Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in winter precipitation extremes for the western United States under a warmer climate as simulated by regional climate models

We find a consistent and statistically significant increase in the intensity of future extreme winter precipitation events over the western United States, as simulated by an ensemble of regional climate models (RCMs) driven by IPCC AR4 global climate models (GCMs). All eight simulations analyzed in this work consistently show an increase in the intensity of extreme winter precipitation with the multi‐model mean projecting an area‐averaged 12.6% increase in 20‐year return period and 14.4% increase in 50‐year return period daily precipitation. In contrast with extreme precipitation, the multi‐model ensemble shows a decrease in mean winter precipitation of approximately 7.5% in the southwestern US, while the interior west shows less statistically robust increases.
Differentiation and Expansion of Beta Cell Mass in Porcine Neonatal Pancreatic Cell Clusters Transplanted into Nude Mice

Neonatal porcine pancreas has considerable capacity for growth and differentiation, making it an attractive potential source of islet tissue for xenotransplantation. Pancreases from 1–3-day-old newborn pigs were digested with collagenase and cultured for 8 days. The resulting cellular aggregates are called porcine neonatal pancreatic cell clusters (NPCCs). The mean yield of NPCCs from a newborn pig was 28,200 ± 1700 islet equivalents. Cytokeratin 7 (CK7) was used as a marker for the immunostaining of pancreatic duct cells. In neonatal pancreas, 18% of the insulin-positive cells co-stained for CK7, thus being protodifferentiated. NPCCs also contained protodifferentiated cells; insulin/PP and insulin/somatostatin co-stained cells were more common than insulin/glucagon cells. Between 1 and 8 days of culture, the DNA content of the NPCCs fell to 16% and the insulin content to 33% of the starting value, mainly due to the preferential loss of exocrine cells. Transplantation of 2000 or 4000 NPCCs into diabetic nude mice typically normalized glucose values in 10–20 weeks. Mice with successful grafts had lower fasting blood glucose levels than normal mice and accelerated glucose clearance after an IP glucose load. The starting NPCCs consisted of 17% insulin-staining cells, but the grafts of mice with reversed diabetes consisted of 94% beta cells, with some co-stained for CK7, indicating that the grafts still contained immature cells. The mass of insulin-producing cells rose from 0.22 ± 0.08 mg 1 week after transplantation to 4.34 ± 0.27 mg in mice sacrificed at 27–35 weeks. In summary, NPCCs contain mostly islet precursor cells, which when transplanted into nude mice undergo striking differentiation and beta cell expansion.
Understanding and meeting the needs of our customers

Describes how Wessex Water initiated a customer consultation exercise under the slogan “How far should we go? ” to understand more fully what customers really expected and endorse future spending plans. An explanatory leaflet was sent to all 900,000 account holders in addition to various other interest groups and face‐to‐face interviews were held with 1,200 customers. Over two‐thirds of responses favoured the option of continued progress. Findings of the research have led to enhanced customer services, with the introduction of a “water quality hotline” for customers to obtain specific information and a community contact programme under which a representative from Wessex Water regularly visits towns where there is no local office. In addition, a “Partnership 2000” programme has recently been launched, designed to strengthen links with customers, give real service guarantees and a commitment to share the benefits of capital efficiency with customers.
Packet radio in the Amateur Satellite Service

A review of the satellite-based packet radio activities taking place in the Amateur Radio Service is presented. Five projects are discussed. The Digital Communications Experiment (DCE) on UoSAT-OSCAR-11 is a store-and-forward system that is accessed by a limited number of stations around the world designated as DCE gateways. These gateway stations retrieve and store messages forwarded to them via terrestrial packet radio networks. The Japanese FO-12 satellite is a store-and-forward system, and its user interface is much like computer bulletin boards accessed via land lines. It is available for use by all radio amateurs with the required equipment. Both UO-11 and FO-12 are in low earth orbits. The RUDAK experiment and the PACSAT project are also discussed. >
The Reverberating Risk of Long-Term Care

The Fiftieth Anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid offers an opportunity to reflect on how American social policy has conceived of the problem of long-term care. In this essay, based on a longer forthcoming article, I argue that current policies adopt too narrow a conception of long-term care risk, by focusing on the effect of serious illness and disability on people who need care and not on the friends and family who often provide it. I propose a more complete view of long-term care risk that acknowledges how illness and disability reverberates through communities, posing insecurity for people beyond those in need of care.
Tensor-Based Transductive Learning for Multimodality Video Semantic Concept Detection

