Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changing Clinical Profile of Patients Entering Cardiac Rehabilitation/Secondary Prevention Programs: 1996 to 2006

PURPOSE Cardiac rehabilitation (CR)/secondary prevention programming is dependent on clinical attributes of participants. We examined recent changes in the profile of individuals who are entering CR. METHODS We analyzed data for all patients entering our phase II CR program from 1996 to 2006. Patients were classified into 5 groups on the basis of recruitment period: period 1 (1996–1998) (n = 604), period 2 (1999–2000) (n = 571), period 3 (2001–2002) (n = 588), period 4 (2003–2004) (n = 519), and period 5 (2005–2006) (n = 532). RESULTS From period 1 to period 5, age increased from 60.6 to 63.4 years, and the proportion of patients 75 years or older increased by 59%. The proportion of women, initially 25%, did not change. Weight increased from 84.7 to 88.5 kg, whereas the proportion of patients with obesity, diabetes, and hypertension increased by 35%, 52%, and 48%, respectively. However, the proportion of patients with elevated blood pressure level did not change significantly. Peak relative aerobic capacity decreased by 10%. Total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol decreased by 20%, 35%, and 27%, respectively, whereas high-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased by 12%. Use of all evidence-based cardiovascular drugs increased significantly, particularly statins (from 25% to 77%). CONCLUSIONS CR participants are now older, more frequently present with features of the metabolic syndrome, and are relatively less fit. However, a 3-fold increase in statin use over 10 years has contributed to a marked improvement of lipid parameters.
Does Ethical Leadership Create Public Value? Empirical Evidences from Banking Sector of Pakistan

Public value is relatively new concept in the field of public administration and got considerable attention from the public administrators and researchers. Public value is considered as the contribution of an organization to the society. Citizens pay taxes to the government and in return they demanded benefits, respects and extra care of their rights at public offices. The major focus of researchers is how to create public value. In this article we discuss the role of ethical leadership (EL) in creating public value among employees. Leaders of an organization are the key persons who formulate the behavior of their subordinates. With their vision, directives, attitude and behavior they give a direction to their subordinates that how they have to act in that particular organization. Ethical leaders in an organization develop the ethical values in their employees and they always ready to maintain ethical standard of the organization. They consider them as a servant of public and facilitate them beyond their expectation. They feel that they are accountable towards public because they are custodian of public money. These ethical values create public value among the employees and they wholeheartedly devote themselves to fulfill the expectations of public and their customers. We tested our hypothesis on 180 employees of public sector bank in Pakistan. The result of this analysis confirms that EL is an important phenomenon to create public value among employees.
Development of Large Platelet Aggregates from Small Aggregates as Determined by Laser-light Scattering: Effects of Aggregant Concentration and Antiplatelet Medication

Summary Particle-counting methods that employ light scattering (LS) quantify changes in the number of platelet aggregates of different sizes after the application of an aggregating stimulus. Using the LS method, we studied the effects of aggregant concentration, aspirin administration, and ticlopidine administration on aggregate formation and compared the results with those obtained using the conventional optical density (OD) method. Subjects were 47 controls, 31 patients treated with aspirin (330 mg/day), and 37 patients treated with ticlopidine (200 mg/day). Platelet aggregation after stimulation by 0.5, 1.0 or 5.0 μM ADP, or 0.5, 1.0 or 2.0 μg/ml collagen was determined using both methods. Using the LS method, small (9-25 μm), medium (25-50 μm), and large (50-70 μm) aggregates were counted. In patients untreated with antiplatelet medication, greater concentrations of ADP or collagen generated larger aggregates. Generation of small and medium-sized aggregates showed a significant positive correlation with OD levels after stimulation with 0.5 or 1.0 μM ADP, or 0.5 or 1.0 μg/ml collagen. In patients treated with aspirin, the development of small aggregates into large aggregates was inhibited. Thus, the number of small aggregates increased. Inhibition induced by aspirin was more effective against aggregation after stimulation with collagen than with ADP. In patients treated with ticlopidine, small and medium-sized aggregate formation was inhibited after stimulation with low concentrations of ADP or collagen, but was promoted after stimulation with high aggregant concentrations. The capability of the LS method to quantify different sizes of aggregates after stimulation with low concentration agonists may facilitate investigation of the aggregation process, and of how this process is affected by antiplatelet agents.
Overview of the new ISO 9001:2015 standard and challenges ahead

