Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Open lung ventilation improves gas exchange and attenuates secondary lung injury in a piglet model of meconium aspiration

ObjectivePrevious studies failed to show clear benefits of high-frequency ventilation compared with conventional positive pressure ventilation (PPVCON) in experimental meconium aspiration syndrome. However, none of these studies applied an open lung ventilation strategy (OLC), which aims to reduce intrapulmonary shunt due to alveolar collapse. We hypothesized that, if combined with an open lung strategy, both high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOVOLC) and positive pressure ventilation (PPVOLC) would improve gas exchange and attenuate ventilator-induced lung injury in experimental meconium aspiration syndrome. DesignProspective, randomized animal study. SettingResearch laboratory of a large university. SubjectsForty-two newborn piglets. InterventionsThirty minutes after intratracheal meconium instillation, 36 newborn piglets were assigned to one of three ventilation groups—PPVOLC, HFOVOLC, or PPVCON—and ventilated for 5 hrs. In both OLC groups, collapsed alveoli were actively recruited and thereafter stabilized using the lowest possible airway pressures. During PPVCON, ventilator settings were adjusted to prevent critical hypoxia (Pao2 <60 torr [8 kPa]). Six animals served as saline controls. Measurements and Main ResultsCompared with the PPVCON group, arterial oxygenation and lung mechanics were superior in both OLC groups and the saline controls. Analysis of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid obtained after 5 hrs of ventilation showed increased myeloperoxidase activity in the PPVCON group compared with both OLC groups and saline controls. Alveolar protein influx was not different between the groups. Histologic analysis revealed a higher lung injury score in the PPVCON group compared with the PPVOLC and the HFOVOLC groups. ConclusionsApplication of the OLC during PPV and HFOV is feasible in experimental meconium aspiration syndrome and results in superior oxygenation and less ventilator-induced lung injury compared with PPVCON.
Comparison of Surgical Outcomes Between Anterior Fusion and Posterior Fusion in Patients With AIS Lenke Type 1 or 2 that Underwent Selective Thoracic Fusion -Long-term Follow-up Study Longer Than 10 Postoperative Years

Study Design. A retrospective comparative study. Objective. We compared the outcomes between patients treated either by selective thoracic anterior (ASF) or posterior spinal fusion (PSF), with a minimum 10-year follow-up. Summary of Background Data. A retrospective long-term follow-up study was conducted to compare PSF (P group) and ASF (A group) with Lenke type 1 or 2. There were no significant differences in the correction rate and incidence of degenerative discs (DDs) on the lumbar area. Loss of correction was greater in the A group. Methods. The inclusion criteria were female, AIS Lenke type 1 or 2, minimum 10-year follow-up, MRI check-up at 5 years and 10 years postop. The number of patients, age, and curve types at the time of surgery were matched in both groups. Complications, pulmonary function, and SRS-30 were also evaluated. Results. P group: adding-on (AO) occurred in 14 patients. Two patients demonstrated progression of scoliosis >5° during follow-up. Degenerative discs occurred in 43% of patients at 10 years postop. There were significant differences in the %VC and FVC before surgery and at the final visit (P < 0.05). A group: AO occurred in 16 patients. Eleven showed progression of scoliosis >5°. Degenerative disc was recognized in 53% of the patients. There was no significant difference in the pulmonary function. There was a significant difference in selfimage score in the SRS-30 between the two groups (P < 0.05). Conclusion. Correction of scoliosis was significantly better ASF than PSF immediately postop. Greater loss of correction occurred with ASF at postop 10 years. Although shorter segments could be fused by ASF, there was no significant difference in the incidence of DDs. Pulmonary function test results improved in the P group and were restored in the A group during the perioperative period.
A quasi-deterministic path loss propagation model for the open sea environment

In this paper, a quasi-deterministic propagation model for the open sea environment is presented, derived from 2 GHz measurement data collected in Trondheimsfjorden, Norway. The path loss results have been compared with both deterministic models and empirical models. From the comparison, it is found that the ITU-R P.1546-2 model with 50% of the locations among the empirical models fits the measurement results best. However, the significant fadings at a short distance from the shore are not included. On the other hand, the deterministic plane earth loss model is discovered to well match the measurement results at a short distance, but offset between them will become larger gradually with a increase of distance due to diffraction loss of earth curve. As a consequence, a quasi-deterministic propagation model comprising of the plane earth loss model and the ITU-R P.1546-2 model with a bound determined by the First Fresnel zone, is proposed. The model has been validated by measurements in two different measurement campaigns.
Executive compensation inside family-controlled firms : is self-motivation enough?

