Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aflibercept – Setting its Sights on Diabetic Macular Oedema

© Touch MEdical MEdia 2014 Abstract A satellite symposium entitled ‘Aflibercept* – Setting Its Sights On Diabetic Macular Oedema (DMO)’ was chaired by Jean-François Korobelnik and was convened at the 2014 European Association for Vision and Eye Research (EVER) Congress. The symposium discussed the science behind DMO, in particular, the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and associated inflammatory mechanisms that alter fluid transport from capillaries into retinal tissues leading to focal leakage, fluid accumulation, macular damage and eventual blindness. This discussion of the pathophysiology emphasised the importance of VEGF as a target for DMO treatments. Management of diabetes and prevention of progression of diabetic retinopathy leading to DMO requires strict control of glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), blood pressure and lipid levels. Once DMO has developed and vision is impaired, the anti-VEGF agents have emerged as vital components of disease management and are becoming the first-line standard of care. Aflibercept (EYLEA® ) and ranibizumab (Lucentis®) are approved agents for DMO and have shown significant efficacy in clinical trials in terms of visual acuity gains, decreased retinal thickness and have good safety profiles. The symposium finally focused on the use of aflibercept in DMO. In large-scale trials (VIVID and VISTA), this treatment has been compared head-to-head with laser treatment and during 1 year of treatment, showed substantial efficacy benefits, no new safety signals and the potential for lower frequency intravitreal dosing at 8rather than 4-week intervals for monitoring and pro re nata dosing.
Nihayatu Aslamatis Solekah

The purposeof this research is to examine Managerial Ownership (MOWN), Institutional Ownership (INST), Free Cash Flow (FCF) and Collateralizable Asset (COLLAS) have an effect on either through simultaneous and also partial to Devidend Payout Ratio (DPR) at manufacturing industry that go public in Jakarta Stock Exchange of during 2000–2005. It is repetition and adaptation of the Rozeff research (1982) and Mollah research (2000). This research is inclusive the type of explanatory research. Connecting sample was conducted with the approach of non probability sampling with the technique of purposive sampling specially the type of judgement sampling. Analysis methode used by multiple regression analysis.The result of this research indicates the variable of Managerial Ownership (MOWN), Institusional Ownership (INST), Free Cash Flow (FCF) and Collateralizable Asset (COLLAS) by simultaneous have the influence which significant to Devidend Payout Ratio (DPR). It is suggested that whoever conducts a further study expand the scope of analysis aspect, as the researcher is aware that the aspects other than those used in this study, there are other variables need examined influencing the devidend payout ratio.
Exploring Different Order Decision Behaviors with Bullwhip Effect and Service Level Measures in Supply Chain System

Since decision makers’ bounded rationality would impact supply chain performance, it is necessary to explore how the individual decisions work in the supply chain. This paper investigates bullwhip effect variation and service level tendency while the decisions are made by different decision makers. Based on the existing study results, the paper establishes a system dynamics model of supply chain conforming to modern supply chain characters. In the model, two adjustment parameters are adopted to describe individual differences in decision makers. The simulation result demonstrates that the behavioral adjustment with different extent results in different supply chain performance. The impact of two parameters is very different. The decision makers should try to avoid the overadjustment to the scarcity of supply from their upstream member.
A Scale Structure View of Resultatives in Japanese, Chinese and German

This paper provides a scale-based semantics for resultatives in Japanese, Chinese and German, in an effort to arrive at: how adjectival complements and verbs in resultative constructions show sensitivity to the scalar structure. The findings reveal that Japanese accepts both open and closed-scale adjectives but disallows atelic verbs in resultatives. It appears that both telic and atelic verbs are welcome by Chinese resultatives. Adjectival complements in German resultatives are of no diverse distribution, i.e. both open and closed-scale APs are allowed to indicate a result in inherent resultatives and derived resultatives. However, German verbs show sensitivity to the scalar property. The conclusion that one can draw here is that Japanese tends to be a ‘BECOME-focused’ language, with the encoding of resutlatives arriving at morph-syntactic level. German, on the other hand, is likely to be a ‘BE AT-focused’ language. There is no restriction towards adjectives, but verbs show sensitivity to the scalar structure. Chinese is also a ‘BE AT-focused’ language, with resultatives mainly facilitated via syntax. Moreover, neither verbs nor adjectives are sensitive to the scalar structure.
Effect of a synthetic analogue of the feline facial pheromone on salivary cortisol levels in the domestic cat1

