Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
"Grow and multiply": social development, birth rates and demographic transition in the Municipality of São Paulo, Brazil, time-series for 1901-94

This study reports the construction of time-series related to standardized mortality rate, proportional mortality ratio of Swaroop and Uemura, infant mortality rate, fetal death rate, expectation of life at birth and birth rate for the city of Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil, from 1901 to 1994. In order to determine the structural variation of these measures, the model, forecast and correlation of these series were submitted to statistical analysis. The results obtained were compared to the historical analysis of the major socioe-conomic phenomena during this period in an effort to explain populational movements in the city, with emphasis on the slow and late nature of the process of demographic transition in the city. It was concluded that time-series analysis for demographic measures is efficient in many ways: by allowing the application of statistical methodology to the human sciences, by passing the difficulties inherent in the characteristics of these values (serial correlation, heteroscedasticity, multicollinearity and non-normality of forecast error distribution), by integrating quantitative analysis with the historical interpretation of the phenomena approached, by projecting estimates of future trends on the basis of the behavior of the variables analyzed, and by systematizing the methodology for application in future studies of social research.
Blastocystis in Health and Disease: Are We Moving from a Clinical to a Public Health Perspective?

ABSTRACT Blastocystis is a genus of common single-celled intestinal parasitic protists with an unsettled role in human health and disease. Being a stable component of intestinal microbiota, once established, the Blastocystis parasite appears more common in healthy individuals than in patients with infectious, functional, or inflammatory bowel disease. Recent data suggest that the parasite is associated with certain gut microbiota profiles and health indices. Convincing data and tools differentiating asymptomatic colonization from infection are yet to be demonstrated. Although the parasite may elicit disease under certain circumstances, the focus on Blastocystis may be shifting from a clinical to a public health perspective.
Board Diversity in Family Firms

In order to capture and lead the market, a board should be able to understand and quickly react to the changing global market. The market is very complex and highly segmented according to factors such as gender, age and ethnicity. Therefore, having a diverse board is advantageous because the board members have different backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, levels of education and ages, all of which may easily reflect the changing market. However, the presence of family members on the board may influence its performance in that they are appointed with less formality. This could impact the diversity of the board. The board of directors in a family firm may include people of the same ethnicity, gender or level of education, which could affect the firm’s performance.
A power scalable SAR-ADC in 0.18µm-CMOS with 0.5V nano-watt operation

This paper presents an extremely low-power and low-voltage Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) for wireless sensor networks or medical implantable devices. Top plate sampling and bootstrap switch are used to realize ultra low-voltage (0.5V) operation. Configuration of capacitor array which can decrease the number of control bus lines are proposed to reduce the circuit area and power consumption. To further reduce the power consumption, optimal power supply voltages are determined independently for analog blocks and digital blocks considering the tradeoff between the speed and power. Test ADC chip fabricated in 0. 18µm-CMOS process has achieved 0.5V, 6nW operation at sampling frequency of 0.4kS/s. The achieved effective number of bit (ENOB) is 7.19-bit. When the supply voltage is increased to 1V, the ADC operates at 820kS/s with power consumption of 30. 9µW and ENOB of 7.41-bit.
Beyond Right and Wrong

“I don’t believe in rights. Life, which is all a manifestation of incoherent forces, unknown and unknowable, rejects the human artificiality of the right. Rights were born when life was taken away from us. Indeed, originally, humanity had no rights. It lived and that was everything. Today, instead, there are thousands of rights; one could accurately say that everything which we have lost we call a right. I know that I live and that I desire to live. It is most difficult to put this desire into action. I am surrounded by a humanity that wants what everyone else wants. My isolated affirmation is a most serious crime. Laws and morals, in competition, intimidate and persuade me. The “blonde rabbi” [I.e., Christ or Christian values. -translator] has triumphed. One prays, one implores, one curses, but one does not dare. Cowardice, caressed by Christianity, creates morality, and this justifies baseness and begets renunciation. [. ] “Society, on the other hand, modest and clean in appearance, but horribly infected with gangrene throughout its body, makes me vomit, fills me with horror and loathing, kills me. ” How I envy the great Bonnot! “Il me faut vivre ma vie! ”1 / “It is necessary that I live my life”” Bruno Filippi
Role Modeling in Physicians’ Professional Formation: Reconsidering an Essential but Untapped Educational Strategy

