Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Lack of Association Between Signs and Symptoms in Patients With Dry Eye Disease

Background: The purpose of this report was to examine the relation between clinical tests and dry eye symptoms in patients with dry eye disease. Methods: Seventy-five patients with dry eye disease (ICD-9 code 375.15) were included in these analyses. There was no specific entry criterion for enrollment in addition to a previous dry eye diagnosis in this clinic-based sample. Patients represented varying types and severity of dry eye disease and were previously diagnosed by clinic attending doctors in this university clinic setting. The study examination included a symptom interview that assessed dryness, grittiness, soreness, redness, and ocular fatigue. The interview was followed by a clinical dry eye examination conducted in the following sequence: meibomian gland assessment, tear meniscus height, tear breakup time test, fluorescein staining, the phenol red thread test, Schirmer test, and rose bengal staining. Partial Spearman correlation coefficients, the Wilcoxon rank sum test, χ2 test, and multivariate logistic regression were used to evaluate the relationship between dry eye tests and symptoms. Results: Symptoms were generally not associated with clinical signs in patients with dry eye disease. There were no significant correlations between signs and symptoms after adjustment for age and artificial tear use. The rank of each clinical test result did not statistically differ when stratified by the presence of patient symptoms in Wilcoxon rank sum analyses. Likewise, the frequency of patient symptoms did not differ statistically when stratified by a positive clinical test result in χ2 analyses. In multivariate logistic regression analyses, no clinical test significantly predicted frequently reported symptoms after adjustment for age and artificial tear use. Conclusions: These results suggest a poor relation between dry eye tests and symptoms, which represents a quandary in dry eye clinical research and practice.
Imputation aware meta‐analysis of genome‐wide association studies

Genome‐wide association studies have recently identified many new loci associated with human complex diseases. These newly discovered variants typically have weak effects requiring studies with large numbers of individuals to achieve the statistical power necessary to identify them. Likely, there exist even more associated variants, which remain to be found if even larger association studies can be assembled. Meta‐analysis provides a straightforward means of increasing study sample sizes without collecting new samples by combining existing data sets. One obstacle to combining studies is that they are often performed on platforms with different marker sets. Current studies overcome this issue by imputing genotypes missing from each of the studies and then performing standard meta‐analysis techniques. We show that this approach may result in a loss of power since errors in imputation are not accounted for. We present a new method for performing meta‐analysis over imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms, show that it is optimal with respect to power, and discuss practical implementation issues. Through simulation experiments, we show that our imputation aware meta‐analysis approach outperforms or matches standard meta‐analysis approaches. Genet. Epidemiol. 34: 537–542, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Computation of robust Pareto points

In a multiobjective optimisation problem the aim is to minimise k objective functions simultaneously. The solution of this problem is given by the set of optimal compromises – the so-called Pareto set which locally typically forms a (k − 1)-dimensional manifold. In this work we consider Multiobjective Optimisation Problems (MOPs) which are parameter-dependent. Our aim is to identify 'robust' Pareto points. These are points which hardly vary under the variation of the system parameter. For this we employ path following techniques in order to identify curves consisting of those specific points.
Minireview The influence of season, photoperiod, and pineal melatonin on immune function

Abstract: In addition to the well‐documented seasonal cycles of mating and birth, there are also significant seasonal cycles of illness and death among many animal populations. Challenging winter conditions (i.e., low ambient temperature and decreased food availability) can directly induce death via hypothermia, starvation, or shock. Coping with these challenges can also indirectly increase morbidity and mortality by increasing glucocorticoid secretion, which can compromise immune function. Many environmental challenges are recurrent and thus predictable; animals could enhance survival, and presumably increase fitness, if they could anticipate immunologically challenging conditions in order to cope with these seasonal threats to health. The annual cycle of changing photoperiod provides an accurate indicator of time of year and thus allows immunological adjustments prior to the deterioration of conditions. Pineal melatonin codes day length information. Short day lengths enhance several aspects of immune function in laboratory studies, and melatonin appears to mediate many of the enhanced immunological effects of photoperiod. Generally, field studies report compromised immune function during the short days of autumn and winter. The conflict between laboratory and field data is addressed with a multifactor approach. The evidence for seasonal fluctuations in lymphatic tissue size and structure, as well as immune function and disease processes, is reviewed. The role of pineal melatonin and the hormones regulated by melatonin is discussed from an evolutionary and adaptive functional perspective. Finally, the clinical significance of seasonal fluctuations in immune function is presented. Taken together, it appears that seasonal fluctuations in immune parameters, mediated by melatonin, could have profound effects on the etiology and progression of diseases in humans and nonhuman animals. An adaptive functional perspective is critical to gain insights into the interaction among melatonin, immune function, and disease processes.
Large firms, entrepreneurial marketing processes, and the cycle of competitive advantage

