Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nebulized corticosteroids in the management of acute exacerbation of COPD

Acute exacerbations in chronic onstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are common and systemic steroids play an important role in the management of these cases along with the bronchodilators. Nebulized budesonide is being used in the acute attacks of bronchial asthma either in children or in adults. But the role of nebulized steroids in acute exacerbation of COPD is not much studied in the literature. In this clinical review we have evaluated the role of nebulized corticosteroids in the management of acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD). Through Medline, Pubmed and Embase we analyzed the various studies that has been done to study the role of nebulized corticosteroids in the management of acute exacerbation of COPD. The key words used for the search criteria were: acute exacerbation, COPD, nebulized corticosteroids, budesonide, fluticasone. Only eight studies were found which had evaluated the role of nebulized corticosteroids in acute exacerbations of COPD. All these studies had used nebulized budesonide in AECOPD in different dosages, and had been compared with both either parental or oral steroids, and standard bronchodilator therapy. All the studies had found the clinical efficacy of nebulized budesonide to be of similar extent to that of either parental or oral steroids in AECOPD. Side effects profile of nebulized budesonide was minimal and acceptable as compared to systemic steroids. Nebulized budesonide may be an alternative to parental/oral prednisolone in the treatment of acute exacerbations of COPD but further studies should be done to evaluate its long-term impact on clinical outcomes after an initial episode of COPD exacerbation.
Active Mode Subclock Power Gating

This paper presents a technique, called subclock power gating, for reducing leakage power during the active mode in low performance, energy-constrained applications. The proposed technique achieves power reduction through two mechanisms: 1) power gating the combinational logic within the clock period (subclock) and 2) reducing the virtual supply to less than Vth rather than shutting down completely as is the case in conventional power gating. To achieve this reduced voltage, a pair of nMOS and pMOS transistors are used at the head and foot of the power gated logic for symmetric virtual rail clamping of the power and ground supplies. The subclock power gating technique has been validated by incorporating it with an ARM Cortex-M0 microprocessor, which was fabricated in a 65-nm process. Two sets of experiments are done: the first experimentally validates the functionality of the proposed technique in the fabricated test chip and the second investigates the utility of the proposed technique in example applications. Measured results from the fabricated chip show 27% power saving during the active mode for an example wireless sensor node application when compared with the same microprocessor without subclock power gating.
Improvements for High Performance Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem Processor over GF(2^163)

Improvements of the Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem (ECC) point multiplication processor is presented in this paper. The main contributions of this paper are the improved finite field multiplier, which uses a 2-stage Karatsuba-Ofman multiplier architecture. Furthermore, a revised algorithm is proposed for the projective to affine coordinate conversion, which computes 2 inversion operations simultaneously with the numerator portion, in order to make better use of parallel cores implemented in the ECC processor. The design is implemented on a Virtex 4 XC4VLX80 FPGA and the implementation results show that the ECC processor can compute a point multiplication in 6.72 us. This time is the fastest to the authors' best knowledge. Thus, the ECC processor proposed in this paper is suitable for applications where high-throughput is required, such as network servers.
O profissional de controladoria no mercado Brasileiro: do surgimento da profissão aos dias atuais

Em um trabalho anterior, o pesquisador selecionou quatro anos de anuncios publicados no Jornal do Brasil - 1960, 1970, 1980 e 1989 - buscando a identificacao do perfil do profissional de controladoria em cada um destes periodos. O objetivo era avaliar a evolucao do controller no Brasil baseado nos anuncios publicados na secao de classificados. Neste trabalho percebe-se no ano de 1960 uma baixa procura por executivos em geral e de controllers em particular. Em contraste com 1960, o ano de 1970 apresentava um numero bastante elevado de anuncios um total de 38 - que nao se modificaria relevantemente nos demais periodos da pesquisa. Tal constatacao e um indicio de que em algum momento durante a decada de 60 houve um crescimento consideravel na demanda por estes profissionais. Este trabalho tem por objetivo identificar quando ocorre este incremento na demanda por controllers, buscando localizar indicios do nascimento da profissao no pais. Alem disso procura-se tracar um perfil da profissao ao longo dos anos ate a atualidade.
Numerical similarity-aware data partitioning for recommendations as a service

