Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating health plan quality 1: a conceptual model.

OBJECTIVE To develop a theoretical foundation for measuring health plan quality from a physician's perspective. STUDY DESIGN Literature review and theory development. METHODS We defined health plan quality as the degree to which health plan management practices increase the likelihood of high-quality care for individuals and populations and addressed the ways in which health plan quality is similar to, and different from, other commonly used quality measures. Based on an assessment of the literature, we proposed a conceptual model that organizes health plan care management practices into a coherent structure for measuring health plan quality. RESULTS A conceptual model of health plan operation that organizes managerial practices into a structure for measuring health plan quality from a physician's perspective was developed. CONCLUSION Health plan quality is distinct from quality of care, and physicians can provide unique, timely, and reliable information about aspects of health plan quality.
Elevated levels of diesel range organic compounds in groundwater near Marcellus gas operations are derived from surface activities

Significance Organic compounds found in drinking water aquifers above the Marcellus Shale and other shale plays could reflect natural geologic transport processes or contamination from anthropogenic activities, including enhanced natural gas production. Using analyses of organic compounds coupled with inorganic geochemical fingerprinting, estimates of groundwater residence time, and geospatial analyses of shale gas wells and disclosed safety violations, we determined that the dominant source of organic compounds to shallow aquifers was consistent with surface spills of disclosed chemical additives. There was no evidence of association with deeper brines or long-range migration of these compounds to the shallow aquifers. Encouragingly, drinking water sources affected by disclosed surface spills could be targeted for treatment and monitoring to protect public health. Hundreds of organic chemicals are used during natural gas extraction via high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF). However, it is unclear whether these chemicals, injected into deep shale horizons, reach shallow groundwater aquifers and affect local water quality, either from those deep HVHF injection sites or from the surface or shallow subsurface. Here, we report detectable levels of organic compounds in shallow groundwater samples from private residential wells overlying the Marcellus Shale in northeastern Pennsylvania. Analyses of purgeable and extractable organic compounds from 64 groundwater samples revealed trace levels of volatile organic compounds, well below the Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum contaminant levels, and low levels of both gasoline range (0–8 ppb) and diesel range organic compounds (DRO; 0–157 ppb). A compound-specific analysis revealed the presence of bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, which is a disclosed HVHF additive, that was notably absent in a representative geogenic water sample and field blanks. Pairing these analyses with (i) inorganic chemical fingerprinting of deep saline groundwater, (ii) characteristic noble gas isotopes, and (iii) spatial relationships between active shale gas extraction wells and wells with disclosed environmental health and safety violations, we differentiate between a chemical signature associated with naturally occurring saline groundwater and one associated with alternative anthropogenic routes from the surface (e.g., accidental spills or leaks). The data support a transport mechanism of DRO to groundwater via accidental release of fracturing fluid chemicals derived from the surface rather than subsurface flow of these fluids from the underlying shale formation.
The Analysis of Knowledge, Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Cycles: A Broad Review

Knowledge is a vital asset for any organization. There are two types of knowledge, tacit and explicit knowledge. Knowledge management has become a serious topic in the last decade. Knowledge management turned into an essential part of the organization due to high importance. The common stages of the knowledge management process are storing, gathering, structuring, sharing, controlling, generating, distributing, codifying, using and exploiting. The main purpose of this study is to examine the knowledge, knowledge management and knowledge management cycles and how they are playing vital role in managing the knowledge. Knowledge is prestigious entity and organizations cannot survive without knowledge because it's offering lots of benefits in the professional world.
Role of NMDA receptors and MAP kinase in the amygdala in extinction of fear: clinical implications for exposure therapy *

Infusions into the amygdala (a brain area essential for excitatory fear conditioning) of either NMDA receptor antagonists or inhibitors of the NMDA receptor‐linked mitogen activated protein kinase cascade block extinction learning. Conversely, the NMDA receptor agonist d‐cycloserine facilitates extinction after either systemic administration or intra‐amygdala infusion. Because therapeutic interventions based on extinction procedures are commonly used to treat fear disorders, and because d‐cycloserine is a widely available and safe compound, d‐cycloserine or similar agents might be usefully combined with traditional extinction‐based approaches in the treatment of clinical fear.
Chemotactic Activity in Middle Ear Effusions

