Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implications of Vision Testing for Older Driver Licensing

Objectives. A range of medical conditions can lead to visual impairments either through effects on the eye or the visual pathways and brain. The prevalence of visual impairment increases with age. Furthermore, research evidence has shown that aging is related to a number of other processes that can lead to changes in cognitive functioning and sensory perception that may adversely affect driving (Marottoli and Drickamer, 1993; Stelmach and Nahom, 1992). This combination of factors is thought to contribute to older driver crash risk (Hakamies-Blomqvist, 1993; Stutts et al., 1998). Licensing authorities are the primary entity responsible for monitoring the medical fitness of their license holders. While it is important for licensing bodies to identify drivers who have conditions that place them at a heightened risk for crashes, at the same time, they should not unfairly restrict the mobility of disabled or aging drivers. Therefore, it is important that the licensing criteria for visual fitness to drive are based on scientific evidence establishing their effectiveness and predictive value for poor driving performance and unaceptable crash risk. The aim of this paper is to assess whether current licensing guidelines are consistent with the available scientific evidence on the effect of visual impairment on driving with a specific focus on older drivers. Methods. This article describes current licensing guidelines for vision from selected Western jurisdictions and reviews the available scientific evidence on visual impairment and driving performance on which such licensing decisions are based. Results. The findings of the review indicate that the predictive values of the vision tests commonly used for licensing decisions by the selected authorities are inconclusive. Discussion. The functional attributes of vision currently assessed for licensing do not adequately explain unsafe driving performance. Differences were observed across vision requirements for the selected jurisdictions, possibly reflecting the equivocal and inconclusive findings linking specific visual functions and impairment with crash risk. Setting benchmarks or performance thresholds on selected visual tests may be problematic for older drivers in particular, who are most vulnerable to underperforming. Driving involves a complex set of skills, and it is proposed that decisions about vision for safe driving need to be considered in the context of the driver's overall health and other functional abilities.
Continuous Peripheral Nerve Blocks: An Update of the Published Evidence and Comparison With Novel, Alternative Analgesic Modalities

A continuous peripheral nerve block (CPNB) consists of a percutaneously inserted catheter with its tip adjacent to a target nerve/plexus through which local anesthetic may be administered, providing a prolonged block that may be titrated to the desired effect. In the decades after its first report in 1946, a plethora of data relating to CPNB was published, much of which was examined in a 2011 Anesthesia & Analgesia article. The current update is an evidence-based review of the CPNB literature published in the interim. Novel insertion sites include the adductor canal, interpectoral, quadratus lumborum, lesser palatine, ulnar, superficial, and deep peroneal nerves. Noteworthy new indications include providing analgesia after traumatic rib/femur fracture, manipulation for adhesive capsulitis, and treating abdominal wall pain during pregnancy. The preponderance of recently published evidence suggests benefits nearly exclusively in favor of catheter insertion using ultrasound guidance compared with electrical stimulation, although little new data are available to help guide practitioners regarding the specifics of ultrasound-guided catheter insertion (eg, optimal needle–nerve orientation). After some previous suggestions that automated, repeated bolus doses could provide benefits over a basal infusion, there is a dearth of supporting data published in the past few years. An increasing number of disposable infusion pumps does now allow a similar ability to adjust basal rates, bolus volume, and lockout times compared with their electronic, programmable counterparts, and a promising area of research is communicating with and controlling pumps remotely via the Internet. Large, prospective studies now document the relatively few major complications during ambulatory CPNB, although randomized, controlled studies demonstrating an actual shortening of hospitalization duration are few. Recent evidence suggests that, compared with femoral infusion, adductor canal catheters both induce less quadriceps femoris weakness and improve mobilization/ambulation, although the relative analgesia afforded by each remains in dispute. Newly published data demonstrate that the incidence and/or severity of chronic, persistent postsurgical pain may, at times, be decreased with a short-term postoperative CPNB. Few new CPNB-related complications have been identified, although large, prospective trials provide additional data regarding the incidence of adverse events. Lastly, a number of novel, alternative analgesic modalities are under development/investigation. Four such techniques are described and contrasted with CPNB, including single-injection peripheral nerve blocks with newer adjuvants, liposome bupivacaine used in wound infiltration and peripheral nerve blocks, cryoanalgesia with cryoneurolysis, and percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulation.
The Marketing Man's Image of Himself and his Work Relationships

