Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Parental type of personality, negative affectivity and family stressful events in children with cancer.

OBJECTIVE Psychological interactions between parents,children and social environment are very important for childhood health. The type of personality and stressful events are probably also cancer risk factors. We investigated personality types A/B and D (negative affectivity and social inhibition) in parents of children with cancer (PCC), as well as social environmental factors, and family / children's stressful events before the appearance of cancer. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Bortner Type A Scale for evaluating parental type A/B personality, and 14 question personality test (DS14) for parental type D personality (negative affectivity and social inhibition score) were performed. Questionnaire eligible information about stressful events and social environmental factors in children with cancer (CC) were analyzed. RESULTS Analyzing 127 PCC and 136 parents of healthy children (PHC) we found no significant differences in A/B type personality and social inhibition. There was significant difference in negative affectivity. PCC had more negative affectivity than PHC. We found more stressful events before cancer appearance in the families of children with cancer (FCC) than in healthy families (FHC), and more children's stressful events in CC then in healthy ones (HC). There were more quarrels in FCC, while CC were more "easy good-mannered children" than HC. CONCLUSIONS Our results support the hypothesis that stress is a cancer risk factor and the idea that impaired parental functioning may be a mechanism linking family stress with the aetiology of cancer.
Weak convergence of a pseudo maximum likelihood estimator for the extremal index

The extremes of a stationary time series typically occur in clusters. A primary measure for this phenomenon is the extremal index, representing the reciprocal of the expected cluster size. Both a disjoint and a sliding blocks estimator for the extremal index are analyzed in detail. In contrast to many competitors, the estimators only depend on the choice of one parameter sequence. We derive an asymptotic expansion, prove asymptotic normality and show consistency of an estimator for the asymptotic variance. Explicit calculations in certain models and a finite-sample Monte Carlo simulation study reveal that the sliding blocks estimator outperforms other blocks estimators, and that it is competitive to runs- and inter-exceedance estimators in various models. The methods are applied to a variety of financial time series.
Estimating the Value of Major League Baseball Players

This paper examines whether Major League Baseball players are paid their marginal revenue product. A two-step estimation technique is used with data from 1990 to 1999. First, I estimate a regression relating team revenues to the team’s winning percentage and other explanatory variables. The second regression estimates the relationship between winning percentage and team statistics. Given the estimates from these two models I can calculate player marginal revenue product by first predicting how his statistics will affect the team’s winning percentage and then relating the impact on winning percentage on team revenue. The results indicate that professional baseball players are underpaid in marginal earnings per dollar of marginal revenue product. Players were paid more of their marginal product after the 1994-95 strike and older players appear to receive a salary closer to their marginal products than younger players. * The author would like to thank Dr. Ed Schumacher for his help and guidance in all phases of this paper
Early Diagnosis, Treatment and Follow-Up of Cystic Echinococcosis in Remote Rural Areas in Patagonia: Impact of Ultrasound Training of Non-Specialists

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a chronic, complex and neglected disease caused by the larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus. The effects of this neglect have a stronger impact in remote rural areas whose inhabitants have no chances of being diagnosed and treated properly without leaving their jobs and travelling long distances, sometimes taking days to reach the closest referral center. Background In 1980 our group set up a control program in endemic regions with CE in rural sections of Rio Negro, Argentina. Since 1997, we have used abdominopelvic ultrasound (US) as a screening method of CE in school children and determined an algorithm of treatment. Objectives To describe the training system of general practitioners in early diagnosis and treatment of CE and to evaluate the impact of the implementation of the field program. Materials and Methods In 2000, to overcome the shortage of radiologists in the area, we set up a short training course on Focused Assessment with Sonography for Echinococcosis (FASE) for general practitioners with no previous experience with US. After the course, the trainees were able to carry out autonomous ultrasound surveys under the supervision of the course faculty. From 2000 to 2008, trainees carried out 22,793 ultrasound scans in children from 6 to 14 years of age, and diagnosed 87 (0.4%) new cases of CE. Forty-nine (56.4%) were treated with albendazole, 29 (33.3%) were monitored expectantly and 9 (10.3%) were treated with surgery. Discussion The introduction of a FASE course for general practitioners allowed for the screening of CE in a large population of individuals in remote endemic areas with persistent levels of transmission, thus overcoming the barrier of the great distance from tertiary care facilities. The ability of local practitioners to screen for CE using US saved the local residents costly travel time and missed work and proved to be an efficacious and least expensive intervention tool for both the community and health care system.
Effect of Family Function and Self Esteem on Stress in Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship of family function, self esteem and stress in adolescents. Data were collected from 406 adolescents and analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe ’ s test, Pearson correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regression with the SPSS 18.0 program. Stress differed according to gender, grade, parent relationship satisfaction. Family function and self esteem had a significant negative correlation with stress. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed total family function, emotional reactivity, communication in family function, self esteem, gender (female), grade (3rd) explained 30.4% of the total variance in stress. The findings indicate that family function and self esteem have an influence on stress. We need to develop and provide nursing intervention programs to prevent and manage adolescent's stress problems and include the family in these programs. (Korean J Str
FDG-PET / CT for the diagnosis of patients with fever of unknown origin

