Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implications of external price referencing of pharmaceuticals in Middle East countries

Introduction: External price referencing (EPR) is applied frequently to control pharmaceutical prices. Our objective was to analyse how EPR is used in Middle Eastern (ME) countries and to compare the price corridor for original pharmaceuticals to non-pharmaceutical services not subjected to EPR. Methods: We conducted a survey on EPR regulations and collected prices of 16 patented pharmaceuticals and 14 non-pharmaceutical services in seven Middle Eastern (ME) countries. Maximum and minimum prices of each pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical technology were compared to mean prices in the countries studied by using market exchange rates. Influencing factors of pharmaceutical prices were assessed by multivariate linear regression analysis. Results: The average price corridor is narrower for pharmaceuticals (−39.8%; +35.9%) than for outpatient and hospital services (−81.7%; +96.3%). Conclusion: Our analysis revealed the importance of population size and EPR implementation on drug price levels; however, EPR results in higher pharmaceutical prices in lower-income countries compared to non-pharmaceutical services.
Intramolecular Regulation of the Opposing (p)ppGpp Catalytic Activities of RelSeq, the Rel/Spo Enzyme from Streptococcus equisimilis

ABSTRACT Catalytic and regulatory domains of the Rel/Spo homolog of Streptococcus equisimilis affecting (p)ppGpp synthesis and degradation activities have been defined, and opposing activities of the purified protein and its fragments have been compared. Two major domains of the 739-residue RelSeq protein are defined by limited proteolytic digestion. In vitro assays of the purified N-terminal half-protein reveal synthesis of (p)ppGpp by an ATP-GTP 3′-pyrophosphotransferase as well as an ability to degrade (p)ppGpp by a Mn2+-dependent 3′-pyrophosphohydrolase. Removal of the C-terminal half-protein has reciprocal regulatory effects on the activities of the N-terminal half-protein. Compared to the full-length protein, deletion activates (p)ppGpp synthesis specific activity about 12-fold and simultaneously inhibits (p)ppGpp degradation specific activity about 150-fold to shift the balance of the two activities in favor of synthesis. Cellular (p)ppGpp accumulation behavior is consistent with these changes. The bifunctional N-terminal half-protein can be further dissected into overlapping monofunctional subdomains, since purified peptides display either degradation activity (residues 1 to 224) or synthetic activity (residues 79 to 385) in vitro. These assignments can also apply to RelA and SpoT. The ability of RelSeq to mediate (p)ppGpp accumulation during amino acid starvation in S. equisimilis is absent when the protein is expressed ectopically in Escherichia coli. Fusing the N-terminal half of RelSeq with the C-terminal domain of RelA creates a chimeric protein that restores the stringent response in E. coli by inhibiting unregulated degradation and restoring regulated synthetic activity. Reciprocal intramolecular regulation of the dual activities may be a general intrinsic feature of Rel/Spo homolog proteins.
Marketplace diversity and cost-effective marketing strategies

As the population and purchasing power of ethnic minority consumers in the USA continue to grow, more marketers are using subcultural segmentation and targeted marketing to reach these consumers. Meanwhile, some marketers have grown increasingly concerned with the cost‐effectiveness of ethnic segmentation and differentiated marketing. This research reviews various methods for segmenting the ethnic markets and suggests the nested approach and cost‐benefit optimization for analyzing the cost‐effectiveness of ethnic segmentation and marketing. Furthermore, this research proposes four alternative strategies for marketing in a multicultural environment. Directions for future research and managerial implications are explored.
Mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MEK/ERK) inhibition sensitizes cancer cells to centromere‐associated protein E inhibition

Inhibition of centromere‐associated protein‐E (CENP‐E) has demonstrated preclinical anti‐tumor activity in a number of tumor types including neuroblastoma. A potent small molecule inhibitor of the kinesin motor activity of CENP‐E has recently been developed (GSK923295). To identify an effective drug combination strategy for GSK923295 in neuroblastoma, we performed a screen of siRNAs targeting a prioritized set of genes that function in therapeutically tractable signaling pathways. We found that siRNAs targeted to extracellular signal‐related kinase 1 (ERK1) significantly sensitized neuroblastoma cells to GSK923295‐induced growth inhibition (p = 0.01). Inhibition of ERK1 activity using pharmacologic inhibitors of mitogen‐activated ERK kinase (MEK1/2) showed significant synergistic growth inhibitory activity when combined with GSK923295 in neuroblastoma, lung, pancreatic and colon carcinoma cell lines. Synergistic growth inhibitory activity of combined MEK/ERK and CENP‐E inhibition was a result of increased mitotic arrest and apoptosis. There was a significant correlation between ERK1/2 phosphorylation status in neuroblastoma cell lines and GSK923295 growth inhibitory activity (r = 0.823, p = 0.0006). Consistent with this result we found that lung cancer cell lines harboring RAS mutations, which leads to oncogenic activation of MEK/ERK signaling, were significantly more resistant than cell lines with wild‐type RAS to GSK923295‐induced growth inhibition (p = 0.047). Here we have identified (MEK/ERK) activity as a potential biomarker of relative GSK923295 sensitivity and have shown the synergistic effect of combinatorial MEK/ERK pathway and CENP‐E inhibition across different cancer cell types including neuroblastoma.
Demonstration of 20-Gb/s DQPSK With a Single Dual-Drive Mach–Zehnder Modulator

