Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Proton beam therapy with high-dose irradiation for superficial and advanced esophageal carcinomas.

PURPOSE With the aim of improving the results of treatment for esophageal carcinoma, we have investigated the efficacy and toxicity associated with the use of a 250-MeV proton beam for radical radiation therapy in esophageal carcinoma. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Thirty patients with esophageal carcinoma (superficial, n = 13; advanced, n = 17) had been treated with proton beam therapy alone or with photon therapy followed by proton beam therapy. In combination therapy with photon and proton beams, one fraction dose was 1.8-2.0 Gy for photon and 2.5-3.7 Gy (mean, 3.1 Gy) for proton beam. In proton beam therapy alone, one fraction dose was 3.1-3.6 Gy (mean, 3.2 Gy). Overall mean total doses of the irradiation were 77.7 Gy in superficial carcinoma and 80.7 Gy in advanced carcinoma, respectively. RESULTS Mean overall actuarial survival in patients with superficial and advanced carcinomas was 60.1 and 38.6 months, respectively. The local recurrence and disease- specific survival rates for patients with superficial carcinoma were 0 and 100% at 5 years, and 0 and 87.5% at 10 years, respectively; the same rates for the patients with advanced carcinoma were 56.6 and 49.0% at 5 years, 78.3 and 38.1% at 10 years, respectively. Radiation-induced esophageal ulcer without injury of adjacent organs occurred in 20 (66.7%) of 30 treated patients. CONCLUSIONS Better local control and 5- and 10-year disease-specific survival rates were achieved by a higher dose of irradiation with well-defined proton fields in superficial and advanced esophageal carcinomas.
Earnings Expectations and Macroeconomic Conditions *

Companies’ realized earnings depend on overall economic conditions. Market participants should therfore adjust their earnings expectations to surprising macroeconomic news. However, despite its importance for asset pricing models, thus far, empirical research was not able to provide clear-cut evidence of a link between earnings expectations and economic news. Based on a detailed analysis of the information flow, we close this apparent gap. Analyzing individual I/B/E/S earnings forecast revisions, we document a significant influence of surprising news in scheduled macroeconomic announcements. Moreover, we find evidence that the news impact is stronger in recessions than in expansions. JEL: E32, G12, G14, G17 * We gratefully acknowledge the comments of Ray Ball, Carsten Homburg, Syed Mujahid Hussain and workshop participants at University of Cologne as well as participants in the 2008 Campus for Finance Conference. Financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DGF) is gratefully acknowledged. Contact: University of Cologne, Corporate Finance Seminar, Albertus-Magnus Platz, D-50923 Cologne, Germany. Tel. +49 (0)221 470 7876. Email: hess@wiso.uni-koeln.de and kreutzmann@wiso.uni-koeln.de (corresponding author).
Reconsidering therapeutic action: Loewald, cognitive neuroscience and the integration of memory’s duality

Both Loewald’s relational theory of memory and the Self‐Memory System (SMS) of cognitive neuroscience describe a dual memory system, one system that is experience‐near sensory‐perceptual, and the other, symbolic and conceptual. In contrast to perspectives that locate therapeutic action in either altering implicit procedural memories or interpreting explicit historical content, we argue that psychological health emerges from effective integration of both memory systems, achieved through a combination of transference dynamics and analytic insight. We support this position by elaborating four key assumptions of the Loewaldian and SMS perspectives, followed by application to a clinical example. We highlight the power of certain integrative autobiographical memories called ‘self‐defining memories’ in assisting an understanding of transference dynamics and providing metaphoric touchstones to guide subsequent treatment.
Nitrogen and Carbon Reallocation in Fungal Mycelia during Decomposition of Boreal Forest Litter

Boreal forests are characterized by spatially heterogeneous soils with low N availability. The decomposition of coniferous litter in these systems is primarily performed by basidiomycete fungi, which often form large mycelia with a well-developed capacity to reallocate resources spatially- an advantageous trait in heterogeneous environments. In axenic microcosm systems we tested whether fungi increase their biomass production by reallocating N between Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine) needles at different stages of decomposition. We estimated fungal biomass production by analysing the accumulation of the fungal cell wall compound chitin. Monospecific systems were compared with systems with interspecific interactions. We found that the fungi reallocated assimilated N and mycelial growth away from well-degraded litter towards fresh litter components. This redistribution was accompanied by reduced decomposition of older litter. Interconnection of substrates increased over-all fungal C use efficiency (i.e. the allocation of assimilated C to biomass rather than respiration), presumably by enabling fungal translocation of growth-limiting N to litter with higher C quality. Fungal connection between different substrates also restricted N-mineralization and production of dissolved organic N, suggesting that litter saprotrophs in boreal forest ecosystems primarily act to redistribute rather than release N. This spatial integration of different resource qualities was hindered by interspecific interactions, in which litters of contrasting quality were colonised by two different basidiomycete species. The experiments provide a detailed picture of how resource reallocation in two decomposer fungi leads to a more efficient utilisation of spatially separated resources under N-limitation. From an ecosystem point of view, such economic fungal behaviour could potentially contribute to organic matter accumulation in the litter layers of boreal forests.
Economic Performance in a Cross-Section of U.S. Native American Economies

