Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Primary Tumor Resection and Survival in Patients with Stage IV Gastric Cancer

Purpose The aim of this study was to determine whether surgical resection of the primary tumor contributes to survival in patients with metastatic gastric cancer. Materials and Methods A total of 288 patients with metastatic gastric cancer from the Akdeniz University, Antalya Training and Research Hospital, and the Meram University of Konya database were retrospectively analyzed. The effect of primary tumor resection on survival of patients with metastatic gastric cancer was investigated using the log-rank test. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates were calculated. Multivariate analysis was performed using Cox proportional hazards regression modeling. Results The median overall survival was 12.0 months (95% confidence intewrval [CI], 10.4~13.6 months) and 7.8 months (95% CI, 5.5~10.0 months) for patients with and without primary tumor resection, respectively (P<0.001). The median progression-free survival was 8.3 months (95% CI, 7.1~9.5 months) and 6.2 months (95% CI, 5.8~6.7 months) for patients with and without primary tumor resection, respectively (P=0.002). Conclusions Non-curative gastrectomy in patients with metastatic gastric cancer might increase their survival rate regardless of the occurrence of life-threatening tumor-related complications.
Renal resistance index and its prognostic significance in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

BACKGROUND Functional renal impairment is a common feature of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The link between functional renal impairment and HFpEF remains incompletely understood. With hypertension and diabetes as frequent co-morbidities, patients with HFpEF are at risk of developing intra-renal vascular hemodynamic alterations that may lead to functional renal impairment and impact on prognosis. METHODS Renal resistive index (RRI) was non-invasively determined by Doppler ultrasonic examination in 90 HFpEF patients and 90 age- and sex-matched hypertensive patients without evidence of heart failure (HF) who served as controls. Clinical, laboratory and cardiac echocardiography data were obtained in HFpEF patients and controls. To investigate its possible clinical relevance, RRI was evaluated as a prognostic index of all-cause mortality and hospitalization for HF. RESULTS Mean RRI was substantially greater in HFpEF patients than in controls (P < 0.0001), while mean blood pressure, glomerular filtration rate, hemoglobin and serum protein levels were significantly lower in HFpEF patients than in controls. On multivariable analysis, mean RRI was independently associated with HFpEF. In addition, increased mean RRI was an independent predictor of poor outcome [hazard ratio = 1.06 95% confidence interval (1.01-1.10), P = 0.007] and remained significantly associated with the outcome after adjustment for univariate predictors that included low mean blood pressure, low hemoglobin concentration and low glomerular filtration rate. Conclusion. Patients with HFpEF exhibit intra-renal vascular hemodynamic alterations. The severity of intra-renal vascular hemodynamic alterations correlates with a poor outcome.
Judging a house by its cover: Leaky building stigma and house prices in New Zealand

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to quantify leaky building stigma associated with monolithic claddings, explore how this stigma has likely been amplified by media coverage, estimate the number of affected properties and quantify the collective house price impact on homeowners of monolithic‐clad dwellings in the Auckland region.Design/methodology/approach – Residential sales transaction data organised in two subgroups (single‐family houses and multi‐unit dwellings) from 1997 through 2006 are analysed using a series of annual hedonic pricing models to empirically test for the presence of stigma. This is coupled with a descriptive analysis of leaky building media coverage to understand how this coverage may be influencing the stigma.Findings – The empirical results show that a leaky building stigma exists and is discounting prices of the Auckland Region's monolithic‐clad single family houses by 5 per cent and multi‐unit dwellings by 10 per cent. Approximately 37,500 monolithic‐clad dwellings have been.
Pose primitive based human action recognition in videos or still images

This paper presents a method for recognizing human actions based on pose primitives. In learning mode, the parameters representing poses and activities are estimated from videos. In run mode, the method can be used both for videos or still images. For recognizing pose primitives, we extend a Histogram of Oriented Gradient (HOG) based descriptor to better cope with articulated poses and cluttered background. Action classes are represented by histograms of poses primitives. For sequences, we incorporate the local temporal context by means of n-gram expressions. Action recognition is based on a simple histogram comparison. Unlike the mainstream video surveillance approaches, the proposed method does not rely on background subtraction or dynamic features and thus allows for action recognition in still images.
The biological standard of living in Europe during the last two millennia

