Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrative Genome-Wide Gene Expression Profiling of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma in Czech Republic and in the United States

Gene expression microarray and next generation sequencing efforts on conventional, clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) have been mostly performed in North American and Western European populations, while the highest incidence rates are found in Central/Eastern Europe. We conducted whole-genome expression profiling on 101 pairs of ccRCC tumours and adjacent non-tumour renal tissue from Czech patients recruited within the “K2 Study”, using the Illumina HumanHT-12 v4 Expression BeadChips to explore the molecular variations underlying the biological and clinical heterogeneity of this cancer. Differential expression analysis identified 1650 significant probes (fold change ≥2 and false discovery rate <0.05) mapping to 630 up- and 720 down-regulated unique genes. We performed similar statistical analysis on the RNA sequencing data of 65 ccRCC cases from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project and identified 60% (402) of the downregulated and 74% (469) of the upregulated genes found in the K2 series. The biological characterization of the significantly deregulated genes demonstrated involvement of downregulated genes in metabolic and catabolic processes, excretion, oxidation reduction, ion transport and response to chemical stimulus, while simultaneously upregulated genes were associated with immune and inflammatory responses, response to hypoxia, stress, wounding, vasculature development and cell activation. Furthermore, genome-wide DNA methylation analysis of 317 TCGA ccRCC/adjacent non-tumour renal tissue pairs indicated that deregulation of approximately 7% of genes could be explained by epigenetic changes. Finally, survival analysis conducted on 89 K2 and 464 TCGA cases identified 8 genes associated with differential prognostic outcomes. In conclusion, a large proportion of ccRCC molecular characteristics were common to the two populations and several may have clinical implications when validated further through large clinical cohorts.
A Systematic Review of Rhubarb (a Traditional Chinese Medicine) Used for the Treatment of Experimental Sepsis

Sepsis is a global major health problem in great need for more effective therapy. For thousands of years, Rhubarb had been used for various diseases including severe infection. Pharmacological studies and trials reported that Rhubarb may be effective in treating sepsis, but the efficacy and the quality of evidence remain unclear since there is no systematic review on Rhubarb for sepsis. The present study is the first systematic review of Rhubarb used for the treatment of experimental sepsis in both English and Chinese literatures by identifying 27 studies from 7 databases. It showed that Rhubarb might be effective in reducing injuries in gastrointestinal tract, lung, and liver induced by sepsis, and its potential mechanisms might include reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, ameliorating microcirculatory disturbance, and maintaining immune balance. Yet the positive findings should be interpreted with caution due to poor methodological quality. In a word, Rhubarb might be a promising candidate that is worth further clinical and experimental trials for sepsis therapy.
Sovereign Wealth Funds: The Need for Greater Transparency and Accountability

Management of official holdings of foreign assets, in particular in sovereign wealth funds, has become a major focus of national and international economic and financial policy. The principal reasons are their size, lack of transparency, potential to disrupt financial markets, and the risk that political objectives might influence their management. Moreover, such large cross-border holdings in official hands are at sharp variance with today's market-based global economy and financial system. These investment activities of governments have become sufficiently significant that an internationally agreed standard should be established to guide these activities. The standard should apply to the gamut of international investments of governments, including traditional foreign exchange reserves, stabilization funds, nonrenewable resource funds, sovereign wealth funds, and government-owned or controlled entities such as pension funds. The standard should ensure that international investments of governments are based on clearly stated policy objectives and investment strategies. It should set out the role of the government and the managers of the investment mechanism/entity and ensure that the operations of the investment mechanisms are as transparent as possible. Depending on the type of mechanism, its size, and the scope of its activities, behavioral guidelines with respect to its management should be established. Such a standard would contribute not only to financial stability in the countries directly involved but also to international financial stability by increasing the transparency, accountability, and predictability of the operations of governments in managing their international investments and discharging their obligations to current and future generations.
Bringing bag-of-phrases to ODP-based text classification

The Open Directory Project (ODP) is a large scale, high quality and publicly available web directory. Many studies and real-world applications build on an ODP-based classifier. However, existing approaches use traditional bag-of-words representation of text to develop an ODP-based classifier and words alone do not always provide atomic units of semantic meaning. In this paper, we propose a novel framework to better understand the semantic meaning of text by bringing bag-of-phrases to ODP-based text classification. The proposed method employs a syntactic tree to extract phrases from ODP and applies a phrase selection method to alleviate the high dimensionality problem of bag-of-phrases. The conducted evaluation results demonstrate that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in classification performance.
Measuring the returns to lifelong learning

