Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Control in Large Organizations

The problem of control is defined as that of choosing operating rules for members of an organization and enforcement rules for the operating rules so to maximize the organization's objective function. The control problem is sketched for three characteristic types of large organizations: large corporations, governments in their budgetary aspects, and economic systems as a whole. The essential roles of uncertainty and of differential amounts of information in different parts of an organization in the problem of control are brought out. The merits and drawbacks of the price system as a control mechanism are discussed in light of the preceding discussion, with especial reference to the effects of uncertainty.
Comparing alcohol affordability in 65 cities worldwide.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS To develop a measure of alcohol affordability (AA) and compare the AA of 65 cities worldwide. DESIGN AND METHODS In this paper, AA is defined as the proportion of median daily income needed to buy a certain quantity of certain alcoholic beverages. The income data and the price of alcoholic beverages were drawn from the Union Bank of Switzerland survey and the Economist Intelligence Unit respectively. RESULTS A large majority of cities (87.7%, n = 57) had a high level of AA. The top 20 ranking was occupied by European and American cities with Tokyo in the Western Pacific region being the exception. All cities belonging to high-income countries had high levels of AA. However, two cities with low-level AA came from low-middle-income countries instead of low-income countries. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS The findings have shown that alcohol consumption is highly affordable in many cities. If price policy is being considered as policy instrument of alcohol control, it is in urgent need of price adjustments. More specifically, the new emerging economies play a significant role in the world alcohol control movement because of their bright economic performance with huge population size. Further studies on AA, especially periodical monitoring and its impacts on alcohol consumption and alcohol related health problems, should be conducted so as to facilitate the formulation and evaluation price measure of alcohol control.
Do sepsis biomarkers in the emergency room allow transition from bundled sepsis care to personalized patient care?

Purpose of reviewThere is convincing evidence linking early start of fluid resuscitation and initiation of appropriate antimicrobial therapy to improved outcomes in patients with sepsis in the emergency department. Blood biomarkers measured on admission and during follow-up have the ability to guide early sepsis recognition, severity assessment and therapeutic decisions in individual patients and may allow transition from bundled sepsis care to more individualized management in single patients. Recent findingsAlthough a large number of promising diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers have been put forward in observational studies, only few have been evaluated in prospective randomized-controlled intervention trials. Markers such as lactate for risk stratification and guidance of fluid resuscitation, procalcitonin for assessing risk of bacterial infections and guiding therapeutic decisions about initiation and duration of antimicrobial therapy, and recently proadrenomedullin for early mortality prediction and site-of-care decisions in respiratory infections, have shown to improve patient management. SummaryFor few biomarkers, recent study results demonstrate that well defined clinical protocols have the potential to guide decisions about the individual risk stratification and treatment of patients with suspicion of sepsis ultimately leading to improved patient care and outcomes. For other biomarkers, promising observation data have been put forward, but their potential needs to be evaluated in large-scale, well designed prospective intervention studies before clinical use can be recommended.
EGFR-targeted poly(ethylene glycol)-distearoylphosphatidylethanolamine micelle loaded with paclitaxel for laryngeal cancer: preparation, characterization and in vitro evaluation

Abstract The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of using polymeric micelles modified with a peptide (termed GE11) ligand of epidermal growth factor receptor as the targeted carriers to achieve increased accumulation in laryngeal cancer and enhanced intracellular delivery for the encapsulated anticancer drugs. Poly (ethylene glycol)-distearoylphosphatidylethanolamine (PEG-DSPE) micelles containing paclitaxel were prepared via film-hydration method followed by investigation of in vitro release of paclitaxel in phosphate-buffered saline. The average size of GE11-PEG-DSPE/paclitaxel micelle and mPEG-DSPE/paclitaxel were 35 ± 2.8 nm [the polydispersity index (PDI) = 0.207] and 28 ± 2.1 nm (PDI = 0.154), respectively. Micelles with or without GE11-modified had similar physicochemical properties. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the micelles were homogeneous and spherical in shape. Encapsulation efficiency and drug loading of the micelle were 74.11 ± 3.89% and 3.58 ± 2.82%, respectively. The in vitro targeting characteristic of GE11-modified micelles was investigated by observing the level of cellular uptake of fluorescent coumarin-6-loaded micelles on EGFR over-expressed human laryngeal cancer cell line Hep-2 and EGFR low-expressed human leukemic cell line U-937. Hep-2 cell proliferation was significantly inhibited by GE11-PEG-DSPE/paclitaxel micelle compared to mPEG-DSPE/paclitaxel micelle and Taxol in vitro. Our results suggested that GE11-PEG-DSPE micelle could be a promising strategy for enhancing paclitaxel’s chemotherapeutic effects on EGFR over-expressed cancer cells.
Sources of shareholders’ wealth gains from asset sales