At present, recommendations become an acceptable choice to replace annoying and widespread advertisements. Recommender systems (RS) are mainly used by large scale e-businesses, such as Amazon [1] and Netflix [4], because implementing and deploying RS can involve substantial investments. Many e-commerce businesses prefer to outsource the recommendation services. Therefore, Recommendation as a Service (RaaS) becomes a newly emerging trend for providing a feasible RS alternative. The providers of these services, the RS providers, need to pay the fee of cloud computing services, which is proportional to the amount of time, memory requirement, and computation resources. In addition, the RS providers must support rapidly recommendation services to meet the requests of clients. In this paper, we propose a numerical similarity-aware data partitioning (NSDP) scheme that effectively uses the numeric and similarity of datasets to exactly estimate the memory and the computation requirements for distributing the workloads. The simulation results demonstrate that NSDP significantly improves the speedup performance and achieves high scalability in the RaaS distributed-memory environment.
When Do Benevolent Capitalists Change Their Mind? Explaining the Retrenchment of Defined-benefit Pensions in Britain

This paper explores the politics of welfare retrenchment, but differs from much of the current literature in this area by focusing not on the decisions of politicians but those of private sector employers. In countries with a large private welfare sector, employers are major social policy players with a significant influence on the generosity of welfare provision, but the rationale behind their actions is not well understood. To explore these issues, a case study is used of the recent fundamental change in UK occupational pension provision, involving a rapid shift from defined-benefit to defined-contribution pensions. The paper shows by means of a micro-simulation of the relative performance of defined-benefit, defined-contribution and state pensions that this shift represents a significant retrenchment. It suggests, using historical material, interview data and insights from behavioural economics, that existing explanations for this change, while valuable, have important gaps because they are based on too narrow a conceptualization of business motives. In this regard, the paper highlights the importance of herd behaviour.
SSCG with Hershey-Kiss modulation profile using Dual Sigma-Delta modulators

This letter describes a spread spectrum clock generator (SSCG) circuit with the Hershey-Kiss modulation profile using two stacked sigma-delta modulators. The proposed Hershey-Kiss profile modulator generates various slopes to achieve non-linear modulation profile. Since the modulators are implemented by digital blocks, it can be modified for other applications. Simulation results show that peak power reduction level of 10.2dBm with 5000ppm down spreading at the 340MHz operation using 0.13m CMOS.
Investigation of a photodefinable glass substrate for millimeter-wave radios on package

Photodefinable glass has been investigated for applications at mm-wave frequencies. Test structures including through-glass vias, transmission lines and microstrip patch antennas have been fabricated and fully characterized up to 67 GHz. Good correlation was obtained between simulation and measurements. The antenna exhibited return loss better than 10 dB in the frequency band of interest. Via transition losses were less than 0.15 dB/via and the transmission line insertion loss was ~ 3.3 dB/cm at 60 GHz.
In Vitro and In Vivo Activity of Solithromycin (CEM-101) against Plasmodium Species

ABSTRACT With the emergence of Plasmodium falciparum infections exhibiting increased parasite clearance times in response to treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapies, the need for new therapeutic agents is urgent. Solithromycin, a potent new fluoroketolide currently in development, has been shown to be an effective, broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent. Malarial parasites possess an unusual organelle, termed the apicoplast, which carries a cryptic genome of prokaryotic origin that encodes its own translation and transcription machinery. Given the similarity of apicoplast and bacterial ribosomes, we have examined solithromycin for antimalarial activity. Other antibiotics known to target the apicoplast, such as the macrolide azithromycin, demonstrate a delayed-death effect, whereby treated asexual blood-stage parasites die in the second generation of drug exposure. Solithromycin demonstrated potent in vitro activity against the NF54 strain of P. falciparum, as well as against two multidrug-resistant strains, Dd2 and 7G8. The dramatic increase in potency observed after two generations of exposure suggests that it targets the apicoplast. Solithromycin also retained potency against azithromycin-resistant parasites derived from Dd2 and 7G8, although these lines did demonstrate a degree of cross-resistance. In an in vivo model of P. berghei infection in mice, solithromycin demonstrated a 100% cure rate when administered as a dosage regimen of four doses of 100 mg/kg of body weight, the same dose required for artesunate or chloroquine to achieve 100% cure rates in this rodent malaria model. These promising in vitro and in vivo data support further investigations into the development of solithromycin as an antimalarial agent.
Dropping out of higher education in France: a micro‐economic approach using survival analysis

Through the use of event‐history techniques, we will show that a duration framework is adapted to the analysis of higher education attrition. Our dropout model allows for estimates to vary over time. While some factors exhibit constant effects, like high school characteristics, other effects do vary from the first year to the fourth. Men and women do not generally exhibit the same dropout behaviour. Socio‐economic background, and especially the parents’ level of education, would appear to be influential only at the beginning of the university period. Results suggest that only well‐targeted actions considering both the ‘early leavers’ and ‘late leavers’ could serve to increase the internal efficiency of French universities.
Reflexive practice in interdisciplinary design of pervasive health applications in dementia care