Interaction and integration of multimodality media types such as visual, audio, and textual data in video are the essence of video semantic analysis. Contextual information propagation is useful for both intra- and inter-shot correlations. However, the traditional concatenated vector representation of videos weakens the power of the propagation and compensation among the multiple modalities. In this paper, we introduce a higher-order tensor framework for video analysis. We represent image frame, audio, and text in video shots as data points by the 3rd-order tensor. Then we propose a novel dimension reduction algorithm which explicitly considers the manifold structure of the tensor space from contextual temporal associated cooccurring multimodal media data. Our algorithm inherently preserves the intrinsic structure of the sub- manifold where tensorshots are sampled and is also able to map out-of-sample data points directly. We propose a new transductive support tensor machines algorithm to train effective classifier using large amount of unlabeled data together with the labeled data. Experiment results on TREVID 2005 data set show that our method improves the performance of video semantic concept detection.
THE ROLE OF LARGE PRIVATE AND GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS IN GENERATING FLOWS OF INTER-REGIONAL MIGRANTS: THE CASE OF AUSTRALIA'

The basic purposes of this paper are threefold. First, the general assumptions which have formed the basis of much of the work on population flows are re-evaluated in the context of the post-industrial society. It is argued that given the shifts which have taken place in the employment structure of modern economies there is a greater need to recognize both the role of labor market segmentation and of large public and private multi-locational organizations in imposing significant constraints on internal migration. Secondly, following a classification of the spatial properties of various types of organizations, two heuristic models are forwarded which better accommodate the characteristics of post-industrial societies. These models emphasize the way in which recruitment, transfer, and promotion of personnel in large organizations contribute both to an understanding of migration and to the growth process of interdependent cities within an urban system. Thirdly, an attempt is made to provide evidence for the models from the 1971 census data. These data impose some limitations but it is clear that there are quite marked differences between the structure of migrant flows which operate between the metropolis and its region on the one hand and between large interacting metropoli on the other.
Response strategies to malnutrition Challenges by instaproducts (EPZ) limited in Kenya

Firms meet various challenges in their area of operation due to environmental turbulences. These firms have to respond to these turbulences by applying various response strategies for them to survive in the business. Firms are using strategic management to respond to challenges brought about by the environment. Instaproducts (EPZ) Limited has responded to malnutrition challenges by applying various response strategies hence its survival for the last 20 years. Malnutrition and its associated disease conditions can be caused by eating too little, eating too much or eating unbalanced diet that lacks necessary nutrients. In Kenya, the number of undernourished people stands at 10 million according to Action Against Hunger Website. The title of the study is the response strategies to malnutrition challenges by Instaproducts (EPZ) Limited in Kenya. The research objective is to determine the malnutrition challenges by Instaproducts (EPZ) Limited in Kenya and its response strategies to these malnutrition challenges. The company is able to cater for 5% of the malnutrition cases in Kenya. The malnutrition challenges it faces includes: Insufficient access to food due to insufficient rainfall hence drought: inadequate dietary intake due to few food varities and lack of information through education; inadequate materials and child-care practices which involves mother feeding and breast feeding education; poor public health and inadequate health services ( which involves drinking untreated water, poor sanitation and hygiene especially to slum dwellers which can result to diarrhea); high population; high food prices; political ideologies; technology and diseases. The response strategies it uses are discussed.
An innovative approach to accounting education at the first‐year level

In an educational environment in which global trends prompt educators to consider alternative approaches to teaching and learning, new ways should be found to educate more efficiently and effectively. In line with this learner/customer-centred approach, the first-year students in Financial Accounting at the University of Pretoria were requested to complete a questionnaire in order to identify weaknesses in the current approach, highlight possible areas to be developed or make suggestions regarding the improvement of the course. The results yielded several clear indications of the changes that could be made and new ideas that could be considered. Some of these suggestions have been implemented. The results, which are being monitored continuously, are reported in this article.
Leadership Style In Improving Performance Through Engagement

The key drivers of employee engagement as the result of the appropriate alignment of human resource practices are job characteristics, role clarity and fit, coworker and management relations, leadership, and perceptions of fairness. For this study will focus on the discussion in Leadership. Engagement and performance. The study was conducted with qualitative methods, because the study is a member of E is comprised of five members. Expected results-oriented research on the process, which leads to the performance of the data or the perspective of using inductive logic. The addition of the new section is loaded with life-engagement in an organization will lead to a conflict of interests because of mental engagement is not in standard operational procedure (SOP) so that the top manager can skip down to the section below it to maintain harmonious relationships between the parts while waiting for the new SOP. Engagement is born of the fledgling group will face rejection old group who tend to feel overwhelmed by, so as to keep all employees who have engagement, organizations must be able to accommodate all activities and enter new that did not exist in the SOP while preparing new SOPs governing the rights and relationships responsibility of all members of the section and its auspices. Keyword: Leadership, Engagement, Performance I. The Background
Financial Planning for Retirement: A Psychosocial Perspective

