Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alpha calculus in clinical trials: considerations and commentary for the new millennium.

Regardless of whether a statistician believes in letting a data set speak for itself through nominal p-values or believes in strict alpha conservation, the interpretation of experiments which are negative for the primary endpoint but positive for secondary endpoints is the source of some angst. The purpose of this paper is to apply the notion of prospective alpha allocation in clinical trials to this difficult circumstance. An argument is presented for differentiating between the alpha for the experiment ('experimental alpha' or alpha(E)) and the alpha for the primary endpoint (primary alpha, or alpha(P)) and notation is presented which succinctly describes the findings of a clinical trial in terms of its conclusions. Capping alpha(E) at 0.10 and alpha(P) at 0.05 conserves sample size and preserves consistency with the strength of evidence for the primary endpoint of clinical trials. In addition, a case is presented for the well defined circumstances in which a trial which did not reject the null hypothesis for the primary endpoint but does reject the null hypothesis for at least one of the secondary endpoints may be considered positive in a manner consistent with conservative alpha management.
Attitudes towards anti-terror measures: the role of trust, political orientation and civil liberties support

This article analyses Norwegian citizens' attitudes towards the use of strong prevention measures in the fight against terrorism. Norwegians stand out as being relatively supportive of such measures, despite having been relatively shielded from serious terrorism. Nevertheless, they are generally more critical towards keeping people in custody without trial. This analysis shows that trust, political orientation and civil liberties support have significant explanatory value, also when the effects of gender, age, education and occupational status are controlled for. However, trust turns out to be a complicated indicator; whereas high scores on social trust predict more sceptical attitudes, a strong belief in personal abilities and in the political system fosters attitudes that are less sceptical. The article concludes that the combination of low threat, limited previous experience and high levels of trust creates a favourable environment for preventive policies, and recommends a further exploration of these dimensions in different contexts.
Carbohydrate availability and exercise training adaptation: Too much of a good thing?

Abstract Traditional nutritional approaches to endurance training have typically promoted high carbohydrate (CHO) availability before, during and after training sessions to ensure adequate muscle substrate to meet the demands of high daily training intensities and volumes. However, during the past decade, data from our laboratories and others have demonstrated that deliberately training in conditions of reduced CHO availability can promote training-induced adaptations of human skeletal muscle (i.e. increased maximal mitochondrial enzyme activities and/or mitochondrial content, increased rates of lipid oxidation and, in some instances, improved exercise capacity). Such data have led to the concept of ‘training low, but competing high’ whereby selected training sessions are completed in conditions of reduced CHO availability (so as to promote training adaptation), but CHO reserves are restored immediately prior to an important competition. The augmented training response observed with training-low strategies is likely regulated by enhanced activation of key cell signalling kinases (e.g. AMPK, p38MAPK), transcription factors (e.g. p53, PPARδ) and transcriptional co-activators (e.g. PGC-1α), such that a co-ordinated up-regulation of both the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes occurs. Although the optimal practical strategies to train low are not currently known, consuming additional caffeine, protein, and practising CHO mouth-rinsing before and/or during training may help to rescue the reduced training intensities that typically occur when ‘training low’, in addition to preventing protein breakdown and maintaining optimal immune function. Finally, athletes should practise ‘train-low’ workouts in conjunction with sessions undertaken with normal or high CHO availability so that their capacity to oxidise CHO is not blunted on race day.
Development of Reading-Related Phonological Processing Abilities: New Evidence of Bidirectional Causality from a Latent Variable Longitudinal Study.

Results from a longitudinal correlational study of 244 children from kindergarten through 2nd grade indicate that young children's phonological processing abilities are well-described by 5 correlated latent abilities: phonological analysis, phonological synthesis, phonological coding in working memory, isolated naming, and serial naming. These abilities are characterized by different developmental rates and remarkably stable individual differences. Decoding did not exert a causal influence on subsequent phonological processing abilities, but letter-name knowledge did. Causal relations between phonological processing abilities and reading-related knowledge are bidirectional: Phonological processing abilities exert strong causal influences on word decoding; letter-name knowledge exerts a more modest causal influence on subsequent phonological processing abilities. In the context of beginning reading, phonological processing refers to making use of the phonological or sound structure of oral language when learning how to decode written language (see Adams, 1990; Brady & Shankweiler, 1991; Crowder &
Final Results of the Chronic Total Occlusion Crossing With the Ocelot System II (CONNECT II) Study