Purpose – The paper aims to explore how large firms might leverage entrepreneurial marketing processes to gain and renew competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies past research on entrepreneurial marketing and entrepreneurship with examples from a long‐term case study of firms in New Zealand, Sweden, the UK, and the USA to illustrate how entrepreneurial marketing processes can be strategically employed by large firms to create or discover, assess, and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities more effectively and efficiently.Findings – The paper offers insight into how large firms leverage entrepreneurial marketing processes to gain advantage. The findings suggest that, in free and open markets, entrepreneurial marketing processes can be strategically employed to create superior value for the firm's customers and owners.Originality/value – The paper contributes to the work of both academics working at the marketing/entrepreneurship interface and executives seeking to leverage marke.
Economic Growth Risk and Stock Market Performance: Cross-Sectional Evidence from 70 Countries

This study investigates the impact of economic growth risk on stock market performance in 70 countries. Based on the analysis of the full sample, on average, 1% increase in economic growth risk is associated with 0.23% (p = 0.058) increase in stock market return. Looking at stock market return calculated using January returns only, on average, 1% increase in economic growth risk is associated with 0.647% (p = 0.013) increase in stock market return. On average, 1% increase in economic growth risk is associated with 0.469% (p = 0.025) increase in stock market January return across developed markets. Likewise, on average, 1% increase in economic growth risk is associated with 0.695% (p = 0.069) increase in stock market January return across frontier markets. Finally, economic growth risk does not appear to have any impact on stock market return across emerging markets.
Seasonal changes in plasma progesterone concentrations in buffalo cows (Bubalus bubalis).

Seasonal reproduction is a common device whereby animals respond to climatic extremes which may be detrimental to the survival of the offspring and possibly even to the adults. India is a tropical country and in the north extreme climatic conditions prevail. In summer temperatures reach 42°C during the day and 30°C during the night. Daylength goes up to 13-14 h. Karnal is situated at 245 m above mean sea level on 29°43'N latitude and 76°58'E longitude. Seasonality in buffalo breeding has been reported by many workers (Rife, 1959; Bhattacharya, Luktuke & Roy, 1970; Roy, Bhattacharya & Luktuke, 1972). Luktuke, Bhattacharya, Singh & Khan (1973) found that buffalo ovaries were least active during extreme climatic conditions. The important seasonal reproductive problems are weak or silent oestrus, irregular oestrous cycle lengths, low conception rates and early embryonic mortality. The mechanisms whereby biometeorological cues are transduced into the endocrine messages that govern gonadal functions are not clearly understood. There are controversial reports regarding the variations of progesterone secretion in dairy cows in natural climatic conditions (Roussel, Beatty & Lee, 1977; Rosenberg, Herz, Davidson & Folman, 1977). However, none of these workers followed the same animals throughout the year, and the sampling frequency was low. The present study was undertaken to investigate circannual changes of progesterone concentrations in buffalo.
Role of ptsP, orfT, and sss Recombinase Genes in Root Colonization by Pseudomonas fluorescens Q8r1-96

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas fluorescens Q8r1-96 produces 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (2,4-DAPG), a polyketide antibiotic that suppresses a wide variety of soilborne fungal pathogens, including Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici, which causes take-all disease of wheat. Strain Q8r1-96 is representative of the D-genotype of 2,4-DAPG producers, which are exceptional because of their ability to aggressively colonize and maintain large populations on the roots of host plants, including wheat, pea, and sugar beet. In this study, three genes, an sss recombinase gene, ptsP, and orfT, which are important in the interaction of Pseudomonas spp. with various hosts, were investigated to determine their contributions to the unusual colonization properties of strain Q8r1-96. The sss recombinase and ptsP genes influence global processes, including phenotypic plasticity and organic nitrogen utilization, respectively. The orfT gene contributes to the pathogenicity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in plants and animals and is conserved among saprophytic rhizosphere pseudomonads, but its function is unknown. Clones containing these genes were identified in a Q8r1-96 genomic library, sequenced, and used to construct gene replacement mutants of Q8r1-96. Mutants were characterized to determine their 2,4-DAPG production, motility, fluorescence, colony morphology, exoprotease and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) production, carbon and nitrogen utilization, and ability to colonize the rhizosphere of wheat grown in natural soil. The ptsP mutant was impaired in wheat root colonization, whereas mutants with mutations in the sss recombinase gene and orfT were not. However, all three mutants were less competitive than wild-type P. fluorescens Q8r1-96 in the wheat rhizosphere when they were introduced into the soil by paired inoculation with the parental strain.
Verification-Cases : Characterizing the Completeness Degree of Incomplete Verification for C Programs Towards Using Formal Verification for Low Criticality Functions

