Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gastric Electrical Stimulation Is Safe and Effective: A Long-Term Study in Patients with Drug-Refractory Gastroparesis in Three Regional Centers

Background: Drug-refractory gastroparesis has previously been without acceptable alternative therapies. Although gastric electrical stimulation has been used for over a decade, no long-term multicenter data exist. Methods: We studied 214 consecutive drug-refractory patients with the symptoms of gastroparesis (146 idiopathic, 45 diabetic, 23 after surgery) who consented to participate in a variety of clinical research and clinical protocols at three centers from January 1992 through January 2005, resulting in 156 patients implanted with a gastric electrical stimulation device and the other 58 patients serving as controls. The patients were stratified into three groups: (1) consented but never permanently implanted; (2) implanted with permanent device, and (3) consented while awaiting a permanent device. The patients were followed over time for gastrointestinal symptoms, solid gastric emptying, health-related quality of life, survival, device retention, and complications. Demographics, descriptive statistics, and t tests were used for comparison between baseline and latest follow-up. Results: At latest follow-up, median 4 years for 5,568 patient months, most patients implanted (135 of 156) were alive with intact devices, significantly reduced gastrointestinal symptoms, and improved health-related quality of life, with evidence of improved gastric emptying, and 90% of the patients had a response in at least 1 of 3 main symptoms. Most patients explanted, usually for pocket infections, were later reimplanted successfully. There were no deaths directly related to the device. Conclusion: Based on this sample of patients, implanted with gastric electrical stimulation devices at three centers and followed for up toward a decade, gastric electrical stimulation for drug-refractory gastroparesis is both safe and effective.
A review of work—life research in Australia and New Zealand

As many organisations and employees seek ways to better manage the tensions between work and other life demands, there has been a growing body of research in the area of work—family conflict and work—life issues. Despite the recent surge in research and practice addressing work—life issues, there has been no comprehensive review identifying where Australia and New Zealand stand in terms of work—life research. This paper addresses this issue with a review of research conducted in Australia and New Zealand between 2004 and 2007. Our review identifies the major themes and research methods that have dominated this research and discusses the implications for future research, policy and management in this field.
Unanimity and compromise among probability forecasters

When two forecasters agree regarding the probability of an uncertain event, should a decision maker adopt that probability as his or her own? A decision maker who does so is said to act in accord with the unanimity principle. We examine a variety of Bayesian consensus models with respect to their conformance or lack thereof to the unanimity principle and a more general compromise principle. In an analysis of a large set of probability forecast data from meteorology, we show how well the various models, when fit to the data, reflect the empirical pattern of conformance to these principles.
Assessment of the effect of condensed (acacia and quebracho) and hydrolysable (chestnut and valonea) tannins on rumen fermentation and methane production in vitro.

BACKGROUND Tannins added to animal diets may have a positive effect on energy and protein utilisation in the rumen. The objective of this study was to examine the impact of different sources and concentrations (20, 50, 100, 150 and 200 g kg⁻¹ dry matter (DM)) of condensed (acacia and quebracho) and hydrolysable (chestnut and valonea) tannins on rumen microbial fermentation in vitro. The experiment also included a negative control with no tannins (control) and a positive control with monensin (10 mg L⁻¹). RESULTS In vitro gas production and total volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration decreased as tannin concentration increased. Addition of acacia, chestnut or valonea tannins at ≥ 50 g kg⁻¹ or quebracho tannins at ≥ 100 g kg⁻¹ resulted in a decrease (up to 40%) in methane (CH₄) production compared with the control. Valonea tannins were the only tannin source that reduced (-11%) CH₄ production at 50 g kg⁻¹ without affecting VFA concentration. Tannin treatments reduced ammonia (NH₃) and branched-chain VFA concentrations, indicating a reduction in ruminal protein degradation. Monensin reduced CH₄ production (-37%) and NH₃ concentration (-20%) without affecting total VFA concentration. CONCLUSION Supplying acacia, chestnut or valonea tannins at 50 g kg⁻¹ has the potential to reduce CH₄ production and ruminal protein degradation with minimum detrimental effects on efficiency of ruminal fermentation.
Biological Assets: Financial Recognition and Reporting Using US and International Accounting Guidance

The agriculture sector is an important element of the global economy but accounting for its activities has had little attention from the accounting standard setters as most business applications focus on production, marketing or tax reporting. This study reviews and discusses current US and international accounting guidance for agricultural and biological assets. With the ongoing discussion between the FASB and the IASB regarding the adoption of international accounting standards, the study also explores the advantages and disadvantages should the US elect to adopt the international accounting guidance for agricultural activities.
When leadership means more innovation and development