A study of chemotactic activity in different middle ear effusions (MEE) was undertaken using a technique that has overcome some of the pitfalls of previous chemotactic investigations on MEE. In the present study, neutrophils were made to migrate upwards toward a chemotactic gradient. Chemotactic activity was differentiated from increased random migration by the use of a two-filter paper system. The study indicated that directed migration or chemotaxis was present in 65% of purulent effusions, in approximately 25% to 30% of serous and seromucinous effusions, but in less than 20% of mucoid effusions. Chemotactic agents in MEE have been discussed. Chemotactic activity for neutrophils may be an important part of the inflammatory response in otitis media with effusion (OME) and responsible for the elimination of bacteria and other foreign particles. On the other hand, prolonged chemotactic activity owing to immunologic or nonimmunologic mechanisms may be responsible for the release of lysosomal enzymes and the subsequent maintenance of an inflammatory response in middle ear tissue. The exact mechanism and nature of the underlying chemotactic response for leukocytes in OME remain to be determined.
In vivo single‐shot, proton‐localized 13C MRS of rhesus monkey brain

A single‐shot, proton‐localized, polarization transfer 13C spectroscopic method was proposed and implemented on a 4.7 T scanner for studying rhesus monkey brains. The polarization transfer sequence was mostly adiabatic, minimizing signal loss due to B1 inhomogeneity. RF pulses in polarization transfer were also used for voxel selection of protons with gradient fields. The transferred 13C magnetization was refocused by additional refocusing adiabatic pulses. With the intravenous infusion of D‐[1‐13C]glucose solution, 13C NMR spectra from a 30 mL voxel were acquired for the resonances of C1 of glucose, C2,3,4 of glutamate and glutamine. The time‐resolved turnover of glutamate, glutamine and aspartate from intravenously infused D‐[1‐13C]glucose at a temporal resolution of 12 min was demonstrated with excellent spectral resolution and signal‐to‐noise ratio. Typically, the half‐height linewidth of the decoupled 13C peaks was ∼4 Hz. Data obtained with infusion of sodium [2‐13C]acetate using the proposed polarization transfer method and data from the carboxylic carbon region using non‐localized acquisition are also presented. Published in 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Early TCR Expression and Aberrant T Cell Development in Mice with Endogenous Prerearranged T Cell Receptor Genes1

The factors that regulate the rate of production of T cells by the thymus remain incompletely defined. To test whether generation of functional T cell receptors limits the rate of thymic T cell export, we made use of a line of mice, LN3αβ, that have endogenously prerearranged TCR genes. The prerearranged TCR genes were expressed abnormally early in hemopoietic development, indicating that RAG-mediated recombination, rather than transcription factor expression, is the key determinant of the initiation of robust TCR transcription. Thymic T cell export rates were similar between wild-type (wt) and LN3αβ mice, indicating that T cell maturation rates in these mice are determined by factors other than TCR gene rearrangement. In competitive bone marrow chimeras, however, LN3αβ thymocytes were out-competed by wt cells and failed to develop beyond the double-negative 4 stage. Furthermore, wt progenitors transplanted intrathymically into LN3αβ mice proliferated excessively, suggesting that increased proliferative signals in the LN3αβ thymus compensate for faulty T cell development driven by early TCR expression.
A Survey on Farrowing Space Utilization Efficiency on Commercial Swine Farms

The objectives of the present study were to characterize farrowing space (FS) utilization efficiency on commercial farms and to examine the relationships between FS utilization efficiency measurements and those possible factors. A questionnaire survey was undertaken to obtain information on FS utilization from 115 breeding farms. The FS data of the 94 farms (81.7%) that returned the questionnaires were coordinated with the respective reproductive performance data. The 94 farms were categorized into two groups on the basis of the upper 25 percentile of number of pigs weaned per FS per year: high-performing farms and ordinary farms based on the FS utilization efficiency. In addition to herd reproductive performance data, a set of time-series data in 13 four-week periods during a year was created for each farm to obtain mean and its coefficient of variation (CV, %) as a measurement of withinfarm variability for number of females served per 4-week. Correlation analysis and regression analysis were applied to the data. Means (±SEM) of pigs weaned per FS per year, litters farrowed per FS per year and the CV of the total number of females served per 4-week in a year were 97.33±2.70 pigs, 9.86± 1.28 litters and 12.82±0.79%, respectively. High-performing farms had 42.91 more pigs weaned per FS per year, 3.89 more litters farrowed per FS per year and 4.83% lower CV for the number of females served than ordinary farms (P<0.05). In modelling, a higher number of pigs weaned per FS per year was associated with annual farrowing rate and a lower CV% for the number of females served 16 weeks previously (P<0.01). In conclusion, a higher FS utilization efficiency appeared to be related to mating management on female pigs. Jpn. J. Swine Science, 52, 4 : 153-160
Dyslexia (specific reading disability).

