Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Discovering what works well: exploring quality dementia care in hospital wards using an appreciative inquiry approach.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To explore the quality dementia care in two geriatric hospital wards using appreciative inquiry with formal care workers and family members of inpatients with dementia. BACKGROUND Care models such as person-centred and relationship-centred care have been developed to explain what 'quality' dementia care should be. However, their usefulness and relevance to clinicians has been questioned. DESIGN Using an exploratory qualitative design within an appreciative inquiry framework, 33 care workers working in a geriatric hospital and 10 family members of patients with dementia were interviewed. METHODS Open-ended questions were asked to encourage care workers to narrate positive care experiences when the care was perceived to be at its best and to identify what made these experiences possible. Interviews were audio-taped and transcribed whilst data were analysed thematically using a qualitative data analysis software to assist in data management. RESULTS Positive care experiences can be understood within five care processes, namely building a relationship between the 'extended' dementia care triad, providing 'quality time' and 'care in time', going the 'extra mile', attending to the psychosocial needs and attending to the physical needs with a 'human touch'. Factors facilitating these positive care experiences included personal attributes of care workers, and organisational, environmental and contextual factors. CONCLUSIONS This study provides an alternative and pragmatic approach to understanding quality dementia care and complements the body of knowledge on factors influencing dementia care practices in hospitals. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE By understanding the components of quality dementia care and how these can be achieved from different stakeholders, it is possible to develop strategies aimed at improving the care offered to patients with dementia in hospitals.
Enhancement of generation of monocyte tissue thromboplastin by bacterial phagocytosis: possible pathway for fibrin formation on infected vegetations in bacterial endocarditis

The deposition of fibrin on infected vegetations and the presence of mononuclear phagocytes that have phagocytized bacteria are remarkabe features in experimental bacterial endocarditis. In a study in vitro, we show that phagocytosis of bacteria by human monocytes enhances thromboplastin generation by these cells. Maximal enhancement of the generation of thromboplastin by monocytes was about six times compared with that in the control experiment without bacteria, and it was obtained by preincubation of the monocytes with 5 to 10 bacteria per monocyte. No quantitative difference was observed between Staphylococcus epidermidis and Streptococcus sanguis as to the enhancement of the monocyte thromboplastin generation. An enhancement of the procoagulant activity generation was also observed after addition of bacteria to human or rabbit whole blood. Probably, this generation was also due to synthesis of thromboplastin by monocytes. It is conceivable that fibrin deposition on infected vegetations during bacterial endocarditis is mediated by thromboplastin synthesis by monocytes.
Relationship between Framingham Risk Score and Left Ventricular Remodeling after Successful Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Patients with First Myocardial Infarction and Single Vessel Disease

Background: Limited data is available on the potential value of estimated cardiovascular event risk for prediction of left ventricular (LV) remodeling and size of infarcted tissue after ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Methods: Therefore, we assessed in a consecutive series of patients with first STEMI, successful primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and single-vessel disease the potential relationship between the Framingham Risk Score and parameters of both LV remodeling and infarct tissue characteristics, as determined with contrast-enhanced (CE) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) 6 months after the index event. Parameters of LV remodeling were end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes, ejection fraction, and wall motion score index; infarct tissue characteristics comprised core, peri, and total infarct size, and transmural extent. Results: A total of 25 patients (21 men, 56 ± 10 years) were studied, and the mean Framingham Risk Score was 14.1 ± 5.8%. There was a significant relation between Framingham Risk Score and multiple parameters of LV remodeling: LV ejection fraction, end-diastolic volume, end-systolic volume, and wall motion score index after 6 months (r=-0.55-0.76; p=0.000 for all). Framingham Risk Score showed no relation with various infarct tissue characteristics (ns). Male gender was the only component of the Framingham Risk Score that correlated individually with a few parameters of LV remodeling: LV end-diastolic volume and end-systolic volume (p=0.000 for both). Conclusion: In a series of consecutive patients with first STEMI, successful primary PCI, and single-vessel coronary artery disease, we observed a significant relation between the Framingham Risk Score and several CMRbased parameters of LV remodeling. The results of our small hypothesis-generating study underline the supremacy of multifactorial risk scores as tools for prediction of unfavorable cardiovascular outcome. Additionally, the data support the hypothesis that there might be a future role for a novel and specific multifactorial risk score in predicting unfavorable LV remodeling, which finally could trigger risk-adjusted preventive measures.
The future of SET

According to Hassler (2000), the Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) scheme is one of a small number of industry standard means for securing Internet e-commerce communications. Although SET potentially offers a high level of security protection for e-commerce transactions, there have been a number of criticisms of SET, including of its complexity and cost of implementation. These problems have restricted SET implementation and use. However, SET has been continuously improved since it was first released in 1997, including the development of a number of SET extensions. This paper assesses how well SET meets merchant and consumer security requirements. In addition, this paper also analyses criticisms of SET and considers its future in Internet e-commerce security.
The Islet Size to Oxygen Consumption Ratio Reliably Predicts Reversal of Diabetes Posttransplant

