Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
pH-Dependent Behavior of Novel Gellan Beads Loaded with Naproxen.

BACKGROUND Oral administration of non-selective COX inhibitors involves the risk of serious side-effects. In the case of naproxen (NPX), the most frequent are those related to malfunctioning of the gastric mucosa. On the other hand, NPX and other NSAIDs are extensively studied in terms of colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention and inhibition, since it has been evidenced that COX-2 corresponds with the risk of the tumor occurrence and growth. Both side-effects in the stomach and possible antitumor activity of NPX justify the attempts to search for novel carriers for NPX with the site specific release in the colon. Thus, the aim of the work was to design, formulate and characterize low-acyl gellan gum (GG) macro beads as potential carriers for the delivery of NPX to the distal parts of the gastrointestinal tract. METHODS The beads were obtained by the ionotropic gelation technique. CaCl2 solution was used as a cross-linking medium. After production, the beads were dried and used for further experiments. First, pure NPX and the beads were evaluated by Raman spectroscopy and DSC studies. The surface and morphology of the beads were analyzed by SEM. Next, the drug encapsulation efficiency and content in the beads were determined. The swelling and degradation behavior of the beads were evaluated in four simulated gastrointestinal fluids at different pH (1.2; 4.5; 6.8 and 7.4). The NPX in vitro release studies were conducted on USP I apparatus (rotating basket) at pH=7.4 and compared to the commercial enteric tablet. RESULTS The polymer content of 0.5 % was considered as too low to obtain spherical beads in the dried form. Raman spectra confirmed that NPX did not undergo structural changes during production process. DSC studies showed that thermal decomposition at lower temperatures was observed for formulations with the lowest amount of GG. It turned out that the most important factor which determined the morphology of the beads was the amount of gellan gum in the initial mixture. The beads revealed 13.9- 39.9% of drug loading and 75.3-99.7% drug encapsulation efficiency. Swelling of the beads was pHdependent as the beads remained stable in the acidic environment but started to absorb water. In pH=7.4 after 3 hours, the beginning of the physical decomposition of the polymer matrix was observed. The drug release studies showed that in pH=7.4 the commercial tablets released 90% of the drug after 45 minutes while the amount of NPX released from pellets after the same time was 40-80%. CONCLUSION In general, it can be stated that gellan macro beads may be regarded as suitable for site specific delivery of NPX to the colon. However, these simple to obtain beads can be potentially used as carriers for many different drugs whenever it is necessary to omit the stomach.
The Vi antigens of the Enterobacteriaceae. V. Serologic differences of Vi antigens revealed by deacetylation.

Summary Vi antigens and deacetylated Vi antigens from P. ballerup, E. coli and S. typhosa , strain Ty2 were tested with antisera prepared against various Vi producing microorganisms by the agar diffusion precipitin test. Differences in type of reaction were noted between deacetylated antigen preparations reacted with antisera prepared with P. ballerup or S. paratyphi C bacilli and deacetylated Vi antigens reacted with antisera prepared with S. typhosa or E. coli organisms. It appeared that serologic differences exist in Vi antigens of the various bacilli used for preparation of antisera which become evident when these antisera are reacted with degraded Vi antigens. It has been shown that these differences are not differences in basic specificity of Vi antigen and its antibody.
Exploring brand attachment, its determinants and outcomes

