Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sample size formulae for the Bayesian continual reassessment method

Background In the planning of a dose finding study, a primary design objective is to maintain high accuracy in terms of the probability of selecting the maximum tolerated dose. While numerous dose finding methods have been proposed in the literature, concrete guidance on sample size determination is lacking. Purpose With a motivation to provide quick and easy calculations during trial planning, we present closed form formulae for sample size determination associated with the use of the Bayesian continual reassessment method (CRM). Methods We examine the sampling distribution of a nonparametric optimal design and exploit it as a proxy to empirically derive an accuracy index of the CRM using linear regression. Results We apply the formulae to determine the sample size of a phase I trial of PTEN-long in pancreatic cancer patients and demonstrate that the formulae give results very similar to simulation. The formulae are implemented by an R function ‘getn’ in the package ‘dfcrm’. Limitations The results are developed for the Bayesian CRM and should be validated by simulation when used for other dose finding methods. Conclusions The analytical formulae we propose give quick and accurate approximation of the required sample size for the CRM. The approach used to derive the formulae can be applied to obtain sample size formulae for other dose finding methods.
The effect of player positional groups on the nature of tackles that result in tackle-related injuries in professional rugby league matches.

AIM The aim of this study was to describe the effect of player positional groups on the nature of tackles that result in tackle-related injuries in professional rugby league matches. METHODS Prospective observational epidemiology analyses for tackle-related injuries and video analyses for the nature of tackles were conducted for a single team in the National Rugby League (NRL) throughout the 2007 and 2008 competitions for a total of 48 games. Risk ratios (RR) were calculated for comparisons between positional groups (adjustable, hit-up forwards or outside backs). RESULTS The total missed match tackle-related injury rate was 57.8 per 1 000 player hours. Hit-up forwards recorded significantly more total tackle-related injuries than outside backs (RR: 1.3; P=0.049), but not more than adjustables (RR: 1.0; P=0.922). Hit-up forwards recorded significantly more chest-back tackle-related injuries than adjustables (RR: 6.0; P=0.008). Outside backs recorded significantly more tackle injuries as the ball carrier than the tackler (RR: 2.4; P=0.015) while adjustables recorded significantly more tackle injuries as the tackler than the ball carrier (RR: 1.8; P<0.001). Hit-up forwards had a higher incidence of contusions, and sprains while adjustables had a higher incidence of fracture/dislocations. There were no differences in injury severity between the positional groups. CONCLUSION Player positional group had an effect on tackle-related injury type and injury site. Hit-up forwards and outside backs recorded more tackle-related injuries as a ball carrier than as a tackler, while in contrast, adjustables recorded more tackle-related injuries as the tackler than the ball carrier.
EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN & SOCIAL NORMS ON ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS

The author has done factor analysis of environmental friendly behavioral intentions taken from an earlier study, to study the effect of environmental concern & social norms on these intentions. The results indicate that these intentions can be grouped into “active” intentions & “passive” intentions. The environmental concern plays significant role in active intentions while social norms plays significant role in passive intentions. Implications of these results for consumer researchers, marketing managers & public policy makers are outlined.Key Words: Environmental concern, Social norms, Consumer behavior. The issue of environment has grown important over the past few decades, however the critical part of this issue remains that the rate at which the problems related to environment are increasing is quite higher than the rate at which the actions are taken to solve these problems. Whether it is government, population or other organizations all are responding to the furies caused by the nature or human actions rather than behaving proactively & taking a check at their current actions. The most important part in this environmentally friendly behavior is to be played by the consumer. Follows & Jobber (1999) in their study to develop a model to predict environmentally purchase behavior found that there will be a positive relationship from attitude towards environmental consequences & a negative relationship from attitude towards individual consequences to environmentally responsible purchase intention. Their study also indicated that motivation to promote & enhance the welfare of others underlies positive environmental attitudes.
The generational conflict reconsidered

