Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comments on recent discussions providing differing causation methodologies

Recently, we and others have proposed the methods of mapping the widely accepted logic underlying evidence-based medicine (EBM) in the field of toxicology. The goal of evidence-based toxicology (EBT) is to provide a consistent, objective, and rule-based methodology for evaluating human and animal toxicology data to determine whether a chemical creates a human health risk; that is, whether the chemical is known to cause a specific toxic or adverse health effect in humans. Early adopters of EBT include scientists and regulatory groups such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Academy of Sciences critique of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). EBT is being evaluated by the USEPA itself at a recent workshop with some evident initial confusion. A report by some presenters miscites the order and contents of originating EBT publications, incorrectly suggests that the systematic reviews are somehow equivalent to EBT rather than just one fundamental step in the process, and would have EBT focus on nonhuman animal studies to the virtual exclusion of human effects. Remarkably, the word ‘‘cause’’ or ‘‘causation’’ does not appear in the article, even though Hartung, a basic toxicologist initiator of EBT, considers causation of human health effects as one of the four pillars of the ‘‘temple’’ of EBT. Recently, two publications discussed alternative, but contradictory, approaches for analyzing animal and human data when trying to reach cause and effect conclusions. Here, we discuss some shortcomings of these two contrasting proposals viewed from a perspective of a comprehensive framework for causation, that is, EBT.
Retinol-binding protein 4 and prediction of incident coronary events in healthy men and women.

CONTEXT Recent studies reported that retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) has a causal role in insulin resistance and suggested that its circulating levels may predict cardiovascular disease. However, the latter assumption has not yet been tested. OBJECTIVE We assessed the value of RBP4 measurement in the prediction of incident coronary artery disease (CAD). DESIGN We conducted a nested case-control study of incident CAD (n = 1036 cases vs. n = 1889 controls) selected from among 25,336 participants of the EPIC-Norfolk study. SETTING Healthy men and women, aged between 45 and 79 yr, were recruited from age-sex registers of general practices in Norfolk. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS Participants completed a baseline questionnaire survey between 1993 and 1997, attended a clinic visit, and were followed for an average of 6 yr. Cases (n = 1036) were participants who developed CAD during the follow-up. Controls (n = 1889) matched by age, sex, and enrollment time remained free of any CAD during follow-up. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURE Risk of incident fatal or nonfatal CAD according to RBP4 quartiles was assessed. RESULTS RBP4 levels were higher in cases than in controls. RBP4 levels correlated weakly with body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and total and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol and were inversely associated with C-reactive protein concentrations. The strongest correlation was found with triglycerides. The risk of incident CAD was associated with increasing quartiles of RBP4 levels (P = 0.03). However, adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors abolished this association. CONCLUSIONS Measurement of serum RBP4 does not provide added value for predicting CAD risk beyond traditional risk factors.
Generation and the Google Effect: Transactive Memory System Preference Across Age

A transactive memory system (TMS) is a means by which people may store information externally; in such a system the task of remembering is offloaded by remembering where information is located, rather than remembering the information itself. As Sparrow et al. (2011) suggest in the article Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips, people are beginning to use the internet and computers as a TMS, and this use is changing the way people encounter and treat information. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether preference for TMS type (either with books or with computers) varies across age groups. An interaction between TMS preference and age was hypothesized. Before the onset of the internet age, information was primarily found in books and other print materials whereas now the internet is more frequently used, thus this shift in thinking and habit across generations was expected to emerge in the data. The study yielded a total of 51 participants, 32 from the young age group (ages 18-24) and 19 from the old (ages 61-81). A modified Stroop task and question blocks (for priming purposes) were employed to examine whether people are prone to think of bookor computer-related sources when in search of information. Also, a “Look up or Learn” tendencies survey was used to better understand how people decide whether certain information should be learned or left to be “looked up” later (Yacci & Rosanski, 2012). The mixed ANOVA did not reveal main effects for question difficulty or TMS type, nor was an interaction with age found. The results were not consistent with those of Sparrow et al. (2011) and did not show significance for TMS preference. Future studies should continue to examine the Google effect and TMS preference, as it bears important applications for a number of fields.
Dynamic Comovement among Banks, Systemic Risk, and the Macroeconomy

Abstract This paper develops a new measure of comovement in the banking sector that takes into account the dynamic nature of interlinkages in the return on assets (ROA) and net chargeoffs (NCO) among different bank holding corporations by using a dynamic factor model with time-varying parameters and stochastic volatility. We find that the degree of comovement in ROA and NCO peaked during the 2008–2009 financial crisis, suggesting a significant increase in sector-wide stress. Using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) methodology, we show that comovement and risk measures derived from our approach perform well when compared to other widely used measures of systemic risk in explaining real economic activity.
Radical innovation and value extraction: the role of the user's entrepreneurial passion on satisfaction with product, firm, and industry

