Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Therapeutic vaccination (p24‐VLP) of patients with advanced HIV‐1 infection in the pre‐HAART era does not alter CD4 cell decline

Summary In a randomized placebo controlled trial 304 HIV infected patients with CD4 cell counts below 350 cells/µL received therapeutic vaccination with: alum placebo (Group I, n = 102), p24‐VLP 500 µg (Group II, n = 101) or p24‐VLP 1000 µg (Group III, n = 101) p24‐VLP monthly for six months. Over one year the average change in CD4 cell count did not differ significantly between groups (–32, –40 and –52 cells per μL respectively). There was also no difference between groups in progression to CDC catagory B or C events, or in adverse events. Therapeutic vaccination with p24‐VLP does not affect CD4 cell decline in patients with advanced HIV infection.
The reasoning pattern of Islamic jurists' views on al-Rahn (Islamic Pawn Broking) contract and its ruling / Dziauddin Sharif , Amir Shaharuddin and Nurul Aini Muhamed

According to the Islamic jurisprudence, al-rahn is pledging a non-fungible property as surety against debt whereby the debt shall be paid from the pledged item in case of default. However, Muslim jurists differed in determining the nature of al-rahnu contract. The Hanafi, Shafi`i and Hanbali jurists viewed al-rahn as a charitable contract while the Maliki jurists considered it as a form of an exchange contract. These differences originated from their different interpretation of the verse 2: 283 in the Qur'an. Using the taxonomical classification approach by Rosch (1976), this paper examines the pattern of reasoning adopted by the jurists of the main schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Rosch's model is chosen as it can assist the researcher to categorize the aspects of discussion between the al-rahn nature, conditions and rulings. While the model consists of superordinate and subordinate relationships, the paper enhances the conceptual framework of al-rahn into the discussion of conditions and rulings. Thus, the harmonized effort of taxonomical classification is developed to discuss the related rulings resulted from the position of al-rahn as a form of charity or exchange contract. The study shows that Maliki and Shafi`i are seen to be the most consistent schools in holding their stance about al-rahn nature. The consistency can be identified through the examination of al-rahn rulings that matched with their original position. It is also found that the rulings of Maliki jurists are more lenient in stipulating conditions in the contract while Shafi`i stood otherwise.
Isolation and characterization of 15 microsatellite loci for the Japanese gudgeon Sarcocheilichthys variegatus

A microsatellite‐enriched genomic library was obtained for the Japanese gudgeon Sarcocheilichthys variegatus microoculus, and 15 dinucleotide markers were successfully isolated and characterized. These markers were also available for other Japanese congeners, Sarcocheilichthys variegatus variegatus and Sarcocheilichthys biwaensis. In three populations of Sarcocheilichthys from Lake Biwa and the Ashida River in western Japan, seven to 27 alleles were observed for each locus. Linkage equilibrium was observed among most loci, and only one locus showed significant deviation from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium in a population. These microsatellite markers will be useful for studies of the genetic structure of the Japanese gudgeons.
Municipal Management in a Systemic Perspective

