Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regulation of bone marrow stem cells through oscillatory shear stresses - A heart valve tissue engineering perspective

OF THE DISSERTATION REGULATION OF BONE MARROW STEM CELLS THROUGH OSCILLATORY SHEAR STRESSES A HEART VALVE TISSUE ENGINEERING PERSPECTIVE by Sasmita Rath Florida International University, 2015 Miami, Florida Professor Sharan Ramaswamy, Major Professor Heart valve disease occurs in adults as well as in pediatric population due to age-related changes, rheumatic fever, infection or congenital condition. Current treatment options are limited to mechanical heart valve (MHV) or bio-prosthetic heart valve (BHV) replacements. Lifelong anti-coagulant medication in case of MHV and calcification, durability in case of BHV are major setbacks for both treatments. Lack of somatic growth of these implants require multiple surgical interventions in case of pediatric patients. Advent of stem cell research and regenerative therapy propose an alternative and potential tissue engineered heart valves (TEHV) treatment approach to treat this life threatening condition. TEHV has the potential to promote tissue growth by replacing and regenerating a functional native valve. Hemodynamics plays a crucial role in heart valve tissue formation and sustained performance. The focus of this study is to understand the role of physiological shear stress and flexure effects on de novo HV tissue formation as well as resulting gene and protein expression. A bioreactor system was used to generate physiological shear stress and cyclic flexure. Human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell derived tissue constructs were exposed to native valve-like physiological conditioning. Responses of these tissue constructs to the valve-relevant stress states along
How the Interplay Between Subjective and Objective Financial Risk Influences Consumers’ Expectations, Information Search, and Product Satisfaction

Uploaded to CBS Research Portal in accordance with the terms of the journal: “The authors can use their paper in part or in full on any use without asking the JMT’s permission to re-use their own work and to publish their article in printed form, electronic form, and other data storage media, transmission over the internet and other communication networks and in any other electronic form. They are requested to cite the original publication source of their work and link to the published version. ”
Corruption and externalities: Assessing the role of intentions

Els estudis experimentals modelen la corrupcio com una forma de comportament establert sobre la base de relacions de reciprocitat que genera externalitats negatives per a tercers. Els resultats sobre com les externalitats negatives influeixen en les decisions relacionades amb la corrupcio dels individus no son concloents. Si be s’ha demostrat que les intencions (imputades) tenen un impacte en les preferencies socials i les avaluacions d’amabilitat dels participants en una amplia gamma de situacions, poca cosa se sap sobre si els participants prenen en consideracio i de quina manera les intencions (imputades) de tercers en contextos de corrupcio. La suposada diferencia en avaluar les externalitats en funcio de si afecten jugadors actius o jugadors passius te implicacions importants per a la corrupcio en la vida real. En molts casos de corrupcio, les externalitats negatives afecten (conjunts de) «jugadors passius», com «la societat en general». En altres casos, no obstant aixo, jugadors mes actius (com el cap politic d’un departament governamental) son objecte d’externalitats negatives. Els models de reciprocitat prediuen que les avaluacions d’amabilitat respecte dels tercers que son objecte d’externalitats negatives entrarien en les consideracions de les parts en una transaccio corrupta en el darrer cas, pero no quan es tracta de jugadors passius. Tanmateix, aquesta important prediccio no ha estat provada empiricament. Trobem que les intencions de tercers no afecten el comportament directament sino que afecten la forma en que es percep l’amabilitat dels altres.
Prognostic value of adaptive and innate immune system in soft tissue sarcomas

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to clarify the prognostic significance of lymphocyte infiltration in soft tissue sarcomas (STS). Prognostic markers in potentially curable STS should guide therapy after surgical resection. The immune status at the time of resection may be important, but the prognostic significance of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes is controversial as the immune system has conflicting roles during cancer development. Experimental Design: Tissue microarrays from 249 patients with STS were constructed from duplicate cores of viable and representative neoplastic tumor areas. Immunohistochemistry was used to evaluate the CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD20+ and CD45+ lymphocytes in tumors. Results: In univariate analyses, increased numbers of CD4+ (P = 0.008) and CD20+ (P = 0.006) lymphocytes in tumor correlated significantly with an improved disease-specific survival (DSS) in patients with wide resection margins (n = 108). In patients with non-wide resection margins (n = 141) increased numbers of CD3+ (P = 0.028) lymphocytes in tumor correlated significantly with shorter DSS. In multivariate analyses, a high number of CD20+ lymphocytes (HR = 5.5, CI 95% = 1.6–18.6, P = 0.006) in the tumor was an independent positive prognostic factor for DSS in patients with wide resections margins. Conclusions: High density of CD20+ lymphocytes in STS with wide resection margins is an independent positive prognostic indicator for these patients. Further research is needed to define if CD20+ cells can modify tumors in a way that reduces disease progression and metastatic potential. Citation: Sorbye SW, Kilvaer T, Valkov A, Donnem T, Smeland E, et al. (2011) Prognostic Impact of Lymphocytes in Soft Tissue Sarcomas. PLoS ONE 6(1): e14611. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0014611 Editor: Niels Olsen Saraiva Câmara, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil Received May 26, 2010; Accepted January 5, 2011; Published January 27, 2011 Copyright: 2011 Sorbye et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: The work was supported by the Northern Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Nord RHF, http://www.helse-nord.no/? lang = en_US). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: sveinung.sorbye@unn.no
Modelling patient length of stay in public hospitals in Mexico

