Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Primary resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer harboring TKI-sensitive EGFR mutations: an exploratory study.

BACKGROUND The mechanism of primary resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in EGFR-mutant non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has not been clearly understood. PATIENTS AND METHODS Eleven patients exhibiting primary resistance (disease progression <3 months) were identified among 197 consecutive NSCLC patients with TKI-sensitive EGFR mutations who received EGFR TKIs at Seoul National University Hospital. Treatment-naïve tumors were examined for concurrent genetic alterations using fluorescence in situ hybridization and targeted deep sequencing of cancer-related genes. Deletion polymorphism of Bcl-2-interacting mediator of cell death (BIM) gene was examined to validate its predictive role for TKI outcome. RESULTS The median progression-free survival (PFS) for patients receiving EGFR TKIs was 11.9 months, and the response rate 78.8%. Among the 11 patients exhibiting primary resistance, a de novo T790M mutation was identified in one patient, and two exhibited mesenchymal-epithelial transition amplification and anaplastic lymphoma kinase fusion. Targeted deep sequencing identified no recurrent, coexistent drivers of NSCLC. Survival analysis revealed that patients with recurrent disease after surgery had a longer PFS than those with initial stage IV disease. However, BIM deletion polymorphism, line of treatment, EGFR genotype, and smoking were not predictive of PFS for EGFR TKIs. CONCLUSIONS We identified coexistent genetic alterations of cancer-related genes that could explain primary resistance in a small proportion of patients. Our result suggests that the mechanism of primary resistance might be heterogeneous.
Foreign Capital Inflow and Economic Growth Nexus: A Case Study of Pakistan

This study analyzes the effect of Foreign Capital Inflow (FCI) on the economic growth of a developing economy, like Pakistan. Empirical analysis has been performed by using a recent cointegration technique, Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method. The result shows that foreign direct investment affects economic growth positively in the long run as well as short run. On the other hand, the official development assistance and aid has positive impact on economic growth only in the long run. So, Pakistan should focus on the official development assistance and aid in the long run for the sake of economic growth.
Boosting Productivity in Korea's Service Sector

Labour productivity growth in the service sector has been low relative to manufacturing. This is explained in part by weak competition in services resulting from strict product market regulation and the low level of import penetration and inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI). Increasing productivity growth in the service sector, which accounts for 67% of employment and 58% of value added in Korea, is essential to sustain high potential growth. The priority is to strengthen competition by eliminating domestic entry barriers, accelerating regulatory reform, upgrading competition policy and reducing barriers to trade and inflows of FDI. Another challenge is to enhance the performance and accelerate the restructuring of small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for over 90% of service-sector employment. Furthermore, it is essential to boost productivity in service industries with high growth potential, such as telecommunications and financial and business. Rehausser la productivite dans le secteur des services en Coree La croissance de la productivite du travail dans le secteur des services a ete lente par rapport a celle du secteur manufacturier. Cela s’explique en partie par la faiblesse de la concurrence dans les services, due a une reglementation stricte des marches de produits et a un niveau peu eleve de penetration des importations et d’entrees d’investissement direct etranger (IDE). Un renforcement des gains de productivite dans le secteur des services, qui represente 67 % de l’emploi et 58 % de la valeur ajoutee en Coree, est essentiel pour soutenir un taux eleve de croissance potentielle. Il faut en priorite intensifier la concurrence en supprimant les barrieres interieures a l’entree, en accelerant la reforme de la reglementation, en ameliorant la politique de la concurrence et en reduisant les obstacles au commerce et a l’afflux d’IDE. Une autre tâche difficile sera de rehausser les resultats et d’accelerer la restructuration des petites et moyennes entreprises, qui representent plus de 90 % de l’emploi dans le secteur des services. Il est par ailleurs indispensable de stimuler la productivite dans les domaines qui ont un fort potentiel de croissance, comme les telecommunications et les services financiers et aux entreprises.
Transforming Care at the Bedside: An Ambulatory Model for Improving the Patient Experience

Transforming Care at the Bedside is a nationwide effort to design a model for improving care to hospitalized patients. With the projected growth of ambulatory services, it is increasingly important to focus on potential methods to increase patient satisfaction and care delivery improvement in the outpatient setting, as well. The authors describe the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Hillman Cancer Center's adaptation of the Transforming Care at the Bedside care delivery improvement model to its ambulatory services arena and its promising results.
Steady Endogenous Growth with Population and R. & D. Inputs Growing

