Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adherence to a Web-Based Physical Activity Intervention for Patients With Knee and/or Hip Osteoarthritis: A Mixed Method Study

Background Web-based interventions show promise in promoting a healthy lifestyle, but their effectiveness is hampered by high rates of nonusage. Predictors and reasons for (non)usage are not well known. Identifying which factors are related to usage contributes to the recognition of subgroups who benefit most from Web-based interventions and to the development of new strategies to increase usage. Objective The aim of this mixed methods study was to explore patient, intervention, and study characteristics that facilitate or impede usage of a Web-based physical activity intervention for patients with knee and/or hip osteoarthritis. Methods This study is part of a randomized controlled trial that investigated the effects of Web-based physical activity intervention. A total of 199 participants between 50-75 years of age with knee and/or hip osteoarthritis were randomly assigned to a Web-based intervention (n=100) or a waiting list (n=99). This mixed methods study used only data from the individuals allocated to the intervention group. Patients were defined as users if they completed at least 6 out of 9 modules. Logistic regression analyses with a stepwise backward selection procedure were executed to build a multivariate prediction usage model. For the qualitative part, semistructured interviews were conducted. Both inductive and deductive analyses were used to identify patterns in reported reasons for nonusage. Results Of the 100 participants who received a password and username, 46 completed 6 modules or more. Multivariate regression analyses revealed that higher age (OR 0.94, P=.08) and the presence of a comorbidity (OR 0.33, P=.02) predicted nonusage. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the model was robust to changes in the usage parameter. Results from the interviews showed that a lack of personal guidance, insufficient motivation, presence of physical problems, and low mood were reasons for nonusage. In addition, the absence of human involvement was viewed as a disadvantage and it negatively impacted program usage. Factors that influenced usage positively were trust in the program, its reliability, functionality of the intervention, social support from family or friends, and commitment to the research team. Conclusions In this mixed methods study, we found patient, intervention, and study factors that were important in the usage and nonusage of a Web-based PA intervention for patients with knee and/or hip osteoarthritis. Although the self-guided components offer several advantages, particularly in relation to costs, reach, and access, we found that older patients and participants with a comorbid condition need a more personal approach. For these groups the integration of Web-based interventions in a health care environment seems to be promising. Trial Registration The Netherlands National Trial Register (NTR): NTR2483; http://www.trialregister. nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp? TC=2483 (Archived by Webcite at http://www.webcitation.org/67NqS6Beq).
Structural, vibrational and thermodynamic properties of MgSiO and MgSiO minerals from first-principles simulations

In this paper we report a computational study of the structural and vibrational properties of the Mg-end members forsterite, wadsleyite and ringwoodite of MgSiO, and akimotoite, majorite and the perovskite phase of MgSiO. Our calculations have been carried out in the framework of Density Functional Theory (DFT) using a plane wave basis set and the Projector-augmented Wave (PAW) method to account for the core electrons. All structures have been fully relaxed at a series of volumes corresponding to the pressure range relevant to the transition zone in the Earth's mantle, and at each volume the phonon frequencies have been obtained and classified. Using the quasi-harmonic approximation, we have estimated a series of thermodynamic properties for each structure, including the Gibbs free energy, from which we have computed approximate phase diagrams for MgSiO and MgSiO. In spite of our reliance on the quasi-harmonic approximation, which is expected to break down at high temperatures, our calculated phase diagrams qualitatively reproduce the main features expected from diagrams fitted to experimental data. For example, from the computed phase diagram for MgSiO we obtain a post-spinel boundary at P=22.1GPa at T=1873K, with a slope of -3.4MPa/K. This supports experimental results suggesting a relatively large slope rather than those favouring a much flatter one. It also suggests that vertical deflections of the 660km discontinuity due to thermal signatures from plumes and slabs should be similar to those at the 410km, and that a deflection of 35km as seen in recent seismic studies could be caused by a thermal anomaly as small as 330K. We also identify the triple point between the ringwoodite, ilmenite (plus periclase) and perovskite (plus periclase) phases to be at P=22.9GPa and T=1565K. Our results clearly illustrate the stringent requirements made on theoretical models in order to extract predictions compatible with the available experimental data.
Selective olfactory deficits in case H.M.

