Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Virulence of 1997 H5N1 Influenza Viruses in the Mouse Model Is Increased by Correcting a Defect in Their NS1 Proteins

ABSTRACT The NS1 protein of human influenza A viruses binds the 30-kDa subunit of the cleavage and polyadenylation specificity factor (CPSF30), a protein required for 3′ end processing of cellular pre-mRNAs, thereby inhibiting production of beta interferon (IFN-β) mRNA. The NS1 proteins of pathogenic 1997 H5N1 viruses contain the CPSF30-binding site but lack the consensus amino acids at positions 103 and 106, F and M, respectively, that are required for the stabilization of CPSF30 binding, resulting in nonoptimal CPSF30 binding in infected cells. Here we have demonstrated that strengthening CPSF30 binding, by changing positions 103 and 106 in the 1997 H5N1 NS1 protein to the consensus amino acids, results in a remarkable 300-fold increase in the lethality of the virus in mice. Unexpectedly, this increase in virulence is not associated with increased lung pathology but rather is characterized by faster systemic spread of the virus, particularly to the brain, where increased replication and severe pathology occur. This increased spread is associated with increased cytokine and chemokine levels in extrapulmonary tissues. We conclude that strengthening CPSF30 binding by the NS1 protein of 1997 H5N1 viruses enhances virulence in mice by increasing the systemic spread of the virus from the lungs, particularly to the brain.
HEURISTIC LOT‐SIZING PERFORMANCE IN A ROLLING‐SCHEDULE ENVIRONMENT*

This paper examines the impact of a rolling-schedule implementation on the performance of three of the better known lot-sizing methods for single-level assembly systems——Part-Period-Cost-Balancing, Silver-Meal, and Wagner-Whitin algorithms—and a modified version of the Silver-Meal procedure. The main finding is that under certain conditions the computationally simpler Silver-Meal heuristic can provide cost performance superior to that of the Wagner-Whitin algorithm.
Quantitative Methods and Ethics

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a context for thinking about the role of ethics in quantitative methodology.We begin by reviewing the sweep of events that led to the creation and expansion of legal and professional rules for the protection of research subjects and society against unethical research.The risk–beneﬁt approach has served as an instrument of prior control by institutional review boards. After discussing the nature of that approach, we sketch a model of the costs and utilities of the “doing” and “not doing” of research.We illustrate some implications of the expanded model for particular data analytic and reporting practices.We then outline a 5 × 5 matrix of general ethical standards crossed with general data analytic and reporting standards to encourage thinking about opportunities to address quantitative methodological problems in ways that may have mutual ethical and substantive rewards. Finally, we discuss such an opportunity in the context of problems associated with risk statistics that tend to exaggerate the absolute effects of therapeutic interventions in randomized trials. rests best to contribute to and to weighs alternative in which personal and Having the decision to research, psychologists must their investigation with respect for the people who participate and with for their and The that follow toward over the of research, the initial decision a the conﬁdentiality of research roll over and just join the marketing departments of pharmaceutical companies. Authors who put their names to such papers need to consider whether doing so is more important than having a medical literature that can be believed in. Politicians need to consider the harm done by an environment that incites companies into insane races for proﬁt rather than for medical need. And companies need to consider whether the arms race they have started will in the end beneﬁt anyone. After all, even drug company employees get sick; do they trust ghost authors?
A systematic review of the quality of psychometric evidence supporting the use of an obesity‐specific quality of life measure for use with persons who have class III obesity

With global obesity rates at 42%, there is a need for high‐quality outcome measures that capture important aspects of quality of life for persons with obesity. The aim of this paper was to systematically review and critique the psychometric properties and utility of the impact of weight on quality of life‐lite (IWQOL‐Lite) for use with persons who have class III obesity. Databases were searched for articles that addressed obesity‐specific quality of life. A critical appraisal of the psychometric properties of the IWQOL‐Lite and connection to a quality of life conceptual framework was completed. Raters used a standardized data extraction and quality appraisal form to guide evidence extraction. Two articles that reviewed obesity‐specific quality of life measures were found; none were based on a systematic review. Six articles on the IWQOL‐Lite met the criteria for critical appraisal using guidelines. The mean quality score for these articles was 59.2%. Concepts measured were consistent with the biopsychosocial concept of health defined by the World Health Organization. There is limited but consistent evidence that the IWQOL‐Lite is a reliable, valid and responsive outcome measure that can be used to assess disease‐specific quality of life in persons with class III obesity.
An information‐theoretic methodology for measuring the operational complexity of supplier‐customer systems