This paper investigates the returns to lifelong learning, which is interpreted as the attainment of qualifications following entry into the labour market. For a number of reasons our analysis of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) represents an important addition to the existing evidence base. We allow for financial and non-financial returns to lifelong learning by using as dependent variables both (i) hourly earnings and (ii) CAMSIS score. A fixed effects specification counters the potential biases that arise from unobserved individual heterogeneity and the inclusion of lags allows estimation of how the returns to lifelong learning evolve over a ten year period after the qualification is obtained. We find evidence of earnings and occupation status returns using a broad categorisation of lifelong learning for both men and women, but more variability in returns when disaggregated NVQ-equivalent categories of qualification are considered. Our findings are broadly in line with existing evidence within the UK, which is mostly based on the analysis of cohort studies. 0f particular interest is the finding that returns to women materialise much sooner after the attainment of a qualification, than is the case for their male counterparts.
On the stability of one-dimensional diffusion flames established between plane, parallel, porous walls

A one-dimensional, non-premixed flame stability analysis is undertaken.Oscillatory and cellular flame instabilities are identified by a careful studyof the numerically calculated eigenvalues of the linearized system of equations. The numerical investigation details the critical locations for changes in flame behaviour, as well as the critical values of variousparameters that affect flame stability. A critical Lewis number, greaterthan unity, is identified as the value where unstable oscillations maybegin to appear (Le > Le c) and for which cellular flames can exist(Le < Le c). Some prior discussions are clarified regarding theaforementioned critical values, as well as the role of convection inproducing flame instabilities. The methodology of the stability analysis isdiscussed in detail.
Evaluating the links between climate, disease spread, and amphibian declines

Human alteration of the environment has arguably propelled the Earth into its sixth mass extinction event and amphibians, the most threatened of all vertebrate taxa, are at the forefront. Many of the worldwide amphibian declines have been caused by the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), and two contrasting hypotheses have been proposed to explain these declines. Positive correlations between global warming and Bd-related declines sparked the chytrid-thermal-optimum hypothesis, which proposes that global warming increased cloud cover in warm years that drove the convergence of daytime and nighttime temperatures toward the thermal optimum for Bd growth. In contrast, the spatiotemporal-spread hypothesis states that Bd-related declines are caused by the introduction and spread of Bd, independent of climate change. We provide a rigorous test of these hypotheses by evaluating (i) whether cloud cover, temperature convergence, and predicted temperature-dependent Bd growth are significant positive predictors of amphibian extinctions in the genus Atelopus and (ii) whether spatial structure in the timing of these extinctions can be detected without making assumptions about the location, timing, or number of Bd emergences. We show that there is spatial structure to the timing of Atelopus spp. extinctions but that the cause of this structure remains equivocal, emphasizing the need for further molecular characterization of Bd. We also show that the reported positive multi-decade correlation between Atelopus spp. extinctions and mean tropical air temperature in the previous year is indeed robust, but the evidence that it is causal is weak because numerous other variables, including regional banana and beer production, were better predictors of these extinctions. Finally, almost all of our findings were opposite to the predictions of the chytrid-thermal-optimum hypothesis. Although climate change is likely to play an important role in worldwide amphibian declines, more convincing evidence is needed of a causal link.
Three essays on frictional labour markets

This thesis contributes to the understanding of how socio-economic factors affect the functioning of modern labour markets. It belongs to the strand of academic literature that departs from the standard Walrasian model of the labour market, and considers matching and information frictions to be important determinants of observed labour market phenomena. Within this general framework, this thesis analyses how different forms of agent heterogeneity socio-demographic identity, productivity, and wealth affect wage rates and the level of employment in competitive labour markets. The first chapter studies how occupational segregation the sorting of workers across occupations based on their demographic characteristics affects the allocation of talent in the labour market. When job vacancy information is transmitted via workers’ group-biased social contacts, occupational segregation is found to be a robust equilibrium outcome. The chapter shows that while occupational segregation implies benefits in terms of the job-finding probability of individual workers, it may also engender significant allocative inefficiencies when workers differ in terms of their productivity across occupations. The second chapter examines how heterogeneous workers and firms sort across formal (market-based) and informal (network-based) recruitment channels. When worker and firm productivity are unobservable the two recruitment channels effectively compete in terms of their screening capability. Matching frictions are shown to generate a sorting externality that leads to a multiplicity of equilibrium outcomes, depending on the skillbias within social networks and the productivity dispersion among workers and firms. The third chapter, co-authored with Damien Puy, examines to what extent variations in wages and employment over the business-cycle can explain the counter-cyclical properties of the income distribution. We show that demand composition effects are an important channel through which aggregate supply shocks are propagated through the economy, and that these have important distributional consequences. In particular, we find income inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient) to be counter-cyclical. Consistent with empirical evidence, this is shown to be largely due to changes in the level of employment and to a lesser degree to variations in relative factor prices.
Social Constructions of Student Success in a Community College Program for At-Risk Students: A Case Study