This paper uses an event study approach to examine the performance improvements accruing to those UK firms making assets sales in a single divestiture. It is found that a divestiture announcement leads to an increase in shareholders' wealth of between 0.81% and 1.04% depending on the expected return model employed. The source of the wealth gain can be attributed to the relaxing of credit constraints achieved by reducing the level of debt.
Risk Factors and Outcomes for Catastrophic Failures at the Top of Long Pedicle Screw Constructs: A Matched Cohort Analysis Performed at a Single Center

Study Design. Retrospective review with matched-cohort analysis performed at a single institution. Objective. To determine risk factors and outcomes for acute fractures at the proximal aspect of long pedicle screw constructs. Summary of Background Data. Acute fractures at the top of long segmental pedicle screw constructs (FPSC) can be catastrophic. Substantial surgical increase in lordosis may precipitate this problem. In relation to a matched cohort, we postulated that age, body mass index (BMI), and significant correction of lumbar lordosis would increase risk of FPSC and patients with FPSC would have lesser improvements in outcomes. Methods. Thirteen patients who sustained FPSC between 2000 and 2007 were evaluated. During this time, 264 patients aged 40 or older had a spinal fusion from the thoracic spine to the sacrum using an all-pedicle screw construct. A cohort of 31 of these patients without FPSC but with all pedicle screw constructs was matched for diagnosis of positive sagittal imbalance, gender, preoperative C7 sagittal plumb, and number of levels fused. Results. There was a significant difference in age (P = 0.02) and BMI (P = 0.006) between the matched groups. There was no significant difference in preoperative/postoperative C7 plumb or change in lumbar lordosis between groups. Acute neurological deficit developed in 2 patients; both patients improved substantially after revision surgery. Nine patients underwent proximal extension of the fusion. For 7 of the 13 FPSC patients with bone mineral density data (BMD) available, average T score was−1.73; −0.58 for the matched group (10/31 with bone mineral density data) (P = 0.02). Conclusion. Factors that increased the risk of FPSC included obesity and older age. Osteopenia increased the risk as evidenced by BMD (based on 17 patients) and the older age of these patients. There was no statistical difference in clinical improvement between groups based on ODI, but the FPSC group did demonstrate a smaller improvement in ODI score than the matched cohort.
Danish Labor Market Policy: Is it Worth it?

Denmark has been quite succesfull in reducing unemployment. At the same time the costs of creating activation and other schemes have been very high. OECD judges that total costs are about 5% of GDP, which is the highest amount among OECD-countries. This paper presents a comprehensive description of the recent Danish labour market policies. The paper goes through all the different programmes and shows that most of the measures introduced have increased the reservation wages of job seekers. The result was a sharp growth in the number of participants on a number of new programmes for the unemployed and for those seeking alternatives to work. The total number of people on some sort of passive or active scheme rose until late in the 90’s where admission to programmes was restricted and a strong economic upswing created new demand for labour. A final analysis of the probability that an unemployed person becomes employed, based on individual transition data, shows that the new labour market policies introduced after 1993 did not increase the probability that an unemployed person would get a job. However, there is a positive effect in 1997 and 1998 coinciding with the attempts to tighten admission to labour programmes.
Pancreatic carcinoma cell lines with SMAD4 inactivation show distinct expression responses to TGFB1

Transforming growth factor beta‐1 (TGFB1)–induced gene expression was studied in five pancreatic carcinoma cell lines and one known TGFB1‐sensitive cell line (HaCaT) by use of high‐density filter‐based cDNA microarrays representing over 4,000 human genes. The results indicate a complex cellular response to TGFB1 with 10% of the investigated genes showing altered expression after 3 or 48 hr of TGFB1 exposure. The tumor cell lines displayed a gradually inversed gene expression pattern, which correlated with reduced sensitivity to TGFB1, as compared to the HaCaT cell line. In the HaCaT cells, several proapoptotic genes showed increased expression in response to TGFB1, whereas the expression of antiapoptotic genes was decreased. In contrast, two pancreatic carcinoma cell lines, previously found to be growth stimulated by TGFB1, displayed an expression pattern opposite to that of these genes. Similarly, the expression of other functional groups of genes, such as cell cycle and transcription factor related genes, was almost completely reversed in these two tumor cell lines. Importantly, three of the five investigated pancreatic carcinoma cell lines responded to TGFB1, although they had SMAD4 inactivations, suggesting that the observed gene expression changes in these cell lines must be accomplished by SMAD‐independent pathways. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
First pediatric liver transplantation in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

