Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrated Approaches to Occupational Health and Safety: A Systematic Review

Objective. The study objective was to conduct a systematic review of the effectiveness of integrated workplace interventions that combine health promotion with occupational health and safety. Data Source. Electronic databases (n = 8), including PsychInfo and MEDLINE, were systematically searched. Study Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria. Studies included were those that reported on workplace interventions that met the consensus definition of an “integrated approach,” published in English, in the scientific literature since 1990. Data Extraction. Data extracted were occupation, worksite, country, sample size, intervention targets, follow-up period, and results reported. Quality was assessed according to American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Practice Guidelines. Data Synthesis. Heterogeneity precluded formal meta-analyses. Results were classified according to the outcome(s) assessed into five categories (health promotion, injury prevention, occupational health and safety management, psychosocial, and return-on-investment). Narrative synthesis of outcomes was performed. Results. A total of 31 eligible studies were identified; 23 (74%) were (quasi-)experimental trials. Effective interventions were most of those aimed at improving employee physical or mental health. Less consistent results were reported from integrated interventions targeting occupational health and safety management, injury prevention, or organizational cost savings. Conclusion. Integrated approaches have been posed as comprehensive solutions to complex issues. Empirical evidence, while still emerging, provides some support for this. Continuing investment in, and evaluation of, integrated approaches are worthwhile.
Addition of vandetanib to chemotherapy in advanced solid cancers: a meta-analysis

The addition of vandetanib to chemotherapy has been shown to have a marked effect on patients with advanced cancers who had failed previous chemotherapy. We carried out a meta-analysis to determine the efficacy and safety of vandetanib compared with chemotherapy in patients with advanced cancers. For this meta-analysis, we selected randomized clinical trials that compared vandetanib-based therapy (VBT) with the matched chemotherapy or placebo alone in patients with advanced cancers. The outcomes included overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), the objective response rate, and toxicities. Hazard ratios (HRs) and odds ratios were reported with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). A total of 14 eligible trials were included for the meta-analysis, with 2995 patients in the VBT group and 2479 patients in the control group. A significant improvement was observed in PFS (HR 0.76, 95% CI 0.68–0.86 in all cancers, HR 0.80, 95% CI 0.70–0.90 in lung cancer, HR 0.54, 95% CI 0.40–0.74 in thyroid cancer) and in objective response rate (odds ratio 2.09, 95% CI 1.42–3.07) in the VBT group. However, no significant difference was found in OS (HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.90–1.03). The subgroups of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer who benefited from vandetanib therapy were identified as those with a history of smoking (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.80–0.95) and an adenocarcinoma histology (HR 0.85, 95% CI 0.77–0.94). In addition, patients who received VBT had an increased incidence of adverse events such as rash, diarrhea, and neutropenia. The addition of vandetanib to chemotherapy significantly improves PFS in patients with locally advanced or metastatic cancers, especially lung and thyroid cancer.
The politics of destination marketing: Assessing stakeholder interaction choice orientations toward a DMO formation, using the Thomas‐Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument

Purpose – Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) are very much a part of the Scottish tourism landscape in 2011. Some regional tourism stakeholders have created DMOs to manage their respective regional attractions, but until now, this has not been the case with north‐east Scotland. As a prelude to the potential creation of a regional DMO, the purpose of this paper is to empirically evaluate tourism business leaders' attitudes and likely acceptance of the DMO's structure and functions.Design/methodology/approach – The Thomas‐Kilmann Conflict Mode (TKCM) was utilised to provide an evaluative framework, with discussion of the assertiveness versus cooperativeness needs of tourism business stakeholders in the region. The TKCM's measurement instrument was utilised along with a purpose‐built questionnaire to gather information about tourism leaders' interaction orientations and their level of support for the formation of a DMO, its structure and functions.Findings – Tourism leaders in north‐east Scotland ar.
SRAM hardware Trojan

Exploring possible vulnerabilities for making hardware Trojans helps designers to improve the security and trust of integrated circuits (ICs). This paper discusses the hardware Trojan possibility in SRAM to evaluate the security of SRAM and evaluates the effectiveness of existing detection methods. The paper shows that conventional detection methods fails to detect some special Trojan designs that use certain address sequence for their trigger condition. Simulations are performed using 90nm CMOS technology process to illustrate the malicious effect of these hardware Trojans on functionality and performance of SRAM.
Exploring professionals' motivation to lead: a cross-level study in the healthcare sector

