Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparing neonatal morbidity and mortality estimates across specialty in periviable counseling

Abstract Objective: To describe and compare estimates of neonatal morbidity and mortality communicated by neonatologists and obstetricians in simulated periviable counseling encounters. Methods: A simulation-based study of 16 obstetricians (OBs) and 15 neonatologists counseling standardized patients portraying pregnant women with ruptured membranes at 23 weeks gestation. Two investigators tabulated all instances of numerically-described risk estimates across individuals and by specialty. Results: Overall, 12/15 (80%) neonatologists utilized numeric estimates of survival; 6/16 (38%) OBs did. OBs frequently deferred the discussion of “exact numbers” to neonatologists. The 12 neonatologists provided 13 unique numeric estimates, ranging from 3% to 50% survival. Half of those neonatologists provided two to three different estimates in a single encounter. By comparison, six OBs provided four unique survival estimates (“50%”, “30–40%”, “1/3–1/2”, “<10%”). Only 2/15 (13%) neonatologists provided numeric estimates of survival without impairment. None of the neonatologists used the term “intact” survival, while five OBs did. Three neonatologists gave numeric estimates of long-term disability and one OB did. Conclusion: We found substantial variation in estimates and noteworthy omissions of discussions related to long-term morbidity. Across specialties, we noted inconsistencies in the use and meaning of terms like “intact survival. ” More tools and training are needed to improve the quality and consistency of periviable risk-communication.
Physicochemical Analysis and Fatty Acid Composition of Oil Extracted from Olive Fruit

Research work was carried out to investigate the physicochemical analysis of olive oil extracted from olives grown in Khyber pakhtunkhwa. The samples were studied for physicochemical characteristics (Specific gravity, refractive index, Acid value, Saponification value and Peroxide value). The free fatty acidity is thus a direct measure of the quality of the oil. Olive oils contain fatty acids commonly present in olive oils which were analysed which are Palmitic, Palmitoleic, Stearic, Oleic, Linoleic, Linolenic, Arachidic and Gadoleic which have specific carbon number and their values in percentage are C16:0 (15.4), C16:1(1.5), C18:0 (3.5), C18:1 (65.2), C18:2 (16.3), C18:3 (0.7), C20:0 (0.3) and C20:1(0.2) respectively. The major fatty acid found in kalamata variety of olive oil contain oleic acid. Oleic acid percentage is high in olive oil which contained considerable amount of 65.2 %. The oil was compared with two olive oil samples S 2 and S 3 collected from local market. Keywords: Olive oil, Fatty acids, Sensory evaluation
Probability Theory and Related Fields. Manuscript-nr. Stochastic Invariant Imbedding Application to Stochastic Diierential Equations with Boundary Conditions

We study stochastic diierential equations of the type : dx t = f(t; x t)dt + d X k=1 k (t; x t) dw k t ; x 2 IR d ; t 2 0; T 0 ]: Instead of the customary initial value problem, where the initial value x 0 is xed, we impose an aane boundary condition : h 0 x 0 + h 1 x T0 = v 0 ; where h 0 , h 1 are deterministic matrices and v 0 is a xed vector. Our main aim is to prove existence and uniqueness results for such anticipating stochastic diierential equations.
Do Design Patterns Impact Software Quality Positively?

We study the impact of design patterns on quality attributes in the context of software maintenance and evolution. We show that, contrary to popular beliefs, design patterns in practice impact negatively several quality attributes, thus providing concrete evidence against common lore. We then study design patterns and object-oriented best practices by formulating a second hypothesis on the impact of these principles on quality. We show that results for some design patterns cannot be explained and conclude on the need for further studies. Thus, we bring further evidence that design patterns should be used with caution during development because they may actually impede maintenance and evolution.
EFFECTS OF ADRENALINE AND NORADRENALINE ON CLEARANCE OF TRIACYLGLYCEROL‐RICH LIPOPROTEINS FROM PLASMA: STUDIES WITH CHYLOMICRON‐LIKE LIPID EMULSIONS IN RATS

1. Adrenaline was infused intravenously in rats during the clearance from plasma of an injected lipid emulsion designed to model chylomicrons and the triacylglycerol‐rich plasma lipoproteins. The clearance rates of emulsion radiolabelled triolein (TO) and cholesteryl oleate (CO) were both increased, suggesting that hydrolysis of lipoprotein triglycerides and clearance of remnants from plasma were increased. The distribution of radiolabels in tissues showed more TO in skeletal and cardiac muscle after adrenaline, while more CO was found in liver compared with controls. Lesser amounts of both labels were found in the spleens of treated rats.
Obtuse Triangular Billiards I: Near the (2, 3, 6) Triangle

