Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Head-cloaca controlled current stunning: assessment of brain and heart activity and meat quality

1. Behavioural and neural responses of 65 broilers to head-to-cloaca electrical stunning were evaluated and meat quality was assessed on two groups of 25 broilers stunned either head to cloaca, or in a conventional water bath method. 2. On the EEG recordings, a general epileptiform insult was observed when applying a current of 100 mA (100 Hz) or 70 mA (70 Hz) for 1·5 s. This general epileptiform insult shows a tonic, clonic and exhaustion phase followed by spikes of alpha, beta, theta and delta waves with duration of on average 34 ± 12 s and 39 ± 23 s respectively. These birds may have been unconscious for 20 s or longer, according to the correlation dimension analyses. 3. The heart rate decreased significantly (P < 0·05) after stunning and recovered after 60 s. 4. Within a confidence limit of 95%, taking into account the number of animals with a reliable EEG, the chance of an effective stun of all broilers lies between 0·9 and 1·0 with a current of 70 mA (100 Hz for 1·5 s; n = 28) and with 100 mA (100 Hz for 1·5 s; n = 27). 5. The shear force of breast fillets was slightly lower (P < 0·01) 4 d post mortem compared with the conventional water bath stunned group (set at 100 mA, 100 Hz for 10 s). The percentage of fillets and legs without blood splashes was higher, and the percentage with severe blood splashes lower-to-none, for carcases stunned head-cloaca. 6. It can be concluded that broilers are effectively stunned with the head-cloaca method by using a controlled current of 70 mA or 100 mA for 1·5 s. The fillets and legs of bird stunned head-cloaca showed fewer blood splashes in the muscles compared with birds stunned in a conventional water bath.
Research learning from the UK Quality and Outcomes Framework: a review of existing research.

BACKGROUND A new contract between UK primary care practices and government was implemented in April 2004, with substantial financial rewards to general practices for achievement of standards set out in the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). AIM We aimed to review the evidence about the effects of the QOF on health care, including unintended outcomes, and equity. METHODS Relevant papers were identified by searching Medline and from the reference lists of published reviews and papers. A separate systematic literature review was conducted to identify papers with information on the impact of the framework on inequalities. RESULTS All studies were observational, and so it cannot be assumed that any changes were caused by the framework. The results both for individual indicators and from different studies vary substantially. The diverse nature of the research precluded formal synthesis of data from different studies. Achievement of quality standards was high when the contract was introduced, and has risen each year roughly in line with the pre-existing trend. Inequalities in achievement of standards were generally small when the framework was implemented, and most have reduced further since. There is weak evidence that achievement for conditions outside the framework was lower initially, and has neither worsened nor improved since. Some interventions in the framework may be cost-effective. Professionals feel consultations and continuity have suffered to some extent. There is very little research about patients' views, or about the aspects of general practice not measured, such as caring, context and complexity. CONCLUSION The evidence base about the impact of the QOF is growing, but remains patchy and inconclusive. More high quality research is needed to inform decisions about how the framework should change to maximise improvements in health and equity.
Foreign direct investment in industrial transition: the experience of Vietnam

This paper examines the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the process of industrial transition in Vietnam under market-oriented reforms. The findings are consistent with the conventional wisdom that concomitant liberalisation of trade and investment regimes, accompanied by creating a congenial environment for market-based decision making by the private agents, is vital for reaping developmental gains from FDI. During the 1990s growth of employment in firms with foreign capital participation lagged behind output growth, reflecting the capital-intensity bias in domestic-market-oriented production in a partially liberalised economy. This pattern has changed notably in recent years as the product mix gradually became export oriented in response to further liberalisation of trade and investment policy regimes.
Software Processes and Project Performance

Firms developing software face increasing pressures to improve project outcomes in terms of product quality, productivity, time to market, and customer satisfaction. As projects expand in size and complexity, and competition grows, firms are reengineering their software processes. They are adopting more intensive procedures for requirements management, project planning, defect tracking, configuration management, design and code inspections, and so forth. To assess the effectiveness of these efforts, we conducted a survey of senior practitioners at the 1993 Software Engineering Process Group National Meeting. The survey asked participants about the processes followed on, and the outcome of, a specific software project. Certain practices--notably project planning and cross-functional teams--were consistently associated with favorable outcomes. Based on the survey results, other practices may have little impact on project outcomes.
Exploring barriers to home gardening in Ohio households

