Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cure Rate of Fungal Keratitis With Antibacterial Therapy

Purpose: To study the cure rate of fungal keratitis with moxifloxacin 0.3% monotherapy. Methods: A retrospective review of patients with culture-proven fungal keratitis who initially received moxifloxacin 0.3% monotherapy was performed. Results: Eleven patients with culture-proven fungal keratitis were initially treated with moxifloxacin. One case each of Curvularia and Alternaria keratitis resolved with moxifloxacin monotherapy (18%). Conclusions: Moxifloxacin may have a significant clinical therapeutic effect in a subset of patients with fungal keratitis. Review of the literature in combination with the current study suggests that in patients with clinical features suggestive of fungal keratitis, if rapid diagnostic tests are negative or not available, pending culture results, initial therapy should include a fluoroquinolone (moxifloxacin or gatifloxacin) and/or an aminoglycoside (tobramycin or gentamicin).
ViDRILO: The Visual and Depth Robot Indoor Localization with Objects information dataset

In this article we describe a semantic localization dataset for indoor environments named ViDRILO. The dataset provides five sequences of frames acquired with a mobile robot in two similar office buildings under different lighting conditions. Each frame consists of a point cloud representation of the scene and a perspective image. The frames in the dataset are annotated with the semantic category of the scene, but also with the presence or absence of a list of predefined objects appearing in the scene. In addition to the frames and annotations, the dataset is distributed with a set of tools for its use in both place classification and object recognition tasks. The large number of labeled frames in conjunction with the annotation scheme make this dataset different from existing ones. The ViDRILO dataset is released for use as a benchmark for different problems such as multimodal place classification and object recognition, 3D reconstruction or point cloud data compression.
Empirically testing Tonnetz, voice-leading, and spectral models of perceived triadic distance

We compare three contrasting models of the perceived distance between root-position major and minor chords and test them against new empirical data. The models include a recent psychoacoustic model called spectral pitch-class distance, and two well-established music theoretical models – Tonnetz distance and voice-leading distance. To allow a principled challenge, in the context of these data, of the assumptions behind each of the models, we compare them with a simple “benchmark” model that simply counts the number of common tones between chords. Spectral pitch-class distance and Tonnetz have the highest correlations with the experimental data and each other, and perform significantly better than the benchmark. The voice-leading model performs worse than the benchmark. We suggest that spectral pitch-class distance provides a psychoacoustic explanation for perceived triadic distance and its music theory representation, the Tonnetz. The experimental data and the computational models are available in the Online Supplement (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17459737.2016.1152517).
A deadly mix? An international investigation of handgun availability, drinking culture, and homicide

The current research investigates the relationship between firearm availability and homicide rates in a nonrandom sample of countries considered “wet” or “dry” with respect to drinking culture. We contend that the relationship between firearm availability and homicide varies by culturally approved norms associated with alcohol consumption. The analysis indicates that firearm availability is a significantly better predictor of homicide in “dry” drinking cultures, characterized by episodic but heavy consumption of alcohol per occasion, and a poor predictor of homicide in “wet” drinking cultures, where alcohol is frequently but moderately consumed. Implications of the study are discussed.
Dual-symmetric Lagrangians in quantum electrodynamics: I. Conservation laws and multi-polar coupling

By using a complex field with a symmetric combination of electric and magnetic fields, a first-order covariant Lagrangian for Maxwell's equations is obtained, similar to the Lagrangian for the Dirac equation. This leads to a dual-symmetric quantum electrodynamic theory with an infinite set of local conservation laws. The dual symmetry is shown to correspond to a helical phase, conjugate to the conserved helicity. There is also a scaling symmetry, conjugate to the conserved entanglement. The results include a novel form of the photonic wavefunction, with a well-defined helicity number operator conjugate to the chiral phase, related to the fundamental dual symmetry. Interactions with charged particles can also be included. Transformations from minimal coupling to multi-polar or more general forms of coupling are particularly straightforward using this technique. The dual-symmetric version of quantum electrodynamics derived here has potential applications to nonlinear quantum optics and cavity quantum electrodynamics.
Measuring Consumer Involvement Profiles

There is more than one kind of consumer involvement. Depending on the antecedents of involvement (e.g., the product's pleasure value, the product's sign or symbolic value, risk importance, and probability of purchase error), consequences on consumer behavior differ. The authors therefore recommend measuring an involvement profile, rather than a single involvement level. These conclusions are based on an empirical analysis of 14 product categories.
Compact size substrate integrated waveguide phase shifter

The design and implementation of the proposed compact size substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) phase shifter for the K band is presented. The comparison of the simple moved via towards the center of SIW and the structure with three vias moved towards the center with the smooth transition is presented. Results show that return loss values are better and working bandwidth is preserved for greater phase shift obtained. The phase shifter offers 51.4° in the K band.
External drivers of entry mode decisions of a higher education institution