This paper offers the first anthropometric estimates on the biological standard of living in central Europe in the first millennium, and expands the literature on the second millenium. The overall picture is one of stagnant heights. There was not much progress in European nutritional status, not even between 1000 and 1800, when recent GDP per capita estimates arrive at growing figures. We find that heights stagnated during the Roman imperial period in Central, Western and Southern Europe. One astonishing result is the height increase in the fifth and sixth centuries. Noteworthy is the synchronicity of the height development in three large regions of Europe. In a regression analysis of height determinants, population density was clearly economically (but not statistically) significant. Decreasing marginal product theories and Malthusian thought cannot be denied for the pre-1800 period. Of marginal significance were climate (warmer temperatures were good for nutritional status), social inequality and gender inequality (both reduce average height).
Virtual Realities in the Treatment of Mental Disorders: A Review of the Current State of Research

© 2012 Eichenberg and Wolters, licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Virtual Realities in the Treatment of Mental Disorders: A Review of the Current State of Research
Effectiveness of tax incentives to boost (retirement) saving: theoretical motivation and empirical evidence

The adequacy of household saving for retirement has become a policy issue all around the world. The UK and US have been in the vanguard of those countries that have tried to encourage retirement saving by providing tax-favoured treatment for particular savings accounts. We consider empirical evidence from these two countries regarding the extent to which funds in some specific tax advantaged accounts (IRAs in the US, TESSAs and ISAs in the UK) represent new savings. Our best interpretation of this evidence is that: only relatively small fractions of these funds can be considered to be "new" saving and so these policies have been an expensive means of encouraging saving; there has been some deadweight loss from the policies associated with "reshuffling" of existing savings. Continuing improvements in data on individual financial behaviour create scope for future empirical analysis of incentives to save, both within the standard economic framework that we explain and exploit, and by considering extensions to and adaptations of it.
Risk premiums and GM traits

An argument in favor of the development of genetically modified (GM) hybrids is that their presence is considered to be risk decreasing. On this basis, insurance premiums for corn growers in the United States who plant approved hybrids have been reduced. In this study we investigate, using a large dataset of experimental data compiled from reports of results from experimental field trials of corn hybrids by the State Agricultural Extension Services of ten universities over 20 years, whether the presence in a corn hybrid of a GM trait, or a combination of these traits, is likely to increase or decrease risk. The effects of input use on production uncertainty can be quantified through the specification and estimation of heteroskedastic production functions that allow for the variance of yield to change with the level of inputs, and we follow this approach in this study. We also use the flexible moments approach of Antle (1983) to estimate skewness of yield. We estimate a production function for the whole sample, and for three ERS regions represented in the dataset. For each model we use the residuals of the mean function to estimate the marginal effect of each input on variance and skewness of yield. The results show that there is not a systematic relationship between the presence of GM traits and variance and skewness of yield, and the results are not entirely consistent between ERS regions.
MEAN ABSOLUTE DEVIATIONS OF SAMPLE MEANS AND MINIMALLY CONCENTRATED BINOMIALS

This is a contribution to the theory of sums of independent random variables at the level of optimal explicit inequalities: we compute the optimal constants in Hornich’s lower bounds for the mean absolute deviations of sample means. This is done by reducing the original problem to the elementary one of determining the minimally concentrated binomial distributions B n,p with ﬁxed sample size parameter n .
Patent Reform: Aligning Reward and Contribution

Economists and policymakers have long recognized that innovators must be able to appropriate a reasonable portion of the social benefits of their innovations if innovation is to be suitably rewarded and encouraged. However, this paper identifies a number of specific fact patterns under which the current U.S. patent system allows patent holders to capture private rewards that exceed their social contributions. Such excessive patentee rewards are socially costly as they raise the deadweight loss associated with the patent system and discourage innovation by others. Economic efficiency is promoted if rewards to patent holders are aligned with and do not exceed their social contributions. This paper analyzes two major reforms to the patent system designed to spur innovation by better aligning the rewards and contributions of patent holders: establishing an independent invention defense in patent infringement cases, and strengthening the procedures by which patents are reexamined after they are issued. Three additional reforms relating to patent litigation are also studied: limiting the use of injunctions, clarifying the way in which "reasonable royalties" are calculated, and narrowing the definition of "willful infringement. "
Accumulation of Extracellular Matrix in Advanced Lesions of Canine Distemper Demyelinating Encephalitis