This thesis is concerned with the modelling of patient length of stay in public hospitals in Mexico. Patient length of stay is the most commonly worldwide employed outcome measure for hospital resource consumption and performance monitoring. Most of the hospitals around the world use average length of stay as starting point for resource planning. However average estimates frequently gives non-accurate results due to the high variability of the length of stay data. The reason for such high variability may be attributable to the diversity in the patient population and the environment where the patient is treated. Through a systematic review of the literature on methods and models in the field of calculating and predicting patient length of stay, this research highlights the areas of opportunity and research gap from previous studies and practices, and proposes the use of finite mixture models to approximate the distribution of length of stay. Also, these models are proposed as the foundation of more sophisticated models designed to include the internal and external factors associated with LoS. In this context, the thesis proposes three different approaches to explore such factors: individual-based approach, group-based approach and multilevel group-based approach. These interrelated approaches allow a better understanding of the diversity in the patient population and enable length of stay predictions for individual patients, and for cohorts of patients within and between hospitals. In addition, this research is built and evaluated using data from all types of patients treated at two public hospitals operating in Mexico. It is the consideration of the full case-mix of these healthcare facilities that gives this research its unique nature.
Beliefs and expectations of driving learners about autonomous driving

Autonomous driving is a topic that generates great interest and social debate in the field of transport and road safety. Professionals working on vehicle technologies, telecommunications engineers, and vehicle manufacturers say it is an imminent reality and that autonomous vehicles will be available in the near future. But there are still many issues to be resolved and many challenges to overcome. However, the opinion of end users has not been explored very much so far. This study aims to investigate the beliefs and expectations of 138 Spanish driving students about autonomous driving, through an online questionnaire designed "ad hoc". Descriptive statistics and frequencies were determined for appropriate demographic variables such as gender, age range, and study level, or employment status. An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare how the students would feel if they used an autonomous vehicle, preference for using the autonomous vehicle in different situations, advantages and disadvantages of autonomous driving, and some concerns about autonomous driving by gender. Results showed that 77.5% of driving learners thought of an autonomous vehicle as a vehicle with a system that is able travel alone, but that the driver can drive manually at will; 39.9% thought that vehicles that do not need a driver are a very useful system; and 35, 5% believed that such cars would be available between 2017 and 2020, although 79% did not consider buying an autonomous vehicle. In the event of an accident, 50% of the students believed that the driver and the vehicle manufacturer should share the responsibility. Regarding preferences, 73.2% preferred to drive themselves rather than ride in an autonomous vehicle because driving is a pleasure for 51.4%, and they would only use it in case of alcohol, drug, or medicine consumption, or when fatigued, stressed, or in a monotonous driving situation. Public policies and manufacturers should take these results into consideration.
Integration of Facility Location and Equipment Allocation in Health Care Management

Goal: This study aims at solving a location problem of Medical Specialties Centers (MSCs) and medical care equipment allocation. Addressing both problems simultaneously is an opportunity to improve public health service quality in the long-term since the literature traditionally treats these problems separately. Design / Methodology / Approach: The challenge consists in maximizing demand satisfaction with the minimum resource allocation in the public health care reality, where there is limited resource availability and high demand for medical services. For that, it was developed an integrated mathematical model, throughout mixed linear programming. The problem is a case study applied to the secondary public health care level in a Brazilian state. The method is generic and suitable to set the location and allocate resources in health care if the decision maker’s intention is to maximize the use of specialists’ assistance and medical exams. Results: The results reveal possible improvements in accessibility. Among the insights, the state government should hire 4% more specialists and acquire 1.5% more equipment to assist 99% of population demand for health care service on the secondary level. Limitation of the investigation: Usually, one appointment can result in more than one medical exam referral. However, this study considers that each specialist meeting refers to only one exam per consultation. Practical implications: This study contributes to healthcare planning, suggesting a better distribution and allocation of facilities, equipment, and professionals. Moreover, the study proposes accessibility improvements to health unit centers. Originality / Value: The main contribution of this work is the new integrated approach to public health care planning. The system proposes the reduction of access inequality and the improvement of the quality of health care services.
The frontier of digital opportunity: Smart city implementation in small, rural and remote communities in Canada