Brand attachment has been regarded as a powerful and salient construct in marketing, argued to predict favourable consumer behaviours. Nevertheless, research trying to understand what are the determinants and outcomes of it is still limited. Using semi-structured interviews and projective techniques, this work identifies that self-congruity, experience, responsiveness, quality, reputation and trust are found to be the determinants of strong brand attachment. The outcomes of brand attachment are intention to recommend, purchase, revisit, resilience to negative information and act of defending the brand. This research sheds light for marketers in understanding the conceptualisation of attachment from the consumers' perspectives, so adopting an important perspective largely under-researched. In addition, this study guides marketers in the important factors regarding how to build stronger attachment and benefit from its outcomes.
MarkeTrak VIII Mini-BTEs tap new market, users more satisfied

less than 20% of hearing aid sales prior to 2000 and appeared to be on the decline as a style of hearing aid choice by consumers. With the introduction of open-fit hearing aids and receiver-in-the-canal (RIC) hearing aids however, BTEs now represent 63% of all hearing aid sales.3 In looking at the resurgence of BTE hearing aids, we wanted to answer two key questions: Did mini-BTE hearing aids result in market expansion? Do mini-BTEs improve the consumer’s experience with hearing aids? In our MarkeTrak survey, the generic term “miniBTE” was used to represent both open-fit and RIC hearing aids, as well as on-the-ear (OTE) hearing aids. We did not ask the consumers to identify which of the two mini-BTE style hearing aids were in their ears, since we did not believe this was a distinction that they could accurately make.
Hospital Markets and the Effect of Competition on Quality

This paper investigates the effects of competition on hospital quality. It proposes to extend the Elzinga-Hogarty quantity flow approach of defining markets by first determining the trading cluster to which each hospital belongs and then delineating markets using patient flow information. After defining hospital markets and computing measures of competition, this paper examines the effect of competition on hospital quality using hospital administration data from the state of Victoria, Australia. We approximate quality using two indicators, namely mortality within 30 days of discharge and unplanned readmission within 28 days of discharge. For each quality indicator, a random intercept logit model is estimated. Two main findings are reported. First, the boundaries of markets and hence the degree of competition depend on the nature of the medical services provided. Second, competition is found to have a mixed effect on quality of hospital care–increasing the number of private hospitals appears to lower quality, while increasing the number of public hospitals has the opposite effect. The intensity of competition, on the other hand, does not appear to have a statistically significant effect on quality.
Computing inbreeding coefficients and effects of inbreeding, heterosis and recombination loss on evaluations for lifespan and somatic cell count in the UK

A recent study on the Holstein/Friesian (HOL) breed has indicated that the rapid rise in percentage Holstein genes in the United Kingdom (UK) has been accompanied by an increasing rate of inbreeding (Kearney et al., 2004). They reported an average inbreeding rate of 0.17% per year since 1992. Some of the consequences of inbreeding, for instance, inbreeding depression, are expected to be more pronounced in fitness traits such as somatic cell count (SCC) and lifespan (LS).
Fucoxanthin and Its Metabolites in Edible Brown Algae Cultivated in Deep Seawater

Three metabolites of fucoxanthin were isolated from a brown alga, Scytosiphon lomentaria, and the structure of a new compound was determined by NMR. The content of fucoxanthin, a biologically active carotenoid, in four edible brown algae, cultivated in deep seawater, was studied.
Coronary angiography and revascularization for acute coronary syndromes without ST elevation: the next challenge.

would benefit from different treatment strategies. This may also play an important role in the development of new drugs, such as antineurohormonal agents, which can improve the prognosis of acute myocardial infarction survivors. It also shows that echocardiography is still a very important player in risk stratification of patients post myocardial infarction, even in those who have a normal systolic function at discharge, since it can identify prospectively those who will develop left ventricular systolic dysfunction. In conclusion, the assessment of neurohormonal agents at baseline in patients post myocardial infarction, together with the echocardiographic assessment of left ventricular volumes and ejection fraction at baseline and 3 months post myocardial infarction are important prognostic markers of left ventricular dysfunction and may help in the identification of patients who need a more aggressive treatment strategy in the setting of acute coronary syndromes. F. J. PINTO Lisbon University, Portugal References
Mismatch Shaping Techniques to Linearize Charge Pump Errors in Fractional-$N$  PLLs

