Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Screening for Cognitive Impairment in General Practice: Toward a Consensus

We considered whether general practitioners should examine all older patients over a certain age for cognitive impairment in screening for early dementia. We invited presentations from key experts, selectively reviewed the literature, and developed a consensus statement. The efficacy of and benefits from unselective use of cognitive testing and informant questionnaires for detecting early dementia in older patients attending general practice are limited. Positive predictive values of cognitive screening for dementia are less than 50%, even for older patient populations. Higher values may be obtained by testing patients who have a relevant history of cognitive or functional decline. What ever procedures are adopted for screening older general practice attenders for cognitive impairment or early dementia, investigation is still required into the relative merits of different health professionals performing the screening, the positive and negative effects on patients and their families, and the cost-benefit ratio. The majority view of workshop participants was that cognitive testing should occur for older patients when there is a reason to suspect dementia. Testing may occur in an individual considered to be at risk because of an informant history of cognitive or functional decline, clinical observation, or, sometimes, very old age. No single instrument for cognitive screening is suitable for global use. Screening programs must be supported by training and supplemented by education for professionals and families in management of dementia.
Online Game Addiction among Chinese College Students Measurement and Attribution

This study made an initial attempt to measure and attribute online game addiction among Chinese college students. We generated three factors of online game addiction: Control Disorder, Conflict, and Injury, as well as proposed a comprehensive model that attributed online game addiction to three groups of driving forces: environmental influences (most significant), characteristics of online games, and personal reasons.
ICT in higher education: a case study of mediated blended-learning at the university of Aveiro

Teaching in on-line and collaborative situations requires a variety of responses including changes in pedagogy as instructors taking the role of facilitators of information while guiding students toward solutions. In order for online learning to be successful, therefore, teachers as well as learners will need to explore new roles in the teaching-learning relationship. In this paper, the authors propose to examine how educators can mediate instruction by first designing their course goals and objectives and then consider how the on-line environment can best serve the instructional objectives and plan appropriate activities and assessment. We seek to explore the use of online environments as the bridge between real world and reflective knowledge.
Specialized cell surface structures in cellulolytic bacteria

The cell surface topology of various gram-negative and -positive, anaerobic and aerobic, mesophilic and thermophilic, cellulolytic and noncellulolytic bacteria was investigated by scanning electron microscopic visualization using cationized ferritin. Characteristic protuberant structures were observed on cells of all cellulolytic strains. These structures appeared to be directly related to the previously described exocellular cellulase-containing polycellulosomes of Clostridium thermocellum YS (E. A. Bayer and R. Lamed, J. Bacteriol. 167:828-836, 1986). Immunochemical evidence and lectin-binding studies suggested a further correlation on the molecular level among cellulolytic bacteria. The results indicate that such cell surface cellulase-containing structures may be of general consequence to the bacterial interaction with and degradation of cellulose.
Association of arterial stiffness with progression of subclinical brain and cognitive disease

Objective: We tested whether abnormal arterial stiffness and blood pressure would be associated with progression of brain aging measured by brain MRI and neurocognitive testing. Methods: Framingham Offspring Cohort participants (n = 1,223, 61 ± 9 years, 56% women) without previous stroke or dementia underwent applanation tonometry, brain MRI, and neurocognitive testing at examination 7 (1998–2001). Follow-up brain MRI and neurocognitive testing was performed at examination 8 (2005–2008, mean interval 6.4 ± 1.3 years). We related examination 7 inverse-transformed carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (iCFPWV), central pulse pressure (CPP), and mean arterial pressure to changes in the following variables between examinations 7 and 8: total cerebral brain volume, white matter hyperintensity volume, and performance on executive function and abstraction tasks, the Trail Making Test, Parts B and A (ΔTrails B-A), and Similarities tests. Results: Higher baseline iCFPWV and CPP were associated with greater progression of neurocognitive decline (iCFPWV and ΔTrails B-A association: SD unit change in outcome variable per SD change in tonometry variable [β] ± SE = 0.10 ± 0.04, p = 0.019; CPP and ΔSimilarities association: −0.08 ± 0.03, p = 0.013). Higher mean arterial pressure, but not iCFPWV or CPP, was associated with increase in white matter hyperintensity volume ([β ± SE] 0.07 ± 0.03, p = 0.017). No tonometry measures were associated with change in cerebral brain volume. Conclusions: In middle-aged and older adults without evidence of clinical stroke or dementia, elevated arterial stiffness and pressure pulsatility are associated with longitudinal progression of subclinical vascular brain injury and greater neurocognitive decline. Treatments to reduce arterial stiffness may potentially reduce the progression of neurovascular disease and cognitive decline.
National cohort study of reproductive risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis in Denmark: a role for hyperemesis, gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia?