1. Sally E. Shaywitz, MD* 2. Bennett A. Shaywitz, MD† 1. *Professor of Pediatrics and Co-Director, NICHD-Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention 2. †Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology and Co-Director, NICHD-Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention, New Haven, CT After completing this article, readers should be able to: 1. Define dyslexia and its relationship to intelligence. 2. Distinguish dyslexia from other disorders that feature reading difficulties. 3. Describe the process of diagnosing dyslexia. 4. Characterize the management of dyslexia. 5. Discuss the prognosis of dyslexia. Developmental dyslexia is characterized by an unexpected difficulty in reading in children and adults who otherwise possess the intelligence and motivation considered necessary for accurate and fluent reading. Historically, dyslexia initially was noted in adults in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and developmental dyslexia first was reported in children in 1896. In the 1920s, it was believed that defects in the visual system were to blame for the reversals of letters and words thought to typify dyslexia. Subsequent research has shown, however, that in contrast to a popular myth, children who have dyslexia are not unusually prone to seeing letters or words backwards. Rather, they have significant difficulty in naming the letters, often calling a “b” a “d” or reading “saw” as “was. ” The problem is linguistic, not visual. Dyslexia represents one of the most common problems affecting children and adults; the prevalence in the United States is estimated to be 5% to 17% of school-age children, with as many as 40% reading below grade level. Dyslexia (or specific reading disability) is the most common and most carefully studied of the learning disabilities, affecting at least 80% of all individuals identified as being learning disabled. Recent epidemiologic data indicate that like hypertension and obesity, dyslexia fits a dimensional model. Within the population, reading ability and reading disability occur along a continuum, with reading disability representing the lower tail of a normal distribution of reading ability. Good evidence based on sample surveys of randomly selected populations of children now indicate that dyslexia affects boys and girls comparably (Fig. …
An Empirical Confirmation of Wine‐Related Lifestyle Segments in the Australian Wine Market

The wine industry has been criticised in the past for adopting a mass‐marketing approach but in the current ultra‐competitive wine market the inevitable outcome of a production rather than marketing orientation is almost certain failure. Whereas the Australian domestic wine market is currently experiencing a low growth rate, a precursor to any future growth strategy is a clear understanding of the market. Acceptance of market segmentation as a strategy to target consumers more effectively enhances the focus and differentiation essential to achieve growth in the wine market. Recently a new segmentation approach of lifestyle based on a cognitive deductive perspective that makes lifestyle specific to the area of wine consumption was developed by Bruwer et al. (2001). This process included the development of a wine‐related lifestyle (WRL) measurement research instrument and the identification of five wine‐related lifestyle market segments. In this paper, a study conducted in the Australian wine market on 363 consumers to empirically confirm or disconfirm the previously identified five wine‐related lifestyle segments is reported on. The further theoretically‐driven development and improvement of the WRL research instrument is also described.
Expounding the Structural Elements of Strategic Planning in the Emerging Indian Market Context

The aim of this research study was to expound the factors of strategic planning (SP). Subsequently, in this research study, a model was developed for SP with the organizational variables of management support (MS), flexibility importance (FI), complexity (CX) and organizational climate risk (OCR). In this research study, a structured survey questionnaire was administered on 408 managers for data collection from both public and private sector firms in India. SPSS 20 and AMOS 18 were used for structural equation modelling for data analysis. The research results indicated that the exogenous variables were MS and FI, while the intervening variables were CX and OCR, and SP was the endogenous variable. The research results also indicated that there was significant positive relationship between variables MS and OCR, MS and CX, FI and CX, FI and OCR, OCR and CX, CX and SP and finally OCR and SP. This research was one of the first research studies expounding a model on SP with the exogenous variables of MS and FI and the intervening variables of CX and OCR. This work will help managers in India to frame the process of strategic planning for attaining competitive advantage. The inputs of the study can be utilized to create a management support, which is conducive yet flexible enough to address organizational complexities and organizational risks that confront their firms in an emerging market context. This research was one of the very first studies relating MS and OCR, MS, CX, FI, OCR and SP in an emerging market context.
Significant Causes and Effects of Project Delays in the Niger Delta Region, Nigeria

Social infrastructure and amenities are crucial to creating sustainable communities. The Niger Delta region has been severely deprived by a lack of basic social amenities. In 2009, the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan (NDRDMP) was launched to ensure well-coordinated developmental programmes. Implementation of the master plan is expected to be completed within fifteen years at a cost of over USD 36,000,000. The continuous rise in the inflation rate in Nigeria would increase the cost of implementing the master plan, if the projects are not completed on scheduled time. Although most of these social amenities projects ‘construction works began over the past years, their completion times have, however, been pushed back beyond the stipulated completion durations. Additionally, delays in infrastructural projects could impede oil exploration and cause negative impacts on the socio-economic activities of the Nigerian state. This, therefore, poses serious concern to the developmental partners in the region. This study investigates the major causes and effects of construction project delays in the Niger Delta Region.
Transfer function bounds on performance of binary turbo-coding followed by M-ary orthogonal signal mapping through interleaver