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of cultural distance, governance quality, and market attractiveness on attachment of agents with a university. Design/methodology/approach – A single university was chosen as a case study and secondary data were collected. The focus of this paper is on education agents who market higher education institution (HEI) in international market and recruit international students. Findings – Multiple regression was performed and the finding indicated that governance quality and market attractiveness are significantly related with a number of agents attached to the marketing department of the university. However, cultural distance showed no significant relationship with agent attachment. Research limitations/implications – The availability of data was most challenging in gathering data for this study because the culture of a country may change across time and the sample was based on only one case study, a minimal amount of information was obtained. Pract.
Empirical Result on Firms' Cluster Integration: Should Firms Evolve beyond Their Region?

The present study focuses on illustrating relevant regional firm’s integration. Part one examines the situation of bilateral countries relationship, and firms’ opportunities at the present behavior of CELAC implementation. Part two portrays relevant literature review, conforming to bring statement of complementing firm’s clusters study, where the author states ways of cooperation as well as truth. Part three examines the methodology used on the study, seeking to provide information of firm’s participation on the survey, where 55.1% of the total firms sample distribution was tested to prove the null hypotheses. Part four is pointing out that, the study has an observation of 174 firms tested by several statistical measures. The data will be analyzed using Rank Correlation, Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression, as excel is complemented by the comparison of several variables to tab the data. Finally, part five depicts the conclusion and the finding summary by answering the study-aimed questions.
Is Regulation Essential to Stock Market Development? Going Public in London and Berlin, 1900-1913

This study of initial public offerings (IPOs) carried out on the Berlin and London stock exchanges between 1900 and 1913 casts doubt on the received “law and finance” wisdom that legally mandated investor protection is pivotal to the development of capital markets. IPOs that resulted in official quotations on the London Stock Exchange performed as well as Berlin IPOs despite the Berlin market being more extensively regulated than the laissez faire London market. Moreover, the IPO failure rate on these two stock markets was lower than it was with better regulated US IPOs later in the 20th century.
The Entrepreneurship Process in High Performing Hybrid Organizations: Insights from Diamond Cab

In the midst of the mainstream taxi business that is driven by profit-maximizing operators and taxi drivers, social innovators are breaking the established model by creating a specialty taxi market that serves a neglected market, i.e., the elderly, the disabled and wheelchair users, using an alternative compensation model and novel taxi design, as well as balancing social and business goals. This chapter summarizes a study of Diamond Cab, perhaps Hong Kong’s (China’s) first and most successful social enterprise, that has created a specialty taxi market from the ground up and quickly gained legitimacy in the new market. The study proposes several factors that explain the success of the social enterprise: a focused strategy, social design orientation, social bricolage, and informal and formal advice networks, as well as biographical variables including personal values, traits, and distress. It concludes with implications for theory, practice and policy making.
Detection and Visual Inspection of Highly Obfuscated Plagiarisms

In this paper, we present a framework for the detection of highly obfuscated plagiarisms. In contrast to existing plagiarism detection systems, which typically consist of the steps "source retrieval" and "text alignment", we introduce an intermediate step to detect interfragment relationships. This additional step fills the gap between the document level result of the source retrieval step and the fine granular n-gram input of the text alignment step. In the new intermediate step, fragments of about 50 to 60 words are examined and compared using an extended Jaccard measure to handle synonyms/ hypernyms. Additionally, the Jaccard measure is weighted to consider different relevance of words. The framework also includes an intuitive graphical visualization using heatmaps, which can be used for the easy visual inspection of possible plagiarisms without the final text alignment step. A number of experiments, performed with our implemented prototype, show the suitability of our approach.
Introduction to Marketing and Consumer Behavior in Electronic Markets

In this paper we discuss three issues that are relevant to understanding the current state of marketing and consumer behavior in online sales channels and electronic marketplaces enabled by the Internet and World Wide Web (Web). First, how is the Internet used for marketing? It can be used as a new tool for market research, new product creation, product advertising and distribution, and developing consumer relationships. The second issue is how much money is currently spent by companies for Web advertising and by consumers for purchasing products and services online? Statistics illustrate explosive growth in each of these areas in the past few years. And the third issue is what factors affect consumer purchase behavior in electronic sales channels and markets? Three studies that represent current research in this area are discussed. Each study uses a different approach to study online consumer behavior in industries such as books, travel, and financial services. Online consumer behavior is an important issue for companies because they need to identify the characteristics of their potential online customers and use this information to effectively design their Web-based customer interface to succeed in this highly competitive new market.
What's in a query: analyzing, predicting, and managing linked data access