Objectives: While reproductive factors might plausibly be involved in the aetiology of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the female predominance remains unexplained. A study was undertaken to address the possible impact of live births, pregnancy losses and pregnancy complications on the subsequent risk of RA in a nationwide cohort study. Methods: National register data were used to link reproductive histories and later RA hospitalisations in a cohort of 4.4 million Danes. As a measure of relative risk associated with different reproductive histories, ratios of first inpatient RA hospitalisation rates (RRs) were used with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) obtained by Poisson regression analysis. Results: Overall, 7017 women and 3041 men were admitted to hospital with RA in 1977–2004 (88.8 million person-years). The risk of RA was inversely associated with age at birth of first child in both women and men (p for trend <0.001). Overall, nulliparity and a history of pregnancy loss were not associated with RA risk but, compared with one-child mothers, women with two (RR 0.84; 95% CI 0.78 to 0.90) or three (RR 0.83; 95% CI 0.77 to 0.91) children were at reduced risk. The risk of RA was increased in women with a history of hyperemesis (RR 1.70; 95% CI 1.06 to 2.54), gestational hypertension (RR 1.49; 95% CI 1.06 to 2.02) or pre-eclampsia (RR 1.42; 95% CI 1.08 to 1.84). Conclusions: One-child mothers and young parents are at increased risk of RA later in life, possibly due to socioeconomic factors. The novel finding of a significantly increased risk of RA in women whose pregnancies were complicated by hyperemesis, gestational hypertension or pre-eclampsia might reflect reduced immune adaptability to pregnancy in women disposed to RA or a role of fetal microchimerism in the aetiology of RA.
Tracking adaptation and measuring development

This is the first paper in the new IIED Climate Change Working Paper series. As adaptation to climate change becomes the focus of increasing attention and the target of significant spending, there is a growing need for frameworks and tools that enable organisations to track and assess the outcomes of adaptation interventions. This paper presents a coherent framework for climate change adaptation programming, including potential indicators, or indicator categories/types, for tracking and evaluating the success of adaptation support and adaptation interventions. The paper begins with a discussion of some of the key issues related to the evaluation of adaptation, and outlines some of the main difficulties and constraints with respect to the development of adaptation indicators. Next, an evaluation framework is proposed and indicator categories or 'domains' are identified. Lastly, key conclusions are provided and a theory of change is outlined that shows how development and use of the framework could lead to more effective adaptation investments for climate resilient development.
An Investigation into the Effect of Risk Management on the Profitability of Shipping Investment and Operations

In this paper the authors consider the risks associated with shipping investment and operations, as well as how those risks can be managed. The magnitude of the risks associated with investing in shipping are highlighted, while simultaneously asserting that while risks are high, potential returns are, as well. Although risk management in shipping has traditionally been viewed as an activity which undermines profit-making potential, recent increases in the level of freight rates, as evidenced in the growth of traded volumes of freight derivatives, coupled with the exceptionally high degree of volatility in the bulk markets in particular, have changed the way that investors in shipping markets view risk and uncertainty, as well as how they deal with it. The authors analyse the return, risk and utility performance of two different investment strategies in the tanker and dry bulk shipping sectors, using a data set of ship prices and spot- and time-charter earnings. The suggestion that a freight-rate risk management strategy can improve the overall risk-return profile of shipping investment projects is shown by the results. And for larger vessels in both the sectors analysed, interestingly, hedging strategies prove to be more effective for investment.
The technical analysis method of moving average trading : rules that reduce the number of losing trades

A general issue with moving average trading is the assumption that all buy/sell signals result in a trading action. The argument that such trading rules are representative of trading practice is highly questionable. This thesis proposes two new moving average trading rules designed to capture trading practice. The first trading rule is the trade reduction rule and is based on the idea of allowing a trade to run. The second trading rule is the positive autocorrelation rule and is based on the idea of only trading if it is believed to be profitable to do so. The trading rules are tied to moving average trading via the buy/sell signal generating mechanism and alter the way the price crossover rule responds to the buy/sell signals. Simulations of portfolios of UK equities find that the trading rules uncover information that is missed by the price crossover rule and there is evidence that this information is financially exploitable. This motivates the argument that the information needed for trading to be economically viable is observable in the price. The trading rules also establish a link with the market microstructure literature. The trading rules uncover issues of informed trading (asymmetric information), liquidity, adverse selection and price impact. The strongest interpretation that can be applied to the trading rules in this context is that they are examples of informed trading. Compared to the price crossover rule, the trading rules are better able to extract meaning from or are better able to understand the same price information.
Two or three primary dose regime for Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccine: meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is an important cause of meningitis and pneumonia in children. Despite the availability of Hib conjugate vaccine, many countries are still to implement it in their immunization schedule. Before introducing the vaccine in routine immunization programs, it is important to know not only the cumulative efficacy but also the efficacy of each vaccine dose. The primary objective of this review is to find whether two primary dose schedule of Hib vaccine is equally efficacious as the standard three primary dose schedule. A highly sensitive online search was run using the terms ‘Haemophilus Vaccines’ or ‘Haemophilus influenzae type b’ and ‘conjugate vaccine’, and Medline (Ovid), PubMed, Embase, CENTRAL and Scopus were explored for prospective randomized controlled studies. Data were extracted in a predesigned proforma and analyzed using RevMan software. Nine randomized studies were included in the analysis. Pooled vaccine efficacy using a fixed effects model against confirmed invasive Hib disease following the 3, 2 and 1 primary dose schedule were 82% [95% confidence interval (CI) 73-87], 79% (95% CI 54–90) and 65% (95% CI 23–84), respectively, and the overall efficacy was 80% (95% CI 72–85). To conclude, we found that Hib conjugate vaccine is highly efficacious and that the two dose regime is as good as the three dose regime. [The protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42013004490)].
Asset Composition and Performance of Swedish Listed Mutual Funds

