Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In vivo T‐cell depletion with alemtuzumab in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: Combined results of two studies on aplastic anemia and HLA‐mismatched haploidentical transplantation

We evaluated the efficacy of in vivo T‐cell depletion with alemtuzumab in two prospective studies according to the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH)—Good Clinical Practice (ICH–GCP) guidelines; one was for patients with aplastic anemia (AA study) and the other was for patients who were undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from a 2‐ or 3‐antigen‐mismatched haploidentical donor (MM study). The final dose of alemtuzumab in these studies was 0.16 mg/kg/day for 6 days. At this dose, all of the 12 and 11 patients in the AA and MM studies, respectively, achieved initial engraftment and the incidences of Grade II–IV acute graft‐versus‐host disease (GVHD) were 0% and 18%. While cytomegalovirus (CMV) frequently reactivated, none of the patients developed fatal CMV disease. Transplantation‐related mortality within 1 year after HSCT was observed in only two and one patients, respectively. The numbers of CD4+ and CD8+ T‐cells and T‐cell receptor rearrangement excision circles remained low within 1 year after HSCT. These findings suggest that the use of alemtuzumab at this dose in a conditioning regimen enables safe allogeneic HSCT even from a 2‐ or 3‐antigen‐mismatched donor. However, the use of a lower dose of alemtuzumab should be explored in future studies to accelerate immune recovery after HSCT. Am. J. Hematol. 88:294–300, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The short-term effects of merger on hospital operations.

OBJECTIVE The short-term effects of merger on three areas of hospital operations - scale of activity, personnel/staffing practices, and operating efficiency - is examined. DATA SOURCES Secondary data obtained from the AHA Annual Surveys (1980-1990) were applied to analyze 92 hospital mergers over the period 1982-1989. STUDY DESIGN The study employed a multiple time-series design involving a six-year longitudinal assessment of change in hospital operating characteristics before and after merger, and a parallel analysis of change in a randomly selected group of nonmerging hospitals. DATA COLLECTION Pooled, cross-sectional data files were constructed. Comparisons were evaluated using paired and two-sample t-tests. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS General merger effects occurred primarily in areas related to operating efficiency. Merger resulted in slowing rates of preexisting trends, rather than dramatic improvements in operating practices. CONCLUSIONS The short-term impact of merger was generally modest but differed by the conditions under which the merger occurred. Specifically, mergers occurring later in the study period and mergers between similarly sized hospitals displayed greater change in operating characteristics than those occurring earlier in the study period and those between hospitals of dissimilar size. Such differences are attributed respectively to increased competitive pressures after PPS and to greater opportunities for consolidation and efficiencies in mergers involving similarly sized hospitals.
Heparin in acute coronary disease--requiem for a heavyweight?

Unstable angina and non–Q-wave myocardial infarction together constitute a formidable medical problem. Remarkable recent advances in our understanding of the pathophysiology of acute coronary syndromes have, thus far, outpaced progress in developing novel effective therapies. The 30-day rate of death or myocardial infarction currently approximates 9.1 percent, despite the best conventional therapy with aspirin and intravenous unfractionated heparin.1 The resistance of the acute coronary syndromes to treatment is probably related to their heterogeneous pathophysiology and to the fact that both instability of coronary plaques and hypercoagulability persist for several weeks after the initiation of therapy.2 Despite the widespread use of .
Unit roots and all that: the impact of time-series methods on macroeconomics

Over the past two decades applied macroeconomics has been transformed by the widespread adoption of a set of new statistical techniques: unit-root tests, vector autoregressions, Granger causality and cointegration. Although these techniques were developed to answer statistical questions, they diffused very rapidly through applied economics because they were thought to be able to answer important theoretical questions in macroeconomics. This paper argues that these techniques have not delivered on the early promises; not because they were not useful - they are very useful for many purposes - but because economists expected too much: they wanted to believe that a statistical summary of the data (an estimate or test statistic) could answer an economic question without interpretation. The paper sets out the statistical motivation for the procedures; the economic questions they were supposed to answer; and the issues that arise in trying to answer economic questions about the sources of trends and cycles, ausality and the nature of equilibrium from statistical summaries.
Varus Alignment Leads to Increased Forces in the Anterior Cruciate Ligament