Institutions either promote or constrain economic performance, but which parts of institutions advance or restrict performance, and why do economies sharing similar institutions sometimes perform differently? This paper is a modest attempt at addressing a small part of these questions. It applies a novel model that is capable of separating infrastructural and superstructural effects of institutions on aggregate and average income across 84 U.S. Native American economies (USNAEs). It finds that USNAEs have much in common with developing countries inasmuch as their aggregate and average incomes depend mainly on the accumulation of physical capital and exogenously-given labor. However, resources and resource productivity are necessary but insufficient determinants of income for institutional reasons. Because of the apparent scarcity of physical capital, infrastructures that aid human capital formation (schools, hospitals, and the like) are inadequate, so that even when the local superstructure is generally accepting of external technology, the impact of human capital on performance remains modest. Clearly infrastructural and superstructural aspects of institutions are competitive rather than complementary, which weakens the Nelson-Phelps channel for transmitting external technology into USNAEs. One obvious policy implication is to improve extant infrastructures; another is to align the competing forces. How best to go ahead is left to further investigations.
US agricultural support programs and ethanol policies effects on farmland values and rental rates

Purpose - – In recent years, prices for prime farmland have increased substantially, begging the question is the dramatic increase the result of a speculative bubble or consistent with market fundamentals with increases driven by increased global demand, low interest rates, and recent changes to US agricultural and energy policies. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of recent agricultural support policies and ethanol policies on farmland values and rental rates. Design/methodology/approach - – Farm-level Agricultural Resource Management Survey data collected by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) between 1998 and 2008 as well as county-level data collected by the USDA, US Census Bureau, and Bureau of Economic Analysis are used to determine the impacts of recent agricultural support policies and ethanol policies on farmland values and rental rates, while controlling for parcel characteristics and urban pressure. Specifically, weighted ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares are used to investigate the impact of various governmental agricultural support policies, corn ethanol facilities location, and local corn ethanol production capacity on farmland values and rental rates. Findings - – The results indicate that government payments, urban pressure, and the proximity of the parcel to an ethanol facility have a positive impact on both farmland values and rental rates. More specifically, parcels located in the same county as at least one corn ethanol facility are more valuable and command higher rental rates. In addition, county-level ethanol production capacity is positively associated with farmland values and rental rates. An inverse relationship between distance of the parcels from an ethanol facility and farmland values is also found; a similar result is found for rental rates. Research limitations/implications - – The findings suggest that agricultural support payments and ethanol policies are capitalized into farmland values. These findings have important implications for the formulation of future farm policy. A limitation of the analyses is that farmland values are estimated by landowners; future research could utilize farmland transaction data to overcome potential biases generated by using landowner estimates. In addition, while our study period covers 11 years, future research could expand the time period further to analyze the effect of more recent agricultural and ethanol policies. Originality/value - – This paper extends prior research pertaining to factors influencing farmland values and rental rates by also examining the proximity of the parcel to an operating ethanol facility using a unique data set.
Similarity measures for intuitionistic fuzzy sets: State of the art

Intuitionistic fuzzy sets gained attention of many researchers and are employed in many axes of research. Thus, different operators are given to deal with intuitionistic fuzzy sets, among them similarity measures. The latter are the object of many propositions and discussions. Our aim is to present several studies on similarity measures between intuitionistic fuzzy sets. Such presentation is very important for different research topics such as pattern recognition, decision making and market prediction.
Early star formation in the Galaxy from beryllium and oxygen abundances

