Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inflammatory bowel disease — empowering the patient and improving outcome

Inflammatory bowel disease, in common with most chronic diseases, is managed by specialist clinicians during regular clinic follow‐up visits. Patients spend approximately 1 h per year with clinicians, with few provisions made for patient participation in their own management for the remainder of the year, resulting in dependence and disempowerment. The provision of regular, fixed clinic appointments for diseases that follow an unpredictable relapsing/remitting pattern results in inefficiencies for health services and inconvenience for patients, as well as high rates of noncompliance. Self‐care is a normal human function and accounts for the management of three‐quarters of all episodes of ill health. More formalized applications include patients and doctors working collaboratively to develop a set of guidelines which patients use to manage their chronic disease themselves. Recent studies have shown that, in patients with stable ulcerative colitis, self‐management results in reduced health service utilization, speedier access to treatment and high levels of patient acceptability, without compromising health outcomes. There are a number of barriers to the effective implementation of guided self‐management at many levels. Clinicians may be reluctant to pass control of treatment changes to patients, particularly the use of steroids. Access to clinics at short notice may be difficult and some patients themselves prefer a system in which all decisions are made by doctors. Research into guided self‐management is ongoing as the long‐term outcomes are uncertain. However, there are indications that passing ‘ownership of management’ back to patients may improve compliance as patients realize their own responsibilities for remaining well.
Researching the gap between strategic and operational levels of corporate responsibility

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand differences between the strategic level and the operational level of corporate responsibility within an organization.Design/methodology/approach – The research was conducted as a single case study of one of the more noteworthy Finnish firms with respect to corporate responsibility reporting.Findings – The results show that strategic and operational levels differ in terms of their developmental stage of corporate responsibility. The strategic level is more focused on responsibility issues concerning external stakeholders, on reporting, on corporate image and on quantitative measures. The operational level emphasizes internal stakeholders, acting, daily existence, and qualitative criteria.Research limitations/implications – A well‐known corporate responsibility model was useful for identifying how perspectives concerning corporate social responsibility vary within the corporation. However, to explore the reasons for this variation, the actors, actions, ou.
Molecular Evolutionary Relationships of Enteroinvasive Escherichia coli and Shigella spp

ABSTRACT Enteroinvasive Escherichia coli (EIEC), a distinctive pathogenic form of E. coli causing dysentery, is similar in many properties to bacteria placed in the four species of Shigella. Shigella has been separated as a genus but in fact comprises several clones of E. coli. The evolutionary relationships of 32 EIEC strains of 12 serotypes have been determined by sequencing of four housekeeping genes and two plasmid genes which were used previously to determine the relationships of Shigella strains. The EIEC strains were grouped in four clusters with one outlier strain, indicating independent derivation of EIEC several times. Three of the four clusters contain more than one O antigen type. One EIEC strain (an O112ac:H− strain) was found in Shigella cluster 3 but is not identical to the Shigella cluster 3 D2 and B15 strains with the same O antigen. Two forms of the virulence plasmid pINV have been identified in Shigella strains by using the sequences of ipgD and mxiA genes, and all but two of our EIEC strains have pINV A. The EIEC strains were grouped in two subclusters with a very low level of variation, generally not intermingled with Shigella pINV A strains. The EIEC clusters based on housekeeping genes were reflected in the plasmid gene sequences, with some exceptions. Two strains were found in the pINV B form by using the ipgD sequence, with one strain having an mxiA sequence similar to the divergent sequence of D1. Clearly, EIEC and Shigella spp. form a pathovar of E. coli.
Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do

PART I: THE PARADOX 1 Chapter 1: Introduction 3 Chapter 2: Rich State, Poor State 8 Chapter 3: How the Talking Heads Can Be So Confused 24 PART II: WHAT'S GOING ON 41 Chapter 4: Income and Voting over Time 43 Chapter 5: Inequality and Voting 58 Chapter 6: Religious Reds and Secular Blues 76 Chapter 7: The United States in Comparative Perspective 94 PART III: WHAT IT MEANS 109 Chapter 8: Polarized Parties 111 Chapter 9: Competing to Build a Majority Coalition 137 Chapter 10: Putting It All Together 165 Afterword The 2008 Election 179 Notes and Sources 197 Index 241
Content-Based Semantic Indexing of Image using Fuzzy Support Vector Machines

With the increasing amount of multimedia data, content-based image retrieval attracts many researchers of various fields in an effort to automate data analysis and indexing. In this paper, we propose a content-based semantic indexing method which annotates images automatically using concepts and textual description. In order to bridge the "semantic gap" between the low-level descriptors and the high-level semantic concepts of an image, we introduce a 3-level pyramid and combine the color, texture and edge features for each level. Fuzzy support vector machine (FSVM) is employed for building the concept model and calculates the likelihood of an image to a model. We index the images with concepts according to the likelihood between an image and the concept model. Experiments show that our method has good accuracy in semantic indexing of images.
Remyelination of the central nervous system