Background Varus thrust of the knee is a dynamic increase of an often preexisting varus angle and it is suspected to be a major reason for failure of anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions. However, it is not known if a direct relationship exists between varus thrust and forces in the anterior cruciate ligament. Hypothesis Forces in the anterior cruciate ligament increase with increasing varus alignment, and consequently an anterior cruciate ligament deficiency in a varus-aligned leg leads to more lateral tibiofemoral joint opening. Study Design Controlled laboratory study. Methods Six human cadaver legs were axially loaded with 3 different weightbearing lines—a neutral weightbearing line, a weightbearing line that passes through the middle of the medial tibial plateau (50% varus), and a line passing the edge of the medial tibial plateau (100% varus)—that were used to create a varus moment. The resulting lateral tibiofemoral joint opening and corresponding anterior cruciate ligament tension were measured. The tests were repeated with and without the anterior cruciate ligament in place. Results In the neutral aligned legs, there was no apparent lateral joint opening, and no anterior cruciate ligament tension change was noted. The lateral joint opening increased when the weightbearing line increased from 0% to 50% to 100%. The lateral joint opening was significantly higher in 10° of knee flexion compared with knee extension. In the 100% varus weightbearing line, the anterior cruciate ligament tension was significantly higher (53.9 N) compared with neutral (31 N) or the 50% weightbearing line (37.9 N). A thrust could only be observed in the 100% weightbearing line tests. In the absence of an anterior cruciate ligament, there was more lateral joint opening, although this was only significant in the 100% weightbearing line. Conclusion There is a direct relationship between varus alignment and anterior cruciate ligament tension. In the absence of an anterior cruciate ligament, the amount of lateral opening tends to increase. With increasing lateral opening, a thrust can sometimes be experimentally observed. Clinical Relevance A varus alignment in an anterior cruciate ligament—deficient knee does not necessarily lead to a varus thrust and therefore does not always need operative varus alignment correction. However, in an unstable anterior cruciate ligament—deficient knee with a varus thrust, it might be safer to perform a high valgus tibial osteotomy to minimize the risk of an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction failure.
Placing Salt/Soy Sauce at Dining Tables and Out-Of-Home Behavior Are Related to Urinary Sodium Excretion in Japanese Secondary School Students

We investigated whether home environment, salt knowledge, and salt-use behavior were associated with urinary sodium (Na) excretion in Japanese secondary school students. Students (267; mean age, 14.2 years) from Suo-Oshima, Japan, collected three overnight urine samples and completed a salt environment/knowledge/behavior questionnaire. A subset of students (n = 66) collected, on non-consecutive days, two 24 h urine samples, and this subset was used to derive a formula for estimating 24 h Na excretion. Generalized linear models were used to examine the association between salt environment/knowledge/behavior and Na excretions. Students that had salt or soy sauce placed on the dining table during meals excreted more Na than those that did not (pfor trend < 0.05). A number of foods to which the students added seasonings were positively associated with Na excretion (pfor trend = 0.005). The students who frequently bought foods at convenience stores or visited restaurants excreted more Na in urine than those who seldom bought foods (pfor trend < 0.05). Knowledge about salt or discretionary seasoning use was not significantly associated with Na excretion. The associations found in this study indicate that home environment and salt-use behavior may be a target for a public health intervention to reduce salt intake of secondary school students.
Strategic Management Accounting and Business Strategy: A Loose Coupling?

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether business strategy influences strategic management accounting (SMA) usage. Business strategy has been operationalized through strategic pattern, mission and positioning. , – The paper is based on an internet questionnaire survey of Italian companies. Multiple regression analysis is used to test the impact of strategic variables (pattern, mission and positioning) on SMA usage. Company size is included as control variable. , – Several SMA techniques appear to be used in Italian companies as they are in other countries investigated in different studies. Customer accounting, competitive position monitoring, competitor performance appraisal based on published financial statement and quality costing represent the most widely used SMA techniques in the Italian sample. From the regression analysis, both defender‐ and cost leader‐type of strategy are found to be more willing to use SMA techniques addressing cost information. , – The issue, common in contingent research, of business strategy definition and operationalization constitutes the main limitation of the paper; in an attempt to restrict its effect, it uses three strategic typologies (pattern, mission and positioning) and employs a measurement method used in previous studies. A second issue concerns the definition of SMA techniques. There is no concurred list of SMA techniques in the literature and further discussion is expected in the future. , – First, empirical evidence is provided to a field (SMA) where empirical research is needed in order to be comparable with traditional management accounting techniques. Second, for the first time in SMA studies, a framework is employed that considers all of the three main strategic variables (pattern, mission and positioning) used in management accounting literature. As a result, the loose coupling between SMA techniques and business strategy typologies indicates (with the possible exception of cost‐related SMA techniques) that the same SMA technique can support different strategic approaches of the company.
The failure of community-based entrepreneurship in Haiti