The extant leadership research has paid increasing attention to the concept of motivation to lead (MTL) as an individual construct that strongly affects leadership processes and behaviors. However, despite its importance, scant knowledge is available about how individual characteristics and organizational structural features interact in influencing MTL in professional-based organizations. This article contributes to this line of research by adopting a multilevel perspective to study the MTL among individual professionals in the healthcare sector. We collected data from a sample of 791 physicians nested in 44 departments belonging to 27 hospitals. Using the hierarchical linear model, we tested the impact of individual and organizational variables on the motivation of physicians to engage in managerial positions. Our findings demonstrate that the physicians' MTL was positively associated with their individual self-efficacy. Departmental decentralization interacted with this self-efficacy, such that the effect of self-efficacy on the MTL was significantly lower when decentralization was high. We discuss the implications of these findings for human resource management and organizational (re)design within professional organizations.
Elevated anti-streptococcal antibodies in patients with recent narcolepsy onset.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Narcolepsy-cataplexy has long been thought to have an autoimmune origin. Although susceptibility to narcolepsy, like many autoimmune conditions, is largely genetically determined, environmental factors are involved based on the high discordance rate (approximately 75%) of monozygotic twins. This study evaluated whether Streptococcus pyogenes and Helicobacter pylori infections are triggers for narcolepsy. DESIGN Retrospective, case-control. SETTING Sleep centers of general hospitals. PARTICIPANTS 200 patients with narcolepsy/hypocretin deficiency, with a primary focus on recent onset cases and 200 age-matched healthy controls. All patients were DQB1*0602 positive with low CSF hypocretin-1 or had clear-cut cataplexy. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Participants were tested for markers of immune response to beta hemolytic streptococcus (anti-streptolysin O [ASO]; anti DNAse B [ADB]) and Helicobacter pylori [Anti Hp IgG], two bacterial infections known to trigger autoimmunity. A general inflammatory marker, C-reactive protein (CRP), was also studied. When compared to controls, ASO and ADB titers were highest close to narcolepsy onset, and decreased with disease duration. For example, ASO > or = 200 IU (ADB > or = 480 IU) were found in 51% (45%) of 67 patients within 3 years of onset, compared to 19% (17%) of 67 age matched controls (OR = 4.3 [OR = 4.1], P < 0.0005) or 20% (15%) of 69 patients with long-standing disease (OR = 4.0 [OR = 4.8], P < 0.0005]. CRP (mean values) and Anti Hp IgG (% positive) did not differ from controls. CONCLUSIONS Streptococcal infections are probably a significant environmental trigger for narcolepsy.
Living with pain, staying in touch: exploring the communication needs of older adults with chronic pain

For older adults with chronic pain, maintaining social ties can be difficult. Both chronic pain and social isolation compound each other and are associated with poor health outcomes. Our research explores how technology can be used to facilitate communication and support for older adults with chronic pain. We report on preliminary results of field research with 20 participants and deployment of a digital communicating picture frame prototype. We found that chronic pain introduces unique barriers to synchronous contact and that our prototype seemed to fit the needs of these individuals by supporting meaningful asynchronous communication with the possibility for adjustable reciprocity.
Influence of contact positioning on the performance of stress induced MOSFETs

In this paper, strain induced Si MOSFETs with multiple contact positioning strategies are simulated by ISE TCAD tool. The strain distribution of the MOSFETs with symmetric and asymmetric drain/source structure is investigated. The performance of the devices such as the Idsat and transfer characteristics is also simulated and compared. The results will help to model the characteristics of MOSFETs considering layout dependence.
The German SUCCESS C Study – The First European Lifestyle Study on Breast Cancer

Cohort trials have shown evidence that obesity and a low level of physical activity are not only associated with a higher risk of developing breast cancer, but also with an increased risk for recurrence and reduced survival in breast cancer patients. The SUCCESS C study is the first European trial to evaluate the effect of an intensive lifestyle intervention program on disease-free survival in women with early breast cancer and to examine the predictive value of selected biomarker candidates. A total of 3,547 women with early-stage, Her2/neu-negative breast cancer will be included. The first randomization will compare disease-free survival in patients treated with either 3 cycles of FEC (epirubicine, fluorouracil, cyclophosphamide), followed by 3 cycles of docetaxel or 6 cycles of docetaxel-cyclophosphamide, and thus assess the role of anthracycline-free chemotherapy. The second randomization compares disease-free survival in patients with a body mass index of 24–40 kg/m2 receiving either a telephone-based individualized lifestyle intervention program aiming at moderate weight loss or general recommendations for a healthy lifestyle alone. In addition, the study will evaluate the predictive role of cancer-associated and obesity-related biomarkers for the prediction of disease recurrence and survival. This SUCCESS C trial will provide valuable information on the effects of a lifestyle intervention program on the prognosis of early breast cancer patients.
International Students: Linking Education and Travel

ABSTRACT Despite growing research interest in international students, potential links between international tourism and education have received little attention to date. A survey among full-degree foreign students at an Australian university aims to fill this gap. The identified links between travel and study and the conversion of desired into actual travel lead to a proposed conceptual framework of information sources, destination image, and a continuum of study and tourism activities. Further research is proposed to better understand mutual influences of education and travel, their relative importance for international students, and the opportunities for cooperation and exploitation of synergies among respective authorities.
The immune response at onset and during recovery from Borrelia burgdorferi meningoradiculitis.

