Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Randomized 2004 1 of 46 0801-2017 Hematopoietic Stem Cell Therapy for Patients with Inflammatory Multiple Sclerosis Failing Alternate Approved Therapy : A Randomized Study

CoInvestigators: Joachim Burman, MD, Department of Neuroscience/Neurology, Uppsala University, Sweden Basil Sharrack, MD, Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield, UK John Snowden, MD, Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield, UK Maria Carolina Oliveira, MD, University of Sao Paulo, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Clinical Immunology, Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo, Brazil Belinda Pinto Simoes, MD, University of Sao Paulo, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Clinical Immunology, Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Models of Microcredit Delivery and Social Norm

Models of microcredit delivery have evolved considerably in Bangladesh since their inception in the mid-1970s. An important feature of this evolution is the gradual dilution of the disciplinary devices as well as incentive mechanisms that the MFIs used to employ in order to ensure regular repayment. An interesting conundrum of the current scenario is that despite the dilution of the erstwhile regime, repayment performance remains as strong as ever. This paper tries to investigate this conundrum, using borrowers‟ own perception of the evolving system, solicited through specially designed household surveys. Our findings suggest that the repayment performance has remained high mainly as a result of the emergence of a social norm in which people have come to accept that loans are meant to be repaid. This is a complete reversal of the earlier perception that loans, especially government loans, did not have to be repaid because eventually such loans would be written off. It can be argued, however, that this metamorphosis of social norm is by no means serendipitous; rather it owes itself to the sustained use of the disciplinary as well as incentive devices employed by the MFIs over the years. It is precisely because of the sustained use of these devices over many years that poor people have gradually formed the habit of regular repayment; and once a sufficiently large number of people acquired this habit, the erstwhile social norm of non-repayment was quickly replaced by the norm of repayment. With the emergence of the new norm, many of the devices traditionally employed by the MFIs to ensure regular repayment are becoming increasingly redundant, having served their historical purpose.
Supply Chain Management : An International Journal A framework for the alignment of new product development and supply chains

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework that explains how new product development and supply chain variables are related to one another and how they affect performance. Design/methodology/approach – The insights from literature and an exploratory case study are combined to develop an alignment framework, which is then tested using a multiple case study design. Findings – Variety, modularity, and innovativeness are the product features that are taken into account when studying alignment. From the supply chain viewpoint, configuration, collaboration, and coordination complexities are the variables that matter. Innovativeness is found to have a stronger effect than variety on supply chain complexity. In addition, there is evidence that matching product features with supply chains improves performance. Originality/value – The paper provides empirical support to the relationships among the variables within the alignment framework. There is evidence that product innovativeness, a variable so far neglected in the alignment literature, can have a critical impact on the supply chain. Furthermore, supply chain complexity must be adequately adapted, depending on the product features.
Bayesian update Alice ' s Smartphone Network Model Bayesian Communication Learning

The goal of opinion maximization is to maximize the positive view towards a product, an ideology or any entity among the individuals in social networks. So far, opinion maximization is mainly studied as finding a set of influential nodes for fast content dissemination in a social network. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to solve the problem, where opinion maximization is achieved through efficient information spreading. In our model, multiple sources inject information continuously into the network, while the regular nodes with heterogeneous social learning abilities spread the information to their acquaintances through gossip mechanism. One of the sources employs smart information spreading and the rest spread information randomly. We model the social interactions and evolution of opinions as a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN), using which the opinion maximization is formulated as a sequential decision problem. Since the problem is intractable, we develop multiple variants of centralized and decentralized learning algorithms to obtain approximate solutions. Through simulations in synthetic and real-world networks, we demonstrate two key results: 1) the proposed methods perform better than random spreading by a large margin, and 2) even though the smart source (that spreads the desired content) is unfavorably located in the network, it can outperform the contending random sources located at favorable positions. Keywords—Social network, Opinion maximization, Dynamic Bayesian network, Q-learning, Decentralized algorithm.
Detecting People in Multiview Environment using Height Map Reconstruction 1 in Real-Time

10 In this article we address the problem of multiview detection: we detect pedestrians by their feet in scene space. Detection is based on searching cone intersections. The altitude of detection is also retrieved, which eliminates the need of planar ground which is a common restriction in the related literature. We found positions can be computed accurately, and despite a large number of false positives, height map of the scene can be reconstructed with small error. Precision of the detector can be increased knowing height map, so that results of our method are comparable to SOA methods in case of planar ground using somewhat different test methodology -, but adding the ability to handle arbitrary ground. Our algorithm is capable of real-time operation, based on two optimizations: decreasing number of cones, and approximating intersection bodies. Cones are back-projections of ellipses in images covering feet, this is ensured by filtering and clustering foreground pixels. Moreover, most demanding steps are parallelizable, and distributable due to lack of data dependencies.
Optimisation of mobile intelligent terminal data pre-processing methods for crowd sensing

