Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role modelling for agent system analysis, design, and implementation

Role theory deals with collaboration and coordination; roles have also been applied to distributed systems management and to agent and robot systems. However, it has been difficult to realize these representations in an automated or semi-automated system, due to the lack of an adequate formalism and corresponding abstractions in software. Role models are relatively new concepts in object-oriented software engineering that emphasize patterns of interaction and therefore rectify this situation for software analysis and design. This paper provides examples of agent role models and explains how role modelling can be used to facilitate agent system analysis and design. We also discuss role model implementations based on two approaches: the "role object" pattern and aspect-oriented programming (AOP).
Use of botulinum toxin in pediatric spasticity (cerebral palsy)

Local injection of botulinum toxin (BT) is a well‐established treatment option for spastic movement disorders in children. BT blocks the release of acetylcholine from the axon terminal into the synaptic cleft of the motor endplate resulting in paresis of the injected musculature. Such localised, temporary chemodenervation of affected muscles can lead to functional gains and may improve the child's daily routine and rehabilitative care. We summarise state‐of‐the‐art treatment of spasticity in children with BT type A, addressing critical issues and introducing recent advances, such as sonography‐guided injection of BT and the distal injection of the psoas muscle without the need for general anaesthesia. First‐hand experience with BT type B in children is presented. © 2004 Movement Disorder Society
Cyclic strain stimulates monocyte chemotactic protein‐1 mRNA expression in smooth muscle cells

Hemodynamic forces are important determinants for the formation of atherosclerotic plaques. The recruitment of circulating monocytes into the arterial wall is an important step during atherogenesis. Monocyte chemotactic protein‐1 (MCP‐1) has been shown to be a key factor for monocyte transmigration. This study examined the effects of cyclic strain on MCP‐1 mRNA expression levels of cultured rat aortic smooth muscle cells. The MCP‐1 mRNA levels of aortic smooth muscle cells first increased as the duration of cyclic strain increased, reaching the maximum at 6–12 h, maintained at high levels throughout the 48‐h strain period. To explore signaling pathways mediating cyclic strain‐stimulated MCP‐1 mRNA expression, we examined the involvement of tyrosine kinase and protein kinase C (PKC). Tyrosine kinase inhibitors, genistein and tyrphostin 51, at 50 μM blocked cyclic strain‐stimulated MCP‐1 mRNA expression. Preincubation with a PKC activator, phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate (PMA), 2 μM, for 24 h to downregulate PKC did not decrease cyclic strain‐induced MCP‐1 mRNA expression. A 6‐h incubation with 0.1 μM PMA to activate PKC, which stimulated MCP‐1 expression when applied alone, abolished the stimulatory effects of cyclic strain. A specific PKC inhibitor, calphostin C (0.1 μM), diminished cyclic strain‐stimulated MCP‐1 mRNA expression. Angiotensin II at 10 or 1,000 nM induced a moderate upregulation of MCP‐1 mRNA, and no synergistic effects were observed between angiotensin II and cyclic strain. These results indicate that cyclic strain stimulates MCP‐1 mRNA expression in smooth muscle cells through signaling pathway(s) mediated by tyrosine kinase activation. J. Cell. Biochem. 76:303–310, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
To Bank or Not to Bank: The Determination of Cash Holdings and Lines of Credit

This paper investigates two liquidity choices of listed Jordanian firms: internal represented by cash holdings and external represented by lines of credit. We document a significant substitution effect of lines of credit on cash holdings and show that this effect strengthens with banking relationships. In addition, we show that lines of credit are not viable liquidity substitute of cash for all firms. Firms with characteristics linked to high costs of external financing are significantly less likely to have access to lines of credit. Also, Ownership of the largest owner-controller exerts a significant negative impact on the probability of obtaining a line of credit. Finally, using a simultaneous equation framework to estimate the joint determination of cash holdings and lines of credit we find a significant impact of ownership of the largest owner-controller on cash holdings. This finding suggests that firms with large owner-controller pursue a liquidity policy of high cash holdings and no lines of credit.
Institutional Investors and Equity Prices: Information, Behavioral Bias, and Arbitrage

