Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Are vasomotor symptoms associated with alterations in hemostatic and inflammatory markers? Findings from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation

Objective:Emerging research suggests links between menopausal hot flashes and cardiovascular risk. The mechanisms underlying these associations are unclear due, in part, to the incomplete understanding of the physiology of hot flashes. We aimed to examine the longitudinal associations between hot flashes/night sweats and both inflammatory and hemostatic markers, controlling for cardiovascular risk factors and estradiol concentrations. Methods:Participants in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (n = 3,199), a longitudinal cohort study, were aged 42 to 52 years at cohort entry. Women completed interviews (hot flashes, night sweats: none, 1-5, and ≥6 d in the past 2 weeks), physical measures (blood pressure, height, weight), and a blood draw (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, factor VIIc, tissue plasminogen activator antigen [tPA-ag], fibrinogen, glucose, serum estradiol) yearly for 8 years. Hot flashes/night sweats were examined in relation to each inflammatory/hemostatic marker in linear mixed models adjusting for demographic factors, cardiovascular risk factors, and medication use, as well as serum estradiol. Results:Compared with experiencing no flashes, reporting hot flashes was associated with higher tPA-aglog (hot flashes 1-5 d: percent change, or % change [95% CI], 3.88 [2.22-5.58]; P < 0.0001; ≥6 d: % change [95% CI], 4.11 [1.95-6.32]; P < 0.001) and higher factor VIIclog (hot flashes ≥6 d: % change [95% CI], 2.13 [0.80-3.47]; P < 0.01) in multivariable models. Findings persisted after adjusting for estradiol. Findings for night sweats were similar but attenuated with adjustment. Conclusions:Frequent hot flashes were associated with higher factor VIIc and tPA-ag. Hemostatic pathways may be relevant to understanding hot flash physiology and links between hot flashes and cardiovascular risk.
Unexpected Earnings, Firm Size, and Trading Volume around Quarterly Earnings Announcements

This study hypothesizes and finds that both the magnitude and duration of the trading volume reaction to quarterly earnings announcements are increasing functions of unexpected earnings and decreasing functions of a factor affecting the availability of predisclosure information: firm size. In contrast to unexpected earnings, which are not known until earnings are actually announced, firm size can be assessed prior to the announcement. Evidence that market reactions to quarterly earnings announcements differ systematically with a variable such as firm size, whose value is known before the announcement, may be relevant to policymakers in evaluating the potential benefits of differential accounting disclosure requirements (especially those based on firm size). Additional analysis, however, also confirms the incremental value of the actual earnings disclosures: even after controlling for the already known firm size, unexpected earnings are still positively related to the magnitude and duration of the trading volume reaction. T HIS study identifies, at the aggregate market level, factors that appear to be systematically associated with investors' use of accounting disclosures to make trading decisions. ' In particular, this study hypothesizes that unexpected earnings (UE, hereafter) and firm size are related to both the magnitude and duration of trading volume reaction around quarterly earnings
School Innovative Management Model and Strategies: The Perspective of Organizational Learning

Abstract Along with knowledge-based economy coming, knowledge and innovation have been the core elements of national competitive power. Education plays an important role to improve individual or organizational creativity and innovational power. School innovational management is conducive to promoting creativity education. Additionally, it helps schools to acquire competitive power so as to develop constantly. This study discusses the related concepts and content of learning school and school innovative management; analyzes the impact factors of school organizational learning; and establishes the model of school innovative management based organizational learning. From the perspective of organizational learning, the study presents the strategies of school innovative management using for reference for China's schools.
Complementation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae coq7 Mutants by Mitochondrial Targeting of the Escherichia coli UbiF Polypeptide

Coenzyme Q (ubiquinone or Q) functions in the respiratory electron transport chain and serves as a lipophilic antioxidant. In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Q biosynthesis requires nine Coq proteins (Coq1–Coq9). Previous work suggests both an enzymatic activity and a structural role for the yeast Coq7 protein. To define the functional roles of yeast Coq7p we test whether Escherichia coli ubiF can functionally substitute for yeast COQ7. The ubiF gene encodes a flavin-dependent monooxygenase that shares no homology to the Coq7 protein and is required for the final monooxygenase step of Q biosynthesis in E. coli. The ubiF gene expressed at low copy restores growth of a coq7 point mutant (E194K) on medium containing a non-fermentable carbon source, but fails to rescue a coq7 null mutant. However, expression of ubiF from a multicopy vector restores growth and Q synthesis for both mutants, although with a higher efficiency in the point mutant. We attribute the more efficient rescue of the coq7 point mutant to higher steady state levels of the Coq3, Coq4, and Coq6 proteins and to the presence of demethoxyubiquinone, the substrate of UbiF. Coq7p co-migrates with the Coq3 and Coq4 polypeptides as a high molecular mass complex. Here we show that addition of Q to the growth media also stabilizes the Coq3 and Coq4 polypeptides in the coq7 null mutant. The data suggest that Coq7p, and the lipid quinones (demethoxyubiquinone and Q) function to stabilize other Coq polypeptides.
A multi-objective price-based model in a combined market of energy with uncertain capacity availability