BACKGROUND Borrelia burgdorferi causes a wide range of neurologic syndromes. In Europe, acute meningoradiculitis is the most common manifestation. OBJECTIVE To address the nature of the immune response during the course of B burgdorferi meningoradiculitis, with special respect to the early and late changes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). METHODS Serial immunophenotyping was performed and cytokine measurements were obtained in the peripheral blood and CSF of 12 European patients with definite B burgdorferi meningoradiculitis. RESULTS Early during infection and before initiation of treatment, we observed high levels of interleukin (IL) 10, IL-6, and IL-8, and large numbers of B cells and plasma cells in the CSF of most patients. At the same time, we found a mainly unspecific intrathecal antibody synthesis. During resolution of the infection, cytokine levels normalized rapidly and plasma cells disappeared from the CSF. In parallel, the percentage of B cells in the CSF increased over several months, accompanied by rising levels of intrathecally produced B burgdorferi-specific antibodies. CONCLUSIONS Our findings demonstrate that the early phase of B burgdorferi meningoradiculitis is characterized by a well-coordinated immune response involving specific cytokine release and plasma cell recruitment, followed by a long-lasting, antigen-specific B-cell response in the central nervous system.
Planning sentences while doing other things at the same time: effects of concurrent verbal and visuospatial working memory load

This study investigated to what extent advance planning during sentence production is affected by a concurrent cognitive load. In two picture–word interference experiments in which participants produced subject–verb–object sentences while ignoring auditory distractor words, we assessed advance planning at a phonological (lexeme) and at an abstract–lexical (lemma) level under visuospatial or verbal working memory (WM) load. At the phonological level, subject and object nouns were found to be activated before speech onset with concurrent visuospatial WM load, but only subject nouns were found to be activated with concurrent verbal WM load, indicating a reduced planning scope as a function of type of WM load (Experiment 1). By contrast, at the abstract–lexical level, subject and object nouns were found to be activated regardless of type of concurrent load (Experiment 2). In both experiments, sentence planning had a more detrimental effect on concurrent verbal WM task performance than on concurrent visuospatial WM task performance. Overall, our results suggest that advance planning at the phonological level is more affected by a concurrently performed verbal WM task than advance planning at the abstract–lexical level. Also, they indicate an overlap of resources allocated to phonological planning in speech production and verbal WM.
Multi-layer Monitoring for Cloud Computing

An architecture for dynamic security monitoring and enforcement for client software running in virtualized environments is presented. Virtualization is heavily used in cloud computing in order to allow a proper trade-off between isolation and resource usage. In this new architecture, monitoring mechanisms check a set of policy-defined conditions at runtime in order to detect threats or anomalous behaviour. On the other hand, enforcement is achievable by using secure software execution methods that comply with the defined policies. The presented architecture allows for context adaptation of the defined policies by using a new event-sequence language. This renders the automatic policy runtime enforcement as a crucial component to achieve proper security in virtualized platforms for cloud computing.
Bioactive PLGA–curcumin microparticle-embedded chitosan scaffold: in vitro and in vivo evaluation

Abstract Wound healing is a complex process affected by several factors. In the present work, novel biocompatible PLGA–curcumin microparticle-embedded chitosan scaffold was fabricated for wound-healing application. Process variables involved in the preparation of microparticles were optimized using design of experiment. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirmed the porous nature of scaffold with embedded microparticles. A maximum release of 14% of the encapsulated curcumin was observed at 12th hour. Modified tube dilution method showed that scaffold significantly (p < 0.05) reduced multiplication of Staphylococcus aureus. More than 50% of the excised wound in rats healed in 4 days with an epithilization period of 18 days.
Accountants, Ethical Issues and the Corporate Governance Context

This paper aims to identify the types of ethical issues encountered by accountants, the influence of such experience on accountants' ethical perceptions and the effect of situational factors, the field of employment and the accountant's position in the organisation on accountants' perceptions of ethics. Differences were found in perceptions about ethical issues among accountants in different fields of employment. The study also confirms the inverse relationship between hierarchical position and ethical perception among top, middle and junior staff, with higher-ranked accountants perceiving most ethical issues as less important than their subordinates.
Oncolytic Herpes Simplex Virus Counteracts the Hypoxia‐Induced Modulation of Glioblastoma Stem‐Like Cells