This paper investigates how institutional investors matter for asset pricing by using daily institutional trading data and a natural experiment, the split–share structure reform in China. This reform required all listed companies to convert their non-tradable shares to tradable shares after paying a negotiated compensation. We find that: 1). Only passive institutions are privy to company-specific details: they buy (avoid) shares of companies that end up with high (low) compensation ratios on announcement day T0. 2). Trading halts after T0. On the first subsequent trading day T1, both passive domestic institutions and individuals are prone to the disposition effect: they sell a large and abnormal amount of shares in the reform companies with high unrealized gains accumulated during the non-trading period, and 3). The selling pressure drives stock prices significantly below fair values. Both active and foreign institutions take advantage of the stock undervaluation and earn significant abnormal return, which eliminate stock mispricing.
Age-Dependent Prognostic Significance of Atrial Fibrillation in Outpatients with Chronic Heart Failure: Data from the Italian Network on Congestive Heart Failure Registry

Objectives: The role of atrial fibrillation (AF) in older patients with heart failure (HF) is controversial because many variables seem to influence their outcome. We investigated the predictivity of AF in 3 age groups of outpatients with HF. Methods: We analyzed 8,178 outpatients enrolled in the Italian Network on Congestive Heart Failure Registry with HF diagnosed according to the European Society of Cardiology criteria. A trained cardiologist established the diagnosis of AF and HF at the entry visit at each center. We stratified the population into 3 age groups, as follows: group A, ≤65 years; group B, 66–75 years, and group C, >75 years. Results: Group A was composed of 4,261 patients, 683 with AF (16.0%); in group B there were 2,651 patients, 638 with AF (24.1%), and group C was composed of 1,266 patients, 412 with AF (32.5%). The 1-year mortality rate was higher in AF patients in all groups. In a multivariate model, AF remained an independent risk factor for death in groups A and B, but not in group C [group A: hazard ratio (HR) 1.42, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.10–1.81; group B: HR 1.29, 95% CI 1.00–1.67; group C: HR 1.05, 95% CI 0.78–1.43]. Conclusion: The prevalence of AF increased with age and was associated with a higher mortality rate. However, AF independently predicted all-cause mortality only in patients aged ≤75 years.
Practice parameter: Anticonvulsant prophylaxis in patients with newly diagnosed brain tumors

The Quality Standards Subcommittee seeks to develop scientifically sound, clinically relevant practice parameters for the practice of neurology. Practice parameters are strategies for patient management that assist physicians in clinical decision making. A practice parameter is one or more specific recommendations based on analysis of evidence on a specific clinical problem. These might include diagnosis, symptoms, treatment, or procedure evaluation. American Academy of Neurology (AAN) members have requested the publication of a practice parameter on the use of prophylactic anticonvulsants in patients with primary and metastatic brain tumors. Physicians often administer anticonvulsant medication prophylactically to patients with brain tumors, despite the lack of definitive evidence that prophylactic anticonvulsant therapy is effective in preventing first seizures.1-4 If anticonvulsant medications were free of side effects, their prophylactic use might be attractive even without such evidence. However, discomfort, expense, and inconvenience result from drug treatment and periodic monitoring of serum drug concentrations. Typical anticonvulsant-induced side effects, including cognitive impairment, myelosuppression, liver dysfunction, and dermatologic reactions (ranging from minor rashes to life-threatening Stevens–Johnson syndrome), appear to occur more frequently in patients with brain tumors than in other patient groups,3,5-16 although direct comparison studies have not been published. A spectrum of side effects unique to patients with brain tumors must also be considered. Phenytoin, carbamazepine, and phenobarbital reduce the efficacy of corticosteroids,17-21 which are administered almost universally to brain tumor patients. In addition, the ability of these anticonvulsants to stimulate the cytochrome P450 enzyme system results in markedly accelerated metabolism of a wide spectrum of chemotherapeutic agents including nitrosoureas, paclitaxel, cyclophosphamide, topotecan, irinotecan, thiotepa, 9-aminocampothecin, adriamycin, and methotrexate.22-34 As a result, inadequate chemotherapeutic dosing of brain tumor patients has been identified recently as a widespread and critically important problem.35 Conversely, …
The Impact of Viral Marketing through Instagram

In this modern day, viral marketing is one of the trends for marketers to promote their product worldwide. Viral marketing has become a promotion tool for marketers in creating awareness of their products (Kusumadjaja, 2014). Viral marketing is a marketing technique whereby the information about the company’s goods or services is passed electronically from one internet use to another medium (Kusumadjaja, 2014). Apparently, the effectiveness of viral marketing in achieving its goals in promoting brand and products has become commonly used in Malaysia. This research was accomplished to study the impact of viral marketing through Instagram on consumer brand knowledge of fashion designer clothing line Maatin Shakir. The fashion designer himself, Maatin Shakir, utilizes viral marketing through Instagram platforms to increase consumer brand knowledge regarding his latest clothing line. Therefore, understanding the impact of viral marketing on consumer brand knowledge will help derive the most effective management approaches for the company. A different social media platform examined is Facebook. Apart from that, the goal for this research is to determine which social media application that most applicable for the company to practice viral marketing in boosting the company sales. Most of the marketers have turned to viral marketing to promote their brands and dive into reputation management as now the area is evolving rapidly (Kusumadjaja, 2014). Therefore, for this research, 100 questionnaires have been distributed to the client of Maatin Shakir which are also the active users of social media applications. The results concluded that the company’s viral marketing activities through social media really have an impact on its consumer brand knowledge. Aus. J. Bus. Sco S. & IT. Vol 4(1), January 2018, P 40-45
Program Accreditation Effect on Paramedic Credentialing Examination Success Rate