A recent charge pump linearization technique demonstrated 8 dB reduction in spurious tones caused by charge pump current mismatch in delta-sigma fractional-N phase locked loops. In this paper, two purely digital mismatch shaping techniques are proposed to modify and further improve the charge pump linearization technique. Both the techniques suppress spurious tones by randomizing the residual charge pump mismatch error power. The second technique further spectrally shapes the residual charge pump mismatch errors to suppress close-in phase noise. No spurs are observed and -120 dBc/Hz phase noise is achieved at frequency offsets lower than 10 kHz in simulation. A theoretical proof of the spectral shaping of the charge pump mismatch error power is also presented.
Estimation of atrial fibrillation recency of onset and safety of cardioversion using NTproBNP levels in patients with unknown time of onset

Objective As shown previously in patients with new-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) without symptoms or signs of heart failure, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP) increases rapidly, reaching a maximum within 24–36 h, and then decreases even if AF persists. A study was undertaken to use NTproBNP measurements in patients with AF of unknown time of onset to identify patients with presumed recent onset of the arrhythmia. Design Two-group open cross-sectional study. Setting Hospitalised patients in cardiology departments of four hospitals. Patients Patients presenting with AF of unknown onset and no signs or symptoms of heart failure were separated into two groups: group A with NTproBNP above the cut-off level and group B with a low NTproBNP level. Interventions No therapeutic intervention. All patients underwent transoesophageal echocardiography (TEE). Main outcome measures Presence of left atrial thrombus on TEE. Results In group A (N=43) only two patients (4.7%) were found to have an atrial thrombus on TEE (negative predictive value of raised NTproBNP levels 95.3%) compared with 13 of 43 patients in group B (30.2%; p=0.002). Patients with a higher CHA2DS2VASc score (p=0.002) and a larger left atrium (p<0.001) were more likely to have an atrial thrombus. In the multivariate analysis, NTproBNP below the cut-off level was the most powerful predictor of the presence of thrombus (OR 25.0; p=0.016). Conclusion The reported strong correlation between raised NTproBNP levels and the absence of atrial thrombi on TEE suggests that the short-term increase in NTproBNP levels after AF onset might be used to assess the age of the arrhythmia and thus the safety of cardioversion in patients with AF of unknown onset and no heart failure.
Squid Have Nociceptors That Display Widespread Long-Term Sensitization and Spontaneous Activity after Bodily Injury

Bodily injury in mammals often produces persistent pain that is driven at least in part by long-lasting sensitization and spontaneous activity (SA) in peripheral branches of primary nociceptors near sites of injury. While nociceptors have been described in lower vertebrates and invertebrates, outside of mammals there is limited evidence for peripheral sensitization of primary afferent neurons, and there are no reports of persistent SA being induced in primary afferents by noxious stimulation. Cephalopod molluscs are the most neurally and behaviorally complex invertebrates, with brains rivaling those of some vertebrates in size and complexity. This has fostered the opinion that cephalopods may experience pain, leading some governments to include cephalopods under animal welfare laws. It is not known, however, if cephalopods possess nociceptors, or whether their somatic sensory neurons exhibit nociceptive sensitization. We demonstrate that squid possess nociceptors that selectively encode noxious mechanical but not heat stimuli, and that show long-lasting peripheral sensitization to mechanical stimuli after minor injury to the body. As in mammals, injury in squid can cause persistent SA in peripheral afferents. Unlike mammals, the afferent sensitization and SA are almost as prominent on the contralateral side of the body as they are near an injury. Thus, while squid exhibit peripheral alterations in afferent neurons similar to those that drive persistent pain in mammals, robust changes far from sites of injury in squid suggest that persistently enhanced afferent activity provides much less information about the location of an injury in cephalopods than it does in mammals.
Project Financial Management and Modern Financial Slavery: The Case of a KSA Metro Project Start-up

