Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cancer risk in nontransplanted and transplanted cystic fibrosis patients: a 10-year study.

BACKGROUND Cancer in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), the most common genetic disorder in Caucasians, has been a rare event. However, more patients now reach adulthood, and more patients undergo organ transplantation-factors associated with an increased cancer risk. Our aim was to assess the risk of cancer in nontransplanted and transplanted CF patients. METHODS We followed 28 858 patients whose data were reported to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation patient registry from 1990 through 1999 and compared the number of cancers observed in transplanted and nontransplanted patients to the number expected from population-based cancer incidence data. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS In 202 999 person-years of observation of nontransplanted CF patients, 75 cancers were observed, but 69.7 were expected (standardized incidence ratio [SIR] = 1.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.8 to 1.4). Twenty-three digestive tract tumors were observed, but 4.5 were expected (SIR = 5.1, 95% CI = 3.2 to 7.6). More cancers than expected were observed of the small bowel, colon, and biliary tract but not of the stomach or rectum. We found that the deficit of non-digestive tract tumors was not statistically significant (52 observed versus 65.2 expected; SIR = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.6 to 1.0; P =.055). In 2725 person-years of observation of 1063 transplanted patients, 13 cancers were observed, but 2.05 were expected (SIR = 6.3, 95% CI = 3.4 to 10.8), and more digestive tract tumors (four observed versus 0.19 expected; SIR = 21.2, 95% CI = 5.8 to 54.2) and lymphomas (seven observed versus 0.16 expected; SIR = 44.0, 95% CI = 17.7 to 90.7) were observed than expected. CONCLUSIONS We observed an increased risk of digestive tract cancers among adult CF patients, particularly of the small bowel, colon, and biliary tract. This increased risk appeared to be more pronounced in patients who had had an organ transplantation.
Decadal Trends in Sea Level Patterns: 1993-2004

Abstract Estimates of regional patterns of global sea level change are obtained from a 1° horizontal resolution general circulation model constrained by least squares to about 100 million ocean observations and many more meteorological estimates during the period 1993–2004. The data include not only altimetric variability, but most of the modern hydrography, Argo float profiles, sea surface temperature, and other observations. Spatial-mean trends in altimetric data are explicitly suppressed to isolate global average long-term changes required by the in situ data alone. On large scales, some regions display strong signals although few individual points have statistically significant trends. In the regional patterns, thermal, salinity, and mass redistribution contributions are all important, showing that regional sea level change is tied directly to the general circulation. Contributions below about 900 m are significant, but not dominant, and are expected to grow with time as the abyssal ocean shifts. Esti.
Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis __________________________________________________________ Testing External Habits in an Asset Pricing Model Testing External Habits in an Asset Pricing Model

The asset pricing model with external habit formation predicts that the equity premium depends on consumption changes relative to the habit level, implying a response that varies over the business cycle. We test this implication using a VAR model of the U.S. postwar economy whose time-varying parameters are estimated conditioning on Markov-switching regimes that shift according to the business cycle phases. This enables us to test whether the non-linear response predicted in the model is significant. The results show that the response of the equity premium to consumption shocks is insignificantly different over the business cycle. We interpret this as evidence against the external habit formation hypothesis.
Transfer Learning from Deep Features for Remote Sensing and Poverty Mapping

The lack of reliable data in developing countries is a major obstacle to sustainable development, food security, and disaster relief. Poverty data, for example, is typically scarce, sparse in coverage, and labor-intensive to obtain. Remote sensing data such as high-resolution satellite imagery, on the other hand, is becoming increasingly available and inexpensive. Unfortunately, such data is highly unstructured and currently no techniques exist to automatically extract useful insights to inform policy decisions and help direct humanitarian efforts. We propose a novel machine learning approach to extract large-scale socioeconomic indicators from high-resolution satellite imagery. The main challenge is that training data is very scarce, making it difficult to apply modern techniques such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). We therefore propose a transfer learning approach where nighttime light intensities are used as a data-rich proxy. We train a fully convolutional CNN model to predict nighttime lights from daytime imagery, simultaneously learning features that are useful for poverty prediction. The model learns filters identifying different terrains and man-made structures, including roads, buildings, and farmlands, without any supervision beyond nighttime lights. We demonstrate that these learned features are highly informative for poverty mapping, even approaching the predictive performance of survey data collected in the field.
The Spin–Spin Coupling Constants in Ethane, Methanol and Methylamine: A Comparison of DFT, MCSCF and CCSD Results

