Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tobacco Smoking and Radiographic Periapical Status : A Retrospective Case-Control

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate radiographically the relationship of tobacco smoking and periapical status by using a retrospective casecontrol study design. Methods: The records of 79 controls and 79 ageand sex-matched cases were examined. Case was defined as a patient who has at least 1 radiographically detectable periapical lesion in a tooth. Control was defined as a patient who has no radiographically detectable periapical lesion in any teeth. Periapical status was assessed by using panoramic radiographs and the periapical index score. The history of smoking and diabetes, the number of teeth and root-filled teeth, and the quality of root fillings were recorded. Statistical analyses were conducted by using the Cohen kappa test, c test, Student’s t test, and logistic regression analysis. Results: Among the case subjects, 75% had antecedents of smoking, whereas in the control group only 13% had been smokers (odds ratio, 20.4; 95% confidence interval, 8.8–46.9; P = .0000). After multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusting for covariates (age, gender, number of teeth, root-filled teeth, root-filled teeth with a root filling technically unsatisfactory, and diabetes), a strong association was observed between the presence of at least 1 radiographically detectable periapical lesion and antecedents of smoking (odds ratio, 32.4; 95% confidence interval, 11.7–89.8; P = .0000). Conclusions: After adjusting for age, gender, number of teeth, endodontic status, quality of root filling, and diabetic status, tobacco smoking is strongly associated with the presence of radiographically diagnosed periapical lesions. (J Endod 2012;38:584–588)
Calculating the surface potential of unionized monolayers.

A quantitative model is presented which enables contributions to the surface potential of a monolayer at the air-water interface to be determined from known values of group dipole moments. Based on the Lennard-Jones and Dent approach, the model shows that the head- and tail-group moments in a condensed, long-chain, n-alkanoic acid monolayer may be assumed to be noninteracting so long as the monolayer-forming molecule is more than about 0.5 nm in length, thus confirming one of the main tenets of the model by Demchak and Fort [J. Colloid Interface Sci. 46, 191 (1974)]. By the same token, it is shown that imaging effects in the subphase are only important for the head group and negligible for the tail group of a molecule more than about 0.5 nm long. The present model shows that the local field acting on dipoles in the monolayer can be described in terms of a relative permittivity for the monolayer. An upper bound of between 1.98 and 2.24 is established for the local relative permittivity of the hydrophobic chain region of alkanoic acids. The major contribution to the local field which leads to these values is from the ``layers'' of methylene groups forming the hydrophobic region of the monolayer. For the case of the distal methyl groups of an alkanoic acid, consideration of only the mutual induced depolarization of in-plane methyl dipoles leads to a local relative permittivity as low as 1.18. Thus, it is shown that even though horizontally directed methylene-group moments cannot make a direct contribution to the surface potential of a condensed monolayer, they do make a significant indirect contribution via their local field.
Intravascular large B cell lymphoma presenting in a liver explant

A 51-year-old man with end stage liver disease secondary to hepatitis C underwent liver transplantation. The explanted liver showed cirrhosis and hepatitis. Additionally, the small hilar vessels were filled with large atypical lymphocytes with scant cytoplasm, irregular nuclei, dispersed chromatin and prominent nucleoli (fig 1). The neoplastic cells expressed CD45, CD20, PAX-5 and MUM1 without CD5, CD10 or BCL-6 by immunohistochemistry. A diagnosis of intravascular large B cell lymphoma (IVLBCL) was made. Figure 1 (A, B) H&E stained sections of the liver hilum at low (150×) and high (945×) power. (C) CD20 stain. Staging studies (body CT scan, bone marrow biopsy, peripheral blood flow cytometry, skin survey, and brain MRI) were negative. The patient was asymptomatic and initially followed by observation. A PET scan …
Measuring fraud in insurance industry: The case of automobile insurance in Taiwan

By conducting an extensive exploration on claim data, this paper attempts to investigate the fraud problem in Taiwan automobile physical damage insurance. Based on the different claim patterns between data in calendar year and policy year, excess claims are significantly identified in the last month of policy year. Censored regression provides robust estimation concerning the sources of the fraud payment.
Dynamics of Alignment and the Internal Response Lag Concept

Alignment between IS and the business has been broadly acknowledged as key to IS and business success. Considerable work has been done on modelling the process of alignment between IS and business strategies and structures. However, the way in which alignment changes over time as external circumstances change is not well understood. Given the rapidly changing environment in which many businesses operate, this is a key concern. This paper develops an internal response lag model as a means of investigating the dynamics of alignment from the perspective of IS and business managers. The model is illustrated using a broad based questionnaire and a series of interviews. Initial research outcomes are positive, and therefore a programme of further research in this area is proposed.
Embedding Quality Function Deployment In Software Development: A Novel Approach