Community-based entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship facilitating the emergence of other entrepreneurs. It is linked to communal and cooperative structures of various kinds. Haiti is a country with many such structures. Still, no community-based entrepreneurship has emerged. The article identifies the reasons for this. Traditional structures have dissolved or changed character. Modern cooperatives have had a bad start, partly because of political interference and the trade union movement has been largely politicised. The Haitian business tradition is individualistic. In the food market competition rules, in the coffee market oligopolistic collusion has alternated with stern competition, in other branches the state has acted to protect a few producers, and the assembly sector has had to compete in the international market. The gaps between the common man, the government and the elite have militated against community-based entrepreneurship. Finally, social capital and trust are lacking and this does not produce leaders that further entrepreneurship.
Genetic Algorithm based Engine for Domain-Specific Reconfigurable Arrays

Domain-specific reconfigurable arrays have shown to provide an efficient trade-off between flexibility of FPGA and performance of ASIC circuit. Nonetheless, the design of these heterogeneous arrays is a labour intensive process. Furthermore, the manual creation of the array architecture could not have been fully optimised, hence limiting their performance. This paper presents a placement technique for mapping logic elements into heterogeneous reconfigurable arrays. At its core, it implements a genetic algorithm, which was used to reduce the span of all the interconnections as well as critical delay. It therefore minimises the amount of routing resource required in the architecture. The algorithm was tested on two arrays implementing DCT and speech coding. The resulting architecture achieves optimal close to that of an expert designer in a fraction of the time
THE EFFECTS OF THE ANNOUNCEMENTS OF DIVIDEND INCREASES ON STOCK RETURN VOLATILITY: THE EVIDENCE FROM THE OPTIONS MARKET

This paper examines the impact of the announcements of dividend increases on the volatility of underlying stock returns implied by option prices, and analyses whether the impact is related to the label associated with the dividend increase. The results suggest that the announcements of labelled dividend increases are accompanied by a decrease in implied volatility, while the announcements of unlabelled increases in dividends are associated with no change in implied volatility. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that signal implicit in the announcements of dividend increases provides noisy information about the firm's volatility.
Firm Value and External Blockholdings

This paper examines the valuation consequences of external blockholdings. The stock market responses to announcement of block formations are positive, on average. Potential sources of gains to blockholders are identified, and the stock market responses are related cross-sectionally to firm-specific variables proxying for these sources and to blockholder-specific characteristics. The announcement period abnormal returns are explained by the potential for wealth transfer from bondholders, block size, and the identity of the blockholder. Changes in operating and performance variables following block formations provide weak evidence of hands-on monitoring by blockholders on an ongoing basis, suggesting that the observed value increases arise from expectations of future takeover gains and/or from limits on future opportunistic managerial behavior.
On-Chip Drug Screening and Nanomedicine Applications via (L)SPR

Microfluidic lab-on-a-chip tools have been emerged in recent years as next generation nanomedicine and drug screening platforms. Plasmonic microfluidic systems have shown promising progress over the past years to identify potential drug candidates. These systems allow the study of drug interactions at molecular and cellular level while facilitating fast, sensitive and label-free detection. We foresee that the advancements in Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) coupled microfluidic systems will be an easy to use and cost-effective alternative to identify potential drug candidates for drug development process.
Design, implementation and realization of 64Kbps  QPSK based burst demodulator for onboard application

The Ka band regenerative payload is a transponder of GSAT-4 satellite [1]. It provides Narrow Spot Beams, Wide Bandwidth and small size of antenna for both transmission and reception. The Signaling Demodulator is a one of the important subsystem of regenerative Payload. This Signaling Demodulator was developed in-house for providing signaling information to provide communication between one spot beam to other. The demodulator software was developed for functionality of getting the signaling request from the user terminal & the processing of the request onboard.
Compensatory enlargement of human coronary arteries during progression of atherosclerosis is unrelated to atheroma burden: serial intravascular ultrasound observations from the REVERSAL trial.

AIMS On the basis of the evidence from autopsy studies, it is accepted that compensatory enlargement (remodelling) of coronary arteries during progression of atherosclerosis diminishes once atheroma burden (cross-sectional area stenosis) reaches approximately 40%. Our aim was to evaluate whether atheroma burden is a limiting factor for coronary arterial remodelling using in vivo serial intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). METHODS AND RESULTS From the cohort of the Reversal of Atherosclerosis with Aggressive Lipid Lowering (REVERSAL) trial, we identified 210 focal coronary lesions at baseline IVUS. Of these, 128 lesions that had an increase in atheroma area at the 18-month follow-up IVUS were included in the analysis. Lesions were matched at baseline and follow-up. The increase in external elastic membrane (EEM) area for each mm(2) increase in atheroma area was not significantly different in lesions with <40 and >or=40% atheroma burden at baseline (1.62 vs. 1.28 mm(2), P=0.30). There were no correlations between atheroma burden at baseline and change in EEM (r=0.02, P=0.86) or change in lumen (r=0.04, P=0.64) areas. CONCLUSION Assessment of coronary arterial remodelling by serial IVUS revealed that compensatory remodelling is not limited by atheroma burden. Atheroma burden is not a determinant of arterial enlargement during the progression of atherosclerosis.
The Better Regulation Initiative at the Judicial Gate: A Trojan Horse within the Commission's Walls or the Way Forward?