Let Sε denote the set of Euclidean triangles whose two small angles are within ε radians of and respectively. In this paper we prove two complementary theorems: (1) For any ε > 0 there exists a triangle in Sε that has no periodic billiard path of combinatorial length less than 1/ε. (2) Every triangle in S 1/400 has a periodic billiard path.
Study of Serum Markers of Brain Injury as Early Predictors of Neonatal Hypoxia / Ischemia

Neonatal hypoxia-ischemia remains a frequent cause of cerebral palsy, mental retardation, learning disability, and epilepsy. HIE must be identified as soon after birth as possible so that appropriate measures could be taken on arrival in the neonatal intensive care unit. The aim of this study was to investigate the postnatal levels of markers of brain injury, which are CK BB and Protein S-100B in serum and to determine whether hypoxic-ischemic brain damage alters these markers and whether HIE can be predicted by elevated serum concentrations soon after birth. We have included 20 neonates with HIE together with 15 control neonates in our study. Serum concentrations of CK BB and protein S-100B were determined after birth and 24 hours of age. Our results demonstrated that cases with HIE had higher values of cord and 24 hours blood levels of CK BB, and higher values of cord and 24 hours levels of protein S-100B, and when doing statistical analysis to compare these results with those of control group, this difference was significant in all except cord level of protein S-100B. we conclude from our results that CK BB and protein S-100B are predictive of HIE in full term neonates when measured soon after birth, yet the decision as to which infants could be candidates for postasphyxial measures should probably be based on several findings, which include cord blood pH, Apgar score, and serum protein S100 and CK-BB. Future work to establish the predictive value of these markers in long-term brain injury in neonates is recommended.
Adaptive contract design for crowdsourcing markets: bandit algorithms for repeated principal-agent problems

Crowdsourcing markets have emerged as a popular platform for matching available workers with tasks to complete. The payment for a particular task is typically set by the task's requester, and may be adjusted based on the quality of the completed work, for example, through the use of 'bonus' payments. In this paper, we study the requester's problem of dynamically adjusting quality-contingent payments for tasks. We consider a multi-round version of the well-known principal-agent model, whereby in each round a worker makes a strategic choice of the effort level which is not directly observable by the requester. In particular, our formulation significantly generalizes the budget-free online task pricing problems studied in prior work. We treat this problem as a multi-armed bandit problem, with each 'arm' representing a potential contract. To cope with the large (and in fact, infinite) number of arms, we propose a new algorithm, AgnosticZooming, which discretizes the contract space into a finite number of regions, effectively treating each region as a single arm. This discretization is adaptively refined, so that more promising regions of the contract space are eventually discretized more finely. We provide a full analysis of this algorithm, showing that it achieves regret sublinear in the time horizon and substantially improves over non-adaptive discretization (which is the only competing approach in the literature).
Does Willful Ignorance Deflect Punishment? - An Experimental Study

This paper studies whether people can avoid punishment by remaining willfully ignorant about possible negative consequences of their actions for others. We employ a laboratory experiment, using modified dictator games in which a dictator can remain willfully ignorant about the payoff consequences of his decision for a receiver. A third party can punish the dictator after observing the dictator’s decision and the resulting payoffs. On the one hand, willfully ignorant dictators are punished less if their actions lead to unfair outcomes than dictators who reveal the consequences before implementing the same outcome. On the other hand, willfully ignorant dictators are punished more than revealing dictators if their actions do not lead to unfair outcomes. We conclude that willful ignorance can circumvent blame when unfair outcomes result, but that the act of remaining willfully ignorant is itself punished, regardless of the outcome.
The Impact of Merger Legislation on Bank Mergers

We find that stricter merger control legislation increases abnormal announcement returns of targets in bank mergers by 7 percentage points. Analyzing potential explanations for this result, we document an increase in the pre-merger profitability of targets, a decrease in the size of acquirers, and a decreasing share of transactions in which banks are acquired by other banks. Other merger properties, including the size and risk profile of targets, the geographic overlap of merging banks, and the stock market response of rivals appear unaffected. The evidence suggests that the strengthening of merger control leads to more efficient and more competitive transactions.
The impact of restaurant consumption among US adults: effects on energy and nutrient intakes

Abstract Objective To examine the effect of fast-food and full-service restaurant consumption on adults’ energy intake and dietary indicators. Design Individual-level fixed-effects regression model estimation based on two different days of dietary intake data was used. Setting Parallel to the rising obesity epidemic in the USA, there has been a marked upward trend in total energy intake derived from food away from home. Subjects The full sample included 12 528 respondents aged 20–64 years who completed 24 h dietary recall interviews for both day 1 and day 2 in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003–2004, 2005–2006, 2007–2008 and 2009–2010. Results Fast-food and full-service restaurant consumption, respectively, was associated with an increase in daily total energy intake of 813·75 kJ (194·49 kcal) and 858·04 kJ (205·21 kcal) and with higher intakes of saturated fat (3·48 g and 2·52 g) and Na (296·38 mg and 451·06 mg). Individual characteristics moderated the impacts of restaurant food consumption with adverse impacts on net energy intake being larger for black adults compared with their white and Hispanic counterparts and greater for middle-income v. high-income adults. Conclusions Adults’ fast-food and full-service restaurant consumption was associated with higher daily total energy intake and poorer dietary indicators.
Do Research Joint Ventures Serve a Collusive Function?