Forming technically proficient, professional, and humanistic physicians for the 21st century is no easy task. Mountains of biomedical knowledge must be acquired, diagnostic competence achieved, effective communication skills developed, and a solid and applicable understanding of the practice and role of physicians in society today must be reached. The central experience for learners in this complex and challenging terrain is the “modeling of” and “learning how to be” a caregiver and health professional. Role modeling remains one crucial area where standards are elusive and where repeated negative learning experiences may adversely impact the development of professionalism in medical students and residents. The literature is mainly descriptive, defining the attributes of good role models from both learners and practitioners’ perspectives. Because physicians are not “playing a role” as an actor might, but “embodying” different types of roles, the cognitive and behavioral processes associated with successfully internalizing roles (e.g., the good doctor/medical educator) are important. In this article, the authors identify foundational questions regarding role models and professional character formation; describe major social and historical reasons for inattention to character formation in new physicians; draw insights about this important area from ethics and education theory (philosophical inquiry, apprenticeship, situated learning, observational learning, reflective practice); and suggest the practical consequences of this work for faculty recruitment, affirmation, and development.
10 Years of Data Mining Research: Retrospect and Prospect

Since its first meeting in 2001, the IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM) has established itself as the world's premier research conference in data mining. With sponsorship from the IEEE Computer Society, ICDM has taken a number of initiatives to promote data mining research over the past 10 years. These initiatives include: o KAIS journal publications of the best papers from ICDM every year since 2001
MR imaging of rotator cuff tears in individuals with paraplegia.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to use MR imaging to evaluate the prevalence and extent of rotator cuff tears in paraplegic patients, who are at increased risk for impingement caused by overuse. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty-four MR examinations of the shoulder were evaluated for partial or full-thickness rotator cuff tears and for single or multiple rotator cuff tendon tears. Thirty-seven MR studies were from paraplegic subjects (26 symptomatic, 11 asymptomatic), and 27 MR studies were from able-bodied subjects (17 symptomatic, 10 asymptomatic). RESULTS Among subjects who were symptomatic and paraplegic, 73% of shoulders imaged showed evidence of rotator cuff tear on MR images compared with 59% of shoulders in able-bodied symptomatic subjects. Of all subjects with paraplegia, 57% of shoulders imaged showed rotator cuff tears. Among all paraplegic subjects, prevalence and severity of tears correlated positively with age and duration of spinal cord injury. Tears that involved the posterior portion of the rotator cuff were revealed on MR images in 74% of the paraplegic subjects compared with 50% of the able-bodied subjects. CONCLUSION MR imaging revealed a high percentage and degree of severity of rotator cuff tears in individuals with paraplegia and thus proved useful in evaluating shoulders in these patients.
Operating budgets as the management control.

Regional Water Company (it's called as PDAM) Tirta Tuah Benua East Kutai is a company owned regions that serves the area's water needs in the region Sengatta, East Kutai. PDAM has financial planning for the future that summarized in a budget. The purpose of this study is: 1) Analyzing the operating budget deviations against the realization operational at PDAM Tirta Tuah Benua East Kutai. (2) Analysis of operational deviations to improve management control in PDAM Tirta Tuah Continent East Kutai. Results of variance between budget and actual in 2011 namely: (1) Total revenue has unfavorable deviation; (2) favorable deviation occurs in total of business direct cost, total of business indirect cost, Total revenues and other expenses, and operating loss before income tax. Results of the variance is known that there are deviations between budget and realization in 2012, namely: (1) Total revenue has favorable deviations; (2) unfavorable deviation occurs in total of business direct cost, and profit or loss of business before income tax; 3) favorable deviation occur in indirect cost of business, the cost, the amount of revenue and other expenses. Deviation of the most dominant in the operational budget of 2011 contained in variable of the business direct costs, namely cost of operation of transmission and distribution that have unfavorable deviation. In 2012 the most dominant irregularities contained in the same variable, maintenance cost of Water Treatment which has unfavorable deviation.
Modeling Small Business Growth, Migration Behavior, Local Public Services and Household Income in Appalachia: A Spatial Simultaneous Equations Approach

In this paper, a spatial simultaneous growth equilibrium model of small business growth, migration behavior, median household income and local public expenditures is developed. The model is empirically estimated by Generalized Spatial Three-Stage Least Squares estimator using count-level data from Appalachia for 1990-2000. The results suggest the existence of interdependence among the growth rates of small business, gross in-and out-migration, median household income and local public services in the form of feedback simultaneities, spatial autoregressive lag and spatial cross-regressive lag simultaneities. The findings also suggest the existence of conditional convergence with respect to endogenous variables of the model. The speeds of adjustment towards the steady states, however, are very slow which would cover many generations. The growth rate of median household income with a half–life time of about 9 years is the fastest and the growth rate of gross in-migration with a half-life time of about 180 years is the slowest to adjust. The findings also indicate the clustering of counties on the bases of their growth rates of median household incomes which would require the need for development policy coordination at the regional level, a region being defined as a group of counties, or the whole Appalachia. Another key finding of the study is also that Appalachian counties with higher initial population sizes were both destinations and sources of migrants during the study period.
Potential Therapeutic Effects of Lipoic Acid on Memory Deficits Related to Aging and Neurodegeneration

