Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PS 11-83 ONE-YEAR OUTCOMES OF THE RANDOMIZED OSLO-RDN STUDY

Objective: The blood pressure (BP) lowering effect of renal sympathetic denervation (RDN) in treatment resistant hypertension (TRH) shows variation among the few randomized studies. The duration of antihypertensive effect and long-term effect and safety of RDN require further follow-up. We aimed to report the office and ambulatory (BP) changes and long-term safety at 12-month follow-up. Design and Method: Patients with apparent TRH (n = 65) were referred specifically for RDN and those with secondary and spurious hypertension (n = 26) were excluded. TRH was defined as office systolic BP>140 mmHg despite maximally tolerated doses of at least 3 antihypertensive drugs including a diuretic. Additionally, ambulatory daytime systolic BP > 135 mmHg following witnessed intake of antihypertensive drugs was required, after which 20 patients had normalized BP, indicating poor drug adherence. Patients with true TRH were randomized and underwent RDN with Symplicity catheter (n = 9) versus adjusted drug treatment (n = 10). Results: 24-hour ambulatory systolic and diastolic BPs in the drug adjustment group changed from 151 ± 13/84 ± 7 mmHg (±SD) at baseline to 131 ± 12/75 ± 5 mmHg at 12 months (p < 0.0005 for all), and in the RDN group from 149 ± 9/89 ± 7 to 141 ± 11/83 ± 5 mmHg (p = 0.07 and p = 0.04, respectively). The absolute difference in change between groups in systolic BP was significantly higher in favor of the drug adjustment group (p = 0.01). Office, daytime and nighttime ambulatory BPs changed in parallel to the 24-hour ambulatory BPs. However 2 patients in RDN group considered as a responder since they have sustained reduction of 24-hour ambulatory systolic BP by more than 15 mmHg. There were no significant changes in renal arteries assessed by MRI or CT scans after 12 months follow-up. No deterioration of renal function was found. Conclusions: RDN has inferior BP lowering effects compared to adjusted drug treatment in patients with TRH. However, RDN is safe and this encourages future research to identify characteristics of patients who might respond to RDN.
Patterns of adolescent–parent conflicts over schoolwork in Chinese families

ABSTRACT Schoolwork is a significant source of adolescent–parent conflicts in Chinese families. Framed in Smetana’s model of social domain theory and with support from self-determination theory by Deci and Ryan, we used the qualitative methods of grounded theory approach to explore the patterns of adolescent–parent conflicts over schoolwork in Chinese families, as well as the role of parental psychological control and youths’ autonomy development in schoolwork conflicts. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews with 28 parents and 35 adolescents in Yinchuan city of Ningxia. Intricate patterns of conflict reasoning and resolution are revealed in (a) parents’ conventional reasoning about schoolwork conflicts as driven by education system in China; (b) parents’ use of explicit and subtle coercive conflict resolution strategies; (c) adolescents’ conventional reasoning about conflicts on academic performance, multifaceted reasoning about conflicts on daily studies, and personal reasoning about conflicts on non-academic activities and (d) the process- and relationship-orientations of adolescents’ conflict resolution strategies. Reactive nature of Chinese teenagers’ conflict reasoning and resolution, as well as the intricate process involving parents’ psychological control and adolescents’ controlled motivation over schoolwork are indicated. Findings are discussed in the cultural context of contemporary China.
POLITENESS STRATEGIES OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS IN THE FAULT IN OUR STARS NOVEL

This paper explored politeness strategies and resolved two research questions, namely what politeness strategies were applied by the main characters in The Fault in Our Stars novel and what factors influenced the use of politeness strategies by the main characters in the novel. Data, consisting of 263 utterances containing politeness strategies, were collected from The Fault in Our Stars novel and were analyzed using a document analysis method. Results showed that the main two characters, namely Augustus and Hazel, applied four politeness strategies, which were distributed as follows: positive politeness, as the most frequently-used strategy with a frequency of 100 utterances (38%), followed by off record, 59 utterances (22.4%), bald on record, 54 utterances (20.6%), and negative politeness, 50 utterances (19%). The strategies that were used by the two main characters were affected by two main factors, namely the payoffs and the circumstances or sociological variables.
Culture Change in Nursing Homes: How Far Have We Come? Findings From The Commonwealth Fund 2007 National Survey of Nursing Homes