The deteriorating trend in the incomes of families with young children is of increasing concern to both academics and politicians. Since the well-being of the elderly has improved concomitantly, many see an emerging generational clash. We argue that this zero-sum distributional trade-off view is largely premised on an overly static analysis and prefer, as an alternative, to examine the age-distribution of well-being through the lens of cohort dynamics. The aim of this article is very policy applied, an attempt to identify a win-win policy model that simultaneously ensures child and elderly welfare. We argue that social investments in children now will have strong and positive secondary effects in terms of helping maintain welfare guarantees for the elderly in the future. The key lies in minimizing child poverty, and we evaluate which policy mix may prove most effective for this end. We conclude that, in most countries, the elimination of poverty in families with children would be surprisingly affordable. La tendance à une détérioration des revenus des familles avec de jeunes enfants constitue une inquiétude croissante tant dans les milieux académiques que politiques. Dans le même temps le bien-être des personnes âgées s'est amélioré, et beaucoup y voit la possibilité d'un clash générationnel. Nous arguons que cette approche d'un échange distributionnel à somme nulle est largement basée sur une analyse complètement statique. Nous préférons adopter comme approche alternative la distribution du bien être par âge à la lumière des dynamiques par cohorte. L'objectif de cet article est résolument policy oriented et constitue une tentative d'identifier un modèle politique gagnant/gagnant qui assure en même temps le bien être des enfants et des personnes âgées. Notre argument principal est que des investissements sociaux en faveur des enfants maintenant auront des effets secondaires importants et positifs aidant à maintenir les garanties pour les personnes âgées dans le futur. L'élément clé est de réduire la pauvreté des enfants et nous évaluons quel policy-mix peut être le plus efficace pour rencontrer cet objectif. Nous concluons que dans la plupart des pays l'élimination de la pauvreté des familles avec enfants pourrait être de manière étonnante relativement peu chère.
The extent of linkage disequilibrium in four populations with distinct demographic histories.

The design and feasibility of whole-genome-association studies are critically dependent on the extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD) between markers. Although there has been extensive theoretical discussion of this, few empirical data exist. The authors have determined the extent of LD among 38 biallelic markers with minor allele frequencies >. 1, since these are most comparable to the common disease-susceptibility polymorphisms that association studies aim to detect. The markers come from three chromosomal regions-1,335 kb on chromosome 13q12-13, 380 kb on chromosome 19q13.2, and 120 kb on chromosome 22q13.3-which have been extensively mapped. These markers were examined in approximately 1,600 individuals from four populations, all of European origin but with different demographic histories; Afrikaners, Ashkenazim, Finns, and East Anglian British. There are few differences, either in allele frequencies or in LD, among the populations studied. A similar inverse relationship was found between LD and distance in each genomic region and in each population. Mean D' is.68 for marker pairs <5 kb apart and is.24 for pairs separated by 10-20 kb, and the level of LD is not different from that seen in unlinked marker pairs separated by >500 kb. However, only 50% of marker pairs at distances <5 kb display sufficient LD (delta>.3) to be useful in association studies. Results of the present study, if representative of the whole genome, suggest that a whole-genome scan searching for common disease-susceptibility alleles would require markers spaced < or = 5 kb apart.
Activation of Influenza A Viruses by Host Proteases from Swine Airway Epithelium

ABSTRACT Pigs are important natural hosts of influenza A viruses, and due to their susceptibility to swine, avian, and human viruses, they may serve as intermediate hosts supporting adaptation and genetic reassortment. Cleavage of the influenza virus surface glycoprotein hemagglutinin (HA) by host cell proteases is essential for viral infectivity. Most influenza viruses, including human and swine viruses, are activated at a monobasic HA cleavage site, and we previously identified TMPRSS2 and HAT to be relevant proteases present in human airways. We investigated the proteolytic activation of influenza viruses in primary porcine tracheal and bronchial epithelial cells (PTEC and PBEC, respectively). Human H1N1 and H3N2 viruses replicated efficiently in PTECs and PBECs, and viruses containing cleaved HA were released from infected cells. Moreover, the cells supported the proteolytic activation of HA at the stage of entry. We found that swine proteases homologous to TMPRSS2 and HAT, designated swTMPRSS2 and swAT, respectively, were expressed in several parts of the porcine respiratory tract. Both proteases cloned from primary PBECs were shown to activate HA with a monobasic cleavage site upon coexpression and support multicycle replication of influenza viruses. swAT was predominantly localized at the plasma membrane, where it was present as an active protease that mediated activation of incoming virus. In contrast, swTMPRSS2 accumulated in the trans-Golgi network, suggesting that it cleaves HA in this compartment. In conclusion, our data show that HA activation in porcine airways may occur by similar proteases and at similar stages of the viral life cycle as in human airways.
Executive Effort and Selection of Risky Projects

This article examines the incentives of executives to adopt risky projects. The agency problem considered is that of motivating the executive to expend effort to generate information about the profitability of projects and to select the "best" project conditional upon the information that his effort generates. We show that the executive and the principal will not always agree regarding which project is best. We provide conditions under which this conflict of interest leads (from the principal's perspective) to either an underinvestment or an overinvestment in risky projects.
Sensory and premotor connections of the orbital and medial prefrontal cortex of macaque monkeys