Many South African organizations including those in tourism and hospitality sectors are aware about the launching of the revised ISO 9001:2015 and are concerned as to how the changes will affect them. Some of the reasons for these changes are due to the changing quality systems and technology, a more dynamic business environment, decrease emphasis on documented procedures, move to a culture of risk management, cater for the service industries, promote integration with other standards and ultimately increase value for the organization.Articles in various editions of Quality Progress have indicated that the revised standard will have ten major sections, seven principles of quality, simpler terminology, a more generic format to allow the alignment with other standards and attractive to service centered organizations. The implementation of the standard will include such processes as for risk management, change management, information management, innovation management and strategy management hence moving the quality management system towards a business management system. Although the standard may appear to allow more flexibility inits implementation there will be many managerial and implementation challenges for organizations and their quality practitioners. There is a sense that the standard is moving away from management responsibility to leadership accountability. This article provides an overview of the new standard and provides information on some of the challenges that may be faced.
An overview of invasive fungal infections in immunocompromised hosts

During last three decades, the frequency of invasive fungal infections (IFIs) in immunocompromised (IC) hosts has increased remarkably and associated with excessive morbidity and mortality. This is mainly related to advances in the medical care, thereby increasing the number of atrisk immunocompromised populations. Majority of IFIs are due to opportunistic fungal pathogens that are commonly found in soil, water, plant debris, and other organic substrates.
False alarm probability-based estimation of multipath channel length

A multipath channel length estimation algorithm is proposed. It consists basically of estimating all path delays using a threshold comparison-based criterion. The threshold is obtained by imposing a fixed false alarm probability on the detection of each path delay. Assuming that the shortest delay is normalized to be equal to zero, the longest one is then selected to provide the desired length estimate. The threshold is analytically derived under the hypothesis that the channel impulse response (channel IR) estimate is corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise. Simulation results are presented for Universal Mobile Telecommunication System-time division duplex; they show that the proposed algorithm affords a detector performance very close to the case when the channel IR length is a priori known.
Are Your Requirements Complete?

Good requirements have several useful properties, such as being consistent, necessary, and unambiguous. Another essential characteristic that is almost always listed is that ‘requirements should be complete. ’ But just what does completeness mean, and how should you ensure that your requirements are complete? In this column, we will begin to address these two questions by looking at (1) the importance of requirements completeness, (2) the completeness of requirements models, (3) the completeness of various types of individual requirements, , and (4) the completeness of requirements metadata. In next issue’s column, we will continue by addressing (5) the completeness of requirements repositories, (6) the completeness of requirements documents derived from such repositories of requirements, (7) the completeness of sets of requirements documents, (8) the completeness of requirements baselines, and finally (9) determining how complete is complete enough when using an incremental and iterative development cycle.
Complicated grief and bereavement-related depression as distinct disorders: preliminary empirical validation in elderly bereaved spouses.

OBJECTIVE This study sought to determine whether a set of symptoms interpreted as complicated grief could be identified and distinguished from bereavement-related depression and whether the presence of complicated grief would predict enduring functional impairments. METHOD Data were derived from a study group of 82 recently widowed elderly individuals recruited for an investigation of physiological changes in bereaved persons. Baseline data were collected 3-6 months after the deaths of the subjects' spouses, and follow-up data were collected from 56 of the subjects 18 months after the baseline assessments. Candidate items for assessing complicated grief came from a variety of scales used to evaluate emotional functioning (e.g., the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, the Brief Symptom Inventory). The outcome variables measured were global functioning, medical illness burden, sleep, mood, self-esteem, and anxiety. RESULTS A principal-components analysis conducted on intake data (N = 82) revealed a complicated grief factor and a bereavement-depression factor. Seven symptoms constituted complicated grief: searching, yearning, preoccupation with thoughts of the deceased, crying, disbelief regarding the death, feeling stunned by the death, and lack of acceptance of the death. Baseline complicated grief scores were significantly associated with impairments in global functioning, mood, sleep, and self-esteem in the 56 subjects available for follow-up. CONCLUSIONS The symptoms of complicated grief may be distinct from depressive symptoms and appear to be associated with enduring functional impairments. The symptoms of complicated grief, therefore, appear to define a unique disorder deserving of specialized treatment.
The Dynamics of Electronic Shoppers

The study takes a look at the demographics of online shoppers, the products they buy, their search for information and impulsiveness, their privacy concerns, their use of search engines as well as the reasons for cart abandonment. The study also looks at the factors that drive them to specific shopping sites online. The study shows male, higher educated and higher income group more interested in online shopping. The study showed electronics, digital content, books, gifts and apparel. The study revealed that online shoppers are not impulsive but very informed. Shipping costs and not ready to buy yet were the top reasons cited for cart abandonment. The website quality and brands stocked had an impact on shopping site loyalty.
Summarizing Musical Preferences as Audio Signatures

iTunes Signature Maker (iTSM) uses a feature-driven audio editing algorithm to rapidly generate a short sonic signature of an iTunes music library. iTSM stitches together small segments of songs, driving a concatenative algorithm with spectral features intrinsic to the audio files themselves and with environmental features which describe how those files have been used. This paper describes the software’s implementation in relation to the project’s objectives: accessibility to a broad audience, accurate representation of users’ musical preferences, and interesting and enjoyable results.
17.5 A 0.07mm2 2-channel instrumentation amplifier with 0.1% gain matching in 0.16μm CMOS