Although The Nursing Home Reform Act, passed in 1987, established residents’ rights and quality standards for nursing homes nationwide, serious concerns remain about quality of care and quality of life for nursing home residents. The “culture change” movement is working to radically transform nursing home care, and help facilities transition from institutions to home. This report presents results from the Commonwealth Fund 2007 National Survey of Nursing Homes, fielded to examine the penetration of the culture change movement at the national level and measure the extent to which nursing homes are adopting culture change principles and practicing resident-centered care. Results are mixed, with much room for improvement. The survey highlights important lessons, including the finding that the more a nursing home has adopted culture change principles, the greater the benefits that accrue to it, in terms of staff retention, higher occupancy rates, better competitive position, and improved operational costs. Support for this research was provided by The Commonwealth Fund. The views presented here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of The Commonwealth Fund or its directors, officers, or staff. This and other Fund publications are available online at www.commonwealthfund. org. To learn more about new publications when they become available, visit the Fund’s Web site and register to receive e-mail alerts. Commonwealth Fund pub. no. 1131.
Personalising privacy contraints in Generalization-based Anonymization Models

The benefit of performing Big data computations over individual’s microdata is manifold, in the medical, energy or transportation fields to cite only a few, and this interest is growing with the emergence of smart-disclosure initiatives around the world. However, these computations often expose microdata to privacy leakages, explaining the reluctance of individuals to participate in studies despite the privacy guarantees promised by statistical institutes. To regain indivuals’trust, it becomes essential to propose user empowerment solutions, that is to say allowing individuals to control the privacy parameter used to make computations over their microdata.This work proposes a novel concept of personalized anonymisation based on data generalization and user empowerment.Firstly, this manuscript proposes a novel approach to push personalized privacy guarantees in the processing of database queries so that individuals can disclose different amounts of information (i.e. data at different levels of accuracy) depending on their own perception of the risk. Moreover, we propose a decentralized computing infrastructure based on secure hardware enforcing these personalized privacy guarantees all along the query execution process.Secondly, this manuscript studies the personalization of anonymity guarantees when publishing data. We propose the adaptation of existing heuristics and a new approach based on constraint programming. Experiments have been done to show the impact of such personalization on the data quality. Individuals’privacy constraints have been built and realistically using social statistic studies
Nest-site detection and estimation of avian reproductive outcome from GPS-tracking data

Movement ecology is flourishing thanks to advancements of tracking technology and, in parallel, a proliferation of methods to infer behavior from individual trajectories. An emerging direction is the use of telemetry data to estimate reproductive success, which connects movement to components of individual fitness. Here, we introduce a method to locate breeding attempts and estimate their outcome from avian GPS-tracking data, implemented in the R package 'nestR'. We identified nest sites based on the analysis of recursive movements of breeding individuals acting as central place foragers. Using trajectories with known breeding attempts, we estimated a set of species-specific criteria for the identification of nest sites, which we further validated using non-reproductive individuals as controls. We then estimated individual nest survival as a measure of reproductive outcome from nest-site revisitation histories during breeding attempts, using a Bayesian hierarchical modeling approach that accounted for temporally variable re-visitation patterns, probability of visit detection, and missing data. We illustrated the application of our method and evaluated its performance using data for three species: wood storks (Mycteria americana), lesser kestrels (Falco naumanni), and Mediterranean gulls (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus). Across the three species, positive predictive value of the nest-site detection algorithm was between 73-100% and sensitivity was between 87-92%, and we correctly estimated the outcome of 86-100% breeding attempts. Our method can be broadly applied to estimate individual reproductive outcome in a variety of central place foragers, bridging the gap between movement behavior, environmental factors, and their fitness consequences. Key-words birds – fitness – GPS telemetry – movement ecology – nest survival – nestR – R package 2 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38
Identifying the drivers of multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae at a European level

Beta-lactam- and in particular carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae represent a major public health threat. Despite strong variation of resistance across geographical settings, there is limited understanding of the underlying drivers. To assess these drivers, we developed a transmission model of cephalosporin- and carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae. The model is parameterized using antibiotic consumption and demographic data from eleven European countries and fitted to the resistance rates for Klebsiella pneumoniae for these settings. The impact of potential drivers of resistance is then assessed in counterfactual analyses. Based on reported consumption data, the model could simultaneously fit the prevalence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing and carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (ESBL and CRK) across eleven European countries over eleven years. The fit could explain the large between-country variability of resistance in terms of consumption patterns and fitted differences in hospital transmission rates. Based on this fit, a counterfactual analysis found that reducing nosocomial transmission and antibiotic consumption in the hospital had the strongest impact on ESBL and CRK prevalence. Antibiotic consumption in the community also affected ESBL prevalence but its relative impact was weaker than inpatient consumption. Finally, we used the model to estimate a moderate fitness cost of CRK and ESBL at the population level. This work highlights the disproportionate role of antibiotic consumption in the hospital and of nosocomial transmission for resistance in gram-negative bacteria at a European level. This indicates that infection control and antibiotic stewardship measures should play a major role in limiting resistance even at the national or regional level.
Government Assisted Programs and Unemployment Reduction in Developing Economies: A Study of Nigeria and Ghana