Current code-level verification tools are powerful enough to be usable in industry for performing functional verification at sub-system level. Due to the nature of these tools (e.g. bounded model checkers) or to abstractions that are performed in order to make the verification possible (e.g. assumptions about the environment of the system or the used APIs), the verification results are not complete: some errors may remain undetected. Even in this case, the verification results can be good enough for verifying functionality at low criticality levels. Furthermore, when the sources of incompleteness are well understood, the results can be combined with testing for verifying highly critical code. In order to use these results in building assurance cases, we need systematic means to characterize the completeness degree of incomplete verification. In this paper we introduce the concept of a “verification case” as means to make explicit the incomplete parts of verification. We characterize common sources of incompleteness when verifying C programs and present our tool support for characterizing incompleteness of verification when analyzing C code using the CBMC model checker. This paper is part of our efforts to use language engineering technologies in order to make formal verification accessible for practicing engineers.
The Evaluation of the Criteria of ERP Selection for Bosnian Companies

Information usage of the companies generated a demand for company-wide integration of databases. ERP systems are developed to increase the flow of information among the units on the companies. There are various ERP systems and in Bosnia some the vendors give support. Among the alternatives, in order to select the appropriate ERP system, selection criteria must be determined. In this study, the factors affecting the ERP systems selection are g the analyzed and the relevant criteria are determined with a survey. The significant criteria are selected with t-test, and the correlations among the criteria are analyzed to highlight the inner dependencies. In developing economies, integration of information systems to the regular duties of the companies is inevitable. Improving the competitiveness, efficiency of the workflow and management practices depends on the degree of information system usage. The evolution of the information systems for enterprises started with the MRP, than MRP-2 is introduced, and then ERP solutions are introduced. ERP became a must have system for the companies that want to keep competencies in the market. In the list of the expected benefits, ERP systems offer the customers lowering the costs, increasing the satisfaction of the customers, making the employee jobs easier are some of the well-known. In Bosnia, as an emerging economy due to local and international players and public institutions, the demand to implement ERP systems is rising. ERP systems offer not only compact solutions to the regular tasks of the companies, but also add additional functionalities to the company structure. The issues that the companies are confronting are what are the attributes of the vendors and the features of ERP systems should be considered in the ERP selection and what dimensions of organizational structure effects the implementation success. The alternatives present in front of the companies are, Tier-1 systems which are costly but offer high level of functionality, features and a scope for the company, but beside the expected benefits the high level of cost, the complexity of implementation, disturbances, and high percentage of the failure are the potential payoffs and threats for the implementing company. Likewise , Tier-1, there are potential Tier-2 and Tier-3 systems offering various features and benefits with varying costs . In our study we analyzed another alternative of ERP systems , that the companies are using , that is specific ERP systems developed for companies. Since many of the companies having problem in the implementation and getting the full benefit of it, we analyzed what are the possible reasons of these difficulties. The criteria selected to evaluate the ERP systems are classified into 3 groups as vendor related criteria, system related criteria and organization related criteria.
Teaching Supply Chain Operations Planning Using Actual Industry Data Across Multiple Organizations

The purpose of this case study is to provide a pedagogical teaching tool from a business-oriented viewpoint for an undergraduate supply chain management class. Students are provided with challenging questions and problems to solve which enriches their analytical skills in assessing product assortments, developing effective forecasting techniques and collaborative decision making skills with operation managers and supply chain partners. This case examines supply chain management as a collaborative function intertwined with other organizational tasks and provides future supply chain managers lessons on interactions and integration of multiple business units using the latest business practice examples in supply chain management. The case was developed through interviews with eight supply chain professionals across six organizations and uses actual POS data from a retailer.
Voices of the Firms 2000: Investment Climate and Governance Findings of the World Business Environment Survey (WBES)

A set of enterprise data are presented, based on a survey of more than 10,000 firms in 80 countries that was carried out between late 1999 and mid 2000. In addition to the data, detailed explanations and the core questionnaire are provided in this paper, as well as a presentation of key findings across regions and firm characteristics. The specificity of the questions posed to firms permits an empirical unbundling of the types of constraints faced by enterprises. Basic econometric analysis of these data suggests that taxes and regulations, financing, governance and other business constraints matter significantly in explaining a firm’s performance and behavior. Further, there is a large variance in the extent of business and governance constraints across countries, regions, and type of firms, suggesting the need for caution when averaging across broad categories. Listening to firms contributes significantly to assessing the climate for business, investment, and governance in a country, and warrants institutiona lization of periodic worldwide enterprise survey efforts.
Analysis of Android Malware Family Characteristic Based on Isomorphism of Sensitive API Call Graph

