Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation with the BacT/ALERT microbial detection system of bacterial contamination in autologous blood donation and transfusion

Dear Sir, Transfusion-transmitted infection (TTI) is one of the major risks of transfusion medicine. Risk of transfusion-related viral infection has been significantly reduced by donor questioning, serologic testing and introduction of the nuclear amplification test for viral genomes. However, the greatest risk of TTI incidents is associated with bacterial contamination (Epstein et al., 1999; Knowles et al., 2011). Autologous blood transfusion can prevent TTI events such as HIV or hepatitis virus infection that can result from allogeneic blood transfusion. Bacterial contamination, however, remains a potential risk even with autologous donation and transfusion, the quality management of which depends on procedures followed in individual medical institutions. We assessed bacterial contamination in autologous blood and current procedures for blood donation at Kobe University Hospital (920 beds). Autologous blood donated from October 2009 through March 2011 was examined in this study. Autologous collections were performed pre-operatively for elective stand-by surgery. The total of 238 cases could be classified into the following 5 major groupings: 38 with uterus myoma, 38 with hip joint replacement, 25 with placenta previa, 24 with prostate cancer and 20 with uterine cancer. The donor patients had given their informed consent for the donation and underwent extensive medical questioning and laboratory testing. In most cases, the donation was performed on the basis of a weekly phlebotomy schedule. Prior to the blood collection, the donor arm venipuncture site was disinfected first with 2% isopropyl alcohol, then twice with 10% povidone iodine and finally with 2% isopropyl alcohol to remove the povidone iodine on the skin. The whole blood was collected in a commercial plastic bag with sodium citrate added (Terumo, Tokyo, Japan) after diversion of the first 20 mL and stored for up to 35 days in a refrigerator (4 ◦C) separately from allogeneic blood. An unsealed 15-cmlong sampling tube was kept outside the blood bag. On the day before the transfusion, the sampling tube was sealed and removed after the components of the blood bag and the tube had been thoroughly mixed. One millilitre of blood was recovered from the tube and cultured in an aerobic blood culture bottle
Determinantes dos Papéis dos Conselhos de Administração de Empresas Brasileiras

This paper analyses the relationship between the managerial and supervisory roles played by the boards of directors of 108 companies listed on BM&FBovespa's (Brazilian stock market) Novo Mercado and corporate governance variables reported by academic literature that could potentially interfere with the dominance of this role in board meetings. The dominant role was verified through a content analysis based on Schwartz-Ziv and Weisbach's model (2013), while logistic and beta regressions were used to evaluate the determinants, respectively using the ratio of management topics over the total and a binary classification according to this dominance. Board minutes and tax forms from 2010-2013 were analyzed for companies with data for the entire period. Boards were found to play a managerial role more often than a supervisory one, with the most important variables for determining the role are the presence of an ex-CEO on the board and the existence of a fiscal council, with both contributing positively to the predominance for managerial over supervisory.
The impact of didactic read‐aloud action cards on the performance of cannula cricothyroidotomy in a simulated ‘can't intubate can't oxygenate’ scenario

Significant benefits have been demonstrated with the use of peri‐operative checklists. We assessed whether a read‐aloud didactic action card would improve performance of cannula cricothyroidotomy in a simulated ‘can't intubate, can't oxygenate’ scenario. A 17‐step action card was devised by an expert panel. Participants in their first 4 years of anaesthetic training were randomly assigned into ‘no‐card’ or ‘card’ groups. Scenarios were video‐recorded for analysis. Fifty‐three participants (27 no‐card and 26 card) completed the scenario. The number of steps omitted was mean (SD) 6.7 (2.0) in the no‐card group vs. 0.3 (0.5); p < 0.001 in the card group, but the no‐card group was faster to oxygenation by mean (95% CI) 35.4 (6.6–64.2) s. The Kappa statistic was 0.84 (0.73–0.95). Our study demonstrated that action cards are beneficial in achieving successful front‐of‐neck access using a cannula cricothyroidotomy technique. Further investigation is required to determine this tool's effectiveness in other front‐of‐neck access situations, and its role in teaching or clinical management.
concept co cept Nucleolar targeting : the hub of the matter

The nucleolus is a dynamic structure that has roles in various processes, from ribosome biogenesis to regulation of the cell cycle and the cellular stress response. Such functions are frequently mediated by the sequestration or release of nucleolar proteins. Our understanding of protein targeting to the nucleolus is much less complete than our knowledge of membrane-spanning translocation systems—such as those involved in nuclear targeting— and the experimental evidence reveals that few parallels exist with these better-characterized systems. Here, we discuss the current understanding of nucleolar targeting, explore the types of sequence that control the localization of a protein to the nucleolus, and speculate that certain subsets of nucleolar proteins might act as hub proteins that are able to bind to multiple protein targets. In parallel to other subnuclear structures, such as PML bodies, the proteins that are involved in the formation and maintenance of the nucleolus are inexorably linked to nucleolar trafficking.
How Consumers in China Perceive Brands In Online and Offline Encounters