In a dynamic environment such as the supply chain, even basic supplier‐customer systems with structurally simple information and material flow formations have a tendency to exhibit operational complexity. The operational complexity of supplier‐customer systems is primarily characterised by the uncertainty of the system. As the operational complexity of a system increases there is an associated increase in the amount of information required to monitor and manage that system. Based on this understanding, a novel information‐theoretic entropy‐based methodology for measuring and analysing the operational complexity of supplier‐customer systems has been developed. This paper makes contributions in the theoretical, conceptual and practical developments of the methodology. The methodology can quantitatively detect and prioritise operational complexity hotspots. At the interface, the framework can identify and quantify the transfer of operational complexity. Within the internal manufacturing system, the framework.
Comparison of Schemes for Joint Subcarrier Matching and Power Allocation in OFDM Decode-and-Forward Relay System

The combination of relay system and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation is a promising way to increase capacity and coverage area. We consider several joint subcarrier matching and power allocation schemes to maximize channel capacity, where the relay strategy is decode-and-forward. We formulate the optimally joint subcarrier matching and power allocation problem as an optimization problem, which is prohibitive in terms of complexity. By separating the subcarrier matching and power allocation, the schemes with low complexity are proposed. The capacity of the proposed scheme 1 is close to the upper bound of the channel capacity with very low complexity. The complexity of the proposed scheme 2 is higher than that of the proposed scheme 1. However, the capacity of the proposed scheme 2 is almost equal to the upper bound, which proves that one-to-one subcarrier matching is approximately optimal.
Consumption and stock markets in Asian economies

This paper investigates the causal links between stock market performance and consumption for five Asian economies by applying the bound tests of Pesaran et al. and lag augmented VAR of Toda and Yamamoto . We find two‐way causal relationships between stock market performance and consumption in the cases of Hong Kong and Taiwan in the long run. The existence of such two‐way causal links indicates that stock market performance and consumption mutually affect each other, implying that the previous studies may have overestimated the wealth effect of the stock markets without taking account of the reverse causation from consumption to the stock markets. The short‐run effect of the stock market on consumption is more visible than the long‐run effect in most of the sample economies, suggesting that changes in consumption directly reflect stock market fluctuations.
Voluntary disclosure in Malaysian corporate annual reports: views of stakeholders

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to identify “qualitative” factors influencing voluntary information disclosure in annual reports. Design/methodology/approach - Semi-structured interviews were held with twenty-seven market participants in Malaysia to elicit opinions on issues related to voluntary information disclosure. Findings - Analysis of interview responses revealed that factors influencing voluntary disclosure in annual reports include the quality of management, gaining analyst trust and promoting company shares, good news versus bad news, the existence of other channel of communication, governance structure and market forces. Research limitations/implications - Some of the “qualitative” factors identified do not appear to be totally independent from one another. Further work using factor analysis can be an avenue for future research on accounting disclosure. Practical implications - The results also suggest that some companies may be willing to share information to selected interested parties such as analysts during private meetings rather than in a public document such as the annual report. Thus disclosure in a corporate annual report should not be taken as a conclusive measure of a company's extent of voluntary reporting. Originality/value - This paper is one of few studies which adopts an interview approach to identify “qualitative” factors influencing voluntary information disclosure in annual reports.
Profitability gains of Korean defense firms: Technological progress or cost shifting?

Summary This study identifies the influential factors for profitability gains of Korean defense firms by applying Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) to the 1990–2005 production data. The conventional perception that defense firms enjoy extra profits through cost shifting is tested against the improvements of X‐efficiency through technological progress and managerial achievements. This study tests cost‐shifting hypothesis in the defense industry based on efficiency measurement methodology. The hypothesis states that there exists an incentive for a defense firm to manipulate cost by shifting input cost or reallocating labor, from commercial to defense, especially by mixed type firms that operate in both the commercial and the defense sectors. To test the hypothesis, the difference in mean technical efficiency between the commercial and the defense parts is estimated by collecting the data that can be divided into purely commercial and purely defense data. The mean technical efficiency of the defense part is not significantly higher than that of the commercial part. This result suggests that the high efficiency reported in mixed type firms is not likely attributable to cost shifting. However, this result indirectly investigates cost shifting, but does not exclude other sources of cost manipulation, such as pure cost padding or cost misreporting.
Slow or swift, your patients' experience won't drift: absence of correlation between physician productivity and the patient experience.