Purpose: To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the optical coherence tomography–guided Ocelot catheter to cross femoropopliteal chronic total occlusions (CTOs). Methods: The CONNECT II study was a prospective, multicenter, non-randomized single-arm study of the safety and effectiveness of the Ocelot catheter in CTO crossing. Key inclusion criteria were a 99% to 100% stenosed femoropopliteal segment, lesion length between 1 and 30 cm, and resistance to guidewire crossing. The main exclusion criterion was a severely calcified target vessel. The primary safety endpoint was 30-day major adverse events (MAE), while the primary effectiveness endpoint was successful CTO crossing (i.e., guidewire placement in the distal true lumen) with the Ocelot catheter. Endpoint analysis was based on pre-specified objective performance criteria. Between February and June 2012, 100 patients (55 men; mean age 69 years) were enrolled. Most of the CTOs (94%) were in the superficial femoral artery (SFA); mean lesion length was 16.6±9.3 cm. Results: Through 30 days, 2 patients experienced MAE (significant perforations) related to the Ocelot catheter. The Ocelot catheter successfully crossed 97% of target CTOs either alone (72%), in conjunction with an assist device (18%), or in conjunction with a re-entry device (7%). Both primary safety and effectiveness endpoints were met. Conclusion: The Ocelot catheter with optical coherence tomography guidance offers physicians a reliable option for crossing femoral and popliteal chronic total occlusions with low MAE rates.
Maternal progestin intake and risk of hypospadias.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have suggested that maternal intake of progestins during early pregnancy may be associated with an increased risk of hypospadias. Progesterone and its derivatives are commonly prescribed during early pregnancy, for example, in cases of luteal phase dysfunction and in conjunction with ovulation stimulation drugs. OBJECTIVE To examine whether risk of hypospadias was associated with periconceptional progestin intake. DESIGN AND SETTING The National Birth Defects Prevention Study, a population-based, multistate, case-control study including deliveries that had estimated due dates from October, 1997 to December, 2000. PARTICIPANTS Participation in the study was 71% among case mothers and 68% among control mothers. This analysis included 502 subjects diagnosed with second- or third-degree hypospadias (ie, the urethra opened at the penile shaft, scrotum, or perineum) and 1286 male, live-born, nonmalformed control subjects. RESULTS Forty-two case mothers (8.4%) and 31 control mothers (2.4%) reported any pregnancy-related progestin intake from 4 weeks before through 14 weeks after conception, resulting in an odds ratio of 3.7 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.3-6.0). Analyses stratified by several potential covariates also suggested elevated risks. For example, among the 10 cases and 13 controls who did not report any fertility-related procedures or treatments other than progestins, the odds ratio was 2.2 (95% CI, 1.0-5.0). Progestin intake for the purpose of contraception was not associated with increased risk. CONCLUSION This study found that pregnancy-related intake of progestins was associated with increased hypospadias risk.
Development of a Checklist for Documenting Team and Collaborative Behaviors During Multidisciplinary Bedside Rounds

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to develop a reliable and valid checklist for documenting team and collaborative behaviors occurring during multidisciplinary bedside rounds. BACKGROUND: Teamwork and collaboration are important for providing high-quality patient care, yet there are no objective means of evaluating the occurrence of team and collaborative behaviors during bedside rounds. METHODS: A checklist was developed and tested on 3 general medical units. Items on the checklist were derived from the literature and our medical center’s patient-family–centered values. RESULTS: The final version of the checklist was determined to be reliable, valid, and easy to use in the clinical setting. CONCLUSION: Clinicians, administrators, and investigators are encouraged to use and/or modify this checklist for use in their setting. Further research identifying instruments to objectively measure teamwork and collaboration is needed.
Roles of Leisure in Coping with Stress Among University Students: A Repeated-Assessment Field Study

This article reports findings of a study to examine the effects of leisure coping on various stress coping outcomes including: immediate outcomes (perceived coping effectiveness, perceived satisfaction with coping outcomes, and perceived stress reduction) and distal or long-term outcomes (physical and mental ill-health and psychological well-being), above and beyond the contributions of general coping - coping not directly associated with leisure. A repeated-assessment field design was used to examine ways in which university students cope with stressors in their daily lives. The study found that leisure coping beliefs (leisure-generated dispositional coping resources) significantly predicted lower levels of mental and physical ill-health and greater levels of psychological well-being above and beyond the effects of general coping. Also, the use of leisure coping strategies (situation-specific stress coping strategies through leisure) was significantly associated with higher levels of perceived coping effectiveness and stress reduction when the effects of general coping were taken into account. Significant contributions of specific leisure coping dimensions were found as well.
Solution of two‐dimensional Riemann problems for gas dynamics without Riemann problem solvers