We investigate the evolution of the star formation rate in the early Galaxy using beryllium and oxygen abundances in metal poor stars. Specifically, we show that stars belonging to two previously identified kinematical classes (the so-called “accretion” and “dissipative” populations) are neatly separated in the [O/Fe] vs. $\log\, ({\rm Be/H})$ diagram. The dissipative population follows the predictions of our model of Galactic evolution for the thick disk component, suggesting that the formation of this stellar population occurred on a timescale significantly longer (by a factor ∼ 5–10) than the accretion component. The latter shows a large scatter in the [O/Fe] vs. $\log\, ({\rm Be/H})$ diagram, probably resulting from the inhomogeneous enrichment in oxygen and iron of the protogalactic gas. Despite the limitation of the sample, the data suggest that the combined use of products of spallation reactions (like beryllium) and elemental ratios of stellar nucleosynthesis products (like [O/Fe]) can constrain theoretical models for the formation and early evolution of our Galaxy.
Poverty persistence and transitions in Uganda: A combined qualitative and quantitative analysis

Abstract Despite Uganda's impressive reduction in income poverty during the 1990s, recent evidence has shown there to be substantial mobility into and out of poverty. This paper represents one of the first attempts to combine qualitative and quantitative information to understand the factors and processes underlying poverty transitions and persistence. In some instances similar factors are identified by both qualitative and quantitative approaches, including lack of key physical assets, high dependency ratios and increased household size. In other instances though one approach identifies additional factors not so easily identified by the other, for example the impacts of excessive alcohol consumption in many cases. The paper argues that there is considerable value added in combining the two approaches allowing us to provide a much richer understanding of many of the processes underlying poverty and poverty transitions.
Resource efficiency of urban sanitation systems : a comparative assessment using material and energy flow analysis

Within the framework of sustainable development it is important to find ways of reducing natural resource consumption and to change towards closed‐loop management. As in many other spheres increased resource efficiency has also become an important issue in sanitation. Particularly nutrient recovery for agriculture, increased energy‐efficiency and saving of natural water resources, can make a contribution to more resource efficient sanitation systems. To assess the resource efficiency of alternative developments a systems perspective is required. The present study applies a combined cost, energy and material flow analysis (ceMFA) as a system analysis method to assess the resource efficiency of urban sanitation systems. This includes the discussion of relevant criteria and assessment methods. The main focus of this thesis is the comparative assessment of different systems, based on two case studies; Hamburg in Germany and Arba Minch in Ethiopia. A range of possible system developments including source separation (e.g. diversion of urine or blackwater) is defined and compared with the current situation as a reference system. The assessment is carried out using computer simulations based on model equations. The model equations not only integrate mass and nutrient flows, but also the energy and cost balances of the different systems. In order to assess the impact of different assumptions and calculation parameters, sensitivity analyses and parameter variations complete the calculations. Based on the simulations, following general conclusions can be drawn: • None of the systems show an overall benefit with regard to all investigated criteria, namely nutrients, energy, water and costs. Yet, the results of the system analysis can be used as basis for decision making if a case‐related weighting is introduced. • The systems show varying potential for the recovery of nutrients from (source separated) wastewater flows. For the case study of Hamburg up to 29% of the mineral fertiliser could be substituted by nutrients recovered from wastewater; for the case study of Arba Minch this substitution amounts to a maximum of 16%. • Factors such as the transport of source separated flows or complex nutrient recovery processes can result in an increasing energy demand. However, source separation and recovery processes can also lead to energy reduction, for example, by urine diversion (minus 12% for the case of Hamburg) or by the use of biogas from anaerobic treatment plants (minus 38% for the case of Arba Minch). The energy efficiency depends on determinant parameters, e.g. the amount of co‐ digested organic waste. The impact of these parameters can be simulated in the model.
Monkey Supplementary Eye Field Neurons Signal the Ordinal Position of Both Actions and Objects

When a monkey executes a learned series of eye movements (for example, rightward followed by upward followed by leftward), neurons in the supplementary eye field (SEF) fire differentially in conjunction with the first, second, and third movements. It has not been clear whether such ordinal position signals are truly general, accompanying all forms of sequential behavior, or accompany only learned sequences of movements. To resolve this issue, we trained monkeys to perform both a serial action task (making saccades in a fixed sequence of directions) and a serial object task (making saccades to a fixed sequence of objects). We found concordant ordinal position selectivity in the two tasks. Neuronal selectivity for the passage of time and expectation of reward could not explain such concordance. We conclude that SEF neurons signal ordinal position consistently across different task contexts. These signals presumably underlie the ability of primates including humans to perform a broad range of serial order tasks.
Do social ties between individual auditors and client CEOs/CFOs matter to audit quality?*