A variety of olfactory capacities were evaluated in H.M. , a patient with bilateral medial temporal lobe resection. He demonstrated normal performance on a battery of tests of odour detection, discrimination of intensity, and adaptation. In striking contrast, H.M. was unable to discriminate or identify odours in same-different discriminations and in matching-to-sample tasks. Although he could name common objects using visual or tactile cues, he could not identify them by smell. These results indicate that the perceptual phenomena of odour detection and discrimination are dissociable by cerebral damage, and that structures in the medial temporal lobe play a critical role in odour discrimination.
Regional dynamics and start-ups: Evidence from French departments in 2011

This paper seeks to determine the exact role played by regional dynamics in the creation of companies. The notion that territorial dynamics influence entrepreneurial activity seems to be backed up, first of all, by the fact that it is at the regional level that the direct influence of the ecosystem of wealth and of material, human and organizational resources is strengthened through agglomeration effects. We empirically address this question considering the case of French departments in 2011. In order to take into account the role played by the neighbourhood and the resulting spatial dependence, we estimate the sensitivity of both the overall entry rate and the entry rate in the manufacturing industry using spatial econometric estimation techniques, an approach which enables us to control the effect of spatial autocorrelation. Our results show that the creation of companies highly depends on local factors and that the source of local dependence differs according to the entry rate used as an explained variable. Whereas a spatial lag applies at the overall level, the creation of companies in the manufacturing industry is more oriented by exogenous shocks so that a spatial error model is more appropriate.
Governments, Workplaces and Households: To What Extent Do They Shape How Mothers Allocate Time to Work and Family, and What Role Do Preferences Play?

Rather than talking about the role of preferences, it might be more useful to talk about the role of supports, pressures and additional labour in determining how mothers allocate time to work and family. In this article the author examines the skewed allocation of paid and unpaid work within households with working parents. She argues that a mother's preferences are maintained or changed over time in response to a range of supports and pressures.
The Formation of Buyer–Supplier Relationships: Detailed Contract Drafting and Close Partner Selection

Firms face two strategic decisions when engaging in a new purchase transaction: the decision whether to draft a detailed contract and the decision whether to select a partner with which they share a close tie. The authors study how organizational culture affects these decisions and the effectiveness of these decisions in curtailing the partner's opportunistic behavior. The results suggest that organizational culture exerts an important but different influence on both decisions. Selecting a close partner shows a marked ability to hedge against partner opportunism, but beyond a certain point, it encourages the opportunism it is designed to discourage. Contracting becomes effective only when a nonclose partner is selected and when the focal relationship is embedded in a network of close mutual contacts.
The Construction of VLC Virtual Supply Chain

The Virtual Logistics Center (VLC) achieves an effective reform to the traditional physical supply chain and constructs a virtual matrix supply chain featured by integrated information management. VLC fully incorporates resources, functions and technologies, builds up a function-exchange market among enterprises and realizes the reengineering and innovation of business process. Via the virtualized, flexiblized and coordinated reform of supply chain, a virtual matrix supply chain structure is formed that operates in parallel with multi-windows and multi-levels under the control of information flow.
Asymptotic stability of reference trajectories for nonlinear systems by linear dynamic output feedback

In this contribution we analyze in detail the stability of the linear dynamic output feedback which has been introduced in [1], [2] for the stabilization of trajectories for differentially flat systems and which has been extended to nonflat systems whose linearization about the reference trajectory is controllable [3], [4]. The linearized tracking error dynamics of the closed loop system are shown to be exponentially stable and thus the reference trajectory for the nonlinear system is asymptotically stable. In this contribution also the states of an implementation of the dynamic output feedback are considered and the relations with the state space approach are clarified.
Apparent volume dependence of 1/f noise in thin film structures: role of contacts.

The experimental investigation of low-frequency noise properties in new materials is very useful for the understanding of the involved physical transport mechanisms. In this paper it is shown that, when contact noise is present, the experimental values of the normalized Hooge parameter show a fictitious linear dependence on the volume of the analyzed samples. Experimental data on noise measurements of La0.7Sr0. 3MnO3 thin films are reported to demonstrate the validity of the analysis performed.
Coffee Husk Waste for Fermentation Production of Mosquitocidal Bacteria