It is analyzed a price based multi-objective payment and revenue optimization model considering the short-term impact of the uncertain availability supply of generation units in the operation of a power system. The model considers a multi-period combined market of energy and ancillary reserve services. A hybrid strategy is formulated based on a multi-objective bi-level mixed linear model, which uses a combined stochastic strategy with possible scenarios and the Monte Carlo Simulation. Expected financial indexes and allocations produced by the hybrid model are compared with similar ones produced by the usual Stochastic Bid Cost Minimization (SBCM) model. Results show that it is possible to establish tradeoffs between expected payments and revenues without unnecessary benefit (or penalize) agents considering as well the impact of the required security levels and scenarios of units' failures.
Improving the performance of logistics by means of harnessing the green supply chain practices - a case study of Dutch truck Industry

Green supply chain practices have been adopted in various supply chain management context, but almost always separately and with little understanding of their influence on logistics performance. Logistics performance influences the organizational performance in the supply chain context. Logistics performance is positively impacted by supply chain management strategy and which in turn, directly impacts the financial performance of organizations. This research paper aims to explore the relationship between green practices in supply chain management and logistics performance. This relationship is explored in the context of Dutch truck industry using the case study method of qualitative analysis and desk research. Research questions are articulated and are answered using desk research and empirical data derived from the case studies conducted in the selected organizations within the Dutch truck industry. Cross case analysis is done to identify the most important green SC practices considered by the managers. The logistics performance indicators which are most apt and widely used as means to evaluate the impact of green practices on logistics performance is also be identified. A relationship model is also derived from the data analysis showing the influence of green SC practices on logistics performance. This model shows as to which green SC practices have most influence on the economic, operational and environmental performance measures of logistics of an organization. Lastly based on the findings of the case studies two strategies are formulated to improve the logistics performance by means of harnessing the green supply chain practices.
Highway and Railway Infrastructure, Real Income and Structural Breaks

Investment in transportation infrastructure contributes to economic development directly by lowering transportation costs and facilitating trade. Services provided by transport infrastructure are fundamental to economic activities due to enhanced mobility of goods and services. The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the transportation infrastructure and economic growth in Turkey for 1970-2006 period. Empirical analysis from cointegration tests with and without structural break show that the long run effects of real income, highway length, railway length and labor force on real income vary within tests with respect to sign and significance. However, the relationship of the share of transportation in fixed capital investments and real income is positive and significant for all tests. This shows that private and public policies toward transportation infrastructure should target investments and improvements in the quality of transportation, not quantity.
Transcarotid aortic valve-in-valve implantation for degenerated stentless aortic root conduits with severe regurgitation: a case series.

OBJECTIVES Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is routinely performed via the transfemoral and the transapical route. Subclavian and direct aortic access are described alternatives for TAVI. Recently, the transcarotid approach has been shown to be feasible among patients with limited vascular access and severe native aortic valve stenosis. We aim to investigate the feasibility of transcatheter aortic valve-in-valve implantation via the transcarotid access in patients with severe aortic regurgitation due to degenerated stentless Shelhigh conduits using the 29 mm Medtronic CoreValve bioprosthesis. METHODS Three patients with complex vascular anatomy undergoing transcatheter valve-in-valve implantation via the transcarotid route were enrolled in the study. The procedure was performed under general anaesthesia using surgical cut-down to facilitate vascular access. Immediate procedural results as well as echocardiographic and clinical outcomes after 30 days and 6 months of the follow-up were recorded and analysed. RESULTS All three patients underwent unproblematic TAVI and experienced dramatic improvement of symptoms. Mean transvalvular gradient was 3, 6 and 11 mmHg, respectively. Effective orifice area ranged between 1.7 and 2.2 cm(2). Only mild paravalvular regurgitation was detected by echocardiography after 30 days of the follow-up. CONCLUSIONS The transcarotid approach can be safely performed for valve-in-valve procedures using the Medtronic CoreValve in patients with limited vascular access. It enables accurate positioning and implantation of the prosthesis.
Isolation of lactic acid bacteria from sugar cane juice and production of lactic acid from selected improved strains