The aging process comprises a series of organic alterations, affecting multiple systems, including the nervous system. Aging has been considered the main risk factor for the advance of neurodegenerative diseases, many of which are accompanied by cognitive impairment. Aged individuals show cognitive decline, which has been associated with oxidative stress, as well as mitochondrial, and consequently energetic failure. Lipoic acid (LA), a natural compound present in food and used as a dietary supplement, has been considered a promising agent for the treatment and/or prevention of neurodegenerative disorders. In spite of a number of preclinical studies showing beneficial effects of LA in memory functioning, and pointing to its neuroprotective potential effect, to date only a few studies have examined its effects in humans. Investigations performed in animal models of memory loss associated to aging and neurodegenerative disorders have shown that LA improves memory in a variety of behavioral paradigms. Moreover, cell and molecular mechanisms underlying LA effects have also been investigated. Accordingly, LA displays antioxidant, antiapoptotic, and anti-inflammatory properties in both in vivo and in vitro studies. In addition, it has been shown that LA reverses age-associated loss of neurotransmitters and their receptors, which can underlie its effects on cognitive functions. The present review article aimed at summarizing and discussing the main studies investigating the effects of LA on cognition as well as its cell and molecular effects, in order to improve the understanding of the therapeutic potential of LA on memory loss during aging and in patients suffering from neurodegenerative disorders, supporting the development of clinical trials with LA.
Variable Dependence of Signaling Output on Agonist Occupancy of Ste2p, a G Protein-coupled Receptor in Yeast*

We report here on the relationship between ligand binding and signaling responses in the yeast pheromone response pathway, a well characterized G protein-coupled receptor system. Responses to agonist (α-factor) by cells expressing widely varying numbers of receptors depend primarily on fractional occupancy, not the absolute number of agonist-bound receptors. Furthermore, the concentration of competitive antagonist required to inhibit α-factor-dependent signaling is more than 10-fold higher than predicted based on the known ligand affinities. Thus, responses to a particular number of agonist-bound receptors can vary greatly, depending on whether there are unoccupied or antagonist-bound receptors present on the same cell surface. This behavior does not appear to be due to pre-coupling of receptors to G protein or to the Sst2p regulator of G protein signaling. The results are consistent with a signaling response that is determined by the integration of positive signals from agonist-occupied receptors and inhibitory signals from unoccupied receptors, where the inhibitory signals can be diminished by antagonist binding.
Could the indirect competition hypothesis explain inter‐sexual site segregation in red deer (Cervus elaphus L.)?

Inter-sexual segregation between habitats or between sites within a habitat is very widespread in sexually dimorphic ungulates. As an explanation, it has been suggested that males, because of their larger forage requirements, are driven from preferred, high quality forage habitats into marginal habitats of lower forage quality but higher forage biomass by female competition (‘indirect competition hypothesis’). However, this hypothesis has hardly been tested. In the present study, we tested the indirect competition hypothesis for site segregation of red deer on the Isle of Rum, Scotland, within two vegetation communities: short Agrostis /Festuca grassland and Calluna heath. We predicted that: (1) males should choose sites within each vegetation community that are of higher forage biomass but lower forage quality, than sites selected by females; (2) the degree of inter-sexual site segregation should be highest within the vegetation community in which indirect competition was most intense. We found that the sexes were significantly segregated between sites within both vegetation communities, but males did not use sites of lower forage quality or of higher forage biomass than did females. Moreover, degree of site segregation was not significantly higher in the vegetation community in which competition was more intense (i.e. short Agrostis /Festuca grassland). We conclude that the indirect competition hypothesis cannot explain site segregation in red deer on the Isle of Rum.
Thrombosis prophylaxis in medical patients: a retrospective review of clinical practice patterns.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The risk of venous thromboembolism in medical patients is comparable to the risk in general surgical patients. Thromboprophylaxis is recommended for specific medical patients, but its use in clinical practice is unknown. DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted a retrospective review of the charts of consecutive patients discharged from 2 departments of Internal Medicine, one in the teaching hospital of Varese and one in the non-teaching hospital of Angera, Italy, from October to December 2000. We selected the charts of patients with clinical conditions at increased risk of venous thromboembolism requiring thromboprophylaxis according to consensus statements. The use of antithrombotic drugs and contraindications to prophylaxis were documented. RESULTS We screened a total of 516 charts, 265 in Varese and 251 in Angera and we identified 165 patients (103 and 62, respectively) at risk of venous thromboembolism because of malignancy (53), heart failure (34), stroke (33), acute infections (23), acute respiratory failure (18), acute rheumatic disorders (3), and inflammatory bowel disease (1). Forty-two patients had contraindications to antithrombotic drugs and 11 were already on long-term oral anticoagulant treatment. Among the 112 remaining patients, prophylaxis was prescribed to 52 patients (46.4%), 35 of 60 in Varese (58.3%) and 17 of 52 in Angera (32.7%, p=0.0067). Patients with stroke and heart failure were significantly more likely to receive thromboprophylaxis than other groups of patients. INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS Prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism is underused in medical patients and the proportion of patients receiving antithrombotic drugs varies with the medical condition which precipitated hospital admission. The low rate of usage of prophylaxis suggests that preventable cases of thromboembolism are occurring and that better education of physicians is required to increase the usage of thromboprophylaxis.
Human cutaneous microvascular ageing: potential insights into underlying physiological mechanisms of endothelial function and dysfunction

