Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pelvic endometriosis: reproductive and menstrual risk factors at different stages in Lombardy, northern Italy.

AIM--To analyse the relationship between reproductive and menstrual factors and different stages of pelvic endometriosis. METHODS--Between 1987 and 1990 a case-control study of risk factors for pelvic endometriosis was conducted. Cases comprised 376 women (median age 32 years) with pelvic endometriosis confirmed by laparoscopy or laparotomy admitted to any one of three clinics in Lombardy, northern Italy. A total of 129 (34.3%) of these women were at stage 1, 76 (20.2%) at stage 2, 96 (25.5%) at stage 3, and 75 (19.9%) at stage 4, according to the American Fertility Society revised classification of endometriosis. Controls comprised 522 women admitted to hospital for acute conditions. RESULTS--The risk of endometriosis decreased with increasing number of births. The estimated odds ratios (OR) were similar in different stages of the disease: for example, compared with nulliparous women, the OR of endometriosis at stage 1 was 0.1 in women who reported two or more births and the corresponding values were respectively 0.1, 0.2, and 0.2 for endometriosis at stages 2, 3, and 4. Cases reported fewer induced abortions than controls: the estimated ORs compared with no induced abortion were 0.4, 0.5, 0.2, and 0.2 in women who reported one or more induced abortions for subsequent stages of endometriosis. Women with irregular menstrual cycles were at less risk of the disease: compared with women who reported lifelong regular cycles the estimated ORs were 0.3, 0.5, 0.5, and 0.3 for disease stages 1-4 respectively. No consistent association emerged between the ages at menarche and at first delivery and the risk of endometriosis. CONCLUSIONS--This analysis provides further evidence that reproductive and menstrual factors are associated with the risk of endometriosis. The observation that early and late stages of the disease share similar epidemiological characteristics suggests an epidemiological (and pathogenetic) continuum between various stages of the disease.
Acyclic Coloring of Graphs of Maximum Degree ∆

An acyclic coloring of a graph G is a coloring of its vertices such that: (i) no two neighbors in G are assigned the same color and (ii) no bicolored cycle can exist in G . The acyclic chromatic number of G is the least number of colors necessary to acyclically color G , and is denoted by a ( G ) . We show that any graph of maximum degree ∆ has acyclic chromatic number at most ∆(∆ − 1) 2 for any ∆ ≥ 5 , and we give an O ( n ∆ 2 ) algorithm to acyclically color any graph of maximum degree ∆ with the above mentioned number of colors. This result is roughly two times better than the best general upper bound known so far, yielding a ( G ) ≤ ∆(∆ − 1) + 2 [ACK + 04]. By a deeper study of the case ∆ = 5 , we also show that any graph of maximum degree 5 can be acyclically colored with at most 9 colors, and give a linear time algorithm to achieve this bound.
The New Estimates of Output Gap and Potential Growth Rate

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) estimates the output gap and the potential growth rate, and uses these in judging economic and price conditions. The output gap and potential growth rate have been recently re-estimated in light of the benchmark revision of the GDP statistics at the end of 2005. At the same time, the estimation methods have also been thoroughly re-examined and changed. The changes include incorporating the structural changes in the labor market that have become clear over the past few years, as well as improving the data used for capital stock. We have also redefined the meaning of potential GDP. The new output gap takes positive or negative values in comparison with the average past levels of the capital and labor utilization ratios. As for recent developments, the output gap had a large negative value when the present economic recovery began, has been steadily improving ever since, and is presently in the vicinity of zero. This level surpasses the recent peak recorded in 2000 and is more or less equal to the peak in 1997. The new potential growth rate had been hovering around 1% or slightly less since the end of the 1990s, and has recently been recovering to between 1.5% and 2.0%. These figures, however, need to be viewed with some latitude, as the output gap and potential growth rate estimates may be revised in retrospect as new data become available.
Public Sector Transparency and Tourism Real Estate Investments in Greece

This work aims to elucidate constraints in foreign investments in the Greek tourism sector, in relation to market transparency, by placing a public sector company opposite the Public Sector. The paper draws on scientific research, government documents, and professional standards to explain the dimensions of the weak form transparency of the real estate market and its effects in international investments in tourism property development in Greece. It stresses the contradiction between the State’s professed goals for tourism development and the effects of the lack of transparency in developing State-owned and private tourist properties.
Persistent Drug-Induced Parkinsonism in Patients with Normal Dopamine Transporter Imaging