This paper presents a Schumpeterian endogenous growth model in which a steady state exists with a constant growth rate even though population and the inputs to R. & D. are growing. The scale effect of rising population is nullified by product proliferation that fragments the growing demand for intermediate prodcuts, thus preventing the reward to any specific innovation from rising with population. All the ususal comparitive statics results of Schumpeterian growth theory are valid, including the positive effect of R. & D. subsidies on growth.
Interrelationships among Capital Structure, Dividends, and Ownership: Evidence from South Korea

This paper examines the interrelationships among debt policy, dividend policy, and ownership structure using a simultaneous equation framework. Our approach allows us to test both the convergence of interests theory and entrenchment theory. Using a sample of publicly traded South Korean manufacturing firms, we find that debt policy and ownership structure have a positive impact on dividend policy. We also find that both debt and dividend policy are positively related to ownership structure. Our findings support both the theory of convergence of interests between management and ownership and entrenchment theory, and also explain why many studies have found conflicting results.
Adolescents' experiences on coping with parental multiple sclerosis: a grounded theory study.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To gain insight into what adolescents see as their main concern when having parents who suffer from multiple sclerosis, and develop concepts and theory that may explain how they cope with this concern. BACKGROUND Health professionals have a special responsibility towards children of parents with chronic diseases, including multiple sclerosis. Few studies show the perspective of the adolescents themselves, and point out that further knowledge is needed. Previous research supports the need for intervention at a youth, parent and family level. DESIGN Grounded theory. METHODS We used grounded theory with a generative and constant comparative approach. Data were collected through fifteen individual semi-structured interviews with adolescents aged 12-18 years who had a parent diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. RESULTS The adolescents' main concern was identified to be preserving control in an uncertain everyday life. This concern was resolved by 'balancing needs', implying the pattern of (1) reflecting, (2) adjusting, (3) taking responsibility and (4) seeking respite. These were used interchangeably in the adolescents' effort to solve their main concern. CONCLUSION Openness within the family and outwards to the network, is essential for the well-being of the adolescents, and relies on knowledge about the disease, family functioning and support from health professionals. Thus, long-term intervention programs offering information and guidance should be offered. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Understanding the impact of multiple sclerosis on the family from the perspective of the adolescents, gives a basis for health professionals when planning the best possible support for these adolescents. School nurses may play an active role in ensuring a high quality of this work.
Defining, Securing and Building a Just Peace: The EU and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Just peace has been much talked about in everyday life, but it is less well researched by academics. The puzzle underlying this dissertation is therefore to probe what constitutes a just peace, both conceptually within the field of peacebuilding and empirically in the context of the EU as a peacebuilder in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The EU has used the term just peace in many of its most important declarations on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict throughout the years. Defining a just peace is about these declaratory efforts by the EU to articulate a common formula of a just peace in the conflict. Securing and building a just peace are about the EU’s role in implementing this formula for a just peace in the conflict through the creation of a Palestinian state. As the EU enters its fifth decade of involvement in the conflict, there can be little doubt that in common with the rest of the international community it has failed in its efforts to establish a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians. While this is an inescapable overall conclusion from four decades of EC/EU peacebuilding in the conflict, it is, at the same time, possible to draw a number of other conclusions from this study. Most importantly, it will be argued that the EU is a major legitimizing power in the conflict and that it has kept the prospects of a two-state solution alive through its support for the Palestinian statebuilding process.
Economic growth and health: direct impact or reverse causation?

The purpose of this paper is to identify the role of health status in productivity. In order to check the existence of reverse causation suggested by previous studies the Hausman test was carried out and different sets of instruments were used as exogenous determinants of health expenditure. Variables related to health expenditure were used to estimate the elasticity and these produced accepted results. Evidence was obtained to support the positive effect of health on economic growth.
GETTING THE MEASURE OF THE ELECTRONIC GAMES INDUSTRY: DEVELOPERS AND THE MANAGEMENT OF INNOVATION

The electronic games industry has grown within the space of a decade to a $40bn global industry. Yet, at least in the UK, the management of innovation in the software development sector reflects the industry's bedroom origins. Visits to major buyers in the US by UK games developers show that publishers increasingly require more sophisticated management procedures from developers, including that with respect to the management of innovation. This paper reports on the development of industry-specific indicators to be used in processes of innovation management, benchmarking innovation practices and performance within the framework of value chain analysis. This provides the sector with a framework for more routinised innovation practices, and is also of relevance to the management of innovation in other software-intensive sectors.
Sideways Killing: The Cytolysis of Fc Receptor‐Bearing Cells through Bridging to Cytolytic T Lymphocytes by Antibodies Specific for the T‐Cell Receptor‐T3 Complex