Sensor data pre-processing is an essential phase of crowd sensing application. Existing studies do not effectively solve the problem, and there still exist various sensor data pre-processing optimisation problems at the acquisition end in crowd-sensing process. This study presents an improved sliding average method to achieve data compression and reduce the time complexity by using a dynamic window with improved processing time. Through adopting locally sorting and gradient change of the filter window, an improved extremum median filtering method is proposed to relieve the time-consuming problem when denoising high pixel images. A transmission strategy for optimisation is also proposed, in which only the demarcation points of each group of data and the data points with large differences when comparing with the demarcation points are recorded. This strategy reduces the storage pressure and the amount of data transmission of mobile terminal and improves the efficiency of data transmission. The experimental results show that their methods have higher speed and lower cost, and thus they can run better in crowd-sensing environment.
University of Dundee HDAC inhibitors increase NRF 2-signaling in tumour cells and blunt the efficacy of co-adminstered cytotoxic agents

The NRF2 signalling cascade provides a primary response against electrophilic chemicals and oxidative stress. The activation of NRF2-signaling is anticipated to have adverse clinical consequences; NRF2 is activated in a number of cancers and, additionally, its pharmacological activation by one compound can reduce the toxicity or efficiency of a second agent administered concomitantly. In this work, we have analysed systematically the ability of 152 research, pre-clinical or clinically used drugs to induce an NRF2 response using the MCF7-AREc32 NRF2 reporter. Ten percent of the tested drugs induced an NRF2 response. The NRF2 activators were not restricted to classical cytotoxic alkylating agents but also included a number of emerging anticancer drugs, including an IGF1-R inhibitor (NVPAEW541), a PIM-1 kinase inhibitor (Pim1 inhibitor 2), a PLK1 inhibitor (BI 2536) and most strikingly seven of nine tested HDAC inhibitors. These findings were further confirmed by demonstrating NRF2-dependent induction of endogenous AKR genes, biomarkers of NRF2 activity. The ability of HDAC inhibitors to stimulate NRF2-signalling did not diminish their own potency as antitumour agents. However, when used to pre-treat cells, they did reduce the efficacy of acrolein. Taken together, our data suggest that the ability of drugs to stimulate NRF2 activity is common and should be investigated as part of the drug-development process.
PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT OF ENGINE USING TURBOCHARGER-A REVIEW

This study has been undertaken to show the performance enhancement of engine using turbocharger. Turbochargers multiply the output of an internal combustion (IC) engine without the need to increase its cylinder capacity all over the automotive industries. The application of such a mechanical device enables automotive manufacturers to adopt greater power and high torque applications. There are many inventions done to enhance the performance of IC engines. So most engines nowadays are employed with turbocharger and supercharger. It is known that the power outputs of an engine increases with the increase in amount of air or mixture in the cylinder and supercharger plays an important role in increasing the amount or air. It is because of these reasons that superchargers and turbochargers are now becoming more and more popular in automobile applications. The aim of this review paper is to show importance of turbocharger in automotive sector.
Impact of rainfall variability on fruit production in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan

The objective of this study was to analyze the rainfall variability and trend, and examine vulnerability of fruits production to rainfall variability in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan. A time series data were used to carry out a comprehensive study of the effect of rainfall variability on fruit crops. It was observed that inter-annual and seasonal variabilities of rainfall were major cause of fluctuations in production of fruits in the study area. The district had 910 mm average rainfall with a standard deviation of 218 mm and coefficient of variation of 24 per cent. The annual rainfall as evident from analysis of data (1973-2010) showed negative trend (- 0.23 to - 17.41 mm/year) in the district. Productions of mandarin showed stronger correlations with the post-monsoon rainfall while those of mango, guava, lemon, mosambi, papaya, custard-apple and ber showed strong correlation with pre-monsoon and south-west monsoon rainfall.
Tüselmann, HJ and Allen, MMC and McDonald, F (2015) Vive les dif- férences? Voice in French MNCs’ overseas workplaces: a comparative study of voice in French, German and US subsidiaries in the UK. International Jour-