A. GAFTER-GVILI*, S. RAIBMAN*, A. GROSSMAN, T. AVNI, M. PAUL, L. LEIBOVICI, B. TADMOR, D. GROSHAR and H. BERNSTINE From the Department of Medicine E, Institute of Hematology, Davidoff Cancer Center, Rabin Medical Center, Petah-Tikva; Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel and Infectious Disease Unit, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Beilinson Hospital, Rabin Medical Center, Petah-Tikva
Middle-aged same-sex attracted women and the social practice of drinking

ABSTRACT As a group, middle-aged same-sex attracted women (SSAW) appear to consume more alcohol than exclusively heterosexual women in the same age range; however, few studies document their collective drinking practices or identify opportunities to reduce associated harms. Online surveys which included open-ended questions were completed by a self-selected sample of SSAW (N = 134) aged 36–51, recruited in Victoria, Australia. We identify 12 sub-elements of SSAW’s collective drinking practice using a schema grounded in social practice theory (SPT). Responses are compared for SSAW who consumed alcohol with others at moderate and at heavier levels, based on screening. Heavier drinking respondents were more likely to observe that: alcohol use is normalised for SSAW; they are not pressured to drink; drinking produces pleasurable effects; drinking facilitates management of uncomfortable moods and that venues welcoming SSAW are saturated with alcohol. In line with SPT, links between sub-elements described by heavier drinkers are explored to identify potential interventions. For example, we recommend an expansion of social opportunities without alcohol that engender affirming affective states for SSAW. Further, many SSAW’s commitment to the importance of moderation and rejecting coercion to drink could be used to combat the conviction that drinking is an inevitable response to discrimination experienced by sexual minorities. It was apparent that although they drank with other SSAW, our survey respondents did not share a consistent or altogether unique drinking culture. We suggest that an SPT approach entailing data coding to multiple sub-elements supports the identification of diverse configurations of drinking practice within heterogeneous subpopulations.
Proximity and Investment: Evidence from Plant-Level Data

Proximity to plants makes it easier for headquarters to monitor and acquire information about plants. In this article, I estimate the effects of headquarters' proximity to plants on plant-level investment and productivity. Using the introduction of new airline routes as a source of exogenous variation in proximity, I find that new airline routes that reduce the travel time between headquarters and plants lead to an increase in plant-level investment of 8% to 9% and an increase in plants' total factor productivity of 1.3% to 1.4%. The results are robust when I control for local and firm-level shocks that could potentially drive the introduction of new airline routes, when I consider only new airline routes that are the outcome of a merger between two airlines or the opening of a new hub, and when I consider only indirect flights where either the last leg of the flight (involving the plant's home airport) or the first leg of the flight (involving headquarters' home airport) remains unchanged. Moreover, the results are stronger in the earlier years of the sample period and for firms whose headquarters is more time-constrained. In addition, they also hold at the extensive margin, that is, when I consider plant openings and closures. JEL Codes: D24, G31. Copyright 2013, Oxford University Press.
Bit and Power Allocation for Goodput Optimization in Coded Parallel Subchannels With ARQ

This paper addresses the problem of adaptively allocating the bits and the power among a set of parallel subchannels. A frame-oriented transmission with convolutional coding, hard Viterbi decoding, and automatic repeat request (ARQ) retransmission protocol is considered. The objective is to maximize the number of information bits delivered without error to the user by unit of time, or goodput. This criterion is a tradeoff between the bit rate and bit error probability criteria. First, a mathematical expression for the goodput of the system is presented. Then, using that expression, different bit and power allocation strategies are derived and compared. It turns out that having an equal bit error rate (BER) on each subchannel is near-optimal in terms of goodput. Finally, we prove that the waterfilling solution with adequate signal to noise ratio (SNR) gap value (or equivalently adequate target BER value) is near-optimal. We analytically show how this SNR gap value depends on the convolutional code used, the frame length, the type of ARQ protocol used, the available transmit power, and the subchannel gains.
Extracting long contour by using the competitive layer model of the Lotka-Volterra recurrent neural networks