Absract OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the relationship between Emergency Physician (EP) productivity and patient satisfaction with Emergency Department (ED) care. METHODS This retrospective observational study linked administrative and patient experience databases to measure correlations between the patient experience and EP productivity. The study was performed across three Calgary EDs (from June 2010 to July 2013). Patients>16 years old with completed Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA) ED Patient Experience Surveys were included. EP productivity was measured at the individual physician level and defined as the average number of patients seen per hour. The association between physician productivity and patient experience scores from six composite domains of the HQCA ED Patient Experience Survey were examined using Pearson correlation coefficients, linear regression modelling, and a path analysis. RESULTS We correlated 3,794 patient experience surveys with productivity data for 130 EPs. Very weak non-significant negative correlations existed between productivity and survey composites: "Staff Care and Communication" (r=-0.057, p=0.521), "Discharge Communication" (r=-0.144, p=0.102), and "Respect" (r=-0.027, p=0.760). Very weak, non-significant positive correlations existed between productivity and the composite domains: "Medication Communication" (r=0.003, p=0.974) and "Pain management" (r=0.020, p=0.824). A univariate general linear model yielded no statistically significant correlations between EP productivity and patient experience, and the path analysis failed to show a relationship between the variables. CONCLUSION We found no correlation between EP productivity and the patient experience.
Reputation and Corporate Social Responsibility Aberrations, Trends, and Hypocrisy: Reactions to Firm Choices in the Stock Option Backdating Scandal

Drawing on strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) and reputation theory, this paper examines the market reaction to firm disclosures of involvement in the US stock option backdating scandal. We examine how a firm's prior signals regarding ethical behaviour and values, as demonstrated through CSR initiatives, may both ameliorate and exacerbate market reactions. CSR initiatives may buffer a firm against general wrong‐doing but expose it to greater scrutiny and sanction for related wrong‐doing. Our results show that firms with enhanced overall reputations for CSR are partially buffered from scandal revelations. However, we find that when firms possess an enhanced reputation for CSR associated with corporate governance, violations pertaining specifically to governance are viewed as hypocritical and more harshly sanctioned. We also find lower and negative market reactions for firms that delay but self‐disclose their involvement in the scandal. The study extends the emergent, related literatures on strategic CSR and reputation management, and documents dynamics in the relationship between corporate social and financial performance.
Determinants of grades in maths for students in economics

This paper investigates the determinants of grades achieved in maths by first-year students in economics. We use individual administrative data from 1993 to 2005 to fit an educational production function. Our main findings suggest that good secondary school achievements and the type of school attended are significantly associated with maths grades. Ceteris paribus, females typically do better than males. Since students can postpone the exam or repeat it when they fail, we also analyze the determinants of the elapsed time to pass the exam using a survival analysis. Modeling simultaneously maths grades and the hazard of passing the exam, we find that the overall hazard rate of passing the exam is higher for those students who get the higher grades. The longer the students wait to take the exam, the less likely they are to obtain high grades.
Integrating Sustainable Development into Existing Management Systems

Abstract Organizations are under increasing pressure from both outside and within to apply the principles of sustainable development to their operations. Although a variety of initiatives have been undertaken, many organizations have struggled with the implementation of the concept in practice. This paper addresses this issue by providing a framework for the integration of sustainable development into mainstream business systems. The proposed integrated management systems (IMS) model illustrates how existing management systems for quality, environment, occupational health and safety, and corporate social responsibility may be enhanced so that they are more reflective of sustainable development. Integration is considered from both a macro-level and a micro-level perspective. The macro-level perspective emphasizes a systems approach to viewing the IMS while the micro-level perspective considers integration on the basis of the model's seven elements. The paper highlights that sustainable development cannot be viewed as a disconnected initiative and implementation requires integration with existing business infrastructure.
Coil test analysis of Wound-field three-phase flux switching machine with non-overlapping winding and salient rotor

Topologies for three-phase salient rotor flux-switching machines having DC field winding are presented and coil test analysis, peak armature flux linkage, cogging torque, induced emf and average torque are examined. Salient rotor is used to modulate and switch the polarity of the flux linkage in the armature winding and this is the basic principle of operation of these types of machines. Non-overlapping winding and toothed-rotor are the clear advantages of these topologies as the copper losses gets reduce and rotor becomes more robust. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is used to examine the three phase topology of proposed Wound-field flux switching motor with non-overlapping winding and salient rotor.
Biphasic Modulation of Apoptotic Pathways in Cryptosporidium parvum-Infected Human Intestinal Epithelial Cells

