Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Designing New Ties: Public Governance by Outcome-Based Contracting in Austria

Due to the growing relevance of output and outcome orientation in the public sector, contracts are becoming more important in public sector networks. Especially the core objects of cooperations between the public sector and non-profit organisations (NPOs) are to obtain a certain outcome, which is mainly due to fixed arrangements pointed out in contracts. What are the requirements for outcome-based contract design? How are outcome-based objectives implemented in contracts? What is the status of implementation of outcome-based contract management in Austria?
How to assess vascular remodelling in small and medium‐sized muscular arteries in humans

The study of vascular wall changes in humans has generated great interest with the increasing realization that, independently of the potential contribution to mechanisms involved in blood pressure elevation, these structural alterations (remodelling) or functional changes may contribute to the complications of elevated blood pressure. Moreover, some of these changes may be corrected partially or totally by administration of antihypertensive agents and other drugs. This has fuelled interest in the techniques used to evaluate changes in the vascular wall in humans, which are reviewed critically here with a focus on human studies in hypertension. Remodelling of large and small arteries has different characteristics, and is studied with different techniques. In hypertensive patients, small arteries less than 400 πm in diameter exhibit a reduction in lumen diameter, accompanied sometimes but not always by an increase in media width or in media cross-section. The study of capillaries and small arteries of the skin or the eye can be performed non-invasively, but for the sake of obtaining the information of interest in hypertension, at present invasive techniques are required to investigate small arteries. These consist of a biopsy of subcutaneous tissue, usually from the gluteal region, and the study of vessels after they have been mounted on a ‘wire myograph’ or on a pressurized system. In contrast to small arteries, large arteries from hypertensive humans present increases in media width without a significant reduction in the lumen diameter (when studied under conditions isobaric relative to those in normotensive subjects). Conduit arteries may be studied non-invasively with the use of ultrasound techniques. The study of large elastic arteries is not addressed here. The use of echo-tracking devices to study muscular medium-sized arteries such as the radial artery is described. The relative advantages and disadvantages of these techniques, the questions which may be asked and the relevance of the information obtained using these approaches are discussed.
An Outcome Measure for Japanese People With Chronic Low Back Pain: An Introduction and Validation Study of Japan Low Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire

Study Design. Development of a nationwide patient-based outcome measure for patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). Objective. The purpose of this study was to develop and introduce a new means of measuring outcomes for Japanese individuals with CLBP (the Japan Low Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire [JLEQ]), and to examine its validity and reliability by comparison with the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RDQ). Summary of Background Data. CLBP is a serious problem affecting the health and welfare of workers, especially laborers. The severity and disability it causes vary depending on cultural background and the psycho-emotional aspect of the patients. Methods. The following items were tested for the JLEQ and the RDQ using psychometric analyses: content validity, construct validity, criterion validity, internal-consistency reliability, and test and retest reliability. Results. A total of 195 patients with CLBP participated in this study. There were no floor and ceiling effects in the JLEQ. Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.971 and 0.893 for the JLEQ and RDQ, respectively. The test-retest interclass correlation coefficient in the JLEQ was 0.886, indicating good test-retest reliability. Categorical principal component analysis showed that the construct structure consisted of 3 item clusters in the JLEQ. The factor loading patterns indicated that the JLEQ items were separated into 3 domains, i.e., a moderately loaded group, a less loaded group, and psychological conditions. The degree of correlation between the question items in the JLEQ and RDQ was evaluated using Akaike Information Criteria. Conclusion. The JLEQ was shown to be a valid and reliable questionnaire scale for measurement of patient-based outcomes in CLBP patients.
Small firms exporting to Asia: An innovative export model

The purpose of this exploratory research paper is to offer an understanding on the role of the Internet in the context of small firms exporting from an advanced to an emerging market. The research study involves face to face interviews with the owner/managers of small exporting firms in Australia. The analysis of data reveals that the exporters’ knowledge on the customer base of the export market and their advantage of being connected to various networks both in the exporters and the importers markets make their exporting business high performing. The owner/managers prior experience in working as managers of firms in the export market would add further advantage to the exporting firms. The paper suggests that the capability of owner/managers to identify the right blend of Internet technology at its highest level while managing human factors in the export process is critical to their export success.
Technical Report CSD TR #06-022 REALIZING PRIVACY-PRESERVING FEATURES IN HIPPOCRATIC DATABASES

Preserving privacy has become a crucial requirement for operating a business that manages personal data. Hippocratic databases have been proposed to answer this requirement through a database design that includes responsibility for the privacy of data as a founding tenet. We identify, study, and implement several privacypreserving features that extend the previous work on Limiting Disclosure in Hippocratic databases. These features include the support of multiple policy versions, retention time, generalization hierarchies, and multiple SQL operations. The proposed features facilitate in making Hippocratic databases one step closer to fitting real-world scenarios. We present the design and implementation guidelines of each of the proposed features. The evaluation of the effect in performance shows that the cost of these extensions is small and scales well to large databases.
Accelerated approval of cancer drugs: improved access to therapeutic breakthroughs or early release of unsafe and ineffective drugs?

