Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antithrombotic strategies in patients with acute coronary syndromes undergoing early invasive management: one-year results from the ACUITY trial.

CONTEXT At 30-day follow-up, patients with moderate- and high-risk acute coronary syndromes (ACS) undergoing early invasive treatment in the ACUITY trial with bivalirudin monotherapy vs heparin plus glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa inhibitors had noninferior rates of adverse ischemic events with reduced rates of major bleeding. Deferred upstream use of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors for selective administration to patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) resulted in a significant reduction in major bleeding, although a small increase in composite ischemia could not be excluded. OBJECTIVE To determine 1-year ischemic outcomes for patients in the ACUITY trial. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS A prospective, randomized, open-label trial with 1-year clinical follow-up at 450 academic and community-based institutions in 17 countries. A total of 13,819 patients with moderate- and high-risk ACS undergoing invasive treatment were enrolled between August 23, 2003, and December 5, 2005. INTERVENTIONS Patients were assigned to heparin plus GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors (n = 4603), bivalirudin plus GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors (n = 4604), or bivalirudin monotherapy (n = 4612). Of these patients, 4605 were assigned to routine upstream GP IIb/IIIa administration and 4602 were deferred to selective GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor administration. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Composite ischemia (death, myocardial infarction, or unplanned revascularization for ischemia) at 1 year. RESULTS Composite ischemia at 1 year occurred in 15.4% of patients assigned to heparin plus GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors and 16.0% assigned to bivalirudin plus GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors (compared with heparin plus GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors, HR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.95-1.16; P = .35), and 16.2% assigned to bivalirudin monotherapy (HR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.95-1.17; P = .29). Mortality at 1 year occurred in an estimated 3.9% of patients assigned to heparin plus GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors, 3.9% assigned to bivalirudin plus GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors (HR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.80-1.22; P = .92), and 3.8% assigned to bivalirudin monotherapy (HR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.77-1.18; P = .67). Composite ischemia occurred in 16.3% of patients assigned to deferred use compared with 15.2% of patients assigned to upstream administration (HR, 1.08; 95% CI, 0.97-1.20; P = .15). CONCLUSIONS At 1 year, no statistically significant difference in rates of composite ischemia or mortality among patients with moderate- and high-risk ACS undergoing invasive treatment with the 3 therapies was found. There was no statistically significant difference in the rates of composite ischemia between patients receiving routine upstream administration of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors vs deferring their use for patients undergoing PCI. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00093158.
SecRBAC: Secure data in the Clouds

Most current security solutions are based on perimeter security. However, Cloud computing breaks the organization perimeters. When data resides in the Cloud, they reside outside the organizational bounds. This leads users to a loos of control over their data and raises reasonable security concerns that slow down the adoption of Cloud computing. Is the Cloud service provider accessing the data? Is it legitimately applying the access control policy defined by the user? This paper presents a data-centric access control solution with enriched role-based expressiveness in which security is focused on protecting user data regardless the Cloud service provider that holds it. Novel identity-based and proxy re-encryption techniques are used to protect the authorization model. Data is encrypted and authorization rules are cryptographically protected to preserve user data against the service provider access or misbehavior. The authorization model provides high expressiveness with role hierarchy and resource hierarchy support. The solution takes advantage of the logic formalism provided by Semantic Web technologies, which enables advanced rule management like semantic conflict detection. A proof of concept implementation has been developed and a working prototypical deployment of the proposal has been integrated within Google services.
Regulating Supply Chains to Improve Health and Safety