Provides a portrait of the marketer compared with other groups. Says it is clear that marketing people see themselves primarily as people who need or require considerable supervisory ability, a high degree of self actualisation, the ability to use a high degree of initiative, and who are prepared to forgo security in order to achieve objectives. Uses a study from a questionnaire with 64 pairs of adjectives which managers chose as best descriptive of themselves – 791 managers responded, of which 103 were marketing managers. Uses figures for explanation of the results. Sums up that marketing people see themselves first as needing or requiring considerable supervisory ability.
Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia: Language, Cognitive, and PET Measures Contrasted with Probable Alzheimer's Disease

The purpose of this study was to compare the language and cognitive profiles of four progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA) patients with 25 probable Alzheimer's disease (pAD) patients, and to identify the distinct cortical defects associated with cognitive deficits in PNFA using positron emission tomography (PET). Longitudinal observations of PNFA patients revealed progressively telegraphic speech and writing and a gradual deterioration of sentence comprehension, but memory and visual functioning were relatively preserved. Direct contrast with PAD patients revealed that PNFA patients are significantly impaired on grammatical phrase structure aspects of sentence comprehension and expression, phonemic judgments, repetition, and digit span, but not on other cognitive measures. PET studies of PNFA revealed reduced cortical activity throughout the left hemisphere. In addition, there was a prominent defect in left superior and middle temporal and inferior frontal regions of PNFA patients that differed significantly from the distribution of regional cerebral dysfunction in pAD. We conclude that PNFA is associated with a distinct profile of language and cognitive difficulty, and that this pattern of impairment is related to cortical dysfunction in a specific distribution of the left hemisphere.
Early-Demultiplexing Techniques for Quality of Service in Serving GPRS Support Nodes

The General Packet Radio Service(GPRS) is a wireless data service that sits on top of the existing GSM infrastructure. It provides access to the Internet and packet based billing. It is often referred as a 2.5G system and is designed to evolve to UMTS(3G). The Serving GPRS Support Node(SGSN) is one of two new nodes added to the GSM infrastructure to support GPRS. Its role is to route data to users in its geographical area and provide user mobility, access control and security. We have studied a SGSN from a system point of view, looking at how it interacts with the operating system. We have found that a SGSN implemented as a user level process will not be able to properly support Quality of Service(QoS). We have looked at three QoS parameters: throughput, delay and precedence and have found that a SGSN will not be able to maintain guaranteed services based on those parameters when heavily loaded. This behavior is due to the fact that operating systems are unaware of the QoS requirements of incoming traffic and are therefore unable to properly queue incoming packets. We have designed and built a SGSN where the incoming traffic flow is demultiplexed on arrival. The QoS requirements of incoming packets are identified before they are queued. Packets can now be classified and queued properly. Our results show that our Early Demultiplexing SGSN(ED-SGSN) provides large improvements. The ED-SGSN is able to maintain service guarantees in terms of throughput, delay and precedence even under serious loads.
The meaning of lean: cross case perceptions of packaging businesses in the UK's fast moving consumer goods sector

This study focuses on the supply of high-quality printed packaging to the fast-moving, consumer-goods industry (FMCG) of two UK companies that manufacture consumer-packaged goods for retail customers. The research tests existing models of lean supply and applies them to FMCG. The findings of the research confirm that lean supply chain management consists of two elements that are each characterized by distinguishing concepts and features. The conclusions and implications of this study are that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is inappropriate to supply chain design. A contingency approach, that considers all the variables associated with the product and the organizational characteristics is necessary to design an effective and sustainable lean supply chain.
The influence of tax credit on firm`s innovation performance