This paper explores the personal financial viewpoints on the project management of a metro in KSA and more particularly focuses on the financial issues raised by a group of design engineering staff. The paper examines the scope, reflections, attitudes to the project management in their management and unpredictable way of the development and application of the company’s financial policy to personnel. The paper examines the personal financial factors, which contribute to the establishment and strengthening of work interactions between a single group of engineering personnel of twelve (12) small, client interacting working design facility for a metro development in KSA. The paper develops a model that attempts to conceptualise the findings from a diverse range of qualitative personnel opinion into an engaged framework. Outcomes from this inquiry suggests that the project managers show clear failings in attitude to its staff and that individual opinion regarding personal finances may be a logical factor in the development of very real negative corporate judgments in this group and explores the derived themes of namely eight (8) main themes, namely Payment Issue; Trust Issues; Work Issues; Job Related; Managerial Related; Socially Related; Cost Issues; and Job Issues. The outcomes shows clearly that the project management are not effectively managing the project as raised issues of staff financial slavery, project complexity problems, unviable cost overruns, delays to the project schedule through poor coordination, ineffective programme management of the projects activities, improper project preparation and managerial execution affect how the client trustworthiness may be stretched. The paper further suggests how these identified issues may be mitigated through the appropriate application of project management theory.
Resolving the Controversy over the Core Radius of 47 Tucanae (NGC 104)

This paper investigates the discrepancy between recent measurements of the density profile of the globular cluster 47 Tuc that have used Hubble Space Telescope data sets. A large core radius would support the long‐held view that 47 Tuc is a relaxed cluster, while a small core radius may indicate that it is in a post–core‐collapse phase or possibly even on the verge of core collapse, as suggested by a variety of unusual objects—millisecond pulsars, X‐ray sources, high‐velocity stars—observed in the core of the cluster. Guhathakurta et al. used pre‐refurbishment Wide Field Planetary Camera 1 (WFPC1) V‐band images to derive rcore = 23′′ ± 2′′. Calzetti et al. suggested that the density profile is instead a superposition of two King profiles, one with a small,8′′ core radius and the other with a 25′′ core radius, based on U‐band Faint Object Camera (FOC) images. More recently, De Marchi et al. have used deep WFPC1 U‐band images to derive rcore = 12′′ ± 2′′. The cluster centers used in these studies are in agreement with one another; differences in the adopted centers are not the cause of the discrepancy. Our independent analysis of the data used by De Marchi et al. reaches the following conclusions: 1. De Marchi et al.’s rcore ∼ 12′′ value is spuriously low, a result of radially varying bias in the star counts in a magnitude‐limited sample; photometric errors and a steeply rising stellar luminosity function cause more stars to scatter across the limiting magnitude into the sample than out of it, especially near the cluster center, where crowding effects are most severe. 2. Changing the limiting magnitude to the main‐sequence turnoff, away from the steep part of the luminosity function, partially alleviates the problem and results in rcore = 18′′. 3. Combining such a limiting magnitude with accurate photometry derived from point‐spread function fitting, instead of the less accurate aperture photometry employed by De Marchi et al., results in a reliable measurement of the density profile that is well fitted by rcore = 22′′ ± 2′′. The Calzetti et al. FOC‐based density profile measurement is also likely to have been biased by a poor choice of limiting magnitude and large radially varying photometric errors associated with aperture photometry. Archival Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) data are used to derive a star list with a higher degree of completeness, greater photometric accuracy, and wider area coverage than the WFPC1 and FOC data sets; the WFPC2‐based density profile supports the above conclusions, yielding rcore = 24. ″0 ± 1. ″9.
Characterizing ecosystem‐level consequences of biological invasions: the role of ecosystem engineers