Silva B.P.L. , Knackfuss F.B. , Labarthe N. & Mendes-de-Almeida F. 2017. Effect of a synthetic analogue of the feline facial pheromone on salivary cortisol levels in the domestic cat. Pesquisa Veterinária Brasileira 37(3):287-290. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Medicina Veterinária, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rua Vital Brazil Filho 64, Niterói, RJ 24230-340, Brazil. E-mail: flavyama@id.uff. br This study aimed to evaluate the ability of a saliva collection device (Salivette®) to measure cortisol levels in saliva samples of domestic cats and to assess the effect of a synthetic analogue of the feline facial pheromone fraction F3 (Feliway®) on cortisol levels. A total of 28 domestic cats from a private high-quality sanctuary were sampled before exposure to the facial pheromone and after 35 days of exposure. Two pheromone devices were placed in the area where the animals ate to guarantee the exposure of all cats. The collecting device yielded a sufficient volume of saliva (>0.20mL) to allow cortisol measurement. Cortisol measurements ranged from 0.02g/dL to 0. 16μg/dL, with a difference between before (42.1%) and after (62.6%) exposure to the pheromone (F=3.2351; p≤0.0002). No difference in cortisol levels was observed between before (x =0.078μg/dL) and after (x =0.066μg/dL) (t=1.79; p=0.08) exposure. However, salivary cortisol levels decreased in 75% (21/28) of the cats after exposure (x2=12.07; p=0.0005), suggesting that the animals have different susceptibilities to the pheromone or that they spent different lengths of time in the area where the pheromone devices were installed.
Heat kernels on graphs

Let (f, E, rv) be a countable, oriented and connected loop free graph. Then for a finite covering collection of subsets of E we introduce a large class of real second-order strongly elliptic operators H on the space of finitely supported functions. If Hp denotes the densely defined closure of H in Lp(f; dr), where df is a weighted counting measure with a weight uniformly bounded away from zero and p E (1,00), then the operators Hp with p E (1,00) generate a consistent family of contractive holomorphic semigroups St,p = e-tHp on Lp(f; dr) with a common positive and symmetric heat kernel "', i.e., for all ~ E f, t > 0 and r.p E Lp(f ; dr). For these heat kernels we deduce various upper bounds under several geometrical and isoperimetric conditions on the graph f.
ADMM for combinatorial graph problems.

We investigate a class of general combinatorial graph problems, including MAX-CUT and community detection, reformulated as quadratic objectives over nonconvex constraints and solved via the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). We propose two reformulations: one using vector variables and a binary constraint, and the other further reformulating the Burer-Monteiro form for simpler subproblems. Despite the nonconvex constraint, we prove the ADMM iterates converge to a stationary point in both formulations, under mild assumptions. Additionally, recent work suggests that in this latter form, when the matrix factors are wide enough, local optimum with high probability is also the global optimum. To demonstrate the scalability of our algorithm, we include results for MAX-CUT, community detection, and image segmentation benchmark and simulated examples.
IoT-Based Library Automation and Monitoring system: Developing an Implementation framework of Implementation

Currently, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and related topics such as Internet of Things (IoT) have an essential influence on all elements of human life. IoT as a prevalent phenomenon is transforming daily life by the usage of the smart features of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technologies. As IoT progresses, it has extended in size and dimension, improving many contexts of the society; such as, the traditional library system. This research proposes an implementation framework for employing the IoT in renovating the conventional library systems to become smart online library schemes. The IoT enables connectivity of a physical object (such as a book or other text typologies) with the real-time communication technology by using the RFID tags and tiny sensors. The continuous monitoring of books in real time and the tracking of labeled objects geographically are some desirable characteristics that result from the use of the IoT tags. These characteristics of IoT allow implementing an online library supply chain, integrating it with different types of technologies such as data bases, data gathering, and cloud systems. The Internet of Things can also provide a global linking of a huge number of libraries and universities in real time, all the time. It is concluded that the IoT-based library management systems will be a promising structure that can play a vital role in the human data organization and knowledge access by helping researchers, designers, and administrators in a more efficient and smarter manner.
The Impact of Performance Audit on Public Administrations in Saudi Arabia: An Exploratory Study