Software development differs widely in concept, requirement and framework. Therefore the software engineer has enormous task in engineering functional software that can work and be delivered on time.This paper focuses on how customers’ voice can be heard in order to reduce development and manufacturing costs, improve product quality, provide features that satisfy customer needs, and reduce development time. Quality Function Deployment has proven very successful in producing products that appeal to customers. Metaphorically, the customer speaks one language and the manufacturer speaks another. Quality Function Deployment provides linguistic continuity from customer to manufacturer and brings corporate knowledge to bear on the product that achieves multifunctional consensus. This paper adopted a new approach by extending the Quality Function Deployment matrix beyond the House of Quality.
Options as a Strategic Investment

This revised and updated edition of "Options as Strategic Investments" encompasses the latest options trading vehicles and gives traders and serious investors strategic opportunities for managing their investments. It features discussions on LEAPs (Long Term Equity Anticipation Securities), PERCs (Preferred Equity Redemption Cumulative Stocks), primes and scores, warrants and SPAN. The concept and application of the various option strategies are explained, showing how they work, in which situations and why.
Molecular cloning of pea cDNA encoding cycloartenol synthase and its functional expression in yeast.

The cDNA encoding cycloartenol synthase [EC 5.4. 99.8] has been isolated from pea seedling by an efficient PCR using sets of degenerate primers based on the highly conserved sequences of the known 2,3-oxidosqualene cyclase cDNAs. The obtained cDNA contains a 2271-bp open reading frame and is encoding a predicted protein of 757 amino acids with high homology (81%) to Arabidopsis thaliana cycloartenol synthase. The PCR-amplified open reading frame (ORF) has been inserted into pYES2, an expression vector in yeast, under the control of galactose-inducible promoter. Significant cycloartenol synthase activity has been found in the homogenate of the yeast transformed with the plasmid containing PCR-amplified ORF.
Seller Concentration in Irish Services: Evidence from the Annual Services Inquiry

Seller concentration and its interactions on the performance of markets has occupied industrial organisation and competition economists for decades. While there has been much research on concentration in manufacturing markets, few studies have considered concentration in the services sector, which typically accounts for the majority of economic activity in developed countries. This paper presents estimates of the concentration ratio (i.e. the cumulative market share accounted for by the top 5, 20 and 100 firms) in the Irish services sector using publicly available data from the Annual Services Inquiry (ASI). It might be thought that the grouped nature of the ASI data render it impractical to estimate concentration accurately in this context but a technique due to McCloughan and Abounoori (2003), and subsequently applied to grouped data in the British construction sector (McCloughan, 2004) and the Irish manufacturing sector (McCloughan, 2005), facilitates estimation of concentration in Irish services sub-sectors for the first time. While the ASI data are aggregated, and while the analysis suggests that the Irish services sector is characterised by low concentration, the results nevertheless provide some interesting new information, based on adding value to an existing, publicly available data source, on which services sub-sectors are relatively concentrated and on the trend in concentration in recent years.
[Validation of the Job Content Questionnaire in hospital nursing staff].

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine the reliability and construct validity of the three dimensions of the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ): demand, control and job support among hospital nursing staff. METHODS The minimun reduced version of the JCQ was used, which include three dimensions: psychological demands (9 items), job control (9 items) and job support (11 items). Validity was assessed in a random sample of 330 nursing staff from two general hospitals in the province of Alicante (Spain). The reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated after re-interviewing a subsample of 50 nurses 15 days after the first interview. Construct validity was evaluated by calculating correlations between the three dimensions of the JCQ obtained after factorial analysis with the burnout scale and six dimensions of the 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36) questionnaire. RESULTS Factorial analysis revealed that the version of the JCQ validated in this study had the same factorial structure as the original questionnaire. The intraclass correlation between the first and second interview was high for each of the three dimensions (between 0.83 and 0.87). Cronbach's alpha was also high (between 0.74 and 0.88). A moderate but significant correlation was found between the three JCQ dimensions and the burnout scale: (-0,27 for job support, 0.31 for psychological demands and -0.12 for job control). A moderate correlation was also found for some SF-36 dimensions. CONCLUSION The factorial structure of the JCQ was similar to that proposed by the author in the context of Spanish culture. The reliability and internal consistency of each of the three dimensions was high while construct validity was moderate.
Audit Committee Effectiveness and Voluntary Disclosure in Malaysia: PRE and Post Introduction of the Revisd Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance 2007