For a long time, most of advanced countries have supported the innovative firms with various support methods such as tax credit, subsidy, human resource education, and so on. Tax credit for innovation is the most popular industrial policy in these countries including Korea. However, in Korea, the effect of tax credit policy has been rarely analyzed. On the other hand, a considerable number of studies discover that tax credit policy in other countries influences positively on invest of R&D expenditure. This paper shows that tax credit policy positively influences on firm`s innovation performances in Korea. The evaluated innovative effect of tax credit policy in this paper is more persuasive because it introduces various innovation performance variables including patent application with Propensity score matching method(PSM).
Elements of Financial Markets' Infrastructure Development in Russia: Empirical Research

Paper deals with elements of financial markets' infrastructure. Several cases were chosen for analysis. They are: lease services, business valuation and appraisal, unit investment trusts, banking. Each case is studies as a separate industrial market. Special methodology of market structure analysis is suggested and applied under research. Selected examples don't pretend to represent the complete picture of Russian financial markets' infrastructure. They represent different types of such infrastructure elements. The effectiveness and general state of infrastructure are influenced by them. The results show that controversial tendencies could be observed in Russian economy.
How to Make Brand Communities Work: Antecedents and Consequences of Consumer Participation

ABSTRACT The majority of brand community literature deals with the exploration of the nature of brand communities and the measurement of community effects. However, existing literature on how to implement and to manage company-run brand communities is rare. In the present article, we conceptualize drivers and consequences of consumer brand community participation and empirically test our model with a data set of 1,025 members of a virtual brand community. Results indicate that identification with community, satisfaction with community, and degree of influence explain most of the variance in consumer participation. Moreover, positive influences of participation on recommendation behavior, brand image of the community sponsor, and intention to continue community membership can be confirmed.
The Performance of Traditional contract procurement on Housing projects in Nigeria.

The traditional contract procurement has been widely criticized as an ineffective procurement method because it often involves time and cost overrun on construction projects. Yet the method is still being widely used in Nigeria most especially for the procurement of housing projects. It is suspected that this procurement method may not be ineffective in all cost categories of housing projects. Therefore time and cost performances of the procurement method on 57 housing projects of varying cost categories initiated by the Nigerian government between 1993 and 1999 were studied. The category of one to five million naira (US$1.00 â 92 Nigerian Naira in 1999) showed the least time overrun of 18.98% while the highest time overrun of 99.64 % was shown in the five to ten million naira. The over ten million naira category had the least cost overrun of 9.13% while the highest cost overrun of 34.55 % was shown in the less than one million naira. The one to five million naira cost category exhibited weak correlation between time and cost overruns but the five million naira and above categories showed strong correlation. It was concluded that one to five million naira cost category is quite suitable for traditional contract procurement on housing projects in Nigeria.
OmpA Membrane Domain as a Tight‐Binding Anchor for Lipid Bilayers