Cytolylic T lymphocytes (CTL) cause cytolysis of foreign or virus‐infected syngeneic cells when recognition of the target plus major histocompatibility complex (MHC) occurs via the T‐cell receptor (TCR). The recognition event leads to intimate contact between the two cells and activation of the cytolytic effector. Activation and target cell lysis can also occur in the presence of antibodies to the TCR. This is accomplished by bridging the effector cell TCR to the target cell FcR by an anti‐TCR monoclonal antibody (MoAb). Recent findings have placed the role of the FcR in this event in a questionable light. We confirm the importance of FcγR by demonstrating that: (a) melanoma cells are killed by CTL clones in the presence of anti‐TCR CD3 antibodies only when the melanoma cells express the FcγR on their surface; (b) native Ig, heat‐aggregated Ig, or an Fc fragment from an antibody expressing the same isotype as the anti‐TCR antibody can block the killing of high avidity FcγRI‐bearing cells mediated by anti‐TCR antibody (F23.1); and (c) anti‐FcγR MoAb (2.4G2)and a truncated soluble FcγRII molecule inhibit the killing of low‐avidity FcγRII‐bearing cells mediated by anti‐CD3 MoAb (145–2C11). Thus, we show that both high‐avidity FcγRI and low‐avidity FcγRII can mediate sideways killing depending upon the isotype of the anti‐TCR antibody and the type of FcR present on the target cell surface.
Pattern of Substance Abuse among Senior Secondary School Students in a Southwestern Nigerian City

More young people are getting involved in substance abuse in Nigeria. The objective of this study is to determine the pattern of substance abus e among senior secondary school students. This was a cross-sectional study and multi-stage sa mpling technique was utilized in selecting 450 students in their fourth, fifth and final year of secondary school in four secondary schools in Osogbo, a town in Southwestern Nigeria. Data was obtained with self-administered questionnaires. Majority of the respondents were ma les (60.7%) and within the 16-19 year age group (65.5%). Respondents whose parents are ma r ied were 81.4%, while those with divorced/separated parents were 10.5% and those wit h single parents were 8.1%. Of the 420 interviewed respondents, 372 (88.6%) claimed awaren ess of existence of substances which can be abused. Majority of respondents had positive attitude towards substance abuse and 87.4% said they will do everything to ensure they d iscourage a friend from using such substances. Respectively, 52.1%, 30.5% and 21.7% cl aimed ever use, current use and past use of substances. The most commonly abused substances wer analgesics, cannabis, tobacco, alcohol and sedatives. There is a need to develop v iable substance abuse preventive programmes and a comprehensive data base on substan ce abuse among adolescents.
Business angel–venture negotiation in the post-investment relationship: the use of the good cop, bad cop strategy

The paper reports on the utilization of the “good cop, bad cop” negotiation strategy in ongoing investor–venture relationships. Four cases of business angel – venture involvement are studied over a period of several years. Earlier research on the good cop, bad cop strategy has described its efficiency in obtaining maximum distribution in short-term distributive bargaining. This has been explained as a result of the emotional contrast effect unlocked by the sequence of interaction with the bad cop followed by interaction with the good cop. In an ongoing investment relationship, other rules apply. The present findings suggest that only a business angel who is already trusted can become a good cop – by virtue of introducing a bad cop. This is explained as a way of conducting negotiations without destroying the trust that has been built over time in the business angel–venture relationship. The strategy provides a scapegoat for the negativity associated with the negotiations. The bad cop assumes the blame, while the good cop is still trusted and can remain in the relationship, with less risk of being the target of any retained hostility.
A Graphical Analysis of Bundling

By comparing the demand for a bundle and the vertical sum of the demands for its components, this article analyzes the profitability and welfare consequences of bundling. If it does not lower costs, bundling tends to be profitable when reservation values are negatively correlated and high relative to costs. If bundling lowers costs and costs are high relative to average reservation values, positively correlated reservation values increase the incentive to bundle. Bundling and charging a price equal to the sum of the components' prices lowers consumer surplus. Bundling can, however, increase consumer surplus when it results in lower prices. Copyright 1995 by University of Chicago Press.
A bifunctional kinase-phosphatase in bacterial chemotaxis