In demyelinating diseases, changes in the quality and quantity of the extracellular matrix (ECM) may contribute to demyelination and failure of myelin repair and axonal sprouting, especially in chronic lesions. To characterize changes in the ECM in canine distemper demyelinating leukoencephalitis (DL), histochemical and immunohistochemical investigations of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded cerebella using azan, picrosirius red and Gomori`s silver stain as well as antibodies directed against aggrecan, type I and IV collagen, fibronectin, laminin and phosphacan showed alterations of the ECM in CDV-infected dogs. A significantly increased amount of aggrecan was detected in early and late white matter lesions. In addition, the positive signal for collagens I and IV as well as fibronectin was significantly increased in late lesions. Conversely, the expression of phosphacan was significantly decreased in early and more pronounced in late lesions compared to controls. Furthermore, a set of genes involved in ECM was extracted from a publically available microarray data set and was analyzed for differential gene expression. Gene expression of ECM molecules, their biosynthesis pathways, and pro-fibrotic factors was mildly up-regulated whereas expression of matrix remodeling enzymes was up-regulated to a relatively higher extent. Summarized, the observed findings indicate that changes in the quality and content of ECM molecules represent important, mainly post-transcriptional features in advanced canine distemper lesions. Considering the insufficiency of morphological regeneration in chronic distemper lesions, the accumulated ECM seems to play a crucial role upon regenerative processes and may explain the relatively small regenerative potential in late stages of this disease.
Bureaucratic Appointments in Hybrid Regimes

Scholars associate bureaucratic quality with economic development. One particularly important component of a well-functioning bureaucracy is meritocratic promotion. This paper explores the conditions under which politicians will appoint high-level bureaucrats on the basis of economic performance. We argue that two key features of democracy - electoral competition and media freedom - increase the incidence of performance-based appointments among high-level bureaucrats. We test these claims using original data on turnover among 3762 vice governors in Russia’s 89 regions between 2001 and 2011. We also find that levels of bureaucratic turnover depend on the characteristics of the principal making those appointments.
On the estimation of attenuation from the ambient seismic field: inferences from distributions of isotropic point scatterers

S U M M A R Y Cross-correlation of ambient seismic noise recorded by two seismic stations may result in an estimate of the Green’s function between those two receivers. Several authors have recently attempted to measure attenuation based on these interferometric, receiver–receiver surface waves. By now, however, it is well established that the loss of coherence of the crosscorrelation as a function of space depends strongly on the excitation of the medium. In fact, in a homogeneous dissipative medium, uniform excitation is required to correctly recover attenuation. Applied to fundamental-mode ambient seismic surface waves, this implies that the cross-correlation will decay at the local attenuation rate only if noise sources are distributed uniformly on the Earth’s surface. In this study we show that this constraint can be relaxed in case the observed loss of coherence is due to multiple scattering instead of dissipation of energy. We describe the scattering medium as an effective medium whose phase velocity and rate of attenuation are a function of the scatterer density and the average strength of the scatterers. We find that the decay of the cross-correlation in the effective medium coincides with the local attenuation of the effective medium in case the scattering medium is illuminated uniformly from all angles. Consequently, uniform excitation is not a necessary condition for the correct retrieval of scattering attenuation. We exemplify the implications of this finding for studies using the spectrally whitened cross-correlation to infer subsurface attenuation.
The Dynamics of Investment, Payout and Debt

We present a dynamic agency model of investment, borrowing and payout decisions by a mature corporation operating in perfect financial markets. Risk-averse managers implement an inter-temporal strategy that maximizes their lifetime utility of managerial rents. They under-invest and smooth payout and rents. Debt is the shock-absorber for operating income and investment. Managers do not rebalance capital structure, so shocks to debt levels persist. Managers implement precautionary savings by paying down debt, even when interest is tax-deductible. We generate empirical predictions that differ from conventional agency models and from dynamic models based on financing frictions.
The Effects of Host-Feeding on Synovigenic Egg Development in An Endoparasitic Wasp, Itoplectis naranyae