The spin–spin coupling constants in ethane, methylamine, and methanol have been calculated using density-functional theory (DFT), coupled-cluster singlesand-doubles (CCSD) theory, and multiconfigurational self-consistent field (MCSCF) theory so as to benchmark the performance of DFT against high-level ab initio methods and experimental data. For each molecule, the Karplus curve has been evaluated at the three computational levels. The comparisons with ab initio methods indicate that DFT reproduces the 1J(CH), 1J(CC), and 1J(NH) one-bond couplings well but is less accurate for 1J(CN), 1J(OH), and 1J(CO). While DFT performs well for the geminal couplings 2J(HH) and 2J(CH), it tends to overestimate the vicinal 3J(HH) couplings slightly although it is sufficiently accurate for most purposes.
Sofic groups and diophantine approximation

We prove the algebraic eigenvalue conjecture of J. Dodziuk, P. Linnell, V. Mathai, T. Schick, and S. Yates (see [2]) for sofic groups. Moreover, we give restrictions on the spectral measure of elements in the integral group ring. Finally, we define integer operators and prove a quantization of the operator norm below 2. To the knowledge of the author, there is no group known that is not sofic. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Frequent Use of Emergency Departments by the Elderly Population When Continuing Care Is Not Well Established

Introduction The elderly, who suffer from multiple chronic diseases, represent a substantial proportion of Emergency Department (ED) frequent users, thus contributing to ED overcrowding, although they could benefit from other health care facilities, if those were available. The aim of this study was to evaluate and characterize hospital visits of older patients (age 65 or greater) to the ED of a university teaching hospital in Rome from the 1st of January to the 31st of December 2014, in order to identify clinical and social characteristics potentially associated with “elderly frequent users”. Material and Methods A retrospective study was performed during the calendar year 2014 (1st January 2014 – 31st December 2014) analyzing all ED admissions to the University Hospital of Rome Tor Vergata. Variables collected included age, triage code, arrival data, discharge diagnosis, and visit outcome. We performed a risk analysis using univariate binary logistic regression models. Results A total number of 38,016 patients accessed the ED, generating 46,820 accesses during the study period, with an average of 1.23 accesses for patient. The elderly population represented a quarter of the total ED population and had an increased risk of frequent use (OR 1.5: CI 1.4–1.7) and hospitalization (OR 3.8: CI 3.7–4). Moreover, they showed a greater diagnostic complexity, as demonstrated by the higher incidence of yellow and red priority codes compared to other ED populations (OR 3.1: CI 2.9–3.2). Discussion Older patients presented clinical and social characteristics related to the definition of “elderly frail frequent users”. The fact that a larger number of hospitalizations occurred in such patients is indirect evidence of frailty in this specific population, suggesting that hospital admissions may be an inappropriate response to frailty, especially when continued care is not established. Conclusion Enhancement of continuity of care, establishment of a tracking system for those who are at greater risk of visiting the ED and evaluating fragile individuals should be the highest priority in addressing ED frequent usage by the elderly.
The Mexican Wage Curve 2000-2003: A Quantile Analysis