Foreign-owned firms help to disseminate management practices across UK companies; this includes the ability of indigenous firms to learn improved human resource management (HRM) practices from leading foreign companies. Analysing the transfer of HRM policies forms an important strand of the international HRM and comparative capitalisms literatures; however, largescale, comparative studies of voice patterns in German, US, and, in particular, French subsidiaries in the UK are limited. This paper draws on a large survey that includes the, to date, largest sample of French MNC subsidiaries. It does not simply identify the existence of different kinds of voice mechanisms, but examines how these different practices come together in the implementation of subsidiaries’ voice policies. This enables the detection of subtle, but important, differences in the subsidiaries’ voice practices. French subsidiaries are significantly less likely to pursue a partnership approach to voice than their German and US counterparts. French and US establishments are significantly more likely to adopt a ‘bleak house’ approach than German ones. Importantly, these key differences only emerge at a fine-grained level of analysis that examines how subsidiaries implement voice practices.
Syddansk Universitet A Multi-Component Day-Camp Weight-Loss Program Is Effective in Reducing BMI in Children after One Year A Randomized Controlled

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a one-year multicomponent immersive day-camp weight-loss intervention for children with overweight and obesity. The study design was a parallel-group randomized controlled trial. One hundred fifteen 11-13-year-old children with overweight and obesity were randomized into either: A six-week day-camp intervention arm focusing on increased physical activity, and healthy diet followed by a subsequent one-year family-based intervention, or a standard intervention arm consisting of one weekly exercise session for six weeks. Body mass index (BMI) was the primary outcome. BMI z-score, clustered cardiovascular risk z-score, and body composition were secondary outcomes. All outcomes were measured at baseline, six week-, and 52 week follow-up. After six weeks, children from the day-camp intervention arm had improved their BMI (-2.2 kg/m (95% CI -2.6 to -1.7, P<0.001)) and all secondary outcomes when compared to the children from the standard intervention arm. After 52 weeks, the day-camp intervention arm had a lower BMI (-1.2 kg/m (95% CI -1.8 to -0.5, P = 0.001)), and BMI z-score (-0.20 (95% CI -0.35 to -0.05, P = 0.008)), and clustered cardiovascular risk z-score (-0.23 (95% CI -0.37 to -0.08, P = 0.002)) compared to the standard intervention arm. No group differences were detected in body composition after 52 weeks. This study shows that the day-camp intervention arm is effective in reducing BMI and improving the metabolic health of children with overweight and obesity. However, the effects seem to be diminishing over time. PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone. 0157182 June 30, 2016 1 / 16 a11111
Public procurement as policy instrument for innovation --- PRELIMINARY DRAFT VERSION ---

During the last decade, policy makers discussed the potential of public procurement as instrument in the area of technology policy. As a consequence, the European Commission has recently passed a new legislation that explicitly allows t o include R&D and innovation components within public procurement contracts. Germany has implemented this new legislation from 2009 onwards. Consequently, we evaluate the potential of public procurement for innovation empirically. We estimate the average treatment effect on the treated (ATET) of innovation-directed public procurement on German firms’ share of sales of innovation and imitation using the German data of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS). We apply cross-sectional OLS regressions, Matching, IV regression as well as differencein-difference estimators with panel data. Interestingly, we find that firms with such procurement contracts indeed sell more innovative products than other firms. However, thes new product sales refer to incremental innovation, i.e. the products are mainly new for the respective firms’ product portfolio, but those are not really market novelties. We do not find any positive effects on sales with market novelties. Thus we conclude that public procurement may be a powerful tool for accelerating the dissemination of new technologies rather than a trigger for original innovation.
Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems ( PACIS ) Summer 6-27-2016 INNOVATIVE PERSONALITY-BASED DIGITAL SERVICES

Since the advent of social media, human-internet interaction has changed dramatically towards greater individual characteristic-based services. Since personality traits are the most stable behavioral dispositions of an individual, it is surprising that the digital service industry has not focused its attention on personality-based services. Consequently the value creation potential of personality-based services is currently largely ignored. That is why in this paper I demonstrate that social media data contains fruitful information about a user’s personality which in turn can be used for novel personality-based services, e.g. in marketing and recruiting.
A framework for analysing convergence between online brand identity and online brand image . The case of the British Museum

