Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in ventilator-associated pneumonia at a medical center in southern Taiwan.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE To evaluate the significance of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MDRAB)-related ventilator-associated pneumonia at a medical center in southern Taiwan. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients with MDRAB isolated from sputum and described the characteristics of these patients. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to their clinical pulmonary infection scores (CPIS), and their host factors and outcomes compared. RESULTS In the patient group with significant MDRAB-related lung infection, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II scores were significantly higher than in those patients with lower CPIS scores (<6). However, the clinical outcomes, including the duration of hospitalization after isolation of MDRAB and mortality rate, were not different. CONCLUSION Our investigation showed that significant lung infections with MDRAB isolation did not result in prolonged hospitalization or increased mortality. The initial clinical severity of the group with significant MDRAB-related lung infection was significantly greater than in the other. We propose that MDRAB-related pneumonia should be regarded as a signal of the clinical severity of the patient rather than as a prognostic factor.
The Factors that Influence on Adoption of Cloud Computing for Small and Medium Enterprises

Cloud computing has emerged as one of the most discussed topics among enterprise information technology (IT) professionals. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with low budget and human resources are one of the major groups that tend to use cloud computing for achieving the benefit of this technology. A multitude of factors influence the adoption of cloud computing for SMEs. These decisive factors must be systematically evaluated prior to making the decision to adopt cloud-based solutions. The purpose of this study is to identify these factors and determine the extent to which they influence the adoption of cloud computing for SMEs. Therefore, the project describes a research model that is based on the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory and the technology, organization and environment (TOE) framework. Based on previous study, research model was developed to test eight (8) variables, which are: relative advantage, compatibility, security concerns, cost savings, technology readiness, top manager support, competitive pressure and regulatory support. Data was collected by survey questionnaires from a sample of 22 SMEs that all of these SMEs as a customer’s of one cloud provider. There are 77 experts in information technology department from those SMEs are selected to fill the questionnaires. The Smart PLS tool was used for data analysis. The results of the data analysis generally support the model, as well as all of the proposed hypotheses. In summary, the results of this research have shown relative advantage, compatibility, security concerns, cost savings, technology readiness, top manager support, competitive pressure and regulatory support were found to have significant influence on adoption of cloud computing for SMEs.
Tim Weninger 2008 NSF Graduate Fellowship Research Proposal Feature Discovery in Link Mining

Background: Traditional data mining approaches attempt to find patterns in a data set characterized by a collection of independent instances of a single relation. This is consistent with the classical statistical inference problem of trying to identify a model given a random sampling of an underlying distribution. A key challenge for machine learning is the problem of mining more richly structured data sets in a way that leverages the linkages between records [1]. In this paradigm, which more accurately resembles real-world data, instances in the data set are relational where different samples are related to each other, either explicitly as typified by friendship relationships in a social network, or on the web by hyperlinks [2]. However, in most large data sets, relationships also exist that are not explicitly annotated. According to Jensen, naively applying traditional machine learning methods to this type of data can lead to inappropriate conclusions [3]. Therefore new approaches are needed to appropriately correlate inherent relationships (i.e. links) in real-world data sets.
Bis[μ-2-(2-carboxylatophenyl)acetato]-κ3 O 1,O 1′:O 2;κ3 O 2:O 1,O 1′-bis[aqua(1,10-phenanthroline-κ2 N,N′)nickel(II)]

The title compound, [Ni2(C9H6O4)2(C12H8N2)2(H2O)2], is isostructural with the ZnII analogue. Each NiII atom is coordinated in a distorted octahedral geometry by three O atoms from two homophthalate anions, one aqua O atom and two 1,10-phenanthroline N atoms. The two NiII atoms are linked by two bridging homophthalate dianions into a centrosymmetric dinuclear unit. The dinuclear units are linked into one-dimensional ladder-like chains along [100] by O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds between the coordinated water molecules and one of the O atoms of the carboxylatomethyl group.
Optimized fuzzy association rule mining for quantitative data

With the advance of computing and electronic technology, quantitative data, for example, continuous data (i.e., sequences of floating point numbers), become vital and have wide applications, such as for analysis of sensor data streams and financial data streams. However, existing association rule mining generally discover association rules from discrete variables, such as boolean data (`O' and `l') and categorical data (`sunny', `cloudy', `rainy', etc.) but very few deal with quantitative data. In this paper, a novel optimized fuzzy association rule mining (OFARM) method is proposed to mine association rules from quantitative data. The advantages of the proposed algorithm are in three folds: 1) propose a novel method to add the smoothness and flexibility of membership function for fuzzy sets; 2) optimize the fuzzy sets and their partition points with multiple objective functions after categorizing the quantitative data; and 3) design a two-level iteration to filter frequent-item-sets and fuzzy association-rules. The new method is verified by three different data sets, and the results have demonstrated the effectiveness and potentials of the developed scheme.
Overview of Animal Models of Obesity