The three typical stages in the clinical course of multiple sclerosis (relapse, persistent disability and progression) can be explained on the basis of inflammation, demyelination and failure of repair leading to axon degeneration and astrocytosis. Strategies ore being evaluated for limiting the inflammatory process using immunological treatments and these may have unexpected dividends in promoting endogenous remyelination. Increasing knowledge on glial lineages and axon-glial interactions needed for stable myelination also offer the prospect for enhancing remyelination through growth factor therapy and cell implantation.
Dodge-Ing the Issue: Dodge, Javal, Hering, and the Measurement of Saccades in Eye-Movement Research

Dodge, in 1916, suggested that the French term ‘saccade’ should be used for describing the rapid movements of the eyes that occur while reading. Previously he had referred to these as type I movements. Javal had used the term ‘saccade’ in 1879, when describing experiments conducted in his laboratory by Lamare. Accordingly, Javal has been rightly credited with assigning the term to rapid eye movements. In English these rapid rotations had been called jerks, and they had been observed and measured before Lamare's studies of reading. Rapid sweeps of the eyes occur as one phase of nystagmus; they were observed by Wells in 1792 who used an afterimage technique, and they were illustrated by Crum Brown in 1878. Afterimages were used in nineteenth-century research on eye movements and eye position; they were also employed by Hering in 1879, to ascertain how the eyes moved during reading. In the previous year, Javal had employed afterimages in his investigations of reading, but this was to demonstrate that the eyes moved horizontally rather than vertically. Hering's and Lamare's auditory method established the discontinuous nature of eye movements during reading, and the photographic methods introduced by Dodge and others in the early twentieth century enabled their characteristics to be determined with greater accuracy.
Customer‐driven breakthroughs using QFD and policy deployment

Achieving breakthrough improvements and ongoing organisational learning in complex and dynamic situations requires systematic management processes for logical, customer‐driven and team‐based planning and implementation, such as Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Policy Deployment (PD). QFD is a rigorous approach to customer research, market positioning and strategic planning, whereas PD provides a disciplined approach to policy deployment and progress control. The combined approach was recently used for planning industry research and development in the Australian beef industry.
Men, Money, and Medals: An Econometric Analysis of the Olympic Games

Population size and the level of income per capita are major determinants of the number of medals won by a country in the 1952-2004 Olympic Games. A parsimonious count (Poisson) model fits the data very well: the squared correlation between the predicted value of the number of medals won and the observed value is about 56%. There exist strong country-specific effects in Olympic medals results. While the USA and China tend to outperform other countries relative to their size and income, the Asian dragons tend to under-perform in the Games. Copyright 2008 The Authors Journal compilation 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Assessment of multi-camera calibration algorithms for two-dimensional camera arrays relative to ground truth position and direction

Camera calibration methods are commonly evaluated on cumulative reprojection error metrics, on disparate one-dimensional datasets. To evaluate calibration of cameras in two-dimensional ar-rays, assessments need to be made on two-dimensional datasets with constraints on camera parameters. In this study, accuracy of several multi-camera calibration methods has been evaluated on camera parameters that are affecting view projection the most. As input data, we used a 15-viewpoint two-dimensional dataset with intrinsic and extrinsic parameter constraints and extrinsic ground truth. The assessment showed that self-calibration methods using structure-from-motion reach equal intrinsic and extrinsic parameter estimation accuracy with standard checkerboard calibration algorithm, and surpass a well-known self-calibration toolbox, BlueCCal. These results show that self-calibration is a viable approach to calibrating two-dimensional camera arrays, but improvements to state-of-art multi-camera feature matching are necessary to make BlueCCal as accurate as other self-calibration methods for two-dimensional camera arrays.
p42/p44 Mitogen-activated Protein Kinases Phosphorylate Hypoxia-inducible Factor 1α (HIF-1α) and Enhance the Transcriptional Activity of HIF-1*

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) controls the expression of a number of genes such as vascular endothelial growth factor and erythropoietin in low oxygen conditions. However, the molecular mechanisms that underlie the activation of the limiting subunit, HIF-1α, are still poorly resolved. Results showing that endogenous HIF-1α migrated 12 kDa higher than in vitrotranslated protein led us to evaluate the possible role of phosphorylation on this phenomenon. We report here that HIF-1α is strongly phosphorylated in vivo and that phosphorylation is responsible for the marked differences in the migration pattern of HIF-1α. In vitro, HIF-1α is phosphorylated by p42 and p44 mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and not by p38 MAPK or c-Jun N-terminal kinase. Interestingly, p42/p44 MAPK stoichiometrically phosphorylate HIF-1α in vitro, as judged by a complete upper shift of HIF-1α. More importantly, we demonstrate that activation of the p42/p44 MAPK pathway in quiescent cells induced the phosphorylation and shift of HIF-1α, which was abrogated in presence of the MEK inhibitor, PD 98059. Finally, we found that in a vascular endothelial growth factor promoter mutated at sites previously shown to be MAPK-sensitive (SP1/AP2–88-66 site), p42/p44 MAPK activation is sufficient to promote the transcriptional activity of HIF-1. This interaction between HIF-1α and p42/p44 MAPK suggests a cooperation between hypoxic and growth factor signals that ultimately leads to the increase in HIF-1-mediated gene expression.
Loss sensitivity calculation and analysis