Studies of ‘smart cities’ in Canada primarily focus on large cities but not small, rural and remote communities. As a result, we have a limited understanding of the incentive structures for smaller, remote and rural communities to pursue smart city development. This knowledge deficit is concerning, since the introduction of technology can hold a number of unique benefits for these communities, including easier connections to the rest of Canada and large urban centres, reputation building, improved service delivery and enhanced opportunities for residents. Drawing upon localised forms of knowledge creation, policy development theories, adoption and local competition literature and primary interviews with private and public officials, we examine the challenges and opportunities of ‘smart city’ implementation through case studies of small and rural municipalities in Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia and a remote community, Iqaluit, Nunavut. We find that collaboration is essential for rural and remote pursuit of smart city development and is necessary to counteract the limitations of capacity, scale and digital divides. Challenges aside, however, the primary rationale for adoption of smart city technology remains the same regardless of size: enhanced quality of life for residents and sustained community health.
The Application of International Standards and Creative Projects in the Formation of Legal Awareness

The article suggests the means and ways influencing the legal conscience of various states and communities’ representatives in the field of legal relations in foreign countries. The purpose of the study is to identify common features of law protection measures in the field of rulemaking and public morality for building a strategy for the formation of a sustainable legal awareness and sense of justice. Methods and materials: intersubjective approach and using methods of document analysis, including posted online legal acts, training materials, and mass media; classification, generalization and synthesis. Results: on the one hand, the formation of legal awareness must base on the level of existing knowledge and the target audience (depending on such parameters as age or profession). On the other hand, it is necessary to cover all available groups of means from traditional (books, radio, direct communication and art exhibitions) to the most modern ones (computer tests and quizzes, Internet portals to maintain the transparency of relations between subjects of law, media creativity). Conclusions: the formation of legal awareness in contemporary globalized risk society should include the impact on both thinking and perception; both on legal consciousness itself, and the moral consciousness. The authors develop several ways of application of the findings adapting international standards of legal awareness to the national mentality (using the Russian example) to enhance the value of the law, which will help law enforcement specialists to provide more constructive, effective and theoretically sound reports on their activities.
A Model Selection Paradigm for Modeling Recurrent Adenoma Data in Polyp Prevention Trials

Colorectal polyp prevention trials (PPTs) are randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials that evaluate some chemo-preventive agent and include participants who will be followed for at least 3 years to compare the recurrence rates (counts) of adenomas. A large proportion of zero counts will likely be observed in both groups at the end of the observation period. Poisson general linear models (GLMs) are usually employed for estimation of recurrence in PPTs. Other models, including the negative binomial (NB2), zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP), and zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) may be better suited to handle zero-inflation or other forms of overdispersion that are common in count data. A model selection paradigm that determines a statistical approach for choosing the best fitting model for recurrence data is described. An example using a subset from a large Phase III clinical trial indicated that the ZINB model was the best fitting model for the data.
Penjadualan kerja berkala jururawat menggunakan kaedah pengaturcaraan gol 0-1

The continuous provision of nursing service to patients is an important task. The continuity of services, i.e. 24 hours a day 7 days a week needs shifts working environment that may affect the changes in nurses’ daily social life and may cause health problems. Thus, the development of a quality nurse rostering model that is acceptable and fair to everyone is a must in order to ensure there is quality in this continuous service. Rostering process involves some rules and constraints based on hospital’s policies and nurses’ preferences. The hospital’s policies or objectives among others are to ensure the minimum number of nurses on duty for each shift, to avoid any isolated days on and to consider the nurses request for annual leave. Meanwhile the nurses’ preferences are having the same number of days on per schedule, the number of morning shifts more than the evening shifts and at least 1 day off during weekend for 2 weeks planning period. The developed model is illustrated on data from a local hospital. A 0-1 goal programming technique is applied to building the nurse rostering model because of its ability to produce the model with multiple objectives. This work schedule will be generated every 2 weeks. The result obtained by Lingo software shows that the developed nurse rostering model fulfilled the hospital’s policies and the nurses’ preferences. This rostering model is considered to perform better than the current manually developed schedule where the distributions of shifts are more even among the nurses in terms of the number of morning, afternoon and night shifts.
Analysis of Breast Cancer survival Data with missing information on stage of disease and cause of death