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were isolated from fresh sugar cane juice. It was found that several isolates exhibited a clear zone and growth on deMan, Rogosa, Sharpe (MRS) agar supplemented with sodium azide, bromocresol purple and sucrose. However, only 17 isolates which formed large yellow areas were selected for further investigations. These isolates were further identified according to their morphological and biochemical characteristics. It was found that 10 of these isolates were homofermenters. One of these 10 isolates was selected for mutagenesis using chemical (Ethidium bromide) and physical (UV-B) mutagens followed by biochemical characterisation. A total of 112 mutants were isolated and 9 homofermentative isolates were further investigated for their ability to produce lactic acid. 1H-NMR spectroscopy confirmed that all mutant isolates produced lactic acid as the sole fermentation product.
THE LOGIC OF EXPLORATORY AND CONFIRMATORY DATA ANALYSIS

Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) and Confirmatory Data Analysis (CDA) are two statistical methods widely used in scientific research. They are typically applied in sequence: first, EDA helps form a model or a hypothesis to be tested, and then CDA provides the tools to confirm if that model or hypothesis holds true. When both analyses are applied within a single experiment, two main types of errors can occur that fall under the general term of selection bias. One error is the biased selection of the set of data used to confirm the model derived by the EDA. The other error occurs when CDA becomes part of EDA instead of being applied after EDA completion. As a result of selection bias, overfitting of a model can occur in a manner that makes the model stand true only narrowly, i.e. for the specific sample from which it was derived, without any generalizability. This bias in planning the analysis occurs frequently in the literature. This paper provides the theoretical background and the conceptual tools by which to identify such errors in the literature and to carry out the analysis properly. Applications of EDA and 35 exploratory and Confirmatory data analysis CDA in medical biomarker research are used as paradigms for clarification of concepts. “έστιν ουν επιστήμη δόξα αληθής μετά λόγου” (Science is affirmed knowledge through logical arguments.)
Accelerated Relative Camera Pose from Oriented Features

Determining relative camera pose is a fundamental task in many computer vision systems. Various algorithms have been proposed for determining relative camera pose from feature correspondences, usually based on point correspondences. These correspondences are commonly found using SIFT and similar feature detectors, and Random Sample and Consensus (RANSAC) is commonly applied to identify and remove incorrect matches. The 'points' found by these feature detectors, however, are not simply two-dimensional image locations -- they have scale and orientation as well. The orientation associated with SIFT-like features can be used to quickly identify many incorrect pose hypotheses in a RANSAC process. This can reduce the number of camera poses that are evaluated with more expensive techniques, with a corresponding decrease in pose estimation time.
Investigation of challenges of implementing performance contracts in kenya revenue Authority, Southern region

Performance contracting In Kenya was relatively new concept which had been implemented for a period of less than five years ago. The government of Kenya, sought to follow in the footsteps of the private sector, introduced the contracts in 2003. It aimed at enhancing the performance of the civil servants through improved accountability and productivity. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), being a part of the GoK, also had to implement these performance contracts. The implementation of the contracts was nonetheless inhibited by various hitches and challenges which the study sought to unveil. The study aimed at identifying the extent to which the employees' attitudes at KRA, the performance measurement instruments, the external environment, the training and skills of the staff as well as the working conditions challenged the implementation of the performance contracts at the Authority. Chapter two reviewed by Kaplan and Norton, Okunishi, Pfeiffer, Sokoya amongst others who had researched on the performance contracts and its related challenges. Literature gaps as far as local content on performance contracts was lacking or scarce. Descriptive research design was used for the study as it seeks to have the respondents to describe factors that challenge the implementation of performance contracts at the Kenya Revenue Authority. The study targeted 274 managersof Kenya Revenue Authority at the southern region stratified according to their levels. A sample size of 42% was taken to achieve 116 respondents. (Cochran, 1963; and Israel, 1992). 94 respondents returned their questionnaires making it an 81% response rate. Simple random sampling using predetermined intervals was used to identify the respondents. Primary data was obtained by use of self administered structured questionnaires distributed to the respondents and collected after two days; analysis was then conducted using descriptive statistics. Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) was used to aid in the analysis. The data was presented using pie charts, bar graphs and frequency tables. The findings were that KRA was seriously challenged by working conditions, employees' attitudes, measurement instrument and external environment. The only factor that KRA was performing minutely well in regard to performance contract was Training.
Adsorptive Stripping Voltammetric Determination of Mangiferin Using an Activated Chitosan Modified Carbon Paste Electrode