The analysis of multiple Android malware families indicates malware instances within a common malware family always have similar call graph structures. Based on the isomorphism of sensitive API call graph, we propose a method which is used to construct malware family features via combining static analysis approach with graph similarity metric. The experiment is performed on a malware dataset which contains 1326 malware samples from 16 different malware families. The result shows that the method can differentiate distinct malware family features and divide suspect malware samples into corresponding families with a high accuracy of 96.77% overall and even defend a certain extent of obfuscation.
The Delinquency of Subprime Mortgages

This paper focuses on understanding the determinants of the performance of subprime mortgages. A growing body of literature recognizes the substantial lag between the time that a borrower stops making payments on a mortgage and the termination of the loan. The duration of this lag and the method by which the delinquency is ultimately terminated play a critical role in the costs borne by both borrower and lender. Using nested and multinomial logit, we find that delinquency and default are sensitive to current economic conditions and housing markets. Credit scores and loan characteristics also play important roles.
Exhaled nitric oxide in isolated pig lungs.

Endothelium-derived nitric oxide (NO) is an important regulator of vascular resistance. Low concentrations of NO have been recorded in the exhaled breath of spontaneously breathing animals and humans. To determine whether NO synthesis in the lung contributes to the NO measured in the breath, we measured the concentration of NO in the exhaled air of isolated perfused and ventilated porcine lungs by using a chemiluminescence method. With NO-free normoxic ventilation (21% O2-5% CO2-74% N2) of eight porcine lungs perfused with a Krebs-dextran and albumin perfusate, baseline exhaled NO was 5.8 +/- 1.8 parts per billion (ppb) and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) was 8.9 +/- 1.8 mmHg.l-1.min. Hypoxic ventilation (5% O2-5% CO2-90% N2) caused a fall in NO to 3.6 +/- 1.8 ppb and a rise in PVR to 13.6 +/- 3.6 mmHg.l-1.min. Vasoconstriction with the thromboxane analogue U-46619 (10(-9) M) raised PVR to 31.7 +/- 6.8 mmHg.l-1.min but did not decrease NO levels from baseline. Subsequent addition of acetylcholine (10(-6)M) lowered PVR to 22.1 +/- 4.5 mmHg.l-1.min and increased exhaled NO to 7.0 +/- 2.0 ppb. Addition of a NO synthase inhibitor, NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (10(-5) M), to four lungs caused a rise in PVR to 43.0 +/- 7.0 mmHg.l-1.min and a decrease in NO to 1.5 +/- 1.0 ppb. Addition of autologous blood to the perfusate of four lungs caused no change in PVR from baseline but decreased exhaled NO to 2.7 +/- 0.5 ppb. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Inhaled Corticosteroids Should Be Initiated Before Discharge from the Emergency Department in Patients with Persistent Asthma

National and International Guidelines concur that inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are the preferred long-term maintenance drug therapy for mild persistent asthma for all ages. For moderate and severe persistent asthma, ICS are essential to optimal management, often concurrent with other key therapies. Despite strong evidence and consensus guidelines, ICS are still underused. While some patients who are treated in the emergency department (ED) have intermittent asthma, most have persistent asthma and need ICS for optimum outcomes. Failure to initiate ICS at this critical juncture often results in subsequent lack of ICS therapy. Along with a short course of oral corticosteroids, ICS should be initiated before discharge from the ED in patients with persistent asthma. Although the NIH/NAEPP Expert Panel Report 3 suggests considering the prescription of ICS on discharge from the ED, The Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) 2008 guidelines recommend initiation or continuation of ICS before patients are discharged from the ED. The initiation of ICS therapy by ED physicians is also encouraged in the emergency medicine literature over the past decade. Misdiagnosis of intermittent asthma is common; therefore, ICS therapy should be considered for ED patients with this diagnosis with reassessment in follow-up office visits. To help ensure adherence to ICS therapy, patient education regarding both airway inflammation (show airway models/colored pictures) and the strong evidence of efficacy is vital. Teaching ICS inhaler technique, environmental control, and giving a written action plan are essential. Lack of initiation of ICS with appropriate patient education before discharge from the ED in patients with persistent asthma is common but unfortunately associated with continued poor patient outcomes.