Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
La performance hospitalière : à la recherche d'un modèle multidimensionnel cohérent

Cet article a pour ambition de proposer un modele multidimensionnel coherent de la performance hospitaliere. En effet, le secteur hospitalier doit repondre a une performance globale et multidimensionnelle (qualite et securite des soins, utilisation optimale des ressources, productivite, satisfaction du patient, etc.). En France, aucun modele integrant les differentes dimensions de la performance hospitaliere n’a pour l’instant ete instaure alors que l’hopital public est au centre d’enjeux essentiels pour son avenir. Pour construire ce modele, nous nous appuierons d’une part sur une comparaison des systemes hospitaliers de trois pays anglo-saxons et d’autre part, sur une revue des cadres conceptuels et des objectifs qui sous-tendent la mesure de la performance en sciences de gestion, appliquee aux etablissements hospitaliers. Ces recherches permettront de mettre en evidence non seulement l’importance des criteres budgetaires desires par l’Etat mais egalement la satisfaction et la confiance des usagers ainsi que la motivation et l’adhesion du personnel professionnels de sante aux objectifs recherches.
Democracy: From City-states to a Cosmopolitan Order?

This article traces the development of the idea of democracy from city-states and the early republican tradition to liberalism and Marxism. The relevance of leading conceptions of democracy to contemporary circumstances are then explored. In light of the complex interconnections among states and societies, a set of arguments are developed which offer a new agenda for democratic theory which departs from an exclusive focus on particular political communities and the nation-state. After an examination of a number of key models of the international order – the states system, the UN Charter framework – the case is made for a cosmopolitan international democracy. While such a case is fraught with difficulties, strong grounds are presented for its indispensability to the maintenance and development of democracy both within pre-established borders and across them.
Global Burden of Aflatoxin-Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Risk Assessment

Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), or liver cancer, is the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, with prevalence 16–32 times higher in developing countries than in developed countries. Aflatoxin, a contaminant produced by the fungi Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus in maize and nuts, is a known human liver carcinogen. Objectives We sought to determine the global burden of HCC attributable to aflatoxin exposure. Methods We conducted a quantitative cancer risk assessment, for which we collected global data on food-borne aflatoxin levels, consumption of aflatoxin-contaminated foods, and hepatitis B virus (HBV) prevalence. We calculated the cancer potency of aflatoxin for HBV-postive and HBV-negative individuals, as well as the uncertainty in all variables, to estimate the global burden of aflatoxin-related HCC. Results Of the 550,000–600,000 new HCC cases worldwide each year, about 25,200–155,000 may be attributable to aflatoxin exposure. Most cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and China where populations suffer from both high HBV prevalence and largely uncontrolled aflatoxin exposure in food. Conclusions Aflatoxin may play a causative role in 4.6–28.2% of all global HCC cases.
Identifying Exporter's Relative Product Quality Variation from Export Unit Values Using Revealed Preference Analysis ∗

This paper develops a methodology for decomposing cross-country variation in export unit values into quality versus real price components. The methodology is based on revealed preferences in an environment where consumers have a taste for variety. We derive conditions under which the unobserved export quality ratio of any two exporters is bounded by the observed Paasche and Laspeyres price indexes defined over their common exports to a third country. We then show that price variation not associated with variation in export product quality can be identified using information on countries’ trade balance, and introduce a technique for adjusting the bounds to incorporate this information. Finally, we use our methodology to estimate the evolution of U.S. trading parter export quality from 1974 to 2001.
Readers' Experiences of Narrative Gaps

To characterize readers’ narrative experiences, literary scholars have often made a distinction between story—what is being told—and discourse—the manner in which it is being told (for a review, see Herman 2002). Even simple stories permit unlimited variation in the manner of narration. Each completed narrative represents an author’s decisions about how best to tell his or her story. Consider a moment from Ron Rash’s novel Serena (2008). By this point in the novel, readers know that Pemberton’s wife, Serena, and her henchman, Galloway, have committed a series of coldblooded murders to further Serena’s ambitions for Pemberton’s business:
Learning query-biased web page summarization