β-Cell replacement therapy by either whole-organ pancreas or islets of Langerhans transplantation can restore carbohydrate control to diabetic patients and reduces complications associated with the disease. One of the variables inherent in islet transplantation is the isolation of functional islets from donor pancreata. Islet isolations fail to consistently produce good-quality functional islets. A rapid pretransplant assay to determine posttransplant function of islets would be an invaluable tool. We have tested the novel hypothesis that modified oxygen consumption rates (OCR), standardized to DNA quantity (nmol/min-mg DNA), would serve as a pretransplant assessment of the metabolic potency of the islets postisolation. This study compares the ability of current in vitro assays to predict in vivo restoration of normoglycemia in a diabetic nude mouse posttransplantation of adult pig islets. There is known to be a diversity of islet sizes within each preparation. This parameter has not heretofore been effectively considered a critical factor in islet engraftment. Our results suggest a surprising finding that islet size influences the probability of restoring carbohydrate control. Based on this observation, we thus developed a novel predictor of islet graft function that combines the effects of both islet OCR and size. When OCR was divided by the islet index (size), a highly significant predictor of graft function was established (p = 0.0002, n = 75). Furthermore, when OCR/islet index values exceeded 70.0 nmol/min-mg DNA/islet index, an effective threshold of diabetes reversal was observed. This assay can be performed with as few as 1,000 islet equivalents (IEQ) and conducted in less than 60 min. Our data suggest that, using this novel method to assess islet cell function prior to transplantation, OCR/islet index thresholds provide a valuable tool in identifying which islet preparations are most likely to restore glycemic control posttransplant.
The Lord Of The Ratings: Is A Movie's Fate is Influenced by Reviews?

Third-party reviews play an important role in many contexts in which tangible attributes are insufficient to enable consumers to evaluate products or services. In this paper, we examine the impact of professional and amateur reviews on the box office performance of movies. Using a simple diffusion model, we establish an econometrics framework to control for the interaction between the unobservable quality of movies and a word-of-mouth diffusion process and thereby estimate the residual impact of online amateur reviews on demand. The results indicate the significant influence of the valence measure (star ratings) of online reviews, but their volume measure (propensity to write reviews) is not significant once we control for quality. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that the variance measure (disagreement) of reviews does not play a significant role in the early weeks after a movie opening. The estimated influence of the valence measure implies that a one-point increase in the valence can be associated with a 4–10% increase in box office revenues.
Using augmented reality to support situated analytics

We draw from the domains of Visual Analytics and Augmented Reality to support a new form of in-situ interactive visual analysis. We present a Situated Analytics model, a novel interaction, and a visualization concept for reasoning support. Situated Analytics has four primary elements: situated information, abstract information, augmented reality interaction, and analytical interaction.
Two-Way Relaying in Interference-Limited AF Cooperative Networks Over Nakagami- $m$ Fading

The performance of dual-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) two-way relaying systems with multiple cochannel interferers at the AF relay and two noisy end-sources is investigated. Assuming a Nakagami- m fading environment, closed-form approximate expressions for the outage probability, average error probability, and achievable sum rate are derived, yielding results which, in practice, are indistinguishable from the exact analysis. In addition, the derived approximate expressions are evaluated instantaneously, regardless of the number of interferers, highly contrasting with the intricacy and computational inefficiency inherent to the exact formulations, which requires the evaluation of nested multiple integrals, i.e., a problem that becomes computationally intractable as the number of interferers increases. Our analysis allows for general operating scenarios with distinct integer-value Nakagami- m fading parameters and unequal average fading power values between the hops. Monte Carlo simulation results are presented to corroborate the tightness of the proposed approximations.
Optimal Interventions in Countable Jump Markov Processes

In this paper an intervention refers to an immediate change of the state of the system; between interventions, the continuous-time jump Markov process is uncontrollable, with "natural" jump intensities. The multicriteria control problem for such a model is considered, and the constrained version is investigated with the help of the Lagrange multipliers technique. All of the theory is illustrated by an example of the optimal control of epidemic with carriers.
Kidney function, albuminuria, and all-cause mortality in the REGARDS (Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke) study.