ABSTRACT This article explores how a multiplatform advertising strategy enhances brand perceptions and performance in the fast-digitizing Chinese market. Using schema theory as the overarching framework, the authors posit that a company's choice of online versus offline advertising efforts significantly affects its brand perception and performance, with message content strategies, social interactivity, and reputability playing a moderating role. Results from a series of controlled experiments and a real-life brand database confirm that online and offline advertising efforts influenced brand warmth and competence, respectively, and these effects were enhanced by appropriate message content. Brand warmth and competence individually and complementarily affected purchase intentions.
Insurance and the Demand for Medical Care

Abstract Insurance coverage affects the use and cost of medical care, and so potentially can play a role in assuring that spending comes closer to the optimum. This article describes the implications of third party financing, whether public or private. The key issue is that—in the absence of direct user payment for services—there is an incentive for inefficient moral hazard, or excess use of services. This article uses the voluntary insurance purchasing model to frame the discussion of demand effects because that is the model used extensively in the literature. It later raises the alternative social goals model and also uses this to interpret insurance effects on demand. This discussion implies that consumers will demand the most generous insurance coverage against types of care or types of illnesses for which demand responsiveness is low, the probability of illness is low, and the cost of treatment is high. Abstract Insurance coverage affects the use and cost of medical care, and so potentially can play a role in assuring that spending comes closer to the optimum. This article describes the implications of third party financing, whether public or private. The key issue is that—in the absence of direct user payment for services—there is an incentive for inefficient moral hazard, or excess use of services. This article uses the voluntary insurance purchasing model to frame the discussion of demand effects because that is the model used extensively in the literature. It later raises the alternative social goals model and also uses this to interpret insurance effects on demand. This discussion implies that consumers will demand the most generous insurance coverage against types of care or types of illnesses for which demand responsiveness is low, the probability of illness is low, and the cost of treatment is high.
5-Fluorocytosine and Amphotericin B in Bronchial Secretions

The penetration into and clearance from bronchial secretions of 5-fluorocytosine and amphotericin B were studied in a dog model. After a single intravenous dose of 35 mg/kg, 5-fluorocytosine intrabronchial concentrations were greater than the minimal inhibitory concentration for 80 to 90% of Candida species. These inhibitory concentrations persisted up to 3 h. In contrast, amphotericin B in intravenous doses of 0.6 and 1.2 mg/kg penetrated the blood-bronchus barrier poorly.
Service Quality Measurement of Insurance Company in India

Currently Insurance Sectors in India is generally mature in terms of supply, product range and reach in rural India still remains a challenge for the Insurance sectors. The need of the hour in the Indian insurance sector is to built up competitiveness through enhanced service quality, thus making the banks more market oriented and customer friendly. Thus, the present study focuses in the service quality measurement among both public and private sector insurance companies.
Effect of multimodality chest physiotherapy on the rate of recovery and prevention of complications in patients with mechanical ventilation: a prospective study in medical and surgical intensive care units.

BACKGROUND Mechanically ventilated patients have an increased risk of complications leading to ventilation weaning more difficult resulting in excessive morbidity and mortality. Chest physiotherapy plays an important role in management of ventilated patients. However, these techniques have been studied on patients as a single entity or with combination of two techniques. The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of multimodality chest physiotherapy on the rate of recovery and prevention of complications in adult ventilated patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Out of 173 patients who were randomly allocated to two groups, 86 patients received MH and suctioning in control group and 87 patients were treated with multimodality chest physiotherapy in the study group twice daily till they were extubated. All patients were followed up for the global outcomes and complications during mechanical ventilation. RESULTS There were significant improvements in terms of rate of recovery in study group compared to the control group (P = 0.000). Complication rates were higher with 61.6% in the control group as compared to 26.4% in the study group. Duration of hospitalization was longer in the study group (16 ± 9.40 days) as compared to the control group (12.8 ± 6.12 days). Successful weaning from mechanical ventilation was noted in 58 patients in the study group and 24 patients in the control group which was statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS Multi-modality chest physiotherapy protocol has shown to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia and enhance the clinical outcome in ventilated patients and may be recommended as a treatment option in ICU. It has also shown to enhance the weaning process and proved to be safe.
CEO contractual protection and debt contracting