Global economic crisis in 2008 has increased the focus on the role of audit committee in ensuring integrity and transparency in corporate reporting. Audit committee characteristics are crucial in determining the ability of audit committee in carrying out its responsibilities effectively. Hence, this study aims to investigate the contribution of audit committee characteristics to audit committee effectiveness over corporate voluntary disclosure by Malaysian listed firms. This study also examines the effect of board of directors’ characteristics on the level of voluntary disclosure. In addition, this study investigates the moderating effect of corporate board governance and concentrated ownership with audit committee effectiveness and corporate voluntary disclosure. Based on annual reports of 2006 and 2009, the study used 292 firms listed on Bursa Malaysia. The empirical results reveal that higher proportion of independent directors on audit committee, and totally independent audit committee members can lead to significantly a higher level of voluntary disclosure. Further, members with accounting expertise and multiple directorships, and also the size of audit committee are significantly associated with corporate voluntary disclosure. Surprisingly, results on board of directors indicate that none of the board attributes appear to determine corporate voluntary disclosure. The results further reveal that neither board governance nor concentrated ownership moderate the association between audit committee effectiveness and the level of voluntary disclosure. The findings of this study show that audit committee characteristics enhance the effectiveness of audit committee as a monitoring role, and hence mitigating the agency problems associated with corporate disclosure practices. Policy makers and regulatory bodies should interpret this evidence as motivation for them to strengthen corporate boards’ practices to effectively deal with the unique features of corporate governance in emerging economies such as Malaysia.
Dissecting Genuine and Deceptive Kudos: The Case of Online Hotel Reviews

As users continue to rely on online hotel reviews for making purchase decisions, the trend of posting deceptive reviews to heap praises and kudos is gradually becoming a well-established e-business malpractice. Conceivably, it is not trivial for users to distinguish between genuine and deceptive kudos in reviews. Hence, this paper identifies three linguistic cues that could offer telltale signs to distinguish between genuine and deceptive reviews. These linguistic cues include readability, genre and writing style. Drawing data from a publicly available secondary dataset, results indicate that readability and writing style of reviews offer useful clues to distinguish between genuine and deceptive reviews. Specifically, genuine reviews could be more readable and less hyperbolic compared with deceptive entries. With respect to review genre however, the differences were largely blurred. The implications of the findings for theory and practice are highlighted.
Default Clustering and Credit Risks in Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities

This paper proposes an intensity-based pricing model with default dependence structure for CMBS bonds. Three features are incorporated into the proposed model. First, default is a Poisson jump process defined as a function of mortgage rating information in the model. Second, underlying property value risks are modeled using a high dimensional Brownian motion process in order to better capture the driving roles of systematic risk and idiosyncratic risk in determining property value. Third, default dependence structure is built into the extended model. Based on a set of input parameters, we simulate various pricing effects on a hypothetical CMBS using the proposed model structure. The results of the base-line intensity model show that yield spreads on CMBS bonds increase in the recovery rate, but decreases in the hazard rate. Security structured with smaller subordination tranche exposes CMBS bonds to higher default risks. The model also predicts that default clustering increases required yield spreads of CMBS bonds. At a 70% recovery rate and a 3% default hazard rate, yield spreads of Junior bonds are expected to increase by 169 basis points when counterparty risks increase by 50%. The results highlight the importance of clustering risks associated with counterparty default when valuing CMBS bonds.
Reference Model for E-Government Monitoring, Evaluation and Benchmarking

The e-government as a result of innovations, emerging technology and internet expansion is a reality today and became a necessity for any country wishing to enter the 21st century as a competitive nation in the world arena . The processes are constantly changing and continue to drive and provide opportunities and open new possibilities for e-government development. The evolution of society requires public administrations to tackle many new challenges and changes. All these evolutionary changes demand the further development of government solutions to meet the challenges and new adequate requirements. After the solution is developed, it must be assessed whether those requirements have been met. There are a number of published research papers on models that aim to evaluate e-government but most of them are focused on some particular purposes and objectives, types of evaluation perspectives . However, there is no evaluation model that could be directly adapted to e-government development in each country or each organization or each service in the country. In this paper, a reference model for e-government monitoring, evaluation and benchmarking is proposed. The model is not associated with any particular e-government definition and/or model, evaluation purpose, dimension or criterion. It could be adapted to many specific cases in the process of design of specific models for monitoring, evaluation or benchmarking of e-government or e-government service. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5755/j01.ee. 26.3. 8128
Ecology, Fitness, Evolution