Purpose – Can leadership contribute to better results from innovative efforts? The purpose of this paper is to offer an approach to answer this question and to contribute to clarify the relationship between motivation to innovate and leadership influence on technological development.Design/methodology/approach – The ability of leadership to create motivation levels is discussed in order in order to face the first relation level between an effective and strategic leadership and its possibility of intervening within employees' values dynamics. The role of a manager that seems to be resigned to a kind of fate is then discussed – that is, he/she only is able to sustain the organization within a reactive functioning manner which does not permit organizational development. The article then tries to distinguish new products/services that only agitate the field of alternative transactions from those innovations that really contribute to technological and economic development. The need for a new model of strategic.
Unsupervised analysis of a chromatographic signal based on an infinite Gaussian mixture model

We address the issue of remote processing of micro-chromatographic signals for point-of-care body fluid analysis in a home-care environment, or for on-site air and water quality assessment. We propose to use a random walk model considering the chromatographic signal as a distribution of molecule arrival time (MAT) at the chromatography column output and we associate to each analyte a cluster of MAT. The signal processing should realize automatically an unsupervised clustering of the MAT to identify the cluster list, and a classification to assign a cluster label to each MAT. On such complex fluids, the list is only partially known. Thus, we propose to introduce an infinite list of cluster candidates described as an Infinite Gaussian Mixture Model (IGMM) and to estimate a finite list using a variational non parametric Bayesian inference. Experimental results are given for the gas chromatographic analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) pollutants in solution.
The impact of shared leadership on innovation performance

In an era that innovation is the only everlasting advantage for an enterprise, the research on whether the shared leadership can enhance and promote the team innovation performance is still weak. In this paper, through the survey data of 285 questionnaires from 95 innovative teams, we explore the impact of shared leadership on innovative performance with knowledge sharing as a mediating variable and task complexity as a moderating variable. The results show that: shared leadership influences innovation performance partially through knowledge sharing as mediating role. In addition, shared leadership has a more significant impact on innovation performance under the condition of high task complexity, whereas the impact on innovation performance is more flat under the condition of low task complexity.
The paradox of hematocrit in exercise physiology: which is the "normal" range from an hemorheologist's viewpoint?

The paradox of hematocrit in exercise physiology is that artificially increasing it by autotransfusion or erythropoietin doping improves VO2 max and performance, while in normal conditions there is a strong negative correlation between hematocrit and fitness, due to a training-induced "autohemodilution". We aimed at investigating: (a) which is the physiological range of hematocrit in highly trained professional footballers; (b) what are the characteristics of athletes with high vs low hematocrit? We determined in 77 healthy male footballers the physiological range (mean +/- sd) of hematocrit: 42.3+/-2.74, (range -2sigma/+2sigma = 36.8-47.8%) thus defining boundaries of quintiles of distribution for this parameter: 40, 41.6, 42.9, 44.6. In another sample of 42 male footballers we compared three groups: lowest quintile (n = 8), highest quintile (n = 5) and the three middle quintiles considered together (n = 29). Athletes in the lowest quintile compared to those in the four other quintiles had a lower value of blood viscosity (-8%, p < 0.01) but this difference disappeared after correction for hematocrit. These subjects with low hematocrit had also higher values of the following parameters: aerobic working capacity (p < 0.01); isometric adductor strength (p = 0.02); crossover point of carbohydrate oxidation (70% carbohydrates/30% lipids) (p < 0.05); insulin like growth factor binding protein 1 (p < 0.0001). Athletes in the highest quintile had higher red cell aggregability (Myrenne index "M1" 8.45+/-0.38 vs 6.82+/-0.62, p < 0.04) and a higher disaggregability threshold gammaD (72.6+/-22.63 vs 44.49+/-1.37, p < 0.01) and a lower percentage of water in fat-free mass (p < 0.02). On the whole sample hematocrit was negatively correlated with aerobic working capacity (W170 r = -0.329, p = 0.007; Wmax (% of expected value) r = -0.552, p = 0.008; VO2 max (% of expected value) r = -0.543, p = 0.009) and with ferritin (r = -0.33, p = 0.031), and positively correlated with the overtraining score (r = 0.352, p = 0.019) which was in turn negatively correlated with ferritin r = -0.312, p = 0.02). Besides, hematocrit behaves as a major determinant of blood viscosity (correlation with blood viscosity r = 0.997, p < 10(-7)) and erythrocyte disaggregability gammaD (r = 0.384, p = 0.03), but the hematocrit/viscosity ratio (h/eta index of O2 delivery) remains maintained almost constant over the range of values studied. These results show that (a) physiological values of hematocrit in these athletes are comprised between 36 and 48%; (b) "low" hematocrit (<40%) was associated with a higher aerobic capacity; (c) subjects with the higher hematocrits (>44.6%) were frequently overtrained and/or iron-deficient, and their blood viscosity (and red cell disaggregability) tended to be increased.
Social Capital in the Presence of Market Failures