This study aims to examine if auditors of the Saudi Supreme Audit Institution (SSAI) have exerted influence on administrators in Saudi Public Institutions in order to improve the way they manage public resources. The study also examines the impact of the public administrators’ personal factors, i.e. the experience and qualifications of administrators on the contributions made by the SSAI, in terms of facilitating the undertaking of changes in the public administrations. The result of a survey of 96 Saudi public officials shows that the SSAI can claim remarkable achievements, in terms of improving Saudi public affairs. Administrators, irrespective of their experience and qualifications, have shown positive perceptions of the process of performance audit and that they are convinced of the usefulness and the quality of the SSAI’s reports. This study reveals that the SSAI has contributed towards helping the managements of public organisations define their priorities and adopt both strategic and operational plans. It has also helped them evaluate their projects and services, identify the problems and shortcomings of these projects and services, and then provide valuable recommendations to rectify them.
Variation in avian egg size and the consequences for offspring fitness

In oviparous species such as birds, the investment in egg size is thought to represent a strong mechanism through which maternal effects can influence components of offspring fitness. Within several avian species egg size varies significantly and is often positively correlated with hatchling phenotype, growth and survival. However, there is little direct evidence for strong positive effects of egg size on offspring quality. This review aims to evaluate the current understanding of the effects of egg size on offspring fitness and assess the factors which confound many of the studies investigating egg size effects. It is concluded that despite extensive research, the exact relationship between avian egg size and offspring fitness remains undefined. Identifying egg size as the causal driver of changes in offspring quality continues to be a problem in all studies. Thus, in order to establish the effect of egg size per se, further studies are required which successfully control for potentially confounding variables which may obscure current results.
Pisot substitutions and Rauzy fractals

We prove that the dynamical system generated by a primitive unimodular substitution of the Pisot type ond letters satisfying a combinatorial condition which is easy to check, is measurably isomorphic to a domain exchange in R d 1 , and is a nite extension of a translation on the torus T d 1 . I n the course of the proof, we introduce some potentially useful notions: the linear maps associated to a substitution and their dual maps, and the -structure for a dynamical system with respect to a pair of partitions.
Cultural Background and Landscape History as Factors Affecting Perceptions of the Urban Forest

Because a large proportion of the urban forest grows on private property, it is necessary to have broad community support for urban forestry. As people from all over the world live in Canadian cities, it was hypothesized that people with different cultural backgrounds would have different perceptions of the urban forest. This hypothesis was tested by (1) researching different landscaping traditions; (2) interviewing members of four different communities; and (3) conducting vegetation inventories. Inventory and interview data provided a consistent picture of the four communities. The British community reacted the most positively to shade trees. They also expressed the greatest willingness to plant shade trees, had the most shade trees per square meter on their properties, and were the only group that liked naturalized parks (hiking paths). The Chinese community showed less yard maintenance than the other communities, and many of the Chinese indicated that they did not want to add trees to their property. The Chinese responded more favorably than the other groups to photographs depicting landscapes free of trees. Italian and Portuguese communities emphasized fruit trees and vegetable gardens, and responded negatively toward shade trees when these were in conflict with their gardens. These cultural differences are largely consistent with the traditional use of trees in British, Mediterranean and Chinese landscaping, and appear to be maintained among North American immigrant populations.
Effect of quercetin on the disposition kinetics of ciprofloxacin

Pharmacokinetic interaction between ciprofloxacin, an antibacterial fluoroquinolone and flavonoid quercetin was investigated in the present study. Male wistar albino rats, weighing about 200-250 g were randomly divided into two groups, six rats in each group. Rats in group I (control) received ciprofloxacin alone (10 mg/kg PO). Group II received ciprofloxacin 30 min after pretreatment with quercetin (20 mg/kg PO). Rats were anaesthetized after ciprofloxacin administration for blood collection with a xylazine-ketamine combination. Blood samples were collected from jugular vein and tail clipping at predetermined time intervals prior to and at 0.33, 0.67,1, 1.5, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 h (20, 40 , 60, 90, 120, 240, 360, 480 and 720 min.) time intervals after administration of ciprofloxacin. Peak plasma concentrations of ciprofloxacin will be reached in 1-2 h. after oral administration in rats. Plasma was separated by centrifuging at 3000 rpm for 10 min and stored at –20oC until analyzed for ciprofloxacin by microbiological assay, using Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922). Based on plasma concentrations, the pharmacokinetic parameters were determined by non compartmental methods. Detectable plasma concentrations of ciprofloxacin in ra ts persisted upto 6 h when ciprofloxacin was given alone whereas ciprofloxacin was detectable up to 8 h in quercetin pretreated rats. Prior administration of quercetin modified the kinetic profile of ciprofloxacin as evidenced by the significantly (p<0.01) higher area under curve (AUC), area under the first moment curve (AUMC) and there was significant (p<0.01) decrease in Vdss and ClB when compared to untreated group.
Earnings Response Coefficients and Default Risk: Case of Korean Firms