Interdisciplinary design is essential to create new pervasive health applications, in our case those for dementia care, and to innovate our healthcare systems to meet the challenges of ongoing demographic changes. While interdisciplinary design is gaining attention in HCI literature and challenges of managing and executing interdisciplinary design projects are brought to the fore, few guidelines are provided to deal with these challenges. Often published outcomes focus on the innovative solutions and describe the design process merely on a high level. However, factors that led to a certain design outcome, such as the politics of participation, power relations, understandings and negotiations of concepts, choice of settings and materials for design workshops, decisions for one design, and more importantly against another, are "black-boxed". To open the black-box and understand what kind of knowledge from who for whom and why has been created and whether and how it can be transferred to new design contexts, requires to make the above named factors visible -- in publications but also during the design process. To that end we suggest a reflexive approach to interdisciplinary design through value sensitive design methods and real-time ethnographic practices.
Nonparametric estimation and inference for polytomous discrimination index

Polytomous discrimination index is a novel and important diagnostic accuracy measure for multi-category classification. After reconstructing its probabilistic definition, we propose a nonparametric approach to the estimation of polytomous discrimination index based on an empirical sample of biomarker values. In this paper, we provide the finite-sample and asymptotic properties of the proposed estimators and such analytic results may facilitate the statistical inference. Simulation studies are performed to examine the performance of the nonparametric estimators. Two real data examples are analysed to illustrate our methodology.
The peculiar impact of higher room rates on customers' propensity to book

Purpose – This study's goal is to examine how an intensified room rate signal affects customers' perceptions, their propensity to book, and consequently hotels' revenue maximization.Design/methodology/approach – Subjects were asked to assess quality, sellout risk and the likelihood of getting a better deal based on an advanced booking scenario, where the signal's intensity was manipulated through the level of uncertainty. Analysis was conducted using a GLM multivariate procedure and a polytomous universal model.Findings – The results suggest that high quoted rates might affect customers' perceptions, their propensity to book, and consequently the hotel's revenues. Surprisingly, the impact of the high room rate signal on the sellout risk perception reversed its direction with the intensified signal.Research limitations/implications – The results imply that the maximal achievable revenue levels reported in a previous theoretical study ought to be re‐calculated because the assumptions used were not supported.
[Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease of liver stagnation and spleen deficiency pattern treated with acupoint embedding therapy: a randomized controlled trial].

OBJECTIVE To compare the difference between the acupoint embedding therapy and polyene phosphatidylcholine capsules in the clinical efficacy on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) of liver stagnation and spleen deficiency pattern. METHODS The multi-center clinical trial was adopted and 180 cases of NAFLD of liver stagnation and spleen deficiency pattern were randomized into an embedding therapy group and a western medication group, 90 cases in each one. On the basis of general treatment such as diet control and proper physical exercise, in the embedding therapy group, the acupoint embedding therapy was applied to Ganshu (BL 18), Tai-chong (LR 3), Fenglong (ST 40), Zusanli (ST 36) and Sanyinjiao (SP 6), once every 7 days; in the western medication group, polyene phosphatidylcholine capsules (essentiale) were prescribed, 228 mg/capsule, 2 capsules each time, three times a day. In 6 months of treatment, TCM syndrome score, liver enzymology, blood lipid and abdomen B-ultrasound examination were observed and compared before and after treatment between the two groups. RESULTS (1) For TCM syndrome score, the total score in the embedding therapy group was lower significantly than that in the western medication group (P<0. 05); (2) For liver enzymology and blood lipid, the levels of serum alanine transarninase (ALT), serum glutamic oxalacetic transaminase (AST), total cholesterol (TC) and triacylglycerol (TG) in the embedding therapy group were reduced significantly as compared with those in the western medication group (all P<0. 05); (3) For abdomen B-ultrasound examination, the fatty liver degree in the embedding therapy group was relieved significantly as compared with that in the western medication group (P< 0. 05); (4) For clinical efficacy, the total effective rate was 89. 8%o (79/88) in the embedding therapy group, higher significantly than 76. 7% (69/90) in the western medication group(P<0. 05). CONCLUSION The acupoint embedding therapy achieves the definite efficacy on NAFLD of liver stagnation and spleen deficiency pattern, better than polyene phosphatidylcholine capsules.
Comparison of Hepatitis C Viral Loads in Patients with or without Coinfection with Different Genotypes

ABSTRACT Hepatitis C virus genotyping was assessed for 257 chronic hepatitis C patients with viral loads above 1,000 IU/ml. Twelve patients were coinfected with more than one genotype. Their median viral loads did not differ significantly from those observed for monoinfected patients, which in turn did not vary significantly among different genotypes.
Let Me Count the Words