Query-biased Web page summarization is the summarization of a Web page reflecting the relevance of it to a specific query. It plays an important role in search results representation of Web search engines. In this paper, we propose a learning-based query-biased Web page summarization method. The summarization problem is solved within the typical sentence selection framework. Different from existing Web page summarization methods that use page content or link context alone, both of them are considered as the sources of sentences in this work. Most of existing learning-based summarization methods treat summarization as a sentence classification problem and train a classifier to discriminate between extracted sentences and non-extracted sentences of all training documents. The basic assumption of these methods is that sentences from different documents are comparable with respect to the class information. In contrast to the classification scheme, a ranking scheme is introduced to rank extracted sentences higher than non-extracted sentences of each training document. The underlying assumption that sentences within a document are comparable is weaker and more reasonable than the assumption of classification-based scheme. Extensive results using intrinsic evaluation metrics gauge many aspects of the proposed method.
Impact of timing of pubertal maturation on growth in black and white female adolescents: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the impact of early, mid-onset, and late maturation, as assessed by timing of menarche, on height, height velocity, weight, body mass index, and sum of skinfolds in a group of white and black girls. STUDY DESIGN The Growth and Health Study recruited 9- and 10-year-old girls from Richmond, California, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Washington, DC. There were 616 white and 539 black participants recruited at age 9 and 550 white and 674 black participants recruited at age 10. Participants were seen annually for 10 visits. Longitudinal regression models were used to test for differences in each growth measure by timing of menarche across all ages and to determine whether these differences change with age. RESULTS Mean age at menarche among white participants was 12.7 years, and among black participants, 12.0 years. According to race-specific 20th and 80th percentiles, early maturers were tallest at early ages and shortest after adult stature had been attained. Peak height velocity and post-menarche increment in stature were greatest in early maturers and least in late maturers. Weight was greatest in early and least in late maturers, as was body mass index. Sum of skinfolds was also greatest in early and least in late maturers. There was no impact of timing of maturation on two common measures of regional fat distribution. CONCLUSIONS Girls who matured early were shorter in early adulthood, despite having greater peak height velocity and post-menarchal increment in height. Throughout puberty, early maturers had greater ponderosity and adiposity, although there was no association with regional distribution of fat.
A 1.3V 26mW 3.2GS/s undersampled LC bandpass ΣΔ ADC for a SDR ISM-band receiver in 130nm CMOS

This paper presents the implementation of an undersampled LC bandpass ΣΔ ADC with a raised-cosine feedback DAC. It directly converts after the LNA a signal centered in the ISM band at 2.442GHz with a sampling frequency of 3.256GHz. This circuit has been fabricated in a 130nm CMOS process, it occupies an area of 0.27mm2 and is operating at a supply voltage of 1.3V. The Signal-to-Noise and Distortion Ratios measured are 34dB, 37dB and 42dB for respective bandwidths of 25MHz, 10MHz and 1MHz. The power consumption of the ΣΔ ADC is 26mW and its figure of merit is 2.3pJ/bit.
Quality of University Programs for Older People in Spain: Innovations, Tendencies, and Ethics in European Higher Education

This article examines the innovative regulations, methodologies, and institutions involved in the development of the European Higher Education Area and their implications for teaching, research, and management of University Programs for Older People. It also identifies the main tendencies, creative dimensions, and ethical commitments implicit in the objective of educating older people as European citizens. Finally, the paper proposes avenues of research to be pursued for the quality evaluation of university programs for older people in Spain and the European Union.
History and Social Studies Education: A Guide to Online Resources

This guide was designed by Ken Middleton to help those searching for information and resources on women’s history. Although it is primarily an index of other sites and print materials, American Women’s History stands out because it is organized by resource type, including “General Reference and Biographical Sources,” “Finding Primary Sources: Tools/Formats,” and “Digital Collections of Primary Sources. ”
Evaluating animal welfare with choice experiments: an application to Swedish pig production

In this study, the demand for animal welfare attributes when buying pork fillet is investigated among Swedish respondents. The issue is of importance in order to ensure an economically viable pig industry while applying an increasing number of animal friendly practices. In order to obtain information about consumer demand, an indirect utility function and willingness to pay (WTP) for animal welfare attributes are estimated. The attributes are solely associated with animal friendly practices. An investigation of numerous housing and managerial practices of pig production has not yet been performed. The indirect utility function is estimated using a random parameter logit model. A realistic approach when modeling consumer choice is to allow for heterogeneity in preferences. The relevance of assuming randomness of some of the parameters is evaluated by using a specification test developed by McFadden and Train (2000). The WTP is also estimated at the individual level. The results indicate that WTP for animal welfare attributes may be negative or positive. The preferences are also heterogeneous among respondents, which may be explained by a segmentation of preferences. Finally, the WTP estimates for animal welfare practices are compared with cost estimates for such production systems. lEconlit subject codes: C010, C500, Q100r © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Wafer-Level Fabrication of Microcube-Typed Beam-Splitters by Saw-Dicing of Glass Substrate

This letter reports on the development of an integrated micro-optical beam splitter that can be array-arranged. The proposed wafer-level fabrication, based on 45 ° saw-dicing of glass substrates, allows rapid and low-cost processing. In particular, it leads to high compactness and possibility of wafer-level alignment/assembly, suitable for vertically integrated imaging micro-instruments. The device, including additional out-of plane reflection for extraction of sensing beam, can be as small as 1 mm3.
Bringing Bourdieu to policy sociology: codification, misrecognition and exchange value in the UK context

