Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of tracheal aspirates and bronchoalveolar lavage in racehorses. 1. Evaluation of cytological stains and the percentage of mast cells and eosinophils.

OBJECTIVE To compare a fast Romanowsky cytological stain (Diff-Quik) and Leishman's stain for the detection of mast cells in samples from the lower airways of racehorses, and to compare the proportion of mast cells and eosinophils in the total inflammatory cells in tracheal aspirate (TA) with those in paired bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples. DESIGN Retrospective case series of 48 young Thoroughbred and Standardbred racehorses. PROCEDURE Fifty-one paired TA and BAL samples were collected after treadmill exercise from 48 horses with poor racing performance. Two slides were prepared from each sample; one was stained with Diff-Quik stain and the other with Leishman's stain. Differential cell counts of eosinophils and mast cells were recorded from each slide. Comparison of the suitability of the stains for the detection of mast cells, and comparisons of eosinophil and mast cell percentages in TA and BAL samples were analysed using the non-parametric Wilcoxon matched pairs test. RESULTS Percentages of mast cells were significantly higher in Leishman than in Diff-Quik stained slides in both TA (P = 0.03) and BAL samples (P < 0.0001). Mast cell percentages were significantly higher in BAL than in TA samples using Leishman's stain (P < 0.0001). There was no significant difference in eosinophil percentages between TA and BAL samples (P = 0.07). CONCLUSIONS Fast Romanowsky type stains (for example Diff-Quik) are not appropriate for the detection of mast cells in samples from the equine lower respiratory tract. Therefore, a metachromatic stain that reliably identifies mast cells (for example Leishman's) should be used if evaluation of mast cells in lower respiratory tract is undertaken. Mast cells are predominantly found in the distal small airways and alveoli sampled with a BAL. In contrast, eosinophils appear to be evenly distributed in the lower respiratory tract. However, high percentages of eosinophils are occasionally found only in TA samples. We recommend that both a TA and BAL be used for the evaluation of eosinophils and mast cells within the equine lower respiratory tract.
Cambodian refugee health care beliefs and practices.

Since 1975, when refugees from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia first began coming to the United States, many articles have been written about Southeast Asian or Indochinese refugees and health care. A careful review of the literature shows that most of these articles have one thing in common: they are written primarily about Vietnamese and do not address the unique health care beliefs and practices of Lao or Cambodian refugees.1 Although some beliefs and practices are common to most Southeast Asians, many are not. Understanding at least that differences exist, and hopefully what some specific differences are, will allow nurses and others to give better care to the various people commonly grouped together as Southeast Asians. This article will introduce readers to some Cambodian beliefs and practices related to health care. Of the principle refugee groups admitted to the U.S. since 1975, the Cambodians are presenting the greatest challenges to health care providers. Cambodians are usually poorly understood by Americans, their health status statistics are hidden among the broad category of "Asian-Pacific Islanders" or "Indochinese Refugees," and cultural and institutional barriers combine to make access to care an overwhelming problem. The end results, of course, are more problems and more expense for the Cambodians, increased stress placed on an already terribly overstressed people, and ultimately greater demands and expense placed on the health care system. One of the most common misunderstandings about Cambodians is that they (and Lao) are basically the same as the Vietnamese. "They speak the same dialect don't they? " There are some similarities, but there are also very significant differences.
Design of observers implemented over FlexRay networks

We investigate the observer design for nonlinear systems whose measurements are sent over a network governed by FlexRay. FlexRay is a communication protocol used in the automotive industry which has the feature to switch between two scheduling rules associated with the two segments of its communication cycles. The objective of this paper is to generalize existing works on emulated observers for networked control systems (NCS) to be applicable to NCS with FlexRay. We propose for that purpose a novel hybrid model and guarantee the observer convergence provided that, for each segment, the scheduling rules are uniformly globally exponentially stable and the maximal allowable transmission intervals satisfy given explicit bounds. The analysis relies on the use of an hybrid Lyapunov function we recently constructed to investigate the stabilization of NCS with FlexRay. We finally apply the approach to a class of globally Lipschitz systems, which includes linear time-invariant systems as a particular case.
Calf mortality in Virginia Dairy Herd Improvement herds.

Information concerning heifer calf mortality and dairy herd management practices was obtained by survey of 407 Virginia Dairy Herd Improvement herds. Dairy producers, with the assistance of Dairy Herd Improvement supervisors, accounted for mortality of all heifer calves born from October 1, 1978 to March 31, 1979. Calf mortality was compared among herd sizes, fat and milk production, cow and calf housing systems, calving locations, and calf feeding practices. Average herd size was 82 cows with 87% of herds containing fewer than 120 cows. Mortality at birth and from birth through 3 mo of age averaged 1.2 and 6.5%. Mortality at birth was correlated . 10 with herd size. Losses from birth through 3 mo of age were correlated . 10 with age at weaning and -. 16 with rolling yearly average milk and fat production. Relationship of mortality with other herd characteristics or management practices was negligible.
Recombinant human TSH acutely impairs endothelium-dependent vasodilation.