Objectives. Program accreditation is used to ensure the delivery of quality education andtraining for allied health providers. However, accreditation is not mandated for paramedic education programs. This study examined if there is a relationship between completion of an accredited paramedic education program andachieving a passing score on the National Registry Paramedic Certification Examination. Methods. We used data from the National Registry Paramedic Certification Examination for calendar year 2002. Successful completion (passing) of the examination was defined as correctly answering a minimum of 126 out of 180 (70%) of the questions andmeeting or exceeding the individual subtest passing scores. Accredited paramedic training programs were certified by the Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the Emergency Medical Services Professions (CoAEMSP) on or before January 1, 2002. Candidates reported demographic characteristics including age, gender, self-reported race andethnicity, education, andemployer type. We examined the relationship between passing the examination andattendance at an accredited paramedic training program. Results. A total of 12,773 students completed the examination. Students who attended an accredited program were more likely to pass the examination (OR = 1.65, 95% CI: 1.51–1.81). Attendance at an accredited training program was independently associated with passing the examination (OR = 1.58, 95% CI = 1.43–1.74) even after accounting for confounding demographic factors. Conclusion. Students who attended an accredited paramedic program were more likely to achieve a passing score on a national paramedic credentialing examination. Additional studies are needed to identify the aspects of program accreditation that lead to improved examination success.
Organisational Climate and Employee Turnover Intention within a Franchise System

Purpose – This research addresses the relationship between organisational climate and employee turnover intention in a service sector franchise system operating throughout New Zealand. Design/methodology/approach – Employees of the 19 units of one food and beverage franchise system provided data by way of a mail survey. A single hypothesis derived from the literature was tested at the individual level of analysis using Multiple Linear Regression. Findings – In contrast to results commonly reported, no significant relationship was found between organisational climate and employee turnover intention. Research limitations/implications – The study employed a cross-sectional design and was limited to one franchise group’s activities in one country. In the absence of any alternative, the climate scale used was one originally designed for and used in large businesses operating within the service sector; however, the franchise system participating in the present research comprised a number of what are in fact, small business establishments. Of likely significance in regard to the study’s finding is the fact that the research was conducted amidst the onset of the Global Financial Crisis when much was being made of the decline in job security, in, amongst others, the sector under scrutiny in this undertaking. ; ;
An efficient regression testing approach for PHP web applications: a controlled experiment

Companies that provide web applications often encounter various security attacks and frequent feature‐update demands from users, and when these needs arise, companies need to fix security problems or upgrade the application with new features. These fixes often involve small patches or revisions, but still, testers need to perform regression testing on their products to ensure that the changes have not introduced new faults. Performing regression testing on the entire product, however, can be very expensive, and it is not a viable solution for companies that need a short turnaround time to release patches. One solution is focusing only on the code areas that have been changed and performing regression testing on them. By doing this, companies can provide quick patches more dependably whenever they encounter security breaches. In this paper, the authors proposed a new regression testing approach that identifies the affected areas by code changes using impact analysis and generates new test cases for the impacted areas by changes using program slices. To facilitate the approach, the researchers implemented a Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) Analysis and Regression Testing Engine (PARTE) and performed a controlled experiment using five open source web applications with multiple versions. The results showed that this approach is effective in reducing the cost of regression testing for a frequently patched web application, and exposed ways in which that effectiveness can vary with application characteristics and versioning frequencies. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Serological and molecular screening for viruses in blood donors from Ntcheu, Malawi: High prevalence of HIV‐1 subtype C and of markers of hepatitis B and C viruses

The prevalence of antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV‐1), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human T lymphotropic virus I (HTLV‐I), and hepatitis B (HBV) surface antigen (HBsAg) was determined in blood donors from Ntcheu, Malawi. Each donation was also screened for HIV‐1 RNA and HCV RNA. Among 159 blood donations, the prevalence of HIV‐1 infection was 10.7%, 8.1% for HBV carriage, 6.8% for anti‐HCV, and 2.5% for anti‐HTLV‐I. HIV‐1/HTLV‐I and HIV‐1/HCV dual infections were observed in 1.2% of the donations. Consequently, 13% of blood donors from Ntcheu should be deferred for retroviral infections and 15% for hepatitis viral infections. Sequence analyses of the HIV‐1 strains revealed a relatively homogeneous circulation of subtype C viruses in Malawi. These findings confirm the high endemicity of blood‐borne viruses in Malawi and the need for a sensitive viral screening of blood donations to improve blood safety. J. Med. Virol. 65:1–5, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The most overpopulated nation.