CEO employment agreements and severance pay agreements are prevalent among S&P1500 firms. While prior research has examined their impact on corporate decision from shareholders’ perspective, there is little research on their impact from debtholders’ perspective. We examine the effect of CEO contractual protection, in the form of employment agreements and severance pay agreements, on debt contracting. We find that compared with other loans, loans issued by firms with CEO contractual protection contain more financial covenants, particularly performance covenants, are more likely to have performance pricing provisions, and have higher loan spreads. The effect of CEO contractual protection is both statistically and economically significant. We further find that this effect increases with the monetary strength of CEO contractual protection and CEOs’ appetite and opportunities for risk-taking. Collectively these results shed light on the impact of CEO contractual protection on debt contracting.
Grid-voltage sensorless control of an LCL filter with low resonance frequency

A Grid-Voltage sensorless control strategy for LCL Grid-connected voltage source inverters is proposed. Positive and negative grid sequences used for synchronization are estimated using an observer. The control of the system is implemented with a strategy that allows the use of the proportional plus resonant regulator (PR) optimum design, regardless of the filter resonance frequency. The effectiveness of the proposal is demonstrated by simulation in a realistic scenario.
Automatic estimation of registration parameters: image similarity and regularization

Image registration is a procedure to spatially align two images that is often used in, for example, computer-aided diagnosis or segmentation applications. To maximize the flexibility of image registration methods, they depend on many registration parameters that must be fine-tuned for each specific application. Tuning parameters is a time-consuming task, that would ideally be performed for each individual registration. However, doing this manually for each registration is too time-consuming, and therefore we would like to do this automatically. This paper proposes a methodology to estimate one of most important parameters in a registration procedure, the regularization setting, on the basis of the image similarity. We test our method on a set of images of prostate cancer patients and show that using the proposed methodology, we can improve the result of image registration when compared to using an average-best parameter.
The Economic Contribution of Natural Resources to a State Economy: A South Carolina Case Study

The structure of state or sub-state regional economies is heavily influenced by its natural resource endowment. Input-output analysis is often used to estimate the economic contribution of various sectors to a state’s economy. We apply input-output analysis to South Carolina’s economy to estimate the contribution of natural resource-based sectors to the overall economy. The natural resource-based sectors consist of six mutually exclusive sectors: fishing, hunting, and wildlife viewing; coastal tourism; commercial fisheries; boat industry; mining; and forestry. The total economic contribution of these six natural resource-based sectors is $33.4 billion, representing 8.3% of gross state product and 8.6% of all state employment.
A Controversial Medicolegal Issue: Timing the Onset of Perinatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Injury

Perinatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury, as a result of chronic, subacute, and acute insults, represents the pathological consequence of fetal distress and birth or perinatal asphyxia, that is, “nonreassuring fetal status. ” Hypoxic-ischemic injury (HII) is typically characterized by an early phase of damage, followed by a delayed inflammatory local response, in an apoptosis-necrosis continuum. In the early phase, the cytotoxic edema and eventual acute lysis take place; with reperfusion, additional damage should be assigned to excitotoxicity and oxidative stress. Finally, a later phase involves all the inflammatory activity and long-term neural tissue repairing and remodeling. In this model mechanism, loss of mitochondrial function is supposed to be the hallmark of secondary injury progression, and autophagy which is lysosome-mediated play a role in enhancing brain injury. Early-induced molecules driven by hypoxia, as chaperonins HSPs and ORP150, besides common markers for inflammatory responses, have predictive value in timing the onset of neonatal HII; on the other hand, clinical biomarkers for HII diagnosis, as CK-BB, LDH, S-100beta, and NSE, could be useful to predict outcomes.
EFFECTS OF BOARD NATIONALITY AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY ON THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF LISTED FIRMS IN NIGERIA

This study examined the effect of board nationality and ethnic diversity on firms’ performance in the Nigeria stock exchange. With the aim of investigating the level of influence ethnic diversity and board nationality would affect firm performance in terms of profitability and growth in a developing economy, the study made use of ROA, ROE and Tobin’s Q for financial measures. The study analysed date from 60 non-financial firms with periodic observations from 2012-2015 using the ordinary least squares regression method. Yemeni formula was used to calculate the sample size out of the remainder 119 listed non-financial after 57 listed firms from the financial sector were removed. The total sample size was further streamlined to 60 based on a common reporting period (January 1st to December 31st) to ensure consistency. The Findings indicate that ethnic diversity and board nationality has no significant influence on the performance level of firms in both profitability (ROA and ROE) and growth (Tobin’s Q). Findings also reveal that the average board size of the listed non financial firms in Nigeria meets the countries corporate governance requirement of nine (9) members and the average board has a combination of at least two of the three ethnic groups in Nigeria. The board composition of sampled firms still reveals the presence of family members in same board which is against the central board composition code of corporate governance. This study encourages a diverse board since there is no significant effect on financial based performance; it is still advisable to be diverse except cost outweighs benefits. Diversity always tends to have effects on the way the board members make a decision, or strategic moves. It sets a control, brings innovation and could also slow down the rate of decision making
PTHrP expression in chondrocytes, regulation by TGF-beta, and interactions between epiphyseal and growth plate chondrocytes.