Retirement is a time of life that has grown ever longer in the developed world, and the number of pensioners has increased accordingly, questioning the strength of Social Security systems and the social safety net in general. Financial Planning for Retirement (FRP) consists of the series of activities involved in the accumulation of wealth to cover needs in the post-retirement stage of life. The negative short-, mid-, and long-term consequences of inadequate Financial Planning for Retirement do not only affect individuals, but also their extended families, homes, eventually producing an unwanted impact on the entire society. The Capacity-Willingness-Opportunity Model has been proposed to understand FPR, combined with Intentional Change Theory, a framework for understanding the process, antecedents and consequences of FPR. From this perspective, we propose this promising model, but there are a large number of variables that have not been included that offer novel ways to deepen our understanding of FPR. A focus on each dimension of the model, the role of age and psychosocial variables associated with demographic indicators such as gender, health status, and migration, allow us to provide a proposal of scientific advancement of FPR.
Opioid analgesics in experimental sepsis: effects on physiological, biochemical, and haemodynamic parameters

Cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) is the sepsis model that more closely resembles the human pathology, but it is likely to cause suffering to experimental animals. However, it is not clear whether the use of analgesia may affect some parameters evaluated in experimental sepsis research. Therefore, we investigated the effects of fentanyl and tramadol in experimental sepsis in the rat. The following parameters were evaluated: body temperature, body weight, water and food ingestion, mortality, analgesia, blood leukocytes, mean arterial blood pressure, vascular reactivity to phenylephrine, lung myeloperoxidase activity, and plasma levels of IL1‐β, glutamic‐oxaloacetic, glutamic‐pyruvic, lactate, creatinine and urea. While producing significant analgesia, the opioids modify minimally the parameters, with the exception of sepsis‐induced hypotension and mortality. Although fentanyl and tramadol can minimize pain and the general suffering of animals submitted to CLP surgery, their effects on cardiovascular parameters as well as in the mortality indicate that their use in experimental sepsis must be done with caution and with all the proper control groups.
Nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease prevalence at four integrated health care delivery systems.

RATIONALE Single-site clinic-based studies suggest an increasing prevalence of pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) disease, but systematic data are lacking. OBJECTIVES To describe prevalence and trends for NTM lung disease at four geographically diverse integrated heath care delivery systems in the United States. METHODS We abstracted mycobacterial culture results from electronic laboratory databases and linked to other datasets containing clinical and demographic information. Possible cases were defined as a single positive NTM pulmonary isolate, and definite cases were defined as two positive sputum cultures, or one positive culture from a bronchoalveolar lavage or lung biopsy. Annual prevalence was calculated using United States census data; average annual prevalence is presented for 2004-2006. Poisson regression models were used to estimate the annual percent change in prevalence. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS A total of 28,697 samples from 7,940 patients were included in the analysis. Of these, 3,988 (50%) were defined as possible cases, and 1,865 (47%) of these were defined as definite cases. Average annual (2004-2006) site-specific prevalence ranged from 1.4 to 6.6 per 100,000. Prevalence was 1.l- to 1.6-fold higher among women relative to men across sites. The prevalence of NTM lung disease was increasing significantly at the two sites where trends were studied, by 2.6% per year among women and 2.9% per year among men. Among persons aged greater than or equal to 60 years, annual prevalence increased from 19.6 per 100,000 during 1994-1996 to 26.7 per 100,000 during 2004-2006. CONCLUSIONS The epidemiology of nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease is changing, with a predominance of women and increasing prevalence at the sites studied.
Clinical implications of free-to-total immunoreactive prostate-specific antigen ratios

OBJECTIVE A study was performed to evaluate the free-to-total prostate-specific antigen (PSA) ratio for discriminating benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) or prostate cancer in the intermediate PSA range (2.0-10.0 microg/l) in patients referred for prostate evaluation. In addition, the relationship of free-to-total PSA ratio and tumor grade in prostatic cancer cases, implying a higher concentration of complex PSA in poorly differentiated cancer, was assessed for its predictive value of tumor aggressiveness at the time of diagnosis. PATIENTS AND METHODS Seven hundred and sixteen patients referred to the out-patient clinics of two urological departments were included in this prospective study. Blood samples were taken for total immunoreactive and free PSA (IMMULITE) determinations prior to any manipulation. The patients were grouped according to their PSA levels: 2.0-4.0 microg/l, 4.0-10.0 microg/l, 10.0-20.0 microg/l and > or = 20.0 microg/l. All patients were categorized, after histological confirmation, as having BPH (n = 423) or prostate cancer (n = 293). In patients with cancer the tumor grade was also assessed. RESULTS In patients with serum immunoreactive PSA levels in the 2.0-4.0 microg/l range, a free-to-total PSA ratio lower than 22% predicted the presence of prostate cancer with a sensitivity of 67% and a specificity of 63%. The positive- and negative-predictive values were 29% and 90% respectively. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis indicated a free-to-total PSA ratio of 22% to be the optimum discriminatory level in this low PSA range. For patients with a serum PSA level between 4.0 and 10.0 microg/l, the threshold ratio of 18% gave a sensitivity of 70%, a specificity of 70%, a positive-predictive value of 46% and a negative-predictive value of 87%. Men with a well differentiated grade of prostate cancer had higher free-to-total PSA ratios than those with less differentiated tumors (p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Our data indicate that the free-to-total PSA ratio, in patients with prostatic disease and with PSA levels in the 2.0-10.0 microg/l range, gives a significant improvement in prediction of cancer over the total immunoreactive PSA value alone. Because of the correlation between a higher tumor grade and a lower free-to-total PSA ratio, this ratio may be helpful in assessing the risk of a poorly differentiated cancer.
Heart rate responses of male orienteers aged 21-67 years during competition