Glioblastoma (GBM), a fatal malignant brain tumor, contains abundant hypoxic regions that provide a “niche” to promote both the maintenance and enrichment of glioblastoma stem‐like cells (GSCs) and confer resistance to chemo‐ and radiotherapy. Since GSCs, with an ability to resist conventional therapies, may be responsible for tumor recurrence, targeting GSCs located in such a hypoxic environment may be critical to improving the therapeutic outcome for GBM patients. Oncolytic viral therapies have been tested in the clinic as a promising therapeutic approach for GBM. In this study, we analyzed and compared the therapeutic effects of oncolytic herpes simplex virus (oHSV) type 1 G47Δ (γ34.5−ICP6−LacZ+α47−) in patient‐derived GSCs under normoxia (21% oxygen) and hypoxia (1% oxygen). GSCs cultured in hypoxia showed an increased ability to form neurospheres and expressed higher levels of the putative stem cell marker CD133 compared with GSCs cultured in normoxia. G47Δ exhibited a comparable ability to infect, replicate, and kill GSCs in normoxia and hypoxia in vitro. Importantly, G47Δ could counteract hypoxia‐mediated enhancement of the stem‐like properties of GSCs, inhibiting their self‐renewal and stem cell marker expression. Using orthotopic human GSC xenografts in mice, we demonstrated that intratumoral injection of G47ΔUs11fluc, a newly developed G47Δ derivative that expresses firefly luciferase driven by a true late viral promoter, led to an equivalent frequency of viral infection and replication in hypoxic and nonhypoxic tumor areas. These findings suggest that oHSV G47Δ represents a promising therapeutic strategy to target and kill GSCs, not only in normoxic areas of GBM but also within the hypoxic niche.
Implementation of Dynamic Anti-Aliased Shadow Algorithm in 3D Scene

The algorithm of shadowmap and its basic principle are studied in this paper. The cause of self-shadow and aliasing are also explained in a mathematical way. The paper presents a multi-sampling algorithm to smooth shadow, and reduce aliasing by increasing precision of depth information and making use of z-bias. The algorithm is implemented by DirectX3D. Experimental results show the feasibility of the algorithm.
A Method for Identifying Japanese Shop and Company Names by Spatiotemporal Cleaning of Eccentrically Located Frequently Appearing Words

We have developed a method for spatiotemporally integrating databases of shop and company information, such as from a digital telephone directory, spatiotemporally, in order to monitor dynamic urban transformations in a detailed manner. To realize this, an additional method is necessary to verify the identicalness of different instances of Japanese shop and company names that might contain fluctuations of description. In this paper, we discuss a method that utilizes an n-gram model for comparing and identifying Japanese words. The processing accuracy was improved through developing various kinds of libraries for frequently appearing words, and using these libraries to clean shop and company names. In addition, the accuracy was greatly and novelty improved through the detection of those frequently appearing words that appear eccentrically across both space and time. By utilizing natural language processing (NLP), our method incorporates a novel technique for the advanced processing of spatial and temporal data.
Exposure to indoor combustion and adult asthma outcomes: environmental tobacco smoke, gas stoves, and woodsmoke

Background: Because they have chronic airway inflammation, adults with asthma may be particularly susceptible to indoor air pollution. Despite widespread exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), gas stoves, and woodsmoke, the impact of these exposures on adult asthma has not been well characterised. Methods: Data were used from a prospective cohort study of 349 adults with asthma who underwent structured telephone interviews at baseline and 18 month follow up. The prospective impact of ETS, gas stove, and woodsmoke exposure on health outcomes was examined. Results: ETS exposure at baseline interview was associated with impaired health status at longitudinal follow up. Compared with respondents with no baseline self-reported exposure to ETS, higher level exposure (≥7 hours/week) was associated with worse severity of asthma scores at follow up, controlling for baseline asthma severity, age, sex, race, income, and educational attainment (mean score increment 1.5 points; 95% CI 0.4 to 2.6). Higher level baseline exposure to ETS was also related to poorer physical health status (mean decrement –4.9 points; 95% CI –8.4 to –1.3) and asthma specific quality of life (mean increase 4.4 points; 95% CI –0.2 to 9.0) at longitudinal follow up. Higher level baseline ETS exposure was associated with a greater risk of emergency department visits (OR 3.4; 95% CI 1.1 to 10.3) and hospital admissions for asthma at prospective follow up (OR 12.2; 95% CI 1.5 to 102). There was no clear relationship between gas stove use or woodstove exposure and asthma health outcomes. Conclusion: Although gas stove and woodstove exposure do not appear negatively to affect adults with asthma, ETS is associated with a clear impairment in health status.
The usefulness of performance reporting in local government: comparing Italy and Spain

This article presents a comparative analysis of the perceived usefulness of performance information by managers in local authorities in Italy and Spain. Italy and Spain have similar cultural and administrative characteristics and in both countries there are external requirements (from central government) to adopt performance indicators. The adoption of performance indicators was found to be almost symbolic in both states.