Purpose of the paper: The aim of the paper is to analyze the level of convergence between online brand identity and online brand image in the museum sector. Methodology: This paper proposes an operative framework called Assessing Web Convergence (AWC) for extracting information from the web, processing it with text mining techniques and interpreting it in order to monitor the level of convergence between identity and image on the web for the British Museum (BM). Results: Empirical testing of the framework has shown that in the case of the British Museum, the museum’s communication and the users’ perception share four thematic areas: Aim and Organisation, Prospects, Art and Collections and Visit Experience. It is possible to observe that the effectiveness of such communication does not depend on the apparent homogeneity of the themes but on the convergence between identity and image with reference to three qualitative dimensions Functional, Holistic and Experiential. Research limitations: The framework is limited by its purely qualitative approach. Practical implications: The proposed operative framework can be used by museums for self-diagnosis. Specifically, the interpretative phase enables management to identify and exemplify those elements that enable museums to transform data into knowledge that is useful for developing and enhancing their competitive strategies with regard to the co-evolution of web content. Originality of the paper: The operative framework’s originality lies in the possibility of extraction and analysis of non-structured information which, if interpreted from the perspective of convergence between identity and image, can be transformed into knowledge, useful for decision-making.
Impact of Engagement Partners Characteristics on Audit Quality : Evidence from the US

This research investigates the effect of engagement partner characteristics on audit quality. Using an American setting where the name of engagement partner is recently disclosed, I decompose engagement partner characteristics into three dimensions, namely gender, working years, education background, and examine the relation between these characteristics and audit quality. Results show that the number of years the partner has been working in auditing is negatively related to absolute discretionary accruals, hence implying that more experienced engagement partners are more aggressive and provide audits of lower quality. While the effect of engagement partner’s gender and education background are little. I further explore the impact of engagement partner characteristics on audit quality by examining the association of engagement partner characteristics with the extent of income-increasing and income-decreasing earnings management respectively. I find that engagement partners with accounting degree are more easily agree with income-increasing earnings management while engagement partners with CPA qualification show more tolerance on income-decreasing earnings management. In general, my findings suggest engagement partner characteristics do affect audit quality and ascertain the usefulness of the recent mandatory disclosure of engagement partner name.
Do Gender Differences in Returns to Tenure Matter Anymore?

If employers believe females are more likely to separate from a job than males, efficient cost sharing of on-the-job-training implies that females will have higher returns to tenure. Becker and Lindsay (1994) argue that this is true empirically. (1994). Updating the analysis we find that that there is no longer a difference in the probability of leaving jobs or in returns to tenure by gender. Differences in contracts to finance on the job training can no longer explain any of the “discrimination” component in the gender wage gap.
Grounding words in perception and action : computational insights

We use words to communicate about things and kinds of things, their properties, relations and actions. Researchers are now creating robotic and simulated systems that ground language in machine perception and action, mirroring human abilities. A new kind of computational model is emerging from this work that bridges the symbolic realm of language with the physical realm of real-world referents. It explains aspects of context-dependent shifts of word meaning that cannot easily be explained by purely symbolic models. An exciting implication for cognitive modeling is the use of grounded systems to ‘step into the shoes’ of humans by directly processing first-personperspective sensory data, providing a new methodology for testing various hypotheses of situated communication and learning.
ePubWU Institutional Repository

Software design issues can severely impede software development and maintenance. Thus, it is important for the success of software projects that developers are aware of bad smells in code artifacts and improve their skills to reduce these issues via refactoring. However, software refactoring is a complex activity and involves multiple tasks and aspects. Therefore, imparting competences for identifying bad smells and refactoring code efficiently is challenging for software engineering education and training. The approaches proposed for teaching software refactoring in recent years mostly concentrate on small and artificial tasks and fall short in terms of higher level competences, such as analysis and evaluation. In this paper, we investigate the possibilities and challenges of designing serious games for software refactoring on real-world code artifacts. In particular, we propose a game design, where students can compete either against a predefined benchmark (technical debt) or against each other. In addition, we describe a lightweight architecture as the technical foundation for the game design that integrates pre-existing analysis tools such as test frameworks and software-quality analyzers. Finally, we provide an exemplary game scenario to illustrate the application of serious games in a learning setting.
Leisure Time instead of a Monetary Bonus ? A computerized real effort task to elicit productivity levels

Recently, many big industries are doubting whether bonus schemes are the most optimal way to reward employees. Also, leisure time has gained high importance amongst the newest generations. This paper examines whether leisure time as an incentive could be as effective as the often used monetary reward. An experiment that consists of a computerized real-effort task is spread amongst (ex-) students. The finding is that the immediate responses on both incentives do not differ significantly. However, after the first few minutes are terminated, the monetary incentive wins it over a reward of leisure time. That is at least in the case of the currently used experimental design and amongst (ex-) students. As soon as either one of the two changes, results are likely to change accordingly. This paper provides valuable insights that further research in a different setting or amongst another audience can build upon.