Sensory and premotor inputs to the orbital and medial prefrontal cortex (OMPFC) were studied with retrograde axonal tracers. Restricted areas of the lateral and posterior orbital cortex had specific connections with visual‐, somatosensory‐, olfactory‐, gustatory‐, and visceral‐related structures. More medial areas received few direct sensory inputs.
Contemporary Evolution of Plant Growth Rate Following Experimental Removal of Herbivores

Herbivores are credited with driving the evolutionary diversification of plant defensive strategies over macroevolutionary time. For this to be true, herbivores must also cause short-term evolution within plant populations, but few studies have experimentally tested this prediction. We addressed this gap using a long-term manipulative field experiment where exclosures protected 22 plant populations from natural rabbit herbivory for <1 to 26 years. We collected seeds of Rumex acetosa L. (Polygonaceae) from our plots and grew them in a common greenhouse environment to quantify evolved differences among populations in individual plant growth rate, tolerance to herbivory, competitive ability, and the concentration of secondary metabolites (tannins and oxalate) implicated in defense against herbivores. In 26 years without rabbit herbivory, plant growth rate decreased linearly by 30%. We argue that plant growth rate has evolved as a defense against intense rabbit herbivory. In contrast, we found no change in tolerance to herbivory or concentrations of secondary metabolites. We also found no change in competitive ability, suggesting that contemporary evolution may not feed back to alter ecological interactions within this plant community. Our results combined with those of other studies show that the evolution of gross morphological traits such as growth rate in response to herbivory may be common, which calls into question assumptions about some of the most popular theories of plant defense.
Joint Survival Analysis of Hedge Funds and Funds of Funds Using Copulas

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to propose that simple measures of linear association are unable to capture accurately the dependence between the survival of hedge funds and funds of funds, respectively. The paper then aims to advocate the use of copulas to model the joint survival of hedge funds and funds of funds managed by the same manager. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses both a one-step approach where the margins and the copula parameters are estimated jointly, and a two-step approach where the margins are fitted first and the copula parameter is estimated thereafter given the fixed margins. The margins are estimated non-parametrically, semi-parametrically, and parametrically, respectively. Findings - First, the paper finds that Kendall's tau and Spearman's rho are anywhere between three and eight times larger than the corresponding sample based measures when various families of copulas are employed. Second, additional tests show that the two survival functions are strongly dependent, with the degree of nonlinear association increasing in the lower left quadrant. Originality/value - This is the first paper to use copulas to model the joint survival of hedge funds and funds of funds. The results highlight the asymmetric dependence between hedge funds and funds of funds, which has implications for risk management practices.
Are Consumers Hesitant to Purchase National Brands Manufactured in Other Countries?

This study, conducted in Thailand, examines consumers' evaluation and purchase preference of high-equity versus low-equity Thai fashion labels of sophisticated and standard apparel outsourced to three Asian countries of varying manufacturing competence. Field data was analyzed through a 2 x 2 x 3 factorial design and the influence of a particular factor over the others in specific scenarios was observed. Minor brands of multifaceted products confront lesser country-of-origin (COO) concerns than more reputed brands of complex items. Sophisticated products of reputed brands made in developing economies also attract greater consumer circumspection about their COO than the brand's standard items.
Declining Strike Activity in Australia 1983–85: An International Phenomenon?*

The chief issue is whether Australia experienced a more pronounced fall in strike s during the 1983-85 period of the Accord than a representative group of other countries. In an international context, the Australian dimi nution of strike activities after the beginning of the Accord was mos t unusual, and there is no evidence of a general world-wide transmiss ion of industrial disputation. Copyright 1987 by The Economic Society of Australia.
Variation between geographical populations of Lutzomyia (Nyssomyia) whitmani (Antunes & Coutinho, 1939) sensu lato (Diptera:Psychodidae:Phlebotominae) in Brazil.