This study examines how firm's default risk affects the earnings response coefficient (ERC). If accounting earnings provide firm’s informativeness, the ERC of the firms highly associated with the default risk. The reason for this is that the firm’s bankruptcy risk determines the mechanism allocating wealth changes from unexpected earnings between shareholders and bondholders. Based on that, I investigate the changes of ERCs comparing with the issue of bond and the redemption of issued bond, using a sample of 128 firms in the Korean Stock Exchange (KSE) during 2000-2007 periods. The empirical results indicate that the ERCs decrease for the issue of new bond, whereas increase for the redemption of issued bond, after controlling the market beta and firm’s growth ratio. Overall, the findings provide directly support that the ERC is a negatively related to the firm's default risk as measured by financial leverage.
Knowledge infrastructures for software service architectures

Software development has become a distributed, collaborative process based on the assembly of off-the-shelf and purpose-built components or services. The selection of software services from service repositories and their integration into software system architectures, but also the development of services for these repositories requires an accessible information infrastructure that allows the description and comparison of these services. General knowledge relating to software development is equally important in this context as knowledge concerning the application domain of the software. Both form two pillars on which the structural and behavioural properties of software services can be addressed. We investigate how this information space for software services can be organized. Focal point are ontologies that, in addition to the usual static view on knowledge, also intrinsically addresses the dynamics, i.e. the behaviour of software. We relate our discussion to the Web context, looking at the Web Services Framework and the Semantic Web as the knowledge representation framework.
Brincadeiras de crianças brasileiras e portuguesas no contexto escolar

INTRODUCTION: The present study aimed to characterize and compare schoolchildren's play in two samples from different countries (Brazil and Portugal). METHODS: In each context 11 children participated in the study. All participating children had been attending the second grade of elementary school. Observations were carried out at school in a room, which had toys available. In order to register children's behaviors, it was used observations of the focal child and time sampling. RESULTS: Similar results were found in the two contexts regarding both the types of social interactions and children's choices of toys and plays. In terms of social interactions, children preferred to play in dyads. Boys showed a higher tendency to sex segregation in their activities than girls. The types of toys most used by children were the ones in the motor category, followed by the ones in the cognitive category. Educational toys, in turn, were the least used in children's play. Stick to the rules was the play activity most observed by researchers. However, when children were not sticking to the rules, the two samples showed different results. Brazilian children preferred to engage in games/rules, whereas Portuguese children preferred to engage in make-believe play. In both contexts boys preferred rough and tumble play more than girls. When Brazilian children were not playing, they preferred to engage in talking, whereas Portuguese children were more engaged in onlooker activity. CONCLUSION: Similarities between the two samples suggest common aspects in play behavior, while their differences refer to particularities of each social-cultural context.
A model for HRM strategic integration

Purpose – The broad aims of this research are to analyse the status of, and processes underlying, strategic human resource management (HRM) integration within organisations and to contribute to theory development in the area. A great deal of attention is given in the literature to the facilitative role that HRM can take in organisational change but as yet little attention has been given to modelling the change processes within HRM itself. This paper addresses that gap by providing a model of the proposed influences on the move towards strategic HRM integration.Design/methodology/approach – In‐depth interviews with senior HR, finance and line managers in 13 Australian Best Practice companies are used to explore the supports and barriers underlying strategic HRM integration.Findings – The model that is developed uses ideas from the change literature to explain that the engagement of strategic HRM integration requires a certain set of symbolic and ritualistic gestures. These symbolic changes, however, do not.