The fragmentation of previously integrated systems of production and service delivery has been an important feature of organisational restructuring over the last three decades. This article highlights the adverse implications of this development for the health and safety of workers, examines the extent to which current British health and safety law provides an adequate framework for addressing these outcomes and explores whether its capacity to do so could be enhanced through the introduction of new statutory provisions on the regulation of supply chains. It concludes that, in terms of both structure and operation, the present framework of law is problematic. It further argues that recent international initiatives show that it is feasible to develop such statutory provisions and that existing evidence suggests that provisions of this type could usefully be introduced in respect of a number of areas of activity where the implications of the externalisation of production and service delivery seem particularly problematic.
Intramuscular injection of metoclopramide decreases the gastric transit time and does not increase the complete examination rate of capsule endoscopy: a prospective randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Capsule endoscopy (CE) reaches the cecum in about 80% of cases. Decreasing the gastric transit time (GTT) may increase the complete examination rate (CER). METHODOLOGY Patients (n=177) were prospectively randomized into 2 groups: the control group (n=88) and the intramuscular injection with metoclopramide (IIM) group (n=89). The OMOM CE system, which has the function of real-time monitoring, was used. The patients were injected with metoclopramide 15 minutes before swallowing the CE in the IIM group. The CE would be sent into the duodenum by gastroscopy if the GTT reached 120 minutes in the two groups. RESULTS No significant difference was noted between the two groups. Of the 169 cases without gastroscopic help, the mean GTT was shorter in the IIM group (n=87) than the control group (n=82) (p=0.002). But the CER was similar. Of 135 cases without gastroscopic help but reached the cecum, the mean GTT was shorter in the IIM group (n=71) than the control group (n=64) (p=0.015). But the mean small bowel transit time (SBTT) was similar. CONCLUSIONS Intramuscular injection of metoclopramide decreases the gastric transit time, but it does not change the SBTT or CER of capsule endoscopy in our study.
Effect of IT Investment Announcements on the Market Value of Hospitality Firms Using Event Study Methodology

The goals of this study are to examine the impact of IT investment announcements on firms' stock prices and to test the productivity paradox of IT investment in the hospitality industry by adopting event study methodology. The cautious interpretation of the results lends support for a positive link between IT investment announcements and financial performance. Furthermore, this study's descriptive analysis indicates that the trend of abnormal returns and cumulative abnormal returns shows steady increases over the three-day event windows. This study provides the stepping-stone to solving the IT productivity paradox and offers useful information for IT investment decision making in the hospitality business.
A preclinical simulated dataset of S-values and investigation of the impact of rescaled organ masses using the MOBY phantom

Nuclear medicine and radiation therapy, although well established, are still rapidly evolving, by exploiting animal models, aiming to define precise dosimetry in molecular imaging protocols. The purpose of the present study was to create a dataset based on the MOBY phantom for the calculation of organ-to-organ S-values of commonly used radionuclides. S-values of most crucial organs were calculated using specific biodistributions with a whole-body heterogeneous source. In order to determine the impact of the varying organs’ size on the S-values, and based on the fact that the anatomic properties of the organs are correlated with S-values, dosimetric calculations were performed by simulating the MOBY-version 2 model with different whole-body masses. The GATE Monte Carlo simulation toolkit was used for all simulations. Two mouse models of different body masses were developed to calculate the S-values of eight commonly used radioisotopes in nuclear imaging studies, namely 18F, 68Ga, 131I, 111In, 177Lu, and 99mTc, 90Y and 188Re. The impact of modified mass of the source organs in S-values was investigated with 18F, and 90Y in five different scalings of the source organs. Based on realistic preclinical exams, three mouse models, 22, 28 and 34 g, were used as input in the GATE simulator based on realistic preclinical exams to calculate the S-values of the six radioisotopes used. Whole body activity distributions were used as the source organ. The simulation procedure was validated in terms of extracting individual organ-to-organ S-values, and consequently in calculating the new S-values using a heterogeneous activity distribution as a source. The calculation was validated with 18F source in a 30 g mouse model. For the generation of the new S-values with heterogeneous activity sources, four organs were used for the calculation of a single S-value. The absorbed doses per organ were compared with previously published reports. The validation procedure of 18F indicates discrepancies, ranging from 5.32 to 7.72%. The S-values in Gy/(Bq·s), with the corresponding uncertainties of all simulated cases, are given in the developed dataset. The comparison of the dosimetric calculations on the three different phantoms highlights the impact of the mouse model size on the calculated S-values. The developed dataset can be used to improve the accuracy of the absorbed dose calculations in small animal dosimetry and depict the crucial impact the mouse size has on S-values’ calculation. The generated S-values dataset for different radiopharmaceuticals contributes to the estimation of radiation dose to mice in small animal PET and SPECT exams. Finally, the detailed methodology of the procedure is provided.
Vitamin B6 biosynthesis is essential for survival and virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