The focus of this overview is on the animal models of obesity most commonly utilized in research. The models include monogenic models in the leptin pathway, polygenic diet‐dependent models, and, in particular for their historical perspective, surgical and chemical models of obesity. However, there are far too many models to consider all of them comprehensively, especially those caused by selective molecular genetic approaches modifying one or more genes in specific populations of cells. Further, the generation and use of inducible transgenic animals (induced knock‐out or knock‐in) is not covered, even though they often carry significant advantages compared to traditional transgenic animals, e.g., influences of the genetic modification during the development of the animals can be minimized. The number of these animal models is simply too large to be covered in this unit. Curr. Protoc. Pharmacol. 58:5.61. 1‐5.61. 18. © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Predicting Outcomes After Transient Ischemic Attack and Stroke

Purpose of Review: Predicting functional outcome and mortality after stroke, with or without thrombolysis, is a critical role of neurologists. This article reviews the predictors of outcome after ischemic stroke. Recent Findings: Several scores were recently designed to predict (1) mortality and poor functional outcome after ischemic stroke, (2) the functional outcome and risk of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH) after thrombolysis, and (3) the risk of stroke following TIA. Validation of these prediction instruments is ongoing, and studies will be critical to determine the general applicability of these scores. Summary: Although several scores were developed to predict mortality and outcome after stroke, it may be premature to employ these prediction scores to determine individual patient outcome. Similarly, prediction scores should not be used to deny patients tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), even if the scores predict that the patient has a high likelihood of sICH or poor outcome after thrombolysis.
Globalization does lead to change in consumer behavior: An empirical evidence of impact of globalization on changing materialistic values in Indian consumers and its aftereffects

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically substantiate if the forces of globalization are impacting consumer culture and behavioral traits in a developing country (India). Design/methodology/approach – Five hypotheses had been constructed to address the gaps in the literature with respect to the influence of globalization on prevalent consumer culture of a developing nation. Predisposition towards foreign brand among Indian consumers was taken as a proxy for global flows and its influence was studied on the existing materialistic values among the Indian consumers. The study covered a sample size of 557 respondents from five major cities in India. The raw data were collected with the help of structured questionnaire and analysis was done by using various relevant statistical techniques.Findings – The results showed that predisposition towards foreign brands had a significant impact on materialistic values among the Indian consumers. The younger Indian consumers had significantly higher materiali.
Using Subjective Evaluations of Organizational Performance in Small Business Research

Frequently small business researchers cannot obtain accurate objective information on organizational performance. However, an important research study of 26 large firms completed by Dess and Robinson (1984) has suggested that researchers can, in certain instances, use subjective evaluations of organizational performance when accurate objective measures are unavailable. The present study of 34 small firms was designed to partially replicate and to extend the Dess and Robinson study. However, none of the significant correlations in the Dess and Robinson study were replicated in the present study. Reasons for these discrepancies are discussed within the context of developing a set of guidelines for using subjective evaluations in small business research.
Pricing and Revenue Optimization

Contents Preface 1 Background and Introduction 2 Introduction to Pricing and Revenue Optimization 3 Basic Price Optimization 4 Price Differentiation 5 Pricing with Constrained Supply 6 Revenue Management 7 Capacity Allocation 8 Network Management 9 Overbooking 10 Markdown Management 11 Customized Pricing 12 PRO and Customer Acceptance Appendix Bibliography Index
The impact of urban traffic and environmental conditions on the housing market: an analysis of Italian and Slovenian urban areas

Urban traffic has been shown to affect the housing market. The objective of this paper is to explore the impact of urban traffic on the property market in a "former" and a "new" EU-member country. In this context, this article investigates the relationship between the property price effect due to changes in environmental conditions and the countries' purchasing power. The paper starts with the estimation of the marginal willingness to pay for air quality in the North-Italian town of Padua by applying the hedonic pricing method. Since Italy is bordering on the new EU-member country Slovenia, a further hedonic model is set up for urban areas in Slovenia. Consequently, the impact of the urban traffic on the housing market is discussed from different perspectives considering the location-specific differences and similarities regarding the housing market, urban transport systems, economic development and environmental criteria related to urban traffic. In the first section, the hedonic pricing models are developed by disaggregating homogenous areas within Italian and Slovenian towns regarding accessibility, socio-economic criteria, other environmental factors etc. The next section involves the estimation of hedonic regressions. Finally, the results are presented with the focus on the influence of the urban traffic (and other environmental conditions) on the property prices with similar geographic and environmental pre-conditions, but differences in public policy and economic development. Moreover, possible future implications of the urban traffic systems are indicated. For the covering abstract see ITRD E129315.
"Energy Efficient Ethernet" enhanced with a QoS-aware sleep mode controller