The task of social scientists is to find ways of investigating and understanding the social, political and economic world, in order to offer insights into everyday and public life in the past, present and future. Bourdieu’s tool kit offers a particular way of theorizing the rules, narratives and self‐held truths of social phenomena and of educational policy as a specific object of analysis. In this article I develop a series of propositions about the ways in which field theory might be applied to explain the abrupt public policy shift effected by the Thatcher government and the adjustments made to it by the Blair government. I suggest that a Bourdieuian approach shows policy working as a means of codification, as a doxa of misrecognition and as currency exchange within and across fields. I conclude with some thoughts about the difficulties of explicating interactions between fields.
Abnormalities of sleep in patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome.

OBJECTIVE--To determine whether patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome have abnormalities of sleep which may contribute to daytime fatigue. DESIGN--A case-control study of the sleep of patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome and that of healthy volunteers. SETTING--An infectious disease outpatient clinic and subjects' homes. SUBJECTS--12 patients who met research criteria for the chronic fatigue syndrome but not for major depressive disorder and 12 healthy controls matched for age, sex, and weight. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Subjective reports of sleep from patients' diaries and measurement of sleep patterns by polysomnography. Subjects' anxiety, depression, and functional impairment were assessed by interview. RESULTS--Patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome spent more time in bed than controls (544 min v 465 min, p < 0.001) but slept less efficiently (90% v 96%, p < 0.05) and spent more time awake after initially going to sleep (31.9 min v 16.6 min, p < 0.05). Seven patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome had a sleep disorder (four had difficulty maintaining sleep, one had difficulty getting to sleep, one had difficulty in both initiating and maintaining sleep, and one had hypersomnia) compared with none of the controls (p = 0.003). Those with sleep disorders showed greater functional impairment than the remaining five patients (score on general health survey 50.4% v 70.4%, p < 0.05), but their psychiatric scores were not significantly different. CONCLUSIONS--Most patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome had sleep disorders, which are likely to contribute to daytime fatigue. Sleep disorders may be important in the aetiology of the syndrome.
Fault-Tolerant Structure and Modulation Strategies With Fault Detection Method for Matrix Converters

This paper proposes a fault-tolerant matrix converter with reconfigurable structure and modified switch control schemes, along with a fault diagnosis technique for open-circuited switch failures. The proposed fault recognition method can detect and locate a failed bidirectional switch with voltage error signals dedicated to each switch, based on a direct comparison of the input and the output voltages. Following the fault detection, the designed converter architecture isolates the faulty parts and bypasses the remaining load phase, resulting in a 3 × 2 matrix configuration with six bidirectional switches. Based on the reconfigured hardware topology, novel fault-tolerant modulation strategies are developed to produce three-phase balanced sinusoidal output voltages/currents with only six bidirectional switches, but at a reduced output voltage magnitude as compared with the normal matrix converter. Thus, the developed switching function matrices for the reconfigurable converter structure, containing an appropriate positive- and negative-sequence set of matrices with input voltage vector, can preserve continuous operation even after switch failures and improve reliability of the drives.
Depth of Field Analysis for Multilayer Automultiscopic Displays

With the re-emergence of stereoscopic displays, through polarized glasses for theatrical presentations and shuttered liquid crystal eyewear in the home, automultiscopic displays have received increased attention. Commercial efforts have predominantly focused on parallax barrier and lenticular architectures applied to LCD panels. Such designs suffer from reduced resolution and brightness. Recently, multilayer LCDs have emerged as an alternative supporting full-resolution imagery with enhanced brightness and depth of field. We present a signal-processing framework for comparing the depth of field for conventional automultiscopic displays and emerging architectures comprising multiple light-attenuating layers. We derive upper bounds for the depths of field, indicating the potential of multilayer configurations to significantly enhance resolution and depth of field, relative to conventional designs.
Judgments of Exocentric Direction in Large-Scale Space

Judgments of exocentric direction are quite common, especially when judging where others are looking or pointing. To investigate these judgments in large-scale space, observers were shown two targets in a large open field and were asked to judge the exocentric direction specified by the targets. The targets ranged in egocentric distance from 5 to 20 m with target-to-target angular separations of 45°, 90°, and 135°. Observers judged exocentric direction using two methods: (i) by judging which point on a distant fence appeared collinear with the two targets, and (ii) by orienting their body in a direction parallel with the perceived line segment. In the collinearity task, observers had to imagine the line connecting the targets and then extrapolate this imagined line out to the fence. Observers indicated the perceived point of collinearity on a handheld 360° panoramic cylinder representing their vista. The two judgment methods gave similar results except for a constant bias associated with the body-pointing response. Aside from this bias, the results of these two methods agree with other existing research indicating an effect of relative egocentric distance to the targets on judgment error—line segments are perceived as being rotated in depth. Additionally, verbal estimates of egocentric and exocentric distance suggest that perceived distance is not the cause for the systematic errors in judging exocentric direction.
De novo formation of vascular receptors for bradykinin.