A stable population in the US in 1943 would have resulted in just 135 million people today making the import of foreign oil unnecessary. A population exerts an impact on the environment based on 3 factors: the size of the population (P), the level of per capita consumption or affluence (A), and the measure of the impact of technology (T). In the US the P factor is huge: 250 million people. The sum of A and T factors (per-capita environmental impact) is 1 1/2 times that of the Soviet Union, twice that of Britain, Sweden, France, or Australia, 14 times that of China, and 40 times that of India. Americans burn 1/4 of the world's fossil fuels spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and use chlorofluorocarbons extensively that also add to the greenhouse effect and deplete the vital ozone shield. The key to civilization's survival is the reduction of the P, A, and T factors. In rich nations this can be accomplished by much more efficient use of energy and transition toward negative population growth. The best strategy is the Holdren scenario: rich countries would reduce their per capita energy use from almost 8 kilowatts to 3 kilowatts. In poor countries, per capita use would increase from 1.2 to 3 kilowatts resulting in the same standard of living at the end of a century. To prevent longterm deterioration it will be necessary to reduce population size substantially below 10 billion. The optimum population size of the US would be around 75 million people, a permanently sustainable nation with a high quality of life.
Corporate governance in Belgian private family firms and SMEs: The impact on entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance

1 2 Drawing from agency theory and the attention-based view of the firm, this study extends the understanding of the conditions under which CEO duality is negatively associated with board monitoring in a privately-held firm context. Measuring monitoring in terms of board members’ involvement in behavioural control, output control, and strategy control tasks (Huse 2005), results show that CEO duality is significantly negatively related only to the behavioural control task. In addition we show that this negative effect is contingent on whether ownership is concentrated in the hands of a controlling shareholder as well as the type of controlling shareholder. 1 This study is co-authored with Ann Jorissen and Eddy Laveren and accepted for publication in Journal of Small Business Management. 2 We would like to thank Bart Cambré, Marc Deloof, Roberto Flören, Wim Voordeckers, and seminar participants at the International Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA) conference in Sankt Gallen (2013, Switzerland) and Lappeenranta (2014, Finland), the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM) 10 th Workshop on Corporate Governance in Brussels (2013, Belgium), the University of Antwerp Doctoral Day in Antwerp (2013, Belgium), the Vereniging voor Economie Dag in Hasselt (2013, Belgium), and the European Academy of Management (EURAM) conference in Valencia (2014, Spain) for their helpful comments and suggestions. Financial support from the Flemish Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT, grant no. SBO 90061) is gratefully acknowledged.
The diagnostic utility of savings scores: differentiating Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases with the logical memory and visual reproduction tests.

Recent research has demonstrated that patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) evidence more rapid forgetting than do patients with Huntington's disease (HD). The present study focused on whether such group differences translated into measures with adequate sensitivity and specificity at different stages of these disorders. It was found that measures of forgetting (i.e., savings scores) based upon the Logical Memory and Visual Reproduction tests of the Wechsler Memory Scale--Revised had satisfactory to excellent sensitivity and specificity in differentiating DAT and HD patients from healthy control subjects. Savings scores also had good sensitivity and specificity in differentiating DAT from HD in the early stages of the diseases. However, unsatisfactory specificity may limit the utility of savings scores in differentiating among patients with moderate DAT and HD.
The Making of a National Currency: Spatial Transaction Costs and Money Market Integration in Spain (1825–1874)

This article analyzes the integration of the Spanish money market in the nineteenth century. We use a Band-Threshold Autoregression model of prices of bills-of-exchange in ten cities to measure market convergence and efficiency in 1825–1875. While price gaps generally decreased during the period, progress in efficiency was limited to a small group of cities. We suggest that convergence was associated to the reduction in transaction costs, which started well before the railways through improvements in roads and postal services. By contrast, the heterogeneous behavior of efficiency might be associated to economic geography changes and their effects on monetary leadership.