We obtain upper bounds on the bit-error rate (BER) for maximum-likelihood (ML) decoding of binary turbo-codes followed by M-ary orthogonal signal mapping through a uniform interleaver. We use the transfer function bounding techniques to obtain the above bounds. Thus, the upper bounds correspond to the average bound over all interleavers of a given length. We apply the techniques to parallel concatenated coding (PCC) schemes where recursive convolutional codes are used as constituent codes. We present the average bounds on the BER of turbo codes with constraint length 3 for M-ary orthogonal signals on additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels. We show that for a given increase in interleaver length, the improvement in BER is larger for turbo-coded 4-ary orthogonal signals than for turbo-coded binary orthogonal signals. We also show that the coding gains of turbo code for M-ary orthogonal signals becomes smaller as M is increased when the block length N is short.
The Role of Competitive Analysis in Implementing a market Orientation

Considers the importance of implementing a market orientation, highlighting the difficulty in focusing on competitors rather than customers. Offers an approach to competitive analysis taking into account the validity of both competitor and customer orientations. Argues that this type of method can help managers to maintain or build their position in relation to competition. Illustrates the stages involved in customer‐based competitive analysis with a case example.
The Influence of Information Technology and Communication Supply Chain Management Performance for Greater SME Manufacturing in Aguascalientes

In this research, it aims to show how the information technology and communication (ICT) have influence on the supply chain management in manufacturing SMEs, likewise, analyze how it affects this relationship to operational performance in these organizations, however, for these companies, not all ICT can be adapted to any business, results of the statistical analysis indicate that employers in their interest to adopt ICTs require taking into account the complexity the supply chain to ensure that adoption is not a bad investment and especially the approach to maximize performance in these organizations. The research was conducted with a random sample of 120 SMEs in the manufacturing sector in Aguascalientes during the months of March and April 2012 through a survey designed under the technical fieldwork aimed at managers responsible for coordinating operations Manufacturing of SMEs. The analysis in this study implies that employers establish strategies to enable all workers to improve their skills in the subject of ICT and in this sense, the results are to be useful for decision making and for the better Management of supply chain.
Research on Method of Non-stationary Vibration Signals Processing of Heavy Vehicle Gear Case Bearing

The vibration signals in gear case shifting process is nonstationary signals. The ways which dispose stationary signals can't be used for nonstationary signals effectively. And because of the complexity of gear case, bearing fault signals is hard to pick up because of violent background noise. This article adopts the method of equal-angle sampling, transforming frequency changing signals in time-domain into order stationary signals in angle-domain. Then picks up bearing fault signals effectively with continuous wavelet transform.
Are There Rational Bubbles in the US Stock Market? Overview and a New Test

AbstractA speculative bubble is usually defined as the difference between the market value of a security and its fundamental value. Although there are several important theoretical issues surrounding the topic of asset bubbles, the existence of bubbles is inherently an empirical issue that has not been settled yet. This paper reviews several important tests and offers one more methodology that improves upon the existing ones. The new test is applied to the annual U.S. stock market data spanning over a century and at the monthly frequency covering the post-war period. Although we find evidence of stock price bubble in both cases, the post-war period exhibit only positive component whereas the annual data exhibit some episode of negative bubble.
Mutational Analysis of Two PWW Sequence Motifs in Human Aminoacylase 1

Abstract Human and porcine aminoacylase 1 (Acy1) contain two peculiar sequence motifs located near the interface between the two major domains of the Acy1 subunit. Each motif consists of the sequence PWW preceded by four strongly polar residues. In order to examine the significance of these sequences for Acy1 stability and/or catalysis, we used site-directed mutagenesis of human Acy1 to replace the tryptophan residues in either motif with alanines. Both mutants showed unchanged zinc binding and normal substrate affinity. Modification in PWW motif 1 (residues 192–194) and motif 2 (residues 321–323) resulted in markedly reduced specific activity in the first case and diminished stability in either mutant. Fluorescence quenching measurements showed that all four tryptophans of the PWW motifs are solvent-accessible. We conclude that PWW motif 1 maintains the native conformation of the active site by creating the proper spatial relationship between dimerization domains and catalytic domains, while motif PWW2 is necessary for the stability of the catalytic domain.