In Mexico, social capital is used to get resources. People who do not have access to formal markets use their networks to acquire public and financing services, social insurance and social benefits. To test this, social capital indicators were built using the resources supplied by people as a proportion of their income. This measure is theoretically related to a sympathy coefficient that represents the degree to which a person joins another´s welfare in its utility function, leading him to share resources with others. Synthetic panels with population cohorts were elaborated to follow population throughout the time. To correct a spurious regression problem, the cointegration-panel method was used. As a result, variables that reflect failures in financial, health and social insurance markets are associated to bonding and bridging social capital indicators. Thus, adjustments in these markets could be explained by social capital variables additionally to market prices mechanisms.
MDLcompress for Intrusion Detection: Signature Inference and Masquerade Attack

MDLcompress is a grammar inference algorithm that uses Minimum Description Length principles from the theory of Kolmogorov Complexity and Algorithmic Information Theory to infer a grammar, finding patterns and motifs that aid most in compressing unknown data sets. This technology has been applied to detection of FTP exploits and inference of DNA sequence motifs related to breast cancer. In this paper we apply MDLcompress to infer grammars, and then apply those grammars to identify masquerades in the publicly available Schonlau system call data sets. Compared to similar protocols our system detects anomalous events with comparable performance with the advantage of executing in linear time.
HAC-Robust Measurement of the Duration of a Trendless Subsample in a Global Climate Time Series

The IPCC has drawn attention to an apparent leveling-off of globally-averaged temperatures over the past 15 years or so. Measuring the duration of the hiatus has implications for determining if the underlying trend has changed, and for evaluating climate models. Here, I propose a method for estimating the duration of the hiatus that is robust to unknown forms of heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation (HAC) in the temperature series and to cherry-picking of endpoints. For the specific case of global average temperatures I also add the requirement of spatial consistency between hemispheres. The method makes use of the Vogelsang-Franses (2005) HAC-robust trend variance estimator which is valid as long as the underlying series is trend stationary, which is the case for the data used herein. Application of the method shows that there is now a trendless interval of 19 years duration at the end of the HadCRUT4 surface temperature series, and of 16 - 26 years in the lower troposphere. Use of a simple AR1 trend model suggests a shorter hiatus of 14 - 20 years but is likely unreliable.
New Media and External Accounting Information: A Critical Review

The proliferation of new media has initiated substantial changes in both the production and consumption of accounting information. The implications for accounting research and practice are thus considerable. Consequently, this paper represents a critical review of the relevant literature on new media and accounting information. A complete bibliography, along with additional analyses, are available online at the project website: http://www.newmediaandcapitalmarkets. org/
I Heard it Through the Grapevine: Market Control of Controlling Family Shareholders

Manuscript Type. Empirical. Research Question/Issue. This paper addresses the issue of whether controlling family shareholders are exposed to market control. The paper advances the theory that the expected performance of controlling shareholders, inferred from their track records, is constantly reflected in the market value of controlled firms. Research Findings/Insights. By using event‐study methodology, we show that unexpected acts that are detrimental to minority shareholder interests performed by controlling family shareholders lead to short‐term negative abnormal returns in firms that otherwise are completely unaffected by the detrimental acts, but are controlled by the same family‐based business group. Theoretical/Academic Implications. The results shed new light on the significance of track records in corporate governance that have implications for research on informal corporate governance mechanisms, governance of family firms, and, possibly, comparative corporate governance. The results also have tentative implications for the understanding of the function of family‐controlled business groups consisting of industrially unrelated firms by suggesting a function that has heretofore been neglected. Practitioner/Policy Implications. The results have implications for reform work in corporate governance by showing that practitioners and regulators must consider variability in non‐legal corporate governance mechanisms when analyzing and attempting to change different national corporate governance systems to achieve desired effects.
Results of the treatment of major, complex hand injuries.