We read with interest the review article by Duntas & Biondi dealing with clinical and quality of life consequences induced by short-term hypothyroidism (1). Withdrawal of levothyroxine therapy exacerbates neuropsychiatric symptoms and increases cardiovascular risk, although these effects are usually reversible restoring a condition of stable euthyroidism (1). Shortterm hypothyroidism is associated with cardiac abnormalities, increased peripheral vascular resistance, and endothelium dysfunction. In this setting, the recent use of recombinant human thyrotropin (rhTSH) in the clinical practice of thyroid carcinoma represents a valid alternative to levothyroxine withdrawal. The authors state that rhTSH administration is not accompanied by significant cardiac alterations and induces beneficial effects on the vascular system by increasing circulating nitric oxide (2). In this regard, we have recently assessed the acute effects of TSH on endothelial function in patients monitored for differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) (3). Our data demonstrate that acutely raising serum TSH into the supraphysiological range leads to an acute impairment of endothelium-dependent vasodilation along with a significant increase in blood interleukin (IL)-6, tumour necrosis factor a (TNFa), and lipoperoxide levels. These observations are in keeping with the in vitro evidence of functional TSH receptors in several extra-thyroidal tissues, such as cardiomyocytes (4), aortic endothelium (5), and bone marrow cells (6), in which TSH is able to directly induce IL-6 and TNFa production (7) . T NFa is a pivotal NO-controlling cytokine and may promote the expression of inducible NO synthase, leading to increased oxidative stress (8). This mechanism may explain the increased NO metabolites previously described in patients receiving rhTSH for the follow-up of DTC (2). Therefore, while agreeing with the authors that rhTSH administration is generally safe and able to avoid most signs and symptoms of short-term hypothyroidism, we underline that rhTSH per se may acutely induce low-grade inflammation and endothelial function impairment.
Measuring Financial Soundness Of Insurance Companies By Using Caramels Model – Case Of Croatia

Insurance companies are institutions that mobilize risk from individuals and companies through insurance contract making exposure to risk to the whole economy lower. Their financial soundness is a key to their success and stability of this part of financial sector and therefore regulators have developed different kinds of models to evaluate their work. The main purpose of this research is to explain one of the recent models used for analyzing financial soundness of insurance companies, CARAMELS model, and to understand the level of soundness of Croatian insurance companies. Methodology used to control and regulate insurance sector in Croatia is different from presented model, so this work gives a different view of the sector’s soundness. Some conclusions regarding given categories of financial soundness of the sector will be made based on data from global database of insurance companies (ISIS database). At the end of the paper recommendations for further research are made.
Turnover intention and employee engagement : exploring eliciting factors in South African audit firms

In response to globalisation and competition, today’s organisations are changing at an accelerating and radical pace. A review of the literature revealed that the demanding and often repetitive nature of work increases employees’ turnover intention. This is generally attributed to a lack of employee engagement. This trend is especially evident within the South African financial services industry. Without a functional workforce, no organisation can survive. Therefore organisations within this sector need to establish a balance between the provision of meaningful work, and profitability. The primary objective of this research study was to develop and empirically test a structural model that elucidates the antecedents of variance in turnover intention and employee engagement among employees employed by audit firms operating in the South African financial services industry. In addition, this research study investigated whether employees employed by these audit firms engage in job crafting to modify their work environment (i.e. job resources, personal resources and job demands, as illustrated in the Job DemandsResources model) (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner & Schaufeli, 2001) to cultivate meaningful work that decreases turnover intentions while increasing employee engagement. In this research study, an ex post facto correlational design was used to test the formulated hypotheses. Quantitative data was collected from 391 employees employed by audit firms operating in the South African financial services industry. Data was collected specifically for the purpose of this research study. Participation was voluntary. A self-administered webbased survey was distributed electronically to the participants. The data collected was strictly confidential and anonymous. The survey comprised seven sections. The first two sections measured the participants’ biographical and employment information. Subsequent sections measured specific latent variables using valid and reliable measuring instruments. These instruments include the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9) (Schaufeli, Bakker & Salanova, 2006), the Turnover Intention Scale (Moore, 2000), the Psychological Meaningfulness Scale (May, Gilson & Harter, 2004), the Job Crafting Scale (Tims, Bakker & Derks, 2012), and the six-item Proactive Personality Scale (Claes, Beheydt & Lemmens, 2005). Data was subjected to a range of statistical analyses. The findings shed light on the seriousness of turnover intention and the lack of employee engagement among employees employed by audit firms operating in the South African financial services industry. It provides South African industrial psychologists with much Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
Do Adoptions of International Financial Reporting Standards Enhance Capital Investment Efficiency?