Operating costs and scalability of nowadays telecommunication networks are largely impacted by energy consumption of network equipments. In packet switching devices it is especially due to packet processing, queuing, and input/output interface functionalities. Different approaches to reduce energy consumption in packet switches are emerging, some exploit under-laid optical bypass of transit traffic to reduce their capacity and interfaces, others simplify their operations or turn off some of their functionalities when unnecessary. The IEEE standardization body developed a standard on Energy Efficient Ethernet IEEE P802.3az that defined a mechanism allowing to de-activate the Physical layer elements during periods of low link utilization. It is based on a protocol that coordinates transitions to and from a lower power consumption mode without changing the link status and dropping frames. Time needed by such transitions is, however, comparable with packet transmission time; that makes energy efficiency of the method far from being proportional to interfaces unused capacity. Solutions proposed in the literature to improve EEE performance are mainly based on the buffer and burst approach, which, making the transmission non continuous, creates more opportunities for long sleeping period. Such solutions, however, if applied across the network, strongly impact packet delay requirements. In this paper, a traffic management mechanism that controls sleeping period to reduce EEE transitions overhead while meeting delay constraints of data flows is proposed. Starting from the consideration that in Ethernet network provisioning is static, i.e. service level agreement parameters of each flow are configured on switches output ports of its path via management plane at the set-up phase, the proposed method off-line determines, for each output port, if the activation of a dummy flow, associated to the quiet period, can provide power consumption reduction without impacting data flows delay requirements. On ports where the dummy flow is activated the sleeping period is triggered by the scheduler mechanism each time a dummy packet is served. A comparative analysis between the standard EEE, with and without the support of buffer and burst functionality, and the proposed method has been carried out in order to quantify the improvements in terms of energy efficiency and to assess its effectiveness in terms of Quality of Service QoS.
Impaired Behavioral Inhibition in Implicit Sequence Learning in Adult ADHD

Objective: Deficits in explicit learning and memory have consistently been reported in adult ADHD, but it is less clear whether these deficits reflect deficient attentional processes or specific dysfunctions in memory processes. Studies on implicit learning and memory, which are less dependent on the allocation of attention, have rarely been conducted on adult ADHD. Method: We implemented a modified serial reaction-time task that involves distracting stimuli to investigate implicit sequence learning in 32 adult participants with ADHD and in 32 matched healthy control participants. Results: The participants with ADHD revealed unimpaired implicit learning performance, but they made significantly more errors than the control participants. There was no evidence for impaired error monitoring in the participants with ADHD reflected by a comparable degree of double errors and post-error slowing in the two groups. Conclusion: Reduced efficiency of the inhibition of incorrect responses in implicit sequence learning supports previous findings of impaired behavioral inhibition in adult ADHD.
An empirical examination of consumers' innovation adoption: the role of innovativeness, fashion orientation, and utilitarian and hedonic consumers' attitudes

Over the past few years, changes in the competitive landscape of retail marketing have resulted in a synergy effect. This synergy effect has motivated firms to enter into a strategic alliance. Many industries, such as the technology and fashion industries, have recognized the benefits both parties may gain by engaging in a strategic alliance to develop products and/or services that provide greater value for their customers. While several studies have examined consumers' adoption of innovative products, these previous studies have focused on innovation as related to either technological or fashion products. There is no known study that has examined consumers' adoption of a product that possesses both attributes (i.e., technology and fashion). Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to assess the effects of an external variable, i.e., consumer characteristics (consumer innovativeness and fashion orientation), on consumers' adoption of an innovative product among young consumers who grew up with a advanced technology and a sophisticated fashion transition. Data were collected from a convenience sample of undergraduate students between the ages of 18 to 26. The final sample consisted of 196 college students. Of these, approximately 88% were female, approximately 63% were Caucasians and an average age of participants was 20.40 years old. A series of multiple regressions was employed to answer all hypotheses. Results revealed that domain-specific innovativeness related to the technology and fashion domain has a significant effect on consumers' utilitarian and hedonic attitudes, respectively. We also found that in terms of the relationship between the dimensionality of fashion orientation and consumer's attitudes, consumers' utilitarian attitudes are positively influenced by the importance of being well-dressed and consumers' hedonic attitudes were negatively influenced by an anti-fashion sentiment. In addition, we found that two dimensions of consumers' attitudes (utilitarian and hedonic) significantly influence consumers' adoption of a product. Lastly, among young consumers, results revealed that the opinions of significant others play an important role in influencing their purchase intention. Implications are provided. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.
Evolutionary history of New World monkeys revealed by molecular and fossil data