Extremely small-area sensor front-ends are required for cost-constrained automotive applications. Instrumentation amplifiers (IA) for such front-ends must process multi-channel sensor outputs and provide gain matching over the channels for proper sensor operation. Angular sensors are a typical example, in which the sine and cosine outputs of a resistive magnetic sensor must be processed with adequate gain matching to avoid unacceptable angular errors. This paper presents a 2-channel instrumentation amplifier in 0.16μm CMOS with 0.1% gain matching and occupying 0.035mm2 per channel. This represents a 13.3× area improvement with respect to state-of-the-art designs with similar gain accuracy [1]-[4], while maintaining low noise (18.7nV/√Hz), low offset (17μV) and high power efficiency (NEF=12.9). The accurate gain matching in a limited area is enabled by the adoption of a dynamic element matching (DEM) scheme and by the use of a high chopping frequency.
Frequency-domain under-modelled blind system identification based on cross power spectrum and sparsity regularization

In room acoustics, under-modelled multichannel blind system identification (BSI) aims to estimate the early part of the room impulse responses (RIRs), and it can be widely used in applications such as speaker localization, room geometry identification and beamforming based speech dereverberation. In this paper we extend our recent study on under-modelled BSI from the time domain to the frequency domain, such that the RIRs can be updated frame-wise and the efficiency of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is exploited to reduce the computational complexity. Analogous to the cross-correlation based criterion in the time domain, a frequency-domain cross power spectrum based criterion is proposed. As the early RIRs are usually sparse, the RIRs are estimated by jointly maximizing the cross power spectrum based criterion in the frequency domain and minimizing the l1-norm sparsity measure in the time domain. A two-stage LMS updating algorithm is derived to achieve joint optimization of these two targets. The experimental results in different under-modelled scenarios demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
miR‐197 induces epithelial–mesenchymal transition in pancreatic cancer cells by targeting p120 catenin

Invasive ductal adenocarcinoma (IDA) of the pancreas manifests poor prognosis due to the early invasion and distant metastasis. In contrast, intraductal papillary mucinous adenoma or carcinoma (IPMA or IPMC) reveals better clinical outcomes. Various molecular mechanisms contribute to these differences but entire picture is still unclear. Recent researches emphasized the important role of miRNA in biological processes including cancer invasion and metastasis. We previously described that miR‐126 is down‐regulated in IDA compared with IPMA or IPMC, and miR‐126 regulates the expression of invasion related molecule disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain‐containing protein 9 (ADAM9). Assessing the difference of miRNA expression profiles of IDA, IPMA, and IPMC, we newly identified miR‐197 as an up‐regulated miRNA specifically in IDA. Expression of miR‐197 in pancreatic cancer cells resulted in the induction of epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) along with the down‐regulation of p120 catenin which is a putative target of miR‐197. Direct interaction between miR‐197 and p120 catenin mRNA sequence was confirmed by 3′UTR assay, and knockdown of p120 catenin recapitulated EMT induction in pancreatic cancer cells. In situ hybridization of miR‐197 and immunohistochemistry of p120 catenin showed mutually exclusive patterns suggesting pivotal role of miR‐197 in the regulation of p120 catenin. This miR‐197/p120 catenin axis could be a novel therapeutic target. J. Cell. Physiol. 228: 1255–1263, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Analysis of complex neural circuits with nonlinear multidimensional hidden state models

Significance In analyzing complex networks, we are commonly interested in quantifying the influence that the network nodes exert on each other and in decoding the behavior of the network. We present the nonlinear multidimensional hidden state (NMHS) model, which addresses both of these unmet challenges by simultaneously decoding activity from parallel data streams and calculating the interaction strength among them. In NMHS models, each node in a network acts as a stochastic process that can influence the progression of other nodes in the network. We show that our procedure matches or outperforms state-of-the-art techniques in a multitude of scenarios, notably in systems with nonlinear interactions. A universal need in understanding complex networks is the identification of individual information channels and their mutual interactions under different conditions. In neuroscience, our premier example, networks made up of billions of nodes dynamically interact to bring about thought and action. Granger causality is a powerful tool for identifying linear interactions, but handling nonlinear interactions remains an unmet challenge. We present a nonlinear multidimensional hidden state (NMHS) approach that achieves interaction strength analysis and decoding of networks with nonlinear interactions by including latent state variables for each node in the network. We compare NMHS to Granger causality in analyzing neural circuit recordings and simulations, improvised music, and sociodemographic data. We conclude that NMHS significantly extends the scope of analyses of multidimensional, nonlinear networks, notably in coping with the complexity of the brain.
WASP Family Proteins: Their Evolution and Its Physiological Implications