Invasions by exotic species represent both threats to ecosystems as well as opportunities to learn more about them. Among the invaders that will have the largest impacts are those that directly modify ecosystems and thus have cascading effects for resident biota. Exotics can affect ecosystems by altering system-level flows, availability, or quality of nutrients, food, and physical resources (e.g. living space, water, heat or light). The invader-mediated control of physical resources, typically achieved through the modification of habitats, has received limited attention in invasion biology. This reflects a general trend in ecology, and only recently has the concept of ecosystem engineering been developed to account for the role of species that shape habitats. Plants and animals in terrestrial and aquatic systems can both create and destroy structure. When introduced into ecosystems, these exotic engineers cause physical state changes with effects that ramify throughout the system. Although the consequences of these modifications are varied and complex, insight gained from general ecological principles offers an opportunity to predict what invaders will do upon their integration into systems. Examples from the literature suggest that introduced ecosystem engineers that increase habitat complexity or heterogeneity tend to cause abundances and/or species richness to rise, while those that decrease complexity tend to have the reverse effect. In assessing such patterns, however, it is critical to also consider spatial scales and the life habits of resident organisms. In addition to providing predictive power, recognition of engineering as a major means by which invasive species affect ecosystems provides a unifying theme for invasion biology and offers a chance to consider more fully the general role of species in ecosystems.
Computing Circumscriptive Databases: I. Theory and Algorithms

Abstract Though circumscription was introduced by McCarthy over a decade ago, there has been relatively little work on algorithms for computing circumscriptive databases. In this paper, we develop algorithms to compute the preferred models of circumscriptive databases at compile-time using mixed integer linear programming techniques. Two advantages of this (bottom-up) approach are that it makes efficient re-use of previous computations and it provides much faster run-time performance. Some other advantages of using linear programming to automate deduction at compile time are that its re-optimization facilities elegantly accommodate database updates and also that it leads to a completely declarative formulation in which ordering of rules and literals in rule bodies plays no real role. Finally, we plan to use a standard relational database system as our run-time environment; this should yield relatively fast run-time processing, and provide a more expressive query language in which aggregates and the like can be expressed easily.
Modeling and online parameter identification of Li-Polymer battery cells for SOC estimation

Finding an accurate and easily to implement model of batteries is an essential step in properly estimating the state of charge (SOC) of the battery in real-time. In this paper, an equivalent circuit based battery model with nonlinear relationship between the open circuit voltage (VOC) and the SOC is projected into several piece-wise linear functions. Moving window Least Squares (LS) parameter identification technique is then utilized to estimate and update the parameters of the battery model in each sampling time. The continuously updated parameters are fed to a linear observer to estimate the SOC of the battery. The effectiveness of the proposed modeling and estimation approach are verified experimentally on Lithium Polymer batteries.
Do Relationships really Matter? A Study of Reverse Online Auctions

In an open bid reverse online auction, sellers bid downward in order to win an order from the buyer. This research attempts to study reverse online auctions from a relational perspective. We hypothesize that the relational antecedents to organizationa l usage of reverse online auctions are commitment, trust, interdependence and performance satisfaction and discuss the implications of our research.
Advance Booking and Refunds Under Capacity Constraints

We investigate how the presence of capacity constraints aects the advance-booking strategy of a service provider. In particular, we identify the capacity levels under which fully refundable bookings are more (less) profitable than non-refundable bookings. As in the unconstrained capacity models, we find that if the capacity is suciently high (low) a full-refund booking strategy is more (less) profitable than a non-refundable booking strategy. For very restrictive capacity levels, the firm will never utilize a fully refundable booking. Otherwise, a dual booking strategy that segments the market in the refundability dimension is profit maximizing.
Firms' technological resources and the performance effects of diversification: A longitudinal study

While agency theory claims managerial self‐interest creates a diversification discount, strategic theory explains that firms with certain kinds of resources should diversify. Longitudinal data on 227 firms that diversify between 1980 and 1992 reveal that the sample firms invest less in R&D and have greater breadth of technology (based on patent citations) than their industry peers prior to the diversification event. Also, acquiring firms may appear to have lower performance because of accounting conventions and because firms that use internal growth rather than acquisition pursue less extensive diversification. These findings help explain how diversification and financial performance are endogenous. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.