Fund investments are very popular in Sweden. However, we have the impression that despite this popularity, the average fund investor in Sweden does not pay much attention to the importance and possible link of fund’s asset composition features (e.g. Asset class, Holdings, and Geo-exposure) to fund’s performance. Instead, S/he relies on factors such as fees, risk levels, historical performance, etc. in her/his investment decisions. Similarly, academic studies mainly focus on attributes such as funds fees, size, and manager’s skill to explain fund’s performance. Thus there are limited premier academic studies on the relationship between fund’s performance and its asset composition features. The main purpose of this study is to investigate possible causal relationship between the performances of funds with their assets composition features. We study the whole population of 346 Swedish listed mutual funds older than five years for the period 2009-2013. The results of the study provides the investors and analysts with additional decision-making and investment-analysis tools to assist them in making more informed judgment on funds and their expected returns. The results are also useful for fund managers to improve their strategies by refining the combinations of their funds’ asset composition attributes in order to improve the absolute risk-adjusted performance of their funds. Our research philosophy has been based on positivism and objectivism along with functionalist paradigm and we have applied deductive approach to test the theories. We have used quantitative method and collected the funds’ data from public business databases and chosen Jensen’s alpha and Treynor ratio as funds’ risk-adjusted performance measures. We performed Correlation tests and Regression with robust techniques on our data to answer the research question from three aspects, namely asset class (equity, bond, and mixed assets); geo-exposures (Sweden, Global, Europe, and Nordic) and Top-ten holdings’ measures (asset concentration and Treynor of each fund’s passive top-ten sub-portfolio). We conclude that correlations between funds’ risk-adjusted performance and assets composition features are likely to exist. Stronger correlations are observed between the explanatory measures and fund’s relative risk-adjusted performance (fund’s Treynor) as compared to fund’s absolute risk adjusted performance (fund’s Jensen’s alpha). Asset concentration in top-ten holdings and bond asset class are more likely to be in casual relationship with fund’s risk-adjusted performance, whereas Treynor ratio of top-ten holdings’ passive sub-portfolio as well as fund’s geo-exposure do not seem to have strong explanatory power for funds’ absolute performance.
Measurements of media reputation of firms

Louisa Ha, Advisor The influence of media coverage on corporate reputation is an important research topic that attracts scholars from multiple disciplines. It was first investigated by scholars from the field of management. During the past ten years, media scholars have begun to engage in this research domain. The history of this research topic reflects its typical inter-disciplinary characteristics. Scholars have applied theories from mass communication, management, economics, and other disciplines in the exploration of this area. Such theoretical integration is necessary for the investigation of this research topic. However, the advancement of this scholarship is also dependent on empirical studies. The major problem existing in previous studies is that they reached inconsistent findings with regard to the relationship between media coverage and corporate reputation. These inconsistent findings are the result of multiple reasons and impede the further advancement of the scholarship in this area. One of the most important reasons is that previous studies developed different measurements of media coverage. To solve this problem, this dissertation focused on the measurements of media reputation, which was defined as the overall evaluation of media coverage of firms. Based on Agenda-Setting Theory, Priming Theory, Signaling Theory, and previous studies, this dissertation compared different measurements of media favorability applied in the previous studies, investigated the interaction effects between media visibility and media favorability, between recency and media favorability, and finally, developed a new measurement of media reputation which combines three factors: media favorability, media visibility, and recency.
The MinD homolog FlhG regulates the synthesis of the single polar flagellum of Vibrio alginolyticus