This paper exploits the Mexican Encuesta Nacional de Empleo Urbano (ENEU) to determine the existence of the wage curve|an empirical phenomena rst suggested by Blanch ower and Oswald (1990)|during the period 2000{2003. We propose an innovative approach to the wage curve by estimating the elasticity across the wage dis- tribution. This is applied to the Mexican experience during the early 2000s recession. The evidence indicates that for Mexico during this period there is no wage curve, and that wages are positively a ected by local levels of unemployment. This lends credi- bility to the Harris and Todaro (1970) view which suggests that there is segmentation in the labour market with residual unemployment. We argue that perhaps the power of unions may account for our fndings.
Optimal Ternary Constant-Weight Codes of Weight Four and Distance Six

Recently, Chee and Ling (¿Constructions for q-ary constant-weight codes¿, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, vol. 53, no. 1, 135-146, Jan. 2007 ) introduced a new combinatorial construction for q-ary constant-weight codes which reveals a close connection between q-ary constant-weight codes and sets of pairwise disjoint combinatorial designs. In this paper, we study the problem of constructing optimal ternary constant-weight codes with Hamming weight four and minimum distance six using this approach. The construction here exploits completely reducible super simple designs and group divisible codes. The problem is solved leaving only two cases undetermined. Previously, the sizes of constant-weight codes of weight four and distance six were known only for those of length no greater than 10.
Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Transdermal Rivastigmine for the Treatment of Encephalopathy in Liver Cirrhosis (TREC Trial)

Objectives: Cognitive dysfunction in patients with hepatic encephalopathy (HE) may be caused by alterations in cholinergic neurotransmission. The objective of the study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of transdermal rivastigmine in improving cognitive function in patients with overt HE. Design: Randomized, controlled pilot study in which patients with grade 2 or 3 HE were treated with lactulose and randomized to receive either transdermal rivastigmine or placebo for 21 days. The modified encephalopathy scale (MES), object recognition test (ORT), trail test (TT), and serum ammonia were assessed at baseline weekly. Electroencephalography was performed at baseline and the final week of the study. Results: Patients were treated with lactulose (20 g/30 mL three times per day) and either transdermal rivastigmine (4.6 mg/d; n = 15) or placebo (n = 15). Transdermal rivastigmine significantly improved MES, ORT, and TT results compared with placebo (P ≤ 0.0001 at all 3 weeks for all 3 assessments). Serum ammonia improved in both treatment groups, although there was significantly greater improvement with placebo than rivastigmine after 2 weeks of treatment (P What is already known about this subject? Current approaches to the management of HE are primarily designed to reduce the levels of ammonia and other gut-derived toxins. ? Traditional strategies for HE treatment have included non-absorbable disaccharides (to decrease bowel transit time) or rifamixin (non-absorbable antibiotics to reduce ammoniogenic flora). No transdermal cholinomimetic agents have been used with oral lactulose to date, in HE. What are the new findings? Transdermal rivastigmine is safe for use in patients with grade 2 & 3 HE. Transdermal rivastigmine in combination with oral lactulose in this study is far superior to lactulose alone in improving cognitive function. How might it impact on clinical practice in the foreseeable future? Transdermal rivastigmine in combination with oral lactulose can be used safely in clinical practice. Transdermal rivastigmine in combination with oral lactulose is efficacious in improving cognitive function in moderate HE (grade 2/3). Further validation through large randomized clinical trials is required before this is adopted in universal clinical practice of treating HE.
A density-based approach for mining overlapping communities from social network interactions

In this paper, we propose a density-based community detection method, CMiner, which exploits the interaction graph of online social networks to identify overlapping community structures. Based on the average reciprocated interactions of a node in the network, a new distance function is defined to find the similarity between a pair of nodes. The proposed method also provides a basic solution for automatic determination of the neighborhood threshold, which is a non-trivial problem for applying density-based clustering methods. Considering the local neighborhood of a node p, the distance function is used to determine the distance between the node p and its neighbors in the interaction graph to identify core nodes, which are then used to define overlapping communities. On comparing the experimental results with clique percolation and other related methods, we found that CMiner is comparable to the state-of-the-art methods and is also computationally faster.
Respiratory Disorders in Aluminum Smelter Workers