On December 5, 2005, the first liver transplantation in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Vietnam, was successfully carried out by a BelgoVietnamesemedico-surgical team on a 12 kg body weight, two-yr-old girl with biliary atresia and secondary biliary cirrhosis after a failed Kasai procedure. This child had previously experienced a spontaneously resolutive episode of upper digestive bleeding secondary to portal hypertension, and had received propranolol, ursodeoxycholic acid, and ADEK vitamin as maintenance pre-transplant therapy. The nutritional status of the child at transplantation was satisfactory, with, however, the presence of an inverted portal blood flow at echo-Doppler ultrasound and a PELD score at 13. After a full written informed consent process and considering the hepatitis B carrier status of the father, the mother was selected as an ideal living donor, with the absence of clinical contraindications to a major abdominal intervention, as evaluated by a medical advocate not belonging to the transplant team; the left liver lobe volume was estimated at 240 mL. The procedure took place at Children Hospital No. 2 in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, in a freshly renovated surgical facility with two fully equipped, adjacent operating rooms, with availability of an ultrasonic dissector, a red cell saver device, a bipolar diathermy, and an intra-operative echo-Doppler ultrasound. The donor graft had a dual arterial inflow, including an accessory left hepatic artery; this anatomic peculiarity was responsible for vascular kinking in the recipient, requiring a surgical redo on day one post-transplant, with a final successful arterial reconstruction using the recipient right gastro-epiploic artery. The subsequent clinical course of the living donor was uneventful, allowing her discharge on day 10 after surgery, whereas the child developed a bacterial abdominal infection, secondary to the abdominal prosthesis inserted at the time of transplantation, which required abdominal drainage and antibiotics. The child was finally discharged at seven wk post-transplant, with tacrolimus and steroid immunosuppression, and a normal liver function profile (Fig. 1). This achievement was the result of a close collaboration and friendship between the authors for a decade, and of a seven-yr-old cooperation program financially supported by the Belgian government through its Commission universitaire pour le Développement. The current 2004–2009 program includes research and post-graduate teaching projects focused on the medico-surgical approach to digestive pathologies in children. In 2005, the Health Department of Ho Chi Minh City made the official request for an extension of this cooperation to support a new pediatric liver transplant program to be initiated at Children Hospital No. 2, a main pediatric referral center in Southern Vietnam. This new challenge required intensive
Kantian Optimization, Social Ethos, and Pareto Efficiency

Although evidence accrues in biology, anthropology and experimental economics that homo sapiens is a cooperative species, the reigning assumption in economic theory is that individuals optimize in an autarkic manner (as in Nash and Walrasian equilibrium). I here postulate an interdependent kind of optimizing behavior, called Kantian. It is shown that in simple economic models, when there are negative externalities (such as congestion effects from use of a commonly owned resource) or positive externalities (such as a social ethos reflected in individuals’ preferences), Kantian equilibria dominate Nash-Walras equilibria in terms of efficiency. While economists schooled in Nash equilibrium may view the Kantian behavior as utopian, there is some -- perhaps much -- evidence that it exists. If cultures evolve through group selection, the hypothesis that Kantian behavior is more prevalent than we may think is supported by the efficiency results here demonstrated.
Trypanosome Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterase 2B Binds cAMP through Its GAF-A Domain*

Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of sleeping sickness in humans and livestock, expresses at least three cAMP-specific class I phosphodiesterases (PDEs), all of which are essential for survival of the parasite. These PDEs have either one or two N-terminal GAF domains, which in other proteins function as signaling domains. However, neither the functional roles nor ligands for these domains in trypanosome PDEs are known. The present study shows that TbPDE2B, which contains two tandem GAF domains, binds cAMP with high affinity through its GAF-A domain. A purified recombinant N terminus + GAF-A domain binds cAMP with an affinity (Ki) of ∼16 nm. It also binds cGMP but with a 15-fold lower affinity of ∼275 nm. The TbPDE2B holoenzyme has a somewhat lower affinity (∼55 nm) for cAMP but a greatly lower affinity (∼10 μm) for cGMP. This suggests that both the selectivity and affinity for a ligand can be determined not only by the nature of the binding domain but also by the adjacent domains. Additionally, binding of cAMP to the holoenzyme showed positive cooperativity, with a Hill coefficient value of 1.75. However, binding of cGMP to the holoenzyme did not show any cooperativity, suggesting differences in the conformational changes caused by binding of these two cyclic nucleotides with the protein. Point mutation of a key predicted binding site residue (T317A) resulted in a complete loss of high affinity cAMP binding. This mutation increased the apparent Km of the mutant enzyme for substrate without altering the Vmax. A truncated catalytic domain construct of TbPDE2B also exhibited an increased Km, strongly suggesting that cAMP binding to the GAF-A domain can regulate TbPDE2B by allowing the full activity of the enzyme to be expressed. These properties of the GAF-A domain of TbPDE2B thus suggest that it could be a new target for anti-trypanosomal drugs.
Food Demand Elasticities among Urban Households in Thailand