8 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 10 Accountability 16 Need for Assessments 19 Purpose of the Study 23 Propositions and Supporting Theory 27 Strategy 36 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 40 Student Success 40 Theoretical Background 47 Student Voice 48 Cultural Capital 51 Student Identities 52 Locals and Cosmopolitans 54 Decision Making Rationality 58 CHAPTER 3: THE CASE 63 The Program 64 Program Resources 68 GO Students 74 Limitations and Delimitations 79 Role of the Researcher 82
A Computational Procedure for Calculating Optimal Commodity Taxes with Illustrative Evidence from Indian Budget Data

A simple procedure for calculating optimal commodity taxes is proposed, which takes into account the simultaneous interdependence of taxes, expenditure, and price levels/responses. The method also allows for the social marginal utility of income to depend on prices, besides expenditures, in a manner implied by the assumed preference functional form. Illustrative calculations on Indian budget data provide evidence not only in favor of the procedure, but of considerable sensitivity of directions of marginal tax reforms to the data set (rural or urban) used, and of optimal tax estimates to demand functional form. Copyright 1989 by The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics.
Medicine Sellers for Prevention and Control of Sexually Transmitted Infections: Effect of a Quasi-Experimental Training Intervention in Bangladesh

This study used a quasi-experimental pre-post design to test whether short training can improve medicine sellers' (MSs) practices and skills for prevention and control of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Bangladesh. The training included lectures, printed materials, and identification of referral sites. Difference-in-differences estimation was used to determine the effects of intervention on key primary and secondary outcomes. Advice given by the MSs in intervention group for partner treatment and condoms use increased significantly by 11% and 9%, respectively, after adjusting for baseline differences in education, religion, age, duration of training, and study site. Referral of clients to qualified service providers increased by 5% in the intervention group compared to the comparison group, but this change was not found to be statistically significant. Significantly higher proportion of MSs in the intervention group recognized the recommended medications as per the national syndromic management guidelines in Bangladesh for treatment of urethral discharge and genital ulcer symptoms. Short training intervention was found to be effective in improving MSs' practice of promoting condom use and partner treatment to the clients. We anticipate the need for broad based training programs of MSs to improve their skills for the prevention and control of STI/HIV in Bangladesh.
Is Rumination after Bereavement Linked with Loss Avoidance? Evidence from Eye-Tracking

Rumination is a risk factor in adjustment to bereavement. It is associated with and predicts psychopathology after loss. Yet, the function of rumination in bereavement remains unclear. In the past, researchers often assumed rumination to be a maladaptive confrontation process. However, based on cognitive avoidance theories of worry in generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and rumination after post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), others have suggested that rumination may serve to avoid painful aspects of the loss, thereby contributing to complicated grief. To examine if rumination is linked with loss avoidance, an eye-tracking study was conducted with 54 bereaved individuals (27 high and 27 low ruminators). On 24 trials, participants looked for 10 seconds at a picture of the deceased and a picture of a stranger, randomly combined with negative, neutral or loss-related words. High ruminators were expected to show initial vigilance followed by subsequent disengagement for loss stimuli (i.e., picture deceased with a loss word) in the first 1500 ms. Additionally, we expected high ruminators to avoid these loss stimuli and to show attentional preference for non-loss-related negative stimuli (i.e., picture stranger with a negative word) on longer exposure durations (1500–10000 ms). Contrary to expectations, we found no evidence for an effect of rumination on vigilance and disengagement of loss stimuli in the first 1500 ms. However, in the 1500–10000 ms interval, high ruminators showed shorter gaze times for loss stimuli and longer gaze times for negative (and neutral) non-loss-related stimuli, even when controlling for depression and complicated grief symptom levels. Effects of rumination on average fixation times mirrored these findings. This suggests that rumination and loss avoidance are closely associated. A potential clinical implication is that rumination and grief complications after bereavement may be reduced through the use of exposure and acceptance-based therapeutic techniques.
A paradox of service quality in Turkey

