Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the Impact of a HIV Low-Risk Express Care Task-Shifting Program: A Case Study of the Targeted Learning Roadmap

Abstract In conducting studies on an exposure of interest, a systematic roadmap should be applied for translating causal questions into statistical analyses and interpreting the results. In this paper we describe an application of one such roadmap applied to estimating the joint effect of both time to availability of a nurse-based triage system (low risk express care (LREC)) and individual enrollment in the program among HIV patients in East Africa. Our study population is comprised of 16,513 subjects found eligible for this task-shifting program within 15 clinics in Kenya between 2006 and 2009, with each clinic starting the LREC program between 2007 and 2008. After discretizing follow-up into 90-day time intervals, we targeted the population mean counterfactual outcome (i. e. counterfactual probability of either dying or being lost to follow up) at up to 450 days after initial LREC eligibility under three fixed treatment interventions. These were (i) under no program availability during the entire follow-up, (ii) under immediate program availability at initial eligibility, but non-enrollment during the entire follow-up, and (iii) under immediate program availability and enrollment at initial eligibility. We further estimated the controlled direct effect of immediate program availability compared to no program availability, under a hypothetical intervention to prevent individual enrollment in the program. Targeted minimum loss-based estimation was used to estimate the mean outcome, while Super Learning was implemented to estimate the required nuisance parameters. Analyses were conducted with the ltmle R package; analysis code is available at an online repository as an R package. Results showed that at 450 days, the probability of in-care survival for subjects with immediate availability and enrollment was 0.93 (95 % CI: 0.91, 0.95) and 0.87 (95 % CI: 0.86, 0.87) for subjects with immediate availability never enrolling. For subjects without LREC availability, it was 0.91 (95 % CI: 0.90, 0.92). Immediate program availability without individual enrollment, compared to no program availability, was estimated to slightly albeit significantly decrease survival by 4 % (95 % CI 0.03,0.06, p < 0.01). Immediately availability and enrollment resulted in a 7 % higher in-care survival compared to immediate availability with non-enrollment after 450 days (95 % CI –0.08,–0.05, p < 0.01). The results are consistent with a fairly small impact of both availability and enrollment in the LREC program on in-care survival.
The swinging pendulum of the anemia of cancer: erythropoietin trumps hepcidin.

TO THEEDITOR: More thanfive decades ago, Cartwright 1 popularizedtheconceptthatinadequatereleaseofironfromthereticuloendothelialsystem(REblockade),despiteadequatebodyironstores,was responsiblefortheanemiaofchronicdisease(ACD;cancer,infection, andinflammation). Themorerecentfindingofhighhepcidinlevelsin patients with cancer has provided a pathophysiologic explanation for the diminished iron reuse in patients with cancer. 2 Hohaus et al 3 recently reported on the role of interleukin (IL) -6 induction of hepcidinintheanemiaofHodgkin’slymphoma.Inpatientswithanemia, plasma hepcidin levels were inversely correlated with the hemoglobin concentration in blood. Consistent with the role of hepcidin in interfering with ferroportin export of iron out of enterocytes and macrophages into the blood stream, plasma levels of hepcidin positively correlated with serum ferritin levels (r0.62; P.0001) and inversely correlatedwithserumironandiron-bindingcapacity.Contrarytoexpectations, Hohaus et al further demonstrated that plasma hepcidin levels increasedinpatientswithnonanemicHodgkin’slymphomacomparable with patients with anemia. Hohaus et al concluded that increased hepcidin levels do not appear sufficient to induce anemia and that hepcidinindependent mechanisms induced by pro-inflammatory cytokines, in particular IL-6, are likely to be involved. 3
Characteristic Analysis of Polarization and Dispersion Properties of PANDA Fiber Using Finite Element Methods

One possible structure of a PANDA fiber is proposed and the effects of hydraulic stress on the propagation properties are studied in this work. The proposed PANDA fiber can withstand up to 1500MPa external hydraulic stress while maintaining the fundamental mode of propagation. Effects of hydraulic pressure on several propagation properties such as birefringence, beat length, effective index, dispersion, cutoff wavelength, and bandwidth are shown in this paper.
Otorrhea after insertion of silver oxide-impregnated silastic tympanostomy tubes.