Scholars have noted that race and ethnicity, socio-economic status (SES) as well as other socio-demographic factors may limit participation in local food systems based on the historic and structured patterns of inequalities that remain in communities promoting alternative agriculture and food (agrifood) activities. However, few empirical studies have examined the barriers which prevent people from participating in local food system activities. This paper uses survey data from the 2008 Ohio Survey of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Issues to consider whether barriers such as interest, time, financial resources, geography and space impact the participation of households in home gardening. Results from logistic regression show that SES, the availability of space and housing type are important factors which limit or enable household participation in home gardening. This paper contributes to our understanding of the barriers that prevent households from participating in home gardening, a form of food system localisation that, while a potentially powerful way to transform the agrifood system, has been underexamined in its own right.
Heritability of Lifetime Income

Using 15 years of data on Finnish twins, we find that 24% (54%) of the variance of women’s (men’s) lifetime income is due to genetic factors and that the contribution of the shared environment is negligible. We link these figures to policy by showing that controlling for education reduces the variance share of genetics by 5-8 percentage points; by demonstrating that income uncertainty has a genetic component half the size of its variance share in lifetime income; and by exploring how the genetic heritability of lifetime income is related to the macroeconomic environment, as measured by GDP growth and the Gini-coefficient of income inequality.
Lifestyle advice by text messages helps prevent type 2 diabetes in high risk men

A mobile phone text messaging intervention can help prevent type 2 diabetes by promoting lifestyle modification in at risk individuals, a recent study conducted in India has found.1 India is a country with more than 61 million people living with diabetes,2 and more than 545 million mobile phones.3 The researchers wanted to investigate whether mobile phones could be used to deliver lifestyle messages effectively, because traditional lifestyle modification programmes are often labour intensive. A total of 537 men aged 35 to 55 years and at high risk of …
The relationship between outsourcing and organizational performance: Is it myth or reality for the hotel sector?

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate empirically the impacts of outsourcing, and to examine the relationship between the outsourcing process and organizational performance in hotels.Design/methodology/approach – Data for the study were obtained from 80 hotels in the city of Antalya in Turkey through questionnaires. A paired‐sample t test, and correlation and regression analyses were used to analyse the data.Findings – The analyses provide strong support for the impacts of outsourcing on organizational performance. Cooperation with a vendor has led to significant improvement in organizational effectiveness, productivity, profitability, quality, continuous improvement, quality of work life, and social responsibility levels. Hotel managers think that organizational performance has increased after outsourcing.Research limitations/implications – The most significant limitation of this study is the impact of outsourcing on organizational performance relying on perceived results rather than dire.
The clinical outcomes of 75 consecutive patients with cervical carotid artery stenosis treated by carotid artery stenting.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to analyze the clinical outcome of 75 consecutive patients with cervical carotid artery stenosis and who were treated by carotid artery stenting (CAS) only. METHODS From February 2003 to June 2008, there were 78 stents placed in 75 symptomatic patients (mean age : 67.3 years); 69 patients had carotid stenosis >/=70%, and 6 patients had asymptomatic stenosis >/=80%. No carotid endarterectomy (CEA) was performed during the same period. The patients were clinically followed-up for a mean of 20.1 months. RESULTS The procedures were technically successful in all cases. Three (3.8%) patients had procedure-related complications. During the 30-day postprocedural period, there were no restenosis or major stroke. Minor stroke was noticed in 3 (3.8%) patients and 1 (1.3%) of the 75 patients suddenly expired 2 days after discharge. There were no new neurological symptoms that developed during the clinical follow-up period. The results of our series were not inferior to those the previously published in CAS studies, and in fact they were better. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that CAS may be safe and useful for the treatment of cervical carotid artery stenosis when it is used as the first line treatment in those institutions that lack enough experience with CEA.
Inhalation Exposure Technology, Dosimetry, and Regulatory Issues 1

Inhalation toxicology technology has provided the scientific community with important advances in studies of inhaled toxicants. These advances include new and more efficient exposure systems (e.g., flow-past nose-only exposure systems), and improved approaches to inhalation chamber environmental control (e.g., temperature, humidity, air quality). Practical problems and approaches to testing and operating inhalation exposure systems and the advantages and disadvantages of the major inhalation exposure types (e.g., whole-body, nose-only) are discussed. Important aspects of study design, such as high level particulate exposures resulting in large lung burdens (e.g., ≥2 mg/g of lung), slowed pulmonary clearance rates, and nonspecific toxicity are considered, along with practical issues of comparative dosimetry. Regulatory guidelines have continued to present challenges in designing and conducting acute, subchronic, and chronic inhalation studies. The important regulatory issue of performing acute inhalation toxicity studies at high aerosol concentrations and “respirable” particle size distribution is discussed.
Wideband Linearly Polarized Transmitarray Antenna for 60 GHz Backhauling