While innovation has long been considered central to firms creating a sustainable competitive advantage, researchers have had difficulty in establishing empirical links between innovation and improved customer satisfaction or firm performance. In this study we find empirical support that individuals exhibiting entrepreneurial passion (EP) value innovation differently than those without EP. In contrast to those without EP, innovation-users with EP attribute the value of an innovation to an innovated product rather than to the company or industry. We also find that there is the potential for customers’ firm-level satisfaction to leak from the firm to the overall industry. This study offers insights into why innovators often fail to extract customer value as anticipated. Recognizing entrepreneurial passion, consequently, matters both for entrepreneurs and their customers.
Side-Coupled Shorted Microstrip Line for Compact Quasi-Elliptic Wideband Bandpass Filter Design

This letter presents a novel structure composed of a shorted quarter-wavelength microstrip line side-coupled to two open-ended stubs. The proposed topology exhibits a quasi-elliptic wideband response with two transmission zeros enhancing the selectivity. To verify the design concept, one filter example has been designed, fabricated and measured. Good insertion/return losses, flat group delay, sharp transition, excellent DC-choked property, simple topology, and compact size are achieved as demonstrated in both simulation and experiment.
Impact of a Fitness Intervention on Medical Students

Objective It is known that regular exercise improves both physical and mental health. This study sought to determine the impact of a fitness intervention on the levels of exercise and well-being of medical students. Methods In 2011, the authors conducted a prospective cohort study involving medical students at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Intervention students experienced a 7-week, team-based, fitness competition and recorded exercise data online. Incentives were given to teams reaching an average of 150 minutes per teammate per week, an exercise goal recommended by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Both groups completed baseline and follow-up surveys about physical activity and well-being, using validated scoring methods. Results A total of 100 students (71 in the intervention group and 29 in the control group) participated fully, recording their exercise behaviors and completing both the pre- and postsurveys. In the intervention group, the percentage of individuals successfully reaching the exercise target of 150 minutes per week varied by week from 30% to 61%. Intervention students showed a significant improvement in their International Physical Activity Questionnaire scores (1669.4 ± 154.9 vs 2013.6 ± 174.6; P = 0.02) and levels of irritability on the subsection of the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale score (2.2 ± 0.1 vs 2.0 ± 0.1, P = 0.03). By contrast, the control group did not show any improvements in any of these measures across the same time period (all P > 0.05). Conclusions A well-orchestrated student-designed fitness intervention can effectively augment medical students’ exercise practices and positively affect well-being.
A study on the effect of human proxemics rules in human following by a robot team

Considering the greater insertion of mobile robots in social contexts, i.e. in the presence of humans, classical techniques for fundamental tasks, such as navigation, must consider those people. In this sense, it is important to provide these robots with the capability to behave in a more socially acceptable manner. The adoption of socially acceptable behaviors demands a trade-off between social comfort and direct navigation efficiency, since humans must be differentiated from other ordinary objects in the scene. Since the impact of multirobot navigation with a person has not yet been investigated and is incipient in the literature, in this paper it is addressed the specific case in which a person must be followed by a team of robots. Three navigation strategies are proposed to a team of robots built upon a traditional flocking behavior. Evaluation criteria involving social and performance metrics have been adopted. Simulated results suggest that social rules did not hinder the robots performance, resulting in a safer navigation.
Wireless sensor network for multi-target detection algorithm based on blind source separation

Detecting multi-target using wireless sensor network is a research hotspot in recent years, and it has broad application prospect. Aiming at the problem that signal mixture exists in wireless sensor networks for multi-target detection, this paper proposed a blind source separation BSS algorithm to process mixed signal. The algorithm took detected multi-channel signal as research object. The number of sources in signals was determined utilising eigenvalue method firstly, transforming over-determined BSS into well-posed. Then separation of signals was achieved using non-negative matrix factorisation NMF. Experiments utilised four channel man-made signals and two speeches separately to validate the proposed algorithm. Results showed presented algorithm could determine the number of sources in multi-channel signals and it can be used to solve signal mixture problem in multi-target detection.
Dynamic Autoregressive Modelling of Critical Care Patients as a Basis for Health Monitoring

Real-time modelling techniques could be valuable to continuously evaluate individual critically ill patients and to help the medical staff with estimation of prognosis. This preliminary study examines the possibilities to distinguish survivors from non-survivors on the basis of instabilities in the dynamics of daily measured variables. A data set, containing 140 patients, was generated in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the university hospital of Leuven. First and second order dynamic auto-regression (DAR) models were used to quantify the stability of time series of three physiological variables as a criterion to distinguish survivors from non-survivors. The best results were found for blood urea concentration with true negative fractions of 45/72 (63%) and true positive fractions of 43/68 (62%). The results indicate that the dynamics of time series of laboratory parameters from critically ill patients are indicative for their clinical condition and outcome.
Internal controls, governance and audit outcomes : case of a South African municipality