Functional neuroimaging for the dopamine transporter (DAT) is used to distinguish drug-induced parkinsonism (DIP) from subclinical Parkinson’s disease (PD). Although DIP patients who show a normal DAT image are expected to recover completely, some do not. We investigated whether these patients showed changes in striatal DAT activity using semi-quantitative analysis of 18F-FP-CIT PET data. DIP patients with visually normal DAT images were selected from medical records. The subjects were classified as patients who recovered partially (PR) or completely within 12 months (CR). The 18F-FP-CIT uptake in each striatal subregion was compared between the CR and the PR groups. In total, 41 and 9 patients of the CR and PR groups were assessed, respectively. The two patient groups were comparable in terms of clinical characteristics including age, sex, and severity of parkinsonism. From semi-quantitative analysis of the PET image, the PR patients showed a relatively lower ligand uptake in the ventral striatum, the anterior putamen and the posterior putamen compared with the CR patients. This result suggests that persistent DIP in patients with visually normal DAT imaging may be associated with subtle decrement of DAT activity.
Giving Content to Investor Sentiment: The Role of Media in the Stock Market

I quantitatively measure the interactions between the media and the stock market using daily content from a popular Wall Street Journal column. I find that high media pessimism predicts downward pressure on market prices followed by a reversion to fundamentals, and unusually high or low pessimism predicts high market trading volume. These and similar results are consistent with theoretical models of noise and liquidity traders, and are inconsistent with theories of media content as a proxy for new information about fundamental asset values, as a proxy for market volatility, or as a sideshow with no relationship to asset markets.
Trust, Leniency and Deterrence

This article presents results from a laboratory experiment studying the channels through which different law enforcement strategies deter cartel formation. With leniency policies offering immunity to the first reporting party, a high fine is the main determinant of deterrence, having a strong effect even when the probability of exogenous detection is zero. Deterrence appears to be mainly driven by "distrust"; here, the fear of partners deviating and reporting. Absent leniency, the probability of detection and the expected fine matter more, and low fines are exploited to punish defections. The results appear relevant to several other forms of crimes that share cartels’ strategic features, including corruption and financial fraud. (JEL C92, D03, K21, K42, L41.)
Dynamic Linkages of Interest Rates within EMS: Implications for the 'German Dominance' Hypothesis and Monetary Policy

This paper explores the nature of the interaction of short- and long-term interest rates within the European Monetary System for the period 1979-1999. The empirical examination centers on the 'German Dominance' hypothesis which purports that German interest rates should convey valuable information to the other EMS countries' interest rates behavior. In other words, it is assumed that there exist uni-directional volatility spillovers from the Bundesbank to the other countries' central banks. The methodology employed is the multivariate framework of the EGARCH model which is capable of capturing the potential asymmetries and other anomalies of the volatility transmission mechanism. The results do not support the dominance hypothesis, in a strict sense, since Germany's monetary policy is influenced by the actions of its partners, especially since 1990. Finally, the implications for a European Union monetary policy are highlighted.
Bootstrapping confidence intervals for the change‐point of time series

Abstract. We study an at‐most‐one‐change time‐series model with an abrupt change in the mean and dependent errors that fulfil certain mixing conditions. We obtain confidence intervals for the unknown change‐point via bootstrapping methods. Precisely, we use a block bootstrap of the estimated centred error sequence. Then, we reconstruct a sequence with a change in the mean using the same estimators as before. The difference between the change‐point estimator of the resampled sequence and the one of the original sequence can be used as an approximation of the difference between the real change‐point and its estimator. This enables us to construct confidence intervals using the empirical distribution of the resampled time series. A simulation study shows that the resampled confidence intervals are usually closer to their target levels and at the same time smaller than the asymptotic intervals.
Transmit codes and receive filters for radar

This article's main goal is to show how to design the receive filter (including its length) and the transmit code sequence via the optimization of a number of relevant metrics considered separately or in combination. Several numerical studies are given to illustrate the performance of the presented designs. Compared with most of the previously published works on the subject, the present contribution is more coherent as well as more complete, and yet the approach taken here is generally simpler both conceptually and computationally. Finally, weremark on the fact that while the focus is on radar systems, for the sake of being specific, the theory and design methods presented should be useful to several other active sensing applications, such as sonar, nondestructive testing, seismic exploration, and biomedical imaging.
State-dependent climate sensitivity in past warm climates and its implications for future climate projections

