline are dominantly involved in the vibrational motions. The deuteration of N atoms not only caused a red-shift in the frequencies of the corresponding peaks below 1600 cm−1, but also produced new vibrational modes of frequencies in the 2565–2595 cm−1 range caused by the N-D bond stretching. Similarly, the deuteration of O atoms within the sulfonato groups (-SO3−) exhibited a new peak at around 2642 cm−1 due to O-D bond stretching. The measured Raman spectrum of the H2TSPP is assigned based on the predicted Raman spectra of the compounds studied here and measured Raman spectrum of the TPP (from our previous work). The IR spectrum is assigned based on our calculations and measured IR spectra obtained from the literature. The results of the TD-DFT calculations did not only indicate that the meso-substitution and protonation of the porphyrin bring about a significant read shift in the electronic transitions; but also provided a strong evidence for the IC from the Soret band to Q-bands beside possibility of the ISC process; its existence depend on the other excited state process such as much faster vibrational relaxation; the IC and etc. The ground state PES curve (S0) of the ionic TSPP exhibited two minima at the dihedral angle (Cα-Cm-Cϕ-C) of about 66° (corresponds to the lowest ground state) and 110° (corresponds to next energetically stable state or the local minima). The energy deference between these two minima is 0.0132 eV (or 106 cm−1) and the highest potential energy barrier when undergoing from the lowest ground state to this local state is only 0.0219 eV (177 cm−1; which is compatible with the thermal energy (kT) at 298 K is 207.2 cm−1.
A Catastrophe Model for Developing Service Satisfaction Strategies

Customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction has become an important issue for marketing practitioners. The authors examine the issue in terms of customer service. In particular, practitioners and academicians have noted that simply investing in greater service delivery may not return the cost of the additional investment. Part of the problem is that customers’ response to service increments can be nonlinear, and satisfaction and dissatisfaction thresholds may not occur at the same point. The authors propose a method for analyzing this complex behavior in a way that can lead to the development of more accurate service strategies through an understanding of the relationships among customer-transaction costs, satisfaction, and purchase loyalty. They use a catastrophe model to describe a service loyalty customer-response surface. Then, by presenting a “real-world” application with a small service-quality customer dataset provided by General Electric Supply, they show how one actually estimates such a model and interprets the results.
Predictors of occupational injuries among coal miners: causal analysis

In this study, personal and impersonal factors, such as personality, job characteristic, maturity, job satisfaction, job involvement, job stress, risk taking behaviour and safety performance, were examined as predictors of coal miners’ injuries in a causal framework. A structural equation model was developed to identify the significant cause–effect relationships among the factors. This was a case control study on 202 male coal miners with at least one occupational injury during a five year period and 202 male controls with no occupational injury in their career. They were matched on job. A standardised questionnaire was used to conduct the survey and administered by personal interview. The direct effects of these variables on occupational injuries revealed that personality (γ=−0·33, p<0·05), maturity (γ=0&middot20, p<0·05), job characteristic (β=−0·28, p<0·05) and safety performance (β=−0·28, p<0·05) were the significant predictors of occupational injuries. Although job commitment has no significant direct effect on injury occurrence, it has significant indirect role (−0·04, p<0·05) in causing injury through the mediating variables. Apparently it seems that the variables job stress, job satisfaction and risk taking behaviour are not significant, but they have mediating role in injury causation which is revealed by the fact that personality (−0·15, p<0·05) and job characteristic (−0·12, p<0·05) have significant indirect effect in injury causation owing to these mediating variables. This information would help implementing preventive programs in which the firm, workers and researchers have to work together in partnership. The management should be more attentive towards working environment and safety of the workers. Factors which affect the psychological traits negatively should be improved. Workers with negative traits such as emotionally instable and older workers should be employed in less hazardous jobs.
Histological changes caused by experimental Riedeliella graciliflora (Leg. Papilionoideae) poisoning in cattle and laboratory animals