Objectives: Summarizing the knowledge status, including the morphology, possible etiological factors, and clinical expression of aluminum potroom asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease related to aluminum potroom exposure. Methods: A review of the literature from the last two decades as it appears in PubMed. Results: There is substantial evidence for the existence of potroom asthma, although the incidence seems to decline over the last 10 years. Increased mortality from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and longitudinal decline in forced expiratory volume in the first second of expiration has been shown in aluminum potroom workers. Morphological manifestations in bronchial biopsies and the inflammatory markers NO and eosinophils in airway tissue and blood are consistent with asthma in general. The causative agent(s) is (are) not known. Conclusions: Reduction of exposure and cessation of smoking seem to be the major preventive measures to avoid respiratory disorders in the aluminum industry.
Incentives for Corruptible Auditors in the Absence of Commitment

In the absence of commitment to auditing, we study the optimal auditing contract when collusion between an agent and an auditor is possible. We show that the auditor can be totally useless if the auditor's independence can be compromised with relative ease. Even very stiff sanctions on fraud will be unable to make auditing optimal. We then derive a demand for independent external auditing. We endogenize collusion cost as the cost from the risk of future detection. We also derive a justification for the focus of the recent audit reforms on penalties on CEOs in cases of audit fraud.
Prognostic impact of preoperative statin use after radical nephroureterectomy for upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma

Purpose The objective was to investigate the impact of statin use on prognosis after radical nephroureterectomy for upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC). Materials and Methods A retrospective review of medical records identified 277 patients who underwent radical nephroureterectomy for primary UTUC at Asan Medical Center between January 2006 and December 2011. Information on preoperative statin use was obtained from patient charts in an electronic database. We assessed the impact of statin use on recurrence-free survival (RFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and overall survival (OS). Results Of these 277 patients, 62 (22.4%) were taking statin medications. Compared to the statin nonusers, the statin users were older, had a higher body mass index, and had higher rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The 5-year RFS rates of statin users and nonusers were 78.5% and 72.5%, respectively (p=0.528); the 5-year CSS rates were 85.6% and 77.7%, respectively (p=0.516); and the 5-year OS rates were 74.5% and 71.4%, respectively (p=0.945). In the multivariate analysis, statin use was not an independent prognostic factor for RFS (hazard ratio, 0.47; p=0.056), CSS (hazard ratio, 0.46; p=0.093), or OS (hazard ratio, 0.59; p=0.144) in patients who underwent radical nephroureterectomy for UTUC. Conclusions Statin use was not associated with improved RFS, CSS, or OS in the sample population of patients with UTUC.
Development of captive chimpanzees at Tama Zoological Park: 15 years of observation with focus on mother-infant relationship

A longitudinal study of chimpanzee infants at Tama Zoo in Japan revealed a relationship between the mother’s rearing behavior and the exploratory behavior of the offspring. We observed 8 chimpanzees (born since 1999) for the first 36 months of their lives. We compared their motor development, tool use, and separation from their mothers. Nervous mothers tended to spend time away from the social group, isolating their infant at an early stage and making them more cautious about being away from their mother. Developmental diversities in social, physical and cognitive abilities were also observed. Some were early developers in general, while others were early in social and physical aspects but late in cognitive development, while some were slow in general. Further data is needed for a more detailed analysis. Life at the zoo is different from life in the wild, but observing young zoo animals allows us to gain developmental data that would be more difficult to obtain in the wild.
Technology acceptability for medical assistance