With 500 000 cases of multidrug‐resistant tuberculosis there is an urgent need for attractive targets to enable the discovery of novel antimycobacterials. The biosynthesis of essential cofactors is of particular interest as these pathways are absent in man and their inhibition is expected to affect the metabolism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis at multiple sites. Our data demonstrate that the pathogen synthesizes pyridoxal 5‐phosphate (PLP), the bioactive form of vitamin B6, by a heteromeric PLP synthase composed of Pdx1 (Rv2606c) and Pdx2 (Rv2604c). Disruption of the pdx1 gene generated a strictly B6 auxotrophic M. tuberculosis mutant, Δpdx1. Removal of the cofactor during exponential growth or stationary phase demonstrated the essentiality of vitamin B6 biosynthesis for growth and survival of the pathogen in culture. In a tuberculosis dormancy model based on gradual oxygen depletion, de novo biosynthesis of PLP was required for regrowth of the bacillus after direct oxygen exposure. The Δpdx1 mutant showed a severe growth defect in immunocompetent mice: bacilli applied intranasally failed to persist in host tissues and were quickly cleared. We conclude that vitamin B6 biosynthesis is required for survival of M. tuberculosis in vivo and thus might represent a candidate pathway for the development of new antitubercular agents.
Balancing Economic Development and the Preservation of Agricultural Land: An Evaluation of Shanghai's Municipal Land Use Plan

The megacity of Shanghai faces enormous planning challenges, particularly controlling rapid urban growth and preserving some of the world's most fertile agricultural land. Almost two-thirds of Shanghai's territory is classified as agricultural land. Maintaining this high ratio of agricultural land to total land area and, at the same time, accommodating a large and rapidly increasing urban population represents an immense and complex planning challenge. Shanghai has recently adopted a Municipal Land Use Plan to address some of these planning challenges. This article provides a review, analysis and critique of Shanghai's Municipal Land Use Plan. From a review of the relevant literature, this article develops a framework to evaluate Shanghai's plan. This framework provides a qualitative assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the SMLUP's overall goal of preserving arable land and fostering urban-economic development.
Unknown input observer for 2-D Fornasini-Marchesini system using descriptor system approach

This paper considers the problem of estimating the state and unknown input simultaneously for 2-D Fornasini-Marchesini system with unknown input in both state and measurement equations. The problem is solved by using descriptor system approach and then an asymptotically convergent observer was designed. Two cases, the gain matrix for the unknown input in measurement equation is not and/or is of full column rank, have been discussed. For these two cases, the corresponding sufficient and necessary condition and sufficient condition for the existence of the asymptotical observers are presented and proved in terms of rank condition, respectively. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the convergence properties of the observers and the effectiveness of the proposed method.
The Presence of Anti-GRP78 Antibodies in the Serum of Patients with Colorectal Carcinoma: A Potential Biomarker for Early Cancer Detection

Background The identification of new biomarkers is required for early diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma patients (CRC), since about 20% of these patients are initially diagnosed with a distant metastatic disease. GRP78, a heat shock protein, functions also as a cell surface signaling receptor of cells under physiological stress. GRP78 was found to be expressed on the cell surface of various tumor cells. The presence of autoantibodies to GRP78 in cancer patient's serum was found to be correlated with a poor prognosis. In this study we aimed to identify anti-GRP78 antibodies in the serum of 85 patients diagnosed by colonoscopy, as an early detection biomarker. Methods We developed an ELISA assay with recombinant GRP78 immobilized on 96-well culture plates and used an anti-IgG antibody to measure the sole anti-GRP78 IgGs. Results Testing for anti-GRP78 showed a significant increase in antibody titer in patients with a polyp and in CRC patients (p<0.001) compared to healthy subjects. Conclusions This is the first study showing the presence of anti-GRP78 at the very early stages of CRC.
Business Cycle and Credit Risk Modeling with Jump Risks