Customer surveys and comment cards are all well and good, but the best way to gain a full understanding of a customer’s feelings about a hotel is to analyze the context of the customer’s comments. Heretofore a laborious process, qualitative data analysis is rapidly becoming feasible for hoteliers, using software applications that support content analysis and data linking and those that offer advanced linguistic analysis. The content-analysis applications allow an analyst to assess the number of times a customer uses a particular word or phrase in written material or transcribed remarks. By counting the frequency ofwords and noting the association of certain words, one can categorize themes and concepts. By thus “quantifying” the qualitative communication, an analyst can associate the resulting information with demographic or other quantitative data. A more sophisticated analysis is possible with linguistic analysis, which examines the semantics, syntax, and context of customers’ verbal communications. Linguistic analysis applications help the analyst identify the key ideas in a text, gain an indication of the relative importance of each idea, and then develop a prediction of a customer’s behavior based on the context of the remarks. Thus, unlike the typical five-point customer survey, the resulting analysis gives a strong indication of a customer’s emotional connection to a particular hotel.
Risk Management, Project Success, and Technological Uncertainty

In times of increased competition and globalization, project success becomes even more critical to business performance, and yet many projects still suffer delays, overruns, and even failure. Ironically, however, risk management tools and techniques, which have been developed to improve project success, are used too little, and many still wonder how helpful they are. In this paper we present the results of an empirical study devoted to this question. Based on data collected on over 100 projects performed in Israel in a variety of industries, we examine the extent of usage of some risk management practices, such as risk identification, probabilistic risk analysis, planning for uncertainty and trade-off analysis, the difference in application across different types of projects, and their impact on various project success dimensions. Our findings suggest that risk management practices are still not widely used. Only a limited number of projects in our study have used any kind of risk management practices and many have only used some, but not all the available tools. When used, risk management practices seem to be working, and appear to be related to project success. We also found that risk management practices were more applicable to higher risk projects. The impact of risk management is mainly on better meeting time and budget goals and less on product performance and specification. In this case, we also found some differences according levels of technological uncertainty. Our conclusion is that risk management is still at its infancy and that at this time, more awareness to the application, training, tool development, and research on risk management is needed.
Spot market versus Incentive Contract

This paper attempts to develop a consistent theory for the choice of perform ance contracts in agriculture by analyzing the trade-off between quantity and quality and the presence of competence and uncertainty on the basis of the ex pected utility theory. This theory is able to explain many contract-related is sues, such as why the performance contract can be optimal even providing lesser quantity and quality than the spot market and why a trade-off between
Joint Particle Filters Prognostics for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Power Prediction at Constant Current Solicitation

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) are promising energy converters, but still suffer from a short life duration. Applying Prognostics and Health Management seems to be a great solution to overcome that issue. But developing prognostics to anticipate and try to avoid failures is a critical challenge. To tackle this problem, a hybrid prognostics approach is proposed. It aims at predicting the power aging of a PEMFC stack working at a constant operating condition and a constant current solicitation. The main difficulties to overcome are the lack of adapted modeling of the aging for prognostics, and the occurrence of disturbances creating recovery phenomena through aging. Consequently, this work proposes a new empirical model for power aging that takes into account these recoveries based on different features extracted from the data. These models are used in a joint particle filter framework directly initialized by an automatic parameter estimate process. When sufficient data are available, the prognostics can give accurate behavior predictions compared to experimentation. Remaining useful life estimates can be given with an error smaller than 5% for a horizon of 500 hours on a life duration of 1750 hours, which is clearly long enough for decision making.
Tourist Perceived Value, Relationship to Satisfaction, and Behavioral Intentions The Example of the Croatian Tourist Destination Dubrovnik

Perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty are essential concepts for running a successful and profitable modern company, and therefore defining a model of perceived value and value dimensions is a primary goal of marketing management. The theoretical propositions in this article are tested in relation to the tourist destination of Dubrovnik, Croatia. The author has defined a model of tourist perceived value, satisfaction, and behavior intentions. The model was tested using the structural equation modeling. The results show a significant effect of perceived value on the satisfaction and intended future behavior of tourists. In addition, tourists’ perceived value associated with Dubrovnik was affected primarily by destination appearance, followed by the emotional experience, while the impact of cost was significantly lower.
Governance in the European Union

Presenting a fresh alternative to traditional state-centered analyses of the process of European integration, Governance in the European Union clearly shows the interaction of subnational, national, and supranational actors in the emerging European polity. This "multilevel politics" approach offers a powerful lens for viewing the future course of European integration. The authors' empirical exploration of areas such as regional governance, social policy, and social movements underpins their broad conceptual and theoretical framework, providing significant new insight into European politics. Governance in the European Union will appeal to students and academics across the broad spectrum of political science, and will be of particular interest to those in European studies, public policy studies, comparative politics, and political theory.