PURPOSE Accelerated approval (AA) was initiated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to shorten development times of drugs for serious medical illnesses. Sponsors must confirm efficacy in postapproval trials. Confronted with several drugs that received AA on the basis of phase II trials and for which confirmatory trials were incomplete, FDA officials have encouraged sponsors to design AA applications on the basis of interim analyses of phase III trials. METHODS We reviewed data on orphan drug status, development time, safety, and status of confirmatory trials of AAs and regular FDA approvals of new molecular entities (NMEs) for oncology indications since 1995. RESULTS Median development times for AA NMEs (n = 19 drugs) and regular-approval oncology NMEs (n = 32 drugs) were 7.3 and 7.2 years, respectively. Phase III trials supported efficacy for 75% of regular-approval versus 26% of AA NMEs and for 73% of non-orphan versus 45% of orphan drug approvals. AA accounted for 78% of approvals for oncology NMEs between 2001 and 2003 but accounted for 32% in more recent years. Among AA NMEs, confirmatory trials were nine-fold less likely to be completed for orphan drug versus non-orphan drug indications. Postapproval, black box warnings were added to labels for four oncology NMEs (17%) that had received AA and for two oncology NMEs (9%) that had received regular approval. CONCLUSION AA oncology NMEs are safe and effective, although development times are not accelerated. A return to endorsing phase II trial designs for AA for oncology NMEs, particularly for orphan drug indications, may facilitate timely FDA approval of novel cancer drugs.
Multiple Approaches To Enhance the Cultivability of Bacteria Associated with the Marine Sponge Haliclona (gellius) sp

ABSTRACT Three methods were examined to cultivate bacteria associated with the marine sponge Haliclona (gellius) sp. : agar plate cultures, liquid cultures, and floating filter cultures. A variety of oligotrophic media were employed, including media with aqueous and organic sponge extracts, bacterial signal molecules, and siderophores. More than 3,900 isolates were analyzed, and 205 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified. Media containing low concentrations of mucin or a mixture of peptone and starch were most successful for the isolation of diversity, while the commonly used marine broth did not result in a high diversity among isolates. The addition of antibiotics generally led to a reduced diversity on plates but yielded different bacteria than other media. In addition, diversity patterns of isolates from agar plates, liquid cultures, and floating filters were significantly different. Almost 89% of all isolates were Alphaproteobacteria; however, members of phyla that are less commonly encountered in cultivation studies, such as Planctomycetes, Verrucomicrobia, and Deltaproteobacteria, were isolated as well. The sponge-associated bacteria were categorized into three different groups. The first group represented OTUs that were also obtained in a clone library from previously analyzed sponge tissue (group 1). Furthermore, we distinguished OTUs that were obtained from sponge tissue (in a previous study) but not from sponge isolates (group 2), and there were also OTUs that were not obtained from sponge tissue but were obtained from sponge isolates (group 3). The 17 OTUs categorized into group 1 represented 10 to 14% of all bacterial OTUs that were present in a large clone library previously generated from Haliclona (gellius) sp. sponge tissue, which is higher than previously reported cultivability scores for sponge-associated bacteria. Six of these 17 OTUs were not obtained from agar plates, which underlines that the use of multiple cultivation methods is worthwhile to increase the diversity of the cultivable microorganisms from sponges.
New graduate nurses' experiences of bullying and burnout in hospital settings.