While most academic attention is currently being paid to the goals and to the merits of the Better Regulation initiative (BR), this article examines the most immediate legal implications stemming from reliance on the main tools of BR (such as systematic impact analysis and consultation procedures on proposed legislation) within the European legal order. Since the BR package boils down into a set of regulatory requirements, enforcement issues are likely to arise. For instance, what if the Commission omits to undertake (or badly performs) an impact assessment of a legislative proposal? Who is currently in charge of ensuring the Commission's compliance with these requirements? After illustrating the existing administrative oversight mechanisms designed to ensure effective compliance with BR requirements, by focusing notably on the recently established Impact Assessment Board, the article examines to what extent the European courts may be called upon to review the respect paid to the requirements of BR by the Commission services. To prevent the BR initiative from turning into a Trojan Horse within its own walls, the Commission is likely to comply with these regulatory requirements, thereby paving the way for the initiative's success.
A framework for dynamic position determination

This paper presents a brief survey of typical examples of systems in the field of position determination and identifies a need for a further research. This is followed by a description of a managed positioning environment for indoor and outdoor surroundings, in which accuracy and precision can be improved by using a mix of fixed sensors and the sensing capabilities of mobile devices in a way that it allows the transformation of proximity data into absolute coordinates. It is believed that this also improves the availability of the positioning service as partial, imprecise or incomplete data is utilised rather than discarded. The usage of wireless local area networks along with PDAs, mobile phones and similar devices, as opposed to custom sensors ensures that maintenance and administrative costs are kept to a minimum. Furthermore, a dynamic feedback system is proposed in order minimise deployment and initialisation effort by allowing refining of location information in fixed sensors.
The adoption of HIV/AIDS policies and practices in businesses in Botswana: an exploratory study

This paper contributes to an under-researched area through an exploration of the factors motivating the adoption of HIV/AIDS policies and practices in businesses in Botswana. The focus of analysis is a developing country where HIV/AIDS is acknowledged to have had a detrimental impact on its human resources. The objective of this research was to assess whether a voluntary, non-legally binding National Policy on HIV/AIDS is an adequate motivator for the adoption of HIV/AIDS policies in businesses. The study engaged employers and managers across a number of key sectors in Botswana. The findings are explored through a theoretical lens that acknowledges institutional isomorphism and rational economic decision-making as potential motivating factors. The data indicate that the National Policy on HIV/AIDS had motivated certain businesses to adopt such policies, but a variety of other factors were also found to be involved in this process. There was, however, lack of engagement with the National Policy and with issues surrounding HIV/AIDS by a high number of the participating organisations. The research findings reveal the complexity of factors involved in adopting HIV/AIDS policies in a developing country, and therefore provide an insight in an under-researched area. They can serve as a foundation for future research on human resource management policies and practices in relation to HIV/AIDS in African economies.
Senone I-vectors for robust speaker verification

Recent research has shown that using senone posteriors for i-vector extraction can achieve outstanding performance. In this paper, we extend this idea to robust speaker verification by constructing a deep neural network (DNN) comprising a deep belief network (DBN) stacked on top of a denoising autoencoder (DAE). The proposed method addresses noise robustness in two perspectives: (1) denoising the MFCC vectors through the DAE and (2) extracting noise robust bottleneck (BN) features and senone posteriors from the DBN for total-variability matrix training and i-vector extraction. The DAE comprises several layers of restricted Boltzmann machines (RBM), which are trained to minimize the mean squared error between the denoised and clean MFCCs. After training the DAE, three layers of RBMs are put on top of it to form the DNN. The whole network is fine-tuned by backpropagation to minimize the cross-entropy between the senone labels and network outputs. This architecture allows us to extract BN features and estimates senone posteriors given noisy MFCCs as input, resulting in robust BN-based senone i-vectors. Results on NIST 2012 SRE show that these senone i-vectors outperform the conventional i-vectors and the BN-based i-vectors in which the posteriors are obtained from a GMM.
Autograft repigmentation of leukoderma.

In a Negro woman with long-standing leukoderma that followed a chemical burn, nine 1- and 2-mm diameter normal-skin autografts were transplanted into the leukodermic site. The grafts retained their pigment-forming capacity and showed temporary hyperpigmentation. The "pigment spread phenomenon" was evidenced by 1-mm wide zones of melanosis that developed around each autograft in the leukodermic skin. The melanotic annulus about the first autograft has thus far persisted for two years. The observations indicate donor autograft dominance in leukoderma in contradistinction to recipient site dominance in vitiligo.