Projections of future climate depend critically on refined estimates of climate sensitivity. Recent progress in temperature proxies dramatically increases the magnitude of warming reconstructed from early Paleogene greenhouse climates and demands a close examination of the forcing and feedback mechanisms that maintained this warmth and the broad dynamic range that these paleoclimate records attest to. Here, we show that several complementary resolutions to these questions are possible in the context of model simulations using modern and early Paleogene configurations. We find that (i) changes in boundary conditions representative of slow “Earth system” feedbacks play an important role in maintaining elevated early Paleogene temperatures, (ii) radiative forcing by carbon dioxide deviates significantly from pure logarithmic behavior at concentrations relevant for simulation of the early Paleogene, and (iii) fast or “Charney” climate sensitivity in this model increases sharply as the climate warms. Thus, increased forcing and increased slow and fast sensitivity can all play a substantial role in maintaining early Paleogene warmth. This poses an equifinality problem: The same climate can be maintained by a different mix of these ingredients; however, at present, the mix cannot be constrained directly from climate proxy data. The implications of strongly state-dependent fast sensitivity reach far beyond the early Paleogene. The study of past warm climates may not narrow uncertainty in future climate projections in coming centuries because fast climate sensitivity may itself be state-dependent, but proxies and models are both consistent with significant increases in fast sensitivity with increasing temperature.
Accuracy and Calibration of Computational Approaches for Inpatient Mortality Predictive Modeling

Electronic Health Record (EHR) data can be a key resource for decision-making support in clinical practice in the “big data” era. The complete database from early 2012 to late 2015 involving hospital admissions to Inselspital Bern, the largest Swiss University Hospital, was used in this study, involving over 100,000 admissions. Age, sex, and initial laboratory test results were the features/variables of interest for each admission, the outcome being inpatient mortality. Computational decision support systems were utilized for the calculation of the risk of inpatient mortality. We assessed the recently proposed Acute Laboratory Risk of Mortality Score (ALaRMS) model, and further built generalized linear models, generalized estimating equations, artificial neural networks, and decision tree systems for the predictive modeling of the risk of inpatient mortality. The Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) for ALaRMS marginally corresponded to the anticipated accuracy (AUC = 0.858). Penalized logistic regression methodology provided a better result (AUC = 0.872). Decision tree and neural network-based methodology provided even higher predictive performance (up to AUC = 0.912 and 0.906, respectively). Additionally, decision tree-based methods can efficiently handle Electronic Health Record (EHR) data that have a significant amount of missing records (in up to >50% of the studied features) eliminating the need for imputation in order to have complete data. In conclusion, we show that statistical learning methodology can provide superior predictive performance in comparison to existing methods and can also be production ready. Statistical modeling procedures provided unbiased, well-calibrated models that can be efficient decision support tools for predicting inpatient mortality and assigning preventive measures.
Associations between body fat distribution, insulin resistance and dyslipidaemia in black and white South African women

Summary Aim The aim was to examine differences in body fat distribution between premenopausal black and white South African (SA) women and explore the ethnic-specific associations with cardiometabolic risk. Methods Body composition, using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and computerised tomography, insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and lipid levels were assessed in 288 black and 197 white premenopausal SA women. Results: Compared to the white women, black women had less central and more peripheral (lower-body) fat, and lower serum lipid and glucose concentrations, but similar homeostasis models for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) values. The associations between body fat distribution and HOMA-IR, triglyceride and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations were similar, while the associations with fasting glucose, total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels differed between black and white women. Conclusion: Ethnic differences in body fat distribution are associated, in part, with differences in cardiometabolic risk between black and white SA women.
Climate change disputes and justice in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