BACKGROUND Chronic kidney disease and albuminuria are associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality. STUDY DESIGN Prospective observational cohort study. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS 17,393 participants (mean age, 64.3 ± 9.6 years) in the REGARDS (Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke) Study. PREDICTOR Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), urinary albumin-creatinine ratio (ACR). OUTCOME All-cause mortality (710 deaths); median duration of follow-up, 3.6 years. MEASUREMENTS & ANALYSIS: Categories of eGFR (90 to <120, 60 to <90, 45 to <60, 30 to <45, and 15 to <30 mL/min/1.73 m(2)) and urinary ACR (<10 mg/g or normal, 10 to <30 mg/g or high normal, 30 to 300 mg/g or high, and >300 mg/g or very high). Cox proportional hazards models were adjusted for demographic factors, cardiovascular covariates, and hemoglobin level. RESULTS The background all-cause mortality rate for participants with normal ACR, eGFR of 90 to <120 mL/min/1.73 m(2), and no coronary heart disease was 4.3 deaths/1,000 person-years. Higher ACR was associated with an increased multivariable-adjusted HR for all-cause mortality within each eGFR category. Decreased eGFR was associated with a higher adjusted HR for all-cause mortality for participants with high-normal (P = 0.01) and high (P < 0.001) ACRs, but not those with normal or very high ACRs. LIMITATIONS Only 1 laboratory assessment for serum creatinine and ACR was available. CONCLUSIONS Increased albuminuria was an independent risk factor for all-cause mortality. Decreased eGFR was associated with increased mortality risk in those with high-normal and high ACRs. The mortality rate was low in the normal-ACR group and increased in the very-high-ACR group, but did not vary with eGFR in these groups.
Audit Resource Planning Success in B2b E-Commerce Engagement: An Empirical Assessment of Theorized Constructs, Manifest Variables Measurement and Second Order Factor Model

Audit Resource planning (ARP) activity in any engagement involves a balancing act in between the significant outlays involved in the trained and skilled human resources and the audit objectives. Audit engagement for an e-commerce client makes ARP an activity full with technological complexities far removed from the traditional audit engagement with a conventional client and/or centralized accounting databases. These complexities of e-commerce technologies put a real pressure on audit organization's scarce human and financial resources. Despite these all, we have little understanding of how the success of such audit planning activity is measured. Present study makes use of classical measurement development frameworks used by the information systems researchers as well as the contemporary statistical methods for determining the dimensionality. This paper theoretically develops and empirically tests a measurement model of success of audit resource planning in e-commerce engagement. The model is restricted to the business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce category for simplicity. The results suggest that audit resource planning success (ARPS) can be operationalized as a second order factor model. The first order constructs of the model are termed higher technical training, higher technical experience, minimum breadth of technical training & experience, capabilities in professional audit judgment, and expertise in system and change management. These theorized constructs are found to be governed by the second order factor of ARP success. The results of the study are tools for benchmarking future ARP efforts by an audit organization and act as a base for operationalizing a key dependent variable in future ARP research.
Interaction of the Cell Adhesion Molecule CHL1 with Vitronectin, Integrins, and the Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-2 Promotes CHL1-Induced Neurite Outgrowth and Neuronal Migration

The cell adhesion molecule close homolog of L1 (CHL1) plays important functional roles in the developing and adult nervous system. In search of the binding partners that mediate the diverse and sometimes opposing functions of CHL1, the extracellular matrix-associated proteins vitronectin and plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 (PAI-2) were identified as novel CHL1 interaction partners and tested for involvement in CHL1-dependent functions during mouse cerebellar development. CHL1-induced cerebellar neurite outgrowth and cell migration at postnatal days 6–8 were inhibited by a CHL1-derived peptide comprising the integrin binding RGD motif, and by antibodies against vitronectin or several integrins, indicating a vitronectin-dependent integrin-mediated pathway. A PAI-2-derived peptide, or antibodies against PAI-2, urokinase type plasminogen activator (uPA), uPA receptor, and several integrins reduced cell migration. CHL1 colocalized with vitronectin, PAI-2, and several integrins in cerebellar granule cells, suggesting an association among these proteins. Interestingly, at the slightly earlier age of 4–5 d, cerebellar neurons did not depend on CHL1 for neuritogenesis and cell migration. However, differentiation of progenitor cells into neurons at this stage was dependent on homophilic CHL1–CHL1 interactions. These observations indicate that homophilic CHL1 trans-interactions regulate differentiation of neuronal progenitor cells at early postnatal stages, while heterophilic trans-interactions of CHL1 with vitronectin, integrins, and the plasminogen activator system regulate neuritogenesis and neuronal cell migration at a later postnatal stage of cerebellar morphogenesis. Thus, within very narrow time windows in postnatal cerebellar development, distinct types of molecular interactions mediated by CHL1 underlie the diverse functions of this protein.
Following in Their Footsteps: Comparing Interest Parity Conditions in Central European Economies to the Euro Countries