Using a single, dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator and high-speed electronics, differential quadrature phase-shift keying modulation and detection are demonstrated for a bit rate of 20 Gb/s. Back-to-back system performance is measured, and the receiver sensitivity is found to be -32.25 dBm.
Alternative Approaches to Governance in the EU: EU Social Policy and the European Employment Strategy

Recent actions by the European Union reveal a shift away from traditional, topdown, command and control governance. This can be seen in the structure of traditional tools like directives, as many recent directives, especially in social policymaking, tend to be more open and flexible. But the move to more flexible and participatory approaches can best be seen in areas like the European Employment Strategy (EES), which departs radically from traditional regulatory governance approaches. This article explores the increased use of alternative approaches to governance in the EU by examining the EES as an example of this shift.
On Coordinating Electricity Markets: Smart Power Scheduling for Demand Side Management and Economic Dispatch

Information asymmetry in retail electricity markets is one of the largest sources of inefficiency in electricity production. In this thesis, we analyze the structure of and interaction between wholesale and retail electricity markets. We model these markets as optimization programs and propose a two-way system of communicating real-time prices and hourly demand between electricity producers and households to improve production outcomes. We formulate the interactions between retail market participants as a game using formal theory and prove the existence of Nash equilibrium in the market under complete information. Under a system of minimal information transfer between the producer and households, we structure a mechanism to approximate equilibrium prices and quantities for use as a real-time pricing scheme. Our goal is to maximize social welfare through implementing scheduling algorithms for producers and households that coordinate optimal production and household appliance use in the market with hidden information. Our work incorporates ideas from market design, linear optimization, congestion game theory, and mechanism design to design a scheduling mechanism to improve production efficiency in the retail electricity market.
The Governance of University-Industry Knowledge Transfer:Why small firms do (not) develop institutional collaborations?

This analysis is based on a representative sample of firms in the Italian region of Piedmont, and investigates the nature and intensity of collaborations between regional firms and universities in different locations. It contributes to the literature on university industry knowledge transfer in investigating institutional collaborations, typically mediated by the university through its administrative structures such as departments or dedicated units such as technology transfer offices, and contractual personal collaborations between firms and individual academics, involving formal and binding contractual agreements, but carried out without the direct involvement of the university.We explore and compare the characteristics of firms involved in these two different governance forms of knowledge transfer, with those of firms that do not collaborate with universities. Our analysis shows that firms that use contractual personal collaborations are generally smaller and more often interested in the acquisition of external embodied and disembodied knowledge and open innovation strategies.
Prevalence of Inguinal Hernia in Otherwise Healthy Males of 20 to 22 years of Age

Twenty-seven thousand four hundred and eight adult males between 20 and 22 years of age who were otherwise healthy were examined to detect inguinal hernias. Eight hundred and eighty-five (3.2%) inguinal hernia cases were detected. These were 479 (54.1%) right inguinal hernias, 351 (39.7%) left inguinal hernias and 55 (6.2%) bilateral inguinal hernias. One hundred and eighty-five (20.9%) subjects reported first degree relatives and 147 (16.6%) subjects reported second degree relatives with inguinal hernias. It is concluded that these results may be a useful guide for future studies about the prevalence of inguinal hernias in the populations as a whole and suggest a familial predisposition.
Getting people involved : a preference-based approach to water policy in China

Market-oriented environmental policy instruments like taxes and fees or regulatory policy instruments like rationing are typically recommended in order to set incentives for citizens to make a sparing use of water. What is often overlooked in this context is that these instruments provoke resistance and non-compliance of citizens if they do not share the values underlying such a policy. Enforcing compliance with environmental policy instruments requires strict monitoring and the prosecution of trespassers and can be rather costly for government. The resistance to government policy and the incentives to avoid or evade the respective policy measures are the greater the less these instruments are in accordance with people's preferences, i. e. the less people accept these instruments and the goals they serve as reasonable. Compliance enforcement costs are mainly monitoring costs to identify trespassers and administration costs for their prosecution. This paper deals with possibilities to reduce such compliance costs by closing the gap between people's preferences on the one hand and government policy on the other in the case of water preservation in China.
Uncovering attribute‐based determinants of loyalty in cigarette brands