Abstract Many adult parasitoids feed on host insects, a behavior known as host-feeding. Feeding on hosts is essential to maximizing female fecundity, but its contribution to reproduction varies from species to species. The relationship between fecundity and host-feeding was examined in the solitary endoparasitoid wasp Itoplectis naranyae Ashmead, (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) to assess the significance of host-feeding in female reproduction. Adult female wasps did not respond to hosts when they were 0–1 days old, but subsequently increased their oviposition and host-feeding activities with increasing female age. While newly emerging females had no mature eggs in their ovary, the number of mature eggs increased rapidly thereafter, a process termed synovigeny. Female wasps were capable of maturing eggs without host-feeding, and this suggested that they produced a certain portion of eggs from nutritional reserves that had been stored during the larval stage. Behavioral observations revealed that I. naranyae was a destructive host-feeder as the host was damaged during feeding. Female fecundity was greater in females that had previously fed on hosts than those did not, indicating that host-feeding was involved in egg production. There was a time-delayed relation between host-feeding events and additional egg production; at least 3 days were required to mature eggs from nutrients gained via feeding on hosts. The significance of host-feeding in I. naranyae reproduction is discussed in the context of its life history traits.
School choice and student achievement – new evidence on open-enrolment

This paper studies the effects of open-enrolment on student performance in the context of an admission reform in Stockholm. Before 2000, students had priority to the public upper secondary school situated closest to where they lived, but from the fall of 2000 and onwards, admission is based on grades only. The reform imposed strong incentives for school competition: all students can apply to all schools, there is no targeting of students to schools, and funding follows the students. It is shown that the students in Stockholm perform no better with increased choice availability. In fact, high ability students seem to perform worse after the reform.
Anonymity-Preserving Data Aggregation using Anonygator

Data aggregation is a key aspect of many distributed applications, such as distributed sensing, performance monitoring, and distributed diagnostics. In such settings, user anonymity is a key concern of the participants. In the absence of an assurance of anonymity, users may be reluctant to contribute data such as their location or configuration settings on their computer. In this paper, we present the design, analysis, implementation, and evaluation of Anonygator, an anonymitypreserving data aggregation service for large-scale distributed applications. Anonygator uses anonymous routing to provide user anonymity by disassociating messages from the hosts that generated them. It prevents malicious users from uploading disproportionate amounts of spurious data by using a lightweight accounting scheme. Finally, Anonygator maintains overall system scalability by employing a novel distributed tree-based data aggregation procedure that is robust to pollution attacks. All of these components are tuned by a customization tool, with a view to achieve specific anonymity, pollution resistance, and efficiency goals. To demonstrate the usefulness of Anonygator, we have used it to prototype three applications, one of which we have evaluated on PlanetLab. The other two have been evaluated on a local testbed.
Effect of stage at termination of legume green manures on soil organic carbon, yield and economic performance of subsequent maize crop

The rapid growth of population and reduction in productive agricultural lands are forcing smallholder subsistence farmers of Ethiopia to adopt intensive farming systems, to which they respond by growing more and more cereals in place of traditional fallow practices, causing widespread soil degradation. In this regard, systematic soil incorporation of N2-fixing legume crops as a green manure could be an important agronomic approach in order to reduce the need for costly external inputs and improve internal resources for sustainable production. Two consecutive experiments were conducted in the cropping seasons of 2007 and 2008 at Assosa area, western Ethiopia, to determine the effects of stages at incorporation of four legume crops on biomass input, soil organic C content and the agro-economic performance of succeeding maize crop. Factorial combination of four legume crops and four residue managements were laid in randomized complete block design (RCBD). Among the legume crops, cowpea has recorded the highest number and fresh mass of total and effective nodules than the rest, particularly at mid-flowering stage of growth. Cowpea and pod-setting stage of growth gave the highest dry matter (DM) input that improved the organic C content of the soil. Total DM and grain yields of maize crop in the subsequent season were also significantly affected by main effects, legume species and residue management (P < 0.01). In this regard, cowpea and delayed incorporation increased the DM and grain yields of the subsequent maize crop, attributable to the differential green manure biomass yield and corresponding improvement of the soil-plant environment. This is corroborated in the present study, by highly significant positive relationships observed between soil organic C content and DM (r = 0.88**) and grain yield (r = 0.80**) of maize crop. The economic evaluation revealed that the highest net benefits were obtained from cowpea green manure and pod-setting stage of growth.