The inextricable interdependence of internal and external environments of public institutions implies that institutional decisions that are taken by managers have impacts on governance in both directions. This article holds that internal controls enforce transparency and accountability, adherence to legislative requirements, efficiency and effectiveness as well as responsiveness to the needs of beneficiaries. From a literature review perspective, the article argues that research on internal controls enriches the understanding of governance requirements and the ability to distinguish between good and bad. The article is premised on public financial accountability as an area of interest in the discipline of Public Administration; and, it reveals how the assessment of internal controls could influence governance and audit outcomes, using the Roodepoort City Theatre (RCT), trading as Joburg Promusica, case. It examines the general reports of audit outcomes, annual reports and internal audit function reports of the Roodepoort City Theatre (RCT), to corroborate the primary assumption of external control enforcement of good governance.
Sustainable Tourism Development Potential in the Improvement of Economic and Social Life Community Corridor in Bali

This research was conducted in the Corridor Bali with the aim of (1) mapping of Bali tourism potential of the area and (2) analyze the direction of the development of tourism potential. This research uses descriptive design with the object of the research potential of tourism and socio-economic life of society corridors Bali. Subjects were community stakeholders in tourism, department of tourism, small industry related to tourism, public figures.
Plasma VEGF levels and their relation to right ventricular function in pulmonary hypertension

Abstract A protective role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) on right heart function has been reported only in animal studies of pulmonary hypertension. Twenty patients with idiopathic pulmonary hypertension and fifteen healthy volunteers were involved. Plasma VEGF levels were compared to right heart parameters. Plasma VEGF levels tended to be higher in patients (82/0–345/pg/ml) than in controls (48/0–141/pg/ml, p = 0.08) with a significant correlation between VEGF concentration and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE; p = 0.03, r = 0.48). This is the first study to report a positive association between elevated plasma VEGF levels and right heart function in humans.
Effectiveness of hand hygiene education in a basic nursing school curricula.

OBJECTIVES Although hand hygiene (HH) is the cheapest and simplest tool for the prevention of hospital-acquired infections, poor HH compliance has been reported among health care professionals. A variety of factors influence the compliance with HH guidelines, the most important being the quality of the basic nursing education. The aims of this study were to analyze the effectiveness of the basic nursing education in relation to HH, and to explore the skills and attitudes toward HH among nursing students in praxis. DESIGN AND SAMPLE A mixed-method approach using a cross-sectional survey combined with observation and curricular analysis was used. A total of 188 nursing students participated in the study. RESULTS Content analysis revealed significant deficits in the quality of HH-related information in basic nursing educational programs. Our results correlate directly with the reported insufficient levels of HH knowledge and the associated poor HH compliance by students during their training in clinical settings; as shown in observation and questionnaire-based surveys. CONCLUSIONS The lack of compliance with HH standards among students lead to poor compliance among health care professionals in praxis. Consequently, the role of educational institutions in the prevention of hospital-acquired infections is significant, if the effectiveness of HH education is to be improved.
Efficiency of Conservation Agriculture Production Systems for Smallholders in Rain-Fed Uplands of India: A Transformative Approach to Food Security

With challenges from global climate change, it is imperative to enhance food production using climate-smart technologies and maximize farm efficiency. Fifty-six households in Rudhiapada and Badamahulidiha, Odisha, India were selected to evaluate farmers’ efficiency using conservation agriculture (CA) cropping system practices. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and regression analysis were used to estimate farmer efficiency and the determinants of yield. Conventional tillage with the local maize cultivar was compared to reduced tillage with improved maize cultivar and maize intercropped with cowpea. Badamahulidiha outperformed Rudhiapada in yields for all cropping systems. This could be attributed to lower input use and exposure to NGO training. The current efficiency level of farmers’ productivity was between 0.4 and 0.7. Inputs such as labor, seed, and fertilizers were found to be significant in increasing yield except for female labor and phosphate. This finding suggests conservation agriculture cropping system is female friendly. The conservation agriculture cropping systems improved maize yields by 60% to 70% when compared to conventional farming system. Combining conservation agriculture practices with improving efficiency of farmers in optimal use of the inputs can contribute substantially to productivity, thus enhancing food security and nutrition in the face of climate change in India and other tropical areas.
Redirect and Retain: How Firms Capitalize on Within and Across Industry Mobility Frictions