Every year thousands of firms are engaged in research joint ventures (RJV), where all knowledge gained through R&D is shared among members. Most of the empirical literature assumes members are non-cooperative in the product market. But many RJV members are rivals leaving open the possibility that firms may form RJVs to facilitate product market collusion. We examine this by exploiting variation in RJV formation generated by a policy change that affects the collusive benefits but not the research synergies associated with a RJV. We use data on RJVs formed between 1986 and 2001 together with firm-level information from Compustat to estimate a RJV participation equation. After correcting for the endogeneity of R&D and controlling for RJV characteristics and firm attributes, we find the decision to join is impacted by the policy change. We also find the magnitude is significant: the policy change resulted in an average drop in the probability of joining a RJV of $41\%$ among computer and semiconductor manufacturers, $34\%$ among telecommunications firms, and $33\%$ among petroleum refining firms. Our results are consistent with research joint ventures serving a collusive function.
Ovarian Preservation in Stage I Low-Grade Endometrial Stromal Sarcomas

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of ovarian preservation in a case-control study of women with stage I low-grade endometrial stromal sarcomas. METHODS: Patients with low-grade endometrial stromal sarcomas were identified at 5 institutions from 1976 to 2002. Cases were defined as patients who retained ovarian function; each case was matched to 2 control patients who underwent bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO). Immunostaining for estrogen and progesterone receptors was performed. Data were examined with Student t, &khgr;2, Cox regression, and Kaplan-Meier analyses. RESULTS: Twelve premenopausal patients with low-grade endometrial stromal sarcomas who did not undergo BSO were matched to 24 controls. Of the 36 patients in the entire cohort, disease recurred in 14 (39%). Recurrences were identified in the pelvis, abdomen, lung, or lymphatics in both cases and controls. Disease recurred in 4/12 (33%) case patients, compared with 10/24 (42%) control patients (P = .63). When case patients were compared with controls, no differences in progression-free (91.3 months versus 68.6 months, P = .44) or overall survival (median survival not yet reached versus 406 months, P = .82) were identified. This study had 13% power to detect the observed difference in median disease-free survival. After controlling for use of adjuvant therapy and BSO, older age remained the only independent poor prognostic factor for progression-free survival (P = .008). Twenty-two available tumors demonstrated positivity for both estrogen and progesterone receptors. CONCLUSION: Bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy did not appear to affect time to recurrence or overall survival. Retention of ovarian function may be an option for premenopausal women with low-grade endometrial stromal sarcomas. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II-2
Statistical Acquisition of Content Selection Rules for Natural Language Generation

A Natural Language Generation system produces text using as input semantic data. One of its very first tasks is to decide which pieces of information to convey in the output. This task, called Content Selection, is quite domain dependent, requiring considerable re-engineering to transport the system from one scenario to another. In this paper, we present a method to acquire content selection rules automatically from a corpus of text and associated semantics. Our proposed technique was evaluated by comparing its output with information selected by human authors in unseen texts, where we were able to filter half the input data set without loss of recall.
Effects of Hearing Aid Amplification and Stimulus Intensity on Cortical Auditory Evoked Potentials

Hearing aid amplification can be used as a model for studying the effects of auditory stimulation on the central auditory system (CAS). We examined the effects of stimulus presentation level on the physiological detection of sound in unaided and aided conditions. P1, N1, P2, and N2 cortical evoked potentials were recorded in sound field from 13 normal-hearing young adults in response to a 1000-Hz tone presented at seven stimulus intensity levels. As expected, peak amplitudes increased and peak latencies decreased with increasing intensity for unaided and aided conditions. However, there was no significant effect of amplification on latencies or amplitudes. Taken together, these results demonstrate that 20 dB of hearing aid gain affects neural responses differently than 20 dB of stimulus intensity change. Hearing aid signal processing is discussed as a possible contributor to these results. This study demonstrates (1) the importance of controlling for stimulus intensity when evoking responses in aided conditions, and (2) the need to better understand the interaction between the hearing aid and the CAS.
Twin screw granulation – review of current progress