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of tobacco differentiation attributes (i.e. nicotine and tar content, length, flavor and thickness) in market performance and loyalty levels of brands.Design/methodology/approach – The study adopts a stochastic approach to measure brand loyalty at the attribute level using the Dirichlet model as a benchmark tool. Data based on the Juster Probability Scale were collected from a sample of n=155 young smokers in Iceland.Findings – Product differentiation strategies operate differently. Light nicotine and tar content encourages smokers to switch across brands and within family brands, resulting on improved market performance and loyalty levels. Length and thickness‐related differentiation are slightly better than non‐differentiation in inducing loyalty, but worse in improving performance.Practical implications – Two types of categorization prevail in the category: first, a family brand‐based, mainly relevant for large brands; and second, an attr.
The Use of a Generic, Patient-Based Health Assessment (SF-36) for Evaluation of Patients with Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries

The MOS 36-item short-form health survey is a ge neric, patient-based health assessment tool. It has been used to assess functional outcome for many medical conditions, both acute and chronic. The use of this survey in evaluating the effects of treatment of any specific disease or injury allows comparison of treat ments across a broad spectrum of disease categories. The purpose of this study was to see if this assessment tool could 1) be used to identify those patients requiring anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, 2) detect changes in the patients with treatment over time, and 3) correlate with the commonly used knee assessment scales. The short-form health survey could not identify those patients requiring anterior cruciate ligament re constructive surgery. However, it did show important and significant changes with treatment (surgical and nonsurgical) over time. There was a significant corre lation between the short-form health survey and the Lysholm and International Knee Documentation Com mittee scores during this study. The addition of the MOS 36-item short-form health survey to our traditional knee ligament evaluation tools is encouraged. Its use will permit the orthopaedic community to demonstrate the value of our treatment of anterior cruciate ligament injuries to health care planners and generalist physi cians.
How technology shapes assessment design: Findings from a study of university teachers

A wide range of technologies has been developed to enhance assessment, but adoption has been inconsistent. This is despite assessment being critical to student learning and certification. To understand why this is the case and how it can be addressed, we need to explore the perspectives of academics responsible for designing and implementing technology-supported assessment strategies. This paper reports on the experience of designing technology-supported assessment based on interviews with 33 Australian university teachers. The findings reveal the desire to achieve greater efficiencies and to be contemporary and innovative as key drivers of technology adoption for assessment. Participants sought to shape student behaviors through their designs and made adaptations in response to positive feedback and undesirable outcomes. Many designs required modification because of a lack of appropriate support, leading to compromise and, in some cases, abandonment. These findings highlight the challenges to effective technology-supported assessment design and demonstrate the difficulties university teachers face when attempting to negotiate mixed messages within institutions and the demands of design work. We use these findings to suggest opportunities to improve support by offering pedagogical guidance and technical help at critical stages of the design process and encouraging an iterative approach to design.
Factors affecting the implementation of joint ventures : a study of outsourcing in healthcare services in low and middle-income countries

This research deals with the development of framework for assessing a joint venture (JV) model as of outsourcing relationship that that can be used to lead to process improvements in the healthcare system in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC). A range of articles were reviewed to investigate different concepts relevant to the research toward exploring the factors affecting the successful implementation of a JV model as outsourcing relationship for healthcare services in LMICs. This was followed by three stages of semi-structured and structured interviews and group discussions and survey questionnaires, with healthcare providers, policy makers, vendors, consultants and other stakeholders from LMIC. The results support test of proposition and guide the validation process by using interpretive structural modelling (ISM) to allow the development of the implementation strategy framework. The research finding indicates that the healthcare system in the LMICs must incorporate JV in implementing outsourcing that addresses process improvement and needed knowledge transfer. One of the practical implications, the improvement of the LMIC healthcare setting require partnership with all major stakeholders and technology providers to explore further beyond the traditional organizational boundary as the framework for analysis. The findings presented in this research, help to support views on expanding the use of JV as an approach for improvement in LMIC healthcare system based on the conceptual framework in relation to the key identified factors. In addition, the researchers can use this model as a foundational framework for further research. Key words: Joint venture, outsourcing, healthcare, low and middle-income countries, developing countries.
Semaphorin 3F Confines Ventral Tangential Migration of Lateral Olfactory Tract Neurons onto the Telencephalon Surface