In 2010, the province of Central Kalimantan in Indonesia was established as a Climate Change pilot province to reduce emissions from deforestation and through peat land forest rehabilitation. Today, international agencies, carbon traders, local and national governments, non-governmental organisations, and local populations have participated in debates and disputes over the establishment of carbon forests and forest protection areas in Central Kalimantan. One such scheme, promoted by the government of Australia (Kalimantan Forest and Climate Partnership), intended to establish a REDD+ pilot project within an area that covers about 120 000 hectares in Kuala Kapuas in Central Kalimantan, the field location of this research. This specific dispute offers a case study based on ethnographic research that helps to illustrate how widespread climate change debates and disputes become embedded at local and national levels in Indonesia. The dispute over REDD+ will be discussed within a framework of dispute theories which focus on moments of crisis, wherein participants must present arguments and justify their actions and theories of justice. The article shows that competing and conflicting conceptions of justice that emerge in the dispute may bring to a halt a climate change pilot project in the locality.
Fast high-spatial-resolution MRI of the ankle with parallel imaging using GRAPPA at 3 T.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of our study was to compare an autocalibrating parallel imaging technique at 3 T with standard acquisitions at 3 and 1.5 T for small-field-of-view imaging of the ankle. MATERIALS AND METHODS MRI of the ankle was performed in three fresh human cadaver specimens and three healthy volunteers. Axial and sagittal T1-weighted, axial fat-saturated T2-weighted, and coronal intermediate-weighted fast spin-echo sequences, as well as a fat-saturated spoiled gradient-echo sequence, were acquired at 1.5 and 3 T. At 3 T, reduced data sets were reconstructed using a generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisition (GRAPPA) technique, with a scan time reduction of approximately 44%. All images were assessed by two radiologists independently concerning image quality. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were measured in every data set. In the cadaver specimens, macroscopic findings after dissection served as a reference for the pathologic evaluation. RESULTS SNR and CNR in the GRAPPA images were comparable to the standard acquisition at 3 T. The image quality was rated significantly higher at 3 T with both normal and parallel acquisition compared with 1.5 T. There was no significant difference in ligament and cartilage visualization or in image quality between standard and GRAPPA reconstruction at 3 T. Ankle abnormalities were better seen at 3 T than at 1.5 T for both normal and parallel acquisitions. CONCLUSION Using higher field strength combined with parallel technique, MR images of the ankle were obtained with excellent diagnostic quality and a scan time reduction of about 44%. In addition, parallel imaging can provide more flexibility in protocol design.
Vocabulary learning by mobile-assisted authentic content creation and social meaning-making: two case studies

In recent years, we have witnessed the concomitant rise of communicative and contextualized approaches as well as the paradigmatic development of the mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) framework in analysing language learning. The focus of MALL research has gradu- ally shifted from content-based (delivery of learning content through mobile devices) to design-oriented (authentic and/or social mobile learning activities) study. In this paper, we present two novel case studies of MALL that emphasize learner-created content. In learning English prepositions and Chinese idioms, respectively, the primary school students used the mobile devices assigned to them on a one-to-one basis to take photos in real-life contexts so as to construct sentences with the newly acquired prepositions or idioms. Subsequently, the learners were voraciously engaged in classroom or online discussion of their semantic constructions, thereby enhancing their understanding of the proper usage of the prepositions or idioms. This work shows the potential of transforming language learning into an authentic seamless learning experience.
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization Time Preference and the Importance of Saving for Retirement

This study models the importance respondents place on saving for retirement as a function of time preference using a sample of 6812 undergraduate and graduate students. Individual time preference is measured by comparing dollar values over time and through a combination of intertemporal behaviors that may be the most theoretically appropriate measurement of the discount rate for utility over time. Results show strong correlations among decision making domains that involve time discounting. Time preference measured by comparing dollar amounts across time proves a much weaker predictor than a combination of intertemporal behaviors measured either as a linear scale or as factors. In multivariate models, a factor of intertemporal preventive health behaviors is a stronger predictor of the importance of saving for retirement than all other explanatory variables including age, race, parental income, gender, GPA, and college major.
A Multinomial-Choice Model of Neighborhood Effects

This paper provides a model of individual decisionmaking in the presence of neighborhood effects. By neighborhood effects, we refer to interdependencies between individual decisions and the decisions and characteristics of others within a common neighborhood. As such, neighborhood effects are forms of social interactions; in fact the terms would seem to be interchangeable in many contexts. Within economics, there has developed an increasing recognition that neighborhood effects play a possibly major role in explaining a range of individual behaviors; rich empirical and theoretical literatures have developed. A failing of much of this work is the absence of strong connections between theory and empirics. This paper addresses this limitation by providing a model of multinomial choice with neighborhood effects. The model represents a generalization of the binary choice model of William Brock and Steven Durlauf (2001a,b). The model is econometrically implementable and so has the potential of allowing for structural estimation of neighborhood effects. Section I outlines a basic choice model with neighborhood effects. Section II specializes the structure using a multinomial logit framework. Section III considers econometric implementation. Section IV discusses some limitations of the framework and proposes some research directions. Proofs of all theorems may be found in Brock and Durlauf (2001c).