Phylogenetic analysis of morphometric and biological characters indicated that there are two distinct forms of Lutzomyia whitmani in Brazil: one is present both north and south of the River Amazonas in the State of Pará while the other occurs in northeast Brazil, in the State of Ceará, and further south, including the type locality in State of Bahia. The Amazonian form is reportedly neither strongly anthropophilic nor synanthropic, and it is the vector of Leishmania shawi; whereas the southern form is often collected peridomestically, while biting man, and has been found infected with Le. (V.) braziliensis. The ratio of the length of the genital filaments to that the genital pump was found to be consistently smaller in males of the Amazonian populations. A middle repetitive DNA element was isolated by differentially screening a genomic library made using Amazonian material, and the sequence was diagnostic for this form of Lu. whitmani (being absent or occurring in low copy number in the southern form). The total evidence suggests there are at least two, geographically-isolated forms of Lu. whitmani, which may represent different cryptic species.
Fertility in Rural Sudan: The Effect of Landholding and Child Mortality

Two stage least squares and descriptive statistics are used to examine the impact of land holdings on fertility and child mortality in rural Sudan. Data are based on surveys of 523 households in 26 villages which involve tenant farming according to public Elsuki schemes. Independent variables are womans age husbands years of schooling immigrant status and presence of county health facilities. The results indicate that womans age and the immigration dummy are significant and positively associated with child mortality. The regional health dummy is slightly significant and negatively associated with child mortality. About 50% of the variation in fertility is explained by maternal age cultivated land uncultivated land immigration dummy child deaths and the mortality rate. Husbands years of education does not appear to have an effect on fertility. The strongest effects on fertility are maternal age and child mortality. Cultivated land is highly significantly and positively associated with fertility. Uncultivated land has a small effect. Immigrant households have lower fertility than nonimmigrant households which is attributed to the possibility of higher child mortality among immigrant households. Olsens correction method is used to correct the bias in ordinary least square estimates of replacement response of fertility to child mortality which reveals a replacement rate of 0.56-0.73. Reduction of child mortality from 1.54 to 0.77 would reduce fertility from 7.16 to 6.59 and surviving children would increase from 5.62 to 5.82. An increase in cultivated land by 50% would increase fertility from 7.16 to 7.7. The quantitative impact of womens education on fertility is not examined due to data deficiencies. Models are based on the household production model and a demand function.
Why do EPS Forecast Error and Dispersion not Vary with Scale? Implications for Analyst and Managerial Behavior

We document a counter-intuitive finding regarding analyst forecasts of quarterly earnings per share (EPS): magnitudes of deviations from benchmarks - individual forecasts versus consensus (dispersion) and consensus versus actual (forecast error) - do not vary with scale. Seasonally-differenced EPS, or time-series forecast error, also exhibits substantial lack of variation with scale, but only for firms followed by analysts. This lack of variation with scale is not observed for analyst and time-series forecasts for a) EPS for some countries, b) sales and cash flows for all countries, and c) stock splits. We propose and investigate different explanations for these puzzling regularities that have important implications for practice and research. We believe the cause is managerial smoothing of EPS designed to reduce across-firm variation in EPS volatility.
Marketing Models of Consumer Demand

Marketing researchers have used models of consumer demand to forecast future sales; to describe and test theories of consumer behavior; and to measure the response to marketing interventions. The basic framework typically starts from microfoundations of expected utility theory to obtain a statistical system that describes consumers' choices over available options, and to thus characterize product demand. The basic model has been augmented significantly to account for quantity choice decisions; to accommodate purchases of several products on a single purchase occasion (multiple discreteness and multi-category purchases); and to allow for asymmetric switching between brands across different price tiers. These extensions have enabled researchers to bring the analysis to bear on several related marketing phenomena of interest. This paper has three main objectives. The first objective is to articulate the main goals of demand analysis-forecasting, measurement and testing--and to highlight the desiderata associated with these goals. Our second objective is describe the main building blocks of individual-level demand models. We discuss approaches built on direct and indirect utility specifications of demand systems, and review extensions that have appeared in the marketing literature. The third objective is to explore interesting emerging directions in demand analysis including considering demand-side dynamics; combining purchase data with primary information; and using semiparametric and nonparametric approaches. We hope researchers new to this literature will take away a broader perspective on these models and see potential for new directions in future research.
Effect of metastable oxygen molecules in high density power-modulated oxygen discharges

A spatially averaged (well mixed) reactor model was used to simulate a power-modulated (pulsed) high density oxygen discharge. Chemistry involving the high energy oxygen metastable molecules O2M(A 3Σu++C 3Δu+c 1Σu−) was included in the simulation. This chemistry was necessary to capture the experimentally observed increase in the O− negative ion density in the afterglow of the pulsed discharge. As the electron temperature drops in the afterglow, the rate coefficient of electron attachment with O2M increases several fold. The wall recombination probability of oxygen atoms affected the O− density drastically. For the conditions studied, the maximum O− density in the afterglow increased with pressure, decreased with power, and showed a maximum with pulse period. The time in the afterglow at which the peak O− density occurred decreased with pressure and power, and was independent of the pulse period. Knowing the temporal evolution of O− in the afterglow may be important for applications requiring extraction o.