We develop a structural model that incorporates both macroeconomic risks and firm-specific jump risks. We derive analytic formulas for default probability, equity price, and CDS spreads. Based on reasonably calibrated parameters, we find that our model could predict actual default probabilities and overcome the underestimation of credit risks, especially for firms with high credit ratings, which has been one of the major limitations of the currently available structural models. The structural model highlights that macroeconomic factors are important in modeling credit risks and that default probabilities and CDS spreads could be dependent on the current economic state.
Electrospun Nanofibers for Regenerative Medicine

This Progress Report reviews recent progress in applying electrospun nanofibers to the emerging field of regenerative medicine. It begins with a brief introduction to electrospinning and nanofibers, with a focus on issues related to the selection of materials, incorporation of bioactive molecules, degradation characteristics, control of mechanical properties, and facilitation of cell infiltration. Next, a number of approaches to fabricate scaffolds from electrospun nanofibers are discussed, including techniques for controlling the alignment of nanofibers and for producing scaffolds with complex architectures. The article also highlights applications of the nanofiber‐based scaffolds in four areas of regenerative medicine that involve nerves, dural tissues, tendons, and the tendon‐to‐bone insertion site. The Progress Report concludes with perspectives on challenges and future directions for design, fabrication, and utilization of scaffolds based on electrospun nanofibers.
Challenges, issues and change: what's the future for UK policing in the twenty‐first century?

Purpose – This paper aims to review calls on the UK police service to respond to the dual challenge of increasing governmental/public demands for improvements in police efficiency and effectiveness in the likely context of decreasing real time increases in financial resources. Specifically it aims to highlight the reform of police organizational structures, a greater focus on performance management and people development initiatives as areas that have the potential to bring about significant benefits for future UK policing.Design/methodology/approach – Using the results of Government‐sponsored research and other secondary data the approach is to explore the potential for implementation of new approaches to policing.Findings – There would appear to be a consensus between the Government and the police service of the need for reform. The mechanics of successful implementation, however, face institutional, cultural and financial obstacles.Research limitations/implications – The complexity of policing and its .
Dominant Carrier Performance and International Liberalisation

Numerous studies on the aviation industry have confirmed that significant benefits can be brought by liberalizing the international market. After a comprehensive review of the recent studies on this issue, Fu and Oum (2014) concluded that there is strong evidence that liberalisation introduces substantial economic benefits to the countries involved. In the airline industry, liberalisation has led to increased airline competition, decreased average fares, increased frequency, improved load factor and airline productivity, increased traffic volumes and new route services. These changes not only lead to higher employment and economic output in the aviation industry, but also provide better inputs to other related sectors such as tourism, trade and logistics. Yet despite such well recognized benefits, mostly developed countries have liberalised their air service agreements, notably the United States followed by the EU. As of 2003, 57 liberalisation agreements out of 87 involved the U.S. As of October 2012, over 400 liberalized agreements were reached among 145 economies, among which more than 100 were U.S. open-skies agreements (ICAO 2013). In most other markets, air liberalisation has made limited progress over the past decades, even in regions characterized with strong economic and international trade growth.
Combination vaccines containing DTPa–Hib: impact of IPV and coadministration of CRM197 conjugates