This communication presents the design of a linearly polarized transmitarray antenna for backhauling applications at V-band (57–66 GHz). The antenna is composed of a planar circular-shape array with 1264 unit-cells (UCs) printed on a three-metal layer standard printed circuit board, an ad hoc focal source, and a radome layer. A 3-b phase resolution has been selected to achieve a gain higher than 31 dBi over the whole unlicensed 60 GHz band and low sidelobe levels. The presence of the radome near the array is taken into account in the UC design. Experimental results are in line with the theoretical ones provided by an in-house CAD tool based on analytical model and electromagnetic simulations. The proposed design presents a measured broadside gain of 32.5 dBi at 61.5 GHz with an aperture efficiency of 42.7% and a wide 1-dB gain bandwidth of 15.4% (57–66.5 GHz).
Korean firms' strategic choice and market performance in China and Russia

This study attempts to examine the impact of South Korean firms' market entry strategy on their financial market performance in China and Russia. On the basis of the previous researches, we tested seven (7) hypotheses for five (5) market-entry-related strategic variables (entry mode, entry timing, entry location, entry scale and entry purpose) and two (2) control variables (firm size and level of globalisation) that can influence the performance of South Korean firms (henceforth, Korean firms) in China and Russia. The results reveal that entry mode, entry timing, entry purpose, firm size and level of globalisation are crucial to ensure Korean firms' successful performances. In addition, we find that in the case of China, the moderating effect of entry scale was negatively significant on the relationship between entry mode and market performance.
Constitutional change in Brazil: Political and financial decentralisation, 1981-1991.

The aim of the present study is to investigate how and why a country facing issues that needed to be tackled nationwide chose to decentralise political power and financial resources when it moved from military rule to redemocratisation. Furthermore, the study examines whether the decision to decentralise taken in Brazil in the period 1981-1991 has changed the allocation of public expenditure at sub-national level, especially to education. By analysing the decision to decentralise and its results at the sub-national level, the study embodies both an upstream and a downstream approach. The upstream approach encompasses the topics related to decentralisation in the Brazilian Constituent National Assembly that sat from 1987 to 1988. Research sources are based on the archives of the Constituent National Assembly and on interviews with key political leaders in Congress and practitioners. The decision to decentralise is analysed in three dimensions: the relationship between political parties and the State; intra- and inter-party competition; and regional cleavages. The downstream approach comprises three case studies: the state of Bahia, its capital, Salvador, and its most industrialised municipality, Camacari. The political analysis is based on (a) interviews with politicians in executive and in legislative positions, and officials and (b) newspaper material as a complementary source. The financial performance is based on the analysis of expenditure extracted from balance sheets. This study fills four gaps in political-science and public-administration works on contemporary Brazil First, it deepens the understanding of how and why Brazil became such a decentralised nation. Second, it links the analysis of political and financial resources. Third, it highlights differences between levels of government in their experiences with decentralisation. Fourth, it investigates the impact of decentralisation on political arrangements and on education expenditure. The results suggest that in Brazil there was a lack of social consensus on what was to be achieved by decentralisation. They suggest that decentralisation fosters democracy but its impacts on policy results have so far been limited. The evidence further implies that decentralisation and democratisation bring about a fragmentation of power without necessarily disintegrating previous political coalitions or changing the way public resources are spent. These findings indicate that various political and economic factors influence the outcomes of decentralisation, thus exposing the limits of decentralisation on policy results.
[TSH-secreting pituitary tumors: two case reports and literature review].

INTRODUCTION TSH-secreting pituitary adenomas are rare pituitary functioning tumors accounting for less than 2% of the pituitary adenomas. The clinical feature consists of thyrotoxicosis occasionally associated to tumoral symptoms due to mass effect. The biochemical feature consists of elevated thyroid hormones levels and normal or high TSH concentrations. This disease is often wrongly diagnosed as Grave's disease, and the ablative therapy is frequently conducted prior to the diagnosis. OBJECTIVE To report two cases followed in the Neuroendocrine Unit of Hospital das Clínicas, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo and to review the literature aiming at the management of this affection. CONCLUSION In the presence of elevated thyroid hormone levels associated with inappropriate normal or increased TSH levels, the possibility of a TSH-secreting pituitary adenoma should be considered for the proper medical treatment.
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In this paper, we derive new xed-point algorithms for the blind separation of complex-valued mixtures of independent, possibly non-circularly-symmetric, and non-Gaussian source signals. Leveraging recent results in complex independent component analysis, we construct iterative procedures for complex signal mixtures whose evolutionary characteristics are identical to those of the real-valued FastICA algorithmwith kurtosis contrast. Our methods are fast, computationally simple, and easy to use. For extracting multiple sources, symmetric and asymmetric signal deation procedures can be employed. Simulations for both noiseless and noisy mixtures indicate that the proposed algorithms often have equal or better nite-sample performance than existing separation methods for complex-valued mixtures.
AFEC: An analytical framework for evaluating cache performance in out-of-order processors