Covenants-not-to-compete play an important role in the strategic management of human capital because they have the dual effect of directing departing employees away from competitors and reducing mobility overall. We combine the literature on noncompetes with the literature on human capital transferability to develop a theory of how the enforceability of noncompetes differentially impacts the management of technical and business occupations. Using a difference-in-difference estimation strategy, we demonstrate that when noncompetes are more enforceable, their impact on new hire experience, wages, training, and tenure for technical employees is stronger than on business employees, which is in turn stronger than unaffected occupations. We argue that the heterogeneous responses to noncompete enforceability for technical and business occupations are consistent with cross-occupational differences in skill transferability.
The impact of cross-cultural psychological capital and social support on expatriate effectiveness: A study of Chinese expatriates

i Acknowledgements . ii Abbreviations index . iii Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 1.1. Background . 1 1.2. Statement of the research problems . 4 1.2.1. Theoretical problems in expatriate literature . 4 1.2.2. The theoretical problem in the context of China . 7 1.3. Research questions and the study’s objectives . 8 1.4. Significance of the study . 10 1.5. Structure of the thesis . 12 Chapter 2: Literature review and research questions . 13 2.1. Review method . 13 2.2. Expatriates and expatriate adjustment: Definitional issues . 15 2.2.1. Expatriates . 15 2.2.2. Expatriate effectiveness . 18 2.2.3. The nature of expatriate adjustment . 19 2.2.3.1. Adjustment as process. 20 2.2.3.2. Adjustment as state . 21 2.2. 4. Two dimensions of expatriate adjustment . 21 2.2. 4.1. Socio-cultural adjustment . 23 2.2. 4.2. Psychological adjustment . 24 2.3. Existing perspectives to expatriate adjustment . 25 2.3.1. Stress-based perspective . 27 2.3.2. Learning-based perspective . 28 2.3. 3. Resource-based perspective . 30
Galaxy Workflow Integration on Garuda Grid

Galaxy is an open source web based framework for data intensive biomedical research. It is an environment for interactive analysis that transparently tracks the details of analyses, a workflow system for convenient reuse, data management, sharing and publishing of the results. In this paper we describe extending the Galaxy framework to the GARUDA Grid computing infrastructure for running bioinformatics applications on various grid. This involves developing a grid job adaptor for the Galaxy workflow. GARUDA grid is an aggregation of heterogeneous resources and advanced capabilities for scientific applications. Grid way is the met scheduler for running the jobs on the Garuda grid. Here we present the integration of Galaxy workflow with the Grid way middleware by developing a grid job runner to interface. This grid enabled galaxy facilitates computational biologists to perform complex problems on the grid environment through a web browser.
Aromatic biosynthesis. IV. Preferential conversion, in incompletely blocked mutants, of a common precursor of several metabolites.

Mutants of Escherichia coli have been isolated with blocks in a variety of reactions in aromatic biosynthesis. In addition to strains with single requirements for tyrosine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, and p-aminobenzoic acid, respectively, strains have been obtained with requirements for the first two, the first three, and all four of these compounds (Davis, 1950a). Moreover, most of the mutants with this quadruple requirement were found later to have an additional, relative requirement for a fifth compound, p-hydroxybenzoic acid (Davis, 1950b). Certain intermediates in the biosynthesis of these five aromatic metabolites have been recognized. Some of these multiple aromatic auxotrophs can respond to shikimic acid (a 3,4,5-trihydroxycyclohexene-1-carboxylic acid; cf. figure 1) as a substitute for their requirement for two or more aromatic metabolites (Davis, 1950a); others accumulate this compound in the culture medium (Davis, 1951a); and still others accumulate a precursor of shikimic acid, provisionally designated as compound X (Davis, 1951a), which has been isolated and identified as 5-dehydroshikimic acid (Salamon and Davis, 1951a, b). In the present paper the accumulations and nutritional responses of the 62 available multiple aromatic auxotrophs of several bacterial species will be summarized; and the double, triple, and quadruple auxotrophs of this series will be shown to be blocked in the same group of reactions as the quintuple auxotrophs. The differences in nutritional requirement will be shown to depend on (a) differences in the completeness of the genetic block, resulting in different limited rates of synthesis of a precursor, and (b) the preferential order in which this common precursor, when present in limited amounts, is converted to its various products. On the basis of these observations a general scheme of aromatic biosynthesis, accounting for the behavior of all these strains, will be proposed. This scheme will include, in addition to the compounds mentionied, a previously unrecognized intermediate, compound WV, and a previously unrecognized sixth metabolite derived from this series of intermediates. Finally, the nutritional requirements of the multiple aromatic auxotrophs will be shown to be at odds with the conclusion, based on inhibition analysis, that certain aromatic amino acids serve as precursors of others in E. coli.