Vaccination with diphtheria–tetanus–acellular pertussis (DTPa)–Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) combinations generally elicits anti-polyribosyl-ribitol-phosphate (PRP) antibody concentrations of more than 0.15 µg/ml, a criterion that is linked to the protection of infants against Hib disease. In the UK, vaccination with DTPa3–Hib elicited atypically low anti-PRP antibody levels and was associated with breakthrough Hib cases. While the absence of a toddler booster is considered to be a key factor explaining the lowered control of Hib disease, we propose that the coadministration of serogroup C Neisseria meningitidis conjugate vaccine (MenC)–CRM197, which coincided with the introduction of DTPa3–Hib in the UK, may have played a role. However, other data suggest that the response to Hib after DTPa(HBV) inactivated polio vaccine (IPV)–Hib combinations is not affected by the coadministration of CRM197, which we postulate to be attributed to the presence of IPV. These observations underline the need to carefully evaluate upcoming pediatric conjugate vaccines for possible interference effects on the coadministered antigens, with particular attention to hepatitis B and Hib–tetanus toxoid.
The Economic Return to School Quality: A Partial Survey

We present a survey of the literature on the economic returns to school quality. A dozen studies conducted over the past 20 years show remarkably consistent estimates of the effect of school quality on students' subsequent earnings. A 10 percent increase in school spending is associated with 1 to 2 percent higher annual earnings for students later in life. We argue that the similarity of the findings across data sources and research methods suggests that school quality has a true causal effect on student earnings. Increases in school resources are also associated with significantly higher educational attainment, although the range of estimates of the effect is relatively wide.
Development of a comprehensive performance-testing protocol for competitive surfers.

PURPOSE Appropriate and valid testing protocols for evaluating the physical performances of surfing athletes are not well refined. The purpose of this project was to develop, refine, and evaluate a testing protocol for use with elite surfers, including measures of anthropometry, strength and power, and endurance. METHODS After pilot testing and consultation with athletes, coaches, and sport scientists, a specific suite of tests was developed. Forty-four competitive junior surfers (16.2 ± 1.3 y, 166.3 ± 7.3 cm, 57.9 ± 8.5 kg) participated in this study involving a within-day repeated-measures analysis, using an elite junior group of 22 international competitors (EJG), to establish reliability of the measures. To reflect validity of the testing measures, a comparison of performance results was then undertaken between the EJG and an age-matched competitive junior group of 22 nationally competitive surfers (CJG). RESULTS Percent typical error of measurement (%TEM) for primary variables gained from the assessments ranged from 1.1% to 3.0%, with intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from . 96 to . 99. One-way analysis of variance revealed that the EJG had lower skinfolds (P = .005, d = 0.9) than the CJG, despite no difference in stature (P = .102) or body mass (P = .827). The EJG were faster in 15-m sprint-paddle velocity (P < .001, d = 1.3) and had higher lower-body isometric peak force (P = .04, d = 0.7) and superior endurance-paddling velocity (P = .008, d = 0.9). CONCLUSIONS The relatively low %TEM of these tests in this population allows for high sensitivity to detect change. The results of this study suggest that competitively superior junior surfers are leaner and possess superior strength, paddling power, and paddling endurance.
Myocyte Enhancer Factor 2 Acetylation by p300 Enhances Its DNA Binding Activity, Transcriptional Activity, and Myogenic Differentiation

ABSTRACT Myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) family proteins are key transcription factors controlling gene expression in myocytes, lymphocytes, and neurons. MEF2 proteins are known to be regulated by phosphorylation. We now provide evidence showing that MEF2C is acetylated by p300 both in vitro and in vivo. In C2C12 myogenic cells, MEF2 is preferentially acetylated in differentiating myocytes but not in undifferentiated myoblasts. Several major acetylation sites are mapped to the transactivation domain of MEF2C, some of which are fully conserved in other MEF2 members from several different species. Mutation of these lysines affects MEF2 DNA binding and transcriptional activity, as well as its synergistic effect with myogenin in myogenic conversion assays. When introduced into C2C12 myoblasts, the nonacetylatable MEF2C inhibits myogenic differentiation. Thus, in addition to phosphorylation, MEF2 activity is also critically regulated by acetylation during myogenesis.