: The municipal management is influenced by the phenomena causation (cause and effect), by the model of rational expectations and the market roles. This requires a targeted planning, where the assessment of the benefits, of the usefulness and effectiveness allocative, translates the existing dichotomy in decision-making between qualitative and priorities the economic rationality of municipal government. The municipal strategic planning can be a public policy instrument for local and regional development, if we look at the difficulties of financial resources in the municipalities, by the demands and pressure from citizens and other stakeholders. These pressures, can find an answer with a participatory planning and management in the municipalities, making room for the collective involvement of citizens, with their yearnings, allowing decentralized and share decisions of municipal managers. While there is a tendency towards the weakening of popular movements, associations, cooperatives and civil society organizations, increased social uncertainties, the collapse of social security systems, social fragmentation, at Community level, Governments lack democratic legitimacy and resources, open society, creating new forms of socio-political articulation, such as: social inclusion , the participatory budget, boards of managers or community participation, in order to reconcile the objective of democratic legitimacy with increased efficiency. The dilemma that the city manager faces and, between having to create favorable conditions for a gradual insertion of more modern and dynamic sectors of the city in the world of a globalized economy, and seek measures and policies able to mitigate the growing social, economic and environmental problems that affect the most impoverished social groups reveals the precarious and delicate state of public administration in developing societies. To the extent their own Governments a role in the expansion of propellant public participation, the theoretical analysis of participation renewed approaches capable of integrating governmental dimension a central in the configuration of paradigm of socio-political stakeholder relations. to analyze the relevance of the introduction of a municipal administration in a systemic perspective, who plays the larger and inclusive participation, as the political and administrative strategy of integrated municipal management to understand the new political dynamics in urban management.
A 2.7-5.5 V 0.2-1 W BiCMOS RF driver amplifier IC with closed-loop power control and biasing

GaAs is efficient in realizing RF power amplifiers (PA) at output levels >1 W. However, because GaAs PAs are not compatible with mainstream Si-based technologies, they are difficult to merge with other low-cost functions of a transceiver for a one-chip solution. Integrated PAs with >1 W output are demonstrated in Si-based BiCMOS and CMOS technologies, but because their power-added-efficiency (PAE) is lower than that of GaAs, they are not useful in applications where long battery life is of concern. Here, the problem of low PAE is sidestepped by implementing the final power stage of the amplifier off-chip. Effort is focused on integrating a BiCMOS driver amplifier along with other transmitter support functions not found in a GaAs PA. With this approach, benefits including higher level of functionality, versatile power levels, and low packaging cost are attained without sacrificing PAE.
What motivates environmental leadership behaviour – an empirical analysis in Taiwan

ABSTRACT Leaders in the public sector play a critical role in formulating and implementing environmental policies. However, existing studies mainly attribute policy actions and outcomes to institutional factors, while the roles of individual public administrators are largely ignored. This empirical analysis satisfies this gap by answering the following questions: Why do some administrative leaders do more than others in environmental protection? What motivates them? How does motivation work in various organizational contexts? We develop a model based on the literature on environmental leadership and environmental psychology, and then test it with first-ever data collected from a survey and in-depth interviews in Taiwan central government. We find that environmental leaders are motivated by both extrinsic instrumental causes for self-interests (economic opportunities or legal compliance etc.) and intrinsic normative reasons to engage in broad issues in sustainability, though the formers are clearly more influential. Moreover, environmental leadership is augmented in amicable institutional conditions for environmental protection. We discuss the relevance of these findings in environmental policies and management. This research contributes to the literature on and practice of the subject by examining the increasingly important situational leadership aspect of public management, which has hardly been studied, and unveils unique circumstances for decision-making.
Utilization and outcomes of inpatient surgical care at critical access hospitals in the United States.

IMPORTANCE There is a growing interest in the quality and cost of care provided at Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), a predominant source of care for many rural populations in the United States. OBJECTIVE To evaluate utilization, outcomes, and costs of inpatient surgery performed at CAHs. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS A retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing inpatient surgery from 2005 through 2009 at CAHs or non-CAHs was performed using data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample and American Hospital Association. EXPOSURE The CAH status of the admitting hospital. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES In-hospital mortality, prolonged length of stay, and total hospital costs. RESULTS Among the 1283 CAHs and 3612 non-CAHs reporting to the American Hospital Association, 34.8% and 36.4%, respectively, had at least 1 year of data in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. General surgical, gynecologic, and orthopedic procedures composed 95.8% of inpatient cases at CAHs vs 77.3% at non-CAHs (P < .001). For 8 common procedures examined (appendectomy, cholecystectomy, colorectal cancer resection, cesarean delivery, hysterectomy, knee replacement, hip replacement, and hip fracture repair), mortality was equivalent between CAHs and non-CAHs (P > .05 for all), with the exception that Medicare beneficiaries undergoing hip fracture repair in CAHs had a higher risk of in-hospital death (adjusted odds ratio = 1.37; 95% CI, 1.01-1.87). However, despite shorter hospital stays (P ≤ .001 for 4 procedures), costs at CAHs were 9.9% to 30.1% higher (P < .001 for all 8 procedures). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In-hospital mortality for common low-risk procedures is indistinguishable between CAHs and non-CAHs. Although our findings suggest the potential for cost savings, changes in payment policy for CAHs could diminish access to essential surgical care for rural populations.
SEEAD: A Semantic-Based Approach for Automatic Binary Code De-obfuscation