The WASP family control formation of actin filaments through the Arp2/3 complex. Subfamiles include WASP, SCAR/WAVE, WASH, and WHAMM. We show that the family is unexpectedly ancient and that all subfamilies are now identified. This work also identifies a subfamily-specific control mechanism, and an emerging bias towards vesicular roles of actin.
Performance Implications of Strategic Restructuring through Knowledge Acquisition: Longitudinal Analysis of German Biotechnology Firms

This dissertation examines how firms can strategically restructure 1) through engaging in alliances, alliance portfolios, and networks; 2) through business model design; and 3) through developing dynamic capabilities to improve their strategic performance in terms of innovation, vertical integration, and survival. Empirical evidence is derived from a longitudinal analysis of the entire population of the German biotechnology industry between 1996 and 2009. In order to answer that overall research question, I have conducted three individual research studies. The first research paper aims to explain how alliance portfolio configurations and alliance portfolio capabilities impact new venture innovation performance. I am able to show that for new ventures homogeneous alliance portfolio configurations enhance innovation. Also, I find that portfolio capabilities per se do not certainly assist new ventures in enhancing innovation, as increasing portfolio capabilities also increase complexity. Furthermore, I surprisingly do not find an interaction effect between configuration and capabilities on innovativeness. Thus, I can emphasize the importance of alliance portfolio configurations and capabilities per se. The second research paper examines how multi-level network partner configurations and absorptive capacity influence the expansion of vertical integration. I am able to show that the expansion of vertical integration is a firm’s purposeful strategy to access knowledge in the light of unfavorable multi-level network partner configurations. In fact, I find that ego-network partners’ international diversity and regional network partners’ research munificence negatively affects the expansion of vertical integration. In addition, I show the significance of absorptive capacity per se and as moderating effect for the expansion of vertical integration. The third research paper aims to explain how business model design and internationalization impact new ventures’ competing exit strategies. I am able to show that knowledge stocks acquired through organizational learning triggered by business model design and internationalization affect new ventures’ decision over whether to dissolve a business or sell it off to another company.
Comparison of external beam radiation and brachytherapy to external beam radiation alone for unresectable extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND Extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (EHC) is a rare malignancy with a relatively poor prognosis. There are no randomized, prospective data to help define the optimal method of radiation delivery for unresectable EHC. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the benefit of adding brachytherapy to external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) for unresectable EHC. METHODS A retrospective review of 1,326 patients with unresectable EHC using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database was completed. Kaplan-Meier methods were used to analyze the primary endpoint, overall survival. Univariate and multivariate analysis was performed to identify and control for potential confounding variables, including age at diagnosis, sex, stage, grade, histology, race, year of diagnosis, and reason for no surgery. RESULTS Of the 1,326 patients with unresectable EHC, 1,188 (92.9%) received EBRT only, while 91 (7.1%) received both EBRT and brachytherapy. Patients receiving combined modality radiation therapy were more likely to be treated prior to the year 2000. Median overall survival for patients receiving EBRT and EBRT plus brachytherapy was 9 and 11 months, respectively (P=0.04). Cause specific survival was 12 months for those receiving EBRT only, and 15 months for those who received EBRT + brachytherapy (P=0.10). Survival analysis performed on patients with locoregional disease only revealed a trend towards prolonged overall survival with those receiving EBRT + brachytherapy (P=0.08). Multivariate analysis revealed grade and stage of disease were correlated with both overall survival and cause specific survival (P≤0.05). CONCLUSIONS Among patients with unresectable EHC, the addition of brachytherapy to EBRT is associated with a prolonged median overall survival. However, the use of brachytherapy boost decreased in the last decade of the study.
Does “Liking” Lead to Loving? The Impact of Joining a Brand's Social Network on Marketing Outcomes

Does “liking” a brand on Facebook cause a person to view it more favorably? Or is “liking” simply a symptom of being fond of a brand? The authors disentangle these possibilities and find evidence for the latter: brand attitudes and purchasing are predicted by consumers' preexisting fondness for brands, and these are the same regardless of when and whether consumers “like” brands on social media. In addition, we explore possible second-order effects by examining whether “liking” brands might cause consumers' friends to view that brand more favorably. When consumers see that a friend has “liked” a brand, they are less likely to buy the brand relative to when they learn that a friend genuinely likes the brand in the offline sense, which is a more meaningful social endorsement. Taken together, five experiments and two meta-analyses (N > 14,000) suggest that turning “liking” into improved brand attitudes and increased purchasing by consumers and their friends may require more than just the click of a button.