Abstract Twin screw granulation (TSG) is a new process of interest to the pharmaceutical community that can continuously wet granulate powders, doing so at lower liquid concentrations and with better product consistency than found by a high shear batch mixer. A considerable body of research has evolved over the short time since this process was introduced but generally with little comparison of results. A certain degree of confidence has been developed through these studies related to how process variables and many attributes of machinery configuration will affect granulation but some major challenges still lay ahead related to scalability, variations in the processing regimes related to degree of channel fill and the impact of wetting and granulation of complex powder formulations. This review examines the current literature for wet granulation processes studied in twin screw extrusion machinery, summarizing the influences of operational and system parameters affecting granule properties as well as strives to provide some practical observations to newly interested users of the technique.
Too hard to swallow: a secret secondary defence of an aposematic insect

ABSTRACT Anti-predator strategies are significant components of adaptation in prey species. Aposematic prey are expected to possess effective defences that have evolved simultaneously with their warning colours. This study tested the hypothesis of the defensive function and ecological significance of the hard body in aposematic Pachyrhynchus weevils pioneered by Alfred Russel Wallace nearly 150 years ago. We used predation trials with Japalura tree lizards to assess the survivorship of ‘hard’ (mature) versus ‘soft’ (teneral) and ‘clawed’ (intact) versus ‘clawless’ (surgically removed) weevils. The ecological significance of the weevil's hard body was evaluated by assessing the hardness of the weevils, the local prey insects, and the bite forces of the lizard populations. The existence of toxins or deterrents in the weevil was examined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). All ‘hard’ weevils were instantly spat out after being bitten once and survived attacks by the lizards. In contrast, the ‘soft’ weevils were chewed and subsequently swallowed. The results were the same regardless of the presence or absence of the weevil's tarsal claws. The hardness of ‘hard’ Pachyrhynchus weevils was significantly higher than the average hardness of other prey insects in the same habitat and the mean bite forces of the local lizards. The four candidate compounds of the weevil identified by GC-MS had no known toxic or repellent functions against vertebrates. These results reveal that the hardness of aposematic prey functions as an effective secondary defence, and they provide a framework for understanding the spatio-temporal interactions between vertebrate predators and aposematic insect prey. Highlighted Article: The hardness of aposematic weevils functions as an adaptive secondary defence against predator lizards, supporting Wallace's hypothesis of aposematism.
Comprehensive study on associations between nine SNPs and glioma risk.

AIM Glioma cancer is the most common type of adult brain tumor. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified various new susceptibility regions and here we conducted an extensive analysis of associations between 12 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and glioma risk. METHODS A total of 197 glioma cases and 197 health controls were selected, and 9 SNPs in 8 genes were analyzed using the Sequenom MassARRAY platform and Sequenom Assay Design 3.1 software. RESULTS We found the MAF among selected controls were consistent with the MAF from the NCBI SNP database. Among 9 SNPs in 8 genes, we identified four significant SNP genotypes associated with the risk of glioma, C/C genotype at rs730437 and T/T genotype at rs1468727 in ERGF were protective against glioma, whereas the T/T genotype at rs1799782 in XRCC1 and C/C genotype at rs861539 in XRCC3 conferred elevated risk. CONCLUSION Our comprehensive analysis of nine SNPs in eight genes suggests that the rs730437 and rs1468727 in ERGF, rs1799782 in XRCC1 gene, and rs861539 in XRCC3 gene are associated with glioma risk. These findings indicate that genetic variants of various genes play a complex role in the development of glioma.
Influence of poly(methyl methacrylate) grafted multiwalled carbon nanotubes on the mechanical and thermal properties of natural rubber nanocomposites

In this study, we describe the preparation and characterization of natural rubber nanocomposites filled with poly (methyl methacrylate) grafted multiwalled carbon nanotube. The use of various filler loadings (1, 2, 3, and 5 wt %) and melt blending method was employed. From the results, nanocomposite with 1 phr filler loading showed the optimal tensile strength of 4.92 MaP, while that of the carbon black N330 filled natural rubber with similar filler loading found to be 2.48 MaP. The nanocomposite with optimal tensile strength exhibited a good filler dispersion in the natural rubber matrix, which was depicted by the field emission scanning electron microscopy images. The thermal degradation temperature of the vulcanized neat natural rubber composite was increased from 380℃ to 462℃ with 1 phr filler loading. The polymer modified multiwalled carbon nanotube improved the mechanical and thermal properties of natural rubber, suggesting its potential as reinforcement filler in rubber industry.
Decreased Level of EEG-Vigilance in Acute Mania as a Possible Predictor for a Rapid Effect of Methylphenidate: A Case Study

About one third of manic patients show a decreased Electroencephalographic Vigilance Level (EVL). In two patients with recurrent manias the hypothesis was tested that the EEG may be used to predict the therapeutic response to methylphenidate. Patient A (with a decreased EVL) responded rapidly to methylphenidate with a considerable reduction of symptoms and a clear increase of EVL, whereas patient B (normal EVL) did not show any change, neither clinically nor in the EEG.