We examine whether adoptions of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) enhance capital investment efficiency as measured by investment-cash flow sensitivity and value-enhancing risk taking for a comprehensive sample comprised of 10,340 mandatory and voluntary IFRS adoptions across 26 countries during the pre-financial crisis period of 2001-08. In contrast to prior findings for capital market effects of IFRS adoptions, associations between mandatory IFRS adoptions and capital investment efficiency are found to be stronger in countries with weaker legal protections, more concentrated ownership, and prior reporting standards that differ more from IFRS. Thus, our findings lend support to mandatory but not voluntary IFRS adoptions serving to enhance firm-level capital investment efficiency, particularly in countries with weaker investor protections.
Single‐subject independent component analysis‐based intensity normalization in non‐quantitative multi‐modal structural MRI

Non‐quantitative MRI is prone to intersubject intensity variation rendering signal intensity level based analyses limited. Here, we propose a method that fuses non‐quantitative routine T1‐weighted (T1w), T2w, and T2w fluid‐saturated inversion recovery sequences using independent component analysis and validate it on age and sex matched healthy controls. The proposed method leads to consistent and independent components with a significantly reduced coefficient‐of‐variation across subjects, suggesting potential to serve as automatic intensity normalization and thus to enhance the power of intensity based statistical analyses. To exemplify this, we show that voxelwise statistical testing on single‐subject independent components reveals in particular a widespread sex difference in white matter, which was previously shown using, for example, diffusion tensor imaging but unobservable in the native MRI contrasts. In conclusion, our study shows that single‐subject independent component analysis can be applied to routine sequences, thereby enhancing comparability in‐between subjects. Unlike quantitative MRI, which requires specific sequences during acquisition, our method is applicable to existing MRI data. Hum Brain Mapp 38:3615–3622, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Understanding Older Adults' Physical Activity Behavior: A Multi-Theoretical Approach

Physical inactivity is a health issue with serious consequences for older adults. Investigating physical activity promotion within a multi-theoretical approach may increase the predictive strength of physical activity determinants and facilitate the development and implementation of effective interventions for older adults. This article examines constructs from the Transtheoretical Model, Theory of Planned Behavior, and Self-Determination Theory and their integration with the Stages of Change Model in order to understand physical activity behavior change among older adults. In addition, barriers and facilitators of physical activity are identified. The need for a comprehensive multi-theoretical approach in physical activity behavior change for older adults is reinforced and implications and research areas to be addressed are discussed.
A comparison between the Farr radioimmunoassay and a new automated fluorescence immunoassay for the detection of antibodies against double stranded DNA in serum

Objective: To compare test characteristics of the Farr radioimmunoassay and an automated fluorescence immunoassay (ELIA dsDNA test) for the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods: A cross sectional study comprising 440 samples from 440 patients, sent to the laboratory over a three month period for anti-dsDNA testing. Chart review was performed, blinded for test results, to count for each patient the number of American College of Rheumatology criteria for the classification of SLE that were fulfilled. At least four criteria were met by 248 (56%) patients (SLE), one to three criteria by 77 (18%) (lupus-like disease, LLD), and no criterion by 115 (26%) (non-SLE/non-LLD). Results from serum samples from the non-SLE/non-LLD and SLE groups were used to calculate receiver operating characteristic curves. Results: For the Farr assay, specificities of 95% and 99% corresponded to sensitivities of 72% and 56% respectively. For the ELIA dsDNA test these levels of specificity corresponded to sensitivities of 44% and 17% respectively. Conclusions: The Farr radioimmunoassay is superior to the ELIA dsDNA test for identifying patients with SLE.
Automotive Electric Propulsion Systems With Reduced or No Permanent Magnets: An Overview

Hybrid and electric vehicle technology has seen rapid development in recent years. The motor and the generator are at the heart of the vehicle drive and energy system and often utilize expensive rare-earth permanent magnet (PM) material. This paper reviews and addresses the research work that has been carried out to reduce the amount of rare-earth material that is used while maintaining the high efficiency and performance that rare-earth PM machines offer. These new machines can use either less rare-earth PM material, weaker ferrite magnets, or no magnets; and they need to meet the high performance that the more usual interior PM synchronous motor with sintered neodymium-iron-boron magnets provides. These machines can take the form of PM-assisted synchronous reluctance machines, induction machines, switched reluctance machines, wound rotor synchronous machines (claw pole or biaxially excited), double-saliency machines with ac or dc stator current control, or brushless dc multiple-phase reluctance machines.
Performance of Retardates on the Stroop Color-Word Test