1 Preface 3 Section I Introduction 4 Section II Literature Review & Hypothesis Development 8 Section II.I Ownership structure and CEO compensation 10 Section II.II Family control and CEO compensation 11 Section III Data, Sample and Methodology 17 Section IV Empirical Approach and Results 28 Section IV.I Family CEOs compensation structure 29 Section IV.II Family CEOs pay-to-performance sensitivity 33 Section V Tellabs Inc Case Study 37 Section VI Conclusions and Discussion 42 Appendix 45 References 50
Dynamic Output Feedback by Robust Observer and Variable Structure Control

Variable structure controllers for systems with nonlinearities can be designed in conjunction with robust observers to obtain regulation. The robust observer (of the Doyle Stein class) is designed on the basis of the nominal plant dynamics (assumed linear and minimum phase), and the estimated state is used in the variable structure controller. It is shown that the closed loop system is globally asymptoticvally stable and the desired regulation is obtained provided the nonlinear perturbation is expressed by an operator with bounded L2 and L¿ norms. Applications to the control of underwater vehicles in diving maneuvers show the effectiveness of the technique.
Statistical signal processing for automotive safety systems

The amount of software in general and safety systems in particular increases rapidly in the automotive industry. The trend is that functionality is decentralized, so new safety functions are distributed to common shared computer hardware, sensors and actuators using central data buses. This paper overviews recent and future safety systems, and high-lights the big challenges for researchers in the signal processing area
The Networked Incubator

Within the current literature it is generally agreed that university incubator units offer considerable advantages to new, growth-orientated firms in the provision of shared facilities such as offices, administrative staff and access to university research and grant support. Moreover, in recent years the networked incubator has emerged as an effective mechanism that fosters partnerships between high-technology-based firms (spin-out HTBFs) and other external parties such as government support agencies and funders, thus facilitating technology transfer from universities to the economy. However, there is a lack of longitudinal studies exploring how entrepreneurial networking operates and develops and how the entrepreneur uses these networks to support growth ambitions, within USIs. To explore this issue further, this paper presents evidence from an in-depth longitudinal study of the operation of entrepreneurial networking within 12 entrepreneurial firms based in a USI, and with related stakeholders in the Republic of Ireland. The research methodology is based on longitudinal semi-structured interviews. The results show that the incubator environment enhances the development of social networks that act to support the new entrepreneur during the vital stages of firm foundation. Furthermore, the networks have a key role in facilitating the design and implementation of firm growth strategies within the USI.
Multinationals Stockpiling Cash: Exploring a Commodity Boom

This paper explores how affiliates of multinational corporations save liquidity when facing a transitory cash-flow shock. For this a panel is first built of non-publicly traded copper mines in South America between 2001 and 2012, most of them set up as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). This industry offers a peculiar advantage as a laboratory for social science when exploring cash-flow sensitivity: given time to build, investment decisions depend on the expectations of the long-run price of copper, while current cash flows depend only on the spot commodity? s price. Although a robust effect of cash flow on current capital expenditures is not found, a much clearer picture is observed of the effects of transitory earnings on cash stockpiling: out of every extra dollar in cash, between 20 and 50 cents end up as extra cash holdings, especially among the most financially constrained firms. This was salient in the aggregate, since average cash holdings tripled as a share of assets during the commodity boom. The findings support financial theories remarking the salience of cash as a buffer stock for liquidity of financially constrained firms. Although the reinvestment of multinationals' earning is considered Foreign Direct Investment in the Balance of Payments, at least in the short run, a significant fraction of it does not constitute new investment in the National Accounts, since it remains among current rather than fixed assets.
A Chronology of the Study of Older Women's Health: Data, Discoveries, and Future Directions

ABSTRACT Women have been traditionally ignored in health and medical research. Some reasons for this mentality include a fear of harming a woman's reproductive ability, fear that variations in the menstrual cycle could confound results, fear that a woman's body could not withstand the rigors of clinical research, and an assumption that male and female body chemistry is similar. Thankfully, these fears and assumptions are being challenged and several major data-bases, designed specifically to study women's health, have emerged. The purpose of this paper is to: (1) characterize the major longitudinal studies on women's health, (2) summarize the major discoveries from these studies that are relevant to older women, and (3) pose several future directions for research throughout the paper.
Contrast enhancement in EIT imaging of the brain

We consider electrical impedance tomography (EIT) imaging of the brain. The brain is surrounded by the poorly conducting skull which has low conductivity compared to the brain. The skull layer causes a partial shielding effect which leads to weak sensitivity for the imaging of the brain tissue. In this paper we propose an approach based on the Bayesian approximation error approach, to enhance the contrast in brain imaging. With this approach, both the (uninteresting) geometry and the conductivity of the skull are embedded in the approximation error statistics, which leads to a computationally efficient algorithm that is able to detect features such as internal haemorrhage with significantly increased sensitivity and specificity. We evaluate the approach with simulations and phantom data.
On the Existence of Mixed Strategy Nash Equilibria