Liposomes have been used extensively to analyze membrane protein functions because they are realistic membrane substitutes. In many applications liposomes are immobilized on solid supports, which often causes protein malfunctions. This problem was alleviated by suspending the lipid bilayers by long tethers that extend from the solid support to a lipid molecule immersed in the bilayer. Such a lipid, however, cannot grip the bilayer tightly enough to yield high stability. Here we report the large-scale production of an engineered version of the small membrane protein OmpA, which fastens the outer membrane of Escherichia coli to the cell wall. The presented OmpA derivative attaches liposomes to streptavidin molecules wherever these are located. OmpA consists of an integral membrane domain (residues 1 ± 171) and a periplasmic peptidoglycan-binding domain (residues 172 ± 325). A fourfold mutant (F23L/Q34K/K107Y with an additional methionine residue at the N terminus) of the membrane domain forms an eight-stranded barrel with an aliphatic waist bordered by two girdles of aromatic side chains (Figure 1). This barrel is tightly anchored in the membrane. We added the mutation N26C, which introduces a cysteine residue at the tip of one of the four long and mobile extracellular loops. The gene for this cysteine-containing fivefold mutant TMOmpAfc∫ was verified by DNA sequencing. OmpAfc can be mass-produced in E. coli inclusion bodies and (re)natured therefrom. Labeling Cys26 with a tethered biotin permits a tight association of membranes to streptavidin and their release by disulfide reduction. The accessibility of Cys26 was checked photometrically by Ellman's reaction, which resulted in 0.7 thiols per OmpAfc. The disulfide exchange reaction with tethered biotin (Scheme 1) yielded 80% TMOmpAfc ± biotin∫ as determined by photometric detection of the leaving pyridine-2-thione. Given the length of the spacer arm and the exposed position of Cys26 (Figure 1), the maximum distance between the biotin and the membrane center amounts to about 70 ä. Solutions of OmpAfc ± biotin in buffer A (20 mM tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (Tris) ± HCl (pH 8.5), 140 mM NaCl, 0.6% (w/w) octyltetraoxyethylene (C8E4)) were tested for streptavidin binding by titration of a fixed amount of OmpAfc ± biotin with streptavidin. Streptavidin and OmpAfc ± biotin keep their overall tronic applications. Indeed, the bioconjugates of gold nanoparticles with the proteins in solution might show novel nonlinear optical properties. We believe the biggest advantage of this method based on fungal enzymes is the possibility of developing a rational approach for the synthesis of nanoparticles over a range of compositions such as oxides or nitrides, and we are currently working towards this end.
Acanthamoeba keratitis: multicentre survey in England 1992–6

AIM To investigate the frequency, outcomes, and risk factors for acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) in England during the past 4 years. METHODS An ophthalmologist in 12 of the 14 regional health authorities (RHAs) coordinated identification of patients in their region presenting with AK between 1 October 1992 and 30 September 1996. Clinical and postal patient questionnaire data were analysed. RESULTS 243 patients (259 eyes) with an AK diagnosis were identified, equating to an annualised incidence of 0.14 per 100 000 individuals. UK resident patients for each year numbered 50, 71, 73, and 32 respectively. Among patients with sufficient data 170/237 (72%) were diagnosed early (within 30 days of presentation), 197/218 (90%) were treated with polyhexamethyl biguanide and/or chlorhexidine, and 40/243 (16%) underwent surgery. Visual acuities of 6/12 or better were achieved by 222/259 (86%) eyes, including 84 eyes of patients under review or lost to follow up. Non-contact lens (CL) wearers were associated with delayed diagnosis, increased need for surgery and a poorer visual outcome (only 10/18 eyes, 56%, achieved 6/12 acuity). 225/243 (93%) patients were CL wearers, and 205/243 (84%) were soft CL (SCL) users. Among SCL user respondents, previously identified risk factors—swimming with CL (47/138, 34%), non-sterile CL rinsing (11/138, 8%), omitted disinfection (85/138, 62%), and chlorine release disinfection (65/138, 47%)—were identified for 125/138 (91%) patients. CONCLUSIONS Earlier diagnosis and more effective medical therapy have improved the prognosis for most AK patients. The study demonstrates the highly preventable nature of the disease: 91% of the SCL wearers could have avoided the disease by refraining from inadvisable practices, and a marked fall in frequency was seen after intensive media attention to AK, possibly in conjunction with increasing penetrance of new CL products. Since the frequency of AK appears to be largely determined by the ever changing trends in CL use, continued monitoring is indicated.
Magnetoelectric properties of MgB2 superconductor by SiC doping