Categorization’s great debate has weighed single-system exemplar theory against the possibility of alternative processing systems. We take an evolutionary and fitness perspective toward this debate to illuminate it in a new way. There are continuities in category processes—extending across millions of years in vertebrate evolution—that have profound theoretical implications. Thus, animals are crucial behavioral ambassadors to this area. They reveal the roots of human categorization, the basic assumptions of vertebrates entering category tasks, and the surprising weakness of exemplar memory as a category-learning strategy. These results have joined neuroscience results to prompt important changes in categorization theory. Categorization’s great debate is ending. Broad-based converging evidence now makes it clear that the unitary exemplar view is insufficient. Categorization is served by multiple systems of process and representation.
The Great Unknown: Why Exclude “Other” Items from Non-GAAP Earnings Calculations in the Post-Reg G World?

The underlying motives for non-GAAP earnings disclosures have garnered a great deal of research in the extant literature, which is important given that non-GAAP reporting is at an all-time high. In examining these motives, the non-GAAP literature groups managers’ and analysts’ earnings adjustments into two categories: (1) special item exclusions and (2) other item exclusions. Special item exclusions relate to one-time items and non-GAAP studies find that excluding these items from non-GAAP earnings calculations is largely informative. In contrast, other item exclusions frequently relate to recurring earnings components (e.g., amortization expense), are currently the most common form of non-GAAP adjustment (78% of non-GAAP firms exclude other items), and early studies find that excluding these items is generally opportunistic. More recent studies provide evidence suggesting that SEC regulations have lessened the opportunism in other exclusions, but do not provide insight into which incentives currently motivate these common adjustments, which is the purpose of my study. I find that excluding other items in the current reporting environment is largely informative because these exclusions relate to non-cash items that are heavily discounted by investors when pricing firm performance. In addition, excluding other items creates earnings metrics that are comparable to analysts’ ex ante earnings forecasts, which provides investors with comparable ex ante and ex post assessments of performance. Thus, although I find some evidence that opportunism can still motivate other item exclusions in certain scenarios, the primary motives for these adjustments in the current reporting environment appear to be informative in nature.
A central role for Plasmodium falciparum subtelomeric regions in spatial positioning and telomere length regulation

In the protozoan malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, the telomere‐associated sequences (TASs) of the 14 linear chromosomes display a similar higher order organization and form clusters of four to seven telomeres localized at the nuclear periphery. Experimental evidence has shown that the physical tethering of chromosome ends enhances the ectopic recombination between gene families involved in antigenic variation and parasite sequestration. Using FISH analysis, we observed that chromosome ends lacking the subtelomeric region are usually delocalized from telomere clusters, but still remain at the nuclear periphery. This indicates that subtelomeric DNA is necessary for cluster formation but is not essential for peripheral positioning. Intriguingly, these truncated chromosomes have unusually long telomeric tracts (up to three times longer than average length), showing that TASs play a role in telomere length regulation. On these chromosomes, the newly formed telomere frequently extends from truncated genes leading, in some cases, to the transcription of telomeric DNA. The implications of both subtelomeric gene expression and nuclear architecture in the virulence of this serious human pathogen are discussed.
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 evolution in vivo tracked by DNA heteroduplex mobility assays

High mutation rates and strong selective pressures imposed on human immunodeficiency viruses in vivo result in the formation of pools of genetic variants known as quasispecies. DNA heteroduplex mobility and tracking analyses were used to monitor the generation of HIV sequence diversity, to estimate quasispecies complexity, and to assess the turnover of genetic variants to approach an understanding of the relationship between viral quasispecies evolution in vivo and disease progression. Proviral DNA pools were nearly homogeneous soon after sexual transmission. The emergence and clearance of individual variants then occurred at different rates in different individuals. High quasispecies complexity was found in long-term-infected, asymptomatic individuals, while rapid CD4+ cell decline and AIDS were often, but not always, associated with lower quasispecies complexity. Proviral genetic variation was often low following in vitro culture, because of the outgrowth of one or a few variants that often became more abundant only later as proviruses in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. These studies provide insight into the dynamics of human immunodeficiency virus sequence changes in vivo and illustrate the utility of heteroduplex analysis for the study of phenomena associated with rapid genetic changes.