Increasingly sophisticated code obfuscation techniques are quickly adopted by malware developers to escape from malware detection and to thwart the reverse engineering effort of security analysts. State-of-the-art de-obfuscation approaches rely on dynamic analysis, but face the challenge of low code coverage as not all software execution paths and behavior will be exposed at specific profiling runs. As a result, these approaches often fail to discover hidden malicious patterns. This paper introduces SEEAD, a novel and generic semantic-based de-obfuscation system. When building SEEAD, we try to rely on as few assumptions about the structure of the obfuscation tool as possible, so that the system can keep pace with the fast evolving code obfuscation techniques. To increase the code coverage, SEEAD dynamically directs the target program to execute different paths across different runs. This dynamic profiling scheme is rife with taint and control dependence analysis to reduce the search overhead, and a carefully designed protection scheme to bring the program to an error free status should any error happens during dynamic profile runs. As a result, the increased code coverage enables us to uncover hidden malicious behaviors that are not detected by traditional dynamic analysis based de-obfuscation approaches. We evaluate SEEAD on a range of benign and malicious obfuscated programs. Our experimental results show that SEEAD is able to successfully recover the original logic from obfuscated binaries.
The effect of tetraethylammonium chloride on potassium permeability in the smooth muscle cell membrane of canine trachea.

1. The effect of tetraethylammonium ions (TEA) on potassium or rubidium permeability was studied in canine tracheal smooth muscle. 2. TEA (15‐30 mM) markedly increased the rate of 42K‐ and 86Rb‐efflux in normal Krebs solution. This increase is probably due mainly to the occurrence of electrical activity such as spike potentials and only partially to depolarization. 3. The rate coefficients of 42K‐ and 86Rb‐efflux from depolarized tracheal smooth muscle bathed in a medium with elevated potassium (50‐100 mM) were so large that the coefficients did not remain constant. When chloride ions in the medium were replaced with larger anions such as acetate, propionate or benzoate, the rate of 86Rb‐efflux remained constant even in high‐potassium solution (70 mM). 4. TEA caused a remarkable blockade of 86Rb‐efflux in depolarized tracheal smooth muscle. The maximum decrease in the rate coefficient by TEA was approximately 52.5% of the control value in high‐potassium‐acetate solution. The dissociation constant for the interaction between TEA and its sites of action on the cell membrane was about 0.93 mM. 5. Spontaneous activity was, however, elicited only when TEA was added at a concentration of 10‐30 mM and the membrane was depolarized more than 15‐20 mV. It is assumed that TEA blocks not only the voltage‐sensitive potassium conductance but also the conductance in the resting state, and that the latter may be possibly less sensitive to TEA.
Release of Glutamate and Aspartate from CA1 Synaptosomes: Selective Modulation of Aspartate Release by Ionotropic Glutamate Receptor Ligands