BACKGROUND Silver oxide-impregnated tympanostomy tubes have been shown to decrease the incidence of postoperative otorrhea, but without a significant effect in the first postoperative week. OBJECTIVE To evaluate prospectively our results with silver oxide-impregnated tympanostomy tubes and to identify factors associated with a higher incidence of early postoperative otorrhea. DESIGN Prospective nonrandomized study. SETTING University referral center. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS Six hundred thirty patients with chronic otitis media with effusion or recurrent otitis media. INTERVENTIONS Silver oxide-impregnated Silastic tympanostomy tubes were inserted in 1254 ears. Subjects with mucoid or purulent effusions or blood at the myringotomy site at surgery were treated with topical antibiotic prophylaxis (sulfacetamide sodium-prednisolone acetate or neomycin sulfate-polymyxin B sulfate-hydrocortisone) for 5 days after tympanostomy tube placement. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Incidence of otorrhea after tympanostomy tube insertion at 1 week and 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after surgery. RESULTS The overall incidence of postoperative otorrhea was 1.9%. The incidence of otorrhea in the first postoperative week was 5.6%; the incidence of otorrhea after the first postoperative week was 1.2% (P<.001). Within the first postoperative week, a significantly greater incidence of otorrhea was noted in patients younger than 3 years (7.8%), in patients with mucoid effusions at surgery (8.6%), and in patients younger than 3 years with mucoid effusions at surgery (15.2%). CONCLUSIONS Silver oxide-impregnated tympanostomy tubes are associated with a low overall incidence of postoperative otorrhea. A significantly higher incidence of otorrhea is seen during the first postoperative week, compared with the incidence after the first week. Patients with thick middle ear effusions and age younger than 3 years have a significantly greater incidence of early otorrhea after tympanostomy tube placement.
"Look at this one" detection sharing between modality-independent classifiers for robotic discovery of people

With the advent of low-cost RGBD sensors, many solutions have been proposed for extraction and fusion of colour and depth information. In this paper, we propose new different fusion approaches of these multimodal sources for people detection. We are especially concerned by a scenario where a robot evolves in a changing environment. We extend the use of the Faster RCNN framework proposed by Girshick et al. [1] to this use case (i), we significantly improve performances on people detection on the InOutDoor RGBD People dataset [2] and the RGBD people dataset [3] (ii), we show these fusion handle efficiently sensor defect like complete lost of a modality (iii). Furthermore we propose a new dataset for people detection in difficult conditions: ONERA.ROOM (iv).
The Social Case as a Business Case

This article discusses how the theoretical perspective of ordonomics provides a framework for better understanding and advancing the practice of social entrepreneurship. From an ordonomic perspective, the concept of social entrepreneurship offers a semantic innovation (at the ideas level) whose potential for social innovation can be fully reaped only if it is used as a heuristics for social structural change (on the institutions level). Social entrepreneurs recognize relevant social problems, interpret them as an entrepreneurial challenge, and succeed in turning what was a social case into a business case in a broader sense. Using the real-life example of a successful eco-social entrepreneur, the article demonstrates that such win-win solutions can be reconstructed as the sophisticated management of social dilemmas. It sketches a strategy matrix for the practice of social entrepreneurship and distinguishes four paradigmatic strategies social entrepreneurs can employ to create win-win scenarios by changing the rules of the game to overcome undesirable social dilemmas. The article concludes by discussing social entrepreneurship in the context of new governance processes and highlights key similarities and differences to the concept of corporate citizenship.
Figure-Ground Segmentation using object oriented descriptor

Figure-Ground Segmentation simply means separating foreground from it's background. It has many applications in day to day life. Object recognition is one of the main applications of it. Extracting foreground from it's background is not an easy task. Various techniques are available for figure-ground segmentation. In this paper, a new approach is proposed to extract foreground from background. A high level image representation method called “object oriented descriptor” is used to achieve segmentation. Medical imaging, target tracking are some of the fields which require figure-ground segmentation.
Serum Malondialdehyde Correlates with Therapeutic Efficiency of High Activity Antiretroviral Therapies (HAART) in HIV-1 Infected Children

Serum malondialdehyde (MDA) levels are increased in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected children, as it happens also in infected adult individuals. Introduction of high activity antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has promoted an intense decline in morbidity and mortality of these patients. Here we present data on the effect of HAART on serum MDA of HIV+ children and compare them with levels prior to HAART. MDA levels reflect, as other markers do, the HAART-induced clinical improvement and probably also the pro-oxidant/antioxidant side effects of the different drugs used. The results herein allow the proposal of including serum MDA levels as an additional parameter for the clinical management of HIV+ children.
The Structure Conundrum in Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain Management leading to concepts such as lean enterprise is much in vogue today fuelled by the adoption of strategies and partnership practices used so successfully by the Japanese companies. As part of this change, product owners are outsourcing more value through both components and systems which has effectively meant redistributing competencies. This change is concurrent with the initiative to reduce the number of suppliers. The Japanese perfected their SCM strategies and practices within their compatible supply chain structure or keiretsus. The structures emerging in the western automotive supply chains (the paper is based on research on European automotive industry) are different in many key characteristics from the keiretsus. Secondly, they appear to be emerging in an ad‐hoc rather than a planned manner. This poses a critical question for western buyers ‐ is supply chain structure critical for superior performance and if yes, then which type of structure(s) provides the most benefits while maintaining or enhancing product uniqueness?
Stratport: A Decision Support System for Strategic Planning