The term Linked Data refers to connected information sources comprising structured data about a wide range of topics and for a multitude of applications. In recent years, the conceptional and technical foundations of Linked Data have been formalized and refined. To this end, well-known technologies have been established, such as the Resource Description Framework (RDF) as a Linked Data model or the SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language (SPARQL) for retrieving this information. Whereas most research has been conducted in the area of generating and publishing Linked Data, this thesis presents novel approaches for improved management. In particular, we illustrate new methods for analyzing and processing SPARQL queries. Here, we present two algorithms suitable for identifying structural relationships between these queries. Both algorithms are applied to a large number of real-world requests to evaluate the performance of the approaches and the quality of their results. Based on this, we introduce different strategies enabling optimized access of Linked Data sources. We demonstrate how the presented approach facilitates effective utilization of SPARQL endpoints by prefetching results relevant for multiple subsequent requests. Furthermore, we contribute a set of metrics for determining technical characteristics of such knowledge bases. To this end, we devise practical heuristics and validate them through thorough analysis of real-world data sources. We discuss the findings and evaluate their impact on utilizing the endpoints. Moreover, we detail the adoption of a scalable infrastructure for improving Linked Data discovery and consumption. As we outline in an exemplary use case, this platform is eligible both for processing and provisioning the corresponding information. %%%%Unter dem Begriff Linked Data werden untereinander vernetzte Datenbestande verstanden, die grose Mengen an strukturierten Informationen fur verschiedene Anwendungsgebiete enthalten. In den letzten Jahren wurden die konzeptionellen und technischen Grundlagen fur die Veroffentlichung von Linked Data gelegt und verfeinert. Zu diesem Zweck wurden eine Reihe von Technologien eingefuhrt, darunter das Resource Description Framework (RDF) als Datenmodell fur Linked Data und das SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language (SPARQL) zum Abfragen dieser Informationen. Wahrend bisher hauptsachlich die Erzeugung und Bereitstellung von Linked Data Forschungsgegenstand war, prasentiert die vorliegende Arbeit neuartige Verfahren zur besseren Nutzbarmachung. Insbesondere werden dafur Methoden zur Analyse und Verarbeitung von SPARQL-Anfragen entwickelt. Zunachst werden daher zwei Algorithmen vorgestellt, die die strukturelle Ahnlichkeit solcher Anfragen bestimmen. Beide Algorithmen werden auf eine grose Anzahl von authentischen Anfragen angewandt, um sowohl die Gute der Ansatze als auch die ihrer Resultate zu untersuchen. Darauf aufbauend werden verschiedene Strategien erlautert, mittels derer optimiert auf Quellen von Linked Data zugegriffen werden kann. Es wird gezeigt, wie…
A Model for Ethics in Marketing

Is a given marketing action always ethical, never ethical, or ethical relative to time, place, and circumstances? Upon what logical bases can a marketer determine what is “right” for him to do, not only in domestic but also in international business? This article presents a schematic plan for analyzing the variables inherent in the ethics of decision-making; and a framework for social and personal ethics is proposed.
The Central Acidic Domain of MDM2 Is Critical in Inhibition of Retinoblastoma-mediated Suppression of E2F and Cell Growth*

Retinoblastoma (Rb) protein is a paradigm of tumor suppressors. Inactivation of Rb plays a critical role in the development of human malignancies. MDM2, an oncogene frequently found amplified and overexpressed in a variety of human tumors and cancers, directly interacts and inhibits the p53 tumor suppressor protein. In addition, MDM2 has been shown to stimulate E2F transactivation activity and promote S-phase entry independent of p53, yet the mechanism of which is still not fully understood. In this study, we demonstrate that MDM2 specifically binds to Rb C-pocket and that the central acidic domain of MDM2 is essential for Rb interaction. In addition, we show that overexpression of MDM2 reduces Rb-E2F complexes in vivo. Moreover, the ectopic expression of the wild type MDM2, but not mutant MDM2 defective in Rb interaction, stimulates E2F transactivation activity and inhibits Rb growth suppression function. Taken together, these results suggest that MDM2-mediated inhibition of Rb likely contributes to MDM2 oncogenic activity.
FMT signal options and associated receiver architectures for GNSS

Non classical signals, signals not made of rectangular shaped pulses, are being analyzed as possible candidates for the next generation of GNSS signals. One such a signal is the filtered multi-tone (FMT) which is a multi-carrier signal (MC) having a MC-DS-CDMA structure: each subcarrier transports a classical GNSS signal but without using rectangular shaped pulses. Some studies have been conducted on the FMT signal performances such as the out-of-band (OOB) emission and multipath resistance. However, due to its MC nature, the distribution of the transmitted data onto the different subcarriers becomes a relevant factor to take into account on the final signal design. In this paper, different data distributions are proposed in order to enhance different signal performance and the receiver structure associated to each data distribution is also analyzed.
Strategic control of productivity and other competitiveness parameters