We report here on our numerical study of the two‐dimensional Riemann problem for the compressible Euler equations. Compared with the relatively simple 1‐D configurations, the 2‐D case consists of a plethora of geometric wave patterns that pose a computational challenge for high‐resolution methods. The main feature in the present computations of these 2‐D waves is the use of the Riemann‐solvers‐free central schemes presented by Kurganov et al. This family of central schemes avoids the intricate and time‐consuming computation of the eigensystem of the problem and hence offers a considerably simpler alternative to upwind methods. The numerical results illustrate that despite their simplicity, the central schemes are able to recover with comparable high resolution, the various features observed in the earlier, more expensive computations. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 18: 584–608, 2002
High-Resolution Side Channels for Untrusted Operating Systems

Feature-rich mass-market operating systems have large trusted computing bases (TCBs) and a long history of vulnerabilities. Systems like Overshadow, InkTag or Haven attempt to remove the operating system (OS) from the TCB of applications while retaining its functionality. However, the untrusted OS’s control of most physical resources puts it in a much better position to launch side-channel attacks than traditional unprivileged side-channel attackers. Initial attacks focused on the page-fault channel, demonstrating significant information leakage for three legacy applications. We present two new side channels for an untrusted OS which use timer interrupts and cache misses to achieve higher temporal and spatial resolution than the page-fault channel. We leverage the untrusted OS’s control over hardware to reduce noise in the side channels to enable successful attacks in just a single run of the target. We demonstrate that our side channels enable attacks against new SGX applications such as VC3 that were designed not to trust the OS. We also show a new attack against libjpeg that extracts images with two orders of magnitude more information than the page-fault channel attack.
Producing diversity in a new urbanism community: Policy and practice

Since the mid-1990s, Markham in Ontario has embedded new urbanism and smart growth principles in its plans. The policies presume that policies for place diversity – requiring a mix of housing types, uses and densities – will produce social diversity. This article examines planning policies and reviews interview data to understand the challenges in interpreting and implementing a diversity agenda in practice. Although respondents describe Markham as ethnically diverse, census data reveal new kinds of social homogeneity. Planning policies and regulations that call for diversity in housing types, land uses and densities may contribute to place vitality and economic health, but the Markham case suggests that they may not produce social equity. Planners' faith in place diversity as a means to social diversity faces significant challenges in practice.
Functional properties of monkey caudate neurons. I. Activities related to saccadic eye movements.

1. We recorded single cell activities in the caudate nucleus of the monkeys trained to perform a series of visuomotor tasks. In the first part of this paper, we summarize the types and locations of neurons in the monkey caudate nucleus. In the second part, we report the characteristics of neurons related to saccadic eye movements. 2. Neurons were classified into two types in terms of spontaneous discharge pattern. A majority of the neurons (2,287/2,559, 89%) had very low-frequency discharges (mostly less than 1 Hz). The rest (n = 272) showed irregular-tonic discharges (3-8 Hz) with broad spikes. 3. Of 2,559 neurons tested, 867 showed spike activity related to some aspects of the tasks; 502 neurons showed discharges in response to environmental changes outside, not in relation to, the tasks. None of the neurons responsive in or outside the tasks belonged to the irregular-tonic type. 4. The task-related activities were classified as: Saccade-related, Visual, Auditory, Cognitive, Fixation-related, and Reward-related. The activities detected outside the tasks were classified into: Visual, Auditory, Movement-related, Reward-related, and Other. Few neurons had both task-related and task-unrelated activities. 5. The locations of recorded neurons were determined using a coordinate system based on the anterior and posterior commissures. Task-related neurons were clustered longitudinally in the central part of the caudate. Neurons responsive outside the tasks were more widely distributed; specifically, auditory neurons were in the medial part, whereas movement-related neurons were in the lateral part. The irregular-tonic neurons were dispersed all over the caudate. 6. The monkey was trained to fixate on a spot of light on the screen and, when the spot moved, to follow it by making a saccade. A visually guided saccade occurred when the spot moved to another location without a time gap (saccade task). A memory-guided saccade occurred when the spot first disappeared and after a time gap reappeared at a fixed location (saccade with gap task). By delivering a cue stimulus while the monkey was fixating, a memory-guided saccade was elicited to a randomly chosen location (delayed saccade task). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Statistics, a spectator sport

An invaluable work for people who need to understand statistics and utilise their results. The book is not technical: its purpose is to teach the reader how to understand and apply statistics. Most of the examples are from education but people in all fields that involve the use of statistics will find this book indispensable. Written with great clarity this is a first-rate statistics book for the non-statistician.
The Use of Large-Scale Administrative Data Sets to Monitor Progression from Vocational Education and Training into Higher Education in the UK: Possibilities and Methodological Challenges