Network losses are being considered in the standard market design. The calculation of loss sensitivity that is based on the distributed generator slack is commonly used for economic dispatch in energy control center. In order to obtain the accurate location-based marginal prices, an efficient and robust method to calculate loss sensitivity for an arbitrary slack within the real-time period (1/spl sim/10 minutes) is needed in the real-time energy markets. This paper presents a fast and useful formula to calculate loss sensitivity for any slack bus. This formula is based on the results from the distributed slack without repeating the traditional power flow calculation. The loss sensitivity calculation is tested and verified.
Explaining Rising Inequality: Skill-Biased Technical Change and NorthSouth Trade

We review the 'skill-biased technological change (SBTC) versus North-South trade (NST)' debate in order to explain widening wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers. The traditional explanations based on exogenous SBTC and on the North-South Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson approach, as well as the early estimates that diagnosed a clear prevalence of the former, are firstly exposed and discussed. A presentation is then made of the recent theoretical literature that endogenizes SBTC, introduces new channels of impacts from NST, and combines both explanations. Finally, the current estimates show that (i) both explanations are relevant, (ii) their impacts differ according to industries and countries, (iii) outsourcing is the main vector of impact from NST and (iv) SBTC and NST interact. Copyright © 2008 The Authors Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Differentiating drivers with dementia of the Alzheimer type from healthy older persons with a Traffic Sign Naming test.

BACKGROUND Dementia may contribute significantly to the driving impairment commonly associated with older adults. A brief, reliable, and sensitive screening method to identify drivers who may have cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease or other dementing illnesses is needed for a variety of settings, including driver's license renewal offices. METHODS Control and demented individuals who participated in the Washington University Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) between March 1, 1995, and November 30, 1995, were evaluated for the ability to identify traffic signs correctly. After initially testing 39 traffic signs, 10 signs were selected based on scorer reliability and their ability to discriminate cognitively normal individuals from those with dementia. RESULTS Sixty-six cognitively normal older people (average age 78 years) and 70 people with dementia (average age 76 years) were tested. Using a cutoff score at or below 9 (out of a possible score of 20), the Traffic Sign Naming test successfully identifies 74% of people with mild or moderate dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) from cognitively healthy older persons of comparable age, sex, education, and socioeconomic status; 11% of the healthy drivers were misclassified as demented. CONCLUSIONS A brief, 2-min or less, easily administered naming test of 10 traffic signs differentiated drivers with mild or moderate DAT from cognitively normal controls. This brief test may be useful to identify older drivers in need of further assessment of driving skill.
Advanced Practice Providers’ Perceptions of Patient Workload: Results of a Multi-Institutional Survey

OBJECTIVE: This study examines data collected from a survey of advanced practice providers’ (APPs’) perceptions of reasonable versus actual APP-to-patient ratios and other factors that affect workload burden in both inpatient and outpatient clinical settings. BACKGROUND: Advanced practice providers provide accessible, cost-effective, and quality care in a growing number of specialty practices across multiple patient care settings. They are caring for higher volumes of patients and assuming more responsibilities while continuing to navigate highly complex healthcare systems. Limited evidence or benchmark data exist that would assist in determining optimal workload and staffing models that include APPs. METHODS: A group of advanced practice leaders developed and distributed a 43-question survey of workload factors to a highly diverse APP workforce. RESULTS: There were 1466 APPs across 37 areas of practice who responded to the survey distributed in 14 separate organizations. The perceived reasonable workload was lower than the actual workload for 22 specialty practice areas. The analysis included years of experience as an APP, work hours, on-call commitment, nonclinical responsibilities, and time spent in documentation, direct patient care, and performing procedures. CONCLUSIONS: There is a consensus among APPs, within their practice area, about what constitutes a reasonable patient assignment, despite the variability in APP experience, organizational culture, processes, and patient acuity.
Long Term Contracts in the Swedish Bank-Orientated Financial System During the Inter-War Period