Purpose – Are there cases or contexts where certain groups of customers who are expected to place a considerable emphasis and importance on the tangible qualities of services end up attributing a greater weight to the intangible qualities? This paper attempts to exemplify the existence of such cases, and explain why such cases are, at times, paradoxical in nature, and how such cases could arise.Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a structural‐equation‐modeling approach to theorize about, and empirically examine, the tangible and intangible determinants of service quality. The model and the path developed in the paper also capture the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. Using AMOS, the empirical estimation of the model is carried out.Findings – The central finding is that all intangible factors associated with service quality turn out to be unequivocally more important than the tangible ones in the Turkish non‐profit health‐care sector under investigation. In other w.
Does Adhesive Capsulitis of the Shoulder Increase the Risk of Stroke? A Population-Based Propensity Score-Matched Follow-Up Study

Objectives A previous population-based study reported an increased risk of stroke after the occurrence of adhesive capsulitis of the shoulder (ACS), but there were substantial imbalances in the distribution of age and pre-existing vascular risk factors between subjects with ACS and without ACS, which might lead to a confounded association between ACS and stroke. The purpose of the present large-scale propensity score-matched population-based follow-up study was to clarify whether there is an increased stroke risk after ACS. Methods We used a logistic regression model that includes age, sex, pre-existing comorbidities and socioeconomic status as covariates to compute the propensity score. A total of 22025 subjects with at least two ambulatory visits with the principal diagnosis of ACS in 2001 was enrolled in the ACS group. The non-ACS group consisted of 22025, propensity score-matched subjects without ACS. The stroke-free survival curves for these 2 groups were compared using the Kaplan-Meier method. Stratified Cox proportional hazard regression with patients matched on propensity score was used to estimate the effect of ACS on the occurrence of stroke. Results During the two-year follow-up period, 657 subjects in the ACS group (2.98%) and 687 in the non-ACS group (3.12%) developed stroke. The hazard ratio (HR) of stroke for the ACS group was 0.93 compared to the non-ACS group (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83–1.04, P = 0.1778). There was no statistically significant difference in stroke subtype distribution between the two groups (P = 0.2114). Conclusions These findings indicate that ACS itself is not associated with an increased risk of subsequent stroke.
In-Situ Thermal Response Testing - New Developments

The number of installations of ground source heat pump (GHSP) systems is rapidly growing in Switzerland. For any installation it is critical to have a correct estimation of the ground thermal properties to ensure optimal energy savings and for larger developments the in-situ thermal response test (TRT) provides a cost-effective method to achieve this. The authors have developed a compact mobile test device for the TRT, where all the required components are held in a suitcase-sized container. The compact module has been equipped with a modem to facilitate remote data-monitoring. This addition has enabled the engineer to overview the results in real time and to switch the heater on and off via a mobile phone, something that has reduced the time spent on site and therefore also the cost. The new compact test device has been used to determine the thermal conductivity for several larger GHSP systems in Switzerland and France and have shown equivalent results to previous trailer-sized equipments. The development and operation of the device is described together with a case study of a performed in-situ thermal response test.
Reassessing the Effects of Extending Unemployment Insurance Benefits

To deal with the high level of unemployment during the Great Recession, lawmakers extended the availability of unemployment benefits—all the way to 99 weeks in the states where unemployment was highest. A recent study has found that the extensions served to increase unemployment significantly by putting upward pressure on wages, leading to less jobs creation by firms. We replicate the methodology of this study with an updated and longer sample and find a much smaller impact. We estimate that the impact of extending benefits on unemployment through wages and job creation can, at its highest, account for only one-fourth of the increase in the unemployment rate; an impact that is much lower than other estimates in the literature.
Daylight Saving Time and Incidence of Myocardial Infarction: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design

Limited evidence suggests that Daylight Saving Time (DST) shifts have a substantial influence on the risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Previous literature, however, lack proper identification necessary to vouch for causal interpretation. We exploit Daylight Saving Time shift using non-parametric regression discontinuity techniques to provide indisputable evidence that this abrupt disturbance does affect incidence of AMI.