This article describes two administrative data sources - UCAS applicant data and Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) data - and demonstrates how they can be utilised to monitor the progression of students from vocational and educational training (VET) programmes in to higher education (HE) in the UK. First the article provides a general discussion of the administrative data sets, their coverage and resulting limitations. Second, it illustrates how a combined HESA-UCAS data set can be utilised to provide a descriptive statistical analysis that demonstrates that including VET students within HE programmes widens participation for under-represented groups in the UK but shows that VET students are at a disadvantage compared with those progressing through academic pathways in terms of their probability of gaining access, which types of higher education institution (HEI) they gain access to, and an increased risk of dropping out during their first year of study. Third, multilevel modelling indicates that drop-out risks differ across HEIs and suggests that HEIs can take actions that will reduce the risk of VET students dropping out. Finally some conclusions about the utility of administrative data to answer substantive research questions are presented, with suggestions for improving the quality and access to such data for researchers.
Dual‐specificity tyrosine(Y)‐phosphorylation regulated kinase 1A‐mediated phosphorylation of amyloid precursor protein: evidence for a functional link between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease

Most individuals with Down Syndrome (DS) show an early‐onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which potentially results from the presence of an extra copy of a segment of chromosome 21. Located on chromosome 21 are the genes that encode β‐amyloid (Aβ) precursor protein (APP ), a key protein involved in the pathogenesis of AD, and dual‐specificity tyrosine(Y)‐phosphorylation regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A ), a proline‐directed protein kinase that plays a critical role in neurodevelopment. Here, we describe a potential mechanism for the regulation of AD pathology in DS brains by DYRK1A‐mediated phosphorylation of APP. We show that APP is phosphorylated at Thr668 by DYRK1A in vitro and in mammalian cells. The amounts of phospho‐APP and Aβ are increased in the brains of transgenic mice that over‐express the human DYRK1A protein. Furthermore, we show that the amounts of phospho‐APP as well as those of APP and DYRK1A are elevated in human DS brains. Taken together, these results reveal a potential regulatory link between APP and DYRK1A in DS brains, and suggest that the over‐expression of DYRK1A in DS may play a role in accelerating AD pathogenesis through phosphorylation of APP.
Developing the Leadership Capability of Headteachers

The leadership of schools involves emotional as well as rational capabilities. Emotions are integral to teaching and learning and their management. Teaching, learning and educational management are therefore influenced by non-rational forces. As a consequence, learning to ‘manage’ this emotional dimension is essential in the leadership development of headteachers. In this article, we use the findings from our work in the Esmee Fairbairn Trust ‘Heads You Win’ Programme where we explored with primary headteachers the emotional dimension of their leadership. In the first part, we conceptualize the role of emotion in organizations. We then analyse the headteachers’ perceptions of their role and present a framework that describes those perceptions. We then examine the emotions associated with the headteacher role in relation to our framework. Finally, we theorize the findings and suggest ways of developing the leadership capabilities of headteachers that will enable them to better manage the emotional dimensions of their role.
The hunt for red active galactic nuclei: a new infrared diagnostic

We introduce a new infrared diagnostic to separate galaxies on the basis of their dominant infrared emission: stellar or nuclear. The main novelty with respect to existing diagnostics is the use of a broad band encompassing at the same time the 9.7-μm silicate absorption feature and one of the adjacent broad polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) features. This provides a robust estimate of the near- to mid-infrared continuum slope and enables a clear distinction among different classes of galaxies up to a redshift z ∼ 2.5. The diagnostic can be applied to a wealth of archival data from the ISO, Spitzer and Akari surveys, as well as future James Webb Space Telescope surveys. Based on data in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), Lockman Hole and North Ecliptic Pole fields, we find that approximately 70 per cent of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) detected with X-ray and optical spectroscopy dominate the total mid-infrared emission. Finally, we estimate that AGNs contribute less than 30 per cent of the mid-infrared extragalactic integrated emission.
Bid–ask spreads in commodity futures markets

Issues of recent interest and controversy regarding bid–ask spreads in commodity futures markets are investigated. First, competing spread estimators are applied to open outcry transactions data and resulting estimates are compared to observed spreads. This enables market microstructure researchers, regulators, exchange officials, and traders the opportunity to evaluate the usefulness and accuracy of bid–ask estimators in markets that do not report bid and ask data, providing an idea of the ‘worst-case’ transaction costs that are likely to be incurred. Also compared, are spreads observed before and after trading was automated (and made anonymous) on commodity futures markets, and it is discovered that spreads have generally widened since trading was automated, and that they have an increased tendency to widen in periods of high volatility. These findings suggest that commodity futures markets have an inherently different character than financial futures markets, and therefore merit separate investigation.