Although PTHrP has been identified as a key regulator of chondrocyte differentiation in the growth plate, the factors directly regulating PTHrP expression have not been identified. Furthermore, while cells from the epiphysis are considered the physiologic source of PTHrP, the relative expression of PTHrP in epiphyseal and growth plate chondrocytes has not been defined. PTHrP expression was examined in chondrocytes isolated from 3- to 5-week-old chick long bones. The expression of PTHrP mRNA was 10-fold higher in epiphyseal chondrocytes compared to cells from the growth plate. Growth plate chondrocytes were isolated into populations with distinct maturational characteristics by countercurrent centrifugal elutriation and analyzed for PTHrP expression. The expression was highest in the least mature cells and progressively declined with the onset of maturation. The regulation of PTHrP expression was further examined in epiphyseal chondrocytes. Both TGF-beta1 and cis-retinoic acid stimulation markedly increased PTHrP mRNA levels, while BMP-2 and PTHrP stimulation decreased the expression of this transcript. The effects of TGF-beta1 (8.9-fold stimulation) and TGF-beta3 (9.2-fold) were slightly greater than the effects of TGF-beta2 (4.9-fold). The effect of TGF-beta was dose-dependent and increases could be detected after 68 h of treatment. To analyze the paracrine effect of epiphyseal and growth plate chondrocytes on each other, these cells were placed in coculture and the mRNA from each of the populations was harvested separately after 24 h. Following coculture the PTHrP mRNA levels increased in the epiphyseal cells while the expression of type X collagen and Indian hedgehog transcripts decreased in growth plate chondrocytes. The results demonstrate potentially important paracrine interactions between these cell populations, possibly mediated by TGF-beta and PTHrP.
A Coupled Creep Plasticity Model for Residual Stress Relaxation of a Shot Peened Nickel-Base Superalloy

Shot peening is a commonly used surface treatment process that imparts compressive residual stresses into the surface of metal components. Compressive residual stresses retard initiation and growth of fatigue cracks. During the component loading history, the shot-peened residual stresses may change due to thermal exposure, creep, and cyclic loading. In these instances, taking full credit for compressive residual stresses would result in a nonconservative life prediction. This paper describes a methodical approach for characterizing and modeling residual stress relaxation under elevated temperature loading, near and above the monotonic yield strength of IN100. The model incorporates the dominant creep deformation mechanism, coupling between the creep and plasticity models, and effects of prior plastic strain. The initial room temperature residual stress and plastic strain profiles provide the initial conditions for relaxation predictions using the coupled creep-plasticity model. Model predictions correlate well with experimental results on shot-peened dogbone specimens subject to single cycle and creep loading conditions at elevated temperature. The predictions accurately capture both the shape and magnitude of the retained residual stress profile.
Globalisation of services production: Economic and social upgrading in support-service industry catering to international ICT-ITES firms in Mumbai

The ICT-ITES sector in India has been a major driver of economic growth and is deemed to provide a range of opportunities for cognitive-cultural (knowledge) workers. In the past decade, extensive research has been conducted on access to the sector and opportunities for upward labour mobility. Surprisingly, few studies have focused on the firms and workers indirectly engaged in the ICT-ITES sector and whether and how they are able to benefit from the growth of the sector. Using the concepts of economic upgrading and social upgrading in Global Production Networks, this thesis empirically assesses the less-explored case of indirect jobs and business opportunities created in the support-service segments (security, facilities and cab-services) serving ICT-ITES firms in Mumbai, India. Each empirical chapter deals with the dimensions of either economic upgrading (of firms) or social upgrading (of workers) in the support-service industry to present a more nuanced understanding of the local outcomes of ICT-ITES firms’ functioning. The thesis contributes to debates on service-sector-led development in South Asia (India) by identifying how it affects people and businesses, indirectly involved in the ICT-ITES sector.
A CORBA-based cooperative mobile robot system

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a distributed multiple mobile robot system that provides a collaborative control and simulation environment.Design/methodology/approach – A CORBA‐based cooperative system is designed to implement a robotic layered cooperative mechanism. The mechanism has three layers: mission, transport and execution. In order to realize a flexible and effective communication in the cooperative mechanism, an extended robot event service (federated event service) is proposed to improve the cooperative system's real time performance.Findings – Experimentation has proved the validity and effectiveness of the system. The federated event service's latency is approximately 9 percent less than the standard event service latency when the CPU is determined.Practical implications – The robotic modularized system includes the map‐building, path‐planning, robot task‐planning, simulation and actual robot control function modules, and uses CORBA to integrate the whole system. It is easy.