AIM This paper is a report of a study conducted to test a model linking new graduate nurses' perceptions of structural empowerment to their experiences of workplace bullying and burnout in Canadian hospital work settings using Kanter's work empowerment theory. BACKGROUND There are numerous anecdotal reports of bullying of new graduates in healthcare settings, which is linked to serious health effects and negative organizational effects. METHODS We tested the model using data from the first wave of a 2009 longitudinal study of 415 newly graduated nurses (<3 years of experience) in acute care hospitals across Ontario, Canada. Variables were measured using the Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire, Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised and Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey. RESULTS The final model fit statistics revealed a reasonably adequate fit (χ² = 14·9, d.f. = 37, IFI = 0·98, CFI = 0·98, RMSEA = 0·09). Structural empowerment was statistically significantly and negatively related to workplace bullying exposure (β = -0·37), which in turn, was statistically significantly related to all three components of burnout (Emotional exhaustion: β = 0·41, Cynicism: β = 0·28, EFFICACY: β = -0·17). Emotional exhaustion had a direct effect on cynicism (β = 0·51), which in turn, had a direct effect on efficacy (β = -0·34). Conclusion. The results suggest that new graduate nurses' exposure to bullying may be less when their work environments provide access to empowering work structures, and that these conditions promote nurses' health and wellbeing.
Public Private Partnership in Italian Health Care Management An Organizational Maturity Assessment Model

This work aims to analyze a specific phenomenon of innovation in health management: public private partnerships within the Italian healthcare sector. The object of the study is to measure the degree of organizational maturity (OM) of the forms of public-private partnerships (PPP) analyzing and measuring key managerial processes, in terms of innovation in meeting the partnership‘s goals/targets. The analysis is based on the identification of key processes relevant to the management of partnerships, to check which systems of governance are able to meet different stakeholder interests. We therefore built a conceptual standard for analysis of the OM through a field survey based on visits, participant observation, analysis of documents and semi-structured interviews with the management.
THE EFFECT OF IMPLEMENTATION RELATIONSHIP MARKETING ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN BANK SULUT TONDANO

ABSTRACT Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the process used to implement a relationship marketing strategy. CRM gathers market-driven data to learn more about customer needs and behaviour for the purpose of delivering added value and satisfaction to the customer. The data, in conjuction with information technology, is then used to develop stronger relationships with customers. Fundamentally, CRM is based on a number of concepts focusing on the marketplace and the consumer . This research objective is to know the effect of implementation relationship marketing on customer loyalty in Bank SULUT, Tondano . 50 respondents has used as samples. The method used is Multiple Regression Analysis. The result shows that trust, commitment, communication, conflict handling are significant influence on customer loyalty decision simultaneously. Trust and conflict handling have significant influence partially on customer loyalty. Keywords: Commitment, Communication, Conflict Handling, Trust, Customer Loyalty
Analysis of Mean-Reversion TendencyofStock Prices for Companies Listed in Tehran Stock Exchange 1

In securities exchange markets, different anomalies usually occur that can make the market quite inefficient. One of these abnormalities is mean-reversion tendency. The present study aims to determine mean-reversion tendency of the main indices of Tehran stock exchange (TSE). This was a descriptive analytical study with the statistical population of all companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange Market (TSEM)during Jun 1997 to April 2012.The census sampling was done. The sample size was equal to the statistical population. Data collection instruments included the custom stock exchange tools of RahAvard Novin (version 3, Mabna Co., Iran) and Eviews (Version 7, HIS Inc., USA). Furthermore, Internet resources were used to gather related data as well as accessing the above-mentioned instruments. In order to analyze data, Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF)test was used to prove persistent or mean-reversion tendency of time series. Findings showed that the cash return- stock price index has significantly returned to the meanduring2003-2004 (p = 0.040) and 2011-2012 (p = 0.002). In 50 top companies, mean-reversion tendency was also significant during2004-2003 (p = 0.036) and 2012-2011 (p = 0.013). In addition, general index of TSE has returned to the mean value during2003-2004 (P = 0.023). Results of this study show that TSEM has lacked the required efficiency in some time periods. Instabilities of exchange can be because of market-influencing factors such as inflation, fluctuations of world oil price, base currency, and economic sanctions.
Oxidative signaling and glutathione synthesis

The major endogenous small molecular weight thiol, glutathione (GSH, γ-glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine) has roles in cellular protection against oxidants and xenobiotics, and in signal transduction. In antioxidant defense, the major reaction of GSH is reduction of hydroperoxides by glutathione peroxidases (GSHPx) and at least one peroxiredoxin, which yields glutathione disulfide (GSSG). GSHPx also catalyzes reduction of peroxynitrite to nitrite, which also yields GSSG. GSSG is usually rapidly reduced by glutathione reductase but it and other glutathione-conjugates may also be excreted from cells. In physiological redox signaling, GSH participates through both the removal of H2O2, which has the properties of a second messenger, and the reversal of thiolate (S−) oxidation. For example, protein tyrosine phosphatases contain thiolate residues in their active sites that are converted to a catalytically inactive sulfenic acid through reaction with H2O2 during cell signaling but are then reduced by GSH to restore the active form. In contrast, during oxidative stress, GSSG is elevated through the GSHPx reaction and consequently, formation of glutathione-mixed disulfides results in a less specific type of signaling process. GSH synthesis occurs in two enzymatically catalyzed steps: The first, catalyzed by glutamate cysteine ligase (GCL), which produces γ-glutamyl cysteine, is generally considered to be rate limiting. Glutathione synthase adds glycine to complete the synthesis of GSH. GCL is composed of two subunits and is regulated at the transcriptional, translational, and post-translational levels. Although the catalytic subunit (GCLC) does not require the modulatory subunit (GCLM) for catalytic activity, the kinetics under physiological conditions are largely controlled by GCLM.
PCA from noisy, linearly reduced data: the diagonal case