Institutionalized retardates were examined on a special format of a task requiring them to name the colors of 36 color patches and to name the color of the ink in which 36 incongruent color words were printed on separate cards. Mean reaction time for the incongruent condition was significantly longer than that for the color patches and the difference was independent of fatigue and stimulus size. The color-word interference effect previously reported with normal populations when given the Stroop test was demonstrated for this retarded sample using a special format.
'What's the Name of the Game?' - Franchisee Versus Company Ownership - an Analysis of Franchisor Profit

In this paper, we examine ownership structures of franchise chains and evaluate their impact on franchisor profit. Specifically we compare pure forms of franchising with those that use both company-owned and franchised outlets within one chain - a phenomenon termed the plural form. Theoretically such plural arrangements are supposed to provide franchisors with lower costs, higher growth, greater total-quality, and reduced business risk. Empirical results of this study indicate the superiority of company-owned businesses over franchised units in generating franchisor profits. Moreover plurally organized systems compensate for losses from franchising with profits from company units and outperform purely franchised competitors in overall profitability. Despite a clear financial inferiority of franchise outlets, franchisors of our sample do not convert plural structures into wholly-owned chains. We suspect the lack of entrepreneurial initiative (a non-financial aspect of franchising) to be one reason of the reasons for this. Hence when organizing the chain, franchisors face an inverse u-shaped profitablity curve with both pure franchising and pure company-ownership lying at the (undesirable) extremes and with a performance peak somewhere in between these extremes.
Existence of striatal nerve cells coexpressing CCKB and D2 receptor mRNAs

CO-LOCALIZATION of CCKB and D2 receptor mRNAs was analysed in adjacent sections of nucleus caudate putamen of the rat by means of in situ hybridization. A distinct subpopulation of D2 mRNA containing striatal nerve cells (in the order of 10%) was shown to co-express CCKB and D2 receptor mRNAs. All the CCKB receptor mRNA-positive nerve cells were co-localized with D2 receptor mRNA. These results give one morphological substrate to the previously demonstrated CCKB /D2 receptor interactions in the striatum.
Photorefractive keratectomy with mitomycin C versus LASIK in custom surgeries for myopia: a bilateral prospective randomized clinical trial.

PURPOSE To compare photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) with prophylactic use of mitomycin C (MMC) and LASIK in custom surgeries for myopic astigmatism. METHODS Eighty-eight eyes of 44 patients with a minimum estimated ablation depth of 50 microm were randomized to receive PRK with MMC 0.002% for 1 minute in one eye and LASIK in the fellow eye. Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA), cycloplegic refraction, slit-lamp microscopy, contrast sensitivity, specular microscopy, aberrometry, and a subjective questionnaire were evaluated. Forty-two patients completed 6-month follow-up. RESULTS Mean spherical equivalent refraction error before surgery and mean ablation depth were -3.99+/-1.20 diopters (D) and 73.09+/-14.55 microm in LASIK eyes, and -3.85+/-1.12 D and 70.7+/-14.07 microm in PRK with MMC eyes, respectively. Uncorrected visual acuity was significantly better in PRK with MMC eyes 3 months (P=.04) and 6 months (P=.01) after surgery. Best spectacle-corrected visual acuity and spherical equivalent refraction did not differ significantly in the groups during follow-up (P>.05). Significant haze was not observed in any PRK with MMC eye. Mean higher order aberration was lower in PRK with MMC eyes postoperatively compared with LASIK eyes (P=.01). Better contrast sensitivity was observed in PRK with MMC eyes than LASIK eyes (P<.05). The endothelial cell count did not differ significantly between groups (P=.65). In terms of visual satisfaction, PRK with MMC eyes were better rated. CONCLUSIONS Photorefractive keratectomy with MMC appears to be more effective than LASIK in custom surgery for moderate myopia. During 6-month follow-up, no toxic effects of MMC were evident. Long-term follow-up is necessary to attest its safety.
Valuation and Risk Implications of Fair Value Accounting for Liabilities: Evidence from FAS 159’s Reported Gains and Losses

This study examines the economic implications of fair value liability gains and losses arising from the adoption of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 159 (hereafter FAS 159). We find a positive correspondence between a firm’s FAS 159 fair value liability gains and losses and stock returns. Further analysis indicates that fair value gains and losses from liabilities attributable to the change in a firm’s own credit risk, which are considered counter-intuitive by critics of fair value accounting for liabilities, are also positively related to returns. We also document that the volatility of earnings that incorporate FAS 159 liability fair value gains and losses is positively associated with market measures of firm risk. Our study contributes to the controversy over recognition of liability fair value gains and losses by providing direct empirical evidence that such gains and losses are value and risk relevant.