It is well known that contours in image are salient when a series of edge elements are aligned in a collinear or co-circular fashion. In this paper, a contour extractor is constructed to extract contours by using the competitive layer mode implemented by Lotka-Volterra recurrent neural networks. This extractor can bind all edge elements which belong to a contour onto a layer. In order to extract long contours, by moving the established contour extractor along a long contour, then the long contour can be extracted segment by segment. Experiments show that the proposed method can extract long contour properly from images.
A Model for Soft Errors in the Subthreshold CMOS Inverter

—Soft errors are going to play an increasingly critical role in logic design, as power consumption drives CMOS scaling to ever lower supply voltages and device sizes. Both of these downscaling approaches contribute to significantly increased logic signal noise variance. This paper introduces a new methodology for predicting noise probability distributions for both equilibrium and non-equilibrium logic states of advanced CMOS inverters operated at low supply voltage. These distributions are essential to computing the probability of soft errors. The radiation-induced SER is not considered here.
Effect of Aggressive Fluid Therapy on Outcomes after Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

BACKGROUND Pancreatitis is a serious complication of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), which may lead to death. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the preventive effect of aggressive fluid therapy on the incidence of post-ERCP pancreatitis. METHODS In double-blind controlled condition, 240 patients were selected and divided into two groups. The treatment of the intervention group (n = 120) included a dose of 20 mL/kg of ringer lactate infusion within 90 minutes before ERCP and 3 mL/kg/h during ERCP followed by 3 mL/kg/h up to 8 hours. The treatment of the control group (n = 120) included a dose of 1.5 mL/kg of ringer lactate infusion during ERCP up to 8 hours later. Firstly, the patients were evaluated in terms of excessive fluid and serum amylase and pain level, and then they were re-evaluated 2, 8, and 24 hours after ERCP. RESULTS The mean age of the patients was 51.57 ± 13.5 years. Most of the patients were female (54.5%). Pancreatitis was developed in 26 patients including 5.83% of the patients in the intervention group and 15.83% of the patients in the control group (p = 0.013). Pancreatic pain was seen in 7.5% of the patients in the intervention group and in 27.5% of the control group (p < 0.005). Hyperamylasemia was seen in 20.83% of the patients in the intervention group and in 35% of the control group (p = 0.014). The mean days of hospital admission was 1.308 ± 0.807 in the intervention group and 1.425 ± 0.876 in the control group (p = 0.275). CONCLUSION Aggressive fluid therapy with ringer lactate solution before ERCP can effectively prevent postERCP pancreatitis, pancreatic pain, and hyperamylasemia
ICAM-1 Upregulation in Ethanol-Induced Fatty Murine Livers Promotes Injury and Sinusoidal Leukocyte Adherence after Transplantation

Background. Transplantation of ethanol-induced steatotic livers causes increased graft injury. We hypothesized that upregulation of hepatic ICAM-1 after ethanol produces increased leukocyte adherence, resulting in increased generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and injury after liver transplantation (LT). Methods. C57BL/6 wildtype (WT) and ICAM-1 knockout (KO) mice were gavaged with ethanol (6 g/kg) or water. LT was then performed into WT recipients. Necrosis and apoptosis, 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) immunostaining, and sinusoidal leukocyte movement by intravital microscopy were assessed. Results. Ethanol gavage of WT mice increased hepatic triglycerides 10-fold compared to water treatment (P < 0.05). ICAM-1 also increased, but ALT was normal. At 8 h after LT of WT grafts, ALT increased 2-fold more with ethanol than water treatment (P < 0.05). Compared to ethanol-treated WT grafts, ALT from ethanol-treated KO grafts was 78% less (P < 0.05). Apoptosis also decreased by 75% (P < 0.05), and 4-HNE staining after LT was also decreased in ethanol-treated KO grafts compared to WT. Intravital microscopy demonstrated a 2-fold decrease in leukocyte adhesion in KO grafts compared to WT grafts. Conclusions. Increased ICAM-1 expression in ethanol-treated fatty livers predisposes to leukocyte adherence after LT, which leads to a disturbed microcirculation, oxidative stress and graft injury.
To Be or Not to Be in Thrall to the March of Smart Products

ABSTRACT This article explores how perceived disempowerment impacts the intention to adopt smart autonomous products. Empirically, the paper builds on three studies to show this impact. Study 1 explores the relevance of the perceived disempowerment in respect of smart autonomous products. Study 2 manipulates autonomy of smart products and finds that perceived disempowerment mediates the link between smart products’ autonomy and adoption intention. Study 3 indicates that an intervention design―that is, a product design that allows consumers to intervene in the actions of an autonomous smart product―can reduce their perceived disempowerment in respect of autonomous smart products. Further, Study 3 reveals that personal innovativeness moderates the role that an intervention design plays in product adoption: an intervention design shows a positive effect on adoption intention for individuals with low personal innovativeness, but for those with high personal innovativeness no effect of an intervention design is present on adoption intention. The authors suggest that managers consider consumers’ perceived disempowerment when designing autonomous smart products, because (1) perceived disempowerment reduces adoption and (2) when targeted at consumers with low personal innovativeness, an intervention design reduces their perceived disempowerment.
An Empirical Study on the Usage of the Swift Programming Language