Abstract Orienteering is a sport in which it is common for most participants to be aged over 40 years, but research into the demands of the sport has focused almost exclusively on elite participants aged 21–35 years. The aim of the present study was to examine the heart rate responses of older male orienteers. Thirty-nine competitive male orienteers were divided into three groups: group 1 (international competitive standard, n=11, age 21–67 years), group 2 (national competitive standard, n=15, age 24–66 years) and group 3 (club competitive standard, n=13, age 23–60 years). Each participant had his heart rate monitored during two orienteering races of contrasting technical difficulty. The results were analysed using analysis of covariance, with age as a covariate, and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients to determine whether age was related to the observed heart rate responses. The groups did not differ in their peak (175±12 beats · min−1, P=0.643) or mean (159±13 beats · min−1, P=0.171) heart rates during the races. There was a decline of 6 beats · min−1 · decade−1 (P=0.001) for peak heart rate and 5 beats · min −1·decade−1 (P<0.001) for mean heart rate. Mean heart rates were 86±6% of the participants' maximal heart rates and were not associated with age. The orienteers in group 1 displayed a lower (P<0.005) within-race standard deviation in heart rate (6±2 beats · min−1) than those in groups 2 and 3 (10±3 and 10±4 beats · min−1, respectively). In conclusion, the mean heart rates indicated that all three groups of orienteers ran at a relative high intensity and the international competitive standard orienteers displayed a less variable heart rate, which may have been related to fewer instances of slowing down to relocate and being able to navigate while running at relatively high speeds.
Tailoring e‐service quality through CRM

The specific advantages of the Internet as a transaction and communication channel present new opportunities for businesses to create a long‐term relationship with their customers. The level of e‐service quality is an essential component of this customer‐centric strategy. The paper presents a predictive method to establish the optimum level of e‐service quality, taking into consideration customers’ satisfaction, customers’ profitability, the competitive conditions of the market, and company's capabilities. However, the effective use of this method requires the implementation of e‐CRM systems, structured around a customer‐centric approach. Therefore, the re‐design of the company structure and processes using a customer‐focused philosophy is also assessed in a stage‐by‐stage analysis.
Valuation in Public Sector Agencies: Impact on Financial Reporting Through the Implementation of International Financial Standards: Focus on Canadian Workers Compensation Boards

This study examines how the changes in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have affected the ability of Canadian Workers’ Compensation Boards to demonstrate accountability to its stakeholders through an examination of the impact of fair value accounting for financial instruments. This paper explores the public policy implications of these standards with respect to the ease of user understanding and comparability. It comments on how IFRS would have various impacts on the Basel II Accord. This study concludes that the adoption of IFRS by public sector enterprises would distort their financial positions and key performance indicators.
How Advertising Affects Sales: Meta-Analysis of Econometric Results

The authors attempt to assess what has been learned from econometric models about the effect of advertising on sales. Short-term and long-term advertising response as well as model fit are analyzed for 128 econometric models involving the impact of advertising on sales. The approach, a form of meta-analysis called “replication analysis,” treats the studies as imperfect experimental replications and uses ANOVA to identify sources of systematic variation. For short-term advertising elasticities, systematic variability is found related to model specification, estimation, measurement, product type, and setting of study. For advertising carryover and model goodness of fit, the “quasi-experimental design” is so imperfect that a high degree of sharing of explained variance among explanatory factors makes it difficult to identify the impact of a particular factor. Because the studies mostly address mature products in the U.S., suggestions are made for research needs crucial to better understanding of how advertising affects sales.
Early Mortality Rate of Morbidly Obese Patients after Tracheotomy

Objectives: To 1) determine the early mortality rate (within 30 days) of morbidly obese patients after tracheotomy; 2) determine the difference between the mortality rate after tracheotomy of morbidly obese patients and patients who are not morbidly obese; and 3) determine the difference between the mortality rate after tracheotomy adjusted for case mix index (CMI) of morbidly obese patients and patients who are not morbidly obese.