The fact that Sweden had the highest growth rate of per capita GNP of any European country between 1870 and 1914 has very often been explained by the existence of a well functioning financial system, with commercial banks as efficient prime movers. In this essay various characteristic features are presented to shed some light on the financial system during the next period in Swedish economic history – the turbulent inter-war period. Financial systems in capitalist countries can be classified either as market-oriented or bank-orientated. In a bank-orientated system the banks take more responsibility for corporate financing than in a market-orientated one. Therefore, bank–industry relations, especially credit and owner connections, are much longer and more concentrated then in the latter. It is also significant for a bank-orientated system that banks in times of distress increases both the credit granted and their shareholding. This was certainly the case of Sweden. Another ‘analytical tool’ for the charact.
A Stated Preference Study for a Car Ownership Model in the Context of Developing Countries

Abstract A stated preference (SP) experiment of car ownership was conducted in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) of Maharashtra in India. A full factorial experiment was designed to considering various attributes such as travel time, travel cost, projected household income, car loan payment and servicing cost. Data on 357 individuals were collected which resulted in 3213 observations for the calibration of the work trip and recreational trip car ownership models. The car ownership alternatives considered 0, 1 and 2 cars. A multinomial logit framework was used to develop the car ownership model taking the household as a decision unit. The specification and results of the SP car ownership model are discussed. The observed and predicted values matched reasonably when the validity of the SP car ownership model was tested against revealed preference (RP) data. The car ownership models developed in this study exhibit a satisfactory goodness of fit. It is concluded that the SP modelling approach can be successfully used for modelling car ownership decisions of households in developing countries.
Exophytic tumors on ankles of a patient with psoriasis.

Diagnosis: Extragenital giant condyloma. Sections of the biopsy specimen obtained from the patient's left ankle (figure 1) showed an acanthotic epidermis with overlying compact hyperparakeratosis and papillary epidermal proliferation (figure 2). Typical cytopathic changes, including enlargement of keratinocytes and perinuclear halos, indicated a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection (figure 3). Further viral typing by nested PCR confirmed the pathogen to be HPV type 11, a commonly encountered mucosal-type HPV. In accordance with previously published methods [1], the general consensus primers MY09 and MY 11 were used in the first PCR to amplify the corresponding HPV LI gene, followed by the second, nested PCR primers GP+5 and GP+6. HPV typing by DNA autosequence was analyzed using the online BLAST server.
Cointegration, error correction mechanism and trade liberalization: the case of the Spanish imports of manufactures

This paper discusses the way that the effects of a tariff cut process on trade flows should be analysed when the variables are nonstationary. Using cointegration techniques and the error correction mechanism, it is possible to establish the different types of structural break that might appear in the behaviour of a trade flow as a consequence of the trade liberalization process, both in the short and in the long-run. In order to illustrate the results, the evolution of the Spanish imports of manufacturers after Spain's entry into the European Community is analysed.
ADAMTS13 and TTP

Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) has been a mysterious and deadly disease that often could be treated effectively by plasma exchange, but without real understanding of the underlying pathophysiology. Recent advances now suggest that deficiency of a specific von Willebrand factor (VWF) cleaving protease promotes tissue injury in TTP. VWF multimers participate in the formation of platelet thrombi. Proteolytic cleavage of VWF multimers normally limits platelet thrombus growth, and failure to cleave VWF appears to encourage microvascular thrombosis. The VWF cleaving protease proves to be a new member of the ADAMTS family of metalloproteases, designated ADAMTS13. Autoantibodies that inhibit ADAMTS13 cause sporadic TTP, and mutations in the ADAMTS13 gene cause an autosomal recessive form of chronic relapsing TTP. Further studies of ADAMTS13 seem likely to change our approach to the diagnosis and treatment of TTP and other thrombotic microangiopathies.
Determinants of cereal market participation by sub-Saharan Africa smallholder farmer

Markets have been recognised for their potential to unlock economic growth and development. In the 1980s, there was a widespread promotion of market liberalisation policies across sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions following the embracing of the market led agricultural development paradigm. Despite decades of promotion of market led development, very few smallholder farmers in SSA participate in commodity markets. The hoped for structural transformation from subsistence to commercial agriculture across SSA remains elusive. The potential of markets as an engine of agricultural growth and a pathway to exit poverty for the majority of the poor smallholder farmers in the region remains not fully exploited. Though a number of studies have attempted to identify market participation factors, none has been extensive in coverage of SSA and has captured effects of the different economic and policy environments. This paper, based on an extensive cross-sectional sample of 6 421 households across eight SSA countries quantifies factors determining participation by smallholder farmers in cereal grain markets. Because of the expected problem of endogeneity between the dependent market participation variable and covariates, the paper adopts the Heckman 2-stage OLS regression model. Variables hypothesised to influence market participation are categorised into: transaction cost, household socioeconomic attributes, biophysical environment (production potential) and public infrastructure and services. The paper draws lessons for policy and development interventions such as IAR4D. Key words: Market participation, Determinants, SSA, Heckman’s procedure, IAR4D