This paper sets out to comparatively analyze various programs developed by the governments of Nigeria and Ghana towards alleviating unemployment. The inadequacies which have bedeviled these government assisted programs and their consequent failures warrant a review and reconsideration. The research employed qualitative case method with interviews as tools for data collection. Findings revealed a plethora of evidential facts with respect to perception of entrepreneurship in these countries which hinged on challenges such as inadequate funding, lack of requisite trainings, dearth of entrepreneurship education as well as the enabling environments. Most obvious among these challenges are the complete lack of governmental supports for the programs they propagated leading to the failure of various employment alleviation programs. This paper recommends the enactment of clear-cut policies by the governments under the leadership of a specialized ministry (ministry for entrepreneurship). Furthermore, a review and inclusion of entrepreneurship in the academic curriculum at all levels of the educational system will endear students to entrepreneurship studies. Finally, a holistic support of the organized private sectors in achieving a quantifiable target of full-fledged entrepreneurs within a decade will assist in unemployment reduction.
The Effect of Probiotics on Reducing Hospitalization Duration in Infants With Hyperbilirubinemia

Background: Approximately 60% of term and 80% of premature infants are hospitalized for hyperbilirubinemia in the ﬁrst week of life. Hyperbilirubinemia is the most common cause of infant hospitalization and readmission. Due to the high frequency of hyperbilirubinemia in infants and the high costs of treatment, it is necessary to ﬁnd a way to decrease hospitalization duration. Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess the adjunctive eﬀect of probiotics on decreasing hospitalization time for infants with hyperbilirubinemia. Methods: Inthisrandomized,controlledclinicaltrial,92terminfantswithhyperbilirubinemiawhomettheinclusioncriteriawere randomlyassignedtoeithertheprobioticorcontrolgroup. Patientsinbothgroupsunderwentcommonphototherapy. Onceaday, those in the probiotic group were also given half of a capsule of Prokid probiotic, while those in the control group received half of a placebo capsule. The duration of phototherapy and hospitalization, the blood groups of mothers and infants, and each patient’s bilirubin levels before and after phototherapy, direct Coombs test results, and levels of hemoglobin, G6PD, and reticulocytes were recorded. Results: Data from 92 patients with a mean age of 5.25 ± 2.35 days underwent analysis. The control group had 47 (51.1%) patients withameanageof 5.19 ± 2.51daysandtheprobioticgrouphad45(48.9%)patientswithameanageof 5.31 ± 2.19days(P=0.81). The 92 patients had a mean bilirubin level of 16.70 ± 3.07 mg/dL, with a mean of 16.42 ± 3.53 mg/dL in the control group and 17.00 ± 2.49 mg/dL in the probiotic group (P = 0.37). The duration of hospitalization averaged 3.34 ± 0.70 days overall, with an average of 3.55 ± 0.74 days for the control group and 3.13 ± 0.70 days for the probiotic group. The probiotic group had a signiﬁcantly lower hospitalization stay in comparison to the control group (P = 0.004). Conclusions: Our ﬁndings suggest that probiotics may be beneﬁcial as an adjunct treatment for infants with hyperbilirubinemia by reducing the duration of hospitalization.
Asymmetric Impact of Institutional Quality on Tourism Inflows Among Selected Asian Pacific Countries

From an idealistic viewpoint, the existence of the tourism industry in a country/region is a blessing because of its anticipated sustainable economic benefits. To turn this idealistic state into a realistic one, institutions need to play a pivotal role in optimizing the desired incentives. The present study examines the asymmetric role of institutional quality in stimulating tourism inflows (receipts and arrivals) in selected Asia Pacific countries involved in tourism. The previous literature has established that improving institutional quality attracts tourism inflows to a destination. However, the literature fails to identify the specific point (threshold level) above (below) which the relationship turns positive (negative). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that estimates the asymmetries in the nexus of institutions and tourism inflows, using robust nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag approach. Our results show that the tourism inflow in Asian Pacific countries responds asymmetrically to any changes in institutional quality, and there is a single threshold of 7.52 points, where the impact of institutional quality reverses. We conclude that our findings are robust to the alternative measures of tourism inflows. The study offers useful policy inputs for devising short and long-run policies for the betterment of the institutional framework in the region by understanding the asymmetric impact of institutional quality on tourism inflow.
Cognition of complexity and trade-offs in a wildfire-prone social-ecological system