ABSTRACT The impact of Cryptosporidium parvum infection on host cell gene expression was investigated by microarray analysis with an in vitro model using human ileocecal HCT-8 adenocarcinoma cells. We found changes in 333 (2.6%) transcripts at at least two of the five (6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h) postinfection time points. Fifty-one of the regulated genes were associated with apoptosis and were grouped into five clusters based on their expression patterns. Early in infection (6 and 12 h), genes with antiapoptotic roles were upregulated and genes with apoptotic roles were downregulated. Later in infection (24, 48, and 72 h), proapoptotic genes were induced and antiapoptotic genes were downregulated, suggesting a biphasic regulation of apoptosis: antiapoptotic state early and moderately proapoptotic state late in infection. This transcriptional profile matched the actual occurrence of apoptosis in the infected cultures. Apoptosis was first detected at 12 h postinfection and increased to a plateau at 24 h, when 20% of infected cells showed nuclear condensation. In contrast, experimental silencing of Bcl-2 induced apoptosis in 50% of infected cells at 12 h postinfection. This resulted in a decrease in the infection rate and a reduction in the accumulation of meront-containing cells. To test the significance of the moderately proapoptotic state late in the infection, we inhibited apoptosis using pancaspase inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK. This treatment also affected the progression of C. parvum infection, as reinfection, normally seen late (24 h to 48 h), did not occur and accumulation of mature meronts was impaired. Control of host apoptosis is complex and crucial to the life of C. parvum. Apoptosis control has at least two components, early inhibition and late moderate promotion. For a successful infection, both aspects appear to be required.
The impact of expected variance in performance on the satisfaction process

Research in economics, finance and decision science has shown that consumers are familiar with unit‐to‐unit variability, and in the context of services it has been demonstrated that consumers often anticipate and perceive performance heterogeneity. However, satisfaction models to date have failed to explicitly treat expectations as distributions. In this study, expectations were modeled along two dimensions – mean and variance of expected performance – which were manipulated together with actual performance in a true experimental design. The findings indicate that the expected variance in performance had an impact on perceived disconfirmation. Specifically, at low levels of incongruity (i.e. small absolute performance deviations from the expected mean), a high expected variance in performance reduced the level of perceived disconfirmation. Conversely, at high levels of incongruity (large absolute performance deviations from expectations), the expected variance in performance exerted minimal influence over perceived disconfirmation. These findings are reconciled and discussed using the zones of indifference and tolerance, and assimilation processes.
Five-meter rope-climbing: a commando-specific power test of the upper limbs.

PURPOSE To examine the concurrent validity and absolute and relative reliabilities of a commando-specific power test. PARTICIPANTS 21 antiterrorism commandos. METHODS All participants were assessed on a 5-m rope-climbing test (RCT) and the following tests: pull-ups, push-ups, estimated-1-repetition-maximum (est-1RM), medicine-ball put, and handgrip-strength test. The stopwatch method related to the execution time (ET) was validated by comparison with video motion analysis. The best individual attempt of 3 trials was kept for analysis, and the performance was expressed in absolute power output (APO) and body-mass relative power output (RPO). RESULTS Stopwatch assessment had an excellent criterion validity (r=.99, P<.001), intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC3,1) of . 98, standard errors of measurement (SEM%) of 1.19%, bias±the 95% limits of agreement of 0.03±0.26 s, and minimal detectable change (MDC95) of 0.51 s. The ET, APO, and RPO were significantly correlated (P<.05) with all cited tests (absolute-value r range .55-.98), while est-1RM was not significantly correlated with the other tests. Test-retest reliability coefficients were excellent for ET, APO, and RPO (ICC3,1>.90). The SEM% values for the ET, APO, and RPO were all under 5% (range 3.73-4.52%), all being smaller than the corresponding smallest worthwhile change. The coefficients of variation for the ET, APO, and RPO were all under 10%. %MDC95 ranged from 10.37% to 12.53%. CONCLUSIONS Considering the strong concurrent validity and excellent test-retest reliability, the RCT is simple to administer, has ecological validity, and is a valid specific field test of upper-body power for commandos and, in addition, can be accurately assessed with a stopwatch.
Stated preference designs for scheduling models

In this paper we analyze statistical properties of stated preference designs for the scheduling model. The scheduling model is frequently used for estimating the willingness to pay (WTP) for a reduction in schedule delay early or schedule delay late. These WTP values can be used to calculate the costs of travel time variability. Creating a design is not an easy task, since the attributes shown to the respondents are different from the model attributes that are estimated. We derive a general method to account for this. We apply the theoretical results to the scheduling model and create an algorithm to design the choice experiment using measures for efficiency (S-efficiency and WTP-efficiency) for a design dependent on the reference travel time of the traveler. In a simulation we show that the designs based on these criteria perform on average better than designs used in the literature in terms of efficiency of the WTP. Surprisingly the orthogonal design performs really well.
Correlation between CMOS Transistor and Capacitor Measurements of Interface Trap Spectra

The radiation-induced change in the energy spectra of SiO2-Si interface traps as determined using the charge-pumping and weak-inversion techniques on CMOS transistors and using the quasi-static C-V and detailed model techniques on CMOS capacitors are compared. Over the range of approximately 1010 to 1012 cm-1 eV-1, good quantitative agreement is obtained between these methods.