Recently, Apple released Swift, a modern programming language built to be the successor of Objective-C. In less than a year and a half after its first release, Swift became one of the most popular programming languages in the world, considering different popularity measures. A significant part of this success is due to Apple's strict control over its ecosystem, and the clear message that it will replace Objective-C in a near future. According to Apple, "Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language[. ]. Writing Swift code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive. " However, little is known about how Swift developers perceive these benefits. In this paper, we conducted two studies aimed at uncovering the questions and strains that arise from this early adoption. First, we perform a thorough analysis on 59,156 questions asked about Swift on StackOverflow. Second, we interviewed 12 Swift developers to cross-validate the initial results. Our study reveals that developers do seem to find the language easy to understand and adopt, although 17.5% of the questions are about basic elements of the language. Still, there are many questions about problems in the toolset (compiler, Xcode, libraries). Some of our interviewees reinforced these problems.
A qualitative exploration of cardiovascular health and disease messages surrounding Canadian and U.S. campaigns through Facebook and Twitter

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and disability among Canadian and U.S. women. A majority of Canadian and U.S. women are unaware of their CVD risk profiles, symptoms of acute cardiac events, and take inadequate action to lower their risk. There is limited understanding regarding the meanings associated with Canadian and U.S. cardiovascular health campaign messages and user interactivity with these messages on social media. Filling in this knowledge gap contributes to understanding how women’s beliefs and behaviours are shaped by prevalent mass media forums, which construct certain portrayals of women’s disease, risk, and health-related identities. Within this doctoral dissertation, four studies were conducted in order to explore the media’s role in the social construction of CVD meanings. In the first study, a metasynthesis was conducted of primary research findings regarding qualitative analyses of mass media narratives surrounding women’s CVD in Canada and the U.S. Key findings included two critical, transcendental themes: 1) the medicalized culture of women’s CVD risk, and 2) the feminization of cardiovascular healthism. The second study was an ethnographic content analysis of the portrayals of women’s cardiovascular risk and health identities on Facebook page narratives of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC). An overarching theme of philanthropy as an act of women’s health promotion was identified and three sub-themes: 1) a culture of consumerism for women’s health promotion, 2) the cardiovascular systems of women as sites of fear and dependence, and 3) women’s CVD risk, acute events, and treatment as shared, community experiences. The third study used critical discourse analysis to explore the Facebook page of U.S. women’s cardiovascular health promotion agency Women’s Heart Alliance to investigate the discourses through which women’s CVD was portrayed, and the implications of these discourses on the construction of subject positions for related social agents. iv Women’s CVD was constructed within two central discourses: a discourse of achieving health equity and a discourse of healthism. These discourses intersected to construct the subject positions of altruistic fighters, health activists, and compliant patients and consumerists. The fourth study comprised a critical discourse analysis of the HSFC More Moments campaign meanings on Twitter for men and women. CVD risk was portrayed through a discourse of tragedy and loss, and a discourse of life and health, which constructed the subject positions of visionary leaders, selfless humanitarians, and successful survivors. Collectively, the findings of these four studies build upon understandings of the media’s nuanced contributions to gendered constructions of CVD meanings and risk.
Calibrating low-default portfolios, using the cumulative accuracy profile

In the new Basel II Accord, banks are allowed to develop their own credit rating models provided that they regularly perform a back test of the risk parameters. However, the lack of sufficient (default) data for back testing rating models for “low-default portfolios” is a main concern in financial industry and regulators. These low-default portfolios are characterized by the lack of sufficient data and the resulting difficulty in back-testing the Probability of Default. Examples of low-default portfolios are high-quality borrowers, banks, sovereign, insurance companies and some categories of specialized lending. This article presents a method of calibrating low-default portfolios. The method is based on modelling the observed power curve and deriving the calibration from this curve. The functional form of the power curve is determined by a concavity parameter, which can easily be related to the area under the power curve and the Accuracy Ratio (AR). The method is demonstrated for sovereign ratings. 1 Correspondence could be addressed to: Dr. M.J. van der Burgt P.O. Box 283 (HQ8040) 1000 EA Amsterdam The Netherlands Email: Marco.van. der.Burgt@nl.abnamro. com