Effect of SiC, as carbon source doping, by diffusion method on the lattice parameter, critical temperature (T<inf>c</inf>) and critical current density (J<inf>c</inf>) has been studied. The broadening of full width at half maximum (FWHM) values in XRD patterns with increasing of the doping level indicates smaller grains and imperfect MgB<inf>2</inf> crystallinity, whereas the carbon substitution into the boron site was confirmed by the shrinkage of the lattice parameter a. Despite of lower T<inf>c</inf>'s, J<inf>c</inf>s of the doped samples are higher than the undoped sample over 4 T at 20 K and over 7 T at 5 K, respectively. MgB<inf>2</inf> with the 10 % of SiC doping showed the highest J<inf>c</inf> with the value of 10<sup>5</sup> A/cm<sup>2</sup> at 5 K and 4 T while the 2.5% SiC doped sample showed 7 factor of J<inf>c</inf> enhancement compared to pristine sample at 20 K and 4.5 T. J<inf>c</inf> enhancement by different doping level at respective temperature suggests, impurities such as Mg<inf>2</inf>Si, MgB<inf>2</inf>C<inf>2</inf> and MgO play a significant role in 20 K while carbon substitution effect dominances the flux pinning in 5 K. Our results also demonstrate that flux pinning and the J<inf>c</inf> can be tailored for various applications depending on the operating temperature and external magnetic field.
Slovak Pre-Service Teacher Self-Efficacy: Theoretical and Research Considerations

The concept of self- efficacy was originally developed by Albert Bandura, and has been defined as the personal belief that one is capable of performing in an appropriate and effective manner to attain certain goals. As such, self-efficacy is a self-system that controls most personal activity, including appropriate use of professional knowledge and skills. Teacher selfefficacy is the belief that teachers have about their abilities and skills as educators. Teacher self-efficacy has been shown to be an important characteristic of the teacher and one strongly related to success in teaching. Unfortunately, however, effective measurement of teacher selfefficacy has been limited in part by geography. Therefore, described herein is a validation study for the Teacher Efficacy Scale in Slovakia. A shortened version of the original Gibson and Dembo questionnaire was translated into Slovak and administered to a sample of preservice teachers in Bratislava. The obtained score data were factor-analyzed. Two relatively independent factors emerged: personal teaching efficacy and general teaching efficacy. The two factors accounted for 43.4 % of the explained variance and the coefficient alpha for each factor was . 73. Pre-service students’ scores on both teaching self-efficacy and general teaching efficacy exceeded the midpoint of the scales, indicating they had positive self-efficacy. Comparisons to other studies with similar samples in three countries showed surprisingly similar results.
Whole blood coagulation assessment using rotation thrombelastogram thromboelastometry in patients with acute deep vein thrombosis

Common tests for the assessment of blood coagulation in the acute phase of deep vein thrombosis are of limited value for the evaluation of the associated hypercoagulability. The new rotation thromboelastometry by rotation thrombelastogram has the potential to provide information on whole blood clot formation and prothrombotic state in patients with acute deep vein thrombosis. Rotation thrombelastogram parameters were evaluated in whole blood of 30 patients with a first episode of acute deep vein thrombosis and 40 healthy controls. The effect of factor VIII and fibrinogen levels on rotation thrombelastogram assays was also assessed in the study population and in a model of blood supplemented by increasing amounts of fibrinogen. All assays performed were consistent with a remarkable hypercoagulable profile in deep vein thrombosis patients as compared with controls. In particular, maximum clot firmness and the area under curve values, which are expected to better correlate with the hypercoagulable state in the acute phase of deep vein thrombosis, were significantly higher in patients than in controls. As expected, fibrinogen was shown to be one of the main determinants of the hypercoagulability in rotation thrombelastogram assays. In a small subset of acute deep vein thrombosis patients, inherited thrombophilia had no influence on rotation thrombelastogram parameters. The new rotation thrombelastogram thromboelastometry is a useful tool to detect acute deep vein thrombosis-related hypercoagulability. Prospective studies are needed to define the potential applications of rotation thrombelastogram in the management of deep vein thrombosis patients.