The focus of this paper is on developing verifiable sufficient conditions for the existence of a mixed strategy Nash equilibrium for both diagonally transfer continuous and better-reply secure games. First, we show that employing the concept of diagonal transfer continuity in place of better-reply security might be advantageous when the existence of a mixed strategy Nash equilibrium is concerned. Then, we study equilibrium existence in better-reply secure games possessing a payoff secure mixed extension. With the aid of an example, we show that such games need not have mixed strategy Nash equilibria. We provide geometric conditions for the mixed extension of a two-person game that is reciprocally upper semicontinuous and uniformly payoff secure to be better-reply secure.
Business Seem to Be Doing Their Share

Purpose - This paper develops a discussion looking at the correlation between revenue as the independent variable and profit at two levels (EBIT and NPAT). Design/methodology/approach - This study entails Australia, The United States of America and The United Kingdom.The data collected is from public listed corporations from 2000 - 2010 for the development of multivariate regression models for parametric data. These developed models are constructed to test relationships between dependant and independent variables in line with research questions and hypotheses.Findings - The findings found that there is a high correlation using the adjusted R2 measure between revenue and profit.Originality/value - The paper will be of vital importance to other academics looking at this question, and to both public and private sector entities.
CEOs who have COOs: contingency analysis of an unexplored structural form

We use contingency theory to examine, for the first time, the incidence and effectiveness of CEO/COO duos. We argue that industry dynamism, extraordinary organizational task demands, and the CEO's own professional limitations will influence the decision to have a COO, as well as its effect on performance. Based on a large 10-year sample, we find some support for the contingency view in explaining the presence of COOs; we particularly find that CEOs who lack experience in operational activities and in managing the focal firm are relatively likely to have COOs. We find, however, essentially no support for the contingency view in explaining when COOs are most beneficial. Instead, we find strong evidence of a very substantial negative main effect: CEOs who have COOs deliver lower organizational performance than those who do not. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Acquisitions As Lotteries

This paper analyzes takeover announcements for public US targets from 1986 to 2008. Consistent with the hypothesis that gambling attitudes matter for takeover decisions, we nd that the oer price premium is higher in acquisitions where the target’s stock has characteristics similar to those of lottery tickets (high skewness, high volatility, and low price). We also nd that in these lottery acquisitions both acquiror announcement returns and expected synergies from the deal are lower, while target returns are higher. The patterns we document are stronger in companies where managers are more entrenched, where the disciplining force of product market competition is lower, where recent acquiror performance has been poor, during economic downturns, and for acquirors headquartered in areas in which local gambling propensity is higher. Overall, our results suggest that corporate acquisitions are inuenced by gambling attitudes.
Seasonal Variation of Arsenic Concentrations in Tubewells in West Bengal, India

This study was conducted to monitor the changes in arsenic concentration during different seasons in a one-year period during 2002–2003 in selected tubewells in an arsenic-affected area in the district of South 24 Parganas in West Bengal, India, and to map the location of the wells. Seasonal variations in concentrations of arsenic in water were measured from 74 selected tubewells, ranging in depth from 40 to 500 feet. Water samples were collected from these wells during winter, summer, monsoon, and the following winter in 2002–2003. A global positioning system was used for locating the tubewells, and a geographic information system was used for mapping. There was evidence of seasonal variation in concentrations of arsenic in water (p=0.02) with the minimum average concentration occurring in the summer season (694 μg/L) and the maximum in the monsoon season (906 μg/L). From the winter of 2002 to the winter of 2003, arsenic concentrations increased, irrespective of the depth of the tubewells, from an average of 464 μg/L to 820 μg/L (p<0.001). This extent of variation in arsenic concentration, if confirmed, has important implications for both epidemiological research and mitigation programmes.
Isolated metaphyseal injury influences unrelated bones

Background and purpose — Fracture healing involves different inflammatory cells, some of which are not part of the traditional bone field, such as B-cells and cytotoxic T-cells. We wanted to characterize bone healing by flow cytometry using 15 different inflammatory cell markers in a mouse model of metaphyseal injury, and incidentally discovered a previously unknown general skeletal reaction to trauma. Material and methods — A bent needle was inserted and twisted to traumatize the cancellous bone in the proximal tibia of C57/Bl6 female mice. This is known to induce vivid bone formation locally in the marrow compartment. Cells were harvested from the injured region, the uninjured contralateral tibia, and the humerus. The compositions of the immune cell populations were compared to those in untraumatized control animals. Results — Tibial metaphyseal injury led to substantial changes in the cell populations over time. Unexpectedly, similar changes were also seen in the contralateral tibia and in the humerus, despite the lack of local trauma. Most leukocyte subsets were affected by this generalized reaction. Interpretation — A relatively small degree of injury to the proximal tibia led to systemic changes in the immune cell populations in the marrow of unrelated bones, and probably in the entire skeleton. The few changes that were specific for the injury site appeared to relate to modulatory functions.
TAS-102 for Treatment of Advanced Colorectal Cancers That Are No Longer Responding to Other Therapies