Wildfire risk is a defining environmental challenge throughout much of the American West, as well as in other regions where complex social and ecological dynamics defy simple policy or management solutions. In such settings, diverse forms of land use, livelihoods, and accompanying values provide the conditions for trade-offs (e.g. between protecting homes from uncontrollable fires and restoring low-severity fire to ecosystems as a natural disturbance process). Addressing wildfire risk requires grappling with these trade-offs at multiple levels—given the need for action by individuals as well as by large and diverse stakeholder groups—and under conditions of considerable complexity. We evaluated how individual and collective perception of trade-offs varies as a function of complexity through analysis of the cognitive maps—representations of perceived causal relationships among factors that structure an individual’s understanding of a system—of 111 stakeholders in the Eastern Cascades Ecoregion of central Oregon. Bayesian statistical analysis revealed a strong tendency against perception of trade-offs in individual maps, but not in a collective map that resulted from the aggregation of all individual cognitive maps. Furthermore, we found that lags (the number of factors that mediated the effect of an action on multiple valued outcomes) limited perception of trade-offs. Each additional intervening factor decreased the likelihood of a trade-off by approximately 52% in individual cognitive maps and by 10% in the collective cognitive map. However, the heterogeneity of these factors increased the likelihood of perception of trade-offs, particularly among individual cognitive maps, for which each unit increase of the Shannon diversity index translated into a 20-fold increase in the likelihood of perception of trade-offs. Taken together, these results suggest that features of complexity have distinct effects on individual—and collective-level perception of trade-offs. We discuss implications for wildfire risk decision-making in central Oregon and in other complex wildfire-prone social-ecological systems.
Value of supply chain resilience: roles of culture, flexibility, and integration

Purpose Building supply chain (SC) resilience is crucial for business continuity given the ever-changing environmental conditions. Based on the resource orchestration and organizational culture theories, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the business value of SC resilience with the consideration of the roles of internal integration (II) and external integration (EI), risk management culture (RMC) and SC flexibility (SCF). Design/methodology/approach This study investigates how RMC, SCF and intra and interorganizational integration affect the performance of SC resilience. It collects primary and secondary data from 194 manufacturing firms listed in the Taiwan Stock Exchange and Taipei Exchange. Findings Results validate the authors’ hypothesis that RMC, SCF and II improve the financial performance of firms through SC resilience efforts. Research limitations/implications This study uses firms from Taiwan manufacturing industry, which might introduce country and industry bias. Practical implications This study helps managers improve the financial performance of their SC resilience efforts by developing RMC, SCF, II and IE across functions and partner firms. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by empirically testing the relationship between SC resilience and financial performance, and how the relationship is moderated by RMC, SCF, II and EI based on the theories of organizational culture and resource orchestration.
Quality of Education Practices in Tanzania: A Case of Community Secondary Schools in Arusha District Council

This study explored quality of education practices in Tanzania, using community secondary Schools in Arusha District council as a case study. The study intended to: to examine the indicators of quality education in Arusha District Council community secondary schools; examine how schools have been working to attain quality of education among community secondary schools in Arusha District Council, and find out what should be done by the schools to attain quality education in Arusha District Council community secondary schools. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The data collection involved 83 respondents reached through questionnaires and interviews. The findings indicated that the community and teachers in Arusha District are aware of the indicators of quality education such as textbooks, nutrition and infrastructure also the study indicated the practice to attain quality education in the district are hindered by the problem of science laboratory and science text books, furthermore the study recommended on the strategies that could improve the quality of education in Arusha to be: reviewing TRCs (as the centers function to improve teaching abilities), improve fundraising, improve teachers’ motivations and parent school relationship. Recommendations to improve the quality of education in the district are attached.
Uncommon ultrasound findings in the cervical region

Poster: "ECR 2014 / C-1132 / Uncommon ultrasound findings in the cervical region" by: "V. Donciu1, S. M. Petrescu1, E. NEGUT2, C. Zaharia1; 1Bucharest/RO, 2BUCHAREST, ro/RO"
Corporate social responsibility and patronage intentions: The mediating effect of brand credibility

ABSTRACT Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a vital construct in the banking industry due to its influence on brand credibility, positive word of mouth, and repeat purchases. The purpose of this research is to examine the influence of the three main dimensions of corporate social responsibility on patronage intentions through the mediating role of brand credibility. Based on a sample of (N = 315) customers in Jordan’s banking sector, structural equation modelling revealed that all of the proposed hypotheses were supported, proving that CSR dimensions have a significant influence on brand credibility and patronage intentions. Additionally, a mediating influence was found for brand credibility on the path between CSR and patronage intentions. Implications for managers are also provided.