Ventral tangential migration of neurons is the most prominent mode of neuronal translocation during earliest neurogenesis in the mouse telencephalon. A typical example of the neurons that adopt this migration mode is guidepost neurons in the lateral olfactory tract designated as lot cells. These neurons are generated from the neocortical neuroepithelium and migrate tangentially down to the ventral edge of the neocortex abutting the ganglionic eminence, on which the future lateral olfactory tract develops. We show here that this migration stream is repelled by a secreted axon guidance molecule, semaphorin 3F through interaction with its specific receptor, neuropilin-2. Accordingly, in mutant mice for semaphorin 3F or neuropilin-2, lot cells ectopically penetrated into the deep brain domain, which normally expresses semaphorin 3F. These results reveal that semaphorin 3F is an important regulator of the ventral tangential migration stream, confining the migrating neurons on the telencephalon surface by repelling from the deeper domain.
Müllerian Aplasia with Hypoplastic Thumbs: Two Case Reports

Two cases of Müllerian aplasia associated with unilateral hypoplasia of the thumbs and skeletal spine deformities in two unrelated females are reported, and the pertinent literature is reviewed. Müllerian aplasia is frequently associated with skeletal spine deformities, but has not been reported to be associated with hypoplasia of the thumbs. Several heritable syndromes, including the hand‐foot‐uterus syndrome, are characterized by uterovaginal and distal extremity malformations but are not associated with skeletal spine anomalies. The two cases reported here represent a previously unreported constellation of anomalies.
Verbal Interaction Analysis: Viewing Feedback Through a Different Lens

Background: Verbal interaction analysis, though seldom applied to the feedback-giving process, can be used to assess feedback dimensions not easily assessed by other means. Description: The purpose of this study was to explore verbal interaction analysis as a method to assess feedback interactions between senior medical students trained as teachers and their sophomore learners. We randomly selected 14 videotaped encounters of senior teachers giving feedback to sophomore learners and classified 417 utterances to address (a) verbal dominance, (b) feedback balance, and (c) cognitive level. Evaluation: Teachers did most of the talking (65.2%). Although some feedback was corrective (20.6%), teacher utterances were mostly positive (33.5%) or neutral (45.9%). Cognitively, the teacher utterances occurred largely at the factual (lowest) level (74.3%). Conclusions: Interaction analysis enabled us to describe 3 dimensions of teacher–learner feedback not easily assessed by other means: verbal dominance, positive-corrective balance, and cognitive level. Assessing these dimensions provides information about two theoretically important indices of feedback-giving effectiveness: learner involvement and feedback balance. Future study of verbal interaction analysis in this and other populations is warranted to further evaluate its usefulness.
Static vs. Dynamic Auctions with Ambiguity Averse Bidders

Abstract: This paper presents the outcome of a dynamic price-descending auction when the distribution of the private values is uncertain and bidders exhibit ambiguity aversion. In contrast to sealed-bid auctions, in open auctions the bidders get information about the other bidders' private values and may therefore update their beliefs on the distribution of the values. The bidders have smooth ambiguity preferences and update their priors using consequentialist Bayesian updating. It is shown that ambiguity aversion usually affects bidding behavior the same way risk aversion does, but the main result is that this is not the case for continuous price descending auctions. This is new among a few theoretical cases where ambiguity aversion does not reinforce the risk aversion implications.
Adaptive transmission in spatial multiplexing system with zero forcing receiver

Spatial multiplexing is a promising technique to achieve high capacity of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems. The spatial multiplexing system using zero forcing (ZF) receiver offers relatively low computation complexity. A new transmission parameter in such systems - number of transmission substreams is introduced. After that, an adaptive transmission scheme, which adjusts the number of transmission substreams according to channel conditions, is presented to obtain both efficiency and reliability under fading channel. Then we present two adaptive algorithms for the proposed adaptive transmission scheme to guarantee the symbol error rate and maximize spectral efficiency respectively. A numerical example is given to demonstrate the performance improvement of the proposed adaptive transmission scheme.
A Load-Balancing Based Charging Management Mechanism for Electric Vehicles

This work proposes an EV charging management mechanismand utilizes the scheduling systems for the charging stations to determine when to store electricity into batteries according to the real-time electricity price and charging requirement of EVs. A charging suggestion module is presented in this work to locate the most suitable charging station or battery exchange station for the EVs according to the available information in hand. When an EV cannot reach at any charging station due to the lack of electricity, a mobile charging vehicle management module is used to assisting the EV in finding a suitable mobile charging vehicle for recharging. The experimental results show that the proposed work can balance the loading of battery charging and exchange stations, and lower the load peak to make electricity cost down. Besides, the proposed charging suggestion module can decrease the driving distance of EVs for finding the charging stations and the waiting time wasted while charging. The mobile charging vehicle management module can effectively prevent EVs from halting on the road owing to running out of the electricity.
Representing teleological structure in case-based legal reasoning: the missing link

We argue that robust case-based models of legal knowledge that represent the way in which practicing professionals use legal decisions must contain a deeper domain model that represents the purposes behind the rules articulated in the cases. We propose a model for representing the teleological components of legal decisions, and we suggest a method for utilizing this representation in a HYPO-like framework for case-based legal argument.