ABSTRACT Coffee husk waste (CHW) discarded as bio-organic waste, from coffee industries, is rich in carbohydrates. The current study emphasizes the management of solid waste from agro-industrial residues for the production of biopesticides (Bacillus sphaericus, and B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis), to control disease transmitting mosquito vectors. An experimental culture medium was prepared by extracting the filtrates from coffee husk. A conventional culture medium (NYSM) also was prepared. The studies revealed that the quantity of mosquitocidal toxins produced from CHW is at par with NYSM. The bacteria produced in these media, were bioassayed against mosquito vectors (Culex quinquefasciatus, Anopheles stephensi, and Aedes aegypti) and it was found that the toxic effect was statistically comparable. Cost-effective analysis have revealed that, production of biopesticides from CHW is highly economical. Therefore, the utilization of CHW provides dual benefits of effective utilization of environmental waste and efficient production of mosquitocidal toxins.
POLYPHASIC TYPING OF CRYPTOSPORIDIUM BAILEYI: A SUGGESTED MODEL FOR CHARACTERIZATION OF CRYPTOSPORIDIA

The present study was undertaken to characterize the oocyst morphology, host specificity, organ location, virulence, and sequences of the small subunit ribosomal RNA, 70-kDa heat shock protein, and oocyst wall protein genes of Cryptosporidium baileyi, and to compare this strain with other Cryptosporidium species. This study also aims to serve as a model for polyphasic (phenetic and genetic) characterization of Cryptosporidium species and strains. On the basis of these results, further genetic and phenetic characterization of an avian isolate is needed if the difference between the length or width, or both, of oocysts of an isolate and of C. baileyi is ≥10% or if the difference between the oocyst shape index of the isolate and of C. baileyi is ≥3% (or both). The isolate is infectious for mammals or lower vertebrates, or the host range is narrow, i.e., infectious only for some bird species; after oral or intratracheal inoculation, the parasites are not located in the cloaca and in the bursa of Fabricius or the respiratory tract; clinical disease or weight gain reduction can be observed after oral inoculation; the genetic distance for the examined gene between C. baileyi and the isolate is similar in magnitude to that observed between most closely related Cryptosporidium species.
Twist induces an epithelial-mesenchymal transition to facilitate tumor metastasis

Tumor metastasis--the spreading of primary tumor cells to distal organs--is the major cause of death of cancer patients. The metastatic process consists of four distinct steps, invasion, intravasation, extravasation, and metastatic growth, and primary tumor cells need to acquire different genetic characteristics to accomplish each step. The main players during the metastatic process remain, however, largely unknown. A recent report in Cell by Robert Weinberg’s group (Yang et al., Cell. 2004 Jun 25;117(7):927-39) adds the transcription factor Twist to the list of metastatis regulators. Suppression of Twist expression in tumor cells inhibits the metastatic potential, whereas its overexpression induces an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in epithelial cells. This study provides direct evidence that EMT may be an essential process during metastasis and should appropriately stimulate further investigations of EMT in many laboratories.
Identifying Factors Affecting Helpfulness of Online Reviews: The Moderating Role of Product Price

For the success of an online retail market, it is important to allow consumers to get more helpful reviews by figuring out the factors determining the helpfulness of online reviews. On the basis of elaboration likelihood model, this study analyzes which factors determine the helpfulness of reviews and how the factors affecting the helpfulness of an online consumer review differ for product price. For this study, 75,226 online consumer reviews were collected from Amazon.com. Furthermore, additional information on review messages was also gathered by carrying out a content analysis on the review messages. This study shows that both of peripheral cues such as review rating and reviewer`s credibility and central cues such as word count of review message and the proportion of negative words influence the helpfulness of review. In addition, the result of this study reveals that each consumer focuses on different information sources of reviews depending on the product price.
The Identification and Management of Major Risks in the Malaysian Construction Industry

Effective risk management can bring greater rewards to project performance by enhancing productivity. The objectives of this study are to identify the major risks associated with the Malaysian construction industry and to evaluate the practical measures that the various local construction industry players would take to respond to those risks. A mixed method of questionnaire and interviews was used to investigate the current trend of risk management implementation in the Malaysian construction industry. Financial risk and time risk are found to be the major risks in terms of the occurrence frequency and the impacts. A lack of knowledge and the associated costs of risk management application are the main reasons given by local contractors who lag behind in implementing risk management in their practices. It can be deduced that risk management is still at an early stage of development in the Malaysian construction industry.
Requiem for Microcredit: The Demise of a Romantic Ideal