FlhG, a MinD homolog and an ATPase, is known to mediate the formation of the single polar flagellum of Vibrio alginolyticus together with FlhF. FlhG and FlhF work antagonistically, with FlhF promoting flagellar assembly and FlhG inhibiting it. Here, we demonstrate that purified FlhG exhibits a low basal ATPase activity. As with MinD, the basal ATPase activity of FlhG can be activated and the D171A residue substitution enhances its ATPase activity sevenfold. FlhG‐D171A localizes strongly at the cell pole and severely inhibits motility and flagellation, whereas the FlhG K31A and K36Q mutants, which are defective in ATP binding, do not localize to the poles, cannot complement a flhG mutant and lead to hyperflagellation. A strong polar localization of FlhF is observed with the K36Q mutant FlhG but not with the wild‐type or D171A mutant FlhG. Unexpectedly, an Ala substitution at the catalytic residue (D60A), which abolishes ATPase activity but still allows ATP binding, only slightly affects FlhG functions. These results suggest that the ATP‐dependent polar localization of FlhG is crucial for its ability to downregulate the number of polar flagella. We speculate that ATP hydrolysis by FlhG is required for the fine tuning of the regulation.
Development of general and central obesity from childhood into early adulthood in African American and European American males and females with a family history of cardiovascular disease.

BACKGROUND Obesity is associated with multiple health problems, often originating in childhood. OBJECTIVE The objective was to investigate differences in the development of adiposity from childhood to adulthood as related to race, sex, and socioeconomic status (SES). DESIGN Individual growth curve modeling for waist circumference, body mass index, and sum of skinfold thicknesses (triceps, subscapular, and suprailiac) was performed in an 11-y cohort study of 622 African Americans and European Americans aged 4.2-27.5 y. We examined the development of adiposity in 2 ways: 1) differences related to race, sex, and parents' education (SES), and 2) differences between obese, overweight, and normal-weight persons at the end of their childhood (> 17 y of age). RESULTS The sum of skinfold thicknesses was greater in females than in males, with a larger increase with age. Race, sex, and SES showed a complex relation with body mass index and the sum of skinfold thicknesses. The low-SES group showed the fastest increase in waist circumference with age. The obese group showed the most rapid increase in the 3 measures of adiposity. Growth curves for the obese group were distinguishable from those for the normal-weight persons at an earlier age for African Americans than for European Americans. CONCLUSIONS The development rate of adiposity from childhood into early adulthood is influenced by sex and SES but not by race. However, race, sex, and SES had joint effects on adiposity levels. The development of obesity can begin to be distinguished in midchildhood, but the age at which this distinction becomes apparent depends on race.
Should bowel preparation, antifoaming agents, or prokinetics be used before video capsule endoscopy? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives The ideal bowel preparation regime before small bowel video capsule endoscopy (VCE) is not known. We carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis to study the effect of purgatives, antifoaming agents, and prokinetics on the outcomes associated with VCE. Materials and methods We performed literature searches in MEDLINE and Cochrane Library and included randomized-controlled trials studying the effect of purgatives, antifoaming agents, and prokinetics in patients undergoing VCE. Our outcomes of interest were visualization quality, diagnostic yield, and completion rate. Meta-analyses were carried out using the RevMan software and heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 statistic. Results Fifteen studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. As compared with no bowel preparation, bowel preparation with polyethylene glycol (PEG) led to adequate visualization in a significantly higher number of patients undergoing VCE [odds ratio (OR) 3.13; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.70–5.75]. Both PEG and sodium phosphate significantly improved the diagnostic yield (OR 1.68; 95% CI 1.16–2.42 and OR 1.77; 95% CI 1.18–2.64, respectively) but did not affect the completion rate. All studies with simethicone showed significantly improved visualization quality with its use as compared with overnight fasting or purgatives alone. Prokinetics did not significantly improve the completion rate of VCE. Conclusion On the basis of the data available, a combination of PEG and simethicone appears to be the best approach for small bowel preparation before VCE. However, large multicenter randomized-controlled trials are needed to validate this recommendation and to evaluate the ideal dose of PEG and timing of bowel preparation before VCE. Prokinetics administered before VCE do not improve the completion rate and should not be used.
Distributed cooperative video coding for wireless video broadcast system

In wireless video broadcast system, analog joint source-channel coding (JSCC) has shown advantage compared to conventional separate digital source/channel coding in the aspect that it can avoid cliff effect gracefully. What's more, analog JSCC only needs a little calculations at the encoder and has strong adaptability to different channel condition, which is very suitable to the wireless cooperative scenario. Thus in this paper, we propose a distributed cooperative video coding (DCVC) scheme for wireless video broadcast system. The scheme is based on the transmission structure of Softcast and borrows the basic idea of distributed video coding. Different from the former cooperative video delivery methods, DCVC utilizes analog coding and coset coding to avoid cliff effect and to make the best of transmission power. The experimental results show that DCVC outperforms the conventional WSVC and H.264/SVC cooperative schemes, especially when the cooperative channel is worse than the original source-terminal channel.