Evaluating cache performance is becoming critically important to predict the overall performance of out-of-order processors. Non-blocking caches, which are very common in out-of-order CPUs, can reduce the average cache miss penalty by overlapping multiple outstanding memory requests and merging different cache misses with the same cacheline address into one memory request. Normally, memory-level-parallelism (MLP) has been used as a metric to describe the concurrency of memory access. Unfortunately, due to the extremely dynamic dependences among the program memory references, it is very difficult to quantify MLP without time-consuming simulations. Moreover, the merging of multiple cache misses, which makes the average cache miss service time less than the physical DDR access latency, is seldom considered in the existing researches. In this paper, we propose a cache performance evaluation framework based on program trace analysis and analytical models to fast estimate MLP and the effective cache miss service time without simulations. Comparing with the results by Gem5 simulations of MobyBench 2.0, Mibench 1.0 and Mediabench II, the average accuracy of the modeled MLP and the average cache miss service time is higher than 91% and 92%, respectively. Combined with cache misses calculated by the stack distance theory, the average absolute error of CPU stall time (due to cache misses) is lower than 10%, while the evaluation time can be sped up by 35 times relative to the Gem5 full simulations.
A Clinical Study of ADHD Symptoms With Relation to Symptoms of Learning Disorders in Schoolchildren in Bogota, Colombia

Objective: To investigate possible relationships between symptoms of ADHD and of learning disorder (LD) in a population geographically, culturally, and linguistically distinct from previous studies. Method: The authors evaluated a cross section of 834 Colombian schoolchildren for childhood neurological pathologies on the basis of a medical examination and performance with reference to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (4th ed.) attention checklist, the General and Differential Aptitudes Battery, and the Visual–Motor Integration (VMI) test. Results: Of the total sample, 382 were classified as “ADHD only,” 54 as “LD only,” and 75 as “ADHD + LD. ” A total of 459 had low VMI scores. ADHD, LD, and low VMI were significantly interrelated. Among the children with ADHD, the attention deficit subtype tended to have more learning problems than the hyperactive subtype, who showed no major deficiencies in their learning ability. Conclusions: This study provides additional evidence demonstrating a relationship between LD and ADHD, particularly with respect to verbal reasoning, visual–auditory memory, and VMI.
How Institutions Evolve: Contents

1. The political economy of skills in comparative-historical perspective 2. The evolution of skill formation in Germany 3. The evolution of skill formation in Britain 4. The evolution of skill formation in Japan and the United States 5. Evolution and change in the German system of vocational training 6. Conclusions, empirical and theoretical.
Adult donor rod photoreceptors integrate into the mature mouse retina.

PURPOSE Previous studies indicate that early postnatal mouse photoreceptors have the ability to integrate into the mature host retina after transplantation, while progenitors and fully differentiated photoreceptors do not. The authors sought to determine whether the decline in the ability of photoreceptors to integrate after transplantation with increasing age is related to a loss of migratory ability in the adult neurons or by a decrease in their survival. METHODS Dissociated retinal cells were transferred from green fluorescent protein-positive (GFP(+)) donor mice of ages ranging from embryonic day (E)12.5 to adults (>28 days postnatal [P]). Immunofluorescence was used to assess marker expression and the morphology of integrated cells. In vitro cultures of dissociated Nrl-GFP mice were used to assay survival. RESULTS It was confirmed in previous reports that neonatal rods integrate into adult hosts. However, in contrast to previous reports, the age of the donor cell was not as critical as previously reported, because it was found that donor cells older than P11 effectively integrated into adult host retina. Although fully adult photoreceptors (P28 and older) show a higher transplant failure rate than immature ones (P5), successful transplants had very similar numbers of integrated cells for both mature and immature donors. Integrated cells from all ages were indistinguishable from those of the host in morphology and marker expression. CONCLUSIONS Fully mature photoreceptors retain the ability to integrate into the mature retina. The authors propose that their potential for integration is limited primarily by their decreased survival after dissociation.