Suppose we observe data of the form $Y_i = D_i (S_i + \varepsilon_i) \in \mathbb{R}^p$ or $Y_i = D_i S_i + \varepsilon_i \in \mathbb{R}^p$, $i=1,\ldots,n$, where $D_i \in \mathbb{R}^{p\times p}$ are known diagonal matrices, $\varepsilon_i$ are noise, and we wish to perform principal component analysis (PCA) on the unobserved signals $S_i \in \mathbb{R}^p$. The first model arises in missing data problems, where the $D_i$ are binary. The second model captures noisy deconvolution problems, where the $D_i$ are the Fourier transforms of the convolution kernels. It is often reasonable to assume the $S_i$ lie on an unknown low-dimensional linear space; however, because many coordinates can be suppressed by the $D_i$, this low-dimensional structure can be obscured. We introduce diagonally reduced spiked covariance models to capture this setting. We characterize the behavior of the singular vectors and singular values of the data matrix under high-dimensional asymptotics where $n,p\to\infty$ such that $p/n\to\gamma>0$. Our results have the most general assumptions to date even without diagonal reduction. Using them, we develop optimal eigenvalue shrinkage methods for covariance matrix estimation and optimal singular value shrinkage methods for data denoising. Finally, we characterize the error rates of the empirical Best Linear Predictor (EBLP) denoisers. We show that, perhaps surprisingly, their optimal tuning depends on whether we denoise in-sample or out-of-sample, but the optimally tuned mean squared error is the same in the two cases.
Arbuscular mycorrhizal networks: process and functions. A review

An unprecedented, rapid change in environmental conditions is being observed, which invariably overrules the adaptive capacity of land plants. These environmental changes mainly originate from anthropogenic activities, which have aggravated air and soil pollution, acid precipitation, soil degradation, salinity, contamination of natural and agro-ecosystems with heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), global climate change, etc. The restoration of degraded natural habitats using sustainable, low-input cropping systems with the aim of maximizing yields of crop plants is the need of the hour. Thus, incorporation of the natural roles of beneficial microorganisms in maintaining soil fertility and plant productivity is gaining importance and may be an important approach. Symbiotic association of the majority of crop plants with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi plays a central role in many microbiological and ecological processes. In mycorrhizal associations, the fungal partner assists its plant host in phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) uptake and also some of the relatively immobile trace elements such as zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) and iron (Fe). AM fungi also benefit plants by increasing water uptake, plant resistance and biocontrol of phytopathogens, adaptation to a variety of environmental stresses such as drought, heat, salinity, heavy metal contamination, production of growth hormones and certain enzymes, and even in the uptake of radioactive elements. The establishment of symbiotic association usually involves mutual recognition and a high degree of coordination at the morphological and physiological level, which requires a continuous cellular and molecular dialogue between both the partners. This has led to the identification of the genes, signal transduction pathways and the chemical structures of components relevant to symbiosis; however, scientific knowledge on the physiology and function of these fungi is still limited. This review unfolds our current knowledge on signals and mechanisms in the development of AM symbiosis; the molecular basis of nutrient exchange between AM fungi and host plants; and the role of AM fungi in water uptake, disease protection, alleviation of various abiotic soil stresses and increasing grain production.
WELSH ENERGY SECTOR TRAINING: A CASE STUDY OF RESEARCH INFORMING EDUCATION

Many countries report challenges translating research into commercial practice. Although funding is often blamed, lack of appropriate dissemination and engagement with industry can also be an issue. The Low Carbon Research Institute has tackled these issues through Welsh Energy Sector Training. Professional training is being derived from research in the fields of Hydrogen, Large scale power generation, Low carbon built environment, Marine energy and solar PV. Widespread engagement with industry has identified the most relevant research based training topics as well as refining delivery methods.