Abstract: Synaptosomes prepared from area CA1 of the rat hippocampus were used to determine (a) whether Schaffer collateral‐commissural‐ipsilateral associational terminals release both aspartate and glutamate in a Ca2+‐dependent manner when reuptake of released glutamate is minimal and (b) whether autoreceptor mechanisms described in CA1 or hippocampal slices could reflect direct actions of glutamate receptor ligands on the synaptic terminal. When challenged for 1 min with either 25 mM K+ or 300 µM 4‐aminopyridine, CA1 synaptosomes released both glutamate and aspartate in a Ca2+‐dependent manner. The glutamate/aspartate ratio was ∼5:1 in each case. K+‐evoked glutamate release was unaffected by ligands active at NMDA or (RS)‐α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isoxazolepropionate (AMPA) receptors. Unlike glutamate release, the release of aspartate was enhanced by NMDA, and this effect was blocked by d‐2‐amino‐5‐phosphonovalerate (d‐AP5). Kainate selectively depressed and 6‐cyano‐7‐nitroquinoxaline‐2,3‐dione (CNQX) selectively increased the K+‐evoked release of aspartate. AMPA enhanced aspartate release, like the antagonist CNQX. When applied in the presence of diazoxide, which blocks the desensitization of AMPA receptors, AMPA and kainate both depressed aspartate release. These findings support the view that Schaffer collateral‐commissural‐ipsilateral associational terminals release aspartate as well as glutamate and that these two release processes are regulated by different autoreceptor mechanisms.
Interaction of Dopamine Transporter Gene and Observed Parenting Behaviors on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Emerging evidence suggests that some individuals may be simultaneously more responsive to the effects from environmental adversity and enrichment (i.e., differential susceptibility). Given that parenting behavior and a variable number tandem repeat polymorphism in the 3′untranslated region of the dopamine transporter (DAT1) gene are each independently associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), our goal was to evaluate the potential interactive effects of child DAT1 genotype with positive and negative parenting behaviors on childhood ADHD. We recruited an ethnically diverse sample of 150 six- to nine-year-old boys and girls with and without ADHD. Children were genotyped for a common polymorphism of the DAT1 gene, and objective counts of observed parenting behavior (i.e., negativity and praise) were obtained from a valid parent–child interaction task. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the interactive effects of DAT1 and observed parenting with a latent ADHD factor. We detected a significant interaction between observed praise and child DAT1 (coded additively), which suggested that praise was associated with increased ADHD, but only among youth with the 9/10 genotype. In addition, a marginally significant interaction between DAT1 (coded additively and recessively) and observed negativity emerged for ADHD, such that negativity was positively associated with ADHD but only for youth with the 9/9 genotype. Although differential susceptibility theory was not fully supported, these preliminary results suggest that interactive exchanges between parenting behavior and child genotype potentially contribute to the development of ADHD. Clinical implications for interactions between parenting behavior and child genotype are discussed.
Validity and Reliability of the Persian Version of Shortened Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand Questionnaire (Quick-DASH)

Background: The aim was to assess the validity and reliability of the Persian version of shortened disabilities of the arm, shoulder, and hand (Quick-DASH) questionnaire in patients with upper extremity conditions. Methods: We administered the Persian version of Quick-DASH to 202 patients with upper extremity conditions, of which 71 patients randomly returned after 3 days to respond to the questionnaire for the 2nd time. In order to test the construct validity of the questionnaire, patients responded to the Michigan Hand Outcome Questionnaire (MHOQ) and Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) as well. Internal consistency was tested using the Cronbach's alpha, and test-retest reliability was measured using intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). Results: Cronbach's alpha was 0.90. ICC was 0.89. Convergent validity was confirmed, as the Spearman correlation between the Quick-DASH and MHOQ was 0.67 and ranged from 0.24 to 0.56 between the subscales of the SF-36 and Quick-DASH. Conclusions: Observation of excellent internal consistency, good to excellent test-retest reliability, and moderate to strong construct validity confirms the validity and reliability of the Persian version of Quick-DASH for evaluating the magnitude and level of disability in upper extremity conditions.
The University of Bradford Institutional Repository