Attenuated human blood vessel reactivity, and an attendant loss of nitric oxide, is an independent risk factor associated with increased cardiovascular mortality and may be the earliest pathological finding associated with cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, vascular dysfunction resulting from decreased NO bioavailability is a systemic disease process that occurs simultaneously in multiple vascular beds affecting both the resistance and conduit vasculature (Abularrage et al. 2005).
Adjunct Prednisone Therapy for Patients with Community-acquired Pneumonia : a Multicenter , Double-blind , Randomized , Placebo-controlled Trial

Şinasi ÖZSOYLU, MD e-mail: sinasiozsoylu@hotmail.com Among patients with acute ischemic stroke due to occlusions in the proximal anterior intracranial circulation, less than 40% regain functional independence when treated with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) alone. Thrombectomy with the use of a stent retriever, in addition to intravenous t-PA, increases reperfusion rates and may improve long-term functional outcome.
Achieving Performance

Innovation is becoming more and more important in modern society. There are a lot of researches on different kinds of innovation but marketing innovation is one kind of innovation that has not been studied frequently before. Marketing innovation is defined as a new way in which companies can market themselves to potential or existing customers. The study shows some key elements for marketing innovation that are worth paying attention to when implementing marketing innovation projects. Examples of such key elements are: paying attention to the neglected market, suitable market segmentatio reliable market information, public relationship, increased customer value, combination of market factors, explore different marketing channels and the use of technology in combination with what? Beside the key elements for marketing innovation, we also risks that may occur, such as cost, market uncertainty, information leakage, imitation and overdependence on experience. By proposing a set of indicators to measure marketing innovation, the article offers solutions for marketing innovation so that any organization can achieve optimal results. Keywords—Innovation, marketing innovation, performance in an organization.
Tax-based Capital Controls’ Efficacy at Affecting the Composition of Foreign Capital

This paper investigates whether countries can use tax-based forms of capital controls to affect the share of foreign direct investment (FDI) relative to debt. Doing so might enable a country to influence capital-recipient countries’ foreign capital towards FDI and away from debt. The empirical model and dependent, explanatory, and control variables have been drawn from existing literature and have been applied to a panel data set consisting of 20 countries spanning 1999 to 2011. The main empirical findings show that a tax preference for FDI is more effective and persistent than a tax discrimination against debt investments.
Image Security Using Visual Cryptography and Watermarking for Multiple Data Owners

In the fast technological world, many traditional security techniques are provided to secure data exchange between various devices. But the existing system does not provide much of the security to the media. In the existing system, lightweight security is used, secondly digital rights management is most important. There are multiple owners who are having equal rights for a single data; there is a need to give an equal authority to all the data owners. There is no single administrator who has all the rights to that confidential data. The confidential data should be secured in such a way that no single administrator from all the data owners will be able to get the data as a whole. The need for implementing adequate security services is increasing so that the confidential data cannot be accessed by unauthorized people. To address the above challenges, we proposed the system to use both secure sharing and watermarking schemes to protect user's data. The secure sharing scheme gives the security to the data and watermarking scheme will authenticate the particular data to the individual owners. Thus our proposed approach achieves good security performance.
Galton Lecture: Behaviour genetic studies of intelligence, yesterday and today: the long journey from plausibility to proof

When asked whether he would discuss man in the Origins of the Species, Darwin replied, ‘I think I shall avoid the subject, as so surrounded with prejudices, though I fully admit it is the highest and most interesting problem for the naturalist’. Galton on the other hand replied to the same question, ‘I shall treat man and see what the theory of heredity of variations and the principles of natural selection mean when applied to man’ (Pearson, 1914–30, Vol. II, p. 86).