Phosphorylation-based signaling pathways employ dephosphorylation mechanisms for signal termination. Histidine to aspartate phosphosignaling in the two-component system that controls bacterial chemotaxis has been studied extensively. Rhodobacter sphaeroides has a complex chemosensory pathway with multiple homologues of the Escherichia coli chemosensory proteins, although it lacks homologues of known signal-terminating CheY-P phosphatases, such as CheZ, CheC, FliY or CheX. Here, we demonstrate that an unusual CheA homologue, CheA3, is not only a phosphodonor for the principal CheY protein, CheY6, but is also is a specific phosphatase for CheY6-P. This phosphatase activity accelerates CheY6-P dephosphorylation to a rate that is comparable with the measured stimulus response time of approximately 1 s. CheA3 possesses only two of the five domains found in classical CheAs, the Hpt (P1) and regulatory (P5) domains, which are joined by a 794-amino acid sequence that is required for phosphatase activity. The P1 domain of CheA3 is phosphorylated by CheA4, and it subsequently acts as a phosphodonor for the response regulators. A CheA3 mutant protein without the 794-amino acid region lacked phosphatase activity, retained phosphotransfer function, but did not support chemotaxis, suggesting that the phosphatase activity may be required for chemotaxis. Using a nested deletion approach, we showed that a 200-amino acid segment of CheA3 is required for phosphatase activity. The phosphatase activity of previously identified nonhybrid histidine protein kinases depends on the dimerization and histidine phosphorylation (DHp) domains. However, CheA3 lacks a DHp domain, suggesting that its phosphatase mechanism is different from that of other histidine protein kinases.
An investigation of the effects of a graphic organizer in an online serious game on learning outcomes and attitudinal perceptions

A serious game, which is designed for learning purposes rather than recreational purposes, has been applied for digital game-based Learning. This study investigated the effects of graphic organizers in a serious game, “The Transistor”, on learning outcomes and attitudinal perceptions. A total of 99 participants were randomly assigned to three groups: non-organizer group, advance organizer group, and post organizer group. The results revealed that participants using a post organizer, which was presented after the game for review, outperformed those using a non-organizer and an advance organizer on both learning outcomes (recall test scores and recycling intention) and attitudinal perceptions (perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, and satisfaction). These findings implied that a post-graphic organizer could enhance the instructional value of a serious game. More detailed implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.
The Economics of Household Consumption

Preface Concepts, Theories, and Empirical Measurement The Household as an Economic System Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Household Consumption Methods of Studying Household Consumption Patterns and Trends in Household Consumption Household Consumption of Commodities in the United States Consumption Patterns in the United States Consumption in Other Countries Household Consumption in a Social Context Household Consumption and Public Policy Consumption Patterns of the Future Bibliography Index
Frequency and Phase Mixed Coding in SSVEP-Based Brain--Computer Interface

Frequency coding has been the traditional method implemented in steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCI). However, it is limited in terms of possible target numbers and, consequently, inappropriate for certain applications involving liquid crystal display (LCD) with multiple stimuli. This paper proposes an innovative coding method for SSVEP that, through a combination of frequency and phase, increases the number of targets, thus it improves the information transfer rate (ITR). With this method, a BCI system with 15 targets was developed using three stimulus frequencies, which is five times as many targets as the traditional method. Additionally, this paper defines the concept of reference phase, and decodes the EEG by means of Fourier coefficient projections onto the reference phase directions. Through the optimization of lead position, reference phase, data segment length, and harmonic components, the average ITR exceeded 60 bits/min in a simulated online test with ten subjects.
Evaluation of PCR for Diagnosis of American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in an Area of Endemicity in Northeastern Brazil

ABSTRACT PCR-based approaches targeting kinetoplast DNA were evaluated for the diagnosis of American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) in regions of endemicity in northeastern Brazil. A total of 119 cutaneous biopsy specimens from patients with ACL and nonleishmaniasis cutaneous lesions were studied. Two PCR-based systems were used; one was specific for the subgenus Viannia, and the other was specific for the genus Leishmania. The PCR specific for the subgenus Viannia had a sensitivity of 95.4%, whereas the genus-specific PCR detected the target DNA in 88.2% of the samples tested. The specificities of the assays, determined with samples from a group with nonleishmaniasis cutaneous lesions, was 100%. The results of the conventional tests indicate that the sensitivities of the PCR-based methods were significantly higher than those of smear examination, histological staining, and isolation by culture (P < 0.05). Antibodies specific for Leishmania braziliensis were detected by indirect immunofluorescence in 82.9% of the patients tested. Parasites were isolated from 40 of 86 patients (46.5%). Sixty-seven percent of dermal scrapings and 66.2% of stained tissue sections were positive by microscopy. Amplified products from the subgenus-specific PCR hybridized with the Leishmania panamensis minicircle, confirming infection consistent with L. braziliensis. The evidence available at present incriminates L. braziliensis as the only causative agent of ACL in the state of Pernambuco in Brazil.