This paper investigates capital market integration in the major Central European emerging economies by testing the covered and uncovered interest parity conditions vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar and the DM/euro. The results for the Central European economies since 1997 are contrasted against those of the euro countries during the period preceding the introduction of the euro. This allows a comparison of conditions in the capital markets in the Central European economies versus those in the pre-euro EU. The results suggest that capital mobility and exchange rate market efficiency in Central Europe are remarkably similar to conditions in the EU during the 1990s.
Women, Skills and Global Mobility: A Study of Changing Patterns of Gendered Skilled Migration into New Zealand

According to the 2003 ILO report, female migrants constitute nearly 51 percent of all migrants in developed countries and about 46 percent of all migrants in developing countries. The global presence of women in migration is also reflected in the increase of women using what have been male dominated migration streams (UN World Survey 2004). Skilled migration flows in New Zealand is important to the Department of Labour’s goal of building New Zealand’s workforce and attracting (and retaining) top talent in New Zealand to contribute to New Zealand’s economic transformation. This paper looks at trends in the proportion of female and make principal applicants who have migrated to New Zealand through the General Skills and Skilled Migrant Category from 1997/98 to 2005/06. It also examines changes in source countries of these female migrants and examines gender differences in outcomes for skilled migrants. From 1997 /98 to 2001/02 the number of female and male migrants entering New Zealand through the skilled categories increased exponentially. Although the proportion of female to male migrants for the skilled categories is low (1:2) throughout the 1997/98 to 2005/06 period, the number of women to men from certain source countries (for example, China, Philippines and Japan) increased or remained high during this period. Results from the Department of Labour’s Settlement Experiences Feedback Survey (survey sent to Skilled/Business stream migrants) shows that while the majority of both female and male principal applicants were employed (94%) there are substantial differences in occupation, industry and incomes between female and male skilled migrants. This paper shows that there is huge diversity of flows by gender and nationality. However, the data show that overall women are critical players in the migrations process and are a significant component of skilled migrants in New Zealand. Gender differences need to be considered when developing policies or programmes to attract skilled migrants as well as with their successful settlement.
FANCA and FANCG are the major Fanconi anemia genes in the Korean population

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare disorder characterized by physical abnormalities, bone marrow failure (BMF), increased risk of malignancies, and cellular hypersensitivity to DNA cross-linking agents. This study evaluated the genetic alterations in three major Fanconi genes (FANCA, FANCC , and FANCG) in 30 FA patients using multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification and direct sequencing. Thirteen BMF patients were genetically classified as FA-A (n = 6, 46%) and FA-G (n = 7, 54%). Four common founder mutations were identified and included two FANCA mutations (c.2546delC and c.3720_3724delAAACA) and two FANCG mutations (c.307+1G>C and c.1066C>T), which had previously been commonly observed in a Japanese FA population. We also detected four novel deleterious mutations: c.2778+1G>C and c.3627-1G>A of FANCA, and c. 1589_1591delATA and c.1761-1G>A of FANCG . This study shows that mutations in FANCA and FANCG are common in Korean FA patients and the existence of four common founder mutations in an East Asian FA population. Mutation screening workflow that includes these common mutations may be useful in the creation of an international database, and to better understand the ethnic characteristics of FA.
A Quad-Cantilevered Plate micro-sensor for intracranial pressure measurement

This paper proposes a new design for pressure-sensing micro-plate platform to bring higher sensitivity to a pressure sensor based on piezoresistive MEMS sensing mechanism. The proposed design is composed of a suspended plate having four stepped cantilever beams connected to its corners, and thus defined as Quad-Cantilevered Plate (QCP). Finite element analysis was performed to determine the optimal design for sensitivity and structural stability under a range of applied forces. Furthermore, a piezoresistive analysis was performed to calculate sensor sensitivity. Both the maximum stress and the change in resistance of the piezoresistor associated with the QCP were found to be higher compared to previously published designs, and linearly related to the applied pressure as desired. Therefore, the QCP demonstrates greater sensitivity, and could be potentially used as an efficient pressure sensor for intracranial pressure measurement.
The Meaning of Logistics Capabilities in Achieving the Market Success by a Company

Background: The symptom of the market success by a company is to reach the expected market effects (e.g. market share, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty) as well as economic ones (e.g. profits, r entability, return on capital). As a result, the company may achieve a st able and long-term competitive advantage as well as strengthen its market position. Methods: The abilities to use existing resources, which pl ay an important role in achieving a market success, can be divided into operational and dynamic ones. The logistics ab ilities are one of the most important ones for a co mpany. The comparison of these two kinds of logistics capabilities are pr sented, compared and evaluated. Results: the role of logistics capabilities in achieving a market success by the company in light of the resu lts of research carried out in the world, including Poland, was dis cussed, evaluated and confirmed. Conclusions: The influence of logistics capabilities on the ma rket success of a company was confirmed. The develo pment of an effective strategy and organization solutions in the logistics seems to be the most important proce ss associated with the use of potentials (capabilities as well as resource s and competencies) and leading to achieving a mark et success of a company.