The STRATPORT decision support system represents an extension and operationalization of current business portfolio approaches. It is designed to aid top managers and corporate planners in the evaluation and formulation of business portfolio strategies. It is an on-line computerized mathematical model utilizing empirical and (managerial) judgment-based data. A description of the basic structure of the STRATPORT model is presented, as well as an illustrative example of its use.
Heart Rate Turbulence Can Predict Cardiac Mortality Following Myocardial Infarction in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus

Heart Rate Turbulence in Post‐MI Patients With DM. Background: Previous studies have described the clinical utility of heart rate turbulence (HRT) as an autonomic predictor in risk‐stratifying patients after myocardial infarction (MI). Some reports showed that diabetes mellitus (DM) affects the prognostic value of autonomic markers. We assessed the utility of HRT as a risk marker in post‐MI patients with DM and without DM.
Does it pay to be different? An analysis of the relationship between corporate social and financial performance

This study explores the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) within the context of a specific component of CSP: corporate charitable giving. A model of the determinants of the extent of corporate charitable giving is estimated and used as the basis of a classification that groups firms according to the difference between their actual and their predicted intensity of gift giving. The financial performance attributes of the classification are explored. We found that firms with both unusually high and low CSP have higher financial performance than other firms, with unusually poor social performers doing best in the short run and unusually good social performers doing best over longer time horizons. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The diagnosis of contrast-induced neurotoxicity

Contrast-induced neurotoxity (CIN) is a very rare complication of contrast agents. Clinical presentations include encephalopathy, convulsions, cortical blindness and focal neurological deficits. Development of an evidence-based consensus for diagnosis, risk factors and mechanisms of CIN is hindered by the rarity of the disease. Moreover, so far, there are only cases reported in the literature describing CIN following use of contrast agents in diverse procedures such as cerebral, carotid, vertebral and coronary angiography. Prognosis is generally reported as favorable with rapid recovery. In a patient with a neurological episode following catheterization, the most frequent etiology is ischemia. After ruling out ischemia, neurological symptoms following coronary interventions may be due to contrast agents. Therefore, it is essential to have a computerized tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to exclude thromboembolic and hemorrhagic complications in a symptomatic patient. However, initial scans may be normal. Additionally, other findings include cortical and/or subcortical contrast enhancement, cerebral edema and/or hyperdensity in the subarachnoid space or parenchyma. We read with interest Menna et al.’s article describing a case of transient encephalopathy after carotid artery stenting. Moreover, they reported that this is the first article of contrast encephalopathy without radiological alterations. Various radiographic findings are associated with CIN. CT scans of brain may be normal. Additionally, abnormal findings in asymptomatic patients can be determined. Brisman and et al. demostrated that contrast enhancement is a fairly common and clinically benign finding after aneurysm coiling in asymptomatic patients. Therefore, the diagnosis of the CIN is made in symptomatic patients after exclusion of thromboembolic and hemorrhagic complications. In conclusion, since there is a lack of explicit criteria for defining CIN, we suggest these criteria for the diagnosis of CIN.
Management Accounting Practices: A Comparative Analysis of Manufacturing and Service Industries

The study aims to examine the use of the management accounting techniques in manufacturing and service industries of Bangladesh for discharging managerial functions. To achieve this objective, 151 organizations from manufacturing and service industries have been surveyed with a structured questionnaire by using 5 point Likert scale. By identifying fourteen management accounting techniques, three factors have been identified to determine the variability’s of the usage level in managerial functions. The total variabilities in application of management accounting techniques in managerial functions of manufacturing and service industries, 73.343 % and 54.396% respectively . The findings reveal that management accounting techniques such as financial statement analysis, budgetary control, CVP analysis, variance analysis and fund flow analysis are common 14 both the industries and are used frequently in managerial functions.
Structure-neurotoxicity relationships of amyloid β-protein oligomers

Amyloid β-protein (Aβ) oligomers may be the proximate neurotoxins in Alzheimer's disease (AD). “Oligomer” is an ill-defined term because many kinds have been reported and they often exist in rapid equilibrium with monomers and higher-order assemblies. We report here results of studies in which specific oligomers have been stabilized structurally, fractionated in pure form, and then studied by using a combination of CD spectroscopy, Thioflavin T fluorescence, EM, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and neurotoxicity assays. Aβ monomers were largely unstructured, but oligomers exhibited order-dependent increases in β-sheet content. EM and AFM data suggest that dimerization and subsequent monomer addition are processes in which significant and asymmetric monomer conformational changes occur. Oligomer secondary structure and order correlated directly with fibril nucleation activity. Neurotoxic activity increased disproportionately (order dependence >1) with oligomer order. The structure–activity correlations reported here significantly extend our understanding of the conformational dynamics, structure, and relative toxicity of pure Aβ oligomers of specific order.
V2C activity on a local level: qualitative cases – Tampere and Silicon Valley