Information on demand patterns for food is needed to determine food and agricultural policies. In this study, food demand elasticities are estimated for urban Thailand, based on a survey of 500 households in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. We estimate a Linear Almost Ideal Demand System (LAIDS) for 8 aggregate food items and explicitly account for censored data. As one would expect, the demand for higher-value foods such as fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and seafood rises more with increasing incomes than the demand for staple foods, especially rice. Likewise, households are more price responsiveness with respect to higher-value foods. These results suggest that economic developments and policies that foster income growth and
Accidental, unprepared, and unsupported: clinical nurses becoming managers

To what extent have hospitals developed their skilled clinicians to perform the administrative and human resources (HR) manager role of the ward manager? We consider this research question through an analysis of an acute hospital called ‘The Hospital’ where the executive team is aiming to adopt a form of high-performance work system (HPWS). We focus primarily on explanations in terms of conditions, rather than the personalities of individual managers, which are most powerful in shaping their behaviour. There has long been a failure of hospitals (and other employing organisations) to develop fully the skills required by employees before they become line managers. Line managers are a critical link in the high-performance chain and this study illustrates that, despite their rhetoric, hospitals may still have much potential for implementing schemes to develop nurses further to prepare them for line-manager positions and to support them after they move into such roles. We infer from this study that such hospitals may not yet have completed the journey to having HPWS. Hence, there is still much scope for such hospitals to progress and enjoy the benefits that proponents claim for HPWS.
Corporate governance and investment: domestic and foreign firms in Greece

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis that the nationality of ownership affects investment through its interaction with return expectations and cash flow and to answer the question whether this is due to asymmetric information or managerial discretion problems. Design/methodology/approach - Asymmetric information and managerial discretion hypothesis are being tested in a fully extended model, which provides for a variety of effects from the explanatory variables. The paper also uses firm and industry variables to account for the investment opportunities or marginal Findings - In total, 2,700 domestic and foreign (multinational) manufacturing firms located in Greece in the 1992-1997 period were examined, providing consistent evidence supporting the asymmetric information hypothesis against the managerial discretion hypothesis. These results also support the significance of ownership effects, at least with respect to the national origin of the firm's shareholders. Originality/value - This paper provides evidence that the nationality of ownership affects the investment behavior and is related with the specific information problems of the firms.
Influence of social environment in smoking among adolescents in Turkey.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to examine the social determinants of smoking among adolescents attending school and/or work. METHODS A survey was carried out on 6012 adolescents aged between 13 and 17 years in 15 cities, recruited from schools, vocational training centres and work places. A self-completed questionnaire was used for data collection. Single- and multi-level regression analyses were run to estimate models. RESULTS Ever smoking and current smoking rates were 41.1% and 10.5% among girls, and 57.5% and 25.2% among boys. These rates were 47.0% and 13.3% among those who only attended school, 62.2% and 31.7% among those who attended school and worked simultaneously, and 67.5% and 43.0% among those who worked and did not attend school. In multi-level analysis, the major predictors of current smoking were close friends smoking [odds ratio (OR) 3.48; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.93-6.27], no knowledge of harmful effects of short-term smoking (OR 2.15; 95% CI 1.74-2.67), vulnerability to peer pressure (OR 1.90; 95% CI 1.48-2.46), negative self-perception (OR 1.69; 95% CI 1.31-2.18) and male sex (OR 1.68; 95% CI 1.30-2.16). Mothers higher education was a predictor for girls' smoking, while mother's lower education was a predictor for boys' smoking. At the school level, smoking prevalence was a predictor of current smoking (OR 1.07; 95% CI 1.05-1.08). CONCLUSIONS Smoking patterns were similar to Western countries in several aspects, while male prevalence rates were higher and the impact of gender-related predictors was significant. Our findings suggest that youth smoking prevention policies should address personal, familial and educational environmental level requirements, taking into consideration the gender differences in addition to international guidelines.
Fetal nuchal translucency: ultrasound screening for fetal trisomy in the first trimester of pregnancy

Sir, Dr Price is incorrect in assuming that studies of Latin and Greek “have virtually disappeared” from schools in the United Kingdom (Vol 101, October 1994). Greek can currently be heard in Athens, Melbourne, New York and several parts of London. Latin inscriptions may be seen on many sacred and secular buildings and on blazer pockets throughout Europe. Our medical students, most of whom have extremely high grades at A level in sciences, have little difficulty in mastering Greek and Latin terms even if they have not studied classics at school. Indeed, I am sure Dr Price has quickly acquired a working knowledge of Cantonese whilst working in Hong Kong and is the more cultured for it. Dr Price refers to Cicero’s persistent habit of cloaking his words in a foreign language. I have confirmed with classics expert R.M. Moody that the works of Cicero contain no Greek whatsoever in his addresses and only in his private and personal correspondence. Dr Price is apparently also completely unaware that all educated Romans were bilingual and that Shakespeare has committed a historical solecism in making the joke in Julius Caesar.