UNLABELLED Complex hand injuries are associated with serious consequences including long period off-work, permanent disability, inability to return to original profession or to work at all. As these injuries are common, they create considerable economical consequences and, therefore, it is desirable their treatment would be as perfect as possible to reduce potential loss of function. The aim of the study was analysis of the structure of complex, multi-structural hand injuries and evaluation of the outcomes of the treatment of these injuries in both medical (recovery of function) and economical (period of inability to work and costs of medical care) aspects. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study presents the results of treatment of 78 patients suffered from severe, major hand injuries, involving damage of at least two of four anatomical structures within the hand or wrist (bones, tendons, arteries or nerves) as well as severe injury involving at least two digits. Functional results were assessed at a mean of 10 months after the accident. Tendons were repaired in all 42 patients, bones were fixed in 29 (69%), nerves were repaired in 21 (50%), arteries in 14 (33%) and in two patients skin defect was covered by the flap (one local and one groin flap). RESULTS Total active motion of affected digits amounted 2/3 of normative active motion of the healthy digits and total grip strength approximated half of the grip strength of the unaffected hand. In patients with nerve injuries, a satisfactory recovery of sensation in the affected digits was obtained. Dexterity of the hand in daily activity was scored 30 points in DASH scale. Injury-related duration of sick leave in 31 patients worked at the time of the accident amounted 4.4 months in average (range 1-12). A total of 27 subjects (87% of worked) returned to work: 24 to their previous profession and three had to qualify for a new job. Total hospital costs of the treatment in the analysed group amounted a mean of 2600 PLN. CONCLUSION The outcomes of the treatment of major hand injuries achieved in our institution over the period of the one year were satisfactory, considering their severity and complexity. These results, in our mind, show clearly advantages coming from an existence of qualified service for hand injuries.
Fusion Proteins for Versatile Antigen Targeting to Cell Surface Receptors Reveal Differential Capacity to Prime Immune Responses

Targeting of proteins to APCs is an attractive strategy for eliciting adaptive immune responses. However, the relationship between the choice of the targeted receptor and the quality and quantity of responses remains poorly understood. We describe a strategy for expression of Ags including hydrophobic proteins as soluble fusion proteins that are optimized for proteasome-dependent MHC class I-restricted cross-presentation and form stable complexes with a wide variety of targeting Abs. Upon s.c. immunization, these complexes were initially taken up by CD169+ lymph node subcapsular sinus macrophages. In the OVA model system, receptor-targeted antigenic complexes primed specific T and B cell responses in vitro and in vivo at least 100-fold more efficiently than Ag alone. Comparison of 10 targeting receptors allowed us to establish a ranking with respect to priming of CD8+ T cell responses and demonstrated striking differences with respect to the relative efficacy of CD8+ and CD4+ T cell subset and B cell priming. The described fusion proteins should help in developing optimized strategies for targeted delivery of protein Ags in the context of tolerization or vaccination.
Equity between with-profits policyholders and shareholders

Abstract This paper considers equity, or fairness, as being based on with-profits life insurers acting in accordance with their contracts. It uses the principles of with-profits business in conjunction with a legal approach to derive implied terms in with-profits contracts. The author examines certain situations of conflict between with-profits policyholders and shareholders. The paper does not regard all concerns put forward on behalf of policyholders’ interests as justified in practice: actuaries and regulators have been alert to issues and in many cases have taken appropriate action. However, it does suggest a number of practices that may be unfair. The paper also suggests that the current process for the reattribution of an inherited estate may favour shareholder interests over policyholder interests.
Enterprise for all? The fragility of enterprise provision across England's HEIs

– The aim of this paper is to present the findings of a comprehensive study of enterprise and entrepreneurship education provision in England's 131 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The paper is based upon the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) mapping study of formal and informal activity conducted in 2006. , – All HEIs in England were invited to complete an online institutional mapping template seeking data on enterprise and entrepreneurship accredited programmes/modules, non‐accredited enterprise and entrepreneurship provision and other institutional characteristics that support enterprise and entrepreneurship development. The research team maintained regular contact with all HEIs to maximise participation and to provide support where requested. A number of institutional visits were made by the research team both to introduce the study and to assist data entry where there was limited resource. The approach led to the collection of a unique and robust data set. , – The results illuminate the scale and scope of dedicated provision for enterprise and entrepreneurship across the HE sector in England. Of all institutions, 94 per cent participated, ensuring that these results are analogous to a census report. The results further highlight the penetration of the student population and in particular the nature of their engagement. , – This is the first time such an approach has been taken in England and the results are illuminating for academics, policy‐makers (particularly regional development agencies) and enterprise educators. The data provide an evidence base for supporting further development needs across the HE sector and offer opportunities for benchmarking and the exchange of practice, knowledge and experience.