Typical productivity parameters based on compensated gross tonnage (CGT) per man-hour or man-year are shown to be insufficient in understanding and controlling competitiveness. Competitiveness is based on time, cost and quality. For cost competitiveness, an in-depth model for controlling competitiveness is presented. The model considers various factors that can be monitored and are either largely dependent on or largely independent of management decisions. The importance of exchange rate and subsidies is singled out in the paper. Various examples comparing European Union shipyards with Far East competitors are used to exemplify how to use the model in understanding the strategic position of shipyards or countries. Pitfalls in interpreting data are also shown.
ZNP: A Network Layer Protocol Based on ID/locator Split Considering Practical Operation

To support mobility, multihoming, routing scalability, and security, there are a lot of proposals based on ID/Locator split approach not only for the current Internet but also for the future Internet. However, none of them meet the requirements for practical operation such as (1) support of heterogeneity of network layer protocols, (2) scalability of ID/Locator mapping system, (3) independence of mapping information management, and (4) avoidance of locator leakage beyond the administrative boundary. This paper proposes a network layer protocol called Z Network Protocol (ZNP) for the future Internet based on clean slate approach. ZNP supports heterogeneity of network layer protocols by "Internetworking with a Common ID Space". Its mapping system meets the requirements (2)-(4) described above. Z Control Message Protocol (ZCMP) is also designed. Currently, implementation of ZNP and ZCMP is ongoing.
Determinants of vacant lot conversion into community gardens: evidence from Philadelphia

Community gardens (CGs) are gaining popularity as an alternative use for vacant lots in communities that struggle to address the negative effects of property abandonment. A pressing issue for these communities is to determine which vacant lots are most appropriate for community gardening. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the determinants of vacant lot conversion into CGs. We looked at existing CGs and vacant lots in the City of Philadelphia and identified CGs converted from vacant lots. A logit model was employed to determine the factors contributing to the conversion. The data for lot attributes were collected from the Philadelphia Neighbourhood Information System and a city-wide survey conducted by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. The results show that neighbourhood characteristics such as poverty level, educational attainment, zoning, and owner occupancy level mainly determine the conversion. In addition, parcel characteristics including ownership and topography have significant impacts on the conversion. These findings will help communities to identify the most appropriate vacant lots for community gardening.
INDUSTRY LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS AND THE HETEROGENEITY OF FIRM PERFORMANCE.

The article presents a study which examined industry learning environments in U.S. manufacturing plants as well as variation in industry performance. The article focuses on the importance of learning from direct operating experience. In the study information was gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau and Compustat. According to the article, since learning-by-doing seems to heighten inter-firm performance variation, the role of pre-entry experience and capabilities takes on a higher importance in industries where learning-by-doing is important.
The Level of Expressed Need—a measure of help‐seeking behaviour for chronic pain in the community

Chronic pain is a common and disabling condition, with a high impact on health and the health services in the community. The extent of help‐seeking behaviour and factors that influence this are complex, but poorly understood. A simple, valid measure of help‐seeking behaviour would be useful for community‐based research, with a view to developing and evaluating interventions.
Cardiac hypertrophy is not amplified by deletion of cGMP-dependent protein kinase I in cardiomyocytes

It has been suggested that cGMP kinase I (cGKI) dampens cardiac hypertrophy. We have compared the effect of isoproterenol (ISO) and transverse aortic constriction (TAC) on hypertrophy in WT [control (CTR)] mice, total cGKI-KO mice, and cGKIβ rescue mice (βRM) lacking cGKI specifically in cardiomyocytes (CMs). Infusion of ISO did not change the expression of cGKI in the hearts of CTR mice or βRM but raised the heart weight by ∼20% in both. An identical hypertrophic growth response was measured in CMs from CTR mice and βRM and in isolated adult CMs cultured with or without 1 μM ISO. In both genotypes, ISO infusion induced similar changes in the expression of hypertrophy-associated cardiac genes and significant elevation of serum atrial natriuretic peptide and total cardiac cGMP. No differences in cardiac hypertrophy were obtained by 7-day ISO infusion in 4- to 6-week-old conventional cGKI-KO and CTR mice. Furthermore, TAC-induced hypertrophy of CTR mice and βRM was not different and did not result in changes of the cGMP-hydrolyzing phosphodiesterase activities in hypertropic hearts or CMs. These results strongly suggest that cardiac myocyte cGKI does not affect the development of heart hypertrophy induced by pressure overload or chronic ISO infusion.