The increased capital intensity of venture capital supply and the increased knowledge intensity of new venture supply have created a knowledge gap and recreated a capital gap between new venture activity and venture capital industry. This development has given rise to an all‐new breed of players. In this descriptive, qualitative study, V2C activity is explored in a local context through comparison of cases Tampere (Finland) and Silicon Valley (USA). In Silicon Valley, the dominant group of V2C players is business angels, whereas in Tampere, publicly funded incubators play the most visible role in new venture development. Nevertheless, in both areas, five different categories of V2C players are represented, and, in both, bridge the gaps to a significant extent.
Return to traditional values? A case study of Slow Food

The increasingly vociferous criticism of the fast food industry is being paralleled by a growing interest in Slow Food. This case study outlines the origins of the Slow Food movement in Italy in the mid 1980s and describes its spread and growth since then. A simple examination of the movement’s characteristics and activities reveals that, while many of its members seek to celebrate the simple pleasures of eating and drinking local produce and share a series of homespun philosophies, the movement itself has ambitious and potentially far reaching goals. The case study then goes on to explore some of the issues raised by the movement and concludes that while Slow Food provides a valuable contrast to the seemingly all powerful fast food industry it seems unlikely to be able to challenge the power of that industry or to promote widespread changes in the modern world’s eating habits.
Driver and Consequences of Multichannel Shopping

Drivers and Consequences of Multichannel Shopping Hasan Tolga Bilgicer Previous research has investigated what happens when customers start utilizing more than a single sales channel (i.e., become multichannel). This research stream has identified two key consequences of multichannel usage. First, Shankar et al. (2003) and Hitt and Frei (2002) determine that customers using an internet channel in addition to the traditional brick-and-mortar channel are more loyal than customers who use a single channel. Sousa and Voss (2004) explain that these higher customer retention rates are because of increased coordination between channels; the coordination among channels increases customer satisfaction, which improves retention rates. Second, Neslin et al. (2006), Thomas and Sullivan (2005), Kumar and Venkatesan (2005), Venkatesan et al. (2007), Ansari et al. (2008), and Kushwaha and Shankar (2008) determine that on average multichannel customers spend more than single channel customers. Although plenty of research exists about multichannel customer management, there is relatively little known about the drivers that induce customers to adopt a new channel. Additionally, previous research has mainly focused on the short term effects and has not attempted to quantify, if any, the long-term effects of multichannel usage. This dissertation examines multichannel customers’ decisions. Specifically, I address the following questions: (1) What factors lead customers to adopt new sales channels? and (2) What is the long-term effect of multichannel shopping on customers’ spending? The first essay investigates the drivers of new sales channel adoption. In this essay, I propose a conceptual framework grounded in diffusion theory, and test this framework on
PHR2 of Candida albicans encodes a functional homolog of the pH-regulated gene PHR1 with an inverted pattern of pH-dependent expression

Deletion of PHR1, a pH-regulated gene of Candida albicans, results in pH-conditional defects in growth, morphogenesis, and virulence evident at neutral to alkaline pH but absent at acidic pH. Consequently, we searched for a functional homolog of PHR1 active at low pH. This resulted in the isolation of a second pH-regulated gene, designated PHR2. The expression of PHR2 was inversely related to that of PHR1, being repressed at pH values above 6 and progressively induced at more acidic pH values. The predicted amino acid sequence of the PHR2 protein, Phr2p, was 54% identical to that of Phr1p. A PHR2 null mutant exhibited pH-conditional defects in growth and morphogenesis analogous to those of PHR1 mutants but manifest at acid rather than alkaline pH values. Engineered expression of PHR1 at acid pH in a PHR2 mutant strain and PHR2 at alkaline pH in a PHR1 mutant strain complemented the defects in the opposing mutant. Deletion of both PHR1 and PHR2 resulted in a strain with pH-independent, constitutive growth and morphological defects. These results indicate that PHR1 and PHR2 represent a novel pH-balanced system of functional homologs required for C. albicans to adapt to environments of diverse pH.
The Interaction Effects of CEO Power, Social Connections and Incentive Compensation on Firm Value

Using a regression interaction model and a biographical dataset, with which we can pinpoint periods during which friendships were likely to have developed, we study the relation between company value and the interplay between CEO power, CEO equity incentives and the friendliness of the board of directors. Consistent with our hypotheses developed below, we find that firm value tends to increase when equity incentives are combined with a friendly board of directors, and conclude that the negative effects of CEO power on firm value reported by others are limited to firms with weak CEO equity incentive compensation plans and arms-length boards of directors. We are the first to combine these datasets and show that friendship between powerful CEOs and their boards, when agency problems are mitigated through CEO compensation, leads to higher value.