New World monkeys (parvorder Platyrrhini) are one of the most diverse groups of primates, occupying today a wide range of ecosystems in the American tropics and exhibiting large variations in ecology, morphology, and behavior. Although the relationships among the almost 200 living species are relatively well understood, we lack robust estimates of the timing of origin, the ancestral morphology, and the evolution of the distribution of the clade. Here we integrate paleontological and molecular evidence to investigate the evolutionary dynamics of extinct and extant platyrrhines. We develop an analytical framework to infer ancestral states, the evolution of body mass, and changes in latitudinal ranges through time. Our results show that extant platyrrhines originated some 5–10 million years earlier than previously assumed, likely dating back to the Middle Eocene (∼ 43 million years ago, Ma). The estimated ancestral platyrrhine was strikingly small – weighing ∼ 0.4 kg, as compared to the largest modern species over 10 kg – matching the size of their presumed Eocene North African ancestors. Small-sized callitrichines (marmosets and tamarins) retained a small body mass throughout their evolutionary history, thus challenging the hypothesis of phyletic dwarfism as an explanation to their adaptive traits. In contrast, a rapid change in body mass range took place as the three families diverged between the Late Oligocene and the Early Miocene. That period also marks a peak in diversity of fossil platyrrhines and is associated with their widest latitudinal range, expanding as far to the South as Patagonia. This geographic expansion is temporally coincident with a significant increase in platyrrhine population size inferred from genomic data, and with warm and humid climatic conditions linked to the Miocene Climatic Optimum and the lower elevation of the Andes. These results unveil the early evolution of an iconic group of monkeys and showcase the advantages of integrating fossil and molecular data for estimating evolutionary rates and trends.
Busulfan systemic exposure after oral administration of extemporeanously prepared high-dose busulfan capsules

Purpose. The aim of the study was to analyze patients’ busulfan (BU) exposure after oral administration of extemporeanously prepared BU capsules prior to blood stem cell transplantation. Methods. Patients were treated with 1 mg/kg body weight BU administered orally every 6h on each of 4 consecutive days prior to blood stem cell transplantation. Each BU dose was administered in 1 gelatine capsule to be swallowed and containing the individually calculated dose of pure BU active substance. Blood samples were obtained from 6 adult patients 0, 30, 60, 90, 120, 180, 240, 300, and 360 min after the 1st, 5th, and 13th BU dose, frozen and analyzed subsequently by using a HPLC assay with UV detection. In addition, in two patients concomitant TDM was executed. BU exposure was monitored concurrently and BU doses were targeted to achieve a steady-state plasma concentration (CSS) of 600—900 ng/mL or 900—1100 ng/mL depending on the underlying disease. In these patients blood samples were obtained 0, 60, 120, 180, 240, and 360 min after the 1st, 5th, 9th, and 13th BU dose and analyzed concurrently. Results. For the six patients monitored retrospectively, the time to reach peak plasma BU concentration (Cmax) ranged from 1 to 5 h (mean 2.4 h). BU Cmax — values varied from 728 to 1807 ng/ mL (mean 1174 ng/mL), and BU clearance (CL/F) from 2.32 to 3.75 mL/min/kg (mean 2.97 mL/min/ kg). The mean BU steady state (CSS) concentration calculated was 973 ng/mL (range 754—1226 ng/mL) with a mean AUC of 5818 ng·h/mL (range 4521— 7171 ng·h/mL). One of the two patients receiving targeted BU doses required an upward dose adjustment. None of the eight patients suffered from vomiting during BU therapy. Conclusions. BU active substance encapsulated without further excipients in gelatine capsules is highly suitable for oral BU therapy. However, therapeutic drug monitoring and BU dose adjustment is still advisable to achieve optimal systemic BU exposure in each individual patient.
Generalized Fractional Programming with User Interaction

The present paper proposes a new approach to solve generalized fractional programming problems through user interaction. Capitalizing on two alternatives, we review the Dinkelbach-type methods and set forth the main difficulty in applying these methods. In order to cope with this difficulty, we propose an approximation approach that can be controlled by a predetermined parameter. The proposed approach is promising particularly when a decision maker is involved in the solution process and agrees upon finding an effective but nearoptimal value in an efficient manner. The decision maker is asked to decide the parameter and our analysis shows how good is the value found by the approximation corresponding to this parameter. In addition, we present several observations that may be suitable for boosting up the performance of the proposed approach. Finally, we support our discussion through extensive numerical experiments.