TAS-102 is a novel oral formulation of trifluridine (TFT) and tipiracil hydrochloride (TPI), a thymidine phosphorylase inhibitor. TFT was originally synthesized in the 1960s and is a nucleoside analogue that impedes DNA synthesis by inhibition of thymidylate synthase. TFT's main mechanism of action, however, seems to be its incorporation into DNA, which distinguishes TFT from current well-known antimetabolites like 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). The rapid degradation of TFT brought initial clinical development to a halt, but TFT reentered clinical trials when addition of a TPI was found to improve the bioavailability of TFT. The combined TFT-TPI formulation was tested in patients with treatment-refractory metastatic colorectal cancer in the randomized phase III RECOURSE study. Compared with placebo, TAS-102 was associated with an overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) benefit and a 32% reduction in risk of death [median OS, 7.1 (95% CI, 6.5–7.8) vs. 5.3 months (95% CI, 4.6–6.0); median PFS, 2.0 (95% CI, 1.9–2.1) vs. 1.7 months (95% CI, 1.7–1.8); HR for death, 0.68 (95% CI, 0.58–0.81, P < 0.001)]. Based on the results of this pivotal trial and supported by results from an earlier phase II study, TAS-102 recently gained FDA approval. This article reviews the development of TAS-102 and its therapeutic value for the proposed indication. Clin Cancer Res; 22(12); 2835–9. ©2016 AACR.
Regional pole and zero placement with static output feedback via the Modified Minimum Gain Lemma

This paper presents static output feedback controller synthesis methods that place closed-loop poles, blocking zeros, and transmission zeros within regions of the complex plane. In particular, closed-loop poles are placed within linear matrix inequality (LMI) regions of the complex plane, while closed-loop blocking and transmission zeros are placed in the open left-half plane (OLHP), and are thus minimum phase. An LMI formulation of the Modified Minimum Gain Lemma is used to ensure that the closed-loop system is minimum phase by forcing a nonzero minimum gain constraint. Two controller synthesis methods are presented, including Method 1, which places the closed-loop poles in the OLHP, and Method 2, which places closed-loop poles in the OLHP and closed-loop poles within a specified LMI region of the complex plane. Numerical examples are provided for both controller synthesis methods, with comparisons to controllers in the literature.
Locus of Control, Gender and Entrepreneurial Ability

The study surveyed 668 (Male = 356, Female = 312) University undergraduates two Nigerian Universities in Western Nigeria. Using the correlation and factorial statistical designs, the study which examined the influence of locus of control and gender on entrepreneurial abilities, found that gender has no significant influence on entrepreneurial abilities. Locus of control did not have significant correlation with entrepreneurial ability (r = .041). Participants with Internal and External locus of control show no significant difference in entrepreneurial abilities (F (1/651) = 0.004 p< . 05), Gender difference does not influence entrepreneurial abilities as indicated by findings in this study (F (1/651) = 0.522, p<0.05). Though literatures appear to suggest that entrepreneurs are people with external locus of control, this was not confirmed in this study. Similar trend is true for gender. This result is an indication that hypothesized relationship between certain personality variables and entrepreneurship should be viewed with caution. Equally true is the belief that entrepreneurship is a ‘male turf’. Further local study of these variables is suggested to further confirm these findings.
Top Executives' Pay For Long-Run Performance And Corporate Governance

This study examines the possibility that the quality of corporate governance has effects on the dynamic relationship between CEO compensation and firm performance. Building on the dynamic view of CEO pay and firm performance and corporate governance literature, we find that firms with weak corporate governance are more likely to provide high powered long-run incentives to CEOs, indicating CEO incentive contracts can be replaced by the role of external corporate control when the external control mechanism is not functioning effectively from the optimal contracting view. Overall, the findings imply that firm’s governance mechanism can generate cross-sectional variations in CEO long-term incentive contracts.
Transportation Costs and Trade over Time

This paper discussed the evolution of international transportation costs. The major findings of the paper are that transportation costs create a significant wedge between prices of domestic and foreign goods, and between prices of different foreign goods in home markets. The size of this wedge differs greatly across countries, depending on their distance to markets, level of development, commodity composition of trade and market size. In aggregate, these costs have declined over time, principally because of very rapid declines in the price of air shipping and a compositional shift in trade towards light manufacturers. However, while trade has become lighter, and therefore less transport-intensive per dollar shipped, it has also become more time sensitive.