Two different types of receptors for bradykinin have been found in isolated veins of the rabbit. The first receptor is a stable component of the smooth muscle membrane and it is found in the jugular vein, while the second is generated de novo during incubation in vitro and it is present in the mesenteric vein. Actinomycin D and cycloheximide block the generation of receptors in the mesenteric vein, without exerting any action either on receptors for other agonists (e.g. substance P) in the same tissue, or on the other receptor for bradykinin in the jugular vein.
IgE detection to α/β/γ‐gliadin and its clinical relevance in wheat‐dependent exercise‐induced anaphylaxis

Wheat‐dependent exercise‐induced anaphylaxis (WDEIA) is characterized by anaphylactic reactions after wheat ingestion and physical exercise. IgE antibodies to recombinant ω5‐gliadin are detectable in a majority of WDEIA patients, but other wheat allergens may also play a role in elicitation of WDEIA. Here, we performed a comprehensive analysis of IgE reactivity to different wheat proteins in 17 patients with confirmed WDEIA by ImmunoCAP research prototypes and a semi‐quantitative microarray immunoassay with α/β/γ‐gliadin, high‐molecular‐weight (HMW) glutenin, alpha‐amylase inhibitor (AAI) dimer, and wheat lipid transfer protein (LTP). By ImmunoCAP, IgE to recombinant ω5‐gliadin was detectable in 14/17 patients (82%), to α/β/γ‐gliadin in 82% including the three patients lacking IgE to ω5‐gliadin, and to HMW glutenin in 59%. The microarray revealed specifically γ‐gliadin as the second most important allergen. These results demonstrate the additional diagnostic value of α/β‐ and γ‐gliadin in particular in ω5‐gliadin‐negative patients in the diagnosis of WDEIA.
Developing Indonesian Oral Proficiency Guidelines and Reflections on Their Cultural Implications

ACTFL generic proficiency guidelines describe what learners are able to perform at various proficiency levels. These guidelines, in particular the oral proficiency guidelines (OPG), have been widely used to assess learners’ proficiency across institutions – via the oral proficiency interview (OPI) technique – irrespective of curriculum, teaching methods, and materials. Many institutions and organizations place great emphasis on such assessments in making decisions regarding placement, scholarship, and program evaluation. Although the usefulness of the OPG has been widely acknowledged, it is also recognized that the guidelines lack details regarding the specific features and characteristics of any particular language. As we know, each language carries specific linguistic, pragmatic, and cultural features that affect the descriptors of the various proficiency levels of a particular language. In the case of the Indonesian language, for example, tense is not a determining factor in defining proficiency. However, cultural aspects such as the use of pronouns, terms of address, and passive voice are important indicators of communicative ability at various levels. This paper will: 1) address the importance of developing descriptors of oral proficiency for Indonesian; 2) describe the significance of the collaborative process of developing the guidelines; and 3) explore some implications for the teaching of cultural competence in Indonesian.
Optimal H∞ filtering for discrete-time-delayed chaotic systems via a unified model

This paper presents a unified model, consisting of a linear dynamic system and a bounded static nonlinear operator. Most discrete-time chaotic systems, such as chaotic neural networks, Chua's circuits, and Hénon map etc, can be transformed into this unified model. Based on the H∞ performance analysis of the estimation error system between the unified model and its improved Luenberger-like filter using the linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach, the optimal H∞ filter are designed to estimate the states of discrete-time chaotic systems with external disturbance. The H∞ filter not only guarantees the asymptotic stability of the estimation error system, but also reduces the influence of noise on the estimation error. Two numerical examples are exploited to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed filter design schemes.
Chinese and Japanese Students’ Conceptions of the ‘Ideal English Lesson’

In developing strategies for increasing learner involvement, a key factor is the extent to which these strategies are compatible with learners’ own expectations and preferences. In order to explore this factor, tertiary students in four Asian countries were asked (in an online survey designed on the basis of exploratory interviews) to give their conceptions of their ideal English lesson. Factor analysis revealed three main types of lesson that different groups of students preferred: the communication-oriented lesson, the form-oriented lesson and the control-oriented lesson. Students expressed preference for communication-oriented lessons in all countries except Japan and there were differences between countries in the degree and details of students’ preferences. Overall, however, students expressed positive attitudes to a varied range of teaching strategies, giving encouragement to teachers who wish to renew their pedagogy in order to suit new individual and social needs.