In the late 1990s, microcredit attracted the attention of Canadian policy-makers as a promising solution to problems of access to loan capital for small business startups. During the same period, Canada's largest microcredit provider arrived at the conclusion that microcredit was not a sustainable form of lending in Canada and other countries of the North. Drawing on the tension between these two perspectives, this article analyses the potential and the limits of microcredit in the Canadian context. The article elaborates on the elements of the microloan transaction, explores microeconomic rationales for this distinctive form of lending and examines the record of Canada's major microcreditor. It argues that microcredit failed to meet the objective of stimulating the development of very small businesses because the core lending technology - the peer supported loan - imposes substantial implicit costs on debtors in addition to the explicit prices they must pay for the loans, and shows that debtors' responses to Canada's most ambitious microcredit programme support this claim. While the article questions the project of encouraging microenterprise as a local development strategy, it suggests that expansion of access to loan capital requires a focus on the lending technologies of conventional financial service suppliers rather than support for microcredit intermediaries. The article concludes by noting the development of small business versions of consumer credit instruments, such as credit cards, and consumer lending technologies, such as credit scoring and suggests that these developments may signify an emerging process of consumerization of small business lending that warrants further investigation.
Comparison of isolation methods of exosomes and exosomal RNA from cell culture medium and serum

Exosomes are cell-derived vesicles and are abundant in biological fluids; they contain RNA molecules which may serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers in 'precision medicine'. To promote the clinical application of exosomal RNA (exoRNA), many isolation methods must be compared and validated. Exosomes in cell culture medium (CCM) and serum may be isolated using ultracentrifugation (UC), ExoQuick or Total Exosome Isolation Reagent (TEI), and exoRNA may be extracted using TRIzol-LS, SeraMir, Total Exosome RNA Isolation (TER), HiPure Liquid RNA/miRNA kit (HLR), miRNeasy or exoRNeasy. ExoRNA was assessed using NanoDrop, Bioanalyzer 2100, quantitative polymerase chain reaction and high-throughput sequencing. UC showed the lowest recovery of particles, but the highest protein purity for exosome isolation. For isolation of exoRNA, we found that combinations of the TEI and TER methods resulted in high extraction efficiency and purity of small RNA obtained using CCM. High yield and a narrow size distribution pattern of small RNA were shown in exoRNA isolated by exoRNeasy from serum. In RNA profile analysis, the small RNA constituent ratio, miRNA content and amount varied as a result of methodological differences. This study showed that different methods may introduce variations in the concentration, purity and size of exosomes and exoRNA. Herein we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each method and their application to different materials, therefore providing a reference according to research design.
Effects of Excess Cash Holdings on Firm Value: Study from the Perspective of Corporate Life Cycle

Based on the corporate life cycle theory, the effects of corporate excess cash holdings on firm value is conducted in this paper. The results show that a significant inverse U-shaped relation exists between excess cash holdings level and firm value. It indicates that lots of companies face the problem of financing constraints. Moreover, the results also show that the optimal excess cash holdings level is discrepant at different corporate life cycle stages. Therefore, in order to ensure the corporate cash policy is reasonable, the corporate should make the cash policy according to which corporate life cycle stage it is at. Index Terms - Excess cash holdings level, Firm value, Corporate life cycle From above study, we can find that it is necessary to examine the effects of the excess cash holding on firm value by synthetically considering the above two viewpoints. We consider that the corporate life cycle may exert significant influence on the efficiency of corporate decisions. We investigate the effects of excess cash holdings on firm value based on the corporate life cycle theory. We hope that our study can enrich the research about excess cash holdings and firm value.
Robust Covariance Estimation for Data Fusion From Multiple Sensors

This paper addresses the robust estimation of a covariance matrix to express uncertainty when fusing information from multiple sensors. This is a problem of interest in multiple domains and applications, namely, in robotics. This paper discusses the use of estimators using explicit measurements from the sensors involved versus estimators using only covariance estimates from the sensor models and navigation systems. Covariance intersection and a class of orthogonal Gnanadesikan-Kettenring estimators are compared using the 2-norm of the estimates. A Monte Carlo simulation of a typical mapping experiment leads to conclude that covariance estimation systems with a hybrid of the two estimators may yield the best results.
The Value Impact of Stock Liquidity: An International Evidence

This study addresses an important issue about the role of stock market in corporate finance by directly examining the effect of stock liquidity on firm value on a broad sample of firms from 53 countries for the period 1981-2010. Consistent with finance theory, we document a strong positive association between stock liquidity and firm value at both the firm and country levels. This finding is robust to alternative stock liquidity measures and is not driven by the endogeneity problem. We further explore how country characteristics on investor protection affect the value impact of liquidity. The results show that strong investor protection and transparent financial reporting environments magnify the importance of stock liquidity to firm value. However, global market integration weakens the effects of local country's investor protection regimes.