Abstract The objective of this paper is to investigate whether and how the social ties between individual auditors and client chief executive officers (CEOs)/chief financial officers (CFOs) affect audit quality using a large sample of publicly traded firms in China. We define social ties between individual auditors and client CEOs/CFOs as ‘working or educational alumni. ’ We find that clients with social ties are significantly and positively associated with abnormal accruals and the presence of reporting small profits, and are more likely to receive clean audit opinions compared to clients without social ties. Moreover, we find that the working-tie effect on audit quality is stronger than the school-tie effect. Furthermore, we find that socially connected clients are more likely to downward restate their audited earnings in subsequent years. In addition, we find that the social-tie effect on audit quality can be mitigated by several personal characteristics of individual auditors, such as partner, female, accounting major, auditing experience, etc. Overall, our study sheds new light on the impact of social ties between individual auditors and client executives on audit quality.
Disease characteristics of bovine spongiform encephalopathy following inoculation into mice via three different routes

Mouse‐adapted transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) strains are routinely distinguished based on reproducible disease characteristics in a given mouse line following inoculation via a consistent route. We investigated whether different administration routes (oral, intragastric (i.g.) and intracerebral (i.c.)) can alter the disease characteristics in IM mice after serial dilution of a stabilized mouse‐adapted bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) strain (301V). In addition, the infectivity of distal ileum and mesenteric lymph nodes (ln) sampled at three time points (35 days postinoculation (dpi), 70 dpi and terminal disease) after i.g. inoculation of 301V strain was assessed in mice by i.c. challenge. Strain characteristics were assessed according to standard methodology and PrPSc immunohistochemistry deposition patterns. Mean incubation periods were prolonged following oral or i.g. inoculations compared to the i.c. route. Lesion profiles following i.c. challenges were elevated compared to i.g. and oral routes although vacuolation in the dorsal medulla was consistently high irrespective of the route of administration. Nevertheless, the same PrPSc deposition pattern was associated with each route of administration. Distal and mesenteric ln infectivity was detected as early as 35 dpi and displayed consistent lesion profiles and PrPSc deposition patterns. Our data suggest that although 301V retained its properties, some phenotypic parameters were affected by the route of inoculation. We conclude that bioassay data should be interpreted carefully and should be standardized for route of inoculation.
A Parsimonious Model of SKU Choice: Familiarity-based Reinforcement and Response Sensitivity

We develop a highly parsimonious model to describe and predict stock-keeping unit (SKU) choice in any frequently-bought consumer packaged good category. The model has 20 parameters for a category that has 3 salient attributes, and in general it has 8 + 4 ¢ k parameters for a k-attribute product category. This parsimony is accomplished by neither discarding part of the data nor aggregating the level of analysis. Unlike previous choice models, the number of parameters is neither a function of the number of SKUs nor a function of the number of attribute levels in the category. Consequently, it is particularly useful for modeling product choice in categories that have many SKUs and attribute levels. The model assumes that a product consists of multiple attributes and the consumer derives utility from both consuming and shopping for each attribute. While consumption occurs only for the chosen attribute level, shopping experience applies to all attribute levels. The consumer is also allowed to respond di®erently to a product's marketing mix activities over time. The model incorporates three key features: 1. The consumer's marginal utility from consuming an attribute level depends on her level of familiarity with it. This allows us to capture potential satiation with a familiar attribute level that has been consumed previously. 2. The consumer accumulates a shopping experience, which also depends on attribute-level familiarity. If shopping experience increases with familiarity, the consumer retrieves more familiar attribute levels more readily during shopping and chooses products based on memory cues. Both the attribute-level product satiation and shopping experience provide a natural way to model variety-seeking behavior commonly found in these product categories. Our model reveals which product attribute becomes more readily satiated and predicts that the consumer is more likely to switch to an attribute level that has a stronger shopping experience. 3. The consumer's response sensitivity to a product's marketing mix activities depends on her familiarity with the product. This allows the consumer to respond di®erently to di®erent SKUs's marketing mix activities during her purchase history. Using an extensive panel-level data set of 10 food and 6 non-food categories, we benchmark our model with that of Fader and Hardie (1996) (FH), which outperforms Guadagni and Little (1983)'s model. The empirical results are summarized as follows: 1. Our model on average ¯ts 5.16% better in-sample and predicts 6.50% better out-of-sample in log-likelihood than the FH model. Moreover, this superior performance uses only one-¯fth …
A satellite imaging chain based on the Compressed Sensing technique

Satellite imaging has been the focus of intense works in remote sensing for the last years. The ability of satellite optical systems to produce high-resolution images has indeed been of a great interest in applications such as change detection or image classification. The design of a satellite acquisition chain is however quite challenging as it involves expensive processes such as sampling and coding. In this work, we investigate the performances of a low-resource satellite imaging chain based on the Compressed Sensing (CS) acquisition technique. We propose a reconstruction algorithm which takes into account the degradations of the satellite imaging chain and we present results on a real satellite data.