A medium molecular weight powdered chitosan modified carbon paste electrode was used to investigate the electrochemical behaviour by cyclic voltammetry of the pharmacologically-active ingredient mangiferin (MG). An irreversible system was observed, with a peak at ﹢0.55 V (vs Ag/AgCl). The peak current increases about fourfold, at the modified electrode in comparison with that recorded at the chitosan free carbon paste electrode. This allowed the use of adsorptive stripping voltammetry to develop a simple and sensitive electroanalytical method for the determination of MG. The influence of key parameters was investigated, including the electrolysis potential, the preconcentration time, the pH of supporting electrolyte and MG concentration. Upon optimisation of these parameters, the electrode response was found to be directly proportional to the concentration of MG in the range from 2.06 × 10﹣6 M to 6.74 × 10﹣5 M, leading to a detection limit of 1.84 μM for 240 s preconcentration at ﹣0.1 V. A mechanism was also proposed for the electrochemical oxidation of MG.
The Impacts of Integrated Youth Training Farm as a Capacity Building Center for Youth Agricultural Empowerment in Kwara State, Nigeria

Capacity building in agriculture has become imperative in Nigeria due to the high rate of youth unemployment, over-dependence on white collar job and the need to prepare a replacement for the aging local subsistence farmers. To achieve this trend, some states in Nigeria established youth training farms to empower the youth in agriculture sector. Integrated Youth Training Farm Program was established by the Kwara State government as a youth empowerment strategy to reduce unemployment and associated social problems. About 418 youths were trained through the capacity building program between 2006 and 2013 as new generation of modern commercial farmers. In this regard, this study assesses the impact of the Integrated Youth Farm Training Program on youth in Kwara State. Using qualitative case study technique, 30 informants who included the youth participants, implementers and government officials were interviewed. Also, documents, Focus Group Discussion and observation were used as the researchers remain the main instrument. The findings revealed that, the capacity building program has made tremendous impact directly and indirectly on the lives of the youth in Kwara State. Eventually, the success of the program has led to multiplier effects that will subsequently go a long way in empowering the teeming youth population socially, economically and psychologically if the challenges of sustainability are adequately addressed. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015. v6n5p524
The construction and exploration of attribute-value taxonomies in data mining

With the widespread computerization in science, business, and government, the efficient and effective discovery of interesting information and knowledge from large databases becomes essential. Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) or Data Mining plays a key role in data analysis and has been found to be beneficial in many fields. Much previous research and many applications have focused on the discovery of knowledge from the raw data, which means the discovered patterns or knowledge are limited to the primitive level and restricted to the provided data source. It is often desirable to discover knowledge at multiple conceptual levels, from specific to general, which will provide a compact and easy interpretive understanding for the decision makers. Against this background, this thesis aims to construct and exploit Attribute-Value Taxonomies (AVT) for compact and accurate classifier learning. For taxonomy construction, we first introduce the concept of an ontology, a scheme of knowledge representation which is domain shareable and reusable. An algorithm is developed to implement the extraction of taxonomies from an existing ontology. Apart from obtaining the taxonomies from the pre-existing knowledge, we also consider a way of automatic generation. Some typical clustering algorithms are chosen to build the tree hierarchies for both nominal and numeric attributes based on the distribution of classes that co-occur with the values. Although this automated approach cannot guarantee each generated taxonomy has the same semantic meanings as manually defined ones, these taxonomies reveal the statistical distribution characteristic of the data, and can be easily transformed to humanunderstandable forms. In order to generate much simpler and readable trees and smaller, but more useful, rule sets, we propose methods of using Attribute-Value Taxonomies (AVT) in the decision tree and association rule classifier learning procedure. We illustrate our approach by using the C5 tree induction algorithm, and Apriori association rule algorithm using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis, respectively. We test our approach on two real world data sets from the UCI repository. The experimental results show that the AVT-guided learning algorithm enables us to learn a classifier that is compact but still maintains reasonable accuracy.
Performance Pay, Performance Measurement, and Decision Delegation in German Manufacturing Firms

In this paper, I examine the complementarity of performance measurement, performance pay for production workers, and delegation of decisions to production workers in German manufacturing. I argue and find that combining the three management practices yields higher financial performance than the individual contribution of each practice to financial performance. This paper is one of the first to report evidence on complimentarities between management accounting and organisational design choices for employees at the lowest level in the firm. The complementarities can explain why firms benefit from adopting a system of management accounting practices.