As the follow-up increase, the time available for quality checking ofthe death certiﬁcates decreases and therefore the statistician has toface the dilemma whether to censor the data at an earlier period oftime, where complete information on the endpoint is fully available,or to try using all the data by imputing the missing value of causeof death.
Measuring the Company’s Real Performance by Physical Capital Maintenance

The measurement of profit depends on the concepts of capital maintenance used by the company in preparing its financial statements. The IASB Framework offers the option of choosing between two concepts of capital maintenance - financial capital and physical capital. This study highlights the adverse consequences of financial capital maintenance and supports for the recognition of profits by maintaining the physical capital. In this study we proposed a theoretical model to calculate the real profit by maintaining the physical capital. The model is applied for all Romanian production companies listed with available data by the restatement of information disclosed in the financial statements. The results demonstrate that the model based on physical capital maintenance captures the company’s real performance. This model could be an alternative to the model based on financial capital maintenance which operates nowadays on the financial markets.
Intellectual capital and the firm: evolution and research trends

Purpose The phenomenon of intellectual capital in the firm has been deeply researched and immensely debated in the management literature in recent years. After three decades of evolution, it has become established as a mature field of research. At this point, a review of its theoretical foundations and current and future evolution provides us with the state of the art of intellectual capital in the firm. The purpose of this paper is to present a quantitative review of the existing literature on intellectual capital in the firm. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors present a quantitative review of the existing literature on intellectual capital in the firm. To do so, the authors searched the JCR-SSCI database from 1990 to 2016 and identified 553 citing documents; these were split into three main periods in order to identify the interactions and path dependencies existing between different foundations of research. In addition, areas of current and future research connected with the theoretical foundations were identified. For these purposes, the authors used both co-citation analyses as well as bibliographical coupling. Findings In this paper, three main stages of IC evolution have been identified with the main topics and research frames, as well as their path dependencies. Additionally, four main areas of current and future development of IC have been identified: IC measurement, IC in new business models, IC disclosure, and its role in social capital and human resource practices. Research limitations/implications The present bibliometric study is a quantitative review of papers published in the Web of Science database. Originality/value By its dimensions ‒ broad academic disciplines and longitudinal character ‒ this bibliometric study constitutes a new quantitative review of the IC discipline, both drawing its intellectual evolution in the last decades, and showing current and future research trends in IC and the firm.
Nonfinancial performance measures and earnings management

We examine the earnings management implications of using nonfinancial performance measures (NFPM) in executive compensation contracts. We argue and test that when a manager's compensation is based on financial and NFPM, he/she has less incentive to manipulate earnings to maximize compensation. Using panel data covering the period 1992–2005, we compare earnings management behavior for a sample of firms that used both financial and nonfinancial measures to a matched sample of firms that based their performance measurement solely on financial measures. The results are mainly consistent with a reduction in earnings management behavior for those firms that rely on NFPM in their compensation contracts.
Tu'utu'u le upega i le loloto—cast the net into deeper waters: exploring dance as a culturally sustaining mathematics pedagogy

Abstract Improving educational outcomes for Pasifika learners is a national priority in New Zealand. Long-standing mathematics achievement differences between Pasifika and non-Pasifika indicate that looking beyond usual pedagogies may be essential for enhancing Pasifika student learning. Culturally sustaining pedagogy, drawing from the cultural experiences and values of Pasifika learners, offers strong potential for enhancing practice, but is, as yet, uncommon in most school settings. This article describes the results of a narrative literature review exploring the potential dance may afford as a culturally sustaining mathematics pedagogy for Pasifika learners. The review incorporates literature published between 2000 and 2018 from within and outside education. Findings include that dance has the potential to provide Pasifika learners with positive mathematical experiences that can enhance learning, engagement, achievement and wellbeing. Furthermore, using Pasifika dance pedagogically may help strengthen these learners' Pasifika cultural identities through connecting learning with cultural values, experiences and traditions. Dance can also provide opportunities for validating and appreciating Pasifika families' funds of knowledge and strengthening home-school partnerships. We describe one example of a dance relevant to secondary school mathematics learning, the sāsā. Implications for educators using dance as a mathematics pedagogy, including cultural and pedagogical challenges, are discussed.