In this research we examine the age-specific acceptance motives of medical assistive technologies assessing the general openness of using these technologies as well as estimating potential barriers, which may impede a successful rollout. 122 respondents (20 – 80 years) participated in a survey, in which they were asked to evaluate the pros and cons of the usage of medical assistive technologies, acceptance motives and potential utilization barriers. In order to understand the complex nature of acceptance, personal variables (age, technology generation gender) as well as participants' learning history with technology (technical experience, subjective technical confidence and general attitudes towards the usage of technologies) were related to each other. Outcomes show that, overall, there is a quite positive motivation regarding the usage of medical technology, though, the perceived usage barriers are weighted more decisive for the acceptability of medical technology than the positively evaluated using motives. Overall, it was revealed that acceptance issues should be considered in order to proactively design a successful rollout of medical technologies.
Genome-Wide Prediction of Traits with Different Genetic Architecture Through Efficient Variable Selection

In genome-based prediction there is considerable uncertainty about the statistical model and method required to maximize prediction accuracy. For traits influenced by a small number of quantitative trait loci (QTL), predictions are expected to benefit from methods performing variable selection [e.g., BayesB or the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO)] compared to methods distributing effects across the genome [ridge regression best linear unbiased prediction (RR-BLUP)]. We investigate the assumptions underlying successful variable selection by combining computer simulations with large-scale experimental data sets from rice (Oryza sativa L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and Arabidopsis thaliana (L.). We demonstrate that variable selection can be successful when the number of phenotyped individuals is much larger than the number of causal mutations contributing to the trait. We show that the sample size required for efficient variable selection increases dramatically with decreasing trait heritabilities and increasing extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD). We contrast and discuss contradictory results from simulation and experimental studies with respect to superiority of variable selection methods over RR-BLUP. Our results demonstrate that due to long-range LD, medium heritabilities, and small sample sizes, superiority of variable selection methods cannot be expected in plant breeding populations even for traits like FRIGIDA gene expression in Arabidopsis and flowering time in rice, assumed to be influenced by a few major QTL. We extend our conclusions to the analysis of whole-genome sequence data and infer upper bounds for the number of causal mutations which can be identified by LASSO. Our results have major impact on the choice of statistical method needed to make credible inferences about genetic architecture and prediction accuracy of complex traits.
Dendritic Dynamics In Vivo Change during Neuronal Maturation

In vivo imaging of optic tectal neurons in the intactXenopus tadpole permits direct observation of the structural dynamics that occur during dendritic arbor formation. Based on images of single DiI-labeled neurons collected at daily intervals over a period of 6 d, we divided tectal cell development into three phases according to the total length of the dendritic arbor. During phase 1, the cell differentiates from a neuroepithelial cell type and extends an axon out of the tectum. The total dendritic branch length (TDBL) is <100 μm. During phase 2, when TDBL is 100–400 μm, the dendritic arbor grows rapidly. During phase 3, when TDBL is >400 μm, the dendritic arbor grows slowly and appears stable. Neurons at different positions along the rostrocaudal developmental axis of the tectum were imaged at 2 hr intervals over 6 hr and at 24 hr intervals over several days. Images collected at 2 hr intervals were analyzed to determine rates of branch additions and retractions. Morphologically complex, phase 3 neurons show half the rate of branch additions and retractions as phase 2 neurons. Therefore, rapidly growing neurons have dynamic dendritic arbors, and slower-growing neurons are structurally stable. The change in growth rate and dendritic arbor dynamics from phase 2 to phase 3 correlates with the developmental increase in synaptic strength in neurons located along the rostrocaudal tectal axis. The data are consistent with the idea that strong synaptic inputs stabilize dendritic arbor structures and that weaker synaptic inputs are permissive for a greater degree of dynamic rearrangements and a faster growth rate in the dendritic arbor.
International Conference on Information Systems ( ICIS ) 2010 JOB HOPPING , KNOWLEDGE SPILLOVERS , AND REGIONAL RETURNS TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENTS

We show that substantial regional differences in returns to information technology (IT) investments by US firms are attributable in part to knowledge spillovers generated by the movements of IT workers among firms. We use a newly developed source of employee micro-data with employer identifiers and location information to model IT workers’ mobility patterns. Access to an external IT pool one standard deviation larger than the mean is associated with a 20% increase in the output elasticity of own IT investment. We discuss implications for managers and