Tissues from cattle, mice, rats and guinea pigs experimentally intoxicated by Riedeliella graciliflora were studied histologically. Cattle lymph nodes, spleen, Peyer patches and peribronchial lymphoid tissues had diffuse necrosis of lymphocytes, mainly in the germinal centers of the follicles. This lesion was less severe in laboratory animals. All species had severe enteritis with infiltration of the lamina propria by mononuclear cells. Some cells in this infiltrate were necrotic. Degeneration and necrosis of the epithelial cells, mainly in the tip of the villi, and detachment of the epithelial lining from the lamina propria were also observed. In the liver the trabecular structure was disrupted and the hepatocytes had some degree of individual necrosis and degeneration. A tubular nephrosis was observed in the kidneys. Liver, lung, kidney, intestine and lymph nodes had different degrees of congestion. Those lesions are similar than those caused by Polygala klotzschii, a plant that contains 5-metoxi-podophyllotoxin.
Polymorphisms in TRPV1 and TAS2Rs associate with sensations from sampled ethanol.

BACKGROUND Genetic variation in chemosensory genes can explain variability in individual's perception of and preference for many foods and beverages. To gain insight into variable preference and intake of alcoholic beverages, we explored individual variability in the responses to sampled ethanol (EtOH). In humans, EtOH elicits sweet, bitter, and burning sensations. Here, we explore the relationship between variation in EtOH sensations and polymorphisms in genes encoding bitter taste receptors (TAS2Rs) and a polymodal nociceptor (TRPV1). METHODS Caucasian participants (n = 93) were genotyped for 16 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TRPV1, 3 SNPs in TAS2R38, and 1 SNP in TAS2R13. Participants rated sampled EtOH on a generalized Labeled Magnitude Scale. Two stimuli were presented: a 16% EtOH whole-mouth sip-and-spit solution with a single time-point rating of overall intensity and a cotton swab saturated with 50% EtOH on the circumvallate papillae (CV) with ratings of multiple qualities over 3 minutes. Area-under-the-curve (AUC) was calculated for the time-intensity data. RESULTS The EtOH whole-mouth solution had overall intensity ratings near "very strong. " Burning/stinging had the highest mean AUC values, followed by bitterness and sweetness. Whole-mouth intensity ratings were significantly associated with burning/stinging and bitterness AUC values on the CV. Three TRPV1 SNPs (rs224547, rs4780521, rs161364) were associated with EtOH sensations on the CV, with 2 (rs224547 and rs4780521) exhibiting strong linkage disequilibrium. Additionally, the TAS2R38 SNPs rs713598, rs1726866, and rs10246939 formed a haplotype, and were associated with bitterness on the CV. Last, overall intensity for whole-mouth EtOH associated with the TAS2R13 SNP rs1015443. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest genetic variation in TRPV1 and TAS2Rs influence sensations from sampled EtOH and may potentially influence how individuals initially respond to alcoholic beverages.
Issues and challenges in financing the poor: case of Baitul Maal Wa Tamwil in Indonesia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight the issues and challenges in providing financing to the poor people based on the experience of Baitul Maal Wa Tamwil (BMT) in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach – A series of structured interviews were conducted with the chairman and staff of the Central BMT (Induk Koperasi Syariah) in Jakarta which is the head-quarter of 382 BMTs throughout Indonesia, with additional chairman and shari’ah supervisory in Central BMT (Pusat Koperasi Syariah) in Makasar. Subsequently, the results from the structured interviews were analyzed using qualitative analysis to arrive at the model of the peculiarities of financing the poor in Indonesia. Findings – The findings show that the Central BMT has built specific products and empowerment mechanisms for the poor and has an ideal product to be applied in 382 BMT in Indonesia. There are two schemes of financing source in BMT, namely, social ministry (Kelompok Usaha Bersama) and private financing (national and internationa.
An improved method for visibility enhancement of foggy images

An improved method for visibility enhancement of foggy based degraded images is presented. Proposed technique consists of two phases: firstly applied the visibility enhancement algorithm and then automatic color enhancement algorithm. Quantitative metric and qualitative result of proposed technique is evaluated and compared with other existing visibility restoration algorithms. In this paper quantitative results are presented in terms of measure of enhancement and measure of enhancement factor. Simulation results on foggy images from database demonstrates that proposed technique provides better visibility enhancement results as compared to the others existing visibility enhancement algorithms. A result reveals that proposed technique is an efficient method for visibility enhancement of foggy based degraded images.