Purpose - This study aims to explore: the actual usage of GAS features among Egyptian external auditors, through the technology acceptance model (TAM); how the conceptual complexity of GAS features impact its actual usage; and what factors influencing the GAS use by Egyptian external auditors. Design/methodology/approach - External audit professionals at twelve international audit firms, including the Big 4 and eight medium-sized firms, in Egypt were surveyed. Findings - The results show that the basic features including database queries, ratio analysis, and audit sampling were higher in GAS use, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use among Egyptian external auditors than the advanced features: digital analysis, regression/ANOVA, and data mining classification. The SEM analysis by GAS features suggests that perceived ease of use has a stronger effect on GAS use when the conceptual complexity of GAS features is high. The analysis also support that the use of GAS by Egyptian external auditors is more affected by co-worker, supervisor, or organization through perceived usefulness, but not by job relevance, output quality, and result demonstration. Research limitations/implications - Although Egyptian external auditors participated in this study may limit the extent to which the findings may be generalized, the responses provide an insight into the actual usage of GAS features by external auditors and the impact of conceptual complexity of GAS features, which is consistent with the literature concerning the relatively low level of utilizing the advanced features of GAS by internal auditors, suggesting that the issues revealed should be of concern. Practical implications - The results reported in this paper are useful to audit software developers and audit firms in their understanding of factors influencing GAS usage in a different audit context. Originality/value - The study adds value to prior research by providing context-contingent insight into the application of technology acceptance model in an unexplored audit context.
Long‐term cancer survivors experience work changes after diagnosis: results of a population‐based study

Background: Although cancer survivorship is increasing with improved diagnosis and treatments, few studies have explored employment changes and the factors related to this change among cancer survivors. Therefore, we aim to explore the prevalence of employment problems in long‐term cancer survivors. In addition, we explored what patient or tumour characteristics predicted employment changes.
Postschool educational and employment experiences of young people with specific language impairment.

PURPOSE This study examined the postschool educational and employment experiences of young people with and without specific language impairment (SLI). METHOD Nineteen-year-olds with (n = 50) and without (n = 50) SLI were interviewed on their education and employment experiences since finishing compulsory secondary education. RESULTS On average, young people with SLI were less successful than their peers without SLI, but they did attain some achievements. Young people with SLI obtained ∼2, mostly vocational qualifications in the first few years post school. Young people continuing in education at 19 years were most commonly in lower level educational placements than their typically developing (TD) peers. Performance IQ and language/literacy skills were the strongest predictors of educational experience level at this age. Young people with SLI truant less and report feeling more supported than TD peers. In terms of employment, similar proportions of young people with and without SLI had jobs. A larger proportion of young people with SLI, however, were not in education, employment, or training at 19 years of age. CONCLUSION In the immediate postschool years, young people with SLI fare less well in education and employment than their TD peers.
Risk factors associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease early readmission

Abstract Background: The 31 day readmission rate is deemed to be an important indicator of the quality of medical care in China. The objectives of this study were to identify the readmission rate of acute exacerbation for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to evaluate associated risk factors. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed charts for patients with acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) admitted to our hospital between January 2011 and November 2012. The early-readmission group and non-early-readmission group were determined by whether patients were readmitted within 31 days after discharge. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify risk factors for early readmission following an AECOPD. Results: There were 692 patients with 925 admissions during the 23 month period; 63 (6.8%) admissions met our criteria for early readmission. Multivariate analysis showed that chronic cor pulmonale (odds ratio [OR] 2.14, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.26–3.64, p = 0.005), hypoproteinemia (OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.03–3.95, p = 0.040) and an elevated PaCO2 (OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.00–1.06, p = 0.027) were identified as risk factors for early readmission of AECOPD. Conclusion: The readmission rate for AECOPD was 6.8%. AECOPD patients with chronic cor pulmonale, hypoproteinemia, and a high PaCO2 are at higher risk for readmission with 31 days of hospital discharge, and medical care of these patients warrants greater attention.